Chapter 25

Shi Yu wasn’t sure how he felt right now. Logically, he should be rejecting this.

After all, no normal human would be okay with having something inside their belly that could threaten their life. But this little monster had been behaving really well. It even shrank its body on its own just now.

Shi Yu stared at his belly for a long time, mouth twitching, and finally pulled his hand back.

Forget it. Whether he liked it or not didn’t change the situation. The most important thing now was to get enough nutrition. Otherwise, even if the little guy kept shrinking itself, it could only last a few more weeks at most.

Come to think of it, he had been focusing on regular food. But regular food, although the little monster could eat it, didn’t provide full nutrition—more like snacks.

So… what about strange things?

Since both the monster and the strange things were beyond normal understanding, maybe the little monster would grow better by absorbing the energy or aura of other weird things?

Thinking about the remains of the “men’s high heels” that mysteriously disappeared in the bathroom, Shi Yu looked down and thought helplessly: Looks like I’ll have to give it a try.

Before, he only ever avoided strange events. This would be the first time he was voluntarily running into one like an idiot.

Shi Yu took a deep breath and thought, I must be crazy!

The next day, after the alarm went off, Shi Yu got up reluctantly under the covers.

Who even made the rule—

That people still had to go out on days perfect for staying home?!

Shi Yu felt so full of complaints that he could almost turn into a monster himself. But when he felt the extra weight in his belly, he pulled the covers off with a dark expression and got up.

While brushing his teeth and looking in the mirror, he thought: Turns out the hardest thing for a lazy person is waking up early!

It was only 5 a.m.—he didn’t even get up this early for school!

He splashed his face with cold water to wake up, quickly dried off, and walked out to see his sensitive plant still fast asleep.

The dry soil hadn’t moved for days. Based on past experience, it wouldn’t wake up until ten days or even two weeks had passed.

He picked up a watering can and poured some rainwater into the empty pot. Glancing at the time, he muttered: “Wonder if I can get a ride this early.”

Forget it, better go check.

Either way, he had to go out eventually.

Only after leaving the warm, comfy bed did Shi Yu finally make up his mind.

Before heading downstairs, he touched his belly and gave the little monster a warning.

“Behave. Don’t move around out there. And don’t scare anyone, got it?”

He didn’t want something jumping in his belly while he was riding in a car and getting mistaken for a freak.

The little monster sensed what Mom was saying and instantly froze. Even though it was still developing and its thoughts were blurry—and it still had some of that creepy instinct—it cared a lot about what Mom said.

What Mom says, goes!

Shi Yu looked down and saw that under his loose hoodie, he still looked like a regular guy. That made him feel a bit better.

As soon as he got off the elevator, a gust of cold wind hit his face.

It had started raining around 3 a.m. in B City. The light rain had lasted all night. It finally stopped a bit in the early morning, but now it had started again.

Inside the gatekeeper’s booth of the residential area, a TV behind the window was reporting on the changing weather.

Shi Yu walked to the bus stop and opened his umbrella. After waiting a long time without seeing a bus, he took out his phone to check the ride app.

He typed “Haolai Mall” into the search bar, and the route map showed up quickly.

It looked like a normal shopping center with a regular name and location. But Shi Yu remembered from the novel before he got pulled into the story—this mall wasn’t that normal.

Since it wasn’t normal, it was worth checking out.

In the original story, Haolai Mall was always suspicious. It wasn’t until the middle of the story that people began to go missing, which caught the attention of the main characters. But it was too late by then—the mall had already completely transformed into a haunted place and had to be sealed off.

If it were in the past, Shi Yu would’ve avoided a place like that at all costs. But now, he had no choice but to go.

He frowned and was about to figure out how to get there when he saw the traffic light flashing red. A taxi drove through the rain and pulled up.

“Need a ride?”

The driver rolled down the window and asked.

Shiyu put away his phone and stepped forward.
“Driver, please take me to the east side of Nanlin Road,” he said.

He didn’t say the name of the mall directly. Instead, he gave a nearby street name so he could walk there himself later.

The taxi driver didn’t think much of it. He turned on the meter and looked back to confirm:
“That place is pretty far. It’ll take more than an hour and won’t be cheap. Are you sure you want to go?”

Shiyu had just looked up the route, so he knew it was far. Taking the bus would’ve taken half a day, so a taxi was better. Besides, he was going to “test” something today, and buses were too crowded.

Shiyu simply paid a deposit up front.
“Let’s go, driver.”
“Just take me there.”

The driver didn’t say more. He told Shiyu to put on his seatbelt, then started driving.

