"Hmm?"
Ke Su, who had just encountered an unexpected incident, stopped in his tracks, his gaze shifting from his phone to the red ball that had hit his arm and then rolled to his feet.
The dark red ball looked old-fashioned, clearly a relic from the last century. Judging by the faded cartoon design, it seemed to be some child's toy.
Which naughty kid was responsible for this?
As he was pondering, Ke Su caught a glimpse of a small boy out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look, and sure enough, a little boy with black hair and unusually pale skin came into view. His eyes, without any whites, looked as though he was wearing some kind of lenses.
Since the university campus of the City of Li wasn’t fully enclosed, it wasn’t uncommon for outsiders to wander around. Seeing a child wasn’t particularly strange to Ke Su.
Guessing the ball belonged to the boy, Ke Su picked it up and looked toward him.
“Is this your ball?”
He hit someone and didn’t even apologize?
Looking at the unfamiliar child, Ke Su felt he might have encountered some otherworldly version of a mischievous brat.
The Blind Boy stood there dumbly, his small figure, barely 1.3 meters tall, appearing frail and pitiful. His body trembled violently, as if facing something incomprehensibly terrifying, unable to move.
Seeing the boy standing there frozen, Ke Su furrowed his brows in confusion, assuming the child was simply shy. He took a few steps forward, intending to return the ball.
Though the ball had hit him, he wasn’t about to hold a grudge against a five- or six-year-old.
When the blind boy saw Ke Su approach, his rigid face suddenly twisted into an expression of sheer terror. The boy turned to run, but in his panic, stumbled and fell. He didn’t even bother trying to get up, instead scrambling away in a clumsy, rolling crawl.
"...."
Ke Su felt like he had just witnessed the birth of an Olympic sprint champion.
He runs fast, he thought, amused.
Are you going to leave the ball?
Glancing at the red ball in his hand, Ke Su hesitated briefly before placing it by the roadside, figuring the child would return for it.
Leaving the ball behind, he continued walking forward.
Unbeknownst to him, the ball, which had hit him, slowly decayed once placed on the ground. It crumbled into dust, vanishing into the air. At the same time, a baseball bat held by Zhou Shi in the inner world unexpectedly split in half, rendering it useless.
Walking along the empty path, Ke Su was unaware of these strange events. No longer in the mood to play with his phone, he put it away and observed his surroundings.
The City of Li’s university was eerily quiet, devoid of people. Even the faintest signs of life were absent. It felt even more silent than when he had first arrived. While this odd stillness puzzled him, the dislike he felt toward this school kept him from lingering. He quickened his pace, eager to leave the place that the original owner of his body so deeply resented.
Up ahead, not far from where he walked, Ke Su finally saw another figure. The person stood in a strange pose, almost as if performing some kind of performance art.
From a distance, he saw a muscular man dressed in a suit, wearing a smiling face mask. The man’s left hand was raised above his head, his right arm wrapped around his neck to grip his left wrist, legs spread wide, body bent forward, and completely still—a comical sight.
As Ke Su got closer, he realized there wasn’t just one person performing this bizarre act. There was also a young man with a baby face, striking the exact same pose as the smiling face mask man. The only difference was that the baby-faced boy wasn’t wearing a mask or suit. His expression was frozen in terror, beads of sweat faintly visible on his forehead, looking like he was struggling.
Ke Su observed the baby-faced boy for a moment and noticed his eyes moving, glancing toward him.
In response, Ke Su kindly raised his phone.
Click—
He snapped a photo, perfectly capturing the baby-faced boy and the smiling mask man in their absurd poses.
It’s rare to encounter performance artists, it’d be a shame not to take a picture, he thought. Checking the photo, he switched the camera to selfie mode and took a three-person group shot.
Click— Cheese.
Ke Su stared blankly at the camera, muttering the word "cheese" in his head, as taking photos seemed to require a ceremonial touch, even if he wasn’t accustomed to smiling for the camera.
Ever since he transmigrated into this world, he had become more expressionless. He often felt it wasn’t worth expending energy to make facial expressions, as if it was a completely meaningless effort.
Baby-face—Xiao Wu—stared in disbelief as the young student in front of him calmly took pictures. His eyes were wide with shock.
This guy? Why is nothing happening to him? Why isn’t he affected by the Smiling Face Man?
