Chapter 9: Jealousy Descends

The residential complex had been abandoned for far too long.

Half a year earlier, a horrifying man-made incident had occurred here, and since then, not a single resident had returned.

But Yu Ziyu knew exactly what had happened.

An act of arson.

As his movement completed, black viscous liquid seeped out from the edges of the walls.

Like the physical manifestation of filthy souls, it slid onto the floor, gathering and twisting into screaming humanoid shapes.

They rose upright like hollow skins, splitting open with long, narrow fissures, swaying from side to side before instantly wrapping around the nearest human body.

“Glu-chi.”

There was no time to struggle.

The person was swallowed whole.

Those who died in fires always ended up like this.

Some fragment of their existence never left.

It might be resentment, obsession, or some other emotion—

A piece split from the soul itself, condensing into wandering black specters.

They harassed the original residents, drove humans away, and built territories of their own.

But once a “king” capable of controlling everything appeared, those despicable emotions finally gained the ability to fully manifest.

Now, they drifted through the air above the room, circling like crows and triggering waves of terrified screams.

“Have fun, you villains.”

Yu Ziyu clapped his hands lightly.

Opening the box was like releasing the plague from Pandora’s jar.

The entire building trembled violently, and for a moment, even the ground seemed to sway helplessly.

The lump of flesh wriggled out of the box, baring rows of dense teeth and letting out a shrill scream that rattled eardrums, plunging the scene into even deeper chaos.

“S-So you… you are—”

“Who the hell are you?!”

Xiao Chen stared at Yu Ziyu with bloodshot eyes.

In his vision, Yu Ziyu resembled the protagonist on a theater stage.

All light seemed to vanish in an instant, ruthlessly devoured by the nocturnal monsters present, leaving only a circular beam reflected onto his crow-like silhouette.

The candlelight wavered precariously, rendering his figure abstract and unreal.

Yu Ziyu slipped both hands into his pockets, turned slightly, and cast Xiao Chen a cold glance.

“You’re too noisy.”

In that instant, Xiao Chen saw the shadow stretching from the soles of Yu Ziyu’s shoes suddenly swell.

Like a balloon bursting, the black silhouette cast against the wall twisted violently.

The human outline vanished completely as tendrils extended from the shadow, branching outward like endlessly spreading limbs.

It resembled a world tree coiled by colossal serpents, inducing visceral nausea and dizziness in anyone who witnessed it.

As a former player of Hell’s Playground, Xiao Chen knew exactly what these symptoms meant—

His sanity was slipping.

If this continued, he would go mad.

…That shadow was absolutely not something a human could possess.

No—

Photographer Ziye was not human at all.

In many legends, vampires cast no shadow because their souls are cursed—
Creatures that should be nailed inside coffins, outwardly human yet fundamentally inhuman.

No matter how beautiful they appear, their hearts have long since stopped beating, and shadows, in a way, reflect the presence of a soul.

So what kind of being was Yu Ziyu, with such a vast and grotesque silhouette?

Run…

He had to run…

Opposing a creature like Yu Ziyu was meaningless.

Just standing there—his slender figure engulfed by that immense, distorted shadow—was enough to extinguish all courage to resist.

Xiao Chen retreated again and again, nearly tripping over the steps.

Like many of the black-robed participants, he panicked.

Once he reacted, he lunged toward the door, wrenching at the lock repeatedly, only to find that no matter what he did, it wouldn’t open.

Damn it!

Why was this happening?!

Sweat nearly poured from him.

His legs trembled, hands shaking violently.

The floating black humanoid shapes had stopped moving, clustering silently behind Yu Ziyu like actors in a wordless play.

“Finished getting your revenge?”

Yu Ziyu said boredly.

“I really didn’t expect an arsonist to return to the scene themselves.

Don’t tell me it was him who suggested holding the gathering here?

If that’s true, then you people have truly broadened my horizons.”

“……”

Gu Leyu, shaking just as badly, screamed, “Teacher Ziye!

Why are you doing this?!

Aren’t we the same kind of people?!

Then why did you come to this gathering in the first place?!”

“Don’t think I’m running some kind of sting operation—I don’t do this often,” Yu Ziyu replied casually.

He sliced the rope off the lifeless boy’s hands and pushed him aside with one finger.

“Thud.”

He sat down on the chair, spreading his hands with a detached expression.

“Besides, I didn’t really do anything.”

He had merely watched.

From start to finish, he hadn’t used any power at all.

“Come with me.”

As he spoke, Yu Ziyu snapped his fingers.

The black shadows twisted as though thrown into a washing machine drum.

With faint popping sounds, they collapsed into thin strands of black smoke and vanished instantly into his trench coat pocket—stored away by some unknown method.

Now, only the grotesque, still-bleeding mass remained.

“People who haven’t done anything bad don’t need to worry,” he said gently.

“I know it’s a good child, don’t I?

And we’re willing to give those who were momentarily misled a chance.”

Gu Leyu gasped for breath, her chest heaving violently.

Fear twisted into resentment in her eyes as she blurted out,
“Teacher Ziye, aren’t you afraid the survivors will expose your true face?!

