Chen Wen suddenly turned his head, his gaze passing through the "non-existent" Zheng Fan to Lin Yilin.
Seeing this, Lin Yilin confirmed her guess: "Sure enough, the possession was already complete. At some point, Chen Wen was completely targeted by you. His testimony described unconscious actions he took while being manipulated. For some reason, even after going to such lengths, you couldn't forcibly take over, so you could only continue to stabilize your connection with him through these actions..."
"Chen Wen" silently stared at Lin Yilin, then suddenly charged at her.
Zheng Fan instinctively reached out to block, but it was, of course, useless.
Lin Yilin fired without hesitation.
Bang! Bang!
Two bloody holes appeared on Chen Wen's body, but contrary to all reason, he merely paused for a moment before stomping his foot, accelerating his second burst to close in on Lin Yilin.
Lin Yilin tried to fire again at close range, but Chen Wen swung his hand, deflecting her shot, and his machete pointed directly at the girl's fair, vulnerable neck.
At this critical moment, wriggling black lines crawled out from between Lin Yilin's fingers, intercepting the machete. Although they were torn apart the next second, they successfully delayed him, allowing Lin Yilin to retreat, escape, and dodge.
"Hmm?" Zheng Fan looked at the wriggling black lines on the ground.
These weren't lines; these segmented bodies... Earthworms?
Zheng Fan wasn't surprised that Lin Yilin had superpowers; it was just that the manifestation of her superpower was a bit unusual—summoning Black Earthworms?
What was the use of that?
Chen Wen swung his machete repeatedly. After Lin Yilin dodged a few times, he suddenly flung his hand, throwing the machete directly at her.
The blade had many nicks, but it easily cut into Lin Yilin's chest.
Thump!
Lin Yilin felt her vision blur. With the impact of the blade, her body weakly fell backward.
Her body temperature seemed to drain away with the flowing blood. When she regained her senses and opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Zheng Fan's face.
"Are you alright?"
"Does this look like I'm alright?" Lin Yilin seemed calm even in this situation.
"You're going to lose too much blood." Zheng Fan lifted her clothes and looked at the wound—a very deep knife wound, indeed a fatal injury.
"It's fine, I can handle this problem myself. But it's a rare opportunity, so it could be simpler." Lin Yilin touched her chest; her hand felt warm and moist, and when she lifted it, it was covered in blood.
"What do you mean?"
"From now on, my body is yours, Mr. Illusion." Lin Yilin gazed at Zheng Fan, his reflection mirrored in her clear eyes.
Chen Wen stepped forward, reaching out to retrieve his machete.
As soon as he extended his hand, before he could even bend down to pick it up, he first touched the blade of the machete.
He was stunned. Lin Yilin, who had been lying on the ground, had somehow already stood up and, with a gentle smile, handed him the machete.
"Your knife. No need to thank me."
Bang!
Before he could react, the girl's fist connected with his face, twisting his features before his body spun and flew backward through the stairwell.
Tears streamed from the corners of Lin Yilin's eyes, and her pupils, once black-brown, were now covered in grey-white.
The wounds on her body rapidly and completely healed. "Lin Yilin" lazily stretched her waist and moved her joints.
Every time he returned to reality through possession, after being in that state where he couldn't touch anything, Zheng Fan felt genuine pleasure.
He didn't know if it was purely psychological or an instinctive mechanism as an Illusion.
But Zheng Fan truly enjoyed it.
This feeling of being substantial again.
Crack! Crack!
"Mr. Illusion, there's a talisman in my bag; please stick it on him. Otherwise, if you directly attack, you'll kill Mr. Chen Wen along with the Illusion."
Under the flickering sound-activated light, there were two shadows at Lin Yilin's feet, one male and one female. The female's shadow spoke.
Lin Yilin knew she had definitely made the right gamble.
She had completely lost control of her body now, but Zheng Fan hadn't directly eliminated her consciousness; she could still feel everything in her body.
After the possession was fully complete, the strange power continuously emerging from within her body was a terrifying force Lin Yilin had never witnessed in her life.
"Troublesome." Zheng Fan reached into the bag, pulling out a dark purple talisman paper.
Chen Wen had already gotten back up, his face contorted in a ferocious expression, and lunged at Zheng Fan.
In response, Zheng Fan took out a black bead.
He had obtained this bead from the corpse he had used before, and by now, he knew its purpose.
He could change himself, but he couldn't change external objects.
Just as an Illusion needed a human body as a bridge to interfere with reality, Zheng Fan also needed a medium to change external objects, and this medium was now in Zheng Fan's hand.
He squeezed the black bead slightly, crushing it.
The scene seemed to pause for a brief moment, and then, black Earthworms shot out from the shadow at Zheng Fan's feet.
Compared to Lin Yilin's "wriggling fine lines," these Earthworms, also summoned with unknown purpose, now resembled giant pythons crawling out of a deep pit in a monster movie.
Their heads split open, revealing ferocious teeth, completely different from their original harmless appearance. In Zheng Fan's hands, they had become a group of fierce and malevolent monsters.
Chen Wen hastily slammed to a halt, but it was already too late. The Earthworms swarmed him, binding him so he couldn't move.
Zheng Fan seized this opportunity to elegantly and casually step forward, slapping the talisman paper onto Chen Wen's forehead.
Sizzle!
Electric light crackled, and black smoke billowed from Chen Wen's body. A black figure flickered on and off from Chen Wen's body, gradually separating under the effect of the lightning.
