Chapter 65: The Building Outside the Village Part 2

The passing crowd ignored their car, walking around it. The lively scene in the distance made the three of them shiver.

Bai Chen Zhu sighed. “The more I look, the creepier it gets.”

Especially after knowing they were all illusions.

—

The sun hung high, and the sunlight grew scorching.

Zhou Zhuo Hua stared idly at the scene outside, then her eyes went wide. “You guys… look outside.”

She stammered, “How… how are there so many hot guys, and they’re not wearing clothes?!”

Jiang Ye glanced out the car window. At some point, the crowd outside had turned into countless scantily clad beauties.

He whipped his head toward Bai Chen Zhu.

Bai Chen Zhu saw nothing. What his superpowers ‘saw’ was empty air. Yet Jiang Ye stared at him as if he had seen something heinous.

Bai Chen Zhu suddenly wanted to tease him, so he echoed Zhou Zhuo Hua. “Yeah, tons of hot guys.”

The next second, Jiang Ye covered his eyes.

Jiang Ye said irritably, “Don’t look at that lewd stuff!”

Bai Chen Zhu chuckled lightly. “Then you don’t look either.”

Jiang Ye tsked softly. “Who cares.”

Zhou Zhuo Hua, on the other hand, didn’t hide her ‘wow~’ and gave the two a live broadcast. “So many male models walking by, circling the car.”

“I’m almost tempted to invite them in.”

“This ability user gets me, but it looks like he can’t read our memories.”

Zhou Zhuo Hua narrowed her eyes. “None of them are my type anyway.”

It seemed the ability user had gotten anxious and stopped pursuing ‘realism’, going wild instead.

The scene flickered like an old TV—first exquisite male and female models dancing around the car, then streets full of zombies.

These illusions harassed outside the car for a while. Perhaps having seen Jiang Ye’s earlier ‘brutality’, they didn’t dare knock on the window. They just hovered outside, back and forth. Seeing no reaction from the three, they vanished.

Bai Chen Zhu pushed away Jiang Ye’s hand covering his eyes.

A moment later, a twisted ghostly face suddenly appeared in front of the car. The blue-faced, fanged ghost grew larger until it filled the windshield, staring dead at the people inside.

The three in the car: …

Bai Chen Zhu’s gaze passed over the ghost face and the zombie background behind it, thinking the ghost face was cuter.

The view shook like an earthquake. The ghost face opened its mouth wide, its red throat drawing closer and closer. The car seemed about to be ‘swallowed’ by the ghost face.

Zhou Zhuo Hua grew restless and instinctively looked toward the back of the car. Jiang Ye pressed her shoulder.

They had no intention of abandoning the car. They just watched as it passed through the esophagus and stomach, swayed in the wriggling intestines for a bit, then inexplicably returned to the starting point.

The ghost face disappeared too.

After a while, it started raining rice outside.

Yes, ‘rice’ rain, piling up on the ground with a clatter. Zhou Zhuo Hua swallowed, tempted to get out and pick it up, but she didn’t move.

Then the rice turned into fragrant bread.

Zhou Zhuo Hua propped her chin. “Is he that scared of us? Doing everything to lure us out, but not daring to come over himself.”

Bai Chen Zhu pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling that even watching the show required patience. “He’s indeed timid, hiding nearby playing these little tricks. We’ll drag him out eventually.”

Zhou Zhuo Hua said helplessly, “Stalemating like this isn’t a solution. How about we all get out? Maybe he’ll come over. If he doesn’t, how do we catch him? Those dozen or so buildings aren’t fake. Searching them one by one would be deadly.”

Jiang Ye lounged half-reclined on the back seat, his arm half-circling behind Bai Chen Zhu. He said, “Don’t rush. Wait for Tang Zhao and Bai Tao to come back, then we decide.”

—

Near noon, Tang Zhao and Bai Tao returned, panting and flushed red, clearly having run a good distance under the sun. They wanted to get in the car to rest right away, but Zhou Zhuo Hua refused and only let them in after grilling them with questions several times.

Perhaps because the ability user was tied up stalling the three of them here, things went unusually smoothly for Tang Zhao and Bai Tao. They had searched the surroundings thoroughly.

