The current Spaceti Atlas stores 900 points of Different Dinsion Energy and has illuminated 10 nodes.
When the seventh node was illuminated, it activated the "Perception of Strange Events" feature. According to Yan Junze’s observation, there is also a line of small text at the twelfth node, but it’s in a grey state and the font is too small to recognize.
Yan Junze lay on the bed, using Inner Vision to examine the Atlas in his mind.
In the past two days, the temperature had started to rise a bit. His mother, Li Man, originally wanted to change to a lighter blanket for Yan Junze, but he refused.
What a joke, with Ke’er lying behind him, the temperature had just begun to rise, making this blanket perfect. Yan Junze mulled over the Spaceti Atlas in his mind while chatting with Ke’er.
She would occasionally respond with a "huh," so Yan Junze, bored, started the most mundane conversation ever.
"What do you call your mother’s sister?"
"Huh."
"What do you call your mother’s older sister?"
"Huh."
"What do you call your mother’s siblings?"
"Huh."
Yan Junze didn’t know how many tis he repeated himself, nor when he fell asleep.
When he got up in the morning, his parents had already left early. His father’s factory had leaders coming to inspect work today, and Li Man had a big job assigned by the cleaning company. A dozen cleaning ladies had to sweep the floors of a large building, needing to finish before the end of the workday.
Therefore, Li Man couldn’t co back to make dinner either.
He opened the stear, where his mom had previously heated so stead buns, which were still steaming hot. Next to the gas stove, there was a plate of fragrant cold dishes and a bowl of warm porridge at the right temperature.
In his previous life, Yan Junze also liked to eat flour-based food. He quickly grabbed two buns, poked a hole in the middle with chopsticks, stuffed in so cold dishes, took a big bite, and found the taste quite right.
He lifted the warm porridge and gulped it down. It was very fragrant.
After finishing breakfast, Yan Junze packed up his books, slung his backpack over his shoulder with a flip of his wrist, and whistled as he stepped out the door.
As he descended the stairs, he pulled out his phone to check the weather for the upcoming days, feeling that the temperature would continue to rise.
This was also good; he finally wouldn’t have to wear thick sweaters anymore. When the dog days of sumr ca around, he would let his classmates see what it ant to have a real portable air conditioner, envy skr!
At that mont, a news alert popped up at the top of his phone screen. This was a "Real-Ti Headlines" news push Yan Junze had subscribed to that sent so of the latest news at a fixed ti every day, covering local events, Tianng District, and even the Great Capital of Huaying.
However, this particular piece of news caused Yan Junze’s brows to furrow slightly.
"Breaking: Mysterious Tragic Death of a Couple, Bodies Found at Ho Last Night."
"According to the latest news from the Shuntian City Public Safety and Security Bureau, a murder occurred last night at LHTD Community Building F, Unit 12-4, where a couple was killed. It was revealed that the case was discovered by cleaning staff who inadvertently saw a large amount of blood seeping out from under the door. Security personnel have already sealed off the scene imdiately.
Homicide has not been ruled out, and follow-up reports will be made available. Reporter Yang Genshuo."
Putting aside the peculiar na of the reporter for a mont, upon viewing this news, Yan Junze felt an odd sensation welling up inside him.
This feeling was unclear and nebulous, like a gloomy shadow had been draped over his head, leaving him quite uncomfortable.
As he was engrossed in his phone, he had unknowingly descended to the second-floor corner when sothing white seed to flicker before his eyes. By the ti he realized it, Yan Junze discovered there seed to be soone standing at the corner on the second floor.
He turned his head and looked: just as he had already moved towards the first floor, his body shuddered violently, his eyes filled with terror, still clutching his phone.
In his line of sight, at the corner of the second floor, a woman with disheveled hair, skeletal-thin, dressed in a white short-sleeved shirt and shorts, stood at the corner of the wall, facing it with her back toward him.
"This is… the Back-faced Woman!"
Yan Junze was completely dumbfounded.
No matter how much he had calculated, he did not expect to encounter the Back-faced Woman at this mont.
Looking at her appearance, the Back-faced Woman had already left Building 5 and directly entered Building 7, where his ho was located.
It was as if her activity area was not limited to just next door, but also included the area including Building 7.
The mory of the mission "Look at Her Face" surfaced in Yan Junze’s mind. He rembered that this mission had no background at all, just a very brief instruction: look at her face, ask her what she needs.
But the level of that mission made Yan Junze hesitate.
Hair-raising! This was not a joke, one false move and not to ntion Rewind, he had not prepared in advance, and it was too late to set a Rewind now.
After just a brief pause for a second, Yan Junze imdiately took steps to quickly descend the stairs, deciding not to complete this mission right now.
However, for safety’s sake, he still set the starting point for Rewind at that mont and set the endpoint ten minutes later, just in case the Back-faced Woman took any action that could get him into trouble.
If the Back-faced Woman didn’t trouble him, as long as he didn’t initiate Rewind, it would automatically erase after the ti elapsed and would not deplete Different Dinsion Energy.
There were roughly eleven steps in the half-flight of stairs on the first floor, and with every step Yan Junze took down, it felt as though he was exerting all his strength, his muscles taut, limbs stiff, with all his attention focused behind, terrified that the motionless Back-faced Woman would suddenly move towards him at any mont.
"No matter what, I can’t look at her face, I absolutely can’t see her face now."
Yan Junze silently reminded himself, feeling like a century had passed before he finally finished descending the eleven steps and ran out of Building 7.
He took a breath, turned his head for a glance, and saw that the Back-faced Woman had not followed him. The hair-raising feeling from earlier gradually faded, and mories erged.
He had just noticed that the Back-faced Woman was dressed in a sumrti outfit, wearing a set of white short-sleeved shirt and shorts. If it was before her death, this woman would have likely had a nice figure, but now beco a ghost, she exuded a ghastly, emaciated strangeness.
And the skin exposed outside the clothes was patchy with blues and purples, hardly any part of it unblemished.
Yan Junze quickened his pace towards the community gate, but then he paused slightly, realizing that Ke’er, who had been clinging to his back all this while, was nowhere to be seen.
He looked around but couldn’t see the red figure. Class was about to start, and Yan Junze couldn’t bother with her now, so he left the community and quickly walked towards Shuntian No.3 Middle School.
Just as he reached the school entrance, sothing tightened around his foot, then gripped his waist. Soon after, Ke’er’s familiar crawling gesture returned, and the little guy was back again.
"Where did you go?" Yan Junze wondered.
"Eh."
Ke’er’s responses were always a mystery.
Entering the school with confusion, Yan Junze quickly understood sothing. Ke’er must have thought he was going to deal with the Back-faced Woman. Considering the hair-raising level of this mission, Ke’er definitely wouldn’t stand a chance against the Back-faced Woman, so... she chose to flee.
Your sister! What happened to the promised increase in favorability? What happened to pure friendship?
Faced with a formidable strangeness, she runs faster than a rabbit!
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