Chapter 102: The Mental Contamination Bomb

About thirty li from Qinggang City lay an abandoned city.

A Crimson Moon hung in the sky, appearing extraordinarily large, seeming to occupy half the sky above the forsaken city. Its light engulfed most of the night, staining the silent, skeletal remains of the city with a faint red hue, as if streams of blood were slowly flowing.

At the edge of this abandoned city, on the roof of a building a full thirty stories high, people had gathered.

They used no lighting equipment, relying solely on the moonlight to see.

Seven or eight fully armed men, rifles cradled in their arms, stood guard along the edges of the rooftop.

In the middle of the roof sat a crate. On it were wine glasses, canned food, luncheon meat, and steamed buns.

Beside the crate sat three people. One wore a beret and a pair of large sunglasses. He exuded a peculiar air of fierce courage—a coolness and composure attained only through many years of scraping by in the Wilderness. The second had an unusually large head on an extremely thin frame, presenting a boyish appearance. He had small eyes that seemed somehow sinister. The third was a man wearing a red suit, sporting long hair, and with a perpetual smile playing on his face.

The three of them eyed each other, their gazes filled with wariness.

Amidst the tense atmosphere, the man with sunglasses suddenly flicked his wrist with force and muttered under his breath:

“Double twos…”

“… ”

Then he palmed the rest of his cards, his expression markedly challenging.

The big-headed boy looked at the large handful of cards clutched in his hand, his face twisting into a look of grim determination.

He suddenly gritted his teeth and slammed two cards down:

“Jokers bomb…”

The man with sunglasses immediately looked rather embarrassed.

Then the big-headed boy whipped out another set of cards, laughing as he threw them down: “Four to Ace, sky-running straight!”

He held only one card left.

Suddenly, the man in the red suit smiled and smoothly played four cards: “Bomb!”

They were three Zhang Sans.

Then the red-suited man followed up with a five. The man with sunglasses laughed heartily and threw down his final card, a nine.

“Not good, not good… another round…”

The big-headed boy, visibly resentful, quickly gestured, “I still call landlord!”

“No need!”

The man with sunglasses chuckled, rising to his feet. “We can already confirm there’s no problem.”

Hearing this, the man in the red suit also stood up with a smile.

The big-headed boy couldn’t say much; it was the Knights Order’s tradition.

Every time they returned from a mission, anyone who had entered the city had to gather and play cards together.

The poker game was also a process of mutual observation. If anyone betrayed significant logical inconsistencies—like a fellow farmer recklessly using his big joker to beat the landlord’s small joker; or stubbornly clinging to his own Xiao Wang, refusing to use it even when the landlord played a deuce; or displaying abnormal emotional fluctuations after suffering three consecutive bombs, including one from their own partner—that spelled danger. Such a person would need to be temporarily confined and observed.

Essentially, any Knights Order dealing with Ability Users had its own set of detection methods.

……

The man with sunglasses walked to the edge of the rooftop, gazing towards Qinggang City.

He held a white display device in his hand, its blue light blinking incessantly.

“Has it started?”

The man in the red suit moved closer, saying, “It’s earlier than predicted.”

“Perhaps someone found out. After all, Qinggang shouldn’t lack Ability Users.”

The man with sunglasses smiled. “Still, the number gathering there now should be enough for the Experiment.”

“That means things went fairly smoothly for us this time.”

The person resembling a big-headed boy came near. Now it was observable that while he had a boy’s appearance, his skin was rough, with coarse stubble on his upper lip and chin. His manner of speaking was surprisingly aged:

“The commission regarding the painting under the Crimson Moon is done. This newest product from the Church of Technology should be sufficient to cover our retreat. Most crucially, recording the detonation data from this ten-thousand magnitude ‘Crying Little Boy’ Mental Contamination Bomb also counts as a task we can satisfactorily report. All told, we’ve completed two out of the three objectives we came for.”

“The only pity is the Escaped Laboratory…”

As he spoke, he directed his gaze at the man in the red suit, “… ruined by someone’s carelessness!”

Seemingly still nursing a grudge from being bombed earlier, he directed his dissatisfaction at the red-suited man.

“You really can’t blame me for that.”

The man in the red suit remained unruffled, smiling. “All my puppets were used to support the boss’s task.”

“No need to force it.”

The man wearing sunglasses said, “This painting is the most important. Everything else is just secondary.”

“Besides, we’ve completed two out of three tasks and can retreat unscathed. That’s already quite good.”

“Qinggang City isn’t as simple as we thought.”

“A pig greedy enough to snatch food is always the first to be served on the table.”

“…”

As he spoke, he sat down on a canvas chair beside the building, crossing his legs.

Gazing towards the direction of Qinggang City, he softly ordered, “Pack everything up. Record the explosion data and retreat immediately.”

……

“Whoosh…”

Facing the Blue Electric Arc, Lu Xin instantly retreated two to three meters.

The arcs did not reach him.

But beside the white sphere, those people with blank expressions, completely unaware of dodging, were instantly enveloped by the Blue Electric Arc. Their bodies convulsed violently. The stench of scorched flesh immediately emanated from them, revealing the terrifying power of the arcs. Then, Lu Xin saw twisted, agonized humanoid shapes crawl out of their bodies, rushing towards the white sphere.

These humanoid shapes were semi-transparent, with only their faces intact; the rest seemed devoid of physical substance.

They were exact replicas of the people enveloped by the arcs.

However, the people’s faces held only expressions of sorrow, while the humanoid shapes twisted in agony and struggle.

They screamed soundlessly, clawing their way upward within the Blue Electric Arc.

Due to the extremely close proximity, their bodies inevitably touched. Where they made contact, they fused directly together, merging and entangling. They rapidly formed into a Monster with seven or eight hands, seven or eight feet, and three distinct faces.

Each face bore a different expression: one showed agony, another confusion, and the last seemed to be screaming.

They coalesced into a unique Life form, swiftly scaling the High Wall.

……

“Alert! Detecting abnormal mental fluctuations…”

“Confirming Psychic Entity emergence…”

“All units alert! Psychic Entity confirmed at Southern Wall location, Satellite City No.2…”

“Repeating, Psychic Entity confirmed at Southern Wall location, Satellite City No.2…”

“Suspected association with Church of Technology artifacts…”

“…”

Nearly identical alerts sounded across all communication channels.

On the High Wall, all soldiers instinctively looked down. Though they couldn’t see clearly, they could feel a mass of something twisted below, threatening to pull their gaze into it. Under the faint light of the descending Crimson Moon, some could vaguely discern it: a Monster formed from countless people, bearing at least four distinct visages…

“The real target finally appears…”

Perched high on the wall, Gecko looked far towards that swirling mass of Mental Power; a hint of excitement actually flickered across his face.

As an Ability User, he could “see” much clearer than the ordinary soldiers relying only on the moonlight to barely distinguish shapes. To be precise, he could clearly sense the presence there, even feeling the thing’s creep and movement trajectory.

“Not afraid of ferocious, just afraid of hidden…”

Speaking these words, he crouched lightly, pressing his eye against the rifle scope: “Linda, requesting permission to use Special Bullet?”

“At crucial moments like this, you don’t need to request permission for Special Bullets!”

“I’m not asking permission, just reminding you: using Special Bullet now… Watch closely, okay…”

“This is going to be impressive!”