Gada, gada, gada.
The sound of teeth chewing bones could be clearly heard in the darkness, making one's scalp tingle and feet cold.
Song Yang listened for a while and identified it: "...Is it the sound of a wild beast gnawing?"
A certain thought suddenly popped up in everyone's mind.
Xia Jing slowly uttered a word: "Bear?"
Lu Chenfei had already taken out his flashlight and asked, "Do you want to turn it on and take a look?"
Song Yang pressed him down and said, "Wait, let's wait and see what happens."
…
On the other side, Lu Caihui was struggling and rolling around, shouting, "An animal is eating me! There are wild beasts—Chai Feng, Chai—"
Wang Yuan and the other three entrepreneurs seemed to be frightened.
In the darkness, they didn't know where Lu Caihui was, and could only barely make out that he was opposite them.
But now, they didn't dare to go any closer after hearing the horrible sound. They all pressed against the wall of the cave, sweating profusely.
Lu Caihui has become a wealthy entrepreneur, so he must be smart.
He lost his composure before simply because he was suddenly faced with a death threat and was psychologically unable to accept it.
At this moment, he was struggling in pain, and suddenly something occurred to him. He roared, "Bear?! Chai Feng, are you eating me?!"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the cave was shocked.
Chai Feng was even more stunned.
He took out a knife, groped his way in from the cave entrance, and said with a frown, "Mr. Lu, calm down. How could it be me? Wait a moment, I'll come to you now."
Dean Wang suddenly realized what was happening and snapped, "That 'Jiang Ying' said you're a bear, a hungry bear!"
Chai Fengyi was stunned.
Lu Caihui was still being eaten. His right shoulder and arm had been bitten off. At this moment, the beast's sharp teeth pierced his right cheek.
Lu Caihui screamed in pain, rushed out from the darkness and pounced on Chai Feng.
Chai Feng only felt a gust of wind carrying a bloody smell coming towards him. He came to his senses and subconsciously dodged.
The next second, a scream was heard, and Lu Caihui's voice rushed out from the cave entrance and quickly disappeared below.
He fell down.
The two psychics were horrified when they heard the noise. They were terrified in the darkness and dared not move.
And Wang Yuan and the others are going crazy.
Dean Wang yelled, "Where's the bodyguard? Is the bodyguard still here? Pull him down, pull him down!"
Chai Feng stood alone in the darkness.
Just at that moment, he seemed to have vaguely sensed something in his astonishment.
As if their senses were connected, he felt another self in the dark cave.
They were connected by a string, and from this moment on, he could control the other him.
Chai Fengzhang moved his five fingers, and the beast in the darkness let out heavy, hungry gasps.
Chai Feng trembled, and a surprising light appeared in his eyes.
Lu Caihui and his group were right, and so were the "Jiang Camp" groups.
He really is a hungry bear.
And this bear is his "power".
…
Hearing Wang Yuan's roar, the two bodyguards who were still hanging on the rope and did not dare to climb up were hesitant and at a loss.
Then they heard Chai Feng's voice coming from above their heads.
The man's voice suddenly became unusually calm: "Are you going to pull me down?"
At this moment, a chill instantly rushed from the top of the head to the toes.
The two bodyguards immediately denied it: "No, no."
Upon hearing these two replies, Wang Yuan said angrily, "Why would I hire you—Ahhhh!"
He screamed.
Ye Shui and another entrepreneur who were right next to him clearly heard the beast's panting and the sound of Wang Yuan's bones being crushed!
They were so frightened that they ran away crawling.
Ye Shui fled to the other side of the cave wall, but another entrepreneur was so panicked that he rushed out of the cave, stepped on empty air, and fell down!
So many people were killed in just two minutes!
The two psychics said in fear: "Chai Feng, you——"
Chai Feng asked, "What's the matter?"
The two of them fell silent immediately.
At this moment, no one dared to speak or move.
In the dead silent cave, Chai Feng became the only ruler of the cave.
…
On the other side, the four kidnapped people could no longer sit still after hearing the terrifying noise.
The tall man said anxiously, "What the hell is going on? The NPC said that guy was a bear, and at 'night' he really turned into a bear?!"
The man wearing heavy glasses said, "And why would he attack his own people? Is that 'bear' out of control? Then could it be that Xiao Lu on our side is also—"
Song Yang didn't have time to stop them and tell them not to talk, and the next second the two men started screaming.
The sound of wild beasts gnawing could be heard in their cave, rattling, rattling, so close that everyone was startled!
