Chapter 19: “The Flicker” Arrives
Han Su was led away from the Public Security Bureau by a group of armed personnel, boarded a windowless vehicle, and brought to a gloomy, oppressive-looking complex.
He was then assigned to a room made entirely of black metal.
Throughout the entire process, he acted very cooperative—after all, he was surrounded by so many armed people, so it was best to control his temper.
But in his mind, thoughts never ceased:
“What exactly does this so‑called Abnormal Disaster Assessment and Management Bureau do?”
“And the person who defined this whole affair—who is he? Why can one word from him make the Bureau ignore our kidnapping case from back then, ignore so many missing children?”
“Among those missing children, many parents had supernatural abilities—were they kept in the dark, or are some people already playing a role in this?”
“......”
He had no answers for now, but Han Su quietly felt a thrill of excitement—something he had never felt during his many useless investigations before.
This was the first time he felt he was approaching something significant.
Another thought arose: he couldn’t help but reach out and touch his right eye.
That strange feeling when facing the ghostly truck—novel, exhilarating, that eerie sensation of spiritual energy flowing out of his eye—it was like opening the door to a new world.
Even though Black Rose Avatar had warned him that using this power might come at a cost, he still wished to try again.
Disregarding her unprofessional tone, his life was already in shambles—what more was there to lose?
What he cared about more was the method of using this mysterious power, how to harness it—and whether he could use it once he returned to the Ancient Castle to accomplish something…
Of course, wanting and doing were different—two glaring cameras mounted on the ceiling were watching him, and he had to hold back for now.
Another point was that when Song Chu‑shi first gave him the spell, Han Su had thought he could use it to prove to the disbelievers that he truly had encountered those mysterious things.
But Zhang Chiguo’s words had awakened him: since “that person” has already defined the affair, proving himself was no longer important.
Their refusal to believe him wasn’t doubt—it was deliberate disbelief.
In this situation, hiding himself was the wisest move.
After all the time spent playing hide‑and‑seek with giant entities in the Ancient Castle, he understood the importance of staying in the shadows.
Even analyzing the current situation properly, he knew he was almost under a spotlight—visibility was inevitable, but it would be good to keep part of himself hidden in the dark.
“Ah, whatever. Let me have a good sleep first…”
He drew a long sigh and lay down on the small bed’s mattress.
Although it was a metal room, small and with a locked door—almost like a cell—the furnishings were surprisingly nice, with complete sets of toiletries.
So much had happened that day—so much that, for the first time since escaping, Han Su felt he could actually sleep peacefully.
He just hoped this step would help him gain more critical information—just some clues to help him return to the Ancient Castle and face those monsters with more confidence…
The next morning, when Han Su opened his eyes, he saw that the metal door of his room was already open.
A woman in a black suit stood holding a file at the doorway and said calmly, “Get up and wash. I will arrange for someone to bring you breakfast. At nine this morning, someone will take you to a place. If you pass that test, you can enter the training program.”
Having said that, she didn’t wait for an answer—she walked away in her high heels, leaving Han Su dazed in his sleepy state.
He could only say: the breakfast was good—there were sausages, eggs, and milk.
After breakfast, two armed personnel came and led him to a spacious room lined with black sound-absorbing foam—it looked like a professional recording studio.
On the walls hung several extremely expensive speakers.
Han Su recognized how expensive they were—he had seen them in Xu Ji’s house.
The empty floor held nothing—only a single chair placed in the center. The two who escorted him led him to the chair, helped him sit, then exited the room.
“You will hear some sounds soon.”
Suddenly, the voice of the woman in the black suit echoed from the speakers:
“I need you to listen carefully, really listen.”
“If you don’t understand, it’s okay—but you must try your best to grasp the meaning behind the words.”
“You must try not only to understand, but also to recall some of the syllables in those words and repeat them back.”
“If you feel any discomfort, raise your hand immediately!”
