Hearing the voice coming from outside the door, Jiang Ming's body instantly stiffened. He stared blankly at the breathtakingly beautiful woman before him.
The woman before his eyes was still drop-dead gorgeous, beautiful enough to suffocate a man, beautiful enough to be inhuman!
A piercing chill shot up from the soles of Jiang Ming's feet straight to the crown of his head!
Something was terribly wrong.
Jiang Ming immediately engaged his repeatedly traumatised brain to process the current situation.
If the person outside the door was truly ‘Mother's' friend, then who was this ‘Elder Sister' standing right in front of him?
Or rather, what exactly was she?
Jiang Ming carefully retraced the earlier events. This so-called ‘Elder Sister' never actually admitted to being ‘Mother's' friend; it had just been his own wishful thinking.
Furthermore, ‘Mother's' friend should not be this young.
So why on earth did he assume she was ‘Mother's' friend?
Was it simply because she appeared at the right time and the right place?
That was far too coincidental.
And what about her calling out his name?
That did not matter in the slightest. Who didn't know his name? The fake ‘Mother' knew it, Uncle Li knew it, and even the family dog knew it!
Using that detail to determine whether this ‘Elder Sister' was ‘Mother's' friend was completely unreliable!
The more Jiang Ming analysed the situation, the more sweat poured down his back.
Looking at it this way, this ‘Elder Sister' was most likely not ‘Mother's' friend at all. Just like the fake ‘Mother' from earlier, she was an abomination.
The one outside the door was the real ‘Mother's' friend!
The mere thought gave Jiang Ming a splitting headache. What kind of mess was this? He had just escaped the tiger's den only to walk into a wolf's lair, and the kicker was that he had invited the wolf in himself!
At this moment, Jiang Ming figured there was an eighty percent chance the ‘Elder Sister' before him was an imposter.
He pondered whether to replicate his previous tactic: using a vending machine to distract the ‘Elder Sister' and then throwing the door open to let ‘Mother's' friend inside, forcing the two of them into a fight to the bitter end!
With that thought in mind, Jiang Ming's gaze hardened. Just as he was about to summon the machine, the peerless beauty smiled and spoke.
“Xiao Ming, do you honestly believe the person outside is the real deal?”
Upon hearing those words, Jiang Ming's mind instantly swam in a daze, and he abruptly experienced an epiphany.
She was right. Why did he conclude that the ‘Elder Sister' before him was a fake based on a few relatively trivial points?
He had never met ‘Mother's' friend before. Why couldn't she be a young woman?
After all, intergenerational friendships existed in the real world, let alone in this bizarre realm of Rule-Based Anomalies.
Moreover, ever since this ‘Elder Sister' appeared, Uncle Li had been driven away, the dog had been suppressed, and his own mutation had halted.
These were undeniable facts right before his eyes.
But the most crucial detail of all was a single undeniable metric.
Jiang Ming shifted his gaze to the status panel hovering before him. His Sanity was slowly recovering.
If the ‘Elder Sister' was an anomaly or harboured malicious intentions toward him, this situation would never occur!
Every prior encounter with an anomalous event or abomination had caused his Sanity to plummet, varying only in the speed of the decline.
Yet now, his Sanity was climbing. This was the most compelling evidence that his ‘Elder Sister' was genuine!
Therefore, the so-called Auntie Zhang outside was the true imposter. She was using the exact same ploy as the fake ‘Mother', trying to trick him into opening the door! This chapter was copied from novelping . com without permission.
He had been so utterly convinced that the ‘Elder Sister' before him was a fake and the one outside was real. Could his cognitive perception have been tampered with again?
Hiss!
The abominations in this realm of Rule-Based Anomalies were terrifying to this degree!
Fortunately, he had figured it all out!
Having reasoned through the situation, Jiang Ming felt a sudden clarity of mind, and his entire body relaxed.
And yet, he still felt a faint sense of incongruity.
Just as he was about to delve deeper into that thought, his ‘Elder Sister' covered her mouth and chuckled lightly: “You understand now, right? Why would your Elder Sister ever harm you?”
The knocking outside persisted, and Auntie Zhang was still shouting through the door. Jiang Ming chose to ignore it, offering his ‘Elder Sister' a smiling response.
“Ah, I was overthinking things. How could you ever harm me.”
Before Jiang Ming could finish his sentence, the smile froze on his lips. Staring at the status panel before him, an abrupt realisation exploded in his mind.
“When did I ever open my status panel?!”
That single thought struck like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky, viciously detonating inside Jiang Ming's mind and blasting that deeply hidden sense of incongruity right out into the open!
Ever since this ‘Elder Sister' had entered the room, he had never once actively opened his status panel!
Yet, this status panel had appeared so abruptly before his eyes, and he had not suspected a thing.
Aside from its initial unprompted appearance at the very beginning, this status panel required a manual summon. Otherwise, it was impossible for it to manifest. Jiang Ming had tested this rule countless times.
The moment Jiang Ming fully grasped this truth, the status panel before him rapidly dissolved, revealing the eerie smile of the ‘Elder Sister'.
Jiang Ming swallowed hard, his heart trembling as he silently chanted: “Open status panel.”
