Chapter 228: Entering the Ghost Domain
Chapter 228: Entering the Ghost Domain
“They look really nervous…”
Lu Xin stood beside this classroom, watching as alarms suddenly blared throughout the building.
Immediately, the elevator rapidly ascended. Two fully armed squads charged out, blocking both the front and rear exits.
Right after, the elevator was locked down. Heavy, rapid footsteps echoed up the stairwell as team after team of armed personnel surged upwards. Even outside the building, the thunderous roar of helicopter rotors soon sounded, with gun barrels directly trained on the classroom.
Fatty Liu was already deathly pale. Before the charging armed soldiers could utter a command, he frantically put his hands on his head and squatted on the floor.
He was so panicked, his cigarettes scattered everywhere across the ground.
Even Doll seemed affected by the commotion, glancing over at Lu Xin.
Lu Xin smiled at her and said, “Don’t be nervous. It’s not time for you to start hitting people yet.”
Doll nodded obediently, leaned against the wall, and quietly waited.
…
“Mr. Lone Soldier, who among them is the problem?”
From among the armed squad, one man whose shoulder insignia clearly denoted a higher rank than the others stepped forward and urgently asked.
“Can’t you tell?”
Lu Xin stood at the classroom doorway, peering inside.
He could clearly see that within the row of people who were both startled and panicked by the appearance of these armed soldiers, two figures stood out distinctly from the rest.
One was a woman wearing a wool sweater with permed hair. On her shoulder perched a soft, flesh-like monstrosity seemingly flayed bare of skin. A crack split this monster’s body.
Within that crack, a single eye peered out, gazing coldly at the surroundings.
The other was a boy in casual athletic wear. Appearing around eighteen or nineteen, he had the zipper of his jacket pulled all the way up to his chin, giving off an unapproachable air. Above his head, however, a crack had split open, from which snaked out a vividly colored serpentine tentacle. This tentacle resembled a flabby tongue, continuously and lasciviously “licking” the nearby bodies of two women.
Those being licked seemed utterly unaware.
This was an unmistakable and jarring sight, allowing Lu Xin to spot them instantly.
“The sixth from the left in the fourth row, Auntie in the wool sweater.”
“The boy in athletic wear in the second row, the one who looks half-asleep.”
…
Lu Xin calmly identified them. The armed personnel beside him immediately raised their weapons and started moving inside.
Lu Xin prepared himself too. Casually handing the bag he was carrying to Doll.
Doll glanced at it and took it, holding it in her hand.
Simultaneously, Lu Xin braced himself, ready at any moment to dash along the adjacent wall and seize those two individuals.
Individuals with such abnormalities might not submit meekly.
…
…
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“Don’t point those guns around! What right do you have to grab me?”
Surprisingly, however, the armed soldiers’ apprehension of these two proceeded with unusual smoothness.
The Auntie, who moments before seemed entertained by the panic of others despite her own fright, crumpled into a heap on the floor the instant a gun muzzle pressed against her face. She cried out “You’ve got the wrong person!” again and again, paralyzed with fear.
She offered no resistance, even as the Ability Suppressor was secured on her and the Protective Visor was pulled over her head.
The fleshy monstrosity on her shoulder also retracted into her body as the soldiers closed in.
The other young man, the one with the disdainful expression, had a moment of panic before shouting at the top of his lungs: “What’s this? What’s this? My dad’s a section chief in the Administrative Hall! Listen here, y’all better not touch me, or you’ll be sorry…”
He didn’t get to finish the word “sorry” before one of the armed soldiers kicked his legs out from under him. He was pinned down and an Ability Suppressor clamped onto him.
…
…
“That was it?”
Lu Xin couldn’t help but frown.
A capture completed within three seconds left him, having just prepped himself physically, feeling a little awkward.
Meanwhile, the squad captain leading away the two captives was already reporting in: “The anomalous individuals are subdued.”
“No abnormal Psychic Magnitude detected.”
“Preparing for immediate transport to the City Defense Department for intensive interrogation and further analysis!”
…
“Lone Soldier, how did you detect their anomalies?” Chen Jing’s voice, tinged with gravity, now came through the comms channel.
“I didn’t check…”
Lu Xin hesitated for a moment before replying honestly, “I saw it directly.”
“…”
Chen Jing was taken aback. “Describe it carefully. How did you see?”
“Well… I saw things attached to them…”
Lu Xin explained slowly, “Just like when I directly saw Lu Weiwei—our company president’s wife—before. They all have that kind of clear abnormality. Though the forms are different, the feeling is similar…”
He deliberately explained in detail, fearing Chen Jing might not understand.