“Please remember, do not do anything presumptuous; this concerns whether you can join the Disaster Management Bureau… or rather, whether you can return to normal society.”
“……”
‘If you cannot understand, how can you interpret the meaning of these words?’
Han Su had many doubts, but he was facing the black glass on the wall and could not see outside the room—but he vaguely felt that many people were watching him from behind that glass.
So he calmly nodded and said, “Understood.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the one-way glass, Zhang Chiguo was watching Han Su inside the room and inexplicably felt a sense of worry.
The armed security personnel beside him actually had a duty to protect him, but now he felt they were somewhat dangerous.
But things had come this far; he had no choice but to exhale softly and say:
“Start playing it!”
After the outside staff began operating, Han Su heard a burst of crackling electrical current from the nearby speakers, and then the room filled with an ancient and mysterious voice.
It sounded like a language, possessing the intonation and rhythm unique to languages.
But to his ears, it was more like noise because it brought a strange irritation and discomfort.
Crucially, these sounds were unclear, accompanied by moans and screams, the sound of blood and flesh splattering, even distant crashing and shouting.
Given the expensive audio equipment, the realism was overwhelming; for a moment, he thought he had entered another world, seemingly surrounded by a crazed and eerie environment.
Even his thoughts felt uncontrollable, as if a vision flashed before his eyes.
It was the scene he saw the first time he recited the spell—the Pale Giant appearing in the world.
It was those tattered people, using rusted car shells, discarded oil drums, and naked women, gathered around barbed-wire-wrapped utility poles, worshipping some god…
‘What on earth is this?’
Han Su abruptly frowned, feeling waves of discomfort.
This kind of sound evokes an instinctive urge to flee, and since they were listening so intently, they were uncomfortably close to it.
But the sound wouldn’t let him go; it rose from low to high, as if approaching from far away to very near, engulfing him from all directions.
He hadn’t heard any specific intelligible words, nor understood any sounds, but as the noise grew louder, he suddenly felt a familiar sensation.
He waited patiently; when that sound appeared again, his heart trembled slightly, and he immediately confirmed:
No doubt!
That was a sound he’d heard before, many times—even without understanding it, he recognized from its style that it was the language spoken by one of the monsters involved in the kidnapping in the Dark Bunker.
So the Disaster Management Bureau actually plays the language spoken by a monster from the Dark Bunker?
“Huh?”
Outside the one-way glass, Zhang Chiguo had been staring at his expression and suddenly grew a bit anxious.
“Did I come to the right place?”
Inside the room, just as Han Su was incredulous at his own impulses, suddenly his vision went dark, flickered twice, then returned to normal.
But Han Su instinctively felt something had changed around him.
He snapped his eyes open wide and stared fixedly—three seconds, six seconds, ten seconds…
The flicker returned, like a faulty lamp in the room.
At that moment, Han Su felt a chill run down his spine, and his heart was filled with disbelief:
“It’s coming again?”
“Last time, the interval from the kidnapping was about half a month; but this time, it’s only been a day since I escaped—hell, not even twenty‑four hours—and I’m going to be kidnapped again?”
“How could this happen?”
“Has the interval really reset to zero all of a sudden?”
“It shouldn’t be this fast…”
“……”
The strange and irritating sounds around him quickly receded, as if blocked by a thick wall.
Han Su sensed an icy chill behind him.
As if a vast, bottomless void had appeared at his back.
Distant, profound, frigid.
Like a person floating in outer space, gazing at the starry cosmos, with a enormous, endless black hole looming behind him.
All the tangible things around—carpet, chair, walls, speakers—seemed to lose their reality, merging into blurry halos.
“Tick‑tock, tick‑tock, tick‑tock.”
Accompanied by the precise mechanical gears of an old clock, Han Su seemed to perceive a distant gaze drawing ever closer, whispering conspiratorially, enveloping him with a sense of anticipation, and his spirits suddenly fell.
It’s really coming…