Chapter 109: Severed Strings

Something’s wrong…

On a high-rise rooftop outside Satellite City, the Man in the Red Suit suddenly opened his eyes, his brow deeply furrowed.

The Big-headed Boy beside him nervously asked, “What is it?”

The Man in the Red Suit looked pale, his expression tinged with an inexplicable confusion.

He lifted his left hand, lightly curling his pinky finger, then his index finger, before clenching all five into a fist.

He squeezed his palm tightly, the confusion deepening on his face, almost looking bewildered.

After a pause, he spoke softly, “I’ve lost contact with all the puppets I left there…”

“It’s like… the connection between us has been completely severed.”

…

The Big-headed Boy stared, stunned, his face etched with disbelief.

Qin Ran asked calmly, “Which one?”

The Man in the Red Suit’s voice was dry. After a moment of silence, he answered, “Every single one.”

Qin Ran fell silent, gazing thoughtfully towards Qinggang City.

In his hand, the lines on the instrument panel spiked wildly, forming sharp peaks.

The Big-headed Boy tilted his head, looking at the Man in the Red Suit. “That sounds strange. How could you just lose the puppets? Could it be the distance? Maybe they went beyond your control range?”

“Impossible!”

The Man in the Red Suit shook his head. “The range is ten kilometers. I’ve tested it many times.”

Qin Ran calmly asked in a low voice, “Did you see anything before the connection was cut?”

The Man in the Red Suit thought for a moment. “Before I fully inhabit a puppet’s body, depending on its unique brain structure and modification level, there’s initial chaos before I gain true control. So, before my vision clears, there’s usually some static, hallucinations, large flashing blanks, and so on…”

He paused slightly, adding, “I don’t know if it was just a hallucination.”

“This time, when I opened my eyes, I thought I saw a woman… smiling at me…”

…

The Big-headed Boy blinked, muttering, “Are you that desperate for a woman?”

The Man in the Red Suit didn’t respond, just looked quietly at Qin Ran.

“Then let’s not wait any longer!”

Qin Ran gazed silently towards Qinggang City, seemingly lost in thought.

After a long moment, he suddenly looked down at the electronic screen remote in his hand, at a red button. “Prepare for withdrawal!”

The Big-headed Boy was surprised. “Boss, data logs at this level might not even get us paid…”

“The mission to record experimental data on the Mental Pollution Bomb is declared a failure.”

Qin Ran spoke very calmly. Simultaneously, he turned and signaled for retreat to the lookout personnel.

However, his decision surprised both the Big-headed Boy and the Man in the Red Suit.

They hadn’t expected their boss to abandon a mission so easily.

“Do you know why I’ve managed to live this long?”

Qin Ran seemed to read their minds, glancing at them with a smile. “It’s because even though I have abilities, I’ve always maintained the caution of an ordinary person. When it’s time to retreat, I never let greed get the better of me.”

Saying this, he pressed the button without hesitation.

…

…

“What happened?”

When the sound of scissors snipping echoed, panic erupted in several places.

Beneath the High Wall, hidden behind a secret door, someone holding a camera carefully aimed the lens at the young man standing atop a blurry, distorted force field, appearing at first glance to be flying mid-air.

He was a veteran investigator and knew it was impossible to record Mental Monsters. So, he focused solely on capturing the young man’s every move. During this, the target’s exaggeratedly distorted figure, his extreme speed, and even the excited, contemptuous expression he wore while facing the Mental Monster chilled the investigator to the bone.

He didn’t know what he was filming, but he knew it was incredibly valuable.

Tense, he held his breath, filming silently.

Suddenly, the view through his lens blurred, the camera feed becoming distorted.

Thinking something was interfering with the lens, he flinched and instinctively looked up.

Then he realized… he couldn’t see anything at all.

A surge of panic hit him, and he let out an uncontrollable cry of terror.

A calm voice crackled urgently through his headset, “Mole, what’s wrong?”

He tried to answer, but only a gurgling sound came from his throat; he couldn’t speak.

It was as if his vocal cords had been severed.

He reached out desperately, trying to touch the camera beside him. But before his fingertips made contact, he saw the camera’s body begin to warp and crumble, slowly crushed into pieces by an invisible force.

…

…

On a high-rise building a kilometer away, a woman observing the battlefield through a long-range telescope reacted instantly to the snipping sound. She cautiously stepped back, crouched slightly, drew a black dagger, and scanned the direction the sound came from. But there was nothing there, utterly empty. It felt like a hallucination.

Even the mental detection alarm clipped to her waist remained silent.

“Was I just too tense?”

The woman stayed crouched for a while before slowly standing up. A chill ran through her as wind blew in from the open window.

She subconsciously glanced down and found her clothes over her chest neatly split open down the middle.

It looked as if someone had carefully cut them open with scissors.

Startled, she leaped backward, drawing a handgun and aiming it first forward, then quickly behind her.

Still nothing…

Only then did she realize and look down properly.

Beneath the parted clothes, a thin line of blood stretched from her lower abdomen all the way up to her throat.

She jolted in realization. It wasn’t just her clothes that had been cut.

…

…

Inside a sealed room, someone sat quietly on a sofa, reporting into an encrypted channel: “I see Mr. Lone Soldier engaging a Mental Monster. The monster’s magnitude is high; I don’t dare get too close. But what’s strange is… Mr. Lone Soldier doesn’t seem entirely human right now either. There’s like a distorted mental presence around him…”

His voice abruptly stopped.

A voice softly sounded on the channel, “Continue. Distorted what?”

But after calling out for a long time with no response, the person on the other end realized something was wrong and suddenly cut the channel.

In the dead silence, the person on the sofa remained sitting quietly.

Only… their head was tilted gently to one side.