Chapter 319: 315 Guarantee

The human-faced butterfly specimen suddenly came back to life, and then transformed into a tattoo on his hand right before his eyes; such an incredible thing appearing before Huang Zhengdao made him want to pluck out both his eyeballs just to give them a good scrub.

Huang Zhengdao observed the human-faced butterfly tattoo on his hand, feeling increasingly unsettled; the human-faced pattern on the butterfly's body made him feel a wave of discomfort, as he actually felt that the human face on the butterfly was looking more and more like his own face, and when he stared at the human face on the butterfly, it was as if he were staring at himself.

He still remembered the owner of the Forest Cabin, that young man in white who sat behind the counter petting a cat, telling him about the human-faced butterfly.

The human-faced butterfly, a legendary butterfly demon, is elusive and fond of consuming human essence and blood; it often haunts places of illusion and unreality, and the human-faced pattern on its back is a sharp tool for luring prey. When it discovers humans who have entered its hunting grounds, the human-faced pattern on its back transforms into the faces of handsome men or beautiful women, then appears before those humans, enticing those who crave beauty to sink deep into a depraved illusion, where they are unknowingly drained of their essence and blood, eventually dying suddenly due to a lack of essence and blood.

In short, the human-faced butterfly is not a legendary character with a positive image, leaning more towards the succubus-type characters in Western stories.

Because Lin Laoban said this human-faced butterfly was just a specimen, Huang Zhengdao had assumed it was already dead and harmless to him, and he held some skepticism toward the almost fable-like legend; plus, after entering that shop, he had a feeling that if he didn't buy something, he would definitely regret it, so Huang Zhengdao bought it.

But he never expected things to turn out like this; had he been deceived by the owner of that shop?

Huang Zhengdao felt deeply that the human world was treacherous, and a chill ran through his heart; he looked at the tattoo on his hand, having tried every trick in the book yet unable to erase it, and he felt some doubt—this human-faced butterfly seemed a bit different from the legend the owner had described.

At the very least, this human-faced butterfly did not seem to be consuming his essence and blood, nor did it transform into a handsome man or beautiful woman to entice him as in the stories; instead, the human-faced butterfly turning the pattern into his own likeness made him feel extremely uncomfortable and disgusted.

As the saying goes, "what the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over"; the human-faced pattern of the butterfly tattoo on the back of his hand looked alive, and he sometimes felt as if his own dead head was staring at him with misery and resentment, so he found a glove to wear on the hand possessed by the human-faced butterfly.

It was out of sight, and his heart was slightly pacified.

But this pacification did not last long, and Huang Zhengdao soon fell into an even more uneasy state of mind.

Since the incredible reality that he had bought the human-faced butterfly specimen from the Forest Cabin in his dream and brought it into reality was true, and he had also seen the father and daughter he met yesterday during the day at the Forest Cabin, this meant that what the little girl had said to him was not false.

Huang Zhengdao vaguely remembered that before entering the Miwu Senlin where the Forest Cabin was located, he had first arrived at a place filled with the scent of blood and saw a giant worm like a mountain of flesh, only he hadn't had time to see the true face of that giant worm before he happened to be transferred to the entrance of the Forest Cabin.

He did not regret not catching a glimpse of the true appearance of the Abnormal creature; instead, he felt fortunate for it.

The appearance of that giant worm must have been hideous and detestable; the giant, fat, fleshy worm body he noticed before seeing its face was enough to make one tremble with fear, and if he had really seen its face, Huang Zhengdao thought he would have gone mad.

Recalling that brief memory, the mountain-of-flesh demon worm seemed to be chewing on some creature, making a crunching sound, along with that crisp, loud tongue-clicking sound... all the sounds were so familiar and inexplicably profound.

Suddenly, Huang Zhengdao shuddered; he realized it with a jolt.

This sound, clear as flowing water and inducing sleep—wasn't that the Sleep Aid Video he had listened to before?

Huang Zhengdao picked up his phone and found all the videos he had played in the last few days in his TT Video browsing history; he locked onto that sound-only Sleep Aid Video without visuals at a glance, because the blogger's username ID was very unique, yet the follower count was unexpectedly high.

Entering the interface for all the videos posted by this blogger, the palms of Huang Zhengdao's hands began to break out in cold sweat, and his whole body turned icy.

Who on earth was this blogger, why did they have a recording of the sounds made by that mountain-of-flesh demon worm when it was active, and what was the reason they deliberately packaged the sounds made by those Abnormal creatures into Sleep Aid Videos and spread them out?

Did they want to subvert the world?

As long as one listened to the Sleep Aid Video, the audience would be discovered and locked onto by the mountain-of-flesh demon worm existing in another space in some unknown way, and then it would slowly approach the person being sensed, until the prey disappeared from this world, and only then would it be willing to leave... this seemed to be the reason for Ji Jian's disappearance; he had been targeted by the mountain-of-flesh demon worm after listening to these Sleep Aid Videos, and finally disappeared without a trace.

Huang Zhengdao's heart pounded nervously; would he be the next to disappear after Ji Jian?

Huang Zhengdao was extremely panicked, but he had not completely lost his reason; the first thing he thought of was to seek help, to seek help from professionals.

He wanted to contact the Xuanmi Group, but he hesitated and was afraid of what kind of treatment he would receive if he really reported his situation to them.

They would definitely isolate him; he was like a ticking time bomb, a patient carrying a terrifying epidemic, and in order to prevent the Abnormal factors on him from leaking out, they would surely confine him without mercy; this was only the slightly bad scenario Huang Zhengdao could think of, and the worst-case scenario was naturally that he would be like a werewolf who had exposed his identity, and would be eliminated by the Xuanmi Group at the first opportunity!

But he couldn't just sit and wait for death; he spent the whole morning struggling with his thoughts, and after much deliberation, he gritted his teeth and made a decision.

He still had to contact the Xuanmi Group.

It was just that Huang Zhengdao intended to contact the Xuanmi Group in another way; Huang Zhengdao called his unit leader and implicitly expressed to him his desire to know how to speak with a high-level figure within the Xuanmi Group.

People who could sit in that position were all shrewd; after hearing Huang Zhengdao's account, he vaguely guessed Huang Zhengdao's situation, and after a long silence, he agreed.

Huang Zhengdao was somewhat surprised that his unit leader was so "reasonable," and the phrasing he had prepared in his heart didn't get to be used.

With the help of his unit leader, Huang Zhengdao successfully contacted a high-level figure of the Xuanmi Group, though he didn't know if it was a trap.

Huang Zhengdao was like a gambler, his expression frantic, but the voice he used to speak during the call was exceptionally calm, and he explained his situation to the other party without any nonsense: "... I need your help."

"How do you wish for us to help you?" The man on the other end of the phone listened to Huang Zhengdao's words, was silent for a moment, and then said calmly, "You contacted me through your leader, surely just because you don't want to receive the kind of 'harsh' treatment you imagine; it's fine, I understand your feelings, you can tell me, and I can guarantee that you will not receive any undeserved treatment for being caught up in an Abnormal event, I, Wei Chengye, Group Leader of the Xuanmi Group, give you my word."