Mystic Eye

The boy raised an eyebrow and was about to say something when an arc of light shot into the sky from the residence behind him.

"So, people really do have a lot of prejudice against us..." The boy casually waved a hand. "I won't talk to you anymore. One day, you'll understand."

Han Meng narrowed his eyes and immediately pulled the trigger!

The gun roared with a hum. Gale-force winds swept up the hem of his trench coat as the all-annihilating Deconstruction bullet pierced through the boy's body, leaving behind a hole the size of a head!

Yet the bullet passed through his body without drawing even a trace of blood. The boy's figure gradually faded, like a sheet of paper losing its color.

"Han Meng, was it? I'll remember you... Until we meet again."

The boy's body grew flatter and flatter. In just a few seconds, he became a simple portrait with no thickness, which slapped against Han Meng's face on the cold wind.

Han Meng frowned deeply. He took down the portrait and saw the boy in the painting, wearing a white paper mask, sitting cross-legged while giving him the middle finger...

He tore the portrait to pieces on the spot.

"The Dusk Society has appeared in the Aurora Domain... This is troublesome."

Han Meng took a deep breath, glanced toward the residence, and strode straight ahead.

With no one stopping him, Han Meng quickly reached the entrance of the residence and forcefully pushed open the gate.

Amid a piercing creak, corpses strewn across the ground came into view. Nine silver coins lay scattered over the bloodstained earth...

There had been twenty-two people at the Ice Spring Street celebration. None had survived.

Chen Ling slowly opened his eyes.

He saw the spotlight overhead and raised a hand to shield his eyes, but he did not get up immediately... He lay on the stage floor, as still as a corpse.

He had experienced far too much in just a few short hours.

Chen Yan's disappearance, the cruel truth, furious revenge, the salvation he thought he could have, then despair, and then a sliver of hope... All of it left Chen Ling numb and hopeless.

How he wished it had all been a dream. After waking up, his mother would call him to breakfast, and then he would hurriedly throw on his clothes, put on his work badge, and return to being a corporate drone at the Theater.

Unfortunately... what awaited him was still that silent, eerie Theater.

After a long while, Chen Ling finally sat up slowly. Looking at the densely packed scarlet eyes before the stage, his feelings were incomparably complicated.

Even if he had embarked on the Theater God Path... would he truly be able to break free from these "Audience" members one day?

Or had he simply become more interesting in their eyes?

Chen Ling had no answer.

But at least now, he barely had one more reason to keep living.

He rose from the floor and walked to the large screen at the center of the stage. A series of characters came into view.

[Audience Expectation +1]

[Audience Expectation +1]

[Audience Expectation...]

[Current Expectation Value: 77%]

[Actor connection lost detected. Performance interrupted.]

[Audience Expectation -50]

[Current Expectation Value: 27%]

These were the changes in Expectation Value that had occurred at the residence. After Qian Fan shot and killed him once, he had already lost one connection and had 50% of his Expectation Value deducted.

But perhaps because his Expectation Value had remained above 20% even after the deduction, none of the "Audience" had escaped.

"As long as I keep the total Expectation Value under control, even if I die, I won't end up having my body usurped like last time... It counts as one chance to come back from the dead."

"But raising the Expectation Value above 70 won't be easy..."

Chen Ling's gaze fell on the corner of the screen. There, the bouncing treasure chest icon had appeared once more.

He lightly tapped it with his fingertip. Stirring music rang out in succession, accompanied by the stage lights. When Chen Ling turned to look, another table had appeared at the center of the stage.

"Audience Expectation has surpassed 70% for the first time. Achievement unlocked—'Special Praise'!"

"You have obtained one additional draw."

"After use, one character skill will be randomly selected from all characters appearing in this production for you to learn."

Chen Ling walked to the table. Cards of various colors and patterns appeared out of thin air on its surface. Like last time, most were white and gray, but there were more blue cards than before...

There should have been new characters, which had also brought additional skill cards.

With a flick of Chen Ling's fingers, all the cards flipped face down at once. Their identical backs flashed at astonishing speed before neatly freezing in place a moment later.

Last time, Chen Ling had drawn Han Meng's [Slaughter Waltz] here, changing his fate in one stroke... Would the goddess of fortune still favor him this time, allowing him to draw a skill card capable of overturning the battle?

Chen Ling hesitated for a moment before raising his fingertip and pressing it onto one of the cards.

The card flipped over.

A flash of blue appeared before Chen Ling's eyes.

"Skill: [Mystic Eye]"

"Affiliation: Medicine God Path, [Blood Slaughter] path, first tier;"

"Character: Chu Muyun."

The instant he saw the information on the card, Chen Ling's eyes narrowed slightly...

Drawing Chu Muyun's skill card was within Chen Ling's expectations, but the enormous words [Blood Slaughter] made him unable to suppress his confusion.

Was this path really part of the "Medicine God Path"??

As Chen Ling absorbed the card, the method of using [Mystic Eye] appeared in his mind.

Unlike [Slaughter Waltz] of the "War God Path," [Mystic Eye] was more of a support skill. Its purpose was to help the user better capture, analyze, and distinguish details...

A good doctor could judge the severity of a patient's condition through their behavior and mannerisms. A psychiatrist could even determine someone's thoughts through their microexpressions, or predict their future actions.

[Mystic Eye] elevated this ability to its peak.

Once Chen Ling finished drawing the ability, the cards on the table vanished simultaneously, but the table itself remained standing there.

"...What does this mean?"

Chen Ling walked over and found another sheet of paper on the tabletop.

Several lines of small text were written on the paper as well.

"Congratulations on completing the production, Initial Chapter—'Heartless.'"

"Highest Audience Expectation for this production: 78%"

"You have obtained one designated draw."

"After use, you may designate a character from all characters appearing in this production and randomly draw one of their abilities. The probability of drawing a rare skill is related to this production's overall Audience Expectation."

After Chen Ling finished reading all the text, sheets of paper suddenly surged into existence across the tabletop beneath the spotlight, countless words appearing on them.

["Who... am I?"]

[Rumble—]

[Pale lightning flashed through ink-black clouds as rain poured down in torrents, a thunderstorm like divine wrath drenching the muddy earth...]