"Then let's begin the plan."
Lam Huy Trường looked at Kai and Lyra.
The two clearly had a lot more they wanted to say. But he only lowered his head, his face darkening as he drew in a long breath.
"Don't worry about me."
"You can see me too?"
LHT opened his eyes, about to force out a friendly smile.
But the question...
It sounded strange.
And that voice...
It wasn't familiar at all.
His eyes shifted slightly.
Then his entire body froze.
A girl in a blood-soaked patient gown was dragging herself toward him, one shaky step at a time.
She reached out as if begging for help.
But her pale face—
Her eye sockets were completely empty.
Lifeless.
LHT jolted upright so violently he nearly jumped.
"Professor?"
His eyes snapped open.
Kai and Lyra were still sitting in front of him, staring at him like nothing had happened.
"What's wrong?"
LHT blinked in confusion.
They had clearly been in the middle of discussing the plan.
He immediately whipped his head around.
There was only a ruined wall behind him.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
He stood there for several seconds, eyes locked on it.
Don't tell me... I just got haunted in broad daylight?
"What time is it, Mrs. AI?" he asked without looking away.
"7:58 AM, sir."
A strange voice answered.
Then—
"Are you sick too?"
"What?"
LHT spun around.
Nothing.
Kai and Lyra were still talking like before.
Neither of them had spoken another word.
His eyes narrowed.
Slowly, he lowered his gaze to the watch on his left wrist.
Then his pupils shrank.
The watch...
It was trembling.
Fresh blood suddenly burst from the glass face and sprayed straight across his face.
LHT stumbled back in panic, losing his balance.
But the blood kept pouring out.
More and more.
Until it pooled into a massive crimson puddle beneath his feet.
Then it became a sea of blood.
The level rose at horrifying speed.
Past his ankles.
Past his knees.
Past his waist.
Until it nearly reached his throat.
LHT thrashed inside the freezing sea.
Through the thick red liquid, he could still vaguely see Kai and Lyra calmly discussing the plan.
As if they saw nothing.
As if...
he didn't exist.
He opened his mouth and screamed for help.
But the blood only swallowed him deeper.
Until even his last raised hand vanished beneath the red.
He couldn't breathe.
His body sank into the darkness below.
"AAAAAA—!"
LHT's eyes flew open.
He gasped violently, like a drowning man dragged back to the surface.
The scene repeated itself.
Kai and Lyra were still sitting in front of him.
"Professor..."
Slowly, LHT lifted his eyes.
The same familiar faces stared back at him, as if only a few brief seconds had passed.
He instinctively touched his throat.
His pulse was still there.
He touched his face.
His breath was still warm.
Then he looked down at his hands.
Empty.
Only skin wrinkled slightly from the cold rain.
"That's weird..."
What the hell just happened?
He scratched his head and slowly looked up.
His mouth had just started to open—
A strangled groan caught in his throat.
The sight before him turned his entire body ice cold.
Kai and Lyra...
Blood was pouring from all seven orifices.
Dark red streams seeped from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths like flowing rivers.
They reached toward him.
Their eyes filled with despair.
As if begging him to save them.
LHT staggered back.
"What the hell is happening?!"
His whole body trembled violently.
The horrifying scene looked like something straight out of a cursed horror film.
Then—
The screaming began.
Sharp.
Distorted.
Like thousands of people crying at once, drilling through his eardrums.
LHT dropped to his knees and clutched his head.
Around him, corpses began clawing their way out of the rubble.
Rotting arms.
Shattered faces.
Twisted bodies dragging themselves from the earth like something hauled up from hell.
Every single one turned toward him.
Their glowing red eyes locked onto him.
Staring.
The sounds grew worse.
Like manic fingernails scraping glass, mixed with shrieks so piercing his skull felt ready to explode.
His palms clenched so tightly they split open.
He tried to stand.
His knees buckled again.
The corpses began staggering toward him.
One step.
Then another.
And amidst the warped noise—
A voice echoed out.
Cold.
Ghostly.
"A broken toy... should not exist in this world."
LHT froze.
"What?"
His eyes darted wildly around, searching for the owner of that voice.
His heartbeat thundered in his chest.
His balance began to fail.
He looked down at his hands.
Blood.
They were bleeding.
He shot a hand up to his hair.
His ears—
Blood was leaking from them too.
It had already soaked through his collar.
What the hell is happening to me?
The sounds around him became increasingly distorted.
All he could hear now were sorrowful cries echoing from some distant place.
LHT gritted his teeth and forced himself to calm down.
