Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 640: Close Shave

Translator: CKtalon

On the other side of the rift, countless shadows overlapped and appeared to be squeezing outward. They looked to penetrate the barrier and extend over as a large number of glimmers flickered in the rift, ‘liberating’ the darkness.

Just as Welf’s intangible tentacle reached this instance in Shang Jianyao’s memories, it froze as if a creature had encountered its nemesis, like a human having a gun pressed at their temple.

The intangible tentacle began to tremble. In the small truck dozens of meters away, Welf’s face instantly turned pale, and his mouth produced a stutter.

A brief moment later, it crescented into an involuntary scream. “No! Spare me!”

He suddenly retracted the four ‘tentacles’ that extended out, wanting to escape the abnormally terrifying rift.

This reaction was so loud and intense that Welf couldn’t conceal his actions of flipping through Shang Jianyao’s memories.

In the True Self Church’s stronghold, Shang Jianyao—who was eating oatmeal bread—stopped. He found his mind in a mess as if someone was screaming.

Once Awakened had such a substantial interaction with each other, their existence was no longer a secret mutually.

In the blink of an eye, Shang Jianyao captured the source of the anomaly—it was a human consciousness dozens of meters away!

As Shang Jianyao threw the oatmeal bread back on the table, he turned his head and shouted at Bai Chen, “Give me the Six Senses Beads!”

At the same time, he locked onto the human consciousness and used Literary Hipster on him. He preliminarily determined that this was the weak and timid Mind Corridor-level Awakened in the Last Man domain.

In the small truck, Welf—who had just calmed down and planned on starting the car to leave the block—suddenly became depressed. He felt very defeated and couldn’t help but mutter to himself, “I am so sorry to be born…”

As Welf wallowed in self-misery, Bai Chen heard Shang Jianyao’s shout.

She didn’t hesitate and threw the Six Senses Beads out. After doing this, she heaved a long sigh of relief as if she had finally escaped some unpleasant experience.

The reason Shang Jianyao wanted the Six Senses Beads and not the Life Angel necklace was due to distance.

The Life Angel necklace could directly cause the target’s heart to stop and strip them of their life, but it only had a range of 40 meters. The Six Senses Beads had a range of 120 meters.

The target Shang Jianyao had locked onto was between 60 to 80 meters away!

In other words, the Six Senses Beads’ direct Consciousness Deprivation wasn’t much worse than Cardiac Arrest. It could also break down an enemy’s combat abilities in one blow. The only problem was that it could only be used thrice, but Shang Jianyao didn’t care.

After catching the Six Senses Beads with his left hand, Shang Jianyao spun the string of prayer beads without hesitation.

Unlike in the past—where the user was required to say the corresponding ability’s name for it to be effective—the current Six Senses Beads had fused with the abnormal aura of Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company, a Buddhist Holy Land. It could be used just by thinking and feeling it, making it much simpler.

At the critical moment, an unknown Shang Jianyao thought of a question. If we separately think of Visual Deprivation, Auditory Deprivation, Olfactory Deprivation, Touch Deprivation, Taste Deprivation, and Consciousness Deprivation in our minds and quickly feel the prayer beads, which ability will be activated in the end?

The calm and rational Shang Jianyao quickly suppressed the twitchy thought and prepared to voice Consciousness Deprivation from the bottom of his heart.

He suddenly felt the Six Senses Beads in his hand turn cold.

It no longer looked like a string of prayer beads made of wood. It looked more like a glazed glass bead forged in a crucible.

A green light surfaced in front of Shang Jianyao’s eyes, and scenes appeared in the light.

In those scenes, Shang Jianyao successfully used the Six Senses Beads and deprived the target of his consciousness. He then took the Life Angel necklace from Jiang Baimian, flipped out the window, and headed straight for the enemy.

As the Awakened in the Last Man domain had been struck unconscious, there was a certain level of chaos. The Golden Scale Awakened—who was good at hiding—revealed herself.

Shang Jianyao—who had entered a 40-meter range—locked onto the woman and directly activated the Life Angel necklace’s ability.

As expected, the target suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed.

Shang Jianyao smiled, drew his pistol, and pulled the trigger at the two Awakened’s goons.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The enemies lost their lives one after another.

These scenes shattered in the blink of an eye, condensing into a new scene.

In the scene, Shang Jianyao opened his eyes.