This time, before anyone else could react, the two men were quickly dragged out of the cave, and their screams disappeared below!
They were dragged out by the "beast"!
Everyone was startled. Lu Chenfei couldn't help but turn on the flashlight and rush over, but Xia Jing pressed his hand down again.
Lu Chenfei opened his mouth in confusion, and Song Yang's hand reached out to cover him again.
Song Yang said very softly, "Quiet, don't turn on the lights."
Suddenly, everyone fell silent.
In the darkness, no one dared to make a sound, only the sounds of breathing at different rates intertwined with each other.
A huge vertical corridor with small caves on both sides of the corridor.
The entire world, plunged into darkness, seemed to be silent, without a single living thing.
Song Yang remained alert and quickly took out a monster prop from the space bag.
It was a small round bead that would transform into countless iron spikes upon contact with an object and pierce into the opponent's body.
Song Yang gently threw it in the direction where the beast's gnawing sound came from.
The round bead fell into the darkness and landed on the ground with a slight clinking sound.
—The beast is gone?
In the darkness, no one dared to move easily, they were on guard.
However, after nearly twenty minutes, nothing unusual happened in the cave.
The beast seemed truly gone.
Song Yang thought about it and said very concisely in a whisper: "Don't talk tonight, go to sleep."
Everyone paused, and different guesses arose in their minds.
However, tonight, it seemed that they no longer had the opportunity to exchange ideas with each other.
Filled with suspicion, uneasiness, vigilance and contemplation, the group found a corner in the cave and sat down in silence.
*
In this copy, they couldn't tell time and could only use their physical senses to roughly judge that the total length of a day in this place should be similar to that in the real world.
Around six o'clock the next morning, Xia Jing and Song Yang were the first to open their eyes.
It's already dawn in this copy world.
Looking into the cave, I saw that several of my companions had already opened their eyes, their gazes clear, probably because they hadn't slept much the previous night.
After all, in addition to Chai Feng's "beast", they also have to be wary of the mysterious man. They probably won't be able to sleep well until this copy is over.
The only two remaining kidnapped people had dark circles under their eyes and looked a little dazed.
The group stood up and looked towards the cave opposite.
Chai Feng and the others have also woken up.
The two bodyguards who were hanging on the rope last night finally turned over and went into the cave. After all, they had nowhere else to go.
At this moment, everyone on their side was full of fear of Chai Feng and did not dare to look him in the eye.
As if sensing Song Yang's gaze, Chai Feng slowly turned around.
Fei Shengxiao took a breath of cold air.
Chai Feng's face changed!
He originally had an ordinary appearance, with a square face and single eyelids. He would be impossible to find in a crowd.
But now, his face became very strange.
The right half of the face became very thin and no longer symmetrical with the left half, as if the muscles had atrophied.
The right eye slanted upwards abruptly, and was thin and long. It didn't look like the eyes that grew on the same person as the round left eye.
The left half of his lip became very thin, and it looked like two different mouths spliced together with the slightly thicker right half.
In addition to the face, there is also the body——
His right shoulder became thinner and his clothes were obviously emptier, but his left shoulder was still strong.
The left and right legs seemed to be of different lengths, and Chai Feng was standing there with his whole body tilted.
The weird feeling brought by this appearance is even indescribable, as if Chai Feng had turned into a "four-legged beast" overnight.
Feng Shi was stunned and said, "His body was... fused?!"
Yes, they quickly identified—
Several characteristics that appeared on Chai Feng's body at this time clearly belonged to the people Lu Caihui had killed yesterday!
I don't know if he mastered the "power", but he was able to kill so many people in one breath and merge the bodies of so many people.
The feeling Chai Feng gave them became very strange, full of coldness and blood.
"What the hell is going on?" one of the kidnapped people asked fearfully. "By the way, he was the one who released that 'bear' yesterday, right? Is he going to attack us again?"
Song Yang stared at Chai Feng, shook his head, and judged: "Probably not. If he could attack, with so much time left last night, he could have easily kept fighting us forever."
Similarly, if Chai Feng wanted to take action against them now, he would not just stand there and watch.
He probably couldn't do anything.
"Then why—"
You Ye opened his mouth and said thoughtfully, "'Bear' is the shadow that 'Jiang Ying' saw in him. Judging from the current situation, in this dungeon, each of our shadows should be able to, and can only, awaken at night and transform into a physical form. Is this how this dungeon takes lives and gains points?"
