Chapter 60: Followed by Countless Phantoms

Lu Yuan now possessed a certain ability to fight back, a foundation of confidence granted by the devouring of hatred.

However, before leaving the psychological clinic, Lu Yuan still needed to make some preparations.

"Although I have a fruit knife in my hand and the skill to devour hatred at my disposal, I am, after all, a living human being. Therefore, there must be an absolute limit to the entities I can combat."

Lu Yuan turned on the lights in the clinic.

The gentle illumination brightened everything, dispelling the faint unease in his heart.

Human beings always yearn for the light.

Light provides an irreplaceable sense of security.

Rummaging through the clinic, Lu Yuan found a small blackboard that hadn't been used in a long time. It had originally been bought to analyze patients' conditions, but because the clinic hadn't had a single client in several months, it had gradually gathered dust.

To his surprise, it was being dug up again now.

Lu Yuan scribbled and sketched on the blackboard.

Soon, a simple map appeared on it.

Lu Yuan lacked artistic talent, but one could vaguely discern a route from the blackboard—the shortest path from the psychological clinic to Mingzhi Elementary School.

Lu Yuan closed his eyes and reminisced.

"Following this route to Mingzhi Elementary School, a normal walk takes about an hour. Factor in potential unexpected delays along the way, and it will probably take three to four hours."

Lu Yuan tried his best to account for unforeseen delays in his calculations.

A flicker crossed his eyes.

Could he run?

If he sprinted all the way to Mingzhi Elementary School, it might only take him half an hour.

After careful consideration, Lu Yuan dismissed the idea.

He could not run!

As a living human, he was already prone to attracting the attention of supernatural entities in this world. If he were to make unnecessary noise by running, the losses would outweigh the gains.

He might even encounter extremely terrifying, malevolent entities.

He needed to keep a low profile for now.

Drawing upon his memory, Lu Yuan marked all the landmarks along the route, even detailing how many intersections he would pass.

Certain buildings were suitable for hiding; should he encounter danger, Lu Yuan could slip inside them for cover.

Of course, this assumed that the doors to these buildings were unlocked.

If every door was bolted shut, Lu Yuan would simply have to chalk it up to bad luck.

Afterward, Lu Yuan tidied up the clinic briefly, taking anything potentially useful with him.

After packing, Lu Yuan looked at his bulging backpack and wore a satisfied smile.

The backpack contained practically every kind of weapon.

There was even a compact stun device.

The reason he had prepared so many "weapons" at the clinic was actually because Lu Yuan's psychotherapy skills weren't top-tier. Lacking the hypnotic treatment prowess of someone like An Shi, Lu Yuan usually resorted to physical calming methods when dealing with emotionally agitated patients.

For his own safety, Lu Yuan naturally had to prepare plenty of self-defense weapons.

What he hadn't expected was that he barely had any patients, and these long-prepared items had never come in handy.

"Who would have thought."

"You things had no practical use in the real world, yet here I am pulling you out in this ghostly dream world."

Lu Yuan found it somewhat ironic.

The backpack was rather heavy.

This would undoubtedly slow Lu Yuan down.

Yet Lu Yuan felt that carrying such a backpack gave him greater peace of mind.

With everything done, Lu Yuan prepared to leave the clinic and set off for Mingzhi Elementary School.

He had brought everything he could possibly prepare, and having even retrieved his physical body, he felt vastly more confident than when he had previously left An Shi's villa.

Since he could safely travel from An Shi's villa to the psychological clinic, he could just as safely travel from here to Mingzhi Elementary School.

Click!

Lights out!

Door locked!

Lu Yuan weighed the clinic key in his hand, chose not to take it with him, and instead shoved it into the gap beneath the door.

Keys were small items, easily lost without noticing. Rather than carrying it on his person, it was better to leave it right by the door.

Lu Yuan had a premonition that he would return.

"I need to test what the upper limit of the entities I can handle is."

A flash of light crossed Lu Yuan's eyes.

According to the hint provided by the bloody text on the television, the entities in this world were divided into five tiers. The lowest tier consisted of lingering obsessions like Zhuo Yan's—possessing very little hatred, posing a fatal threat to living humans, but existing merely as cannon fodder in this grand scheme.

The highest tier consisted of the Three-No Entities.

Unhearable, unseeable, unspoken.

Absolute taboos!

Although Lu Yuan had no concrete concept of these Three-No Entities, the singing he had encountered earlier certainly wasn't one. Because Lu Yuan had seen its full appearance through the convenience store mirror and suffered no harm, which clearly violated the unseeable taboo.

Lu Yuan made an estimation.

The singing outside the convenience store earlier likely fell somewhere between the tier of Great Ferocity and Inauspiciousness.

The Three-No Entities were still far too distant for him; what he needed to consider now was whether he could defeat the lowest-tier entities like lingering obsessions.

Bolstered by the fruit knife and the ability to devour hatred, Lu Yuan's self-confidence had surged.

Where he could previously only flee from Zhuo Yan in terror, he should now possess a certain capacity to fight back.

"I'll find a lingering obsession to practice on."

Lu Yuan slipped out of the psychological clinic stealthily.

The lingering sensation of being silently watched returned once more. Whether due to reclaiming his physical body, Lu Yuan's five senses had sharpened considerably.

He could even feel countless malicious gazes fixed upon him, making him deeply uncomfortable.

Lu Yuan glanced at the surrounding black buildings.

Pitch-black exteriors.

Not a single splash of extra color in sight.

Frowning slightly, Lu Yuan sensed that quite a few entities were lurking within these structures, having noticed him the moment he stepped out of the clinic.

"It seems this trip won't be very peaceful."

Lu Yuan took a deep breath.

His wish to maintain a low profile would likely be difficult to fulfill; the aura of a living human being appeared far too conspicuous in this world, resembling a firefly in the pitch dark, making it impossible not to notice.

At this thought, Lu Yuan quickened his pace.

Having firmly memorized the map route in his mind, he just needed to follow it without error.

Gradually, Lu Yuan felt as though countless people were trailing behind him.

A creeping sense of hair-raising horror prickled his skin, making the hairs all over his body stand on end.

It seemed having overly acute senses wasn't necessarily a good thing.

Sometimes, being a little dull-witted meant you wouldn't feel quite so terrified.

Cold sweat broke out on Lu Yuan's back. The footsteps behind him multiplied, swelling from a scattered two or three at the very beginning to a dense, uncountable swarm.

These entities were in no rush to attack; instead, they simply stalked behind Lu Yuan, waiting for him to look back.

To be honest, Lu Yuan wasn't terribly afraid of the entities themselves.

Yet this psychological process of agonizing dread was truly a form of torture.