Lord of Mysterious Wizard
Chapter 348: 338: Ten Girls

Chapter 348: Chapter 338: Ten Girls

Accompanied by the “creak-creak” sound, the small portal gradually closed, and then with a dull “thud,” Tang Qi’s figure entirely appeared in this incredibly realistic space.

Before him was a path covered in fallen leaves, leading directly to an old seven-story building.

Tang Qi walked forward step by step, hearing the sound of electricity in his ears, and catching glimpses from the corner of his eye of some fragmented light and shadows flickering, seemingly the other buildings faintly forming a peaceful little town together with the residential building.

As he slowly approached the building, the scenes at the bottom of his eyes suddenly began to change.

In the air, the stench of burning grew stronger.

Tang Qi witnessed horrifying scenes.

A peaceful town, deep in the night, a fire erupted, sweeping and devouring everything. People tried to escape, but the all-consuming flames seemed to cut off all escape routes; everyone died screaming in the flames.

Before their deaths, they all seemed to start hearing hallucinations.

Gripping their ears in agony, their faces twisted in pain, they eventually couldn’t resist starting to chant.

Through the lip movements in the scene, Tang Qi pieced together some fragments.

“The first girl, lively and cute, have you found her?”

“The second girl, healthy and beautiful, have you found her?”

“The third girl, pure and naive, have you found her?”

…

“A nursery rhyme?”

Murmuring to himself, Tang Qi appeared before the building.

The scene changed once again.

This time, it was several children innocently playing, appearing to be playing hide and seek, but in reality, it was a prank, and the victim of the prank was an ordinary-looking little girl, except for her pair of emerald eyes.

The children deliberately left the little girl in the building, each dispersing, the girl seemingly without parents, forgotten in the abandoned building, no one came to find her, she hid at the rooftop, in the cold and hunger, she saw the fire light in the forest.

Driven by some eerie instinct, she walked into the forest.

Days later, the little girl was finally remembered, adults started looking everywhere, shouting her name from day until deep into the night, when they found the little girl under the water tower of the abandoned building with torches, the girl just stared at them with her emerald eyes.

Her childish voice pierced into their ears.

“The first girl, lively and cute, have you found her?”

“The second girl, healthy and beautiful, have you found her?”

With each verse she sang, the adults’ faces twisted even more, madness and bloodlust seizing their minds, they crowded around and pushed the little girl off the building.

But until her body “thudded” onto the ground, the childish voice never ceased.

“The third girl, pure and naive, have you found her?”

“The fourth girl, innocent and hopeful, have you found her?”

“The fifth girl, strong and unyielding, have you found her?”

…

“Sigh”

As her chanting continued, carrying bits of firelight, a stenchy wind suddenly blew out from the depths of the forest, it burned the adults holding the torches, ignited the town, sweeping and devouring everything, the child’s voice still chanting.

As Tang Qi fell silent due to these visions, suddenly, a figure appeared in front of him.

Real, as if it could be touched.

It was a little girl in a tattered dress, her appearance was plain, even freckled, but everyone would be captivated by those emerald eyes.

She seemed like a delicate doll, staring at Tang Qi, and emotionlessly asked, “Let’s play… hide and seek!”

As her words fell, the girl suddenly split into ten identical figures and then, like ghosts, each ran a few steps in different directions before disappearing on the spot.

Accompanied by an unprecedented surge of malice, a nursery rhyme began chanting in Tang Qi’s ears.

“The sixth girl, kind and accommodating, have you found her?”

“The seventh girl, timid and suspicious, have you found her?”

“The eighth girl, pained and bewildered, have you found her?”

“The ninth girl, fearful and disgusted, have you found her?”

…

Tang Qi stayed motionless, watching the ten girls appear, watching them disappear.

In his mind, information from a student registry surfaced first.

“Hannah, born in the Federation of Massachusetts, parents died in a car accident, adopted by her uncle who has too many children and doesn’t care about her. On the day of the Spiritual Tide Return, she disappeared due to a prank, highly suspected to have encountered some incident that night, granting her an extremely eerie ability.”

“Her body would for most of the day split into ten different individuals, each not interfering or harming the other, most individuals, besides being guarded by some horrific energy, showed no special aspects, but some individuals seem to possess terrifyingly powerful abilities, and these abilities would unpredictably transfer among the ten individuals.”