"——As long as you use your shadow to kill a player, the opponent's points can be transferred to you."
After one night, they all had some ideas about the settings of this copy.
"To be precise, only those who have had their shadow form revealed by Jiang Ying can awaken it, right?" Bian Ya looked at Lu Chenfei. "What about you? Did you feel anything yesterday?"
Lu Chenfei scratched his hair and said, "Yes, actually, when I was thinking about this last night, I suddenly felt the presence of the 'bow'. Since I can't turn on the flashlight, I don't know where the bow is, but it should be right next to me, ready for me to use at any time."
The two kidnapped people watched in amazement as the group analyzed one by one.
Lu Chenfei looked at Song Yang: "Yesterday you didn't let us talk or turn on the lights, is it because you think Chai Feng can attack us by 'listening' and 'seeing'?"
Song Yang nodded: "Yes."
Song Yang frowned and said, "Yesterday, he first attacked Lu Caihui, and his shock didn't sound fake. So I guess that when the shadow first awakens, there will be a period of loss of control. His shadow took the initiative to attack Lu Caihui because he has hostility towards Lu Caihui."
Just as Xia Jing said, the shadows that Jiang Ying can see on human beings are the essence of every human soul.
The essence of the soul is the true self, the embodiment of a person's truest emotions and desires.
Before Chai Feng could control his shadow, his true self wanted to kill Lu Caihui, the man who bossed him around.
The reason why his shadow pounced on Lu Caihui so accurately was probably because Lu Caihui made a sound at that time.
Last night, it was because he had made a preliminary judgment in an instant that Song Yang pressed Lu Chenfei's flashlight at the first moment.
after all--
Song Yang: "If 'listening' is possible, then 'seeing' might be possible too."
The two kidnapped people were already dumbfounded: "You guys thought of so much when you were so good at martial arts yesterday?!"
Who are these young people in front of them? What kind of brains do they have!
As they were talking, scenes began to appear in the cave they were in.
During the day, the entire copy world seemed to start working again.
The group temporarily put aside the matter of Chai Feng and turned around.
They saw an alley.
"Jiang Ying" was being beaten and kicked in the alley by a man who had the face of the deceased Lu Caihui.
Li Mian frowned and said, "What exactly do these NPCs with player faces mean? Are they purely malicious acts from the dungeon?"
Lu Chenfei sneered and said, "It must be the malice from Jiang Ying. I feel that this five-star copy is simply a manifestation of his inner world."
Fei Shengxiao hesitated and said, "But now I feel like I understand why Jiang Ying turned evil."
Noticing everyone's gazes, she explained, "Jiang Ying suddenly awakened his powers when he was 17. Suddenly discovering strange shadows floating above everyone's heads was terrifying enough. Those shadows were projections of those people's inner thoughts, and they were probably all ferocious looking."
"I think when Jiang Ying saw those shadows, he already felt the malice hidden in the hearts of countless people."
"Later, because of this ability, he was rejected, despised, and bullied by so many people. Even his biological parents wished he would disappear..."
Fei Shengxiao said awkwardly, "I'm not trying to whitewash him. I'm just trying to understand some of the settings of this instance."
Everyone looked at the scene in front of them again.
"Jiang Ying" huddled on the ground with his head in his hands and cried bitterly.
The NPC with Lu Caihui's face kicked him and cursed, "You said you saw a spider on me? Aren't you disgusting? I think you have a problem with your brain."
"Why would a mentally ill person be let out of their home? People like you should be locked up in a mental hospital and never come out for the rest of your life!"
"Jiang Ying" knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, whimpering. Any normal person would feel uncomfortable seeing this miserable posture.
After Fei Shengxiao finished what he had just said, he was silent for a moment, then continued, "...I think that in this situation, it wouldn't be surprising for anyone to turn evil."
"——But, if it were me, even if I turned evil, I would only seek revenge against those who hurt me."
Fei Shengxiao clenched his hands and frowned. "And Shadow City later kidnapped so many innocent people. I wonder, for Jiang Ying later on, did everyone in the world become a potential villain?"
Everyone was stunned.
"That's why those NPCs have our faces."
"Even if we don't know him, in his eyes, we are bad people who will bully him and are like monsters."
Xia Jing smiled and said, "In a way, you are not wrong."
Everyone looked at him.
"Jiang Ying did say that he thought everyone in the world was a monster."
