This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 390: The Secret of the Camera

Chapter 390: Chapter 390: The Secret of the Camera

In this world where everything had come to a standstill, only corpses littered the ground, and Harlowin stood beside him.

The camera’s oversized head had receded, and Chen Ke didn’t know what exactly the space-like void beside him was, but he didn’t think that jumping down would allow him to leave this place.

Harlowin gazed at him blankly, her face so delicate, like that of an intricately made inflatable doll.

If it were some other man, he’d undoubtedly take advantage of the situation to lay hands on her...

But Chen Ke had no such mood at the moment; the camera had paused the world’s time.

Although it didn’t affect him, Harlowin was frozen solid, and without her, Chen Ke couldn’t proceed with his next move.

He couldn’t understand why the time stoppage had no effect on him—was it because he too had the ability to stop time, and such abilities were mutually exclusive?

But Chen Ke dismissed this speculation because its premise assumed that the camera’s time-stopping ability was identical to his own.

Clearly, the time stoppage was not a Transcendent skill.

The world’s Transcendent abilities all came from skill tomes, moves that all Spiritual Ability Users could remember and use.

And after acquiring each Transcendent ability, they would enter his "Transcendent Skill" list.

Time stoppage was not a skill he had derived from a skill tome, nor had it entered the list.

To describe it, it was more akin to an ability in the killer series, exclusive to Chen Ke, and paired with that, there was Future Vision.

The camera could freeze others, so Chen Ke could freeze...

Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.

"If I use time stoppage to freeze Harlowin and then release it... can I indirectly unfreeze her..."

While thinking this, Chen Ke reached out and grabbed Harlowin’s arm.

Time Stop!

Harlowin, already in a paused state, twitched ever so slightly, as if the pause had malfunctioned, but she was quickly frozen in place again.

"That works..."

Chen Ke saw his life span was being consumed twice as fast, meaning Harlowin was frozen by him!

"Good... now to release it..." With that thought, Harlowin returned to a state of animation from her rigid waxen pose.

She looked around, seemingly at a loss, and as she stepped forward, her foot collided with a severed arm. She looked down, paused for half a second, and then couldn’t help it—she vomited.

"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." Harlowin clutched her stomach, recklessly retching, inciting panic and a hasty retreat as she ran backward.

"Hey, hey!" Chen Ke grimaced and quickly followed her.

In the previous world, Harlowin was a charismatic and tough female agent. In this world, she was nothing but a beautiful husk, so fragile and flustered. Comparatively speaking, Chen Ke preferred the former.

"Ms. Harlowin, stop running! There’s only the two of us left now!" Chen Ke called out, feeling his words carried a certain ambiguity.

"What happened here...what on earth happened here?!" Harlowin fell to the ground, gasping for air, her face the picture of sheer panic.

"That camera, do you recognize him? Huh?" Chen Ke hoisted up Harlowin’s arm, asking.

"Felipe... That was Felipe... he stole my camera..." Harlowin covered her face, sobbing and mumbling the name.

Chen Ke was stunned for a moment, squatted beside Harlowin, and asked, "He... stole your camera...? This thing used to be yours?"

"I... it’s mine... yes." Harlowin nodded.

Chen Ke was puzzled. The human tools inside the camera could be cloned infinitely. Even if it was Harlowin, she was just a copy of the original, but why this Harlowin?

Chen Ke activated his Spiritual Vision and took a closer look at the woman before him, noticing a faint blue outline around her...

"You are...?" Chen Ke was startled.

This thing is actually real!

"Felipe took the camera and locked me in this place. You are with the Administration Bureau, which means his possession of the illegal mutated object must have been exposed..." Harlowin said.

"I think you need to tell me in detail about this camera... Ms. Harlowin, where did you get this thing...?" Chen Ke asked.

Harlowin hesitated, seemingly reluctant to reveal everything; it appeared she still harbored some attachment to the camera and wanted to regain possession of it.

"If you’re unwilling to reveal the truth, then there’s no way I can help you. Look around you, Ms. Harlowin. Whether we can escape from this photograph depends on whether you’re willing to tell me about the camera," Chen Ke persuaded.

The camera’s abilities seemed to go far beyond just creating a Negative World.

After a complex internal struggle, Harlowin finally decided to come clean.

Since childhood, Harlowin had dreamed of becoming a film star, yet she was only a somewhat obscure advertising model, and on the older side too.

She had played minor roles in some third-rate movies in the 1980s, but she couldn’t tolerate the greasy hands of industry insiders, which led to deliberate ostracism by the big names in the circle, forcing her to continue with advertising work.

However, although her dreams had been thwarted, Harlowin was much luckier than other girls—she was naturally beautiful and had married the owner of Lescott Spirit Production, Anderson Lesco, in 1994.

At the time, Lescott Spirit Production wasn’t as large as it is now, but it was still a local giant. Anderson wasn’t able to fulfill Harlowin’s movie dream, as he didn’t have many connections in Hollywood.

Nevertheless, Anderson helped his wife secure the right to shoot advertisements at the company and arranged for a professional creative team to assist Harlowin in giving the ads a cinematic flair... as a sort of indulgence.

A turning point occurred in 1998 when Harlowin purchased this camera at a second-hand market.

The camera’s capabilities extended far beyond just capturing a Negative World.

As Chen Ke had seen, it allowed the owner to change and shape the operating methods of the Negative World from the underlying rules, just like playing a game.

Initially, Harlowin had no idea of the camera’s abilities, until one day, after taking some photos on a trip and developing them, she entered the Negative World and discovered these secrets.

The person holding the camera would appear in the form of a camera lens when entering the Negative World, just like Felipe had. They could also freely possess any character within the Negative World and move about at will.

"That is to say... your current state... are you possessing someone? Are you possessing your own body?" Chen Ke suddenly understood.

"That’s another story... When I discovered I could do whatever I wanted in the photographs, I started to get a bit reckless..." Harlowin admitted sheepishly.

In the Negative World, one could fulfill any fantasy or desire. Harlowin had staged numerous scenes, and everyone photographed would form a duplicate within the Negative World.

It was like constructing her own amusement park, where she could also set the rules and join in the fun—a perfect sandbox game.

Harlowin had always wanted to be a movie star, and now, she could become the leading lady in her own photographs and have everyone act in accordance with her.

This was exactly why Chen Ke could see movie titles and producer credits in the sky—those all originated from Harlowin’s imagination.

The twist came in 2001: after three years of entertaining herself with the camera, street photography could no longer satisfy her cinematic desires.

She thought of the company’s advertising production team.

The power of one is limited, but with the support of professional makeup artists, scriptwriters, cinematography teams, and creative input... she would have a stage that was nothing less than a movie!

She didn’t intend to bring everyone into the Negative World with her—that was her own private paradise. What she needed was larger-scale set design and more professional support in costume and prop departments.

"But the secret of the camera was discovered by Felipe. That bastard... when I went into the Negative World, he took out the film..." Harlowin said.

It turned out that the control of the camera depended on the film.

If the camera owner entered the Negative World while possessing someone and another person removed the film, then the rights within the photograph would be revoked... and they would be trapped forever inside.

"That is to say... the place we are in now is a photograph you took before?" Chen Ke asked.

Harlowin nodded.

"Then... what’s the deal with Harlowin who died outside?" Chen Ke asked further.

"He faked my death. The holder can bring duplicates from the Negative World out of the photograph. I didn’t dare to do that before because their way of thinking isn’t sound. I can control them inside the photograph, but once they’re outside, it’s hard for you to make them go back..." Harlowin explained.

"Which means that from the outset... the intention was to... kill it..." Chen Ke understood, fully understood.