"Cursed spirits, nefarious and powerful, suffer from the curse incessantly, confined to one place, unable to find relief, and continuously reliving the agony of death, which only deepens their resentment." Chen Yu recalled a line from a research report on cursed spirits he had read before.
The reason the Federation imprisoned some evil spirits was that for these spirits, being alive was a torment in itself; death, on the other hand, was a form of relief.
For these evil spirits, being bound and confined was one of the cruelest punishments in the world. Moreover, the spirits themselves would constantly suffer, augmenting the power of their curse, thus severely prolonging their torture.
"This... must be the marital bedroom, right?" Chen Yu looked around the room, noting the wedding photos on the wall and the overall layout indicative of a couple's bedroom.
But why had a malevolent spirit manifested in this place?
Chen Yu stepped inside, and as he took his first step, he heard screams and moans of anguish.
The piercing cries caused Chen Yu's eardrums to throb slightly.
As Chen Yu fully entered the room, the scene before him changed completely.
On the large double bed in the center, a girl whose face couldn't be seen clearly was struggling incessantly, but the dark shadow pressing on her was writhing madly. Next to the girl stood another shadow, laughing eerily and holding something resembling a DV camera.
Piecing together the content he had seen earlier, Chen Yu roughly understood what was happening here.
Yamada Ryuuken had drugged his sister, tied her to the bed, and then called over his beloved Sasuke-kun, after which...
Chen Yu did not raise his M29 because there was no need; the spectacle before him was likely designed for him to witness. Firing the gun would hit nothing and could expose his own hand prematurely.
Chen Yu continued to walk further in, and as he moved, he noticed something very interesting.
With each step he took forward, the scene would rapidly accelerate, but when he stepped backward, it would go in reverse.
It was like a peculiar film, fast-forwarding when he moved forward and reversing when he stepped back.
Chen Yu reached the side of the bed, and by then, the woman's face, who was being grasped tightly by the shadow on top of her, had become clear. She was struggling fiercely, even reaching out in an attempt to grab Chen Yu.
Chen Yu took a step back, and the scene quickly reversed back to the shadow writhing and the girl's wails.
"Quite interesting." Chen Yu stepped forward again, and the girl started to cry for help; then he stepped back, and she began screaming again.
Chen Yu, intrigued, stepped back and forth, back and forth, like in a tango, while the scene voraciously fast-forwarded and reversed over and over.
Just as Chen Yu was wondering how long this scene could be toyed with in this manner, he noticed that it had stopped moving.
The shadow that stood beside, emitting weird laughter, also ceased to stir. The shadow on the bed gradually twisted its head to look at him.
[Captain Chen Yu, after comparison, the shadow on the bed and the shadow beside the bed are 98.2% similar in body shape], Radiance suddenly interjected, catching Chen Yu off guard.
At this moment, the shadow on the bed began to transform, its face rapidly becoming clear, as if transitioning from a pixelated mess to 4K resolution all at once, allowing Chen Yu to see its face.
It was contorted.
The features were stretched and elongated as if by a photo editing software, looking incredibly bizarre, as though a perfectly normal person had been turned into a monster.
Chen Yu turned his head to glance at the person filming behind him, whose face was still missing, and a foul stench had already wafted over. The weird-faced figure had already walked up to Chen Yu.
"That breath is seriously foul." Chen Yu covered his nose and waved his hand, showing some disgust.
The man kept approaching Chen Yu; his mouth opened wider and wider, his eyes grew smaller and smaller, until finally, his eyes were completely invisible, only the mouth that took up half his face remained.
Chen Yu walked past, his body moving through the weird man, and the girl who had become still on the bed also disappeared. He suddenly found himself back in the normal bedroom.
The gentle sunlight streamed through the window onto Chen Yu, who stood by the window and looked outside. Then he saw himself, along with Jack and Solano, standing outside in the courtyard, smiling at him and slowly waving their hands.
"This could be troublesome..." Chen Yu squinted his eyes.
He wasn't worried about his own safety; he was concerned for Jack's and Solano's lives. The purpose of his visit was to have Jack help him with a favor in dealing with Solano's troubles.
If Solano died and Jack survived, Jack probably would help, but Solano's father might take issue with him. And if Jack died too, he might not even need to return to America.
Remembering the two dark shadows and the body shape data that Radiance had obtained, Chen Yu had an odd thought.
But whether this thought was reliable or not, he still needed some other things to assist in verifying it.
Chen Yu stepped out of the bedroom, and just as he closed the door, he caught a glimpse of something moving in the wardrobe from the corner of his eye.
The door shut.
A 'click' sound came from inside the door.
Then there was a brief moment of dead silence, followed by Chen Yu hearing the sound of clothing rubbing against the floor and strange noises coming from inside the door.
Chen Yu knew that, perhaps, some malevolent spirit was crawling on the floor.
Just listening to this sound, he could almost envision how the evil spirit was squirming on the ground.
So Chen Yu opened the door.
There was nothing inside the door; the strange noise stopped abruptly. Chen Yu raised an eyebrow, and then he heard the strange noise coming from downstairs. Without hesitation, he kept the bedroom door open and took a quick glance at the first floor.
Downstairs, there was a girl with a pale face and a strange smile, her eyes bloodshot, a rope tied tightly around her neck. She lay on the ground, her bleeding eyes staring intently at Chen Yu.
"Heehee~" The girl let out a bizarre laugh. The other end of the rope dragged on the floor, but it seemed as though an invisible hand was holding the rope, dragging the girl toward Chen Yu.
Chen Yu watched with interest as the girl was dragged up the stairs, step by step. During the dragging process, her head twisted at an eerie angle to look at Chen Yu.
"Click-clack," the sound of teeth clacking, the sound of a corpse rubbing against the stairs.
The malevolent spirit was dragged in front of Chen Yu.