Chapter 379 Confrontation with a Maniac

Agatha walked down the cold, deserted streets. The familiar cityscape, once so comforting, now seemed filled with a silent, eerie atmosphere. From the shadows between the buildings and behind the tightly closed doors and windows, it felt as if pairs of eyes were watching her.

She was searching for an exit, or for the culprit who had trapped her here.

Every seemingly incongruous place might be a rift intersecting with the real world, but so far, she hadn't found such a rift in this bizarre city.

One thing she was certain of: she had touched the shadow that constantly loomed over the city-whether by accident or by design of the mastermind, she had successfully crossed the layer that had been blocking her vision.

This place, which was both like and unlike Frost, was definitely the source of the strange occurrences that had plagued the city in recent times.

The sound of wheels rolling over cobblestones came from a distance, and the faint sound of a bicycle bell and doors opening and closing drifted into her ears.

Agatha looked up in the direction of the sound, but could only see an empty street. However, farther away, she could see shadows that looked like carriages flashing past intersections, and figures that looked like pedestrians hurrying past those same crossings.

There were people in this city, but most of the time, she could only see distant phantoms. She could hear the voices of residents, but it was often impossible to pinpoint the source of the sound.

It was like a bizarre, chaotic, and distorted dream.

Agatha's figure passed through another intersection, then stopped in the shadows of a building.

Blind exploration was just a waste of energy and time. She needed to carefully assess the situation around her.

She closed her eyes and allowed her senses to spread out, carefully discerning the various pieces of information in the environment—sounds, smells, the direction of the wind, and…the warmth of living beings.

After a moment, Agatha looked up in a certain direction and took a step towards it. Still with her eyes closed, she accurately avoided all the obstacles in her path, as if she could see everything around her. She walked through alleys, past intersections and paths, for what seemed like a long time, before stopping in front of a building on a street corner.

Agatha opened her eyes and saw a small restaurant in front of her, brightly lit, with the sound of lively voices coming from inside.

The sounds were real, with the presence of living beings.

Agatha steadied herself and pushed open the door of the restaurant.

The crisp sound of a bell rang as the door opened, and the scene inside the restaurant rushed towards her, reflecting in Agatha's eyes. For a moment, she was almost in a trance, even suspecting that she had escaped the strange realm and returned to the normal, real world.

The restaurant was brightly lit, with customers dining and staff busily moving between tables and the counter. A clerk was busy behind the counter greeting guests, and the crisp sound of knives, forks, and plates colliding filled the air, along with the sound of people discussing the weather, work, and prices. The dead, cold atmosphere that had accumulated on the streets outside seemed to be swept away by the liveliness.

But in the next second, Agatha noticed the obvious incongruity here—although the diners were sitting at their tables eating, the cups and plates in front of them were empty. Although the clerk was busy behind the counter, he was just walking back and forth, repeatedly wiping the same glass in his hand.

Everyone was like a puppet with a pre-set program, simply repeating the actions that normal people should be doing. They just…imitated them perfectly.

Agatha frowned. After realizing the truth, the atmosphere here seemed even more bizarre than the empty streets outside, but she didn't turn around and leave. Instead, she stepped into the restaurant.

The more bizarre the place, the more it meant she was on the right track.

With Agatha's first step, the lively chatter in the restaurant suddenly stopped.

All the diners who had been talking closed their mouths at the same time, but the expressions from their earlier conversations still remained on their faces, and they still maintained the gestures of eating. In the large space, after the sound of voices disappeared, only the monotonous sound of cups, plates, knives, and forks colliding remained.

Agatha took a second step, and the sound of cups, plates, knives, and forks colliding also disappeared—everyone in the restaurant stopped moving, as if their power had suddenly been cut off, frozen beside the square tables.

Agatha took a third step forward, and everyone in the restaurant put down their knives and forks. Like zombies, they stood up, turned their heads expressionlessly, and dozens of empty gazes fell on her.

Agatha looked at the counter in front of her. The clerk who had been wiping the same glass finally stopped, but unlike the empty, stiff figures around him, this clerk slowly raised his head, a faint smile on his face as he looked at Agatha.

The smile was even somewhat friendly.

The clerk spoke. He was a young man with short blond hair and fairly handsome features, wearing a clean white shirt and a black jacket, speaking politely, as if he were really welcoming a customer.

Agatha stared calmly at the blond man in front of her. "Finding you was easier than I thought."

The blond young man laughed. "Indeed, I also thought it would take a little more time—after all, this city is so big, and there are so many interesting things to explore…"

Agatha had no intention of replying, and simply waved her staff in the air.

The blond young man behind the counter was instantly wrapped in layers of pale flames that appeared out of nowhere. His skin was burned to ashes by the gatekeeper's power in almost a few breaths, leaving only grayish-white ashes scattered in the wind, falling on the counter.

However, the expression on Agatha's face did not change at all, because before the flames ignited, she had sensed that there was no longer any sign of life in the young man's body.

A strange, viscous, squirming sound came from the side. Agatha turned her head and saw one of the stiff figures standing near a table suddenly tremble. The next moment, the person's body melted like wax, and black mud-like substance surged and deformed on the surface. In a few breaths, that diner transformed into a blond young man wearing a white shirt and a black jacket.

The blond young man brushed the dust off his clothes, looking at Agatha with some helplessness. "Alright, alright, it seems you're not in the mood for chatting—you're a boring woman. In comparison, that Professor Myerson was much more interesting in his final moments," the blond young man shrugged.

The moment she heard those words, Agatha's expression changed slightly. She thought of the vanished Dagger Island, and the series of explosions that occurred on the island in the moments before its disappearance, as mentioned in the report. Then, she noticed the information revealed in the last few words.

She stared at the blond young man in front of her, her voice cold. "You are the one who caused the Dagger Island incident?"

The blond young man laughed happily. "You really are a smart woman—I was just casually mentioning it, and you immediately figured it out. It's a pity that you're so uninteresting. If you were a little more cheerful and cooperative, I wouldn't mind telling you a little more about that interesting experiment…"

Agatha's face finally turned completely cold. "What exactly do you want to do?"

She stared intently at the blond young man in front of her. "What is the purpose of destroying Dagger Island?"

The blond young man slowly retracted the smile on his face, looking at Agatha with a slightly sarcastic expression. "Purpose? No, no, no, you're thinking too seriously. There's no purpose. It's just…an experiment. Do you understand? Just like you would dissect a rat or a little bug, I just wanted to see what would happen when a sufficiently large and sufficiently interesting thing was detonated."

Agatha's face was like frost, the knuckles of her hand gripping the staff slightly white. "A city with tens of thousands of people is just an experiment to you?"

The blond young man calmly met Agatha's cold gaze, speaking unhurriedly. "Tens of thousands of people? No, no, no, you're still thinking too seriously. Those are just…resources. You should know that, shouldn't you? You are also using them, just in a different way—whether you are maintaining order, studying history, or exploring the so-called 'truth', you are all exploiting the value of the 'resources' called 'people'. The only difference between you and me is that you are more hypocritical, and I am more direct."

He laughed again, slowly raising his hands, as if a preaching saint was revealing the truth of the world.