Some unexpected changes occurred, ones no living person could have foreseen.
Old Yu Street's hour of decay and dilapidation suddenly turned into brutal, terrifying horror at this moment.
Stranger still—
The horrors before them, bathed in red light, flickered back and forth between terrifying red and ruined gray like an unstable illusion.
The entirety of Old Yu Street repeatedly shifted between reality and the supernatural, making it seem as though they stood within two overlapping domains of the same space.
The frequency of those flashes was tied to the footsteps of the living, and even more so to the "breathing" of the Red Pattern.
Ji Li's expression was cold and stern. Without saying a word, he grabbed the stunned Chang Nian and ran toward Number 6002, stepping across the still-writhing human skins.
At this point, his original plan had been disrupted, but his ultimate goal remained unchanged.
Whether he waited for the Red Pattern to vanish on its own or investigated beneath its influence, he had to go to Number 6002.
He had to see how Pang Guijuan had died, and what exactly this "change" was.
Ji Li caught every fleeting shift in Chang Nian's expression.
Chang Nian's expression was also unusually complicated under the Red Pattern's influence. Part of her was shocked, but she was even more anxious.
From that, it seemed likely that she had her own unavoidable reasons for leaving Unit 1002 alone.
Yet her silence along the way also proved something: she and Tong Guan were likewise analyzing Old Yu Street's rules from small details to the larger picture.
Ji Li's long hair streamed behind him. The corridor before him receded step by step, while the heads tied to the railing on his right corresponded exactly to the locations of the doors.
It was clear that