Performative personality
In the dark cave, only the sounds of footsteps and panting could be heard.
The five people felt around the wall, not knowing how long they had been wandering around. They could only feel more and more debris on the ground: broken wood, stones and clods of earth of all sizes, and some white, inexplicable hard objects.
Hearing the commotion, Lin Chaoying gently tugged at Kong Yue's sleeve, causing the others to stop. She said, "There's a child crying up ahead."
Qin Ming: "A child?"
Jiang Chuan Gu asked in confusion, "Could it be Wu Yang?"
Qian Fei: "No way, this isn't Wu Yang's territory, why is he crying?"
As they spoke, the group continued forward, turning another corner. A faint light flashed before their eyes, pointing them in the distance, like the end of darkness.
In such a dim place, the light source of a flashlight can only illuminate a small area in front of you, and cannot brightly illuminate the entire space like an incandescent bulb.
Qin Ming was scanning the ground, not paying attention to his feet, when he felt himself kick soft flesh. He heard continuous sobbing from under his feet, which startled him so much that he quickly stepped back and stomped on Qian Fei's foot. The pain made her push Qin Ming away.
Jiangchuan Valley shone his flashlight on the ground, revealing a boy in his early teens, dressed in rags, hugging his legs and crying bitterly.
The boy looked up, his face dirty and stained with blood. Kong Yue knelt down and asked with concern, "Are you injured? How did you get here?"
The little boy's voice was harsh, hoarse as if filled with sand, as he said, "My dad told me to stay here."
Qin Ming said warily, "Kong Yue, don't get so close to him."
Although Kong Yue was panicked, seeing the child covered in blood and crying, she couldn't help but want to check if he was injured. She said, "Give me your hand, let me see if you are hurt."
Qian Fei and Qin Ming squatted down beside the little boy.
The little boy hesitated and reached out his hand. "Brother/sister, don't you like me?"
Kong Yue took his pulse without speaking, and Qin Ming said impatiently, "Be quiet!"
Lin Chaoying scrutinized the little boy and lowered her voice to Jiang Chuan Gu, "Do you find it strange?"
"Strange," Jiang Chuan Gu said bluntly. "His face is covered in blood, but his skin doesn't look like it has any wounds. Why is he crying?"
Kong Yue frowned, her eyes filled with disbelief. The little boy suddenly laughed and opened his mouth to bite Kong Yue's neck. Qian Fei quickly grabbed him by the back of the neck and threw him away.
Qian Fei shouted, "What are you trying to do!"
After rolling around a few times, the little boy stood up and patted the dirt off his body.
Kong Yue: "He is at least 18 years old."
Lin Chaoying: "Are you Wu Yang?"
Wu Yang chuckled, his teeth chattering softly. "How did you two see through me so quickly?"
Qian Fei felt a chill run down his spine and retorted, "Is there a rooster stuck in your throat? How can you speak so rudely?"
Lin Chaoying rolled her eyes and replied somewhat speechlessly, "Does the Ghost Gate gene have some kind of quirk? It starts acting the moment it opens its eyes?"
Jiangchuan Valley laughed out loud, "Cosplay?"
Kong Yue: "This doesn't count as cosplay, it's more like a Halloween costume activity?"
Qian Fei: "Cosplayer? Isn't that what you call cosplaying anime characters?"
Lin Chaoying: "That's right, it can't be considered cosplay. At most, it's a group of people with performative personalities satisfying their desire to perform? They must be extremely envious of Jiangchuan Valley's job."
"Ugh!" Jiang Chuan Gu felt uneasy upon hearing this and said, "We're doing legitimate work! We have an audience!"
Qin Ming feigned anger: "What are you doing in such a serious setting! Can you say that to people's faces? Just mutter a few curses in private!"
Seeing that they were chatting enthusiastically and ignoring him, Wu Yang suddenly flew into a rage and shouted, "Enough with the nonsense!"
In an instant, countless tree branches attacked from all directions. Qin Ming and Qian Fei quickly adjusted their positions, one in front and one behind to protect their friend. Qian Fei's machete spun rapidly in the air, almost blocking all the oncoming branches and slicing them into pieces all over the ground.
Qin Ming leaped forward, grabbed a branch, and bound it together with the falling branches, tossing it to Jiang Chuangu and shouting, "Tighten it!"
Jiang Chuan Gu had just tossed Kong Yue a match and a lighter when he was jolted back a few steps, clutching the twisted, unruly tree branch with both hands, his arms covered in blood from the scrapes.
Qin Ming stepped on a tree branch, and the tip of his dagger pierced Wu Yang's neck.
Wu Yang rolled away to dodge, and Qin Ming gathered a small puddle of water in his other palm and slapped him across the face. Wu Yang gritted his teeth in anger, and the branch in his hand instantly sprouted sharp thorns, which he then lashed out at Qin Ming.
Qin Ming's dagger slashed through the attack, and after a few moves, he was forced to retreat repeatedly.
Lin Chaoying used her ears to pinpoint Wu Yang's approximate location, felt for three hidden arrows on her arm, aimed them in the darkness, and fired the first one just past Wu Yang's ear, barely scratching his earlobe. She then quickly adjusted and fired the second arrow, finally hearing him cry out in pain.
She removed the hidden arrows, took out the last one, slid to her knees, swept it to Wu Yang's side, and with a swift motion, thrust the arrow straight into his leg.
Wu Yang knelt on one knee, met her stubborn eyes, gritted his teeth and said, "Overestimating yourself!" Then, right in front of her, he pulled out a short arrow and stabbed it into her eye.
