The Strange

Lilith panted heavily, her heart pounding wildly out of control. Her head felt like it was splitting apart as Mercenary Tao kept increasing his grip. She felt as though her skull would be crushed at any moment.

No, I have to struggle. I can’t just die like this!

Like most Reincarnators, Lilith had never wanted to become one or enter this space. She had simply been chosen by it by accident and inexplicably brought to this hellish place.

She had a happy family and loving parents. She simply could not accept dying like this.

"I-I have spellcasting abilities. My Spirit attribute is almost at its limit. I also have Dimensional Points…"

Even at a time like this, she still did not choose to fight to the death. Instead, she kept listing her value.

This made Bai Cangshu look down on her even more. It was hard to imagine someone like her surviving for long. Rather, living until now was already an incredible stroke of luck.

The earring on Bai Cangshu’s earlobe swayed twice. He raised his index finger, preparing to tap her skull.

"I know the Staff Seeking Method. I’m very good at finding people…"

By now, the woman had finished listing her various elemental spellcasting abilities and started mentioning special abilities that were practically just tricks.

Bai Cangshu lifted the woman. Her roughly hundred-pound body was truly far too light to him now.

He raised her face until it was level with his own. Their eyes met.

"How good are you at finding people? Can you find Plot Characters?"

Lilith was still chanting out her specialties as though reciting scripture. The next moment, bone-piercing killing intent seeped into her body. She shuddered and fell silent.

Then she nodded repeatedly.

"Yes, I can. As long as I know information about someone, there’s a good chance I can find them!"

Smack!

Bai Cangshu released his hand, and the woman fell to the floor. Ignoring the pain, she felt an unbelievable surge of joy.

She was about to thank Mercenary Tao for sparing her life when her face went pale. The White-Clothed Black-Haired Female Ghost emerged from the stairwell again, flickering as she instantly appeared behind Mercenary Tao, as though clinging to his back.

She knew that if Mercenary Tao turned around and met that thing’s gaze, he would most likely stiffen instantly before having his neck snapped.

Her team had encountered this attack before and lost one person because of it.

"Careful, you—"

Before she could finish, Mercenary Tao had already turned around and met the filthy thing’s gaze.

Bai Cangshu looked at those lifeless eyes and gave a derisive snort. The chill spreading through his body could not affect him in the slightest.

He had already realized that the origins of these spirits in this world were most likely Grudge Spirits from Mob Psycho 100, or ghosts and yokai-like beings from Dandadan.

Although these things possessed all sorts of special abilities and rules, they were not entirely rule-based existences.

They were completely different from the terrifying "Mechanism Kill" instances in traditional Infinite Flow works.

In other words, he would not be directly killed just because he triggered some "instant death" scenario. These monsters’ attacks on Reincarnators seemed potent enough, but fundamentally, they were still special abilities and numerical values.

It could also be understood as their mechanisms not having sufficient priority.

Take this curse called Resentment of the Deceased, for example. It had a gaze-triggered mechanism, and once triggered, it could completely freeze a Reincarnator’s ability to act.

But its priority was not high enough to completely ignore a Reincarnator’s abilities. In Bai Cangshu’s eyes, it became a contest of "numbers."

And he had always been a "stat monster."

Under Lilith’s horrified gaze, Bai Cangshu reached out and grabbed the ghost by the neck. The ghost tried to flee, but Bai Cangshu pinned it down and forcibly pressed it into his own body.

The ghost began struggling violently, but it was completely ineffective. Before long, it vanished into Bai Cangshu’s body.

You have contained Spirit Entity: Cursed Captive Sub-body

Bai Cangshu then kicked open the elevator doors. A fire was already burning at the bottom of the elevator shaft, likely because those Reincarnators had used some high-explosive, highly flammable weapon in the elevator.

There was no trace of any living person in the elevator.

Bai Cangshu listened carefully for a moment, but heard nothing at all.

It seemed that after he heard the voice claiming to be Ayase Seishi, those Reincarnators had encountered some unexpected situation and were no longer within this space.

At the very least, they were no longer in the same physical space as him.

