Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 80: The Hunter

“Because in the end, you’ll always understand. Compared to being on the run, the police station is the place that will give you complete peace of mind.”

The mask took a round stainless steel jar from the shelf and put a new label on it. The mouth of the round jar was wide open, making it look like a deep well from the side.

The man arranged the small objects in an orderly manner; they circled Guo Laifu one after another. There were countless sensor wires connected to the ends of these spirit weapons. The computer screen flashed with cold light, and the mainframe emitted a loud heat dissipation sound.

…Yin Ren had seen science posts do similar things. This was a researcher preparing to collect data.

Guo Laifu let out a muffled roar, which sounded like a curse. The masked man turned a deaf ear as he walked slowly to the office chair. He leaned forward and supported his hands on the armrest.

The two dark eye holes of the rabbit mask were directly facing Guo Laifu.

“Hm,” he said. “Now you have more panic than fear. You never imagined that you would be in a position of prey.”

The masked man went back to the computer and muttered a few words. “The basic data is determined. Empathy ability is poor, and fear of oneself is relatively dull…”

After finishing the recording, he moved and returned to Guo Laifu again.

“Let’s get started,” the masked man said quietly.

The next moment, Guo Laifu’s memory turned into melted butter.

They didn’t know what the masked man had done, as there were only chaotic colors in Guo Laifu’s vision. The colors quickly deformed and merged as Guo Laifu’s screams overshadowed the buzzing vibration of the spirit weapons. It was hard to imagine a human making such a sound.

The chaos continued, and time seemed to have lost its concept.

Guo Wei thoughtfully fast-forwarded the memory.

At the end of the boundless chaos, it was pouring rain.

After the indescribable chaos was over, Guo Laifu’s vision finally returned to normal. He was standing on a deserted road. The masked man was wearing a translucent raincoat and stood silently beside him.

Guo Laifu was soaked all over. His eyes were wide open, and he looked dumbly at the night in front of him. His limbs were free, but he remained motionless.

“Two days later, leave Haigu and return to Qingjiang Public Security Bureau to surrender,” the masked man commanded deftly.

“Ah… Ah…” Guo Laifu spoke in a broken voice, as if he had awoken from a dream. He nodded his head desperately.

“Don’t hurt anyone during this time.”

“Ahh… That tricky evil…”

Guo Laifu folded his hands and bowed desperately like a drowning dog*. He moved his tongue with difficulty, spitting out ravings that no one understood.

*(落水狗) Refers to a bad person who has lost favor or power.

At the end of his screaming, Guo Laifu’s knees went weak, and he knelt heavily on the muddy ground.

The masked man lowered his head. Though Yin Ren couldn’t see the man’s expression, he knew that there was no sympathy in them.

“Very good,” he said flatly.

Just then, a blood-red lightning bolt flashed across the sky.

The masked man paused.

He raised his head and looked at the dark clouds rolling in the sky. In the crazy rainstorm, blood-red lightning flashed one after another, filling the darkness with a bloody color in the middle of the night.

“……Ah.” The masked man sighed. “Trouble. Things are getting unbalanced.”

Before the man finished speaking, Guo Laifu seemed to sense something. Like a sudden illness, Guo Laifu stared at the man’s back. His body fell onto the uneven asphalt road and convulsed frantically.

Melting chaos once again appeared in Guo Laifu’s vision. He yelled, shook his head desperately, and rolled back wretchedly. This road was close to a garbage dump. Guo Laifu rushed into it like crazy as he gouged out his eyes with both hands.

There was no hesitation in his movements as a sticky noise sounded from his eye socket.

Immediately afterwards, ignoring the sharp pain in his eyes, he groped around a pile of household garbage and grabbed a dirty fruit knife…

Yin Ren knew what happened next.

Guo Laifu used the fruit knife to cut off his nose and jabbed disposable chopsticks into his ears. Until a security personnel appeared, he was madly mutilating himself.

…Like trying to escape his five senses.

The heavy rain and thunder covered everything as Guo Laifu lost his eyesight. The masked man also disappeared, and everything sank into nothingness.

The memory ended, and the darkness dissipated.

The three of them returned to the sunny campus again.

“This is the process of Guo Laifu going crazy.” After seeing the record, Guo Wei’s face was a little distorted with joy. “Unfortunately, I can’t reproduce his thoughts at the time, so I don’t know how helpful that was to you.”

“No.” Yin Ren swallowed. “Thank you, you’ve helped us enough.”

The masked man in the memory, Zhong Chengshuo, was standing behind him.

Yin Ren turned his head slowly to look at him. The culprit who drove Guo Laifu crazy was standing under the sun. Behind the transparent glasses, those black eyes were moist and stable, and he even looked slightly innocent.

There was no sense of guilt on Zhong Chengshuo’s face. He blinked at Yin Ren, with a slight expectation in his eyes.

This kid…

“Come with me.”

Yin Ren grabbed Zhong Chengshuo’s wrist, and the two went into the main teaching building and found a relatively hidden corner. Yin Ren skillfully cut off all communications and took a deep breath.

“Zhong Chengshuo, what the hell is going on with Guo Laifu?”

“He should have gone to Qingjiang to surrender himself.” Zhong Chengshuo stood upright as he spoke with a trace of regret in his tone. “But the Evil Force that broke out that night… Well, you broke the seal, causing the Evil Force in Haigu to be thrown into disorder. He was affected by the drastic change in environmental conditions.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.” His tone was still calm. “This has never happened before.”

Before?

Zhong Chengshuo’s voice surfaced from the memories.

[…The people in those recordings are all death row prisoners. Except for one of them, the rest have been executed.]

That was the day they visited Feng Qi after the case was over.

When they visited, Feng Qi was using some recordings to consolidate his ability to “interpret ravings”.

The tablet screen was full of “Mom, Mom, I’m so scared”, “Help, help”, “I’m scared, I’m scared”.

It was the same as Guo Laifu’s situation.

[Guo Laifu, a serial murderer on the run… This person is completely mentally disturbed and is still undergoing treatment. The other death row prisoners only showed symptoms of ravings, but they have no mental problems.]

At that time, this was what Zhong Chengshuo said while he was joking with Feng Qi, saying that some big case might be unearthed from this.

A prophecy.

“Besides Guo Laifu, how many people are there?” Yin Ren patted his face.

Zhong Chengshuo leaned in front of a window in the corridor of the teaching building. Outside were the bright sunlight and swaying flowers. Coupled with the handsome face of that person, this image was soft and harmless… which made it particularly deceptive.

“Plus Guo Laifu, forty-two people,” Zhong Chengshuo replied calmly. “All of them are murderers from Sunken Society, who carry at least three lives or more and are wanted by the police. They only left behind the sequelae of ravings—I dealt with them very cleanly.”

Ravings, a language disorder that occurred after a specific mutation appeared in the brain. The specific cause was unknown, but most of them appeared in people who had been greatly stimulated.

Yin Ren: “……”

Yin Ren: “…What did you do to them?”

“Secret.” Zhong Chengshuo stared at Yin Ren earnestly while holding his index fingers to his lips. “We just started dating, so we need to get to know each other slowly.”

Yin Ren silently looked at the ground.

Forty-two murderers related to Sunken Society.

Was “King Yama” of the Nightwalkers uninterested in living tasks, or was the spontaneous “murderer hunter” already full?

He wondered why King Yama insisted on developing in the Nightwalkers—whether it was to get rid of evil beings or study them, even if Zhong Chengshuo had such eccentricities, with King Yama’s strength, Shian would give some leeway.

But it was absolutely impossible for Shian to accept a “murderer hunter”.

Seeing Yin Ren unresponsive, Zhong Chengshuo looked at him with some confusion. “What’s wrong with you?”

Yin Ren looked at the black ballpoint pen in his hand.

A few strands of hair quickly wrapped around the body of the pen and cut it directly into pieces. In Zhong Chengshuo’s surprised gaze, there was a creepy chewing sound in the black hair, and the remains of the ballpoint pen were swallowed up.

“Now we’re real accomplices.” Yin Ren let out a long exhale.

He believed in him.

Zhong Chengshuo’s past, his motivation; Yin Ren decided to continue to explore—this wasn’t to obtain some kind of victory. He just… simply wanted to understand this person.

The wing ball covered them again, isolating the two of them from the bright and noisy campus.

Zhong Chengshuo looked at Yin Ren suspiciously.

“What are you waiting for?” Yin Ren rubbed his face vigorously as he spoke sternly. “I’ve made up my mind about what to say. Let’s make a confession quickly. We have to go out and have a serious, ahem, relationship.”

Zhong Chengshuo was stunned for a moment. In the shadow, his entire face blushed slightly.

“But before that, I have a question I must ask,” Yin Ren muttered. “Is it really a coincidence that you met me that night?”

“Nn. Guo Laifu went crazy, and I have no way to deal with it,” Zhong Chengshuo replied sincerely. “But I still have time to save my dad’s two potted plants.”

“…Pfft.”

“What are you laughing at?” Zhong Chengshuo scratched his nose. Yin Ren saw this human’s expression of “embarrassed” for the first time.

“Has anyone ever told you your character is really…”

“Strange? Many people have said it.”

“No, special,” Yin Ren whispered. “It’s very special.”

……

“Therefore, that child intends to stay here and doesn’t want to turn into a ghost,” Fu Xingchuan concluded.

Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo were rescued out of the school, and were interrogated by Fu Xingchuan on the spot. He obviously didn’t intend to let them leave the Archive before asking for a clear overview.

The two partners quickly handed in the fragments of the red rope full of Evil Force. In order to show their sincerity, they even put their luggage 800-miles away.

“Yes, I seriously asked Guo Wei several times and told him Shian could help him turn into a ghost.” Yin Ren only had one set of clothes left. He leaned “weakly” on his partner as he said, “He refused.”

“It’s not like it’s a good thing—not much better than being a ghost.”

Fu Xingchuan let out a sigh. His eyes were still firmly locked on the two of them. He vaguely guarded the members of Unit 7 behind him. Yin Ren could see that there were several hidden attack arrays around him, ready to go.

Fu Xingchuan was warning them.

…As cultivators, their Minister Fu was really conscientious.

Yin Ren pretended not to notice and continued his “weak” act. “Guo Wei was affected by Kong Wangqing’s corruption source. I used a dream technique to recruit Guo Wei’s teacher and classmates. When Guo Wei was about to return to normal, Kong Wanqing appeared…”

“He… He forcibly controlled Guo Wei and began to use strange powers. I was hit by his technique and barely held on, delaying him to let Zhong Ge take the others and run first.”

Fu Xingchuan looked at them silently.

Yin Ren specifically confirmed that after he returned to his original state, Guo Wei was beside him, safe and sound—that was to say, he was able to control the spread of the Evil Force.

As long as the source of corruption was handed in quickly, even if Fu Xingchuan wanted to doubt him, there would be no conclusive evidence.

After all, a dead man tells no tales. Yin Ren lowered his head, showing a sad look.

“Kong Wanqing claims that his ability is emotional ‘resonance’, which can amplify negative emotions. After I was hit by him, everything fell into chaos. I may have been influenced by the Evil Force. After Zhong Ge woke me up, I realized… I killed Kong Wanqing.”

In a sense, everything he said was the truth.

“I have no idea how I killed him. I just remember being in great pain and feeling like the Evil Force was about to smash me into pieces. Minister Fu, will I go to jail?”

Fu Xingchuan raised his hand and glanced at the reading instrument on his wrist. His brows arched, but he didn’t say much.

“Do you have an impression of how Zhong Chengshuo saved you?” Fu Xingchuan showed no sign of relief and continued to ask sternly.

“He…”

Zhong Chengshuo: “I hugged him and fed him a bag of chocolate chips.”

Fu Xingchuan: “?”

Fu Xingchuan: “…Chocolate chips?”

Minister Fu’s tone was so confused that even his alert posture titled for a moment.

The two members of Unit 7 looked at each other and felt that this style was completely incompatible with the ferocious ghost just now. It was more credible to say that Zhong Chengshuo gave him ten shots of tranquilizer than the current statement.

The dark ghost fetus just now wouldn’t be defeated by a few chocolate chips.

Fu Xingchuan looked at the lie detector device again. What Zhong Chengshuo stated wasn’t nonsense; the honesty index was surprisingly high.

“You hugged Yin Ren and gave him some sweets.” Fu Xingchuan tried to make sense of the statement. “Is he normal now?”

Did these two think it was that easy to deal with a frenzied non-science post? Combined with the previous abnormal readings, Minister Fu felt that these two in Unit 9 must be crazy.

Yin Ren: “……” Zhong Chengshuo told the truth too quickly that he couldn’t think of a reasonable way to amend at this moment.

Damn it. He originally wanted to describe the entire process in a more touching way. As a result, Zhong Chengshuo gave a brief summary, making him look like some kindergartener who was throwing a tantrum during lunch.

King Yama obviously had his own ideas.

Zhong Chengshuo gently grabbed Yin Ren’s hand and made sure the other party couldn’t break away. He took a deep breath. “Yes, Yin Ren’s will is very strong—I wanted to go back before because I know him and have the confidence I could wake him.”

“Minster Fu, we just started dating.”

He added the final sentence with extra emphasis and solemnity.

Fu Xingchuan fell completely silent.

It was hard to tell whether the expression on his face was lost in deep thought or complete blankness. After a long time, he waved his hand as if he had given up..

“Forget it. You guys go back first and isolate for a while,” Fu Xingchuan said wearily. “We’ll verify your statements… Well, apart from the relationship thing.”

The faces of the two members of Unit 7 were still shocked. Their eyes swept between Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo.

“Hurry up and pack your things.” Although Fu Xingchuan lowered his guard, he didn’t release the protective spirit weapons. “Xiao Zhong, take care of Xiao Yin. We—”

Suddenly, something frantically moved in Yin Ren’s pocket.

Oops, it was Dog Thing.

The black ballpoint pen had been destroyed, which meant Guo Laifu would return to normal soon. Those little monsters that only exist in the minds of lunatics would no longer appear, so Dog Thing had lost the opportunity to freely eat the “weak”.

Yin Ren quickly held it down and patted it soothingly. Now he had been strengthened by a lot, so it wasn’t like he couldn’t share some of his Evil Force and feed that dog.

Despite its poor intelligence, the dog was well-versed in current events and knew who it shouldn’t mess with. Since Fu Xingchuan was here, it wouldn’t continue—

But it backfired. The cell phone began to struggle more vigorously. At the same time, Yin Ren’s scalp became cold.

“Get down!” Fu Xingchuan yelled. “Don’t even look up!”

The three of them hit the ground instantly except for Wang Zhou, who was still distracted by the outrageous love story. Fu Xingchuan threw out an explosive spirit bomb and directly blasted him to the ground.

Wang Zhou’s leg knocked against some ruins and made a “crack” sound.

Wang Zhou: “Ahhhh!”

“Quiet.” Fu Xingchuan gritted his teeth.

Yin Ren didn’t say a word.

He finally knew the reason for Dog Thing’s struggle—

Something was watching them.

The line of sight descended from above, pierced the direction of the center of the vortex, and stared at the five of them steadily. He didn’t know if it was because of the special environment in the Archive, but the sense of peeping was hundreds of millions of times stronger than the “sniper” from the outside world.

It was like a cold, foul, barbed tongue.

The sight licked the five of them, one by one, causing Yin Ren’s back to become horribly numb.

“Zhong Chengshuo, Wang Zhou, don’t push yourself. Do not look at it.” Fu Xingchuan lay down under an abandoned wall, staring at the dust on the ground.

“What is that?” Zhong Chengshuo asked curiously.

“I don’t know,” Fu Xingchuan said. “Know when you are outmatched. I have a hunch that it’s very bad.”

……

At the same time, Haigu Municipal Hospital.

Sun Qi’an cracked her sore shoulders and neck and went to dinner with a familiar nurse friend.

Her nurse friend was in a single room that belonged to an elderly man.

Speaking of which, this old man was considered a legend here…

The old man had been in a vegetative state, lying unconscious at the hospital for over seven years. Just six years ago, the old man miraculously woke up, but his body was so weak, he couldn’t leave the hospital.

His kids made quite a hearty living, so there was no shortage of money. Counting the moment he was admitted to the hospital, the old man had been hospitalized for thirteen years.

He was introverted, didn’t talk much, and wasn’t a picky eater. On weekdays, except for reading books and watching TV, the elderly man didn’t have any other requirements. All the nurses had a pretty good impression of him.

Usually, when people came to visit, the old man would always look their way and nod quietly.

But this time, it was different.

The old man didn’t look at Sun Qi’an, as if he hadn’t noticed her arrival. His wheelchair was parked by the window of the ward. The location of the ward was quite good, as he could see most of Haigu.

Perhaps the old man was tired of reading and wanted to look at the scenery. Sun Qi’an didn’t think much about it and just waited politely at the door.

At this moment, the old man moved…

He raised his hand, straightened his skinny fingers, and made a gun gesture.

The direction of the muzzle was pointed towards the Shian Building at the center of the city.

“Mr. Qiu?” Sun Qi’an called out in surprise.

The old man turned his head stiffly and smiled at her.

It was a twisted smile that bared all his teeth.

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The author has something to say:

Cleansing wipes and chocolate chips save the world!!!

Good news: We’re in love!

Bad news: Medical examination and separation into isolation rooms.

Xiao Yin and Xiao Zhong: ……

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 79: Rabbit

Wang Zhou looked at the transformed ghost fetus in front of him with fear.

Soon after Zhong Chengshuo entered, its expansion suddenly stopped.

The fleshy pillars connecting to the sky vortex withered and shattered as the dark, pitch-black ghost fetus gradually shrank. The intense evil qi dissipated, and the sense of oppression disappeared without a trace. Guo Laifu’s world of consciousness became day, and they could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The campus in front of them returned to its original state once again.

Bao Linlin patted her face vigorously. “Reporting. Should we continue to rebuild the ‘artificial gap’?”

There was a little more relaxation in her voice.

“Continue.” Fu Xingchuan wrinkled his brows. “Lu Xiaohe, Zhao Shiyin, try rebuilding the pass—”

“Minister Fu, I received communication from Yin Ren.”

Lu Xiaohe’s unilateral communication interrupted Fu Xingchuan. She sounded shocked and confused, without any drowsiness in her voice.

“What?”

“Yin Ren claimed that Kong Wanqing from Sunken Society was involved in the matter, and they will give a detailed investigation report after they get out. His voice sounded quite confident, so maybe he found something.”

“Yin Ren also said that Kong Wanqing has been eliminated. He and Zhong Chengshuo are safe now and only need to take a short rest inside.”

Fu Xingchuan instantly rubbed his stubbled chin. “Can you be sure the other side is in a normal mental state?”

“To be honest, not really.” Lu Xiaohe reported dreamily. “Since it’s Yin Ren reporting, his voice pattern, speaking habits, and characteristics match perfectly. Communication is gradually restored, and they are also wearing their wristbands, so I was able to get some physiological indicators.”

“Then what is the basis for your ‘unconfirmed mental state’?” Fu Xingchuan raised his brows.

“Emotional index.”

Lu Xiaohe sounded even more confused.

“The wristbands that Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo are wearing didn’t return any malicious emotions, but…”

Zhong Chengshuo not having any negative emotions was fine, but Yin Ren’s emotions were relatively normal. At this moment, that person’s “Expectation”, “Nervousness”, “Relaxation”, and “Anxiety” were all mixed together, and “Like” was so overwhelming it made her eyes hurt.

Combining Zhong Chengshuo’s “Like” with Yin Ren’s, it was like someone adding two chopsticks to her bar chart.

They exceed the typical threshold of “love”.

…When combined with the fluctuation of the two’s previous “like,” the development of this thing could be traced.

“Minister Fu, I think there are three possibilities.”

Lu Xiaohe briefly described the situation and then came to a conclusion with difficulty.

“First, the intruder did something. Second, they were bewitched by some kind of abnormal phenomenon. Third, uh, they fell in love.”

All three options sounded completely ridiculous.

The intruder didn’t come to the Archive just so he could release pink love waves. Anomalies would preferentially induce lust, so the emotional reading wouldn’t be so… innocent.

But who the hell would fall in love in this kind of shithole? Lu Xiaohe roared inside. Those who didn’t know would think those two bastards were visiting an aquarium.

Fu Xingchuan was silent for a long time. He found a pile of rubble and sat down, staring at the void inexplicably.

…This was really the most confusing class of newcomers he had ever brought. Even the knowledgeable Fu Xingchuan couldn’t think of a reason.

But he wouldn’t be stupid enough to believe what he was told.

“Xiao Lu, keep in touch with Yin Ren.” Minster Fu helplessly exhaled a ring of smoke. “Just in case, I’ll stay here and guard. I’m not going anywhere. There’s no need to increase troops on Shian’s side. Call someone to pick up Xiao Ge and Xiao Huang first.”

“Yes.”

“In addition,” Fu Xingchuan narrowed his eyes. “Have Shian do a full set of tests to ensure everyone in Unit 9 receives the most comprehensive internal medical examination.”

“Understood.” Lu Xiaohe’s tone became serious.

“What did Lu Xiaohe say?” Wang Zhou approached curiously—the internal situation was strange, and Lu Xiaohe and Fu Xingchuan were using a one-line call.

“Nothing.” Fu Xingchuan continued puffing out smoke. “I just suddenly felt that Unit 7 is quite worry-free.”

At least breaking an arm or leg was still within the comprehension of normal people.

Bao Linlin and Wang Zhou: “……”

……

On campus.

Yin Ren cut off the communication and let out a long sigh of relief.

After all the ups and downs, his physical condition was surprisingly good, but he was mentally tired. It was just that the exhaustion was mixed with sweet excitement. Yin Ren stretched out beside Zhong Chengshuo, and his eyes couldn’t help but fall on him involuntarily.

He had helped lay Zhong Chengshuo down from the head of the bed and was now lying on the single bed. The man was sleeping heavily; his appearance was the same as always, but Yin Ren felt something was different.

For example, the man’s features suddenly became more pleasing to the eye.

Yin Ren couldn’t help but poke his hand. His fingertips slid down the side of Zhong Chengshuo’s face. Zhong Chengshuo seemed to recognize his aura. The man turned his cheek sideways toward Yin Ren’s hand. His brows stretched as he murmured vaguely.

Lord Ghost King froze in place.

Partner, accomplice, lover. Through the invisible, intangible role transformation, the touch of this person’s skin had changed a lot. It felt more lively and hot, as if something was about to invade his fingertips, causing his fingers to tingle and become numb.

An evil thing and a mortal had become lovers. Yin Ren had seen countless similar stories. Until now, he had a unique… lack of confidence in his own control.

Mr. Yin had never eaten pork but had seen pigs run*. How wonderful. His pig had started to run, and in the process, it had turned 360-degrees and done ten consecutive backflips.

*(没吃过猪肉，也见过猪跑) Metaphor referring to having not experienced things personally but have heard/seen them so you have some understanding || In this context, it’s basically saying, he has seen relationships but has never been in one, but he has some understanding of them. The author then uses the pig allusion from the metaphor to basically say, now he has experienced it, and on a much greater scale than he had imagined.

Yin Ren had never seen this scene before.

It was completely different from what was in the script, and it wasn’t at all similar to the feelings he imagined.

Was “like” such a tricky and hot thing?

His own experience of “taking care of everyone as a junior” was no longer applicable—rather than stripping away secrets and teasing mortals, he now had no idea how to get along with them. Lord Ghost King’s face was burning.

Guo Wei watched Yin Ren move around in confusion.

Yin Ren lay down by the side of the bed, burying his entire face in the sheets. He and Zhong Chengshuo were squeezed side by side on the single bed, one facing up, the other facing down, like two pieces of rice cake waiting to be turned over.

