2: Chapter 2: Ghost Soldiers Descend from the Sky, What's a Red-Clad Ghost Compared to That?

Su Qingyu's scream was like an icy awl, piercing the deathly silent air within the shelter, intertwining with the faint roars of more Bizarre Monsters and the rumbling of collapsing buildings in the distance, composing a prelude to the apocalypse.

The playfulness on Lin Chen's face did not dissipate; instead, it grew a bit thicker. He slowly put his phone back into his pocket, as if the outside wasn't a man-eating hell, but some noisy vegetable market.

He didn't even first attend to Su Qingyu's approaching, nearly broken cries. Instead, he walked to the damaged observation window, extended two fingers, and gently brushed away the sharp glass shards from the edge, his movements as elegant as if he were wiping dust off a collectible.

Through the hole, the scene outside came into view.

The light of the blood moon seemed even richer, soaking the entire city ruins in a viscous crimson. Twisted steel bars, broken concrete, and the wreckage of burning vehicles formed the main color palette. Upon these ruins crawled more figures of various forms that made one's Sanity Value plummet—staggering rotted corpses, floating spectral shadows, and twisted things that simply couldn't be described in words.

“The operating environment... is truly harsh,” he commented in a low voice, his tone like a venture capitalist evaluating a startup with worrying prospects.

“Lin Chen! Open the door! I beg you! They... they're catching up!!” Su Qingyu's cries were now right at hand, accompanied by heavy, urgent pounding on the door, and... a tooth-aching sound of a wet, slippery object dragging along.

Only then did Lin Chen unhurriedly walk to the inner side of the shelter's alloy gate and turn on the external monitoring screen beside the door.

In the footage, Su Qingyu no longer possessed her former purity and elegance. Her hair was disheveled, her expensive dress torn to rags and covered in filth and blood, and her originally fair, beautiful face was full of terrified tears and dust. She was frantically pounding on the heavy alloy door, her eyes filled with extreme fear of the thing behind her.

Not far behind her at the corridor corner, a thick, almost impenetrable black-red mist was billowing toward them. Within the mist, a figure wearing an old, blood-stained school uniform was slowly “walking” over in an extremely uncoordinated posture with joints twisted backward.

It was a Bizarre Monster in the form of a female student. Long hair covered most of her face, but through the gaps in the strands, one could see a deathly pale complexion and a single eye that was completely pitch-black without any white. Wherever she passed, the walls and floor quickly condensed a thick layer of steaming white frost, and the faint “crackling” sound of ice crystals forming echoed in the air.

【Scan Complete: Specter in Red (Grievance Aggregate)】

【Threat Level: Intermediate】

【Abilities: Extreme Cold Domain, Mental Intimidation, Long Hair Entanglement】

【Suggested Disposal Method: Use [Evil-Suppressing Yellow Talisman (Enhanced)] or summon a [Yin Soldier Centurion] squad for physical salvation.】

The phone vibrated at the right time, as the nether domain asset system thoughtfully provided “customer service advice.”

“A Specter in Red? A classic model.” Lin Chen curled his lip, seemingly a bit disappointed by the “ordinariness” of this model. His gaze skipped over the [Enhanced Yellow Talisman] priced at 10 nether talismans and landed directly on the summoning option for the [Yin Soldier Centurion].

【Summon [Yin Soldier Centurion] x1 Squad (10 members)】

【Cost: 1,000 nether talismans】

【Description: Battle-hardened elites from the Netherworld, possessing overwhelming baleful energy, with extremely strong suppression effects against both spectral and physical anomalies.】

【Summon?】

One thousand nether talismans? For him, with a net worth of ten billion, it was a drop in the bucket.

“Summon a squad to test the waters.” He confirmed with his thoughts.

Buzz—!

A low hum, seemingly from beneath the Nine Netherworlds, rang out. It didn't travel through the air but acted directly on the soul level. On the patch of frost-covered open ground in front of Lin Chen, a black mist as thick as ink rose without warning! The black mist billowed violently, and within it, the clanging of armor colliding and the friction of weapons were vaguely audible!

In the next second, the black mist suddenly contracted and condensed inward!

Ten tall, solid figures clad in tattered Black Heavy Armor, as if stepping out of a scroll of hell, silently appeared in a line within the corridor! Visible black baleful energy swirled around them like burning flames. What they held were not physical swords, but Black Long Halberds condensed from pure baleful energy, emitting a soul-tearing chill!

They had no faces; beneath the helmets was a deep darkness, with only two points of crimson light burning in the eye sockets—cold, ruthless, locking onto the billowing red-black mist ahead.

The cold baleful energy crashed into the Specter in Red's Extreme Cold Domain! The temperature in the corridor instantly dropped below freezing. The white frost on the walls thickened rapidly, even beginning to form icicles, but on the ground beneath the ten Yin Soldiers, the baleful energy repelled the frost, forming black footprints.

The Specter in Red, who was about to pounce on Su Qingyu, suddenly froze! The all-black eye behind the gaps in her long hair stared fixedly at the suddenly appearing Yin Soldiers, emitting a sharp hiss like glass rubbing together, a mix of threat and wariness.

And Su Qingyu, who was slumped by the door, having already closed her eyes in despair to wait for death, was startled into opening them by this sudden terrifying baleful energy and phenomenon. When she saw those ten black-armored Yin Soldiers like demon gods descended to earth, and felt the deathly aura from them that was deeper and purer than the Specter in Red's, her mind instantly went blank. She even forgot to cry, left only with boundless shock and bewilderment.

Just then, the alloy gate slowly slid open to one side with a soft hiss of air pressure release.

Lin Chen's figure appeared at the doorway. He didn't even look at the Specter in Red close at hand that was emitting a terrifying aura; his gaze fell directly on the slumped and wretched Su Qingyu.

