Free Web NovelChapter 116: Chapter 116: Hypnotic Trojan Horse
According to traditional Christian scripture, the term "Antichrist" means "in place of Christ." Anyone who denies Jesus is the Christ, who denies Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, who denies Jesus is the Word made flesh, and who claims to be Christ themselves, is the Antichrist.
Later in Western culture, the term Antichrist gradually came to refer to a devil claiming to be a saint, or simply to certain powerful, evil beings.
Clearly, the "Antichrist" Mines had mentioned on the phone was Shen Feng.
At first, Shen Feng was only slightly suspicious of Mines’s sudden enthusiasm. But when the man insisted on filling up a gas tank that was still more than half full, his suspicion deepened at once.
Shen Feng was now completely certain that Mines had been in contact with the Purification Society ever since leaving Wuyou Town.
The so-called haunting of Wuyou Town had to be connected to the Purification Society as well.
If that was the case, it gave him all the more reason to go check it out.
’But why would Mines call me the Antichrist?’
’Or does the Purification Society know I exist?’
’That makes no sense...’
’I’ve never even set foot in Eagle Country, I’ve just been kicking around my own little city. How could the Purification Society possibly know about me?’
There was no response from the other end of the line. Mines had hung up.
However, Jingwei had already triangulated the phone’s location and detected the number of other mobile signals in the vicinity.
There were over thirty of them.
In other words, at least thirty-some people were waiting for Shen Feng to show up in the so-called Wuyou Town...
To Shen Feng, however, these people were nothing to worry about. Once he activated his petrified combat form, he could fight them to a standstill with his bare hands. And this time, he had a gun.
Just then, the convenience store door creaked open. Mines walked out, still wearing that same, slightly bashful expression, as if nothing had happened.
Shen Feng, equally composed, got right back in the truck after paying for the gas.
Mines started the engine again, pulling off the highway and heading straight into the wilderness.
There was once a small road leading to Wuyou Town, but after so many years of neglect, it was completely impassable. Driving straight through the wilderness was better.
As the pickup truck rumbled on, Mines kept stealing nervous glances at Shen Feng.
Shen Feng remained perfectly still, his eyes closed in feigned rest. He played the part of the oblivious big fish about to swim right into the net.
More than an hour later, a dilapidated town appeared before them in the middle of the wilderness.
From a distance, it was clear the town had once been considerable in size, home to at least several thousand, if not tens of thousands, of people.
Most of the buildings, however, were scorched black from a fire.
It was now afternoon. From a distance, the charred ruins, the gaping black windows of decaying houses, the faded concrete walls, and an arched sign that read "Welcome to Wuyou Town" made the place look like a veritable ghost town.
The corner of Shen Feng’s mouth twitched into a smirk.
’Interesting.’
Mines, looking nervous, turned to Shen Feng. "We’re... here... Do you... want to go in?"
Shen Feng chuckled. "Drive on in. Let’s go see the ruins of the Purification Society."
"O-Okay..." Mines swallowed hard, nodded, and drove the truck forward.
Jingwei’s voice rang in his mind. "Shen Feng, be careful. I’ve detected the number of mobile signals here, but there aren’t any satellites passing overhead at the moment. I can’t redirect surveillance, so I don’t know if there’s anything else waiting for you."
Shen Feng nodded slightly. The skin on the vital parts of his body had already begun to quietly petrify as he pulled a newly purchased bulletproof vest from his backpack and put it on.
Seeing this, Mines grew even more anxious. He asked:
"Wh-Why are you putting on a bulletproof vest?"
Shen Feng racked the bolt on his automatic rifle and said coolly,
"To kill people, of course."
With that, he slipped on a Kevlar helmet.
His expression was placid, but inwardly, he was buzzing with excitement.
’Clues and people related to the Whisperer... right in front of me!’
’I might finally be able to unravel the mystery of the Whisperer!’
The color drained from Mines’s face, but one look at the rifle in Shen Feng’s hands kept him from saying a word.
Soon, the pickup reached the center of the abandoned town, pulling up in front of a building that had been burned to a ruin.
Judging by its remaining silhouette, the building looked more like a hospital.
This was clearly the place where Cthulhu had once used Hypnosis on more than a thousand of his followers, leading to hundreds of them committing suicide on the spot.
And after that, Cthulhu had vanished without a trace.
Although a later FBI report claimed Cthulhu’s body was among the hundreds of charred corpses, the FBI files Shen Feng had decrypted told a different story. That was just a lie to placate the public.
The real Cthulhu had vanished completely.
A wildly popular Hypnotist, a mass suicide of his hypnotized believers, his own disappearance, and tens of thousands of remaining followers melting back into society.
’This all felt too much like a goddamn conspiracy.’
’Like a Hypnotist’s version of the Trojan Horse.’
Gazing at the charred sanatorium, which resembled a Demon’s lair, Shen Feng was now ninety percent certain that Cthulhu was still alive.
"We’re here... This... this was the Purification Society’s sanatorium... I lived in this town as a kid. I used to come play in the sanatorium all the time."
Mines’s eyes grew distant, as if lost in memories of days gone by.
Shen Feng nodded and said, freēwēbηovel.c૦m
"Tell your friends to come out."
Mines instantly became flustered. He stammered,
"What friends? I don’t—"
"RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT..."
He couldn’t finish the sentence. A chaotic burst of gunfire erupted as streams of bullets flew from the surrounding abandoned buildings, riddling the pickup from all sides!
Before Mines could even scream, he was riddled with bullets, his head blown apart!
To kill Shen Feng, they hadn’t even spared their own comrade!
Immediately after, masked men in black, all fully armed, emerged from the surrounding buildings. Carrying automatic rifles, they reloaded and continued to fire as they advanced on the pickup.
After two volleys, each man had emptied two magazines and slapped in a third.
The leader, Big Beard, raised a hand and clenched it into a fist.
The gunfire ceased instantly. Thirty-two men closed in from all sides, approaching their target in tactical formation.
Logically, the pickup was a complete sieve. The entire cabin was riddled with holes. The enemy had to be deader than dead.
Yet these men maintained their combat stances, clearly well-trained.
No one could have possibly survived that hailstorm of bullets.
Big Beard, rifle at the ready, led the way. He soon spotted the mangled corpse of Mines in the driver’s seat.
But when he glanced at the passenger seat, his eyes went wide.
The door was open. The passenger seat was empty!
’Impossible!’
’From a distance, I saw my own two shots hit the target’s chest and shoulder!’
’And someone else hit his arm! It should have been shattered!’
Big Beard’s eyes narrowed. He abruptly dropped into a crouch and looked under the truck.
And there he saw a grinning Asian youth lying underneath, the muzzle of his gun aimed right at him.
Their eyes met.
For a moment, things were a bit awkward.
The youth broke the awkward silence by instantly pulling the trigger.