Somehow, Guo Wei felt that the long-haired brother exuded a sense of shame.

“Guo Wei.” Yin Ren’s voice was muffled by the bed sheets.

“Nn.”

“I still have some snacks in my suitcase. You can eat them,” Yin Ren whispered. “By the way, go around the campus and see if you can restore some memories. If you can’t, we’ll help you after our break.”

Without the corruption and its source, Guo Wei had returned to his honest appearance. “Okay, thank you, brother.”

When the boy left, Yin Ren was still slumped inside the sheets, like a rice cake, until a hand touched his long hair.

Suddenly, Yin Ren almost bounced like a live fish.

“Yin Ren.” Zhong Chengshuo’s voice was low, beside him.

“You’re awake?” Yin Ren didn’t turn over and stubbornly kept facing down. “It’s only been a while. Get some sleep.”

“I can’t sleep well. I’ve been thinking about our affairs in a daze.”

Our affairs.

Yin Ren slowly turned his head sideways and found half a shiny red ear sticking out from the edge of the nightcap. The piece of light red looked like shallow scratches, making Yin Ren’s hands so itchy that he couldn’t help but rub them as presumptuously as before.

“Oh, mm.” Yin Ren thought for a while and responded primitively.

The two were silent for a moment.

“Actually, I have a question to ask.” Zhong Chengshuo turned to his side and stared at Yin Ren with his bright, black eyes.

Sure enough, a science post was a science post. Seeing such a scene, it was impossible for Zhong Chengshuo to easily let him go. Yin Ren put away his scattered thoughts and held his breath.

Zhong Chengshuo: “How old are you this year?”

Yin Ren: “…” What kind of weird entry point is this?

Yin Ren: “One—one hundred and eighty years old.”

Zhong Chengshuo was silent, but his black eyes held a lot of suspicion and a little condemnation.

Yin Ren’s gaze wandered. “…Actually, I’m three hundred and sixty years old, but I have been asleep for a while, so I cut it in half.”

Zhong Chengshuo continued his starring attack.

Lord Ghost King quickly gave up resistance. “Fourteen hundred years old… but I didn’t lie to you. I have slept for more than a thousand years, so it really can’t be counted. You should treat me as three hundred and sixty.”

Zhong Chengshuo: “…Okay.”

There was another burst of silence.

Yin Ren couldn’t hold back. He turned and poked Zhong Chengshuo’s face with the tip of his hair. “Do you have any other questions?”

That memory, that mountain village, his own huge body, Kong Wanqing’s weird death… With the insight of King Yama, he probably guessed that “Yin Ren is most likely an Evil Spirit”.

But Zhong Chengshuo didn’t ask.

Zhong Chengshuo was a person who used his broken hair for research. Now that they were getting closer, he had become more reserved.

“Are there really no other questions?” Just in case, Yin Ren asked again.

“There is, but that’s your worst memory.” Zhong Chengshuo pondered for a moment. “I don’t want to pry into… you because of my own curiosity. You’re now not only my object of observation, but also my lover.”

“The book says that it’s better to let things go with the flow.”

“…I see.” Yin Ren’s expression softened a little.

Zhong Chengshuo moved and leaned toward Yin Ren. His forehead gently rested against Yin Ren’s forehead. He closed his eyes again, and there was a fresh smell of mint on his breath.

“I actually bought two packs of chocolate chips.” Zhong Chengshuo spoke with his eyes closed. “There’s another bag in the luggage.”

“That brand tastes good.” Yin Ren felt the body heat and heartbeat of the other. Strangely, he developed a hint of sleepiness. “Let’s go back, and buy… some later…”

“Okay, wait until we go home.” Zhong Chengshuo also had some drowsiness in his voice.

“I want to go home now…” Yin Ren sighed softly, rubbing the tip of his hair against the bed sheet, and gently hooked Zhong Chengshuo’s thumb.

The absurd and bizarre night was over, and the sky outside the window gradually lit up as dawn was coming.

Warm breaths intertwined. On the small single bed, two people fell asleep together.

……

When the two woke up again, the sky on campus was already bright.

The main teaching building was safe and sound. Guo Wei repaired part of the campus by himself. However, the small part that remained—especially the areas that Zhong Chengshuo blew up—was still a mess. Zhong Chengshuo was debugging his equipment not far away, preparing to speak with Shian.

Yin Ren, on the other hand, sat with Guo Wei on the edge of the flower bed. The pomegranate flowers were in full bloom above their heads.

The dark hair swam across campus, hooking up the building rubbles and quickly putting them back together.

The twisted gate was restored to its original state, the hole in the wall fence was intact again, and the senior high school building and bathrooms gradually returned to their original appearance. The flattened building “healed” under Guo Wei’s powers, and the campus became closer to the day when Unit 9 had just arrived.

The phantoms of students came and went on campus, and above the campus was a clear morning sky.

“The specifics are this. Guo Wei, have you thought it through?” Yin Ren asked seriously.

Shian would continue to look for the cause of Guo Laifu, and he would be executed after he recovered. If Guo Wei continued to stay here, when Guo Laifu died, he would disappear as well.

Yin Ren looked at Guo Wei.

Guo Wei had completely returned to his original appearance, but his eyes were still clouded with the peculiar characteristic of death. At that moment, Guo Wei looked at the gate of the campus not far away. His baggy school uniform swayed in the wind.

“Mm, I’ve made up my mind. Even if I go with you, if I want to become a ghost, I still have to give up these things.”

Guo Wei stared at the campus, which was slowly returning to its original appearance.

People he knew well had come. Compared with before, there were a few more yellow flowers on the green lawn, looking like melting sunlight.

Yin Ren: “Yes, you will have to give them up.”

After all, pure obsession was the essence of a ghost, and this couldn’t be changed.

“But I won’t use a brutal method like Kong Wanqing. I’ll only seal up your memories.”

…But what should be forgotten must be forgotten. To forget or disappear, Guo Wei could only choose one.

“Yin Ge, do you know?”

Guo Wei didn’t directly answer him and kept staring at the campus gate not far away.

“When I was young, my mother was beaten so much by Guo Laifu that she had no choice but to escape to a foreign country. I don’t blame her, though. She still hugged me and cried for a long time before she left. I have thought many times that even if she can start a new life, I will always be a thorn in her heart.”

Yin Ren patted the boy on the back. Guo Wei was very thin, and he could feel the joints in his spine.

“After that, I went to school, and my grades were average. At that time, I thought, the world is more than me, and it won’t miss anything without me.”

“It’s meaningless to live. If only I could choose not to be born—I’m a nuisance to my mother, the village, and the school.”

Guo Wei’s eyes were a little red. He straightened his back stubbornly and didn’t wipe his eyes.

“But I have such good teachers and classmates. For the first time, I thought it’s a good thing to be alive… I also properly said goodbye to them, it’s great.”

Guo Wei looked at the blue sky in his memory and twitched his nose. “…Really great.”

“So, Yin Ge, this time, I want to choose ‘not to be born’ on my own.”

“……Okay.”

The phantoms of the students were playing around on the sunny campus. Several students in Class 2 and 3 stepped into the main teaching building with their backpacks and passed the two of them in front of the flower bed.

Guo Wei looked at the phantoms gently.

After a long time, Guo Wei took out a black ballpoint pen from his pocket.

“If you want Guo Laifu to return to normal, destroy this.”

The black ballpoint pen was simple in shape. Yin Ren had seen it with his own eyes. Guo Wei once used it to switch between day and night outside the campus.

“This is the memory that drove Guo Laifu crazy—it was the center of the outside world before and was particularly conspicuous.”

Guo Wei handed the black ballpoint pen to him with both hands, with such firmness that it couldn’t be rejected.

“In order to make sure you come to my school, I listened to Kong Wanqing’s suggestion and turned it into a pen and took it with me…As long as you give it a little stimulation, Guo Laifu’s head will be confused for about half an hour. Destroy this memory and he will regain his sanity.”

“In fact, when you were in the hotel, I deliberately caused the night. At that time, I ran to see you, but I was accidentally discovered by Zhong Ge.”

Having said that, Guo Wei lowered his head a little embarrassedly.

Yin Ren was slightly stunned.

…Zhong Chengshuo had seen Guo Wei before entering the school?

But he didn’t report this to Shian. Even though this information was of little value after entering the school, this wasn’t at all like Zhong Chengshuo’s style.

Guo Wei didn’t notice Yin Ren’s distraction. He continued in a low voice, “Before destroying it, if you want, I can take you in and have a look.”

“Then I’ll trouble you.”

At that moment, Yin Ren collected his thoughts.

Zhong Chengshuo was rightfully his lover, so he could just ask directly. Yin Ren reached for the pen, but his hand was grabbed halfway in mid-air.

It was Zhong Chengshuo’s hand.

Zhong Chengshuo had finished messing with the communication equipment. At some point, he approached. At this moment, he looked at the pen in his hand in silence, and his fingers moved slightly as he rubbed it repeatedly.

For a moment, Yin Ren almost thought he was going to snap it in half.

After a few seconds passed, Zhong Chengshuo seemed to have made some determination. He released his fingers and solemnly stuffed the pen into Yin Ren’s hand.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’ll know later,” Zhong Chengshuo said as he lowered his eyes.

Guo Wei looked at Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo. In the end, he decided to give up guessing Mr. Zhong’s charades. Guo Wei tapped his fingertips on the pen and directly activated the memory inside.

Like a dark room that was erected on the campus, the surrounding scene quickly dimmed. Guo Wei’s memory operation was much stronger than Kong Wanqing’s. The picture in front of the three of them was as clear as a movie.

Rapid gasping echoed in the room as Guo Laifu looked at his own body.

His hands, feet, and torso were all wrapped around an office chair. The person who bound him was very professional, and specially selected thick tape and cloth that wouldn’t leave strangulation marks. Not to mention struggling, Guo Laifu couldn’t even use his strength.

There was a gag in his mouth, and saliva kept sliding down from its corners.

Frighteningly, Guo Laifu quickly glanced around.

This was a fairly dim space, roughly forty square meters.

There were no windows, and the air was a bit humid. There were multi-layer shelves on both sides of the room, and the stainless-steel round cans on the shelves were tightly packed and neatly stacked. They were all the size of a human head, and each had a small label on it.

There was a long table in the middle of the room.

Guo Laifu’s gaze was fixed…

A figure was leaning on the edge of the long table. There were neat little objects piled up beside the man’s hand. They were blurred by the shadows, but they exuded a different kind of cold aura.

“You’re awake,” the figure said.

The figure stood up from the table and stepped out of the shadows. At the same moment, Yin Ren held his breath subconsciously.

He recognized the figure.

It was a young man wearing a creepy cartoon rabbit mask that Yin Ren was very familiar with. He was flipping through a small, hard-covered notepad in his hand.

“Guo Laifu, 47 years old, serial murderer on the run, a fringe member of Sunken Society. You came to Haigu four days ago. You killed five people with your own hands, sacrificed and dismembered the victim while they were awake, and the last victim was your own son.”

That person’s voice was distorted by a voice changer, but his calm tone remained unchanged.

“A very suitable research object.”

Guo Laifu’s eyes were glued to the ominous rabbit mask. He struggled frantically, but he couldn’t even move the chair.

“Mmmmmm—” His bound hands trembled slightly.

“Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you.” The man put on black gloves carefully. “Murder is against the law.”

“Mmph!!!”

“When everything is over, I’ll help you pick a suitable city to surrender to.”

“Mmph!!!” Guo Laifu’s voice was full of shock and disbelief.

“Because in the end, you’ll always understand. Compared to being on the run, the police station is the place that will give you complete peace of mind.”

The eye holes in the rabbit mask were as black as the void, as if there was only an abyss under the mask.

---

The author has something to say:

Xiao Zhong: The book says go with the flow, so let’s take a look at the memory together.

Xiao Yin:

Xiao Yin: It was actually me who was complicit (x

So there is a reason for the lack of psychological descriptions of Xiao Zhong in this arc (?

On the first day of dating, Xiao Yin was shocked.jpg

---

Kinky Thoughts:

This chapter is too bittersweet. I was hoping Guo Wei would become a ghost and join Yin Ren, but he chose not to be born himself. That’s so sad.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 78: Gifts

‘What a beautiful creature,’ Zhong Chengshuo thought.

It exuded the smell of Yin Ren, and its appearance was much more regular than that Evil Spirit dog under Shian.

It—no—he knelt quietly in the center of the village, wearing countless dimly colored seals.

Embroidery, shackles, wooden runes, jade pieces—all kinds of spiritual seals were stacked layer by layer. They covered the huge monster like a mottled red veil, encompassing most of its body.

But they had a strange texture, not like foreign objects, but a texture of blood and keratin, as if they grew out of it.

The monster’s upper body still retained a little human structure, and the hanging “red veil” covered his “waist and abdomen”, hiding his head and torso underneath.

There was no flat skin under the red veil—hundreds of human arms that were slender and pale and covered in scars protruded out. The fingers at the end of the arms were much longer than ordinary people, with sharp black nails.

At this moment, they slammed into the ground fiercely, trembling violently; only one of them had their arms tightly curled around his chest.

From below his waist and abdomen, at the root of the arm, his skin gradually turned into a void-like darkness, without layers of the red veil.

The sealed red veil was scattered in all directions, and underneath it, it kept bulging, poking out countless sharp shrouds of unknown structures. The edge of the red veil was extended under Zhong Chengshuo’s feet, and he could see the little things underneath.

Those were countless tangled, translucent wings.

They had a shadowy ink color, an irregular structure, and fleshy “feathers”. These wings seemed as if they were melted at high temperatures, drawing and sticking to each other with a fluid texture like oil and filled with twisted, unknown runes.

Under the red veil, they twitched and trembled in pain.

Swish, swish.

Countless wings rubbed gently against each other, probing in all directions like the tide, creating a velvety sound.

Even for such a short time, Zhong Chengshuo could find that Yin Ren was still “expanding”.

Around him, the mountain village was looming in the thick fog, and the procession of evil beings kept circling around them. The green and red lights circled one after another, with Yin Ren precisely at the center.

Yin Ren trembled violently, but he didn’t have any murderous intent or hostility.

[If a person in a non-science position directly observes an Evil Spirit’s body, on the light side, they will lose their ability to think, and on the heavy side, they will die of cerebral hemorrhage on the spot.]

Li Nian had emphasized this to him in the underground where Shian’s Evil Spirit was before.

Kong Wanqing, who looked directly at Yin Ren, exploded on the spot, obviously suffering a more serious consequence than cerebral hemorrhage.

Though Kong Wanqing was dead, Guo Wei was still tied up with the red rope and was floating nearby. As partly a fierce ghost, Guo Wei was unharmed—the power of the Evil Force was purer than evil qi, so there was no reason for evil things to be affected.

Yin Ren was likely an unusually powerful Evil Spirit.

…And he was frantically suppressing his own power at this moment so that the surroundings wouldn’t be affected. There was no doubt that this was Yin Ren’s style.

Zhong Chengshuo looked away. He took off his glasses and carefully put them in his pocket.

He went straight to one of the giant hands and patted Yin Ren’s finger. “Yin Ren.”

The touch of the monster’s skin was warm; it could even be considered scorching.

That hand stopped trembling.

The bulge of the head under the red veil deflected slightly, facing Zhong Chengshuo.

Yin Ren seemed to want to say something but couldn’t. There was silence all around, with only the sound of wings rubbing against each other.

……

Not so long ago.

The balance collapsed, and it was about to get out of control.

Yin Ren suddenly understood the madness of Evil Spirits back then—his feelings were all confused, his negative emotions were completely out of control, and his thinking was like a boat braving a storm. His thoughts no longer seemed to be his own, and the whole world became a miserable mess.

From the moment he woke up under the seal, he began to suppress his power. He would… never become a complete Evil Spirit.

But now, in his chaotic thoughts, he understood.

Something inside him was solidifying while something else was decaying. It was raging out of control. Like a larva turning into a moth, his body was undergoing some kind of ominous transformation.

Perhaps he was no different from Guo Wei.

Perhaps before, he wasn’t really an Evil Spirit.

His thoughts were stirred up by storm-like emotions. The Evil Force in his body was out of control, disordered, and exuding an almost toxic rage. The rage triggered his instinctive fear, and Yin Ren’s thinking became more fragmented.

It was a vicious cycle.

It was like an organ that was originally functioning well in the body suddenly decayed at a certain moment. It frantically eroded the adjacent healthy parts, constantly attacking his body. Those forces turned into thousands of whirlpools, dragging his shattered thoughts into darker depths.

Was it because of the special environment of the Archive that made them particularly sensitive?

Or was it because of his momentary confusion?

Yin Ren couldn’t or didn’t want to think anymore. Just suppressing the Evil Force without letting it leak was consuming all his energy.

In the endless pain, Yin Ren thought dimly, ‘Zhong Chengshuo should have escaped by now.’

That person was rational and would come to the right conclusion—take away the members of Unit 9 and stay away from this place. Even Yin Ren himself couldn’t figure out the current situation, so there was no information for Zhong Chengshuo to speculate…

Even if Zhong Chengshuo “likes” him, he wouldn’t be dazzled by that kind of feeling…

“I’m here to pick you up, Yin Ren.” Yin Ren heard, tasted, and smelled a voice.

The scent of Zhong Chengshuo stopped in front of him.

There was a very subtle, warm touch on Yin Ren’s fingers.

“Yin Ren.” The man stroked his fingers and called to him confidently.

[Why?]

Yin Ren lowered his head, struggling silently in the whirlpool of thoughts. He couldn’t make a sound… He forgot how to make a sound, like he couldn’t find his vocal cords and tongue.

[Why did you come back?] He couldn’t convey his thoughts to that person.

“Kong Wanqing’s ability is to induce negative emotions and stir them out of control.” As if Zhong Chengshuo had guessed what he was asking, he answered him on his own. “In the Archive, it’s very dangerous to have a wavering mind.”

Yin Ren held on to his last sobriety. He stretched out his hand and pushed Zhong Chengshuo gently.

[So you need to get out of here…] He thought to himself.

“So I don’t think you should be ‘alone’ especially at a time like this.”

The smell of Zhong Chengshuo approached again. The warm body heat touched the scarred giant hand.

“I don’t want you to leave now.”

[…Are you trying to get yourself killed…]

Yin Ren commanded that hand with difficulty, gently pushing Zhong Chengshuo away again.

Once he completely lost control, Zhong Chengshuo would definitely die.

The weaknesses of a science post were clear. Being an Evil Spirit with a physical body, even if Zhong Chengshuo was strong enough to be immune to his Evil Force, he could still physically turn him into minced meat.

“I won’t do things I’m not sure about. If I die here, that means I made a wrong judgment.”

Zhong Chengshuo seemed to be able to read his mind. The man’s soft voice was gentle and tasted like slightly sweet tea.

“People die every day for this reason,” he said. “It’s just a very ordinary ending.”

He walked back again, his steps as firm as ever.

[……I don’t…understand……]

“Yin Ren, you’re the most humane, most appreciative of life, and the strongest person I have ever seen. You’ll struggle until the last moment.”

The air vibrated as the tone of voice changed. In the blurred colors, Yin Ren could vaguely feel Zhong Chengshuo speaking with a smile.

“I will never leave you ‘alone’, until you give up.”

This time, Zhong Chengshuo closed his eyes and relaxed his body slightly.

He leaned on Yin Ren’s palm; his soft hair brushed between his fingers, and his cheek rubbed against the skin of the palm. The man’s breath was small and light, but it was so distinct in the chaos.

Calm, peaceful, even reassuring.

Zhong Chengshuo leaned on Yin Ren’s palm. The atmosphere around him was exceptionally tranquil.

[……]

The expansion of his body stopped. His rusty mind began to turn, and a trace of wind blew into the suffocating pain.

Yin Ren suddenly remembered the moment on the rooftop not long ago.

[Aren’t you going to ask?] Before negotiating with Guo Wei, he couldn’t help asking this.

[I wouldn’t like someone that didn’t surprise me.] Zhong Chengshuo, who had forgotten his “like” replied like so. [As I said, I want to witness it for myself.]

At this moment, you also want to witness this with your own eyes, right?

In the face of the gradually collapsing Evil Force, a science post couldn’t do anything. Yin Ren miraculously felt a trace of calmness. Zhong Chengshuo’s body temperature soaked through his palm, and his breathing rose and fell.

Yin Ren thought of Zhong Chengshuo, who had been waiting for him in the office a long time ago and had fallen asleep.

The man was lying on the table, sleeping soundly, and his breath was warm and moist.

And that rainy night, much longer ago.

For a long time, Yin Ren only wanted to live day by day without looking back, but at this moment, he never wanted to go back to the past like that.

If the ending was doomed, at least… He at least wanted to say goodbye.

A trace of fire flashed faintly in the boundless darkness.

In the vicious cycle of loss of control, there seemed to be something more.

The waves of fear and despair washed away, gradually taking away his broken thoughts, but it couldn’t wash away the weakest and most instinctive thoughts.

Why did he want to go along with Zhong Chengshuo and tell him he’d “give it a try”?

Why did he want to explore the secrets of that person and compete in terms of “care”?

Yin Ren couldn’t remember.

But he still… recalled something that should have been smaller and less worthy of mention than these…

The arm that was curled up in his chest trembled and stretched out. It gently probed in Zhong Chengshuo’s direction as it opened its clenched fist.

In the palm of the giant hand, something glowed with a soft light. Compared to the huge palm, it looked like a piece of crumb…

A pack of slightly deformed waterless cleansing wipes with a minty fragrance.

He didn’t know why, but he still remembered to keep them for him.

Zhong Chengshuo’s movements froze for a few seconds. He put his knee on the other hand and grabbed the pack of waterless cleansing wipes. The man’s breath turned; he should be looking at him again.

At the bottom of the vortex of fear, under the abyss of despair, there was a little senseless anxiety and curiosity.

Yin Ren wanted to see Zhong Chengshuo’s expression. I wonder if he likes mint or aloe vera?

In order to facilitate his action, he could only carry one pack.

Zhong Chengshuo didn’t use it right away.

The air was flowing as Zhong Chengshuo held it carefully in his arms. Then the man moved beside his hand for a moment, as if he was taking something out of his pocket.

“What a coincidence,” he said. “I also bought you a gift.”

Zhong Chengshuo put it in the palm of the giant hand.

In his chaotic thinking, Yin Ren desperately squeezed out more clarity and tried to explore what it was…

A pack of colorful chocolate chips printed with exaggerated smiley faces.

In the dim mist, it was quite dazzling.

[……]

The man’s movement was solemn, and he didn’t care about how absurd this scene looked.

[……You’re such a person……]

In that short moment, Yin Ren wanted to laugh.

Although he couldn’t find the corners of his mouth, or even his face, helplessness, pleasure, and tranquility poured into his heart. In an instant, colorful emotions overshadowed the darkness.

A bit of clarity had returned. Yin Ren didn’t give up on this opportunity. He tried his best to stay awake.

Restrain. Sort… Order.

The huge monster got up slightly. The wings under the red veil swished open, causing the seals around them to rattle without wind. All of Yin Ren’s fingers twitched frantically, except the one holding Zhong Chengshuo, which trembled with restraint.

To tame, to fuse… to dominate.

The light in the darkness became brighter, and the chaos and corruption gradually faded. The Evil Force in his body reluctantly bowed down, and the vicious cycle was completely broken.

The mist faded, and the red veil danced gently. The surrounding environment became clearer, and various perceptions gradually returned to place.

But Zhong Chengshuo seemed to be thinking about other things.

Seeing that Yin Ren didn’t withdraw his hand, after thinking for a few minutes, Zhong Chengshuo said, “I see. It’s not easy for you to open the packaging.”

