novelraw Chapter 115: The Situation of Both Parties
Chapter 115: The Situation of Both Parties
After eleven o'clock, the entire orphanage completely shed the false facade it had barely maintained during the night, revealing its truest and worst appearance.
The aging buildings looked dilapidated and unsafe, like structures on the verge of collapse. The exterior walls were completely mottled and peeling, with unrecognizable debris gathering dust in the corners.
Various forms of eerie monsters roamed through the silent late night, their twisted shadows cast upon the ground by the dim lighting.
Intermittent, slow squirming sounds came from all directions, as if countless monsters lurked within the darkness.
There were also faint, spine-chilling sounds of fangs grinding, accompanied by gurgling swallowing noises, as if something was being chewed and devoured.
The most numerous were those tall, thin monsters they had encountered in the corridors.
Their ugly lower bodies moved while their grotesquely slender arms dragged along the ground.
Their shriveled, pale flesh lacked any moisture, clinging wrinkled to their thin bones. The blood-red throat tube extending from their shoulders and necks writhed like a worm.
Their appearances and forms were bizarre and terrifying, bringing an extremely heavy sense of oppression—all were ghosts and monsters that had undergone horrifying mutations.
The lowest level among those mutated, ugly ghosts was C-rank; any single one could become the boss of a low-to-mid-level instance.If discovered, they would likely be torn to shreds by those monsters instantly.
There were no rules here imposing suppression or restraints.
Xu Zisheng moved slowly with frequent stops, nearly being discovered two or three times, brushing past those patrolling monsters.
The most dangerous moment was when they encountered another type of monster—this ghost seemed highly sensitive to scent.
Its upper body was nearly spherical, with a spherical protrusion at the top bearing three fish-like eyes.
The ghost had no mouth; its entire head featured only two deeply recessed flesh cavities connecting to the inside of its torso, resembling two large nostrils held high.
Its lower body barely maintained a human shape, with palms larger than normal people's and fingers swollen as if inflated.
When Xu Zisheng passed through a long, dark corridor wearing the human skin cloak, the monster's huge, disgusting round head slowly turned following Xu Zisheng's movement.
In the cold night, its slightly trembling round head and torso resembled a big-headed fish with its skin peeled off, the deep cavities slowly exhaling two visible distorted streams of air.
But since it never detected anything unusual, the ghost slowly turned aside, seeming ready to leave.
Moving bit by bit slowly would have soon taken them out of the monster's sight.
However, the longer the human skin cloak was used, the more terrifying its negative effects became. Seemingly sensing Xu Zisheng's extremely subtle emotional fluctuations and the terrifying ghost persistently focused here.
The resentment attached to the human skin cloak suddenly became terrifying, the negative effects intensifying in an instant.
Concentrated at this moment, the ghostly backlash condensed with countless bitterly deceased girls' hatred and despair strengthened, wanting to cause massive emotional fluctuations in Xu Zisheng and drag him into an abyss of eternal suffering.
The originally mournful cries became more piercing, no longer carrying any lingering tenderness.
Ghost Power materialized, pairs of icy blood-red hands entwined around Xu Zisheng like spider silk.
Blackish-blue sharp fingernails pierced into Xu Zisheng's arms like freezing silver needles, causing extreme pain, seemingly trying to use such hallucinatory interference to make Xu Zisheng release his grip on the human skin cloak.
Some ghostly hands also appeared above the human skin cloak, attempting to lift it, faintly leaving distorted blood stains on the originally smooth, delicate human skin.
An uncontrollable external force struck, the human skin cloak twisted unstably, wanting to break free from Xu Zisheng's control.
Just like those girls desperately struggling yet still firmly pinned down.
Facing this sudden ghostly backlash, Xu Zisheng quickly reacted, ignoring all the mind-affecting hallucinations.
But the extremely malicious hatred and despair still affected his spirit somewhat, causing a few traces of his true human flesh and blood aura to leak out.
The ghost that was about to leave immediately turned back, arriving in the blink of an eye at where Xu Zisheng had just been standing, a rotten, stinking sensation rushed over, mixed with a fishy odor and the smell of a garbage bin.
Its chest rose and fell uncontrollably, the deeply recessed flesh trembling, as if excitedly trying to find something.
The thin boy beneath the human skin cloak was only one centimeter away from it.
A red light flashed past, the almost invisible dark shadow at Xu Zisheng's feet twisted.
Then continuously lengthening, lurking in the darkness, it swiftly retreated far away, making slight noises in the opposite direction.
At such close proximity, Xu Zisheng could even feel the stinking airflow from its exhalation.
The monster eventually turned bit by bit, slowly moving toward the other end.
Its intelligence wasn't high, seemingly driven only by instinctual desires for hunting and devouring, unable to analyze the feint tactic.
