Free Web NovelLiu Jiayi’s thoughts moved rapidly.
She frowned in concentration.
“If you really smelled Bai Liu here, then that proves I was right. But why isn’t Bai Liu here? I don’t think those people would let him go that easily, so what exactly is happening now?”
The moment she finished speaking, a piercing emergency broadcast rang throughout the entire base.
“Level One Alert! Level One Alert! The base is about to enter complete lockdown! More than eighty percent of contained heretics are currently escaping! All team members, prepare for combat!”
“If you encounter intruders or Humanoid Heretics like Bai Six, do not prioritize containment. Prioritize execution!”
“That ‘intruder Humanoid Heretic’...” Mu Shicheng pointed at himself. “They wouldn’t happen to mean us, would they?”
“I think they do,” Mu Ke replied tensely. “But I think there’s something more important right now.”
His gaze fixed on the space behind Mu Shicheng. He pressed down firmly on Mu Shicheng’s shoulder to stop him from turning around.
“You’d better not look behind you right now.”
Mu Shicheng slowly inhaled.
He had already felt it too.
“...There’s something on my shoulder, isn’t there?”
Behind him stood a bride dressed in a Ming-Qing-style bridal gown.
A thick red veil embroidered with the Double Happiness character covered her head. One pale, corpse-spotted hand stretched out from beneath the sleeve, its greenish-black nails resting limply on Mu Shicheng’s shoulder.
Beneath the moldy veil, the lower half of her face was visible.
The corners of her stiff mouth curled upward in a grotesque smile.
None of them knew when this Ghost Bride had appeared.
Nor did they know when she had silently approached them.
“What do I do now?” Mu Shicheng asked calmly.
Liu Jiayi studied the Ghost Bride for a moment before raising an eyebrow.
“...I think I know this monster. I’ve played the game she appears in.”
“In the Monster Book, her name is [Ghost Bride]. In the game, her attack method is choosing a ‘groom’ and forcing him through a marriage ceremony. After that, you get dragged into the underworld.”
Her teasing gaze swept toward Mu Shicheng.
“To put it simply, resting her hand on your shoulder means she’s taken a liking to you.”
Mu Shicheng nearly exploded.
“But I haven’t taken a liking to her! Can someone please explain to her that arranged marriages and forced weddings went out of style ages ago?!”
Mu Ke immediately caught the important detail in Liu Jiayi’s explanation.
“She’s from the Monster Book? Then she should have a weakness. What is it?”
Liu Jiayi’s expression sharpened.
“First, you can’t turn your back on her.”
“Second, it’s best if you aren’t a man of marriageable age—”
Before she even finished speaking, Liu Jiayi stepped onto Mu Shicheng’s shoulder and leaped upward.
With swift, ruthless precision, she tore the veil off the Ghost Bride’s head.
“—Third, she cannot be separated from her veil.”
The red veil fell to the floor.
The Ghost Bride’s completely rotten face was exposed. She covered it with both hands and let out a shrill, miserable scream.
Liu Jiayi kicked the veil away.
The Ghost Bride immediately turned and hurried after it in frantic little steps.
Liu Jiayi grabbed Mu Shicheng by the arm and shouted without looking back:
“Run!”
——————————————————
Tang Erda stepped into the corridor.
In front of him lay a tangled clump of filthy, foul-smelling hair, like something pulled out of a clogged bathtub drain.
Several team members were trembling as they prepared to approach it for containment, but Tang Erda raised a hand to stop them.
He looked at the writhing mass.
“Every actively hostile heretic here—or rather, every monster—has its own weakness.”
“When carrying out containment, you must learn to exploit those weaknesses.”
Tang Erda deliberately softened his breathing as he approached the creature.
“For example, this heretic, Number 1402, [Hairworm Algae]. It resembles a clump of hair, but it’s actually a colonial parasite with extremely strong vitality and reproductive ability.”
“When approaching it, you should avoid displaying the traits of a biological host it can parasitize.”
“Unfortunately, the human body is its preferred host.”
“So the best option is to distract it with another parasitic target.”
A team member hurried over and handed Tang Erda a cage containing a white mouse.