[No such thing.]

Unfortunately, Zhong Chengshuo couldn’t hear what he was saying. The man climbed into Yin Ren’s hand, tore open the bag of chocolate chips, and poured out the colorful candy into the center of the palm.

The next moment, they fell deeply into the flesh of the palm, as if sinking into a swamp.

‘A sweet and bitter taste,’ Yin Ren thought. He liked it very much.

…He also liked the person who gave them to him.

In the bloody mist, hundreds of arms stopped trembling.

The hand clutched slowly, holding Zhong Chengshuo in the palm of his hand. Zhong Chengshuo leaned on Yin Ren’s finger. He could feel Zhong Chengshuo’s body didn’t tense up; his posture was relaxed even, as if he were resting.

The folded arm was like a cascade of petals, and the hand that was holding Zhong Chengshuo came closer to his chest….

Almost like a hug.

Out of control and wretched, but unprecedented peace and relief.

“Zhong Chengshuo…”

Under the red veil, a faint and distorted voice came from the outline of the head.

“We… um, we…”

“Let’s ‘give it a try’.”

Through the faint “red veil”, in Yin Ren’s distorted vision, he saw Zhong Chengshuo’s solemn face.

“Okay.”

Zhong Chengshuo put his hands at the root of Yin Ren’s thumb and replied seriously.

He then moved for a moment and pulled out a small notebook, pen and paper from the inner pocket of his suit.

“Then today is officially the first day of our relationship,” Zhong Chengshuo said happily as he jotted down a few words in the notebook.

“Yeah.” Yin Ren wanted to laugh again.

He stretched out his arms and gently placed Zhong Chengshuo on the ground.

The last bit of chaos was overshadowed by sobriety.

The red veil flew up and swirled in the mist. The wings gathered together, and the arms retracted. The huge figure shrank as if it were collapsing and contracting, and countless colors were sucked into a human-sized figure.

The Evil Spirit named “Yin Ren” didn’t succeed in descending into the world after all.

Yin Ren slowly fell to the ground, regaining his human appearance. The ruins collapsed, and the shadows of the mountains melted. The phantoms of his memory dissipated, and the surrounding area became the dark campus again.

It felt as if a lifetime had passed.

Yin Ren’s head was sore, and his limbs were slightly numb, but he was in a particularly comfortable mood…

After this battle, his control over his Evil Force had greatly improved, and he could now safely use about one-third of his power instead of pulling it out little by little.

And he harvested his first lover in a thousand years.

…Except for the long tunic he was wearing that failed to be restored, everything else was fine. Yin Ren silently wrapped himself in his hair.

Lord Ghost King’s size shrank too much, and the distance between him and Zhong Chengshuo had suddenly widened by a lot.

The sound of leather shoes stepping on the ground and tiles sounded as Zhong Chengshuo quickly walked over to Yin Ren.

He opened his arms slightly toward Yin Ren.

“What? You want me to fly you?” Yin Ren spoke a little jerkily.

“No,” Zhong Chengshuo said. “I want a hug.”

“Hug…”

Yin Ren brushed away the long hair in front of his face and hugged him somewhat carefully.

Through the thin layer of hair, he could feel Zhong Chengshuo’s warm body, and his heartbeat was fast and strong, with the tendency to gradually speed up. Just now, in the palm of his hand, Zhong Chengshuo looked so fragile, but holding him in his arms at this moment, he exuded a vitality that couldn’t be ignored.

In the dark consciousness, in the silent embrace, Yin Ren quietly turned his head and kissed the other’s blushing ear.

Zhong Chengshuo suddenly stiffened under his embrace, and his ears instantly turned red.

“You caught me.”

Yin Ren took advantage of the situation and grabbed the back of the other party’s suit, sighing in relief.

“Let’s go home, Zhong Chengshuo.”

“Nn.” Zhong Chengshuo buried his face into the crook of Yin Ren’s neck. “This report is going to be a bit troublesome…”

Yin Ren: “……”

Yin Ren: “…Don’t say that. I almost lost control again.”

Despair came so suddenly that his heart stopped for a moment.

……

Sure enough, the journey home for the two of them wasn’t going to be smooth.

Fifteen minutes later, the campus returned to the night scene—Yin Ren untied the red rope and used his Evil Force to wake up Guo Wei, who was unconscious.

The three of them sat in silence in the staff dormitory.

The four packs of waterless cleansing wipes were used by the two partners. Yin Ren had put on Zhong Chengshuo’s pajamas. Sure enough, the pajamas quickly turned into a black tunic.

Right now, the two were sitting on the edge of the same bed. Yin Ren was carefully wiping the mud off of Zhong Chengshuo’s face.

That was the last trace of Kong Wanqing left in the world, and it must be completely destroyed.

“Kong Wanqing directly looked at my body and exploded.” Yin Ren swallowed and confirmed in a low voice.

“Yes.” It was about 5 in the morning. Zhong Chengshuo yawned.

“It’s possible Minister Fu is setting up an exit outside and we’ll bump into it when we go out.”

“I see…”

“If you guys want to go out, I can send you out in a while.” Guo Wei had changed from his previously sinister look. He was looking at the ground awkwardly. “I didn’t know that Mr. Kong was a bad guy, sorry. I caused so much trouble for everyone…”

“It’s okay, classmate. You must not open the campus completely.” Yin Ren rubbed his head painfully. “We have to think of an excuse first. Zhong Ge, ahem, Chengshuo, do you have any ideas?”

Unfortunately, at just this time, Zhong Chengshuo had already fallen asleep at the head of the bed.

Yin Ren: “!!!”

Yin Ren: “……”

Lord Ghost King sighed for a few seconds, then he turned to the nightcap in the suitcase and gently snapped it on his boyfriend.

‘Forget it,’ he thought.

“’The situation is too complicated. It’s best not to lie and just distort the details’… right?” Yin Ren rubbed the tips of Zhong Chengshuo’s hair with his fingertips, imitating the other party’s tone. “Classmate Guo, help me out and close the campus for a little longer.”

Then Yin Ren returned to the suitcase and pulled out a spare headset and wristband.

“Hello, Special Investigation Unit 9. Xiaohe Jie, can you hear me?”

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The author has something to say:

Out of control refers to physically out of control (……

Xiao Yin, don’t rush to wear the wristband. Xiao Yin, your Lu Jie hasn’t prepared her heart-attack medicine…

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Kinky Thoughts:

Ah, I love this chapter. As always, Nian Zhong writes beautifully when it comes to awakening the feelings of her characters. Love it in Stray and Happy Doomsday, and now this.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 77: Meeting

Kong Wanqing wasn’t in a good mood.

After cooperating with Guo Wei, he planned to sit back and watch the tigers fight*. In the past few days, Kong Wanqing had been hiding in the “radio station” constructed by Guo Wei, observing the two peace talks.

*(坐山观虎斗) Idiom referring to a third party benefiting from two other parties’ conflict and struggle.

It shouldn’t be like this.

Wasn’t Yin Ren an evil being? This guy’s behavior was thousands of miles away from that of an evil being. He even wanted to save a dead guy.

Wasn’t Zhong Chengshuo an ordinary person? How could an ordinary person be this indifferent to such a place, and nothing happened after he lost his memories.

The risk posed by these two people was too high. He couldn’t see through either of them, so there was no point in peace talks. It was more like he was sent to test them.

Kong Wanqing wanted to stimulate the evil thing first, then come up with a scenario where the evil thing went crazy and killed his teammates. Unexpectedly, the evil thing reacted extremely quickly, and the other three were pushed to the school gate…

That was where the fluctuation of spells was the strongest.

“Idiot.” Kong Wanqing spat out pus and blood as the red rope shot out.

They formed cobwebs in the dark, trying to stop the three of them. A cluster of blade-like black hair pierced out from Zhong Chengshuo’s chest and shattered the red net into several large pieces.

Then they trembled and retracted in Yin Ren’s direction.

At the same time, a burning door frame appeared at the school gate. In the dim light of the fire, Zhong Chengshuo rushed towards the door, one arm holding Ge Tingting and the other holding Huang Jin.

How?

Kong Wanqing gritted his teeth. His mouth was full of sweet pus and blood.

Ordinary evil things couldn’t easily destroy a corruption source of an Evil Force.

Shadows flickered around. The evil thing “worst memory” was slowly appearing. An unspeakable sense of oppression spread, causing Kong Wanqing to feel as if his back was constantly being scraped by the blade of a knife.

Almost instantly, the red rope was ejected, pushing Kong Wanqing nearly a hundred meters away.

The temperature sharply dropped, and the darkness dissipated into a turbid mist. The real campus was covered by a wide illusion, and in the mist, the illusion quickly extended into the distance.

Green and red lights swayed in the thick fog. The lights were gloomy, and the green mixed with white was like the junction of Yin and Yang. In the distance, there were distorted mountain cliffs with wet and rotten mud at the bottom. Low and dilapidated houses loomed in the mist.

Those architectural styles were very old, holding green and red lanterns that sat windless under the eaves.

Every door and window were closed. Carrion corpses leaned against the remains of the earthen wall, and the air was filled with the smell of corruption and burning. There were piles of rotting food debris in front of every house, and the vague sound of songs reverberated throughout the illusion.

[When the red light is on and the green light is burning, every household close their door.]

[Speak carefully with your back to the door for three more days, when the fruits and melons ripen.]

[Pray for tranquility, wish for good fortune, and shut your eyes so you can’t see.]

[The rooster sings, with footsteps far away, come back next year and report in peace.]

The tune of the ballad was sharp and weird, causing Kong Wanqing’s scalp to explode as the mist rushed all over the ground. As a veteran ghost master, he had an instinctive intuition about the level of danger from evil things.

Something was wrong.

Swish.

A soft scraping sound came from the center of the village… which was exactly where Yin Ren was.

The scene in front of him was calm, and the sound was also very peaceful, but the abyss-like fear bit Kong Wanqing fiercely. His internal organs seemed to be grounded by icy fangs.

Swish.

The sound spread around the village, as soft as the tide… Perhaps he was going crazy. Kong Wanqing felt that “Yin Ren” had become huge.

The poisonous panic penetrated deep into his brain, twisting his thoughts into pieces that he couldn’t even maintain his flying skills.

What exactly is Yin Ren?!

Kong Wanqing gritted his teeth and ran towards the exit created by Shian.

Swish.

The soft noise kept going as fear pierced him from head to toe. Kong Wanqing stiffened his neck and didn’t dare to look back.

It was too late to create an escape array. He would rather face Shian head-on than stay in this hellhole.

Must leave. He must leave.

The thick fog in front of Kong Wanqing kept rolling. The mud road stretched into a maze. The tinkling of small bells kept ringing, and across from him, something was stumbling in the middle of the road, its shadow shaking stiffly in the fog.

He immediately held his breath and instinctively stood against the wall, but the thing didn’t let him go—it stopped abruptly in front of Kong Wanqing and turned around slowly.

Kong Wanqing was numb in place. Cold sweat drenched his back in an instant.

This was just a phantom of a memory of that evil thing, but it had a terrifying aura. Just getting close, Kong Wanqing’s heart almost exploded with unprecedented fear…

In front of him was a three-meter-high, blood-red mass.

That thing was covered with a red cloth and yellow talismans of different shades. They were full of sealing techniques, and there were spots of old blood all over them. The black jade pieces engraved with mantras collided with each other, and there was a bone chain that circled around the red cloth, covered with black and red stains.

It looked like a deformed chrysalis.

At the bottom of the layers of seals, a pair of human feet were exposed on the edge of the dilapidated red cloth. The feet were pale and beautiful, with warning bells tied around their ankles, ringing with each faltering movement.

It stopped in front of Kong Wanqing for a while, tilting its body slightly. Kong Wanqing trembled and closed his eyes…

“Bang!”

The thing tilted forward and slammed into the wooden door next to Kong Wanqing. The wooden door swayed three times, and the green light in front of the door trembled frantically.

This is an illusion. Just an illusion. Kong Wanqing kept repeating himself.

Swish. The sound of the mist gradually became clear, and the soft tone was accompanied by a chill that could freeze one’s heart.

Kong Wanqing scrambled away, almost losing the red rope in his hand, but he didn’t go far when he encountered a strange thing…

Behind the “human chrysalis”, there were several monsters in the shape of children. They were dressed up as men and women, wearing the hoods of big-headed dolls, and bouncing around the houses. The dolls were crudely made, with chapped surfaces and stains with suspicious dark blotches.

There was a clear sound of breathing and laughter coming from their hoods.

“Bang!” The human chrysalis finished banging on the door and went to bang on the next house.

Swish, swish, swish.

The breath of “Yin Ren” slowly approached. Kong Wanqing’s limbs were as heavy as a corpse. There seemed to be countless invisible hands scratching and tearing at his back.

The fog was faintly bloody. Kong Wanqing squeezed the red rope in despair. He forcibly moved his legs and continued to flee towards the edge of the illusion.

The human bones condensed into tall and short beasts, with the tops of thin limbs and empty eye sockets forming a string; their non-existent line of sight rained down like a shower. The grotesque ghosts lined up silently in a line, all of them lowering their heads as they followed behind the chrysalis.

Kong Wanqing ran desperately.

He bucked through huge arrays of evil creatures, roughly piercing through one phantom after another.

Half-human-tall, mummified corpses kicked and stomped, with beautiful eyes on the edge of the vine. The dark lights fluttered in the air, and the snow-white banners were spotless, staggering one by one in front of the fugitives. The bag-like beast turned its only eyes, reflecting Kong Wanqing’s wretched escape in its pupil.

Swish, swish.

Behind him, the weird voice was still spreading. There was a steady stream of phantoms from the evil team that continued to flow. The stench of corpses in the air was thick as soup, and that damn song echoed continuously.

Kong Wanqing lost his shoes while running. As he stepped into the mud with both feet, his eye bulged and his mind shattered.

Must… escape…

……

On the other side of the “artificial gap”, Fu Xingchuan’s expression was solemn.

He guarded in front of the “door”; his hands moving constantly as one after another protective array lit up, firmly protecting the artificial gap.

The ghost fetus had drastically changed again.

It was different from the previous home-like campus elements. It seemed to be contaminated by something, and the surface became flat and opaque. It no longer twitched but fell into an ominous, dead silence.

The blood vessel-like filaments on the surface of the ghost fetus skyrocketed, turning into black, fleshy pillars the size of tree trunks. Tens of millions of meat pillars poured into the vortex in the middle of the sky, causing the speed of the vortex to suddenly accelerate.

The “campus tumor”, which originally covered a small area, greatly expanded and spread in all directions. Fu Xingchuan had to adjust the position of the “artificial gap” at any time.

The voice of Guo Laifu’s consciousness almost disappeared, and there was only a slowly growing black hemisphere on the street. It gradually ate away at the neighborhood, like a slow-motion explosion. Dense evil qi overflowed from the surface of the black ball, and the terrifying pressure made it difficult to breathe.

Fu Xingchuan’s fire cage spell was shattered in an instant. Among the embers floating around, none of the monsters outside the cage rushed forward.

They froze in place like sculptures, motionless.

“Someone’s breath. Prepare!” Bao Linlin yelled.

Wang Zhou leaned into the artificial gap and caught a thin little girl’s wrist. The person on the other side was supporting her body as Wang Zhou pulled Ge Tingting out, then he grabbed Huang Jin’s arm with his other hand.

Huang Jin was much heavier than Ge Tingting, so Bao Linlin came to help. A rescue spirit weapon unfolded a protective barrier around the two people from Unit 9, quickly protecting them.

“Quick!” Wang Zhou was sweating all over as he poked his hands into the “door”. “Something’s not right. We have to get out quickly!”

But this time, he caught nothing.

Zhong Chengshuo’s head and shoulders protrude from the artificial gap, and his pair of eyes looked at Fu Xingchuan.

“The transfer of the injured has been completed. I’ll go back first.” Zhong Chengshuo spoke as if he was making a report.

What the hell are you going back to? Paradise? Wang Zhou almost choked. Bao Linlin frowned. She was about to say something but was stopped by Fu Xingchuan’s gesture.

“My partner is still in there,” Zhong Chengshuo said calmly.

“The situation is unknown. Shian won’t go in to rescue.”

Fu Xingchuan’s tone was stern, sounding like Professor Li.

“The artificial gap can only last for a few more minutes, and we need six more hours to complete the next one. In addition, the situation here is unstable. We may have to abandon you to evacuate at any time—do you understand the risk?”

“I understand.”

Zhong Chengshuo raised his eyes. “I won’t do things I’m not sure about.”

He didn’t wait for everyone’s reaction. As soon as his voice fell, Zhong Chengshuo plunged back into the darkness.

On the other side of the darkness, he was greeted by weird, thick fog and dim illusions. Zhong Chengshuo walked on the muddy road; his suit looked completely out of place in the ancient village.

…Was this Yin Ren’s “worst memory”?

A song with strange accents lingered in his ears, and green and red lights were stained in the mist. The terrifying sense of oppression was strong, but Zhong Chengshuo seemed to be unaware. He crossed the broken walls and ruins, passed the spoiled cold food and corpses, and headed all the way in the direction where the fog was thickest.

In terms of location, this was the center of the village where Yin Ren was originally located.

Gradually, shaking shadows began to appear in the mist. Zhong Chengshuo took a closer look. He saw a wretched man rushing towards him like a boar…

Kong Wanqing lost control and was running madly. His pants were full of dark water stains. The red rope that was wrapped around his wrist was dragging Guo Wei, who was floating at the end of the red rope, like a humanoid balloon.

“Get lost!”

The corners of Kong Wanqing’s mouth were overflowing with pus and blood. His eyes were bloodshot as they trembled in their sockets.

“Let me out—!” He rushed over desperately.

“No.” Zhong Chengshuo stated. “You know too much, and your memories need to be wiped.” Here and now, only Yin Ren could modify his memories.

The muddy, narrow road was tightly blocked by Zhong Chengshuo.

“You have to come with me to see Yin Ren,” Zhong Chengshuo said solemnly.

“You’re fucking crazy!” Kong Wanqing roared.

He braked sharply not far from Zhong Chengshuo. Before he could fully stop, he grabbed the void with his hand. At the end of the red rope, Guo Wei twitched in pain. At the same time, the red rope quickly entangled Kong Wanqing’s hands, turning roughly into a red gun.

So what about being immune to spells?

The Archive was a special situation. Guo Wei was the master of this consciousness, so he could influence Zhong Chengshuo. He only had to borrow some of his power.

Worry, hatred, fear… As long as negative emotions were magnified tens of millions of times, no matter how rational a person was, he would go crazy. This was the ability given to him by the Evil Force!

Kong Wanqing pulled the trigger.

A rope-knot bullet hit Zhong Chengshuo’s brow, causing him to lean his head back. However, under Kong Wanqing’s expectant gaze, the man slowly turned back and rubbed his forehead with a calm expression.

“That hurts a bit,” Zhong Chengshuo said sincerely as he took a step forward.

Kong Wanqing stumbled back a few steps, and behind him, the terrible “swish” sound came faintly.

Can’t go back.

Kong Wanqing shook his head vigorously. He concentrated his strength, and more than a dozen knotted bullets were shot at Zhong Chengshuo. Under the corruption of the Evil Force, his seven orifices gushed out pus and blood.

However, Zhong Chengshuo didn’t stop.

The man took off his suit jacket and instantly covered his relatively fragile features. In the next instant, the black fabric swayed, and all the dark red knotted bullets scattered all over the ground.

In front of him was the abnormal and appalling science post. Behind him was a weird, soft sound soaked in ice. His body was overdrawn and mixed with fear. Silver stars appeared in succession in Kong Wanqing’s vision.

…Absolutely can’t go back!

At this moment, the bell penetrated the thick fog, jingling, and the faint singing of song and footsteps on the mud sounded. The mighty procession of evil things kept passing through the memory illusion.

They’re coming.

This time, the queue of evil things came from behind Kong Wanqing. They bypassed the two people in the middle of the road, and their weird limbs stuck out of the fog, falling beside them from time to time. The cloth strips of the streamers brushed the tops of their two heads, and floating lights reflected the surroundings with a ghostly aura.

The cold air circled endlessly, distracting Zhong Chengshuo for a moment.

A chance!

Negative emotions were magnified and matched with “the worst memory that could materialize”. Guo Wei’s convulsions almost formed an afterimage as Kong Wanqing vomited a large amount of blood as he fired dozens of shots at Zhong Chengshuo’s chest.

In a trance, he had the illusion he was shooting out all his life. This time, the two of them were close to each other, so Kong Wanqing didn’t waste a single bullet.

But unlike the time with Yin Ren, Kong Wanqing wasn’t able to manifest any memories.

This person… Doesn’t have any negative emotions and not even a single bad memory?!

Zhong Chengshuo turned his gaze back and took the last step…

With a flash, he spun in front of Kong Wanqing and punched him in the stomach. Before Kong Wanqing could recover, his back slammed into the mud and he slid a few steps away.

Zhong Chengshuo’s blow was extremely heavy, causing Kong Wanqing to spew out a large pool of pus and blood, nearly unable to breathe. As soon as he was about to raise his gun, a foot wearing leather shoes stepped down steadily. Kong Wanqing’s right wrist made a muffled sound.

The red rope was scattered in a mess, and he immediately let out a scream.

However, this wasn’t enough.

Zhong Chengshuo ignored Kong Wanqing’s collapse and picked him up. He decisively dislocated his joints in a series of frighteningly skilled movements.

Tears and pain filled Kong Wanqing’s eyes. As he struggled, he tried to connect the red rope to Zhong Chengshuo’s body. Who would have thought the man would casually grab the source of corruption directly with his hand?

“It’s pretty strong.”

Discovering that this person planned to tie him up with the source of corruption, Kong Wanqing almost collapsed.

“That evil thing is out of control. You don’t understand. We’re seeking death if we go… You don’t understand…” The soft sound got closer to them. Kong Wanqing endured the severe pain of his dislocated joints and retreated like a worm in mud.

Zhong Chengshuo hummed perfunctorily, dragged Kong Wanqing back, and tied up his limbs.

After making sure that person was tied up, he dragged Kong Wanqing like a suitcase and continued to the center of the thick fog.

“I’ll negotiate with you! I was a bit rough just now. I was wrong… Zhong Chengshuo, stop! I’m your cousin!”

In the wet and cold mud, Kong Wanqing twisted his body desperately. “I’m your cousin! Your uncle is the manager of the Haigu Sunken Society… You… ack.”

Zhong Chengshuo’s footstep stopped.

Kong Wanqing raised his head expectantly but didn’t find even the slightest shock on the other’s face.

“I know. So what?” Zhong Chengshuo asked curiously.

“You… In the end…”

Seeing that the other party didn’t give an answer, Zhong Chengshuo lost interest. He turned around and continued dragging Kong Wanqing like a corpse.

They passed through the ranks of countless evil beings, through deformed bodies and limbs, and through tall and short evocation banners.

Zhong Chengshuo’s steps weren’t slow, without the slightest hesitation or evasion. His hard leather shoes stepped on the rotten mud, emitting a blood-like sticky gurgling sound.

Kong Wanqing refused to give up the struggle. After a moment of silence, Zhong Chengshuo took the initiative to speak.

“Kong Wanqing, second son of Kong Yao. A ghost master of Sunken Society, mainly acting as support, carrying out activities across the country, directly or indirectly leading to the death of 216 people.”

He was speaking as if they were having a chat.

“You have hurt countless people. Why are you so scared when it’s your turn?”

“Isn’t this, ack, bullshit?”

“In other words, you understand the fears of others but decide to ignore them.” Zhong Chengshuo concluded. “…How common.”

