Chapter 436: Echoes of the Disaster Museum

“Crack, crack, crack…”

A burst of shattering glass bottles echoed in Lu Xin’s mind, and an instinctive alarm flared in his heart.

“Is it that thing again?”

He glanced toward the distance, and a chill suddenly ran through him.

Earlier, in his effort to leave the Disaster Museum, he had revised his understanding, allowing him to perceive the Mental Monster’s ability—which now seemed to be subtly affecting him as well.

When he looked up, the first thing he saw were countless figures floating in the sky, their bodies contorting as if straining in their final, desperate struggle—as if they were resisting a hanging.

From his perspective, he could only make out pairs of legs dangling in mid-air.

That was just the initial impression. On closer inspection, he noticed behind that dense crowd a monstrous entity—a towering Flesh Monster Tree in the depths of the wasteland—straining to extend its body and grow at a frantic pace.

From the Flesh Monster Tree, innumerable vines stretched out, latching onto every person suspended in the air.

“Ho ho ho ho…”

Those people, suspended in the air, emitted a complex, indistinct sound from deep within their throats.

Their half-open eyes finally snapped wide open, revealing empty sockets.

Inside those eye sockets, there were no eyes at all.

Only a void of darkness poured out a torment that felt as tangible as it was desperate.

They were being assimilated by the vines of that Flesh Monster Tree, their anguished features constantly morphing like a maddening puzzle, as the muscles on their faces twisted beyond their limits and gradually tore apart.

“Roar…”

Suddenly, they gaped wide and unleashed angry screams.

In response to their cries, the Flesh Monster Tree shuddered with perverse delight, its trunk rising segment by segment.

With each soul it absorbed, it grew a bit more.

In less than half a minute, the tree had soared nearly thirty meters high.

“Crash…”

Its branches strained to expand, covering an area of well over a hundred meters.

It was as if a single tree had become an entire forest.

At the tip of every branch, the faces of the captured people twisted and transformed, morphing into visages resembling Qin Ran—with skin flayed to a blood-red hue, seeping with blood, their empty sockets exploding with a wild fury.

“Doll… you doomed me…”

“Doll… you doomed me…”

“Doll… you doomed me…”

“…”

Then, countless furious shouts erupted from their mouths in overlapping layers, bombarding the ears relentlessly.

“It seems similar to before, yet distinctly different…”

“Has Qin Ran’s power been growing all along?”

“Or did he already ascend to a higher level all along?”

“…”

Lu Xin surveyed the throng surrounding him, his expression turning cautious.

Glancing up into the distance, he noticed that Doll, too, now appeared frightened; her little face had turned a shade of blue.

Yet this fear seemed to be of a different kind altogether.

It was akin to a little girl’s terror of cockroaches.

Taking a deep breath, he quickly beckoned Doll from afar:

“Come here quickly.”

Doll obediently accelerated to join Lu Xin’s side.

Up until now, Lu Xin had assumed that her flight was as gentle as a slow run on the ground. It wasn’t until he witnessed how she had effortlessly demolished those museum statues that he realized the truth.

When she wanted to dash, this little girl could indeed fly at incredible speeds.

Her sudden burst upward was no different from a monkey launching into the sky.

Normally, she wasn’t fast simply because she was a bit lazy.

…Even the most perfect girl reveals her flaws upon closer inspection.

…

“Don’t be afraid—I’m here…”

Lu Xin soothed her in a low voice, shielding Doll behind him.

Doll blinked her eyes as if to say she wasn’t really scared.

It then struck Lu Xin that Doll possessed an unusual ‘ability’—she couldn’t hear sounds she disliked.

Qin Ran’s power had an auditory component; when so many Mental Monsters collectively screamed, ‘You doomed me!’, it wasn’t lethal but undeniably unsettling. Strangely, this ability seemed to have no effect on Doll.

“Then let’s move!”

Lu Xin exhaled deeply, lifting his gaze ahead with calm determination.

Around him, the museum—or rather, the dark red world woven by mental radiation—had been partly destroyed by the earlier battle.

Scattered mental turbulence and disrupted mental radiations had caused people around him to collapse to the ground.

Through the haze, Lu Xin could faintly make out the white houses of Happy Town.

They were indeed getting closer.

Especially when his focus intensified, he could even hear the faint moans of the Queen.

He was now certain that the Queen was calling for help.

Without wasting another word, he briskly advanced while protecting Doll.

Blocking his path was none other than Qin Ran himself—a Flesh Monster Tree that had grown to a towering height of thirty to forty meters, with seventy or eighty writhing vines. Compared to this monstrous entity, Lu Xin and Doll were as insignificant as ants.

