Chapter 600 - 376: Subspace Abyss Prison (Part 2)

Chapter 600: Chapter 376: Subspace Abyss Prison (Part 2)

He was no longer the ignorant person he once was and was long past being surprised by such bizarre situations.

He quickly assessed the current situation.

This body in this world, which looked at least ninety percent like him, belonged to a software engineer who worked from nine in the morning to ten at night.

He was currently employed at a well-known gaming company in Ludao City of the Tangge Federation, serving as a lead developer for a game project titled "Wedding Gown."

After living an ordinary, routine life for over twenty years, Han Ning’s predecessor discovered that this world was not as calm as it appeared on the surface.

He often saw netizens online expressing their admiration for a profession called "Martial Artist." But when he actually searched for information about Martial Artists, all he found were fragments and ambiguous answers.

Gradually, his predecessor came to understand that Martial Artists were a mysterious profession that existed outside the lives of ordinary people, similar to something like "special forces."

It seemed the government was intentionally hiding information about them.

Not only that, but on the online forums his predecessor frequented and local social media sites, users would occasionally share their own bizarre experiences, but the related posts would be deleted quickly.

Now, Li Lu’s unexplained death had cast a shadow over everyone on the project team.

Some said she died in a crime of passion.

Others said she liked to dabble in occult knowledge she found online and had likely died during some kind of evil ritual.

Still others said the work pressure was too great, and she had decided to take her own life.

Han Ning couldn’t say for sure. His relationship with Li Lu was purely professional.

All the speculation would have to wait for the results of the police investigation.

The police station where he gave his statement was very close to Hai Cang Mansion.

Han Ning crossed the crosswalk in front of the police station. Thinking about the murder mystery game he’d attended last night, his gaze shifted, and he subconsciously looked toward Hai Cang Mansion in the distance.

The August weather was fickle.

The sky, clear just a moment ago, was now covered in leaden clouds. The dark, heavy canopy looked as if it was about to collapse.

The towering Hai Cang Mansion stood under the gloomy sky, and a sense of oppression filled the air.

Han Ning narrowed his eyes. For a fleeting moment, he thought he saw a black figure flash past in the shadows of a street corner.

But when he blinked again, there was nothing there.

WHOOSH~

The wind was picking up.

RUMBLE.

The roar of thunder echoed across the sky.

He pulled his gaze away and hurried toward the bus stop.

His apartment was about a ten-stop ride from the police station.

By the time the bus reached his neighborhood, a torrent of large raindrops came crashing down in a sudden deluge.

SPLASH SPLASH. Han Ning sprinted toward home, stomping through the puddles on the ground, his hands crossed symbolically over his head to shield him from the rain.

The dense curtain of rain completely obscured his vision, making everything around him seem like part of a gray, colorless world.

As he ran, he didn’t notice what was at his feet at all.

He only felt himself kick something soft, which made him stumble and nearly fall flat on his face.

’What was that?’

He steadied himself and looked down.

A pair of pale, bloodless hands was slowly creeping up his ankle.

The withered hands were like bone-chilling ice, gripping his legs tightly with a sinister cold that seeped into his very bones as they slowly climbed up from his ankles.

"!"

The bone-chilling cold spread up his legs and gradually reached his chest.

A blood-soaked head with wildly rolling eyes pressed close to his face, letting out a sinister, ear-piercing wail.

"Help me... Help me... Please, help me..."

"Li Lu, I’m not the one who killed you. You’ve got the wrong person!" Han Ning said, his expression calm as he looked directly at Li Lu’s blood-streaked, pale face.

"Help me..."

"I told you, I didn’t kill you..."

Just as Li Lu’s mangled face was about to press against Han Ning’s cheek...

"You’re courting death!"

A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as his weak Spiritual Power formed a sharp blade and shot out.

SWISH!

An invisible ripple spread out.

Almost simultaneously, a blinding, blood-red light erupted from his chest.

