Xu Xiye sat dazedly in the car, staring at the ruins before him. Truly a scene of déjà vu.
His workplace had blown up again.
Although this time he’d specifically chosen short-term work, two days was still a bit too short.
What kind of good drama could be filmed in two days? A mini-drama?
Xu Xiye still remembered the inside gossip he’d gotten from the girlfriend: the director was shooting a terrifying ghost film…
There was a ghost, alright. The ghost even died. But where exactly was the terror?
Maybe the director also felt the filming was poor, which was why he was pulling in investors everywhere, planning to spend money and focus his efforts elsewhere?
He was even asking an ordinary, working extra like him. The road ahead seemed difficult indeed.
It was a good thing he wasn’t the type with a huge appetite for fast money, or he’d have lost everything.
It was better to be down-to-earth, taking things one step at a time.
His phone chimed with a message. One of Xu Xiye’s tentacles leisurely pulled the phone from his pocket to look.
It was his salary notification.
200 + 100 bonus.
Extras only got a salary, no bonus. That 100 was Lou Hao’s two-day work bonus, transferred to him as a thank-you fee.
Xu Xiye tapped the screen a few times, replying to the director with a thank you.
Wow. Weren’t they all just acting?
This was probably what they called faking it till you make it.
Xu Xiye began calculating his two days of income. Yesterday 200, today 200 plus 100. Plus the two mental patients awaiting admission—head fees of 300 plus 300. How much did that equal?
Xu Xiye was too stuffed to think clearly. A few tentacle tips hooked together to count. 1100.
Xu Xiye paused. 1100 in two days. He used to earn only 4000 a month.
He thought back to his two days collecting trash. The first day he’d sold 2000 worth, the second day 1500… Hmm? Had his choice of work direction been wrong before?
Looking again at the ruins before him. A villa. He definitely couldn’t scavenge as much as from a corporate park, but leaving it all here was such a waste.
Once someone else occupied this territory, all this scrap and junk would disappear anyway. He might as well scavenge before anyone noticed.
But he was so full he truly didn’t want to move.
A tentacle tip tapped a few times on the phone screen. Moments later, the call connected.
“Hello, Sister Liu? The villa at my workplace collapsed.”
“Mm-hmm, I’ve looked it over. It’s salvageable.”
“Okay, okay. No, no need.”
Sister Liu said she’d come to collect it. Xu Xiye had already told her the situation, so at least it wasn’t going to waste.
Alright, he could go back now. He wanted to go home and lie down for a bit, and also see what Blue Eyes was doing in that foreign land.
As for the two patients in his pocket, he’d leave them with the director tomorrow.
Xu Xiye got out of the car. Just as he was about to leave directly, he reconsidered. He put Blue Eyes’ car into his pocket.
Blue Eyes really had too many bad habits. Leaving as soon as he wanted, leaving his car just lying around.
~
A-City Base Teleportation Center. This place housed doors marked with various coordinates, and was also home to the Security Administration Bureau’s largest Research Department.
From the outside, the base looked like an ordinary large building. But inside, the various facilities exuded a cold, technological feel. The only exception was the rest area, provided for the Field Agents and Investigators returning from missions to rest temporarily.
Fresh flowers and fruit, warm-toned decor, soothing music. Afternoon tea in the afternoons, late-night snacks in the evenings. Everything here existed to alleviate the mental fatigue of mission operatives.
The rest area was also called the Observation Area.
He Sui emerged from a door. A staff member in a White Lab Coat came to greet him, recording his current Sanity Value and then asking if he needed anything.
As usual, He Sui was about to refuse. He didn’t need the rest area, nor did he need anyone arranging a car or driver. He always drove himself.
“Mr. He?” The staff member asked, puzzled, seeing him standing still and not leaving like usual.
“Boss?”
“Boss!”
Just as He Sui was pondering, two people came out of another door. One was a large man with a shaved head. The other was a guy wearing black-framed glasses, giving off a nerdy vibe.
Given He Sui’s unique status, many people had done missions with him in the Inner World. Most called him Captain He—not too close, not too distant. Some were even wary of him. But besides these, there were those who genuinely admired him and followed him. These usually liked to call him Boss.
“Boss, did you just come from inside? On a mission with someone, or solo exploring?” The large man rubbed his bald head and asked loudly.
The one with glasses spoke up: “Only Boss came out of that door. Definitely wasn’t leading a mission.”
“Haha, true.”
