Calamity

Chen Ling's pupils suddenly contracted!

But when he blinked, the blood-red words on the floor vanished instantly, 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 suddenly spun around!

In the empty living room, it seemed as if pairs of invisible crimson eyes were observing him. The 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 these past few days to prepare for the Enforcers exam. My nerves are too tightly wound..."

"But that was something the original owner of this body did. It should have nothing to do with me... Could something have gone wrong when the two souls fused, damaging my mind?"

"I heard 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 an intense hunger surged up within 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 a psychiatrist."

Still shaken, 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 that poured in from outside made Chen Ling shiver.

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

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

The first light of dawn spilled from the east. Dreamlike blue ribbons floated above the small city, seemingly close enough to touch and yet impossibly distant.

Aurora.

Aurora in broad daylight.

Chen Ling stood outside his home, staring blankly at the aurora filling the sky for a long time. Then he murmured to himself:

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

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

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

"We've been trudging along all night, and it's already light out." The man wiped the sweat from his brow. "How much farther?"

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

The two staggering figures climbed over the mountain peak and finally saw the earthen mounds scattered not far away. Some were new, some old. Most had no grave markers, only a wooden sign stuck before the mound, or an item that had belonged to the deceased in life.

But after last night's downpour, many of the mounds had been washed apart. Wooden stakes and other belongings were strewn everywhere, leaving the place in complete disarray.

What the two had not expected was that the Mass Grave had already been sealed off by yellow caution tape. More than a dozen figures moved through the cordoned area, their expressions grim.

"Enforcers?"

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

"Have they already found out?" The woman's face turned deathly pale. "Was it... A-Ling? Did he go find the Enforcers? Is he really not dead?"

They had thought they killed Chen Ling, yet Chen Ling had returned by himself the very next day. Combined with the Enforcers suddenly appearing at the burial site... there was almost no other explanation.

"No..." The man stared fixedly at those figures. "Even when handling criminal cases, the Enforcers from Third District would dispatch three people at most! If they sent more than a dozen at once, it could only mean..."

"Has a Calamity... appeared?"

As if recalling something, cold sweat instantly soaked the woman's back!

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

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

Just then, an icy voice came from nearby.

"Stop."

The two froze instantly.

One of the Enforcers ducked beneath the caution tape and slowly approached them, narrowing his eyes.

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

"I... I..." The woman stammered, unable to say anything.

"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 afraid."

"Afraid?"

"So many Enforcers were deployed at once. The Ash Realm intersected here, didn't it?" The man swallowed. "Maybe a Calamity crawled out of it... We were afraid of getting caught in the crossfire."

"Oh? You know quite a lot." The Enforcers raised an eyebrow in surprise.

The man forced out a pale smile.

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

"That is classified."

The Enforcers answered flatly, "You won't be visiting your son today. Go home... You understand the rules, right? You're not allowed to spread word of anything you saw here."

"Yes, yes."

"Go."

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

"Wait."

Both their hearts skipped a beat.

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

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

After recording the information, the Enforcers let the two leave. He crossed back through the yellow caution tape, approached a man in a black overcoat, and handed him the document.

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

Han Meng had a thick hand-rolled cigarette clenched between his teeth. He took a deep drag, and the acrid smoke mingled with his breath in the cold wind.

He casually glanced at the document and spoke calmly:

"Send some people to follow them in secret. Something's off about them."

"...Huh?"

"Frost Street is at least ten kilometers from here. For them to arrive at this hour, they must have set off 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 the 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 Enforcers froze, then slapped his forehead. "Right! How did I not think of that?"

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

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

Han Meng did not answer. Instead, he took a palm-sized device from an inner pocket of his coat. At its center was a pointer mechanism resembling a compass, with different colored sections clearly marking different ranges.

"Is this the Calamity Pointer?" Jiang Qin examined the device curiously and reached out to touch it, only to receive a hard smack across the back of his hand.

"This thing is extremely valuable. Once you're promoted to Enforcer Officer, you'll have your chance to touch it."

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

"It detects the danger level of Calamities. Once it's activated, whichever section the pointer points to indicates what level of Calamity fluctuations appeared nearby. If it was merely an Ash Realm intersection and no Calamity entered the Reality Realm, it won't react.

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

Jiang Qin nodded and spoke with some concern:

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

"Most likely not. If a Calamity had truly descended through here yesterday, Districts Two and Three would have already been in chaos."

"That's good."

"To be safe, we still need to complete the test."

As Han Meng spoke, he activated the Calamity Pointer. The other Enforcers watched 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!

It swept wildly across sections of different colors as an ear-piercing screech came from inside the device. Han Meng's pupils abruptly contracted, and he instinctively let go of the Calamity Pointer!

Bang—!!

Countless parts exploded through the air. The broken edge of the sharp pointer grazed Han Meng's cheek, immediately leaving behind a crimson streak of blood!

The Calamity Pointer...

Had exploded.