"Humans are monsters that are always covered in a layer of hypocrisy. They live sanctimoniously in the sun, but Jiang Ying feels that darkness is the home of these filthy creatures."
So, later on, Shadow City appeared.
"Shadow" is Jiang Ying's special ability, and it is also the world he created for monsters like humans.
In this world, he wants people to see the hideous faces of those monsters with their own eyes and experience firsthand the cruelty and ruthlessness of the monsters.
In the real world, he has been living in the hands of "monsters".
In Shadow City, he wants players to experience everything he has experienced.
He will even pay it back a hundredfold, a thousandfold, or even ten thousandfold.
However--
The scene in the cave changed.
Another NPC appeared.
This NPC looked like a passerby. He hesitantly walked into the alley and asked, "...What are you doing?"
At this moment, almost everyone could feel that this passerby wanted to stop this one-sided fight.
He was very cautious, perhaps because he was afraid of violence, so he tried to use words to warn the person who was committing violence.
What followed was the god's cold voice that echoed in their minds.
"What are you still doing standing here? Why don't you kill these two damn guys?!"
"One is the one who is insulting the gods, and the other, ha, the other one is too late! He came so late and was so timid that the gods are almost dead! Damn it, they all deserve to die, the one who insulted the gods deserves to die, and the one who couldn't save the gods deserves to die, damn it, damn it!"
"Hurry up, stab them to death!"
The gods roared.
Suddenly, everyone's heart sank.
They didn't move, and the god's roar in their minds gradually became crazy and hysterical.
At this moment, everyone couldn't help but recall some scenes in their minds -
The phantom corridor that appeared in the game lobby.
Innocent, frightened and confused faces in the cells in the corridor.
In one of the cells, Jiang Ying was huddled in the shadows, his eyes sparkling with excitement.
He looked forward to the moment when those players stepped into the dungeon.
He was also looking forward to the moment when he would step into the dungeon with Xia Jing.
No matter if it was someone he knew, someone he didn't know, someone who had actually hurt him, someone who he imagined would hurt him, someone who had helped him - and later on, it might even be a stranger who had just passed by him.
All of these people, he expected to see expressions of fear on their faces, to see them scream.
The feeling of having control over other people's life and death made him intoxicated.
Yes, these people are bad guys, they are monsters.
He punished them, as he should.
…
Fei Shengxiao was right. Jiang Ying really regarded everyone as monsters.
However, is it really all because of his past experiences that he is like this, or is it because of someone else?
Is there not a place of original darkness deep in his heart?
Xia Jing stood beside Song Yang.
He said, "Song Yang, you asked me yesterday whether Jiang Ying could see his own shadow."
"I asked him that question too."
Song Yang stared at Xia Jing with complicated eyes and asked, "...What did he say?"
In Xia Jing's memory, he and Jiang Ying were at the back door of his school that day.
At that time, he had just helped Jiang Ying solve a problem.
Jiang Ying may have regarded him as a savior, but Xia Jing was just a little interested in this strange man who always appeared at the back door of the school.
Jiang Ying said Xia Jing's shadow was a cloud.
This shadow shape obviously made Jiang Ying feel very harmless, and his gaze towards Xia Jing even became a little pious.
When Jiang Ying heard Xia Jing's question, his facial muscles visibly stiffened.
At that moment, the man timidly cast his gaze towards the glass wall of the store not far away.
His and Xia Jing's figures were faintly reflected on the glass wall.
He looked away quickly as if he had been pricked by a needle.
Then, Jiang Ying smiled dully and said, "I, I can't see my shadow."
He paused and whispered, "Maybe, maybe I'm the only one without a shadow."
…
Lu Chenfei asked suspiciously, "Do you believe his answer?"
Xia Jing jokingly said, "Have you forgotten? Shadows are a reflection of the true nature of human beings."
Jiang Ying is a human being, so how could he not have a shadow?
He was just afraid of the shadow he saw in himself.
You Ye asked curiously, "So, what did he see at that time? Do you know what happened later?
At this moment, Xia Jing looked at the man in the alley.
The man was stepped on the ground, his eyes hidden behind his long hair were flashing, staring at the second NPC that appeared.
There was expectation in those eyes, mixed with deep resentment.
Xia Jing smiled and said, "If everyone in this world is really a monster, then how could there be a single normal human being among them?"
Everyone was stunned.
The young man smiled and said, "After all, we are all the same creatures."
What Jiang Ying saw in himself was the most terrifying monster shadow he had ever seen.