Zheng Zhi stared blankly at the black screen on his phone, then stubbornly opened the photo album, only to find that several recently taken photos were the same. "This isn't right..." he muttered to himself in confusion, "I clearly captured it; that place is a hall, outside the hall it's both ruins and a tower, and there's a pitch-black..." Just as he was muttering halfway, Yu Sheng suddenly reacted: "Wait! What did you say was there?" Zheng Zhi snapped back to reality, looked around at the pairs of eyes focused on him, and immediately adjusted his demeanor, starting to recount everything he saw in that bizarre, dim space. To be honest, when Yu Sheng heard the description of the tower, his expression was relatively calm—until Zheng Zhi mentioned that black "celestial body," his eyes suddenly changed. Although Zheng Zhi's final memories were a bit hazy, filled with many illusions caused by psychic contamination concerning that dark celestial body, the scene he described was unmistakably the "Black Star." In his memory, the Black Star was suspended at the endless tower's peak, surrounded by countless strange remnants... This immediately reminded Yu Sheng of Baili Qing's description—"The Year of Wandering, Dark Star overlaps the dome, Alien God descends along the World Bridge..." Even Little Red Riding Hood was taken aback, looking at Zheng Zhi with a strange gaze: "…Where on earth did you go?" "I don't know!" Zheng Zhi spread his hands innocently, "I just remember seeing a black thread floating on the ground before I fell in, the kind Erin usually uses... I was halfway through my meal when I fell in." Upon hearing this, Hu Li couldn't help but feel a deep sense of pity. At the same time, several gazes again focused sharply on Zheng Zhi, making him shiver involuntarily, his neck shrinking: "Wha...what is it?" "You need to go back there again!" Erin pointed at the young nephew with an air of justification. "I...I can't just go back when I want to," Zheng Zhi almost cried as he heard this, "I don't even know how I fell in last time." Erin turned her head again to look at her usual grinding place. However, the black spider silk that had been floating in mid-air had long since dissipated. The puppet thought for a moment, then looked up at Yu Sheng, only to see the other person deep in thought. She reached up and nudged his head: "Yu Sheng, what should we do?" "We don't know if Zheng Zhi's process of 'falling' can be replicated, but this time his fall-in at least indicates two things," Yu Sheng lifted his head, thoughtfully analyzing, "First, to find the eerie space where the 'tower' is, the 'black spider silk' is key. Second, Zheng Zhi's physical constitution seems to be effective." Zheng Zhi blinked his eyes as he listened, suddenly poking Li Lin's arm with his hand: "Brother Li, why do I feel a chill on my back again..." Li Lin didn't even turn around: "The temperature drop in the past two days." Zheng Zhi was stunned, just as he was about to speak, he suddenly felt a chill come over him, and when he looked up, he saw Erin throwing a bundle of black thread at him, already wrapping him twice. "Why isn't it working?" The puppet looked directly into Yu Sheng's eyes, "Black thread, young nephew, both conditions met." "Maybe the 'thread' you deliberately summoned doesn't work," Yu Sheng quickly waved his hand upon seeing this, "Or there may be other conditions missing—gather up the thread first, it was hard enough to get the person back." The black thread vanished into thin air, the chilling sensation finally dissipated, and Zheng Zhi belatedly shivered, starting to rub his arms while muttering, "Tell me next time beforehand, this thing is as cold as a ghost." "Alright, go rest for a bit," Yu Sheng said, explaining to Zheng Zhi the original plan, "We had planned to go to the 'Dark Alley' today, and take you along, but since you just got 'lost,' it's not suitable to go to the Exotic Realm..." Before he could finish, he was interrupted by Zheng Zhi, who patted his chest: "I'm fine, Brother Yu, just got a bit lost; it happens often..." "When I tell you to rest, you'll rest!" Little Red Riding Hood glared at him unceremoniously, "That's a proper Exotic Realm, not the yard at No. 66 Wutong Road!" Though the youngest in age, Little Red Riding Hood, who's been a parent in the "Fairy Tales" for years, had an aura when scolding people that made Zheng Zhi deflate, smiling awkwardly: "Alright, alright, I'll go rest first." Night, Jinglin Sanatorium, director's office. The sanatorium maintained synchronization with the external world's day and night cycle; outside the window, it was already the depth of night. According to the operational rules here, after dark, all human employees were required to leave the facility's core area, so only a lone figure inhabited this large room, and the hallway outside was also silent. A tall figure in a white coat sat behind the desk, one hand supporting a fish tank serving as a head, tapping its walls idly, with the elbow resting on the chair's armrest, while the other hand moved the mouse on the desk, operating something on the computer. The screen in front of the "director" was playing image records obtained from the surveillance system. The upper left corner of the screen displayed relevant surveillance data—a day ago, four ten in the afternoon, reading room. In the camera's view, a middle-aged man