Nightmare’s Call

“Forget it. Let’s see the messenger programs…”

The messenger program in Miga was a program with an orange-like fruit icon.

Lin Sheng clicked on it, and a round chat window appeared. The window was split into three columns: Friends, Recent, and Group.

The interface was slightly on the darker side, simple yet utilitarian.

Just as he opened the program that Lin Sheng recalled he probably would not be able to get in touch with his online friends back in Xilin. Most of the internet there are standalone entities, and even the software they use was different.

As he looked at the barren “friends” list, he sighed and turned off the program before clicking on an obscure game to play.

Time passed slowly but surely, and soon, hours passed by.

Lin Sheng rubbed his eyes as he turned off the game, and prepared to log off and leave.

Just as he lifted his head, he saw someone standing before the computer opposite of him. It was a long-haired lady with slightly white-ish eyes.

She looked no different than the other people playing games behind him, but that Lin Sheng noticed was that the woman, was looking at him!

The computers were set up in the way that players’ backs would face each other, and the person sitting opposite of Lin Sheng was smashing his keyboard while enjoying his game.

But just as Lin Sheng raised his head, he saw the lady staring at him.

Her eyes were puffed, and her hair messy, while her face was totally expressionless. Amidst the cacophony of game audio, she simply just stood there as if ignored by everyone.

And a young man simply walked before the lady, and a blur later, the lady disappeared.

Despite the crowd, no one apparently saw this unusual scene.

Lin Sheng was calm as he got up and paid for the time used.

As he got out of the café, the street was already empty. He decided to just stuff the items he bought into his pocket and threw away the plastic bag as he slowly walked towards the direction of the school.

That lady reminded him of the renovation worker in that derelict unit back in Xylond.

Along the pavement, Lin Sheng’s pace quickened. The distance from where he was to the Soul Fortress was not that far. Just a couple of kilometers.

But not a few hundred meters into his stride, a weird sound rang along with the wind.

“What was that?”

Lin Sheng paused and looked around.

Beneath the night sky, a couple of searchlights-esque glows swept about. On his left were rows upon rows of street lamps, and on the right was a running path beneath the trees. There were small illumination strobes along the pathway for both decoration and lighting.

There was no one around him.

Cold wind started blowing, and it was bone-bitingly cold, making the whole atmosphere even eerier.

Lin Sheng pulled his hands out of his pocket and started cracking his knuckles.

“Who’s there? You’ve followed me for a while now, show yourself.” His voice was not loud, but it was clear enough to be heard.

No one responded. But a short, and pudgy shadow slowly closed in from behind.

It was a fat man clad in black. His gaze was blank, and he had faint black markings on his forehead.

On his sleeve pocket was a pen from work, and two rings of keys hung by his pants. One was a door key and another a car key.

Lin Sheng turned away and looked at the fat man.

“Who are you?” That question stemmed from the fact that he had never gotten on anyone’s bad side ever since he came to Miga, and for someone to come looking for trouble, he had to find out why.

The fat man was impassive as he slowly approached Lin Sheng

*Whoosh!!*

Suddenly, he pounced forward, his expression turned menacing.

Lin Sheng was just about to strike as a sudden blur followed the disappearance of the fat man.

Then his back felt heavy, as a low growl rang out from behind.

*Arrrgh!!*

He turned back and saw the fat man suddenly appearing on his back, pressing hard onto him as he aimed for the jugular.

*Bam!*

Lin Sheng’s elbow lashed out and smashed the fat man like a bolt of lightning as the latter’s body twisted into a weird angle and flew away before crashing hard onto the ground.

Lin Sheng pulled back his hand and cracked his neck as he made his way to the fat man.

“For such a weak person to have a blink-like move?” He stepped on the fat man’s head as he investigated.

The person looked no different than a normal person, aside from his gaze.

His eyes were dim, and his gaze was empty as if he had no will of his own.

“His attack is weak as hell, just like a normal person.” Lin Sheng was just about to release his holy power to further investigate when suddenly…

*Hiss…*

The fat man under his leg shuddered as he disintegrated into black smoke, and disappeared.

Lin Sheng suddenly lost his footing. As he stabilized himself, he looked at the smoke as it dissipated and disappeared into the air.

“A black cluster phenomenon?” Lin Sheng was reminded of that renovation worker back in Xylond.

With a groan, he slowly made his way back to the Soul Fortress.

…

“I’m telling the truth! Really! I’m not lying!”

Felle was trying his best to explain the trouble he had run into the security chief. A weird monster with empty eyes and instant movement suddenly attacked him and bit an unseen wound onto him.

“You have no wounds on your body. Boy, I understand that you have a lot of stress after coming to the university, but if you have psychiatric issues, you might want to consider seeking treatment.

Screaming and shouting at me here won’t help you.”

The security chief at the guard post was a man almost fifty as he twirled his cigarette in his mouth while looking impatiently at Felle.

“I’m really telling the truth!! I swear!” Felle tried to explain. “That weird person was wearing the school’s janitor uniform. He had long hair and was a man…”

He pointed at his arm.

“I was even bitten by him here! Look!”

“Alright, alright, I’m busy now, and have no time to listen to your nonsense, the chief rolled his eyes as he looked at Felle’s fair arms. The moment he saw there were no wounds there, his patience ran out.

And Felle was kicked out.

He looked on in a daze at the guard post, looking all helpless and panicky.

“See? I told you, no one will believe you!”

Two people walked out from the shadow of the building not too far away. It was Mylissa and the flaxen-haired girl.

“I’ve tested it already, aside from Selena, no one else could see those weird shadows. We probably only gained the ability to see them after getting into contact with her.”

Mylissa held her hand. As she squeezed her small chest into a more considerable size, her face held her usual proud expression.

“I… I…” Felle looked at the wound on his arm and looked down.

“These few days, we have seen more and more of those weird people. Not only outside, even inside the school as well. They’ll appear when night falls.”

The flaxen-haired girl, Selena bit her lip. “Yet, other students, even the tutors and lecturers could not see them…”