Free Web NovelChapter 8: The Superintendent’s Domain
Darkness swallowed everything.
The stairwell vanished.
The building vanished.
Even sound disappeared.
For one terrifying second, Shen Yu felt as though he had been buried alive beneath an endless ocean.
Then—
Drip.
A single water droplet echoed somewhere nearby.
The darkness slowly peeled away.
Shen Yu opened his eyes.
He stood inside an old apartment lobby.
Dim yellow lights flickered weakly overhead.
Ancient wallpaper peeled from mold-covered walls.
A rusted elevator sat motionless ahead of him.
And behind the reception desk—
The superintendent waited calmly.
The old man adjusted his cracked glasses slowly.
"Welcome home."
The stitched mouths beneath his eyelids smiled.
Shen Yu looked around quietly.
No ghost bride.
No mother entity.
No stairwell.
Interesting.
A separation-type domain.
The old man noticed Shen Yu’s calmness and tilted his head slightly.
"You adapt quickly."
"I die often."
"...what?"
"Nothing."
The superintendent slowly stood.
Unlike the earlier guardian, this old monster carried overwhelming pressure.
Even standing still, he felt dangerous.
The system suddenly reacted.
[Warning.]
[High-Risk Entity Detected.]
[Threat Level Exceeds Current Dungeon Rating.]
Shen Yu’s eyes narrowed.
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No wonder the fear mist upstairs had been so dense.
This thing was stronger than the mother entity.
Or perhaps—
More dangerous.
The superintendent folded his hands behind his back.
"You should not have climbed higher."
"You should’ve hidden your rooftop better."
The old man chuckled softly.
"You are clever."
The stitched mouths under his eyelids opened wider.
"But clever people die first."
Without warning—
The lobby lights exploded.
Darkness surged forward like liquid.
Shen Yu activated Blink instantly.
WHOOSH.
Red light flashed.
A massive claw tore through the spot where he’d stood half a second earlier.
Concrete exploded apart.
Shen Yu landed several meters away and finally saw the creature clearly.
The superintendent’s shadow.
No—
Not a shadow.
A giant humanoid mass crouched behind him.
Long arms.
Rotting flesh.
A head split vertically into dozens of whispering mouths.
The old man sighed tiredly.
"Tenants these days..."
The giant creature lunged.
FAST.
Far faster than the guardian.
Shen Yu barely avoided the first strike using Blink.
The second attack still clipped his shoulder.
CRACK.
His arm shattered instantly.
Pain exploded through his nerves.
Shen Yu rolled backward breathing hard.
Strong.
Way too strong.
The superintendent walked slowly toward him.
"You rely heavily on movement skills."
"Perceptive."
"Your timing reveals it."
The stitched mouths beneath his eyelids grinned wider.
"Meaning there’s a cooldown."
Shen Yu’s smile faded slightly.
Problematic.
This old monster analyzed combat frighteningly fast.
The giant shadow creature attacked again.
Shen Yu dodged left.
The superintendent pointed calmly.
"Now."
The creature’s arm suddenly twisted direction unnaturally mid-swing.
WHAM.
Shen Yu was smashed across the lobby.
Glass shattered around him.
Blood spread across the floor.
The old man continued walking slowly.
No hurry.
No excitement.
Like a landlord inspecting broken furniture.
"You smell strange."
Shen Yu coughed blood.
"People keep saying that."
"You are alive."
The mouths beneath his eyelids twitched.
"But your soul feels partially dead."
The atmosphere became colder.
"Disgusting."
The giant shadow raised both claws.
Shen Yu calculated rapidly.
Blink cooldown: three seconds remaining.
Too long.
The creature attacked downward violently.
Shen Yu immediately grabbed a broken metal pipe nearby and thrust it upward instinctively.
CLANG.
The creature paused.
Not injured.
But delayed.
The superintendent narrowed his eyes slightly.
"...interesting."
Shen Yu noticed it immediately.
The creature hesitated when countered directly.
Not fear.
Instinct.
Like it wasn’t fully controlled.
Then Shen Yu remembered the guardian downstairs.
Programmed.
Bound.
This thing too?
The giant shadow roared again.
The mouths across its body screamed endlessly.
"OPEN THE DOOR."
"LET US OUT."
"HE LIED."
"IT HURTS."
Shen Yu’s pupils contracted slightly.
Plural.
Not one entity.
Many.
The superintendent’s expression darkened.
"Quiet."
Instantly the creature fell silent.
Shen Yu understood immediately.
This old man wasn’t the source of the haunting.
He was controlling it.
Or suppressing it.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Blink cooldown finished.
The creature attacked again.
WHOOSH.
Shen Yu vanished in red light.
This time he appeared directly behind the superintendent.
The old man reacted instantly.
Too instantly.
A hidden mouth beneath his collar opened suddenly.
"Caught you."
The giant shadow’s arm reversed direction violently.
Shen Yu’s eyes widened.
Too late to dodge.
So instead—
He smiled.
The superintendent froze slightly.
Why was this lunatic smiling now?
BOOM.
The claw pierced straight through Shen Yu’s chest.
Blood exploded outward.
But Shen Yu grabbed the old man’s arm while dying.
"Got you."
Death Echo activated.
The world shattered.
—
Memories flooded violently into Shen Yu’s mind.
Rain.
A younger superintendent standing beside police officers.
A sealed rooftop water tank.
Children crying from inside.
The old man trembling.
"...they’re still alive..."
A cold voice answered him.
"Then seal it faster."
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Executors.
Dozens of spiritual talismans.
The water tank hammered violently from inside.
Tiny bloody handprints appeared against the metal walls.
The old man screamed.
"I can still hear them!"
Another voice replied coldly:
"That building already belongs to the dead."
The memory changed again.
Night.
The superintendent kneeling before the mother entity.
Crying.
"I’m sorry."
"I couldn’t save them."
Then—
Something massive moved beneath the rooftop.
Something buried.
Something chained.
The final memory surfaced.
A hidden room below the water tank.
And inside it—
A living man.
Old.
Terrified.
Still alive after all these years.
The killer.
—
Shen Yu revived instantly back in the lobby.
Blood vanished from his chest.
The superintendent stepped backward for the first time.
"...What are you?"
Shen Yu inhaled slowly.
Now he understood everything.
The mother wasn’t the original monster.
The children were.
Or rather—
What they had become after being sealed alive.
The building itself had transformed into a cage.
The superintendent stared at Shen Yu with genuine unease now.
"You saw it."
"Yes."
The old man’s expression twisted painfully.
"...then leave."
The giant shadow behind him trembled violently.
The stitched mouths beneath his eyelids began bleeding.
"Before they wake up fully."
Shen Yu tilted his head.
"They aren’t awake yet?"
The lobby lights flickered.
Then every mouth on the giant creature screamed simultaneously.
"HUNGRY."
The entire domain shook violently.
The superintendent suddenly looked upward in horror.
"No..."
A deep cracking sound echoed overhead.
Like metal bending under immense pressure.
Then came the mother’s whisper.
Soft.
Close.
"...I found the key..."
The superintendent’s face lost all color.
"You opened the path..."
The old man looked at Shen Yu with despair.
"You idiot..."
BOOM.
The ceiling split open.
Black water flooded downward like a tsunami.
