After the uniquely shaped “Iron Maiden” coffin closed, a sickening sound of flesh being pierced echoed from within. Its interior, composed of numerous nails and hinges, was notoriously dubbed the ‘human meat juicer.’
“Found you.”
“Found you!”
Trapped within the Iron Maiden, the Director kept repeating these words, her voice growing increasingly shrill. It was clear the Iron Maiden could no longer contain her.
This wasn’t entirely surprising. Even if the Director wasn’t the boss maintaining this space, she was still the top entity, the ‘building lord’ of the Rongshan Mental Hospital.
The fact that Shen Ge had been trapped in Rongshan Mental Hospital for so long without finding an exit was proof enough that the Director’s level far surpassed any previous anomalies he’d encountered.
The files in the archive mentioned the Director had successfully completed a 4th-stage mutation. Yet, aside from her grotesque and terrifying appearance, this 4th-stage freak’s combat power didn’t seem significantly higher than a 2nd-stage anomaly, which was clearly odd.
There was another possibility… perhaps the real 4th-stage Director was already dead. What he faced here was merely a 2nd-stage illusion within the dream world, hence the weaker strength?
Seeing the Iron Maiden failing to hold the Director, Shen Ge immediately materialized several chains erupting from the ground, tightly binding the coffin from the outside.
But at that moment, all the “Third Boys” whose heads he had severed with the materialized flying guillotine began to stir. They rose as headless freaks, converging on Shen Ge.
“…Well, I’ll be. So from this point on, the head isn’t the weak point anymore?” Shen Ge had assumed the freaks from the Rongshan Mental Hospital period were still in a developmental stage, but it seemed things weren’t that simple.
Dragging this out was disadvantageous for Shen Ge. After all, using the “Death Reset” ability recklessly before understanding its potential drawbacks wasn’t safe.
He now faced three choices. One: go all out, exhaust his mental energy to see if he could kill the Director. Two: deal with these headless Third Boys first, then focus on the Director. Three: retreat and try to find another way out.
Through his recent tests, Shen Ge had confirmed that within the dream world, the mental energy consumption simulated: Supernatural Abilities > Firearms > Melee Weapons.
Various non-human powers fell under the ‘Supernatural Abilities’ category. Using ‘inaudibility’ and ‘intangibility’ as examples, the latter’s functionality far exceeded the former, and its mental energy cost was also greater.
Running a quick mental calculation, Shen Ge suddenly had a bold idea. He first materialized more chains to restrain the advancing headless Third Boys. Then, leveraging the strength boost from “Hypnosis,” he dragged the Iron Maiden containing the Director into the adjacent children’s bedroom and slammed it against the washbasin counter.
“Off you go!” Using his mental energy to lift the Iron Maiden, just as the Director was about to break free, he hurled it directly at the mirror.
Next, Shen Ge focused his mental energy on the mirror. Previously, he had compressed the mirror world to deal with the mirror freak. This time, he attempted to “open a tear” on the mirror’s surface.
It was just a bold hypothesis, a shot in the dark, but to his surprise, it worked. The mirror surface rippled with a spatial distortion.
“Tsk.”
“Looks like the gamble paid off.”
The mirror freak, like Shen Ge, was an “outsider.” For some reason, Shen Ge could move freely within the mirror world, but the mirror freak was trapped inside the mirrors.
Therefore, Shen Ge suspected the mirror might be a connection point between the dream world and the outside. Acting on a hunch, he utilized the power of the mirror world, and unexpectedly managed to open a “crack.”
The Iron Maiden, wrapped in Shen Ge’s mental energy, was shoved into the mirror. Shen Ge intended to follow, to see if he could exit the dream world, but found himself “blocked” outside.
“Huh?”
This works?
But.
I’m not in yet!
Opening the tear had already consumed a massive amount of Shen Ge’s mental energy. The dizziness was second only to when he had compressed space to eliminate the mirror freak.