“First there was one, now suddenly two…”
Chen Jing fell silent briefly, her voice tinged with concern. “Has it spread?”
“The emergency interrogations will continue.”
Just as Lu Xin was considering his next move, Chen Jing spoke gravely, “But I have a bad premonition. Lone Soldier, head to other Pressure Relief and Counseling Institutions immediately. Inspect as many people as possible…”
“If something has really gone wrong, it wouldn’t happen only at one location. Other places are likely compromised too.”
“I’ll forward you the interrogation results.”
“…”
“Alright.”
Hearing this, Lu Xin instantly grew alert and responded solemnly.
“You, follow me.”
Following Chen Jing’s instructions, he addressed the captain of the Special Dispatch Team guarding the entrance.
Simultaneously, he glanced at the overweight man crouching with his head in his hands. “Bring him along.”
“I truly don’t know anything…”
The man hastily looked up, his face tear-streaked.
“It’s alright…”
Seeing him so distressed, Lu Xin felt compelled to reassure him. “You’re just… temporarily requisitioned.”
……
With Chen Jing serving as both Information Analysis Specialist and Coordination Specialist, Lu Xin swiftly witnessed the Main City’s response capabilities.
By the time he descended downstairs, vehicles for him and Doll were already prepared. Three matte-black off-road vehicles stood nearby. In the distance, two squads from the Guard Bureau were approaching. Together with the Support Team, they would seal off the entire building.
Though the abnormals had been apprehended and removed, the remaining individuals still required rigorous screening.
……
Siren blaring, the convoy sped unobstructed toward the second institution.
Lu Xin followed them upstairs and, at a single glance, identified three individuals hosting Psychic Entities in the classroom.
Without hesitation, the Armed Soldiers moved to detain them.
Immediately after, they locked down the entire building—just as with the first—and proceeded to the next location.
At the third classroom, Lu Xin discovered four people bearing Psychic Entities.
“Why are there so many afflicted?”
After multiple arrests in quick succession, both Chen Jing and Lu Xin sensed something deeply amiss.
Lu Xin also watched the interrogation feed from Fatty Liu’s vehicle on the car’s multimedia screen.
Chen Jing pressed with grave intensity: “Has this psychological program become corrupted?”
“How could it?”
Sweat poured down Fatty Liu’s face. “Everything we do is lawful…”
“This isn’t about your innocence,” Chen Jing said firmly. “Describe the courses you usually provide.”
“All… all approved by the Special Clean-up Department and City Defense…”
Fatty Liu stammered. “Just mental health awareness, stress relief tips… and we encourage participants to interact, support one another… Oh right, sometimes they…”
“What else?”
“Gather to drink and… vent about people sometimes…”
Chen Jing’s brow instantly furrowed. “You encourage participants to vent?”
Fatty Liu nearly wept. “Honestly, what’s more cathartic than bitching about bosses behind their backs?”
……
Chen Jing ceased questioning him, though her expression remained grim.
Indeed, tension gripped everyone. They braced themselves for how many more would await at the next locations…
Just then, Lu Xin suddenly shouted: “Stop.”
The driver, palms sweaty, slammed the brakes.
Screech—
The convoy halted abruptly. Eyes from every vehicle strained anxiously ahead.
Lu Xin stepped out onto the bustling main road.
Scanning the street, his gaze landed across lanes:
– A girl sipping drinks on a bench outside a mall. A bizarrely seductive man-eating flower bloomed atop her head as she chatted with a boy.
– A sanitation worker sweeping the ground, massive fleshy folds dangling from their form, dragging on the pavement.
– Inside a passing SUV (plate: Qing-874XX), a man with a second mouth on his face eyed the woman beside him with ravenous hunger.
– Within a Security Booth ahead, a guard split cleanly down the middle grinned while opening a gate barrier.
……
The sheer density of these Monsters induced a wave of lightheadedness in Lu Xin. Sunlight suddenly felt harsh.
He couldn’t tell if this was still the Main City… or had he entered a Ghost Domain?
“What happened?”
Noticing Lu Xin’s reaction, a captain from the Task Force rushed over, his concern urgent.
Lu Xin snapped back to Reality at his voice. After a silent pause, he pointed toward the distance:
“The girl in the pale blue dress outside the café, the sanitation worker sweeping thirty meters behind her, the male driver of the SUV that just passed us (plate: Qing-874XX), and the guard smoking in the security booth at that high-end residential complex ahead…”
He took a breath. “They’re all compromised.”
“Wh-What…?”
The Task Force Captain was stunned.
Even over comms, Chen Jing remained silent for a moment. Then, her voice hardened:
“Arrest them. All of them.”