Chapter 640: The Contract and the Abyss

Facing the severely injured yet friendly mental monster that Lu Xin had casually contracted, Xia Chong refused.

What kind of creature signs a contract so nonchalantly?

Every contract creature’s selection and signing must undergo a thorough investigation.

They need to account for the gap in mental power between you and it, consider its abilities and its impact on reality.

They must weigh its growth potential as well as the risk of backlash…

Who drags a mental monster over and just drops it in front of you saying, ‘Let’s sign a contract’?

Besides, why did the Single Soldier manage to dispose of it so casually?

What level was that brief but terrifying surge of mental power just now?

……

……

“Huh?”

Lu Xin hadn’t expected Xia Chong to actually refuse.

Seeing her face set in serious determination, tinged with a hint of fear and indignation, he felt suddenly at a loss.

Wasn’t everything already clearly discussed earlier?

To investigate the Gate of Hell, we first need to enter the Flame Building.

And to get into the Flame Building, we must deal with that mental monster out there…

The catch is, dealing with it isn’t as simple as just killing or bypassing it. Considering we can’t alert the Flame in reality and must always keep an escape route, it’s best to keep it here as an insider, ready to be deployed…

But being readily utilizable is the toughest part of all.

Even Lu Xin wasn’t sure if this seemingly subdued monster might suddenly rebel.

After all, he wasn’t even capable of signing a contract himself…

Lost in thought, he shook his head slightly, reluctant to give up. Recalling the scalpel’s pre-departure advice, he carefully looked at Xia Chong and said, “I confirmed just now—it really is a friendly mental creature. Trust my expertise; once the contract is signed, it won’t turn on you… As long as I can track it down, there’ll be no betrayal.”

“Besides…”

He continued with a serious expression, “Think about our mission.”

“The Gate of Hell is about to open—who knows if we can earn that hundred million before they do…”

“…Wait, or uncover their true nature?”

“…”

As Xia Chong listened to Lu Xin, her expression gradually grew grave.

Lu Xin vaguely envisioned a bubbling cauldron of water on the verge of boiling—a scene yet to be revealed.

“There’s hope…”

Buoyed by this, he wore an almost earnest, pleading expression and sighed:

“Moreover, a friendly yet formidable mental creature is very hard to capture.”

“If your contract-based ability users need to sign with a powerful mental creature to boost your strength…”

“Then maybe this time around, you could be promoted from a junior investigator to a senior one?”

“Whoosh!”

Xia Chong’s baby face visibly trembled as she suddenly looked up at Lu Xin.

After a long silence, she softly asked, “Is it really friendly?”

“Extremely friendly,” Lu Xin assured her.

He immediately added with a light kick, “See? It’s completely still.”

The mental monster on the ground now sported a faint eye on its skin, squinting cautiously.

It glanced at Lu Xin, then at the harmless young man beside him, at the oddly smiling girl crouched nearby, at the tall shadow at his side, and at several grimacing little monsters lingering with interest.

It shuddered for a moment before falling motionless once more.

It stretched its body as much as possible, displaying a friendly demeanor.

Xia Chong slowly stood up, glanced at Lu Xin by her side, then at the mental monster lying on the ground.

Gradually, determination set on her little face.

……

……

Three minutes later, Xia Chong completed the contract signing with the mental monster.

Lu Xin, acting as a witness, observed every detail of Xia Chong’s signing process.

The entire procedure seemed remarkably simple.

Xia Chong wiped some blood from her own bloodied leg onto the mental monster.

Then she deliberately abandoned her mental power’s defense, letting the monster contaminate her freely.

Strangely, the contamination didn’t spiral out of control.

Once a portion was tainted, she promptly halted it and sealed it off.

In Lu Xin’s view, he could even see images rapidly shifting within Xia Chong’s pupil—as if a comic book played out, each page depicting a uniquely shaped monster.

After several pages turned, the image of the mental monster finally appeared.

Not quite reassured, Xia Chong repeatedly closed and reopened the sequence to confirm the monster’s presence.

“It’s done,” she said.

Xia Chong glanced at the mental monster, closed her eyes briefly to sense it, then relayed her findings to Lu Xin.

The mental monster sat up, its expression confused as it glanced at Xia Chong, then quickly dropped its head again.

“Alright then,” she affirmed.

Lu Xin smiled and turned toward the Flame Building, saying, “Now we can enter, right?”

As he spoke, he extended his hand toward Xia Chong, tucking a black playing card back into his bag.

Feeling almost dreamlike, Xia Chong instinctively grasped his hand and turned toward the Flame Building.

After walking a good distance, she suddenly spun around.

She accurately spotted the mental monster, still sitting on a dilapidated red sofa, staring blankly with a bizarre gaze.

While following Lu Xin, she paused for a moment and carefully asked, “Are you at the fifth stage?”

Lu Xin replied, somewhat puzzled, “I don’t think so.”

“Then what stage are you on exactly?”

“I have no idea…”

“You don’t even know your own stage?”

