Chapter 35: Arrest Operation (Part 1)

“Sister Liu?” Fan Jie swallowed back the word “useless” that had almost slipped out of his mouth and sighed helplessly. He said to one of the short rebellious teenagers, “Little An, you go instead. You’re brave, and I’ll be right behind you backing you up. Don’t worry, nothing will happen. I’m here.”

Although the child called Little An was full of fear, he lost himself amid the words of approval and really walked into the restroom.

From building momentum on the forum, constantly controlling public opinion, and trying to create an aberration, they had come here four nights in a row.

Today was the fifth day, and this was the first time anyone had truly stepped into this restroom.

Little An was afraid.

But he forced himself to keep walking in.

His legs were unbearably weak. Fear made him keep asking, right up until the second before he fainted, “Brother Jie, I’m in.” “Brother Jie, should I push open the stall door?” “Holy crap, this is my first time in a women’s restroom. So this is what it’s like.” “Brother Jie, are you still there? Brother Jie?”

By the time Little An came back to himself, he realized that at some point, Brother Jie had stopped answering him.

The feeling beneath his feet gradually turned wrong. Just now, the ground had been dry, with a faint sandy texture when he stepped on it. Now it felt as if he were treading on a thin layer of water.

There was also a rustling sound by his ears, as if something was crawling.

The hair on Little An’s back instantly stood on end.

He had awakened for some time now and had joined the Salvation Society, so he was no longer the ignorant novice he had once been. He knew very clearly what this change represented.

He suddenly pulled a dagger from behind him. It was an ordinary dagger and had no killing power against aberrations, but at a time like this, having a weapon in his hand gave him some peace of mind.

He waved the dagger wildly and screamed himself hoarse. “Don’t come over! Die! Die! I’m not the one who hurt you, don’t come after me!”

Before he finished speaking, something blocked the dagger. Little An trembled like a sieve from fright.

Looking closely, it was black hair.

The hair seemed alive. After wrapping around the dagger, it began winding upward along his wrist.

“Ahhhhhh!” Little An screamed, hurriedly threw away the dagger, and ran toward where he remembered the main door was.

The slick feeling underfoot grew thicker and thicker. There was even an illusion that he had stepped onto rotten flesh and was about to sink into it. Tears and snot streamed down his face. “Brother Jie, save me! Help!”

When one did not harm an aberration, there was simply no way to rush out of an aberrant domain.

The main door that should have been only a few steps away—he seemed to run for three to five minutes and still did not reach the end.

The more he ran, the more frightened he became.

Why hasn’t Brother Jie come to save me?

Why?

Brother Jie, help!

Until light appeared ahead. In his panic, he ran straight toward it.

He thought he had escaped with his life.

He thought he had found a way out.

But when he reached it, what he crashed headfirst into was the gate of hell.

A scream rang out.

He saw headless walking corpses. He saw a starving wretch whose belly was swollen like a ten-month pregnancy. He saw a formless ghost like a smear of white eyes. He saw a woman in red wedding clothes smiling as she pounced toward him, only to open a mouth split all the way to the back of her head at the last moment and bite down on his head.

“Help…”

“Help…”

Terrifying illusions came one after another, gnawing at the young man who had only just awakened and still had no ability to deal with aberrations.

The young man who stepped into the restroom had also stepped into the aberrant domain and had been contaminated.

In the eyes of everyone at the door, they only saw that less than two seconds after the young man entered the restroom, he stood in place and stopped moving.

No matter how they shouted, he gave no response.

Immediately afterward, Fan Jie sensed a smell that was extremely strong to him, but not exactly foul. Instead, it was “fragrant,” a scent representing power.

He trembled with excitement.

As expected, just as he had thought, aberrations could be artificially created.

This meant he had found a shortcut to becoming stronger.

What did Brother Long count for?

Sooner or later, he would surpass him and become the strongest!

Excitement made Fan Jie’s pupils keep contracting. He raised the button phone he had been gripping tightly in his hand all along, entered three zeroes, and pressed the green play button.

“Beep… beep…”

The sound of a call rang out in the silent night.

Then the call connected.

“Rustle… rustle…”

But there was no voice on the phone, only the static crackle of electricity.

The old man and the other young man had already leapt far back the moment Fan Jie raised the phone.

The terrified expressions with which they looked at that phone were even more frightened than when they saw the aberration appear inside the restroom.

Finally, after the rustling continued for three seconds, a faint white shadow visible to the naked eye crawled out of the phone and disappeared into the darkness of the restroom.

Immediately afterward, a woman’s shrill howl came from the darkness, sharp enough to pierce the eardrums and chisel into the soul. Everyone standing outside the door retreated again and again. Only Fan Jie, holding up the phone, curled his lips into a confident expression. Instead of retreating, he advanced, pressing a little farther toward the doorway, which meant his hand had already entered the aberrant domain.

The woman’s howls grew sharper and sharper. At one moment, the people outside could even see a deathly pale face deep in the darkness, glaring at Fan Jie with hatred and overwhelming fury.

But very soon, something else pounced onto the woman’s body. Green fur and a twisted body vanished together into the ultimate darkness. Only the shrill screams rang on without end, gradually weakening.

Then came an even more hair-raising sound of tearing and chewing, so terrifying that it made one’s legs go weak and one’s courage shatter.

Later, gradually, even that chewing sound could no longer be heard.

The old man asked shakily, “Brother Fan, is it done?”

He still remembered the promised chance to absorb the aberration’s spiritual energy.