After obtaining the electromagnetic power of the Heart of the Thunder Emperor, Bai Cangshu had also mastered the Mantra obtained from Enel’s Drop Card.

This special Observation Haki used electromagnetic force as an extension, vastly enhancing the effects of Observation Haki.

Whether in range or its additional mind-reading ability, it far surpassed ordinary users of Observation Haki.

Although those who trained Observation Haki to a profound level could foresee the future for short periods and see things dozens, hundreds of kilometers away, or even farther—

Mantra could accomplish such things even in its early stages.

Only then did Bai Cangshu take another look at his surroundings.

Previously, because of the curse’s level and the strength of those spirits, he had thought this Side Mission was nothing special.

But now, with those Reincarnators’ disappearance, he noticed something strange.

The spirit he had contained had been named Cursed Captive Sub-body by the space. That meant it definitely had a main body. Moreover, the Side Mission had no penalty, which meant failure most likely meant death.

Bai Cangshu turned and walked to the wall, then fiercely kicked it.

Bang!

The wall exploded, and an entire outer wall collapsed. Yet beyond the collapsed wall, Bai Cangshu saw another corridor. There was another elevator there, as though it were a mirror image.

What terrified Lilith even more was that there was another Mercenary Tao and another herself in the corridor beyond that wall. Both were staring at them with sinister smiles.

Whine~

Golden energy shot through the air in an instant like a laser, cutting through the two spirit entities. The two spirits, who had looked like ghosts from a classic horror scene just moments ago, turned into corpses and fell to the ground the next moment.

"Mercenary Tao, what do we do? Even if we smash these walls, we can’t get out. We’ve already tried so many times before."

Lilith had been terrified of Mercenary Tao just moments ago, but after realizing he did not intend to kill her immediately, Mercenary Tao instantly became her source of security.

Only then did Bai Cangshu realize why those Reincarnators had failed to notice the spirits standing among their team.

Those people had likely been infiltrated by spirits in secret while repeatedly smashing through walls and moving from place to place.

They had long since been cursed without even realizing it.

This Side Mission was more difficult than he had imagined.

This also showed that the difficulty of this world absolutely did not lie solely in unimaginable individuals such as Saitama, Tatsumaki, and Shigeo Kageyama.

Something must have happened to this world for it to become so dangerous.

Bai Cangshu had no interest in solving this spatial supernatural puzzle now. Judging by the Side Mission’s duration, this place definitely contained hidden spaces.

If the main body of that spirit realized he could harm it and focused solely on hiding, it could waste quite a lot of time.

After thinking for a moment, Bai Cangshu grabbed Lilith by the neck and turned to jump down from the stairwell.

Even while carrying someone, Bai Cangshu landed soundlessly after jumping down from the third floor.

"Mercenary Tao… what are we going to do now?"

Lilith tried to actively communicate with this "ferocious beast" called Mercenary Tao, hoping to make him less likely to kill her later.

Bai Cangshu did not explain. He simply carried her and jumped into the underground area where he had first appeared.

After seeing the new space revealed by smashing through the wall, Bai Cangshu realized that smashing through the ground to enter this place had been an unusual act.

That meant the sewer filled with corpses, spirits, and long snakes truly was unusual.

Bai Cangshu landed in the pitch-black sewer, completely ignoring the long snakes biting him. Amid the blue-white glow Lilith emitted as she activated a barrier in terror, he walked all the way to the end of the sewer. There, murky, foul-smelling water trickled out little by little.

Bai Cangshu knocked twice with his hand. As the force traveled through it, he sensed that this was a wall roughly ten meters thick. More importantly, there was flat ground outside.

Bai Cangshu drew back his left arm, his muscles swelling inch by inch. Then, amid creaking sounds, he suddenly threw a punch.

Boom!

Amid terrifying tremors, the wall gradually cracked apart before beginning to collapse.

Accompanied by a piercing howl, sunlight appeared beyond the shattered wall.

Seeing the light, Lilith instinctively felt joy. The next moment, Mercenary Tao grabbed her and swiftly vanished from the freezing waterway.

You have completed Side Mission: Cursed Captive Institute
You have obtained Material: Corpse Demon Mask ×1