Enforcer Manual
Chapter 276: Let’s Play Hide and Seek_1

Chapter 276: Chapter 276: Let’s Play Hide and Seek_1

This was a world entirely constructed by simple brush strokes.

When Song Lan and Xinyue left the pit, they found everything on the surface was completely unrecognizable. Under the delineation of these minimalist lines, its original contours were now indecipherable.

The eyes that had been above their heads were gone, leaving only boundless darkness.

In a daze, Xinyue quickly lost sight of him.

What was strange was that, in this pitch-dark environment, he could still see clearly the path ahead and the twisted figures scattered throughout this world.

Once caught by these twisted figures, one would be torn into pieces. The distorted facial features on their faces were trophies taken from their victims.

Song Lan couldn’t remember when he had come to know of this setting, but in order to leave this bizarre world, he knew he had to struggle for survival here.

...

Once again, footsteps were approaching from a distance.

The footsteps advanced step by step, cornering the small town. It seemed to sense the person hiding inside, crossed the ruins piled up by simple brush strokes, and arrived in front of the hider.

After the footsteps stopped, other sounds came from above.

It sounded like something that had been used for cover was being moved aside, slowly revealing the hider from below.

No matter where one hid, they would eventually be found by this monster!

The fear in the heart climbed to its peak with the noise coming from above; this soul-piercing fear paralyzed it, forgetting how to run, it could only let the monster dig it out from the hard-found hiding place.

"Found you."

The voice, so close at hand, made the hider look up. The chaos of features squeezed together on its face—it watched as the monster removed the last piece of debris covering it, displaying a smile, "You are really good at hiding, but you are the last one. Come out now, don’t make your friends wait too long."

At the instant when Song Lan’s outstretched right hand touched the twisted figure, the world made out of simple brush strokes disintegrated in an instant.

He stared at his right hand, now covered in external skeletal armor, and found himself in front of the ruins of some building. The twisted figures had vanished to who knows where, and he had no idea how he ended up here.

Just moments ago, he was playing a game of hide and seek that he hadn’t played for a long time.

He remembered the last time he played hide and seek; he was seven years old chosen as the seeker by the other children in the yard. Just as the countdown ended, his mother called him home for dinner.

For some reason, after that, the kids in the yard stopped playing with him.

He had to thank those twisted figures, rumored to tear people to pieces and take their victims’ facial features as trophies. They were remarkably good at hiding, and Song Lan enjoyed the game immensely.

As for those scary settings, he figured they were probably just rumors.

Rising from the ruins, Song Lan stretched and looked up at the night sky, now that eye was right above his head, locking gaze with him.

This time, it seemed willing to communicate with Song Lan directly. A scream-like question emerged in Song Lan’s mind, "You, what kind of monster are you!?"

It was certain that Song Lan had fallen into that world woven by hallucination. Considering the special nature of the two of them, it had directly sent them to the deepest part of the hallucination world. There, filled with the fearful imaginations of countless believers of the night, once one fell into the deepest depths of fear, unless awakened by an external force, no matter how strong-willed one was, they would ultimately get lost in the darkness.

Lu Xiang was awakened through an inhibitor, but Song Lan...

This man had received no help from the outside, yet broke through the fear of countless people with his own will.

This person was definitely not human, but some unknown creature with a human appearance!

"Didn’t you ask me to find you? Now I’m here."

Song Lan immediately noticed Xinyue in the town square, flapping her beak and wings, seemingly fighting with the air.

He timed his chance and knocked on her forehead.

The sudden blow left Xinyue stunned for a good while, her ferocious eyes gradually turning into confusion. But upon seeing Song Lan in front of her, she seemed a bit aggrieved, "Why did you hit me?"

"To snap you out of it."

Song Lan extended his right hand, pointing at the night sky, "Your enemy is up there."

A soft click sounded as the launcher built into the exoskeleton aimed at that single eye. He guessed that the recruiter from the hostile company might still have a lot to say, but Song Lan wasn’t about to give him the chance to explain the benefits of the Lunar Eclipse Sect.

A piece of ammunition, shrouded in black-purple energy, shot into the sky without warning.

This was the cruel reality of industry competition.

"Damn it, damn it——!"

Another shriek pierced the night sky, soon swallowed by the spreading arcs of electricity.

This was energy beyond Xinyue’s comprehension. The seemingly inconspicuous ammunition tore open countless rifts in the sky the moment it hit the eye, with currents surging between every crack, until the entire sky was completely shredded.

Objects peeling away from above turned to dust before reaching them, withering in the night sky with the evening breeze.

"This is the Annihilation Warhead of the ’Destroyer I’ series."

As that eerie moon and the unknown material dissipated completely, Song Lan took the initiative to resolve her confusion, "How could a mere bluffer possibly stir the Bug Swarm?"

The night sky returned to normal, and the real moon emerged.

From the signs just now, it was likely that some unknown creature had disguised itself as the moon, enveloping the entire town.

"Join us, and one day you could be this powerful, too."

............

Oleg felt he had a nightmare.

In the nightmare, the gymnasium had fallen, and all members of the medical team, apart from him, had gone mad. They took up arms and turned on each other, exhibiting symptoms identical to the Infected they had been tracking.

Perhaps this was the fate of a battlefield medic.

Constantly chasing the source of the infection, he had long been prepared to get infected himself, even planning how to organize the medical team to dissect and study his own body after infection.

But it seemed like a decent ending, too.

Finally, he could take a break from this endless work and enjoy a long-lost vacation.

The morning sun shone on Oleg’s face, and his consciousness grew clearer. Before long, he opened his eyes.

He saw the familiar ceiling and knew in a second where he was.

The town’s gymnasium, their temporary base.

He was still alive. Those intermittent memories were just a nightmare after all. A new day awaited, with new duties for them.

Thinking this, Oleg turned over, and yelled, "Get up! It’s time for a big cleanup..."

The next moment, his voice caught in his throat.

Outside the window, a pair of fiery red eyes was staring right at him.

Oleg was sure this room was on the third floor, which could only mean the creature outside was enormous.

"Fuck!"

He rolled directly off the bed, shouting as he tumbled, "Quick, get to the exoskeleton armor, something big has hatched outside!"