Tang Erda opened the cage, grabbed the mouse, and threw it toward the mass of hair with pinpoint precision.
The strands instantly exploded outward into countless tendrils that wrapped around the mouse and pierced into its flesh.
The mouse convulsed violently on the floor.
Beneath its skin, countless wriggling threads could be seen moving.
“Feeding is its only weakness,” Tang Erda explained coldly. “During this period, it won’t attack other creatures.”
Wearing leather gloves, Tang Erda grabbed the infested mouse and swiftly tossed it into a glass containment box.
The mouse instantly burst into a cloud of blood mist inside the container.
The satiated parasites rose upright like centipedes, writhing along the glass walls as they attempted to escape.
The surrounding team members shuddered at the sight.
None of them dared imagine what would happen if this thing broke loose.
One member inhaled deeply before raising his communicator.
“Report. Containment of Heretic [1402] complete.”
——————————————————
A semi-transparent crawling creature silently streaked past Liu Jiayi’s back.
Mu Shicheng’s nose twitched.
Before his brain could even react, that strange yet familiar pungent smell made him instantly pull out the gun he had taken from a patrol guard and fire.
BANG!
The creature let out a lizard-like hissing sound.
Its body shifted from transparent to a sticky black mass as it dropped from the wall onto the floor before scrambling away on all fours.
Liu Jiayi looked over in surprise.
She hadn’t heard a single thing.
“[Transparent Chameleon],” Mu Shicheng said while rubbing his shoulder. “A monster from a Level One game I played before. Its defense is low, but its concealment ability is ridiculously high.”
“I never figured out its weakness in the game, but my attack stat was high enough that I just killed it and brute-forced my way through.”
He grinned smugly.
“Looks like these monsters still can’t handle [N O V E L I G H T] bullets, whether they’re inside or outside the game.”
“Good thing I’ve played with guns a few times before.”
Mu Ke had already drawn the gun from his waist.
He knew how to shoot, but his reaction speed was nowhere near Mu Shicheng’s. More importantly, his entire focus was on finding Bai Liu.
“Mu Shicheng,” he asked gravely, “can you still smell Bai Liu’s scent?”
“Tsk.”
Mu Shicheng rubbed the back of his neck irritably.
“Normally, yes. But not here. The smells are way too chaotic, and these monsters’ scents are overwhelming.”
“These monsters definitely weren’t released voluntarily by the Bureau,” Liu Jiayi said calmly, already deep in analysis. “I still don’t know how Bai Liu suddenly became capable of all this, but I’m almost certain he’s the one behind it.”
“The question now is why.”
“What exactly is he trying to do?”
She looked at Mu Shicheng and Mu Ke.
“All our previous plans are useless now. The only thing we can do is figure out Bai Liu’s motive.”
“Once we understand that, we’ll know where he’s heading.”
“You two seem close enough to risk your lives for him.”
“So what do you actually know about Bai Liu?”
Mu Ke hesitated briefly.
“...The laptop he uses is an Alienware I gave him as compensation once. He seems to really like that brand...” fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
Mu Shicheng rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“He ate discounted hotpot last week. Does that count?”
Liu Jiayi’s expression went completely numb.
“...That is not the kind of ‘knowing’ I’m talking about! Are you two elementary schoolers who just hang out together after class?!”
In the end, these two were completely useless.
They knew absolutely nothing.
They had simply followed her here on instinct.
But at that moment, Liu Jiayi suddenly realized something terrifying.
Bai Liu already understood the psychological states, motivations, personalities, and even family backgrounds of all three of them with frightening precision.
If the situation were reversed—if they were trapped inside this base—then Bai Liu’s understanding of them would be enough for him to instantly deduce their behavioral patterns, calculate where they would go and which routes they would choose, then locate and eliminate them with terrifying efficiency.
Bai Liu’s understanding of them created a strange illusion.
It made them feel as though they had known him for a very long time.
As though they deeply understood one another.
But that wasn’t true.
They knew nothing about Bai Liu.
Or rather—
Bai Liu had never allowed them to know what he was thinking.
Who in this world could possibly understand what Bai Liu was thinking?
