GRMFBS CH94

By traveling through the shadow world, it didn’t take Gu Jiancheng long to cross several thousand kilometers and arrive at the small alley the Magician was guarding.

Next to the alley was an old house, seemingly built when urban planning was still immature. Together with the other surrounding buildings, it formed a block that was out of place with the taller buildings in the outer circle.

On the wall was the long-weathered character for “demolish.” The red paint had dripped down in irregular tears, then been worn thin in some places and chipped in others by the wind and sun. For some reason, the footsteps of the demolition office seemed to have forgotten this place.

The door hinges of the old house could no longer bear the heavy pressure. The two mismatched doors were slanted against each other, leaving a gap of about three fingers’ width where they met, allowing a peek into the dark and cluttered corridor inside.

The old lock on the outside was still holding on, and though mottled with rust, it was still firmly clasped.

Gu Jiancheng glanced disdainfully at the main doors, which were covered in traces of rainwater and dust, and kicked. The two doors, along with the lock still firmly holding the bolt, smashed backward.

They landed in the shadows on the snowy ground without making a sound. The air was as dead silent as if the sound waves had been swallowed by the shadows.

Gu Jiancheng stepped on the door panels and walked in.

The Magician, transformed into a cat, took two steps forward, disdainfully shook her paws before stepping on the toppled door panel, and then, as if a layer of air was beneath her feet, she floated up and followed.

Gu Jiancheng didn’t look back. “Curiosity killed the cat.”

The Magician: “Woof.”

Gu Jiancheng: …

The Magician: “You don’t seem to be in a good mood. What’s wrong? Got called over in the middle of a date with your boyfriend?”

Gu Jiancheng snorted.

If it weren’t for this Black Nest, he would have gone back with Yan Yan to meet the parents!

Even if Yan Yan didn’t want to meet the parents for the time being, and he had been temporarily bewitched by beauty and agreed to postpone it, it wasn’t something that could be coaxed better with just a few kisses and hugs! He had to fight for some compensation, at the very least!

The Magician followed at a distance, very curious. She had seen many Black Nests, but never one this close.

Every infinite instance had at least one Black Nest, and each Black Nest had a different form.

Some Black Nests were similar to insect nests in nature, with complex cavities or channels; others were like a mother’s womb for gestating offspring, filled with sticky clumps of flesh…

The Black Nest meant danger, and danger stimulated her nerves, making her involuntarily excited. She even somewhat missed this excitement.

The water and electricity in the old house had long been cut off. The winter sun was already weak, and after being distorted by the old grid windows and the curling-edged window film, it became even dimmer.

Fortunately, neither of their visions was affected by the darkness.

Gu Jiancheng strolled through the rooms one by one as if on a walk.

Black mold spots grew in patches on the walls of the house. Under the peeling wall skin, white powdery lumps that had swollen due to moisture were exposed. The house was filled with the peculiar smell unique to old houses. In the kitchen, a window with a broken lock creaked incessantly in the cold winter wind.

The cat followed him through room after room but found no sign of the Black Nest.

They came to the innermost room.

It was a bedroom, long since emptied by the previous owner, leaving only half of a collapsed bed and a mattress with rusted springs poking out. There was still nothing noteworthy in the room, just ordinary items.

This made the Magician anxious. She had indeed discovered a Black Nest hidden here—although she hadn’t dared to get close to confirm it with her own eyes. In the time she had been guarding it before Deep Shadow arrived, she hadn’t noticed any signs of the Black Nest escaping. Where had it gone now?

Gu Jiancheng’s gaze rested on the bed. The spring mattress had been dragged to the floor, and on the bed were some old newspapers and cardboard. Under the cardboard was a rolled-up set of old bedding, an enamel mug, a plastic comb with broken teeth, and other things.

The Magician jumped onto the bed and sniffed around. “Someone lived here before… probably still here about a month ago.”

It seemed a homeless person had once used this place as a temporary shelter. But now, there was no longer any sign of a living person in the house.

The Magician looked up again at the side of the head of the bed.

There was another small door there. The door was half-open, and there were no windows inside. It relied solely on the little bit of light shining in from the bedroom window to illuminate a path inside, revealing an old piece of clothing hanging on a crossbar, like a walk-in closet.

Could there be a clue to the Black Nest here?

The cat walked to the door and stretched its head, wanting to look inside.

A shadow wrapped around the cat’s ribs and pulled the Magician away from the door.

Gu Jiancheng stared coldly at the half-open doorway. “Have a few days of peace made you stupid? Can’t you recognize this is a Black Nest?”

