paranoianovel Chapter 57 Warning
Chapter 57 Warning
The warning from the radio still echoed in his ears. Xu Mo stared at the pitch-black sky outside the window, and the confidence he had gained from breaking through to the Bullhide Realm was replaced by a deeper sense of vigilance.
"Mental derangement...cognitive impairment..." Xu Mo murmured, chewing over these words. He was confident he could handle physical dangers—zombies, freezing cold, or hunger—with his cheat-like abilities and ever-increasing strength. But this invisible erosion that directly affected his mind was far more difficult to defend against.
Xu Mo tried turning off the LED lights in the training room, and instantly, absolute darkness enveloped him.
This was not the darkness of an ordinary night, where a faint glimmer of light could still be discerned; rather, it was an extreme darkness, thick as ink, as if even its own existence was being erased. The eyes were almost completely rendered useless, and the only sounds one could hear were one's own long breaths and a subtle humming that arose from the depths of consciousness due to the deprivation of the senses.
In just a few seconds, an indescribable sense of unease and a vague feeling of isolation and helplessness quietly took root in Xu Mo's mind. It was as if this darkness was alive, trying to crawl into his brain.
Xu Mo immediately turned the light back on. The warm light dispelled the darkness and the nascent discomfort. Xu Mo let out a long breath, his eyes sharp.
"The official warning is not an exaggeration." Xu Mo was now completely certain of this. This eternal night was itself a continuous, widespread mental attack.
Adapting to this new environment has become a top priority.
Xu Mo adjusted the shelter's lighting strategy, keeping the main activity areas constantly lit, but replacing the high-powered LED lights with more energy-efficient smaller lights. He also checked and categorized all spare batteries and power banks, and implemented a strict electricity usage plan. Non-essential areas were kept in darkness to conserve every bit of energy.
At the same time, Xu Mo began his training in a "simulated dark environment".
He regularly turned off the lights and practiced stances, fist techniques, and even strength control exercises in absolute darkness. Initially, the suffocating feeling of being deprived of his senses and the resulting restlessness were extremely intense, severely interfering with Xu Mo's concentration. But relying on the stronger physique and willpower brought by the Bullhide Realm, he forced himself to adapt.
His breathing gradually became long and steady, and his heartbeat slowed down. Xu Mo no longer tried to perceive his surroundings by "seeing," but instead focused his attention on the touch of his skin, the flow of air, and the subtle changes in his own muscles and bones. The stance training of the Thirteen Bodyguards was originally a method to temper the body and refine the will, but in this extreme environment, it had a different effect.
After a few days, Xu Mo discovered that in the darkness, his control over his body seemed even more acute. Every muscle tension and relaxation, every flow of blood and energy, seemed magnified. The feeling of "skin as one" brought by the leather mirror became increasingly clear after losing his visual dependence.
Xu Mo even tried circulating his qi and blood in the darkness, stimulating his skin. Instantly, his exposed skin glowed with a faint, barely perceptible yellow light, as if he were covered with a layer of old cowhide. Under this "cowhide" wrapping, the invisible mental pressure caused by the darkness seemed to be greatly weakened.
This was an unexpected discovery. Although it was impossible to be completely immune to the effects of the eternal darkness, at least Xu Mo found a powerful weapon to fight against it—his own strong blood and qi and his resilient physique.
During this time, Xu Mo also used the "door" again.
This time, Xu Mo cautiously chose to open the door in a well-lit indoor location. He replenished his energy with high-calorie food and water within sixty seconds and found nothing unusual. It seemed that the "door" itself, and the frozen world, were unaffected by the eternal darkness of the outside world, which reassured Xu Mo somewhat.
At night, Xu Mo was awakened by a low growl and a scraping sound.
The sound was like a dull knife repeatedly scraping against ice, intermittent yet carrying a kind of persistence. It didn't seem like an unconscious wandering; rather, it was as if it clearly knew someone was there.
The vigilance honed by his post-apocalyptic life instantly snapped Xu Mo to his senses. He rolled over and silently stood up, his right hand simultaneously reaching for the LED table lamp switch beside the bed.
