Free Web NovelBai Liu’s tongue shifted slightly in his mouth.
The icy coin slid slowly beneath the thin membrane under his tongue. With an unreadable look in his eyes, he calmly watched the investigators beyond the small window, who were guarding him with fear in their gazes.
The truck sped through the desolate night roads, hauling a massive, heavy metal trailer behind it.
Several other vehicles followed close behind, all heading toward a white dome-shaped building the size of a stadium, standing alone in the middle of the wasteland.
—
The interior of the domed building was smooth and silver-white, forged from polished metal that reflected light with flawless precision. Every surface resembled a mirror.
A huge /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ lamp hung in the center like a sun. Its cold white glare bounced off the walls and shot in from every direction. The personnel walking back and forth all wore dark protective goggles.
The so-called investigators who had suddenly apprehended Bai Liu skillfully put on their goggles before entering this enormous building.
Bai Liu, however, bound in metal chains, had no goggles to wear.
If someone opened their eyes beneath this high-intensity light without protection, their vision would be swallowed by white spots in just one or two seconds. Prolonged exposure could even produce a snow-blindness effect, burning the retinas and causing blindness.
Bai Liu had originally intended to observe the internal structure of this strange building to make a later escape easier.
But the high-intensity lighting and architectural design were clearly meant to prevent people like him—people who wanted to flee—from memorizing the route.
Under this kind of light, the human eye could see nothing clearly.
Let alone remember a path.
Bai Liu abandoned the idea instantly.
He followed along obediently, closed his eyes, and allowed the others to drag him forward.
Eventually, they placed Bai Liu inside a small gray metal room.
The room was roughly square and not very tall. Inside were a table, two stools, and a high-intensity desk lamp placed on the tabletop. On the wall was only one small window, the same size as the one Bai Liu had seen in the truck.
Through that small window, Bai Liu could hear voices drifting in from outside.
“Reporting to the Vice-Captain of the Third Branch! The squad has successfully captured the high-risk humanoid heretic, codename 006!”
“During this mission, no one went insane! No one was bewitched by the heretic into suicide! No one suffered physical dismemberment from the heretic’s attacks! Because Captain Tang preclassified this heretic as a red-level high-risk heretic monster, we deployed five modified armored vehicles, seventeen containment guns, one direct-fire cannon, and thirty-three members of the Third Branch to capture it. At present, there have been no personnel or equipment losses. The mission has been completed successfully!”
A gentle male voice answered, “Everyone worked hard. I will personally interrogate him regarding the remaining information about this captured humanoid heretic.”
The reporting voice grew a little anxious.
“Captain Su, why are you in such a hurry? At least go in with Captain Tang! His resistance is higher, and Captain Tang was the one who insisted on forcibly capturing this heretic tonight. Isn’t it too dangerous for you to face such an unknown heretic alone?”
“Where is Captain Tang?”
The gentle voice cooled slightly.
The man addressed as Captain Su seemed to sigh in disappointment.
“After throwing a fit tonight and making us go capture the heretic, he went off to drink again. We don’t know where he’s passed out now. He isn’t answering his phone. I’ve already sent people to find him.”
“...Captain Tang went drinking again?!” The team member’s voice was full of disbelief. “How could he?! Tonight’s mission was carried out under his captain’s prerogative. He forced us to capture the target before a thorough investigation of these heretics had even been completed! Didn’t Captain Tang say he would handle it personally? How could he go out and get drunk again?!”
“This isn’t the first time he’s acted on impulse and sent the branch to some strange place to catch monsters,” Captain Su said with a bitter laugh. “When he’s drunk, everyone looks like a monster to him.”
“However, this is the first time he has used his captain’s prerogative. Tonight, his information on this humanoid heretic named Bai Liu was very specific and very certain. I thought he had truly investigated it before deciding to act.”
“Judging by the current situation, perhaps this person is simply an innocent civilian...”
“I’ll go in first and see what’s going on.”
With that, the metal door of Bai Liu’s small room was pushed open.
The person who entered was a man in his thirties, wearing a crisp police uniform, a protective mask, and brown leather gloves.
He looked refined and humble. Bai Liu estimated that he was over 1.8 meters tall. His eyes were mild and lowered slightly, with a faint grayish-yellow—or perhaps light amber—tint. His hair seemed not to have been styled in a while and fell halfway along the sides of his face. There were dark circles under his eyes, likely from staying up late, but overall he was clean and tidy.
He looked like the kind of man who was good at maintaining his life even under high-intensity work.
At first glance, he had a strong sense of approachability, making it easy for people to lower their guard.
Bai Liu’s gaze fell on the ID badge clipped to the right breast pocket of the man’s uniform.
[Dangerous Heretic Handling Department, Third Branch Vice-Captain — Su Yang]
Su Yang gestured for Bai Liu to sit.
After Bai Liu sat down, Su Yang noticed his gaze lingering on the ID badge. He tapped the badge lightly, looked up, and explained with a helpless expression:
“Perhaps, after being captured so violently, you won’t believe this, but although we are not a government organization, the Dangerous Heretic Handling Department is an organization established in countries around the world specifically to deal with these kinds of matters.”
Bai Liu looked up at Su Yang coldly and did not answer.
The helplessness on Su Yang’s face deepened.
“It’s like this. Although it sounds far-fetched, while many ordinary citizens have not yet realized it, many existences have already appeared in this world that cannot be explained by human scientific common sense.”
“Existences like monsters.”
“We call these unknown monsters that appear from nowhere ‘Heretics.’”
“Some heretics can bewitch human minds and drive people insane. Some feed on human flesh and blood. To deal with these dangerous heretics that harm the public, this special department was established.”
“The people who captured you tonight are members of this department.”
Bai Liu raised his eyelids.