Just as Shen Ge mustered his remaining willpower to dive into the mirror world, he found the opening had already sealed shut. He suffered a severe mental backlash, and the world once again spun violently.
Shen Ge knew throwing the Director in was a risky move. If the mirror truly led outside, it would mean reviving a dead person—and a high-stage freak at that!
Shen Ge’s original “bold experiment” immediately shifted to Plan A: deliver a powerful blow to finish off the Director. And the spatial compression that had killed the mirror freak was undoubtedly the best option!
With that thought, Shen Ge pushed himself, expending all his remaining mental energy to compress the mirror world once more, crushing both the Iron Maiden and the Director into a meat patty.
Then, utterly drained, Shen Ge’s vision went black as he fell unconscious, having another “peaceful” sleep.
An indeterminate amount of time later, Shen Ge gradually stirred awake. Opening his eyes, he found himself still lying on the bathroom floor. His mind felt weary, and his mental energy hadn’t fully recovered.
Clearly, this time, eliminating the Director hadn’t triggered a “Death Reset.”
While this was good, Shen Ge had assumed the Director, as the maintainer of the dream world, would cause the world to collapse upon her death, allowing his escape. But it seemed things weren’t that straightforward.
In the dim bathroom, Shen Ge pulled himself up using a stool. His gaze swept over the mirror above the washbasin, now spiderwebbed with cracks.
When he had compressed space to kill the mirror freak, the mirror remained intact. But using it against the Director had left it looking as if punched, covered in fracture lines.
Within the mirror, he could see the crushed Iron Maiden and the Director, blood dripping from the mirror onto the counter.
Shen Ge tried to expend mental energy to open another tear in the mirror, but to no avail. The energy drained, but no portal appeared.
“…”
Shen Ge suddenly felt his “bold plan” had backfired. Realizing the mirror freak could influence the dream world through mirrors, he should have tried entering the mirror himself to see if he could leave.
Of course, that carried its own “risks.” What if the mirror freak wasn’t completely dead, just waiting for Shen Ge to walk into the trap and replace him? That was precisely why Shen Ge hadn’t initially chosen to enter. Finding a breakthrough via the Director seemed safer.
Dying in battle with the Director would, at worst, trigger a “Death Reset.” But falling into the mirror freak’s hands could mean being permanently replaced.
Regardless, with the Director, the greatest threat within the mirror world, gone, Shen Ge could attempt to “explore” further, even if he couldn’t leave immediately.
Leaving the bathroom, Shen Ge passed through the children’s room into the classroom. It remained as it was after the battle. The headless Third Boys he had decapitated lay chained on the floor. With the Director dead, these headless freaks seemed to have perished as well.
With the biggest threat eliminated, Shen Ge no longer needed to crawl through vents. Materializing a flashlight, he walked through the dark corridor to the stairwell.
Descending the stairs, the floor marker at the turn indicated the third floor. The floor below was the second floor—the ward level where Shen Ge had first entered the dream world.
This meant what Shen Ge had thought was the first floor was actually the second. The operating room with the headless torso freak was on the fourth floor, and the pregnant woman freak was on the fifth.
Shen Ge wasn’t in a hurry to go to the first floor to see if he could leave the mental hospital. Instead, he first went to the fourth and fifth floors. However, he found no trace of freaks in the operating room, not even the “white coats” he’d encountered during his first entry. The entire building seemed empty except for him and various experimental freak subjects.
Using their photosensitive and non-photosensitive traits, Shen Ge easily lured them away by materializing several flashlights. He then found the archive room to investigate.
Aside from the clues about the Freak Association found in the Director’s office, most documents were patient records and research data from Rongshan Mental Hospital, containing little useful information.
Still, Shen Ge memorized these details, planning to investigate these patients in the “real world” after leaving the dream world.
