Chapter 3: Cornered in the Subway

Go… gone?

In the distant building, all the observation personnel stared blankly at their monitors.

The intense conflict anticipated in the simulations never happened, rendering the three prepared response plans useless.

It was clearly a standard Level 1 Mental Pollution zone, clearly a mental mutant with limitless potential. Their encounter should have been a perfect opportunity for mutual stimulation and assessment. Through this chance, they could pinpoint the source of pollution in the coffee shop for precise elimination and truly gauge Observer Thirteen’s potential, deciding whether to recruit or eliminate them both.

But instead, they just watched Observer Thirteen enter the pollution zone and then walk right back out.

No anomalies whatsoever…

The staff on site subconsciously looked towards the short-haired woman in charge.

She too showed a moment of confusion before firmly ordering, “Continue monitoring! Prepare the fourth response plan immediately!”

…

…

Lu Xin scurried away from the coffee shop and hurried towards the subway station, eager to get back.

He didn’t know what exactly he had seen in that coffee shop.

But he finally understood what his sister had specifically come to warn him about.

There are monsters!

Although the world had changed drastically after the Red Moon incident, with countless madmen now roaming the wastelands, those madmen were still human. What he had just seen, however, was definitely not ‘human’!

He wanted nothing to do with this; he just wanted to run.

The subway station was deserted, except for an old security guard dozing in the duty room.

Lu Xin sat on a long bench, finally letting out a slight sigh of relief.

He glanced around, but his sister was nowhere nearby, so he couldn’t ask her what that thing was.

He’d have to wait until he got home tonight to ask.

Lu Xin had always known his ‘family’ knew things.

*Scrape… scrape…*

Suddenly, the sound of shoes scraping against the floor echoed around him. Lu Xin looked up to see people entering the subway station.

The previously empty station was now filling up. People in various clothes hurried in. They moved quickly into the station but didn’t head towards the platform to wait for a train. Instead, they rapidly spread out around him. Realizing something was wrong, Lu Xin snapped his head up and recognized them from an old man in a worn sweater nearby.

They were all people from the coffee shop earlier.

Lu Xin jolted upright, a shiver running down his spine. Then he saw a figure emerge from behind the others.

It was the waiter from the coffee shop. He still wore that friendly smile, but it looked somewhat eerie under the lights.

He held a cup in his hand—the very coffee Lu Xin hadn’t drunk earlier.

Then, facing Lu Xin, his mouth slowly stretched wide into a grin. His voice was extremely soft and slow: “You haven’t finished your coffee!”

…

…

A chill crept into Lu Xin’s heart. He quickly stood up, wanting to leave.

But as he moved, the people around him also shifted forward, blocking his path.

This group, who had seemed so warm and happy in the coffee shop just moments ago, now appeared strangely eerie, like sleepwalkers. They made no extra movements, and Lu Xin couldn’t even see his own reflection in their pupils. They just advanced numbly, the space shrinking, trapping Lu Xin inside like a cage made of people, making it impossible for him to move.

The waiter’s smile deepened as he slightly raised the coffee cup, gesturing towards Lu Xin.

Lu Xin felt awkward and panicked. “I don’t have money, I can’t afford it…”

The waiter’s smile grew even more grotesque. Suddenly, something flicked out of the cup—the eye, or perhaps the egg, that had been soaking in the coffee. It shot out of the cup, a black streak flying towards Lu Xin’s mouth.

Lu Xin was shocked and pushed outwards forcefully.

Young and strong, he knocked over two or three people, trying to break free and escape.

But the surrounding coffee shop ‘customers’ moved with him, reaching out with stiff arms to grab him.

So many arms, so many people—like countless tripwires, impossible to avoid completely.

Lu Xin’s struggles grew weaker. He was pinned down by the group, and someone even started prying his mouth open.

…

…

“What’s happening?”

Back in the observation office, the short-haired woman frowned. “He’s acting like an ordinary person!”

“Perhaps he hasn’t mastered his abilities yet!”

A staff member beside her suggested, “Should we request support intervention to end this assessment?”

Seeing Lu Xin about to be overwhelmed, the short-haired woman slowly nodded, looking towards the doll-like girl in the adjacent room.

That girl had already quietly picked up the umbrella beside her.

“Wait…”

Just then, a staff member suddenly shouted.

Everyone looked at the mental detection instrument in front of him, noticing drastic changes in the data readings.

…

…

At that moment, Lu Xin, forcibly held down with his mouth pried open, heard a soft giggle.

“Hee hee!”

Glancing upwards, Lu Xin saw his sister hanging upside down from a signpost, hugging her teddy bear and swinging gently.

“Sabe me…”

Lu Xin mumbled a muffled plea for help, his mouth still held open.

“Big brother ignores me. He always pretends not to see me outside and doesn’t talk to me…”

Sister swung in mid-air, speaking plaintively.

“Sabe brodder…”

Lu Xin desperately shouted, watching the ‘eye’ hop over everyone’s heads, getting closer to his mouth.

“Sigh… Well, you have to promise to buy me the best toys…”

Sister giggled, her eyes, which now seemed to lack whites completely, showing a mischievous glint.

“No mobby!”

