Chapter 882 - 10: Seen
Rumble——!!
Accompanied by thunder, a narrow lightning bolt streaked across the sky.
One couldn’t help but frown as pedestrians under their umbrellas looked up at the sky, murmuring whether the rain would intensify. However, it clearly felt like the rain was gradually decreasing, yet suddenly there was thunder. What exactly was happening?
However, everything indeed began to slowly calm down afterward.
The rain gradually lessened, and there were no more signs of thunder and lightning... which only made that previous lightning bolt seem particularly abrupt, quite strange.
......
"Hmm, this seems to have a bit of intelligence, but mostly it acts on instinct... There’s really no way to engage in normal communication."
Under the gloomy sky, amidst the drizzling rain, a young man in white clothes with black hair squatted in a dark alley, observing the phenomenon of the Evil Spirit on the ground gruesomely disappearing.
He curiously used telekinesis to manipulate the torn-apart gelatinous Spirit Bodies while confining the slowly dissipating black gas within a Mind Field. It seemed like he was studying the remains of a tattered ragdoll that he had torn apart, even though this ragdoll had just attempted to attack him.
If an ordinary person had been attacked here, they probably wouldn’t have survived.
However, it was precisely he who appeared here, and the scales of misfortune quickly tipped to the other side...
Even though it was just a small lightning bolt far below the level of a whisper, not requiring precise targeting, merely the spread of its aftermath, with a slight sweep of the surging spiritual energy, the supposedly strong Evil Spirit was torn apart effortlessly, leaving it helplessly defeated.
The remaining Spirit Body parts were also continuously disappearing...
Like wisps of black smoke vanishing into the ground or dispersing into the air...
Gu Mo didn’t intend to forcibly keep them; after all, there were plenty of research samples, and the street he had just cleaned up now was again filled with various Evil Spirits emerging. So, he dispersed the Mind Field, letting these remnants disappear, leaving only an item light spot in place...
"Hmmmm..."
The young man in white with black hair blinked; anyone could tell at a glance that the drop wasn’t anything good.
Just like the light-seeking nature of the Undead, for players, as long as a glowing white item light spot appeared in their line of sight, they couldn’t help but want to grab it. Even if they knew it might just be "garbage residue" or even a trap—
still, they couldn’t resist the compulsive urge to collect it, finding comfort only in doing so.
No harm in taking it; if it’s useless, it can be stored in the warehouse! That’s the self-discipline of a player!
Casually touching the light spot, Gu Mo checked the drop and, as expected, found it was just as he had predicted. It was a material, described as "Spiritual Essence," a gelatinous residue sometimes left by invisible creatures with properties different from ordinary substances.
Well, at least this is useful...
Materials are always handy...
Come to think of it, his material collection is becoming increasingly vast. Although it doesn’t seem to have much presence usually, occasionally, when he has random ideas of crafting peculiar items or special tools, it always comes in handy. There are plenty of options, so there’s no need to worry about material shortages.
Standing up from his squatting position, casually brushing off his slightly damp clothes, Gu Mo looked into the depths of the dark, wet alley and lightly flicked his fingers—
With a crackle, the blue-white spiritual energy pierced the air, instantly illuminating the entire alley.
Then, he turned and walked out of the alley.
The sky was gloomy, with drizzling rain, but only a few sparse drops remained. Although it didn’t stop completely, the rain wasn’t as heavy as before, and the street was once again filled with a scattering of pedestrians, no longer appearing empty and desolate.
Without deliberately affecting the weather, Gu Mo walked casually on the rainy streets.
He observed the situation of Evil Spirits in the city and found it undeniably subtle. Though the situation seemed severe, people were hardly affected, continuing with work and life. Mortgage payments still needed to be made, and the pressures of reality remained unchanged...
For most people, they remained completely unaware of the dire situation.
——What is an Evil Spirit?
——Is the lamp fixture in the company problematic?
But to say it’s not serious, this world is filled with countless malevolent entities, wandering during broad daylight, appearing in cities, blending into the crowd, and even some shadows towering several stories high, pacing back and forth between buildings.
At first glance, it looks like a scene of chaos and disorder...
Especially under the overcast skies in the grayish background, the entire city seemed almost isolated from the real world, plunged into a realm of demons.
