Chapter Thirty-Eight: Illusions

Seeing that it was Li Ming, Zhang Yang felt as if he had grabbed onto a sliver of hope.

“Li Ming, don’t move from there, I’m coming right over!” he shouted anxiously, then immediately sprinted in that direction.

“Hurry up, I’m leaving first. You keep up behind me,” Li Ming called back, sounding a little impatient as he started walking forward.

“Li Ming! What are you doing? Careful, or I’ll report you for insubordination when we get out of here!” Zhang Yang panicked when he saw Li Ming moving away again, afraid he would end up alone.

That threat seemed to work. Li Ming stopped, turned to look at him, and said, “Then hurry up, a little faster.”

Zhang Yang was already at the end of his strength, but Li Ming’s words forced him to dig deep for one last burst of energy. He ran, desperate, and as he drew closer to Li Ming, his heart eased a little, thinking he might finally escape this place.

But just then, Li Ming’s expression changed!

The playful look twisted into a mocking sneer. “You come just because I tell you to? Are you a dog?”

Zhang Yang was stunned by those words, but he managed to force a smile. “Li Ming, what are you saying? I shouldn’t have threatened you before, but haven’t we fought side by side so many times? Isn’t that too much?”

Li Ming burst out laughing, a chilling sound. Then, before Zhang Yang’s eyes, he began to shrink and change shape—his skin turning pale, his human flesh fading away, until what stood there was a porcelain doll.

The doll’s expression was disturbingly grotesque, its two eyes fixed on him with a fierce, twisted grin.

“What… what are you?” Zhang Yang instinctively took a step back. He tried to summon his own strange entity for protection, but he was too exhausted—his mind couldn’t muster the strength, and the entity lay dormant.

The doll stepped toward him, and Zhang Yang collapsed to the floor in terror. “Don’t come any closer!”

The doll shook its head and pointed behind him. “Look. What do you see there?”

Zhang Yang turned in the direction the doll indicated. To his shock, he saw another version of himself running frantically.

“What is going on? What are you?” A deep, primal fear gripped Zhang Yang—humans are instinctively unsettled by their own doppelgängers, and seeing another self running in wild desperation made his skin crawl.

The doll shook its head again. “I’m a strange entity. Don’t you understand?”

“Nonsense! How could a strange entity have intelligence like yours? Besides, you don’t even have the aura of one!” Zhang Yang roared, trying to mask his fear with anger.

“Oh? Is that so?” As soon as the doll finished speaking, a terrifying aura erupted from it, swelling from nothing to something that felt like an S-class threat.

The oppressive force crushed the air from Zhang Yang’s lungs. He scrambled to his feet, desperate to escape, but as soon as he rose, a pair of hands yanked him down.

He looked down to see countless large hands sprouting from the floor, encircling the entire room. He struggled to pull his legs free, but the next moment, his arms were seized as well—he was pinned, unable to move.

He tried to cry out, but another hand clamped over his mouth. The hands, as if alive, dragged him relentlessly below the floor.

He was pulled into a pitch-black space, the cramped enclosure suffocating him. As he fought to break free, a claw suddenly stabbed into the ground near him, and a chilling voice echoed in the darkness.

“Don’t struggle. Or you might die.”

The voice was eerily cold, echoing as if from the depths of a cavern, sending a shiver down his spine.

Zhang Yang shook his head frantically, but no words would come out.

Not long after, claws kept reaching out from the darkness, each one stoking the terror in Zhang Yang’s heart, until he finally passed out from fright.

...

Meanwhile, Niu Ben, watching Zhang Yang and Li Ming pacing in place not far off, grew puzzled. He called out a warning, but they acted as if they hadn’t heard, continuing to walk forward in a daze.

Niu Ben’s anxiety grew, but Li Ming had told him not to move, and he didn’t dare disobey. Yet standing still gnawed at his nerves, so he gritted his teeth and ran over to warn the two of them.

It wasn’t far—just a few steps and he was at their side. He patted their backs. “You two have been pacing in place this whole time. There’s something wrong with this room. Maybe we should wait and see if there’s a way out.”

But as Li Ming and Zhang Yang slowly turned to face him, their faces were completely blank, their expressions unnervingly empty.

Li Ming spoke in a hollow voice: “Didn’t I tell you not to move? Why did you come over?” The tone was utterly emotionless, like a machine mimicking Li Ming’s speech.

The very lack of emotion made the eeriness all the more intense.

“I… I just wanted to warn you,” Niu Ben stammered, inexplicably afraid as he moved closer to Zhang Yang—for whenever Li Ming bullied him in the past, Zhang Yang had always stepped in.

But as soon as he got close, he felt a chill radiating from Zhang Yang. Instinctively, he looked over to see Zhang Yang’s face was just as blank and empty, staring straight at him.

“What’s wrong with you two?” Sensing something was very wrong, Niu Ben began to back away.

But after only a few steps, he bumped into something soft and plush. Turning, he saw a massive teddy bear, radiating a powerful, sinister aura—a B-class threat at least.

“What? A strange entity—and so strong! Run!” He shouted toward Li Ming and Zhang Yang, then turned to flee.

But in the next instant, Li Ming and Zhang Yang appeared beside him out of nowhere, seizing him in a vice-like grip. Both whispered into his ears, over and over: “Don’t resist. Don’t resist.”

Niu Ben was terrified. He struggled desperately, trying to break free, but no matter what he did, their grip wouldn’t loosen.

As the gigantic teddy bear drew nearer, he bit down on Zhang Yang’s hand with all his might. It was like biting into steel—not only was Zhang Yang unhurt, but Niu Ben nearly broke his own teeth.

“You forced me!” With no other choice, he summoned his own strange entity. “If you don’t let go, don’t blame me for what happens!”

But the two of them still refused to release him. Gritting his teeth, Niu Ben sent his entity flying toward the pair.

Yet as soon as the entity reached them, the two seemed to dissolve, collapsing into heaps of raw flesh.

“When did I get this strong? No, did I just kill them?”

Niu Ben was bewildered by what he’d done. What was happening here?

But the flesh piles began to rapidly grow and expand. Each lump sprouted into a new, independent Li Ming or Zhang Yang. In the blink of an eye, the entire room was filled with countless Zhang Yangs and Li Mings.