“Hehehehe…”

From the monstrous tree came Qin Ran’s laughter: “Welcome to the Disaster Museum…”

“I’ll be your guide…”

“And I don’t even take tips…”

“…”

As his voice echoed, all seventy or eighty vines drifting in mid-air began to descend simultaneously.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lu Xin saw at the end of each vine a blood-red, humanoid form—twisted features, empty sockets—packed together like a mass of human-looking dumplings, crowding between him and Doll.

All these human-shaped fruits had Doll as their target.

Lu Xin, of course, couldn’t allow these grotesque hands to touch her.

“I’ll hold them off; you find a chance to take him down.”

Taking a deep breath, Lu Xin reached back and pressed Doll’s head, urging her to crouch and minimize her exposed space.

At the same time, he stamped heavily on the ground.

Where his foot struck, an invisible ripple of mental power burst outward instantly.

A distorted force field.

“Crash…”

All the vines rushing toward him and Doll were halted by this unseen force.

Lu Xin’s mental power kept expanding outward, repelling them.

Yet the vines were too many, and Qin Ran’s power was overwhelming.

Bit by bit, the blood-red figures at the end of the vines began seeping into the force field.

Wearing a ferocious smile, their hands slowly clawed at Lu Xin’s body.

Instantly, wherever they touched his skin, Qin Ran’s face started sprouting—one after another.

Each face bore a twisted, eerie smile, as if imbued with a will of its own, relentlessly rooting itself deep within Lu Xin, siphoning his flesh and blood to fuel its rapid growth while attempting to seize control of his body.

Having dealt with Qin Ran before, Lu Xin wasn’t in a panic this time.

What was new, however, was a strange sensation that accompanied each new face on his body.

With every face that emerged, a feeling of despair—like witnessing the death of a lifelong ambition—warmed his heart.

He recalled the heavy sensation he felt when the fat owner of the meat shop’s face appeared on him.

In that moment, he felt his vitality and youthful drive draining away, as if his life’s energy was slipping out. The meat shop, his proudest achievement, was his only hope.

But in an instant, everything was consumed by fire.

He could no longer muster the strength; he was left with nothing.

It was as if God himself was slowly sealing his soul with a mark of failure, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

…

All around, the world faded to gray, leaving only a numbing emptiness.

That sensation had first emerged when a girl’s face sprouted on his body.

Lu Xin felt as though he had become a broken old man, fighting alongside the one he cherished most in the world.

She even wanted to kneel in gratitude to the heavens, for her modest wish was nothing more than to strive together and share in a simple happiness.

And at the peak of that beautiful moment, he suddenly woke up.

He found himself numb and surviving in the filthiest corner of the world, with the one he loved and his passion long gone.

…

An indescribable feeling, like ink slowly seeping into his mind, began to cover him.

The agony of losing a loved one, the pain of a heart as if a piece had been severed.

The torment of distorted desire, like being endlessly scorched by fire.

Lu Xin finally understood the true meaning of the Disaster Museum.

He also realized where its true horror lay.

Disaster was a power in itself.

These memories and pains were borne from the lives of those trapped in this illusory world.

Only now did Lu Xin grasp why some people brought from Water Bay City became part of the Outskirts’ Forest of the Dead while others remained as residents in this spectral realm.

The Technology Church had clearly made its choices—every individual in this realm bore profound imperfections.

Their misfortunes had been collected by this museum.

When the time was right, these very miseries would become weapons.

…

If pain were tangible, Lu Xin felt that each kind weighed as heavily as a mountain.

He wondered whether an Ordinary Person subjected to such agony would ultimately break.

And he couldn’t fathom how to dispel these so-called ‘treasures’ born from reality.

For they were not abilities, merely pure pollution.

So even as he was overwhelmed by these pains, Lu Xin took a deep breath to steady himself.

Now that his Family was gone, he could no longer draw upon their strength, a loss that stripped many of his options. Fortunately, he had already begun systematic study of the Seven-Step Theory, so he still understood the basics.

In the face of pollution, a Zero Ability User has one fundamental tool:

Endurance.

…

…

As countless human-shaped fruits conveyed their pain and misfortune to him, Lu Xin felt as though his heart was being corroded by gaping holes, with an endless, chilling wind blowing straight into it.

Pain echoes and resounds endlessly, constantly reminding him.

His body had become a canvas of faces, yet at that moment, his expression turned serene.

Slowly, his eyes reopened, the pupils contracting as his face assumed a haunting emptiness.

“Crash…”

He abruptly relinquished his distorted force field meant to repel the human-shaped fruits, instead allowing them to make contact.

He let the pain transfer to him.

…

“What a splendid opportunity to learn…”

Drowning in an ocean of pain, he managed a slight, ironic smile as he glanced toward the Flesh Monster Tree across from him.

When all the world’s misfortunes and sufferings were focused on him, what could he do?

Some would crumble. Others would become numb. Some might even fall into darkness.

Lu Xin didn’t know how anyone else would react, but in that moment, he chose his own path.

…

What choice did he have?

Then he must offer the world a smile…