Chapter 96
Rong Nian was about to die of fury.
He had never known that he was only one of many “best buds” to his late online friend.
In fact, Lin Chao had far more than just a dozen or so [best buds].
Word was that another twenty-odd [best buds] had also passed away after watching that same horror movie.
The dozen or so who remained were only spared because they either didn’t care for movies or had been too busy to find the time to watch it.
“This child always got along well with people since he was little,” Lin Chao’s mother wiped her tears. “He loved making friends and loved watching movies. His dad and I thought it was a pretty good hobby—it didn’t cost much money and it expanded his horizons. Who could have known that an anomaly would appear inside a movie…”
Because Rong Nian “cried” so heartbreakingly, he stood out significantly among the gathering of [best buds] who had come to pay their respects. The Lin parents felt that he must have had the closest relationship with their son, so they specifically invited them into the inner room to pay their respects.
Rong Nian couldn’t bear to look at Lin Chao’s funeral portrait at all. After a single glance, he buried his face right back into Luo Shizhen’s chest, absolutely refusing to look up.
This only made the Lin parents even more certain that he shared a profound bond with their son.
Otherwise, why would he be so grief-stricken that he couldn’t even bring himself to face the portrait?
When Cheng Yunshao inquired about the movie, they answered truthfully.
“It seems it was recommended by a friend of his,” she said. “He loved watching movies and would even write reviews after finishing them. He usually made more from doing that than a regular job, so we just let him be.”
“That night, he even told us in advance that he was going to watch a horror movie for a review and asked us not to disturb him in his room. But the next morning when I called him for breakfast and pushed open the door, I saw him, he…”
The Lin parents burst into tears once more, and an accompanying aunt immediately began comforting them before turning to look at the young men.
“If Lin Chao ever sent you links or discs before, whatever you do, do not open them to watch. Those weren’t sent by him; they were sent by that anomaly.”
Luo Shizhen caught the key piece of information and immediately looked over. “Sent by the anomaly? An anomaly can send messages?”
“Yes. Lin Chao was filming himself while watching the movie, so it was all recorded. That anomaly used his computer to send them; the mouse moved all by itself.”
The Lin family was explaining this intentionally.
Quite a few of Lin Chao’s friends and relatives had been killed by the anomaly because they clicked on the links sent from his account.
Seeing their loved ones pass away so suddenly, their families naturally wanted to trace the root cause. This search led them straight to the Lin family’s doorstep. Some came to weep and make a scene, while others demanded compensation from the Lin family, believing that Lin Chao had caused the deaths of their relatives.
Fortunately, Lin Chao had been recording at the time, capturing the moment the anomaly impersonated him to send the messages. This proved that it was the anomaly’s doing and couldn’t be blamed on Lin Chao.
Even so, there were still people who came to make trouble for the Lin family. The Lin family was truly terrified, so whenever they met a stranger, they made sure to clarify the situation beforehand.
Cheng Yunshao asked, “Could we watch that recording?”
The Lin family agreed readily. “Of course, feel free to watch it.”
They had already handed out countless copies of this video just to prove their son’s innocence.
Once Cheng Yunshao got the video, he sent it straight to the group chat, and everyone pulled out their phones to watch.
In the video, Lin Chao was initially watching the movie normally, occasionally voicing his thoughts to the screen and making exaggerated expressions.
He hadn’t noticed yet that a well was slowly materializing out of thin air on the dark floor.
Then, the woman with red clothes and long hair slowly crawled out, heading straight for him.
Lin Chao first wanted to drink a cola, but the can was pulled away by the woman.
He fumbled around in the dark a few times, failing to find the cola, so he simply retracted his hand and continued watching the movie.
Next was eating potato chips, but when he reached his hand into the bag, he touched the woman’s cold fingers with long fingernails.
In the footage, he obviously froze, slowly turning his head, and locked eyes with the woman.
The woman in red lunged violently, and accompanied by Lin Chao’s miserable scream, the screen crackled into static.
When it recovered, Lin Chao had already passed away with a look of pure horror, and the woman in red crawled back into the well.
The mouse on the desk moved slightly, and the computer screen switched to various social media platforms. Message after message was sent out, as if an invisible pair of hands were operating it.
“This is way too much like a horror movie… Lin Chao was basically scared to death.”
Even the usually composed Cheng Yunshao felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he watched.
Luo Shizhen, however, wasn’t as afraid as before. Instead, he zoomed in directly on the blurry shape of the woman in red.
“It really looks like a movie.”