As he drove, he glanced in the mirror and thought to himself:
That young guy must have some reason to go to the east side of Nanlin Road. It’s a busy area, but that part… it gives people a bad feeling.

He shivered when he remembered the mall in that area.
His own sister worked in that very mall. Recently, something weird happened there—some stores closed for “renovation,” but who knows the real reason?

Still, he didn’t want to scare the customer. What if he changed his mind and took the deposit back?

Shiyu didn’t know what the driver was thinking. He leaned back and thought about the mall’s incident. In the book he had read, there wasn’t much detail. The report came too late, and by the time people arrived, everything was over. It only said that the strange events in the mall could spread to others—but not much more.

Shiyu guessed the event wasn’t very serious at first, probably just a B-level threat. If it were higher, the Ability Users Association would’ve acted sooner.

He looked out the window. It was morning, but the rain made everything dark, like it was still night. Only a few breakfast stands and early markets were open. The rest of the shops were closed and dark.

Suddenly, Shiyu realized something—he hadn’t eaten breakfast.

He had woken up too early and wasn’t hungry then. But now, seeing hot food outside made him realize how hungry he was.

The little monster in his stomach stayed quiet, keeping the promise they made earlier.
Shiyu said, “Driver, please stop ahead for two minutes. I want to buy a bun.”

Since he had already paid the deposit, the taxi driver didn’t mind. After turning a corner, he stopped the car.

Shiyu grabbed his umbrella, bought a bun and some soy milk from a street vendor, and got back into the car.

The bun was fresh and hot. It tasted pretty good. As he ate, his grumpy mood from waking up early finally eased a bit. He even thought—maybe he could do a livestream tonight and show his fans how to steam buns.

It had been days since he did a proper food stream. After he solved this monster problem, he was going back to his normal life.

The poor little monster stayed still, not daring to move.

After Shiyu finished eating, the sky finally brightened a little—and they arrived at Nanlin Road in the southern district.

As they entered the main road, Shiyu noticed there were fewer people. Even the early markets were gone.

Just then, the driver honked and pointed to the GPS.
“One more minute, almost there.”
“Get your things ready.”

Shiyu nodded, pulled up his hoodie, and got ready.

He wore a mask the whole time, only taking it off to eat. The hoodie covered most of his face, so you couldn’t really see him clearly.

The driver, Da Hai, was sleepy from the early morning and focused on driving, so he didn’t notice what Shiyu looked like. After dropping him off and collecting the fare, he drove away fast—didn’t want to stay even one second longer.

Shiyu: …
Tsk.

Looks like this mall’s creepy reputation was already spreading. Even the driver acted nervous.
That was fast. In the book, it seemed like it happened later.
Maybe the book didn’t mention the timing clearly.

Shiyu pulled down his mask, looked away, and entered the Haolai Mall from the side entrance.

At the Ability Users Association:

Sang Huaiyu had just returned from a business trip. After greeting the higher-ups, he headed to the archive room on the fifth floor.

“Mr. Sang, welcome back!”
“Good to see you, sir!”

People greeted him along the way. Sang Huaiyu nodded politely.

In the elevator, Wang Shan excitedly said hello. He and Zhao Wen both looked relieved.
“Thank goodness you’re back. The mood in the association these past few days was terrible,” Wang said.
“You wouldn’t believe it—Dr. Shen and Han almost fought.”

Sang Huaiyu wasn’t a regular ability user, but he was the only one who could keep those two under control.

When Han Chuyi first joined, he was wild and disrespectful. Sang had to teach him a lesson before he calmed down. That’s why, when trouble started, everyone hoped Sang would return quickly.

Wait… Shen Yan and Han Chuyi?
Sang raised an eyebrow. He didn’t expect those two to clash. Han was hot-headed, sure. But Dr. Shen? He was always calm and controlled. So what happened?

He became curious.

Wang scratched his head, a bit embarrassed.
“We don’t really know. Something weird just started after they came back from a mission.”

Sang nodded slowly.
“Thanks. I understand.”

The elevator stopped on the third floor. Wang and Zhao got off. Sang stayed.

He thought to himself:
It felt like a lot had happened while he was gone. But right now, he was more interested in the strange energy he sensed a few days ago—likely from B City. Maybe the association’s records had something on it.

He used his fingerprint to enter the archive.

The room was quiet and full of records sorted by date. He went straight to the recent files.

But—unfortunately—there was nothing useful in the human records.

Only one incident was noted: an SSS-level entity appeared, which caught the association’s attention.

Still, Sang was sure that what he sensed wasn’t an SSS-level being. He had seen many of those before and wasn’t impressed. This was different.

Just then, he heard voices outside.