But without Bai Chen Zhu’s probing superpower, they had really walked half the village on foot.

Bai Tao wiped her sweat, fanning herself with her palm from the heat, and said seriously, “There are no signs of living people in the village, but we found a small building. All the other houses are whitewashed, but this one is red. It’s at the highest spot in Golden Autumn Village. The window isn’t closed, and it looks like someone lives inside. Should we check it out?”

Jiang Ye looked at Bai Chen Zhu. Bai Chen Zhu said helplessly, “It’s a bit far. I can’t probe that.”

Jiang Ye decided promptly. “Let’s go!”

Except for Zhou Zhuo Hua, the four of them quickly headed toward the small building located high up outside the village.

Along the way, they encountered more and more illusions that blocked their steps.

Every time they spotted the small building not far away, it seemed to grow farther and farther the more they ran toward it.

The building had not moved; it was their senses that had been deceived. They kept following the ‘path’ their eyes saw, so not only could they not get closer, but they ended up going farther away each time.

Bai Chen Zhu clutched his head, feeling this strenuous for the first time. “How could there be such a superpower?”

Bai Tao, who had no room to exert her abilities, watched him resist the illusions and felt a bit indignant. “Yeah! If only I had a superpower like that!”

If one could not change the world, then deceive the senses. Everything before their eyes could change as one wished; even if false, it counted as reality for a moment.

“Let’s take him on!” Bai Chen Zhu was fed up with this trick that deceived the five senses. He grabbed Jiang Ye’s wrist, Jiang Ye pulled Tang Zhao along, and Bai Tao clutched Tang Zhao’s clothes. The three followed Bai Chen Zhu in a mad dash.

Before long, the scene of crowded streets like a sea of people flashed before their eyes, turning into utter silence.

They found themselves on an empty basketball court, with a two-story small building right in front of them. A sign hung at the entrance of the small building: Golden Autumn Village Office.

From here, they had a full view of Golden Autumn Village.

For the first time, they clearly saw the rundown little village in the daylight. Even the zombies wandering on the roads were visible in sharp detail. The flower fields on both sides swayed lightly in the wind, and there were no vehicles at all on the main road outside. The entire world was as quiet as if it had died.

Yet Bai Chen Zhu clearly sensed that there was only one person inside the building. “He’s in there.”

Jiang Ye released Bai Chen Zhu’s hand and rushed into the small building. Tang Zhao followed. A clattering crash-bang echoed from inside, and they dragged a person out the door.

Bai Tao let out a cry of alarm and hid behind Bai Chen Zhu in fear.

Was that even human? It was a skeleton!

Too terrifying. For the first time, Bai Tao knew what it meant to ‘look just like a ghost.’

The man was too thin—skin and bones. Even the motion of his throat when he swallowed was clearly visible. Loose skin draped over his skeletal frame, his eyes sunken with huge black-purple dark circles. He had a beard, looked utterly disheveled, and wore a striped polo shirt and black pants that carried a strange odor.

Judging by his appearance, he was only in his fifties.

As soon as Jiang Ye let go, he collapsed to the ground, his clothes all crooked and disheveled. He crawled up from the ground. Though weak, his voice was fierce, carrying a lecturing tone. “What are you doing!”

“I should be asking you that!” Bai Chen Zhu stepped forward. “You’ve been using your superpower to trap us in the village this whole time. What exactly do you want?”

“What superpower? What are you talking about!” The man was even more shocked than they were.

Jiang Ye crossed his arms and tilted his head toward the room inside. “When we went in, he was sleeping.”

A nasty, mocking smile spread across his lips. “While you were sleeping, you kept overdrawing your superpower, turning yourself into this state. If we hadn’t woken you up, you wouldn’t even know you died in your dream.”

“Nonsense!” The man was furious and waved his hand. “Another weird dream! Disappear! All of you, disappear from my dream! I don’t want you guys showing up in my dream!”

Jiang Ye cracked his knuckles and took a step forward. “Looks like he’s mixed up reality and his dream. At a time like this, someone needs to help him sober up.”

The man yelled and tried to run, but Tang Zhao pinned him down firmly.

“You’re breaking the law! I’ll sue you!” His miserable screams echoed through the small building.