The setup atop this lofty platform resembled a study room. Located at the deepest part of the room, a bed was set up, while a desk, bookshelf, and other furniture were laid out before it. However, all the furniture had been shattered, with many pieces being ground into the floor. Scattered everywhere was a large number of damaged papers, books, and notes – as if the room had been ravaged by a monster.
Mu You strode to the center of the room, switching to his vampire skin, and activated a search spell. His target was still ’Louise’.
A few dozen seconds later, the search yielded a result. Mu You followed the golden guidance runes and, in the end, drew out a piece of paper from a book laying atop an abandoned bookshelf.
[...Because of similar personalities and habits, I am getting along better and better with Sayaka. She’s like a little angel, always warming me with her smile. When I’m with her, I can temporarily forget my troubles at hand. I consider her my only kin in this place, her stature in my heart even surpasses that of Mian Mian...However, today I learned devastating news that almost caused me to break down: I overheard a conversation of the Admin. Or perhaps, they intentionally let me hear it - Sayaka and I are about to undergo the "final treatment". We will be thrown into a place called the "Shadow Space", where we will be tormented beyond imagination. This torment is tenfold more agonizing than being thrown into the Gu Venom Pool. The two of us will endure this torture together, but each person can voluntarily bear some of the other’s pain. If one person endures more, the agony the other person has to bear will decrease, but the suffering will continuously intensify until one person finally dies...The Admin hinted that it’s either die protecting Sayaka, or kill Sayaka to stay alive...Before the final treatment even began, I fell into tremendous psychological anguish...
As he expected, it was another torn page from ’Louise’s Diary’.
Astonishment washed over Mu You after he finished reading.
The diary unexpectedly mentioned ’Shadow Space’. It seemed that ordinary people could also be drawn into the Shadow Space, trapped there, and subjected to some forced "torment". It appeared that the Shadow Ghosts were created using this method.
Of course, the Shadow Space he encountered earlier did not possess such abilities. It seemed that this ability could only be unlocked after the Shadow Fur Ball has reached a certain level.
"Mu You, look at this!" Lin Xue suddenly walked over, holding a stack of files she freshly retrieved from somewhere.
Mu You took a look after receiving them.
The cover of the files read: ’Experimental Records of Controllable Shadow Ghost.’
Mu You flipped it open to the first page which was crammed with numerical codes. A ’○’ or an ’×’ succeeded each number, representing success and failure, respectively. From statistics at the bottom, there are over 2500 numbers in total, of which only 57 were circled.
This meant that thus far, only 57 Controllable Shadow Ghosts had been born?
Mu You directly flipped to the last page.
After the first page, there were still 57 pages, coinciding with the quantity of birthed Controllable Shadow Ghosts.
Mu You glanced through each page starting from the back. He found that each page was affixed with two photographs, registering information about two individuals - one of them was always a child of a few years, while the other was uncertain, encompassing men and women of various ages.
Below that were handwritten ’experiment results.’
The result on each page stated that one person chose to bear all the pain for the other and died. This person would become an ordinary Shadow Ghost while the other person did survive but could not escape their predicament. Indeed, after experiencing tremendous emotional turmoil, they would turn into a sentient humanoid Shadow Ghost, which is a Controllable Shadow Ghost that can be grafted onto a human being.
When Mu You turned to the fifteenth page, he finally saw two familiar names: Louise and Sayaka.
The experiment result listed underneath was something Mu You had already guessed beforehand: Louise died protecting Sayaka and became an ordinary Shadow Ghost. Although Sayaka survived, she became a Controllable Shadow Ghost and was grafted onto another person, becoming a tool for their combat.
"This is the 15th...Then, the 14th..." Mu You hurriedly turned the page again.
As expected, one of two photographs on the fourteenth page was all too familiar – it was Ye Rumeng.
The other person in this page was Mian Mian.
In other words, the little girl and Mian Mian were grouped together for the experiment. Hence, the so-called 14th signified the two of them at the same time.
Given the prior results, one among the pair that was grouped together was bound to die, and the other one would turn into a Controllable Shadow Ghost. So, how about them?
Mu You continued reading.
However, the ’experiment result’ section below was completely empty.
This was the only page among all 57 pages of the records lacking a result.