Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 42 The Rekindled Fury
I went up the stairs to the second-floor office.

Ai Liang used telekinesis to pry open the door.

The office is just an ordinary office; you can see everything at a glance.

Following the message from the Thousand-Faced Man, Ai Liang opened the filing cabinet, which contained only a file bag.

After carefully confirming that there were no traps, Ai Liang opened the bag and took out an A4 sheet of paper, which brought out several photos.

Ai Liang indifferently arranged the photos in a row and looked at them one by one.

Gradually, his fists clenched tighter and tighter, and the tears in his eyes seemed to turn into gasoline at that moment, and the scene in the photo was the sparks that ignited the gasoline.

Six group photos, six lives lost, men and women, the oldest being over forty and the youngest only nine years old.

He picked up the A4 paper again; it contained the message left to him by the Thousand-Faced Man.

'Hermit, by the time I received this file, I should already be dead. Whether you killed me or I committed suicide is irrelevant; I don't intend to use this body any further anyway.'

"The back of this piece of paper details the deaths of six people. Don't worry, let me explain. I didn't do it."

"I noticed a difference in you from the last time we met at the mall. You used to be so decisive and ruthless, but now you're like a tiger whose claws and teeth have been pulled out. To be honest, I'm very disappointed."

'You seem to have reverted to the intelligence broker known as the Hermit, instead of the throat-slitting maniac who struck fear into the hearts of the black market. Has five years of silence caused you to regress?'

'But it's okay, I'll help you grow.'

"The one who killed those six people was the masked guy; he's the little gift I gave you."

'Don't even think about letting the law punish him. He'll only be sentenced to death publicly, then secretly handed over to the Countermeasures Bureau to be used as a test subject for mask research.'

'The research won't harm them; aside from losing his freedom, he can live quite comfortably on the prison island.'

'If they behave well, they might even be allowed to make some small requests, since they were only 'bewitched' by the Thousand-Faced Man to commit their crimes.'

"Choose. Do you intend to remain a recluse and let the Countermeasures Bureau take him away, living a life of comfort and ease, or do you intend to make him experience the pain you once inflicted on his victims as a throat-slitting monster?"

"Of course, as I said before, I support whatever choice you make."

The last sentence seemed highly sarcastic.

Ai Liang crumpled the A4 paper into a ball.

He closed his eyes and it was as if he had returned to ten years ago, to the day he first committed murder.

Negative emotions were churning inside me, and now these emotions were mixed with three parts anger, three parts sympathy, and four parts violent urges to vent.

"You win, Thousand Faces."

Ai Liang opened her cold eyes, her voice as chilling as a vengeful ghost from the depths of hell: "Don't let me see you again."

Xu Zhihai's mind contained absolutely no information about the Thousand-Faced Man, as if all information about him had been erased the moment the Thousand-Faced Man died and left.

The one controlling Xu Zhihai is like a wisp of divine thought in a fantasy novel, containing no information but just a fixed program.

Otherwise, Ai Liang wouldn't have just done nothing and watched him walk away; she would have destroyed him mentally long ago.

After carefully putting away the photos and crumpled paper, Ai Liang slowly went downstairs.

The masked man who was lying dead on the ground has disappeared without a trace, along with the crying face mask.

Ai Liang wasn't in a hurry; he sensed that the man hadn't gone far.

Outside the warehouse, the masked man put his crying face mask back on and sat in the driver's seat of the van.

He found the van keys among the five bodies.

As the engine started, joy shone in his eyes.

Finally, I can escape from there!
"Cough cough. The warehouse is full of monsters, even Mr. Thousand Faces has fallen for it. Cough cough." The masked man coughed up blood as he spoke.

He can still move around now only thanks to the crying face mask; once he takes off the mask, he becomes half-dead again.

"That's good. With Mr. Thousand Faces dead, I can use the power of the mask at will. No one can restrain or control me anymore! Hahaha, cough cough." The masked man coughed up blood while imagining his bright future.

"The mask contains almost all the knowledge and skills that humans can learn. I can use the mask to work in any profession, and I will become an unparalleled genius!"

