Chapter 34: Spider

It was rare to see Yuan Zhixia flustered; Li Cheng laughed inside but spoke coolly: “This is the Shadow Realm, a reflection of the real world.”

Its range is limited; if you run in one direction long enough, you’ll eventually escape and return to the real world.”

In fact, this explanation is incomplete; according to Changsun Yao, the Shadow Realm is not created but inherently exists as a reflection of the real world.”

Opening the Shadow Realm is like tearing a hole in the veil of the real world, pulling in selected people and objects.”

What is called ‘maintaining the Shadow Realm’ is merely the caster keeping themselves and the selected people and objects inside it.”

The entire process continuously drains the caster’s energy—the larger the area, the longer the duration, and the more people and objects pulled in, the greater the energy cost.”

Moreover, visibility inside the Shadow Realm is low, effectively blocking long-range detection methods.”

Thus, even the Special Affairs Bureau cannot maintain constant surveillance of every direction within the Shadow Realm; they only station guards at key geographic coordinates.”

Ordinary people have three main ways to escape the Shadow Realm.”

First, have the caster end the spell, or have the caster actively send specific people or objects out of the Shadow Realm.”

Second, kill the caster.”

Third, move far away from the caster—the greater the distance, the more energy is drained, and the weaker the connection between caster and target; once a threshold is crossed, the target will ‘fall back’ into the real world.”

These three methods apply equally to transcendent beings who accidentally become trapped in the Shadow Realm.”

For their own safety, some players buy items that allow rapid escape from the Shadow Realm, or learn skills that can pinpoint the caster’s exact location.”

“Also,”

Li Cheng added, “the Yinshi Public Security Bureau’s Pujiang Branch, 5.3 kilometers from here, and the Huangbai Branch, 5.7 kilometers away, are safe. Reach either and you’ll be rescued.”

Just after lunch break began, Li Cheng, suffering the side effects of the gene suppressant, went to the relatively quiet administrative building restroom to vomit blood.”

As a transcendent being, it was normal for Li Cheng to be pulled into the Shadow Realm. But Ye Jiaying and Yuan Zhixia were clearly deliberately chosen and dragged in by something.”

The immediate priority is to leave this place and escape danger.”

Some experimental subjects that escaped the Killing Ground can live indefinitely within the Shadow Realm.”

“I have a motorcycle,” Yuan Zhixia said grimly. “Can you ride?”

According to the Implementation Regulations of the Road Traffic Safety Law, high school students over sixteen may legally ride electric vehicles on public roads.”

Given Yuan Zhixia’s lawless nature—she’d secretly built a gun in the garage—she had heavily modified the vehicle and could disable its restrictions to reach speeds rivaling turbocharged motorcycles.”

Seeing Li Cheng nod in agreement, Yuan Zhixia pulled out a remote key from her pocket and pressed the button toward the nearby parking shed.”

No response. The motorcycle, like all other vehicles, was covered in shadow. Even inserting the key into the ignition failed to start it.”

Yuan Zhixia’s face remained calm, but her mind raced.”

‘The items in my backpack work because the backpack was at my feet from the start—considered part of me. The motorcycle is downstairs in the shed; its physical form was never pulled into the Shadow Realm and remains in the real world. Hence, it cannot be activated.’”

‘So, from the real world’s perspective, Ye Jiaying and I must have vanished instantly from our seats. And since it’s lunch break, everyone’s asleep—no one noticed our sudden disappearance.’”

‘Wait—could the monster or human behind this have targeted the school’s lunch break precisely to launch the attack, ensuring we wouldn’t be discovered quickly?’”

‘Given that this man said the Pujiang and Huangbai branches are safe, it proves national institutions can indeed penetrate here and are aware of this world’s condition—capable of intimidating all manner of demons and monsters.’”

‘This raises a new problem: even by car, reaching either police station five kilometers away takes over twenty minutes—running would take even longer, nearly the length of the lunch break. And visibility is low along the way; we don’t know what dangers lurk.’”

‘Under these circumstances, the optimal solution is for this man to return to the real world first, call the police, and alert national institutions to send rescue teams.’”

‘But he isn’t doing that for several possible reasons: one, he can’t return quickly; two, he’s helping us out of convenience, not care; three, he can return but has grievances with national institutions; four, he has other business in the Shadow Realm; five, the Shadow Realm is more dangerous than imagined, and national institutions can’t or won’t send personnel deep inside.’”

Just by watching Yuan Zhixia’s expression, Li Cheng knew the sweet, innocent girl was thinking furiously. To stop her from spiraling and to prevent his identity from being exposed, he spoke up: “You’re lucky you met me—I’ll escort you to the police station. Once you’re safe, you can pay me for saving your lives.”

“Understood, Dazai-san,” Yuan Zhixia nodded obediently like an ordinary girl.”

Li Cheng led them out of the campus, noticing the webbing covered the school’s teaching buildings, science building, cafeteria, dormitories, and other structures.”

Only after leaving the campus did the webbing thin out, stretching southwest until vanishing near the subway entrance.”

“Which—”

After careful thought, Ye Jiaying whispered, “Upstairs, I saw those spider monsters carry away a human-shaped, moving cocoon somewhere.”

“Hmm. Those spider monsters are likely Shadow Realm creatures; their cost of living here is far lower than humans’, so they use this world as their nest.”

Li Cheng chose his words carefully, coldly stating: “With so many of these spider monsters, their population and hunting range must be vast.”

Although Zhuyue High School was covered in webs, it was not the spiders’ nest—it was too clean. No drained cocoons or egg sacs hatching spiderlings were visible.”

That means the person trapped in the cocoon was likely taken elsewhere. Without GPS, who knows where?”

Impossible to rescue. No way to save them. We can only wait for the Special Affairs Bureau to release the list of missing persons.”

Hmm. Speaking of which, it’s odd—based on Li Cheng’s observations of news apps and social media, the number of missing persons in the city hasn’t significantly increased recently.”

“I have a drone. Can I release it to scout ahead?”

After receiving Li Cheng’s approval, Yuan Zhixia pulled out a drone from her backpack and launched it into the air for reconnaissance.”

Electronic communication in the Shadow Realm is severely degraded; the drone could only fly about fifty meters before losing signal. But within that fifty-meter range, video transmission remained normal—more reliable than visual scouting on foot.”

“There are few vehicles here. Once we reach an area with more traffic, I’ll get you to jump onto the rooftops and use the flow of cars to reach the police station quickly.”

The journey remained eerily quiet. Li Cheng glanced at the drone’s remote display and said: “Matter in the Shadow Realm, besides its ability to auto-repair, is slightly softer than in the real world.”

“Understood,” Yuan Zhixia nodded. “We can use this to ride on car roofs—hitch a ride.”

“Yes—” Before he finished, Li Cheng suddenly frowned, as if struck by a thought.”

Yuan Zhixia also realized something was wrong. Her expression tightened involuntarily, her gaze locking onto the subway station beside the intersection fifty meters ahead.”

Ye Jiaying noticed their changed expressions and asked nervously: “What’s wrong?”

“The subway,” Yuan Zhixia tapped a few buttons on the drone remote, setting auto-cruise and target tracking, then handed the remote to Ye Jiaying and drew her pistol. “The webs from the school vanished at the subway entrance.”

“If we can use real-world vehicles to move through the Shadow Realm, that means—”

“They can use the subway to move and hunt,” Li Cheng said coldly, twisting his wrist to extend a bone blade.”

Suddenly, a dense rustling sound came from ahead—countless spider monsters poured out of the subway entrance, like a flood of cockroaches bursting from a manhole cover.”

(End of Chapter)