A Voice from Hell

Watching Lin Qiye flee wildly around the room with the Evernight Goddess Nyx on his heels, Zhou Meng took off his earmuffs. He clutched his stomach and held onto the doorframe, laughing until tears streamed down his face.

Hahahahaha!

"Mom! Mother! Stop hitting me! I was wrong, I was wrong! I'll never sing again!" Lin Qiye ran all over the room as Nyx chased him with a feather duster.

"Thanatos! Why did you scare me? Mommy's going to make sure you learn your lesson today!" Nyx, whose eyes had been vacant and whose manner had been as serene as water, no longer looked like the Evernight Goddess. She looked more like a God of Combat!

She chased Lin Qiye with the feather duster, smacking him on the butt.

As Lin Qiye ran, he shouted angrily, "Zhou Meng! You damned god of misfortune! Why did you give me an entry like this? Wasn't Heavenly Voice supposed to be a voice kissed by an Angel? Why did I just sound like a Demon had me in a chokehold?!"

The moment he had belted out "My Sun," the look in the Evernight Goddess's eyes had changed. It had taken just one second for them to go from hazy to blazing with fury. What followed was the scene that had just played out.

Lin Qiye didn't even need to think about it. There had to be something wrong with the entry. It wasn't heavenly at all! Gods and ghosts alike would hate it—even a god couldn't stand listening to it! No wonder Zhou Meng had gone so far away and put on earmuffs beforehand!

After watching Lin Qiye get chased around a few times, Zhou Meng decided he'd seen enough fun. He reached out and stole the Evernight Goddess's urge to chase Lin Qiye and smack his butt. Only then did Nyx calm down, looking a little puzzled, before returning to sit on the swing.

Lin Qiye could finally stop and catch his breath.

"Tell me, what use is this entry, apart from making people want to beat me up?" Lin Qiye asked, glaring resentfully at Zhou Meng's eminently punchable face.

"Hey, an entry this useful is something you'll have to develop yourself." Zhou Meng kept him in suspense.

"If I could beat you, I'd have killed you long ago!"

"Even if you could beat me, you couldn't kill me. Besides, I'm the kind soul who gave you an entry for free. Surely I'm entitled to a little payment? And what's more, that beating wasn't for nothing. A mother disciplining her child is an important part of a mother-son relationship! Spare the rod and spoil the child. If you don't believe me, go check Nyx's treatment progress. Hasn't it gotten a little better?" Unconcerned by Lin Qiye's threat, Zhou Meng continued his explanation with a smile.

Half skeptical, Lin Qiye checked Nyx's condition. Sure enough, her healing value was indeed rising.

Forget it. For that, I'll let Zhou Meng off. Oh, right, the Ghost-Faced King is still locked up underground. Why not go check on him?

With that thought, Lin Qiye went back to the dungeon. The Ghost-Faced King was no longer as ferocious as before. His eyes were a little vacant, as if he had just suffered some kind of shock.

"Let me see. His fear value was still at two the last time I came. How did it jump straight to fifty this time?!" Lin Qiye was utterly baffled.

Could he have heard me singing just now and gotten scared? That works too?

Although the Ghost-Faced King had nearly killed him and Zhao Kongcheng, Lin Qiye couldn't help feeling a twinge of guilt. But that feeling was soon eclipsed by his anger at Zhou Meng.

Lin Qiye left the mental hospital, cursing as he went.

Zhou Meng, however, was in an excellent mood. Seeing the loving mother-and-son scene between Nyx and Lin Qiye just now made him feel from the bottom of his heart that being the god of theft was the most entertaining thing imaginable.

But the real show was still to come.

Zhou Meng decided to return to his own ward for a while. Once enough time had passed, he would see what Lin Qiye could do with the entry.

Cangnan City, Second High School, beside the sports field.

"Qiye, report your situation." Chen Muye's steady voice came through the earpiece.

"Captain, I checked every student and teacher in the school. The situation is even worse than we expected! It's absolutely impossible to resolve this quietly. It would be as hard as ascending to heaven!"

"Between the first and third years, there are ten infected. The second years are the worst off, with thirty-six in total. There are also nearly twenty among the teachers and administrators. At least sixty students and staff in the school have been turned into monsters! That's not counting any students or teachers who didn't come to the sports field for the flag-raising ceremony."

Chen Muye's brow furrowed deeply as he listened to Lin Qiye's report. It really was impossible to resolve this incident in secret. And the people turned into monsters weren't limited to the school's students and staff. Some students' family members had also become monsters, and he had just dealt with a group of them.

As he was thinking, he suddenly heard Lin Qiye ask him a question.

"Captain, do we have anything that can erase memories?"

Chen Muye answered at once, "Yes. We have a Forbidden Item called Dream Whisper. It can create a dream within a certain range and erase part of a person's memory. Why? Do you have a plan?"

Since Lin Qiye had asked, he must have had something in mind.

"I do have a way to restrain these monsters within a certain range while minimizing the effect on the students, but I need your authorization, Captain."

Chen Muye asked, somewhat puzzled, "What way? You'll have to tell me first before I can know whether it's feasible."

Lin Qiye was silent for a moment before answering, "All right, but I have a request, Captain. For now, cut off communications between the two of us and all the other squad members. You have to be the only one who can hear me."

Chen Muye's frown deepened.

What on earth is this kid up to?

But as captain of the 136th Squad, he had to take the opinions of his frontline squad members into account in a situation like this. So he promptly did as Lin Qiye asked. Now only his and Lin Qiye's voices could be heard over the comms.

"All right, now only the two of us can communicate. What's your plan? Tell me, quickly!"

Meanwhile, Lin Qiye walked to a deserted corner without letting Li Yifei follow him. He cleared his throat softly, picked a song at random in his head, shut his eyes, and began singing into the comms device.

Chen Muye's head buzzed as if it were about to explode, but years of Nightwatcher training made him fling his earpiece off at once.

"Fuck! What the fuck was that?!"

He felt as though he had heard a Devil calling from hell. If he heard another note, he feared he might pass out.

"Captain, what's wrong?" Wu Xiangnan, standing beside Chen Muye, immediately noticed that something was wrong with him.

Chen Muye stared at the earpiece on the ground and pondered for a moment. Then his eyes suddenly lit up, and he ordered Wu Xiangnan, "I just isolated the communication channel between Qiye and me from yours. Use your authority as vice-captain to restore communications, then tell Qiye I've approved his request! Have Hongying and Xiaonan both follow his orders!"

This kid's come up with something new again! But his idea really is feasible!