Chapter 360: Crystallized Fear

*Bang! Bang! Crash…*

Throughout Water Buffalo City excluding the outer city, terrifying flesh monsters hid within most of the hollow buildings and abandoned houses.

It was these monsters that had caused Lu Xin and the others considerable trouble when they first charged into Water Buffalo City. It was also because of these monsters that the ‘God’ at the street’s end could instantly gain a colossal body when it began to grow.

This body practically guaranteed the ‘God’s’ immortality.

No matter what weapon was used, no matter how many times it was killed, it could revive itself without even hindering its growth.

Until its pollution extending towards the drifters in the outer city was suddenly cut off.

Then everything changed.

Suddenly tremendous noise erupted simultaneously from different parts of the abandoned city.

The flesh monsters lurking in the darkness were abruptly disturbed.

Some houses collapsed violently as piles of flesh burst out from within.

This flesh struggled, countless mouths upon it screaming simultaneously as if in terror wanting to flee the shadows.

However they only managed to escape halfway before black shadows from dark corners rapidly caught up.

Bit by bit the shadows spread over their bodies completely enveloping them.

After a long moment the dark shadows retreated, but the flesh monsters began to stiffen.

*Crack! Crack! Crack!*

Their bodies started to crystallize from top to bottom preserving them in various poses of attempted escape forever frozen.

One burst through half a wall tumbling and rolling towards an open space, writhing and grasping. Within its huge body many humanoid figures could be seen climbing, their faces filled with panic. They even kept looking back as if pursued by something.

But behind it there was only an empty black shadow.

And ahead of it too was an empty black shadow.

When the shadows before and behind squeezed towards it simultaneously, it could only charge towards the sky in terror.

Unfortunately it couldn’t fly.

They looked like intensely styled post-modern sculptures.

As each building collapsed a new sculpture took form.

Some had just broken through the ground frozen halfway out.

Some bulged out from the sides of buildings about to demolish them but instead ended up propping the houses up due to the crystallization.

All the flesh monsters displayed a fear that should never have appeared on them.

They desperately tried to flee to escape but they couldn’t get away.

Because they suddenly realized the source of the danger hid within the black shadows.

The bodies of the flesh monsters were undoubtedly immense.

They filled almost the entire abandoned city every dark corner.

But even vaster than them was the darkness because it was enough to hide all these flesh monsters.

…

*Gulp…*

The joint Ability User team suddenly felt their hair stand on end. They retreated simultaneously maintaining their alertness.

However they were looking in different directions. Some looked left, some right, some directly up.

But their faces were all the same deathly pale.

“Did you… did you guys feel like something in the darkness is watching us?”

The Doctor reacted the fastest the fear he felt also the deepest.

He was almost scared back to normal.

“Yes…”

Beside him the Gothic-style woman’s throat felt dry her voice somewhat strained, “It’s like… it’s like…”

She struggled to recall before trembling, “Before I awakened my ability I encountered a stalker… He… he followed me every day for several days. Whenever it got quiet around me I’d get this extremely uncomfortable feeling. I kept trying to find him but couldn’t. Until one day he suddenly appeared behind my curtains at home smiling…”

“It’s exactly that feeling…”

Everyone understood nodding repeatedly.

“So…”

The refined man too preoccupied to even cover his mouth with his handkerchief, both hands gripping his gun whispered.

Hearing this everyone immediately looked at Chen Jing.

But Chen Jing was also clearly bewildered her chest heaving continuously. Cold sweat dripped from her forehead as she slowly shook her head.

*Chatter chatter chatter…*

Behind Chen Jing the faint sound of chattering teeth suddenly emerged as a small red monster’s shadow appeared.

It was literally scared into taking shape.

“Un… Uncle…”

In the deathly silence Gecko suddenly spoke his voice trembling, “We… we’re all Brother Lu’s colleagues…”

The people around him suddenly turned to look at him thinking he’d gone mad from fear.

But no one expected that as Gecko spoke with an expression close to tears, the unsettling gaze from the depths of the darkness slowly vanished. Perhaps it was a hallucination but they thought they even heard a hollow “Hehe” sound.

The group instantly looked at Gecko with even more terrified eyes.

“Team Leader…”

Gecko however turned to Chen Jing almost crying, “Bringing me out this time really wasn’t to harm me right?”