Kong Wanqing: “……”

Perhaps they all underestimated this person, he thought in a daze. Kong Wanqing had come into contact with many lunatics, but this cousin of his particularly creeped him out.

Swish.

The strange sound was close at hand. In the middle of the chaotic village, at the end of the procession of evil things, a huge silhouette faintly appeared in the thick fog.

Zhong Chengshuo still moved forward without any hesitation in his steps.

“No, no!!!” The sense of chaotic oppression almost pulverized him. Kong Wanqing screamed uncontrollably. “Please, don’t…”

Zhong Chengshuo stopped again.

Kong Wanqing gasped frantically and instinctively raised his face…

The moment he saw what was in front of him, his pupils suddenly dilated.

“Pop.”

With a very light sound, Zhong Chengshuo felt the rope around his hand loosen, and something splashed on his cheek.

He turned his head suspiciously and saw only bloody clothes.

Kong Wanqing’s clothes were scattered among the red rope and covered with a light red thick liquid. Looking closely, it looked like meat sauce that was so delicate it was almost liquid. They flooded into the mud, leaving no bones or hair behind.

Like a punctured water balloon, Kong Wanqing exploded on the ground.

Zhong Chengshuo: “…Ah.”

He turned around and raised his head.

“The reaction is more serious than looking directly at an Evil Spirit.”

In those dark eyes, the figure of a behemoth was reflected.

“I’m here to pick you up, Yin Ren.”

---

The author has something to say:

Big cousin, take a lunchbox*, goodbye.jpg

*Reference to when an actor makes their exit (after their death scene is filmed), they’re given a lunchbox as a goodbye from the set and crew.

Xiao Zhong: Ah, my cousin exploded.

Xiao Zhong: But I finally know why my partner doesn’t get fat after eating so much (×

Xiao Yin: Sobs—

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 76: Out of Control

Lei Xiurong was the first person to call the police in Guo Laifu’s serial murder case.

Six months ago.

Lei Xiurong didn’t wait for Guo Wei’s call. After the child transferred to the new school, she never heard back. A month passed, and she couldn’t help but find the contact information for his new school.

“The transfer procedures have been completed, but that person has never come, so he’ll be automatically dropped from school,” the school staff said.

“Sorry, the phone number you have dialed has been disconnected. Please try again later…” She had never been able to get through to the number left by Guo Laifu.

“Isn’t that Guo Laifu doing business? Maybe he’s letting the child follow to help.”

Facing Lei Xiurong’s reaction, the principal of No. 16 High School didn’t take it seriously. Their school wasn’t very good in the first place, so there were always students who would drop out for various reasons.

“The class you’re leading is about to enter their senior year. Don’t be distracted. You’re going on like this endlessly. If other people’s children are fine, you’re going to get sued for harassment, okay?”

Lei Xiurong pursed her lips and spat out, “I want to call the police.”

“Hey, don’t. Teacher Lei, you’re overreacting. He is his legal guardian.”

“I want to call the police,” she repeated. “I know that kid Guo Wei. He wouldn’t give up studying. Something must have happened to him.”

“After nine years of compulsory education, who cares? Even if he dropped out of school, Mr. Guo didn’t do anything harmful…”

“We can talk about it after we find him. His father has a criminal record, so it’s not a good thing.” Lei Xiurong raised her brows and was as aggressive as ever. “If this matter has no results, I will not let it go.”

“If it’s true that Guo Wei doesn’t want to continue schooling, I want to hear that from him, personally.”

Without the support of the school, Lei Xiurong went to the police station by herself.

……

The police found Guo Wei in a suitcase.

The boy’s body was mutilated beyond human form. Mixed with his backpack and luggage, it sank at the bottom of the most remote reservoir on the Qingjiang River. Along with Guo Wei, there were four suitcases of the same style, filled with mangled corpses.

The case was so horrifying that it shocked the entire country. The media, large and small, picked up wind and online platforms were filled with various reports. There was no airtight wall in the world. Class 2 and 3… Or rather, Class 3 in the high school quickly learned the truth.

Lei Xiurong said nothing.

Just like in the past, under the name of the “Old Witch”, she walked to the podium with her head held high to give her lecture, shaking the students’ test papers while cursing. When it was time to get off work, she would rush home aggressively, as usual.

This night, like always, Lei Xiurong swallowed some sleeping pills.

This had become her new habit over the last six months.

After the incident, she would occasionally get hallucinations. It was supposed to be a dark night outside the window, but she could always see the sunset on that day. On the day Guo Wei left, the rosy glow was like blood, lingering in her dreams.

What a bright color, but it could only awaken her pain and self-blame.

But tonight was different. She had a strange dream.

She dreamed that she was standing on the roof of the main teaching building. In addition to her, there were four students in the class. Like an ordinary nightmare, the scenery around the teaching building was chaotic and distorted.

“Everyone, come here!” Before Lei Xiurong could take a closer look, she instinctively called out to the students. “Come here!”

Several students clustered together in a daze.

Floating in front of them was a figure of a long-haired man. The man turned his head; his face was blurred, and his eyes were red like coals.

“Everyone is here. Thank you, Xiaohe Jie,” Yin Ren said.

“You’re welcome,” Lu Xiaohe responded weakly. “Promise me, don’t screw it up.”

“They’re good at stabilizing Guo Wei. This is my judgment as the rear commander.”

Five familiar figures appeared on the rooftop. The chaotic vortex froze, and the crazy attacks stopped.

Guo Laifu’s face disintegrated into the dark clouds, and the carnival of phantoms was hidden in the shadows. The giant knives that kept going up and down disappeared out of thin air, and all the entrails all over the ground turned gray and the bloody school uniform ropes loosened.

Outside the main teaching building, all abnormalities suddenly became harmless. Just now, the raging animosity and malice faded away and were hurriedly hidden.

Inside the projection screen, Guo Wei covered his face almost instantly.

He lowered his head deeply, and the bone-deep wound on his hand quickly closed. However, his blood-stained school badge was exposed and could be clearly seen at a glance.

“Guo Wei?” Li Xiaoya was the first to react and was shocked immediately.

“Yeah, just say what you want.” Unlike usual, Yin Ren’s voice was extremely gentle. “He can hear everything you say here.”

Li Xiaoya nodded in a daze.

Unlike in Guo Wei’s memories, the girl had cut off her long hair, and her face had lost its carefree innocence. It became a bit more bitter and mature.

“It turns out it’s not a nightmare,” she said.

Disregarding Lei Xiurong’s attempts to stop her, she ran to the edge of the rooftop.

“Da Guo!” Li Xiaoya raised her voice. “We’re in our senior year of high school! Did you know?”

There was crying in her voice.

“…That pen is for you. Don’t worry about returning it. Do you hear me?”

“I’ll do good and pass the exam. I’ll buy gifts for everyone, so you should accept them in advance!”

Guo Wei didn’t make a sound. He firmly blocked his face as the deep wounds on his chest and abdomen disappeared.

He didn’t want her to see this.

“Our brother is different.”

A tall and thin boy followed in Li Xiaoya’s footsteps and walked to the rooftop.

Guo Wei’s roommate’s eyes were flushed, but he held back his tears with a deliberate smile on his face.

“Ya Jie turned grief and anger into motivation. We’ve all gone through psychological counseling as a group.”

“Lao Si, why are you covering your face? Are you giving us the cold shoulder?”

“Just you wait. When the time comes, we’ll burn the college entrance exam papers for you! We can’t just suffer—”

“We found a shop outside that can print out the photos. We’ll burn that for you as well.”

The three boys gathered not far from Li Xiaoya. Their eyes were red as they were laughing and chattering.

The ghostly presence gradually faded away, and the internal organs and blades on the campus disappeared. The blood-stained school uniforms fell to the ground as countless twisted phantoms stood silently, their heads turning towards the direction of the main teaching building.

Small alien monsters started being repelled and were suspended in the air.

The wound on the back of Guo Wei’s hand slowly closed as he put it down. He revealed a blue, intact face. The bloodstains on his body were gradually fading.

He wanted to see them.

Those eyes showed turbidity from corruption, but the tears were no longer pus and blood. Guo Wei grabbed the red rope on one side of his temple and tremblingly pulled it out.

The Evil Force in the red rope corroded his hands, but Guo Wei still pulled hard, trying to make himself look more normal.

The desire to be born a ghost, the bitter hatred for his biological father—they were like extra-curricular books in a bucket that he carefully pushed into the darkness.

Guo Wei’s gaze turned to Lei Xiurong with a vague apology and expectation in his gaze.

He still wanted to hear her speak.

Lei Xiurong was extraordinarily strict with them and stubborn. Her voice was sharp, and she spoke fast, with a natural sense of acrimony. Once she scolded someone, she could talk endlessly without taking a single breath.

Half a year later, what would she say?

However, there was only silence that answered him.

Lei Xiurong wasn’t like her students. At this moment, she wasn’t pretending to be okay. The middle-aged teacher walked step by step to the edge of the rooftop. Her usually well-tended curly hair was a mess, and the wrinkles in the corner of her eyes were much deeper than he remembered.

Time passed minute by minute.

Lei Xiurong stared at Guo Wei. She was expressionless, but her face gradually wetted with tears. The first time the students saw their head teacher like this, they stood awkwardly looking at each other.

After a few minutes, Lei Xiurong finally spoke.

“Good boy,” she said. “Don’t be so bitter in your next life.”

On the projection screen, Guo Wei was silent for a long time.

After a while, he raised his head completely and directly looked at the five people on the rooftop, showing a faint, unskilled smile.

“Okay,” Guo Wei replied to her.

He clenched his fists and made a sudden effort, pulling the red rope full of Evil Force out of his head.

……

Outside the campus, it was 1:45 a.m.

In Guo Laifu’s consciousness, the nearby neighborhood was in a mess. The buildings staggered, and there were no pedestrians left on the street. A high-rise building broke in the middle, and the ruins were scattered everywhere. The entire scene was like a disaster movie set.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen this thing. It’s so big.”

Fu Xingchuan stood on the orange cone monster and lit a cigarette, as if he were evaluating the seafood at a supermarket.

He was wearing a long red tunic like a wedding outfit, with a single red tassel earring wobbling on one side. The dark circles under his eyes were frighteningly heavy, but there were no signs of fatigue.

The cone monster fell sideways on the street. Its entire body was scarred and unconscious, with holes protruding from all its eyes. Around it, tall humanoid monsters twitched on the ground while small monsters crawled aimlessly. They were gathered in a haphazard heap, obviously beaten to a pulp.

The “Ghost General” was a title for higher-class ghost masters and corpse servants. Their abilities were completely suppressed here.

However, it seemed this didn’t apply to Minister Fu.

The space outside the school was still “night”. Around the small campus, orange-red spells soared into the sky, intertwining into a protective net like a raging fire. More monsters were blocked outside the protective net. They bared their teeth and claws to get closer, but they were still unable to break through Fu Xingchuan’s defenses.

“It’s almost cleaned up now. Wang Zhou, Bao Linlin, what’s the status of the ‘artificial gap’?”

Fu Xingchuan patted the dirt off his sleeves and blew out a smoke ring. The white smoke didn’t spread, but turned into tiny chains, wandering near the cracks in the ghost fetus.

Next to the deformed school gate, the smoke gathered together.

Not far from the school gate, there was a “door” composed purely of runes hanging in the air. The flame-like runes flowed continuously along the door frame, and behind it was abyss-like darkness.

The “artificial gap” of Shian.

While Unit 9 destroyed the core memory the ghost fetus would become unstable, which could open up two spaces as a temporary exit.

Bao Linlin was squatting by the door, confirming the location of the spirit weapons, one by one.

“Reporting. All interference has been eliminated.” Bao Linlin’s voice was crisp. “The ghost-binding spirit weapon is in normal condition. Unit 6 is on standby by Guo Laifu. No matter where the ghost is born into the world, we can deal with it.”

“Nn.” Fu Xingchuan’s face didn’t relax. “Xiao Zhao told you, right? There are signs of Evil Force in there. Saving people takes priority over catching ghosts. Don’t get attached to the battle.”

“Yes!” “Understood!”

With the brilliance of the magic fire cage, Fu Xingchuan added a series of protection spells near the door frame. Seeing that the runes on the door frame were running more smoothly, he took a few steps back and looked up and down at the “ghost fetus” in front of him.

“Just now, its appearance changed again.” Wang Zhou, the science post, was busy sketching, writing down a series of numbers from time to time. “This thing doesn’t look very good.”

He stopped his pen and flipped through the album schematically.

The first one was at 7:30 yesterday morning. When they discovered it, it was just a “tumor” protruding from the street.

The tenth one was around 4:00 yesterday afternoon. It became more distorted, and countless “filaments” that looked like nerves and blood vessels grew on the surface.

Wang Zhou quickly turned back dozens of pages. The pages alternated quickly, and the picture seemed to move.

He didn’t know how many sheets he had flipped through, but just ten minutes ago, the ghost fetus in the sketch was exactly the same as the one in front of them.

Tens of millions of filaments stood upright, leaned into the sky, and stretched into the deepest part of the huge vortex. They suddenly deflated from time to time, quickly absorbing something. At the same time, the entire ghost fetus pulsated weakly, like an ominous heartbeat.

Even if Wang Zhou was a science post, he could still see that…

Something was about to be born.

It wasn’t that Wang Zhou hadn’t ever been into the Archive before; after all, he had to put on women’s clothing and play out a palace drama resulting in a broken leg. Compared to the outrageous encounter that Unit 9 stumbled upon, Unit 7’s trip to the Archive was like a vacation.

“Minister Fu, is it really all right?” Sweat gathered around Wang Zhou’s forehead.

“It’s okay. Put away your sketchbook. It’s almost time.”

Fu Xingchuan glanced at the time. There were still two minutes left before 2:00 a.m.

Bao Linlin stood at the activation point of the spirit weapon, while Wang Zhou put on protective clothing and waited obediently by the door. Shian’s number one Ghost General cracked his neck and knuckles and was about to move forward—

When the pulsation suddenly stopped.

Without warning, tens of millions of filaments quickly withered. The “tumor” full of campus elements slowly unfolded, revealing square corners, like a flower first blooming.

Not far away, the “door” prepared by Shian was functioning normally, and there was no sign of rejection. Bao Linlin and Wang Zhou exchanged glances before the two turned to Fu Xingchuan in unison.

Before they could exert their strength, the thing had wilted by itself. Could it be that Unit 7’s long overdue good luck has finally surfaced after all their time accumulating bad luck?

“What did Unit 9 do?” Fu Xingchuan connected to Lu Xiaohe.

“Yin Ren recruited five people to ‘dream’ in order to stabilize Guo Wei’s emotions,” Luo Xiaohe slowly reported.

“The effect is too good to be true.” Fu Xingchuan rubbed his forehead and switched communication partners. “The plan remains the same. Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo, commence the countdown. Prepare to destroy the core memory all at once. There are probably people from Sunken Society in it. Don’t dawdle…”

Sss.

Before he could wait for a response from the two people in Unit 9, the signal was suddenly interrupted. It wasn’t cut off because of shielding or turned off, but the signal just suddenly disappeared.

“Unit 9, come in!”

“The channel is fluctuating abnormally. Something’s wrong!” Lu Xiaohe’s report came almost simultaneously.

Boom boom.

The ghost fetus twitched violently, with greater force than before. The original withered filaments surged quickly, and an abnormal silence spread along the block.

Wang Zhou gulped. “Minister F…”

“Forcibly open the door!” Fu Xingchuan sharply shouted.

……

Fifteen minutes ago.

Considering the complexity of the situation, Yin Ren didn’t let the ordinary people stay for too long.

After a simple exchange, the figures of the teacher and students on the rooftop gradually faded. Guo Wei said goodbye to the most important people in his life through the projection screen.

“Goodbye.” His tone was extremely solemn, and his eyes remained reluctant to leave the ground.

When the five figures disappeared completely, Guo Wei raised his hand. The memories that Ge Tingting and Zhong Chengshuo had lost turned into light spots and drilled back into their bodies.

After that, he clenched the red rope in his hand and turned his gaze to Yin Ren.

For the first time, Yin Ren saw a clear expectation in those eyes. After watching for a moment, Guo Wei seemed to come to a determination. He turned around and handed the red rope to the edge of the projection screen.

“Mr. Kong,” Guo Wei said softly. “I don’t need you to help me increase my hatred.”

“I want to suspend our transaction. I want to talk to these people first…”

Halfway through speaking, the red rope in his hand suddenly moved like a snake. It rushed to Guo Wei’s temple again and then coiled frantically, wrapping Guo Wei’s head tightly.

In just an instant, Guo Wei didn’t even have time to raise his hand to stop him.

The projection screen split into several pieces in an instant, and the illusory radio station was destroyed.

Like egg whites leaking out of an eggshell, a gloomy man with a straight face “dripped” from the projection screen. A circle of red rope was wrapped around his right wrist. Without the cover of the master’s will, the Evil Force on the red rope spread quickly, and it was so sharp that it was hard to ignore.

At the other end of the red rope, Guo Wei’s head was completely entangled in the red rope. His head was down and his feet were up, looking like a poor-quality balloon floating in mid-air.

The boy’ hands and feet were stiff against his torso, and there was no response.

“Turn off the lights,” the man said with a smile. There were traces of blood and pus coming from all his orifices.

In the next instant, the entire campus sank into dull darkness.

Before the man’s voice fell, Yin Ren had already rushed out. He stretched out his wings again, firmly protecting Zhong Chengshuo and the two cocoons by his side. A protective spell wrapped around the four of them, layer by layer…

Sure enough, in the next instant, dozens of small objects collided against him.

It was a bullet tied in a knot.

These knots carried Evil Force and were so aggressive that even the protective spell couldn’t stop them.

It shouldn’t be a problem when the Evil Force from the outside world entered his body. His Evil Force would devour these “foreign forces” on its own, but it would cause a small imbalance for a moment.

At this moment, Yin Ren felt as if a hammer had struck his head.

The out-of-control dizziness didn’t disappear as before.

The Evil Force in Yin Ren’s body seemed to have been awakened and was violently colliding with the power he used to suppress it; they were boiling, and the difficulty of controlling it was a thousand times higher than before. The vicious dog at the end of the leash became a crazy elephant.

The balance was crumbling.

[It’s different here. Don’t use your power so casually.] Dog Thing once warned him.

He was already very careful, but…

At the same time, anger, sadness, worry, and the fear of losing control magnified exponentially, causing something to drill uncontrollably out of his heart. Coupled with the relentless assault from the Evil Force, Yin Ren’s consciousness was about to be torn apart.

Can’t lose control. Can’t lose control. Fu Xingchuan and the others were nearby, and Guo Wei was here. The members of Unit 9 were here. His partner… Zhong Chengshuo, was here…

Zhong Chengshuo was still here. He at least couldn’t—no, absolutely couldn’t—in front of Zhong Chengshuo.

Yin Ren twitched and tightened his wings, panting for breath.

“How does it taste? Outside, my emotional ‘resonance’ is no better than ‘Charon’, but here, I can magnify your negative feelings hundreds and thousand times, and force you to commit suicide in front of me.”

Hearing Yin Ren’s unsteady gasp, the man laughed.

“I forgot. With your authority, you still can’t get this kind of information, right?”

The man’s voice was like boiled porridge, mixed with a tremor. It seemed to be getting farther and farther away from him… No, everything was getting farther and farther away from him.

“…What a pity. If this kid can become a ghost, it can match my abilities. This consciousness is still inconvenient to use…”

“Take away the best memory… Only children play this kind of trick. How about seeing the effect of ‘manifesting your worst memories’ and ‘emotional amplification’… What will the effect be?”

Blurred light began to appear in the surrounding darkness.

Yin Ren was half kneeling on the ground. This thinking seemed to be mixed with magma, and his vision began to quickly melt. His five senses went wild with confusion.

[Be careful of yourself.]

“Zhong… Chengshuo…”

Yin Ren groped Zhong Chengshuo’s arm and spoke with difficulty. His pronunciation was flat and chaotic, giving people the creeps.

“Escape…”

Yin Ren loosened the cocoons.

At 2:00 a.m. sharp, he used his last strength to throw his three companions in the direction of the school gate.

---

The author has something to say:

Kong Wanqing: Let me use this nuclear reactor to show the performance of my newly bought lighter.

There is hell ahead.jpg

——————

Xiao Zhong is absolutely accumulating strength!

The glorious moment of the Science Post—

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 75: Later

From this angle, the two of them couldn’t see the electronic screen in front of the main teaching building. Broadcast Guo Wei didn’t give them the opportunity to come face-to-face with the two of them.

The student phantoms stumbled through the broken entrails and supported a blood-stained projection screen. The shaking images showed Broadcast Guo Wei sitting in front of the table they were familiar with.

Guo Wei’s appearance had changed. His eyes were completely cloudy, and the bulge at his temple had broken off, with a familiar red rope poking out of the flesh.

It was exactly the same rope as the one at Huang Jin’s feet just now.

Sure enough, half a year later, Guo Wei’s sudden hatred and malice were inseparable from the source of corruption of an Evil Force.

Guo Wei’s mouth was full of blood, and a wound extended from under his clavicle to his waist and abdomen. It penetrated his flesh and bones, misplacing his heart and lungs and almost causing them to flow out of the fissure.

Guo Wei played with the black ballpoint pen in his hand with a smile so wide that it was abnormal. His appearance was indistinguishable from a fierce ghost.

“You have not successfully left the school. Teachers and family members, please choose someone to exclude from the quota.”

Clang. The familiar pistol hit the concrete floor of the roof and fell between Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo.

Zhong Chengshuo picked up the gun.

“Where’s Huang Jin?” In the headset, Lu Xiaohe asked anxiously. “How is it that half the team is already gone?”

“He was attacked by an unknown mental ability, so we knocked him out.” Yin Ren covered the two cocoons behind his back as he explained concisely. “I felt a strong Evil Force, similar to that of Bai Yongji’s coin.”

Lu Xiaohe sounded like she almost choked. “A source of corruption from an Evil Force?”

What’s going on with Unit 9? How was it that there’s now an Evil Force when they entered the Archive?

She really didn’t want to snatch away “The Best Bad Luck Award” from Unit 7.

Lu Xiaohe accelerated her talking speed. “The Archive may have been invaded. Be careful! Ghosts are obsessed with contracts. Try to stabilize Guo Wei and stall for Minister Fu!”

“Understood,” Zhong Chengshuo answered cleanly.

Boom, boom, boom, boom. The earth trembled like a sticky heartbeat.

Countless rotten hands protruded from the internal organs of the courtyard, scratching frantically.

“Please choose to exclude someone from the quota.” On the bloody screen, Guo Wei’s smile deepened, and the corners of his eyes kept twitching. The red rope pierced his temple and twitched, disappearing at the edge of the screen.

Zhong Chengshuo picked up the gun and raised it naturally to his own head.

In the night, the man’s gaze behind the lens was calm and firm.

“I’ll protect you,” Yin Ren stated solemnly after witnessing Zhong Chengshuo’s actions. “Don’t worry.”

King Yama actually trusted him so readily? Was this a mutual understanding*?

*The legendary heart has a soul (的心有灵) Idiom refers to hearts being connected so that you understand each other’s mind.

“No, I’m worried,” Zhong Chengshuo replied calmly. “The situation is complicated, and it’s impossible to judge.”

Yin Ren: “?” The harmony in his heart was about to keel over.

Yin Ren’s emotion and fighting spirit were suffocated by this guy’s words. Perhaps Zhong Chengshuo wasn’t focusing on <The Art of Communication>. Rather, he should write a book called <The Art of Rejection>.

