Both start in hell: but their talents are multiplied a hundredfold.

Junji Ito's world.

Black Vortex Town is now empty.

Shen Jue stood under the withered tree at the entrance of the town, which was twisted into a vortex shape.

The wind blew through the empty streets, swirling up a few dirty old newspapers and making a rustling sound, as if something was dragging its feet on the ground.

There's no one left.

Over the past few days, 3,723 residents have been gradually relocated from this cursed town.

They might resist frantically, but they couldn't withstand the overwhelming power of the Tomie Legion under Shen Jue's command.

Because the people living in Black Vortex Town have long been accustomed to a certain unspeakable fear.

The clouds are swirling, the smoke is swirling, and even the water in the bathtub is swirling.

These residents left in a panic and in a disheveled state. Some even suddenly squatted down halfway and drew circles in the mud with their fingers, refusing to move on.

Shen Jue did not insist.

Those who refused to leave, he left to be dealt with by those silent, petite humanoid weapons that ran at incredible speeds.

"The People's Tomie: Distortion Type I".

When Shen Jue named them, there was even a faint smile on his lips.

At this moment, 372 such humanoid weapons are scattered in a radial pattern across the mountains and coastline within a radius of 50 kilometers, centered on Black Vortex Town.

They were wearing clothes they had casually picked up from clothing stores in town, some for adults and some for children.

Some of the clothes were simply unsuitable, feeling like a second skin stretched across my body.

Tomie the People - Abnormal Type 1 has a deathly pale face and features so exquisite they don't look real, yet there's an indescribable sense of incongruity in that exquisiteness.

It's like a beautiful face that's been split in half and then stitched back together; each half is perfect, but when put together, it's chilling.

When they stand still, they are like lifelike wax figures.

But once they receive an order, they tear through the air at supersonic speeds, the ground beneath their feet cracking like a spiderweb, and in the next second they are already a kilometer away.

Shen Jue stood by the well in the center of Black Vortex Town for a long time.

Goro, the male protagonist of "Uzumaki," is squatting on the edge of the well, throwing stones into it one by one.

His movements were mechanical, as if he had done it a thousand times.

In fact, he did it hundreds of times.

Every stone thrown in must swirl and fall into the dark well, or he will tremble uncontrollably until he vomits.

"If you don't want to throw it away, you can stop. I can try to completely destroy the underground vortex ruins," Shen Jue said slowly.

Wulang looked up at Shen Jue. His eyes, which should have been clear, were now bloodshot, and there was a dark circle of dark circles under his eyes.

His face was very thin, much thinner than when Shen Jue first met him, with his cheekbones protruding high as if they were about to pierce through his skin.

"I have to throw it away," Goro said, his voice hoarse as if it had been sanded on sandpaper.

"If you don't throw it away, the vortex will find someone else."

"The person it chose for me might bring the curse of the vortex to the outside world."

Wulang stretched out his right hand for Shen Jue to see.

His five fingers were wrapped in gauze, which was soaked in brown ointment and gave off a bitter smell.

You can tell the shape of the gauze without even taking it apart.

Kirie, the female protagonist of "Uzumaki," walked out of the house next door, carrying a ceramic bowl in her hand.

The bowl contained white rice porridge, so thin that you could see your reflection in it.

She placed the bowl next to Wulang, then bowed respectfully to Shen Jue.

There's so much in Kirie's eyes.

Fear, gratitude, confusion, and an inexplicable dependence.

Shen Jue, who was originally just an ordinary teacher in Black Vortex Town, now has a face that is more perfect than any of the residents of Black Vortex Town.

Thin and pale, with sharp lines on his brow bone and cheekbone as if cut by a knife, slightly sunken eye sockets, and a faint dark ring always hanging under his eyes, as if he had never had a good night's sleep.

It was precisely this weariness that made Shen Jue seem more like a human being than someone who belonged to this cursed land: a deadly charismatic ghost emerging from the center of the vortex.

"You should add some meat," Shen Jue said.

"Simply plain white rice porridge will only make Goro weaker."

Tong Hui pursed her lips.

Those women, no, those things that were once women.

Something like an exquisite and beautiful doll.

They would appear beside Goro at fixed times, handing him food and water in an extremely precise and indifferent manner, and then disappear.

Every movement seemed to be programmed, with no extra expressions or extra body temperature.

"I know," Kirie said.

"But Goro couldn't eat any other food."

Shen Jue did not refute, but simply watched as Wu Lang threw stones into the ruins.

Kirie glanced at him, bit her lower lip, and mustered her courage to ask, "What exactly... are you?"

Shen Jue's gaze slid across her face and landed on a slowly moving black dot in the distant sky.

"Shen Jue, who is trying to find a solution."

The black dot is getting closer and closer.

Tong Hui raised her head, squinted at him for a moment, and then her face turned pale, as pale as the silent humanoid weapons around Shen Jue.

The ceramic bowl in her hand fell to the ground, spilling rice porridge all over the floor. The white liquid flowed slowly across the ground, naturally forming a whirlpool.

"Here we go again." Kirie's voice was so soft it was like a mosquito's buzz.

A dozen or so black dots were drifting toward Black Vortex Town in the sky.

They moved at a moderate pace, as if guided by some unseen thread, swaying leisurely and gracefully.

They were so relaxed, it didn't feel like they were rushing, but rather like they were taking a stroll.

Once they get closer, you'll be able to see them clearly.

It's a balloon.

But it's not a balloon.

There is no balloon in the world that has a human face.

Moreover, every single face was exactly the same as the person standing by the well.

Shen Jue's face.

There were more than a dozen balloons with human heads on them, each with Shen Jue's facial features on it.

The same brow bone, the same eye sockets, the same thin lips, the same unbelievably handsome face yet exuding a gloomy and weary air.

However, those faces were much more exaggerated than Shen Jue's own.

The corners of his mouth stretched wider, his eyes bulged out more, and his expression was somewhere between a smile and a sneer, as if someone was desperately pulling at a human skin mask, trying to make it make an expression it shouldn't be making.

Tong Hui's legs went weak. She didn't run away, but quietly waited for Shen Jue to make his move.

She had seen balloons with human heads.

Before Black Vortex Town was cleared out, she witnessed her neighbor's little girl being lifted into the sky by a giant balloon with her own face on it.

Several days later, the little girl's remains were found by the stream.

The girl's body was headless, with only marks on her neck indicating that she had been pulled and suspended.

Those human-shaped balloons don't eat people.

They just like to put a person's neck in that steel noose-like line and then drag them into the sky.

The person being dragged up will struggle desperately in mid-air, their neck will crack as they are strangled, and their legs will kick wildly in the air until they can no longer move.

And those human-shaped balloons will keep flying and flying until people on the ground can no longer see them—they can only see a tiny, almost invisible dot on the horizon, like a star with a face, slowly disappearing behind the clouds.

Shen Jue didn't move. He didn't even take a step back.