*Swish swish swish.*

The group immediately turned their gazes back to Chen Jing.

But Chen Jing’s face was equally pale and filled with confusion.

She rapidly recalled the series of materials Professor Bai had given her from the mental entity codenamed ‘Tyrant’ to the escaped lab to the nineteen experiment subjects within the lab. All the data and information surfaced in her mind. Clearly all this information had pieced together a nearly complete picture, yet only now did she suddenly realize something was wrong…

Some crucial piece of information was incorrect.

It had been wrong from the very beginning!

…

“Impossible, this is impossible…”

Beside Chen Xun all the candlelight seemed to sense something terrifying shrinking rapidly. Finger-length flames dwindled to tiny beans causing the surrounding light to dim quickly and the temperature to drop.

In the darkness gloomy gazes felt tangible greedily sweeping over Chen Xun’s face and body.

This spying made Chen Xun’s hair stand on end freezing his blood.

Countless pieces of information flashed through his mind intensifying his fear.

“Why does his power have such strong polluting properties…”

“Wrong, wrong…”

“The thing in the shadows isn’t Tyrant’s power at all…”

“Tyrant doesn’t have pollution abilities!”

“…This is Fear!”

“Only Fear possesses such potent pollution abilities!”

…

“Hehehehe…”

Appreciating Chen Xun’s screams a hollow laughter suddenly echoed from the darkness.

“You actually mistook the prisoner for the master…”

“What a joke…”

The thing in the darkness let out an eerie laugh while slowly receding.

Only the gaze from the depths of the darkness lingered reluctantly like a starving person deciding to save the most delicious food for last.

Or perhaps like someone who didn’t dare to enjoy it alone…

“It’s you… Who is it?”

Chen Xun abruptly looked up shouting desperately his eyes wide staring into the deep darkness.

He had completely lost his earlier composure.

Whether it was the agony from his hands or the fact that the overall situation was increasingly slipping from his grasp he had completely lost his previous confidence and reason. Large beads of cold sweat seeped from his forehead his lips turned white and his gaze had become unfocused.

“Prisoner? Master?”

Only after the thing in the shadow seemed to have disappeared did he suddenly register the content of that sentence.

“A mistake, it must be a mistake…”

“What I thought belonged to Tyrant was actually another kind of mental entity entirely…”

“Then… where is Tyrant?”

“Ultimately who is the real Tyrant?”

…

Indescribable confusion and pain assaulted his mind. He suddenly raised his head his features twisted:

“Teacher, is Teacher still hiding things from me?”

“What exactly… what exactly did Teacher do?”

…

“I’m fine!”

Seeing Little Nineteen’s worried gaze Lu Xin who was squatting on the crystallized flesh mountain smoking a purple-filtered cigarette chuckled softly. He wiped away the blood trickling from his nose and forced open his eyes which were already somewhat blurry.

It seemed like it wasn’t just a nosebleed.

There was a wet sensation in his ears and eyes too.

Even the smoke he inhaled into his throat carried a sweet metallic taste.

His head felt even emptier as if he could collapse at any moment.

He recalled what the Ability User training course taught about the state after overusing mental power.

Father’s power was too strong.

He had subconsciously refused to let Father out precisely for this reason. Father could pollute almost everything around him and was completely uncontrollable. For a long time he had thought Father’s power was Anger but Mom said he knew best what Father represented. Now he understood he had indeed always known…

Father’s power was fundamentally Fear the most polluting kind…

…He was never Anger.

His dislike for others entering his territory stemmed from Fear.

His tendency towards anger was also due to Fear.

His habit of hiding alone in the kitchen was actually also because of Fear…

Fear has the most diverse disguises so Father appeared to have many characteristics but his essence was singular.

If Sister tried to counter-pollute something she still needed his approval.

But Father was different. The moment he emerged he would start polluting anything consuming Lu Xin’s psychic power endlessly in the process. The entire process was beyond his control which was why he felt exhausted so quickly.

“Is the problem solved?”

He wondered then looked around. It seemed every dark corner in this city had come alive.

One by one ferocious-looking flesh statues appeared throughout the city.

They would remain here forever frozen in their most terrified state.

And Lu Xin stood quietly at the center of this field of flesh sculptures also at its highest point.

Overhead hung the crescent red moon.