Chapter 3: Your Coffee Isn’t Drunk Yet

“G-gone?”

On the distant high-rise, all the observers stared dumbfounded at their monitors.

The fierce confrontation anticipated in pre-simulation hadn’t occurred. None of the three prepared contingency plans had been activated.

That was clearly a standard level-one Spiritual Contamination Zone. That was unquestionably a subject of Mental Mutation with limitless potential. Their encounter should have provided an excellent opportunity for mutual provocation and measurement. Seizing this chance, they should have been able to locate the Source of Contamination within that café for precise elimination. They also should have been able to truly assess the Thirteenth Observer’s potential, deciding whether to recruit or eliminate him alongside the contaminant.

But instead, all they witnessed was the Thirteenth Observer entering the contaminated zone… and then walking back out.

Not a trace of abnormality…

The onsite staff instinctively turned their gaze towards the short-haired woman leading them.

She, too, displayed a flicker of confusion, but promptly issued a firm command: “Continue monitoring. Immediately formulate the fourth contingency plan!”

……

Lu Xin, after scurrying away from the café, hurried towards the Subway Station, eager to get back quickly.

He didn’t know what it was he had seen inside the café.

Still, he had finally managed to piece together what his Little Sister had run all the way to warn him about.

A Monster!

Although the Crimson Moon Incident had wrought earth-shattering changes across the world, filling the outside with countless Maniacs perpetually wandering the Wilderness, even those madmen were still fundamentally people. What he had just witnessed… was absolutely not human.

He wanted nothing to do with it. He just wanted to flee.

The Subway Station was deserted, save for an old Security Guard dozing off in the duty room.

Lu Xin sat down on a bench and only then let out a small sigh of relief.

He looked around. Little Sister’s figure wasn’t nearby, so he couldn’t ask her what exactly that thing was.

He’d have to ask her tonight, after getting back home.

Lu Xin had always known his “family members” held some deeper knowledge.

Scrape scrape…

Suddenly, the sound of shoes scraping across the ground echoed around him. Lu Xin looked up and saw people entering the Subway Station.

What had been an empty station moments ago was now filling with an increasing number of people. They wore diverse clothes and moved purposefully with hurried steps. They entered quickly but showed no inclination to proceed towards the platform to wait for a train. Instead, they rapidly dispersed throughout the surrounding area. Sensing something amiss, Lu Xin snapped his head up. Recognizing the Old Man in a worn sweater beside him, he finally realized.

They were all the people from that café earlier.

Lu Xin gave a violent start, jumping to his feet. Then, he spotted a figure emerging from behind the crowd.

It was the attendant from the café. His face still wore that benign smile, yet under the station lights, it seemed strangely grotesque.

He held a cup – the precise coffee Lu Xin had left untouched.

Slowly, stretching the corners of his mouth wide into a grin, the café attendant addressed Lu Xin in an unnervingly soft and measured tone: “You haven’t drunk your coffee yet.”

……

Lu Xin felt a chill creep into his heart. He urgently rose, attempting to leave.

Yet, as he moved, the surrounding people simultaneously surged forward, blocking his path.

This group, who had seemed so warm and content within the café, now radiated an intensely bizarre atmosphere, seemingly in a trance-like state, sleepwalking.

They made no superfluous movements; not even his reflection could be caught in their pupils. Woodenly, they advanced, their mass converging inward. The space around Lu Xin shrank rapidly. They trapped him within, forming a cage built of densely packed bodies, rendering him utterly immobile.

The café attendant’s smile deepened. He slightly raised the coffee cup, a silent offering to Lu Xin.

Lu Xin felt a mix of embarrassed awkwardness and burgeoning panic. “I don’t have any money… I can’t afford this cup…”

The café attendant’s grin twisted into even greater grotesquery. Suddenly, with a twitch, the eyeball lodged within the coffee – or perhaps it was an egg – violently launched itself from the cup. Trailing a dark arc, it flew straight towards Lu Xin’s mouth.

Lu Xin gasped in shock and flung himself violently sideways.

He was young and strong; he immediately knocked two to three people down, fighting to break free of the human trap and escape.

But the surrounding café customers, as if pulled by invisible strings, moved precisely with him. Arms extended, rigid and inflexible, they reached out to seize him.

Countless hands reaching out, bodies densely packed together, became obstacles impossible to evade.

Lu Xin’s struggles diminished, his resistance weakening as the mob pinned him firmly in place. Hands moved towards his face – prying, attempting to force his mouth open.

……

“What’s happening?”

Back in the observation office, the short-haired woman frowned deeply. “He’s struggling like an ordinary civilian.”

“Perhaps he hasn’t yet mastered his ability,” suggested a staff member beside her. “Should we call support to terminate this assessment?”

Seeing Lu Xin was almost engulfed by the crowd, the short-haired woman slowly nodded and glanced at the Doll next to her.

That girl had quietly picked up the umbrella beside her.

“Wait…”

Just at that moment, a staff member suddenly shouted loudly.

Everyone looked at the Spirit Detector in front of him and saw violent data fluctuations appearing on it.

…

At this moment, Lu Xin, who was forcibly pinned down and had his mouth pried open, heard a light laugh in his ear.

“Giggle!”

As he looked up with the corner of his eye, Lu Xin saw Little Sister hanging upside down on the signboard, hugging a small bear, swaying back and forth.

“Help…”

Lu Xin, with his mouth squeezed shut, uttered a muffled cry for help.

“Big Brother dislikes me, always pretending not to see me outside, and never talking to me…”

Little Sister swung in mid-air, speaking resentfully.

“Help Big Brother…”

Lu Xin watched as that “eye” jumped across each person’s head and approached his mouth, shouting desperately.