Although Xiao Wu had no idea how this student had avoided the Smiling Face Man's deadly effect, he desperately wanted to warn him to leave. He continued to move his eyes with difficulty, frantically signaling for the stranger to get away.
Run!
This place!
There's an A-grade terrifying entity, the Smiling Face Man!
Xiao Wu vividly remembered the entity from the archives. It had an extraordinarily high danger rating. Its conditions for killing were nearly impossible to evade, and it had claimed thousands of lives before its weakness was discovered and it was contained. By all rights, it shouldn’t even be here. It should be locked up in the neighboring Federal Protection Zone's base.
But reality was stranger than fiction. Due to some bizarre effect of the S-grade paranormal incident at City of Li University, many previously contained entities had appeared. If it weren’t for Xiao Wu’s extensive knowledge of the archives, he might not have even recognized this one.
Even with its weakness, the Smiling Face Man was almost impossible to deal with. Xiao Wu had barely had time to react before being caught by its death sentence. Now, he could only stand there helplessly, awaiting his end.
He had been stuck there for five minutes already, and in five more, he would become a statue, a lifeless piece of art.
Smiling Face Man: Appearance: A tall male figure, 187 cm in height, with a muscular build and wearing a suit. His face is concealed by a smiling mask, and he always maintains a comical posture. Any human who sees him will instinctively mimic the pose, spreading the effect to others. Once a person mimics the pose, they turn into a statue in ten minutes. When fewer than three people are present, closing your eyes can prevent infection. If there are three or more, proximity to the Smiling Face Man or its statues within a ten-meter range will trigger infection. Weakness: Applauding will cause the Smiling Face Man to stop, bow, and halt the infection process.
Xiao Wu didn’t know how to save this innocent student. He suspected that the young man might have some resistance to paranormal entities, but who knew how long that resistance would last?
This rare individual with such a special ability shouldn’t die here!
Xiao Wu exerted every bit of energy to twitch his eye muscles. He desperately tried to steer the student’s gaze away from the Smiling Face Man to avoid further infection, crossing his eyes in the process.
Facing Xiao Wu’s almost pure white eyes, Ke Su was silent.
“...”
First, there was the boy who ran away in terror, and now this performance artist rolling his eyes. Was he really that unpleasant to look at?
Ke Su touched his handsome face in frustration, beginning to question himself.
Unconvinced, he turned toward the other performance artist, hoping for a different reaction, at least not another eye roll.
The Smiling Face Man, still maintaining its comical pose, had subtly inched its legs apart, trying to sneak away without being noticed, as if searching for a new spot to perform its art.
The moment Ke Su looked at it, the Smiling Face Man froze, pretending to be a mere statue. The mask on its face was faintly peeling, and the red-painted smile looked like it was starting to droop, turning into a frown.
Just then, Xiao Wu realized he could move again. Wasting no time, he raised his hands and began to clap loudly.
“Clap Clap Clap！！！”
The man with the smiling face who was installing the statue froze for a moment under Ke Su’s gaze. In the end, he couldn't resist his instincts and deeply bowed, performing a respectful gesture. With each step, he made another bow, as though he was humbly knocking his head to the ground. In this bizarre manner, the man with the smiling face disappeared into the distance.
Xiao Wu's hands continued to clap until his palms were red and swollen, while his legs were too weak to stand. He could only watch in stunned silence as the A-grade specter, the man with the smiling face, left in a bizarre manner not documented in any of their records. Though confused by the situation, Xiao Wu was grateful to have escaped with his life.
It wasn't until the man with the smiling face vanished from sight that Xiao Wu stopped clapping, still shaken by fear. Having just recovered from a petrified state, his tongue felt numb, and he couldn't even speak. When he raised his head, he saw the young student in front of him looking at him with the kind of gaze one would give to a mentally ill person.
They stood in silence.
“……”
Xiao Wu, coming to his senses, realized that his frantic clapping might have seemed insane to an outsider. With a pale face, he explained, “You have to believe me, that man was not a normal person—he was a specter!”
Ke Su silently looked at him. He thought that neither of these two odd characters seemed entirely normal, but seeing Xiao Wu's weakened state, he kindly kept his thoughts to himself.
Unable to fully explain the situation in a short time, and seeing that Ke Su was skeptical, Xiao Wu could only sigh and urge him to leave the City of Li University with him as quickly as possible.
