24 Chapters of Hypnosis

Time rewound to five minutes earlier.

"Phew—" Gary finally stopped, his hand resting on the hotel's entrance pillar, unable to catch his breath for a moment.

After taking a cab to the downtown area, he found the roads were completely blocked. Anxious, he decided to get out of the cab and run all the way.

"Beep, beep, beep..." No one answered Wolf's phone, just the busy tone from an automatic hang-up.

He panicked slightly and hurried into the hotel, flashing his police badge at the reception desk before inquiring, "The Police Chief just now..."

"Seventeenth floor," the receptionist quickly replied.

Gary ran into the elevator, pressed the button for the seventeenth floor, then thought better of it and pressed for the sixteenth floor as well.

The situation was unclear. If the Disciples had already dealt with Wolf and Jiang Shu, they might post someone to guard the elevator entrance on the seventeenth floor.

The elevator stopped at the sixteenth floor. Gary exited and could hear gunshots coming from upstairs, so he quickly crossed the hallway and used the emergency staircase to reach the seventeenth floor.

He cracked the door of the emergency stairwell slightly open and peeked outside.

At just a glance, his eyes widened in shock.

Jiang Shu stood off against a knife-wielding Disciple, whose legs were starting to glow blue—a prelude to an attack that Gary recognized all too well.

"Mr. Jiang!" he cried out in alarm, his mind going blank even as his body instinctively rushed out from the stairwell.

He felt his hand touch Jiang Shu, pushing him away from danger.

In his peripheral vision, he saw the Disciple's fierce and brutal expression, along with the menacing metal long knife.

In that instant, many thoughts flashed through Gary's mind.

He understood why the Seventh Police Station had invited Mr. Jiang as a consultant, as his abilities impressed him as well, but this understanding was fleeting.

Clearly, Mr. Jiang lacked professional police training—not holding any skills to ensure his own safety.

Moreover, being part of the Entertainment Series and constantly mingling with the police risked generating strange, potentially deviating traits. The saying that entertainment breeds deviations wasn't unfounded.

Thus, Mr. Jiang ought to remain a civilian and steer clear of police affairs.

Gary stopped his wandering thoughts, feeling at peace. He did not think of his family, knowing they would be proud of him.

As a police officer, dying while saving civilians was a worthy end.

—

"You..." Jiang Shu watched as half of Gary's body was severed by the blade, the thick scent of blood turning his stomach sour.

"Run!" Gary shouted, suddenly giving him a meaningful look.

The Disciple stood before the emergency exit, a malicious grin on his face as he looked down at the fallen Gary.

Jiang Shu didn't move. Facing a monster that could cover twenty meters in a second, running was futile; he had to find another way, and redoing a previous trick seemed most evident.

He saw Xiao Jia quietly crawling behind the Disciple, beginning to climb the wall.

To perfectly project the Disciple's head beside Jiang Shu, Xiao Jia needed to find the right angle—there was no room for error.

And Jiang Shu, he needed to buy some time.

The Disciple swung his blade, stepping over Gary on the ground and looked at Jiang Shu, "Your death will be an exceedingly slow process."

"Before I die, can you tell me why you want to kill us?" Jiang Shu rapidly asked, "At least let me die with some understanding."

"Why?" The Disciple paused, then frowned. "Yes, why do I want to kill you..."

He pondered for a moment, then shook his head vehemently and gritted his teeth, "It doesn't matter, you killed Gars, you must die!"

At that moment, Xiao Jia had found his position. A strong light emitted, projecting the Disciple's shadow onto the wall beside Jiang Shu. Noticing this, Jiang Shu swiftly raised his dagger and stabbed at the shadow on the wall.

Just then, something unexpected occurred.

"Screech—"

Behind the Disciple, a sliver of an opening appeared as the emergency exit door was opened, and a glowing Light Ball was tossed out. It flew straight toward the shadow on the wall and then stuck there.

"What!" Jiang Shu was startled, then his hand continued to move the knife across the wall out of inertia, but by then the shadow of the Disciple on the wall had already dissolved into the light from the Light Ball.

Shadow Cutting failed to trigger, leaving the Disciple unharmed.

It's over...

Jiang Shu felt somewhat desperate; he wanted to remove the Light Ball but simply couldn't.

Before he could make another move, the emergency door opened, and a vast stretch of shadows extended out, enveloping the Disciple.

A hand reached out from the door, snapped its fingers next to the Disciple's ear, and after the snap, the Disciple instantly closed his eyes, his body leaning back, falling into the darkness.

Immediately after, the emergency door was closed again, and the sound of it locking could be heard.

All of this occurred right in front of Jiang Shu, and as he came back to his senses, the corridor returned to quiet, with only Gary's faint gasping audible.

"That was..." He rushed forward to try to open the door but only succeeded in making the emergency door rattle loudly.

That snap was the Fox.

"Ah..." Gary moaned unintentionally; his recent actions had drained too much of his strength, and the amount of blood loss from the shredded half of his body was terrifyingly massive, and he was now barely hanging on to life.

"Mr. Jiang?" His eyes were open, but he couldn't see anything, "Did it work? Are you still there? Or..."

Jiang Shu was pulled back to reality by this call, taken aback by the swift three-second change. He reassured Gary, "I'm here, don't be afraid, I've called a Doctor, you can make it."

"Mm, I hope so, but... I'm so tired." Gary nodded weakly and then slowly closed his eyes. "I saw a door, it seemed... like if I just walked through that door, I wouldn't be tired anymore."

"Gary! Don't sleep, don't sleep!" Jiang Shu gritted his teeth.

He understood clearly, the door was a metaphor for death; once someone passed through that hallucinatory door, not even a God could save them, and he had nothing on hand to save a life now.

"By the way, Jia, Bing, Ding, can any of you electrically shock?" he suddenly recalled a scene from a TV show, "Can you simulate a defibrillator?"

Jia: We can simulate, but it's not advised. Cardiac resuscitation defibrillation only works on heart rhythm disorders. Defibrillating without an ECG is just gambling on him coincidentally having arrhythmia.

Bing: Simply put, direct mortality risk is high.

"That won't work either." Jiang Shu frowned, his gaze shifting to his wristwatch.

Hallucination...

Door?

Heart Anchor?

He suddenly remembered an entry on his Character Card that he had always overlooked. Not sure if it would work, he still leaned close to Gary, firmly grasping his hand.

"Gary, listen to me!"

"Mm," Gary responded faintly.

"Now, you're very, very tired, aren't you?"

"Mm."

"Everything around you is a vast white, you can't see anything, no, you can see a door, it's just ten meters away, tell me, do you see it?" Jiang Shu's voice was soft, but it seemed to carry a magical power that made the image in Gary's mind grow clearer.

"Yes," Gary said.

"You walk toward that door, your body gradually feeling lighter, you know that after passing through that door, you can rest, so you quicken your pace, finally, you reach the door, stop, and look at it."

"Door..." Gary was no longer conscious of what he was saying.

"But then, you find the door is locked, no matter what you do, you can't open it," Jiang Shu's tone suddenly changed, urgent and oppressive, "so you start to walk back, because there's no path ahead."

"Although you will be very tired, remember, don't stop, don't stop, don't stop!" Jiang Shu urged, but he received no more responses.