Xu Zisheng immediately took two steps back, exiting that corridor, his heart racing uncontrollably due to physiological factors, though emotionally he didn't show particularly large fluctuations.
After moving some distance away, his pace slowed, the distorted shadow also extremely stealthily returning to his feet, resuming its normal appearance.
Beneath the human skin cloak, the dark clouds gradually dispersed, no longer pulling at both the human skin cloak and the thin boy's hair strands.
Just moments before, it was the [Writer] who had helped him—when his emotions fluctuated, the other had helped him secure the human skin cloak and pulled his hair strands to bring him back to awareness.
Only now, as Xu Zisheng slightly turned his head, did he discover the [Writer] transformed into a small figure sitting on his shoulder.
Noticing Xu Zisheng's gaze, the elegant youth resembling white jade porcelain smiled gently and nodded at him, his dark long gown hanging lightly.
[Thank you, sir—]
Xu Zisheng mouthed words of thanks, not finding it strange at all that the other had turned into a small figure sitting on his shoulder.
He slightly raised his arm, being more careful not to let himself or the human skin cloak above affect the other.
The Cursed Child withdrew his gaze, pondering inwardly, continuing to walk toward the director's office.
He wondered if it was because of the doppelganger, but the [Writer]'s condition seemed somewhat unstable.
Whether in cloud form or now as a small figure, both seemed to be methods to conserve power.
Had the [Doppelganger] encountered something? Or was it because, separated from its origin, drifting too long in this barren world would naturally cause this?
Xu Zisheng speculated inwardly, finally arriving this night at areas inaccessible during daytime.
Xiao Gui'an sat on Xu Zisheng's shoulder, watching the red-walled, white-tiled building gradually appear in view.
In the darkness, the walls that seemed stained with blood looked even redder, tinged with deep, dark shades.
The broken cross on the roof seemed larger, though the night was too dark to clearly see what hung on it.
The main door was tightly shut; compared to when Xiao Gui'an had seen it before, two red marks had appeared beside the door handle, and the door panel bulged slightly, like tightly closed eyes.
The wind direction in the air had changed somewhat, as if something had been added.
"Buzz—" The two tightly closed red marks suddenly opened, two protruding, trembling red eyes moving slightly like an animal's, resembling the pupils of some bird species, attempting to detect anything abnormal.
But it was destined to be disappointed.
After scanning around, it saw nothing.
The huge eyeball glowing with red light seemed puzzled, turned clumsily, then slowly closed again bit by bit.
But not long after, it pulled a sudden return, the blood-colored pupils bulged more prominently, oozing some thick, filthy black water from below. This time, the terrifying huge eyeball still reflected nothing.
Xu Zisheng had already circled to the other side of the building, where there were the vice-principal's office, financial management office, printing room...
The signs outside the doors were all tattered and blurred.
Not this one, not this one either...
Information Records Room...
The thin boy retracted his leg about to step past, looking at the small room at the very back of the building, a faint light shimmering in his eyes—this was the place!
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At eleven o'clock.
Orphan dormitory building, fifth floor, third room next to Xu Zisheng's room.
After responding, Cheng He lay quietly on the bed, eyes closed, waiting for 'Teacher Xu' outside the door to leave.
Once the noises faded somewhat, several silver-and-white striped insects crawled out from the alarm clock on the wall.
The silkworm-like creatures squirmed gently, raising their upper bodies, their heads' two extremely thin black antennae trembling.
Then they spat white silk threads from their small mouths, enveloping the wall-mounted alarm clock layer by layer. Soon, those silk threads merged into the clock, showing no abnormality.
After all this was done, the boy got up.
The room was very dark, but this wasn't a problem for Cheng He. With eyes closed, he nimbly got out of bed.
Two rings engraved with strange totems appeared on Cheng He's fingers.
He crouched down, pulling a golden hair strand from his chest. The strand was somewhat coarse, unlike real human hair.
Cheng He placed the hair strand on the floor, then extended his ring-adorned index finger to trace strange, eerie patterns around the low-quality golden hair on the ground.
The patterns on the rings resembled a human skeleton model, now seeming to come alive as it turned its neck.
When Cheng He completed the final stroke, connecting the ends of the eerie pattern, a deep red light rose, illuminating Cheng He's face with closed eyes.
The golden hair strand within the pattern quickly burned, emitting a wisp of black smoke. Within the smoke, a figure grew from small to large.
Amid the billowing smoke, a plastic doll face with golden hair, deeply sunken eye sockets, and an extremely wide grinning mouth flashed past—the bright red lips looked as if stained with blood.
Finally, the figure of a girl holding a patched, worn-out doll emerged from the black mist, landing gently on the floor.
The doll she held had changed appearance; if originally it was just a shabby, dirty doll, now it was somewhat frightening and terrifying.
Though the doll's golden hair looked cheap, its unmoving eyeballs were extremely realistic, exactly like real human eyes.