wearing a shirt and trousers sat quietly by the table, casually flipping through a magazine in hand. Sun Chen — at that time, he was still alive, and appeared completely normal. The goldfish swam slowly around the spherical fish tank, maneuvering its humanoid shell to move the mouse, rewinding the footage. Sun Chen read a magazine for a while, then raised his hand to knock on his neck, exercising his shoulder and neck joints. After a few more minutes, the man on the screen suddenly stood up from the table, looking around somewhat dazed. He turned around, his steps somewhat stiff, and began to walk out of the reading room. The departure was an hour earlier than his usual habit. The "Dean" leaned forward slightly, dragging the progress bar backward again. Sun Chen finished reading the magazine, exercised his shoulders and neck, abruptly stood up, and in the limited surveillance view, his expression clearly shifted to confusion. But there was absolutely no one else around him. The goldfish uneasily waved its fins in the fish tank, pulling the footage back again while further increasing the volume. Sun Chen returned to the moment of exercising his shoulders and neck again. A vague sound came from the speakers - it was a melody, a whistle. No one else was visible on the screen. Sun Chen himself was whistling — just from the footage, it appeared to be a completely normal behavior. He was flipping through a magazine in the empty reading room, whistling out of boredom, then exercised his shoulders and neck, and then... abruptly became dazed amidst his own whistling. The "Dean" instantly sat up straight, dense bubbles rose in the fish tank where its head was, and the goldfish rapidly fluttered its translucent fins in the water — at almost the same moment, it seemed to sense something. Its tall humanoid body suddenly dodged to the side as the air beside it abruptly twisted, a figure accompanied by the failure of the optical force field appeared out of nowhere, wielding a faintly glowing blade that slashed past the "Dean's" body, the decomposition force field easily cutting through the backrest of the office chair. The goldfish looked through the transparent fish tank at the assailant in the office. A human in a shirt and long pants — but above the neck, there was no longer any human appearance, swollen and deformed nerves and a tangle of blood vessels sprouting from the neck of that shell, twisting and intertwined like chaotic vines, forming a giant, swollen brain-shaped flesh mass, which seemed to continue slowly swelling over time. The assailant turned around, the two eyes inset in the front of the swollen brain calmly gazing at the nearby "Dean." He shook the dagger in his hand, the blade buzzing in the air, the illusory light of the decomposition force field gliding along the edge. The Dean stared intently at the "human" before him, a hoarse, magnetic female voice emerged from within: "Feign death... no, Sun Chen's corpse is still in the containment room... is it character embodiment?!" "They said that as long as I cooperated with them to extract the 'knowledge' from my brain, they would find a way to get me out of that tower..." Sun Chen's voice emanated from the swollen brain, sounding slightly elated, "Even though this process is not quite what I imagined, now... I feel great." "'They'?" the Dean's voice was low, "Who are they?" "Sun Chen" did not reply, only continued to gaze serenely at the towering figure in front of him. The office fell into silence, the drips of water sounding exceptionally abrupt. A trickling stream was running down near the "Dean's" neck, the bottom of its head fish tank had a small split, and the transparent liquid inside was continuously leaking. The goldfish suddenly reacted, raising its hand to press on its fish tank — however, the containment device had already been broken by the decomposition force field, and the fluid inside was draining even faster. "Being stuck in this fish tank all the time... very stifling, isn't it?" Sun Chen spoke softly, "Today is the day I gain freedom — and Dean, you are free too." The goldfish gave no response, instead, it suddenly raised its right hand towards him. An invisible water flow appeared out of nowhere, enveloping Sun Chen in layers, and the immense water pressure started compressing and tearing at his swollen, deformed brain as if to crush him in water. But the next moment, that gathered water mass suddenly lost control, starting to disperse in all directions. The office's humidity rapidly increased, streams of water began flowing everywhere along the floor, walls, and ceiling. The liquid in the spherical fish tank completely drained, the goldfish turned into a phantom, swam out along the last stream of water from the tank, wandering all around in the increasingly humid, even spontaneously condensing droplets of air. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novel※fire.net "Sun Chen's" figure gradually disappeared in the air. The goldfish wandered aimlessly in the office, and then suddenly seemed to regain a momentary clarity — the next second, it fiercely rammed into a big red button on the side of the desk. A piercing alarm instantly rang throughout the building, accompanied by repeated urgent broadcasts: "Alert, 'Dean' containment breach, facility emergency evacuation! Alert, 'Dean' containment breach, facility emergency evacuation!"