Vol. 1 - Ch. 10 - The Audience

Gulping nervously, Chen Tan couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva."This... How is this possible??" He croaked, "No heart, head nearly chopped off, yet he’s still able to move?"

"Where did his costume come from? Didn't we leave him without dressing him?!"

"I don't know!!!" Li Xiuchun was completely consumed by fear, her answers incoherent, "When he crawled out from underground, he was already wearing this costume... It's the one we buried him in last night! He's a ghost... He really is a ghost!! A ghost came to claim our lives!"

"Nonsense! There are no ghosts in this world!" Chen Tan shouted.

The scene before them was too bizarre. Chen Tan's legs weakened with fear, but he finally gathered his courage and picked up a kitchen knife from the ground, thrusting it towards Chen Ling's face!

He had killed Chen Ling twice, so he could kill him for the third time. Whatever was inside his body, besides looking terrifying, didn't seem as horrifying as the disasters rumored outside. This gave Chen Tan a considerable amount of courage.

The sharp kitchen knife sliced through the air, but just as it was about to touch Chen Ling, it abruptly stopped in mid-air.

Chen Tan froze, his hand gripping the knife tightly. However,he couldn't move it forward even a fraction of an inch, as if there was an invisible hand gripping the blade, firmly holding it in place in mid-air.

"Heehee."

An eerie chuckle echoed from behind Chen Ling.

In the next moment, the kitchen knife in Chen Tan's hand disappeared into thin air, replaced by a slender red paper.

With dilated pupils, Chen Ling chewed and swallowed all the axes and knives in his mouth, staring straight at Chen Tan. He advanced slowly, mechanically repeating the same sentence in a hoarse voice, "Dad, I'm hungry."

Three simple words, yet they made Chen Tan's scalp tingle!

He had no doubt that Chen Ling would grab his head in the next moment and forcibly shove it into his mouth, chewing and crushing it... His bones wouldn't be any harder than the axes and knives!

"Run!! Go find the enforcement officers outside!!"

Chen Tan turned and sprinted towards the door!

Chen Tan knew that the current situation was beyond their control... The only way out now was to find the enforcement officers for help. Those powerful enforcement officers must have a way to deal with calamities!

As for how the enforcement officers would judge their deliberate killings and organ theft, that was a matter for later. In any case, going to jail was better than losing their lives.

Li Xiuchun, trembling on the side, was also brought back to her senses by this shout, scrambling towards the closed door.

Taking advantage of Chen Ling's attention being focused on Chen Tan, she managed to reach the door, reaching out for the handle...

Grabbing onto absolutely nothing.

Li Xiuchun lowered her head in confusion, only to find that the door handle had disappeared... No, not just the handle, the entire door had turned into a picture on a red paper, transitioning from three-dimensional to two-dimensional.

She couldn't open a door drawn on paper.

"Heeheeheehee..."

The voices piled up from all directions, as if the room was now filled with countless invisible figures... They stared at the two, their crimson eyes full of mockery.

Red paper fluttered around Li Xiuchun, and in a daze, she saw one eerie face after another.

She screamed continuously, backing away, her eyes filled only with pure terror.

Finally, her eyes rolled back, and her entire body slumped to the ground, losing consciousness...

【Audience Expectation -1】

【Current Expectation: 16%】

Meanwhile, Chen Tan felt the ground give way beneath him, and he fell heavily to the ground. He turned around in bewilderment, only to find the entire ground turning red, surging like waves.

He stared blankly at the approaching figure of Chen Ling in red, as if realizing something, he shouted in horror:

"It's true... what the enforcement officers said is true!"

"You're a Calamity!"

"You're the calamity that took over Chen Ling's body!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Ling stopped in his tracks. The corners of his crimson mouth lifted slightly, and he gestured for silence with a pale finger pressed to his lips.

"Hush—"

Just as the endless red paper was about to engulf Chen Tan, two bursts of glass shattering came from the side!

"Traces of Calmity found at Frost Street 128!! Damage assessment level four! Immediate request for enforcement officer support!!"

Two figures in black and red uniforms burst in through the broken window, and one of them quickly surveyed the room and spoke up.

"Received, support is on the way, try to hold off the opponent as much as possible!" A solemn voice came from the walkie-talkie around one of the enforcement officer's waist.

One of the officers chuckled bitterly, "Level four calamity, how could we possibly hold them off?"

Seeing the sudden intrusion of the two officers, the ethereal audience let out a light exclamation, as if they had discovered a more interesting toy.

With a flick of his hand, Chen Ling knocked Chen Tan out, who was lying on the ground. Blood flowed from his seven orifices, gradually staining the ground beneath his feet...

"Create some distance! Preserve your lives!" One of the officers quickly retreated, drawing his gun from his waist and pulling the trigger!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Brass bullets pierced the emptiness, but before they could reach Chen Ling, they turned into tiny red paper shreds, dissipating into the air.

Chen Ling raised his hand gently, and countless paper shreds emerged from the wide sleeves of his robe, binding the two officers' figures like wriggling snakes.

The paper shreds encasing the two suddenly twisted, like twisted ropes, before falling heavily to the ground.

【Audience Expectation -1】

【Current Expectation: 15%】

The figure of Chen Ling gradually expanded, and the costume was forcibly stretched open, as if there were faces about to burst out from under the skin, and chaotic whispers filled the space.

In just a few seconds, he turned into a monster with red paper tentacles floating all over his body, and pairs of crimson pupils opened from the paper, no longer showing any resemblance to Chen Ling.

It violently broke through the paper door and rushed into the deserted streets, rain falling on its body without making a sound. It randomly faced a direction, turning into a crimson blur, flying away!

Almost simultaneously, a figure in black cut through the dark clouds, swiftly following behind.

"Target calamity detected," Han Meng calmly spoke.

"...Is it 'World Destruction' level?" Concerned voices came through the communicator.

"From the aura, at most it's only level five. It seems there was indeed a Calamity last night, but the pointer misjudged the opponent's energy intensity." S~ᴇaʀᴄh the n0vᴇl(ꜰ)ire.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"Level five is still quite dangerous! Be careful, Brother Meng!"

Han Meng remained silent. He followed the red remnants to the outskirts of Zone Three, then suddenly descended like a cannonball!

Boom!!

The black meteor crashed into the wilderness, creating an invisible shockwave!

Shattered sand sprayed in all directions. The red blur was forced to halt, its dense paper tentacles swaying lightly in the wind. All eyes turned to the dust-laden area.

A figure lowered its head to light a thick cigar, stepped out slowly, the hem of its black windbreaker faintly glowing with four silver lines.

An invisible domain expanded like a gentle breeze, enveloping the red paper monster within.

"I am Han Meng, Chief Enforcement Officer of the Aurora Zone Three."

With a cigarette between his fingers, he drew a black pistol from his waist, thumb pulling down the safety. The sand and stones in the domain seemingly trembled slightly, a sense of impending danger locking onto the red paper monster!

His lips parted, his words carrying the rhythm of some kind of law:

"I uphold the justice of human civilization..."

"I judge you to death."