“The known abilities are near-undying ability, hallucination, twisting minds, and releasing powerful flames… because of the outburst of her abilities, all residents of a town in Massa State died, officially declared by the Federation to have died in a wildfire.”

“Apart from that night’s slaughter, Hannah seems to be trapped in a kind of [psychological loop], other than the hide and seek game among the individuals, she does not engage in other activities, nor does she respond to inquiries from researchers.”

“Warning: Do not respond to her invitation to play the game. If you inadvertently respond, you must find six individuals within six seconds to avoid damage. Failing to do so will result in attacks from various abilities starting from the seventh second. If you cannot find at least six individuals before nine seconds, you will be attacked by all individuals. Survival is unlikely unless you are of Professional Level.”

“Warning: Do not attempt to harm or project malicious thoughts toward any Hannah individual, or else you will be attacked by the other entities.”

“Note: Her ability currently affects those below Professional Level, but it is still increasing.”

When Tang Qi recalled these, the nursery rhyme continued to echo in his mind.

However, what puzzled him was that no matter how many times he chanted, he never heard “the tenth girl.” It always stopped at the ninth and then started over.

Besides being peculiar, it was also quite distressing.

For someone with OCD or someone very curious, there would be an urgent desire to know what the situation with the tenth girl was.

Tang Qi was the latter.

At the same time, he was very cautious.

Unlike when he met Shay, in front of “Hannah,” Tang Qi felt an extremely terrifying malice.

He had a premonition, though he was not afraid of Hannah’s power.

But once a conflict erupted, it might become a fight to the death, where only one could survive.

Tang Qi’s brow furrowed tighter, and before figuring out what was going on, he decided not to resort to violence.

But what was very eerie was that just now, Hannah stood right in front of him, yet his special ability did not reveal even a single Information Fragment.

Just as Tang Qi was bewildered, he suddenly remembered the first warning.

A flash of insight crossed his mind.

The next moment, Tang Qi deliberately turned around and tried to walk out of the cabin.

Almost instantly, his path was blocked by Hannah, who appeared out of nowhere.

Tang Qi once again met those green eyes, still without any information appearing, and a cold voice arose: “Let’s play hide and seek.”

The sense of danger and intense malice surged as usual.

But this time, Tang Qi suddenly replied with a smile, “Alright!”

Hearing the eager response, a slight shock appeared on Hannah’s face, but soon she returned to her doll-like state.

Following that, ten different human figures appeared and disappeared amid laughter.

“Boom”

An explosion of Magic Power wreaked havoc inside Tang Qi, like a storm engulfing the building and the gray, burnt-appearing forest.

Cheating?

Unfortunately, a strong interference immediately occurred.

The magic feedback slowly formed a chaotic, complex map, displaying the presence of hundreds of life forms.

Tang Qi seemed to have anticipated this, flipping his palm to reveal a golden Shining Fireball, rising slowly like the Sun.

Each ray of “sunlight” radiated with a hint of Melting Furnace Power.

The number of the “life forms” quickly decreased.

Esmeralda’s method!

As long as one is strong, there are ways to cheat.

“Swoosh”

In a blink, Tang Qi reappeared inside a room in the building.

In the corner, crouched a lone tender figure.

As Tang Qi’s gaze met a pair of green eyes, the nursery rhyme’s first verse played, and as he wished, an Information Fragment appeared in his eyes.

“Extraordinary Creature: Unknown Infector.”

“State: Split Individual One.”

“Information Fragment One: The power within her comes from an unknown Exotic Realm infection, allowing her to self-split. Each split individual possesses abilities including Undying, Hallucination, Flames, and more that are still evolving.”

“Information Fragment Two: As the number of splits increases, her allegiance will continue to lean towards chaos. In the future, she may break a certain limit and escape her own Prison Cage, leading to unpredictable and terrifying changes.”

The swiftly passing information in Tang Qi’s eyes set off frantic alarms in his mind.

Simultaneously, the first Hannah in front of him began to disappear.

With no time to hesitate, as two seconds had already passed, and he was falling behind.

His figure immediately flashed to the next location, the top of the building under the water tower.

The same Information Fragment flashed by, and Tang Qi’s figure flickered again.

“Swoosh”

At the sixth second, Tang Qi’s figure appeared at the entrance of the gray-black forest, ahead, that familiar tender figure hiding behind a dead old tree, flashing Tang Qi a radiant smile.

The status in the generated vision in his eyes now shockingly changed to “Split Individual Six.”

Crisis, averted?