“How would I know? No one’s ever told me…”

“…”

After a confusing exchange that left both even more perplexed, Xia Chong and Lu Xin arrived at the Flame Building.

Upon closer inspection, they discovered that the entire building in the Abyss appeared so whole and clear because its exterior was covered in a layer of muscle and blood vessel-like tissue.

One could even see these tissues writhing gently.

It felt less like a building and more like a solitary entity existing within the Abyss.

Even Lu Xin felt a twinge of curiosity.

Staring at the building swathed in flesh and vessels, he couldn’t help but be struck by an overwhelming sense of familiarity.

It was as if he was reminded of something, though the memory was hazy.

Perhaps many have experienced this—suddenly, noticing a clump of shredded meat on the ground, he exclaimed in surprise:

“Huh? This looks like my friend’s…”

“…”

The feeling was vague and his memory fuzzy. Lu Xin subconsciously raised his hand to touch it, then quickly pulled back.

He avoided contact with the mass of flesh to steer clear of any unwanted complications.

Instead, he turned to Xia Chong and asked, “Can a door like this be opened?”

Xia Chong furrowed her brow, and her chubby hand reached out to gently press the building’s surface.

Suddenly, a plump bug emerged from under her collar and began crawling up the building.

It zipped around upstairs, especially sniffing at a particular doorknob before darting back down.

Xia Chong immediately nodded, saying, “No problem—it can be opened.”

Lu Xin sighed in relief and laughed, “See? I told you I’m great at infiltration…”

Xia Chong turned and gave Lu Xin a long, steady look, replying, “I believe whatever you say now.”

……

……

After careful consideration, Xia Chong led Lu Xin up the Abyss Building to about the 30-something floor.

Here, Lu Xin noticed the biggest difference between the Abyss and reality.

Although Xia Chong wasn’t Spider-type, within the Abyss she could defy gravity and move along the building’s façade.

It seemed that some of reality’s laws simply didn’t apply here.

At the same time, peculiar rules nonexistent in the real world had to be strictly followed.

Before opening a door, Xia Chong carefully listened.

Only after confirming there were no sounds behind did she grasp the doorknob and gently push the door open.

“Clack……”

Upon arriving in the Real World, Lu Xin and Xia Chong found themselves in an empty room.

The lights were off, but light from the corridor filtered in.

It was a small office with just a desk and a modest sofa against the wall.

A white coat hung on a nearby coat hanger, and a pair of flip-flops lay discarded on the floor.

There were even some uneaten instant noodles on the desk.

“For a company as big as Flame Company, do their HQ staff really still eat instant noodles?”

Lu Xin glanced around curiously and remarked.

“Is that really important?”

With keen alertness, Xia Chong moved quietly to the window by the corridor, listened to ensure no one was outside, then turned to Lu Xin and whispered, “We’re inside the Flame Building; now all we need is to find clues about Hell.”

Lu Xin, visibly tense, murmured, “How do we do that?”

Xia Chong unfastened a small black bag strapped to her right leg and gently opened it.

She retrieved a set of precise silver instruments from inside and quickly assembled them.

At the same time, she explained, “Any reality contact related to Hell must leave a strong mental radiation signature.”

“Although a place as heavily secured as the Flame Building would surely be constructed with materials that block mental radiation, I believe that such powerful energy will still leave clear traces throughout this building…”

“If we can’t detect anything on this floor, we’ll move to another.”

“In any case, when we get close to that critical spot, we’re bound to detect something.”

“……”

Lu Xin was momentarily stunned, “So professional…”

“I thought we’d have to kidnap someone from Flame Company to force out the exact clues…”

“……”

Xia Chong shot Lu Xin a glance, as if to remark on his inexperience, and replied coolly,

“What you’re suggesting is Plan B.”

As she spoke, she had already finished assembling the device, then received a notification on her electronic watch. Her eyes locked onto the screen; soon, distorted lines and pulsating red dots appeared. Her expression immediately turned serious.

Lu Xin, slightly tense, asked, “Did it detect something?”

Xia Chong replied impassively, “It’s detected.”

Lu Xin, still a bit stunned, asked, “Where?”

“Everywhere…”

A flash of defeat crossed Xia Chong’s face, “Flame didn’t implement any mental radiation shielding at all?”

“……”

For a moment, Lu Xin didn’t dare disturb Xia Chong.

It seemed that Plan B was our only option.

“Ding-dong…”

Just then, the telephone hanging on the wall in the office suddenly rang.

The phone’s abrupt ring echoed through the empty corridor.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong exchanged nervous glances as they stared at the incessantly ringing phone.

After a while, Lu Xin suddenly thought of something and slowly reached for the phone.

“Oh, you people…”

Xia Chong instinctively wanted to stop him.

But being short, while she stood and then leaped, Lu Xin had already picked up the handset.

Shaking his head slightly, he quietly brought it to his ear.

The voice of Mom resonated from the phone, calm and elegant: “The thing you’re looking for is on the eighteenth underground floor.”

Her rational, graceful tone echoed.