Chapter 253
Chapter 253
Somewhere in the real world, two adults and a child appeared out of thin air inside a dilapidated home.
They looked around blankly, then seemed to remember something.
“Tingting… Where’s Tingting?”
“I don’t know!”
“Tingting! Tingting!”
Unfortunately, no answer came. Tingting had already died the moment the pen awakened the Fiend within her heart.
In the art studio, Tingting hugged the chaotic picture and handed the pen to Liu Sibo.
“That man told me that if I met a child like me, I should give him the pen.”
Liu Sibo accepted it. A sudden pain stabbed through his ear.
[Ding! Body puzzle piece found: Ear!]
“That scared me to death. Liu Ye, you bastard! If I ever trust him again, I’m a pig!”
“What do I do? I really want to go home!”
“Brother Liu is way too dangerous. The pressure is unbearable!”
Voice after voice entered his ears. To his astonishment, none of the people around him had spoken. What he was hearing was their thoughts.
At that moment, Xiaoshuai looked at Liu Sibo.
Liu Sibo immediately heard a voice.
“He found another fragment. How many are left? Once he has them all, will he be able to hold Brother Liu back a little longer?”
Liu Sibo’s expression darkened. This man really was using him.
“You look awful. Are you feeling unwell?”
“No. Thank you.”
Liu Sibo pulled free of Xiaoshuai’s hand, walked to one side, and leaned against the wall.
Xiaoshuai’s eyes narrowed instantly. He had not said those words aloud.
After receiving the System notification, he had seen surprise flash across Liu Sibo’s face, followed by a trace of disgust when the boy looked at him.
He could think of nothing he had done to earn Liu Sibo’s disgust except one thing: he had lied to the boy about his own experiences.
Then how had Liu Sibo found out? The System had just mentioned an ear. Putting the two together, Xiaoshuai instantly guessed that the kid could… read minds?
Liu Sibo stared at Xiaoshuai in shock.
Xiaoshuai clapped with a beaming smile. He had guessed right!
“Heh. Young people’s expressions really are easy to read. So, what ability did your eye give you?”
Liu Sibo said nothing, merely watching Xiaoshuai warily.
“Fine, don’t tell me.”
Xiaoshuai asked John to send him the footage taken inside the room earlier. After watching for a while, he said with a smile,
“Illusion? X-ray vision? Or can you see Fiends?”
Liu Sibo did his utmost to keep his expression unchanged, but Xiaoshuai nodded anyway.
“Looks like that’s really it.”
In the footage, Liu Sibo had spent a long time staring into an empty corner. That made this the most likely answer.
Liu Sibo: “…”
Which one of us can read minds here, me or you?
“Don’t worry. I mean you no harm, at least, not during this mission. I’ll even help you gain your other abilities. All I ask is that you help me look after Brother Liu. Whatever you do, don’t let him run wild, or we’ll all die. Your ability should let you verify that I’m telling the truth, right?”
Liu Sibo fell silent. At least for now, Xiaoshuai’s words truly did come from the heart.
“By the way, can you sense where your puzzle pieces are?”
“All I know is that one of them is in the director’s office.”
Xiaoshuai then remembered the word Stomach written on the door when they had been in the director’s office earlier!
“Brother Liu, let’s go… Huh?”
Xiaoshuai stared at the empty space behind him, his expression changing drastically.
“Where’s Brother Liu?”
“He said he was going to the bathroom,” Brother Biao replied cautiously.
“And none of you followed him?” Xiaoshuai shouted in despair.
“We didn’t dare.” Brother Biao and the others looked aggrieved. Who would dare follow that little demon around?
Xiaoshuai was nearly losing his mind. He barked orders at the group.
“You people go to the surveillance room and find Brother Liu! You two, come with me to the director’s office!”
They hurried out at his command, only to discover that everything beyond the door had changed.
The entire hospital rearranged itself in an instant, like a set of building blocks. Then they found themselves in an unfamiliar room.
“What… what happened?”
Brother Biao spoke uneasily.
Liu Sibo’s face had gone pale. Through his eyes, everything around them radiated a terrifying white light.
“Xu Fei, this place…”
Before he could finish, an enormous, mountain-like fat man appeared before them with a kitchen knife in hand.
“Was there a Fiend like this in the mission?” Xiaoshuai immediately demanded of the director.
“N-no! There are Fiends here, but none that look like that!” the director wailed.
“Brother Guiwa!”
Xiaoshuai immediately shouted at the screen.
“It must be the hair! When Liu Ye was little, he had an ability that could revive Fiendish Items as Fiends. We didn’t pay much attention to it back then.”
After all, having another poor wretch to share their suffering had been a good thing for them. Unfortunately, the revived Fiends were too weak and changed back after Liu Ye had played with them for only a few days. After this happened several times, they no longer wanted to become Fiends even when Liu Ye’s hair fused with them.
That was how the ability gradually faded away.
“So the hair must have fused into the people in the hospital and turned them into Fiends.”
“Fuck! You should’ve told us that sooner!”
Xiaoshuai and the others immediately fled like mad. Their only possible savior now was Liu Sibo. Through the necklace, Xiaoshuai could sense the yin energy within Liu Sibo growing stronger. The boy still had no means of attacking, however, so they had to find the next puzzle piece as soon as possible.
Before long, they spotted a room. Xiaoshuai yanked open the door and rushed inside, with the rest close behind.
Once everyone was inside, they discovered that the room connected to the outdoors. They now stood atop an enormous cliff, with a grave mound at its far end.
The mound was extremely crude, built entirely from bricks and stones. A single plank of wood had been driven into the ground in front as a tombstone.
Having escaped the danger, everyone had just started to relax when Xiaoshuai noticed something wrong with Brother Biao and the others.
“You…”
The hair of Brother Biao and the others turned white in an instant. Wrinkles appeared across Director Zhao’s once well-maintained face.
Only Xiaoshuai and Liu Sibo remained unaffected. Xiaoshuai guessed that Xiaoqian’s jade pendant was protecting him. Liu Sibo also remained fine because he carried two Fiends within him. The others were not so fortunate.
“Get out, quick!”
Xiaoshuai tried to open the door, but it vanished before his eyes. They were trapped.
“Brother Fei, are we going to die?”
Brother Biao spoke through his tears.
“No. Don’t worry. I won’t let you die here,” Xiaoshuai said solemnly.
Liu Sibo was surprised. Xiaoshuai genuinely meant it.
Brother Biao and the other three brightened and were about to speak when Xiaoshuai continued.
“It would be such a waste to let you die like this!”
Liu Sibo: “…”
That was sincere too.