Chapter 699: The Killing Illusion
In the pitch-dark corridor, Yu Shiran was sprinting forward.
“Stop!” she shouted in frustration while chasing.
She didn’t expect the figure that looked exactly like her to run so fast…
Thud, thud, thud…
The only response ahead was the clear sound of running footsteps.
It didn’t sound too far, but no matter how hard she and Silver Thread tried, they couldn’t catch up.
In just two or three minutes, Yu Shiran had already run quite a distance.
She had no clear idea of the building’s internal structure but was vaguely puzzled.
This corridor is too long…
Moreover, there wasn’t even a single window on the way.
She frowned, looking straight ahead, and bit her lip lightly.
Something felt off…
“Hmm? What did you say?” Yu Shiran suddenly raised an eyebrow.
After striking a listening pose for a couple of seconds, Yu Shiran suddenly realized, “Right… I’ve been running straight this whole time, there’s no side path, and I’m not far behind her. Why can’t I see her?”
She looked at the walls on both sides and indeed found them blurry and indistinct.
She rubbed her eyes and looked around.
“Ah! Black Silk, I’m blind!” Yu Shiran exclaimed in a ghostly tone, quickly waving a hand in front of her eyes, then joyfully called out, “You’re right! I can still see myself.”
But her excitement only lasted a couple of seconds, as she pouted in frustration, “Oh, I forgot… why are you so smug about it…”
At some point, the only thing she could clearly see in this place was herself…
It felt terrible, and Yu Shiran gradually realized that chasing after her doppelgänger might have been a rash decision.
But suddenly seeing someone who looked just like herself, there was no reason not to follow…
“Black Silk, why do you think there’s a Zombie that looks exactly like me?”
Yu Shiran asked, tilting her head.
Clearly, this question puzzled Black Silk too, so after hesitating for a while, Yu Shiran decided to continue the chase.
Yu Shiran glanced back, noticing the pitch-black corridor behind her was just as blurry.
Given that, she might as well keep following the footsteps ahead.
“I wonder how that Sausage Human is doing. He asked me to come in and help, but I haven’t helped him at all. Will he not give me food or let me hunt?”
Yu Shiran muttered under her breath as she continued walking forward.
“Yes, I’m helping him by catching this strange fellow…”
She nodded repeatedly, agreeing with herself.
But this time, she didn’t need Black Silk to remind her; she had already noticed.
Whenever she stopped, the footsteps also stopped.
Now, as she started moving again, her pace was much slower.
Remarkably, the footsteps slowed down too…
“Is she deliberately leading me?” Yu Shiran pondered as she looked ahead. As a Zombie, her thoughts were quite simple.
“Fine, if that’s what she wants, let’s see what she’s up to!”
Having made up her mind, Yu Shiran stopped being in a hurry and followed at a leisurely pace, almost as if she were taking a stroll.
Behind her, several Silver Threads were swaying, with one stretching stealthily along the wall, abruptly straightening like a measuring tape…
“It’s here!” Ling Mo suddenly stopped.
According to his calculations, they should be near the restroom.
However, the original door was completely out of sight.
Relying on touch with his eyes closed didn’t seem feasible either. Whatever the environment used to be, it had transformed into this elongated corridor—at least, that’s what Ling Mo perceived.
But Ling Mo had an ace up his sleeve—he had tentacles.
The opponent might disrupt all of his senses, but they couldn’t physically alter him.
The total space here wasn’t that large, so no matter how misleading it seemed, it couldn’t outright change the external environment.
“The corridor is no more than three meters wide, probably around two and a half… and even if I’m unlucky and hit a corner, the discrepancy shouldn’t be too significant…”
Ling Mo’s trick could work anywhere, but to extract the maximum Intelligence with minimal use of his psychic power, he decided to start here.
After positioning himself, Ling Mo didn’t close his eyes this time. Several tentacles split from the psychic light cluster, slowly probing the surrounding area.