“Then what does that have to do with me? Do I look like a heretic?”
Su Yang did not answer Bai Liu directly.
Instead, he took a remote control out of the desk, pointed it at the wall, and pressed it. A white projection screen slowly descended, and a projector on the opposite side began displaying a PowerPoint presentation.
[Dangerous Heretic Handling Department Popular Science]
Su Yang looked at Bai Liu.
“I’ll explain what I just said first. Then we can talk specifically about your situation.”
“As I said, we are responsible for handling these heretics that suddenly appear in this world. This department has existed for a very, very long time, but even now, no one knows where these heretics come from.”
“Yet they continue to appear in all sorts of bizarre and terrifying forms.”
“Humans, animals, objects.”
Su Yang pressed the remote, and the image on the white screen changed.
He continued, “These heretics possess terrifying power, enough to destroy us. Do you remember the Jingcheng Explosion Case?”
The image on the PowerPoint was a photograph.
In the photo was the antique mirror Bai Liu had seen in The Last Train to Blast Off. Around it stood several people wearing uniforms similar in style and color to Su Yang’s. They were frowning as they seriously inspected and measured the mirror.
Su Yang said, “This is the mirror from the Jingcheng Explosion Case.”
“After the explosion, many people began questioning how someone could openly bring a bomb onto the subway. Was the security checkpoint useless?”
“Our public explanation at the time was that the thieves had hidden the bomb inside an antique mirror.”
“We were mocked for nearly a month. People said we would say any brainless thing just to shift the blame. Given the size and thickness of that mirror, it was impossible to hide a bomb capable of blowing up a train car inside it.”
He pressed the remote again.
The photo on the screen changed to another one.
It was the same group of uniformed people, but now their faces were filled with shock as they pulled a massive black bomb out of the mirror.
It was a scene that completely defied spatial logic and common sense.
“But the truth was exactly that.”
Su Yang turned to look at Bai Liu.
“This mirror shattered in the explosion. We spent a great deal of effort piecing it back together from fragments recovered at the subway station.”
“After restoring it, we conducted many tests and experiments on it. We discovered that it functions like a spatial folding point. Objects far exceeding its own volume can be taken out of it. Furthermore, items placed inside cannot be detected by any known rays or equipment.”
“After long-term experimentation and testing, we discovered that this mirror does not merely store objects. It also possesses a certain ability to materialize mental states.”
“If experimental personnel stare at the mirror for a long time, the object inside will change from a bomb into whatever they least want to see at that moment.”
“In our post-incident investigation, we found that the reason the object in the mirror was a bomb was because the pair of thief brothers desperately did not want this expensive mirror, which they had worked so hard to obtain, to break.” freēwēbnovel.com
“They feared anything that could shatter it, and they stared at the mirror day and night.”
“In the end, their fear condensed into a bomb stored inside the mirror, and that bomb eventually exploded on the train.”
The images on the PowerPoint continued changing, this time turning into a page from an instruction manual.
[Heretic Containment Item Name]: Murphy’s Law Mirror
[Report]: Discovered during a major explosion. During the recovery of the fragments, it was discovered that the train was in a state in which it could not be stopped, trapped in a loop on the subway line one hour before the explosion. The line was not originally a loop. It was later confirmed that the fear of those who died in the explosion had been projected into the shattered mirror fragments. The passengers on this train feared being unable to leave the train that was about to explode, and so the mirror reflected an unstoppable cycle of explosions...
...After all fragments were recovered, no repair was necessary. The fragments reassembled themselves into a normal mirror surface. After reassembly, no traces of cracks could be found...
...After testing, staring for more than seventeen minutes can cause the object inside the mirror to transform into the thing the observer fears...
[Containment Method]: Stored seventeen meters underground, wrapped in dark polyethylene fabric to shield it from light. Entry into the CEDT-0714 containment room requires the approval of three branch vice-captains or one head captain.
[Danger Level]: Light Level 1 Red
“Of course, after our experiments, the thing inside this mirror is no longer a bomb.”
Su Yang smiled and made a joke.
“We had a test subject who hated spicy food eat extra-spicy hotpot while staring into the mirror. An hour later, everything stored inside the mirror had turned into Ghost Pepper hotpot base.”
Su Yang continued playing the PowerPoint.
“You saw the mushroom poisoning case at the welfare home that happened some time ago on television, didn’t you?”
Bai Liu looked at the wall.
The screen showed an image of Blood Lingzhi.
It was not a photograph, but a hand-drawn illustration.
“We took over this case in the later stages. Our investigation showed that the investors back then were likely connected to this object. It is said to cure all illnesses, but unfortunately, we had no concrete clues.”
Su Yang’s smile was faint. He seemed to glance meaningfully at Bai Liu.
“But isn’t it a coincidence? This morning, someone suddenly leaked a massive gift package of clues to us. The members of the Second Branch have already gone to arrest people.”
The images on the PowerPoint continued changing, becoming a clip of surveillance footage from a hospital ward.
In the video, Bai Liu was visiting a child in a hospital bed.
After Bai Liu left, the child recovered rapidly. Then the child turned toward the ward door Bai Liu had exited through and whispered a “thank you.”
Seeing this scene, Bai Liu mentally clicked his tongue.
He thought he was about to be exposed.
“After you left, we used cotton swabs to conduct throat, vomit, and fecal examinations on this little comrade. We discovered some very peculiar residual mycelium.” freewēbnoveℓ.com
Su Yang pulled a thumb-sized glass vial from the right breast pocket of his uniform.
Inside the vial, a strand of blood-red mycelium was preserved in fixative.
He looked up and stared directly at Bai Liu.
“Comrade Bai Liu, apart from you, no outsiders visited these children that day. And these children recovered after you arrived.”
“Can you explain where these mycelia came from?”