The masked man became more and more excited as he thought about it. He waved his arms excitedly, but this aggravated his internal injuries, causing him to convulse in pain.

Then, as if it were in a maze, the car crashed into an unfinished construction site.

The masked man struggled to climb out of the car, the impact worsening his already serious injuries.

"Cough cough. Damn it, what bad luck. Even with the power of the mask, it will take several days for this injury to fully heal." The masked man staggered to his feet.

"Forget it, let's just go to any house in the nearby residential buildings. Anyway, this is a development zone, no one cares."

"Where are you going?"

A chilling voice came from behind.

The masked man was terrified.

"Don't worry, I'll take you to a good place."

The masked man turned around, and the apostle mentioned by the Thousand-Faced Man was standing behind him.

As steel bars floated around him, the masked man felt his hair stand on end at the sight of this bizarre scene.

Even a fool could tell the visitors meant trouble, so he scrambled and crawled toward the construction site gate.

shhhhh!

A steel bar pierced right through his right leg.

"Aaaaaah!!!!" The masked man screamed in agony, clutching his wound. Even more bizarrely, the wound was widening but not bleeding; all that could be heard was excruciating pain.

"Don't worry, I used my telekinesis to stop the bleeding. You don't need to worry about dying from blood loss."

With a wave of his hand, Ai Liang pulled the steel bar away from the masked man's right leg, causing his entire leg muscles to twitch uncontrollably.

"No, no, please let me go."

The masked man clutched his right leg and pleaded desperately, his face streaked with snot and tears.

"Back then, that seventeen-year-old boy must have begged you in the same way, didn't you let him go?"

Ai Liang remained unmoved. With a thought, he ripped off the masked man's thumbnail, revealing the tender flesh beneath.

"Ah! Ah!!!"

The masked man rolled around on the ground like a madman, as if that could distract him from the pain.

"Don't you like playing hunter games? Run away. I'll let you go as soon as you get out of the gate." Ai Liang whispered in the masked man's ear like a demon.

The masked man tried to stand up, but because of the wound on his right leg, he was unable to walk upright. He suddenly remembered that he had also tortured and killed that boy who was the center of attention among his classmates in the same way.

Before he could recall anything for even two seconds, the pain overwhelmed his reason, and his will to survive drove him to crawl toward the construction site gate.

A journey that normally takes only a few seconds now seems impossibly long.

"5"

Ai Liang suddenly started counting down.

"4"

Ignoring the pain in his thumb, the masked man scrambled towards the door with both hands.

"3, 2, 1. Unfortunately, you failed."

The two blue metal doors closed in the masked man's despairing gaze.

"Don't rush, this is just the beginning. Five more people's hardships await you."

The masked man turned to look at Ai Liang. Behind him stood what appeared to be six broken souls, all grinning at him with horrifying smiles.

"do not come!!!"

With his last ounce of strength, the masked man leaped toward the gate, pounding on the thin iron door with all his might, trying to make a sound to attract the attention of those around him and rescue him from the demon's clutches.

"No need to waste your energy, I have already blocked out all sounds."

Ai Liang approached the masked man step by step. The 1.8-meter-tall man huddled up next to the metal door like a frightened mouse.

He discovered that no matter how hard he pounded on the metal door, he couldn't make a sound, as if an invisible barrier was preventing his hands from contacting the metal door.

The masked man struggled frantically, but his severely injured body was unable to muster any strength.

Ai Liang dragged his left foot like a dead dog, repeating in a low voice the words she had uttered ten years ago when she killed her first man: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

The masked man's hands were worn raw, and his ten fingers tried to grip the ground, but could only leave ten bloody marks on the rough concrete. Ai Liang dragged the ten red lines slowly toward a dark, unfinished building.

"You beast, you don't deserve to die with dignity."

As the masked man was about to disappear into the darkness, he let out his final scream.

"Ah! Ah! Ah!!!"

Ai Liang, dragging the masked man, had his entire face shrouded in shadow, with the corners of his mouth slightly curved as if he were smiling.

(End of this chapter)