Chapter 82: Eighty: Disguise (Two-in-One)

Eighty: Disguise (Two-in-One)

Facing Haimofen's threat, the Daughter of Gluttony seemed to be in a rage; her body split irregularly into two halves, and the surging red blood flow differentiated into strands of red tentacles, each tip radiating eerie off-white spots of light, all winding toward the diminutive figure of Haimofen.

Haimofen silently closed his eyes, drew his bow across the strings, and let the Daughter of Gluttony's violent attacks land upon him.

However, when the Daughter of Gluttony's tentacles slammed down fiercely, she felt no impact at all; it was as if she had struck nothing but air.

Chords resonated, and the seductive music was endless. The Daughter of Gluttony looked back, only to be shocked to find that the surrounding scenery had undergone a heaven-turning, earth-shattering change. The surroundings were dim, with faint light and red curtains hanging from the beams; she had arrived at the YanzouDating once more, only this time the audience seats were empty, and only Haimofen stood in the center of the stage performing his solo act.

The Daughter of Gluttony did not know how Haimofen had avoided her attack, but seeing that he had not disappeared from her sight and was still leisurely sawing at the strings, anger surged in her heart. She immediately twisted her irregular form to crawl over again, while simultaneously waving the long parts of her body to continue sweeping wildly at the man intoxicated in his own musical world.

……

Xin Junmao crossed his hands to block his face and squeezed his eyes shut; the moment he saw the stunningly beautiful face of Miss Zhao begin to crack and change, he had subconsciously made a defensive move.

Yet several minutes passed, the music in his ears remained, and the audience was still intoxicated in the world of music, whispering along with the mysterious power within the bizarre melody, echoing the unknown existence behind the music.

Xin Junmao slowly opened his skeptical eyes and gradually lowered his blocking arms, then stared blankly at the eerie scene before him. Miss Zhao had opened a huge bloody hole in her own face, and countless blood-colored tentacles were growing like dense velvet around the edge of the hole, looking extremely soft. In the center of the hole was a thick, fleshy strip covered in tooth-like objects, with a sharp, barbed black thorn at the tip, less than six centimeters away from him.

Xin Junmao swallowed hard, looking at Miss Zhao, who looked like a computer frozen on a stuttering frame, and felt an indescribable shock in his heart.

"This... is this what you did?" Xin Junmao looked back, only to find that the figure of the bhikshuni was no longer by his side; she seemed to have returned to the Comb.

Xin Junmao took out the Comb from his pocket and looked quietly at that bloodstone comb. This was the gift "he" had given the girl when they parted ways to go to the battlefield, and it was also a promise and guarantee to her. It was a pity that neither of them had been able to wait for a happy ending.

As Haimofen's third piece, "Rebirth," began to play, the aftereffects of "Reincarnation" faded, and Xin Junmao slowly began to forget that memory that had been washed away, his sanity also slowly returning to the high ground.

After all, he was not the "he" in the memory; he was Xin Junmao, an ordinary person raised in an ordinary family, a small-time loser who had never been in love and had no grand future.

That guy named Zhong Zhe was just a wandering soul who had temporarily replaced him for a short while; "he" would never return, just as he could never be "he" again.

Xin Junmao was very calm; he insisted on his own opinion: Miss Zhao had simply mistaken him for someone else, wrongly placing all her expectations on a human who was destined never to respond to her.

That Zhong Zhe who had gone astray was her Xu Xian, her Ning Caichen; he was just an ordinary human being.

Being loved and relied upon in such a mistaken way, he was not happy at all; it was a huge pressure on his body and mind.

Xin Junmao looked at the bloodstone Comb and muttered, "You see things more clearly. I am no longer that 'me,' but I have a question: why are you in this Comb?"

Xin Junmao was puzzled; if Zhong Zhe could be reincarnated as him, then why couldn't the bhikshuni in the Comb?

The Comb remained silent and did not respond to Xin Junmao's words, simply continuing to release power outward, protecting him with a layer of light film as thin as a cicada's wing.

Seeing this, Xin Junmao stopped asking. He just sat quietly in place, continuing to appreciate the figure resonating and playing with the orchestra, listening to their music, while the terrifying-looking Miss Zhao beside him was treated as a piece of furniture...

Haimofen sawed the strings intensely, his moving fingers becoming faster than afterimages, and his agitated body seemed as if it were about to shrink from the effort.