He Sui nodded at them. “Going to help out? Doing well spiritually?”
“Eh, a C-Class Contaminated Zone. Didn’t take much time. Sanity Value stayed above halfway.”
Sanity Value stable above halfway meant they could leave at any time. Staying in the Observation Area or not didn’t matter.
“Boss, it’s time for our routine comprehensive physicals. We’re planning to get it done tonight. Too lazy to come back tomorrow.”
“Hehe, exactly,” the large man added. “Boss, is your bracelet broken? Why do you keep touching it?”
He Sui lowered his hand and said casually, “Nothing. Just fiddling. I’ll go with you guys.”
“Oh, okay.”
The physical didn’t take much time. Various machines scanned, and results came out in half an hour at most.
Half an hour later, He Sui got his report.
No abnormalities whatsoever.
He Sui lowered his eyes. His handsome face still carried its usual air of nonchalance, yet also inexplicably radiated a hint of irritability. He declined their invitation for a late-night snack and drove home directly.
Not the home he’d grown up in with his dad, but a large flat he’d bought later for himself.
Riverside, with a fine view. The apartment was large and bright, but seemed somewhat cold and desolate.
He Sui had barely arrived home when he got a call from Lou Hao.
Lou Hao hadn’t entered the contaminated zone voluntarily, so wherever he was pulled in, he emerged roughly near that spot.
As soon as the call connected, the other party yelled eagerly: “Hello? He Sui? What happened afterwards? Did you kill that thing to get out?”
“Nothing. Just a troublesome anomaly.”
“The Pollution Source was dead. How could there still be such a powerful anomaly in that place? You saw its main body, right? Don’t tell me it was Teacher Lu Ren?”
He Sui unbuttoned his shirt as he walked towards his bathroom, speechless. “Teacher Lu Ren? Has your brain short-circuited?”
“Hmph, what do you know? That’s how people talk now. A term of respect. Teacher Lu Ren’s main body was darkness. You didn’t really finish him off, did you?”
He Sui entered the bathroom, put the phone on speaker and set it on the shelf, and threw his jacket into the laundry basket in the corner. His voice was cold. “Seems you two were on pretty good terms?”
“That’s right. You don’t understand. This time was definitely my trial of tribulation. The second time had you. The first time, I only escaped that room thanks to Teacher Lu Ren. I get it now—that room was a trap! Hey, Old He, you didn’t really finish him off, did you? Teacher Lu Ren is one of those rare pro-human anomalies! How could this happen!”
He Sui, irritated by the noise, cut off his wailing directly. “I didn’t!”
If he could have finished him off, he would have long ago.
Pro-human? He was very pro-human, alright. Pro to the point of constantly wanting to stick to one’s body.
Lou Hao: “Good you didn’t. Didn’t expect Teacher Lu Ren to be that powerful. You two must have had a misunderstanding. If there’s a chance to meet again, I’ll try to mediate.”
He Sui: “What’s his name? Which characters?”
Lou Hao: “Lu Ren. ‘Lu’ as in land, ‘Ren’ as in benevolence. The name is ordinary, but that one word ‘Ren’ speaks volumes about his nature.”
“Hung up.” He Sui cut the call directly.
An attitude like Lou Hao’s stemmed from nothing more than a so-called life-saving grace. With that grace before, and great strength after, He Sui wasn’t surprised that the little monster had earned his admiration.
Himself—with the same qualifications—excluded, of course.
After all, he was a man determined to surpass him.
He Sui was already stripped to the waist. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, sleek muscle lines. Combined with that exceptionally striking, handsome face, he looked like an exquisitely painted Renaissance art piece.
He still wore the Bureau’s custom black bracelet on his wrist. The thing was waterproof and resistant to high temperatures, required to stay on his person for no less than 24 hours in the Surface World. Losing it required reporting it.
He Sui took it off directly and tossed it aside. Just as he was about to undo his pants, his gaze unconsciously shifted back to his wrist.
The bracelet was off. There was nothing there. The tests showed no abnormality. Yet He Sui kept feeling like something was wrong.
This spot was where the black blob’s tentacle had last been wrapped around him.
He Sui stared at his wrist. His silver-blue eyes darkened. The next second, silver light exploded at his wrist.
His wrist was completely unharmed. Still empty with nothing abnormal.
Was he overthinking it?
Just as He Sui was about to dismiss that inexplicable sense of wrongness, an additional object suddenly appeared in that originally empty spot—a black tentacle coiled around his wrist bone.
