Chapter Fourteen: Forced Return
"Damn!"
Seeing the crowd charging toward them, Lu Yuanming blurted out an alarmed curse. Instinctively, he started to rush toward them to stop them from getting any closer.
But before he could move, Father Edward, who had been watching him closely, tackled him to the ground. "Don't! Lord, they've lost their minds. If you try to stop them, they'll beat you to death or trample you! Peter, shoot! Shoot anyone who comes near. Don't hesitate now, or we'll all die here!"
Peter held the pistol, his face hesitant. Before he could fire, several burly men suddenly charged out of the distant crowd. Armed with clubs and iron bars, they began mercilessly beating anyone who tried to get close to Lu Yuanming and the others. They didn't care whether their targets were men or women, young or old. Anyone who charged toward Lu Yuanming's group got beaten without mercy.
"Hey, shoot! Shoot those spiders! We'll hold them off up front. Those spiders won't get near you unless we're all dead!" One of the burly men, a grim-faced fellow, shouted at the top of his lungs.
Father Edward was overjoyed. He let go of Lu Yuanming, exchanged a glance with Cthulhu, then ran toward the group of burly men. As he went, he called out, "Everyone, don't panic. I'm with you. The Lord will protect us."
"Father Edward!"
"Father, please save us!"
A few people in the crowd recognized Father Edward. As he rushed toward them, they began to weep loudly and drop to their knees in prayer.
The sight left Lu Yuanming utterly baffled. He couldn't understand why these people would pray for divine help now. Even if they didn't run toward the spiders, surely grabbing whatever they could find and fighting back would be far better than kneeling and praying?
And yet, a few people had done just that, leaving their lives entirely to chance. Once they took the lead, more people began kneeling to pray, making it impossible for the burly men to keep beating them.
The burly men turned to the grim-faced man. He took in the situation, then immediately ran toward the rear of the group. The spiders were still attacking people there. The other burly men followed him, using their clubs and metal bars to attack the spiders from a distance and hold them back.
What a bunch of heroes.
Lu Yuanming couldn't help thinking so. Under the grim-faced man's leadership, the burly men had begun to organize themselves. Organization was humanity's greatest weapon for defeating every wild animal on Earth—nothing else came close. For a human group, being organized and disorganized were worlds apart.
Taking advantage of the opening, Peter fired several more shots and emptied the magazine. Every shot but one hit its mark, each killing a spider with a single bullet. Peter immediately ejected the magazine, and Lu Yuanming pulled a large handful of bullets from his pocket and handed them over.
Peter began loading the bullets, then resumed firing.
More than ten Spider Monsters were shot down in succession. By then, Peter had emptied his magazine twice, and Lu Yuanming didn't begrudge the bullets at all. Whenever Peter needed more, he handed them over immediately.
Just as Peter began firing his third magazine, Lu Yuanming felt his whole body swelling.
More than ten spiders had been killed. Even if he could absorb only one-tenth of the White Light Particles, the small amounts had added up. He had absorbed a great many of them, and as he did, he felt his whole body swelling, as if he were being stretched larger and larger.
But it was only an illusion. His body hadn't grown or shrunk. Still, as Peter kept killing spiders, the swelling sensation grew more intense, until his body began to hurt.
At that moment, one of the burly men came up beside the grim-faced man. "Boss, that pistol..."
The grim-faced man glanced at him and said quietly, "Don't worry about that yet. First, we need to find a way to join their group."
Just then, Peter pulled the trigger once more and killed another spider. Lu Yuanming clutched his heart and slowly crouched down. Suddenly, all the spiders retreated. They even abandoned the human prey they had tied up, fleeing rapidly into the supermarket.
When the crowd saw this, they first stared in stunned disbelief, then began cheering. Cthulhu noticed that something was wrong with Lu Yuanming and hurried over to crouch beside him. "Sir, are you all right?"
"...I don't know." Lu Yuanming could barely speak. The terrifying sensation of his body swelling as if it were about to burst was so dreadful that he felt he might explode at any moment.
Cthulhu's face was full of concern. Peter also hurried over to Lu Yuanming, looking terrified. When Father Edward glanced back from a distance and saw what was happening, he was horrified and ran back, shouting as he went, "Lord, are you all right? Lord, what happened?"
His words left the crowd and the burly men bewildered.
In Europe and America, "Lord" wasn't a word people used casually, much less a way to address an individual person.
For a moment, the crowd and the burly men stared at one another, completely unable to understand what was going on with Lu Yuanming and his companions.