Thinkkkkkkkkkk.
Figure out what's happening.
Explain what's in front of you.
But the corpses kept crawling out.
More and more.
Closer and closer.
His head felt like it was splitting apart.
SMACK!
LHT slapped himself hard across the face.
"Wake up..."
SMACK!
"Wake the hell up..."
The world around him began twisting like a massive whirlpool.
LHT gasped for breath and forced himself to stand.
Then—
An ice-cold hand suddenly burst through the vortex and grabbed his arm.
Another zombie lunged from the distance and wrapped itself around his body.
"AAAA—!"
LHT struggled wildly.
But then—
Something stabbed into his neck.
A horrifying rrrippppp echoed out.
Hot blood splattered across his vision.
He felt the strength draining from his body.
And before he could do anything—
The zombies swarmed him.
They tore him apart.
LHT could feel every layer of skin being ripped from his body.
Chunks of flesh were hooked out and shredded apart like a living animal being devoured by a pack of hyenas.
The pain was so real it nearly drove him insane.
"No...!"
He wanted to scream.
Wanted to say this wasn't real.
That this was just an illusion.
Just a nightmare.
But his throat felt crushed shut.
Not a single word could escape his mouth.
His vision blurred.
The screams around him melted into distorted chaos.
The world slowly sank into darkness.
But then—
Among the sea of undead crowding before him...
He saw something.
Something horrifyingly out of place.
A little girl.
Standing in the distance.
Her crimson dress looked soaked in blood.
An old doll rested in her arms.
Long hair covered half her face.
The little girl was smiling.
A soft, gentle smile—
In front of such a horrifying scene.
As if nothing happening before her was frightening at all.
LHT wanted to look closer.
Wanted to scream and ask who she was.
But darkness completely swallowed him.
And then—
His eyes snapped open once more.
Cold rain slammed against his face.
Every drop striking his skin jolted him awake like he'd just escaped a nightmare from hell.
A mechanical voice filled with annoyance came from the watch on his left wrist.
"Are you seriously exhausted enough to fall asleep in the middle of a battlefield, Professor?"
"Do you need me to—"
"AAAAAAAAAAA!"
LHT screamed over her.
He practically jumped off the ground.
"Holy shit! So that was all a dream?!"
He immediately pinched his own cheek hard.
Pain shot through his face.
Then he straight-up slapped himself without mercy just to make sure.
SMACK!
SMACK!
"Ow..."
LHT's eyes darted left, right, up, and down like a malfunctioning robot.
Observing.
Checking.
Confirming reality.
Several endless seconds passed before he finally dared let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Phew..."
He rubbed his forehead and shook his head repeatedly.
Eventually, he reached a reluctant conclusion.
The E. D. W. Stone.
I used it again and got dragged into a nightmare.
"Goddammit..."
"It was just a dream."
He instinctively glanced down at his pants.
Then quietly sighed in relief.
"Thank god..."
"At least I didn't piss myself from fear."
But immediately after, his expression stiffened slightly.
Wait...
What if it wasn't just a normal nightmare?
A prophetic dream?
He instantly shook his head like a rattle drum.
"No no no..."
"It was probably just a nightmare."
"But seriously... who the hell makes people experience a zombie horror movie with full pain simulation?!"
LHT kept standing there mumbling to himself.
Until—
CRACK!
A bolt of electricity shot through his body.
"AAAAAA—!"
LHT collapsed to his knees, smoke puffing from his mouth.
A faint burnt smell filled the air.
A deeply offended voice echoed from the watch on his left wrist.
"Your mind is still functioning normally, correct, Professor?"
"If you fail to provide a reasonable explanation..."
"...then I'll continue our conversation with electricity."
An evil little laugh followed.
Its meaning was perfectly clear.
I absolutely will do it.
LHT forced out a helpless smile, his voice trembling like he was about to cry.
"I-I'm fine..."
A sour voice immediately answered, clearly not planning to let him off.
"I don't think you're fine at all."
"Why do I suddenly get the feeling you enjoy being roasted alive by high-voltage electricity?"
"Or did you just ascend to heaven and now you're sad about returning to the mortal world?"
Crackle... crackle...
Tiny arcs of electricity flickered from the watch on his wrist.
LHT swore—
He could practically see the sparks forming words in the air.
Watch yourself.
Still kneeling on the ground, he sounded seconds away from crying.
"It's just... a few things distracted me..."
"I'm back to normal now..."
"So... could you go back to normal too?"
"Oh?"