The tentacle writhed a little like a small snake, then lifted its tip upwards as if raising its head to curiously observe its surroundings.
He Sui: “…”
He Sui drew a deep breath. His other hand immediately pressed down on the little tentacle, trying to pull it off. As if forewarned, the little tentacle latched tightly onto his skin. No matter how he pulled, burying its head stubbornly, he couldn’t tear it off.
He Sui: “…” His lifelong nemesis.
He could scarcely believe it. This section of tentacle had actually been brought out.
No living thing had ever been brought out from the Inner World. Even dead items were limited to small objects.
So even when He Sui felt something was off, he’d leaned towards a psychological cause, not this.
He Sui let go. Irritated to the point of not caring anymore. He’d already held back too long. He’d come back to shower and change. He still hadn’t even finished taking off his pants.
In the eyes of an anomaly, all bodies were the same. This thing didn’t have eyes, anyway. Forget it. He Sui irritably tore off a piece of medical tape and wrapped his wrist directly.
The tentacle struggled, trying to push off the covering. He Sui wrapped several more layers around it.
After confirming it couldn’t get out, He Sui took off his pants and showered.
Only once the warm water poured over him did He Sui’s irascibility gradually dissipate. He stayed under the water for over twenty minutes. After drying his hair, he finally turned his attention back to his thickly bandaged wrist.
The tape was ripped off. The thing likely was angry; its tentacle tip lifted and smacked him.
It had no real force. Something that couldn’t even push through tape couldn’t hit hard. But it was stuck to his skin and just couldn’t be pulled off, unless he tore skin and flesh.
He Sui tried several more times. Still no success.
Fresh from the shower, He Sui had regained his indolent, easygoing manner. The irascibility had vanished. Having brought a living thing out of the Inner World, now stuck to his body, didn’t seem like a big deal anymore.
He walked to the sink and began washing his wrist thoroughly, tentacle included.
“Lu Ren?”
Violence was hard to solve problems with—this had already been verified on the black blob. He Sui decided to try a different tactic.
“Black Blob?”
No reaction.
He Sui touched it with his fingertip. The tentacle was undoubtedly alive. The sensation under his finger was identical to the black blob, occasionally pulsing like a heartbeat.
He Sui looked up into the mirror. The man reflected had very calm silver-blue eyes.
He’d been latched onto by a little monster he couldn’t shake off. There had been annoyance, even murderous intent—but never, ever disgust.
He Sui withdrew his gaze, pulled a tissue, and dried his hand and the tentacle. Blew his hair dry, turned off the light, and went to sleep.
In the darkness, He Sui lay in bed. As his breathing grew steady, that tentacle on his wrist zipped to He Sui’s face in an instant.
The tentacle’s movements were light, cautious. It lay on his face for a long time. Only when it saw He Sui remained completely still did it lift its tip to pry at his eyelid.
It wanted to see the eyes.
The eyelid was pried open—but only the white of the eye was visible.
What was this?
Xu Xiye was deeply disappointed.
In his shock and disappointment, the next moment, he was hooked up by a single hand.
Xu Xiye: “!”
Simultaneously, those closed eyes opened. The silver-blue irises stared at him silently in the darkness.
Xu Xiye: “!!”
He Sui wasn’t careless enough to fall asleep with something crawling on his face without waking. If he were, he’d have died countless times already.
He Sui stared at him coldly. His voice, just waking, carried a trace of hoarseness. “Playing dead?”
Xu Xiye wriggled, indicating he wasn’t playing dead.
“Can’t speak?”
Xu Xiye shook his tentacle tip, then bobbed it. He could speak, of course. It was just that the voice couldn’t transmit over.
He Sui generally understood his meaning. He picked up the bracelet and checked the surrounding Contamination Level.
The Surface World practically had no contamination like the Inner World. Even Eternal Abundance Road, rumored to have white-clad ghost sightings, had Contamination Values never exceeding 10.
The current reading on the bracelet was point-something. Normal for around He Sui.
It had been over five hours since he got home. Meaning, after all this time, this thing had not caused the Contamination Level to rise.
He Sui tossed the bracelet back onto the table.
No danger, but still required observation.
He Sui: “Can you grow bigger?”
Xu Xiye waggled his tip.
He was only this little length. Held up by the man’s long, knuckled hand, he looked pitifully small. He Sui, however, showed no sign of softening.
