Chapter 14: Calm

“Something is really wrong.” Lü Yang sighed. Ever since Yi Yi picked up that strange Apple tablet from the street to save money, weird and bizarre things kept happening around him. From the current situation, it seemed everything was spreading and getting worse.

At the very least, these strange events had already affected Sister Mei and several people he had contact with today. As for why they were affected, it was impossible to know until Lü Yang figured out the Mysterious Domain.

Just as Lü Yang and Sister Mei were talking, a sudden scream came from outside. It was clearly the voice of the skinny Porter who had gone out to scout among the five Porters. The other four Porters rushed toward the Residential Area entrance, shouting into the Black Mist, asking the skinny one what had happened.

The skinny Porter was the most honest and slow-witted of the five, probably why they sent him out to scout.

“Thump!” Some things suddenly burst out of the Black Mist, mixed with some sticky liquid, and slammed into the four Porters, splattering all over them. The four Porters couldn’t dodge in time and were covered in blood and gore from head to toe. Sister Mei instinctively shone her small flashlight toward them. After seeing what happened, she couldn’t help but scream loudly.

All four of them were covered in blood, and there were also some mushy, flesh-like substances, looking very gruesome.

On the ground, scattered human body parts and limbs were everywhere. Something even rolled toward Sister Mei’s feet. Though she was screaming, Sister Mei still instinctively shone her small flashlight on the rolling object.

It was actually the head of the skinny Porter.

His face was filled with fear.

After the four Porters looked at each other, they yelled, turned around, and ran wildly into the Residential Area. Sister Mei screamed sharply a few more times, then her small flashlight fell to the ground. She turned and ran into the Residential Area, clearly terrified to the extreme.

Lü Yang quickly picked up the small flashlight Sister Mei had dropped, chased after her for a few steps, forcefully pulled her to a stop, covered her mouth, comforted her a little, and stopped her from continuing her hysterical screams.

“Murder! Mu… murder!” Sister Mei gripped Lü Yang’s arm tightly with both hands, her face full of fear and horror.

Lü Yang pulled Sister Mei behind the building closest to the Residential Area entrance. He looked toward the Residential Area entrance, took out his Mobile Phone, and tried dialing 110.

“Hello, this is the Guishe City 110 service hotline. How may I help you?” A pleasant female voice came from the Mobile Phone.

Lü Yang was stunned. Because he already knew the Mysterious Domain had activated, he hadn’t really expected this call to connect to the police station before dialing 110. But now, it connected.

“How may I help you?” Probably because Lü Yang wasn’t speaking, the female voice on the other end asked him again.

“I’m at Qingyuan Residential Area. There’s been a murder at the entrance. A migrant worker was killed,” Lü Yang quickly replied to the female voice.

“Someone was killed? Ha ha ha ha, great!” The female voice actually laughed, and the laughter gradually became somewhat sinister.

“What did you say?” Lü Yang was stunned, hardly believing his ears.

“I said… you… will… all… die!” The pleasant female voice suddenly became vicious and shrill. Her final words sounded like a metal spoon scraping a porcelain bowl, extremely unpleasant, even grating into Lü Yang’s mind. Caught off guard, Lü Yang nearly dropped his Mobile Phone.

“What did the police say? Will they come?” Sister Mei realized Lü Yang had called 110 and quickly asked him.

“They will come soon. It’s not safe outside. Let’s go back to your place first,” Lü Yang said to Sister Mei after looking around.

“Okay.” Sister Mei was clearly scared out of her wits and had no ideas left. She now relied entirely on Lü Yang for courage. At this moment, her hands were gripping his arm so tightly it was almost cutting off circulation.

Lü Yang turned on the small flashlight and led Sister Mei out from behind the building. Sister Mei clung tightly to Lü Yang’s arm, her legs also very stiff. Lü Yang practically had to drag her as they walked.

Perhaps because he knew the cause of all this was that strange tablet, and because Lü Yang had never believed in ghosts or gods since childhood and was very brave, plus after losing Yi Yi, he felt more anger and sorrow toward the Mysterious Domain, so when facing these even more bizarre and terrifying events, his reaction was surprisingly calm.

As he walked, Lü Yang cursed inwardly: Damned broken computer, what other nasty tricks do you have? Bring it on! I’m not afraid of you!

After returning to the main road, Lü Yang raised the small flashlight and shone it toward the Residential Area entrance again. The Black Mist at the entrance now seemed thicker than before and showed signs of spreading into the Residential Area. Just as Lü Yang looked over, metallic crashing and grinding noises involuntarily appeared in his mind again.

Lü Yang quickly turned his head away, and the noises stopped abruptly. Inside the Residential Area, the four Porters had run off and were nowhere to be seen. Looking around, the entire Qingyuan Residential Area was even darker, and only the small flashlight provided some light at close range.

Because Sister Mei was slowing him down, Lü Yang walked very slowly. After a long while, just as they were about to reach Sister Mei’s Apartment Building, a black shadow suddenly shot across the road close to the ground, moving very fast. This provoked another sharp scream from Sister Mei.

“Meow!” A cat’s cry came from the grass by the roadside, seemingly startled by Sister Mei’s scream.

“Just a cat, don’t be afraid,” Lü Yang comforted Sister Mei.

Mentioning the cat, Lü Yang suddenly remembered a Task he received from the Eerie Computer during the day, also the Red Text Mission that Yi Yi failed to complete: break a cat’s leg before Zero Hour.

Could there be some connection? If he broke this cat’s leg, could it end this terrifying Mysterious Domain?

Lü Yang walked to the roadside and shone the small flashlight around. There was a small path leading to several other Apartment Buildings. A Black Cat darted out from the grass, then stopped and crouched in the middle of the path, looking back this way. When Lü Yang’s small flashlight shone on it, the Black Cat meowed again and quickly ran toward the end of the path, soon disappearing into the darkness.

Lü Yang hesitated about whether to chase the Black Cat, but Sister Mei started urging him, pulling his arm to take her back quickly to her duplex apartment under renovation. It seemed only by returning there and hiding could she feel somewhat safe.

Lü Yang looked at the Apartment Building where Sister Mei’s place was, not far away, and decided to take her there first. Otherwise, with her clinging to him like this, he couldn’t do anything he wanted.

When the two reached the base of Sister Mei’s duplex Apartment Building, they unexpectedly found all four Porters sitting by the sand pile smoking. A lit lighter stuck in the sand pile provided some brightness, illuminating a small area around it. In the weak, flickering light, the four men’s expressions were ugly, clearly overly frightened. They had taken off their blood-stained clothes, but bloodstains were still visible on their pants.