Mrs. AI's voice turned thoughtful.
"So apparently I'm the abnormal one here?"
"..."
LHT instantly went speechless.
Every survival instinct in his body screamed at him.
Say one wrong sentence and you're getting the Super Saiyan electric edition experience on the spot.
People always said:
Think before you speak.
LHT swallowed hard.
Then carefully chose every word.
"Oh no..."
"What I mean is..."
"Someone as super intelligent as Mrs. AI must have misunderstood me."
"She definitely wouldn't make things difficult for—"
LHT paused for half a second.
"...ah no, I mean she definitely wouldn't behave uncivilized toward someone who genuinely needs help."
The moment he finished speaking, he practically wanted to kneel and pray to the heavens.
Please let that calm her down.
Ancestors, protect meeeeeeeee.
Ever since transmigrating into this world...
LHT had learned many things.
How to endure pain.
How to survive while mentally exhausted beyond the limit.
How to crawl from one hell into another.
From physical torture...
to psychological torture.
Goddammit, he had only managed to eat one proper good meal in this shitty world.
And now he had to pay for it like this?
LHT screamed internally.
I miss my mom's cooking so much...
An AI voice suddenly rang out in a perfectly professional "customer service" tone, as if the whole electric torture incident had never happened.
"Ahem."
"Reporting to you—"
"Kai and Lyra have already acted according to your plan."
"What do you intend to do next, Professor?"
LHT blinked.
Huh?
How did your mood switch that fast, lady?
He really wanted to say it out loud.
But stopped himself.
At this point...
he wasn't even surprised anymore by how quickly humans could change attitudes.
And Mrs. AI wasn't even human.
LHT rubbed his temple lightly.
His mind finally started functioning properly again.
Then the earlier memories slowly resurfaced.
—
The utterly shocked expressions on Kai and Lyra's faces after hearing his proposed plan.
"Crazy. You've completely lost your mind..."
Kai gritted out each word like he was desperately trying not to curse.
"This is way too dangerous."
"Professor... please reconsider."
Lyra looked at him like she'd just heard someone announce they were about to jump off a cliff to test how deep it was.
"Alright."
LHT crossed his arms and sighed.
"We don't have any other choice."
"Either we do this..."
"...or we all die together."
He paused briefly.
"Ah, what I mean is..."
"I'm willing to bet my life on this."
"As for you two—"
"You have every right to refuse and retreat."
"Your plan is gambling with your own life!"
Kai threw his arm out in frustration.
"You said nobody would have to risk their lives!"
LHT only smiled faintly.
Then slowly adjusted his glasses.
"I'm sorry, but—"
A cold voice suddenly interrupted him.
"I also oppose this plan."
Mrs. AI cut him off without hesitation.
"Your choice is no different from suicide, Professor."
"Please reconsider your decision."
LHT instantly went silent.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
Great.
One person opposing me was manageable.
Now the whole damn team is against me.
He stayed quiet for several seconds.
His mind started calculating rapidly.
If he failed to gain their agreement here...
then every calculation and every plan he'd built from the start would immediately collapse.
LHT drew in a deep breath.
Then decided to tell the truth...
Well, part of the truth.
"Trust me this time."
"I'm not asking you to believe in me one hundred percent."
"But..."
The corners of his lips curled slightly upward.
"I'm not stupid enough to throw myself into danger without preparing a secret weapon, right?"
Kai froze.
His tightly furrowed brows shifted slightly.
As if he was starting to waver.
Lyra also raised her head and stared at LHT more carefully.
A faint trace of hope appeared in her eyes.
She lightly pressed a hand to her chest and let out a quiet breath, like someone clutching onto a final lifeline.
Then Mrs. AI spoke again.
This time, her voice noticeably lowered.
Careful.
Probing.
"You truly still possess an unused secret weapon?"
LHT smiled.
It was the standard smile of a pyramid scheme salesman about to pitch a life-changing opportunity.
"Hahaha..."
"Of course—"
I don't.
He forcibly swallowed the final words back down.
"...of course."
"I'm Professor X, after all."
The moment he said it, even he felt how suspicious it sounded.
Silence filled the air for several seconds.
"Hmm..."
Mrs. AI made a noise like she was seriously thinking it over.
LHT suddenly had the feeling—
If she actually possessed a physical body right now...
she'd definitely be sucking on a lollipop with her arms crossed, staring at him with eyes that clearly said:
I don't believe a single word coming out of your mouth.
And in the end—
Here he was.
Standing in the middle of a battlefield drenched in cold rain.