I Have A Super USB Drive

by <unknown>

  "Me too."

  Li Bo nodded affirmatively. "Not only that, but I also dreamed of a head poking up from the lower bunk. At first, I thought it was Lil Chen playing a prank, but after I woke up, I realized that wasn't right because that head had long hair and appeared to be a woman. It didn't look like Lil Chen at all!"

  Chen Chen was shaken to his core and immediately said, "I also felt what Lil Bo felt. When I was sleeping, I sensed something stretching down from the upper bunk, but when I woke up, there was nothing there…"

  "Hold on."

  Wang Wei promptly pointed to Chen Chen and Li Bo in astonishment. "Lil Chen, you're on the lower bunk and Lil Bo is on the upper bunk, but both of you feel, at the same time, that there's something strange in the upper and lower bunks. So, what is it that can hide between the upper bunk and the lower bunk?"

  "Some things can't be explained with physics."

  Chen Chen took a sip of Sprite again. "Remember, Zhou Jie uploaded four movies on this USB flash drive and then that peculiar incident happened at noon. Plus, after we woke up, we saw Zhou Jie sitting in front of the computer…"

  "So?"

  Both of them asked immediately.

  "…"

  Chen Chen's words suddenly halted. A series of images flashed in his mind, but they were not of his previous encounter. Rather, they seemed totally illogical.

  In the scene, he seemed to be attempting something bit by bit, slowly starting to test the rules of the USB drive…

  "Tss…"

  Chen Chen only felt a sharp pain in his head. He quickly covered his head and cried out in pain.

  "Lil Chen, Lil Chen?"

  Their concerned voices rang by his ears, but Chen Chen could not answer anymore. Scenes were flashing in his mind, all related to the USB flash drive, but when he thought about it, these images and what they portrayed had no connection to reality as if they happened in another time and space…

  This pain came and went quickly. When Chen Chen recovered from his dazed collapse, the sharp pain in his mind had disappeared as it came, without warning.

  In Chen Chen's mind, there were only a few strange memories…

  "D*mn…"

  Chen Chen panted heavily and his face darkened because these few memories were related to the USB flash drive. If the rules in the memory were true, would it not mean that…

  Thinking of this, Chen Chen only felt his scalp numb. He said to the two of them, "Zhou Jie has played the four horror films. The four horror films are Ju-on, Final Destination, One Missed Call, and Ring, so our dormitory has now become a gathering place for those malevolent ghosts!"

  Wang Wei and Li Bo both stared at each other with wide eyes for a moment, then Wang Wei forced a smile and hugged himself. "Lil Chen, don't tell me that what you said is true."

  "I know it's hard to believe, but when you were eating just now, I was the first to return. After returning to the dormitory, I saw something that's difficult to describe in words."

  Chen Chen finally advised, "Anyway, I won't step into Dorm 404 anymore. I've told you everything I should and I'll stop here. If you still want to go back, I will not say a word to dissuade you."

  As he spoke, Chen Chen put away the USB flash drive. He no longer planned to hand it to the two of them.

  If those few rules in his mind were true…

  Chen Chen's heart suddenly started to pound restlessly.

  "You're truly amazing, man."

  Li Bo said in awe, "Lil Chen, if someone else told me this, I'll beat him up, but the way you said it was so real that I'm almost convinced by you."

  Chen Chen sighed secretly. He knew that since Li Bo said this, it showed that the other guy still did not believe Chen Chen.

  Wang Wei suddenly thought of something. He slapped his thigh instantly, took out his cell phone and said, "Forget it, no matter what, I'll call Nostril. Lil Chen, didn't you say that Nostril has returned to the dormitory? I'm going to ask him to come out and ask him what's going on."

  With that, he got ready to dial Zhou Jie's phone number.

  Chen Chen's eyes turned completely cold. He stood up without hesitation, turned, and left the canteen without hesitation.

  "Lil Chen? Lil Chen?"