After reviewing the files, Shen Ge went to the first floor of the hospital. The lobby was narrow and dark, its main doors tightly locked. A desiccated corpse in a nurse’s uniform lay slumped over the front desk.
Shen Ge examined it but found nothing unusual. He then approached the main doors and pried them open using materialized tools.
The courtyard was overgrown with weeds. A light rain fell from the sky. Shen Ge reached out, catching a few drops. The coldness and tactile sensation felt incredibly real—so real it blurred the line between reality and dream for him.
Shen Ge materialized a raincoat, put it on, and crossed the courtyard to the main gate.
Boom!
A flash of lightning split the sky, followed by a thunderclap. In that instant of illumination, the blood-red characters “Rongshan Mental Hospital” on the faded, peeling sign beside the iron gate appeared particularly ghastly.
Parked at the main gate were two black cars. Shen Ge remembered these as the vehicles that had brought him up the mountain during his first entry into the dream world.
Shen Ge approached and inspected the cars. The doors were locked, and no keys were inside. But this wasn’t a problem for him. Materializing some tools, he easily opened a door and started the car.
His proficient maneuvering left even Shen Ge, sitting in the driver’s seat, momentarily stunned. If he remembered correctly, he didn’t know how to drive… yet these moves would make even Dominic Toretto tip his hat.
Shen Ge rubbed his forehead, wondering if he had lost memories of attending some Hawaiian technical school.
Regardless, Shen Ge saved the mental energy needed to “hypnotize” himself into knowing how to drive. Starting the black sedan, he drove down the mountain.
Navigating the narrow mountain road, fragments of memory about Rongshan Mental Hospital surfaced in his mind. Strangely, the environment and the “white coats” in these memories differed significantly from what he had encountered in his recent dream world visits.
Shen Ge had previously tried searching for the “underground research facility” within the hospital. But without the “collapse” of the intangible anomaly domain to skip floors directly, finding a hidden entrance wasn’t easy.
Thus, faced with the choice of staying at the hospital or heading downtown to see how this version of Rong City differed from his “memories,” Shen Ge chose the latter.
Bang!
Lost in thought while rounding a bend, Shen Ge crashed the car into a large tree by the roadside. The airbag deployed, slamming into him and nearly knocking him out.
“…” Shen Ge felt suffocated, convinced driving wasn’t for him, and suddenly missed a certain AI proficient in autonomous driving.
The car was totaled. Shen Ge got out, using mental energy to “hypnotize” his wounds into healing rapidly.
The rain grew heavier. Shen Ge pulled his raincoat hood lower, took out a flashlight, and continued walking down the mountain road.
Thunder rumbled intermittently, lightning tearing through the sky and illuminating the forest flanking the road, creating an eerie scene. A ten-year-old child walking alone with a flashlight on a mountain road was utterly bizarre.
If this were the real world, any driver encountering this would likely stomp the brake as the accelerator and launch themselves off the mountain.
After several hours of walking, Shen Ge finally emerged from the mountains. Not far ahead was Quan Mountain Village, not yet demolished. Its few structures gave it an abandoned, long-deserted feel.
Shen Ge searched the area. The derelict buildings held no people, nor any freaks or anomalies—just many unidentified insects crawling about.
Shen Ge wasn’t an entomologist and lacked Little Seven’s scanning explanations, so he didn’t know what these insects were. But given their strange appearance and the fact he’d never seen them before, he suspected a connection to “parasitic anomalies.” He found a bottle, captured one insect, and continued towards the city center.
This area would later become East Ring Lake Park, just a few dozen minutes’ drive from downtown Rong City. But without a car and forced to walk, the travel time multiplied.
The rain intensified. The unfinished Rongquan Road was muddy, and unmanaged forests on either side allowed weeds to encroach onto the road.
“This isn’t right. Rongshan Mental Hospital was from just over a decade ago. By the early 2000s, Rongshan Road was already being developed. This shouldn’t be a dirt road.”
