Chapter 71: Nightmare, Harbinger
A path of intertwined destinies.
Dusk.
The bustling crowds in the city didn’t reassure Luo Ling but instead filled her with a deep sense of unease.
She saw the people around her stop and stare, their gazes cold and terrifying.
…Just like the villagers of Baiyan Village.
A terrifying dark gold glint flickered in Luo Ling’s eyes.
But in the next moment, the noise returned, the street bustling with people as usual, everything she had just seen seemingly an illusion.
“What’s wrong with me…?”
Luo Ling rubbed her temples, her head feeling heavy.
A puddle on the ground reflected her face, the striking color of her eyes impossible to hide.
She saw herself sneering.
“Luo Ling.”
A familiar voice, unexpected yet familiar, echoed from behind her.
“…?”
Luo Ling turned and saw the tall woman, still shrouded in mystery, standing less than five meters away.
“Ji Ying…”
She had appeared again.
Was this a hallucination?
“I’ve found the Puppet Ballad. Let’s go kill it together.”
Ji Ying extended a hand towards Luo Ling, her calm gaze so familiar, as if it had always been this way in Luo Ling’s memories, even when she had consumed Performer’s head in the corpse-filled subterranean cavern.
“Kill it? Me?”
Luo Ling took a step back.
She knew that the Puppet Ballad wasn’t something she could handle in her current state. Even just one of its “eggs,” a fragment of its power, had taken everything she had.
“Yes, only you can kill the Puppet Ballad,” Ji Ying said. “Come, join me…”
No…
She saw Ji Ying smile, her lips splitting open to her ears.
A row of sharp, twisted teeth, held together by mycelia in the scant flesh, framed what could barely be called a mouth.
The bustling noise of the street fell silent, and Luo Ling turned to see everyone staring at her.
Everyone was smiling.
“Come…”
Run.
Luo Ling didn’t hesitate. She turned and ran.
But Ji Ying’s voice followed her, neither close nor distant, calm and clear.
“Come… Luo Ling… come to me…”
Avoid the crowds, escape from Ji Ying.
This was the only thought in Luo Ling’s mind. She ran for an unknown amount of time, an unknown distance, until she finally came to her senses, alone, the nightmarish voice gone.
Had she… finally escaped?
So tired…
Luo Ling looked up and found herself back in the most familiar place.
Home.
Her sister was inside.
The aroma of food wafted through the air, and through the window, she saw her sister’s busy figure in the kitchen.
Even now, Luo Ling felt a sense of peace.
“I’m home.”
She opened the door as usual, leaning against the wall in exhaustion.
“Welcome back.”
Her sister walked over, took Luo Ling’s backpack, and led her to the dining table.
“Tired?”
Her sister’s gentle voice was as always.
“Mm.”
Luo Ling nodded wearily.
She looked up, a thick fog clouding her vision.
She couldn’t even see her sister’s face clearly.
“If you’re tired, get some rest,” her sister said, smiling.
A sudden sense of foreboding washed over Luo Ling.
No.
No, no, no…
White mycelia.
Slowly emerging.
Her sister’s smile widened, splitting to her ears.
The fragrant dishes on the table turned into dry bones and rotting flesh.
“Sister will always be with you… loves you.”
“No!”
Luo Ling bolted upright in bed, her back drenched in cold sweat.
She gasped for air, turning to see her own burning eyes in the mirror.
She was in her bed, the first light of dawn appearing outside the window.
Everything she had just experienced…
Was it… just a dream?
Yes, a dream.
Even though a week had passed, Luo Ling still couldn’t forget, occasionally dreaming of those horrifying fragments.
Ji Ying, transformed into an “egg,” trying to consume her, Elsa and the others being dragged into a bottomless abyss by the Puppet Ballad, completely controlled. But the most terrifying was tonight’s nightmare.
This was the first time she had dreamed of her sister.
“What’s wrong, Xiao Ling?”
Her sister’s anxious voice came from outside, along with hurried footsteps.
She opened the door, still wearing her apron, seemingly preparing breakfast.
“Nothing… it’s nothing…”
Luo Ling turned her face away, trying to hide her unusual eyes.
“Did you have a nightmare?”
Her sister approached, and Luo Ling instinctively recoiled but was pulled into a warm embrace.
“Honestly, you’re such a big girl now, Xiao Ling,” her sister said softly, stroking her hair. “Don’t be afraid, dreams are fake, they’re the opposite of reality.”
“Mm…”
Luo Ling mumbled in response.
Why had she instinctively resisted just now…?
Did she think her sister would be a monster like in her dream?
…Was it possible?
