Vol. 1 - Ch. 16 - Dance of Slaughter

Opening his eyes again, a familiar light fooded his vision."Back here again..." Chen Ling adjusted to the brightness of the spotlight, his gaze slowly scanning the surroundings.

The familiar old stage, black curtains, and a sea of occupied audience seats. He had returned to this nightmare.

"It seems that as long as I sleep or die, I will come back here." Chen Ling concluded this from several experiences.

Since he regained control of his body, those absent spectators had returned to the theater. Although their gazes seemed displeased, at least there was no intention to strike again.

Chen Ling's gaze naturally slid to the screen in the center of the stage:

"【Audience Expectation Value: 24%】"

From the historical records, the moment he regained control of his body, the expectation value automatically rose to 20%. After experiencing the mental battles with the enforcers, the expectation value increased again, finally stabilizing at 24%.

"Last time, death directly deducted 50% of the expectation value. What will happen if next time my expectation value drops below 50%...?"

Chen Ling didn't know the answer, but he guessed that if the expectation value became negative, he would most likely die permanently and be occupied by the 'audience,' never able to turn the tide.

Just as Chen Ling was about to look away, he suddenly noticed a trembling little chest in the lower right corner of the screen.

He clearly remembered that there was no such thing the first time he entered the theater.

After hesitating for a moment, Chen Ling tentatively reached out his hand and tapped the chest...

Dum-dum-dum-dum—!

The moment Chen Ling's fingertip touched the chest, a thrilling music burst out from the speakers on both sides of the stage.

The sudden music startled Chen Ling. The next moment, several spotlights moved to his back. He turned to look and found a table appearing out of thin air in the center of the stage.

It was an ordinary wooden table, seemingly old, but it blended seamlessly with the wooden floor of the stage. The beams of the spotlights shone on the table, creating a pale halo that reflected on a piece of paper.

Chen Ling headed towards the wooden table. The two beams of light moved closer to each other until they merged into a single beam.

On the paper, a few lines of small text were written at the top.

"Detected the audience expectation value exceeding 60% for the first time, unlocking the achievement—'Mostly Positive Feedback'!"

"You gain an additional lottery chance."

"When used, randomly select a character skill to learn from all the characters in this performance."

Chen Ling's gaze swept over these words. Before he could react, the white paper suddenly disappeared, replaced by cards placed on the table.

These cards were of various colors, mostly white and gray, with occasional blue ones.

The patterns on the surface ranged from simple to complex, and the brighter the color, the more advanced the pattern, and the more precious it looked.

At the next moment, those cards simultaneously flipped over, revealing a uniform back, then overlapped astonishingly quickly, finally dispersing neatly on the tabletop.

Chen Ling also attempted to trace the trace of those blue cards, but this eerie shuffling method simply couldn't be tracked with the naked eye.

"To think there's still a chance to draw... It seems not everything in this theater is bad."

Chen Ling took a deep breath, randomly selected a card in front of him, and gently flipped it over onto the table...

It was a blue card.

After Chen Ling made his choice, all the remaining cards disappeared simultaneously, and at the same time, several lines of text appeared on the blue card.

"Skill: [Slaughter Dance]"

"Belongs to: Soldier God Dao, [Judgment] path, third tier."

"Character: Han Meng."

Seeing the two words "Han Meng", Chen Ling automatically recalled the figure of the enforcer he had fought back and forth with the red paper monster last night... At this moment, only one thought remained in his mind.

This is a win!

Since Chen Ling crossed over, among all the people he had seen, Han Meng was undoubtedly the strongest in combat power.

Although Chen Ling couldn't understand what "Soldier God Dao," "[Judgment] path," and "third tier" meant, there was no doubt that he had drawn the best option available at the moment.

The blue card transformed into nothingness, and Chen Ling felt something inexplicable within him, extremely mysterious.

"Thanks for the gift," Chen Ling said somewhat embarrassedly.

By stealing... no, by learning this skill from Han Meng, in a sense, Han Meng was his benefactor... But just a few hours ago, he had beaten up his "benefactor" and even knocked him out.

That blow... shouldn't have killed his benefactor, right?

He felt a little guilty.

...

The vermilion calamity danced wildly above his head.

The terrifying pressure made one's soul tremble. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NøᴠᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

A slender hand emerged from the calamity and pressed onto his head... as if the hand of a deity falling from the heavens, ruling over the world.

On the sickbed, Han Meng suddenly opened his eyes wide, almost jumping up directly.

"Gah—"

The severe pain in the back of his head made him grimace, the world before his eyes swayed, and he fell back onto the bed once again.

"Meng-ge!" A law enforcer dozing off next to him was startled, immediately supporting his figure. "Meng-ge! What are you doing? Don't move around, don't break the wires..."

Lying on the bed, Han Meng finally recovered his senses after considerable effort, and asked blankly, "Where is this?"

"The hospital!"

"What about that long hand... no, what about that red calamity?"

"It..." The law enforcer paused, "It seems to have escaped. When we arrived at the scene, we only saw you lying there..."

Fragmented memories flooded Han Meng's mind, and he couldn't help but touch the back of his head, grimacing in pain.

Does this calamity... like to ambush from behind?

"How's the situation now? Any other casualties?"

"Not for the moment. After you finished fighting, that calamity didn't show up again. It's estimated that you hurt it too badly."

"I..." Han Meng was about to say that he didn't actually hurt it at all, but hesitated for a moment and swallowed the words back.

In front of his subordinates, he still needed to maintain his image.

"What time is it?"

"Six fifty."

"... Help me up."

"Meng-ge, the doctor said you need to rest..."

"Rest my ass!" Han Meng gritted his teeth and stood up. "That calamity is very cunning. If we let it go on like this, it will cause big trouble sooner or later!"

"Cunning? Meng-ge, do you mean dangerous..." This law enforcer was also quite knowledgeable, but it was the first time he heard someone describe a calamity as "cunning."

"Dangerous, but even more cunning!"

Han Meng subconsciously touched the back of his head, "And, I suspect it may have truly merged with a human..."

"A Fusioner?" With these words, the law enforcer's face changed drastically. "Should we immediately inform Aurora City?"

Upon hearing the latter half of the sentence, Han Meng gradually calmed down. "No, not yet. I need to investigate further... Right now, it's just my speculation, without any theoretical basis."

"Then what should we do now..."

"Let's go to headquarters first. Those newly arrived reserve members should be ready soon. We'll discuss the specifics on the way."

"Alright."