In the nearby office, Fu Nanyao looked tired. Ever since he woke up at the hospital, his mutation level stayed at 80%. Yesterday, Han Chuyi upset him, and he nearly lost control again.

Now he rubbed his forehead and read the reports of strange events from B City. Just then, a staff member knocked urgently.

“Captain Fu! Something’s wrong—someone just went missing again on East Nanlin Road.”

East Nanlin Road…

Fu opened the reports. Two strange cases had already been reported in that area:

One was about rats eating humans in the sewers.

The other was about strange noises in Haolai Mall at night.

Both were very close to each other.

Now someone had gone missing. He immediately suspected a connection. But since both cases were so close, it was hard to tell which one was responsible.

Fu thought for a moment.
“Send Wang Shan and Zhao Wen to check both places.”

The association was low on staff, so that was the best they could do.

As the staff member turned to leave, Fu asked,
“Where’s Han Chuyi?”

If he remembered right, Han had no school today and should’ve been working at the association.

The staff member looked embarrassed.
“Um… he came in this morning for a bit, then left. I don’t know where he is now.”

Fu frowned.

He didn’t care much about Han’s personal issues, but Han hadn’t reported for duty as required. He said coldly,
“Tell him when he returns—he’s losing one point for missing work today.”

“He won’t pass his internship if he keeps this up.”

“Yes, sir.”

Under Fu’s pressure, the staff member didn’t dare say more and quickly left.

Fu Nanyao only looked away and went back to reading his files after the person left.

Missing…

Sang Huaiyu had listened to the whole thing. At first, he was quite interested. But when he heard it was just a normal missing person case, he lost interest. He squinted slightly and put the record book back with a bit of regret:
Looks like I’ll have to wait until that strange energy wave shows up again.

Hopefully, it won’t be too long.

Shi Yu didn’t know that the evil god was still waiting for him.

After he entered the Haolai Building, he noticed right away—it really was quiet, as expected from a place where strange things had happened.

It used to be a busy commercial building, but now only about 20 shops were still open. All the other stores were empty.

Shi Yu looked around and noticed all the open shops were on the first floor. Starting from the second floor, all the stores were closed.

He pretended not to know anything and walked normally into a milk tea shop and ordered a drink.

“Miss, why is the second floor closed?”

“I wanted to try that famous murder mystery game I heard was up there.”

Even though Shi Yu wore a mask, his voice was pleasant, and he was polite. The girl making milk tea had answered this question many times lately, but she still replied kindly:

“The shops upstairs have stopped operating. The mall owner told them to close and fix some things. Even we don’t go up there now.”

“You should check other places for that game.”

She paused, looked around, and waited until the nearby customers had left before whispering:

“Something bad happened upstairs. It’s creepy.”

“Something bad?” Shi Yu asked, curious. “Can you tell me more? Was there an accident?”

“No,” the employee shook her head.

If it had just been an accident, it wouldn’t be so scary. The problem was—it was just weird. She bit her lip and said quietly:

“Someone said they heard a stranger calling their name at night in the mall!”

A few days ago, a worker at a women’s clothing store heard someone talking to her while she was closing the shop at night. She thought it was a friendly neighbor shop worker. But when she finished and was leaving, she found out the neighboring shop had already closed long ago.

—She was the only one in the store.

But she clearly remembered someone answering her just minutes ago.

She thought maybe she was just too tired and imagining things. But the next night, she heard the voice again.

And this time, she realized something terrifying: the voice sounded exactly like the store worker she thought it was yesterday.

But that person had already quit and left town that morning.

Shi Yu felt the eerie mood creeping in too.

“Then what happened?”

“No one really knows. Just that the mall owner told us not to go upstairs.”

“I also heard when they sealed the second floor, more than one person said they heard voices.”

Because of that, the milk tea worker started closing the shop two hours earlier each day, just to avoid hearing anything scary at night.

As she finished, another customer came in, so she went back to work.

Shi Yu glanced upstairs.

Strange voices?

The clothing area wasn’t big, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find the source of the sound.

While no one was watching, Shi Yu went up the stairs through the fire escape. Luckily, because of all the weird events, the mall owner had turned off some of the security cameras on those floors. Shi Yu didn’t need to worry about being seen.

As soon as he reached the second floor, he felt a cold, strange air that went straight into his bones.

Shi Yu frowned slightly. He was starting to feel cold when suddenly something warm pressed against his stomach. The warmth spread quickly through his body.

Shi Yu: ???

The little monster inside his belly, who promised his “mom” to behave, felt him getting cold and didn’t know what to do. So it gently heated up its little tentacles and wrapped them around Shi Yu’s belly like an octopus.