The Magician flipped over in mid-air and landed lightly on the bed. Her cat-like pupils dilated as she stared at the walk-in closet, the fur on her back standing on end. Her blood ran cold.

This Black Nest had disguised itself as a room!

The Magician had seen many Black Nests. These nests were all different, but they all shared one characteristic:

After being tempered by all kinds of terrifying instances and tasks, infinite players would develop a peculiar, intuitive perception of Black Nests.

Their apertures, used to birth monsters—whether they floated on swamps like whirlpools, were as cold and gloomy as withered bones, or even as vibrant as flower buds—all looked like an eye in the players’ vision.

The feeling of being stared at by this eye was hair-raising.

But before Gu Jiancheng pointed it out, the Magician had really thought it was just an ordinary walk-in closet.

Was it because of the destruction of the infinite that the Black Nests had lost the characteristic of being an “eye”? Or did this Black Nest have a more sophisticated ability to camouflage itself?

No, it wasn’t just camouflage.

It was already strange for an old house like this to have a walk-in closet specifically designed in the bedroom. And that homeless person—the things he had packed under the cardboard were shabby but orderly. If he had left on his own, he wouldn’t have left his property behind.

There were many other suspicious points.

The Magician had made a name for herself in the infinite; her observation skills and acuity were top-notch. Even if they had been dulled a bit by a life of peace, it shouldn’t have been to the point of missing such obvious suspicious points.

She had been influenced.

This Black Nest had the ability to affect one’s mind!

The discovered Black Nest began to expand rapidly, from the walk-in closet to the bedroom, and from the bedroom to the other rooms. Soon, the entire house became the Black Nest’s domain.

A piece of clothing flew out of the non-existent walk-in closet—old, tattered, yet possessing a magic that made one want to put it on immediately.

The damp walls began to bubble. With each pop, a large amount of wall powder was scattered. The mold spots sank inward, and one by one, anomalies crawled out of the holes.

Gu Jiancheng dodged the clothes flying towards him. A possession-and-control type of Black Nest. This matched; the garbled-code anomaly whose Black Nest imprint he had dismantled before was a possession-and-control type. The No. 2 garbled-code anomaly that had caused trouble in Northridge City before was also a possession-and-control type. They probably all came from this Black Nest.

The Black Nest was still expanding, but it ran into the shadows Gu Jiancheng had already laid out.

The eerie and unfathomable Black Nest collided head-on with the powerful and cold shadows!

A high-pitched frequency inaudible to the human ear was instantly generated in the air, sending out ripples of bizarre waves.

The Magician held a wooden charm carved in the shape of a dormouse in her mouth. The contamination-filled ripples slid past her as they approached, the empty space in the ripples forming the exact shape of a dormouse—No one is to disturb my sleep.

The Magician stayed far away.

Leave the battlefield to the expert!

Her goal was to observe, not to be a burden!

As she watched, the Magician noticed something was off. This Black Nest… why was it so weak?

After running into the shadow domain that Deep Shadow had set up in advance, the Black Nest hadn’t been able to expand another step. Was Deep Shadow just that powerful?

So powerful that he could casually suppress a Black Nest? That couldn’t be right!

She watched with her own eyes as Deep Shadow, in the middle of fighting, took out his phone and started messing with it.

Seriously, are you that relaxed, boss? Is this Black Nest a fake or something?!

Gu Jiancheng also felt that this Black Nest was pathetically weak. It wasn’t his first time clashing with a Black Nest; he had fought them a few times back in the infinite. The difference in strength between them wasn’t heaven and earth, but it was at least the difference between a lake and an ocean.

Even if the infinite world had been destroyed, a normal Black Nest shouldn’t be this pathetic!

Gu Jiancheng’s paranoia kicked in. He suspected that this Black Nest had set a trap to lure him in!

Out of caution, Gu Jiancheng decided not to unleash his ultimate move just yet. He planned to first feign a weakness for the Black Nest.

So he took a moment to like Zhan Yan’s social media post, and while he was at it, took a screenshot and posted one himself!

The Black Nest felt insulted! It desperately stretched itself, trying to devour Gu Jiancheng, and like a squeezed-out tube of toothpaste, it struggled to squeeze out a few more anomalies to teach this guy a lesson!

Seeing its angry, pathetic rookie appearance, the Magician couldn’t help but ask, “Is this Black Nest just an empty shell?”