If people have to die, then we should all die together—why give anyone a chance?!”

She knew she wouldn’t survive.

So she wanted to drag everyone else down with her.

Yu Ziyu studied her face and replied coldly,
“I don’t need to worry about that.

But thank you for the reminder, fan.”

Xiao Chen turned to her in disbelief.

“Are you insane?!”

“Yes, I am!”

Gu Leyu screamed, clawing at her hair, clutching her head in madness.

“Why do I have to bear all of this?!

She deserved it anyway!

If she was raped by her stepfather, wasn’t it because she was always wearing skirts, fixing her hair every day, dressing herself up like that—who was she showing off for?!

Wasn’t she just relying on her looks to seduce men?!”

Those filthy words seemed to fuel her.

A fire burned in her chest, nearly consuming her whole.

Humiliation surged back, memories she had buried deep clawing their way to the surface.

When they walked together, the boys always whistled at her.

And she would pale, whispering timidly,

“I don’t know what to do… can we go home together next time?”

What do you mean, you don’t know what to do?!

Was she showing off her charm?!

Her favorite teacher was a newly graduated one who smiled at her often.

Each time she saw that smile, her heart seemed to float—

Until one break, when she approached him with a question and found his hand stroking her skirt-clad thigh.

Gu Leyu’s body trembled with suppressed rage.

Sure enough, that night, she again pretended to shake as she told her,

“The teacher did this… I don’t know what to do.

How should I respond?”

Even her boyfriend had once let it slip—

That he’d failed to pursue her, and only then settled for Gu Leyu instead.

b*tch—

Die die die die die!!

Gu Leyu had carved those curses into her notebook so hard the paper tore.

And then Hell’s Playground arrived as promised, dragging her into a grotesque, horrifying lawless realm where she could vent everything.

She emerged with tangible benefits.

She’d obtained skill cards from the game and used them on her.

Since she loved attracting men so much, then fine—she’d satisfy that desire.

It brought Gu Leyu some pleasure.

But not enough.

Something still gnawed at her, leaving her unbearably hollow.

Not enough.

This level of destruction wasn’t nearly enough…

Then—

Her triumphant expression froze.

A twisted, searing pain erupted from her heart.

Agony forced clarity back into her mind as she heard the crushing crack of her own heart being squeezed.

She slowly lifted her head and saw Yu Ziyu sitting expressionlessly on the chair, staring past her—

As though looking at something filthy.

“Tsk.”

A strange sound left him.

Panic surged through her.

Was there a monster behind her?

“Glu-chi.”

Pain flooded back in waves, this time utterly unstoppable.

Her limbs grew icy—signs of massive blood loss.

Warm liquid gushed from her body like a fountain.

She never had time to understand why.

Her vision went completely black.

That was the final image of her life.

Everyone was horrified.

Her life had been harvested mercilessly, blood splashing across the walls in savage streaks.

Her body collapsed like a dead fish, revealing the thin figure standing behind her—

So unreal it resembled a nightmare.

The boy wore a school uniform, cradling a severed head identical to his own.

His face should have been vacant, corpse-like, but now—

As he stared forward, his pale lips trembled and his ashen eyes erupted with longing, devotion, and fervent love.

In his other hand, he clutched a still-beating heart.

His gaze locked onto Yu Ziyu, chest heaving violently.

Sensing Gu Leyu’s overwhelming jealousy, the true focus of the gathering finally appeared.

Everyone was stunned.

The moment they witnessed this nightmare, they scattered like people who feared the dragon they’d claimed to love.

At this gathering full of ulterior motives and false piety, Jealousy had truly descended—

An absurd, laughable accident of the highest order.

All thanks to Gu Leyu’s sacrifice.

Yu Ziyu narrowed his eyes slightly in surprise, but quickly pulled up his hood to conceal his face.

He truly couldn’t be bothered dealing with the aftermath otherwise.

“Is it really… you?”

The voice trembled.

Holding the still-beating heart, the boy stepped forward in yearning yet dared not approach, afraid this was merely a sweet illusion.

His voice rang hollow and reverent.

“Master?”

***

Late night.

Department of Supernatural Research.

“Beep—”

A rotating red light screamed to life, its phoenix-like cry echoing through the entire department.

The piercing alarm jolted countless exhausted members awake.

At the same time, the once-silent corridors erupted with overlapping broadcast alerts—

The inevitable result of a disrupted supernatural magnetic field.

All instruments wavered violently, losing normal function in an instant.

This unmistakably signaled the appearance of an extraordinary power within monitored range.

And that terrifying candidate—

Could only be Jealousy itself.

Only a supernatural entity of that level could trigger such catastrophic alerts.

The monitoring system hadn’t reacted like this in nearly two years.

Lou Chen sensed it immediately.

Tonight’s Jealousy was flamboyantly flaunting its power—

Nothing like when it had appeared before that boy.

If Jealousy was using its abilities without restraint, it meant it had found its target.

Yu Ziyu.

Lou Chen frowned, stopped spinning his pen, and quickly scanned the red-marked location on the screen.

He grabbed the jacket draped over his chair, clipped on his credentials, checked his weapons, and rose swiftly into the night.