In the next instant, the rudimentary status panel materialised. The text displayed upon it was crystal clear. Sanity: 74.
Evidently, this was Jiang Ming's actual Sanity at this very moment.
Everything from earlier had been a complete fabrication. His Sanity had never been recovering; it had been plummeting the entire time!
Staring at the ‘Elder Sister' before him, Jiang Ming forced a smile that looked uglier than someone weeping and silently backed away.
However, after taking two steps back, he halted his retreat. He could not be certain whether the entity outside the door was genuine.
There was a very high probability that the one outside was a fake as well!
He possessed absolutely no proof that the entity outside was the real deal. Was he supposed to trust it just because it claimed to be ‘Mother's' friend?
It could easily be the previous ‘Mother' assuming a new identity to deceive him all over again.
It could also be some other bizarre anomaly entirely.
There was a chance that the moment he opened the door, Auntie Zhang would lunge forward and slaughter him on the spot.
At this moment, Jiang Ming truly had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, thoroughly backed into an inescapable corner!
The current situation was even more perilous than the dog's mutation. Back then, he at least had the assurance that Uncle Li would attack the dog, which was why he dared to open the door in the first place.
But now? If he opened the door and the entity outside turned out to be genuine, that would be fine. It could offer him some assistance.
But if it was a fake, the two of them might not fight each other at all. Instead, they might join forces to butcher him first!
The ‘Elder Sister' sat in her chair, gazing playfully at the trapped Jiang Ming. She drew a tissue to wipe her scarlet lips and spoke.
“It seems you don't trust your Elder Sister.”
Jiang Ming offered a bitter smile, seemingly resigning himself to his fate, and took a step forward with his right foot: “Sigh, Sis, how could I not trust you.”
His expression was utterly desolate, acting as though he had given up all hope.
Yet, right when the ‘Elder Sister' believed Jiang Ming was submitting, his demeanour underwent a sudden, one-hundred-and-eighty-degree shift!
The dejection vanished from his eyes, replaced by pure, unadulterated resolve!
Channelling explosive power into his leading foot, Jiang Ming stomped down ruthlessly. He immediately pivoted his footing, spun around, and engaged his core to sprint fiercely toward the door!
At the exact same time, several vending machines materialised out of thin air. Two plummeted directly toward the ‘Elder sister's' head, while three formed a barricade between the two of them.
This fluid, lightning-fast sequence of events unfolded in a mere fraction of a second!
Without a shred of hesitation, Jiang Ming fled for his life!
He possessed a crystal-clear understanding of just how terrifying this ‘Elder Sister's' strength truly was. As such, he did not entertain any delusions that these vending machines would actually stop her. He merely needed them to stall her for a few precious seconds.
Stall long enough for him to wrench the door open and lure the so-called Auntie Zhang inside.
That's right; Jiang Ming's plan was still to open the door!
While opening the door carried a massive risk of death, failing to open it guaranteed his demise!
Jiang Ming harboured an extremely tenacious will to live. As long as there was even a sliver of hope for survival, he would fight for it.
Furthermore, any rational person knew how to choose between a slim chance of survival and absolute certain death.
Jiang Ming's idea was beautiful, but reality was ruthlessly cruel.
Those five vending machines failed to serve as even a momentary barricade. In fact, they couldn't even drop to the floor!
While still in midair, they were suspended by an inexplicable force. Half of each machine became embedded within the ceiling, while the remaining halves hovered motionlessly in the room.
In that moment, the room seemed to come alive. In order to accommodate the vending machines summoned by his ability, the room violently extended its own ceiling height, allowing the machines to fully materialise without ever impacting the ‘Elder Sister'.
The ‘Elder Sister' displayed zero interest in this phenomenon. She merely watched Jiang Ming sprinting madly ahead of her. She did not launch an attack; she just observed in complete silence.
That was until a certain moment when, wearing a faint smile, she gently clapped her hands.
Jiang Ming remained entirely oblivious to the events transpiring behind him. His mind held only a single thought: run, run faster, run even faster!
He pushed himself to the absolute limit, charging toward the door like a madman, every cell in his body boiling with adrenaline!
He stretched his arm out as far as it could possibly go, desperate to reach the doorknob just a fraction of a second sooner.
A distance of a few mere metres, typically traversed in the blink of an eye, now felt like an insurmountable chasm.
Finally, Jiang Ming closed in on the doorknob. He was so close, just a hair's breadth away!
It was a profound pity that sometimes, a hair's breadth was an eternity.
Clap, clap.
In the ensuing moment, the scenery before Jiang Ming's eyes violently warped, and the front door vanished into thin air.
Taking its place was the teasing, playful smile of his ‘Elder Sister'.
Simultaneously, a blood-red umbrella snapped open above her head. The five vending machines suspended in midair seemed to suffer under a colossal, crushing pressure and instantly detonated.
Perhaps because the sheer force of this pressure was so overwhelmingly absolute, their explosion did not generate a single flying fragment of shrapnel. Instead, they were pulverised into clouds of fine powder that drifted gently downward.
The powder settled over the dishevelled Jiang Ming. Staring at the breathtakingly beautiful woman standing right in front of him, a bitter taste flooded his mouth as a tidal wave of utter despair consumed his heart.