This place was far too dangerous. In just a few minutes, they'd encountered two specters, and his seniors had all mysteriously disappeared. As a newly promoted field agent, Xiao Wu knew he couldn’t handle this and decided it was best to retreat.
Since Ke Su had been planning to leave anyway, seeing Xiao Wu’s anxious expression and stumbling steps, he didn't refuse to accompany him.
Walking beside Ke Su, Xiao Wu remained on high alert, scanning the surroundings as he explained what had happened earlier. Ke Su listened with a blank expression, as though hearing the tired plot of a third-rate sci-fi novel.
Through the entire explanation, the only thing that caught Ke Su’s attention was when Xiao Wu mentioned that their department was directly funded and overseen by the President.
Ke Su paused and asked, “Are you government employees?”
Xiao Wu, mid-explanation about the man with the smiling face, was caught off guard by the question. He stammered, “Uh, sort of…”
Ke Su's eyes lit up. Remembering his need for a job, he asked, “Are you hiring?”
If even this kind of supernatural nonsense could be part of the official workforce, Ke Su thought he might have a shot at joining.
Having noticed earlier that Ke Su might possess some kind of resistance to specters, or even latent abilities, Xiao Wu was eager to recruit him to their department. He enthusiastically began to outline the benefits of joining: their team members were highly educated, had grand ambitions, and were well-funded. Apart from the constant lack of equipment and the high mortality rate, the job had virtually no downsides.
Currently a university dropout, Ke Su remained silent.
Education was his eternal sore spot. In his previous life, after struggling for years to get a good education, it had all gone to waste in this one. What a tragedy.
Before long, the two of them, talking as they walked, arrived at the main gate of the City of Li University. As soon as they stepped outside, a group of uniformed personnel rushed toward them. They surrounded Xiao Wu, bombarding him with questions about his condition. Before he could even catch his breath, he was whisked away by the crowd eager for answers.
Ke Su, mistaken for a rescued student, was also ushered onto a bus prepared to take them back to the city. Enjoying the free ride back to the city center, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of comfort, easing some of his sadness over his lost academic credentials.
Beep beep—
After getting off the bus in the center of the city, Ke Su didn’t have to walk far before he arrived home. It was already four o’clock in the afternoon, and the sky outside was a leaden gray, heavy with the threat of rain.
Ke Su put away the file he had retrieved from the school, feeling too exhausted from the day's events to play games. Instead, he lay down on his bed and closed his eyes to rest.
His mind wandered back to what Xiao Wu had told him about the specters.
As a firm materialist, Ke Su had seen plenty of scams in his previous life, designed to deceive the elderly with superstitious nonsense. He was naturally skeptical. No matter how much Xiao Wu talked about this so-called Special Incident Department, Ke Su couldn't easily accept that his worldview might need to change.
Unless one day he actually saw a specter for himself, he couldn’t force himself to believe in them just based on words alone.
Take that masked man from earlier, for example. Ke Su couldn’t find any resemblance between him and the terrifying ghosts from horror films in his previous life.
Still, if ghosts were real, it would be pretty terrifying.
Ke Su knew himself well enough to recognize that as an ordinary person, he wouldn’t stand a chance against a specter. If he did encounter one, he would likely die a horrible death.
Besides, if ghosts really did exist, the original host of this body wouldn’t have died with such regrets. After all, if revenge were possible, wouldn't it be more satisfying to return as a vengeful ghost?
As these thoughts swirled in his mind, Ke Su gradually drifted off to sleep. Perhaps dreams are influenced by what we think about during the day, for he found himself back at the City of Li University, high in the sky like before. Just like in his previous dream, which had been filled with ants, Ke Su saw his limbs materialize, and, naturally, he bent down to look below. He saw a world of flesh and blood, with tiny humans struggling to survive.
Some of them raised their heads and saw him, their faces showing expressions of extreme shock, as though they were witnessing the end of the world.
Extra Scene:
Facing Ke Su’s gaze.
The rubber ball: I can't explain this because I'm just a little ball 【spontaneously combusts.jpg】
The baseball bat: I can explain 【cracks on the spot.jpg】
The man with the smiling face: 【bows madly.jpg】
The blind boy: 【flees with a train on his back.jpg】
☞ Chapter 20
Comments
Post a Comment