Worried Shi Yu might not like it moving too much, it quickly froze in place after warming up.

Shi Yu: …

Nice try, pretending nothing happened.

It moved, then stopped—did it really think he couldn’t feel that?

He wasn’t a block of wood.

Shi Yu took a deep breath and said:

“You can move now.”

There was no one else on the second floor anyway, and if someone was there, it’d probably be something creepy. Hard to say which was scarier. Might as well let the little creature relax.

The little monster carefully responded, then became very happy.

Shi Yu sighed, ignored it, and acted like he was lost. He looked weak and helpless as he walked across the second floor.

He guessed that the strange voice liked to target people who were alone.

Also… it probably had spread through the whole second floor.

Sure enough, when he walked near a mirror in a clothing shop, he suddenly felt a hand pat his shoulder like it was greeting him.

The touch was stiff but trying to seem casual.

Then, a strange but somehow familiar voice spoke near his ear, trying to talk to him.

Shi Yu didn’t move. His eyes went slightly blank.

Then a second voice spoke, even more familiar.

More and more voices came, full of bad intentions, surrounding him.

Suddenly, Shi Yu opened his eyes and turned around.

He saw the source of the voice—just as he expected—it was a mannequin. Just an ordinary plastic model used in the shop.

But now, the mannequin was smiling like a human, with a disgusting long tongue sticking out of its mouth. The tongue was long like a lizard’s, way too long for a human. Its smile now looked creepy and wrong.

The mannequin smiled and used that long tongue to say his name:

“Shi Yu”

…

“Shi Yu”

…

“Shi Yu”

Very enthusiastic, but also—disgusting.

Shi Yu almost had a panic reaction. This was the first time he thought someone could ruin his name just by saying it.

The little monster in his stomach noticed the change in his mood. It felt angry and wanted to scream to protect its “mom,” but it didn’t have enough energy.

Just as it was about to let out a warning cry, Shi Yu stopped it with a deep breath.

“Don’t worry,” he said.

He could handle this.

As he spoke, Shi Yu closed his eyes and felt the mental threads in his mind again.

They had appeared a few days ago when a man in high heels came to his door, but he hadn’t paid attention then. Now, he clearly felt the power from his mind.

In the middle of the creepy situation, his thoughts were perfectly calm.

The invisible threads in his mind began to move as the mannequin got closer.

Shi Yu tested one of the threads. The mannequin’s moving body suddenly froze.

But then another mannequin started speaking.

Oh right—he forgot. All the mannequins had changed.

Shi Yu’s mouth twitched. Before the new one could speak, he stopped it too.

Using so many mental threads at once gave him a sharp pain in his head, but there was no turning back now.

He gritted his teeth and used more than thirty mental threads to tie up all the mannequins.

The second floor went completely silent. The mannequins, stuck with weird smiles, froze in place.

The strange force inside them didn’t understand what was happening. It could only watch as Shi Yu, with a dark face, walked over after calming down.

Shi Yu didn’t want to look at their creepy faces anymore. He was afraid if he kept looking, he might actually throw up.

He placed a hand on his stomach. After the nausea settled down, he asked quietly:

“Can you try to absorb this thing and turn it into energy?”

Energy?

The little monster tried to understand what Shi Yu meant. It was confused but still followed its instincts and moved closer.

As soon as Shi Yu locked the mannequin in place with his mental threads, the little monster made an excited “ah-woo!” sound.

Shi Yu’s ears went numb. The mannequin’s creepy voice had been disgusting, but now he realized the little monster’s voice was even worse. If we’re just talking about scary sounds, the little monster might actually win.

The moment it screamed, the creepy mannequins’ faces twisted. Dark, shadowy smoke rose from their heads.

Under the little monster’s control, the black smoke entered Shi Yu’s body.

It felt like air, with no taste. Shi Yu held back his discomfort and made sure not to waste any of it.

Once the last bit of black smoke came out, the mannequin’s plastic body started cracking. Then, like it lost all its energy, it turned into dust on the spot.

Shi Yu finally saw how it broke apart.

—The mental threads in his mind had eaten away at the weird body and completely destroyed it.

Over thirty mannequins disappeared at once.

As the final bit was absorbed, he touched his stomach and noticed the little monster had gone quiet—like it was full now.

Shi Yu frowned slightly and felt his body. As he guessed, the weakness that had been bothering him for days was also gone.

Shiyu even felt, for the first time since getting pregnant, what it was like to finally have a full meal. His expression became a bit strange:

—Damn, don’t tell me… is he going to have to eat this kind of stuff from now on?