Jailer

The Nail Man, chopped to pieces by Zhang Chen, slowly sank into the floor beneath his feet. The shaking of the house almost sent Zhang Chen to the ground, but after two minutes, the vibrations gradually subsided.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak," all the nails in the room began to move. One, two... a total of twenty Nail Men grew out of the floor, walls, and ceiling of the room.

"What... how am I supposed to handle this!" Zhang Chen looked at the twenty Nail Men appearing before him. "One is already enough, and now there are twenty. Even if I fight to the death and kill these twenty, what about the next twenty?"

Zhang Chen couldn't think of a solution, and he didn't have time to think about it either, because the twenty Nail Men moved. The nails on their hands had grown half a meter long, making them look like Zhang Chen. They all charged towards him. At the same time, the nails in the room also began to grow from the floor and walls, putting Zhang Chen in a pincer attack.

With nowhere to retreat, Zhang Chen crossed his hands in front of him, preparing to face the enemy. The three closest Nail Men arrived, attacking from Zhang Chen's left, right, and above.

"The one above first," Zhang Chen willed, dragging the Nail Man from above directly down. It crashed heavily onto the ground. Zhang Chen moved his right hand, and five sharp nails split the falling Nail Man from head to stomach, cutting it in half. It was as dead as it could possibly be.

The left and right Nail Men had already arrived. Zhang Chen dodged the claw attack from the left by sidestepping. Facing the attack from the right, Zhang Chen didn't dodge or evade. He opened his mouth and directly swallowed the Nail Monster, which had no time to retract its hand.

A prompt sounded.

[Devoured an extremely small amount of malevolent ghost remains, gained saturation: 1%, no skill acquired, current saturation: 96%.]

"Hmm? Only increased by 1%. But it's still somewhat effective," Zhang Chen was a little surprised. The strength of this Nail Man didn't seem to be proportional to the energy he gained.

After swallowing, Zhang Chen turned around. The sharp nails of the Nail Man on his left had already reached Zhang Chen's front. He could only reluctantly step back. With a "slice!" sound, the clothes below Zhang Chen's neck were cut open, and a little blood appeared.

Before the opponent could retract its hand, Zhang Chen grabbed its extended right wrist with his left hand and directly cut it in half at the waist with his right claw, swallowing it in one gulp.

[Devoured an extremely small amount of malevolent ghost remains, gained saturation: 1%, no skill acquired, current saturation: 97%.]

However, in a corner that Zhang Chen didn't notice, three more Nail Men slowly emerged from the wall.

Two beads of cold sweat were already dripping down Zhang Chen's left temple. He had just killed three, and now seven more were upon him.

"This isn't going to work, Zhang Chen, think quickly, what to do, what to do?" Zhang Chen's mind raced, but before he could think, several red lights were already approaching.

Behind him, the long, sharp nails were like a thorny jungle. Retreat was impossible.

Activating Telekinesis, Zhang Chen directly projected his telekinetic energy onto the four Nail Men closest to him, on his left and in front, instantly restraining their movements. He was preparing to sidestep to face the attacks of the three Nail Men on his right.

Suddenly, a "buzz!" sound filled his ears. These Nail Men were not comparable to normal people. Restraining four at once, coupled with the previous use of telekinesis, made Zhang Chen's head start to spin. However, the three cold lights in front of him were already closing in.

"Damn it, I can't dodge this." Zhang Chen used all his strength to barely dodge the first attack, but the next two hit his body. The second claw left a scratch nearly 1 centimeter deep on Zhang Chen's chest, and the third claw even pierced Zhang Chen's left abdomen.

"Pfft!" Zhang Chen spat out a mouthful of blood.

With the dizziness and the tearing pain in his abdomen, Zhang Chen could no longer stand. He looked up and saw the dozens of subsequent Nail Men rushing towards him. The Nail Man in front of him also raised its claws and aimed at his throat.

"I... I'm sorry, you... Wang Yizhi." Zhang Chen knew he was going to die. His last gaze fell on Wang Yizhi, who lay quietly on the operating table. Tears streamed down Zhang Chen's eyes.

However, just as the sharp nails touched Zhang Chen's neck, the Nail Man suddenly stopped moving. Then, starting from its fingertips, it slowly turned into dust. In a short while, its entire body turned into powder and fell to the ground.

"What's going on?" Zhang Chen felt his neck about to be pierced, and then there was no further action. He opened his eyes and looked at the Nail Man turning into dust, Zhang Chen was shocked. Then, Zhang Chen saw a familiar figure.

Standing not far from Zhang Chen was the 'Faceless Man' who had been watching him at the bank entrance a few days ago and had signaled danger to him two days ago.

The appearance of the 'Faceless Man' was clearly an anomaly. The gaze of dozens of Nail Men simultaneously fell on him, and they instantly abandoned Zhang Chen.

"Yaaah!" These Nail Men made a sound for the first time, a very sharp one, as if they hated the 'Faceless Man' to the bone.

"Little brother, I can only hold on for no more than 3 minutes. You need to come up with a solution within 3 minutes, or you'll be doomed forever." A voice directly entered Zhang Chen's mind.

Zhang Chen looked at the motionless 'Faceless Man' and was filled with gratitude. But what he needed to do now was to get up from the ground. His left abdomen had been pierced by five nail holes, and blood was flowing out. However, the dizziness had improved a lot, but he couldn't use telekinesis anymore.

