Chapter 10 The Audience
1302 Words
Gurgle.
Chen Tan couldn't help but swallow.
"This... how is this possible??" he rasped. "No heart, head chopped off, and yet it can still move?"
"Where did the opera costume come from? Didn't we leave it off him?!"
"I don't know!!!" Li Xiuchun was completely consumed by terror, stammering incoherently. "When... when he crawled out from underground, he was already wearing it... It’s the same costume we draped over him when we buried him last night!
He's a ghost… he's really a ghost!!
A ghost here to claim our lives!"
"That's nonsense! There's no such thing as ghosts!"
The sight before them was too bizarre. Chen Tan's legs trembled with fear, but he still forced himself to act. He grabbed a dining knife from the ground and thrust it toward Chen Ling's face!
He had killed Chen Ling twice before—he could kill him a third time!
Whatever was inside that body, aside from looking terrifying, didn’t seem to possess the catastrophic power of the true disasters people spoke of. That thought gave Chen Tan a surge of courage.
The sharp knife sliced through the air, but just as it was about to reach Chen Ling, it stopped abruptly in midair.
Chen Tan froze, gripping the knife as hard as he could, but it refused to move forward even an inch—like an invisible hand had seized it, holding it firmly in place.
"Hee hee."
A chilling giggle sounded from behind Chen Ling.
In the next instant, the knife in Chen Tan’s hand vanished into thin air, replaced by a slender red paper slip.
Chen Ling, his pupils lifeless and unfocused, chewed and swallowed the axe and kitchen knife in his mouth. His vacant gaze locked onto Chen Tan as he stepped forward, repeating the same words in a mechanical, rasping voice:
"Dad, I'm hungry."
Just three words, yet they made Chen Tan’s scalp tingle with sheer dread!
He had no doubt that in the next second, Chen Ling would grab his head and shove it into his mouth, biting and chewing until nothing was left... His bones wouldn’t be any harder than the axe or the kitchen knife!
"Run!! Get the enforcers!!"
Chen Tan spun around and sprinted toward the front door.
He knew this situation was beyond anything they could handle. Their only hope for survival was to seek help from the enforcers—those powerful law officers who surely had ways to deal with disasters.
Whatever punishment awaited them later for murder and organ theft could be dealt with afterward.
No matter what, prison was better than death.
Li Xiuchun, still shaking in a corner, snapped back to her senses at Chen Tan’s shout. She scrambled toward the tightly shut door.
With Chen Ling’s focus still on Chen Tan, she managed to reach the door and grasped for the handle—
Only to grab at empty air.
Dazed, Li Xiuchun looked down and realized the handle was gone… No, not just the handle—the entire door had become a painted image on red paper, shifting from three-dimensional to two-dimensional.
She couldn’t open a door drawn on paper.
"Hee hee hee hee..."
A chorus of overlapping voices whispered from all directions.
It felt as if countless unseen figures had filled the room, watching them with sinister amusement in their crimson eyes.
Red paper slips fluttered around Li Xiuchun, and through the haze, she glimpsed grotesque faces forming and shifting.
She shrieked, stumbling backward, her eyes filled with pure, unfiltered terror.
Finally, her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
【Audience Expectation -1】
【Current Expectation: 16%】
At the same time, Chen Tan suddenly lost his footing and crashed to the ground. He turned back in shock—
The entire floor had turned red, undulating like waves.
Staring in horror at the red-clad Chen Ling approaching him, he seemed to realize something.
Terror struck him like lightning.
"It's real… What the enforcers said is real!"
"You’re a disaster!"
"You’re a disaster that has taken over Ling’s body!"
At these words, the red-clad Chen Ling halted.
His blood-red lips curled slightly, and a pale finger pressed against them in a "shushing" gesture.
"Shhh—"
Just as the endless sea of red paper was about to engulf Chen Tan, the sound of shattering glass erupted from the side!
"Disaster detected at 128 Han Shuang Street!! Threat level estimated at Tier 4! Requesting immediate enforcer backup!!"
Two figures in black-and-red uniforms crashed through the window, one of them quickly scanning the room before shouting into a radio.
"Copy that, reinforcements are en route. Try to hold it off as long as possible!" A stern voice crackled from the other end.
One of the enforcers let out a bitter laugh. "A Tier 4 disaster—how the hell are we supposed to hold it off?"
The unseen audience let out a murmur of curiosity, as if intrigued by these new arrivals.
With a flick of his hand, the red-clad Chen Ling sent Chen Tan crashing to the floor, unconscious, blood trickling from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.
"Keep your distance! Survival is priority!"
One of the enforcers quickly retreated, drawing his gun and firing multiple rounds.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The brass bullets sliced through the void, but before they could reach Chen Ling, they transformed into tiny red paper slips, vanishing midair.
Chen Ling raised his hand, and countless paper strips slithered from the wide sleeves of his opera robe like serpents, binding the two enforcers in place.
The writhing paper twisted, tightening like a rope before violently slamming them to the ground.
【Audience Expectation -1】
【Current Expectation: 15%】
Chen Ling’s form began to distort and expand, his opera costume straining against his growing body.
It was as if countless faces were struggling to burst forth from beneath his skin, a chaotic chorus of whispers filling the air.
Within seconds, he had transformed into a monstrous entity, tendrils of red paper writhing in the air. Dozens of crimson eyes opened upon the shifting paper, erasing any last trace of Chen Ling’s humanity.
With a sudden lunge, the creature smashed through the paper door and into the empty street.
The drizzling rain fell upon its form, yet made no sound.
It picked a direction at random and shot forward in a blur of red.
Almost simultaneously, a figure in black streaked through the sky, parting the clouds as he pursued.
"Target disaster located," Han Meng reported calmly.
"…Is it an 'Apocalypse' class?" a worried voice asked through the radio.
"Based on its energy signature, at most a Tier 5. Looks like a disaster did descend last night, but the sensors misjudged its strength."
"Tier 5 is still extremely dangerous! Be careful, Meng!"
Han Meng didn’t respond. He pursued the red shadow to the outskirts of District 3, then suddenly plummeted like a meteor.
BOOM—!!
The black figure crashed into the barren land, sending an invisible shockwave through the air.
Dust and shattered rock scattered in all directions, forcing the red creature to halt.
Its writhing paper tendrils swayed in the wind, all its crimson eyes locking onto the impact site.
A lone figure stepped forward, cigarette between his lips, his long black coat billowing slightly.
Four silver insignias faintly glowed along the hem.
An unseen force unfurled like a breeze, enveloping the red-papered monster.
"I am Han Meng, Chief Enforcer of District 3, Aurora Jurisdiction."
He flicked the cigarette with one hand, while the other drew a jet-black pistol from his waist, the safety clicking off.
The very ground trembled, a silent killing intent surging into the air.
His lips parted, his voice carrying an almost law-like finality.
"In the name of humanity’s justice…"
"I sentence you to death."
- Writer