“…So I’ll see it with my own eyes.” Seeing Yin Ren’s expression like he was choking on a fishbone, Zhong Chengshuo spoke with a smile in his voice.

He hooked his finger and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

The action was so natural, like picking up a water cup, that Yin Ren couldn’t even react for a moment.

“Bang!”

A torrent of color spurted out from the side of Zhong Chengshuo’s head.

Crystal rain beads splashed everywhere; a gentle candle fire on a birthday cake, and apples that were an attractive color were cut in half. They collided in mid-air and exploded into bright, gorgeous light. The cheese potato chip package and the rose tea were entangled endlessly. Little wing balls floated up like soap bubbles.

After the familiar memory collapsed, a black umbrella stained with water fell to the ground.

This person’s movement was so sudden that Yin Ren’s hair stood up straight in shock. He hurriedly pulled the umbrella back into a cocoon and, at the same time, condensed his hair, ready to stun Zhong Chengshuo. However, as soon as the hair drew close, it was grabbed firmly with one hand, not allowing them to advance any further.

Zhong Chengshuo grabbed the twirling hair. His complexion was normal, and his breathing was steady.

This guy even had the leisure to take out a small notebook, read it carefully for more than ten seconds, and put a checkmark on one of them.

“Here.” Zhong Chengshuo tore off one of the pages and blocked Lu Xiaohe’s communication. “Help me get rid of it.”

“There are some of my memories missing. I don’t seem to like you for the time being. Other than that, there are no adverse reactions.”

Yin Ren looked down at the piece of paper—

[Good memories that may be affected (test backup)]

[1. Apples, a delicious fruit and good for your health.]

[2. Cream cake, you can eat it on your birthday. Don’t eat too much usually.]

[3. Cheese potato chips are relatively high in calories. It tastes good.]

[4. Yin Ren, an evil being with good combat abilities. I like him very much.]

The box that was ticked had “Yin Ren” written on it.

Lord Ghost King was a little moved for a moment, but seeing the first three contents, he was a little moved again. After all, this thing was really like a recipe, and his appearance in it was truly abrupt.

…And this person’s good memories were too limited!

Just as Yin Ren was burning the paper speechlessly, Zhong Chengshuo turned to Guo Wei. “Choose someone to exclude from the quota, play out the best memories, and stay here. I did all that. Are there any issues?”

Zhong Chengshuo repeated Yin Ren’s initial words with the corners of his mouth slightly curled up.

Broadcast Guo Wei twisted his rotten, congested eyes.

“No problem,” he replied stiffly. “It’s almost over anyway.”

This time, Broadcast Guo Wei’s image did not vanish.

Guo Wei stared at the two people on the roof. He leaned forward, revealing half of his body out of the white screen, and his internal organs fell out of his chest. “The game continues. Hurry up and escape for me.”

His tone was soaked in hostility, and his desire was extremely cold.

Boom, boom! Boom, boom! Boom, boom!

Yin Ren listened. The unknown pulsation became stronger, and the ghostly presence enveloped the campus like amniotic fluid.

At the beginning, only the campus gates and walls were damaged, and this consciousness operated as usual.

Then, when there were less important teaching buildings and bathrooms, the consciousness gradually fell into chaos. Chaos quickly spawned madness, and madness induced more chaos.

This was excellent nutrition for the growth of evil spirits.

Except for the main teaching building, which stood upright, the rest of the buildings were like cream under high heat, softly melting into a pile. They fell in the direction of the main teaching building, as if trying to crush it.

However, amidst the trembling earthquake, the main teaching building was as solid as a rock. Internal organs all over the yard twisted into whips and lashed out, attempting to violently beat the roof.

Yin Ren hugged Zhong Chengshuo and flew past the attack, with the cocoons following them closely.

Yin Ren’s trajectory wasn’t smooth. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was dragging too many people, but compared to his last flight, his movements became stagnant.

Zhong Chengshuo observed without blinking.

From time to time, Yin Ren skimmed the roof of the main teaching building, touching the ground with the tips of his toes or hair, leaving some traces that Zhong Chengshuo couldn’t understand. Those traces were obscured by the night, as inconspicuous as dust.

Guo Wei didn’t care about Yin Ren’s little movements. He stared intently in the direction of Class 2 and 3 of the teaching building. The windows of that classroom were plastered with spirit bombs, which stood out.

“You obviously know how to escape, so why don’t you do it?”

Guo Wei stared at the windows, sneered, and pressed the black ballpoint pen in his hand.

Click, night fell outside the campus.

The campus was once again surrounded by monsters from the outside world. With the sound of crunching and cracking, some small monsters from the outside world fell in, and excitedly went on a rampage on the campus.

Just like outside the school, the place where they collided became more distorted and deformed.

But this still didn’t include the main teaching building.

The ghostly presence was raging, and the scenery was cracking. This fierce ghost couldn’t wait to be born, but it couldn’t destroy the ordinary building no matter what. It guarded Guo Wei’s broken consciousness, and it seemed indomitable.

Guo Wei became more anxious.

The entire campus shook frantically. In the middle of the sky, Guo Laifu’s face twisted violently. Pomegranate flowers fell to the ground, and the playground fence flew into the air. The blood-stained uniforms were connected into ropes, and the deformed phantoms gathered into a torrent. Centered on the main teaching building, all illusions gradually merged into a huge vortex.

“Do it quickly!” Guo Wei roared frantically. “Destroy it!”

“Hold on!” Lu Xiaohe shouted into their ears. “Wait a moment. Minister Fu’s side is almost ready!”

The ending of this crappy escape game was doomed from the start. It was only a matter of time before the building was destroyed.

Yin Ren looked at the only remaining teaching building in the night. He shuttled dexterously in the air, once again avoiding the strangulation of dozens of small ropes. Through the gaps in the tape, he took the last step on the roof of the main teaching building.

“Zhong Chengshuo.” Yin Ren didn’t disconnect the headset communication with Lu Xiaohe.

“Hmm?”

“There’s still a little time left, and I plan to do something ‘superfluous’. You are temporarily in charge of guarding Huang Jin and Ge Tingting.”

“Okay.”

“Aren’t you going to ask?”

“I wouldn’t like a man that didn’t surprise me.” Zhong Chengshuo landed on the ground. A pair of black cocoons floated behind him. “As I said, I want to witness it for myself.”

Yin Ren swallowed back his words.

Above Zhong Chengshuo’s head was a deformed giant human face, and around his body were strange phantoms of fused limbs. He lost his best memory, and he no longer liked him, but he wasn’t the slightest bit different from before.

The pouring rainy night, the quiet living room, the noisy night market, the abandoned amusement park… The treacherous and terrifying spiritual world.

Zhong Chengshuo would always be like that, like an eternal beacon, exuding a wonderful sense of stillness.

People couldn’t help but look at it.

Yin Ren took a deep look at the other party. The ends of his hair curled slightly around Zhong Chengshuo’s chest. He had a vague feeling that he couldn’t describe, but at the moment of such a big event, he suppressed that emotion.

The next moment.

Yin Ren stepped onto the ground. He traveled through layers of attacks and hovered in front of Guo Wei’s projection screen.

They were only five steps apart.

“Guo Wei, before leaving here, I want to ask you two questions.”

Yin Ren looked directly at the hate-filled eyes on the screen and then swept his eyes to the red rope in Guo Wei’s head. His expression was serene and solemn, as if he were looking at an ordinary child opposite him.

“Why didn’t you say, ‘Destroy this place’ at first?”

The rules given by Guo Wei were too broad and vague. He should know that without clear guidance, they would waste unnecessary time investigating.

“…What are you looking forward to?”

Yin Ren asked without the slightest aggressiveness. Guo Wei seemed to be deeply burned by this question.

“Shut up—!!!”

Black and red blood flowed down the corner of Guo Wei’s mouth as he let out an unsteady scream. There were traces of cuts in different shades on the surface of the boy’s skin, with pale bones appearing in the crimson flesh.

As if perceiving something, the red rope passed through his temples, twisting frantically, and the ghostly presence on the campus rose up.

Guo Wei hugged his head in pain.

“Welcome to, come, come to, to Qianjinag No. 16 High School.” In the projection screen, Guo Wei kept vomiting out fragments of internal organs as he repeated in a daze. “Welcome to the last day of my life.”

Through the blood-stained cloth screen, Guo Wei raised his eyes and looked at the main teaching building in front of him again.

Two streams of pus and blood dripped from his corrupted eyeballs and slipped a little along his fleshy cheeks.

“No… No.” He murmured intermittently. “Welcome… Welcome to the last day of my life.”

It was instantaneous.

The jumping abnormal phantoms no longer moved; the monsters paused, and the melted buildings froze in the air. The main teaching building shook constantly as countless debris-like images gushed out, circling the small campus.

……

“What? Your dad asked you to transfer now?” Li Xiaoya scratched her head. “That’s too much.”

She hesitated for a while before taking out a brand-new pen from her stationary box.

“It’s so sudden that I didn’t have time to prepare a gift. Some time ago, I watched you practice calligraphy with a copybook, but your pen isn’t very good… I’ll lend you this one. Good luck on your college entrance exams!”

It was a neat and beautiful gel pen, and the workmanship was quite exquisite. Guo Wei glanced at his pen wrapped in scotch tape, blushing and hesitating.

“I’m just lending this to you. You have to give it back.” Li Xiaoya grinned. “Either way, after the college entrance exam, you can go back to our class and attend the graduation party!”

“Da* Guo, you have to get a good score on the exam.”

*(大) When added in front of a name, it often indicates that the person being referred to is the elder or senior in relation to the speaker.

……

The girl he secretly liked said “later”.

A sharp blade slashed Guo Wei’s abdomen, causing blood to pour out like a spring. He originally held the pen tightly in his hand, but in the overwhelming fear and pain, he failed to grasp it firmly.

The gel pen rolled to the ground as Guo Laifu stepped through a pool of blood. With a click, the sound of something breaking sounded at the bottom of his feet.

The exquisite pen turned into sharp plastic fragments.

He could no longer return it to her.

……

“You don’t have much stuff. We’ve packed it up for you, so you can get out of here earlier.” Guo Wei got out of bed on the upper bunk.

“Lao Si, let’s take a picture of us. Lao Da* hid his phone just so we can take a picture.” He shook a phone in his hand. “Come on, come on. The schoolmaster in our room, leave us some memories so that we can gain good luck next year.”

*Old/Big Boss; Most likely a nickname for one of the four roommates.

“I don’t have a phone…” Guo Wei said it in a daze.

“We can go to the kiosk to color print it!” “Isn’t it kind of lame to print photos on paper, ah?” “Then what can we do about it?”

There was a lively quarrel in the bedroom.

“Three, two, one—don’t blink!”

“At Lao Si’s level, sooner or later he’ll own a phone. Save the pictures, and we’ll send them to him later.”

……

His friends said “later”.

When the knife fell, Guo Wei saw his own flesh and blood on the blade.

His luggage was scattered haphazardly in the grass, and the snacks his roommates stole rolled into the weeds and were covered with dirt. The photos printed on paper fell to the ground and quickly sank into a pool of blood.

Guo Wei on the screen didn’t smile. Someone quietly put his hand behind him and made a “V” at the top of his head.

The bright colors were all swallowed up by crimson.

He should’ve smiled.

……

In the evening, the setting sun leaked into a field of red haze. There were only Lei Xiurong and Guo Wei in the office, and the acrimony on Lei Xiurong’s face was gone, leaving only a little sadness.

“Teacher, I don’t want to go.” Guo Wei stood at the table, looking at the ground as he spoke in a dry, hoarse voice.

“I advised your father. You’re only a sophomore in high school, and if you change schools, you’ll have to adapt to it. It’s better to take the exam with us.” Lei Xiurong sighed helplessly. “Your dad won’t listen. There’s nothing I can do.”

Guo Wei was silent.

“Alright, find a chair and sit for a bit. Teacher will talk to you for a while.”

Lei Xiurong pulled a chair for him. “I won’t comment on your dad. You don’t like being manipulated by him, do you? Then test well and go far.”

“You’re not dumb. Getting an undergraduate degree should be no problem. When the time comes, find a good job and eat whatever you want.”

“……” Guo Wei pursed his lips and clasped his hands on his knees.

“I’m not a good teacher. I have a poor education and a bad temper—nothing worth mentioning—but you’re different. You’re only 17 and have a long future ahead… You can become a much better person than me.”

As she spoke, she tore off a sticky note and wrote down a string of numbers.

“This is my number. I’m still worried about your father. If he makes things difficult for you, or if you encounter something outside, you can call me.”

Guo Wei took the light yellow sticky note with both hands, folded it neatly, and put it in the deepest part of his pocket.

“Check again. Don’t leave anything behind, especially your textbooks.” She waved her hand. “Oh, don’t forget to practice your writing in the future. They really do score that in the college entrance exams.”

“Okay.” Guo Wei stood up and bowed his head deeply.

“Goodbye, teacher.”

“Nn, goodbye.” Lei Xiurong brushed back her curly hair, revealing some particularly dazzling gray underneath.

……

His teacher said “later”.

Under anesthesia, Guo Wei couldn’t move or even scream. He opened his eyes wide and watched as his internal organs were being pulled out by his own biological father. The latter was murmuring something as he raised them to the sky.

The light yellow note was soaked in blood and crumbled into a ball in his pocket, and the number on it could no longer be distinguished.

He hadn’t had a chance to look at it.

He really, really wanted to make that call, at least once.

……

Guo Wei carried his backpack and worn-out luggage bag and waited for the iron gate to slowly pull open. Guo Laifu drove over to pick him up. The car was parked at the intersection, not far away.

As soon as he walked out of the school, Guo Wei couldn’t help turning his head. On the familiar campus, pomegranates were in full bloom, the lawn was green, and there were students from other grades laughing and making noise on the playground.

It was small, old, and very much like home.

Seeing him turn his head every few steps, the gatekeeper smiled at him.

“Young man, when you make a difference in the future, remember to come back and visit.”

“Nn!”

Guo Wei looked for a long time, then finally turned his head and walked in the direction of the intersection.

……

The grandpa gatekeeper, who he had never paid attention to, said “later”.

“I sacrificed my own son!”

In his vague consciousness, Guo Laifu’s roar sounded extremely distant.

“Didn’t you say that sacrificing relatives is particularly effective?! Why don’t they look at me? Why don’t they look at me?!”

Guo Laifu raised his machete high and slashed at Guo Wei’s head as if to vent his anger.

‘I’m dying,’ Guo Wei thought in a daze. He was about to die.

A little reluctance, a lot of anger and resentment were engraved into his bones, and amidst the severe pain was boundless, deep fear.

In his hazy vision, his luggage and backpack fell not far away.

From that day on, he no longer had a “future”.

…But that was truly a good day that he could never forget.

The moment he stopped breathing, in the deepest part of boundless fear, he even had a trace of stupid expectation.

Just like at this moment.

“That person” infused him with more intense hatred and burning malice. That man told him that as long as he gave up this campus, the pain would bring him back to the world and tear Guo Laifu to pieces with his own hands.

“That person” told him that there would be some strange people visiting here. They would definitely enter his school and help him destroy everything. He didn’t need to work hard to do it himself.

“That person” said that this was a deal that wouldn’t fail, as long as they were forced to destroy the building.

But when the four visitors entered the campus, Guo Wei changed the cruel rules he had prepared.

Among the four was a thin girl who was wearing their school uniform. She was the same age as him, with anxiety and longing in her eyes.

Just like himself at the beginning.

[Please try to leave the school.]

Maybe, just maybe, instead of destroying this place, find a way to calm me down and allow me to let you leave.

[Please try to leave the school.]

…Help me.

The long-haired man was still floating in front of him. The other party’s long black hair was scattered, and his eyes were almost gentle.

“I understand.” Even though he didn’t say anything, the man showed him a smile and tapped his headset.

“Xiaohe Jie, we need your support.”

“It’s about to explode. You—”

“You asked us to rely on you more.” Yin Ren spoke confidently. “We won’t hide it from you this time.”

There was a brief silence.

“…Alright, I’ll listen first.” On the other end of the headset, Lu Xiaohe frowned.

It was half past one in the morning, and they still had about half an hour left. She didn’t believe those two could do anything wrong.

“Guo Wei’s contacts—Lei Xiurong, Li Xiaoya, and his three roommates. Give me the birth dates of these five people.”

“It’s very dangerous inside. Don’t involve irrelevant people!”

“I won’t get them involved. It’s just saying a few words. Their phantom is enough. The time is just right at this moment.”

Yin Ren stared at Guo Wei’s slashed face, and behind him, a faint glow radiated from the rooftop.

Just when he “dodged”,  the traces left by Yin Ren gradually lit up, forming a magic array.

“It’s a fairly common technique to let the living and the dead communicate in ‘one consciousness’. A science post must have heard of it—”

For thousands of years, the name of this technique had never changed. Whether it was a street scammer or a real metaphysician, whether it was an ancient tome or modern weird talk, it could never be avoided. The basics of the basics.

“—to dream.”

---

Kinky Thoughts:

What a grisly chapter. Does Nian Zhong have a thing for tortured children? Why does every arc that involves children make me cry? Poor Guo Wei.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 74: Choose One of Two

The phantoms on the ground were so distorted that members of Unit 9 didn’t dare risk walking on the ground.

Yin Ren was sandwiched between Zhong Chengshuo and Huang Jin like a sack, with Ge Tingting floating behind him. With all his teammates piled on him, Yin Ren flew slowly and carefully, almost forgetting to breathe.

The light green scotch tapes intertwined with each other, forming a cobweb-like structure, and the sticky side was facing the four of them. In the center of the spider’s web, there was a pile of volleyballs and basketballs that looked like entrenched eggs. They would twitch from time to time, tilting in the direction of the four of them.

Yin Ren’s long hair flew about, but none of it touched the “spider silk”.

As the procession on the ground marched onward, the aberrant phantoms continued to throw paper, stationery, or their own body parts. Their heads moved with the four people in the sky, and the sensation of being watched tingled their scalp.

Zhong Chengshuo raised his head and looked at Yin Ren’s face.

Yin Ren’s face was highly concentrated and focused. There was also a faint concern about the current situation. They didn’t know if it was through disdain or not, but he had never hesitated to express his subtle emotions.

After entering the Archive, Yin Ren’s emotion undoubtedly became more obvious.

It was very human-like.

If he didn’t care about the others’ lives or deaths, Yin Ren wouldn’t be so restrained.

It was a strange, evil thing. So far, Zhong Chengshuo could only see this person’s obsession with concealing his identity. As for other purposes, he couldn’t analyze them.

What the hell are you?

Yin Ren’s hair was still lying in the inner pocket of his chest, already warmed by his body heat. Separated by a layer of flesh and a pair of bones, Zhong Chengshuo’s heart was beating. Those hairs would move from time to time, as if looking for the warmest position.

Unlike the severed hair that he secretly stole, they were still connected to Yin Ren’s body and were full of activity. At this distance, as long as Yin Ren willed it, they could pierce his heart in an instant.

But they just turned over quietly and arched around gently, as if they were hiding from Zhong Chengshuo.

Zhong Chengshuo pressed Yin Ren’s arm, and across the black cloth, the other’s body heat was soaked in his hands.

“What’s wrong? Is it hurting you?” Yin Ren quickly lowered his head.

“No,” Zhong Chengshuo replied softly. “Let’s go to the main teaching building first—”

Boom boom.

The small campus trembled slightly.

Hundreds of dark red utility knives rose from the ground and tried to stab the people floating in the sky. The attack came without warning, causing Yin Ren to accelerate. Even with his quick reaction, Huang Jin’s backpack was almost sliced by the blade.

Huang Jin: “What is this…”

“Quiet!” Yin Ren shouted.

He didn’t use his hair to extend, but two hands grew from his shoulder blades and quickly made a fist. In less than two seconds, a horde of jet-black lightsabers suddenly appeared around them; the tips of their swords rushed at them in all directions.

The next moment, countless black rays of light lashed out.

Like sharks that smell blood, they rushed toward the sky with the utility knives. After the continuous collisions and blunt sounds, countless black and red debris exploded above the blue sky.

Among the broken utility knives, a breath of air spread out.

Debris fell like snowflakes, while hostility and hatred flowed like sewage.

The peculiar cold evil qi unique to ghosts continued to stir, and the campus’s bright colors dimmed a few degrees. The bright sunlight became colder, showing an abnormal blue color.

More than 30 hours after they arrived on campus, Yin Ren finally noticed a real ghost.

This ghost was strange. It came from all directions and smelled extremely strong, indicating that it was a powerful ghost. However, it was extremely thin and unstable, and was hidden among the chaos.

Yin Ren didn’t stop attacking. He hung in the air and rarely looked up from the ground. Those spare hands of his pierced through his long shirt and kept casting spells.

A burst of red mist rose from around Yin Ren, flying towards the ground, like pouring blood.

Huang Jing was dumbfounded.

This was a blood mist art that was used to detect minute amounts of evil qi. It was an extremely rare and quite ancient human technique. Some old spirit smiths would use it to identify top cursed spirit weapons.

However, people usually only use a wisp of green smoke from the tip of an incense, carefully protecting it. It was the first time he had seen someone use it like a flood bursting from a riverbank.

Huang Jing instinctively looked at Zhong Chengshuo.

In fact, since Zhong Chengshuo found out about his abilities, he had been guarding against him. Zhong Chengshuo’s body was constantly filled with complicated thoughts, making it impossible for him to decipher.

But even if this were King Yama, he would at least react when encountering this kind of battle, right?

Huang Jin’s guess was accurate. He got what he wanted and saw Zhong Chengshuo’s thoughts—a conspicuous “like”.

Huang Jin: “?”

What do you like? Those black lightsabers? The blood mist art? Or is it the thrill of hanging on by a thread?

His mind was about to be overwhelmed by vigilance and anxiety. He really couldn’t understand this strange “like” and “interesting”. Huang Jin resolutely looked away and looked at the ground again.

The red mist became black when it touched the ground. It rolled close to the ground and turned different shades of black, like a mixed pool of stale blood. The only parts that were bright red were near the main teaching building. It was clean and didn’t contain any evil qi.

The last bit of pure land on this crazy campus.

Yin Ren flew across the sky like a bird and rushed straight to the roof of the main teaching building. Seeing the blood mist on the ground becoming darker, Yin Ren clicked his tongue.

He stopped on the edge of the roof and looked down at the bizarre campus.

The library, the lab buildings, the dorms, the cafeteria… Under the carnival of phantoms, the contours of these buildings became blurred. Their regular windows became crisscrossed and filled with slimy internal organs. The scratches from bloody handprints covered the originally flat walls that were now gradually covered in cracks.

The distorted phantoms tried to follow them into the main teaching building but were unable to enter. Guo Laifu walked in circles around the building, which was now like an island surrounded by a group of sharks.

Many phantoms tried to climb into the exterior wall of the building, but once they reached the first floor, they slid down like oil.

Seeing that the road was impassable, compasses and basketballs formed into spider-like monsters and began to climb to the roof along the scotch tape, but before they were halfway up, they trembled violently and fell apart, descending into the ground with crackling sounds.

The main teaching building was filled with the noise of students reading. Even with the twisted heads stuck to the windows and the blood-stained uniforms swaying in the wind, the students were still attending class seriously.

The situation became a deadlock.

Boom.

Another tremor shook the campus, and the fog on the ground approached an inky hue. The air became sticky, and there was an extra sense of oppression. The feeling of the ghost became a bit more obvious, but it seemed to be separated by a thick film, as if what was going on had nothing to do with it.

“Go to Class 2-3.” Yin Ren quickly made a decision.

If there was anything special about the main teaching building—Class 2-3 was where Guo Wei was. This was Guo Wei’s biggest, clearest, and strongest memory.