Feeling her sister’s warm embrace and the familiar scent of her perfume, Luo Ling reminded herself not to fall into such absurd thoughts.
But… now, she was truly afraid.
In Baiyan Village, she had repeatedly suppressed such thoughts, but now, she couldn’t control them anymore.
Now was the perfect opportunity to confirm.
Luo Ling always kept Ji Ying’s dagger hidden at her waist. At this distance, she just had to draw it and lightly cut her sister’s skin to be certain.
Should she do it?
If she did, what would she do?
If she didn’t, what would she do?
Either way, she would be hurting her beloved sister.
Luo Ling’s fingertips touched the icy cold metal at her waist. A single, small movement would be enough to end her worries.
“Xiao Ling… you’re still scared,” her sister chuckled. “After all these years, you haven’t changed at all. You always bite your lower lip when you’re scared… oh dear, you’ve even drawn blood!”
Her sister seemed startled, releasing her embrace and gently wiping away the blood from Luo Ling’s lip with her finger.
“Blood…”
Luo Ling stared at her sister’s finger.
It wasn’t her blood.
There seemed to be… a fresh cut on her sister’s finger.
“Oh dear, you caught me. Sister is such a klutz,” her sister chuckled. “I accidentally cut my finger while slicing ham this morning, honestly…”
It was her sister’s blood.
Flesh and blood… not mycelia.
Luo Ling relaxed, relief washing over her.
Good, she didn’t have to confirm it herself.
Her sister was her sister, not some monster…
How wonderful.
“No need to look so shocked. It’s just a small cut. You’ll make Sister sad if you react like this,” Su Wan said, gently tapping Luo Ling’s forehead.
“No, I just think… Sister is so good.”
Luo Ling hugged her sister again, her body relaxing.
“Xiao Ling, you really are… alright, since you’re awake, come down for breakfast after you wash up,” Su Wan pinched Luo Ling’s cheek. “Today is your birthday, and I promised you, Sister is all yours today.”
She held up a few red bills, a gentle smile on her lips. “You can do whatever you want. Sister still has some money.”
Birthday…
It was indeed around this time.
Even Luo Ling herself couldn’t remember her actual birthday. She had been an orphan, and her sister had chosen the day she adopted her as her birthday.
Every year, they would share a bowl of longevity noodles, and that was it.
However, perhaps because Su Wan felt she hadn’t spent enough time with her sister, after Luo Ling “recovered,” she had promised to take a day off on her birthday, so they could create some happy memories together.
So much had happened recently that Luo Ling had forgotten about it. She hadn’t expected her sister to remember, even saving some money despite their tight finances.
“I… mm, okay.”
Luo Ling nodded slightly, then hesitated and said, “Actually, I have a thousand yuan…”
She didn’t dare take out all the money she had, even after spending some, she still had over forty thousand.
But that was an astronomical sum for her sister.
“Huh?” Su Wan looked surprised, then, as if realizing something, she covered her mouth with a trembling hand and asked, “Xiao Ling… where did you get so much money?”
“It’s a new grant for underprivileged students,” Luo Ling lied without changing her expression. “My homeroom teacher knows about our situation and gave it to me in advance.”
Luo Ling had been receiving grants for underprivileged students, but it wasn’t much, and most of it went towards school fees.
“I see… that makes sense. Xiao Ling is a good girl, Sister isn’t worried,” Su Wan seemed relieved. She stood up and patted her apron. “Alright, come down for breakfast later, and then we’ll go out.”
“Mm.”
As Luo Ling watched her sister leave the room, she turned to look at the full-length mirror.
The dark gold in her eyes had faded, leaving only a faint red tinge, and the blue scales on her temples had also receded. The effects of her demonic transformation were disappearing, but some traces remained.
“I should put on my contacts.”
…
“Hiss, I see… I understand.”
A tall woman in a heavy trench coat crouched on the ground, her right eye replaced with a mechanical prosthetic, emitting a faint golden glow.
She was surrounded by abandoned, moss-covered houses. It was a deserted village.
—Baiyan Village.
Scientist put on her cat-faced eye patch, a playful smile on her lips.
“It seems Performer underestimated her opponent. This isn’t a Dangerous Grotesquery…”
“You mean… a High-Risk Grotesquery?”
The young man with a monocle stood beside her, his expression grim.
“Yes, but in a weakened state. And this is just a part of it, a severed ‘limb,’ so Performer mistook it for a Dangerous Grotesquery,” Scientist nodded, crossing her arms. “It’s not her fault, though, tsk, tsk, what a gruesome death, watching yourself being eaten alive can’t be a pleasant experience.”
“Can you tell which one it is?”
