Die, Replay, Repeat

Chapter 55: More Cruel Than Specters

_'Is he dead?'_

Fang Xiu furrowed his brow slightly.

_'Did the mutation not stop? Or did I go too hard?'_

Just as he was feeling a bit annoyed, out of nowhere, he thought he heard a squishy, tentacle-like squirming sound.

In front of him, where he couldn't see, four octopus-like tentacles popped out of Lin Ziyang's remaining eye.

These four tentacles latched onto Lin Ziyang's eye socket and, with a soft tug, pulled the whole eye out, making a noise like popping a soda can's tab.

POP!

Fang Xiu's face tightened, and he immediately retreated ten meters away from Lin Ziyang.

He was quick, but still not as quick as the tentacled eye.

The eye was bloody, with only a black pupil showing. It creepily crawled on top of Lin Ziyang's head like some sort of spider.

Its jet-black pupil locked onto Fang Xiu, zoning in on him almost instantaneously.

With a powerful jump, it shot toward Fang Xiu like a cannonball.

WHOOSH!

Almost at the same time, Fang Xiu swung his scalpel, trying to slice the mutant eye in two.

But the eye dodged in midair, just missing the blade.

SMACK!

Its squishy tentacles wrapped around Fang Xiu's hand that was holding the scalpel.

Fang Xiu kept his cool. He immediately switched hands to hold the scalpel and took another swing at the eye.

The eye dodged like a slippery octopus. It moved to the other side of his hand before he could hit it.

Fang Xiu couldn't cut his own hand, so he had to stop swinging.

He let go of the scalpel and tried to grab the eye instead.

But the eye acted like it was alive. It crawled all over Fang Xiu, making it impossible to catch.

It climbed higher and higher, now reaching Fang Xiu's neck.

Quickly figuring out it was aiming for his eyes, Fang Xiu stopped reaching for his neck and aimed for his eyes instead.

_'Caught it!'_

He felt a cold, slimy sensation on his hand.

As his vision focused, he saw the Specter eyeball, tightly held in his grip.

But the very next moment, a wave of Specter energy burst out of the eyeball.

Fang Xiu's vision went black instantly, his consciousness blurred, and his hand reflexively let go.

Taking the opportunity, the eyeball forcefully slammed into his right eye.

A rush of sharp pain hit him, snapping Fang Xiu back to reality.

He could feel that his right eye had been devoured! Eaten by this freaky eyeball!

Not wasting a second, he lunged to grab it, catching the last tentacle before it could completely dive in.

For a second, the scene looked like it came straight out of a horror movie. A man with a calm expression, gripping a tentacle growing out of his eye socket.

But the tentacle was incredibly slippery. In a split second, it squirmed out of Fang Xiu's grasp, making a noise like slurping up spaghetti, and it dug right back into his right eye socket.

Fang Xiu remained calm. This little Specter trick was nothing out of the ordinary for him.

The very next moment, he jammed two fingers ruthlessly into his right eye. But just as he was about to poke the eyeball, his fingers abruptly stopped.

Because he realized he could actually see with his right eye again.

Before, losing his right eye had made him blind. But now, after the Specter eye had entered, his vision was back. So, he decided to wait a bit longer.

Soon, something bizarre happened; his right eye began to move involuntarily.

Imagine one eye remained perfectly still while the other eye rapidly darted around, constantly scanning the surroundings. The eye even started to roll upward, hiding the black pupil under the upper eyelid.

Then, it rolled right in!

Two scenes popped into Fang Xiu's head: one from his left eye, showing the dimly lit warehouse, and the other from his right eye, revealing a sea of red with densely packed blood vessels. He could even see the inside of his skull.

Right then, Lin Ziyang's voice echoed in his mind.

"Hahaha, Ace of Spades didn't fool me. I did it!"

Lin Ziyang's voice was utterly manic, sounding less like a human and more like some creepy Specter.

"Fang Xiu, I'm taking over your body! Don't worry, I won't wipe out your consciousness. I'll just trap you in this body forever, to eternally experience pain! Hahaha."

In the face of such a bizarre scene, Fang Xiu's face showed no emotion. But when he heard the word 'suffering,' he actually laughed.

"Make me suffer?" A small smirk crept onto his face, showing off his unnaturally white teeth. In the dim light, it appeared eerily unsettling.

Lin Ziyang's voice came again, "My suffering's way worse than yours! Hmph! Let's see how tough you act when I'm running the show. I'll use your body to hurt everyone you care about, making you beg for the end!"

In the next instant, a wave of Specter's Spiritual Energy burst from the eyeball, aiming right for Fang Xiu's thoughts and soul.

It was like a toxic dump, constantly polluting Fang Xiu's soul. And Lin Ziyang's mind controlled the source, digging deeper and deeper into Fang Xiu's spirit.

His plan was to pollute Fang Xiu's soul, infect it with Specter power, and fully seize control of this body.

But the second he fully dived into Fang Xiu's soul, he froze.

"What the heck is this place?"

Lin Ziyang felt like he'd fallen into an endless void, a darkness so twisted it was like a black hole that relentlessly devoured everything in its path.

Here, he was bombarded with boundless negative emotions.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

"Payback time! You're toast!"

"Honey! As long as I'm alive, you're destined to die!"

"No one walks away after offing me eighteen times, no one!"

"All Specters will perish!"

"I will make the world feel pain!"

Intense hatred and anger roared like a wild storm, relentlessly battering Lin Ziyang.

Countless horrifying scenes of death rushed in like an avalanche.

Even though Lin Ziyang had lost control of his Spiritual Energy, and he'd fully mutated into a Specter, the twisted nature of Fang Xiu's soul still left him trembling with fear.

_'Is this for real? Is this actually a human soul?!'_

At this moment, eerie Specter whispers surrounded Lin Ziyang from all sides. It was incomprehensible, impossible to ignore, akin to a haunting enchantment. Each note of this eerie sound made his head throb in agony.

Lin Ziyang felt like he was trapped in hell. He couldn't take it anymore; he was scared out of his mind. He had to get out of there. This couldn't be a human soul.

Lin Ziyang quivered and thought. _'Fang Xiu? No way was he human; he's more Specter-ish than any Specter I've ever met!'_

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