Then, suddenly, a deafening crash came from the supermarket in the distance. Everyone instinctively turned to look. The supermarket's entrance burst apart, and several enormous spider legs thrust out from within. Each was at least ten meters long. With tremendous force, they tore the entrance to pieces and even shattered the ceiling. Then an enormous Black Spider crawled out of the supermarket.
The spider stood at least ten meters tall, its huge jointed legs supporting its body. Its grotesque mouthparts could easily bite a human to pieces. Human-sized spiders crawled all over its body, packed so densely that merely looking at them made people break out in goosebumps.
Everyone froze. Even the burly men didn't dare approach. Peter immediately stood and fired at the spider, but the tiny pistol bullets couldn't do enough damage to something so huge. Instead, the pain drove it into a frenzy, and it charged toward Lu Yuanming's position.
The crowd suffered first. The giant spider's legs pierced through people, killing one with every jab. It could also spit poison. A spray of venom sent seven or eight people screaming and writhing on the ground. Within seconds, their bodies had been corroded into skeletons.
Meanwhile, Father Edward reached Lu Yuanming's side, his face full of terror, yet he didn't even look at the spider.
With the last of his strength, Lu Yuanming gripped the Colorless Light Particle and pictured something specific in his mind. Several large bags of supplies appeared beside him at once. He said, "Plant these..."
But he could no longer speak, and his body wouldn't move at all. At the same time, he felt the familiar sensation of returning. He hadn't yet reached the seventy-two-hour mark, but after absorbing too many White Light Particles, he seemed to have triggered a different kind of return. He felt as if something were being forcibly squeezed open. Then, in the next instant, he was back in the familiar pitch-black state of a Vegetative State.
But in the world after death, the others saw something entirely different.
They saw light shining from Lu Yuanming's whole body, so brilliant that everyone shut their eyes. When it dimmed a little, they saw circles of Space Wrinkles and Space Ripples around his body. Through those ripples, they glimpsed things too strange to understand or describe. They seemed at once like light and like a person. Everyone also felt an overwhelming pressure, unable to tell whether it was merely a sensation or something real. They couldn't understand it. They could only stare at the spectacle in shock.
At the same time, the enormous spider suddenly shrieked in agony. It wasn't alone—all the smaller spiders shrieked as well. They leaped off the giant spider and ran back into the supermarket, and the giant spider quickly turned and fled inside too.
Within seconds, Lu Yuanming had vanished from sight. The light and the pressure disappeared as well. At the same time, the giant spider and all the smaller spiders vanished. Only the stunned crowd, the burly men, and Father Edward, kneeling in prayer, remained.
As soon as Lu Yuanming returned to his Original Body, he felt completely at ease. The sensation of swelling as if he might burst at any moment vanished at once. Warmth spread throughout his body, as though he were immersed in a hot spring at just the right temperature. This time, he had absorbed so many White Light Particles that he could genuinely feel his soul growing stronger. As the warmth continued, he could even faintly feel the touch of his skin.
"It worked. It really worked. As long as I keep killing those monsters and absorbing the White Light Particles, I really can recover from my Vegetative State!"
Lu Yuanming was overjoyed. At last, he knew that his soul growing stronger wasn't an illusion.
If that was the case, then once his soul finished growing stronger this time, he would return to the world after death again. But before he went back, he still needed to test something else.
How could he obtain those Colorless Light Particles—the Faith Power Father Edward had mentioned?
"Do I have to burn joss paper money? Or could I get Colorless Light Particles when my family and friends think of me and offer me their blessings?"
Lu Yuanming didn't hurry back to the world after death. On one hand, his soul was still growing stronger. On the other, he was waiting for an opportunity.
Relying on his ability to faintly hear sounds from outside, Lu Yuanming waited two days for his chance. From what he heard, his parents were washing his body. Taking advantage of the moment, he strained with all his strength, focusing every bit of his attention on the skin of his left little finger. Little by little, relying on his strengthening soul, he managed to move the finger.
At first, his parents didn't notice. But before long, Lu Yuanming heard cries of alarm, followed by commotion and hurried footsteps outside. He heard doctors and nurses, too. Then he heard his parents loudly calling his name, urging him to wake from his Vegetative State.
I'll wake up. Sooner or later, I'll wake up...
That was what Lu Yuanming thought. He had only moved his little finger slightly, but even that left his soul exhausted. Thankfully, the warmth continued, and the exhaustion soon faded. This also showed him that his soul still wasn't strong enough to wake his body.
But...
His parents, the doctors, and the nurses had all spoken to him, hoping he would wake up.
That should have given him some Colorless Light Particles, right?
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