Han Su was escorted out of the Public Security Bureau by a group of armed personnel. He was taken in a windowless vehicle to a gloomy, oppressive-looking complex of buildings, then led to a room filled with black metal.
Throughout the process, he was perfectly cooperative. After all, when you were surrounded by so many armed people, it was best to keep your temper in check.
But his thoughts never stopped. What exactly does this so-called Bureau of Abnormal Disaster Assessment do?
And what kind of person was the one who decided how this matter would be classified? Why could a single word from him make the Disaster Management Bureau ignore the kidnapping case from all those years ago, as well as all those children who had vanished since then?
Among the missing children, quite a few had well-connected parents. Were those parents being kept in the dark, or had some of them played a certain role in all this?
*...*
He still had no answers, but Han Su felt a vague thrill and excitement—something he had never experienced during all his fruitless investigations.
For the first time, he felt as if he were getting close to something.
Another thing he couldn't help doing was reaching up to touch his right eye. The sensation he'd felt when facing the Ghost Truck had been strange and exhilarating. The eerie feeling of Mental Power flowing out through his right eye was like a door opening onto a whole new world.
Even though Black Rose had warned him that using this power might come at a price, he still wanted to try it again.
Leaving aside her lack of expertise, his life had already turned out so badly. What did he have left to worry about?
What interested him more was how this Mysterious Power could be used, what it could be used for, and whether he might be able to use it to accomplish something even after he returned to the Ancient Castle...
Of course, that was only wishful thinking. With two conspicuous cameras pointed at him from above, he could only hold back for now.
Another thing was that, when Song Chushi had first given him the Spell, Han Su had actually wanted to use it to prove to those who didn't believe him that he really had encountered those mysterious things.
But Zhang Chiguo's words had reminded him: since "someone" had already decided how this matter would be classified, proving himself didn't really matter anymore.
The other side might not disbelieve him out of suspicion. They might be deliberately refusing to believe him.
In this situation, keeping himself hidden was actually the wisest choice.
Having spent so long playing hide-and-seek with those colossal creatures in the Ancient Castle, he understood all too well how important it was to stay in the shadows.
Even after carefully analyzing the situation, he knew he was practically under a spotlight, so there was little point in talking about keeping hidden. But it was still better to keep part of himself in the dark.
Forget it. I'll get some proper sleep first...
He let out a long sigh and lay down on the mattress of the small bed.
It was a metal room, and it wasn't very big. The locked door even made it look a little like a prison cell. But the place was surprisingly well furnished, with a complete set of toiletries.
So much had happened that day. For the first time since escaping, Han Su felt he could sleep peacefully.
He only hoped that this step he'd taken would help him obtain more important information. He hoped he could learn something that would give him a better chance when he returned to the Ancient Castle and faced those monsters again...
When Han Su opened his eyes the next day, he saw that the metal door to his room was open.
The woman in the black suit stood in the doorway, holding a folder. "Get up and wash. I'll arrange for someone to bring you breakfast. At nine this morning, someone will take you somewhere. As long as you pass that assessment, you can enter the training program."
She didn't wait for a reply. Clicking away on her heels, she left Han Su standing there, still groggy from waking up.
The breakfast was good, at least. It came with sausage, eggs, and milk.
After he finished eating, two armed personnel came and took Han Su to a spacious room. Black soundproofing foam covered the walls, making the place look like a professional recording studio.
Oddly enough, several extremely expensive speakers were mounted on the walls.
Han Su knew the speakers were extremely expensive because he'd seen some just like them in one of Xu Ji's houses.
The spacious floor was bare, except for a chair placed in the middle. The people who had brought Han Su led him to the chair and had him sit down, then left the room.
"You'll hear some sounds in a moment."
Suddenly, the woman in the black suit's voice came through the speakers. "I need you to listen carefully. Pay close attention."
"It's all right if you can't understand them, but you must try to understand what they mean."
"Try to understand what they mean, and also see whether you can remember some of their syllables and repeat them."
"If you feel any discomfort, raise your hand immediately!"
