Seize

Chapter 3: Seizure

Lu Yuanming's current state was strange.

He felt he had two bodies. One was his real body, about 1.7 meters tall, ordinary and fragile, taking over ten seconds to run a hundred meters, with slight myopia. His strength was that of an average adult male, perhaps even below average due to long hours of reading and lack of exercise. His reaction time was also slow. Facing monsters, he was as fragile as paper. Let alone monsters, even slightly stronger wild beasts could tear him to shreds.

The other body was nearly three meters tall, clad in armor, "Steel," giving a sense of invulnerability. Its strength was enough to uproot a willow tree, and its running speed could cover a hundred meters in perhaps five to six seconds. His dynamic vision and reaction speed felt like he could catch bullets barehanded. And these were just basic abilities. Once fused with colorless light particles, one could unleash three times the basic stats, and two particles could unleash seven times the basic stats. As this body grew stronger, this burst effect became even more terrifying.

After Lu Yuanming entered Building C, he felt he could control both bodies, and his vision and perception had doubled. This wasn't schizophrenia, but a more wondrous superposition of dual perception.

A certain field enveloped the entire Building C. Within this field, Lu Yuanming perceived something akin to the Dark Matter World, yet this field also contained the material composition of the material world. It was truly wondrous, completely subverting Tang Zhean's proposed Dark Matter World theoretical model.

It was precisely because of this wondrous superposition state of the material world and the Dark Matter World that Lu Yuanming now possessed both a material body and could utilize his Soul Body from the Dark Matter World.

When the crowd was attacked, especially when Captain Wang, the police officer, was about to fall into the dark stairwell, Lu Yuanming finally couldn't help but act. He had initially thought his material body would be hidden when he used his Soul Body, but who knew his material body remained, and his Soul Body directly emerged from behind him. This was truly too much.

But regardless, the Soul Body could appear. Lu Yuanming also saw over thirty colorless light particles suspended around his Soul Body, which greatly reassured him.

As the threads were pulled, over ten human skulls rolled out. Then, from the depths of the dark stairwell, an eight-legged... octopus emitting fluorescence was pulled out.

This octopus was entirely composed of a large number of human souls. Humanoid figures, each in a skeletal, ferocious state, roamed beneath the octopus's fluorescent skin. These skeletal figures were all silently wailing, being corroded and digested by something. Among them, a few figures had not yet turned into skeletons; they still had human appearances.

"Xiao Zhang, Old Xu!" Captain Wang suddenly roared mournfully. Not only him, but the other police officers also wore expressions of grief and indignation. The officers with guns immediately aimed their pistols at the octopus, but because of the skeletal figures roaming within the octopus, they dared not fire.

This octopus was actually only roughly octopus-shaped. Its eight tentacles were covered in mouthparts, and in the center of its body was a large, ferocious mouth filled with needle-like sharp teeth.

When it was pulled out of the dark stairwell, it immediately opened its mouth towards the crowd. Visible fluctuations began to spread from its ferocious maw. Everyone swept by these fluctuations immediately clutched their heads and wailed. In about a second, blood began to seep from the mouths, ears, noses, and eyes of these people. Even the closest police officers' skin began to ooze blood.

Just then, several men and women rushed in from outside the lobby. The woman leading them immediately shouted, "Quick, retreat! Hide behind pillars or walls! That fluctuation..."

The Soul Body behind Lu Yuanming also began to exert force. This nearly three-meter-tall Golden-red Armored Figure powerfully swung its arm, pulling the nearly ten-meter-long octopus directly into the air with the threads. The octopus was still roaring, but neither Lu Yuanming's material body nor his Soul Body was affected by the roaring fluctuations. The Golden-red Armored Figure raised its fist towards the octopus.

"Ora Ora Ora Ora..."

Two pot-sized fists began to unleash a barrage. The terrifying power brought terrifying speed. Lu Yuanming felt that the basic strength of his Soul Body had likely reached the level of his two-meter-four height after absorbing one colorless light particle, meaning his physical stats had increased by more than three times. When his fists struck, they actually produced shockwaves that broke the sound barrier. His arms delivered at least a hundred blows in one second, and this octopus couldn't even last a second under his fists before being smashed into pieces, along with all the wailing skeletal figures within it.

Only then did the wailing crowd simultaneously collapse to the ground. Those with weaker willpower fainted directly. The remaining people, though not unconscious, were all moaning and groaning in pain. Only the few who had just entered the hall were unharmed, and a few of the most resilient police officers managed to prop themselves up.

"Xiao Zhang, Old Xu!!" Captain Wang propped himself up. He didn't even bother to wipe the blood from his face and body. Looking at the dissipating fluorescent particles of the octopus, he immediately burst into tears and wailed.