That man was sinister and cunning. His face seemed covered in countless smiling masks, and every action he took was impossible to predict.
Was there truly anyone who could guess Bai Liu’s thoughts?
Someone who knew where he would go?
Someone who could find him?
——————————————————
Lu Yizhan walked through the corridor with a solemn expression, heading deeper underground.
Around him, crowds of people hurried upward in the opposite direction.
Someone tried to stop him.
“Hey! Where are you going?! That area stores the most dangerous heretics! Only branch members are allowed down there!”
Lu Yizhan acted as though he hadn’t heard a word.
He simply tightened his grip around the gun in his hand and continued walking downward with unwavering determination.
The most dangerous heretics were below.
And Bai Liu would definitely be there.
Lu Yizhan knew Bai Liu too well.
Perhaps even better than Bai Liu understood himself.
Bai Liu was naturally drawn toward danger. He loved games. The more uncontrollable and unknown something became, the more it fascinated him.
After years of work, Lu Yizhan had learned another term for people like Bai Liu.
[Natural-Born Criminals.]
Low empathy.
High intelligence.
A craving for stimulation and terror.
A lack of social belonging.
Severe childhood trauma.
People like that were statistically far more likely than ordinary people to stray from the right path.
But Lu Yizhan would always believe in Bai Liu.
Bai Liu had promised him that he wouldn’t commit crimes lightly.
So Lu Yizhan believed him.
These people said Bai Liu was controlling the heretics.
Then Lu Yizhan believed that no matter how dangerous those monsters were, they would never hurt him.
Because Bai Liu was controlling them.
Because Bai Liu was his only friend of ten years.
Lu Yizhan walked alone into the endless depths underground.
Dim light brushed across his profile.
Terrifying monsters writhed around him, baring fangs and claws as they lunged toward him from the darkness.
He did not dodge.
He did not flee.
He did not hesitate.
He simply continued walking forward in silence, gritting his teeth and refusing to retreat.
Eventually, the monsters surged toward him like a tide—
and receded like one as well.
Covered in wounds and staggering slightly, Lu Yizhan braced himself against the wall and finally stepped out of the darkness.
At the end of the corridor, harsh white light spilled downward.
Bai Liu stood there quietly, watching Lu Yizhan approach.
“You shouldn’t have come looking for me, Lu Yizhan,” Bai Liu said softly, lowering his eyes.
Lu Yizhan smiled.
Supporting himself against the wall, he forced himself upright and looked at Bai Liu with that same gentle gaze that always seemed capable of forgiving everything.
“But you still let me find you, Bai Liu.”
“If you truly wanted to hide, I would never have been able to find you.”
As always, he reached his hand out toward Bai Liu.
“Come out with me.”
Bai Liu looked at the bloody, trembling hand extended toward him.
But he did not move.
Lu Yizhan had always been like this.
Always reaching out to him.
Giving him food.
Giving him a name.
Giving him a friend.
Even when Bai Liu rejected him coldly every single time, Lu Yizhan would still laugh as if it didn’t matter, stubbornly approaching him again and again—
pulling Bai Liu up from the bottom of that endless water that swallowed everything whole.
Dragging him toward the surface no matter what.
“Lu Yizhan,” Bai Liu said quietly, “you should know very well that my nature is malicious.”
“I have the ability to do terrible things.”
“I can profit from them.”
“And I don’t particularly care about the lives of other people.”
“So I have no reason not to do them.”
His tone remained calm.
“We were never meant to be friends.”
“I only treated you as someone else.”
Bai Liu looked directly at Lu Yizhan.
“But you are not him.”
“Lu Yizhan, you’re human.”
“You’re not a monster.”
“Humans and monsters cannot be friends.”
“You forced this relationship between us for ten years.”
“Don’t keep forcing it.”
“Under normal circumstances, I would become the kind of criminal you’d eventually have to shoot.”
“And you would become the investigator who pulls the trigger.”
“I’ll let you go one last time.”
“From now on, when you see me...”
“...don’t reach out your hand to me.”
“Point your gun at me instead.”
Lu Yizhan slowly lowered his head.
His breathing grew uneven.
The hand pressed against the wall gradually clenched into a fist.