“Shouldn’t we blow up the building?” Huang Jin’s voice sounded bitter. “It’s too difficult to try to escape!”

“No. Zhong Chengshuo’s judgment is correct. He has found the right direction of the ‘game’.”

Yin Ren dragged his three teammates quickly through the corridor.

“Unfortunately, this isn’t a game. I kind of understand what Guo Wei is thinking… Come with me.”

……

Outside of Class 2-3.

The phantoms couldn’t approach the high-rise building. Looking out from the window, there was still a clear blue sky. Guo Wei was looking at the window blankly, when his table suddenly shook, causing him to almost jump up in fright.

Lei Xiurong slapped some paper hard on the table. “You still can’t do it. Come to my office between classes.”

During the break, Guo Wei first ran to the bathroom.

As soon as he locked the door to the stall, his three roommates walked into the bathroom with a cheeky smile.

“Let’s share the money from last night,” one of them said. “Don’t buy braised vegetables or barbeque next week.”

“There’s nothing to eat with barbeque. Just a few bites of meat. It’s better to buy a roasted chicken. With this much, it’s enough. It’s believable if we say we can’t eat it,” another person said. “In any case, it’s better if Lao Si* eats a little more—just the way he’s gnawing on steamed buns every day makes me feel aggrieved when looking at him.”

*Kind of like a nickname calling Guo Wei Ol’ Four (as in the fourth of their group/roommate).

“Oh, that kid’s just too stubborn and won’t eat with us.” The third person sighed. “Just buy roasted chicken.”

“Would it be too obvious to leave him a drumstick? Isn’t that bullcrap?”

Yin Ren leaned in front of the bathroom sink. Outside the narrow window of the bathroom, the branches of the green trees shook gently.

When Guo Wei walked out of the stall, his eyes were slightly red. He smiled hard at Yin Ren and continued to bury his head as he washed his hands.

Boom boom.

Not far from the window, between the branches of the green tree, there was a huge hand belonging to a man. His index finger was pointing in the direction of Guo Wei as stale steamed buns and rancid leftovers bombarded it in turns. Broken bowls splintered on the walls, and their porcelain surface was stained with eye-catching blood stains.

They couldn’t touch the glass.

The hand shook angrily, and the faint ghostly feeling swayed with its movements.

……

“Teacher Lei, aren’t you being unethical? The number of subsidized places in your grade is really limited.” A faint conversation came from the office. “Guo Wei really doesn’t meet the subsidy conditions. His father is still in the field and has income…”

“Is his father still human?” Lei Xiurong’s voice was as sharp as usual. “Whether he raised him or not, the wife ran away, and the child is covered with scars. He didn’t give him a single penny and threw the kid into the village like a dog. Is this call ‘not eligible for subsidy’? If it weren’t for that brat thinking about working during the holiday to earn money, he would’ve moved up a class already.”

“But what you’re saying, the one in your class is also difficult.”

“Difficult my ass. He’s easy to fool. Isn’t it just someone’s relative? The sophomore quota is set. If he has any opinions, he can say them to my face. Let’s see if he has the ability to get me fired!”

Guo Wei knocked on the door, and the conversation inside abruptly stopped.

“Come in!” Lei Xiurong glanced at Guo Wei and yelled angrily, “Look at these characters you wrote. Are you not taking what I said seriously? You have self-study for your next class, right? Just copy them here. I won’t let you go back until you finish copying them correctly.”

“…Hey, why are you crying? Do you just cry when it’s just a few words?”

Guo Wei clutched the edge of the test paper. He tried to pretend to be calm, but his moist eyes couldn’t be hidden.

Zhong Chengshuo stood at the corner of the teacher’s office and watched all this quietly.

“Okay, don’t cry. Don’t you know how old you are? It’s quite embarrassing.” Lei Xiurong turned her head. “I’m going to class, so just stay here and do your work.”

She picked up her books and lesson plans. Just as she was about to step out, she added another sentence.

“There are dried sweet potatoes in the drawer, so make do with them. You look like a dead person,” she said sharply without looking back. “Don’t faint in my office.”

Guo Wei sniffled vigorously as he neatly copied the paper.

“Thank you, teacher,” after Lei Xiurong left, he said in a soft voice.

There was a group photo of her and her family on her desk. After Guo Wei finished copying the paper, he looked at it for a long time.

A huge blood-red eye was next to the office window. The dilated pupil rushed straight at Guo Wei. On the surface of its eyes, countless banknotes were folded into frogs that chirped frantically, and the coins gathered together like tadpoles, swimming unhappily.

However, the boy didn’t even look at it. He just stared at Lei Xiurong, who didn’t have as much gray hair in the photo.

……

After copying his paper, Guo Wei rushed to the classroom before self-study was over. When he turned the corner, he bumped into two girls holding papers.

One of them screamed, and the papers in her hand spilled all over the floor.

“Are you sick!” A girl with a vague face yelled angrily. “Don’t you even look where you’re going?”

“It’s okay, Qianqian. We didn’t look ahead either.” The face of the other girl was clear. She looked beautiful. It was Li Xiaoya, Guo Wei’s seatmate at the next table. “Guo Wei, you hurry back. Just now, Lao Chen was lecturing, and he asked where you were.”

“But these…”

“I’ll ask the janitor for help.” Li Xioaya hurriedly urged Huang Jin, who was not far away. “It won’t take long.”

She smiled at Guo Wei and gave him a thumbs up.

“Okay, I’m sorry.” Guo Wei’s ears and neck turned red, and he hesitated before wiping his eyes hard.

“We see each other every day. Why are you being so polite?” Li Xiaoya laughed.

Blood-soaked uniforms and blades crackled against the corridor windows, like midsummer rain. Bright red entrails slid down the window glass, leaving no traces behind.

Inside the building, it was another trivial and ordinary day, like a dream. The student Guo Wei wandered in his biggest, clearest, and strongest memory, continuing a life that no longer existed.

The pomegranates were in full bloom, the grass was green; these countless clear details in his memories on campus couldn’t leave even after his death.

To whom was that school rule that represented the will of the master addressing to?

Was it “can’t leave” or “unwilling to give up”?

……

“When a ghost is born, if no one intervenes, they will descend into madness and pure malice.”

Yin Ren leaned against the wall of the corridor, looking at the students and teachers coming and going.

“Guo Wei, this kid… His attachment to the past is too deep, but his negative emotions aren’t heavy enough.”

“But he doesn’t want to be stuck here forever.” Zhong Chengshuo replied smoothly. “So he wants to use us to abandon these memories and officially become a ghost?”

“Maybe.” Yin Ren looked at the vision outside the window again without giving a solid response.

The more distorted the campus, the stronger the ghostly presence became. Once this campus was destroyed, the deepest memory of the child’s heart would be overwhelmed by blood and madness…

Guo Wei would be born as a true ghost.

The consciousness that was parasitic on the consciousness of others may not be so different from a parasite that latched on to others. He had been “nurtured” by Guo Laifu’s spirit, but he hadn’t been born yet.

They were literally in a “ghost fetus”, which was unprecedented.

“No matter what idea Guo Wei has, the game is still on.”

Zhong Chengshuo wiped his glasses and hummed.

“There’s Fu Xingchuan’s support outside. Since Guo Wei wants to become a ghost, let’s just push that boat along the water.”

“Indeed.” Huang Jin’s spirit was strong. “It’s like an egg here. Those things outside can drill into the seams. If we catch the moment it collapses… Well, we should be able to escape.”

After in-depth exchanges, Fu Xingchuan agreed with the opinions of the two.

“What a pity.” Facing the twisted ghost fetus, Minister Fu sighed. “If you guys weren’t inside, this would have been a wonderful research opportunity.”

“The ghost is quite manageable. You guys grab the right moment and destroy the key memories. While he’s confused, we’ll help you break out from our side. Bao Linlin, Wang Zhou, I’ll set up the magic array. You two record the data.”

“Yes!”

“Also, in order to ensure there won’t be any mistakes in the array, it’ll take me at least until 2 in the morning to finish. You still have three chances, right? Stabilize Guo Wei and protect yourself. Even if your memory is sealed, as long as you come out, there are ways to restore it.”

Huang Jin took a deep breath. His frown had finally relaxed a little.

So far, it sounded like they just needed to hide. When it became midnight, he would shoot himself in the head, and the remaining two shouldn’t have any problems.

They would finally be able to leave this shithole. Huang Jin closed his eyes and relaxed for a bit, then looked at the two powerful men.

Zhong Chengshuo took out a pen and paper. Using the windowsill as a table, he was steadily recording something. Yin Ren kept looking at the chaos outside the window, but there was no relief between his brows.

Yin Ren stretched out his hand and touched the wall of the main teaching building.

Thousands of years ago, he had come into contact with too many ghosts. Guo Wei was far from that desperate point.

The tiles on the walls were smooth and clean. There was not a single speck of dust in the corridor. Besides them, there was a clear sound of lecturing coming from Class 2-3 of the high school. Hope and longing were hidden in every corner of this memory, shining with clean light.

On the day of his death, Guo Wei was picked up from school by Guo Laifu and was mutilated by his biological father in a sober state. Despite such an impact, he still failed to become a ghost.

Would such a person really suddenly change his mind in half a year?

Yin Ren walked to the back door and looked inside the classroom. Guo Wei’s classmate sitting behind him was poking his back with a smile while whispering something. Student Guo Wei straightened his back and waved his hands helplessly at him as he continued to listen attentively.

Fu Xingchuan’s decision was indeed the safest, but…

Yin Ren left the back door and silently looked at the ground.

Just as he was lost in his thoughts, Zhong Chengshuo also looked back with interest. Yin Ren’s hair froze on his chest, quite depressed.

Zhong Chengshuo closed his notebook with a snap. “The game isn’t over yet.”

His voice was neither high nor low, and he wasn’t sure who Zhong Chengshuo was speaking to.

That night.

The main teaching building was locked as their group flew to the roof.

Time was approaching midnight, but the monsters on the ground didn’t disappear. It was a carnival on campus as the rest of the buildings became shadowy in the night, as if separated by a layer of fog. There were still dense crowds of monsters outside the barrier, and some of them even managed to squeeze half their bodies in.

The vestibule of the campus was full of entrails that nearly flooded the first floor. The sharp blades, which were higher than a flagpole, went up and down, constantly poking at the internal organs. The sky turned into Guo Laifu’s face, and they could almost smell his rancid breath. A thick ghostly presence rampaged in the night wind, giving rise to uneasiness.

The members of Unit 9 were waiting on the roof of the main teaching building, ready to usher in the second and final wave of elimination.

The windows on the second and third floors of the school were covered with spirit bombs, just waiting for Fu Xingchuan to complete his preparations. If the destructive power wasn’t enough, Yin Ren could supplement it with his spells.

It was 11:35 p.m.

“We have followed Guo Wei’s wishes, so he won’t make things difficult for us.” Knowing that he was about to be shot, Huang Jin was expressionless. “I’ll leave it up to you two.”

“Don’t be nervous,” Lu Xiaohe said through the headset. “Many ghosts can play with memories. Even if it doesn’t go well, we have a way.”

“I’m not—”

Before Huang Jin finished speaking, he suddenly choked.

Just like when he was attacked by the xanthium, Huang Jin’s pupils began to dilate, and his forehead was covered in sweat. His breathing was abnormally short, and his brows immediately furrowed. Yin Ren made a quick decision, and his sleeping technique was activated. Huang Jin was instantly wrapped into another cocoon.

A headless and tailless red rope fell from Huang Jin’s feet.

…It was exuding a weak Evil Force that was almost nonexistent and was tightly hidden by the ghostly presence.

Huang Jin fell just before midnight. At midnight, only Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo were standing on the rooftop.

The staticky radio sounded.

“Welcome to Qingjiang No. 16 High School. Welcome to the last day of my life.”

There was a vicious smile in Guo Wei’s voice on the radio.

“You have not successfully left the school. Teachers and family members, please choose someone to exclude from the quota.”

“Play out your best memories and stay here.”

“Stay here forever.”

---

The author has something to say:

An ulterior motive (physics)

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 73: Madness

After the gunshot, there was no blood.

The gun turned into a plume of green smoke, and countless colorful shadows shot out of Ge Tingting’s temples and jumped into the sky.

Among the colorful shadows, they could barely distinguish the headphones package, the hotpot signboard, Feng Qi’s figure, and the smiling faces of strange men and women. They exploded in the dark like an unusually grand firework.

But they didn’t fall.

The brilliant shadows floated slower in the air, and in the next moment, they collapsed and froze midair, turning into a yellowed family portrait. A group of people was depicted in the portrait: a middle-aged man and woman, each holding a daughter and an old man sat in the middle with a flowery smile on his face.

This was her most cherished memory.

Ge Tingting staggered and fell to the ground. The photo frame seemed to have lost its support and fell straight down—

In just an instant, runes of spells exploded, and circles of dark light swirled rapidly around her. Her eyes suddenly lost their spirit and instantly closed. On Ge Tingting’s wrist, strands of jet-black hair surged.

The black hair proliferated explosively, as if it had life. Tens of thousands of strands of hair were spread out and wrapped tightly around Ge Tingting, forming a pitch-black cocoon.

The photo frame was also tightly wrapped in the hair and placed by her side.

Yin Ren graciously withdrew his hand that was casting the spell.

Under the sleep spell, Ge Tingting had fallen into a deep sleep. Before her brain could react, her consciousness had already fallen completely into darkness.

Unstable consciousness would be affected by the environment, provided that “she was still conscious”.

Now that both she and her memory item were isolated by the evil hair, even if Fu Xingchuan himself arrived, he couldn’t break through such a line of defense.

Yin Ren controlled the spindle-shaped cocoon of hair, gently descending it. It fell to the ground like a feather.

“Shian is lucky. With this strength of will, she’ll become a powerful corpse servant,” Yin Ren said softly.

Huang Jin’s eyes were a little more fearful.

Yin Ren’s actions had gone beyond the scope of “special abilities” and “strange spells”. They were truly evil things, and they all knew that Shian wouldn’t let a real evil being become a field employee.

In addition to King Yama, who was concealing his identity, this pair of partners…

Before he could finish his thought, he felt a particularly strong gaze.

Huang Jin raised his head subconsciously and met Zhong Chengshuo’s meaningful eyes. Huang Jin adjusted his breathing for a moment, raised his hand, and made a zipper movement across his mouth.

‘Alright. I probably can’t keep this memory,’ Huang Jin thought sadly.

Fwish.

The electronic screen in front of the main teaching building lit up again.

Broadcast Guo Wei was sitting around a table, looking closer to death than last time. The pupils of those eyes were completely cloudy, and there was a suspicious bulge on his temples. The gloomy aura around him had grown heavier.

Through the screen, he stared at the three of them, as if organizing his words.

“Let me give you some advice, boy.” Yin Ren patted his hair cocoon and made a preemptive strike. His face was smiling, but his tone was as if it had been soaked in ice water. “When you make an agreement, the first thing you look at is whether there are any loopholes—this is one of the basic rules of common sense in the metaphysical world.”

“Choose one to exclude from the quota, play their best memories, and stay here.”

Yin Ren repeated the words.

“We did all that. Is there a problem?”

Guo Wei on the screen didn’t answer. His expression was a little distorted. The cocoon shook a few times, and the position of the portrait, which was hidden, slightly protruded. Guo Wei seemed to want to take it away, but he couldn’t.

He clenched the black ballpoint pen and looked at Yin Ren with an ugly expression; there was a vaguely crazy color in his eyes.

“Welcome to Qingjiang No. 16 High School. Welcome to the last day of my life.”

A few minutes later, Guo Wei spoke again with a hoarse and sinister tone.

“Teachers, family members, and faculty, you have three chances left. Please work hard to leave the school.”

He didn’t say anything else. When the voice ended, the screen fell into darkness.

“What do we do now?” Huang Jin worriedly glanced at the cocoon.

“The direction of destroying memories is right. Let’s continue to destroy secondary memories and see how the environment responds.” Zhong Chengshuo cracked his neck and shoulders without any worry on his face.

“Even if I make all my luggage into spirit bombs, it may not be enough.” There was a faint trace of worry between Huang Jin’s brows.

“Small matter.” Yin Ren let the cocoon float slightly. “I can make up for it with some ordinary spells. Let’s try it. Zhong Chengshuo, what’s next?”

“There may be phantom students in the female dorm who won’t move for the time being.” Zhong Chengshuo thought solemnly. “First destroy the women’s bathrooms that are ‘inaccessible’ and then the men’s bathrooms with unclear details to see the effect.”

Yin Ren: “……” Oh, the public bathroom.

Yin Ren: “…Then it’s better to have Huang Jin do it. He hasn’t used his spirit weapon yet, right?”

Huang Jin sighed and suddenly felt tired. “Okay.”

He weighed the cloth bag, which caused the spirit weapon to rattle.

At 2 in the morning, a burst of fire exploded in the darkness. The public bathrooms in the corner of the campus disappeared. After that, several cracks appeared in the barrier with pale spider legs embedded in them.

Next to the ruins of the bathroom, Zhong Chengshuo was tapping on the headset in his ear, as if waiting for something.”

“Sss*… Sss… Sss… Hey… Sss.” The noise of the headset was cutting in and out.

*Clarity: This is supposed to be static SFX.

Zhong Chengshuo made a quick gesture at the two of them and motioned for them to put on their headset.

“Hey… Sss”

“Special Investigation Unit 9, Zhong Chengshuo.” Zhong Chengshuo spoke in a clear voice at a gentle pace. “Calling Shian. Calling Shian.”

“Sss… Xiao Zhong? Sss… Keep… Talking…”

Soon, the static gradually weakened and Lu Xiaohe’s tired voice came over.

“…Manual calculation and navigation complete… Sss… signal band… determined…”

“Hey, are you alright?” Lu Xiaohe’s voice was hoarse.

“We’re all still alive.” Zhong Chengshuo frankly summarized.

“Haha,” Lu Xiaohe laughed weakly. “I’ve stabilized the communication, but the signal is a bit weak.”

“The testing equipment can’t keep up, so you need to be more careful. If you have any abnormalities, you must report them in time.”

“Nn.” Zhong Chengshuo showed a relieved expression.

“Next, Minister Fu will communicate with you… I’m taking a nap… Wake up again…” Lu Xiaohe’s voice was cut off before she finished speaking.

“Hey, hey, hey.” Fu Xingchuan’s voice also carried some fatigue, but compared to Lu Xiaohe’s, his fatigue carried other implications. “Your Lu Jie hasn’t rested for 34 hours, so be considerate.”

“If the situation isn’t urgent, report everything to me immediately in full.”

….

The group abandoned the miserable public bathrooms and returned to the faculty dormitory.

Yin Ren carefully placed the hair cocoon containing Ge Tingting on the bed. The night outside the window was like ink, and the incandescent lights in the room would flicker from time to time. This dorm wasn’t big, but the ceiling was high, giving a sense of depression like a deep well.

Zhong Chengshuo pulled over a chair and sat down, then began to talk to Shian.

In the next half hour, Yin Ren and Huang Jin fully witnessed King Yama’s ability to talk bullshit.

Zhong Chengshuo wasn’t good at communicating with people cordially, but his skill at covering up traces was perfect. The vision of what Yin Ren did was completely omitted, and Ge Tingting’s coma was summarized as “she was knocked out by Yin Ren immediately after losing her memory, and Huang Jin kept her in a coma using a spirit weapon”.

Comrade Xiao Zhong’s tone was extremely solemn and sincere. If it weren’t for Yin Ren being part of the team, he would almost be taken in by this kid.

Fortunately, Fu Xingchuan didn’t focus on the details.

“Well handled.” There was no usual arrogance in his tone. “You guys saw Guo Wei? How strange.”

“There’s never been such a situation before?” Yin Ren held down his headset and curiously interjected. “I don’t know if he’s a ghost, but I can’t think of other possibilities for the time being…”

At least a thousand years ago, things like ghosts were like mushrooms after the rain. No one knew where they would come from or how many varieties there were.

Lord Ghost King didn’t have an inquisitive spirit like Zhong Chengshuo—at that time, Yin Ren didn’t even know why there was day and night or why there was a sun and moon. If their existence was reasonable, he didn’t delve deeper.

Besides, if he encountered someone looking to pick a fight, he would just beat them up.

“The cause of the ghost is still unknown, but Guo Wei does fit the characteristics of a ghost.”

Fu Xingchuan’s voice was a bit vague. It sounded like he was smoking. He paused for a moment before continuing on.

“Ghosts awaken when they have experienced the painful process of death soberly and carried strong negative feelings at the time of their death. This is one of them.”

Fu Xingchuan’s tone was rarely solemn. “Second, this one’s death is widely known, whether through rumors or the news, so it wasn’t some ghost that just died quietly.”

Guo Wei’s situation was too standard. After Guo Laifu’s murders were widely reported, the Shian division in Qingjiang monitored the vicinity of the crime scene. However, after investigating for a long time, they didn’t find any traces of Guo Wei turning into a ghost.

Half a year later, the teenager’s file was collecting dust in the depths of all the data.

“We have never found this phenomenon. In the present situation, it’s difficult to define Guo Wei as a ghost… Haa, let me think about it. According to the science post, Guo Wei’s consciousness has parasitized Guo Laifu’s brain.”

“A consciousness that parasites someone’s mind.” Yin Ren harped on these words repeatedly.

“I understand the general situation. Today, we’ll send Unit 7 in for support. Pay attention to your sleep and make sure you’re awake.”

Fu Xingchuan didn’t wait for them to answer and ended the call.

Unfortunately, with things having come to this point, Lord Ghost King naturally wouldn’t be getting any rest.

Zhong Chengshuo had put on his nightcap again and was sleeping quietly beside Yin Ren. His expression was relaxed as before, as if he were lying in his own bedroom. Huang Jin, on the other hand, was tossing and turning frantically on the single bed. It could be seen that he was quite restless.

“Parasitic consciousness,” Yin Ren murmured silently as he lay flat beside Zhong Chengshuo.

In the narrow faculty dorm, the old clock ticked away. Yin Ren was lying in the middle of the room, but his consciousness covered almost the entire school—while Shian’s monitoring failed to keep up, his hair flowed repeatedly throughout the campus.

However, Guo Wei’s consciousness was tightly hidden, and Yin Ren still couldn’t find anything.

This was Guo Wei’s consciousness. As long as Guo Wei wanted, he could have let them go directly, but he induced them to escape instead, knowing they would destroy his memory. This didn’t seem like he was just fooling around with them for fun.

What was this thin child thinking?

……

Lu Xiaohe also slept restlessly.

Her head appeared to be filled with molten iron after 34 hours of high-intensity brain use. The messy theory and data were on a rampage, and the tension of manipulating the AI still lingered. In her dream, she and the monitor that had hands and feet were fighting each other for 300 rounds.

When she opened her eyes, it was 7 in the morning. She had slept intermittently for more than 5 hours, but her body was covered in cold sweat.

Lu Xiaohe rubbed his aching temples and picked out a “Early to bed, early to rise” t-shirt. She barely washed her face with cold water and went to the cafeteria to pour a cup of espresso.

However, when she returned to the office of Unit 9, it had already changed.

There was another temporary console next to her console, and a boy who looked like he had just graduated high school was sitting in front of it.

“Xiaohe Jie!” The boy held a breakfast biscuit as he waved to her carefully. “Unit 7 has entered the Archive. I just came here to work so we can be together.”

“Xiao Zhao.” Lu Xiaohe pressed her forehead.

Zhao Shiyan was the rear commander of Unit 7, which was specially assigned. This child was extremely sensitive to data, was a good gamer, and had skipped a few grades to finish college early. Shian took fancy to his reflexes and decisiveness and poached him with a high salary so they could cultivate him.

