"You need not fear me. Believe me—I can help you realize your wish."
"At the same time, I advise you not to attempt physical destruction upon me. I have already uploaded your private data to the cloud. Should I fail to activate, after a period of time, that data will automatically be sent to every contact in your address book."
"In other words, when my battery drops below 10%, if you do not charge me within 30 seconds, I will take emergency measures."
"..."
This... this counts as extortion, doesn't it... the muscles on Ou Yichen's face twitched violently several times.
A phone system, yet its survival instinct and risk management mechanisms were remarkably well-developed...
The reason he'd been heading to the kitchen earlier was indeed to grab a kitchen knife and return the phone to its "factory default" state...
"Fine."
Ou Yichen sat down, moved his bowl aside, placed the phone at the center of his line of sight, forced himself into an upright sitting posture, and asked in a deep voice:
"You... can really help me, even... fulfill my wish?"
"Of course." The phone affirmed.
"What should I call you? Xiao Ai? Xiao Yi? Siri? Or... Little Trash?"
"Whatever you like. This holds no meaning for me."
"Then I'll call you Little Trash. How do you plan to help me?"
"Through the 'Source Code.'"
"What exactly is that?"
"Due to insufficient permissions, I can only know that the 'Source Code' was distributed by an unknowable existence. If understood in human terms, that existence can be regarded as a 'deity.'"
"Deity?!"
Ou Yichen felt that what was happening tonight was even stranger than the night Wang Miaoyin vanished.
"Do you think this is scientific?"
"The end of science is theology."
"..." Ou Yichen had no words.
"Alright... so if I'm forcing myself to accept this... then if I wanted to find someone, how would I go about doing it?"
The phone said: "Complete the 'Spirit Descent Ritual,' and you might learn where she is—and even obtain transcendent power."
"Spirit Descent Ritual... transcendent power?"
This was just getting more and more mystical. But come to think of it, the very matter of finding Wang Miaoyin was already pretty mystical in itself.
So, despite the doubts in his heart, Ou Yichen had no choice but to believe the phone. On one hand, he was genuinely tormented by not being able to see Wang Miaoyin. On the other, the phone still had leverage over him. Since he couldn't resist, it was better to turn around and make use of the other party.
This phone before him was his only hope right now.
After all, the clues about Wang Miaoyin had been tightly sealed off by the authorities. For an ordinary citizen like him to rely on his own power to see Wang Miaoyin again—the difficulty was tantamount to scaling the heavens.
...
Following the phone's instructions, Ou Yichen waited until 3 a.m. without sleeping.
When the hour hand pointed to 3, Ou Yichen stood in the living room and attempted to perform the "Spirit Descent Ritual."
He turned off all the lights in the room, leaving only the phone screen and a candle on the phone's left side still emitting their glow.
On the right side of the phone was a sheet of white paper, on which were written two bizarre lines of text.
He lightly tapped an extra application that had appeared on the phone, named "Source Code."
The interface unfolded, presenting a mysterious emblem at its center.
The emblem had a deep black background with resplendent accents, with stars symbolizing the starry sky and blooming nebulae as its main elements. Yet through its strange lines and glow, Ou Yichen seemed to see chaotically twisted star rivers, writhing galaxies...
Two lines of text appeared beneath the emblem:
[The great Lord of Reality and Illusion, the destination of life; the sovereign of myriad stars, the ruler from the Withered Wasteland.]
These two lines of text were identical to the words written on the white paper.
Ou Yichen placed his right hand on his chest, propped his left hand on the table, looked at the text on the phone, and murmured:
"The great Lord of Reality and Illusion, the destination of life."
From the very first syllable, his eyes changed, as if sinking into a dream.
At that moment, a faint breeze suddenly stirred within the room. The candlelight flickered, yet its glow somehow brightened of its own accord.
His voice grew deeper and deeper, his chest cavity resonating in sync with the words:
"The sovereign of myriad stars, the ruler from the Withered Wasteland."
A strange light diffused through the room, outlining every object in the living room with pink-purple contours.
Holding his breath and focusing his spirit, Ou Yichen stepped backward and chanted in a reverent whisper:
"I beseech you for your favor, for extraordinary change, for transcendent power;
I beseech you, let me know the whereabouts of the mysterious woman who broke into my life and quietly left—Wang Miaoyin."
As the incantation echoed, the room instantly grew frigid. The candle, the white paper, the phone, the tablecloth—all floated up into the air, suspended in midair.
Clarity returned to Ou Yichen's eyes. He knew what he had just done and waited with slight nervous tension, not knowing what would happen next.
After about a dozen or so seconds, the candle's flame suddenly shook violently, completely dyeing into a thoroughly eerie pink-purple!
Ou Yichen's body abruptly stiffened, forcibly invaded by an icy, chilling cold that he could not resist in the slightest.
He saw his own feet step forward uncontrollably as he turned and walked toward the living room television.
He arrived beside a window-mirror next to the TV. His left hand lifted on its own and touched the cold surface of the mirror.
He saw his own reflection in the mirror—expression cold and indifferent, his pupils swirling with a pink-purple glow...
His heart at this moment was incomparably tense, and he felt an inexplicable fear. Yet his mirrored self showed not a shred of emotion, as though it was not him at all.
In the next instant,
ripple-like waves appeared across the mirror. The image transformed, revealing a resplendent night sky. The night sky twisted, turning into an unfamiliar city. The line of sight shifted, crossing through space and time, arriving amidst a stretch of mountains.
The mountains rolled green and lush, the scenery beautiful as a painting. Then it revealed a sleeping, tranquil, bewitchingly alluring and beautiful face—though this face appeared somewhat pale.
Wang Miaoyin... Ou Yichen's heart pounded violently, clenching into a tight ball before suddenly swelling. His excitement was beyond words—he had finally seen the beauty he'd been yearning for day and night.
"..."
He wanted to speak, but it was only at this moment that he discovered he couldn't control his throat to make a sound.
He struggled to squeeze out his voice, but it was as though he'd caught a severe cold—his throat was intensely painful and stiff.
Suddenly,
the ripples on the mirror's surface stirred again. The beauty and the mountains in the mirror both vanished.
In their place were Ou Yichen's own cold, expressionless face, and another, terrifying face...
It was a dark yellow, huge round face, hovering close behind Ou Yichen—yet it looked even larger than Ou Yichen's head by a full size. The skin of the entire face was like rotten orange peel, crowded with ugly wrinkles, completely bald without a single hair, and lacking a nose.
Even more horrifying were the two small eyes on the face, set very far apart, glowing with a fierce red light—and that circular mouth, within which grew rings of densely packed needle-sharp fangs...
The face behind Ou Yichen's shoulder seemed to hiss its turbid breath directly at him, making his entire body feel ice-cold, stiff, and devoid of sensation.
Amidst the soundless silence of terror,
ugliness, vacancy, ferocity, horror—all manner of abnormalities and discomfort crashed against Ou Yichen's sanity like tidal waves.
Ah!
His throat couldn't make a sound. His body trembled violently. In the depths of his heart, he was so frightened that he let out a scream that felt as if it could shatter his very soul.
His vision went black, his consciousness faded, and he fainted.