He stared at the crystal ball.
Inside it was a lifeless city square. Tens of thousands of people stood like marionettes, all looking up at the same night sky, every movement identical.
The sight made his stomach churn.
Old Kai shook his head, his beard trembling with the motion.
He walked to the crystal ball and extended a finger as thin as a dead branch. Yet he did not touch its surface, merely held it above, as though he could truly feel the cold malice seeping through from another world.
"It isn't a matter of strength—at least, not entirely." Old Kai kept his voice low, analyzing the disaster with a calmness that sent chills down one's spine. "Baby doesn't control humans through brute force. He parasitizes them. He lays eggs inside his hosts."
Shin suddenly held his breath.
"Those eggs are incredibly tiny, almost impossible to detect. They travel through the bloodstream and eventually lodge near the neural centers." Old Kai continued, his voice striking the ground like an ice spike. "Once the eggs hatch, the larvae secrete a special substance that slowly erodes and replaces the host's neural synapses. Like vines wrapping around a tree, they ultimately gain complete control of the body. The host's consciousness doesn't vanish immediately. It is trapped and drained away bit by bit. They can see and feel everything their body does, yet are utterly powerless to resist—like the cruelest kind of prisoner."
He paused, his gaze fixed deep within the crystal ball as though he could see that invisible horror spreading. "He started laying the groundwork long ago. Perhaps the first few infected people became 'seeds,' quietly spreading it through the crowd. He has been manipulating things from the shadows all along, with terrifying patience. By the time we noticed the abnormal life