Lu Xin grew furious, straightened his body, and yelled loudly.

Just then, the eye reached Lu Xin’s lips. Its pupil rolled towards his face, contracted slightly as if smiling, then suddenly leaped, aiming to enter. Simultaneously, the hands holding Lu Xin clamped down harder, forcing his mouth wide open. He felt like a helpless prisoner watching the thing inch its way inside.

Despair washed over him!

But right at that moment, a small, cold hand suddenly grasped his.

Sister had jumped down!

…

…

*Whoosh!* In the eyes of others, Lu Xin’s form seemed to instantly become slippery like an eel.

Just moments ago, he was tightly bound, arms twisted back, mouth forced open. Now, he suddenly became unnaturally elusive. With a sharp twist, his arm rotated at an impossible angle. A turn of his waist shook off several arms holding him. Seizing the chance, his mouth slipped free from the gripping hands. Ducking his head, the eye flew over him.

He seemed almost liquid at that moment, swiftly breaking free and rushing towards the edge of the crowd.

People crowded all around, lunging at him; escape seemed impossible.

But Lu Xin’s movements became almost incomprehensible, weaving left and right through the crowd with uncanny grace.

…

…

“Precise body control… Spider-type!”

At that moment, in the building not far away, the staff saw Lu Xin’s escape on the surveillance feed, their mouths agape in surprise. On a complex display screen, they had seen Lu Xin bound and nearly subjected to forced ‘pollution’ by the monster. But then, his body suddenly became incredibly agile and nimble, breaking the restraints.

Facing the countless monsters in the subway station, he moved as if through an empty space, his agility reaching an extreme. He could even contort his body at angles unimaginable for ordinary people. Though surrounded by the ‘people’ from the coffee shop, he dodged and maneuvered with impossible postures, even climbing vertical walls using hands and feet without any tools.

“What’s the percentage?”

“Can’t conclude yet. Judging by the speed, preliminary estimates are over 50%!”

“Doesn’t that mean his initial potential is almost on par with ‘Gecko’?”

The staff in the building were both shocked and thrilled, excitedly watching the figure rapidly approaching the exit on the monitor.

“Not good!”

Suddenly, someone noticed a change and cried out in alarm.

…

…

Meanwhile, in the subway station, Lu Xin, holding his sister’s hand, had broken through the encirclement and was about to make his escape.

But the waiter standing outside the crowd watched his eerie and agile movements, his strange smile deepening, becoming more grotesque, almost stiff and frozen, as if his entire being was turning into an empty shell.

Simultaneously, seven or eight huge tentacles suddenly burst out from behind him.

Each tentacle was as thick as a water bucket, covered in backward-pointing bone spurs and eerie eyes.

*Swish! Swish! Swish!*

These tentacles rapidly shot towards Lu Xin.

As Lu Xin scrambled across the wall, bursts of debris exploded around him like muddy flowers, showering countless fragments.

Under this fierce bombardment, the entire subway station trembled, threatening to collapse.

Yet, no matter how fast or terrifying the tentacles grown from the waiter’s body were, Lu Xin’s movements seemed incredibly bizarre yet strangely natural. Sometimes leaning sideways, sometimes twisting his body in physics-defying ways, he dodged the tentacles one after another. It almost looked like he was dancing on the walls and ceiling amidst the onslaught.

In just a few short seconds, he had already climbed several dozen meters away, nearing the exit.

…

…

Witnessing this scene, the short-haired woman in the observation point took a deep breath and turned towards the girl in the other room.

“Prepare for cleanup!”

The girl rose expressionlessly, picked up the parasol in her hand, and slowly opened it.

“Wait…”

But just then, a staff member staring at the screen exclaimed in surprise, “Everyone, look quickly…”

Everyone in the office turned their heads in astonishment. They saw Lu Xin in the subway station—who had seemingly escaped the tentacles’ pursuit with ghost-like speed and was mere meters from the exit, about to flee—suddenly pause slightly. Instead of leaving directly, he hung upside down from the ceiling, slowly turned his head back, and beckoned forward with his finger.

Even the short-haired woman was startled. “What is he doing?”

“It looks like… he’s provoking them?”

…

“How could this happen?”

The atmosphere in the observation point grew tense. The staff exchanged uneasy glances.

From the moment Lu Xin revealed his Spider-type abilities, they had prepared to initiate the final cleanup. They understood how terrifyingly fast Spider-type abilities were. In this situation, the pollution source from the coffee shop certainly couldn’t hold him. Or rather, there were very few places or people in this world capable of trapping a Spider-type ability user.

But they never expected that the Spider-type user wouldn’t escape…

Instead, he turned around to provoke them!

What kind of person faces monsters like that and chooses provocation over immediate escape?

…

…

“Sister, what are you doing?”

At that moment, Lu Xin was also shouting in surprise.

The exit was right behind him; he could escape just by turning around. But his sister had forcefully pulled him back.

Sister pouted. “What are *you* doing?”

Lu Xin was both angry and anxious. “Running away! Didn’t you see the monsters?”

“Big brother, why are you so scared?”

Sister chuckled softly, continuing to beckon provocatively at the waiter.

Beneath her messy hair, her eyes shone unusually bright. “He should be the one who’s scared…”