“No, I’ve never seen it before. It must have only appeared in some suppressed Disorder.”
“Alright… what else did you see in the Retrospect?” Artist asked seriously. “If it was just a part of a High-Risk Grotesquery, it shouldn’t have been able to kill Performer completely. She possessed a blessing from a Taboo.”
Grotesqueries within the top fifty Sequences were called Dangerous Grotesqueries, while Taboos… were the top ten.
The appearance of a Taboo was a devastating blow to this already disordered world. Fortunately, there were currently no known Taboos in existence.
Of course, even so, being able to obtain a portion of a Taboo’s power was a secret of the Harbingers.
“Mm, sorry, I couldn’t see clearly. Retrospect is easily disrupted. If it weren’t for this Peeping Eye I created, the information would be even more fragmented and chaotic.”
Scientist pointed at her cat-faced eye patch and shrugged. “But it wasn’t completely fruitless. The last time I possessed Performer, I saw a white-haired little girl next to Elsa. She’s most likely the culprit.”
She paused, then rubbed her chin and continued,
“But I didn’t see how the subterranean cavern and the corpses disappeared… I don’t believe that bunch of toddlers in Jiangcheng County has that kind of power. The Company wasn’t there yet, and the Speaker was preoccupied.
“Ah, too bad I’ve used up the Anchor Point. I can’t use Retrospect again.”
Scientist was an Awakened One on the Order path. Her ability, Retrospect, required a pre-set Anchor Point.
She had habitually left an Anchor Point in Baiyan Village when she possessed Performer, allowing her to see what had happened.
However, the reason they had waited a week before coming to Baiyan Village was mainly because the Company had also arrived in Jiangcheng County when they did.
Scientist and Artist didn’t care about the Awakened Ones in Jiangcheng County, who weren’t even High-Order and weren’t qualified to know the truth.
They were confident that any one of them could easily wipe out those “toddlers.”
But the Company was different. Out of caution, Scientist and Artist had held back.
“Perhaps another limb of this High-Risk Grotesquery cleaned up the battlefield… It seems to have an ‘assimilation’ characteristic,” Scientist mused. “Perhaps we can start from there. Hiss, I really don’t want to give up. High-Risk Grotesqueries aren’t easy to find…”
“Leave it to me.”
Artist nodded and clapped his hands.
Countless grains of sand and pebbles rose from the ground, gradually coalescing.
After a rhythmic clinking, the sand and pebbles formed human shapes, flesh and blood slowly growing over them.
“Although the traces have been erased… living beings aren’t the only ones with memories,” Artist murmured. “Everything has a spirit, that is the true meaning of Myriad.”
One by one, the villagers of Baiyan Village reappeared, their bodies mangled and dismembered, wrapped in white mycelia, their expressions frozen in the moment of their deaths.
“My, my, what a gruesome way to die.”
Scientist simply tsked, unfazed by the horrifying sight.
Artist’s face paled slightly, the strain evident.
“I can only imitate them to this extent. For a more perfect replica, I would need to use the blessing.”
Although Performer had used the blessing frequently, its price was heavy. She had only used it so recklessly because she believed the rewards outweighed the cost.
“This should be enough. Make them look a bit more human and throw them into the city,” Scientist chuckled. “It will come looking for them itself, seeking more ‘assimilation.’”
Creating Grotesquery-like beings to lure out the mysterious limb.
Once they captured the limb, finding the dormant main body would be much easier.
A blessing from a Taboo might not be enough to suppress a High-Risk Grotesquery, but if it was dormant… that was a different story.
“But the Company might deal with them first…”
Artist frowned.
“No need to be so cautious, Artist. They should be the ones worried,” Scientist slapped Artist’s back heartily and laughed. “Worst case scenario, you just have to make more. As long as someone dies in the city, you can recover, right?”
The Company was afraid of casualties, afraid of the impact, but they weren’t.
They were just expendable pawns. Even if they survived this time, they were destined to fall into the abyss, returning to nothingness, in some future Disorder.
That was what the Harbingers believed.
“Mm.”
Artist closed his eyes. Perhaps he was being too cautious.
His encounter with the Company during the Victorian era had left a deep impression on him… after all, that had been the Company’s golden age.
He hoped the Company employees in Jiangcheng County this time weren’t regulars, but just outsourced.
The villagers’ mangled bodies slowly healed, white mycelia filling in the missing flesh and blood, restoring them to their former appearances, but with blank, vacant expressions.
They began to walk, their movements initially clumsy, but gradually becoming more fluid, as they dispersed into the forest, heading towards the city of Jiangcheng County.
Like the walking dead.
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