Sleepwalker

Late night, palace.

Luo Chen hid behind a pillar in the corridor. When he was bored, he squatted down and picked up the grass on the ground. He sighed and said, "Will they really sleepwalk out in the middle of the night?"

Xu Cheng was standing next to her: "Probably. According to the surveillance footage, they come out almost every night, but the surveillance was cut off when they were about to reach their destination."

Luo Tan's hands kept moving. He folded the grass into a dragonfly and inserted it into Xu Cheng's hair. He clapped his hands, stood up, looked around and said, "You know what, it's quite scary standing here."

Many suspense horror novels that she had read as a child suddenly popped up in her mind.

As her eyes swept over the jagged branches, she thought:

[This tree really looks like a person, like the tall and thin ghost in suspense novels.]

As her eyes scanned the corridor floor, she thought:

[The red color of this carpet is so real, it looks like it was dyed red with blood.]

A faint breeze blew through the hall, making a slight sound as it blew across the surface of the building.

Her eyes froze as she glanced into the distance.

[Hey, why is there an extra shadow there? ]

…

Xu Cheng's heart was throbbing. He couldn't stand it any longer, but he couldn't tell Luo Tan to stop telling ghost stories in his head. He could only try to attract Luo Tan's attention and said tactfully, "Why don't I tell you a story?"

As soon as the ghost story that was automatically playing in Luo Tan's mind stopped, she spoke with interest: "Go ahead."

Xu Cheng opened his mouth and said: "I have a friend..."

Then he met Luo Chen's gaze that seemed to see through everything, and hurriedly explained: "It's not me!"

Luo Tan: I will just watch your performance quietly.

Xu Cheng was disappointed: "Well, my mother told me a story about aliens. It's not very interesting. If you don't want to listen, forget it."

Luo Tan instantly became interested: "Listen!"

It’s fine that there are stories about aliens circulating in modern times, but I never thought that there are such stories in the interstellar space. Let her see what the difference is between aliens in the interstellar space and those in modern times!

Xu Cheng thought for a moment and said, "It is said that there is a planet in the outer galaxy. The people on the planet predict that their homeland will be destroyed in a hundred years, so they need to find a new home within a hundred years."

"No more?"

Xu Cheng tried to recall for a long time: "No more."

Luo Chen: "No... Have they found a new home?"

Xu Cheng shook his head helplessly: "I don't know either. I was so sleepy when I heard this story that I fell asleep after listening to the first half."

Luo Tan asked quietly, "So your goal is to make me share the pain of listening to a half-finished story with you?"

Xu Cheng: "..." He was about to explain when he saw Luo Tan's eyes return to seriousness. She lowered her voice and said, "Someone came out."

The two men quickly stood up, using the sturdy pillars to block their figures, then quietly stuck their heads out and looked in the direction where the sound came from.

Upon seeing this, the two of them were stunned where they were!

"Squeak--" A door was pushed open from the inside, and the person who came out lowered his head, and his face could not be seen clearly, but from the hairstyle, Xu Cheng instantly realized that this was Fisher!

One after another, several doors were slowly pushed open from the inside, and the people inside walked out, lined up in a row, and walked out one by one.

Luo Tan realized that the vast majority of people who sleepwalk are women.

Everyone hung their heads, like puppets that had lost their souls, but their steps did not slow down at all, but instead became faster and faster, as if they were in a hurry to reach their destination.

"Follow him!" Xu Cheng whispered.

So they followed the group and headed towards an unknown place.

There is a beach near the palace. In the past, it was always crowded with tourists during the day. But at night when darkness enveloped the earth, it was pitch black and deserted, and the only sound was the regular beating of the waves.

At this moment, a group of people suddenly appeared on the beach. When their feet stepped on the soft sand, the next second, they suddenly accelerated and ran towards the coast!

"Wait! Don't run!" Xu Cheng shouted in a hurry.

The next second, the group of people stopped in unison.

Xu Cheng's heart suddenly rose to his throat. On the cold and dark beach, the sea breeze passed by, and for a moment, only the sound of the wind and their breathing could be heard.

Will they turn back?