When Su Qingyu saw that it was Lin Chen who opened the door, the wild joy of surviving a disaster instantly submerged her. She practically crawled over, tears gushing, and with a sob, instinctively tried to grab Lin Chen's leg like catching a final life-saving straw: “Lin Chen! I knew you... I knew you would save me! I was wrong before, I...”

Her words came to an abrupt halt.

Because at the moment she lunged, Lin Chen stepped slightly to the side, causing her to miss and fall directly onto the cold floor.

He looked down at Su Qingyu, who had fallen and was looking up at him in daze, his gaze calm and without ripples, as if looking at a stranger. He gently dusted off his pristine sleeve, as if Su Qingyu's approach just now had brought something unclean.

“Dirty.” A cold word spat from his mouth, devoid of any emotion, yet it made Su Qingyu feel a bone-chilling cold even more intense than the Specter in Red's domain. The color instantly drained from her face, leaving only unbelievable paleness and humiliation.

Just then, another figure crawled out from a nearby pile of ruins.

It was Zhang Hao! He was even more wretched than Su Qingyu; his designer suit was in ribbons, his face was bruised and battered, his body was covered in foul-smelling mud, and his eyes were filled with extreme terror.

Seeing Lin Chen, it was as if he saw his own father. With a “thud,” he knelt down, not even caring as his knees scraped bloody marks on the rough ground. He kowtowed frantically while crying and shouting with snot and tears flowing:

“Brother Chen! No! Lord Lin! Father Lin! I was blind before! My heart was blinded! I'm not a human being! Please be magnanimous and let me go like a fart! No! Please take me in! I'm willing to be your ox or horse! I'll do anything! Just please give me a way to live!!”

His performance formed a sharp contrast with the soul-shaken Su Qingyu beside him.

Lin Chen's gaze finally moved away from Su Qingyu and landed on Zhang Hao, who was kowtowing like a woodpecker, a playful arc curling at the corner of his mouth.

“Be my dog?” he spoke slowly.

Zhang Hao looked up as if hearing an imperial decree, a light of hope erupting in his eyes as he nodded desperately: “Yes, yes, yes! I'm willing to be your dog! The most loyal dog!”

Lin Chen smiled and pointed toward the other end of the corridor—there, the Specter in Red seemed provoked by the Yin Soldiers' baleful energy and emitted an even sharper hiss. Thick resentment surged like a physical substance, but she was clearly extremely wary of this suddenly appearing, disciplined nether army, and for a moment, she didn't dare to step forward.

And on the ground between her and the Yin Soldiers, there remained some black wreckage, viscous like asphalt and emitting a foul stench, left behind by low-level Bizarre Monsters that had been dispersed earlier.

“Talk is cheap.” Lin Chen looked at Zhang Hao, his tone nonchalant yet carrying a bone-chilling meaning, “Go, take a bite of that ghostly crap on the ground over there, by the ‘Specter in Red's’ feet. Let me see your... determination to be a dog.”

The color instantly drained completely from Zhang Hao's face, making him even paler than Su Qingyu. He looked in terror at that writhing, indescribably foul-smelling bizarre wreckage, his stomach churning so much he almost vomited on the spot.

Su Qingyu also looked up in shock at Lin Chen, as if meeting this person for the first time.

“What? You don't dare?” Lin Chen raised an eyebrow, “If you can't even pay this little ‘Initiation Fee,’ what use do I have for a piece of trash like you?”

Zhang Hao's body trembled violently, his face filled with struggle and fear. But when he saw Lin Chen's cold, playful gaze and those ten baleful Yin Soldiers nearby who could “physically save” him at any moment, the desire to survive finally overrode everything else.

He let out a whimper like a wild beast and crawled toward the wreckage. Closing his eyes, he reached out a trembling hand, grabbed a handful of the viscous, cold black substance, and amidst Su Qingyu's terrified gaze and the background noise of the Specter in Red's sharp hiss, he violently stuffed it into his mouth...

Lin Chen watched this scene without any expression, merely turning his head calmly to give the first command to the ten statue-like Yin Soldiers:

“That one in the red clothes is too noisy.”

“Tear her apart.”

The crimson light in the ten Yin Soldiers' eyes suddenly flared!

Kill—!

An invisible, physical intent of slaughter soared into the sky! Ten black figures moved like ghosts, turning into ten streaks of black lightning that tore through the blood moon's glow, carrying an unstoppable momentum as they instantly submerged that billowing red-black mist and the Specter in Red within it!

There were no intense fighting sounds, only a scalp-numbing “rip” sound of cloth and some invisible substance being forcibly torn apart, and a sharp scream from the Specter in Red that was so short it was almost negligible, filled with extreme pain and resentment!

One second later.

The black mist dispersed.

The ten Yin Soldiers, holding their baleful halberds, stood back in their original formation as if they had never moved.

And in front of them, the Specter in Red, along with her Extreme Cold Domain, had vanished without a trace. On the ground, only an exceptionally “clean” area remained, purified by the dense baleful energy.

Instakill!

Absolute crushing force!

Zhang Hao was still prone on the ground, retching violently because of the indescribable terrifying taste and texture in his mouth. Su Qingyu sat slumped at the doorway, watching this scene that transcended understanding with hollow eyes, her worldview completely collapsed.

Lin Chen, however, acted as if he had only done a trivial little thing. He clapped his hands as if dusting them off, his gaze passing over the two broken people to look toward the skyscraper ruins in the distance, faintly visible under the blood moon—the headquarters of his company in his past life.

“Alright,” he said in a relaxed tone, with a hint of anticipation for opening a new market, “the troublesome ‘orientation activity’ is over. Now, it's time to find a decent place...”

“To officially open my ‘branch office.’”