Calamity

Chen Ling's pupils suddenly contracted!

But when he blinked, the bloody words on the floor vanished in an instant, as if they had never existed.

A hallucination?

Chen Ling stood there blankly. Those words seemed to have drilled into his mind, impossible to forget.

[We are watching you]

Chen Ling whipped his head around!

In the empty living room, it felt as though pairs of invisible crimson eyes were observing him. That sensation of being watched was exactly the same as in his nightmare.

He stood frozen like a statue for a long while before forcing himself to take deep breaths.

"Maybe I was too exhausted from staying up late preparing for the Enforcers' exam these past few days. My nerves are just too frayed..."

"But that was something this body's original owner did. It shouldn't have anything to do with me... Could something have gone wrong when the two souls merged, damaging my mind?"

"I've heard that severe schizophrenia really can cause hallucinations that are hard to distinguish from reality..."

Chen Ling temporarily suppressed the fear in his heart and tried to explain everything scientifically. Then a powerful wave of hunger surged through him.

He casually grabbed a grilled sausage from the cutting board and wolfed it down in a few bites, only then recovering somewhat.

"Maybe I need to see a psychiatrist."

Still rattled, Chen Ling did not even feel like washing his face. He hurriedly threw on a black padded overcoat and pushed open the door.

Even so, the cold air pouring in from outside made Chen Ling shudder.

This was Chen Ling's first real encounter with this world since regaining consciousness. He took a deep breath and prepared himself to face all the unknowns and hardships ahead.

But when he inadvertently looked up at the sky, he could not stop himself from blurting out, "Holy shit."

The light of early morning spilled from the east. Dreamlike ribbons of blue drifted above the small city, seeming close enough to touch yet impossibly distant.

Aurora.

Aurora in broad daylight.

Chen Ling stood at his doorstep, staring blankly at the aurora filling the sky for a long time before muttering to himself:

"What the hell kind of world is this...?"

"Damn it, why is this road so hard to walk?"

"It's too cold, and it rained heavily last night. The mountain paths have all frozen over. Be careful."

"We've been trudging along forever, and it's already daylight." The man wiped the sweat from his brow. "How much farther is it?"

"That Mass Grave is just ahead... We should be almost there."

The two staggering figures climbed over the mountain peak and finally saw the earthen mounds scattered in the distance. Some were fresh, some old. Most had no inscriptions, only a wooden marker stuck in front of them, or an item that had belonged to the deceased.

But after last night's heavy rain, many of the mounds had been washed apart. Wooden sticks and other objects lay scattered everywhere, leaving the place in utter disarray.

What the two had not expected was that the Mass Grave had already been sealed off by yellow cordon lines. More than a dozen figures moved through the restricted area, all wearing grim expressions.

"Enforcers?"

Seeing their conspicuous black-and-red uniforms, the man's eyes widened. "Why are they here?!"

"They found out already?" The woman's face went pale. "Was it... A-Ling? Did he go to the Enforcers? He really isn't dead?"

They had thought they had killed Chen Ling, yet Chen Ling had returned on his own the very next day. Coupled with the Enforcers suddenly appearing where they had buried the body... there was almost no other explanation.

"No..." The man stared fixedly at those figures. "Even when the Third District's Enforcers handle criminal cases, they deploy no more than three people. For more than a dozen to show up at once like this, it can only mean..."

"A Calamity... has appeared?"

The woman seemed to realize something, and cold sweat instantly soaked her back.

"Could the monster in the bedroom be..."

"Run!!" The man grabbed the woman's wrist and turned to flee.

Just then, a cold voice came from nearby.

"Stop."

The two instantly froze.

An Enforcer ducked beneath the cordon line and slowly walked toward them, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"I... I..." The woman stammered, unable to speak.

"We came to visit our son." The man spoke as calmly as he could. "He's buried here. Today is the anniversary of his death."

"Then why were you running?"

"...Because we were scared."

"Scared?"

"So many Enforcers deployed at once... the Ash Realm has converged here, right?" The man swallowed. "Maybe a Calamity even crawled out of it... We were afraid of getting caught in the crossfire."

"Oh? You know quite a bit." The Enforcer raised his brows in surprise.

The man forced a pale smile.

"Sir Enforcer." The woman cautiously asked, "Did a Calamity really escape from the Ash Realm?"

"That is confidential."

The Enforcer answered indifferently, "You won't be visiting your son today. Go home... You understand the rules, right? What you saw here is not to be spread outside."

"Understood, understood."

"Go."

Upon hearing those words, the man finally breathed a sigh of relief and immediately turned to leave.

"Wait."

The two felt their hearts skip a beat.

"Leave your names and address." The Enforcer took out a pen and paper. "It's required under the confidentiality regulations. Please understand."

"Chen Tan, Li Xiuchun, 128 Frost Street, Third District."

After recording the information, the Enforcer let the two leave. He crossed the yellow cordon line and approached a man in a black overcoat, handing him the document.

"Brother Meng, I asked them. They came to visit their son."

Han Meng had a thick rolled cigarette clenched between his lips. He took a deep drag, and the pungent smoke mixed with his breath, drifting away in the cold wind.

He casually glanced at the document and said calmly:

"Send some people to follow them discreetly. There's something wrong with them."

"...Huh?"

"Frost Street is at least ten kilometers from here. To arrive at this hour, they must have set out no later than four in the morning... and the rain hadn't stopped then.

Who would climb a mountain in a torrential downpour before dawn to pay respects?

And this is a Mass Grave. It's where people with no family, or those who died far from home, are buried. Why would they, as parents, bury their child here?"

The Enforcer froze, then slapped his forehead. "Right! How didn't I think of that?"

"...Little Qin, how exactly did you pass the Enforcers' exam?"

The Enforcer called Little Qin gave an awkward laugh and immediately changed the subject. "By the way, Brother Meng, did a Calamity actually crawl out of the Ash Realm last night?"

Han Meng did not answer. Instead, he took a palm-sized device from the inner pocket of his overcoat. At its center was a pointer mechanism resembling a compass, with different colors marking different sections of the scale, clear at a glance.

"So this is the Calamity Pointer?" Jiang Qin examined the device curiously. He reached out to touch it, only for the back of his hand to be smacked hard.

"This thing is extremely precious. When you get promoted to Law Enforcer, you'll have your chance to touch it."

Jiang Qin rubbed the back of his hand bitterly. "How exactly does this thing work?"

"This is a device for detecting the danger level of Calamities. Once it's activated, whichever section the pointer indicates tells you what level of Calamity fluctuation appeared nearby. If it was only a Gray Realm Convergence and no Calamity entered the Reality Realm, it won't react.

The higher the Calamity's level, the more violently the pointer will shake."

Jiang Qin nodded and asked with some concern:

"Brother Meng... a Calamity didn't crawl out, right?"

"Probably not. If a Calamity had really descended through this place yesterday, the Second District and Third District would have been in chaos long ago."

"That's good."

"To be safe, we still need to finish the inspection."

As Han Meng spoke, he activated the Calamity Pointer. The other Enforcers all looked over curiously.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

The Calamity Pointer showed no reaction.

Just as Han Meng breathed a sigh of relief, the pointer on the compass suddenly began to tremble violently!

It swept wildly across the differently colored sections. A piercing creak came from inside the device, and Han Meng's pupils suddenly contracted as he instinctively let go of the Calamity Pointer!

Bang—!!

Countless components burst apart in midair. The broken edge of the sharp pointer grazed Han Meng's cheek, instantly leaving a crimson streak of blood!

The Calamity Pointer...

Had exploded.