Loop...
A ti loop?!
Lynn felt as if he'd been struck by a sudden revelation.
That's it!
Absolutely correct!
The thod his mother left behind had definitely taken effect. After all the students were killed in this classroom, ti here didn't continue flowing but instead kept replaying over and over.
And the tiline he was currently experiencing was already part of those endless repetitions.
This was why those already dead students kept reappearing here, only to be killed again and again!
This loop.
Had actually started long ago!
And that Vengeful Demon's projection, that "Ghost," had already been trapped by his mother's thod!
But what exactly had she used?
Heart Anchor?!
Lynn frowned deeply, carefully contemplating this key term.
An anchor could be understood as fixation, locking sothing in place.
The aning of "heart" was broader—it could refer to the physical heart, or to the mind, the soul.
And clearly, "heart" here referred to the latter.
If that was the case...
"Using certain convictions within the heart... to lock that Vengeful Demon in place..."
Lynn frowned.
"Then triggering that loop..."
And almost the mont he finished speaking, the lights above him flickered and dimd again.
Darkness descended like a tidal wave.
A sharp knife suddenly plunged into his back from behind, piercing straight through his chest.
But Lynn rely curved his lips upward.
"I understand now."
At that mont, Lynn smiled, suddenly reaching behind himself and seizing the ghostly figure's entire face.
With trendous force, he slamd the Ghost Baby heavily onto the floor at the front of the classroom.
"Indeed, all the stories revolve around ',' so the ultimate solution to break this must also lie within '.'"
Lynn paid no attention to the wound in his chest.
He stood deeply facing the ghostly figure slowly rising in the darkness, watching as it multiplied into dense, nurous shadows like phantoms.
But Lynn didn't take action.
"You're a Devil. You can indeed toy with ordinary people as you please, but at the sa ti, your arrogance and foolishness have made you pay a heavy price."
Lynn sneered.
"You killed that girl, didn't you? And you brought her corpse here, right?"
"Because if I were a Devil like you, I'd also be very happy to do this—to let a young brat who made a contract with think he'd finally achieved his ultimate revenge..."
"Then you bring that girl's corpse before him, telling him that the death of the person he cared about most was actually your masterpiece..."
"I imagine you must have really enjoyed the expression on his face at that mont."
Outside, hearing Lynn's voice coming from the screen, all the trainees looked utterly stunned.
Lynn smiled and said:
"And where else could you hide her?"
"While sharing a body with him, where could you hide her to make him even more shattered and filled with hatred?"
In that instant.
Under the shocked gazes of all the trainees, Lynn smiled and suddenly reached out, plunging his hand directly into his own torn-open chest.
He grabbed his own stomach.
"You Devils!"
Lynn gritted his teeth, his smile stretching almost to his ears.
"Always using such despicable thods to instill fear and hatred in people."
Buzz—
Instantly.
In the screen, Lynn's hand gripping his stomach began squeezing tighter bit by bit. Gritting his teeth, he bent over, opening his mouth as he dry-heaved repeatedly.
It was as if the person wasn't him at all, but rather the character he was portraying.
Little by little.
He viciously opened his mouth wider, and large clumps of hair slowly welled up from within his oral cavity.
Using his other hand, he grabbed those mucus-covered strands of hair, slowly pulling them out from his mouth.
First the top of the head, then the forehead, eyes, nose...
A girl's head, corroded almost beyond recognition by stomach acid, was gradually pulled out from his stretched-wide mouth.
[Ding! Head Examiner SAN -10]
[Ding! Vampire SAN -20]
[Ding! chanical Puppet SAN -10]
Under the horrified stares of the trainees, a girl's head, neck, shoulders, and torso were slowly extracted from his stomach in that terrifying manner.
Even that "Ghost" stopped moving.
Splat—
The girl's decaying corpse heavily hit the floor in front of Lynn.
Bracing himself against the ground, Lynn gasped heavily, but he still lifted his head, sneering coldly at the "Ghost" as he said:
"Is that how it was? After you helped my character kill everyone here, did you present this scene to him in exactly this way?!"
"How interesting!"
"The only girl who was kind to died because of , and her corpse was digesting in my own stomach. I killed everyone I resented, yet I myself was to be enslaved by the Devil I should hate most?"
"You must have been really pleased with yourself back then, weren't you?"
Actually, Lynn had already guessed this long ago.
Because he was no longer an ordinary human from Earth;
he had struggled and survived in the Dark World for two years, witnessing many things even more horrifying than this.
So he understood the thods of Devils better than anyone!
They used all kinds of ways to tornt the beings who fell into this world, then savored their fear and suffering.
And actually.
The hint about the girl being in his stomach had been revealed early on in that photograph.
Because that photo showed signs of decay, especially the girl's face in the picture, which was mottled with corruption.
And the blood on the photo also foreshadowed her death.
But more importantly...
Lynn sneered as he wiped the mucus from his lips, saying: "Wang Tao, after so many cycles, isn't it ti you faced reality..."
He slowly reached out, moving his hand toward the back of his head, touching the face located on the back of his skull.
His fingers brushed against those eyes that stared rigidly backward.
Instantly, it felt as if a cold liquid moistened his entire palm.
"She's dead. She's dead."
And at that very mont.
A cry of anguish, suppressed to the extre like that of a young beast, erupted from the back of his head, echoing throughout the classroom.
That sound seed filled with boundless pain and hatred.
The dense crowd of ghostly shadows in the classroom imdiately reacted as if triggered, charging madly toward Lynn.
But Lynn didn't move.
He gazed deeply ahead as nurous tentacles shot out, firmly blocking the ghosts in place.
"She was your Heart Anchor, wasn't she?"
"Even though you might not have had deep interactions, even though you might have exchanged only a few words, in that hellish school, she probably beca your emotional anchor long ago."
The face on the back of his head grew increasingly pained, increasingly grief-stricken.
Lynn closed his eyes.
He could understand.
Amidst the surrounding despair and suffering, even the tiniest act of kindness...
Could be firmly engraved in his mory.
Because it was practically the only glimr of light.
Perhaps for that girl, it was just a small act of standing up against injustice, but for this young man, it was almost everything.
And who could allow anyone to harm that sliver of light in their heart...
One could say that the girl's kindness gave him hope in life, but it also drove him to extres.
That face on the back of his head.
Wasn't just that "Ghost."
It was also Wang Tao, the character he was portraying.
And the backward-gazing eyes represented the future that had already happened—the reality he refused to face.
He had wrapped himself up, making himself always look backward, because at least in the past, before learning the truth, that girl was still alive.
And the "Heart Anchor" his mother spoke of.
Was probably that sliver of emotional attachnt.
That stubborn refusal to fall into darkness, to submit to reality, that determination to protect the mory of that girl in his heart even unto death... that obsession...
And his Heart Anchor.
Was his own key.
...
User Comments
0 comments from readers