202: Chapter 202 This is not a living thing

After the fall, there was a deathly silence.

Everyone crashed onto the ground, which felt surprisingly soft beneath their feet.

The beams from their flashlights cut through the darkness.

They were in a massive cavern.

But the walls were not made of rock.

"Holy crap... these walls... why are they soft?"

Fatty's voice trembled.

As the light hit the walls, they revealed a bizarre fleshy-red color, covered in folds and even slightly squirming.

An indescribable fishy sweetness permeated the air.

"Where's the blind man?"

Lin Tianyi looked around alertly.

The blind man and Wang Xianzhi had landed at the other end of the cavern, staring at them coldly.

The environment here made a temporary truce the only option.

Song Yiqing's gaze, however, was locked onto the wall.

He slowly reached out a hand.

His fingertips touched it lightly.

Cold.

Sticky.

'Something's wrong.'

'This isn't a living thing.'

His heart skipped a beat.

'This is... part of the trap.'

...

In the live stream room.

[They survived! Holy shit! They actually all survived!]

[For a moment there, I thought the signal was going to cut out! That was terrifying!]

[But where is this? Inside Baiyan Cave? No one has ever gone in there!]

[Look at those walls! My trypophobia is acting up! What the hell is that?!]

...

Dawn Squad camp.

Wei Fengzhao stared intently at the screen, his expression more solemn than ever.

"Old Wei, is something wrong?"

Liu Tao asked in a low voice.

Wei Fengzhao slowly shook his head, his voice dry.

"It's not that something is wrong."

"It's that it's exactly right."

"In legend, the 'eyes' of Baiyan Cave have inner walls exactly like this."

He paused, recalling a top-secret file.

"The Flesh Nest of the Second Forbidden Zone only devours life that comes near it."

"But the walls here..."

He said, word by word.

"They can 'think'."

"They will manifest the thing you fear most based on your own terror."

...

At the rear of the team.

Yin Yan looked at the bizarre fleshy walls on the screen, her face full of worry.

She turned to Wen Xiuya beside her.

"Miss Wen, will Song Yiqing and the others... be in danger?"

Wen Xiuya's gaze didn't leave the screen, her voice flat.

"He won't die."

But inside, a storm was brewing.

'Something's not right.'

'This wasn't part of the plan.'

'Baiyan Cave shouldn't have forcibly dragged them in this way.'

Wei Chengjun's mind was racing.

This crude spatial transfer seemed more like... an emergency measure taken out of panic.

It was as if...

An absurd yet incredibly horrifying thought emerged.

'The Forbidden Zone itself...'

'Is actually afraid?'

...

On Song Yiqing's retina, a line of cold text slowly appeared.

[New Mission Issued: Kill the Phantom Pupil Wall. Reward: SR-Rank.]

Phantom Pupil Wall.

Just as he thought.

He remained impassive, but he understood everything in his heart.

The "Mud-man Weird Monster" they encountered in the desert before was merely a physical attacker.

But this wall... it was a conceptual weapon.

A trap that acted directly on the psyche.

"Whoa!"

Fatty stumbled, and his palm instinctively pressed against the fleshy wall.

Hum—

Where his palm touched, the fleshy wall rippled like the surface of water.

A blurry human face began to slowly protrude from within the wall.

"Fatty! Don't touch that thing!"

Lin Tianyi shouted sharply.

It was too late.

The face quickly became clear; it was none other than Fatty's own expression of utter terror!

Immediately after, the wall acted like melting wax as countless pale arms suddenly reached out from it, grabbing for everyone!

"Get back!"

Song Yiqing's voice was cold.

"Wang Shan, three o'clock!"

"Fatty, suppressive fire! Don't look at the wall!"

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

Gunfire instantly erupted.

Bullets tore through those arms, but even more arms surged out from the wall, endless and infinite.

On the other side.

Wang Xianzhi stood with her sword held close, watching coldly from the sidelines.

"Song Yiqing."

She spoke, her voice devoid of any intent to help.

"Wait for these things to kill them."

"Then I want to have a match with you."

Song Yiqing didn't even give her a glance.

His entire attention was on that bizarre wall.

"Lord Song!"

Lin Tianyi roared while firing.

"What the hell is this wall?!"

"Phantom Pupil Wall."

Song Yiqing calmly spat out the three words.

"It can read our thoughts and fears."

"Then, it turns them into reality."

"We aren't fighting monsters."

"We're fighting ourselves."

As soon as he finished speaking.

Lin Tianyi, Fatty, and Wang Shan all froze.

A bone-chilling cold, more despair-inducing than any monster, washed over them.

"Holy shit!"

Fatty's face turned pale.

"Then doesn't that mean this will never end?!"

Wang Shan's voice carried a hint of a tremble.

"How do we kill it?"

"How could we possibly... win against our own fears?"

...

In the live stream room.

[Reading fears?! Holy crap! How can they even fight that?!]

[No wonder! As soon as Fatty touched it, arms came out! He's afraid of being grabbed!]

[The more you fear death, the faster you die? This is a fucking dead end!]

[It's over... it's really over this time... God Song, think of something!!!]

...

"It has no weaknesses."

Song Yiqing's voice caused everyone's hearts to sink to the bottom.

But his next sentence reignited hope.

"But its power has a weakness."

He spoke while calmly dodging the reaching arms.

"It reads our fears."

"So don't give it anything to read."

"Easier said than done!"

Fatty roared.

"Who the hell can do that?!"

"Concentrating our minds won't help either?"

Lin Tianyi followed up.

"No."

Song Yiqing shook his head.

"Quite the opposite."

"You need to completely empty your mind."

"Think about something else."

"Anything will do."

His gaze was calm, as if he were taking a stroll in his own backyard.

"Think about what you had for dinner last night."

"Think about how much money you owe."

"Think about what one plus one equals."

His voice reached everyone's ears clearly.

"Don't think about danger."

"Don't think about monsters."

"Let your brain go blank, or fill it with garbage."

As he spoke,

The arms reaching for him stopped half a meter away...

They froze.

Then, they slowly dissipated like green smoke.

"As long as there is no fear in your mind,"

"It is just an ordinary wall to you."

Song Yiqing's voice came out calmly.

When the people on the scene saw what was happening before him, everyone was stunned.

"This... how can this be??"

Fatty exclaimed in surprise, his face full of disbelief, yet the fact was unfolding right before his eyes.

...