Around him, Jiang Baimian died from Cardiac Arrest. Long Yuehong was deprived of his consciousness and was shot to death. Bai Chen was shot several times and was already on her deathbed. The red glow in Genava’s eyes froze as if he didn’t sense anything.

This is… The calm and rational Shang Jianyao raised his right hand and slapped himself hard.

Bam!

He felt a sharp pain in his face, and his head spun for a few seconds before returning to normal. At this moment, he realized that although he was holding the Six Senses Beads, the human consciousness he had locked onto wasn’t the enemy dozens of meters away but Long Yuehong—who was inches away!

Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen’s eyes were half-closed and unfocused. At some point in time, they had pulled out the United 202 they carried with them and looked like they were prepared to aim at Shang Jianyao.

“Sleepwalking!” Shang Jianyao instantly understood the real reason for Ugo’s death.

After the latter was affected by the nightmare, he entered a sleepwalking state and suffocated himself to death with a plastic bag!

On the other side, the red glow in Genava’s eyes paused as if he were in another world. He didn’t receive the abnormal electromagnetic signals around him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Shang Jianyao ducked and dodged his three companions’ shots.

The bullets struck the table, penetrated it, drilled into the ground, or ricocheted, almost injuring the people in the room.

Amidst the unsilenced gunshots, Jiang Baimian and the others snapped to their senses, their expressions a little blank.

Shang Jianyao couldn’t be bothered to explain and could only shout, “Sleepwalking!”

As his voice echoed, he extended his consciousness dozens of meters out, attempting to lock onto the Mind Corridor-level Awakened in the Last Man domain again.

However, the other party had already moved elsewhere and concealed his consciousness again.

Sleepwalking? Jiang Baimian’s eyes darted around slightly as she recalled Ugo’s encounter and quickly understood what had happened.

They had unknowingly been affected by the nightmare and had fallen asleep. They then began sleepwalking and attacked each other under the corresponding dream’s guidance!

If not for Shang Jianyao waking up in time, apart from Genava, probably none of the Old Task Force members would be complete.

What shocked Jiang Baimian the most was that she had clearly gotten the auxiliary chip to monitor her physical condition. Once it sensed that she was sleeping, it would jolt her awake with her biological prosthetic limb’s high-voltage electric current. However, it didn’t work this time.

Although her physical condition was still a little different from normal when sleepwalking, it was clearly different from sleeping. Therefore, the relatively simple auxiliary chip couldn’t detect the difference.

This made Jiang Baimian wonder if it was necessary to get an advanced auxiliary chip from Mechanical Paradise to enhance the biological prosthetic limb’s performance.

As these thoughts raced through her mind, she shouted in a deep voice, “Make yourself asymmetrical before monitoring the activity around each other!”

As she spoke, Jiang Baimian—who had her right arm ‘paralyzed’—maintained her left-hand grip on the gun and aimed it ahead.

She was forcing out the enemy with symmetry OCD. Otherwise, the other party—who might be very good at hiding—could easily find an opportunity to complete the assassination as long as they had patience.

Jiang Baimian—who had never interacted with Awakened in this aspect—wasn’t sure if her bioelectric signals would be blocked.

Long Yuehong rolled up his right sleeve, revealing a large patch of iron-black. To him, this allowed him to use the mechanical arm’s various functions better.

In the eyes of patients with symmetry OCD, having a human arm on one side and a mechanical creation on the other was an unforgivable crime.

Bai Chen also rolled up her sleeves and secretly used the Merfolk biological prosthetic limb to release an intangible subsonic sound at the door and window.

On the one hand, she wanted to use the sound waves’ feedback to find hidden enemies like a crude form of sonar. On the other hand, she hoped that the other party would unknowingly suffer subsonic damage when they sneaked in through the window or door.

After the gunshots, Genava returned to normal. As he used various methods to investigate his surroundings, he spoke in a slightly synthetic male voice. “They can also distort the electromagnetic signals in the environment with the help of the nightmare’s power!”

This included light.

“How careful. I used all my strength from the beginning. Fortunately, the Six Senses Beads had a hidden characteristic that showed me a bad future.” Shang Jianyao stood up, held the prayer beads in one hand, and took out a white strap with the other.

He had yet to find the human consciousness he had previously locked onto. However, this didn’t stop him from wrapping the left half of his head.

What they wanted was asymmetry!