127. Are you planning to sacrifice your sister to achieve the Dao as well?

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Golden sunlight struggled through the sandstorm and barely made its way into the apartment. After preparing breakfast, Nayudo removed her apron and went to knock on her brother’s door.

“Brother, if you don’t get up now, you’ll be late for school!”

Nayudo knocked more than a dozen times in succession, but her brother did not respond—not even with a word of acknowledgment.

Growing anxious, she pushed the door open. Then she froze.

The disheveled young man sat weakly on the bed. His face was deathly pale, his lips blue, and his bloodshot eyes were surrounded by heavy dark circles. He looked as though he had spent the entire night awake in a state of extreme terror.

If Nayudo had not heard Chen Shang’s eyelids twitching repeatedly, she might have thought her brother was dying.

“Brother!” Nayudo hurried to his bedside and touched his forehead. “Why do you have a fever?”

“I... I’m fine...” Chen Shang moved his lips, barely managing to utter the words and force a pale smile.

“You’re not fine at all!” Nayudo hurried out of the room to find fever medicine and a thermometer.

Watching his sister leave, Chen Shang could not help sighing.

At last, he understood why those who left the Abyssal Otherworld became so deranged and eventually chose suicide. If it were him, he was afraid he would not last even a month before ending his own life in a frenzy of madness.

“He’s awake...”

“He didn’t sleep well last night...”

“He seems able to see us...”

“Should we eat him, then?”

“...”

Once again, Chen Shang heard vague voices rising around him. Several hazy, ghostly figures had gathered outside the bedroom window, whispering among themselves. Pairs of blood-red eyes stared fixedly at him through the gaps in the curtains.

Ever since he had lain down in bed the previous night, Chen Shang had felt that his senses were sharper than usual. He had also begun seeing strange things.

From time to time, shadows flitted and lingered outside his window, asking in hoarse voices like demonic whispers whether he could see them or not.

He managed to drag his gaze away from the window, only to shudder when he looked toward his wardrobe.

He could almost see numerous figures hiding inside the wardrobe, outside the bedroom door, and beneath the bed. It seemed that countless ghastly pale eyeballs were secretly watching him, leaving him nowhere to hide.

Chen Shang wanted to scream, but it felt as though something had been shoved down his throat. He tried to close his eyes and sleep, yet the eerie noises kept him restless for a long time.

In the end, unable to endure it any longer, he felt beneath the bed, pulled out a bottle of oral tranquilizers, and swallowed it all. Only then did he manage to fall asleep—after which he spent the entire night suffering through a chain of nightmares.

He opened his system panel to check his current condition. As expected, things were exactly as bad as he had feared:

[Basic Attributes: Strength 2.5, Constitution 2.5, Dexterity 2.5, Intelligence 2.5, Inspiration 2.5 (8), Charisma 2.5]

[Sanity: 4/70]

[Abnormal Status 1: Mediumistic Delusional Disorder]

[Description: You are displaying obvious symptoms of delusion and seem able to see entities that do not originate from this world, although you do not know whether they truly exist or are merely products of your imagination... Method of removal? Sorry, try letting time smooth everything over.]

[Abnormal Status 2: Corrupted Memories]

[Description: #￥%... kill... &* everyone...?]

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Yes. Judging solely from the panel, he was now almost indistinguishable from a madman.

In particular, his Inspiration 2.5 (8) meant that his actual Inspiration attribute was 2.5, but it had been temporarily enhanced to 8 by a special buff.

Before long, Nayudo returned to Chen Shang’s bedroom with a small medicine kit and placed a thermometer in his mouth.

“Brother, I’ll take your temperature first, then make you some cold medicine...” Nayudo was visibly anxious as she bustled around beside his bed. “If you’re feeling really awful, I won’t go to school today. I’ll stay home and take care of you.”

“No... no need. Go to school... I’ll be fine after getting some rest.” Chen Shang struggled to steady his breathing so that his voice would not sound too faint.

In truth, he desperately wanted someone to stay with him. At the same time, however, he could not wait to get Nayudo away from him.

That was because, in addition to seeing inexplicable ghosts and monsters, he was suffering from a second symptom called Corrupted Memories.

Chen Shang did not know where this symptom had come from, but the moment he saw Nayudo, a strange thought surfaced in his mind:

Kill her! Strangle her to death!

The instant he laid eyes on Nayudo, a voice whispered those words in his ear, throwing his thoughts into confusion.

For some reason, he was now intensely agitated. He wanted to strangle Nayudo to death immediately—or rather, it was not only Nayudo. He wanted to strangle every living person he saw.