"Remember, do not try to be clever. This determines whether you can join the Disaster Management Bureau... or, for that matter, whether you can return to normal society."
"..."
If I don't understand them, how am I supposed to understand what they mean?
Han Su had plenty of questions, but he was facing a panel of black glass on the wall. He couldn't see anything outside the room, yet he had a vague feeling that many people were watching him from behind the glass.
So he calmly nodded and said, "Understood."
On the other side of the one-way glass, Zhang Chiguo was also watching Han Su. For some inexplicable reason, he felt a twinge of worry.
The armed security personnel standing nearby were supposed to protect him, but now he found himself feeling that they might be dangerous.
But things had already reached this point, and there was nothing he could do. He could only let out a quiet sigh and say:
"Start the playback!"
After the staff outside operated the controls, a crackling electrical hiss suddenly rang out from several speakers around Han Su. Then an ancient, mysterious voice began to fill the room.
It sounded like a language, with the distinctive cadence and rhythm of speech.
But to his ears, it sounded more like noise, stirring up an inexplicable irritation and discomfort.
What made it worse was that the sounds weren't clear. They were mixed with groans and screams, the sound of flesh and blood bursting apart, and even the distant crash of collisions and shouts.
With the speakers' sound quality so good, everything felt so real that for a moment he thought he'd been transported to another world, surrounded by a deranged and uncanny environment.
Even his thoughts began to wander beyond his control. It was as if a scene flashed before his eyes.
It was the first time he'd recited the Spell, and the Pale Giant had appeared in the world.
People in rags, gathered around a utility pole covered in barbed wire, were making an offering to a God using rusted car shells, discarded oil drums, and a completely naked woman...
"What is this?"
Han Su suddenly frowned as wave after wave of discomfort washed over him.
The sounds triggered an instinctive urge to get away. But the more intently they listened, the closer they came to the noise—and the more unbearable it became.
Yet the sound wouldn't let him go. It rose from a low murmur, growing louder as if drawing nearer, little by little, until it flooded in from every direction and engulfed him.
Han Su still couldn't make out the language, or even understand what he was hearing. But as the sounds grew louder, he suddenly felt that they were familiar.
He waited patiently. When the sound came around again, his heart gave a slight tremor, and he knew at once:
There was no mistake!
He'd heard that voice before, many times. Even without knowing what it meant, he could recognize its style. It was the language spoken by one of the monsters involved in the Kidnapping Case in the Dark Fortress.
How could the Disaster Management Bureau have a recording of a monster from the Dark Fortress speaking?
"Hm?"
Beyond the one-way glass, Zhang Chiguo had been watching his expression the whole time. Now he suddenly felt tense.
Did I come to the right place?
Inside the room, just as Han Su was struggling to believe what he was feeling, everything suddenly went black before his eyes. It flickered twice, then returned to normal.
But Han Su instinctively sensed that something around him had changed.
His eyes flew wide open, and he stared intently. Three seconds, six seconds, ten seconds...
The flickering returned, as if the room's lights had a loose connection.
At that moment, a chill ran down Han Su's spine. But disbelief filled his mind more than anything else. Is it happening again?
The gap after my last kidnapping was about half a month. But this time, it's only been a day since I escaped. It hasn't even been twenty-four fucking hours, and I'm about to be kidnapped again?
How is this possible?
Has the interval really dropped to zero just like that?
It shouldn't be this soon...
"..."
The strange, irritating sounds around him quickly receded, as if a thick barrier now separated him from them.
Han Su could feel the temperature behind him suddenly turning ice-cold.
It was as if a huge void had opened up behind him.
Distant, deep, and frigid.
Like a person in space gazing at the endless sea of stars, with an enormous, bottomless black hole behind him.
Everything around him that had seemed real—the carpet, the chair, the walls, the speakers—began to lose its substance, twisting into indistinct halos of light.
"Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock."
Accompanied by the clear, rapid sound of mechanical gears turning, like an old clock, Han Su seemed to see a gaze drawing closer from somewhere far away. Whispers thick with malice surrounded him, carrying a note of delight, and his heart suddenly sank.
It's fucking here again...
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