Chapter 3040: The Mercury Chronicle (37)

The consequences of looking directly at an Outer God were far more severe than Wei En had imagined.

Especially since this Outer God was no mere nobody; in all of Lovecraft's works, no investigator had ever looked directly at him, and even descriptions of his avatars were sparse. Yet, within the Cthulhu Mythos, the more mysterious one was, the more powerful they were.

And Wei En's talent in psychoanalysis—his empathy—made him more susceptible to feeling the presence of terror. Although he had looked directly at Nyarlathotep's true form from within the dream world, within the Cthulhu Mythos, all things in existence were merely a dream of Azathoth, making this no different from facing Nyarlathotep head-on.

The initial splitting headache was not the consequence; it was merely the prologue to the consequences.

Wei En fell into a dream. He began to have the same dream repeatedly: he saw a massive, ancient city in the sky on the verge of collapse, while he himself was deep within a boundless labyrinth of rice paddies on the ground.

The giant female corpse nailed to the cross wept blood from her eye sockets, the blood staining the rice paddies and making it difficult for him to move through the mud, sinking deeper and deeper.

When he focused his attention on the real world, he could briefly escape the entanglement of the mud by falling, but once his mind wandered even slightly, he would return to the labyrinth, squeezed by the seemingly endless wheat ears until he could no longer find his complete self.

Wei En could no longer distinguish which part of his hallucinations came from the beast-transformation curse and which came from Nyarlathotep.

He only knew that these two forces were interacting, perhaps even complementing each other, causing his mental state to plummet in a straight line toward the bottom.

Fortunately, his connection to the Gao Ta was his final insurance policy. In times of necessity, he could detach from this body, and exchanging information with the Gao Ta allowed him to maintain a sliver of clarity, keeping his mental state infinitely close to the bottom without becoming completely lost.

Clearly, such a state allowed Wei En's empathy to reach its maximum. In a word, Wei En was now terrifyingly strong.

Of course, becoming stronger came at a price. Hallucinations were not superpowers that could be toggled at will; once one fell into a hallucinatory state, the world would no longer appear as it should.

Wei En slept for a while longer. When he finally struggled out of the dream world, a bad premonition struck him. He looked up and saw it was already 11:30 AM.

The problem was that he had a class this morning.

He scrambled out of bed and picked up the phone on the nightstand, only to find 59 unread emails, all from his students.

Before he could even tap on them, a cacophony of chattering voices came from behind him. Wei En stood up and turned around, but there was nothing there.

As he focused on the noise, the voices grew louder and louder, echoing constantly in his ears.

"Professor, are you alright? I'm very worried about you. If you're not feeling well, please get some rest."

"My apologies for the intrusion, Professor Rodriguez. Hearing that you are unwell today, I am deeply concerned. Please take care of your health..."

"Professor, how are you feeling? If you're really in pain, please go to the campus infirmary. The doctors there are very gentle and will surely help you recover quickly..."

Wei En opened the emails on his phone, and they were exactly as he had heard, all filled with the students' deep concern.

Scrolling to the bottom, he found an email from Ma Long: "Professor, I noticed you weren't there during class. Knowing you had matters to attend to this morning, I have informed the students that you are on sick leave, so they need not worry."

Next was an email from Agent Lila: "Zatanna and Madame Xanadu have been successfully picked up. They have begun their research on the Blue Beetle and the magical items attached to it. Everything is going smoothly, so there is no need to be overly anxious."

General Manli and Prince Yashan had also sent emails, mostly expressing concern. Only Luo Bote had sent an email asking: "Professor, I heard you missed your class this morning. It's hard to imagine what could keep you from a lecture, but I hope Mercury doesn't explode in the near future. Thank you."

Putting down his phone, Wei En suddenly noticed his reflection in the window glass. But in the reflection, besides himself, the members of the Justice League were sitting around a round table in the cafeteria, eating and chatting.

"He really didn't come," Ma Long said. "I stayed there for an extra 10 minutes. Usually, he would have arrived by then, but until the bell rang, he didn't appear, so I had to tell the students he was on sick leave."

"The students were very disappointed because it seems Professor Wei En gave a very interesting lecture yesterday. I could only emphasize that Professor Wei En's health is poor and promised that he would make it up to them later. They expressed their understanding."

Agent Lila set down the tray she had just brought over and said, "He must have gone to find trouble with the mastermind. Someone is about to have a bad day, haha."

"Don't be so happy yet," Luo Bote said, tapping his plate with a fork to draw everyone's attention. He said very seriously, "You really should consider what kind of plan could make him skip a class. The mastermind is not as dangerous as a Wei En who skips class, okay?"

