Chapter 112
[User “momo” was curious when you noticed something strange about the other party and tipped you 20 universal coins.]
[User “Scarecrow’s Straw” angrily cursed the other party’s clumsy disguise.]
[User “Electronic Wooden Fish” was astonished by your sharpness and tipped you 20 universal coins.]
[User “Rebirth: Peerless Love in Another Universe” believes you were gambling on the other party’s bad character.]
[User “Strongest King” is curious about your reasoning and hopes you can tell the truth.]
Yu Zhi actually wasn’t certain of Hongtao’s true identity. He just felt she was suspicious.
The fact that she was the only one alive was suspicious.
The fact that she wasn’t contaminated was suspicious.
Calling people “pretty sister” and “big brother” every other sentence was suspicious too.
He also wasn’t sure whether the prop “Null Intent” had worked on Hongtao or not.
He was simply gambling.
If he won, it would be a double win—he could confirm Hongtao’s identity and also figure out how the new prop worked.
If he lost… he’d just keep gambling.
But this time, he won.
Yu Zhi didn’t blink, staring straight at Hongtao, alert to her every movement.
“Us? Meteorite?” Lu Liming’s eyes widened as he stared at the little girl who was only waist-high to him. “You’re actually with Meteorite?!”
He couldn’t help cursing, “How old are you?! They’re hiring child laborers, what the hell!”
“……”
Hongtao looked up and realized Yu Zhi was standing in the middle of the road, holding a gun and blocking Lu Liming and Doctor Qi.
Only then did she realize Yu Zhi had deliberately let Doctor Qi and Lu Liming touch the writing on the wall, deliberately made her stay where she was, deliberately separated them.
He had already suspected her identity while they were walking through the residential building.
Hongtao tilted her head, her swollen eyes narrowed into slits as she looked at Yu Zhi in confusion. “When did you find out? Didn’t you already check me?”
Yu Zhi didn’t answer her question. Instead, he asked, “Are you watching us from inside the contamination zone, or from outside?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the flesh on Hongtao’s cheeks trembled. She lost control again and answered, “Both.
They’re watching from outside. Yingmian and I are inside the contamination zone.”
Yu Zhi tightened his grip on the gun, his knuckles turning white. He asked the key question, “What exactly have you done here?”
The next second, a line of text popped up before his eyes—
[Prop “Null Intent” activation failed.]
Yu Zhi immediately raised his hand, the black muzzle aimed at the center of Hongtao’s forehead.
Seeing this, Hongtao moved her lips and confirmed that the strange control over her ability had disappeared.
She didn’t ask what kind of power Yu Zhi had used on her. Instead, she slowly raised both hands in a gesture of surrender and answered calmly, “You should know what the condition is for getting that answer.”
She glanced at Doctor Qi and Lu Liming and said with a grin, “The professor definitely won’t mind if you bring two more people to join us.”
Then she changed the subject and asked curiously, “How exactly did you discover me? Did I act badly somewhere?
I thought I could at least stay by your side for half an hour. It’s only been a few minutes.”
Her face was that of a naïve little girl. Her eyes were swollen from crying, making her look pitiful. Yet every frown and smile carried the charm of a mature woman. The contrast was disturbingly split.
Yu Zhi frowned. He couldn’t determine whether the girl was being controlled by an adult woman or had been brainwashed into this state by Meteorite Biotech.
He directly took the off-road vehicle out from [My Props] and said without turning back, “Xiao Ming, get the rope and tranquilizer gun from inside.”
“Got it!” Lu Liming responded and strode toward the vehicle.
Hongtao glanced at him, then looked back at Yu Zhi. “Where exactly is the problem with my character setting?
You checked my pulse at the beginning. You saw the snot and tears yourself. As for body temperature—feeling cold when scared is normal…”
As she spoke, she suddenly seemed to remember something. She opened her hand, and several candies dropped to the ground with a clatter. “Was it because of the candy?”
Yu Zhi ignored her and thoughtfully checked his coin balance.
Only one thousand coins had been deducted.
The prop description clearly said one thousand coins per sentence.
But he had asked two questions, and Hongtao had answered two.
So “per sentence” didn’t literally mean every single sentence.
“Brother Yu, got it. Want to tie her up?”
Lu Liming hurried over with the tranquilizer gun in one hand and a bundle of rope in the other.
Yu Zhi withdrew his gaze and nodded.
Seeing him respond to Lu Liming but ignore her completely, Hongtao spoke gloomily, “Big brother, say something to me.”
Yu Zhi looked at her coldly and said expressionlessly, “Everything about you is a problem.”
Hongtao blurted out, “Impossible. I acted exactly the same as she did this morning.”
Yu Zhi sharply caught the word “she.” The veins on the back of his hand twitched, and the coldness in his eyes deepened.
The little girl was currently being controlled by an ability.
The girl he met at the wall gate this morning had been normal.
She was chosen… because he had interacted with her.
Yu Zhi slowly exhaled and gave Hongtao a thin, humorless smile. “You didn’t act exactly the same. You were putting on an act.”
Hongtao: “…”
“Brother Yu’s right!” Lu Liming picked up the rope and handed the tranquilizer gun to Doctor Qi. “Master Qi, you take the gun.”
Doctor Qi responded and aimed the tranquilizer gun at Hongtao’s neck.
Yu Zhi stepped in front of Hongtao and looked down at her. “What did you do to her?”
Hongtao raised her head and met his pitch-black eyes.
His pupils were large and dark, as if capable of devouring all light. When devoid of emotion, they carried a suffocating sense of oppression.
Hongtao wondered if it was just because this body was too short. Otherwise, how could Yu Zhi’s clean, handsome face look somewhat terrifying?
