Chapter 25: Basic Rules
As soon as Li Buhuo heard this, he shook his head repeatedly, "It's a cult, don't believe it, it's all a scam."
"Really? But ghosts have appeared in the world; so if gods appear, it doesn't seem that strange, right?" Chu Jiang continued to express his confusion.
Li Buhuo was speechless. "So that's why I called you to look at the manual. There are no gods in the world. If some being jumps out and shows itself as a god, and demonstrates certain means..."
"In that case, either it is a Ghost Master pretending to be a god using the power of ghosts, or it is simply a ghost itself. Do you understand?"
Chu Jiang nodded repeatedly, "Understood."
"In the future, there may be some folk Ghost Master organizations trying to recruit you. Just remember to be cautious. Don't easily join the thieves' den."
With those final instructions, Li Buhuo left on his own.
To be honest, Chu Jiang was feeling a bit scared now. That so-called untouchable god could actually be a ghost...
So this church wasn't worshipping gods, but ghosts.
In that case, were they still normal people? Or could they still be called humans?
Although Chu Jiang didn't know why the other person approached him to hand out flyers, he secretly decided that if he ever encountered that church person again, he would definitely keep his distance.
Don't think that finding a pretty, blonde, big-chested cute girl can deceive me.
......
After finishing breakfast, Chu Jiang conveniently entered the station to buy tickets.
During the waiting period, he opened the website Li Buhuo sent him via text message on his phone, and used the recommended code given by the other person to register for an account.
It seemed this website didn't need permission, it was just a blank login page, the registration and login also required facial authentication, which was very official.
After logging in, it was a simple blue and white interface, with beginner guides and such.
Naturally, the first thing Chu Jiang looked at was the newcomer's handbook.
Although the content in this handbook was all basic knowledge that people who had been in this circle for a long time would know, it was still of great help to the pure novice Chu Jiang.
In another handbook, the research institute also promoted itself greatly. After all, this handbook was produced by the research institute. It also reminded newcomers not to commit crimes, otherwise they would face severe consequences.
It was only from here that Chu Jiang learned that the person in charge had a lot of power.
It was not a big deal for ordinary people, but for someone like Chu Jiang who had supernatural powers, the person in charge had the privilege to shoot them on the spot. They just needed to write a report afterwards.
After finishing reading, it was already time to get on the bus. However, when Chu Jiang got on the bus, he still felt somewhat heavy-hearted.
This was unrelated to the crime, it was just that the severity of the haunted occurrences in this world far exceeded his previous imagination...
On the bus, while looking at the constantly changing scenery outside the window, Chu Jiang couldn't help but think about the content in the handbook.
It was similar to the information he received before, that there had been a concentrated outbreak of supernatural events, which started about six months ago.
But even before that, there were still supernatural events, although extremely rare and very mild. The probability of ordinary people encountering them was almost zero.
The newcomer's handbook mentions a term called "supernatural revival".
The meaning was that there was a time when evil spirits were rampant in the world, but later the ghosts became silent for unknown reasons.
Now it was clearly entering a new cycle, with supernatural forces gradually resurfacing worldwide.
If we are unable to deal with it this time, the doomsday is definitely not just talk.
As for the nature of ghosts, no one could clearly say, but people had summarized some basic rules through their confrontation with ghosts:
First, ghosts are immortal.
Ghosts could not be killed, destroyed, or exorcised in any way. Even if Chu Jiang saw firsthand that Slender Man swallowed the ghost tree, it only became part of the ghost's shadow.
And this didn't mean that the ghost tree had completely disappeared, as it could still be separated from the ghost's shadow given the opportunity.
This was the immortality characteristic of ghosts, or you could call it the law of conservation or something.
Second, only the power of ghosts can counter ghosts.
At least so far, humans have been using ghost's power to fight against ghosts, which is kind of like a "friend or foe" relationship.
As for what Chu Jiang had imagined before, like Taoist masters or Buddhist monks, sorry to say, they were no match for real ghosts; it was the same in the Western world, even praying to God wouldn't help.
As for nuclear weapons and such, some people had tried, but they were just useless.
Three, the vast majority of ghosts have certain stereotypical behavioral patterns, or you could say, patterns for killing.
The beginner's handbook also gave several examples of this:
Like water ghosts, as long as you don't get close to the riverside, the bank, or the seaside, just watch from a safe distance, even if the water ghost sees you or senses you, it won't directly rush out to drag you into the water.
For example, the Hanged Ghost, this kind of ghost usually doesn't stray too far from where it was hanged. As long as you don't get too close and don't touch the rope, then most likely nothing bad will happen.
Seeing this part, Chu Jiang inexplicably remembered those old zombie movies. Most of the living people in them just needed to hold their breath, and the zombies wouldn't actively attack them.
Does this count as a pattern too?
The newcomer manual also mentioned that, in order to improve their chances of survival, the Ghost Master should try to explore and discover these patterns as early as possible when encountering paranormal events.
After all, the power of the Ghost Master was very weak compared to real ghosts, let alone the fact that the more the ghost used its power and died faster, the more places it could be solved with intelligence instead of resorting to violence.
Finally, there are also some ghosts that kill indiscriminately. Li Buhuo mentioned before that Slender Man was very likely one of these ghosts.
And whether there was a pattern to the killings had nothing to do with the strength of the ghost. It was just that generally, ghosts that killed indiscriminately were not weak at all.
Apart from some basic information, the newcomer manual also roughly introduced the increasingly severe sudden haunting events around the world; the danger level of ghosts; and the levels of various seals, and so on.
However, the more Chu Jiang knew, the more he felt powerless. These ghosts were just too absurd, much more unsolvable than any ghosts he had heard of in various ghost stories before.
If humans weren't able to use the power of ghosts to fight against them, it was likely that there would only be one path to extinction.
Lastly, the newcomer manual never mentioned how people who obtained paranormal powers should deal with hidden dangers, only stating methods that addressed the symptoms rather than the root cause.
The story didn't mention any specific ways, but it suggested that newcomers should take part in an assessment at Research Institute No. 21. As long as they passed all the assessments, they would officially join the research institute and receive some help.
After thinking about it, Chu Jiang still didn't make a decision right away. His situation wasn't so bad that he needed to make a choice immediately.
