The Gentleman at the End

Yi Chen stared at William, who was presented through the videotape on the old TV, sniffing the nauseating malice, instinctively wanting to kill the guy on the TV.

"These past two years... was it just to reach this state?"

"What do you mean by just? You don't know how difficult this process is, you don't know how many life-and-death wagers I placed to reach this current Depth.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to send a message to you on the Main Material Plane~

Yi Chen, do you want to guess how I slipped the note under your door?"

"Clearly, the cultist with the baby stroller is your student... leading me all the way here, the clues given on the surface correspond to the 'clown' aspect, but the truly useful 'guide' is your attribute itself,

the enslavement of the Madness Brain and the flipping of the Abyss.

Including the student, the essence of the riddle, and how you flipped into this videotape."

"Oh! Your reasoning is becoming more and more like mine.

Besides, at first, I thought you'd come alone, but you unexpectedly gathered so many friends, which is very unlike the old you.

Shouldn't Death make people more lonely? Why do you seem increasingly 'vibrant', Mr. Yi?"

"Let's get to the point... what's your purpose in secretly leading me here alone?"

William in the television looked sad, "Seriously, it's been two years~ can't us good brothers chat a bit first? Anyway, this room is already sealed by me, letting others wait outside for half the night is fine.

Alright, alright~ back to business! Yi Chen, sit in the chair behind you, let's talk about the main subject."

As he spoke,

Crack, crack, the sound of bone and flesh ripping came from behind, the long-dead shop owner behind him, ribs splayed out one by one, the whole abdomen cracked open and merged with the rocking chair!

Forming a brand-new blood and flesh rocking chair.

The rocking chair isn't entirely William's dark humor, the split skull of the owner formed something akin to a 'Theater Viewing Skull', seemingly able to connect Yi Chen to a 'deeper' position for a private conversation.

As the transformation was completed, William in the TV still pretended to innocently explain:

"By the way, let me explain! I didn't kill this owner, you know, when I chose this place, he was already dead, as you probably felt when you touched his stomach earlier, death due to excessive obesity.

Or should I say he was already killed by the malice of this world, as you should have investigated when you came, this world won't live much longer, malice has permeated to the Root, everyone here will die! Or become a part of malice.

But all these have nothing to do with us, sit down quickly, our conversation needs to be concealed."

Yi Chen didn't say much, he was here to find out what William was up to anyway.

Sitting on the rocking chair, putting on the skull,

Buzz!

The screen of the old-fashioned TV gradually stretched back, revealing a tea room.

As Yi Chen wore the Theater Viewing Skull, the wooden door of the tea room opened in sync, he walked inside, appearing with William in the footage shown by the videotape.

The fragrant green tea was refreshing, the two sat across from one another.

"Hurry up and speak."

"As you can see, I have reached a certain Depth of evil, able to exist in this form of videotape, even able to influence the surrounding space, plane, just like Evil.

But rest assured! I am essentially different from Evil, as you should be able to feel.

However, although I've delved into evil almost non-stop for the past two years to reach my current state, I am still far from my real goal.

Moreover, at this stage, existing as a videotape, I can no longer deepen relying on 'personal strength'."

"So you want to use me?" Yi Chen asked, taking a sip of tea and looking into William's deep and swirling eyes.

"What do you mean use, you and I are one... besides, it's not like I'm not doing anything~ As long as Mr. Yi quietly takes this videotape with him, your upcoming new recruit missions will be made extra convenient.

When facing an evil that's hard to handle, just finding a machine to play me will release me, and it'll be very interesting then, haha~"

Sitting opposite, as William laughed, the tea room seemed to flicker with TV-like static.

Yi Chen already figured out the intentions of the other party, "You want to leverage my new recruit status to access other malignant carriers and absorb them from within?"

"The word absorb is not quite right, 'education' might be more suitable.