The results of closing his eyes earlier showed that his judgment and sense of direction were both affected.
If he closed his eyes, all the tentacles might inadvertently go in the same direction, so it’s better to keep his eyes open.
As long as he materializes them, he can instantly shoot everything around him into a beehive.
That should shatter any kind of illusion…
However, Ling Mo didn’t rush into action…
The Little Zombie Puppet quickly returned to its original spot but came back empty-handed.
The bloodstains were long gone…
If it weren’t for the faint marks left on the palm of his hand, Ling Mo might have doubted whether he had even issued that psychic command.
“So it’s continually changing. This means there is a high likelihood of going in circles. Next, I just need to see if it appears near the restroom to be absolutely certain. Even if I can’t break the illusion, at least I can sense if the surrounding environment is changing…”
“Wait…”
Ling Mo suddenly realized something was off.
If he was going in circles, why did his senses indicate that the Little Zombie Puppet had indeed distanced itself from him significantly?
Moreover, this distance… seemed to slightly exceed the total length of the corridor!
Ever since realizing he was caught in the illusion, Ling Mo had consciously controlled his pace.
Despite seeming to circle back many times, he was surely still in that corridor.
If he had returned to the mall, Ye Lian and the others would have noticed him.
If he had moved outside the Iron Door, Xiao Bai would have discovered him.
The fact that he was still trapped in the illusion already pointed to the issue.
The opponent could only manipulate this corridor and was certainly within it…
“These questions should be easy to figure out, given the simple environment here… Ah, simplicity…”
Ling Mo frowned. The environment was simple without any other complications, yet it prevented escape…
Most people would probably think of large-scale destruction as a solution, right?
Just like Ling Mo…
Although Ling Mo did a lot of work trying to fully understand this superpower, he was prepared to resort to an all-out attack method when all other strategies proved ineffective.
If he were the only one trapped here, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But Mu Chen and Yu Shiran were also here…
“Damn!”
Ling Mo immediately realized that the distance between him and the Little Zombie Puppet wasn’t real. This meant that if he launched an attack, he might find the Little Zombie Puppet right in front of him!
Not just the Little Zombie Puppet, but possibly Mu Chen and Yu Shiran as well!
“Where are they?”
Ling Mo’s eyes darted around. He understood that even if they were right next to him, he wouldn’t be able to touch them.
Everyone was affected by the hallucination, possibly passing by each other without knowing…
“Everyone?”
Suddenly, Ling Mo thought of a loophole.
He slapped his forehead—how did he not think of this earlier!
He had been focusing on using the Little Zombie Puppet to do this and that, but he forgot that it was under his direct control and wasn’t affected by the hallucination!
The reason it saw the same illusions was because it was influenced through his psychic link…
And the reason Yu Shiran was affected was that Ling Mo only maintained a psychic link with Black Silk, not controlling her.
Coupled with the fact that Yu Shiran’s psychic light cluster was relatively independent, she was naturally affected.
“I hope I haven’t damaged the Little Zombie Puppet’s psychic light cluster too much…”
Ling Mo’s heart raced with excitement. He had almost fallen into the trap, and now he was possibly at risk of being attacked by Mu Chen and Yu Shiran.
Since he wasn’t making a move, the enemy lurking in the shadows might direct Mu Chen and Yu Shiran to attack.
Mu Chen aside, Yu Shiran was incredibly powerful in her attacks…
“I was just thinking about breaking out of this, and now I have to worry about being attacked by my companions…”
Ling Mo felt a bit helpless. He had just realized this point.
If it weren’t for repeatedly trying out every possibility, he wouldn’t have noticed this.
The opponent’s influence was all-encompassing. If Ling Mo weren’t in such a unique situation, he wouldn’t have detected this issue.
“This ability is truly terrifying… But since the opponent wants us to turn on each other, it implies they can’t kill us directly through the illusion, meaning there are significant limitations…”