They traveled through time at the same time, but the villainous scientist

Chapter 426 Another World

If human traces have been erased, then what about physical evidence?

Zhang Qi raised his head and looked towards the forest behind the town, which appeared particularly deep and secluded in the night.

The coordinates Chu Xuan sent last, the anomaly that was locked by the ground-penetrating radar—Sadako's well—is now his only clue.

Without further hesitation, he donned the bio-armor and vanished at the end of the street in a flash.

A few minutes later, he was standing in the twisted woodland behind the mountain.

At the end of that coordinate, an ancient well made of rough stones stands quietly in the center of a forest clearing.

He slowly stepped forward, his senses heightened to the extreme under his suit, so that no slightest movement could escape his notice.

He reached out his hand, his five fingers about to touch the rotten wooden plank.

Just at this moment.

An indescribable, immense malice, like a black tide bursting through a dam, erupted from the crack in the well!
Almost simultaneously, the surrounding scenery began to distort.

A thick, impenetrable white fog rose without warning from the ground, from tree trunks, and from under every leaf, frantically engulfing everything around it.

Moonlight, tree shadows, woodland... all the scenery quickly melted away in this white mist.

All that remained was an empty woodland, as if the ancient well that carried the terrifying legend had never existed in the first place.

Zhang Qi was taken aback, but immediately calmed himself down and retrieved and replayed the sensory records inside the [Bio-Regenerative Armor].

This suit of armor incorporates some of the characteristics of the symbiote, enabling it to synchronize and store all sensory information it experiences, forming an absolutely objective data backup.

However, the images playing on the screen sent a chill down his spine.

The records show that from the moment he stepped into the woods until he stood still, there was nothing unusual about the entire process.

There was no well, no malicious outbreak, and no sudden thick fog.

According to his sensory record, he simply walked into an ordinary grove of trees and stood there for a few minutes.

Was his perception directly distorted, or was even the recording system of the [Bio-Bio Armor] invaded and tampered with by a higher level of power?
Either way, it means that the enemy's unpredictability far exceeds his expectations.

He decided to immediately turn back the way he came and leave this eerie forest area first.

However, when he emerged from the fog and set foot once more on the country road leading to the town, the sight before him made him stop in his tracks.

In the previously empty fields, one cross-shaped wooden frame after another has been erected.

What's tied up there isn't a scarecrow.

That was a person whose entire skin had been peeled off...

Bright red muscle tissue was exposed to the air, and dark red blood dripped slowly from the gaps in the muscle fibers, accumulating into small pools of blood on the soil below.

Their limbs were fixed to the wooden frame in a twisted position, and their chests were still rising and falling slightly, proving that they were still alive.

Their faces had no skin, only pairs of wide-open eyes, staring straight at the sky with an incomprehensible expression that mixed with pain and eerie joy.

But just as he approached one of the "scarecrows," a strange change occurred.

The skinned human's neck snapped 180 degrees with a cracking sound, defying human anatomy. Its wide-open, bloodshot eyes stared intently at Zhang Qi.

Then, its muscles began to twitch, like a puppet being controlled by invisible threads.

It took a step and descended from the cross. Its movements were stiff and disjointed, with no smooth transition between steps, like a game with frame drops, creating an extremely uncomfortable sense of disharmony.

It took a rusty sickle from the wooden shelf, dragged it on the ground, making a harsh scraping sound, and walked step by step toward Zhang Qi.

With a whoosh, the "scarecrow" suddenly swung its sickle, sending a piercing arc straight toward Zhang Qi's neck.

Zhang Qi's eyes narrowed. Without dodging or evading, the [High-Frequency Blade] on his right arm instantly popped out, emitting a high-frequency buzzing sound, and slashed towards the scythe.

The high-frequency blade is the ultimate weapon that weakens the intermolecular forces through ultra-high frequency vibration. Theoretically, in front of it, no matter what kind of alloy it is, it is as fragile as tofu.

However, something incredible happened.

"Qiang!!!"

A deafeningly sharp metallic clang rang out!

The high-frequency blade collided with the rusty scythe, sending up a string of dazzling sparks. A tremendous recoil force traveled along the blade through Zhang Qi's right arm, shaking him violently.

His high-frequency blade was blocked.

This farm tool, which looked like it could break at any moment, actually withstood the ultra-high-tech weapon head-on.

Zhang Qi immediately realized that these things could not be measured by common sense.

He pushed off with his feet, leaping backward instantly and creating a distance of dozens of meters between himself and the eerie "scarecrow".

At the same time, more "scarecrows" came to life from their crosses. They all turned their heads and stared intently at Zhang Qi with their exposed eyes, taking the same frame-like steps and holding sickles, surrounding him from all directions.

Zhang Qi's eyes sharpened, and a cluster of ghostly blue flames spontaneously ignited at his fingertips.

【Samadhi Fire】.

He flicked his finger, and a spark landed precisely on a "scarecrow" that was approaching him.

However, the blue flames that were powerful enough to incinerate even a vengeful spirit like Kayako flickered and then went out the moment they touched the bloodied body.

It did not ignite and did not cause any harm.

They are neither spirits nor simply physical entities... So what exactly are these things?
Seeing the ever-growing number of skinned monsters that had taken over the entire field, Zhang Qi decided not to try any further.

There's no point in fighting with these things until you figure out their true nature.

He bent his knees slightly and shot into the sky like a cannonball, leaving the hellish field far behind in just a few leaps.

He landed back at the entrance to the town.

However, the town in front of him was no longer the one he had left half an hour ago.

The street is still the same street, but the architectural styles on both sides are completely different.

The original modern two-story buildings and shops have now been transformed into more old-fashioned Japanese wooden houses with a Showa-era style.

The entire town was deserted and deathly still.

What alarmed Zhang Qi even more was that the walls and floors of some houses were covered with large patches of dark red, unidentified biological tissue that seemed to be wriggling slightly like living things. They were intertwined and resembled the blood vessels of some giant creature, eroding and assimilating the town.

He walked slowly down the quiet street, and kicked something at his feet.

It was an old newspaper that had been blown to the side of the road by the wind.

Zhang Qi bent down to pick it up, his gaze falling on the front page of the newspaper. On the yellowed pages was a black and white photograph; the woman in the photograph had delicate features, but her eyes held a lingering melancholy.

The glaring headline made Zhang Qi's breath catch in his throat.

The nationwide sensation of the "read-write" experiment!

(End of this chapter)