Chapter 43: Let the World Hear the Song!

Lu Yuan's entire body was tensed with muscle, his body's instinct urging him to swing the fruit knife. Yet, under the grip of extreme terror, his limbs had stiffened to an absolute extreme.

This mass of blackness simply watched Lu Yuan in silence.

It did nothing at all.

After a long while, the black mass shifted its body, seemingly intending to leave.

The entity was gigantic. From the mirror, Lu Yuan could roughly deduce that it stood two stories tall. It lowered its head, gazing quietly at Lu Yuan behind the glass door.

With such a colossal physique, it wasn't even walking on feet, but rather floating—which completely defied science!

No, wait!

To care about science in this world was, in itself, a rather brainless notion.

The massive form completely blocked out the crimson light of the blood moon in the sky, until it shifted just enough to create a gap, allowing the red glow to spill into the convenience store once again.

Taking advantage of the faint red light, Lu Yuan managed to clearly make out the head of this behemoth through the mirror.

In an instant, Lu Yuan almost gasped aloud.

The head of this anomalous entity was composed of dozens of human heads linked together, each head wearing a completely different expression.

Some faces were smiling, some were crying, and some wore looks of fury...

No wonder this entity was so gigantic!

It was a monstrosity pieced together from dozens of corpses, its height built up layer upon layer with the flesh and blood of human bodies.

Lu Yuan covered his mouth, not daring to make the slightest sound.

However, Lu Yuan noticed a particular detail.

That is, out of this giant head composed of dozens of faces, every single one had its eyes wide open, except for the one positioned dead center, which kept its eyes tightly shut, with tear stains still lingering at the corners of its eyes.

That closed-eye head seemed to be the true controller of this entity.

A chilling wave of hatred poured into the convenience store, freezing Lu Yuan's body inch by inch.

"This entity is undeniably terrifying. Far more terrifying than Zhuo Yan and An Shi." Although Lu Yuan had no way to judge the specific tier of an anomaly, he could roughly sense it from the degree of lingering hatred radiating outward.

The hatred emanating from this entity was simply too intense!

Even from a great distance, simply hearing its singing would be enough to be affected by the hatred within it, leaving a trail of malice along every path it traversed.

If a fight were to break out, Lu Yuan would surely die!

Lu Yuan was well aware of his current strength; he could, at most, barely manage to escape from an entity of Zhuo Yan's caliber, but going head-to-head with an anomaly was virtually impossible.

Realizing that this entity had no intention of attacking him, Lu Yuan felt a wave of relief wash over him, thinking to himself: "The entity clearly discovered me, so why didn't it make a move?"

Lu Yuan furrowed his brow slightly.

Whatever!

As long as he could escape with his life this time, that was all that mattered.

Just at that moment, a line of blood-red text materialized out of thin air before Lu Yuan's eyes, exactly identical to the situation back at the villa.

"You've got to be kidding me, big guy. What are you bringing up blood-red text for right now?" A terrible premonition welled up in Lu Yuan's chest.

Generally speaking, the appearance of blood-red text only signaled two possibilities.

The first was the triggering of a new mission, and this new mission would, in all likelihood, be related to the entity or objects Lu Yuan was currently encountering.

The second was the settlement of a mission, such as reward distributions, penalty explanations, and so on.

Lu Yuan still had several uncompleted missions on his hands, though the number wasn't large—only four: treating An Shi; treating Zhuo Yan; reporting to Mingzhi Elementary School; and retrieving his own body.

Right now, Lu Yuan hadn't completed a single one of them.

It was practically impossible for it to be the second scenario.

Therefore, it could only mean a new mission had arrived.

Lu Yuan prayed incessantly: "Please, dear god, let this new mission have nothing to do with the entity outside, or else even ten lives wouldn't be enough for me to throw away!"

Yet, in this lifetime, whatever one fears the most always comes to pass.

The blood-red characters twisted and squirmed, but the message between the lines was crystal clear: [Respected psychotherapist, on your way out, you encountered a patient who loves to sing, but unfortunately, not a single soul in S City can appreciate his music, leaving him deeply distressed. Out of a doctor's compassion, you have decided to help this patient win universal recognition for his singing.]

[Mission Content: Learn the song and perform it in front of no fewer than one hundred anomalies.]

The phrasing was quite similar to the previous mission briefings.

Lu Yuan was left with a head full of question marks.

Compassion?

I feel compassion for an anomaly?

Who's going to feel compassion for me?

"Can I decline?" Lu Yuan didn't directly reach out to touch the blood-red text this time; instead, he spoke aloud.

The very instant he finished speaking, Lu Yuan regretted it.

The anomaly outside hadn't gone far yet, and speaking out loud right now might just lure that monster right back...

Lu Yuan peered through the convenience store mirror to check the situation outside.

Sure enough!

The entity had stopped moving once again.

Dozens of heads whipped around in unison, fixing their gaze squarely on the convenience store door.

Lu Yuan wished he could slap himself across the face.

After a long while, the dozens of heads twisted back around, and the brisk, melodious singing resumed, echoing through every corner of the street.

This time, moving from near to far, transitioning from clear to muffled.

Until finally, the singing completely faded away. Only then did Lu Yuan let out a heavy sigh of relief, collapsing onto the floor, his entire body drenched in cold sweat.

"How does this feel even more dangerous and thrilling than fighting Zhuo Yan?!"

Lu Yuan patted his chest.

His wildly hammering heart finally began to calm down.

Although Lu Yuan's psychological threshold for fear was far higher than that of a normal person, his physical reactions were no different from anyone else's.

When facing anomalies, this was a severe disadvantage.

At the end of the day, his physical body needed to be tougher.

If he wanted to survive in this world overflowing with anomalies, having weak physical attributes would absolute be a fatal flaw.

Only now did Lu Yuan refocus his attention on the blood-red text hanging in front of him.

When he had tried to refuse the mission earlier, the text had already altered, though Lu Yuan's focus had been entirely on the monster outside, leaving him no time to read it.

[Respected psychotherapist, please treat every patient equally. A qualified doctor should harbor compassion for every single patient.]

[Discriminating against patients disrupts the current harmony and stability. We reserve the right to revoke your status as a psychotherapist and execute you.]

Lu Yuan stared at the two lines of crimson text and let out a sigh.

As expected!

The price of refusing a mission was death.

Though Lu Yuan had anticipated it in his heart, actually receiving the warning still filled him with a sense of helpless resignation.

Since there was no way to refuse, he had no choice but to accept.

"Is there a time limit for this mission?" Lu Yuan asked.

The blood-red text hanging in the air shifted once more: [This mission is rated Difficult and carries no time limit. Friendly reminder: The more anomalies that listen to the song, the more generous the reward we will grant you.]

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.

It seemed this television-like system was truly intent on making every single anomaly in S City listen to that song.