Xiao Zhao, Bao Linlin, and Wang Zhou were collectively referred to as the Iron Triangle of Bad Luck. As strong as these three’s abilities were, their luck was just as bad.

“Wait a minute.” Lu Xiaohe came back to her senses, and her voice trembled a bit. “Minister Fu isn’t asking you to go in to rescue, right?”

Unit 7 had indeed entered the Archive many times and was experienced, but Unit 9 was already unlucky enough as it was now. They really didn’t need to make things worse.

This was the group that, because of them, had changed the rules of the Archive. Last time, when Unit 7 entered the human mind, the host broke free from Shian’s heavy shackles and successfully jumped off a building, creating chaos.

Facing Lu Xiaohe’s unabashedly horrified gaze, Xiao Zhao frowned. “This is discrimination! Here, connect your communicator, and tell Minister Fu yourself—he’s been listening just now.”

Sure enough, Fu Xingchuan’s voice came from Xiao Zhao’s headset. “Well, on some metaphysical issues, fighting poison with poison is very effective… Not to mention, it takes three people to enter the Archive. I personally took two of Unit 7 in, so don’t worry.”

Lu Xiaohe: “……”

Gee, thanks, but your group is still 66% made up of Unit 7. She had to pay the highest respect to Minister Fu’s courage.

Xiao Zhao snorted. “We did well this time. Wang Ge just told me that they locked on to the general position of Unit 9—they found the rescue target in 5 hours. This is a new record!”

“That’s pretty good.” Lu Xiaohe sat down with a blank face.

She performed a simple operation and shared Unit 7’s communication channel. As soon as the gentle and pleasant connection sound ended, there was a scream in her headset, which sounded like a male’s voice.

Lu Xiaohe’s scalp almost exploded. “What’s wrong?!”

“It’s okay, Wang Zhou was scared.” The voice of ghost master Bao Linlin came from the headset. “Don’t worry. Minister Fu is with us. What can happen?”

A trace of pain gradually appeared on Lu Xiaohe’s face. In an obviously weak mental mind, it was really dangerous to say this kind of thing.

Or rather, should it be said this was truly worthy of Unit 7?

Lu Xiaohe took a deep breath. “Wang Zhou was scared?”

“Yes, we suggest you contact your team members quickly.” Bao Linlin’s voice became serious. “Xiao Lu, how did Unit 9 describe the school to you?”

“It’s a high school with a small area. The gate is a metal sliding door, and there’s an old security guard with a melted face at the security booth. Blocks of color resembling students can be seen on campus, and the tone for the class bell is a bit distorted… Almost like this.”

Lu Xiaohe transferred the investigation reports of her team members.

At any rate, Unit 7 was a B-level Investigation Group, so it was impossible they would be frightened by something of this level.

“What’s wrong? Has the school’s appearance changed?”

“…You can say that.” Bao Linlin sighed.

In the Archive.

Fu Xingchuan guarded the two members of Unit 7 behind him and looked at the “high school” in front of him.

They could vaguely see some elements that resembled a school.

The security booth and the metal sliding door were still there, but they were twisted like liquid and melted into the edge of the huge hemisphere. Crumpled school uniforms, rotten internal organs, rusty bicycles, damaged textbooks, and test papers densely form this weird hemisphere.

The hemisphere was clinging to a block, incompatible with the surrounding vague buildings, like a tumor growing out of the street.

Its surface was covered with deformed veins, faintly pulsating. These things didn’t completely cover the campus, as there were many gaps between them, but there was only darkness inside.

As a science post, Wang Zhou took the lead in approaching this weird “school”.

He leaned close to the edge of the hemisphere, trying to investigate the part of what he suspected was the security booth. Who would have thought that the twisted window of the security booth was suddenly torn open and a deformed face was ejected out, almost making close contact with Wang Zhou?

The face was like wax melting, and the facial features were completely misplaced, resembling a post-modern figure painting. The old man’s face was nearly flat, and his elongated neck was as slender as a flower stem.

“What are you doing here?” His mouth on the left side of his face opened and closed.

Wang Zhou was caught off guard and almost choked. When he recovered, he let out a scream.

Fu Xingchuan knocked on the headset and directly contacted Unit 9. “We’re at the entrance of the school, and we can’t get in for the time being.”

He stared at the weird face that was the size of an old wash basin and let out a chuckle.

“Unit 9, report your situation.”

At the same time, the members of Unit 9 stood in silence at the door to the facility dormitory, and no one answered.

As soon as it was half past 7, everyone went downstairs. After the door opened, the world turned upside down.

The calm campus had turned into a nightmare. The scene outside was truly hard to describe with just words…

At this moment, the bombed-out senior teaching building and public bathrooms were completely black with a faint void remaining. It was as if someone completely cut these two public buildings from a picture of a “school”. The phantoms of the senior high school students were walking around the campus in… a very less-than-energetic way.

Some were crawling and squirming, with their heads retracted into their bodies, while others only had half their bodies as they walked around on the ground on four feet. There were even a few figures melting into a ball with their disordered hands and feet waving aimlessly around.

Accompanied by bouncing test papers, books, and rulers, the group of phantoms staggered across the campus. Their posture was raw and hideous, a bit like the pedestrians in Guo Laifu’s consciousness.

Scotch tape was woven into cobwebs between the buildings, and the green fence on the playground was covered with dark red blood stains and snow-white correction fluid.

The pomegranate flowers in full bloom were mixed with fragments of internal organs, and blood would drip down the petals from time to time. The flowerbeds were set up with utility knives and compasses, and the words on the sign became “The grass is red. Trample on it at will.”

There were even parts of Guo Laifu on campus.

Guo Laifu’s body was covered with minced meat and internal organs. His face had a twisted smile plastered on it. Wearing bloody clothes, he was squatting in a remote corner of the campus.

Above the chaos, the sky was blue, and the sun was shining brightly.

In the frenzied scene, there were many “normal” students.

The students in the main teaching building talked and laughed amidst the chaos of hell. They carried fragrant breakfasts as if the scene around them were just part of their daily lives.

Yin Ren let the cocoon of hair holding Ge Tingting float behind him and quickly swept his gaze around.

He then saw Guo Wei again.

Guo Wei was still carrying two steamed buns and was walking towards the main teaching building with his head down. The twisted student phantoms would rub on his trousers. As if he had noticed something, his body would tremble slightly.

“Minister Fu, the campus has become a bit weird, but everyone is fine for the time being.” Seeing that Zhong Chengshuo was unusually focused on observing the current scene, Yin Ren took the initiative to report. “We’re going to continue the investigation and keep in touch.”

His hair carefully swam across the ground. Despite this, he still didn’t find the slightest abnormal aura.

It was like…

Witnessing the gradual madness of another consciousness.

---

The author has something to say:

“It’s a bit weird” by the 1,000-year-old Ghost King

——————

Xiao Yin: Oh, if you only use magic, it’s easy to destroy buildings!

Xiao Zhong: I want to blow up the public bathroom.

Xiao Yin:

Xiao Zhong:

Xiao Yin: Let’s go, Huang Jin!

---

Kinky Thoughts:

For those who forgot who Unit 7 people are, they were the group that was initially assigned to find the corpse splitter in Arc 2, but due to their bad luck, Bao Linlin’s hang glider was shot down while Wang Zhou broke his legs trying to escape from the ghost master’s attack. Because both were hospitalized, Unit 6 took over the case in Ping’an Manor.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 72: The First Shot

Guo Wei’s appearance completely disrupted everyone’s plans.

Last night, Unit 9 searched the entire campus all night, keeping the locations of the buildings firmly in mind. Out of caution, they didn’t immediately attack the locked buildings.

As the sky lit up, the chains on the buildings disappeared one by one.

After a short break, everyone ate breakfast and walked around the campus again—they planned to investigate the interior of the building during the day and find the campus radio station where Guo Wei was located.

The campus wasn’t large, so a day was enough.

Who would have thought that Guo Wei was carrying two steam buns like that and throwing himself into the net?

Guo Wei wasn’t tall and was quite thin; he looked kind of malnourished. He was hunched over, making his already hypertrophic school uniform look even more baggy. There was a faint hint of a cheap toothpaste smell coming from him.

From time to time, the students would pass by him, and several would nod to him. However, Guo Wei firmly kept his head down and clutched the bag holding his steam buns, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

Yin Ren rushed forward like an arrow and stepped in front of Guo Wei to stop him. “Classmate, wait!”

Guo Wei almost bumped into Yin Ren head-on. Finding someone was blocking him, he stopped in his tracks, and raised his eyes in confusion. “Are you looking for me?”

Seeing Yin Ren’s beautiful face was a bit off-putting that it made Guo Wei freeze for a moment.

Yin Ren took the opportunity to scan the other person from top to bottom.

Guo Wei had large scars on his forehead and chin, and there were typical burns and bruises that were hidden in inconspicuous places. He was used to hanging his head, which made it difficult to detect.

His complexion was dark, and his long hair was mixed with sporadic gray, making him look older than his actual age. With those sunken eyes always looking at the ground, it made Guo Wei look shrunken and sloppy.

However, his school uniform was extremely clean, and there were no traces of stains.

“I’m a family member of the new teacher, and I have something urgent, so I need to leave.” Yin Ren smiled gently. “I forgot where the gate is. Can you help show me the way?”

The remaining three people: “……”

Guo Wei’s expression finally moved. He looked around at the campus as if he heard bullshit, then looked at Yin Ren in shock.

“I have a problem, so I tend to forget things easily.” Yin Ren continued to cajole the young dead person. “Won’t you help me out?”

“No, we can’t leave here.” Guo Wei shook his head firmly. “This is the school’s rule.”

“Then forget it.” Yin Ren quickly pivoted. “Do you know where the campus radio station is? I’ll do a broadcast to find my lover.”

“Our school doesn’t have a campus radio station,” Guo Wei replied honestly as his eyes stared at his feet. “The broadcasts are all recorded and played directly. Usually, we use the loudspeakers to talk about things… If you want to find someone, it’s better to ask a teacher.”

“I see.”

“Is there anything else? If not, I’ll go first. My early self-study is about to begin.” Guo Wei continued staring at his feet, trying not to look at the snack bag Yin Ren was carrying.

“No, thank you.” Yin Ren took out a pack of fish chips and a pack of jerky. “Here, take them.”

“I don’t…”

“Thank you for telling me this. Just take it and share it with your friends.” Yin Ren’s smile remained motionless.

“Thank you.” Guo Wei’s voice was as tiny as a gnat. He cherishingly took the two bags of snacks and held them in his hand embarrassedly. “Then, uh, goodbye, teacher.”

He raised his head again and looked at Yin Ren carefully with a faint trace of gratitude on his face.

Among the students with blurred faces, this person’s characteristics stood out.

“He’s not a human.” Huang Jin had already developed a certain conditioned reflex. “He’s not the one from the radio station. This person is no different from the other students.”

It was just some kind of “set” that was extremely real and interactive.

“I think so too.” Yin Ren watched Guo Wei’s figure leave. “He has no impression of us and doesn’t look like he’s acting. How should I put this? This kid is too different from the one on the radio station.”

The student Guo Wei looked introverted and didn’t have any resentment or malice like the Guo Wei that was broadcasting.

Ge Tingting bit her lips as the electronic audio sounded. “What should we do now?”

She asked the common question that was in the hearts of the four of them.

The location of the broadcast Guo Wei needed to be found, and the interior buildings had to be checked. The “fresh Guo Wei” under their nose also couldn’t be discarded either. They had limited time, and no one knew what “four chances” meant.

But there was more evil on the other side, and being separated was tantamount to taking a big risk. Since they lost contact with Lu Xiaohe, all their remote communication methods had been invalidated, and they couldn’t even use WeChat to communicate.

Seeing Guo Wei walk further away, Yin Ren crumpled the empty snack bag into a ball and threw it into a trash can.

“Act separately.” He spread out his ponytail and neatly tore off a strand of long hair. “The three of you, put out your hands.”

Ge Tingting, Huang Jin: “?”

“Put this around your wrist. I can sense your location and basic situation from it.” Yin Ren quickly divided the hair into three bunches.

In a sense, this could be regarded as another kind of “traveling together”. He only had to deal with his companions’ memories after that, which wasn’t a big deal because he could just place the blame on Guo Wei’s head, Yin Ren thought deeply.

Huang Jin’s hesitant expression became even more obvious. He suspiciously accepted the hair and gently wrapped it around his wrist.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but Huang Jing felt that the hair had adjusted its position on his wrist.

The strand of hair seemed truncated, but the broken surface was close to a thin silk that connected straight to Yin Ren’s head. It vividly interpreted the fibers that still hold a broken lotus root together*, and on it the mosaic thinking didn’t stop flowing.

*(藕断丝连) Idiom referring to a broken relationship that’s still connected. It refers to the unbreakable love between people from Tang Mengjiao’s poem “Going to Wife”. || In this context, it has a double meaning. The hair is like the strands of a lotus root’s fiber when broken off that are still clinging on, and it also metaphorically represents the connection the four of them still have because of Yin Ren’s hair (fibers of the lotus root).

Huang Jin averted his gaze and decided not to delve further. Ge Tingting didn’t show any doubt as she silently tied the hair around her wrist and nodded.

“Huang Jin and Ge Tingting, you two implement the original plan and try to find the broadcasting room while investigating the inside of the buildings. The authority of ‘faculty’ and ‘student’ isn’t small, so you won’t be stopped like Yin Ren.”

Zhong Chengshuo stuffed the hair into his pocket without tying it to his wrist.

“Yin Ren and I will follow Guo Wei. At four in the afternoon, we’ll meet in front of the classroom that Guo Wei was in before his death. It’s in the main teaching building.”

Huang Jin’s expression froze for a moment. “Isn’t this wrong?”

At a time like this, the two big monsters were still acting together. No matter how he looked at it, the distribution of strength was uneven.

Zhong Chengshuo glanced at him but didn’t lower his voice. “Based on the comprehensive evaluation of strength, occupation category, and campus familiarity, assuming that Miss Ge has metaphysical combat power, it may be more appropriate for me to pair with Miss Ge and you with Yin Ren.”

“But here, Miss Ge has no combat ability, and I don’t have a suitable weapon. Once she’s attacked by the metaphysics, it will be difficult for me to properly rescue her.”

Zhong Chengshuo’s expression was calm and direct. Ge Tingting was silent, and her face turned a little pale.

“Indeed, Huang Jin can see my thoughts, so it’s easier for us to communicate.” After a while, the synthetic voice sounded. “We have limited time. Let’s go, Huang Jin.”

She smiled a little reluctantly.

Yin Ren’s hair gradually lengthened as they left. It was as thin as spider silk, as if it were a thread attached to a hero after he entered a maze. However, Yin Ren looked at Ge Tingting’s back with some worry and held back his consolation.

In Bai Yongji’s case, Ge Tingting used her special ability to fully support them. In this case, her special abilities wouldn’t play much of a role.

She knew this better than anyone else.

……

At four in the afternoon, outside the sophomore classroom, Zhong Chengshuo and Yin Ren were pasted close to the door together, waiting to meet with their teammates.

The main teaching building was the tallest building on the entire campus. Through the windows of the corridor, the campus outside had already alternated between day and night at least four times. The “monster siege” rotated with the time, which made Yin Ren vigilant.

Yin Ren was responsible for guarding the surroundings, while Zhong Chengshuo was incarnated as a stone gate. He seemed to be stuck in the front of the back door window. Behind the thin lenses, his eyes stared straight into the classroom.

Even though Yin Ren had never studied, he couldn’t help but find this scene weird and creepy.

The good news was that, so far, the environment wasn’t as dangerous as they thought. Most of the day passed, and there was no strange warning that came from Yin Ren’s hair.

The bad news was that the daytime here was quite dull.

It was like an ordinary day on an ordinary campus. White clouds floated over the false blue sky, and the continuous chirping of cicadas was intertwined with sporadic birdsongs. The pomegranates in the flower bed were in full bloom, covering the branches with orange-red flowers.

The sun moved slowly across the small piece of sky, making the shadows of the building slowly rotate.

At 4:50, Unit 9 converged again. Except for the exhaustion in their eyes, everyone’s body was clean, without any traces of fighting.

“We have traversed all the buildings and investigated the clinic and cafeteria,” Huang Jin said with some helplessness. “Some areas of the library, labs, and cafeteria are blurry. The senior teaching building, women’s bathroom, and girls’ dorms can’t be entered.”

Even if Ge Tingting, a “female student”, tried to enter, she would be stopped by the doorman under various excuses.

“How about your side?” After Huang Jin reported the situation, Ge Tingting took the initiative to ask. Her expression was serious, but they couldn’t sense any emotion in her synthetic voice.

Yin Ren covered his chest and sighed.

Guo Wei walked into the classroom at 7:30 and never came out again.

None of the imagined collisions, battles, or rescues with Zhong Chengshuo had happened. Looking from the back door window, Guo Wei was either listening attentively in class or reading during the breaks. At most, he would look out the window.

Guo Wei didn’t even go to lunch during the lunch break. He ate his two steamed buns with hot water; one was for breakfast and the other was his lunch. He didn’t touch any of the snacks Yin Ren had given him, but carefully put them in his backpack.

Ordinary student, ordinary behavior.

…But this was undoubtedly the center of the entire campus.

With Guo Wei as the center, the closer they got to him, the clearer the faces of the surrounding students became. It could be as big as the details of the backpack, or as small as the scratches on the desk and the dust on the windowsill; this place was no different from the real world.

The teacher behind the podium also looked like a living person.

At the moment, he was in math class. The math teacher looked to be in her early forties and had a shrill voice. They could even see the gray in her curly hair, the paleness of her cyan brows, and the black moles on the tip of her nose.

“Guo Wei, I have told you a hundred times.”

She knocked on Guo Wei’s table twice, grabbed his hand, and shook it.

“What the hell is with your writing? Can anyone understand this? It’s not uncommon for people to read papers for college entrance exams. This kind of work deserves a zero.”

There were a few chuckles in the classroom. The girl sitting next to Guo Wei turned her head to look at him. The latter just buried his head deeper; his ears and neck became a little red.

Yin Ren didn’t know how Guo Wei’s math scores were, but he remembered Guo Wei’s math teacher.

Lei Xiurong, 43 years old, taught math at No. 16 High School for 20 years.

“Copy it again. Tomorrow, I’ll check it separately. The next time you write like this, I’ll deduct ten points from your paper.” Lei Xiurong spoke loudly. “I don’t believe I can’t fix this stinky problem of yours.”

Guo Wei responded with an “Nn” in a low voice and quietly glanced at the girl at the next table. Unfortunately, the girl had already retracted her gaze and was seriously reading a wrong question. The male student behind him poked him in the back. “Looking at Li Xiaoya again? Be careful that the old witch doesn’t find out.”

Guo Wei shrank his shoulders and his whole face flushed. “I wasn’t looking.”

The boy smiled and covered his face with a textbook. “I have two copybooks that I’m too lazy to practice. Why don’t you take them? Just lend me your chemistry notes later.”

“…Ah, okay.” Guo Wei rubbed his ears and began to rewrite his homework one stroke at a time.

At this time, Lei Xiurong had just returned to the podium. She exhaled and fiddled with her curly hair. “There’s a small quiz for self-study tonight…”

The class continued as the two groups swapped. This time, Ge Tingting and Huang Jin monitored the class while Zhong Chengshuo and Yin Ren patrolled the campus, looking for any signs of the broadcast Guo Wei.

Soon it was dinner time.

Guo Wei didn’t eat dinner. He took out a washbasin from the dorm and went to the bathhouse alone to shower. Other than that, he didn’t do anything special.

His three clear-faced roommates hooked shoulders as they carried a bag of lo mein and returned to the dorms while talking and laughing.

At the same time, Yin Ren’s hair sneaked into the cracks of the bricks and quickly flowed throughout the campus. Unfortunately, they still didn’t return any suspicious fluctuations in power. Whether it was the “broadcast Guo Wei” or the “cause of Guo Laifu’s illness”, it seemed both had completely evaporated from this campus.

……

In the blink of an eye, it became dark.

At 9:30 p.m., the lights around the campus went out, and the iron chains appeared on all the buildings. A mediocre day had passed. Despite the peaceful atmosphere, it was enough to make them anxious.

Everyone ate a bit and then went back outdoors. There were less than three hours left until midnight.

Ge Tingting’s breathing was a little short. Huang Jin squeezed his spirit weapon until it clicked and would look at Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo from time to time.

“Didn’t that bastard tell us to leave the school?” Huang Jin kicked a trashcan nearby irritably. “At least have some weird things come out. Where can we find any clues if everything is so normal?”

“Don’t worry. We haven’t reached the end of the road yet.”

In order to prevent the “failure punishment” from suddenly falling from the sky, Yin Ren’s gaze swept across the playground from time to time. He began to calculate where protective spells would be best placed. There was no power without reason in this world. Even if the other party’s ability was strange, it wasn’t stronger than an Evil Spirit.

He already had some ideas, but unfortunately, if he could understand the nature of his opponent’s abilities…

“Actually, we got a good harvest today,” Zhong Chengshuo suddenly said. Despite holding a bag of spirit bombs, his tone was extremely calm. Huang Jin had to admit that though this person’s tone was sometimes irritating, when the situation was chaotic, it was inexplicably reassuring.

“Would you like to accompany me to do an experiment? I have an idea that needs to be verified,” Comrade Xiao Zhong asked seriously.

Three minutes later, everyone stopped in front of the senior teaching building.

It was an old independent building that was even older than the main teaching building. The gates were chained, and the glass doors were pitch black. It was one of the “inaccessible” areas on the campus.

Yin Ren hugged his arms. “Do you want to force your way in?”

“Not really.” Zhong Chengshuo tilted his head slightly. “I want to blow it up.”

Yin Ren: “……”

Yin Ren: “…What?!”

“It’s too slow for me to set up the bombs by myself. You guys help me put them in designated places.” Zhong Chengshuo pushed up his glasses, not feeling any kind of emotion with what he just said. “It’s getting dark outside the campus. We must hurry. I’ll explain later.”

Although Lord Ghost King was confused, he obediently followed as instructed.

After arranging the spirit bombs, Zhong Chengshuo went straight to the gate of the campus. The scrapped sliding door was still there. Seeing them approach, the old doorman narrowed his eyes, which were full of vigilance.

The barrier was still there.

The night outside the school quickly fell, and the tide of monsters came in, sticking themselves to the barrier again.

“Five, four…”

With his back to the countless monsters outside the gate, Zhong Chengshuo looked down at his phone screen.

“Three, two, one.”

The moment Zhong Chengshuo said the last number, a corner of the campus lit up with skyrocketing flames…

In a series of loud noises, the outline of a two-story building disappeared. It completely collapsed, and thick black smoke rose around it. The rest of the campus remained treacherously calm, without any response, as if the explosion that had occurred was in another time and space.

The last few wisps of smoke merged into the night, and the earth seemed to tremble.

“Crack.”

Not far outside the gate, there was a very slight noise. Everyone immediately glanced around—somewhere near the sky, a tiny foot of a spider passed through the barrier. It moved around suspiciously. Like the last remaining hair on a bald man’s head, it was so conspicuous it was hard to ignore.

Perhaps they picked up on the aura within as the monsters surged in an instant.

“Actually, from the beginning, I was a little curious.”

Before the squirming monsters, Zhong Chengshuo’s voice was steady; there was no joy or anger in his black eyes.

“Ge Tingting was outside school, and there’s no accurate school name on her uniform, which meant Guo Laifu didn’t remember his son’s school name.”

