Gao Wu: I inherited the evil organization in the game

Chapter 667 There's another person, just like me.

Outside, it was broad daylight.

The cold "sunlight" poured down, unable to penetrate anything, merely covering everything in vain, coating all the scenery with a lifeless veil.

Once upon a time, such overwhelming light was enough to illuminate every corner, leaving no place untouched, dazzling and noisy.

But at this moment, Feng Mu, standing at the exit of the building's entrance, could only "see" that the whole world was still stubbornly shrouded in the boundless darkness.

Even in the cramped home, although you can "see" the eerie black aura permeating the room, the limited space and numerous clutter mean that the visual impact isn't strong enough; it's more like an unsettling background.

However, once you step out of the building and stand on the relatively open street, you can see...

His vision suddenly opened up, and then he was instantly filled with unimaginable scenes, which were brutally crammed into his mind, almost tearing his nerves apart.

Everywhere you look, there's the uneven ground, the peeling walls of buildings of varying heights, and even the hurried, indistinct faces of the pedestrians...

Everything was completely covered, permeated, and enveloped by thick, viscous black energy!
The shocking sensation gripped him, like a cold iron hand clenching his heart and lungs.

Feng Mu made an extremely faint "ho" sound from his throat, as if someone had grabbed his throat, causing his breath to stop for a moment.

It was as if the whole world was still mired in the deepest midnight, with not a single ray of sunlight able to penetrate the thick black mist that shrouded the city.

Guang died, on the way to the lower city.

It was as if the whole world was burning silently, and the omnipresent black mist looked at the embers that lingered after everything had been burned to ashes.

Suddenly, a phrase long buried in the corner of his memory surfaced in Feng Mu's mind—"The lower city...is eternal night!"

He couldn't remember where he had heard that phrase; perhaps it was in the corner of a banned book, or perhaps it was in the ramblings of a drunkard.

He had previously thought superficially that the so-called "eternal night" simply meant that the lower city could never enjoy the true light of the sun and could only rely on the artificial, false light bestowed by the upper city.

Now, before those eyes that have suddenly been sharpened, he has come to his senses.

Superficial! How superficial and ridiculous our past understanding was!
The lower town is more than just a place where the real sun doesn't shine.
There was absolutely no light in the lower city!
Because even the streetlights that were struggling to flicker along the streets, and the scattered lights shining from the windows of buildings, all had their glass shades thickly covered with this writhing black mist.

So much so that the light they emitted seemed to be stained, exuding an indescribable "blackness".

This eerie sense of déjà vu is difficult to describe precisely. If one had to force an analogy, it would be:

The night in the lower town was a true night; there wasn't a single ray of light in the sky—pure blackness.

The daytime in the lower town is actually another form of "night".

That dark, suffocating halo in the sky wasn't the "sun" at all, but...
"So... what's projected down from the upper city has never been sunlight, but the 'moon'."

Feng Mu muttered to himself, a chill creeping up his spine.

But the terrifying changes in the scenery that Feng Mu witnessed were not the most shocking to his mind.

What shocked him most and almost overturned his entire worldview was the strange phenomenon of "life".

Every passerby he saw, every gray sparrow perched on a withered treetop, every cockroach or insect scurrying about in the garbage heap at the base of the wall…

Not only were all these life forms covered in the omnipresent black mist, but a thin yet incredibly clear black line also grew uniformly above their heads.

These black lines are as black as the deepest ink, more solid and more eerie than the surrounding black mist.

They extend straight and precisely upwards, like straight lines drawn by the most skilled geometers using rules, without any curves.

Their exact length was unknown; they pierced through the pervasive black mist, ignored the false moonlight, and continued upward, ever upward, until, without exception, they all disappeared into and inserted into the massive rear end of the upper city.

It was as if the upper city was an incredibly fertile yet strangely eerie soil, and these pervasive black lines were the roots that grew out of the bodies of all the "creatures" in the lower city and planted themselves into the soil.