He even directly pulled up a scene from a horror movie on his tablet to compare it with the footage from Lin Chao’s room.
“I can’t quite put it into words, but I just feel like they look very similar.”
Chu Xiao also knit his brows and leaned over to look.
“If it wanted to frighten Lin Chao, the right side would definitely have been best. But this anomaly chose the left side, and it did so several times. The positions it chose were all places that would be captured by the camera.”
Cheng Yunshao gradually began to understand. “It’s as if frightening Lin Chao wasn’t the goal—frightening the people watching the video is the real objective.”
Luo Shizhen discovered another point. Zooming in on a certain frame, he said, “Look, is this anomaly looking at us?”
These words sent a chill down everyone’s spines. Even though they were indoors, it felt as though a blast of cold wind had just blown past.
Luo Shizhen, however, was completely unaffected, still diligently zooming in to verify.
“It really seems like it. It’s like she’s staring at us right through the screen.”
He tried several different angles—left, right, and from below. He even lifted the tablet slightly to look up at it. In the screen, one of the anomaly’s eyes was hidden behind its hair, leaving only the other exposed. No matter how he changed his angle, it continued to stare at him with a frigid glare.
No matter how terrifying the atmosphere was, it was completely dispelled by Luo Shizhen’s earnest attitude of seeking verification.
Rong Nian forgot all about his resentment toward humans being liars. “Shizhen, aren’t you afraid at all?”
“I was afraid before, but I’m not anymore,” Luo Shizhen answered honestly. “I was afraid before because our attacks would pass right through it. But Sui-laoshi said that as long as we find its physical body, we can attack it normally, so I’m not afraid.”
He had run away before because he thought they couldn’t beat it.
But as long as there was a way to fight normally, what was there to fear?
Hearing Luo Shizhen say this, the other members of Squad 1, who had been somewhat influenced by Chinese-style horror, also returned to their normal states.
“Yeah, it’s just an anomaly that reaps human lives by exploiting fear. If we truly give in to fear, we’ll only give it an opening to exploit.”
Cheng Yunshao admired Luo Shizhen more and more.
He always seemed able to see the very core of things; no matter what outward appearances lay on the surface, they could never affect Luo Shizhen’s judgment.
Instead, it was him—someone who always prided himself on being the intellectual peak of the squad—who had actually let fear affect him.
Cheng Yunshao found himself somewhat reluctant to look away from Luo Shizhen. He picked up his phone and zoomed in on the red figure on the screen.
“It left these images behind on purpose to spread them through the movie and the internet, deepening people’s awareness of fear toward it. Then, it follows this fear to teleport right in front of the people who watch these images and videos.”
“As far as anomalies go, it isn’t high-rank. But theoretically speaking, as long as someone feels fear because of it, it can appear.”
Chu Xiao also noted, “According to our investigation, the people who passed away because of this movie basically all knew Lin Chao. It might be because before this, this anomaly had only just been born, or perhaps it hadn’t found more vessels yet.”
Lu Qiujin added, “But Lin Chao made friends extensively and had joined over a dozen movie group chats. After the anomaly murdered him, it impersonated him to send the film, which is why so many victims suddenly appeared.”
The fact that this movie could even be sent to Rong Nian, who had always detested humans, and actually prompt him to open and watch it, was more than enough proof of how vast Lin Chao’s social circle had been.
Luo Shizhen immediately thought of something. “Then will the people who watched this video also be targeted?”
Xiao Shan held his phone. “I’ll call immediately to have Yongzhou ban any further distribution of this video.”
“Ah…”
Just as he was about to make the call, a news notification popped up.
[Anomaly Murder Scene Captured on Film]
Xiao Shan: “…Which news outlet is this? This is way too fast, isn’t it?”
Cheng Yunshao glanced at the news that had already surged onto the hot search list. “Look on the bright side—this might have been posted by the anomaly itself.”
Xiao Shan: …That actually sounds even more terrifying.
Cheng Yunshao: “If it wants to level up, it needs to hunt more humans. The internet is the fastest way to propagate fear. Even if we take down the video now, it’s already too late for the people who have seen it.”
He felt a bit of a headache coming on. “Even if we tell the people who watched the video to be careful, the moment they become aware of it, what might have been just a single sliver of fear will instantly skyrocket. So taking down the video requires a good excuse to prevent those who watched it from growing suspicious.”
“The people who watched the video need to be protected. But if we tell them, it’ll only make them more afraid. If we don’t tell them, they might still secretly harbor fear… It’s truly a dilemma.”
Luo Shizhen, however, looked through the comments below the news and said, “As long as we stop them from feeling fear, it’ll be fine, right?”
