“Captain, once we’ve defeated the Disaster Mother, let’s go have barbecue!”
The lively voice, filled with laughter, echoed through the damp and icy air.
Yet it was like a stone tossed into a deep pond, stirring only circles of suffocating ripples.
Boom——!
Thunder crashed, deafening, as if exploding right overhead!
Cold rain, reeking of rust and earth, pelted down like countless icy steel needles, instantly soaking through clothes and stabbing mercilessly into the skin.
Mu Xi shuddered all over, looking around in terror—familiar, rust-covered steel beams of an abandoned factory loomed in the sickly light of lightning, like the bones of some monstrous beast; and beside her… there were those faces—faces she knew so well, and yet in this moment, their sight nearly stopped her heart.
“Who would have thought, that the Disaster Mother would be cowering in a broken-down factory like this.”
A teammate’s voice sounded relaxed as they stepped forward.
“No! Don’t go!”
Mu Xi’s scream was so faint in the pouring rain, like the dying buzz of a mosquito on the brink of death.
She reached out, trying in vain to grasp the corner of the coat of the person ahead.
Yet, the four figures seemed not to hear her.
Their footsteps never paused, numb and unsettling, as they headed straight into the darkness at the factory’s heart—a darkness like the throat of a monstrous beast.
“Wait! Come back!”
Mu Xi chased in despair, cold rain blurring her vision and filling her mouth and nose, every step heavy as if she were wading through thick, sticky mud.
She had to stop them! She couldn’t let that blood-soaked tragedy happen again!
Fear, like icy vines, tightened around her heart, squeezing ever tighter.
She ran desperately, throat full of rain and the taste of rust.
The figures ahead grew more and more indistinct, finally vanishing completely into the impenetrable black at the factory’s core.
“No… wait for me…”
Mu Xi gasped for breath as she finally burst into the factory’s interior.
The air was frigid, thick with the stench of mildew and… something deeper, sickeningly sweet and metallic.
The scene before her froze her blood.
Four bodies—her comrades, who had once been so alive and warm—were strewn on the filthy, icy concrete like discarded rag dolls, twisted into unnatural shapes.
Rainwater, mixed with dark red liquid, spread and flowed beneath them, outlining a shocking pattern of death.
“No—!”
Mu Xi squeezed her eyes shut, her body shuddering violently as if she could block out the cruel scene by force.
Her stomach churned, an invisible giant’s hand closed tight around her throat.
Why force her to witness this again?!
“Why…”
A whisper of despair slipped from her trembling lips.
She dared not look, dared not face it.
Yet when, clutching at a sliver of desperate hope, she forced her heavy eyelids open once more—the cement floor was empty!
The four cold corpses, like phantoms washed clean by rain, had disappeared without a trace!
Only patches of water remained on the ground, reflecting a strange ghostly glow in the dim light.
“Mu Xi, why!”
A low, venomous voice—cold as ice and sounding as if it had crawled from the depths of the Jiuyou Netherworld—suddenly rang out behind her without warning!
Mu Xi’s body stiffened into stone, her blood running backwards!
She dared not turn around!
She didn’t even dare to move a muscle!
Just then, her left shoulder was suddenly weighed down—something cold and heavy slammed onto it!
Her body buckled under the pressure.
Then her right shoulder was crushed by the same, bone-chilling weight—once, twice, as if trying to grind her bones to dust and nail her into the filthy ground!
That weight carried the hatred and chill of the dead, nearly suffocating her.
She bit her lower lip hard, her teeth digging into flesh until she tasted blood.
She didn’t dare look down, didn’t dare see what was pressing onto her shoulders!
“Why, Captain, why? Why? Why!”
The voice suddenly rose, sharp as glass scraping, filled with endless pain and accusation!
It was the teammate who had been run through the abdomen by the Starlight Blade!
“Why did you kill us!”
Another voice joined in—it was Marigold! Cold, hopeless, brimming with rusty hatred!
“I’m sorry…”
Mu Xi’s throat let out a broken whimper, tears mingling with icy rain.
These three words were all she could say.
