World 006 - Alliance Hierarch Four
Rows of red characters slowly emerged.
'The Blind Spot cannot be escaped; it's like shackles, forever bound to your neck, making it impossible to breathe, step by step walking into despair.'
After the red characters finished displaying, rows of news links appeared.
'A couple mysteriously disappeared in their home in Wanxi City, with a pot of hot noodles still on the table after they vanished.'
'An old man in Jiaxin City went missing after taking out the trash at midnight. Surveillance found nothing unusual, suggesting the old man might never have left the stairwell.'
'A student in Yiyang City mysteriously disappeared on his way home from school. No findings on the surveillance cameras on either end of the road.'
Row after row of news, all were collected missing person cases from various places.
At the bottom, there was a button for a Common Knowledge exchange forum.
Li Chengyi clicked it, and the screen immediately switched to another webpage.
This was a forum-like interface, with several bright red titles pinned above rows of posts.
'1: An overview of community rules, methods for earning points.'
'2: Must-read for newbies.'
'3: Please protect personal information when posting discussions to avoid being deceived. Recently, there have been criminals...'
Li Chengyi quickly clicked on the must-read for newbies.
With a swoosh, a wall of text popped up, hundreds of words long.
'No one has ever seen the Blind Spot, perhaps it's just a legend, but the increasing number of missing person cases make us believe that there must be some force approaching, constantly lurking.'
'The Blind Spot is hard to notice, often mistaken for dreams, but unfortunately, you can wake from a dream, while entering the Blind Spot means certain death with no chance of reappearance.'
'If you encounter the Blind Spot, please do not contact us, try to enjoy your final moments, as the Blind Spot typically approaches slowly and would completely pull you in on the third premonition. Go and do everything you've wanted to do but were afraid to.'
Li Chengyi's brows furrowed slightly.
The information on this forum reeked of defeatism and hopelessness.
He quickly glanced at the position of the commenters; there were nicknames.
'— General Knowledge Expert.'
He promptly clicked on the name, and a pop-up window appeared.
'Nickname: General Knowledge Expert. Real name: Zhang Xiaying. Mysteriously disappeared at home in June '22, still missing to date. If found, please contact this number.'
Below was a black and white photo of a woman and a phone number.
The woman in the photo looked less like a woman and more like an extremely tough, burly man with a buzz cut.
Her eyes were sharp and defiant, with a scar on her forehead, and her neck as thick as a bucket, revealing muscular lines even through the photo.
She wore a form-fitting army green T-shirt with military insignia, likely having served in the military.
Li Chengyi noted the current date: Thursday, May 13th, '24.
'Has it already been nearly two years since the disappearance?'
He sighed internally. If before he still had some doubts that what he experienced might be an illusion, a dream, now, seeing all this real evidence, he understood that what he'd been through wasn't an illusion.
He continued to search the forum. Aside from some hints, the forum mostly consisted of hobbyists discussing and bragging about their dreams.
Without more information, Li Chengyi reluctantly closed the website.
The sky gradually darkened.
He went to a bus stop and stood there waiting.
Standing there, he vaguely felt tired, perhaps due to having consumed too many sweets earlier.
Taking out his phone, he continued to browse the web, checking on the situation regarding the Blind Spot.
Click, click.
Suddenly, the screen of the phone became unresponsive, then changed to a cartoon image of a little yellow dog wagging its tail while sitting.
Beneath it, there was a line of text.
'Sorry, your network signal is poor. Please check and try again.'
"Huh?"
Li Chengyi quickly glanced at the top right corner at the cell signal bars, indeed, the full signal had disappeared, leaving an empty space with a red cross.
He shook his phone, wondering if it was malfunctioning, but then he felt that something was off—everything around him seemed too quiet.
He looked up.
His eyes widened in shock.
Around him was no longer the bus stop!
Instead, it was the underground parking garage he had entered before!!
In the dimly lit parking lot.
The spacious square area, devoid of cars, resembled a sealed long box, extending as far as the eye could see.
White fluorescent tubes branched off from the center of the ceiling to both sides.
To the right was a long straight line of tubes, shining all the way to the end of visibility.
To the left were sections of horizontal tubes, each one-meter-long cold light hanging every five meters, also extending to the end of visibility just the same.
'....!!'
Li Chengyi stood frozen in place, his neck stiff as he slowly looked around.
The grey-white lime walls on both sides, the red fire hose cabinet, and the grey doors to maintenance rooms were all clearly visible.
But there was no one to be seen.
Not a single person.
Li Chengyi quickly glanced back.
Behind him was a solid white wall; the advertisement board from the bus station he had just passed by had long vanished.
The twilight's dim light, the ground marked with blurry parking lines.
No wind, no sound, only himself.
Click.
It was then.
A faint noise came from one of the small maintenance doors on the right.
It seemed like the sound of a lock being turned, a door opening.
Li Chengyi looked in the distance, he was about twenty meters away from the door, able to clearly see the door handle slowly turning.
Rust also fell off slightly as it turned.
Gulp.
Li Chengyi unconsciously swallowed a sliver of saliva.
Even though he had lived two lifetimes, when faced with danger, he was still just a common man without the strength to truss a chicken.
And now...
Click.
Suddenly, that small maintenance door slowly began to open.
The door crept open, revealing a slim dark gap.
As light illuminated the gap, it showed an empty space inside, with nothing whatsoever.
It seemed to be just a storage closet used as a maintenance room.
Li Chengyi still didn't dare to relax, he kept his gaze fixed on the door gap, not daring to move his eyes away for a second.
Click.
Suddenly, a slight movement came from behind him!
'!!?' Li Chengyi was shocked, he never expected the wall behind him to make noise, and quickly turned to look back.
There was nothing behind him, still just a white wall.
Then, he realized what was happening, and turned back around abruptly to look towards the maintenance door.
A face!!!
He saw a gigantic face!
At the gap in the door, a face as tall as the door itself was quietly watching him through the gap.
The face was entirely black and white, as if it were forcibly extracted from an old VCR, with not a hint of color.
The face looked expressionless, with a few strands of black hair sparsely atop its forehead.
It had no body; the entire head seemed like a balloon, gently squeezed through the door gap.
Li Chengyi stood in place, numb, unable to move.
He kept his eyes focused on the face, wanting to move, but his skin felt as though it had lost all sensation, entirely immobile.
Cold sweat slowly seeped out from his forehead, temples, and back.
Little specks of blood, red spots, started to appear on the skin of his legs and slowly crept upwards.
The nearly two-meter-tall face floated closer and closer, heading straight for him.
Getting nearer...
And nearer...