The First Edict of the Outsider

"Fake? Evil ghost?"

Yang Jia's mysterious, languid voice brought Xiao Xiao back to his senses for a moment, filling him with a bone-chilling cold, as if he had plunged into an icy lake.

Yet Yang Jia, the mysterious and aloof girl before him, merely looked into his eyes and said softly, "Do you feel as if everyone around you has developed an inexplicable and intense hatred for you?"

"Do you feel as if every one of them wants nothing more than to kill you and eat you?"

"..."

Xiao Xiao stared at her in horror. For some reason, he felt a surge of gratitude.

Because this woman had described his feelings from earlier with pinpoint accuracy.

But then, Yang Jia gave a soft sigh and said, "I can tell you that it was all real."

"The hatred they showed you in the room just now was real. If you had left the room even a little later, they would have killed you. That was real too."

"..."

At that moment, Xiao Xiao felt his scalp prickle. The world behind him seemed to crumble silently.

After a long while, he finally asked in a low voice, "Why?"

"The reason is simple."

Wisps of smoke with a faint mint scent drifted past Yang Jia's face as she spoke softly:

"Everything and everyone around us only appears to be the same as in your memories. Before you knew it, they had already been replaced by false monsters."

"You no longer fit into this world, like a nail jammed into a clock."

"This world hates you, loathes you, and wants to kill you completely..."

"..."

Xiao Xiao couldn't describe how he felt upon hearing those words. He only stared blankly at Yang Jia. Her calm and beautiful face gave him an intense sense of madness.

"I..."

He didn't know how many questions he wanted to ask, but Yang Jia quickly stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder. Leaning close to his ear, she whispered, "Don't speak. They're coming."

Xiao Xiao was still filled with confusion, but his heart suddenly jolted.

In the corridor, Jiang Cheng was already walking over with a smile. The man who had been staring at him with that sinister gaze just moments ago now seemed like a completely different person, smiling broadly as he said:

"I was wondering why you two had been gone so long. So you were here whispering sweet nothings."

"Can you let me hear what you're talking about?"

"..."

Xiao Xiao was on high alert, but Yang Jia had already replied with an easy smile, "Just chatting about something interesting."

Jiang Cheng glanced at Yang Jia, then at Xiao Xiao. His expression seemed somewhat displeased, but he merely waved his hand with a smile and said, "All right, all right. Everyone's been waiting."

As he spoke, he suddenly turned to Xiao Xiao and said, "Yang Jia, you go back first. I have something to discuss with Xiao Xiao."

The instant he turned his head, Xiao Xiao thought he saw a hint of malice flash in his eyes.

Xiao Xiao immediately went on guard. He instinctively looked at Yang Jia, naturally hoping she wouldn't leave. Unexpectedly, she only nodded obediently and turned to go.

But the instant she turned around, she suddenly leaned close to Xiao Xiao's ear and said quickly, "First Edict of the Outsider: Don't let yourself look weak."

"If you don't want to be killed by him, you have only one choice—kill him."

"..."

"Kill him?"

Those words frightened Xiao Xiao. He looked at Yang Jia in horror.

But Yang Jia had already turned and walked away, her face still wearing its usual expression.

Jiang Cheng, however, had seen the look on Yang Jia's face as she whispered into Xiao Xiao's ear. It seemed to fill him with extreme displeasure.

As he watched Yang Jia leave, the faint smile that had been hanging on his face suddenly disappeared.

When he turned back to Xiao Xiao, his face was already filled with coldness and fury. He suddenly grabbed Xiao Xiao and dragged him into the restroom.

His hand clamped around Xiao Xiao's arm and abruptly tightened, slamming Xiao Xiao against the restroom wall. The glass mirror shattered with a crash, spraying fragments across the floor.

His voice carried a twisted, venomous chill. "Who do you think you are?"

"You..."

Caught off guard and pinned against the wall, Xiao Xiao panicked instinctively and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

"Everyone knows this gathering was held because I met Yang Jia."

"Everyone knows I like Yang Jia."

"Everyone knows Yang Jia is mine. Who do you think you are to compete with me? Who do you think you are to look at her? Who do you think you are to come outside and whisper to her?"

"..."

Jiang Cheng roared coldly. Fury made the veins on his forehead bulge like earthworms, twisting restlessly. At that instant, Xiao Xiao sensed an intense threat from him. His undisguised rage filled Xiao Xiao with an uncontrollable terror. He could feel Jiang Cheng's fury erupting without restraint. Blood vessels spread like a web, rapidly covering his entire eyeball.

He was so furious that his hatred and venomous resentment erupted as if they had taken physical form. He exerted so much force that his mouth suddenly split open.

The muscles at both corners of his mouth twisted and tore them apart. Then his chest abruptly split into pieces. His skin cracked like a broken eggshell, and twisted tentacles blossomed from within his body.

