Chapter 227: Teasing
When she realized that the figure was likely Mano Daichi, who had not been fully digested, her gaze happened to collide with those eyes filled with fear and despair by coincidence. Misaki Naomi felt as if she had fallen into the abyss and seen hell.
“Walk quietly.” He Jia’an knew they couldn’t rush around here either. Although there was also a space channel to escape through in the principal’s office, obviously just walking in casually would be suicidal, so he decided to find another way. If the space channels in this school were all occupied by parts of Thousand Illusions Moon’s body, they at least needed to find a safer passage than here.
“Uncle, I… I think I saw Teacher Mano.” Misaki Naomi’s stiff body was dragged along by He Jia’an as they walked. She said in a low voice, desperately suppressing her trembling voice, afraid that if she wasn’t careful, she would burst into tears or scream.
However, He Jia’an looked at her calmly and said, “I know. I saw it too just now.”
“Aren’t you afraid?”
“I am, but it’s useless, so I have to convert emotions into my power as much as possible, otherwise I can’t survive.” He Jia’an shook his head, his tone serious yet tinged with a hint of gentleness.
Hearing this, Misaki Naomi took a deep breath and nodded to He Jia’an, indicating that she would persevere with her reason and not be easily defeated by fear. She gritted her teeth and quietly followed He Jia’an’s steps past the principal’s office.
But fate always loves to toy with people.
Thud thud thud thud, thud thud thud thud——
Misaki Naomi’s mobile phone that she carried with her suddenly rang. The mobile phone ringtone that erupted without warning screamed with an eerie melody and timbre, piercing through the entire cold, deathly silent campus, instantly shattering the mental defenses of Misaki Naomi and He Jia’an.
Intense fear was as deep and vast as this blood-red night sky. Behind the deadly ringtone seemed to come Miyako’s mocking laughter at the two who were cautiously clinging to survival.
“How… how could it? I turned it off!?” Misaki Naomi’s pretty face turned deathly pale. Facing He Jia’an’s incredulous gaze, she felt powerless to explain, sinking into deep despair.
“Run!” He Jia’an no longer cared if the mobile phone was turned off. He threw away Misaki Naomi’s troublesome mobile phone and immediately pulled her into a sprinting escape.
“Rumble” a loud noise, the entire world seemed to tremble and sway. The ground under the corridor they were running on was rolling and surging, cracking into pieces. Every step they took landed on crumbling stones on the verge of collapse. They knew that if either of them slackened even slightly, they who held hands through life and death would fall together into that irredeemable abyss, devoured by the colossal giant creature they dared not turn back to gaze at.
Hurry, sprint, keep running nonstop…
Roar, scream, shattering howls…
How could human legs escape the mad pursuit of that despair-inducing thing? It was merely a playful frolic between ants and a great being at the pinnacle of the universe, with no possibility of victory.
Finally, one foot missed, and the two fell from a height along with the disintegrating rubble, crashing toward that magma-like muddy swamp of unknown substance. That indescribable thing’s body split into two halves, opening a massive mouth large enough to devour two or three trucks—an abyssal giant maw. The inside of the mouth was filled with fist-sized holes arranged in a complicated pattern. Each hole pulsated with the giant mouth’s voice, extending and contracting foul-smelling white spikes. Deep within that abyssal giant mouth was a massive orange glow, like the sun, but it did not emit warm light, only a cold temperature.
Seeing this scene, Misaki Naomi had completely lost her reason. She had already foreseen her gruesome death.
Unexpectedly, before Miyako’s final curse judgment arrived, she would first experience an unnatural death from being gruesomely killed in the mud swamp monster’s digestive juices.
But just as she closed her eyes tightly, she felt herself embraced in a chest that was not broad but warm.
It was Uncle’s embrace. He was holding her.
Despairing Misaki Naomi felt this, the last and best comfort in the human world. She relaxed her body, ready to let this utterly rotten world torment and destroy her as it pleased.
Thump thump thump!
A series of flips, flutters, and collisions, accompanied by several muffled grunts from He Jia’an. Misaki Naomi felt herself slam heavily onto the ground.
Even with her head pillowed on He Jia’an and a human flesh cushion absorbing most of the falling impact, Misaki Naomi still felt the intense pain and numbness from the high fall. Her ears rang as if pierced by twin peaks, and the monster’s shrill voice nearly pierced through her ears into her entire brain.
Vaguely, Misaki Naomi seemed to hear something scream in anger and disgust, followed by a wave-like sound receding from her.
Opening her eyes, Misaki Naomi found that she and He Jia’an had fallen onto what was probably the second-floor corridor, lying in a pile of ruins. He Jia’an was beneath her, his expression pained as he wailed and groaned, blood slowly flowing from the back of his head like blooming flowers.
“Uncle, Uncle, Uncle!” Misaki Naomi came back to her senses and urgently patted He Jia’an’s face.
He Jia’an awoke groggily, but the world before his eyes had changed—it was fractured and incomplete, like a blocked lens. The world he saw was incomplete: half visible, half black. That fall seemed to have damaged his brain.
Seeing He Jia’an awake, Misaki Naomi wept with joy. “Uncle, don’t die. I don’t want you to die.”
“Die… I won’t die for now.” He Jia’an clutched his head and forced himself to sit up. Misaki Naomi went behind him and was startled again by his horrific injury. His back wasn’t exactly a mess of flesh and blood, but close. Most critically, the scalp on the back of his head was torn open, exposing pulsating flesh and blood, with blood flowing uncontrollably.
Seeing this, Misaki Naomi frantically searched her body up and down for something to clean or bandage the wound, but unexpectedly felt a familiar brick-like hard object.
Misaki Naomi tremblingly took the thing out of her pocket and discovered that the mobile phone, which should have been thrown far away or shattered, was intact and back by her side.
Suddenly, the mobile phone vibrated again, emitting a loud ringtone—again that eerie melody, deadly and soul-seizing.
He Jia’an’s consciousness was blurred, his reaction slow. He then heard the ringtone and realized the mobile phone he had personally thrown away was back on Misaki Naomi. He slowly turned his head and reached for the mobile phone.
“Uncle, what are you doing?” Misaki Naomi didn’t let He Jia’an take the mobile phone and asked puzzled.
“…Answer it.” He Jia’an’s eyeballs frequently rolled upward, his body swaying unsteadily.
Seeing He Jia’an like this, Misaki Naomi nodded through sobs, somewhat desperately opening the mobile phone and answering the call.
“Naomi… I’m coming to play with you.” In the video, a girl smiled brightly in front of the camera. As she smiled, the face skin belonging to Kurosawa Kana peeled off from the wounds on her imperfectly fitted face, revealing a bloody mess of flesh and a pair of round eyes.
