Chapter 195: Kill His Way Out

Translator: Lonelytree

The black merchants had a unique appearance in that they had incredibly wide lips. They wore long black robes and turban around their heads. The turban was bundled into two strange protrusions before their forehead, giving them the appearance of horns. The black merchant who opened the door looked exactly like that. Once he stepped into the room, he realized something was off. Inside the small storage room, the wooden wheelchair that carried the nightmare man was leaning against the left wall but he remembered quite clearly he had left the wheelchair in the middle of the room when he dropped off the cargo so why had it moved?

The black merchant looked around and saw not even a rodent. He walked towards the wheelchair with confusion and lifted up the black cloth that covered the nightmare man. The nightmare man was still seated inside the pot, leaning against the frame. Stuck within the ruined face was the pair of widened eyes. Suddenly the black merchant’s heart squeezed as he realized what was missing… the eyes had lost their fascinators!

Inside the pair of perforated eyes, there was no longer the fuzzy chaos but instead there was a sharp viciousness….

“I recognize you, you’re the one who came to torture me with the needles every time.” A low voice growled warningly.

“You!” The black merchant was stunned as he stared into the pair of eyes. Their merchandise was not dead, his consciousness was still alive, he had recovered! But how could anyone’s mind suffer 100 showings of Nightmare Wonder, his consciousness should have been vanquished in the first showing! Just as these thoughts crowded his mind, the black merchant shrieked and wailed. A giant stormy whirlpool was being unleashed from the pair of eyes, carrying with it all the terror from Leng.

“Ah…” The black merchant instantly lost his power of speech. His eyes were overwhelmed by incredible pain and his face was a mask of terror. His hands raised to lash at his face. He wanted to gouge out his own eyes to make the torture stop but no matter how deep his fingers dug, no matter how hard he pulled, his eyeballs remained firmly stuck. The black merchant cried and laughed in crazed tears… Dig, dig, dig… The black merchant stuffed the broken pieces of his own eyes into his mouth. He grinded them into pieces with his teeth, screaming all the while. Even so there were still shadows dancing inside the two bloody holes where his eyes were. He plunged deeply into the socket as he continued to dig deeper into his skull. “Nightmare man, nightmare… abyss…”

“You merchants should know that everything comes with a price.” Gu Jun said darkly as he struggled to stand up. “Normally I have sworn to only help and heal but for human traffickers like you, I can make an exception.” The power of the spell was quite strong but it only cost 0.1 percent corruption and it did not drain Gu Jun’s mental power that much. However, from casting the spell, Gu Jun confirmed that his mental power had indeed become different in nature, the digested nightmare energy had turned him into a walking nightmare. He had just stood up when he saw 2 more black merchants appear at the door. They gasped into the room with shock.

“My eyes are the abyss and the abyss is the truth!” Gu Jun casted the spell again, the rhythm of each syllable and its power were close to the original from the parchment, even Gu Jun could feel a strange energy propelling towards his target. The two black merchants at the door had their eyes burst open. Purplish red worms wiggled out from their eyeballs.

“Ah!” The groans came as the two crumbled to the ground. They scratched at their faces madly as their fingers dug into their eyeballs. “Nightmare, nightmare…”

“A private showing of the Nightmare Wonder for you people.” Gu Jun grumbled. Perhaps it was the adrenaline from taking revenge, he felt energy coursing through his body despite the corruption increasing by another 0.15 percent. His body teetered but he did not fall. He looked around him and found his own medic bag inside a wooden shelf on the right wall. The 3 Carlot medical instruments were still there, they were probably kept there by the Zoogs and had been sold alongside him. He placed the newly-acquired surgical scalpel into the bag and then shoved the bag into his shirt. He grabbed a random white mask from the cluster of miscellaneous objects and put it on. The mask exposed only his eyes and it fitted his head quite snugly.

He then grabbed another appropriately tall wooden stick to use as a walking stick. He shuffled out the door, dragging a cluster of vines behind him. By this point, he had to leave this theatre immediately, he was going to murder his way out if he had to. Gu Jun had just exited the storage room when the commotion here had attracted the attention of the other black merchants. 6 of them were rushing over from the stage. They were equally shocked when they saw him and without giving them the time to respond, Gu Jun chanted the spell again!

Horrible screams echoed down the hallway. The black merchants collapsed instantly as they reached greedily for their eyes and the worms that crawled out from them. The worms crawled into their eye socket to replace the eyeballs which had been dug out. The worms gnawed and feasted to create holes. Fresh blood gushed out, bringing with them more worms. The black merchants rolled on the pathway, as pain overwhelmed their bodies. There were more gnawing and more worms. The power of the dream spell had no limitation.

Gu Jun shuffled his way through, ignoring the crying black merchants as he made his way to the stage. He was not familiar with the layout of the theatre so he had no idea where the exit was but based on common knowledge, there should be an exit behind the audience seats. Sound of footsteps hurried after him, Gu Jun turned and saw there was another group of black merchants that came after him. Gu Jun could recognize among them the black merchant who purchased him from the Zoogs. He appeared to be the leader and his face was painted in rage.

“Hi.” He kept on moving while casting the spell. “My eyes are the abyss and the abyss is the truth!” The hapless black merchants fell to the same fate as their comrades. Before they knew what was happening, they crumpled in a group and the sound of screaming became louder inside the theatre.

The black merchants weren’t the only ones inside the theatre, there were 3 straggling audience members as well. The trio looked on in shock at the nightmare that unleashed before them. Their faces paled and their tongues were caught…’That, that is the nightmare man, he’s wearing the same clothes… it has to be him in the white mask.’

“Bring me to the nearest exit.” Gu Jun said as he walked towards them. “I need to leave this place. Don’t you dare trick me.” He did not use any spell on the trio but the three were already crying for mercy. They pleaded. “This way! This way!””Please don’t kill us!” They stumbled their way forward and refused to take another look back, one look into that abyss-like eyes was enough to last them a lifetime.

“I hope you’re not tricking me.” Gu Jun said. As he did not place his trust blindly in these people, he kept his attention tuned to his surroundings. They walked for a distance, they did not leave the stage but they did lead Gu Jun to a side door hidden behind the stage. Once they reached the door, the three busted through the door and ran screaming into their freedom. The grunts of anger and pain closed in behind Gu Jun. Gu Jun hurried towards the exit. He had to find his way out soon and it was unwise to cast any more spells because the corruption had increased by 2 percent back to 24.78 percent, if the corruption reached 25 percent, he might lose his mobility again… Furthermore, he could feel the power of darkness inside him awakening, he was slowly losing control…

When Gu Jun exited the door, he was greeted by a night sky. He found himself inside a narrow stone-paved alley and the smattering of people on the street looked over his way with curiosity. Around him were black towers and the alleys formed a maze that weaved through them. The complication of the geography stunned Gu Jun and he was at a loss where to go. By then, the sound behind him had grown louder. There were languages of the black merchant and other languages. He recognized them as the voices of the buyer who was going to sacrifice him. Their eyes did not even blink during the Nightmare Wonder showcase, so Gu Jun knew they were not going to be easy to deal with.

“Sir, come with us.” Suddenly, a voice called out to him from the mouth of one of the alleys. Gu Jun turned to the voice, and complicated emotions rose within him. It was a duo from the group of earthlings. There was a man and a woman. They were speaking a strange language, not Chinese, “You belong to the same type as we do, right?”