“Wait a little longer.” Ridicule flashed through Fan Jie’s eyes, but then he said gently, “My ghost is still in the hunting stage. If you go in, you’ll be attacked without distinction. I’ll do what I promised you.”

“Oh, oh.”

The other young man, however, still had some loyalty and was worried about the companion inside. “Brother Fan, is Little Jie all right?”

Fan Jie said, “He was touched by the aberration and infected at close range, but I acted in time. He’ll be fine.”

He would just suffer headaches for a long time, that was all.

Just like him. After driving this phone aberration, he had splitting headaches and could not sleep.

But later, he gradually figured out the pattern. The price after driving the aberration did not necessarily have to be paid by him. As long as an awakened person was sacrificed by him, he would be spared the headache.

Whether it was Little An or that woman, having them walk in front was never for the sake of stimulating the aberration’s revival. They were simply the price he paid to drive the aberration.

After the call was actively ended and the rustling sound disappeared as well, Fan Jie knew the aberration had already returned to the aberrant tool.

He put away the phone and turned to look at the old man. “It’s ready. Go in.”

As he said this, a trace of pained reluctance was hard to conceal in his eyes. During the early stage of awakening, every aberration devoured brought an obvious change. He had already fallen behind Wang Tianlong, and now he was probably even farther behind.

But he could not go back on something he had promised. This old man had a net worth of hundreds of millions. Since this method of creating aberrations through public opinion had been proven feasible, there would still be many times in the future when Fan Jie would need to use him.

The old man supported himself on the doorframe with trembling legs and did not dare go in for a while.

The young man behind him, carrying the Little An who had just been rescued, said enviously, “If you’re not going, I’ll go. Brother Fan keeps his word. Why would he lie to you? How about you let me go first, and I’ll absorb this energy.”

In the end, the old man gritted his teeth and walked inside.

The fortune he had today had not been won by being timid as a mouse.

As soon as the old man went in, he could indeed feel that he had entered some strange environment.

He remembered this environment. Back when that dead old wife of his had returned, it had been this same extreme silence and oppression, the air stuffy as if some terrifying thing were incubating.

But very soon, he noticed the difference.

He had not been contaminated. Instead, a special energy wrapped around him. With every breath he took, he could feel himself becoming a little stronger. It was a feeling of his body filling with power.

The feeling of quickly becoming stronger was intoxicating. When that feeling faded, it even left him wanting more.

“That’s… all?”

The old man said, lost and disappointed.

Fan Jie chuckled. “There will be plenty more in the future. This is only the beginning.”

The old man clenched his fist, sensing his current strength. His body, which had always lacked strength because he had overtaxed it too much in his youth, had now changed completely. It seemed even stronger than when he had been in the prime of his young adulthood.

This time, there was no more hesitation in his eyes. When he looked at Fan Jie, his gaze was filled with fervor. “Brother Fan, it’s just a matter of money. Say the word.”

“Heh!” Fan Jie smiled, not forgetting to comfort the other person. He put on a fake show of treating Little An, whom he had personally sent inside, and said that Little An would be fine after resting for a while. Then he could not wait to search the entire room.

His strength was not poor now, and he was sensitive to aberrations. Very soon, in a restroom stall near the inner room, inside the toilet tank, he found a strand of hair.

He held the strand of hair in his hand and examined it carefully. The aberrant tool twisted constantly in his palm as if it had come alive. In his eyes, it was like the dance of a graceful young girl, reminding him of the girl from next door.

She had always sweetly called him Brother Fan Jie. She had always stood prettily at the entrance to his courtyard, hugging her schoolbag. On a certain summer afternoon, she had secretly kissed him on the lips, then desperately worked hard to get into the same school as him, desperately liked him.

Fan Jie wound the hair around his finger, but the hair burrowed into his blood vessels and ran all the way toward his heart.

He shuddered and braced himself against the wall. His nostrils suddenly flared, and a soft gasp overflowed from his lips. A rare flush appeared on his handsome face, then he revealed a satisfied smile.

See? How wonderful. After you died, you still left your hair behind to keep me company. From now on, we can be together forever.

“Brother Fan?”

“Mm?” Fan Jie’s voice was faint. He covered his heart, as if still savoring something.

“Did you find it?”

“No.” When he spoke again, he had already calmed down. A displeased expression appeared on his face. “There was nothing.”

The young man was puzzled. “But just now, I thought…”

Before he could finish, Fan Jie stared straight at him. His eyeballs, a full size smaller than an ordinary person’s, looked especially strange in the night, and especially terrifying. The young man swallowed every word back into his throat and did not dare speak again.

“Let’s go.” Fan Jie smiled again, raised his hand to press his heart, and was the first to leave.

At the doorway, he saw the unconscious middle-aged woman and Little An, who was caught in a headache. A trace of impatience appeared in his eyes.

“What about them?” the old man asked.

“One each. Carry them away.” Fan Jie would not do it himself. After saying this, he was the first to leave and head downstairs.

He reached the ground floor first. The moment he came downstairs, he discovered something was wrong.

His gaze abruptly fixed on a deep patch of tree shadows. He asked, “Who is it? Come out!”

Rustling footsteps sounded.

The shadow under the streetlamp was stretched tall, strong, and towering.

One.

Two.

Three.

One after another, six people walked out, wearing identical combat uniforms, and surrounded him tightly.

The corner of Fan Jie’s eye twitched.

Official people?

Those Night Watchers!

The delay had still been too long, and they had rushed over!

Not long ago, Fan Jie had used an aberration to kill the department supervisor who had always bullied and made things difficult for him. If there might once have been a possibility of surrendering, now he had no way back.

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