Wild Talisman! The First Attack!

Han He reminded the two who were watching the drama unfold. Shi Yu's roommates also began returning to the dorm room one after another.

Hu Zihao nodded at his words, took the talisman Han He had given him out of his pocket, and tied it securely to his wrist with a cord. Looking at the two, he said:

"I'll use the bathroom, then head back to my room. I'm not going out again tonight."

There was little Shi Yu could do. After thinking for a moment, he said:

"We'll go with you. Just in case. A little more time won't hurt."

Han He agreed as well.

Hu Zihao thanked them again, and the three left the dorm room together.

The bathroom wasn't far from the dorm room. Hu Zihao walked ahead, chatting intermittently with the two behind him.

"Thank you both so much. I really don't know what to say... I've never felt so... helpless as I have today... Without you, I might have died without even knowing what happened."

The washroom was outside the bathroom and connected to it. Hu Zihao walked in and found it utterly quiet.

"Everyone's gone. We've stayed up a bit late. Good thing you two are with me, or I really wouldn't know what to do. I might've had to do my business in the dorm room."

Hu Zihao entered the bathroom. Instead of going to the innermost squat toilet, he chose the outermost one.

"I usually hate using this one. Who knows what they were thinking when they designed it? You can see this spot even from outside. Squatting here makes me uncomfortable all over."

Perhaps it was the late hour, perhaps it was fear over what had been said during the day, or perhaps he really regarded Shi Yu and Han He as friends. For some reason, Hu Zihao's floodgates had opened, and he was unusually talkative.

"I usually come with Liu Zunfu. If the other squat toilets are too filthy, we play rock-paper-scissors, and the loser takes the dirty one. Haha... I wonder how Liu Zunfu's doing now... Do you think he might really have just skipped school? Maybe he really found a way to avoid the cameras, and our homeroom teacher really did take leave for something urgent. Maybe it was all just a coincidence?"

Hu Zihao suddenly realized that this might offend Shi Yu and Han He, and hurriedly corrected himself.

"I'm not saying anything bad about you two. After all, I was the first to suspect something had happened to Liu Zunfu. When someone talks nonsense, it's only natural for people to start wondering. Thank you for understanding... Ugh... I'm terrible with words. The more I talk, the worse it sounds. Shi Yu, please don't take it to heart, either of you."

Hu Zihao felt he could no longer smooth over what he'd said and wanted Shi Yu to help him out. After all, Shi Yu seemed far more easygoing than Han He.

But there was no response.

"Shi Yu... are you angry?"

Silence. Terrifying silence.

Wait.

Wait.

When had Shi Yu and Han He stopped answering him?

No.

No, no, no, no!!!!!

What was going on?!!

Where were Shi Yu and Han He?!!

Hu Zihao hurriedly pulled up his pants, rose from the squat toilet, and looked around in panic.

No one! Not a single person!

Shi Yu and Han He weren't there! He was alone in the bathroom!

"Bzz---------bzz-bzz--bzz-crackle-crackle--"

The bathroom's white light tubes flickered. Hu Zihao suddenly noticed that all the lights on the sports field had gone out. He didn't have a watch, but he knew perfectly well.

Evening self-study for the second-years ended at nine thirty, and their dorm curfew was ten fifteen.

Evening self-study for the third-years ended at ten, and their dorm curfew was ten forty-five.

The lights on the sports field weren't switched off until the patrolling teachers and security guards finished their final round after school ended-eleven ten.

Now, framed by the window, the pitch-black sports field resembled a square, monstrous maw. The bathroom window was open. Wind passed through the frame, mercilessly sliced apart, making a sound like chilling screams.

It had to be past eleven fifteen now.

How could he have been using the bathroom from ten fifteen until now?

He remembered what Shi Yu had said.

"Could this 'Evil Sin' alter people's memories?"

Cold sweat ran down Hu Zihao's temples.

What had happened during that time? When exactly had he come here? Did anyone know he was here?

Hu Zihao looked at his left wrist.

Thankfully, the talisman Han He had given him was still tightly wrapped around it.

But it hadn't worked before. Hu Zihao couldn't put his complete trust in that talisman.

The white light overhead flickered slightly less frequently, but the quiet, lifeless whiteness around him made the entire bathroom especially eerie.

"I can't just sit here and wait to die."

Hu Zihao gritted his teeth, gauged the distance, and lunged toward the bathroom exit!

