Embers Ad Infinitum

Aynor’s body immediately stiffened. She then retracted her head like an ostrich. “It’s fake. It’s definitely fake…” she muttered as she moved the mouse and repeatedly clicked on her latest portable computer to change the game’s default settings.

A cold, eerie wind tore through the hotel lobby, and the electric lights above became increasingly dim. It felt like they would go out at any moment.

“It’s fake. How can there really be ghosts…” Aynor constantly consoled herself, but she refused to make a response. She continued to focus on the three electronic devices.

Aynor acted as if nothing had happened if she could indulge in one thing and forget the changes around her.

Amidst the dim and flickering light, black shadows appeared on the hotel lobby’s walls.

They contorted and moved, but they didn’t have a corresponding corporeal entity as if they had been created out of thin air.

Aynor shrank even more. She forced herself to focus on the drama serial, novel, and game.

Suddenly, she felt a cool breeze blow at the back of her neck, making her hair stand on end.

Aynor was just short of standing up and running out of the hotel with a scream. However, she eventually ‘controlled’ herself and made a choice that normal people wouldn’t have.

She remained huddled there, ‘focused’ on watching the episode, playing the game, and reading the novel, even though she could already sense someone loitering behind her and the cold air that kept blowing at her neck.

“Hallucination… It’s all an illusion…” Aynor cheered herself on as she forced herself to forget the changes in reality.

…

Inside the Wild Pigeon bar, the mangled corpse brought about quite a commotion.

Although most of the customers here were Ruin Hunters and the city ruins in the surrounding area had been explored over the years because Tarnan was too well protected by Machine Paradise, there weren’t too many latent dangers. Many of them had never seen real killings or such terrifying corpses.

Regarding this point, they were worlds apart from Redstone Collection’s townsfolk.

For a moment, chaos spread like a plague. The people playing cards, the people playing mahjong, the people bargaining, and the people waiting to dance stood up. Then, they either huddled in a corner or gathered together. They anxiously discussed what had happened, or they mustered their courage. Many people walked to the door in groups and sized up the incomplete corpse.

The bar owner—Cai Yi’s identity as an Intermediate Hunter didn’t slowly build up from various small missions and accumulations of time. After a brief panic, he calmed down and carefully examined the corpse in front of him.

A few seconds later, he said in a deep voice, “It’s a Mountain Fox bandit.”

He recognized the deceased.

At the same time, Jiang Baimian confirmed his judgment.

“The Mountain Fox bandits were attacked after they left?” she asked herself. “That’s true; they only left after the wind started and a series of thuds sounded.”

From the looks of it, the problem had started since then.

Cai Yi retracted his gaze from the corpse and looked at the Ruin Hunter team in front of him. “Why are you back? Did you sense danger?”

He felt that the hunter team had discovered something abnormal and made a prompt decision to return the way they came. Therefore, they successfully avoided the fate of repeating the Mountain Fox bandits’ mistakes.

“We found ourselves back here as we walked,” Shang Jianyao replied quickly. He then mimicked Aynor’s creepy tone. “I suspect that we encountered Ghosts Pounding the Wall.”

The people in the bar stiffened when they heard that. Some people couldn’t help but approach the door, wanting to escape and find the robot guards.

Jiang Baimian glanced at them and reminded them, “If you blindly go out now, you might very well end up like him.”

She pointed at the corpse on the ground; then, she voiced her judgment. “I suspect that the Superior Heartless from the southwest mountains has come to Tarnan. The wind outside, the knocking just now, and our experience of getting lost are all illusions.”

Not only did this guess not calm the people in the bar, but it also made them nervous.

Previously, a total of ten robot guards had disappeared in a bid to eliminate the Superior Heartless! This meant that the robot guards weren’t insurance when facing such a terrifying enemy!

In contrast, nobody had encountered a ghost before. Who knew if the robot guards would be affected by a ghost? In any case, they habitually believed that robots weren’t afraid of ghosts.

Cai Yi looked up at the ceiling and tried his best to calm down. “Is this corpse also an illusion?”

His wife and children were upstairs. He had to determine the situation as soon as possible and respond.

“Let me confirm it.” Just as Jiang Baimian said that, Shang Jianyao had already taken her place. He walked to the corpse and squatted down.