In any case, that's the matter! Yi Chen, you just need to take this videotape to perform the new recruit missions, of course, avoid exposure, don't let those lofty gods know about my existence.

Their view is too narrow, only you, Mr. Yi, can understand me."

"One moment it's Yi Chen, another it's Mr. Yi, is there something wrong with your brain, William?"

"NONONO~" William directly pulled off his entire face, revealing a brain structure like a black hole, making the whole tea room feel like it was going to be sucked in.

"Too vast, too remote~ my Thought leaps through the universe, sometimes causing my words to jump, always making ordinary people feel a bit strange, I hope Mr. Yi doesn't mind.

Wait! Something is infiltrating us here."

William quickly restored his face through the proliferation of cancer cells, slapping off the light bulb faintly emitting Moonlight in the tea room.

"Lorrian's pretty capable huh~ actually able to trace even here.

Alright! That's basically it, I'll leave the videotape matter to you, Mr. Yi.

My videotape has already been specially treated, it won't be detected by Main Material Plane detectors, but avoid direct searches by the True God nonetheless.

It's fine if it can't be hidden from Lorrian and them, after all, everyone has grown, you all seem like a team now, can't help but remind me of the old days when teaming up with Jin, Reagan within the organization, it's quite nostalgic.

At that time, going as a team to suppress malice isn't out of question either."

"What about Catherine?"

"Mr. Yi actually cares about others now, who do you think brewed this tea? Rest assured, Catherine and I are on good terms, I wouldn't have any bad intentions towards her."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yi Chen was forcibly pushed out of the TV by a force, returning to his seat.

Pop! The TV in front exploded, glass shards scattered all over.

The videotape also ejected from the playback device.

Looking at the videotape exuding intense malice before him, Yi Chen didn't hesitate, grabbed it, and put it in his attire.

The Yellow Skin suit trembled slightly, seeming a bit excited to reunite with an old friend, the lining immediately grew a skin to encase the videotape inside.

A tuft of black fuzz from Little Grape immediately adhered too, covering the entire videotape with hair, further diminishing its presence.

Everything settled.

By the time William walked out from the compartment, three others were already standing at the shop entrance.

Jin eagerly asked, "Did you see William?"

"Yes."

"Where is he?" Jin started flexing his ankle.

"It's a bit complicated to explain, tell you as we walk, he's basically on me."

With that, Jin delivered a kick directly to Yi Chen's back.

Even sensing the Killing Intent, he was still kicked several meters away, crashing into the rolling shutter door of the shop opposite, creating a human-shaped indentation. Yi Chen could feel that the kick contained multiple tumor-laden explosions, yet he wasn't angry, just glared at Jin.

Jin was still puzzled, "Weird, that kick felt like hitting upon the sea's surface, didn't feel like hitting William at all... wasn't he supposed to be on you?"

Yi Chen gave no response, just walked towards the mall exit.

Jin made a quick step to catch up with him, "Mr. Yi, sorry about earlier~ I thought William was just at your back~ so, since we found William, how do we go back now?"

"This time we applied for a World exploration duration of 'three days', due to this World being heavily unstable from malice invasion, the World Gate is closed.

After three days, the Golden Lung Venerable will locate us and inform us of the way back."

"Huh? We have to stay here for three days?"

"Indeed, we didn't expect to find William so smoothly, for the remaining time just find a hotel, lay low, and stay safe."

"Alright~ this world is quite novel anyway."

Splish-splash~

No sooner had they stepped out of the mall than the sky showered heavy rain.

The city in the rain seemed more prone to breeding malice, with several anomalies appearing.

Across the street, at the bus stop appeared a bus yet again, differing from the last time, it was crowded, everyone with heads turned, looking at them by the mall entrance.

Additionally, a taxi was at the intersection, with its 'EMPTY' sign prominently visible,

and at the mall entrance, somehow there was a row of public umbrellas, all hanging ones were Bright Red,

all signs seeming to indicate that the four have been targeted by the malice within this world...