Deep in the Living
Chapter 86 - 80 Empathy

Chapter 86: Chapter 80 Empathy

Youth Apartment - 11th Floor

A middle-aged man dragged his heavy, exhausted body along the corridor.

From time to time, he would stretch out his hand to rub his eyes, or fiercely scratch his head,

feeling as if something strange was about to grow inside his body, with parts of his skin even beginning to show odd black spots.

He sniffed the air, a scent that he had just detected in the elevator. There was no mistake, the person he was looking for was on this floor.

Following the lead of the scent, he arrived at a door that seemed newly renovated.

The door was locked and the windows next to it were shut tight and curtained.

Such deliberate blocking of light was clearly against the residents’ safety manual, it must be here.

After confirming he had found the right place, the man took out lock-picking tools from his pockets.

His expressionless face gradually revealed a look of excitement, his body becoming exhilarated,

just as he was about to insert the lock-picker into the lock,

Click!

Surprisingly, the door opened from the inside first,

At the same moment, a strong and forceful arm suddenly stretched out, seizing the middle-aged man’s neck with such power that it dragged him inside.

Boom!

The door closed behind him and locked again.

In the dim, unlit room,

The middle-aged man was choked and pressed against the wall, but the other showed no discomfort, instead displaying a bizarre smile, excited for having found the right person.

Luo Di frowned slightly, sensing something abnormal about the man before him.

The texture where his fingers clutched was clearly unusual. Though it was the fragile neck, it felt very hard, hard to crush directly.

However, this sensation was all too familiar to Luo Di, even catching a whiff of a similar scent from the man.

"Zombie?"

His eyes shifted up to the man’s mouth, the teeth yellowed from excessive smoking, with no fangs present.

"Thought Corner just formed recently? Probably not even two months, just beginning to manifest Fear Embodiment."

Luo Di’s mind raced, almost certain that the man before him was not the source of the youth’s disappearance.

Combining the other’s behavior following him to the apartment, his age, and the initial transformation involving ’Fear Embodiment’ in a heightened emotional state,

all signs pointed convincingly to an accurate assumption of his identity.

But nonetheless,

the man was irreversibly bound with the Corner, beyond salvation.

The transformation in the middle-aged man continued; his neck had already developed a distinct zombie-like skin, gradually weakening the restraining effect, allowing him to breathe once more.

Huff~

As he breathed again, he instantly clasped his hands around the youth’s arms, his nails, now blackened, digging into the flesh.

The middle-aged man ranted madly:

"You are so strange! Along the way, everyone was kindly warning you, telling you shouldn’t stay on Chinese Street.

Yet you stubbornly refused to listen and even settled down here.

Could it be that you kidnapped my son? It must be you, we never saw you before, yet you moved directly into this Youth Apartment, my son used to live here too!"

However,

No matter how the man screamed,

No matter how forcefully he pulled on Luo Di’s arms,

No matter how deeply his nails dug into the flesh, even causing blood to seep out,

the arm locked around his throat remained unyielding, showing no sign of letting go, as if pain was completely ineffective against the youth.

The middle-aged man looked again at the youth before him, whose eyes were now bloodshot, staring intensely at him, as if harboring indescribable hate.

He couldn’t even understand why the youth held such deep animosity towards him.

As the middle-aged man struggled to break free,

The hand gripping his neck unexpectedly loosened and even moved away voluntarily,

Seeing his chance at freedom, the man immediately lunged at the youth before him, intending to use his newly sprouted sharp teeth to drain the other’s blood.

While leaping forward,

Swish!

Something flashed in front of him, and although his neck had already hardened, he felt a chill.

The middle-aged man wanted to grab the young man in front of him, but realized his head had lost connection with his body,

His vision began to fall until it finally landed on the ground.

Snap!

Perhaps it was the power from Thought Corner, even with his head severed he was still able to survive for a while, his mouth incessantly biting, with the sound of teeth clashing echoing in the studio apartment.

Who would have known,

the young man in front actually lay down his entire body, even completely lying on the ground and meeting the middle-aged man’s head at eye level.

The previous act of decapitation had satisfied the young man.

His eyes, once filled with hate, returned to normal, now just solemnly staring at the man’s severed head.

It seemed as if a sense of empathy was being communicated between their gazes,

Luo Di’s voice became slightly more affable, yet still harbored a chill of killing intent:

"Don’t worry, I will avenge your son...that’s why I came here."

Perhaps he read a similar grief of losing a loved one in Luo Di’s eyes, or perhaps as death neared, the influence from the Corner lessened,

The middle-aged man chose to believe his words,

His angry expression calmed down:

"That kid had just found a suitable internship, bought me an expensive leather jacket with his first salary, and had made plans with me to visit his mom in Jupiter City during the holidays to have a meal together.

But then he just disappeared, I searched every Corner and couldn’t find him, and there were no responses to the notices I posted.

It was my mistake,

Coming here in the first place was a mistake,

I’m sorry, son..."

With tears streaming down, he passed away peacefully.

Luo Di also reached out to close his eyelids,

Then retrieved tweezers, a small knife, and other tools from the house, and carefully excised the pituitary from the skull without damaging it, and sealed it.

A direct phone call to the Intern Investigator he was in contact with, Marco Rubio,

"There’s a Pseudo-Person here, estimated to be only three months old, the father of a missing victim, now killed by me. I’ll package the body in a bag, come pick it up as soon as possible."

"Mr. Di is impressive, getting results so quickly~ Although it’s not directly related to the case, it also eliminates a potential threat."

"Don’t you know that in Chinese the surname comes first?"

"Mr. Luo sounds clumsy, Mr. Di sounds better. I’ll arrange staff to come tonight to collect the body. By the way, you didn’t take the pituitary, did you?"

"I took it."

"Hiss~ Okay, I’ll write a report to submit. Although it’s just a pituitary from an early-stage Pseudo-Person, please don’t sell it on the market, just keep it for your own use.

If you’re discovered selling it, you’ll be sentenced according to the Corner Law."

"Mm."

After hanging up the phone,

Luo Di took a large plastic bag from the wardrobe to pack the body,

As for the large amount of blood on the floor, Luo Di didn’t bother getting a mop but threw the Zombie Blade onto it.

Although it was just the blood from an early-stage Pseudo-Person, as it was the same type, the Zombie Blade was still eager to absorb it, as the Yin energy in the blood nourished the blade itself.

It quickly dried up the blood, leaving only a ring of stain that could be easily cleaned with a slight drag.

After spraying some air freshener inside the room, Luo Di returned to the sofa, acting as if nothing had happened.

However,

he didn’t rush to continue watching the video,

but took out the "monitor" he had just hidden away, placing it back on the sofa.

Taking out the pituitary sealed in a transparent plastic bag, he tried to slowly bring it close to the skull to see if any reaction would occur, even a slight one would suffice.

But even when it completely touched the skull, not even a strand of hair moved.

Luo Di didn’t insist, packed up the pituitary, and continued watching the video data, trying to find out as much as he could about the similarities and suspicious elements among the four missing individuals.

His gaze showed no disappointment,

just the usual calmness.