Or perhaps... the truth is quite the opposite, that these black lines are actually blood vessels and lifting lines that descend from the upper city and are implanted into the bodies of all living beings?

Feng Mu involuntarily looked up, gazing in the direction of the countless black lines extending.

The sky... is no longer the sky.

It was completely covered and redefined by a dense array of black threads that could not be seen at all.

They maintain absolute verticality and parallelism in perfect unison, like the drooping tendrils of some enormous creature, or like countless thick, dark stone monuments, silently traversing the space between heaven and earth.

On the ground, every living thing is moving, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes walking, sometimes stopping.

Thus, the black lines connecting their heads also moved in a precise and chilling synchronization between the sky and the earth.

Without the slightest error or delay, it possesses a beauty that is both eerie and scientific.

At this moment, the sky and the earth were no longer far apart, but were divided and cut into countless black cubes of varying sizes by these countless moving black lines.

These cubes are not physical entities, yet they are far more suffocating than physical entities. Together they form a vast, incredibly complex, and ever-changing... cube maze.

Feng Mu's eyes widened, his pupils contracting sharply from extreme shock.

At this moment, stripped of all complex thoughts, what filled his mind was just one primal, simple, and powerfully expressive character that conveyed the utter shock and absurdity of the situation—"Damn it!"

But if one were to describe in detail the overwhelming shock he felt, it would probably be roughly equivalent to the shock the chosen Night's Watchman experienced the first time he glimpsed "Tsukuyomi" last night.

"It's as if the real world I live in has been divided into countless grids and units by some terrifying force."

It is essentially an even larger and more terrifying... "Eternal Imprisonment Corridor"?!

This thought pierced Feng Mu's heart, causing him to feel a long-forgotten fear originating from the depths of his soul.
"What the hell are these black lines?"

Feng Mu moved his gaze with difficulty, staring at the black lines hanging from the sky. He felt they were even more eerie and unsettling than the drifting black mist.

"They don't display health bars, can't be touched, and I can't understand... what is the point of their existence?"

"Is the other end of the black line the Upper City? Is the Upper City weaving and controlling all of this?"

His gaze tried to trace those black lines upwards, but they quickly disappeared into the complex, cold metal structure at the bottom of the upper city, their endpoint indistinguishable.

"Did the upper city weave these black threads, or are these black threads penetrating the upper city and continuing upwards until...?"

Feng Mu dared not think any further, for he could not come to a conclusion. Unless, one day, he could climb up the black line, reach the top of the other end, and look down back down, perhaps then he could see the whole picture.

Many things, when you look up from below, will only remain a blur, obscured and deceived. But if one day you can look down from above, all secrets may be revealed in their entirety. Feng Mu's expression was as still as water. The slight elation and joy brought about by the crazy upgrade just now were instantly diluted and became insignificant in the face of overwhelming reality.

The sense of power still lingered in his limbs, but it was enveloped by an even greater sense of horror and pressure.

He let out a long sigh, then stiffly tilted his head back and looked up at the sky above him.

"……fine."

He felt a slight sense of relief, and his tense jawline relaxed a little.
"Although I have absolutely no idea what these black lines are, at least... there aren't any on my head."

As far as the eye could see, not a single black line had grown above his head.

"It should have been completely purified and severed, just like the black energy attached to the body's surface, by the three previous marrow cleansings, especially the last one, which was like a nirvana-like baptism, right?"

This is the only plausible conjecture he can make.

Because this is an unsolvable paradox.

At first, he couldn't see the black mist and lines, but when he finally could "see" them, they had completely disappeared from his body.

He will never be able to witness firsthand how the black aura or black lines that entangled him disappeared; that crucial "moment" is eternally buried in his blind spot.

This principle is similar to how a person, once they open their eyes for the first time at birth, can never go back and see that very moment when they first opened their eyes.