However, Xin Junmao did not find Haimofen's appearance pathetic; instead, he felt that the way he gave everything for the things he loved was overly cool, to the point that he felt a bit envious.

In the twenty-some years of his life, he had never found anything he truly loved; like a headless fly, he had always used mediocrity to cover up his confused heart.

Xin Junmao sighed inwardly. Watching the people around him dancing and chanting, he found that he couldn't even compare to these people present; at the very least, he couldn't fully immerse himself in Haimofen's music. He only felt that the melody was beautiful and the scene was grand and magnificent, and that was all.

He was always so out of place...

Just as he was sighing, he suddenly noticed that not far in front of him, a young audience member with a somewhat familiar face was also not affected by Haimofen's "Abnormal" music, yet the other party showed a slightly intoxicated expression, eyes closed, quietly appreciating it.

For a moment, Xin Junmao couldn't recall where he had seen the young man.

Perhaps the other party was too sensitive to others' gazes, as the young man suddenly smiled without turning his head and said to him, "Why not laugh along with everyone else?"

"I don't know what I should be laughing for," Xin Junmao replied instinctively upon hearing the question.

As soon as he finished speaking, Xin Junmao regretted it slightly. This was clearly an Abnormal individual; why did he take the initiative to respond to him?

Hearing this, the young man stroked the small black cat curled up and sleeping on his lap while saying, "If you dwell too much on the reasons, you won't be able to do anything well."

Xin Junmao was silent for a moment; he felt the young man before him becoming more and more familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.

It wasn't until suddenly, the sound of a subway train whistling flashed through his mind, that he finally remembered that memory that was about to be forgotten.

He had seen this young man; it was on the night he returned from a failed interview, and he had accidentally bumped into the other party while exiting the station.

"You are the person I met at the station entrance that day!?" Xin Junmao was somewhat astonished; he didn't know why fate was always so coincidental, actually letting him run into someone he had met once before.

There was the deceased Zhang Xiaoxiao before, and now it was him.

And when thinking of Zhang Xiaoxiao, Xin Junmao thought of what Zhang Xiaoxiao had once said to him. Combined with the Abnormal phenomenon displayed by the young man now, it made him realize another thing. He said in shock, "You are the other survivor besides Zhang Xiaoxiao from the night of the last subway train murder case?!"

Lin Ling smiled and turned his head to say, "Don't be too loud; it's not polite to the people on stage."

Xin Junmao froze for a moment, then whispered and pressed, "Who exactly are you?"

"My name is Lin Ling, just an ordinary grocery store owner; I sell a little bit of everything," Lin Ling introduced himself.

Xin Junmao asked curiously, "A grocery store owner? What do you sell?"

"Everything, though I mainly focus on rental business. Oh, right, your Comb was rented from me," Lin Ling pointed to the bloodstone Comb Xin Junmao carried with him.

"You are the owner of that Forest Cabin in my dreams?" Xin Junmao's expression changed instantly; he felt as uneasy as if he had seen a second Miss Zhao.

Lin Ling was noncommittal and said with a smile, "Is the Comb easy to use?"

"... It's quite easy to use; it has saved me many times," Xin Junmao said stammeringly. Facing Lin Ling again at this moment, he became nervous. He gritted his teeth and asked, "Why is she in the Comb?"

"She volunteered," Lin Ling answered without thinking.

"Volunteered?"

"There was a person she didn't want to see suffer, so she took the punishment in his place."

The arm holding the Comb trembled; Xin Junmao didn't know if it was the Comb vibrating or his own body and mind trembling. He realized who the "person" Lin Ling spoke of really was.

He looked at the Comb and asked in a dry voice, "She... then when can she stop being punished?"

"When she wants to come out, the punishment will be over," Lin Ling answered with a smile.

……

She Zi'an watched as the injured Bu Gaojun boarded the car of the Cuizhu City Xuanmi Group branch, and his serious, heavy expression relaxed just a little. He immediately began to contact the Xuanmi Group Group Leader, who was rarely seen, and told the Group Leader about the discoveries made by their Snake Team and Tiger Team in the underground of Cuizhu City as smoothly and completely as possible.

Upon learning the news, the Xuanmi Group Group Leader was also briefly stunned. After clarifying the truth, he said to She Zi'an, "I authorize your Snake Team to immediately take branch members to conduct a special investigation into the House of Cards consortium. At the same time, I want you to split off manpower to return underground again and bring back all the members of the Tiger Team."

