Evening descended swiftly.
The streets were swallowed by darkness, desolate and seemingly brimming with unknown dangers.
The rolling shutter door came down.
Sinister Supermarket also closed its doors.
The male proprietor and the female proprietor were nowhere to be seen.
It was only then that Ewan emerged from the shelving area, skillfully making his way to the front desk to fix himself some tasty snacks, and somehow produced a bottle of beer from nowhere.
Ewan sighed contentedly, "Finally, a decent meal after a whole day of hot dogs."
"Why didn't you come out during the day?" John asked.
"That's my working hours. If I leave my post without permission, it would break the protection mechanism. Without it, wouldn't the male proprietor tear me to shreds?" Ewan explained.
The protection mechanism, although established for participants, also had rules that must be followed!
Once violated, the protection mechanism would be compromised and rendered ineffective!
So, no matter how stuffy the work area or how hungry he was, Ewan had to stay put.
John suddenly realized that his understanding of Thriller World was far from complete.
Ewan, though he seemed simple-minded, had a thorough understanding of the protection mechanism!
Perhaps that was why he had managed to live so comfortably up to now.
Bang!!
A shelf suddenly toppled over, goods flying everywhere, making a loud commotion.
Ewan took a big gulp of beer and said, "Look, that gluttonous ghost has come out!"
"Aren't you going to help me catch it?" John looked at the indifferent Ewan.
Ewan put down the cheese he was nibbling on and said, "Can't catch it. Blink and it could be gone, and even if you do catch it, that ghost has other tricks to escape, leaving you with no way to handle it."
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"How many times have the male proprietor and female proprietor been outsmarted? Don't you think I've kept count? So as long as it doesn't bother me, I'm not going to mess with that troublesome critter!"
Ewan peeled a banana and continued to eat as he spoke.
John said nothing and walked towards the shelving area.
Inside the aisles, the thieving ghost heard footsteps and vanished in a puff of smoke.
John looked at the torn packaging scattered all over the floor. This ghost was quite the picky eater, always going for the priciest stuff!
"Bro, I've got some tasty treats here, how about coming out and making a friend?" John called out.
Outside, Ewan heard this and rolled his eyes: "If such a childish trick could lure out that ghost, I'd perform an acrobatic act of eating shit while standing on my head!"
Seeing no movement, John chuckled, took out the MythiCarn, and placed it on the ground.
John couldn't see or smell anything enticing about the MythiCarn, but since the system suggested it, he wanted to give it a try.
What he didn't know was that as soon as the MythiCarn was exposed to the air, an invisible scent that the ghost couldn't resist and was crazy for had already begun to permeate the surroundings.
In the darkness, the thieving ghost's eyes lit up fiercely, its body uncontrollably drawn to it.
Hearing a noise, John turned his head and saw a shadow slowly emerging from the darkness.
It was an invisible, transparent ghost.
Its only feature was that it was covered with blood-red eyes all over, which looked quite frightening!
John waved at it in a friendly manner: "Hello there."
It glanced at John, and the next second, the piece of MythiCarn was in its hand.
Without any hesitation, it swallowed it whole, and then those nine blood-red, eerie eyes squinted slightly, showing an expression of enjoyment.
"Now that you've eaten my food, can we be friends?" John said.
"Idiot!" To his surprise, the thieving ghost spoke human language, its tone dripping with deep sarcasm as it turned to leave.
"Hey, I just wanted to make a friend. It's a shame I have so many more MythiCarns on me, and I don't know who to give them to!" John sighed, feigning a look of regret and loneliness.
The thieving ghost stopped and asked, "You have more?"
"I've got plenty on me, want to be friends?" John said amiably.
The thieving ghost wasn't buying it and scoffed.
"You humans are the most cunning, don't take me for a fool. Friends? You just want to catch me, right?"
"If you have something tasty, I could just snatch it from you, why bother talking so much?"
John's expression froze.
"This ghost... kind of makes sense."
Seeing John frozen in place, the thieving ghost grew even more smug and immediately lunged at him.
"Watch out, dodge!"
Ewan, hearing the commotion, came over and saw what was happening, urgently shouting.
Once this thieving ghost entered a body, it could control even the two owners of the supermarket, let alone a human being.
But it was too late. John's body stiffened as the thieving ghost entered him and took control of his body.
"Let's see where you've hidden the tasty stuff," the thieving ghost said, licking its lips with excitement.
The taste of the MythiCarn was unforgettable. It had never eaten anything so delicious in its life!
But soon, the thieving ghost realized something was wrong.
It couldn't control this body.
What was even more shocking to it was that it couldn't get out—it was trapped like in a cage!
"What's going on?" the thieving ghost was bewildered.
"Hey, are you alright? Are you still conscious?" Ewan waved his hand in front of John's eyes.
John touched his face and smiled, "I'm fine."
"That shouldn't be possible," Ewan scratched his head, puzzled.