Chu Xiao shook his head. “As long as a person retains consciousness, they will inevitably have thoughts. We can’t control them to keep them from feeling afraid.”
Luo Shizhen: “We can make them lose consciousness.”
The others froze. “What?”
Luo Shizhen didn’t understand why everyone couldn’t think of the answer to such a simple question.
“We tell the people who watched the video that they might be in danger, then gather them together and knock them out.”
As he mentioned knocking them out, he even instinctively raised his hand, looking as if he were ready to strike someone unconscious at any moment.
“While they are unconscious, we go capture that anomaly. As long as we catch it before everyone wakes up, it’ll be fine.”
Cheng Yunshao stared blankly at Luo Shizhen, suddenly feeling as if a light bulb had clicked in his mind.
“Exactly! Yes! It’s so simple, why didn’t I think of it just now? As long as we make them lose consciousness, without consciousness, they won’t feel fear. We can contact Yongzhou and have these people taken to nearby hospitals to fall into a deep sleep through anesthesia.”
“Then, we have our own personnel watch the movie to generate fear, acting as bait to lure that anomaly out!”
This would be a massive operation, but for Yongzhou, it was absolutely something that could be accomplished with ease.
“Shizhen!! You really are a genius!”
Cheng Yunshao wrapped an arm around Luo Shizhen’s shoulder. This solution seemed simple at first glance, but most ordinary people would find it incredibly difficult to think of. The social knowledge they had accumulated in the past and their subconscious regard for human rights would block them from thinking in this direction.
Yet Luo Shizhen, who clearly appeared somewhat clumsy usually, possessed thoughts as pure as a child who had never been tainted by society since birth.
He had devised a path that no one had ever taken before.
Cheng Yunshao looked at Luo Shizhen with what could even be called astonishment. Waves of relatively unfamiliar, intense emotion welled up in his heart, making him want to wrap his arms around him.
And he did exactly that.
Luo Shizhen felt embarrassed by the praise, but he was very happy to be hugged.
He had always known Cheng Yunshao was smart. For someone as intelligent as Cheng Yunshao to call him a genius—
He felt incredibly happy, warm, and even a bit proud.
The current Luo Shizhen was no longer as uncomfortable with his own intelligence as he had been back at No. 3 High School.
He was indeed slow, but it seemed he was also growing.
Luo Shizhen now faintly realized what Sui-laoshi meant when he said that when a person grows up, they will naturally know.
He could clearly perceive that he was truly much smarter now than before. Although his mind still didn’t spin that fast, as long as he put in some effort, he could still keep up with his teammates.
The corners of Luo Shizhen’s lips couldn’t help but turn up slightly, and his eyes were filled with vibrant spirit. He even seemed to straighten his chest a bit more.
The thoughts of wisdom or hidden brilliance that usually filled Cheng Yunshao’s mind were entirely stalled by this sudden chest-straightening.
Only then did he notice that he was truly embracing Luo Shizhen, and Luo Shizhen was affectionately returning the hug.
The young Purifier looked at him with trust and joy. The two were inches apart, and he could even feel the other’s breath.
Noticing that Cheng Yunshao had suddenly gone somewhat stiff for some reason, Luo Shizhen instinctively patted his back, seriously stating his own plan:
“Also, Yongzhou just sent a message saying that the pollution medicine has been packaged. We can ship the medicine out now.”
“Once everyone knows there’s an antidote for pollution, their fear of anomalies should decrease as well, right?”
Aside from the fear of being killed, what people feared most about anomalies was being polluted.
With medicine available, they definitely wouldn’t be as terrified as before.
The more Luo Shizhen thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. He wanted to get Cheng Yunshao’s validation, but when he looked over, his eyes widened in shock.
“Cheng Yunshao? Your nose is bleeding?”
Cheng Yunshao immediately looked up at the sky. “Too much internal heat.”
Luo Shizhen believed him instantly.
Although the weather looked like it would make it difficult to develop excessive internal heat, perhaps this was just Cheng Yunshao’s constitution.
For instance, Lu Qiujin had a constitution that was always running hot.
Cheng Yunshao was usually quite fragile and couldn’t fight as well as the others, so it was perfectly logical for his body to be a bit weaker.
Luo Shizhen quickly pulled out a tissue from the side to help him wipe it away. Because he was helping him wipe, he drew even closer to Cheng Yunshao.
“How come it’s bleeding even more the more I wipe?”
He was deeply worried.
Cheng Yunshao’s body really was quite weak.
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