“Well, then you promise to buy me the best Toy…”

Little Sister giggled, her eyes now seeming almost devoid of whites, revealing a mischievous glint.

“No money!”

Lu Xin got angry, straightened his body, and yelled loudly.

Just then, that eye had crawled to Lu Xin’s mouth; its pupil rolled towards his face, contracted slightly as if smiling, then suddenly leaped straight forward. At the same time, the surrounding hands squeezed harder, forcing Lu Xin’s mouth wide open. He was like a helpless prisoner, watching the thing fly bit by bit towards his mouth.

Despair descended!

But right at this moment, a small, icy hand suddenly grasped Lu Xin’s palm.

Little Sister had jumped down!

…

With a “Whoosh!” sound, in others’ eyes, Lu Xin seemed to become incredibly slippery.

Just moments ago he was tightly locked up, arms twisted behind him, and mouth held forcefully open, when suddenly his movements turned strangely abnormal. With an impossible twist, his arms reversed angle, his waist spun swiftly, shaking off several arms holding him. Seizing the chance, his mouth broke free from the clutching hands, and his head tilted, causing the eye to fly past his head.

In an instant, he had slipped away from all control with bizarre, unorthodox movements and squeezed out towards the edge of the crowd.

All around him, the crush of people surged towards him, seeming impossible to escape.

But Lu Xin’s body shifted in ways hard to comprehend, weaving left and right through the crowd with extreme abnormality.

…

“Precise bodily control… Spider-Type!”

Meanwhile, in the Tower nearby, staff members already saw Lu Xin’s escape on the surveillance recording, gaping in astonishment. On the complex display screen, they saw Lu Xin had been restrained and was almost forcibly undergoing “Contamination” by the Monster. But now his body suddenly became agile and nimble, breaking free from the bindings.

Facing the countless Monsters on the Subway Station, he moved as if unopposed, his figure impossibly deft. He could twist into angles hard to imagine; despite being crushed among “people” like those from a café, he dodged and shifted in postures defying reason. He could even climb vertical walls, using hands and feet without any tools.

“What’s the percentage?”

“We can’t confirm yet. Based on this speed, initial estimates are above 50%!”

“Does that mean his starting potential nearly catches up to ‘Gecko’?”

The staff in the Tower watched in shock and excitement, eyes fixed on the monitor as the figure raced towards the exit.

“Oh no!”

Suddenly, someone noticed a change and exclaimed in surprise.

…

Down in the Subway Station, Lu Xin gripped Little Sister’s hand. Seeing a chance to escape the encirclement, he prepared to dash away.

But the café server standing outside the crowd watched his anomalous, flexible form. The strange smile on his face deepened and grew more distorted, as if stiffening and solidifying, his entire body turning into an empty shell.

At the same time, seven or eight huge Tentacles suddenly shot out from behind him.

Each Tentacle was as thick as a barrel, covered in backward-curving bone spikes and eerie eyes.

“Swish,” “Swish,” “Swish”

These Tentacles swiftly stabbed towards Lu Xin.

Lu Xin, fleeing along the wall, suddenly saw blossoms of mud explode around him, scattering countless clay fragments.

Under this violent barrage, the entire Subway Station trembled, threatening to collapse.

Yet, despite the terrifying speed of the Tentacles sprouting from his body, Lu Xin’s movements appeared bizarre yet unnaturally fluid. He sidestepped, twisted his body into physics-defying stances, and evaded the Tentacles one after another. It looked as if, amidst their attacks, he was dancing upon the walls and ceiling.

Within mere seconds, he had scrambled dozens of meters away, near the exit.

…

Witnessing this, the short-haired woman in the Observation Post took a deep breath and turned towards the girl in another room.

“Prepare to wrap things up!”

That girl, without changing expression, stood up. She picked up the Parasol in her hand and slowly opened it.

“Wait a minute…”

But at that very moment, a staff member in front of a screen cried out in surprise, “Look, quick…”

Everyone in the Office turned their heads in shock. They saw that inside the Subway Station, Lu Xin—who had just used his ghostly speed to escape the Tentacles’ pursuit and was merely meters from the exit, seemingly about to escape any second—suddenly paused slightly. Instead of bolting out, he hung upside down on the station ceiling, slowly turned his head back, and beckoned a finger forward.

Even the short-haired woman was startled: “What is he doing?”

“Was he…? Provoking it?”

“…”

“How can this be?”

The atmosphere in the Observation Post grew tense. The staff members exchanged bewildered glances.

The moment Lu Xin displayed Spider-Type abilities, they had prepared to commence the final cleanup. They understood just how terrifyingly fast a Spider-Type Ability User could be. In such circumstances, the Source of Contamination in the coffee shop would certainly be unable to hold him. Frankly, in their world, there were few places or people capable of trapping a Spider-Type Ability User.

But what they hadn’t anticipated was this: the Spider-Type Ability User hadn’t fled…

Instead, he had turned around and provoked it!

What kind of person, faced with such Monsters, wouldn’t flee immediately, but would turn back to provoke them?

…

“Little Sister, what are you doing?”

Meanwhile, Lu Xin was also shouting in shock.

The exit was right behind him. One turn and he could escape. But his Little Sister had forcibly held him back.

The Little Sister pouted her lips skeptically: “Then what were you doing?”

Lu Xin, both annoyed and anxious, retorted: “Escaping! Can’t you see the Monster?”

“Big Brother, why are you so afraid?”

The Little Sister chuckled softly while defiantly wiggling her finger at the coffee shop attendant.

Beneath her messy hair, her eyes shone with unusual brightness: “Yet… shouldn’t he be the one afraid…”