Deep in the Living
Chapter 175 - 169: Influence

Chapter 175: Chapter 169: Influence

Swish, swish, swish~

A series of flushing sounds from the bathroom drilled into Luo Di’s brain.

Normally, such sounds, especially that of a regular shower, wouldn’t be enough to wake Luo Di from his sleep.

Perhaps it was because last night’s nightmare involved taking a shower,

Or maybe because Luo Di had gone to bed too early,

The noise ultimately forced his eyes open, though his brain was filled with a thick, sticky glue, groggy and hard to think.

Only Hua Yuan was sleeping beside him,

The class president had already vanished without a trace,

Luo Di’s gaze naturally locked onto the bathroom with the light on.

It could be that the class president, having gone to bed early, woke up before him to take a shower. It was a normal thing, not worth fussing over.

But strangely, Luo Di couldn’t fall back asleep even if he tried. The sound of the shower felt like some sort of piercing noise, circling his brain, stimulating every nerve.

Luo Di could only wait for the shower to end,

But five minutes, ten minutes passed.

The sound of the shower did not stop, the person inside kept washing incessantly, even half an hour later there was no sign of stopping. Luo Di could no longer bear it and went to the bathroom, his eyes bloodshot.

With no response to his knocking, he twisted the door handle open.

But the bathroom was empty, just the light on and the water running.

"Who turned on the water? Where did the class president go?"

Luo Di went into the bathroom to turn off the tap, and indeed there was no one inside. Yet when he stepped out of the bathroom again, the sight before him made him pause.

The class president, who had seemingly been missing, was actually lying on the bed, and judging by her posture, she seemed to have been sleeping there the whole time without moving.

Buzz!

A strong ringing in his ears assailed him, his brain felt like it was filled with rotten flesh, desperately wanting to sleep but unable to.

Luo Di also realized something was not quite right with his mind, so he went to the sink intending to splash some water on his face to wake up.

Water splashed onto his face, seemingly dispersing some of the rotten flesh in his brain, clearing his thoughts a bit.

But as he raised his head, he found his eyes full of bloodshot veins, and beneath the eyelids, it seemed like something was squirming.

Blood vessels? Or something else, parasites?

Could it be an anomaly contracted on the island?

Luo Di, somewhat panicked, leaned forward, almost pressing his entire face against the mirror.

His fingers pulled up his eyelids, tugging them down.

Trying to see what was hiding beneath his eyes.

The squirming entity, perhaps sensing a threat, desperately burrowed inward, and Luo Di could only forcefully pry at his eyelids, pulling them wider and deeper.

It felt like his whole face was becoming loose in the process.

Suddenly,

Plop!

Luo Di suddenly felt half his field of vision disappear, and looking down, an entire eyeball had fallen into the washbasin.

It seemed to be because he had stretched the eye socket too wide, leading to the eye’s dislocation.

This was clearly nonsensical, but Luo Di didn’t realize it; his brain, full of mush, could not think straight.

Staring at the dislodged eyeball in the sink, he felt an eerie sense of weirdness, even a spread of fear beginning to grow in his brain.

When he tried to pick up the eyeball,

He didn’t hold onto it firmly, and the eyeball actually fell through the drain.

With the eyeball gone,

Luo Di could only shift his gaze back to the mirror, examining his current facial condition.

The hollow eye socket was not bleeding from the dislocation of the eyeball,

It was more like a normal ’shedding phenomenon,’ similar to a snake shedding its skin.

At the same time, Luo Di felt a sense of itchiness, originating from inside the eye socket, like a sensation of tissue overgrowth.

He hurriedly used his remaining eye to closely observe the hollow socket reflected in the mirror, trying to make out the source of the itching.

In that hollow, pitch-black, and deep socket,

Luo Di seemed to see a shimmer, something wanting to drill out from the depths,

These were writhing, boiling, aberrant structures that did not belong to the human body.

It seems like his body was undergoing some sort of transformation.

At the critical moment,

Click! His tongue violently struck against the roof of his mouth, shattering the mirror before him along with the space itself.

Awakening!

Bright sunlight entered his eyes, and the vision that was missing in the dream had now returned, albeit slightly blurry.

It appeared that the visual problem, which had induced the nightmare, was due to sleeping on his side all night long, putting pressure on the nerve in his left eye.

As his pupils adjusted to the sunlight,

A face that possessed all the virtues of a young girl entered his field of vision; a mole on the left eye further magnified these facial benefits, making her as beautiful as a painting.

Such a girl was sleeping in front of him, their proximity not more than five centimeters, and she was staring back at Luo Di.

"Mr. Di, do you have a habit of clicking your tongue?"

"Hmm."

"It seems you always manage to dissolve danger by clicking your tongue when it arises. That really isn’t a trait typical of humans, but more so of our kind.

Since last night at [00:46], your heart rate increased to 120."

For a significant portion of the time afterwards, the value hovered around this number.

About an hour ago, the heart rate rose again, reaching 160.