Then, without hesitation, he drew the gun from behind his waist and aimed it directly at Bai Liu.
Bai Liu showed no surprise whatsoever.
Lu Yizhan clearly understood how dangerous it would be to release him.
Killing him here was the best possible choice.
Even with the muzzle aimed directly at him, Bai Liu’s breathing and heartbeat never changed.
Then Lu Yizhan smiled again.
Dragging his injured leg behind him, he slowly walked closer.
He gently placed the gun into Bai Liu’s stunned hand.
Then he wrapped his own bloody, trembling hand around Bai Liu’s and forced Bai Liu to aim the gun at him.
“I will never point a gun at you, Bai Liu.”
Lu Yizhan smiled until the corners of his eyes crinkled.
His face was covered in blood and abrasions. Even smiling, he looked utterly miserable.
Then Lu Yizhan opened his eyes and calmly switched off the gun’s safety.
CLICK.
“If you truly intend to leave this place and begin harming innocent people...”
“Then let me be the first person you kill.”
“An investigator cannot ignore what you’re about to do.”
“But I truly cannot point a gun at you...”
“After everything that happened today, it’s obvious you’ve already become someone I have absolutely no way to stop.”
Lu Yizhan pressed the muzzle against the center of his own forehead.
His gaze never wavered from Bai Liu.
“So before you go do all those terrible things...”
“...please kill this useless investigator first.”
“Don’t let him witness everything you’re about to become.”
Facing the gun, Lu Yizhan gave Bai Liu that same familiar, helpless smile.
“But until the very last moment before this investigator dies...”
“...as long as you still haven’t done anything bad...”
“...you are still his friend.”
[Because an investigator’s friend cannot be a bad person.]
[Bai Liu, if one day you truly do something bad, I’ll personally arrest you.]
[Then if I really do something bad, will you kill me, Lu Yizhan?]
[If what you do only deserves prison, then you’ll go to prison.]
[But if prison isn’t enough... if you truly become someone who must die...]
[...then before you commit that kind of crime, I’ll stop you even at the cost of my own life.]
Bai Liu tightened his grip around the gun.
Lu Yizhan slowly raised both hands in surrender.
Without the slightest resistance, he calmly closed his eyes.
——————————————————
Author’s Note:
There will be many flashback scenes in the future, but for now they are all foreshadowing. Most of the answers won’t be revealed until at least the beginning of the league arc because the overall framework of the story is actually very large orz.
If this kind of structure bothers you, you can wait and binge-read later. And if you simply don’t enjoy this style of storytelling, readers, please don’t force yourselves to continue! The outline has already been finalized, so the core structure of the story can’t be changed!
Also, my own abilities and brainpower are genuinely limited. I can’t guarantee there aren’t mistakes or bugs in the story so far, but some things that look like bugs are actually intentional foreshadowing.
After the novel is finished, I’ll revise the entire text properly. But during serialization, I genuinely don’t have the energy to constantly go back and fix things.
If you prefer stories with extremely rigorous structure and fully polished details, it might honestly be better to wait until I complete the final revisions after the story ends.
As a writer, of course I hope everyone continues reading. But if the reading experience becomes unpleasant for you, or if there are plot directions you dislike, I can’t fundamentally change the story because of that.
You can criticize me, leave negative ratings, or vent frustrations if you want—that’s completely fine. But please don’t resort to personal attacks or extreme insults toward the author.
Even if you scold me, I still won’t change the outline because... I genuinely don’t have extra draft stock anymore. Humble.jpg.
I’ll continue writing according to the planned outline, and I won’t change the main framework or core characters.
So if you really don’t like it, please run while you still can! Protect your eyes!
Example:
Correct way to criticize me:
“There are typos and grammatical mistakes everywhere. This is trash. I’m dropping it.” (√)
Wrong way to criticize me:
“The author writes like an idiot because they are an idiot.” (×)
Correct way to criticize a character:
“This character is disgusting. I hate them.” (√)
Wrong way to criticize a character:
“This character is disgusting. Go die together with the author.” (×)
Thank you all so much for sticking with the story and listening to my rambling this whole time!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all for tolerating me!
Bow.