  Chen Chen ignored the calls from the two behind him. He knew that if they did not see those things with their own eyes, those two would never believe him.

  However, after they encountered those things, would they still be lucky enough to survive like him?

  Chen Chen did not know.

  However, Chen Chen knew that he would not waste time on people who did not believe him. When humans wanted to die, no one could stop them. Even if one tried to hold back those people by force, they would drag one along before falling into the abyss, pulling one down into the abyss of death as well…

  Thinking of this, the panicked tremor in Chen Chen's eyes vanished completely, replaced by a kind of absolute reason and coldness. Even Chen Chen himself could not understand where this kind of reason and coldness came from.

  It was as if he should have been this rational and aloof all along.

  "According to the rules about the USB flash drive that appeared in my mind, the USB drive can extract many movie props. Then, what I need most now is…"

  Chen Chen thought for a while and walked straight out of the campus. He looked at the sun gradually setting westward and his expression became slightly solemn. He knew that he must act quickly.

  It was not until Chen Chen had left that Wang Wei and Li Bo looked at each other with a hint of helplessness in their eyes.

  "Brother Wei, do you think what Lil Chen said is true?"

  Li Bo hesitated and asked, "Although I don't believe in all that, something felt wrong at noon today, plus Nostril and Lil Chen are now behaving like this…"

  "Let me call Nostril and ask."

  Wang Wei sighed. He looked at Zhou Jie's number on the phone, hesitated for a moment, and pressed the dial button.

  However, when he was pressing the dial button, there was no call interface on the phone. Instead, the screen showed the caller ID interface and at the same time, a clear and lovely ringtone rang out.

  "La la la la~ La la la la~ La la la la~ La la la la~ La la la la~ La la la la~ La~ La~ La~ La~ La la la~ La la la~ La la la~ La la la~…"

  Wang Wei subconsciously looked at the phone but saw that Zhou Jie's number was displayed on the screen.

  "Huh…"

  However, Wang Wei frowned and could not help wondering aloud. "This isn't my ringtone…"

  …

  Ten minutes later, Chen Chen came to an Internet cafe.

  After proficiently arranging for an hour of computer time at the front desk, Chen Chen found a computer in the corner and then inserted the USB drive.

  Next, Chen Chen directly opened the movie inventory that came with the computer, searched for a ghost film from the Lam Ching Ying series, and dragged it to the USB drive.

  "Ding!"

  The sound of a program error came from the headset. The USB drive rejected the movie.

  "Since I can't put a movie about exorcism into the USB flash drive, then the rules in my memory are true…"

  Chen Chen frowned. Although he had verified a rule, he did not feel any excitement. Instead, his heart sank.

  Having thought of this, he tried a few movies that featured superpowers. In the end, a few such as Chronicle, Push, and The Boys were copied in while others like The Flash, Spider-Man, Batman, Iron Man, and Captain America were rejected by the USB drive.

  "The Marvel series and the DC series can't be placed into the USB flash drive, confirmed."

  Chen Chen verified a rule again and he immediately understood that there was no chance for him to gain superpowers in one step.

  In the several movies that could be placed into the USB flash drive, the acquisition of superpowers was very demanding. Moreover, if the rules in his mind were not deceiving him, at this time, after the supernatural entities in those movies were released, the US
B flash drive was left without the slightest energy…

  The sign that the USB drive had run out of energy was that it would look extremely old and battered.

  This was what the USB drive appeared to be now.

  Chapter 365: Strategic Plan |

  The USB drive had no energy.

  Chen Chen sighed to himself, then plugged out the USB drive listlessly and tossed it back into his pocket.

  Although the rules about the USB flash drive that appeared in his mind were extremely outrageous and even his knowledge about the USB drive itself was a very outrageous thing, the fact that the USB drive had no energy left caught Chen Chen unprepared.

  He must not panic, there must be a solution…

  Chen Chen took a deep breath and leaned back on the sofa. At the same time, his brain began to spin at an extremely fast pace.