The people who had just entered ran towards where the octopus had dissipated. Each took out containers about the size of a thumb from their pockets, including glass containers, as well as containers made of metal or graphite. Except for the leading woman, the others began trying to collect the dissipating fluorescent particles and threads with these containers.

The woman was trying to approach Lu Yuanming while also saying to Captain Wang, "It's no use. Those who were absorbed into its body are already dead. Every extra second they lived was an immense pain, no less than being submerged in sulfuric acid. Now they are finally at peace..."

Captain Wang immediately roared at the woman, "Xiao Zhang is only twenty-four! His parents personally sent him to the police station, and now they can't even see their son one last time! And Old Xu, his daughter is only four months old, four months old! It's all your fault! You said the field had just opened, that this was when ghosts were weakest, and they rushed in, and now they're all gone, all gone!"

The woman sneered and gestured towards the stairwell entrance, "Isn't there one left? Hurry and get him out. He might still be saved."

In the stairwell entrance lay a police officer covered in blood. Only a small portion of his legs remained, his calves and knees gnawed down to the bone. Because he was closest to the octopus, he had been stunned by the creature's roaring waves. Now, bleeding profusely, his breathing grew shallow.

Captain Wang and several police officers immediately rushed over. One officer unbuckled his belt and tightly bound the officer's severed legs. Another, a tall and sturdy-looking officer, lifted the injured man and began to stagger towards the building's exit.

At this moment, the soul body behind Lu Yuanming suddenly reached out, blocking both the police officer about to rush out the main door and the woman approaching him, a hollow needle concealed in her hand.

Captain Wang's eyes turned red as he urgently said to Lu Yuanming, "This... Stand User, he's dying!!"

Lu Yuanming said nothing, merely shaking his head slightly. His soul body grasped a colorless light particle and then struck the dying police officer. Before anyone could react, a flash of white light flickered. The dying officer's body seemed to rewind through time. His legs began to heal at a visible rate, and the wounds on his body disappeared. In just a second or two, the officer's complexion returned to normal, his injuries completely healed. His eyelids trembled, and he slowly opened his eyes.

All the police officers and citizens were stunned, even the woman who had been about to approach Lu Yuanming. They all stared blankly at Lu Yuanming. Lu Yuanming then said in a hoarse voice, "Don't go outside. It's still high altitude out there. There's another ghost in this building. I'll go kill it."

With that, Lu Yuanming turned and ran towards the stairwell. As he approached, the lights in the stairwell flickered on. In this light, everyone simply stared blankly at Lu Yuanming's receding figure.

Seeing Lu Yuanming leave, the woman gritted her teeth and yelled at the team members behind her, "Haven't you collected enough yet? Hurry, follow him!"

She also said to Captain Wang, "Captain, send someone to follow!"

Captain Wang ignored her, instead checking on the recently awakened police officer. The woman immediately shouted, "You have to be responsible for your team members, and I have to be responsible for the country and the people. Do you know how many people die in this country every day? Your team members' lives matter, don't ours!?" Without waiting for Captain Wang's response, she rushed to follow Lu Yuanming into the stairwell. Behind her were those who had collected fluorescent particles and thread solutions. They ran silently into the stairwell.

Captain Wang's face turned a mixture of green and red. He was silent for a second or two before saying to the surrounding police officers, "Old An, Old Shen, you two guard the citizens in the lobby. The rest of you, follow me!"

Suddenly, the experts led by the woman and the police officers led by Captain Wang all followed Lu Yuanming, running upwards in the gradually brightening stairwell.

As Lu Yuanming ran, he sensed something appearing in his soul body's consciousness.

This was something he had discovered after killing the ghost octopus. The moment the ghost octopus died, this thing had tried to flee in panic. From this tiny unknown object, he felt a sense of emotion: hatred, anger, fear, and those unnamable terrifying auras.

When Lu Yuanming willed it, this thing was captured by his soul body and absorbed into his body. Once inside his soul body, the complex emotions and unnamable aura attached to this thing began to dissipate. By now, this thing had taken on the aura of his soul body.

The most marvelous thing was that when Lu Yuanming focused his attention, he could see the ruined city in the Dark Matter World through this thing.

However, this thing was too small, smaller than sand, smaller than dust. It could only be confirmed to exist through spiritual perception.

(What is this? Dark Matter?)

Lu Yuanming was filled with confusion. Just then, all the emotions and unnamable auras on this thing completely dissipated, replaced entirely by the aura of his soul body. In that instant, Lu Yuanming had an instinctive feeling: he could control this thing, and its ability was...

Unfold!?