Chapter 1315: Black Spirit

"You're ganging up on me?!"

Chen Ling was absolutely furious at the sight.

The black-robed figure was superior to him in speed, strength, and physical build, yet it could also incite the surrounding audience to gang up on him. This wasn't just a lack of sportsmanship; it was blatant cheating!

From the very beginning, the audience here had no intention of letting them compete fairly... From the start, they wanted Chen Ling dead!

However, no matter how furious Chen Ling was, he couldn't change the current situation. As the 'expectation' value continuously dropped, countless audience members rushed towards him. Before this, Chen Ling had already been worn down by a large wave of spectators, then severely wounded by the black-robed figure, losing an arm, with his head barely attached.

Even if Chen Ling was a formidable fighter, one fist couldn't contend with a hundred hands.

Fists rained down like countless drops onto the great red theatrical robe, and grotesque mouths tore at Chen Ling's body, leaving his already critical state riddled with wounds. Chen Ling couldn't kill them all; he could only barely recover his strength by devouring the audience. Yet, during this process, surging negative emotions continuously assailed his mind.

On the dimly lit stage, Chen Ling's body and mind collapsed successively, as if he were sinking into an inescapable hell.

His consciousness blurred little by little, until eventually he stopped thinking, leaving only the purest violence and combat instinct to fight among the endless audience. He stumbled and staggered, like a shattered performer on the verge of vanishing from this world.

Just then, a figure draped in a black theatrical robe flashed behind Chen Ling, who was mechanically clinging to the fight...

Thwack!

A black hand pierced through Chen Ling's chest.

Chen Ling's body instantly stiffened, his lone arm, barely fighting, froze in mid-air... He struggled to turn his head, but as the black-robed figure swept its hand horizontally, his already largely severed neck was completely cut through, and his head rolled to the ground.

The headless body in the great red theatrical robe fell heavily to the ground with a dull thud.

Seeing Chen Ling fall, the surrounding audience went wild, eager to tear his body apart. But the next moment, a cold glint erupted from the black-robed figure's eerie dark eyes, and it kicked over a dozen audience members, sending them tumbling off the stage.

As Chen Ling lost his combat ability, the audience and the black-robed figure, who were previously allied, immediately turned on each other, fighting fiercely over Chen Ling's "remains"!

However, the black-robed figure was too strong. Moreover, the audience members had already been largely depleted by Chen Ling, and the black-robed figure, having reaped the benefits, was hardly injured. The situation was almost a one-sided massacre; the remaining audience could only glare at the black-robed figure with anger and resentment before being mercilessly knocked off the stage.

After some time of fighting, only the black-robed figure stood alone on the empty stage.

At this point, the spotlight had fully brightened, concentrating all its light on the black-robed figure. Yet, the dark robe seemed to devour the light, making the figure appear like a human abyss on the stage...

The black-robed figure did not cast Chen Ling off the stage. Instead, it gazed down at the headless body at its feet, a flicker of desire and excitement crossing its blurred face!

Currently, it was merely a replica vomited forth from Chen Ling's body... But if it slowly consumed Chen Ling's body, it could completely strip him of everything and replace him as the new "Mocking Calamity"!

But before that...

The black-robed figure gently snapped its fingers.

Snap!

As an uplifting melody began, a neat desk materialized under the spotlight.

"Congratulations on completing the play, 'Only Me'."

"Highest audience expectation value for this play: ??"

"You have gained one designated draw right."

"Upon use, you can select a character from all characters who appeared in this play and randomly draw one of their abilities. The probability of drawing rare skills is related to the overall audience expectation value of this play."

The black-robed figure had defeated Chen Ling and fulfilled its unique performance conditions... Now, it was time to claim its reward.

As a blank paper appeared before the black-robed figure, it slowly raised its hand and wrote a name...

Or rather,

A series of symbols.

It was not writing from any civilization on Earth; its structure was complex and elongated. It took the black-robed figure a full fifteen seconds to complete the symbol, which almost exceeded the paper's limits...

The moment it put down the pen, several deep purple cards, etched with mysterious patterns, appeared before it.

Unlike any skills Chen Ling had ever drawn, these cards emitted an indescribable aura of terror... an aura that did not belong to humans.

The black-robed figure casually tapped one of them.

"Skill: ???? (Storm of Thought)"

"Affiliation: ????? "

"Character: ??????? (Island Nightmare of the Long Slumbering Storm, Eerie Phantom at the End of Thought)"

This card also bore that mysterious, non-Earth language, but after the skill and character identifiers, some translatable words were noted... However, the black-robed figure didn't even glance at them, tucking the skill card into its robe.

On its blurred face, a grotesque smile curled its lips, and its eyes seemed filled with mockery.

Then,

Its hand reached directly towards the curtain leading to the real world...

Underground Palace.

The surging red clouds abruptly halted, and the world-ending aura that filled the air suddenly seemed guided, rapidly sweeping back towards the throne!

The red clouds transformed into countless scarlet tentacles, retracting back beneath the black theatrical robe. As the bullet holes on its temples gradually vanished, a slightly blurred face slowly straightened its head, and a shark-like, exaggerated scarlet grin stretched directly to its ears.

"Crk... Co-cough... Heh... Heheh..."

"Haha..."

"HAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

It seemed to want to laugh, but apparently was not yet accustomed to the vocal cords of this body. After several attempts, it finally emitted a laugh close to that of a human, and this laughter echoed eerily through the empty underground palace!

The black-robed figure lowered its gaze to its palm. As the skill activated, an invisible storm coalesced directly from its palm, swirling out along its thoughts!

Legend had it that if one heard the story of the Thought Calamity, a connection would be established with it; and if one saw the Thought Calamity with their own eyes, it could follow one's thoughts, penetrate their dreams, and kill them... Now, the black-robed figure possessed the same authority.

This storm of thought seemed to defy space, instantly sweeping across the entirety of the Ash Realm, and even the major human domains...

In the black-robed figure's mind, countless bright and dim points of light silently ignited within the storm.