Fear and murderous intent clashed within him, almost tearing his consciousness apart.

Chen Shang did not know whether this was the effect of Corrupted Memories, but he still urged his sister to leave as soon as possible.

“Nayudo, go to school... I’ll be fine on my own.”

“But your fever is so serious, Brother. I should stay and take care of you!” Nayudo’s gaze was resolute.

Chen Shang thought for a moment, then said firmly, “I can at least take care of myself. Don’t treat me like an invalid. Besides, since I’m not going to school today, I’ll need someone to bring me today’s homework and notes, won’t I?”

Nayudo was a sensitive girl and immediately realized that her brother was trying to send her away. She could only give him her instructions in a quiet voice.

“Then... Brother, you have to take good care of yourself. I’ll come see you during lunch break...”

After making sure he had everything he needed, Nayudo left the apartment with worry written all over her face.

When Chen Shang heard the entrance door open and close, he finally let out a sigh of relief. The murderous intent lingering in his mind also faded somewhat. The phantom forms of monsters appeared around him once more, whispering to him in terrifying voices.

He did not drink the cold medicine Nayudo had prepared. He knew he was not sick; there was merely something wrong with his mind.

Clutching his splitting headache, Chen Shang reached beneath the bed again and pulled out a bottle of tranquilizers he had obtained on the black market. He swallowed it all.

No. This cannot continue.

To be honest, Chen Shang had regretted his reckless decision to enter the Abyssal Otherworld alone and explore it the previous night. He had to admit that he had become somewhat overconfident, believing that possessing a system and several powerful companions meant he could do whatever he pleased.

Chen Shang knew too little about the Abyss. Nor had he expected his two undead friends to be unable to accompany him inside. That was what had caused him, a man accustomed to relying on his teammates, to suffer such a sudden and disastrous setback.

In any case, only two choices now lay before him.

The first was to pretend that nothing had happened and never explore that kind of hellish place again. He could remain an carefree ordinary high school student, living a fulfilling life by seeking amusement and wrecking the game’s established order.

The second was to investigate everything to the very root, determine what had happened to the world, and uncover the true identity of the Goddess of the Abyss—as well as the reason she had called to him.

But whichever path he chose, he first had to restore his mental state.

Chen Shang remembered that Night Pivot City was home to an exceptionally skilled mental healer. Finding him would take some effort, but if Chen Shang wanted to cure his current condition, he was undoubtedly the best choice.

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“Ding-dong—”

Just then, a new message arrived on Chen Shang’s phone.

He opened it and saw that it was from Black Calyce.

He had barely been in proper contact with Black Calyce since the last Grand Tournament. She had not even followed up on the matters he had asked her to investigate—the other world and the Velvet Alchemy Workshop.

Little Chen, I heard from the Executioner that you’ve run into trouble.

Chen Shang typed back: “I have, actually.”

What a coincidence. I happen to have something I want to ask you about, too. The tracker I installed on you showed that you suddenly disappeared yesterday, so I was just about to ask what happened~

“What? You installed a tracker on me?”

Of course. I secretly put it on you after the last Grand Tournament. Do you have a problem with that?

“Not that—why did you install something like that on me?”

To protect you~ Is that not allowed?

The text message raised gooseflesh all over Chen Shang’s body.

“I don’t have time to joke around with you. I’m genuinely in trouble.”

Then I might be able to help you solve it~ I’ll send you an address. Come find me.

“Come find you?” Chen Shang was stunned.

Although he was the game’s planner, he had absolutely no idea what Black Calyce really looked like or where she lived.

The mysterious female hacker had suddenly invited him to her home, and he found himself inexplicably tense with anticipation.

“Ding-dong—”

Five seconds later, Black Calyce sent him a location.

Chen Shang looked at it. Black Calyce was in Paradise District, which meant he would have to cross nearly half of Night Pivot City to get there.

“That’s pretty far...” he muttered casually.

When he looked up, however, he found a blood-red figure in a bathrobe standing before him, staring at him through shattered eyes.

“Hey... you can see me, right? Good morning...”

Damn it. The hallucinations are back.

Chen Shang felt as though someone had squeezed his heart again. He could only turn his head away as if nothing had happened, pretending that he could not see the ghostly monster.

He knew he could not go on like this. Rather than lie at home and wait to die, he might as well go ask Black Calyce what was happening.

Although Black Calyce always gave off an unreliable impression, she had never actually botched anything for him.

Chen Shang grabbed a coat from the bedside table, stuffed several bottles of tranquilizers into his pockets, and rose to leave the apartment.

17081/9468052

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