  "First of all, the reason why I have a lot of strange knowledge about the USB flash drive in my mind — maybe because I own the USB flash drive, so just like in fantasy novels, the USB flash drive recognizes its master?

  "Of course, this explanation isn't reliable. Even if it has to acknowledge its master, it should be Zhou Jie. After all, he was the one who copied the movies in and he also played the movies to release those eerie beings…"

  Chen Chen narrowed his eyes and supported his forehead with one hand, and gradually fell into thought.

  "Even putting this aside for now, according to the rules in my mind about the USB flash drive, once the movie you put in is played, you can extract substances from it… But strangely, among all the rules, there are no rules about ghost movies at all. That is to say, in terms of what happens when you play a ghost movie, even the USB flash drive itself doesn't know…

  "But the other rules and our encounters in the afternoon can tell us that — if you play ordinary movies, you can take out ordinary movie props. If you play sci-fi movies, you can take out the sci-fi props inside. Then, if you play ghost movies…"

  Erm…

  "Could it be that the ghosts themselves will come out of the movies?

  "However, Final Destination isn't a ghost film, but a special kind of…"

  Chen Chen's heart throbbed. He suddenly raised his head and stared at the screen in front of him.

  "Rule?"

  Chen Chen's eyes suddenly lit up.

  "If Final Destination features a kind of rule, then Ju-on, Ring, and One Missed Call, are they also manifestations of a certain rule?"

  Thinking of this, Chen Chen turned on the computer again and watched the four horror movies in the cinema of the Internet cafe.

  Final Destination was a movie that told of a classic Chinese fatalistic narrative —"If the Reaper wants you dead at midnight, who would keep you alive until dawn?" If one was on Death's list, then no matter how one fled or hid, one would ultimately be unable to escape the fate of death. One might try various methods to escape death but the irony was that these methods seemed to stack up coincidentally and became the way that Death killed one.

  If this rule appeared in reality, that would be truly interesting…

  Chen Chen only felt a chill in his heart. He did not think there was an entity such as Death in this world. The so-called Death in the movie was a special "rule". Strictly speaking, this was like the law of cause and effect —

  As the group of main characters in the movie was set to experience the "effect" of dying, any action to save themselves would become the "cause" of death.

  If this rule was unleashed, then the entire world was probably going to collapse…

  At that time, besides Newton's law, thermodynamics law, mass-energy conservation law, and other scientific laws, there would be another "Death's law" in the world?

  'F*ck that sh*t…'

  Chen Chen only felt a pain in his brain but he had to continue hypothesizing. In his mind, a brainstorm had gradually started…

  The movie Ju-on told the story of a middle-aged woman Kayako with a grievance. She lived a difficult life since she was a child. When she grew up, she was mistaken for being unfaithful and killed by her husband, so everyone who entered her house would be killed by her and her son Toshio.

  The core of this movie was very simple. As long as anyone stepped into this house, they would become entangled with Kayako and eventually die.

  If it was also regarded as a rule, then "enter and die" was the rule of the entire movie.

  If this was the case, the instant this rule was unleashed, the entire Dorm 404 was already contaminated by this rule.

  Chen Chen felt a greater ache in his heart. He was not afraid that Death's law was unleashed. After all, Death's law only killed people who were supposed to die but did not. He would not be implicated. However, if it were the rule of Ju-on, he would be at a dead end.

  This was because Ju-on was a completely unsolvable horror movie. What did unsolvable mean? That was, people who had entered the house must die and there was no solution!

  It was not just Ju-on. In addition to this unsolvable horror film, Zhou Jie had also released One Missed Call and Ring.

  One Missed Call was about a mental disorder called "Munchausen syndrome". A girl named "Mimiko" suffered from asthma herself and because her mother suffered from Munchausen syndrome, she was implicated in further suffering and eventually died. At the same time, she was filled with incomparable resentment after her death and her spirit was attached to her phone.