“Pick a spot to stay yourself. My patience is limited. Not making a move isn’t because I can’t handle you. Your main body can be stuffed to sleep by me. This little bit? I can overstuff you till you burst, right?”
His tone was lazy, phrased as a question, but his eyes clearly indicated absolute certainty.
“Why no answer?”
Xu Xiye bobbed his tentacle tip.
Too much feeding would indeed make him burst. If he didn’t feed him, his energy would be depleted in a couple of days. So Xu Xiye actually hoped he’d feed him just a tiny bit each day.
“Fine. I’m going to sleep. Go.”
Xu Xiye was placed on the bracelet. He Sui turned over and prepared to fall asleep.
Xu Xiye: “?”
Hadn’t he said he could pick his own spot?
He finally understood why Blue Eyes always maintained human form, and why every time he went to find him at the hotel, he never came out for a crawl outside.
He’d thought he was a shut-in. Turns out he’d picked up bad habits from the Outsiders.
Who sleeps in the middle of the night?
How long was he going to sleep?
But then, it was only afternoon where they were.
Forget it. He’d sleep here too. Xu Xiye wanted to crawl back onto the eyes and lie there, but that would surely get him removed.
Anyway, he couldn’t hug the eyes. Sleeping anywhere was the same. Xu Xiye simply coiled himself onto the bracelet.
The next morning, He Sui woke and saw this. He checked the value on it again—almost no change.
He lowered his gaze. This time, he actually took the initiative to wrap that tentacle around his hand. Then, he ordered breakfast.
When the breakfast was delivered, he’d half-rolled up his sleeve, deliberately exposing the tentacle tied to his wrist like a bracelet. He even tapped the tip with his finger.
The tentacle tip twitched, smacking him. He Sui confirmed that the building’s butler delivering the food had followed his motion and looked—but his eyes held no abnormality.
As if he’d seen nothing.
Once the person left, He Sui sat in the dining room and took out a small dish, separating a bit of food.
He Sui: “Eat?”
The little tentacle was placed before the plate. Perhaps realizing He Sui wouldn’t casually throw him away anymore, this time it didn’t deliberately suction onto his skin. He Sui could pick him up easily.
Xu Xiye stood before the plate, facing the plate containing a single translucent, glistening shrimp dumpling.
It looked delicious.
But he had no way to eat it.
The little tentacle stood motionless, looking quite distressed.
He Sui picked up his phone and opened the camera app. In the lens, fine sunlight fell on the table corner. The small black tentacle stood upright, only its tip drooping down, facing the single shrimp dumpling in the porcelain dish.
He pressed the shutter button. The photo showed everything the lens saw—except the black tentacle.
It was as if it didn’t exist.
As expected.
He Sui wasn’t surprised. Something that didn’t even exist as a shadow naturally couldn’t be photographed.
Probably a simple energy construct.
He Sui put down his phone and began eating breakfast.
Maybe he should go to the Research Department for another test. The thought barely rose before He Sui rejected it.
He’d already done a full comprehensive physical. Going for another one so soon for no apparent reason would definitely draw the attention of certain people.
If nothing was detected again, suspicion and speculation remained just suspicion and speculation.
But if the black blob’s existence was detected, it would be all too easy for someone to pin a label on him.
He Sui curled his lips in a cold sneer. Would they put him in a lab? Or restrict him under various pretexts, demanding his cooperation with investigations?
He didn’t want any of it.
The Security Administration Bureau wasn’t a monolithic entity. Places where power concentrated were never short of open strife and veiled struggles, each faction acting independently.
He Sui was born in the Inner World. He’d been under the Bureau’s special attention since childhood, subjected to more experiments and tests than he could count. If not for his father and Director Wang and others protecting him, He Sui would likely have lived as an experimental subject with zero freedom.
After He Sui’s data stabilized in adulthood, he gradually reduced his contact with the Research Department.
When personal ability grew too strong, it would inevitably draw attention and restrictions.
You must know how to control your own energy.
That was something his father had once said.
Being strong—strong enough that certain ill-intentioned people wouldn’t dare act rashly, yet not so overwhelmingly powerful as to make everyone fearful.
That was He Sui now.
It was also the result of his control.
Thinking of his father, He Sui grew irritable again.
Six years. If he hadn’t become an anomaly, he’d have died cleanly by now. But He Sui always wanted to go verify it for himself.
How exactly to verify it—even he didn’t know.
Feeling a cool, soft, bouncy sensation against his hand, He Sui subconsciously picked it up and kneaded it in his palm.
