Forgotten Photo Studio

Chapter 102 Class D Interference Phase (Bonus Chapter 1)

Instead of intercepting the shadow, he made a move that terrified everyone.

He pointed his fingers like a sword, and a dazzling golden arc of lightning, containing destructive energy, was highly concentrated at his fingertips. Without any mercy, he aimed at Xu Yan's brow and stabbed down hard.

"Sir!?"

The shadowy figure cried out in alarm.

Even Xu Yan, whose consciousness was trapped inside the drill arm, was instantly annihilated.

He instinctively wanted to control the drill arm to rush forward and stop it, but the pressure of the gold-level aura was like a solid mountain, pinning him to the spot, and he could only watch helplessly as the destructive arc of lightning pierced towards "himself".

The judge didn't care whether Xu Yan was killed or not; he wanted to destroy this "container".

It's better to destroy it completely than to let Yuan get it.

"Jiang Yu! How dare you?!"

A sharp shriek escaped from Yuan's mind. The shadow tentacles, like venomous snakes whose tails had been stepped on, retreated frantically at an even faster speed than when they came. They abandoned their attack and instead transformed into a twisted, boiling shadow shield, layer upon layer, protecting Xu Yan's body.

Zila——! ! !
The lightning arcs collided violently with the Shadow Shield, unleashing a deafening roar and blinding flashes.

The turbulent flow of energy caused the entire iron coffin area to tremble.

"For the sake of so-called 'order,' you're even willing to destroy the last 'key'? You're more...foolish and pathetic than I imagined!"

Yuan's voice carried the fury of being thwarted, as well as a hint of barely perceptible apprehension.

It certainly didn't dare gamble on whether the judge would actually kill it.

The judge withdrew his hand, the lightning patterns around his body flickering erratically, his golden eyes coldly fixed on the violently fluctuating camera lens, which seemed to be roaring in anger.

"You wretched creature, how dare you covet a physical form?"

He tilted his head slightly, his gaze quickly sweeping over Xu Yan's body, which was firmly protected by the shadows on the ground, and his expression became complicated for a moment.

"He is not the key, he is the cage. He was in the past, and he will be in the future... and he must be."

“A cage?” Yuan let out a low, twisted laugh. “What an exquisite cage… containing a ‘blank’ and ‘potential’ that is purer and more delicious than Xu Haoyu’s. Hand him over to me, Jiang Yu, and I can let you… witness a true ‘miracle’.”

"To be associated with you is blasphemy." The judge's voice was firm and unwavering, leaving no room for negotiation.

"Then... let's decay together!"

Enraged, Yuan stopped trying to negotiate.

The center of the camera lens suddenly caved in, forming a tiny black hole that swallowed all light.

This time, however, it did not directly disrupt reality. Instead, it condensed all the darkness into a solid, ink-like energy stream flowing with countless tiny, pale runes. Like a burst dam of the Styx, it was no longer a tentative tentacle, but a massive, overwhelming surge toward Xu Yan's body on the ground.

"Stop it! It's forcibly possessing you!"

The judge roared and thrust his hands forward, creating an even thicker wall of lightning-patterned light to intercept them.

This time, however, the power of the Abyss was more concentrated and more violent.

The ink-like energy flow did not strike in a straight line, but suddenly dispersed in the air, transforming into billions of wriggling dark spores. These spores bypassed the front of the light wall and penetrated the unconscious body from all directions and into every microscopic crevice.

The first thing to change was Xu Yan's skin. Beneath his pale skin, countless fine, dark blue lines, resembling circuit boards or nerve plexuses, suddenly lit up and spread wildly, as if some invisible brush was rapidly drawing inhuman totems.

His body began to convulse violently and uncontrollably, his joints making a teeth-grinding "crackling" sound, as if his internal bones were being forcibly reshaped.

"Uh... ah..."

A low, guttural roar, a sound no human could produce, a mixture of pain and a certain ancient pleasure, was forced out from the depths of Xu Yan's throat.

His eyes snapped open, and instead of the whites and pupils, they transformed into two swirling, bottomless, dark vortexes, within which countless fragmented images could be vaguely seen arising and disappearing.

A spiritual pressure, a mixture of extreme coldness and mental pollution, spread out fiercely from him like a shockwave from an explosion.

"Do not--!"

The Iron-Faced Woman witnessed this scene and let out a desperate scream. She tried to rush forward, but was violently repelled by the tangible malevolent spiritual pressure.

Her figure almost completely disintegrated in the impact, then struggled to reform, her voice filled with unprecedented fear: "Possession...it has begun! Xu Yan's brain is being overwritten!"

The other guards were even more pale, barely able to hold their weapons, trembling in the face of the primal fear that drove them to their deaths.

Meanwhile, Xu Yan, whose consciousness is trapped inside the drill arm, is undergoing a form of slow slicing.

It wasn't physical pain, but a tearing sensation on the level of the soul.

He felt as if he were tied to a pillar, watching helplessly as a filthy and ugly monster slowly crawled into, invaded, and defiled what was originally his "home"!
The absolute sense of rejection, the fury of being stripped of ownership, and the disgust of having his home taken over by filth assaulted his consciousness like a tsunami.

"Get out! Get out of my body!!"

He roared silently inside the drill arm, his very soul trembling.

He could "hear" the wailing of the Mirror of Shared Life, which was overwhelmed. The line between him and his original self was being brutally squeezed and eroded by the raging darkness, becoming faint and indistinct.

He almost rushed out at all costs, even if it meant futilely crashing into things with his prosthetic body, just to stop that blasphemous act.

The judge's face was ashen, and the lightning patterns around his body flashed and calculated at an unprecedented speed.

He realized that conventional interception was ineffective; Yuan was using the most savage method of possession at the cost of consuming his own essence.

“Since we can’t isolate it… then we’ll ‘format’ it along with the carrier!” A resolute glint flashed in his eyes, and he raised his hands again, with even more terrifying lightning beginning to gather—he was about to unleash a wide-ranging, indiscriminate destructive attack.

But at the very moment the judge was about to make his move.

The "being" that occupied Xu Yan's body suddenly raised its head.

He seemed to have fully adapted to this new vessel; the convulsions stopped, and the dark blue patterns beneath his skin stabilized, flickering like breath.

Those abyssal eyes "looked" at the judge, and a strange voice, mixed with Xu Yan's vocal qualities yet cold and echoing with countless layers, clearly reverberated in the space:
"Now... I'll set the rules of the game."

The next second, reality was pried open by its bare hands.

The alarm lights on the ceiling came to life, their blood-red light twisting into malevolent eyes that stared intently at the judge.
The magnetic patterns on the ground were as if they had been painted in reverse by an invisible hand, forming blasphemous designs.

The images on all the electronic screens began to flow backwards wildly, and the figures within them emitted silent screams, as if foreshadowing everyone's doom.

—Class D, Interference Phase, Capability: Local Reality Rewriting.

(End of this chapter)