Lin Chaoying dodged to the right, quickly stood up, grabbed a plant in the air with one hand, used the momentum to fly up, and kicked him in the shoulder.
Wu Yang grabbed her leg and slammed it against the wall in a fit of anger. Qin Ming rushed over the instant she hit the wall, grabbing her upper body and acting as a cushion to absorb some of the force, but they still ended up dizzy from the fall.
Lin Chaoying noticed that Wu Yang's leg wound was healing!
She retorted, "His superpower is self-healing!"
To everyone's surprise, Qian Fei burst out cursing, "Wu Yang! You beast! If you've got the guts to restore our superpowers, then let's fight for real!"
Wu Liang instantly retracted all the branches and grew five thick vines, each as thick as a thigh, which entangled everyone.
The moment Lin Chaoying felt herself being lifted into the air, she couldn't help but say, "I hate riding drop towers the most!"
Their hands were tightly bound by vines, rendering them unable to move. All their weapons, including matches, lighters, daggers, and machetes, fell to the ground.
Wu Yang pulled back Kong Yue, who was being protected by several people in the center, grabbed her by the neck and said, "Are you the doctor from 12th Street?"
Kong Yue twisted and struggled in the air, without saying a word.
Wu Yang looked her up and down, and suddenly noticed two wounds on her arm. The blood was slowly stopping, and the skin was slowly closing up. A different kind of light flashed in his eyes, and he asked playfully, "Oh my! What did I find?"
Qian Fei shouted excitedly, "You're playing dirty tricks! And you're getting all arrogant! You want to level up? I'll fight you!"
Lin Chaoying felt a chill run down her spine and murmured, "It's over."
Wu Yang looked innocent, but his tone carried a hint of expectation: "How come your arm is quietly healing?"
Qin Ming struggled and roared, "Wu Yang!"
Kong Yue stared at him with an extremely calm and emotionless expression.
Wu Yang snapped his fingers with a smile, and another vine shot out from behind him, approaching Kong Yue's body. "Bang—" It pierced through her shoulder and slammed into the stone wall with great force, pinning her to the air.
Kong Yue felt her mind go blank, and after a brief moment of unfocused vision, a tremendous tearing pain spread from her shoulder throughout her body, and she couldn't even make a sound.
"Kong Yue!" Amidst the terror, the crowd's angry curses against Wu Yang echoed endlessly.
Wu Yang approached her, examined the wound, and exclaimed in surprise, "Why is your healing so slow?" He then conjured a vine, and, as if deep in thought, probed her stomach and legs, feigning distress, and asked, "Where would be better?"
Qian Fei: "You son of a bitch! Wu Yang! You motherless beast!"
Jiang Chuan Gu noticed that upon hearing this, his body stiffened, and his expression became somewhat awkward. He blurted out, "Looks like you really don't have a mother?"
While Wu Yang was so angry that he tightened the vine, he also inserted another vine into Kong Yue's thigh.
Lin Chaoying closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and kept trying to separate her soul. She saw the moment the vine pierced Kong Yue, her soul suddenly left her body and rushed into Wu Yang's body.
Wu Yang sensed something was wrong with his body and began to uncontrollably release his supernatural abilities, which were then suppressed...
The others floated up and down in the air and started spinning, which was even more thrilling than a roller coaster. Qian Fei vomited several times and almost threw up.
Lin Chaoying kept fighting for control of her body, and finally Wu Yang stopped his powers in discomfort and banged his head against the wall in an attempt to wake himself up.
Jiang Chuan Gu noticed Lin Chao Ying's unusual behavior and caught her unconscious body when she fell to the ground. At the same time, Qin Ming caught the injured Kong Yue, not daring to use force for fear of causing further injury.
Lin Chaoying and Wu Yang fought to the death inside the same body.
Qian Fei raised his knife and charged at Wu Yang, but the moment he slashed down, he was pushed back by an invisible force and fell to the ground.
Wu Yang noticed the unconscious body in Jiang Chuan Gu's arms, reacted, released his supernatural power, and used vines to penetrate his own body. Lin Chao Ying felt pain, rolled out of his body, and uncontrollably returned to his own body.
She sighed, "It's too difficult to control!"
Wu Yang cast out a net-like canopy of branches to control the group, but led Lin Chaoying out alone. Jiang Chuangu desperately grabbed the vines around her neck, but was instead pierced through the shoulder by a branch behind him and left hanging in the air.
In her final moments before losing consciousness, Lin Chaoying saw Jiang Chuangu's blood-stained face. She then stumbled and scrambled through the black hole, her mind going blank, only remembering herself drifting further and further away from them...
When she opened her eyes again, the bright light stung them.
"Jiang Chuangu!" she exclaimed, sitting up abruptly. She looked around at the countless empty, large cages, but she wasn't in one; she was in a passageway. Lin Chaoying suspected Wu Yang had thrown her in; he must have discovered her unique abilities and that they would affect him, so he needed to deal with Jiang Chuangu and the others first.
No, she wants to go back!
Just as she got up, Lin Chaoying heard a very soft call.
She turned around and saw a person lying in a cage not far away. She limped over and saw the woman leaning against the side of the cage.
Lin Chaoying's arm could just fit through the gap in the cage. She reached in and tentatively patted the woman. The woman recoiled in shock, and the sight that was revealed startled her, causing her to take a few steps back.
The woman's face was covered in blood, with only one eye intact. The exposed parts of her arm bore only purplish-black binding marks; there was no undamaged skin whatsoever...
Lin Chaoying tentatively called out the name, "Cen Ting?"
The woman lay on the ground, lifting the eyelid of one eye, unable to speak coherently, asking intermittently, "Who...are...you..."
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