He took out rubber gloves and wore them before pressing his hands on the corpse. He then used this as a pivot and did an inverted stand.

Inverted stand… The bar owner, Cai Yi, was a little dumbfounded.

The nervous customers were the same. What kind of confirmation method is this? Could it be that allowing blood to flow into the brain effectively increases intelligence?

Upon seeing that the corpse’s surface had only caved in and that Shang Jianyao didn’t sink in, Bai Chen turned her head to Jiang Baimian and said, “It’s real.”

At some point in time, she had already drawn her guns. She had an Ice Moss in one hand and a United 202 in the other.

Jiang Baimian tersely acknowledged her words. As she watched Shang Jianyao stand up, she looked at the bar owner, Cai Yi. “Do you have a grenade launcher here? I plan on releasing a flare outside to see if the robot guards will react.”

In any case, robots were definitely better at seeing through illusions than humans. At the same time, Jiang Baimian also wanted to inform the Clam Dragon Church’s Nanke Convent.

In this regard, she felt that the unreliable abbess, Zhou Yue, might be more reliable than Li Zhe of the Furnace Church and Mike of the Glorious Scale.

Professional matters were best left to the professionals.

Cai Yi was stunned for a moment. “Why use a flare? We can just give the robot guards a call. Are you afraid of interference?”

Uh… Jiang Baimian realized that she was used to the ecological environment in Weed City, Redstone Collection, Moat Town, and other parts of the Ashlands. For a moment, she couldn’t get used to Tarnan and forgot that not only was there a wireless base station here, but almost everyone who lived here had a telephone line.

In this regard, Tarnan was more technologically advanced than Pangu Biology.

Jiang Baimian quickly came to her senses and asked, “Can you call Nanke Convent’s Abbess Zhou?”

Cai Yi nodded. “I have a phone book.”

“Thank you,” Jiang Baimian replied politely before turning to look at Shang Jianyao.

The two of them exchanged looks and shook their heads.

Jiang Baimian wasn’t sure if Shang Jianyao had the same thought as her. In any case, she wanted to say: This is the most populated street in Tarnan. There are people everywhere, so I couldn’t find the Superior Heartless based on the electric signals.

From this starting point, there should be a similar problem with perceiving human consciousnesses.

“Is anyone still on the street?” Jiang Baimian asked in confirmation.

Shang Jianyao replied truthfully, “Several.”

“Yes.” Jiang Baimian indicated that this was her answer as well.

Cai Yi—who couldn’t understand their conversation—shook his head indiscernibly. “I’ll make the call.”

Just as he said that, a cold wind blew in from above the two wooden panels, bringing a gloomy feeling with it.

The next second, the chandelier and wall lamps in the bar dimmed as if something had happened to the electricity.

Long Yuehong’s heart tightened. He looked up, and his pupils suddenly dilated.

Everyone in the bar—including the three people he had previously beaten—hunched slightly. Their eyes became abnormally turbid and bloodshot.

Heartless! They had all become Heartless!

Long Yuehong suddenly raised his gun-wielding hands.

At the same time, he heard his team leader warn the bar owner, Cai Yi. “Be careful.”

Cai Yi slowly turned around. His eyes protruded, also turbid.

Long Yuehong almost couldn’t control his reflexes and almost pulled the trigger.

At this moment, Shang Jianyao’s voice sounded happy. “If we turn off the lights and can’t see them, will everything be fine?”

“Huh?” Long Yuehong glanced over from the corner of his eye and realized that Shang Jianyao was already standing beside the power switch at some point in time.

…

Nanke Convent.

Zhou Yue left the futon with the strength of her feet and waist and stood up. She patted her white robe and said to the Dream Guide beside her, “Phelps, I’m going out for a while. Bring me my Eight Trigrams Mirror.”

The Dream Guide had black hair and blue eyes. He was clearly mixed-blood.

He first replied, “Yes, Abbess.”

He then added, a little aggrieved, “Abbess, I’m Zhen Lian.”

“…Zhen Lian. Yes, Zhen Lian.” Zhou Yue forced a smile. “Apart from the Eight Trigrams Mirror, I also need talisman water and a sack. Oh right, a flashlight as well.”

This strange combination surprised Zhen Lian and the others, but it wasn’t their place to ask. After all, the abbess looked a little anxious.

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