“Sorry can’t bring us back, can’t wipe away the sins you’ve committed.”
A younger, more sorrowful voice echoed—it was Cornflower…
Her voice was like a blunt knife, slicing over and over at Mu Xi’s heart.
“I’m sorry…”
Mu Xi could only repeat these pale, powerless words, as if clinging to the last straw as she drowned.
“Why won’t you die too!”
The four voices hissed like vipers, fusing into a torrent of malice that crashed into her ears and soul!
Mu Xi was utterly speechless, curled up in terror and guilt. Using the last of her strength, she cast a sideways glance at her shoulder—
Four heads!
Those four faces—so familiar, now twisted, deformed, and filled with hatred!
Their eyes were hollow or streaming with blood, staring at her, unblinking!
The touch was icy, corpse-like, seeping through her rain-soaked clothes and into her skin!
“Ah—!”
Mu Xi let out a silent scream, eyes squeezed shut, hands clamped tightly over her ears and head, fingernails almost digging into her scalp!
Like a startled snail, she shrank into herself as tightly as possible.
This was what she deserved!
This was the torment she should suffer—an endless hell!
“Hmm~”
A light, almost eerie hum, like a newborn oriole flitting among corpses, abruptly pierced the suffocating chorus of resentment.
That voice… it was unmistakably her own!
Then—
“Splurt!”
A chillingly clear sound, of a sharp blade slicing through flesh and bone! Crisp and clean!
As if some invisible shackle had been severed.
In an instant, the crushing weight vanished from her shoulders!
The venomous whispers and accusations stopped cold!
Deathly silence returned, broken only by the monotony of rain pounding on the tin roof.
Mu Xi, still shaken, slowly, trembling, forced her eyes open.
A figure stood quietly before her.
Black hair, wet as ink, clung to a face pale as death.
Ruby eyes glowed with something unhuman and sinister beneath the factory’s dim light.
That face—was her own! A
“Mu Xi” like a reflection in a mirror, but exuding a completely different presence.
In her hand, she held a strangely shaped longsword.
The blade was pitch black, absorbing all light. But at the hilt, something grotesque coiled—a huge, bloodshot eye, tightly shut!
At this moment, that eye seemed to twitch slightly, gazing coldly.
“You…”
Mu Xi’s throat was dry, and she’d barely spoken a word when—
A huge, weightless surge swept over her!
Like a drowning person being yanked from the icy depths towards the surface by an unseen force!
Her body grew light, while her consciousness spun and twisted between sinking and rising…
“Riiiiiiing——!!!”
The shrill, eardrum-shredding blare of an alarm clock exploded like thunder in the dead silence!
Mu Xi jolted upright in bed! Her heart pounded so wildly it almost burst from her chest! Each breath burned as if her lungs were aflame.
Cold sweat soaked her pajamas and the sheets beneath her, clammy and damp, clinging to her trembling body like a death shroud.
“Riiiiiiing——!!”
The merciless alarm kept shrieking.
She gasped for air, her glazed eyes sweeping over her familiar yet foreign bedroom, and only after several seconds did she begin to claw her way out of the nightmare’s grip.
Shaky fingers groped for the phone on the nightstand, vibrating like mad.
The harsh light on the screen showed—she’d overslept by a full twenty minutes.
Her fingertips were so cold she could barely hold the phone.
She pressed the stop button with all her strength, finally silencing the shrill alarm, though it left her ears ringing.
On the screen, an unread message icon flashed.
The contact name was clear: “Younger Sister.”
Mu Yurou: Sis, what’s going on?
You didn’t come to school yesterday.
Are you feeling unwell?
Mu Xi’s finger hovered over the cold screen for a moment, then, letter by letter, she typed her reply, as if every word drained her strength:
Mu Xi: I’m fine, I’ll be at school soon. Please tell the Teacher for me.
Send.
She tossed the phone back on the bed as if it were scalding hot.
The room was left with only her ragged breathing, and the morning light drifting in from the window, cool and silent, shining on the sweat-soaked, darkened patch where the nightmare had left its mark.