Pop!
Seeing this, Zheng Fan snapped his fingers.
Several Earthworms rushed up, tearing the lightning-wrapped human-like Illusion to shreds.
Only after Zheng Fan waved his hand, dismissing the Earthworms, did he raise his hand. The fragments of the Illusion gathered in Zheng Fan's hand, re-coalescing into a new black bead.
It was even slightly larger than the one formed from the previous corpse.
Putting the bead away, Zheng Fan looked at the fallen Chen Wen: "Should I call the police?"
"The police are downstairs," Lin Yilin replied.
"?" Zheng Fan's head was filled with question marks. "Then why didn't you let the police come with you?"
"He's not a professional; he wouldn't be of any use. But now you can call him, help me make a phone call," Lin Yilin said.
"I feel like you coming alone wasn't so great either," Zheng Fan said, taking out his phone from his bag and dialing the number as Lin Yilin instructed.
On the other end, a lazy voice quickly replied: "Hello? Lin Yilin, how's it going up there?"
"Get over here."
The call ended.
Drake paused, then looked down at his phone.
Hiss, this girl is getting more and more impolite.
... ...
After that, the matter no longer concerned Lin Yilin and Zheng Fan.
It wasn't until the police arrived that everyone in the apartment complex belatedly realized there had been a murder the previous night, with two victims—one dead, one injured—and the perpetrator shot dead on the spot.
The police searched the community again, finding several more bodies of previously missing persons and confirming more victims of past murders.
No one noticed what happened that night. Zheng Fan was surprised that even though Lin Yilin had directly fired a gun, no one heard the gunshots. Lin Yilin explained that it was the Illusion's doing, specifically creating a temporary "small world" where, to outsiders, there was "only the sound of knocking."
Zheng Fan's understanding of Illusions increased. Some Illusions could even do such things; he could learn more himself, which would definitely be useful next time.
The next day, Lin Yilin returned to the apartment once more to re-examine the site.
Zheng Fan: "Why do you need to come back and look again?"
Lin Yilin investigated Chen Wen's home: "Because there are still some questions I want to clarify."
A moment later, Lin Yilin put away her tools and said: "We previously asked Mr. Chen Wen, who woke up in the hospital. He recalled that one night he responded to a knock at the door and opened it because of a cry for help. From that moment on, the Illusion had already taken advantage of the vulnerability."
Zheng Fan thought for a moment; he had been completely distracted when Lin Yilin went to the hospital to question him.
"But even so, when Mr. Chen Wen left the apartment, the Illusion couldn't follow him out and couldn't immediately achieve a full invasion. Instead, it used Mr. Chen Wen's body to continue knocking on doors and killing people every night, using this method to deepen the connection..." Lin Yilin pondered, stroking her chin.
"What trapped it was the apartment. It needed Chen Wen to take it out of the apartment; it needed its connection with Chen Wen to be greater than its connection with the apartment," Zheng Fan said, following the natural train of thought.
"Yes, that's why I want to know why an Illusion developed such a close connection with this apartment," Lin Yilin said, searching diligently.
"Earthbound spirit?"
"Mr. Illusion, I've said it many times: Illusions are not ghosts."
"I don't even know what Illusions are or how they are born," Zheng Fan shrugged.
"As long as the Black World overlaps, Illusions can be born in various forms..." Lin Yilin had a flash of inspiration. "That's right, although Illusions aren't ghosts, what if an Illusion was born based on someone's impression of a ghost...?"
Zheng Fan: ?
What are you talking about, girl?
Lin Yilin walked to the door and repeatedly knocked on the wall next to the door.
Seeing this, Zheng Fan directly put his hand into the wall, symbolically feeling around. Unexpectedly, he actually touched something.
Something he could directly touch...
"There's something here," Zheng Fan said.
Lin Yilin quickly came closer: "What is it?"
Zheng Fan repeatedly kneaded with both hands, outlining the object's shape, and finally concluded: "A corpse, human."
He exerted a little force, then pulled out his hands. In his hand lay a black bead.
Something that could be turned into a bead by Zheng Fan meant that it was part of an Illusion.
... ...
A simple question received a simple answer.
A murder case that happened an unknown amount of time ago, without supernatural elements, purely a grudge between people. The remnants of such an event, in the Grey District of Dadu, could suddenly "awaken" on some non-existent date, under the overlap of the Black World.
Illusions exist in the form of ghosts, urban legends, or anomalies, floating outside of reality.
An Illusion of a corpse, wanting to leave the wall, leave the door, leave this apartment.
The unlucky Chen Wen's first "knock" was on the wall.
That cry for help was the plea of the corpse, sealed within the wall, spanning many years.
The murdered corpse wanted to get out; it chose to kill more people.
Lin Yilin walked on the sunlit road, tapping on her phone screen, recording the incident.
"Oh, right, Mr. Illusion."
"I have a name; just call me Zheng Fan."
"Okay, Mr. Illusion, thank you very much for this time!"
"...It's nothing, just a transaction, 'a contract was signed.'"
Now, Lin Yilin's body could be easily occupied by Zheng Fan if he wished. With Lin Yilin's complete surrender, the connection between them was fully locked. He could even completely return to reality using Lin Yilin's body forever, as long as he completely erased Lin Yilin's consciousness.
But doing so would be too much of a loss.
Lin Yilin had a lot of knowledge, and Zheng Fan was still very unfamiliar with this world and with his current self.
He would need her help in the future.
This was the "contract" between them.