"Yes," She Zi'an nodded seriously.

The Tiger Team members had made countless contributions recently. As Mysterious Investigators, they had consecutively survived two Heaven-Level Abnormal events within this short half-year, and only one death had occurred in the process. This all proved the capabilities of the Tiger Team members.

For an excellent main force squad, the Group Leader could not possibly let them fall into danger and ignore them completely.

Of course, even if the Group Leader did not speak, She Zi'an already had the intention of bringing He Jia'an and the others back from underground safely.

Consequently, after hanging up the call with the Group Leader, She Zi'an immediately and decisively organized and commanded the small number of branch organization members, splitting them into two teams to carry out their respective operations.

The small team responsible for rescuing the Tiger Team members was led by HuangZichao, the third surviving member of the Snake Team; before parting ways with HuangZichao's team, She Zi'an solemnly reminded him: "Zichao, when we came out from underground earlier, a very obvious earthquake occurred in this vicinity. I suspect that the Daughter of Gluttony has become active again. Although it has returned to calm now, I cannot guarantee that it is safe down there, but I still hope you can bring everyone back alive."

"I will, Captain," HuangZichao nodded earnestly.

HuangZichao led the Xuanmi Group branch organization members to return to the hidden underground Tunnel once more, setting off again along the original path.

Including him, there were thirteen people accompanying HuangZichao.

While collecting Stamina Potions from the branch organization members and replenishing his own depleted stamina, HuangZichao led the group through the dim underground passage.

"Investigator Grade B HuangZichao, how long do we have to walk?" a branch organization member asked HuangZichao on the way.

HuangZichao twisted his sore neck and laughed: "Not long, we will be there in a moment."

Upon hearing this, the branch organization members all felt the air gradually solidifying; these Mysterious Investigators from the branch organization were mostly Grade C or Grade D, yet this time they were forced to follow members of the headquarters' main strike team to participate in this Heaven-Level Abnormal event.

Being able to participate in this Heaven-Level Abnormal event was a very significant matter for these branch organization Mysterious Investigators; it was not just about their "promotion and wealth," for as long as they could survive this Heaven-Level Abnormal event, regardless of how much data or intelligence they brought back, they would immediately be promoted in their Mysterious Investigator rank, and at the same time, this would give them the opportunity to witness true great horrors with their own eyes, which would help their ability growth.

"We're here," HuangZichao said as he walked to an iron door; he opened the iron door, revealing a pitch-black void inside.

Looking at the bottomless darkness, the branch organization's Mysterious Investigators, carrying their trust in HuangZichao, suppressed the fear in their hearts and stepped one after another into the pitch-black world behind the iron door.

The temporary team walked in the pitch-black world, their inner panic and unease growing more intense as time passed.

Because too much time had passed and they still had not reached the destination HuangZichao had mentioned—the subway station marked "Heaven"—someone soon realized something was wrong and initiated resistance and questioning, walking quickly to the front of HuangZichao.

"This route is wrong, Investigator Grade B HuangZichao, where exactly are you trying to take us!?" a female branch organization Mysterious Investigator shouted.

Upon hearing this, HuangZichao suddenly laughed, and then his appearance underwent a drastic and eerie change under the group's Night Vision Devices.

It was seen that after a series of internal pulsations, HuangZichao's lower jawbone suddenly shattered, and several black tentacles spat out from his mouth; at the same time, two blood-colored tentacles burst out from within his body, growing from his eye sockets after exploding his two eyeballs, stringing the eyeballs together and hanging them in the air, yet those two eyeballs still seemed to function as if they hadn't lost their use, constantly dilating and contracting their pupils as if they were lenses adjusting their focal distance.

"He is not Investigator Grade B HuangZichao!" the female Mysterious Investigator exclaimed.

Just as she was about to draw her gun to fire, a black arm suddenly ejected from HuangZichao's chest, passing through his ribs and digging into the female Mysterious Investigator's chest, pulling her heart out from her thoracic cavity by force.

The sudden mutation occurred; after "HuangZichao" underwent the unexpected mutation, the team members present immediately noticed that certain people beside them had also undergone terrifying distortions, and just like "HuangZichao," they revealed their true forms and began a brutal and inhumane massacre with "HuangZichao."

In less than a moment, the ten-person temporary small team that went to the Cuizhu City underground for rescue was completely wiped out!