Chapter 87 - The Institute (28)

Tang Shun shifted away from the wall and slowly walked to Chao Bin's side, he didn't seem to hold any embrassment or resentment on his face, instead the eyes he used to look at Chao Bin took on an extra mischievous almost evil light.

The oblivious Chao Bin suddenly sneezed, and rubbed his nose,

Who's thinking about him? 

Tang Shun didn't dwell further on his previous blunder and after nearing Chao Bin, he reached out and lightly patted the spot that sounded the system before and it once again requested the access code. 

"What do you think it is?" 

Tang Shun thought for a moment, then tentatively replied to the system,

"Acess Code is BV1450."

He reported the name of the first abandoned planet.

[<ACESSS CODE DENIED>]

[<NUMBER OR REMAINING ATTEMPTS: 2>]

Chao Bin immediately frowned and looked at the faint interface with some regret, if he knew that the number of tries were limited he would have stopped Tang Shun.

Tang Shun who was the direct recipient of this warning, didn't look fazed, he had already somewhat expected this. The instance would never give them unlimited attempts unless there was a hidden agenda amongst it, 

By then the danger would be astronomical.

At the very least they knew now that the acess code wasn't related to the archive of abandoned planets. 

"Alright—there doesnt seem to be anything else that we can find now, so let's reunite with Chu Yi and exchange discoveries."

There was no reply,

He tilted his head towards Chao Bin, 

"What's the matter?" Tang Shun saw him sinking into thought, and asked mildly , "What did you think of?"

Chao Bin's brows were flustered, "I seem to hear the same voice from the fence."

Tang Shun's face instantly turned solemn and he swiveled to face Chao Bin, "What is it saying now?"

Chao Bin was about to answer, when with warning, an impenetrable, bluish-black fog before his eyes! Everything around him was instantly obscured by the sudden looming darkness. This 'fog' spread rapidly, getting deeper and thicker, as it covered the entire room, and even beyond!

It didn't seem to be life-threatening as Chao Bin could still breath just fine but it still didn't make this unexpected situation any better,

He looked around, he had been transported to this vast and endless wasteland, there was nothing in sight, no beginning, no end, as the fog covered as far as the eye can see.

He was alone trapped and confused; the bloodied walls of the confinement room, the rotting corpses on the floor and even Tang Shun, all seemed to have vanished into thin air,

"Tang Shun!"

Chao Bin yelled Tang Shun's name in the void hopefully, but there was no answer.

He could feel his heart beginning to race in a frantic frenzy, it was almost as if he had been abandoned by the whole world!

A thick, wet smell came from the off-black mist, It uncannily reminded him of the earth after a downpour of heavy rain and yet it was also mixed with a strange metallic smell that he was inexplicably familiar with,

There was no sound in this space–

As his mind turned chaotically in confusion, worry and vigilance tugged at his heart strings, a fear that he long suppressed rose up, 

The panic frying his nerve endings, and made it so that even if he was attacked at this very moment, the feeling of weakness in his limbs would definitely prevent him exerting his full strenght—

He hated this feeling, 

He couldn't be weak,

Not anymore.

Chao Bin shakily inhaled a deep breathe and tried to steady his racing heartbeat 

Hugh——

But even the gods seemed to be against him today because just when he was finally able to calm himself enough to try and figure a way out, countless slippery, mucus covered tentacles suddenly appeared from the depths of the fog, and at once, they all attacked him!

The tentacles were covered in a weird slick that resembled grey fur, it was attached to it like countless tiny parasites that wiggled disgustingly as it flew through the air,

Swoosh––

Chao Bin stretched out his hand to resist, but it was a futile attempt, those furry tentacles wrapped around his limbs accurately, completely binding his body, the smell of wet pus and fur stung his nose like arsenic as he tried to fight them away!

There was the spine-chilling sound of flesh tearing and the top of each ugly tentacle suddenly cracked open, turning into big mouths that resembled bloody basins, a voice appeared from the mouths and in a weird shrill wail, it screamed at him angrily,

"Why don't you want to see my face——"

"Look at me! Only look at me——"

The tentacles tightened, It seemed to want to choke him to death! 

Outside the illusion, Tang Shun found that Chao Bin suddenly stopped talking. He initially thought that he was thinking or listening to the voice, but after a sold second of no movement, he quickly realized that Chao Bin was not right, 

His brown eyes seemed to be staring straight at the entrance and after Tang Shun followed his gaze, he calculated that this was the direction of the outside world, Chao Bin's seemed to have lost their focus, and there was a cloud of thin purple fog reflecting in his soft pupils!

"Chao Bin?" Tang Shun felt wrong, he stretched out his hand and grabbed his arm, "Chao Bin!"

This was similar to the trance Chao Bin had faced when he was near the fence, but at this moment Tang Shun could sense that whatever was encroaching on him had grown powerful enough to infiltrate in from the outside!

That foreign voice was now directly assaulting Chao Bin's mind!

In a flash of inspiration, he stood between him and the door and held up Chao Bin's face with both hands, "Chao Bin, Wake up!"

He noticed that the purple light in Chao Bin's eyes reflected a weird fox like shape, although distorted and not yet fully formed, Tang Shun could still vaguely make out its original shape,

A Fox...

A creature that was known to be the epitome of cruelty and paranoid obsession,

Chao Bin's face reflected a weird look that he had never seen before on him, this type of expression, was usually only seen on the faces of deranged cultists and disciples of strange, crucified relgions,

With such a demeanor, it was almost as if that person was deeply trapped in a kind of nihilistic belief, to the point where their consciousnesss was gradually devoured by their devotion— they have already thrown away their own sense of self, and only followed the orders of the god in his heart!