As a native of Rong City, while he relied on phone maps for city navigation, Shen Ge was familiar with major urban developments.
This place didn’t look like the Rong City suburbs from over a decade ago, but more like several decades ago. It was somewhat eerie.
The drizzle turned into a downpour, severely hampering Shen Ge’s progress. Finally entering the city, he found the area within and beyond the Third Ring Road desolate. Strangest of all… the “Third Ring Bridge” from his memory was nowhere to be seen.
“Could the rules of the anomaly space have caused a dislocation of time and space here?” Shen Ge felt something was off. If the city area represented Rong City from decades ago, then Rongshan Mental Hospital couldn’t possibly look like it did from just over a decade ago.
Unless, similar to the situation in Yu Zhou, this was a case of “multiple anomaly spaces,” with each region representing a different timeline.
If so, according to the mirror freak, each region here represented a different “ending” for Earth-2.
Shen Ge pressed on. After another two hours of walking, the bizarre scene before him immediately confirmed his hypothesis. This was indeed a chaotic spacetime, with each area presenting a different scene.
Because what lay before him wasn’t Rong City from decades ago, but more like Rong City from decades in the future. Even a certain infamous unfinished landmark building stood completed.
In the city center, amidst towering skyscrapers, stood a single cylindrical structure piercing the sky. Against the backdrop of heavy rain and lightning, it appeared particularly sinister.
What puzzled Shen Ge was, even if this area represented a “future” timeline, who had the resources to take over and complete this notoriously unfinished building?
Walking along the city streets, Shen Ge still saw no people, but many parasitized beings with fleshy petals and scorpion-tailed heads roamed about.
Shen Ge quickly attracted their attention. To conserve mental energy, he didn’t fight his way through. Instead, using materialized equipment, he scaled a building and proceeded towards the city center via the rooftops.
Upon reaching what should be the “First Ring,” Shen Ge noticed something amiss. The city center was encircled by a wall, complete with a “moat” and iron fencing outside.
However, most structures were in ruins. The walls and iron fences were full of breaches, as if after a major battle.
Conditions inside the walled center were no better than outside. The number of parasitized beings and freaks was even greater, making this place look more like the epicenter of a disaster outbreak.
Somehow, Shen Ge recalled the “Sanctuary Plan” proposed by a prominent Rong City figure during a banquet hosted by Liu Zongrui—the plan to wall off the city center, creating a sanctuary managed by the city’s powerful, keeping all danger outside the walls.
“Could this be the ‘ending’ where the ‘Sanctuary’ was built?” Puzzled, Shen Ge passed through the broken wall into the city center, heading towards the landmark tower.
From the scene before him, not only had the “Sanctuary Plan” failed, but it had also, as Shen Ge had predicted, become the center of the anomaly outbreak.
Though the city center wasn’t large, the degree of spacetime “chaos” here exceeded anything Shen Ge had encountered on his journey. Almost every zone lacked living people, leaving only anomalies chasing the parasitized.
Perhaps due to consuming large numbers of parasitized beings and their own kind, Shen Ge spotted 4th-stage anomalies that had completed four mutations among these creatures.
These high-stage anomalies had keen “senses.” The moment Shen Ge entered the city center, they detected him and began converging on his location.
Fortunately, the issue of anomalies “cannibalizing” each other persisted even in the dream world. To these high-stage anomalies, each other were prized targets. They clashed among themselves before even dealing with Shen Ge.
Seizing the opportunity, Shen Ge navigated through the ruined zones, approaching the central landmark tower. Upon closer inspection of this building—unfinished in his original world—he had to admit the proponent of the “Sanctuary Plan” had vision. The tower was indeed well-constructed.
But no matter how well-built, after the anomaly outbreak, it had become a plaything for monsters, resembling a corncob gnawed by a dog.
“Huh.”
Looking at the “corncob,” Shen Ge felt a faint sense of “déjà vu,” as if he had been here before.