[Prop “Null Intent” activation successful.]
The next second, Hongtao once again felt that loss of control. She knew she shouldn’t answer, but her body and mind were forced to respond:
“I turned her into my doll. That’s my ability.”
A doll…
Yu Zhi’s gaze darkened. A control-type ability?
He wanted Hongtao to leave the girl’s body but wasn’t sure whether the prop could force her to?? her ability. He also worried that Hongtao might cause irreversible damage to the girl’s body.
While he hesitated, Lu Liming stepped behind Hongtao and tied her hands. “No wonder you kept calling her ‘pretty sister,’ but when you talk to me, it’s like I’m your dad. So you were calling yourself pretty sister.”
Hongtao: “……”
Yu Zhi turned to Doctor Qi. “Shoot.”
No need to waste more time. There was another one of her companions inside the contamination zone—who might already be on the way.
The tranquilizer gun could knock down Fu Suxi. It should work on her too.
Just before Doctor Qi pulled the trigger, Hongtao said with a grin, “Are you really going to shoot?
If I don’t maintain my ability, she’ll die immediately.”
Doctor Qi’s finger froze.
Lu Liming laughed. “You’re saying your ability is saving her?”
He tightened the rope and yanked hard.
Hongtao’s upper body suddenly shrank inward.
Her chest and abdomen were compressed by the rope until they were as narrow as a fist. But her neck and head remained normal size—large head, thin body. It looked grotesque.
Lu Liming stiffened and hurried back to Yu Zhi’s side.
Hongtao looked at Yu Zhi and slowly curved her lips upward.
The arc of her smile was wider than her distorted upper body.
She giggled. “Since you talked to her this morning, I left her alive out of courtesy.”
Yu Zhi didn’t waste words. He took Doctor Qi’s dagger and swiftly sliced open her windbreaker.
The next second, his pupils shrank violently.
The girl’s body under the coat was twisted and coiled.
From the waist to the chest, her entire upper body looked as if an invisible force had twisted it like a sausage—twisted into strands as thin as two fingers.
Her skin was swollen to a horrifying purplish-red, as though her body could snap at any moment and the compressed flesh inside would explode.
Seeing Yu Zhi’s expression change, Hongtao smiled again. “I didn’t lie. I really was looking for her aunt.
And I didn’t lie—you’ll take her to see her aunt.”
She stood on tiptoe and leaned against Yu Zhi’s chest, listening to his pounding heartbeat.
“The professor said, since you chose kindness, you’ll see with your own eyes that we are the correct ones.”
She looked up at him. Her pupils gradually lost focus.
“For humanity’s future.”
As the final word fell, the seductive expression vanished completely, replaced by terror and agony.
She opened her mouth and let out a heart-wrenching scream:
“Ahhhhh—!”
The shrill scream tore through the night, echoing in the darkness.
It was similar to the scream they had heard before the instance began.
Lu Liming and Doctor Qi froze, their faces pale, watching helplessly as the girl’s chest and abdomen were twisted again by that invisible force.
Thinner and thinner. Longer and longer.
Her upper body stretched grotesquely.
Yu Zhi’s eyelashes trembled. He quickly tried using the prop again:
“You’re fine. You’re back to normal.”
[Prop “Null Intent” activation failed.]
There was no improvement.
The girl collapsed to the ground, rolling uncontrollably. “It hurts! It hurts so much—!”
Blood sprayed from her mouth and nose.
In the blink of an eye, her arms twisted into thin lines. Her clothes hung loosely like they were draped over wires. Only her head remained intact, screaming.
“Auntie—!”
She rolled twice. Her elongated body slipped out of her clothes, resembling the wire skeleton of clay sculpture—indescribably horrifying.
“It hurts—!”
Yu Zhi closed his eyes. In a hoarse voice, he said three words:
“It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
[Prop “Null Intent” activation successful.]
The girl’s screams gradually quieted.
She slowly raised her blood-covered face and looked at Yu Zhi blankly. “I…”
The next second, a series of tearing sounds erupted from her body.
“Riiip—”
Her twisted body finally snapped.
Limbs and torso exploded apart, flesh and blood spraying everywhere in gruesome arcs.
The thick, metallic stench of blood instantly filled the air.
Yu Zhi’s face turned deathly pale. His stomach felt like it was being twisted too.
“Urgh—”
He bent over, dry heaving violently.
Nothing came out—just relentless nausea.
He finally understood Hongtao’s malice.
She said he would take the girl to see her aunt.
She meant he would let the girl die. Die—and then go underground to see her already-dead aunt.
“Urgh—”
Lu Liming’s vision darkened. Now he understood where all the blood and flesh in the rooms and leisure area had come from.
Those people in the temporary shelter had all died like this.
He doubled over and vomited wildly.
Doctor Qi fared no better.
The girl’s body was shattered across the ground—but her head remained intact.
Her swollen eyes bled as they stared at him.
Doctor Qi stiffly stepped back and bumped into something soft and wet.
He turned his head.
The wall was covered in damp eyeballs, rolling in unison. Black pupils fixed on him.
His face went even paler.
“Rustle…”
The familiar rustling sound echoed in the silent air.
The contaminants were coming.
Yu Zhi wiped his face forcefully, suppressing the urge to vomit again. He yanked open the car door and pulled Doctor Qi inside.
“Get in!”
Lu Liming scrambled into the driver’s seat.
Yu Zhi sat in the back.
Just as he shut the door, a familiar humming melody drifted through the air.
Lu Liming started the engine in panic. Before the vehicle had moved even a meter, the humming rose from the rooftop, pressing down on them clearly.
“The sun goes down, it rises again tomorrow;
Flowers wither, next year they bloom the same;
Big brother, big brother, once gone without a trace…”
