Chapter 78.1 Savage Expansion (11)
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Every writer has some manuscripts they didn’t want to publish. Lin Zhaohe was no different.
Although he became famous at a young age, the majority of his discarded writings were from his high school days. Back then, he was young and full of ideas, willing to try anything and eager to write about everything.
Lin Zhaohe explored various genres, from romantic stories to leveling up novels and even science fiction. But his favorite was always his own thrilling series. These thrillers often lacked logic, with the story progressing wherever his mind took him. Sometimes, the main character would mysteriously meet a dreadful fate, leaving the story unfinished.
He hardly shared these stories with anyone. They were merely his pastime creations, and most of them were destroyed after merging with real-life events, eliminating any chance of publication.
So why did these things appear in front of him in this library? Lin Zhaohe felt a shiver down his spine. He put out the flames on the books and roughly skimmed through the contents. Even after a long time had passed, he remembered what he had written. Lin Zhaohe was certain that this was not a coincidence of a same-named author. It was unquestionably his own work.
Just like the boy had said, this was a thriller novel. It told the story of a helpless girl who got lost in her school. The once-familiar campus turned into a strange and frightening place. She desperately searched for an escape, only to accidentally stumble into the school’s pond.
When she emerged from the pond again, she had transformed into a terrifying monster… The description of the monster had become blurred due to the fire, but Lin Zhaohe vaguely remembered that it resembled Xiao Xiu, Huo Nanjing’s girlfriend.
Gripping the darkened pages, Lin Zhaohe stood motionless, his expression filled with a mixture of emotions. He didn’t even hear the person calling out to him.
It wasn’t until someone tapped his shoulder that Lin Zhaohe snapped out of his daze.
“Are you alright?” The boy was startled by Lin Zhaohe’s expression.
“I’m fine,” Lin Zhaohe replied. “Where did you find the book? Can you show me?”
The boy pointed in a direction.
Lin Zhaohe walked over and took a glance. Instantly, a chill ran down his spine. Before him loomed a massive bookshelf, filled to the brim with hundreds of novels. Each one bore the same two characters as the author’s name: “Nie Pan” — Lin Zhaohe’s pen name.
All of his published and unpublished works, every book he had ever written with pen and paper, were neatly arranged on the shelves. This place felt more like his personal exhibition than a library. Lin Zhaohe’s mouth grew dry as he searched through them, his face filled with bewilderment.
There were some books on the shelf that Lin Zhaohe had never even seen before, yet they bore his pen name. His fingers traced over the books until they settled on one titled “Sacred Light.” Lin Zhaohe gently pulled the book from the shelf and opened it to the first page.
“In that world, the merciful deity had a name of its own.”
That was the introduction of the book.
Lin Zhaohe skimmed past the introduction and quickly glanced at the table of contents. Just as he was about to continue reading, the overhead lights suddenly went out, plunging the entire library into darkness.
The boy standing next to him went crazy, snatching the book from Lin Zhaohe’s hands.
Lin Zhaohe didn’t even have a chance to stop him when he heard the boy’s terrified and frantic shout, “Fire! The fire must not be extinguished!” While shouting, he forcefully slammed the book Lin Zhaohe was holding into the fire pit.
In the moment the book landed in the fire pit, a miracle occurred. The previously extinguished fire suddenly reignited, filling the entire library with bright flames that accompanied the light from the overhead lamps.
The boy let out a big sigh of relief, but his entire body was nearly collapsing from nervousness. He stared at the burning fire pit with a gaze devoid of joy, instead filled with fear and confusion.
Before Lin Zhaohe could say anything, the boy took action again. He pulled several more books from the nearby bookshelf and threw them into the fire pit. He continued until the flames burned vigorously, and only then did he stop.
It was unclear whether it was a coincidence or not, but most of the books the boy burned were written by Lin Zhaohe.
The flickering flames cast mottled and dancing shadows on their faces. He turned his head and looked at Lin Zhaohe, whispering softly, “It’s taken care of. Let’s go.”
Lin Zhaohe hesitated, but in the end, he said nothing. After the boy turned around, Lin Zhaohe silently took several books from the bookshelf that he hadn’t written but were attributed to his pen name. He packed them into his backpack, planning to find some time to read them leisurely.
The second floor was lined with rows of bookshelves. Lin Zhaohe noticed that almost half of the shelves in the fiction section were empty. “How long have you guys been here?”
The boy: “Just today.”
Lin Zhaohe: “But how could so many books be burned in just a few days?” Almost half of the books on the second floor were gone. How could they burn so many in a single day?
The boy: “How would I know?”
Lin Zhaohe felt something was off, or rather, the people in this campus fusion zone were all off.
