The moment that gaze fixed on him, Li Xian suddenly felt himself lose control of his body-not because he could no longer move, but because he could no longer control his movements.
His steps became erratic. When he tried to step back, his foot wavered in the air for a moment, then landed in front of him instead. When he tried to raise his hands, he had no idea which way they would swing.
His mind was perfectly clear, but his body behaved as though he were drunk. He had no way of knowing where it would move next.
It took everything Li Xian had just to keep his balance. Once he realized he couldn't control his body, he simply stayed where he was and stopped moving.
The Captain silently watched Li Xian's strange movements, yet his expression didn't shift in the slightest. He remained calm throughout.
That abnormal reaction only made Li Xian's heart rise into his throat. He stared at the Captain without blinking. After a long, silent exchange of gazes, the other man's lips slowly parted, and he spoke in a murmur:
"...Where did this fish come from?"
Those words exploded like thunder in Li Xian's ears. His eyes flew wide. All the clues he had encountered since entering the Instance, along with that subtle sense that something was wrong... suddenly fell into place with that simple sentence.
A chill ran down Li Xian's spine-not only because of what he had realized, but also because of the hand the Captain was slowly reaching toward him.
The middle-aged man before him was about his own height, yet the oppressive weight of his presence was every bit as terrifying as the monster in his hallucination.
He abruptly realized that being taken for a fish was far more frightening than