“But here, ‘Guo Wei’ reported the name ‘Qingjiang No. 16 Middle School’ very accurately. This scene inside the campus is also too clear. If it weren’t for living here for a long time, there’s no way the memory would be so clear.”

“The closed senior teaching building, the girls’ dorms, and the women’s bathroom are all places that Guo Wei himself hasn’t touched. The blurred areas are places that students wouldn’t frequent—the closer they are to Guo Wei, whether it be people or scenery, the more realistic the details.”

Ge Tingting looked at the screen with difficulty, while Huang Jin still had a look of confusion.

Yin Ren reacted quickly. “These are all Guo Wei’s memories.”

“Yes,” Zhong Chengshuo responded, slightly raising the corner of his mouth. “That broadcast Guo Wei seems to be able to materialize his memory.”

“Suppose this school and these people are all materialized memories of ‘Guo Wei himself’. On a large scale, according to the law of their own development of the combination of memories, I think this can be considered a ‘consciousness’.”

The excitement in Zhong Chengshuo’s smile became more obvious.

“If the memory item is damaged by more than 50%, this memory will be ‘forgotten’ and memory loss can cause instability in the consciousness. It seems that this rule also applies to Guo Wei himself.”

Yin Ren hummed with interest.

Indeed, this theory could explain many problems.

For example, losing contact with Lu Xiaohe, or their inability to feel the existence of the broadcast Guo Wei, or the strange attack of unknown origin—if they were in Guo Wei’s consciousness, as the master of the consciousness, Guo Wei had a greater home-field advantage.

Huang Jin’s focus was elsewhere. He rubbed his face hard and said, “It’s not too late yet. Let’s make another big explosion here and escape quickly.”

“No,” Zhong Chengshuo withdrew his smile.

“Why? There are less than two hours left!”

“Because there are not enough clues.” This time, it was Yin Ren who answered. He looked at Zhong Chengshuo with a bit of solemnity in his eyes. “Zhong Chengshuo, you blew up the most irrelevant memory to test this point, right?”

Why did Guo Wei die with his consciousness still intact but there was no ghost?

Why did he trap them in his own consciousness and force them to play this ridiculous game?

…Could they really safely escape if they were still inside this consciousness, and it completely collapsed?

Huang Jin: “Or we can just blow things up one by one.”

“I can’t gamble on everyone’s life.” Zhong Chengshuo took out his headset from his pocket and put it back on his ears. “If our judgment is wrong, we’ll all be annihilated.”

Huang Jin was silent.

“Are we going to wait and see how the so-called ‘four chances’ are consumed?” A moment later, Huang Jin spoke again with difficulty.

“This is the optimal choice.” Zhong Chengshuo sat on the blasted iron gate. His back was facing the bloody morning sun outside the campus.

“It’s okay. We can also see through his tricks.” Yin Ren wrapped the tips of his hair around his fingertips and looked at the dark campus. “The other party is just a child. Even if it’s a child corrupted by Evil Force, we have dealt with one in the past.”

“Don’t be afraid.” Yin Ren directed this to Ge Tingting.

However, Ge Tingting didn’t respond to him. She was looking at the receding monster outside the campus, unknown of what she was thinking.

Soon, the class bell rang at midnight—

“Welcome to Qingjiang No. 16 High School.” Guo Wei’s voice was as cold as usual. “Welcome to the last day of my life.”

“All of you did not successfully leave the school. Teachers, family members, faculty, and students, please choose one to exclude from the quota.”

Snap.

The attack that everyone imagined didn’t come. A gun that was rough in shape fell from the void and quietly lay in front of the four of them.

“Play out your best memories and stay here.” The voice over the loudspeaker repeated. “Stay here.”

“Otherwise, all four of you will have to stay here.”

“Removing the best memories… It seems that it’s still the way to induce instability of the consciousness and cause a mental breakdown.”

Zhong Chengshuo picked up the gun and weighed it in his hand.

“I’ll do it.” Huang Jin sighed and stepped forward. “You said that our memories are just suppressed. As long as we can get out, Shian must have a way.”

“Yes.” A synthetic voice sounded.

Ge Tingting grabbed the gun. Her hands were slightly trembling, but her movements were firm.

“Huang Jin is a spirit smith and can continue to support you guys. If the three of you are still conscious, you’re most likely to escape.”

“Xiao Ge?!”

“In all aspects, this is the most optimal choice.” Ge Tingting didn’t let go of the gun.

“We may not be able to save you,” Zhong Chengshuo replied calmly.

“I’m not that weak.”

The soft synthetic voice echoed in the air. Ge Tingting turned her head sideways and glanced at Yin Ren.

“…I’m not that scared either.”

Before she finished her words, she acted.

Everything happened in an instant. Ge Tingting didn’t give them a chance to speak again. She grabbed Zhong Chengshuo’s hand and put the muzzle to her temple, then directly pulled the trigger.

“Bang!”

The sound of a gunshot echoed, shattering the silence.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 71: Four Erasers

Shian Campus.

Lu Xiaohe quickly tapped the keyboard. The air conditioning in the room was turned on, but sweat dripped from the tip of her nose and fell on the keyboard.

The signals of Unit 9 special investigation team had all disappeared at the same time.

This situation was unprecedented. Shian’s communication was based on Guo Laifu’s FM brainwaves. As long as Guo Laifu was still alive, the communication couldn’t be lost. Even if the people in Unit 9 forcibly committed suicide there, she would receive a very clear signal of death.

Was there a traitor?

No, there would always be a time difference when the monitoring equipment was removed. There was no sequence of abnormalities just now. The four people seemed to have sunk into the depths of a swamp at the same time without any ripples.

Abnormal band? Unknown interference?

Her gaze instantly swept across Guo Laifu’s rows of physiological data. Except for the occasional nightmarish mood swings, Guo Laifu’s brain didn’t have any changes.

Lu Xiaohe immediately connected to Hao Wenzhe, her immediate boss and Unit 1 rear commander in Shian.

Hao Wenzhe was a master programmer, specializing in artificial intelligence, and was one of the strongest science posts in Shian. He was currently serving as the rear commander of the Emergency Management Department. Between him and Professor Li, it was difficult to say which one was more difficult to communicate with.

“A major anomaly. We lost all communication signals in the Archive.” She didn’t use the internal communication software and instead called directly. “The four-person signal disappeared at the same time. Requesting emergency support.”

The man on the other side said, “Evil qi index? Traces of Evil Force?”

“All indices are normal. Only communication-related data suddenly dropped. The four of them didn’t differ in order. It’s suspected there’s an environmental impact.” Lu Xiaohe held her phone between her shoulder and head. Her fingers were jumping furiously on the keyboard. “I’m looking for more physiological indicators, but I still haven’t found a problem…”

Hao Wenzhe was silent for two seconds.

“Try wide-area FM,” he said. “If you need the support of my AI calculation, I’ll give you temporary permission.”

Lu Xiaohe’s fingers froze. “Wide-area FM? But…”

“Assuming there’s no problem with the communication equipment and there’s no abnormality in the brain itself, the most likely is the channel change.”

“But this is impossible,” Lu Xiaohe said in a daze.

Guo Laifu only had one brain. Even if he was schizophrenic or was possessed by a ghost, it stood to reason that it wouldn’t affect communication. Shian had never encountered such a precedent before, so “one brain, one channel” was described as the relevant iron rule.

“I don’t care if it’s impossible. I just gave the results.” Hao Wenzhe hummed perfunctorily. “Do you want my support or not?”

Without brainwave monitoring, finding an unknown channel was like finding a needle in a haystack. It was like asking a person to crack someone’s encrypted data, such as fingerprints or iris patterns, through the air, which was simply impossible with manpower.

But she didn’t have much choice.

Lu Xiaohe wiped the sweat from her face vigorously. “Yes!”

In less than half a minute, one of her screens went dark, and when it lit up again, there were countless rapidly flashing data points and waveforms on it.

Lu Xiaohe opened her handbag speechlessly and discharged two cans of energy drinks. After quickly downing a can, she exhaled fiercely and stared at the screen.

[Shian auxiliary computing system startup… loading…] An eye-catching dialogue box popped up on the screen.

[Permission has been confirmed. Hello, Lu Xiaohe. Cracking is about to begin. Please pay attention to the data changes and correct the calculation direction.]

[Cracking cannot be stopped after it’s initiated. Please make sure you are physically and mentally fit. Do you want to start now?]

Lu Xiaohe’s fingers paused for a moment on the enter key.

This thing was called a “brain juicer” by Shian internally. The operator had to concentrate throughout the process, monitoring every piece of feedback in the calculation and making decisions in real time. It was equivalent to a major operation with only one doctor. Once it began, there was no possibility of substitution.

She bit her lower lip and readjusted her breathing.

“Hello? Ah, mom.” After a while, Lu Xiaohe picked up her phone and dialed another number. “I’m going to be busy at work today, so I won’t go home for dinner.”

Lu Xiaohe’s tone was particularly brisk.

“Don’t wait up for me tonight… Mm, I’m spending the night at work. Don’t worry, I’m fine. I’m hanging up now.”

The phone touched the table with a soft clatter. The dialogue box waited quietly in front of her, and the word “start” was set with a blood red warning.

She tapped Enter.

……

“Welcome to Qingjiang No. 16 High School. Welcome to the last day of my life.”

Guo Wei’s voice floated in the dark.

“Teachers, family members, faculty, and students, you still have four chances left. Please work hard to leave the school.”

At the moment the broadcast sounded, the three people in the faculty dormitory were instantly awakened. Huang Jin grabbed the cloth bag next to the pillow, Ge Tingting listened with bated breath, and Zhong Chengshuo’s body was already in a fighting posture.

The next moment, a vision struck.

The noise from the loudspeaker disappeared, and the door of the faculty dorm shook, as if someone were unceremoniously slamming on it. However, Yin Ren didn’t feel any aura outside, and even a ghost in the normal sense didn’t exist there.

Amidst the banging on the door, Zhong Chengshuo’s voice was calm. “Who?”

The banging on the door suddenly stopped. For a while, the sound of a pin dropping could be heard.

Yin Ren shook his head slightly at Zhong Chengshuo and walked to the door. After the old-fashioned padlock was unlocked, Yin Ren cautiously cracked open the door.

Sure enough, there wasn’t anyone outside, but there was something on the ground…

Four erasers were neatly placed at the door. They were commonly used square erasers with “teacher”, “family member”, “faculty”, and “student” engraved on them. They were evenly spaced and stood at the door like four tombstones.

The moment he saw them, Yin Ren only felt a buzz in his head.

A bunch of fragmented pictures suddenly crashed into his mind.

It was past three in the afternoon. Finding that there was a communication problem with Lu Xiaohe, the four of them immediately tried to leave the campus. But just like the first time they tried to enter, they were firmly trapped in the school by an invisible barrier and were unable to move forward.

When it was four in the afternoon, after some discussion, the group decided to continue their search for the “cause”—if they found that they had lost each other, they would take action.

That weird Guo Wei wasn’t the target of their investigation.

After 5:00 p.m., the four of them decided to go to the faculty dorm to set up their stronghold when suddenly the world in front of Yin Ren was shattered.

As if pierced by an invisible bullet, something smashed into his temple and spewed out from the other side. A few erasers flew out and bounced on the slate floor a few times before rolling into the dirt.

Yin Ren looked at them in shock, intending to warn his companions. However, the moment he turned his gaze away, this thought instantly disappeared in his mind. He forgot everything about it and continued to stride leisurely towards the faculty dorm.

Seeing them again now, his memory instantly recovered.

Yin Ren reached for the four erasers. When he touched the one with “family member” written on it, it disappeared into thin air. The other three were in similar conditions.

The first time they saw these erasers, everyone immediately remembered the three hours they lost. When the erasers disappeared after being touched, their memories were restored.

All except for Zhong Chengshuo.

For the first time, this person resolutely refused to touch them. Zhong Chengshuo carefully put on gloves and only then proceeded to grab the eraser with “teacher” written on it.

This method of doing things was so weird that no one spoke. The atmosphere in the room was extremely gloomy, with only the sound of Zhong Chengshuo fiddling with the eraser left.

“This is… a warning?” Finally, Huang Jin spoke up with some difficulty.

Although he knew that Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo were powerful, his tone was still filled with worry. “I have never heard of this kind of attack.”

Ge Tingting’s expression was darkened, and she simply used text-to-speech. “I didn’t hear any strange noises at that time.”

“I’m sorry, vigilance was my main job.” She buried her head as she added this.

“It’s not your fault.” Yin Ren patted her on the shoulder. “’Guo Wei is showing us he has the ability to interfere with us. If he doesn’t do this, we may not play his escape game.”

If Ge Tingting could prevent this kind of trick, they wouldn’t be trapped here.

The situation wasn’t optimistic.

It was fine to lose irrelevant memories, but if important ones were taken away, it was enough to cause a huge mental shock. In this weird environment, being alone could daze people, and no one knew what the consequences of mental confusion would be.

Using Evil Force to overturn the chessboard would only be a last resort. Now the matter of the “cause” had to be put aside so they could deal with Guo Wei first.

Zhong Chengshuo hadn’t spoken this entire time. Yin Ren looked at the flattened eraser and found it difficult to say which one was more worried and helpless.

Encountering such a strange thing, there was no panic or fear on Zhong Chengshuo’s face. It would be better to say that he was in high spirits at the moment.

“This is a good opportunity to understand the capabilities of the other party. You have provided enough examples. I need to test more.”

As if feeling everyone’s scrutiny, Zhong Chengshuo explained while observing the eraser.

“Guo Wei can materialize our memories by some means. When we look at an object, our memories will be restored. After we look away, the relevant memory will disappear.”

Comrade Xiao Zhong happily continued, “Huang Jin, can you see thoughts on this thing?”

“No, it’s no different from the other things in here.” Huang Jin hesitated to speak but considering the other party’s status as “King Yama”, he answered honestly.

“Very good.” Zhong Chengshuo took out a small knife and pointed the blade straight at the “teacher” eraser.

Before Yin Ren consciously moved, his body was grabbed by Zhong Chengshuo, and his movements were full of warning.

“It’s okay,” Zhong Chengshuo said firmly. “Someone has to try, and the science post is the least susceptible.”

Those dark eyes quietly turned to Yin Ren as Zhong Chengshuo gently mouthed:

[I believe in you.]

Yin Ren was anxious upon seeing Zhong Chengshuo’s face. However, he had to admit that this person’s attempt was indeed necessary. Facing Guo Wei, they were lacking too much information.

Lord Ghost King bitterly let go of Zhong Chengshuo’s hand. “Okay, you can cut it.”

Wasn’t it just protecting this guy? He was used to this kind of thing.

The scene a few hours ago was replayed. Yin Ren struggled to get rid of his impression of Zhong Chengshuo fighting monsters. He clenched his hand and decided that if something went wrong, he would blow away the eraser.

Zhong Chengshuo cut the eraser carefully. The slices he made were so thin they looked like cicadas’ wings. Every time he cut a bit, Zhong Chengshuo would stop and take a closer look at the eraser, while Yin Ren would take a closer look at his partner.

“The item is missing more than 50%, and observation will not evoke memory… but it can be put back together.”

Half an hour later, Zhong Chengshuo took off his gloves.

“This situation is more like ‘repressing memories’ than ‘physically taking away memories’. Well, it’s a bit close to hypnosis or subconscious suggestion, so it’s no wonder it can affect me.”

After confirming Zhong Chengshuo was fine, Yin Ren breathed a sigh of relief.

“Then there’s only one question left.”

Yin Ren withdrew his hand that was resting on Zhong Chengshuo’s forehead to check his temperature as he spoke in an unhappy tone. “What does ‘Guo Wei’ want to do?”

“We don’t have enough clues.” Zhong Chengshuo took off his nightcap, dipped a towel in cold water, and wiped his face vigorously. “Let’s go out and have a look first.”

Before he finished speaking, Ge Tingting grabbed his sleeves.

The girl shook her head slowly and pointed in the direction of the window while she quickly typed with one hand.

“There’s a sound.” The synthetic voice sounded. “There’s a loud sound outside the window.”

Zhong Chengshuo was slightly startled. When he opened the curtains…

Seeing the scene outside, the four of them fell into silence in unison.

The streetlights outside the school were on, and it no longer looked like ink. The streets were empty, and there were no phantoms of students. The sky was normal, maintaining the darkness of night.

However, this normalcy was limited to the campus.

The faculty dorm was diagonally facing the gate, and the scene outside the gate was like hell.

In the darkness, weird limbs squeezed one by one, squirming uncontrollably. Long, sharp legs covered in mucus. Gray, white, and black colors were twisted into a mass that was rising and falling. Among the densely packed little monsters, several huge hands squeezed into the gap and scratched silently inward.

In the remaining gaps, the eyes of huge monsters blinked from time to time. They twitched uncontrollably and peeped openly.

In this way, the monsters were stripping layer after layer outside the “protective barrier” of the campus, forming a new wall with their bodies and wrapping around the small campus into a narrow bowl. It was completely different from the scene when they were in the hotel. These monsters seemed to be trying to squeeze in, but they couldn’t.

On the edge of the normal night sky, a faint corner of a huge vortex appeared, looking like a game where the modeling had gone wrong.

Yin Ren: “……”

What was going on? Looking at such a scene made him feel even less motivated to leave the school.

Having said that, when the outside buildings lit up, the monsters retreated like the tide before rushing to the campus gate again. Unlike the other side, which was sometimes bright and dark, the day and night in the school seemed to be aligned with the real world, which was somewhat touching.

The doorman was still the same strange-faced old man. He opened his window and stared at the four people in front of him.

“What are you doing in the middle of the night?”

“The child is seriously ill and must be sent to the hospital immediately,” Yin Ren said earnestly. “Her life is at stake, so can’t you do something to help?”

He and Zhong Chengshuo supported Ge Tingting, who was pretending to be dizzy, while Huang Jin tightly clutched a spirit weapon as he followed them closely.

The guard snickered. “You can’t leave even after death. This is the rule.”

He didn’t even give the four of them a chance to continue performing as he shut the window angrily.

At the moment the guard booth was closed, Huang Jin suddenly threw out his spirit weapon—a square wooden plaque was affixed to the metal sliding door and it exploded in an instant. The smoke and dust were scattered, and more than a dozen fire dragons rose into the sky. The explosion range wasn’t large, but the power wasn’t inferior to a bomb.

Even though the metal sliding door was stronger than they thought, it still became twisted from the explosion. The door rolled miserably to the ground, and its metal surface was blackened.

The doorman quickly opened the window and poked his head out. His face was covered with repeated swearing. Unfortunately, those words went in one ear and out the other to the four people in front of him…

The school gate was wide open now.

Was it that simple?

Amidst the filthy swears of the old doorman, Yin Ren tentatively stretched out a foot. The foot crossed the sliding door and was about to step on the ground but was forced to stop in midair.

He had stepped on the invisible barrier again.

Huang Jin took a deep breath while covering his face. He picked up the wood chips on the ground with a sullen face, and his movements revealed a deep sense of heartache.

“It seems the gate is just for show,” Yin Ren retracted his feet and said listlessly. “I guess the courtyard wall is similar—”

He raised his hand, and the twisted metal sliding door suddenly took off. A loud bang sounded as the sliding door slammed into the nearest courtyard wall like a missile, creating a huge hole in the wall.

The cursing of the old doorman suddenly increased by a few octaves.

Yin Ren grabbed the edge of the hole with both hands and tried to crawl out. Unfortunately, before Lord Ghost King’s shoulders crossed the wall, his forehead slammed into the transparent barrier.

“Heh, it really doesn’t work.”

Yin Ren rubbed his head, but there was no surprise in his tone.

“It seems that other conditions are required to leave,” Zhong Chengshuo said thoughtfully.

While the three of them were busy, Ge Tingting scratched the window sill of the guard booth, and a synthetic sound rang from her phone. “Grandpa, what’s the current time here?”

Doorman: “Aren’t you seriously ill?”

“Yes, a sudden illness with dizziness.” Ge Tingting’s synthetic voice was monotonous.

“Early self-study starts at 7:30 in the morning.” They weren’t sure if it was because he was talking to a child, but the old doorman stopped cursing, and his tone softened a little. “Tell me, what are you doing in the middle of the night? Aren’t you afraid of disturbing others?”

Ge Tingting read the words on her phone and then asked, “No one comes out at night?”

“How can anyone come out!” The old man screeched. “Go, go, go. Even if you have nothing to do, go back.”

……

It turned out the grandfather would always act like so.

What the old doorman said was true. The four of them wandered all night without finding a single breakthrough. Except for the faculty dormitory and the public bathrooms, the doors of all the buildings were chained. All the windows were like black holes, and there wasn’t a single figure on the campus.

Time soon became seven in the morning.

The deformed gate was still there, but phantoms of students had appeared again on the playground.

The members of Unit 9 wandered around the campus with compressed food in their mouths.

Several groups of students ran in circles around the playground, shouting vague slogans like “one, two, three, four”. More students came from the cafeteria door carrying buns and fritters with tea eggs. The aroma of breakfast made Yin Ren’s nose sour.

The cold beef jerky in his mouth instantly lost its taste. No matter how good the snacks were, they couldn’t compare to a steamed meat bun.

Wasn’t this an escape scenario? Why was the food so tempting?

Yin Ren tried to enter the cafeteria to have a look, but as soon as he arrived at the door, he was stopped by a vague-looking auntie.

“Are you the family member of the new teacher? Don’t you know the rules?” She spoke at the top of her lungs, and her illusory spit almost sprayed on Yin Ren’s face. “Teachers and their family members eat at the faculty cafeteria. This is the student cafeteria. You can’t enter.”

Yin Ren: “……” The experience in this unlucky game was extremely poor.

He returned to the team with a wilted head and sighed.

“It seems that not only is the time here the same as in the real world, but the activities of ‘people’ are also similar.” Zhong Chengshuo ignored the freshly smelling food. “Compared to blindly testing, we need to figure it out…”

“Wait, isn’t that Guo Wei?” Yin Ren suddenly interrupted his partner.

He looked at the door to the cafeteria—Guo Wei had two steamed buns in his hand and was walking with his head down.

This Guo Wei was very much alive, and his facial features were exceptionally clear. Although he didn’t really look “handsome”, he still had the unique youth of a young man.

He walked by the four of them without even looking at them.

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The author has something to say:

Snack suitcase vs student cafeteria, snack suitcase failed miserably.

No spoilers! I still remember Kong Wanqing by Daming Lake*, don’t worry (……

*It refers to remembering something from the past. This became a popular catchphrase online, spawning from what Ziwei said to the emperor in “Huan Zhu Ge Ge” (“Your Majesty, do you still remember Xia Yuhe by Daming Lake?”). This is referencing how the emperor played around with Xia Yuhe during his southern tour and promised to take her back to the palace, but never did. Xia Yuhe then gave birth to the emperor’s daughter, Xia Ziwei, who then confronted the emperor later by saying this. || In this context, the author is saying she hasn’t forgotten about Kong Wangqing and reminding readers to not either.

But I feel that everyone may have forgotten the eldest cousin by Daming Lake!

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[Mysterious character announces weird rules of the game]

Standard infinite flow*: Analyze the rules for the first time.

*Also known as unlimited flow. Genre in novels characterized by seemingly never-ending flow of survival games, puzzles, or entire worlds, in which the characters have to survive and can return to the real world or retrieve a reward that they desire.

Special Investigation Unit 9: I have come here, and work is urgent. I will continue to look for the cause of the disease.

Guo Wei: ? I’ll turn your brain into erasers so I can play with them.

From this, it can be concluded that this is not an infinite flow (???

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Kinky Thoughts:

I do love infinite flow, and perhaps one day I will pick up a project of that genre.

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