Hu Zihao wasn't short, and he had used the outermost squat toilet, very close to the door. With his long legs, he could get out in two strides.

One stride!

Everything went smoothly, without any obstruction. Hu Zihao covered well over half the distance.

The second stride!

Hu Zihao unleashed all his strength. This second stride would take him straight out of the bathroom!

Crack-snap!!

Something snapped. It sounded like a dry twig breaking beneath a bird as it beat its wings and took flight.

The scene before Hu Zihao's eyes abruptly changed. The bathroom doorway, which had been within reach, suddenly disappeared, replaced by the pitch-black window.

Outside the window, a deathly pale face was pressed against the glass.

That deathly pale face had only the shape of a human's. Huge black holes occupied every position where its features should have been. The holes barely formed a semblance of facial features, writhing irregularly across its dough-like face.

Its body had lost all resemblance to anything human. Like a giant spider, it had an enormous, bloated sac attached directly beneath its pale head. Several fleshy legs connected haphazardly to that swollen sac, utterly asymmetrical, like slender maggots growing out of a meatball. At that moment, those fleshy legs were gently moving and turning, as though manipulating something.

"Evil Sin."

The term instantly surfaced in Hu Zihao's mind.

At that instant, a surge of power suddenly traveled from his wrist to his heart, as though giving Hu Zihao's heart a sharp squeeze.

Hu Zihao seemed to hear the roars of creatures in the woods.

The desire to survive surged up, overpowering his fear. Hu Zihao forcibly pulled back his outstretched foot, turned, and charged toward the doorway!

He glanced at his wrist from the corner of his eye. The talisman had shattered. It had made that snapping-twig sound.

When the Evil Sin outside the window discovered that the human had actually escaped its control, its black, writhing "features" all stopped moving and fixed on Hu Zihao. Then it let out a strange shriek. Its slimy, disgusting fleshy legs scuttled rapidly, and it squeezed through the window, narrow though it was for its body! At the same time, the bathroom and washroom doors began closing, trying to trap Hu Zihao inside.

Adrenaline surged through Hu Zihao as he charged straight for the doorway. He had never imagined he could run so fast. An instant before the bathroom door shut, he slipped through.

The bathroom door opened again the instant Hu Zihao got out.

But the washroom door was still too far away. He was too late. Hu Zihao watched helplessly as the gap was about to close completely.

Using his momentum, Hu Zihao leaped and launched a flying kick at the washroom door.

Bang!!

The shabby door didn't budge. Pain spread from the sole of Hu Zihao's foot, and he crashed to the floor in a heap.

"Rustle, rustle..."

In the washroom mirror, Hu Zihao saw the Evil Sin crawl out unhurriedly. The talisman's effect was rapidly weakening, and he watched helplessly as the creature's form began to fade again.

If it disappeared again, Hu Zihao, unable to distinguish truth from falsehood or trust his memories, would become its plaything completely.

Hu Zihao scrambled up and pounded the door, punch after punch, shouting as he did, hoping someone would hear.

The door didn't budge. Agony shot through his hand, and he heard his joints crack. He had broken the bones in his fingers.

But it was useless. The unmoving door cut off Hu Zihao's only escape route. In the mirrors around him, Hu Zihao hammered frantically at the door.

Despair welled up from the depths of Hu Zihao's heart. He looked back. There was no longer any sign of the Evil Sin in the washroom.

The talisman had completely lost its effect. The Evil Sin had hidden itself again.

"Gloop."

Hu Zihao suddenly heard something. The sound was extremely familiar, and he looked toward it.

It had come from the washroom's sink. Hu Zihao remembered now: it was the sound of bubbles forcing their way past an obstruction and rising out of a clogged drain.

"Gloop, gloop, gloop."

With the gurgling of water, Hu Zihao saw spurts of liquid begin backing up into the sink.

The liquid was cloudy and foul-smelling. Shapeless, flocculent scraps rose with the spurting liquid. Soon, the sink filled, and the liquid poured over its edge.

There was more and more debris in the water, and the pieces grew larger. Hu Zihao saw scraps of flesh begin to appear in the backed-up water, followed by fingers soaked white, rotting ears, and eyeballs, some ruptured and others whole.

They flowed out with the water, floated, then tumbled over the edge of the sink along with the foul-smelling liquid, splashing onto the floor and breaking into patches of blood.