  Anyone targeted by Mimiko would receive their own death call a few days in advance. When the call came, those phones would ring with a special nursery rhyme ringtone.

  Of the content in the incoming call, some would be their voices before their death and some would send an MMS with the scene of their death. Moreover, the date of death was the date displayed on the call.

  What was more terrifying was that this kind of death was contagious. After being killed by Mimiko, their mobile phone would randomly select a person from the address book to continue this relay game of death…

  This was the killing method in One Missed Call.

  To put it simply, the ghostly call first informed one that one would die and told one the method and date of one's death. However, the truly despairing factor was that, even after knowing all this, one would still experience the exact manner of death, at the exact time, as given by the call, for one reason or another. There would not even be the slightest discrepancy.

  This was the same as Final Destination.

  Thinking of this, Chen Chen suddenly recalled that he did not seem to have received any strange calls. That was to say, he might not have been targeted by Mimiko.

  With this in mind, Chen Chen could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

  However, he did not let down his guard but swiftly took out his mobile phone, pulled out the SIM card, and then turned off the phone directly. After that, he threw it to the ground and gave it a few good, heavy stamps.

  He did not stop until he heard a crunch from the phone.

  If the phone was broken, he should not receive the curse of One Missed Call, right?

  As for the last movie, Ring, Chen Chen had not watched it directly, but he knew the rules of death in this movie. After all, this movie was too famous and the rules in it were simpler. If anyone watched a recording of the videotape, they would be haunted by a female ghost named Sadako.

  Still, it was obvious that Chen Chen had not watched any videotapes. In terms of rules, perhaps Ring was the easiest one to avoid.

  In other words, among the four horror films, the only one that threatened him at present was Ju-on.

  Chen Chen did not know whether to cry or laugh for a while. Although to him, he would have ended up dead no matter how many female spirits were haunting him. Now that he knew he was only cursed by one, he was surprised to feel a little relieved…

  Chen Chen smiled bitterly.

  "But even so, this matter is still very serious."

  Chen Chen murmured, "Because this means that the rules of Ju-on will start with Dorm 404 and spread a
round little by little since Dorm 404 dormitory is often visited by people. As long as they enter, they'll be on Kayako's kill list. The room of anyone killed by Kayako will also become a new place of the grudge-curse. The people entering that room will also be hunted down by Kayako…"

  Compared with the other killing rules, Kayako's rules were like a kind of spiritual calamity, enough to result in a destruction that was thousands of times worse than that of other rules!

  "At the end of the day, the world will only have one ending — that is, houses all over the world can no longer house people and the entire human civilization will be destroyed because of Kayako's curse."

  Thinking of this, Chen Chen could not help inhaling sharply. At this moment, his entire back was almost drenched in a cold sweat.

  "This is beyond the scope of what I can solve."

  Chen Chen slowly shut down the computer. If there was still energy in the USB flash drive, even if he had to take a gamble, he would still find a way to solve Kayako's curse.

  What a shame the odds were not in his favor. The USB drive had run out of energy.

  In that case, if he wanted to survive, Chen Chen had only one path left…

  With this in mind, the computer was shut down fully. Chen Chen was about to stand up when suddenly, through the reflection of the computer screen, he saw a pale boy passing behind him.

  At this instant, Chen Chen only felt that his blood was about to freeze. He stiffened his neck and slowly turned around, but found that there was nothing behind him.

  "Toshio…"

  Chen Chen's lips turned blue and he quickly stood up. Without even cashing in his remaining balance, he staggered out of the Internet cafe.

  Chen Chen did not realize until he had left the Internet cafe that the sky was completely dark.

  In the entire sky, only a small flaming cloud drifted in the western vista, like a bonfire about to go out, leaving only a final spark.

  Darkness was coming.

  Chen Chen's heart was icy. At this point, he even felt a kind of confusion, an overwhelming confusion that he did not know how to face all of this.