"Ah!" Zhang Chen looked at Wang Yizhi lying on the operating table with her eyes closed, and began to support himself, slowly getting up from the ground. "I still want to take you traveling."

After standing up, although his abdomen was still bleeding, it had improved a lot. Scanning the situation around him, Zhang Chen was shocked. Zhang Chen realized that he had killed three Nail Men earlier, but now counting them, there were still twenty, neither more nor less. If he had just kept killing mindlessly, he would have been the one to die in the end.

Furthermore, Zhang Chen discovered that any Nail Man that approached the Faceless Man would gradually disintegrate. For every one that disintegrated, a small part of the 'Faceless Man's' body would also disappear. Calculating this, it was questionable whether he could even last for three minutes.

"Damn it, think faster. Its main body must be here, but where would it hide? Inside the wall? Or under the floor? Or is one of these twenty Nail Men its main body? No, that's too risky." Zhang Chen scanned the entire room, which was covered in nails of various lengths and thicknesses.

"Wait, if I were it, where would I hide my main body? My sister said that after this thing died, it was cremated, so what's left should be a pile of ashes. Could ashes be disguised as nails?" Zhang Chen looked at the nails filling the room and had a bold idea.

"Let's gamble again. I don't believe my luck is that bad." Zhang Chen started to move. Due to his wound, his movement wasn't very fast.

"If it's disguised as nails, then it must be far away from us. It's over there."

Zhang Chen looked towards a corner of the room furthest from him. Sure enough, the nails there were much longer than in other places.

Sweeping away the nails blocking his path with his claws, Zhang Chen got closer and closer to that corner.

At this moment, the Nail Men, who were constantly attacking the 'Faceless Man', noticed Zhang Chen's actions. Eight of them surged towards Zhang Chen. However, before they could take two steps, their bodies disintegrated.

Zhang Chen glanced gratefully at the 'Faceless Man', but his situation was not optimistic. Half of his body and his left leg had already disappeared. It was likely that there wasn't much time left.

Zhang Chen covered the wound at his waist and finally reached the corner. Amidst the clusters of sharp nails, Zhang Chen saw a white, pointed object with a slightly lighter color and a shape that was somewhat different from the surrounding nails.

"I won the gamble, haha, it's this one." Zhang Chen's right-hand nails extended again, this time nearly a meter long. He swung them towards the white pointed object. An unexpected change occurred. The nails around the white object suddenly moved as if they were alive, extending rapidly and shooting towards Zhang Chen.

Sensing the anomaly, Zhang Chen immediately crossed his left and right hands, cutting off the incoming nails. However, one of them still pierced his left shoulder blade.

Zhang Chen's left arm instantly drooped, unable to move. Moreover, the severed nails began to grow rapidly again, about to reach Zhang Chen.

"Roar!" Zhang Chen exerted all his strength and opened his mouth, swallowing all the incoming nails and biting them off. Each use of his mouth ability had an extremely significant impact on Zhang Chen's body. The previous attack had even torn open the wound in his left abdomen, causing Zhang Chen to spit out a mouthful of blood from the pain.

Zhang Chen, who was already relying solely on willpower, grabbed the white pointed object before the severed nails could continue to grow, pulled it out, and then retreated two steps, escaping the nail growth area.

Looking back, the 'Faceless Man' was now reduced to just a head. Seeing the object in Zhang Chen's hand, it immediately stopped resisting and was torn to shreds by four Nail Men.

"Ah!" A roar like that from hell echoed throughout the basement. The twenty Nail Men frantically surged towards Zhang Chen, while the nails behind him also grew rapidly, trying to pierce Zhang Chen's body.

Zhang Chen could no longer use his mouth's devouring ability, but his biting ability was still intact. As early as half a year ago, he could bite through an iron pipe, and now he was even stronger than before.

Zhang Chen grabbed the white, pointed object and put it in his mouth, biting down hard. "Crack!" The entire white object shattered.

"Eeeee!" A mournful cry came from the mouths of the twenty Nail Men. All the nails in the basement began to turn into fragments and converge towards the center of the basement. In a short while, a young man in his early twenties, about 1.7 meters tall, with messy hair, stood there. A bullet hole, still faintly visible, marked his forehead.

There was no need to ask who this was; it was the murderer of that year—Yang Zi. Yang Zi's eyes were filled with unwillingness as he stared intently at Zhang Chen, wanting to move forward and kill the defenseless Zhang. But just then, behind Yang Zi, as if space had warped, a blood-red door appeared out of nowhere.

As the door opened, hundreds of black hands suddenly stretched out from within, tightly wrapping around Yang Zi and pulling him into the door.

Yang Zi struggled desperately, but it was like a moth to a flame. Amidst his unwilling shouts, his entire body was pulled in.

At this moment, a thin red light shot out from inside the door and landed on Zhang Chen. His wounds then began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye. After Zhang Chen recovered, he suddenly felt a slight burning sensation on his right chest, but it quickly subsided. Following that, the door closed with a snap and vanished into the void.

On a rooftop two streets away from the white house, the hawk-nosed policeman wore an expression of disbelief. He began to mutter, "An intermediate malevolent ghost was actually able to summon a Jailer. It seems this guy is much more brutal than the information collected by the police department. Who knows how many people he's massacred. The Jailer is something that even many high-level entities can't summon."

"I didn't expect this kid to have some skills. He got such a huge advantage. This debt to Pu Hu has now been repaid." After saying that, the policeman didn't linger any longer and left.