This was not good——

"Wake up, Chao Bin!"

He still had no response.

Chao Bin was like a faulty machine that had lost power, having lost his mobility to think and move for himself and he was now left with only an empty shell!

Tang Shun's brows furrowed into deep gullies, obviously just pulling him away like before wouldn't work. Whatever was assaulting Chao Bin was directly attached to his spiritual consciousness and could not be forced out artificially–

Chao Bin would have to rely on himself to escape from the throes of this deep illusion,

Tang Shun pursed his lips and looked towards Chao Bin's dull eyes, he couldn't comprehend the slight worry that settled at the bottom of his heart but it didn't stop the sudden thought to speed up their current progess and leave this copy as quickly as possible, from rising to the forefront of his mind.

He exhaled softly,

First, he probed Chao Bin's breath with his hands, and then stretched to the side of neck at his carotid artery to check whether his pulse and temperature were normal.

They were, 

Therefore what purpose did the voice have exactly–

Tang Shun stretched out his hand again and was about to place it on Chao Bin's heart to check whether his heartbeat was pumping at normal levels, but the moment his fingers touched Chao Bin's chest, severe pain traveled up his fingers and through his arms to his heart, he couldn't he'll but hunch over in agony and he almost cried out when he felt a harsh sizzling and burning sensation on his arm, as the skin on his left hand suddenly turned an off-white grey! 

Tang Shun grunted in pain—

The turned skin quickly dried up and cracked as if he was shedding, and soon the original grey skin on his hand lifted up and fluttered slightly in the air as it fell to the floor, beneath it, Tang Shun could see that the skin had become pink and tender like new flesh—

The agony however, didn't dissipate along with it and where the new skin appeared he felt as if he was going through a process of being burned with molten hot lava, then subsequently dropped into a deep ice cavern and once again set ablaze with flame! The alternating sensation of cold and heat on his nerve, was more painful than if he was being stabbed over and over again!

"Fuck!"

Cold sweat poured from his forehead, the gentleness at the corner of his eyes completely fell through, he was angry— with pupils suddenly dilating with a chiling and barbaric light, even the atmosphere around him seemed to fall to freezing temperatures-

Tang Shun slowly raised a slender hand to his face,

Tch-

Even the pain was now ignored, 

Hugh——

He hated the feeling of being out of control,

His body was strangely filled with the scent of callousness and brutality, a kind of cold tyranny rising from his bones- he pondered slightly, calculations that disregarded human life rapidly churning in his heart ——

Tang Shun chuckled under his breath "Manipulating us like ants beneath your feet." He seemed to be talking to an unknown existence in the void, 

His lowered eyebrows, deep eyes that made people think of the bottomless abyss that existed beneath towering cliffs, the desire to suppress, and the fierce desire for control, all revealed in those stormy, black eyes.

"If you dare to do it, I dare to kill you."

He lifted his lips, the sudden smile diluting the cold oppression, and adding a trace of the previous gentle affinity but the words out of his mouth were extremely cruel,

"Who made me love the sight of blood"

Hugh––

At this moment, Chao Bin who was struggling in a faraway dream suddenly moved, disrupting the brooding thoughts that flashed through Tang Shun's mind,

He was panting heavily, his body swayed slightly and he seemed to be on the verge of falling weakly—

Ignoring the burn of his own transformation,

Tang Shun subconsciously stretched out his arms to catch the falling boy,

Chao Bin suddenly woke up from the strange purple fog, as if there was an invisible force that had dragged him out of the hold of the tentacles that entangled and suffocated him to death.

He left that inextricable illusion and fell into a warm embrace.

"Hey– Are you alright..."

"Chao Bin!"

Faintly, Chao Bin heard a slightly worried voice,

It was the familiar voice of Tand Shun but as it sounded in his clogged ears, it seemed to have dropped its gentle edge and was now tinged with a hint of hard cruelty,

He liked it this way,

Dazedly, he opened his eyes, facing the familiar peach blossom eyes, they were different from before but he couldn't pinpoint where it was different,

He exhaled softly and shook off the feeling of weakness,

"I'm okay." Chao Bin tried to stand on his own but he winced immediately, unexpectedly his chest felt sore and painful and even his lungs seemed to have been punctured with a bloody hole–

He tried to take a deep breath and immediately wrinkled his face. 

The residual effect of suffocation by the tentacles in the illusion, seemed to have followed him into the real world.

He hissed softly as he felt around his ribs, they were definitely bruised.

The heart-wrenching pain coming from Tang Shun's hands gradually diminished, and he immediatrly checked Chao Bin's pupil

The fox was gone but he still seemed to see a hint of purple hiding deep inside Chao Bin's eyes.

Tch-

He sighed heavily and the gentleness on his body was completely restored, he shook his head at Chao Bin

"It's fortunate that you woke up, you seemed to have been completely controlled by something and regardless of how I called, you would not respond to any signal."

Chao Bin thought of the trance he had experienced at the fence before, it was nowhere near this level of complete immersion and it was just as Tang Shun had said, the calls would only get more and more powerful.

Transformation, mutants, inexplicable illusions, 

What exactly was going on with the Institute,

He told Tang Shun all these things, together with all his feelings during that time,

"These should be related more to your transformation or your alienated stated." Tang Shun concluded,

Chao Bin didn't want to think about it anymore.

When he thought of these things, his mental prowess seemed to weaken, it was difficult to concentrate, and the scenes of helpless suffocation kept playing back in his mind,

"Let's just get out of here for now. This place gives me ominous vibes."

Tang Shun nodded and without another look back they left the confinement room and all the horrors hiding within it.