"There’s absolutely no sign of decrease..."
Gu Mo felt that even though he dealt with some of them effortlessly, the number of Evil Spirits in this city remained excessively high, with no signs of improvement.
Initially, he considered targeting all the Evil Spirits on the planet, indiscriminately lashing them all with a spiritual scourge to eradicate them swiftly worldwide... but now it seems that without solving the root cause, such a brute force method would only address the symptoms and not the root cause.
Furthermore, just now on the streets, while randomly selecting a lucky Evil Spirit to fill out a survey, he consciously filtered through many different kinds of Evil Spirits, discovering some rather special types among them.
Even though they still lacked much sanity, they did not think of attacking others. Instead, they lingered near their homes, or the vicinity of their loved ones, as if unable to let go of some obsession, having too many regrets that they couldn’t express, and could only endlessly repeat their tales...
These Spirit Bodies, although shrouded in black aura, cannot be generalized.
"Lack of a guidance mechanism for the deceased..."
"Also lack an order mechanism..."
Gu Mo walked slowly down the street. Since he was already prepared to intervene, he might as well do it properly. Consider using this Dungeon World as a testing ground, gathering valuable experimental data for himself, while also benefiting this world.
So—
Which aspect should I start with?
At this moment, as he was deep in thought, Gu Mo felt a perception and looked towards the road. A bus was slowly passing by, with few passengers. Near the window sat a girl with long black straight hair, looking like an ordinary JK...
Looking ordinary...
Because Gu Mo was certain that this girl saw him.
Even though he had just adjusted his aura concealment level, allowing those Evil Spirits to see him for testing purposes, he still maintained normal concealment from ordinary perception, meaning regular people shouldn’t be able to detect his presence.
......
On the bus.
Sitting in the window-side corner, the girl with long black straight hair tightly pressed her lips together, her face somewhat pale.
The encounter at the bus stop had truly scared her, with no idea what that ghostly thing was, just suddenly appearing in front of her... To be honest, even when seeing a horror film on a phone screen, one gets startled when faced with a jump scare, let alone encountering such a terrifying event in real life.
No warning.
No buildup.
No psychological preparation at all, and just as she was complaining about the sudden rain, drenching her skirt, it appeared before her eyes.
The girl didn’t know how she suppressed her inner fear and the instinct to scream, probably because the thing was viciously staring at her with resentment, endlessly muttering about being "seen" or "unseen," making her instinctively aware—
Realizing that once it discovered she could see it, something bad would definitely happen!
Maybe because of concentrated attention, she instantly understood what to do, and so she forcibly endured the fear...
By not making eye contact and pretending not to see, that’s how she made that unpleasant thing leave disappointed.
But she didn’t know how she managed at the time. Once relaxed afterward, she felt all the more frightened... Her calves felt weak, her slender body trembled uncontrollably, almost unable to stand.
Now sitting on the bus, on the way home, she still couldn’t shake off the lingering fear.
Was it an illusion?
Why did she see such things?
Her mind was in chaos, filled with various thoughts, the high school girl’s expression was wooden as she stared out the window, her gaze meeting a white figure on the sidewalk and they made eye contact for a second, she slightly froze.
But in the next second, the bus moved on.
——A very peculiar figure...
——So distorted that it seemed not to belong to the real world...
Even in her current lost state, she couldn’t ignore that figure just now; she was absentminded, her attention elsewhere, and by the time she reacted, their gazes had already crossed, and the bus had moved a bit further.
The girl with long black hair instinctively glanced back, finding the white-clad figure indistinct but still quietly standing on the sidewalk, seemingly looking in her direction amidst the drizzling rain.
Weirdo...
Silently saying this in her heart, the JK girl withdrew her gaze and exhaled deeply.
At this moment, as her fear slightly subsided, she had little mood to contemplate anything else, only leaving a vivid impression of it without realizing... She didn’t think more in other directions, her mind still a chaotic mess, recalling what happened just now.
Like a dream...
Saw something bad...
An experience she never had before, maybe it was a hallucination. Could it be the recent academic stress is too much?
The girl thought so, naturally trying to explain her encounter from her worldview cultivated over the past ten plus years, while comforting herself—it could just be a coincidence, there shouldn’t be any serious problems.
Maybe.