"Snap." The soft yet firm white light instantly dispelled the darkness in the room.
Almost at the same instant the lights came on, the irritating growling and scraping sounds outside the window abruptly stopped. Immediately afterward, Xu Mo's keen ears caught a few crunching sounds of snow being trampled, and the light, chaotic footsteps quickly fading away, sounding like some kind of animal fleeing.
Xu Mo's eyes narrowed, and without the slightest hesitation, he grabbed a powerful flashlight and the automatic rifle beside him, and quickly and cautiously climbed to the rooftop.
A biting wind howled, and under the inky black sky, only the snow reflected the eerie light of flashlights. Xu Mo vaguely saw several blurry black figures disappearing at an incredible speed at the end of the street, merging into the boundless darkness. Although they weren't very clear, their agile figures and the pattern of their group movement immediately led Xu Mo to the conclusion—they were wolves, the same pack that usually only roamed the outskirts of the town!
"How did they get into the town? And how did they find my location so accurately?" Xu Mo was filled with doubt.
His sanctuary was relatively secluded within the town, and the wolves had never ventured this deep before. How could their sense of smell remain so acute in such cold and snowy conditions after nightfall? That explanation seems rather far-fetched.
Xu Mo climbed down to the second-floor window and inspected the window, which he had carefully reinforced with wooden planks. Sure enough, near the corner, Xu Mo found clear claw marks and bite marks. Fortunately, the planks were nailed flat, so the wolves had nowhere to grip, and the damage was very limited; they only scraped off some wood chips and did not cause any fundamental damage.
Despite this, Xu Mo's heart sank. This was no accident. The wolf pack displayed clear purpose and aggression, and while they seemed to have an extraordinary ability to adapt to the dark, they were unusually sensitive to light.
He dared not let his guard down any longer and decided to stop sleeping. Holding his rifle, he sat in the training room, with only a small lamp illuminating the room. He was like a lurking cheetah, silently waiting in the silence for the wolves to attack again so he could take them out.
However, the wolves did not reappear until several hours had passed as the watch showed.
Silence returned, and only his own breathing could be clearly heard in the room. Xu Mo suppressed his slight anxiety and, in order to distract himself and gather information, turned on the radio.
He switched channels, and after the familiar static, a slightly tired but still serious female voice came through. The content of the broadcast made him instantly understand the reason:
"This is an emergency broadcast from Jiangcheng Shelter: Repeating, last night our shelter's outer area was attacked by a group of unidentified wild animals, causing damage to some of our perimeter defenses and casualties. The exact number is still being tallied. Observations indicate that these animals are unusually active in the perpetual darkness, exhibiting extremely high aggression, but they also show a clear aversion to light. If you encounter them, please immediately turn on a strong light source, which will effectively drive them away..."
The female voice continued to broadcast some precautions and words of encouragement, but Xu Mo had already grasped the core information.
Light-fearing beasts, nighttime attacks, group activities…
Everything fits together.
The creature that attacked Jiangcheng's shelter and the one that came to cause him trouble tonight are likely the same thing, or rather, a pack of wolves or all wild beasts that have undergone the same mutation in the eternal night!
"The eternal night not only brought darkness and mental stress, but even the beasts have mutated?" Xu Mo murmured to himself.
The wolves' ability to locate him so accurately might not be entirely due to their sense of smell. Perhaps the darkness of the eternal night endowed them with a more eerie tracking ability, or a perception of "life force"?
Xu Mo turned off the radio, and the room returned to silence, with only the light from the table lamp clashing against the boundless darkness outside.
The threat has shifted once again, now manifesting not only as an invisible form of mental erosion but also as a physical pack of wolves lurking in the darkness. His once relatively safe haven has likely become a conspicuous target in the eyes of these wolves.
Xu Mo gripped the gun tightly, his gaze sweeping across the eternal darkness outside the window, his eyes sharp as knives.
The shelter's defenses needed to be upgraded again; he felt he needed to create some traps to hunt down the wolves.