The instant the red button was pressed, Byrne felt a strange membrane of light envelop his body. To any onlooker, Byrne's figure would have rapidly faded until he vanished completely from sight.
Byrne hadn't actually disappeared; he had used the "Silent State" to turn himself invisible. As long as the man in black's psychic grade wasn't Alpha-level, he wouldn't detect Byrne's presence. This light membrane provided more than just visual concealment; it also completely shielded his psychic fluctuations.
Leaving Wisteria Street, the man in black avoided the crowded main roads, choosing instead to navigate through secluded back alleys. As the tailing continued, the suspicion in Byrne's heart deepened. For some reason, the man in front of him didn't seem like a living person, but rather an exquisite puppet. Every arm swing and every footfall during his walk was identical in force and distance—perfectly calculated. More unsettlingly, he moved without making a sound.
Byrne followed with extremely light steps, maintaining a distance of about ten meters. He suppressed his psychic energy to the absolute minimum, leaving only a single fine thread attached to the man in black to track his trajectory. This was a technique he had learned from the manual, ideal for stealth as it prevented psychic leakage while ensuring precise tracking.
During the journey, the man in black stopped occasionally to scan his surroundings for potential pursuers. His gaze lacked a focus point, yet it acted like an invisible net covering every corner, missing neither the shadows on the walls nor the debris at the mouth of the alleys. Fortunately, the shielding effect of the Silent State exceeded expectations. The man's scan didn't linger, and he soon retracted his gaze to continue forward.
Before long, the man in black entered an old alley. This alley was even more dilapidated than Byrne had anticipated. The buildings on either side were mostly ruined wooden houses with crumbling walls; many had collapsed, leaving jutting wooden stakes exposed. Weeds grew wildly, nearly reaching ankle height. The sunlight was sliced into fragments by the broken structures, casting dim spots of light onto the dust-covered ground, making the alley feel even more ominous.
After a while, the man in black stopped in front of a ruined wooden house. Its doors and windows had long since rotted, and the door hung precariously from its frame. On the courtyard wall to the right of the house, a peculiar symbol was painted: three inverted triangles overlapping in a triangular formation, with a distorted vertical eye in the center. The pupil was etched with fine, intricate patterns that exuded an eerie aura.
Byrne stopped immediately and observed from behind a nearby corner. The man in black stepped toward the wall and pressed his hand directly onto the distorted eye.
What happened next was shocking. The mottled, grey wall began to tremble, and debris rained down. The symbol seemed to wake like a living creature, instantly bursting with purple light. The fine patterns in the pupil spun rapidly, making it look like a real eyeball staring at the man.
From his hiding spot, Byrne sensed the energy within the purple light. It wasn't the filth of Chaos, nor was it ordinary psychic power; it felt somewhat similar to the Intersticial Energy from the storage room.
A second later, the purple light gathered along the man's arm and onto his body. Simultaneously, the symbol on the wall twisted and deformed, shaping into the outline of a doorway. As the outline formed, the wall seemed to be squeezed inward by an invisible force, eventually caving in to form a pitch-black entrance. At that moment, a massive amount of purple mist erupted from the man in black.
Purple mist!
Byrne was stunned. First the old alley, now the purple mist—was this the place described in Tim's notebook?
The sinister purple mist expanded rapidly, enveloping Byrne before he could dodge. The moment it touched the light membrane on his skin, a bone-chilling cold seeped through his pores. The stable Silent State began to fluctuate, and ripples appeared on the surface of the membrane as if it might shatter at any second.
Damn it!
Byrne's heart tightened. He instinctively surged his psychic energy to reinforce the membrane while holding his breath, shrinking into the shadows of the corner to lower his presence as much as possible. This purple mist was far more bizarre than he had imagined; it wasn't a gas but seemed composed of countless tiny energy particles that tried to penetrate the gaps in his shielding to enter his body.
Worse still, as the mist wrapped around him, a faint whispering echoed in his ears. The sound was extremely weak, as if coming from a distant abyss or being murmured directly against his ear. He couldn't tell if the voice was male or female, nor could he understand the content, catching only intermittent syllables. Yet these blurred whispers held a certain magic, striking at his mind and causing chaotic images to flicker in his head: distorted streets, flowing black liquid, and countless eyes blinking in the dark.
Psychic interference!
Byrne bit the tip of his tongue hard. The sharp pain cleared his mind slightly. Seizing the moment of clarity, he circulated his psychic power to form a second barrier on his skin, firmly blocking the mist particles.
At the entrance, the purple light continued to flicker, and the patterns on the vertical eye spun incessantly. The Intersticial Energy fluctuations became even stronger. Byrne felt conflicted: should he follow or retreat? Following meant facing the risk of the mist's mental interference and the unknown interior of the entrance; retreating meant losing the hard-won lead.
Screw it, I'll take one more gamble!
Sensing that the man in black hadn't moved within the mist, Byrne made his decision. He chose neither to follow nor to retreat, but to hold his ground for a little longer.
At that moment, the man in black in the center of the mist slowly raised his hand and pulled out the notebook. Without opening it, he held it up to his chest, aimed it at the black entrance in the wall, and threw it in. The notebook traced a short arc and fell into the darkness, making no sound as if it had been completely swallowed.
The instant the notebook vanished, the vertical eye reappeared on the wall and slowly closed. When it shut completely, all the strange phenomena—including the eye itself—vanished like a dream. The wall returned to its original state, and the entrance together with the symbol disappeared.
The man in black lay motionless on the ground like a lifeless corpse. The psychic thread Byrne had left on him also dissipated. Seeing the purple mist gone, Byrne finally relaxed his nerves. He turned his puzzled gaze toward the man in black.
What's the deal? Why is he just lying there?
Byrne didn't rush forward. He sent out several psychic threads toward the man. When they touched the body, Byrne frowned. No warmth, no breathing, no heartbeat. The man in black was dead.
Confirming the death, Byrne walked over and picked up the hat covering the man's face. When he saw the man's features clearly, his pupils shrank.
It's actually him!