Chapter 146
Chapter 146
The young man did not know that Xiao Huai had thrown noise grenades. They did not injure people with high-velocity shrapnel.
Instead, the explosions produced tremendously powerful sound waves at an extreme volume, stripping targets of the ability to resist.
Ordinary humans could not withstand noise at that volume, much less these “humans” with enormous ears.
As the three fled, the noise grenades unleashed a piercing shriek.
If ordinary alarms and ringtones merely irritated the monsters, a weapon capable of destroying hearing drove every one of them into a frenzy.
They pounded the ground and shrieked, trying to cancel one sound wave with another. One or two might have managed, but dozens screaming at once inflicted thirty times more damage upon themselves than upon their enemy.
The louder it became, the louder they screamed.
Completely unaware that they were now the true source of the noise. Before long, the monsters looked ready to faint.
As expected, they were not very intelligent.
Xiao Huai had achieved his goal. The monsters would not catch up anytime soon.
When the flaxen-haired young man realized all this, undisguised shock spread across his face.
When had the Brother Wang he knew become so bold?
His grip on the girl’s hand tightened.
Yes. This had to be the power of a father’s love.
He had no idea that the person before him was not the Brother Wang he knew at all.
The three finally escaped the hidden passage and returned to the fork.
The young man doubled over, panting so hard he could barely breathe. He hurriedly crouched beside Xiaotian. “Xiaotian, I never expected to find you here. Can you tell Uncle what happened?”
Xiaotian kept staring at Xiao Huai, her expression strange. She did not look like a daughter reunited with her long-lost father, but like someone wondering why her father was there at all.
She looked away and complained, “Bad people took me.”
Xiao Huai lowered his eyes toward her. Playing the part of a loving father, he picked her up and lifted her high.
Xiaotian froze, her eyes widening.
Xiao Huai said, “Xiaotian is such a good girl. A bad person told you to come along, so you simply let them take you.”
The young man stared.
Why did that sound so strange?
And faintly sarcastic?
Xiaotian fell silent.
The young man looked at Xiao Huai. “Ahem. Brother Wang, you certainly have a unique way of teaching children. It isn’t safe here either. We should leave first.”
Xiao Huai set Xiaotian down, then vigorously ruffled her hair until both buns became a complete mess.
Her brow twitched, and a fleeting eye roll crossed her face.
Ignoring her expression, Xiao Huai led the other two down the opposite path.
The young man’s heart raced. He was both excited and afraid: excited because they were close to leaving and would be safe once outside, afraid because monsters still wandered throughout the institute.
They could probably handle a small number, but if they encountered another crowd like the last one…
Escaping would depend entirely on fate.
They walked for an unknown length of time without seeing any sign of an exit.
Confusion appeared on the young man’s face. “Strange. This isn’t right. How can the path be this long?”
Xiao Huai showed no anxiety. He walked in front, saying nothing despite knowing something was wrong.
Xiaotian followed last. Ordinarily, her “father” should have been holding her hand, but Xiao Huai had no intention of doing so.
Ever since finding her, his performance as a loving father had been laughably false.
At last, the young man could no longer stand it. With no end to the path in sight, he went to Xiao Huai. “Brother Wang, are you in a bad mood? Xiaotian has been far behind you for a long time.”
Xiao Huai turned toward her, and Xiaotian raised her head to meet his gaze.
The young man expected another display of fatherly concern, but Xiao Huai slowly said two words.
“Miss Qi Sha.”
Xiaotian’s pupils widened. A moment later, a smile appeared on her lips.
Her appearance began changing. She rapidly grew taller as every trace of the child disappeared.
Long black curls fell to her waist. Gothic lace adorned her black-and-white dress, a long whip hung at her side, and a cold smile gleamed in her brown eyes.
“I wondered why this felt so strange. You aren’t Little Wang at all. After all, I killed him with my own hands.”
The young man’s eyes widened. “Wh-what’s happening?”
What did she mean? Was Brother Wang already dead? And what exactly was Xiaotian?
Qi Sha did not spare him a glance. Her eyes remained on Xiao Huai. “Don’t you intend to show your true face?”
Xiao Huai said nothing. His Disguise gradually dissolved, and his red eyes regarded her with unruly laziness.
The young man’s jaw almost hit the ground.
In the blink of an eye, both Xiaotian and Brother Wang had become different people.
In other words, neither Xiaotian nor Brother Wang had existed from the start.
“You’re very lucky to have encountered this little fellow.” Qi Sha looked at the young man. “To ensure the game’s authenticity, I preserved them in their truest states, memories and personalities included.”
She snapped her fingers. The young man dissolved into dark blue fragments and vanished.
Qi Sha possessed the souls of these NPCs and could repeatedly use them to create entertaining game instances.
She looked at Xiao Huai. “If only your soul belonged to me. I would make excellent use of you and create the most entertaining instance imaginable.”
Xiao Huai regarded her calmly, a faint smile curving his lips. “Would you? That sounds rather boring, doesn’t it?”
Once Qi Sha controlled his soul, she would know everything about him. The supposedly entertaining instance would cease to exist.
They were all players within the board, acting in a play within a play.
But as a player, Xiao Huai made countless unexpected moves, each one tugging violently at the heart.
“You disguised yourself as Xiaotian because you didn’t want it to be boring.” Xiao Huai paused. “When we thought the mission was about to succeed, only to discover the child we saved was not the person in the man’s dying wish… How deep would our despair have been?”
He deliberately looked sorrowful, though no emotion touched his eyes.
Xiao Huai had seen through Qi Sha completely.
An elegant smile remained on her face, but inside she wondered how a mere human could understand the minds of evil gods so thoroughly.
If he were a god, perhaps he would create an enormous upheaval.
He was a natural genius at controlling and playing with hearts.
Qi Sha asked, “Was I that obvious?” She thought her performance had been quite good. At the very least, she had appeared pitiful and vulnerable.
Xiao Huai smiled faintly. Someone else might indeed have softened at the sight of a miserable little girl.
To Xiao Huai, however, every part of her had looked false.
First, she remained silent despite knowing the monsters were sensitive to sound, yet had called her father.
That was no different from murder. Even if the man died early, the call also served as an instruction to destroy the phone.
Second, the researchers’ corpses had been twisted too perfectly, as though someone had carefully created a horrifying and disgusting tableau.
If the players followed the ordinary route to the main research chamber and looked up to find those bodies, how deeply would the sight shock them?
After struggling through countless dangers and rescuing the girl, how certain would they be that they had found the right person?
The corpses had been arranged, the appearance fabricated, and the performance meticulously designed.
The sole flaw lay in the daughter’s reaction to seeing her father.
It was far too false.