The pale face melted like butter on a hot knife. With a pained shriek, it sizzled and vanished into a puff of white smoke.

The sky remained dim and overcast, with the wind still raging—the eerie calm before a downpour.

’Hmm? What’s this?’

Han Ning stared in the direction the phantom had vanished, clearly remembering that nearly a third of it had been obliterated by the blood-red light that had burst from his chest.

He blinked and subconsciously touched his chest, right where the bloody light had erupted.

Unexpectedly, his mind suddenly went into a trance.

A thick, bloody mist slowly materialized before him. Within the mist, countless illusory figures rose and fell, the sun, moon, and stars flickered with an unnatural light, and mountains and rivers twisted and warped.

A blood-stained tome of inscriptions emerged from the mist, engraved with the large words: Sequence: Beast Taming.

[Tier Nine: Culinary Scientist]

[Trait: Cooking]: Touch the corpse of a dead Fierce Beast to generate a corresponding series of cooking recipes. Consuming dishes from the recipes will enhance certain Attributes of a Contracted Beast.

[Trait: Contract]: Release Spiritual Power to form a contract with a target creature, making it a Contracted Beast under your command. When your sanity is low, your emotions will be influenced by the emotions of your Contracted Soul Beast. (Maximum: 1)

[Promotion Conditions]: 300ml of your own fresh blood, Culinary Scientist’s Secret Medicine.

[Promotion Ceremony]: While the target creature consumes the fresh blood, you must drink the Culinary Scientist’s Secret Medicine.

[Culinary Scientist’s Secret Medicine Formula]: Culinary Scientist Trait x1, Blood-Nourishing Grass 100g, Cow Blood 50g, Cold Water Stone 20g...

Combine the above ingredients in a container and boil over high heat for 30 minutes.

As Han Ning finished reading the last line, the light red text transformed into a red, amber-like object that floated before him.

He gently touched the blood-red, amber-like object, and a set of memories that were not his own instantly flooded his mind.

"Interesting. The Beast Master legacy of this world?"

"So this is the trait of a Culinary Scholar?"

Han Ning looked down and muttered to himself, gazing at a blood-red, jade-like Piyao in his palm. He remembered that this Piyao had been a gift from his predecessor’s grandfather before he died.

"This isn’t a place to linger. I should leave first..."

Processing the memories in his mind, he quickly came to his senses, put the red amber object in his pocket, and continued on his way home.

He hadn’t run more than a few steps before the long-brewing storm finally broke, unleashing a torrential downpour.

Back at his rented apartment, soaked to the bone, Han Ning stripped off all his clothes and hopped into the bathroom, turning on the water heater for a hot shower.

After coming out of the bathroom, he walked to the door and picked up the takeout he had pre-ordered. He placed it on his computer desk, turned on his computer, and began searching for local breaking news while distractedly eating his food.

KNOCK KNOCK~

The icon for his messaging app in the bottom-right corner of the screen lit up.

He opened the window.

It was a message from his colleague on the project team, Liu Yiran.

Liu Yiran: "You’re back? What did they ask you?"

Han Ning, having fully assimilated into his predecessor’s life without any sense of incongruity, replied:

"I’m back. They just asked about what happened at the murder mystery game cafe yesterday and some details about Li Lu’s usual work habits."

Liu Yiran: "I just got home not long ago, too... I think there’s something fishy about this whole thing. Do you remember that strange pattern Li Lu had us add to the paper doll’s clothes in the game about twenty days ago?"

Han Ning: "I remember. Wasn’t it supposed to be a clue to guide players through a puzzle? What was so unusual about it?"

He remembered it was a pattern of several intertwined, distorted lines, pale gray in color, resembling a quietly burning flame.

Other than looking a bit twisted and strange, there was nothing particularly abnormal about it.

After all, the internet was full of symbols that were far stranger and more incomprehensible.

However, that was what he thought before. Now, Han Ning didn’t think so anymore.