If they lift their heads, will I see human faces, or...

The ghost story that Luo Tan had told him not long ago played over and over in his mind. The scene before him and the bizarre scene in his imagination combined with each other, bringing a piercing chill to his bones. He suddenly felt that the beach was so cold late at night. Every pore of his body was trembling, and his teeth were chattering. He couldn't hold on any longer, he couldn't stand up anymore...

[Why is he shaking all the time?] Luo Tan's depressed voice rang in his ears.

Xu Cheng: ...

The fear suddenly disappeared and Xu Cheng failed in a second.

Why was he shaking? After having seen so many storms, would he still be afraid? It was because of those inappropriate ghost stories.

Fortunately, the sleepwalkers did not look back. They continued to cross the beach and walk towards the endless sea.

Xu Cheng: "What should we do now? They are going to jump into the sea!"

"I'll call the police right now to stop them!"

"Don't move!" Luo Tan narrowed his eyes: "Look at them, they don't seem to be going to jump into the sea."

At this moment, the moon in the sky finally broke through the layers of dark clouds, and the clear moonlight shone on the snow-white beach, and also illuminated the movements of a group of people on the shore.

They did not walk step by step into the depths of the sea and then fall into the fast ocean current as Xu Cheng had imagined. Instead, they took a few steps, until the water level reached their calves, and then stopped moving.

An absurd guess emerged in Xu Cheng's mind: Do they think they are the husband-waiting stone and wife-waiting stone in the sea?

The next second, their actions almost made him scream out again.

From Fisher to all the sleepwalkers, they all bent down, leaned over, and immersed their faces and bodies in the sea water. Even the parts that could not be immersed were kept as close to the sea water as possible. Their expressions were unknown, but from their movements, they must have been full of enthusiasm.

Some people were rolling in the sea, screaming, regardless of the pain of being choked by the sea water; some were swallowing the sea water in big gulps, and from their rapid movements, it seemed that what was rolling into their throats was not salty sea water, but ambrosia; some were even picking up oysters attached to the rocks in the sea with their bare hands and stuffing them into their mouths!

"Are they possessed by marine creatures? Or am I possessed by an evil god?" Xu Cheng couldn't believe what he saw. He rubbed his eyes violently. If Luo Tan hadn't been by his side, he might have thought he was dreaming.

Luo Tan's faint voice rang in his ears: "They are possessed."

"ah?"

"Have you heard the rumor that fish only have a memory of seven seconds?"

Fish have poor memory, their memory has been getting worse recently, fish crave sea water, they stay up late at night to get close to the sea water, so these people we see in front of us have turned into fish?

Xu Cheng's mind simply stopped working.

At this moment, his peripheral vision suddenly touched another corner of the coastline. He stopped moving, pointed his finger, and said in a trembling voice: "Look there!"

They followed these people to only one beach on the coastline, but it was not the only beach. On several other beaches, there were people who performed similar actions to those in the palace.

Xu Cheng and Luo Tan walked along the coastline for a while and saw hundreds of "sleepwalkers"!

Xu Cheng was terrified: "Are they still human?"

Luo Chen checked the system. Even though this group of people had been stuck in the sea water for such a long time, the system still did not issue any warnings, which meant that they were still safe for the time being.

"It should be the case now, but it may not be the case in the future."

At this moment, the red dot on the system lit up. Luo Tan clicked it and found that it was exactly in the area where he was currently.

Her heartbeat quickened instantly, her mind moved slightly, and she clicked on the animated picture.

However, what she saw was not the fate of this group of "sleepwalkers", but a strange-looking monster.

It has a body as sturdy as a leopard, but has a pair of broad, rounded wings like a bird, and is flying in the air.

What is this?

Luo Tan looked at the beach hesitantly. The sea water was still hitting the shore, and the "Sleepwalkers" were still engaging in their water sports. Nothing seemed unusual.

She turned around and saw an even quieter sand dune behind her. There was no romance, no sound, not even the slightest disturbance.

The soft sand shone faintly in the moonlight. She stepped on it, but could only hear the echo of her own footsteps. The sound of the waves in the distance became blurred, like a funeral bell from another world.