The impacts scattered the stench of decay everywhere. The reek swept through the entire washroom. Hu Zihao's stomach churned, and he felt the smell would make him vomit.

Without a doubt, it couldn't be anything good. Only an idiot would think the Evil Sin was producing this stuff now just to scare him for fun.

Yet the door behind Hu Zihao still wouldn't budge. Sharp pain shot through his hands. His finger bones were broken, and his knees also throbbed from the violent impact earlier. Blood dripped from his torn-back fingernails onto the floor, mingling with the corpse water flowing around his feet.

He stared at the countless scraps of flesh and foul-smelling liquid before him and clenched his teeth. Even so, he could clearly hear them chattering against one another.

Hu Zihao didn't want to die. He felt like a taut string; any more strain, and he would go mad.

The corpse water and minced flesh piled higher and higher, as though the washroom had become a swimming pool being filled. Soon, it reached Hu Zihao's thighs.

Who knew what was in that disgusting water? Everywhere it soaked began to itch. The maddening sensation made Hu Zihao want to tear his own skin open.

At the same time, as the murky water rose, ripples began churning within it in strange directions, as though something were swimming through it.

"Fuck you..."

Hu Zihao knew he absolutely couldn't remain submerged in it. The itching in his calves was turning to numbness, while his feet had begun to sting-the longer he soaked, the worse the symptoms became.

"Is there anywhere I can climb..."

Hu Zihao looked around and found nowhere higher to stand. The sink was absolutely out of the question. It was now spraying foul corpse water upward like a fountain, and the liquid had begun turning red.

Then his only option was...

Hu Zihao looked at his waist, which the corpse water was about to reach, then raised his eyes to the door before him. The handle was fairly high, and above it, near the doorframe, was a small protruding lip.

Making an immediate decision, Hu Zihao gritted his teeth and stepped onto the door handle behind him, gripping the door's slightly protruding lip with all his strength.

At last, Hu Zihao stood on the door handle, barely clinging to the raised edge beside the door with his fingertips, already split and bleeding nonstop. The pressure on his tender fingertips sent piercing pain through him that made his scalp go cold.

Only this could keep him from being completely submerged for now. He truly didn't want to die. He didn't want to give up.

But that was only a matter of time.

The Evil Sin seemed to have a peculiar, cruel taste for amusement. Rather than kill Hu Zihao directly, it did everything it could to torment him psychologically.

Just as Hu Zihao was about to lose his grip and fall into the corpse water.

He suddenly heard faint sounds, like someone muttering to himself.

Immediately afterward, he felt something shifting beneath his feet. Hu Zihao looked down in astonishment. The door handle he was standing on was turning!

Crack----

Bang!!!

With the snap of the torsion spring and the loss of his footing, the door was suddenly yanked open from outside. Still hanging from it, Hu Zihao was flung by the momentum onto the floor outside.

Hu Zihao felt as though his back had nearly broken. It was a hard fall. He sucked in sharp breaths, the places that had struck the floor hurting unbearably. He managed to lift an arm, found it wasn't broken, and barely propped himself up with it.

Enduring the excruciating pain, Hu Zihao managed to raise his head and look around.

He found that he had landed right beside Han He's legs. A few branches and unidentifiable stones lay scattered nearby. Han He was drenched in sweat, the muscles in his arms bulging. He had ripped the entire door handle off and held it clenched in his hand. The metal had cut his hand, and blood had been flung along the path of his motion as he opened the door, tracing an elegant line.

Inside, the washroom was empty, as though nothing had happened.

There was no stench, no blood or body parts splattered everywhere.

Hu Zihao looked down at his legs, which had been submerged, and found his pants still dry, without any trace of having been soaked. With trembling hands, he pulled up one trouser leg. There was nothing abnormal about the exposed skin. The itching, numbness, and pain from moments earlier seemed like a hallucination.

A little farther away, Shi Yu had collapsed on the floor for some reason. His face was as pale as though he had lost too much blood, and his clothes were soaked through, as though he had just been hauled out of the water.

The other dorm rooms were deathly quiet, as on any ordinary night. No one woke. Everyone waited in their dreams for the next day's sun.

It was now three in the morning.

*Note:

Supply: "Wild Talisman"

Source: "Hunter": "Wolf Fang" Han He

"A talisman that even beginners can make, containing the most primal power of the wilds."

"Bird feathers, beast fangs, broken branches. Gathered wildness, the dying strength of the defeated. Live."