Chapter 36: Spider's Wander, Cicada's Transformation (Four)

Smoke and dust filled the air, obscuring his vision; Li Cheng regained his footing, gasping for breath.

Shwa—

The dense clatter of footsteps came from afar as countless small spider-monsters split into two groups—one surged into the building's ruins to rescue the Ink-Colored Spider, whose fate was unknown; the other rushed toward Li Cheng.

Li Cheng killed as hard as he could, but his muscles ached, his limbs were drained of strength, and the spider-monsters seemed endless, making it impossible to advance even a single step.

Crack-crack-crack—

The giant Ink-Colored Spider slowly stepped out of the building's ruins, suddenly leaning forward and raising its abdomen high toward Li Cheng.

The colors on the giant spider's body shifted in mottled patterns, transforming in an instant into thousands of different designs.

Li Cheng, who was trying to fight his way out of the encirclement, felt his pupils tremble violently; he could clearly see the giant spider's form, but his brain could not categorize it.

'This is a creature roughly the size of a heavy armored truck, broadly divided into a front section and a rear section, the two parts connected by a relatively thin stalk.'

'Embedded in its front section are seven yellow objects.'

'Beneath its midsection are eight relatively long rod-like appendages, resembling a spider's legs.'

'Wait, what is a spider? Why can't I remember?'

'Wait, who am I?'

His thoughts fell into utter chaos, and his consciousness abruptly cut off.

————

A breeze brushed his cheek, bringing a faint coolness.

Li Cheng dazedly opened his eyes and found himself hanging upside-down in mid-air, his entire body wrapped in white silk threads in a cocoon shape, with only his cheeks exposed.

His muscles were sore and weak all over; he couldn't even make an expression, so he could only roll his eyes to observe his surroundings.

This place appeared to be the interior of a shopping mall—the word "appeared" was used because everywhere within his line of sight was covered in thick spider silk.

Large numbers of small spider-monsters穿梭 among the bridges, silk pathways, and staircases, carrying cocoons of various shapes and sizes up to hang them on the web.

Some cocoons were small, containing mice, squirrels, birds; others were large, holding cats and dogs.

There were also even larger cocoons containing humans. Their eyes were tightly shut, their expressions rigid—it was unclear whether they had fallen into a deep sleep or been injected with paralyzing venom.

In a sense, it was better not to wake up—

Higher up on the web hung dense clusters of withered insect-cocoons. The humans inside had long since had their blood and marrow drained dry, leaving only a shriveled, wrinkled skin hanging on their bones.

Whenever the wind blew past, they would emit a whimpering sound.

Surrounded by the insect-cocoons, the giant Ink-Colored Spider crouched motionless at the center of the great web.

Its injuries were especially horrific: aside from the dense wounds on its jointed limbs, the flesh on its back was a mangled mess, one of its fang-like chelicerae had been broken off, and the colors on its body surface shifted slowly and unconsciously.

Dozens of small spider-monsters crawled all over its body, spitting out silk to cover the wounds, trying to stanch the green blood flowing out.

Li Cheng's pupils trembled constantly; merely looking at the Ink-Colored Spider brought that sensation of confused thinking flooding back into his mind.

Earlier memories surfaced—he recalled the battle on the highway—but in the blink of an eye, that memory became blurred, hazy, and faded.

Even this forgetting effect spread further; he was already beginning to forget why he was in the Shadow Realm.

He couldn't keep looking.

He forced himself to shift his gaze downward.

Through the gaps in the spider silk, he could see the real-world shopping mall—bustling and prosperous, with pedestrians weaving through like cloth. These people were completely unaware that, in the world right beside them, there existed a demon's den of piled bones.

Swish—

The silken insect-cocoon around his body gave a sensation of tightening, as though something was pulling at him.

Li Cheng sighed inwardly, silently worked the muscles of his mouth, and tried hard to bite his tongue with his teeth. He was ready at any moment to bite through the tip of his tongue, using the pain to shock his whole body, to see if he could shake off the paralysis and counterattack.

The imagined scene of being dragged away and delivered to the Ink-Colored Spider's mouth did not appear; the force at his feet pulled the insect-cocoon over the railing, dragging it all the way into a dimly lit employee corridor.

The corridor held more than just his own insect-cocoon—Ye Jiaying and Yuan Zhixia were also wrapped in cocoons. They saw Li Cheng and blinked hard at him, working the muscles of their faces.

"Don't move."

A crisp, childish human voice suddenly rang out in the employee corridor; the source was a small spider-monster.

It looked no different from its kindred, except that the right half of its head was covered by a layer of white gauze.

A spider-monster that could speak?

Rustle-rustle—

That spider-monster crawled to the side of Li Cheng's head and bit down on his neck. As some kind of liquid was injected, the venom and venom neutralized each other, and the original paralysis in his body immediately receded.

Strength returned to his limbs; Li Cheng immediately broke out of the insect-cocoon and steadied his footing.

At this moment, the spider-monster also bit Ye Jiaying and Yuan Zhixia on the neck, lifting the paralysis from the two of them; Li Cheng helped cut open the insect-cocoons, and they regained their freedom.

"Keep your voices down, follow me."

A speaking sound came again from the special spider-monster's abdomen; it moved its legs and walked down the stairs.

The three exchanged glances; trapped in a demon's den with no other choice, they could only soften their footsteps and follow.

Walking down the employee corridor, the first basement level was a commercial street, the second basement level was an underground ring road and parking garage, and the third and fourth basement levels were the municipal utility tunnel layer—where gas, electrical, water supply, and communication lines were buried.

The fifth basement level was the subway equipment level; going further down led to the subway tunnels.

Li Cheng and Yuan Zhixia had guessed correctly: the spider-monster tribe had indeed used the city's subway system as a means of free transport.

Floors, ceilings, and even the train carriages were covered in spider silk. Fortunately, perhaps because the Ink-Colored Spider was severely wounded and all its offspring had run off to tend to it, there were no spider-monsters in the subway tunnels.

The utterly bizarre scene before him made Li Cheng unable to hold back his question: "How could the Special Affairs Bureau have failed to notice something this obvious?!"

Yuan Zhixia raised an eyebrow, realizing that this must be the name of the state agency that maintained public order.

The special spider-monster up ahead paused for a moment, then continued leading the way; a crisp human voice came from its abdomen: "Because that big spider possesses the ability of 【Oblivion】."

"Oblivion?" Ye Jiaying looked puzzled. Li Cheng immediately thought of that earlier sensation of shattered memory and said hoarsely, "Agnosia?"

The so-called agnosia is an acquired cognitive impairment caused by localized damage to the brain.

When a patient faces a certain object, they can recognize it through other sensory channels, but have lost the ability—through one specific sensory channel and the corresponding sense organ—to recognize familiar items, their own body, or visual space.

For example, damage to the occipital and temporal lobes can cause visual agnosia — the patient can clearly see the shape of an object and describe its features, but the brain cannot "recognize" what it is.

A glove is described as "a container with five outward-flaring openings,"

A stethoscope is described as "a long cord with a disc at one end,"

A key is described as "a thin metal sheet with irregular grooves."

This was similar to Li Cheng's situation at the time, when his brain couldn't recognize the Ink-Color Spider.

The problem was, agnosia is caused by localized brain damage, yet Li Cheng's brain was perfectly fine.

"I don't know what agnosia is, but it probably isn't that."

The little spider-monster led the three of them down to the subway equipment level, then into the subway tunnel level, and said softly: "The people and animals eaten by the big spider are forgotten in reality too. No one remembers them. Even if their blood, their backpacks fall to the ground, no one will notice."

(End of chapter)