Gu Jiancheng was also certain now. The inside of this Black Nest was long empty. It wasn’t acting; it had truly exhausted all its tricks.

So disappointing!

Gu Jiancheng clicked his tongue.

They were a step too late.

In that case, Gu Jiancheng didn’t plan to waste any more time. He hadn’t even called Yan Yan for a goodnight kiss yet today! It was already past the time!

The shadows suddenly surged, and the dead-silent black sea seemed to come to life.

Like the ocean on a stormy night, waves, each higher than the last, crashed towards the Black Nest.

It’s… it’s trying to devour the Black Nest!

The Magician, in her cat form, crouched on the wall far away, observing. The pupils in her cat eyes shrank and then dilated.

This wasn’t the first time she had seen Deep Shadow in action. She knew his ability could devour anomalies, but this was the first time she had seen him devour a Black Nest!

For a player who came from the infinite, this was nothing short of a strange and potent stimulant. Excitement and fear intertwined, like two colliding tidal waves, and her heart beat faster and faster…

Twenty-six years ago, the vast and bizarre infinite world, almost too large to imagine, had collapsed. The Magician at that time was just one of those who had seized the opportunity to escape. On the life-or-death gamble to break free from the infinite, she had caught a stunning glimpse of the collision between the two worlds.

Twenty-six years later, she was able to once again witness the clash between a peak player and one of the most bizarre and terrifying Black Nests of the infinite, as if it were a glimpse through a tube of that grand spectacle from years ago. Though just a glimpse, its splendor was visible.

The deep and mysterious lair was gradually drenched by the shadows. Darkness swallowed the non-existent room.

Gu Jiancheng’s eyes were half-closed.

He didn’t like the feeling of losing a lead. Taking out an abandoned Black Nest wouldn’t give him many clues, but a Black Nest devoured by the sea of shadows could.

He had a certain degree of control over everything devoured by the sea of shadows.

But a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. A weakened Black Nest was much more troublesome than an anomaly. It was like a piece of unchewable greasy wax, sizzling with thick contamination.

The world before Gu Jiancheng’s eyes distorted again. All sorts of chaotic sounds echoed in his ears: great fires, collapses, tsunamis, screams, wails, laughter… The infinite instances he had experienced, like different colored lumps of modeling clay, were kneaded together by a distorting force. His heart beat wildly, as if it were rampaging inside his body, trying to find an escape route in this mad world.

Fortunately, he could still control it.

The spread-out shadows gradually contracted, finally all returning to the shadow at Gu Jiancheng’s feet. He looked up at the wall where the Magician was crouching.

The Magician’s fur was all standing on end. She pushed off with all four paws, flipping backward over a dozen meters. In mid-air, she transformed back into her human form and landed on a distant rooftop, watching Gu Jiancheng warily.

During the process of the shadows devouring the Black Nest, the Magician had the illusion that Deep Shadow was like a living Black Nest!

And the look in Deep Shadow’s eyes just now… his eyes were only like that when he was at his most insane. It was terrifying!

Cold sweat dripped from the Magician’s forehead.

Her hands were empty; she wasn’t holding a weapon. She was afraid a weapon would provoke Deep Shadow in this state. She didn’t dare to run either; running was also an action that would provoke a predator.

The Magician froze on the spot, cursing inwardly.

Wasn’t Deep Shadow’s madness almost cured? Was it because he had devoured the Black Nest?

The shadows at his feet surged and stretched, looking eager to spread their net and begin hunting and devouring. The Black Nest seemed to have stimulated its hunger.

The Magician saw Gu Jiancheng’s left wrist suddenly twitch.

Concealed by his long sleeve was a sports bracelet. The bracelet was worn backward, the band clasped tightly, with the main unit pressed firmly against the skin of his inner wrist.

Now, this bracelet was vibrating rhythmically, one pulse at a time. It was the frequency of a heartbeat.

The tiny vibrations were extremely stable, transmitting from Gu Jiancheng’s skin, through his blood vessels, all the way to his heart, as if even his bones were vibrating along with it.

Gu Jiancheng raised his left hand and gently pressed it over his heart. The bracelet’s vibration was perfectly in sync with his heartbeat. His frantic heartbeat seemed to have finally found its rhythm. It clung tightly to that regular vibration, like a ship that had finally found its harbor in a raging storm.

The two different frequencies of vibration slowly merged into one.

Gu Jiancheng closed his eyes, and the cold, crazy, terrifying aura around him gradually dissolved.

Across a distance of several thousand kilometers, his lover was still watching over him.

The surging dark shadows receded.