The Nightmare Begins
Act Fourteen, Unknown Timeline.
Clyde stood beneath the atrium on the first floor. Blinding light pierced through gaps in the dark clouds like a bullet through his skull.
A bright spot lay between his brows. Mechanical shock still hung on his face as he stood frozen in place like a corpse for a long while.
When he finally snapped awake, he did not immediately pat Ji Li on the shoulder this time. Instead, Ji Li struck his injured left shoulder, instantly making him break out in cold sweat from the pain.
He turned around in shock, shifting his gaze away from the distant Eighteenth Floor. Suppressing the thoughts in his heart, he said softly:
"I saw him."
There were fourteen reasons for his shock across fourteen times. This time, it was because he had finally seen Gu Xingjian.
That man, who should have long since reached his end, whether by the rules or by the outcome, was truly still alive—and completely unharmed, as imposing as ever...
The terror he had nearly forgotten was awakened once again. The inexplicable guilt and panic he felt whenever he faced that man had nearly become a deeply rooted disease.
He had thought that disease had been cured during the Sixth Manager Mission, but he had not expected it to be so deeply entrenched, returning after leaving and impossible to eradicate.
Clyde felt a surge of bitterness in his heart. He did not know what kind of manager he, the manager of Branch No. 9, even was.
Gu Xingjian had definitely died.
At the very least, he had died during the Sixth Manager Mission, and had remained dead for some time. Yet after Clyde became manager, he had been reborn.
That sensitive gap in time only deepened Clyde's fear of Gu Xingjian