"I believe that as long as you aren't by his side, there's no danger to speak of," Prince Yashan said dismissively. The others expressed the same sentiment, leaving Luo Bote speechless.

Suddenly, Ma Long seemed to sense something. He turned his head, looked at the figure at the entrance of the cafeteria, and said, "Oh god! Professor?! Why are you here?!"

The group hurriedly set down their utensils and surrounded him. Wei En was somewhat dazed. He thought he was in his bedroom looking at a hallucination in the glass; how could a hallucination rush out of the glass?

"Quick, quick, quick, take him to the lounge, oh my god!" Agent Lila pushed the others, urging them to take Wei En to the lounge across the hall.

Fortunately, the faculty cafeteria and the student cafeteria were separate, and there were only a few faculty members, so it didn't cause a commotion.

Wei En only managed to clear his head once they reached the lounge. He looked down and realized he was still in his pajamas and slippers. He was indeed not in his bedroom, and the people staring at him were not hallucinations.

How did he get to the cafeteria?

The members of the Justice League didn't know, and Wei En didn't know either. After hearing his account, Ma Long immediately realized the severity of the situation. He looked at Luo Bote and said, "Quick, check the surveillance!"

At this point, they still didn't realize Wei En was suffering from hallucinations, thinking instead that someone had orchestrated a plot to teleport Wei En there.

But when Luo Bote pulled up the surveillance, everyone was stunned. Wei En had walked there himself; no one had interfered with him.

Because it was lunchtime, almost all the students and teachers were gathered in the cafeteria. Wei En hadn't bumped into anyone on his way, just walking straight into the faculty cafeteria.

This was even more terrifying than if he had been teleported.

"I don't feel any abnormal power on him," Agent Lila said. "And I believe Professor Wei En couldn't possibly be mentally controlled. His mind is too complex; it's not something an ordinary person could control."

Wei En sighed, drawing everyone's attention, but in Wei En's eyes, they had taken on different forms again.

All color had vanished from Agent Lila, turning her into a typical ancient Greek statue with a halo behind her head. Prince Yashan's head had turned into a tuna, his mouth opening and closing while blowing bubbles. Behind Luo Bote, one half of his back had white angel wings, and the other half had pitch-black bat wings. Ma Long was the most extreme; there was actually a sun in the room.

Wei En was so dazzled by him that he couldn't keep his eyes open. He had to look away and said, "I haven't been controlled. I'm just in a poor mental state and have been experiencing hallucinations."

The others looked at each other, seemingly unsure of what to do now. But Wei En couldn't stay in this room any longer; there wasn't a single person here who wasn't glowing. The entire room was so bright it was almost like the surface of the sun—all white, and he couldn't see anything.

This left him with no chance to focus on anything to distract himself, so he quickly fell back into hallucinations. The real world began to drift further and further away, and their voices sounded like they were coming from the edge of the sky, until eventually, he couldn't hear anything at all.

"There must be a reason why the Professor has become like this. I think we should investigate," Agent Lila said.

"I can feel that the Professor's thoughts are very chaotic," Ma Long said. "Too chaotic, so I can't distinguish his emotions."

"I'll have Pan Ni come over," Luo Bote said, picking up his phone to message Pan Ni, adding, "She has telepathy; perhaps she can figure out what's going on with Wei En's mental state."

Pan Ni arrived quickly. Hearing the situation, she didn't hesitate and immediately activated her ability.

But suddenly, she clutched her head, let out a scream, and crouched to the ground.

The group hurriedly helped her onto a nearby bed. Pan Ni sat there, panting for several breaths. This girl, who had always appeared very calm, was rarely flustered as she said in a trembling voice:

"I saw some very terrifying things. I can't describe them." Pan Ni's voice shook. "His brain is always filled with these things. I can't go any deeper."

Luo Bote held her shoulders, applying a bit of pressure to let her feel controlled. Pan Ni's state improved slightly. Luo Bote looked into her eyes and asked, "Do you have any prophetic intuition?"

Pan Ni sat there in silence for a long time, took a deep breath, and said, "Someone will die a miserable death, tonight..."

"Who? Who will die a miserable death?"

"I don't know."

"Where will he die?"

"I don't know."

Luo Bote asked the most critical question.

"Is his death related to Wei En?"

Under the focused gaze of everyone, the pale-faced Pan Ni looked up and slowly nodded.

Under the focused gaze of everyone, the pale-faced Lilith raised her head and then slowly nodded.