The boy remained silent, cautiously maneuvering between the bookshelves. He advised Lin Zhaohe to stay away from dark corners and stay in the light. When Lin Zhaohe asked why, the boy didn’t give a direct answer, only vaguely mentioning that there were terrifying things in the darkness.
After circling the second floor without encountering the things the boy had mentioned, he visibly relaxed and suggested they go downstairs. Lin Zhaohe was about to agree when a girl’s voice, calling the boy’s name, “Huang Mian,” came from somewhere.
The voice was abrupt, echoing eerily in the silent library, and for a moment, Lin Zhaohe even thought he was experiencing a hallucination.
“Huang Mian,” another call confirmed that Lin Zhaohe hadn’t misheard. It was indeed a girl’s voice.
Startled by being called out, Huang Mian became as tense as a startled animal. He pulled out a dagger, keeping a vigilant eye on his surroundings. “D-Don’t try to scare me.”
“It’s me, Huang Mian,” the voice grew closer and louder. Lin Zhaohe finally identified the source and looked towards the window. A gigantic face, almost two meters wide, was pressed against the floor-to-ceiling window.
The outside was pitch black, but one could vaguely make out that it was a girl’s face. Her complexion was pale, her nose pressed deep into her cheek, leaving only two holes. Her eyes were fixedly staring at the people inside the room. She began clawing at the window. “Huang Mian, don’t you recognize me? Huang Mian!”
Huang Mian also saw the person outside the window and trembled in fear. He kept muttering that it was an illusion, but his trembling body betrayed his near-collapsed state.
The woman outside the window started to squeeze through the gaps. The contortions her body made were impossible for a human to achieve, but she managed to squeeze a portion of herself through the window…
Huang Mian shook violently but didn’t retreat. He grabbed the dagger in his hand and forcefully plunged it into the part of the woman that had squeezed in.
The woman screamed in pain, wailing and pleading, but Huang Mian remained unmoved. He ruthlessly used the dagger to cut off a significant portion of the woman that had squeezed inside. The woman, with a terrifying appearance, finally chose to give up. She attempted to use her head to forcefully shatter the glass, but the seemingly fragile window remained intact, leaving layer after layer of her bloodstains while she failed to create a single crack.
Lin Zhaohe, standing by the side, could clearly see numerous similar bloodstains on the window, spreading along the edges and seeping into the room. Most of them had solidified into black stains.
The woman banged her head, and a rustling sound came from the ceiling as if something was stirring inside. At the same time, a strange transformation occurred with the shadow behind Huang Mian. The black shadow writhed on the ground, seemingly alive, as if it wanted to struggle out of Huang Mian’s body.
The stench of blood in the air grew stronger. Bloodstains started seeping through the ceiling in large patches, and the floor beneath their feet began to undergo a bizarre change, becoming unnaturally soft and undulating as if it possessed a life force.
Huang Mian’s limbs stretched longer and longer, his skin and hair rapidly shedding. His eyes grew larger and bulged out, almost occupying half of his face, as if they were about to pop out of their sockets. He also sensed something was wrong. Howling, he tried to run but stumbled and fell to the ground. When Huang Mian climbed back up, his head was now touching the ceiling. He twisted his neck, his eyes bloodshot, fixating on Lin Zhaohe. Droplets of saliva dripped from his mouth, his gaze filled with greed, as if he were looking at a fresh piece of meat.
All these changes happened in an instant. Lin Zhaohe had no time to react. He stared at the transformed Huang Mian, afraid to look away, like prey locked in the gaze of a wild beast. If he averted his eyes for even a moment, the pouncing beast would tear him apart.
Lin Zhaohe slowly began to retreat, his gaze fixed on Huang Mian, recalling the books he had thrown into the bonfire earlier.
He had written a novel about urban legends, featuring a cursed stone that could transform a person into a humanoid monster consumed by a craving for human flesh. Merely seeing the stone would drive them to a frenzied state, hunting and killing humans without reason.
The creature before his eyes matched exactly the description in Lin Zhaohe’s novel. At the same time, he even remembered the origin of the woman who called out to Huang Mian outside the window. She wasn’t a woman at all but a gigantic moth, capable of perfect mimicry, disguising itself as a human friend or a loved one and then abducting panicked humans to lay eggs inside their bodies…
Lin Zhaohe’s consciousness blurred momentarily, not out of fear, but because everything he was witnessing matched the monsters he had described in his novel. Even the undulating floor beneath his feet and the blood oozing from the ventilation ducts above, emitting eerie sounds, felt incredibly familiar to him.
Huang Mian didn’t give Lin Zhaohe a chance to continue pondering. He lunged at him, but fortunately, Lin Zhaohe had prepared himself and swiftly dodged the attack. He noticed the stone hanging around Huang Mian’s neck, something he hadn’t paid attention to until Huang Mian underwent the transformation. It dawned on him that this stone had exerted a profound influence on Huang Mian.
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