Feng Mu slowly suppressed the shock in his heart, lowered his head, and withdrew his gaze.

next moment.

His movements, his breathing that had just calmed down, and even the flow of his blood seemed to freeze in that instant.

He stood there stiffly, frozen in place like a stone sculpture, with a layer of cold sweat uncontrollably seeping from his forehead.

A chilling detail he had overlooked, like a delayed bomb, finally exploded in the depths of his mind.

"Wait...wait a minute!!"

"It's not just me... it's not just me who doesn't have black lines on my head!!"

"There's one more person... there's one more person whose head... also doesn't have a black line!!!"

Feng Mu's mouth went dry, and a chill seemed to seep from his very bones.

He tried to turn his head to look at the doorway behind him, but his neck felt like rusty iron, unable to move for a long time.

Because just now, right in the doorway behind him, he clearly... clearly didn't see any trace of black lines above his mother Wang Xiuli's head!

At that time, after completing the marrow cleansing and gaining new insights, Wang Xiuli was the first "living person" he saw.

As for the other neighbors in the building, although he could "see" their outlines and movements through the black and white perspective, he could not "see" the black mist or black lines from that perspective.

Because the black mist or black lines have no health bars or physical entities, they cannot be detected by air vibrations, and therefore cannot be seen by Feng Mu's black and white vision.

So, at that time, in his field of vision:

He himself had no black lines on his body, his mother had no black lines on her body, and the other people in the building also "had no" black lines on their bodies (because they couldn't see them).

Feng Mu naturally felt that everything was normal, and that neither he nor his mother had any problems.

But now, standing here, after seeing clearly this terrifying net of black lines that connects heaven and earth and every living thing, he suddenly realized what was happening, as if struck by lightning!

The neighbors in the building must all have black lines above their heads, but he just didn't see them because he was in his own apartment at the time.

Only his mother, Wang Xiuli, was someone he had ever looked at face-to-face with his evolved "eyes of truth".

He remembered it very clearly. He did not see any black lines on his mother just now. He only saw that she, like the items in the house, was tainted by the black aura in the environment!

Feng Mu: "..."

He felt a chill rise from the soles of his feet and soar to the top of his head, more bone-chilling and sinister than ever before.

I don't have black lines because I've "washed" myself clean enough.

And what about you, Mom? And what...do you rely on?
Feng Mu's breathing gradually became heavy, and an almost uncontrollable impulse surged in his chest.

He almost turned around and rushed upstairs to go home and ask his mother, who had always cared for him the most, to get everything clear up.

After much deliberation, Feng Mu ultimately managed to suppress the intense urge to turn back and explore, thanks to his strong willpower.

He didn't turn around, but simply closed his eyes slightly.

In the darkness, an image quietly surfaced in my mind—my mother, dressed in black and white, was standing in front of the bathroom sink, carefully scrubbing the soles of her shoes again and again.

The pale mirror reflected her equally pale smile, still so familiar, so loving.

After a long silence, Feng Mu silently withdrew his gaze, letting out a soft, ambiguous chuckle, and then, feigning nonchalance, strode away…

……

When Hou Wendong arrived at the hospital, it was already completely light out.

The hospital building was brightly lit, like a giant beast crouching in the "light," silently swallowing the flow of people coming and going.

He walked very fast, his leather shoes striking the polished floor tiles with a rapid and clear echo.

The special care ward area was at the end of the corridor, and it was much quieter. On the bench by the entrance, uniformed constables were talking in hushed tones, their faces showing deep exhaustion and vigilance.

As soon as they saw Hou Wendong approaching, they immediately fell silent, jumped up from their chairs, and straightened their backs.

"Secretary Hou!"

The four spoke almost in unison, their tone respectful, yet tinged with a barely perceptible tension.

Hou Wendong had no time for pleasantries; his gaze swept past them and landed on the ward. He spoke impatiently:
"What exactly is going on? How is Li Xiang? When will he wake up?"

(End of this chapter)