Chapter 439: Prisoners
“Impressive.” Gong Zhe dropped the cigarette. “You have such sharp senses when you’ve just gained the door. However, that might not be a good thing for you.” Gong Zhe added, “You have to learn to control your desire and not be controlled by the thing behind the door. Or else… the shelter will be your last home. Of course, if you’re lucky, you might be killed by your former partners.”
“Is this… the benefits of entering the nightmare?” An Xuan pulled back his sleeves. The door in his hand burned brighter. He felt like his blood was boiling when he was around Gong Zhe. His eyes turned red. A strange voice whispered to him. It was irresistible. There was a desire rising in his heart. He wanted to slice open the middle-aged man’s body to dig out the door in his body to make it his own.
Gradually, his rationality won out. An Xuan’s face returned to normal. He gasped for air as if having a tour of hell. However, the description was not wrong. Once he lost control, Gong Zhe would snap his neck. After all, it was impossible to reason with those who had lost their minds. Even if they were sent to the shelter, they would be deemed extremely dangerous. They would be executed in private through lethal injection. The death was unimaginably painful. It was very real and intense. If An Xuan had a choice, he wouldn’t want to go there.
“What is… the door?”
“A contract.” Gong Zhe stressed. “Blood contract.”
“Blood contract?”
Gong Zhe smiled. The scar on his lips moved. He looked hostile. “Do you remember how you obtained your door?”
An Xuan frowned. There was a blurry memory in his mind. It was like trying to look for a needle in a haystack.
“It’s…” Light flashed in An Xuan’s eyes. “It was a piece of white paper. Someone cut open our left hands and printed them on the white paper. That paper was alive! It sucked our blood, then…” An Xuan pressed his head. Fragmented memories collided in his brain; they were both clear and ambiguous. “No. It was a dream.” An Xuan’s eyes closed in pain. “It was a dream. I… have not experienced that.”
Gong Zhe didn’t say anything. The young man was not bad. He reminded him of the person he met. However, this young man leaned more towards justice. After all, he was from the Night Guardian. Unlike the other young man, he was very mysterious. He believed An Xuan could come to the conclusion. Certain truths were cruel but had to be accepted. Since they had decided on a cooperation, he hoped his partner was a bit clever and knew more about the truth of this world.Eventually, An Xuan calmed down. He held the back of the chair in front as support. Blood veins covered his face. “It’s brainwash… The images in my head contain traces left behind by the brainwashing. They… did something to our bodies.” He gritted his teeth. “It’s the people from the executive branch… And those white papers… They are the blood contracts you mentioned!”
Gong Zhe didn’t answer because it was pointless. He believed the young man would reach the truth soon.
“Every white paper is a contract between you and the door represented by the white paper. Or more accurately, you have signed a contract with the thing behind the door.
“Once the contract is completed, it cannot be changed. You’ll gain the power of the thing behind the door. In response, you’ll suffer from the curse caused by the thing behind the door. The curse will deepen with time or when you use the power of the door. The curse cannot be eliminated, but you can do something to delay it from exploding.”
An Xuan looked up with his bloodshot eyes. “Through… absorbing another person’s door, right?”
“Yes.” Gong Zhe praised. “However, we don’t call it absorbing but snatching. As for people who have the door, we call them… Disciples.”
“Disciples?” An Xuan’s pupils shrank. “Deep Red?” The people of Deep Red called themselves disciples.
“That’s right.” Gong Zhe nodded. “Everyone in Deep Red has a door. That is why Night Guardian’s executive branch modified you all. To deal with devils, you have to first become a devil. I do not know if there’s God in this world, but believe me, even if there is, God cannot deal with the thing behind the door.
“Because there are more than ghosts behind the doors. There are existences you cannot understand. You can call them as… Anomalies.
“Only mutated doors can produce Anomalies. Anomalies are harder to predict than ghosts. Ghosts are made when humans die. However, that is not the case with anomalies. The ways they were made are numerous. ṙἁŊƟВÊＳ
“I think you can understand them as… a kind of consciousness, a consciousness made by nightmares.
“Consciousness cannot be predicted or resisted by human force. The only thing that can fight it is a stronger consciousness. Consciousness cannot be eliminated. However, it can be… inherited, as mentioned by the Disciples.” Gong Zhe elaborated.
“Only mutated doors can produce Anomalies, and Anomalies can be inherited?” An Xuan frowned. “By inheriting the doors?”
“Clever.”
“How do you inherit a door?” Gong Zhe introduced An Xuan to a new world. He desperately wanted to know more about the doors.
“There are two ways.” Gong Zhe was in a good mood. “The first kind is direct, and that is to snatch it from people with mutated doors. However, this is easier said than done. Disciples with normal doors will have a hard time winning against disciples with mutated doors, but it is not impossible.”
“The power of ghosts is weaker than the power of Anomalies.” An Xuan nodded. “Can I see it that way?”
“It’s not accurate, but it’s close enough,” Gong Zhe analysed.
“What about the second kind?” An Xuan asked.
“The second kind is more complicated. You need to enter a mutated door and solve it.” Gong Zhe said, “That means you’ve obtained the approval of this mutated door.”
“Then, you’ll become the new owner of this mutated door?”
“No.” Gong Zhe’s face became serious. “It looks like you still haven’t understood the situation we’re in.
“No one can fully master a door, even the most normal door.” Gong Zhe turned around. The calmness in his eyes frightened An Xuan.
“We are the door’s slaves, the nightmare’s prisoners.”