It nearly broke through 200 just now, but as the sound of your own tongue clicking woke you up, the heart rate gradually dropped back down.

"You must have had a very realistic nightmare, one that almost made you unable to distinguish reality, a nightmare that gave you a taste of fear, am I right?"

"Yes."

Luo Di was somewhat surprised, as if Hua Yuan had been observing him all night without sleeping.

"Can you tell me the details?"

Luo Di described it like telling a story, and Hua Yuan listened to this eerie nightmare story with slight annoyance: "Am I just a background in your dream?

However, it’s almost certain that you have been influenced by the Monster’s radiation, and quite seriously at that."

"Calamity? You guys seem okay?"

Hua Yuan negated, "It’s not necessarily a [Calamity].

You were originally human, more prone to the influence of fear.

Even without suffering a calamity, moving in the Monster Avatar’s hidden area will inadvertently be irradiated by fear. Currently, it seems this influence only manifests when sleeping.

You need to act like a true companion should, suppress the fear. Once you let this fear spread within your brain, it will be very dangerous.

If it really comes down to it, try not to sleep at all for the remaining few days."

"You didn’t have similar nightmares?"

"Not at all."

Luo Di is a Connector and has great resistance to fear, but Hua Yuan simply didn’t know. Logically speaking, if he was seriously affected, everyone else should be to a similar extent.

Luo Di deeply suspected that he came into contact with something the sisters hadn’t touched, ultimately inviting calamity and causing the influence of fear to intensify and spread within him.

"I’m going to take a shower..."

Luo Di went to the bathroom alone to clean himself, secretly activating the power of his spine for a full body check, with no issues found.

There were no signs of tissue proliferation or skin markings brought by the so-called calamity; everything was normal.

Presumably, Hua Yuan also conducted a detailed examination of his brain and found no problems.

What exactly is this method?

Even Luo Di began to feel somewhat bewildered.

And the thought of last night’s dream experience, the thought of actually falling into fear is such a sorrow, such a blasphemy, it means he’s not worthy to be a real Murderer.

Smack!

A fist directly smashed a tile on the wall, leaving a deep imprint.

This emotional outburst actually made Luo Di feel much better, his thinking became clearer.

By the time Luo Di came out of the bathroom, the sisters had already changed into their clothes, packed their suitcases, ready to embark on the much-anticipated [Primitive Experience].

Luo Di also shared the only thing he could think of.

"Although the contents of my two dreams were completely different, they both involved the [head]... You all should be careful of things related to the head too."

"Mm, got it!" With crimson eyes, Hua Yuan glared at Luo Di while applying makeup, "You should be the most careful one. Let Isabella keep a good watch on you, and if there’s any problem, remember to retreat to her nursing home immediately.

Leave the troublesome matters to us sisters to handle."

...

[17:30]

A fully enclosed bus, completely different from the sightseeing ones, stopped in front of the hotel. Even its windows were bulletproof, with [Jungle] printed on the surface.

All tourists registered for the Primitive Experience received a notification half an hour prior.

While the limit was set at 15 people, due to the high price and most people’s lack of interest in primitive living, in the end only ten people signed up.

Apart from Luo Di and four other young people, the rest were all older in age.

There was a couple of immigrants in their fifties.

There were also three middle-aged men engaged in writing and documentation work, each equipped with high-end cameras and rather professional wilderness gear.

One of the bald guys also noticed among the traveling passengers that there were so many young girls, and a disturbing smile immediately appeared on his face.

After boarding, he sneakily took photos with his camera of the girls in the last row, especially Hua Yuan seated in the middle.

The snooping behavior greatly annoyed Luo Di. Instinctively, he shifted his body, seemingly wanting to go up and have a friendly interaction with the bald guy.

Shea by his side had already stood up, intending to go teach the man a lesson,

but both were pushed back down into their seats by Hua Yuan.

"It’s fine, this is the normal reaction of people seeing me. If they didn’t glance at me at all, that would be the real danger.

This kind of creepy guy can be quite useful, let him take a few sneaky photos, it’s no big deal."

Sitting back in his seat, Luo Di suddenly realized something was amiss.

This time, it wasn’t fear or dreams caused by the island.

It was the influence of Hua Yuan on him,

he wouldn’t take action over such trifles, and he also knew that Hua Yuan naturally exudes charm, which is a normal occurrence.

Moreover, he would certainly not assist a despicable Pseudo-Person like Hua Yuan.

But the action just now seemed to be completed subconsciously, instinctively wanting to protect this girl.

Suddenly, the hand of the class president touched lightly, transmitting sound inside:

"It’s okay, Hua Yuan stands on the same side as us. She cares about the island’s matters more than any of us, having stayed up almost the entire night to monitor your condition, trying to find the connection between the nightmare and the monster.

What just happened is part of Hua Yuan’s inherent ability; any male staying near her will naturally want to protect her."

Luo Di nodded, his gaze shifting towards the window.

The vehicle started, heading towards the other half of the island.