Circular suckers and backward-pointing barbs covered them as they writhed, shaking off threads of mucus.

"You useless trash who never strives to improve yourself deserve to die in your bedroom..."

Amid his garbled, venomous voice, one of Jiang Cheng's sticky, barb-covered arms—or rather, tentacles—thrust viciously toward Xiao Xiao's heart.

At that moment, Xiao Xiao's eyes suddenly widened.

He watched the disgusting, terrifying tentacle bore toward his heart. His tension instantly reached its peak, and it felt as if all the blood in his body were being squeezed into his brain by an invisible force.

The terror that had built up for so long erupted at that moment. It came ferociously, more intense than any panic attack he had ever experienced.

"Is this real, or an illusion?"

"He... turned into a monster?"

"..."

Amid the violent headache and dizziness, Xiao Xiao felt everything around him slow down.

Only Jiang Cheng's furious, horribly split face remained before his eyes, along with the tentacles writhing out from his body and that arm filled with inhuman power.

How could this be...

How had he encountered something so absurd, like a nightmare?

He couldn't understand why this was happening, but he could feel his heartbeat with extraordinary clarity. The intervals between each beat, however, seemed to stretch infinitely longer.

Ever since he had endured the panic that had plagued him for four years and worked hard to adapt to the sensation of its attacks, he had often experienced this feeling.

The more nervous he became, the slower everything around him grew, almost to a standstill.

Within the same second, he could think through more things and sense more information, as if the world had stopped and only his thoughts were running at explosive speed.

In the past, this sensation had brought him nothing but pain and torment. Now, however, it seemed to be having some unexpected effect.

His thoughts raced at an explosive, overloaded pace.

Things that would take others a long time to understand took him less than a second.

"Jiang Cheng has turned into a monster, and he's filled with hatred for me. He wants to... kill me."

"Should I run?"

"No, I can't escape. This monster is too close."

"So, if I want to protect myself, I have only one method left..."

Xiao Xiao recalled what Yang Jia had whispered moments ago: "If you want to stay alive, you have only one choice—kill him."

Killing someone was naturally wrong. Xiao Xiao had never even killed a chicken in his life, let alone a person. But the thing before him was a monster, and it was attacking him. What other choice did he have?

Thus, he quickly moved on to the crucial question: how could he kill it?

As that question flashed through his mind, Xiao Xiao, whose thoughts were racing explosively, desperately captured every detail around him. In this slow-motion world where time had nearly stopped, he saw Jiang Cheng's split skin, grotesque flesh, and tentacles. He saw the unknown tissues of flesh inside his body, as well as the dark red heart at the center of his ruptured body, slowly swelling as it compressed blood.

From the corner of his eye, he also saw the glittering fragments on the floor. They were pieces of the mirror Jiang Cheng had shattered when he shoved Xiao Xiao into it.

A plan slowly took shape in his mind.

"Bang!"

In a fit of rage, Jiang Cheng's arm-turned-tentacle lashed viciously toward Xiao Xiao's chest.

The speed was already astonishing, but Jiang Cheng never expected that just as his tentacle lashed forward, Xiao Xiao's body, pinned against the wall, would suddenly slide sharply to the side before crouching down.

The tentacle struck the restroom's tiled wall. Shards of tile sprayed through the air.

Jiang Cheng was somewhat surprised. He couldn't imagine that Xiao Xiao, so weak and helpless in his terror, could dodge the attack. But he immediately let out a howl, and even more tentacles surged toward Xiao Xiao.

Yet Xiao Xiao, having dodged the first strike, moved with astonishing speed... No, it wasn't speed. It was precision.

He had simply thought it through many times and observed for long enough, making his movements efficient, decisive, and precise.

As he crouched to evade the strike, he had already reached down and grabbed a long, blade-sharp shard of mirror.

He had even chosen one that was long enough and sharp enough.

Before the tentacles on Jiang Cheng's body could lash at him again, Xiao Xiao clenched the shard, rose, and drove it down toward Jiang Cheng's chest.

"Schk!"

Xiao Xiao's wrist pierced through the sticky tentacle and reached into Jiang Cheng's exposed chest. The sharp shard plunged directly into his wildly beating heart.

The heart was like leather, tougher than he had expected. But Xiao Xiao put all his strength into the strike, driving the shard a full ten centimeters into it.

The tentacles Jiang Cheng had raised suddenly went limp.

He staggered backward. In his two eyes, set in a face split so badly that its upper and lower halves were no longer aligned, shone surprise and terror.

Xiao Xiao gripped the blood-soaked mirror shard tightly and stared fixedly at him.

He drew a deep breath, then crouched again and drove another vicious blow into the heart.

Two strikes.

Four chapters today. Please bookmark and recommend.