152: Chapter 152 God, grant me peace

Click!

The sound of a lock snapping shut rang out.

Li Yangze's consciousness finally recovered slightly. He opened his swollen eyes and looked over.

It was still those two.

The Tall and Thin Subordinate and Zhao Chenghan stood a few paces away. Zhao Chenghan had a trace of an inexplicable smile on his face as he watched him.

Li Yangze struggled for a moment, only then realizing his hands were shackled to a thick metal pole by a silver-white chain.

The chain was very short. He pulled hard, but the metal pole didn't budge an inch, while his wrists were rubbed raw and painful.

His eyes widened as he stared at the two men in front of him.

Zhao Chenghan pushed the glasses up the bridge of his nose and grinned. "Don't bother struggling. If you actually managed to get out, we'd just have to give you another beating."

Li Yangze's body stiffened, and he didn't dare move again.

"Don't blame us either. If you want to blame someone, blame your own bad luck for running into the two of us," Zhao Chenghan explained.

Li Yangze gritted his teeth and didn't respond.

Zhao Chenghan stuck his hands in his pants pockets and tilted his head with a look of curiosity.

"By the way, the rules mentioned something about a Blurry Figure, didn't they? Have you seen it?"

Hearing this, Li Yangze remembered something as well and twisted his neck to look around.

Soon, his gaze froze.

At the end of this dark, narrow alley, about thirty meters away, a figure with a blurry outline and indistinguishable details stood quietly, swaying slightly.

The moment he saw it, Li Yangze froze completely. His throat tightened, and even his breathing became sluggish.

Zhao Chenghan followed his gaze, but the end of the alley was empty; there was nothing there.

Yet, a knowing and somewhat playful smile still appeared on his face.

"Oh, so there really is one," Zhao Chenghan nodded. "Fine, then just stay here comfortably."

After saying that, he patted the Tall and Thin Subordinate on the shoulder.

The two didn't spare Li Yangze another glance. They turned around and walked unhurriedly toward the light at the alley's entrance.

...

After the two left, the alley fell into a dead silence. Li Yangze couldn't help but cast his gaze deep into the darkness again.

That Blurry Figure was now closer to him.

It wasn't an illusion. The other party was indeed closer.

Watching the approaching Blurry Figure, Li Yangze began to struggle violently involuntarily; it was the most primitive survival instinct of a human facing death.

He pulled back with all his might, and the rough iron chain instantly bit deeper red marks into his wrists. His flesh tore, and blood seeped out.

But no matter how he struggled, it was in vain.

Instead, the violent movements agitated the wound in his abdomen, and a surge of sharp pain suddenly shot up.

A sweet taste filled his throat, and with a "wah," he spat out a large mouthful of blood.

The dark red liquid splashed onto the rough concrete ground in front of him, spreading quickly, glaring and warm.

He looked at the spreading blood-red patch, and his consciousness began to drift and blur again.

No... he didn't want to die yet.

On what grounds?

In a world like this, he had already struggled so hard just to survive.

But on what grounds...

Why... did he have to be treated like this?

Li Yangze slumped on the ground, his back against the cold wall, panting constantly as he tried to calm himself down.

Even if it was just to give himself a few more minutes of peace before death.

However, within his vision, the countdown timer continued to tick away without stopping.

[00:31:22]

[00:31:21]

It reminded him not to deceive himself, completely crushing the fragile psychological defense he had just tried to build.

In the distance, that Blurry Figure... in just this short time, it seemed to have gotten a bit closer again.

Fear soaked through his marrow like ice water, then turned into uncontrollable trembling.

Li Yangze clenched his teeth until they chattered, but his body still wouldn't stop shaking.

...

If there was anything more terrifying than death, it was perhaps the process of waiting for death to arrive.

Li Yangze couldn't help but think.

The Blurry Figure was closer again.

Now, it was only a dozen meters away.

At this moment, for some reason, hot tears welled up in his eyes without warning.

He was unwilling.

He hated this world; he hated why it was so unfair to him.

He loathed this world to the core, loathed everyone...

He regretted.

He regretted why he was so useless, why he couldn't be like others who dared to venture into Secret Realms.

He regretted why he had such a personality...

He regretted that when he was robbed by those thugs back then, he didn't fight them to the death.

In that case, even if he died, he would have died with a heart full of fury.

And those two people just now...

Li Yangze's suppressed whimpers squeezed out from deep in his throat, eventually turning into uncontrollable sobbing.

...

The Blurry Figure was now close at hand. He could even feel an unspeakable, cold, and viscous aura emanating from it.

But at this time, Li Yangze's emotions changed again.

Fear receded like a tide. At this moment, he seemed to fall into a strange void.

A life review, something only those on the verge of death experience, involuntarily flashed through his mind.

Only, these memories weren't entirely occupied by the expected resentment and unwillingness.

Instead, what surfaced were mostly long-forgotten, tiny, and happy fragments: a certain afternoon with beautiful sunlight; time spent with family at home; the "click" sound of his first successful toy assembly; and even recently, when a customer bought a crude prop he made and casually said: "It's okay..."

He actually twitched the corner of his swollen mouth and gave a faint smile.

So... it wasn't only bad things.

Li Yangze looked up at the Blurry Figure that had already walked up to him.

The other party almost occupied his entire field of vision...

Li Yangze wasn't sure if there were gods in this world.

When he was a child, there was an old church near his home.

He wasn't religious; he just occasionally slipped in on weekends because sometimes he could get a few sweet biscuits.

The priest who gave them the biscuits often said to them: "Child, if you believe in the Lord, your soul can find peace and go to heaven."

He wondered... if he believed now, would it still be in time?

Li Yangze couldn't help but think.

The Blurry Figure was very close, less than half a meter away.

In his vision, the countdown timer had reached the final thirty seconds.

God... Li Yangze looked at the blurry outline close at hand and shouted silently in his heart: If you really exist, I don't beg to go to heaven, just let me die with this kind of peace.

The Blurry Figure moved.

It raised a hand and slowly reached toward his forehead.

Li Yangze closed his eyes, waiting for death to descend.

A sensation came.

A wave of coolness; the other party's finger touched his forehead.

Only, that coolness was a bit strange. It wasn't the bone-chilling cold he had expected, but rather carried a... subtle, almost physical texture?

Li Yangze was startled and instinctively opened his swollen, painful eyes to look up.

At this moment, a Blurry Figure stood before him. The person was standing against the light, so only their outline was visible, and they slightly tilted their head.

"Are you okay?"

Almost simultaneously, a clear notification sounded in his ear:

[curse has been transferred.]