The man behind the scenes was just as astonished as he watched Mian Mian, his expression quickly shifted into an interested smile: "You actually express such emotions? This is really interesting... The experiment with Group 14 might be something to look forward to!"
The door was mercilessly shut.
Mian Mian hurriedly ran over to the girl behind her to check her injuries.
"Meng Meng, how are you holding up?"
The girl in her arms was badly beaten and incredibly weak. However, she managed to give Mian Mian a happy smile.
"Mian Mian, I finally got to see you..."
"You fool, do you know where this is?" Mian Mian was both frustrated and helpless; how could she still manage to smile at a time ?
"I know, this place is bad... But, my parents are dead, I have no one left. You are the only family I have in the world. Since they brought me to you, isn’t that reason to be happy?"
Mian Mian remained silent, guilt welled up in her. She knew it was her fault that Meng Meng was put in this situation. As one of the Soul Resonance, she should have known early on; who would be a better test subject than Mian Mian? If not for her, Meng Meng would not have been targeted, and her family would not have been destroyed.
"Meng Meng, you should run!" Mian Mian suddenly said with determination.
"Yes, in a few days we will be thrown into a place. I will give you my body and powers, I will become the Shadow Ghost and stop the others; you just need to take the opportunity to sneak into the box and then do your best to enter the dream, and you can escape!" Mian Mian quickly revised her previously planned escape method to focus on Meng Meng.
Mian Mian took out a small package from under the bed, inside was a piece of map enveloped in dark energy: "I found this at the dump, it contains something very important to the Fool. Those people said this thing must not be kept, because it would attract the Fool, so I picked it up from the dumpster."
"You bring it, go find an organization called Dragon. Let them protect you!" Mian Mian said quietly.
"Dragon... What is that?" the young girl asked in bewilderment.
"I don’t know either, but I overheard them talking about it in my dream. That organization can make the undead wary. If you give it to them, they should be able to protect you." Mian Mian said.
This was the fallback plan she had saved for herself, but now she gave it all to the little girl. She was not the least bit sorry. The moment she saw Meng Meng as her experiment subject, she no longer cared about her own life or death. As long as Meng Meng could survive and leave this place, that was all that mattered.
"But what about you?" Meng Meng had not forgotten Mian Mian.
"As for me... It doesn’t matter anymore, whether I live or die in this world, it’s all the same..."
Mian Mian forced a laugh. How could someone who had spent their entire life in the dark dare to step into the light? The future she had been yearning for was nothing more than a dream in the end.
To ensure Meng Meng’s escape, Mian Mian repeatedly taught her all the planned details over the next two weeks.
Half a month later, the two girls were finally brought to the top of the Gu Venom Pool. In front of the man behind the scenes, they were pulled into the underground shadow and fell into a world full of distorted lines.
An indescribable sense of oppression came from all directions. Both girls immediately fell to the ground, clutching their heads. The shadows beneath them, as if attracted, gathered together, eventually connecting the two.
Both were tortured by the pain to the point of trembling, but Mian Mian still managed to squeeze out a smile: "Don’t be afraid, Meng Meng, I will keep you alive. No matter what happens to me later, don’t be afraid, even if I turn into a monster, I will protect you..."
"This little pain... is nothing, to me."
Mian Mian tried to laugh it off, starting to absorb the pain from Meng Meng’s shadow and focus it on herself.
However, she quickly realized that she couldn’t absorb the shadow. Instead, her own shadow began to shorten, and the pain in her body began to decrease rapidly.
Mian Mian looked in surprise at Meng Meng. "What are you doing, Meng Meng?"
"So this is the pain you’ve been enduring... I was too naive..." The girl weakly looked at Mian Mian, managing a dry laugh.
"Stop! We will both die if you go on ! Are you going to waste the opportunity I made for you?" Feeling the pain in her body decreasing, Mian Mian became anxious. Every bit of pain she lost was added to the girl on the other side.
"I won’t waste it..."
The girl lay on the ground, her body contorted with pain, but she still forced a smile: "That whole complicated thing, I can’t do... So you should be the one to escape..."
"...Don’t worry, I’ll take away all your painful memories... Mian Mian, you must live on with our memories..."
Accompanied by the girl’s increasingly weak voice, Mian Mian’s shadow under her started to disappear rapidly.
As the pain retreated like the tide, Mian Mian suddenly felt an unprecedented lightness. At the same time, a wave of overwhelming sleepiness hit her. She tried hard to keep awake; but, unable to resist her body’s intense reaction, she slowly closed her eyes...
"Isn’t it surprising?"
Above the platform, the man behind the scenes stood, overlooking the Shadow Space. Looking at the various changes occurring in the two girls within the Shadow Space, he said excitedly to Stick Man standing behind him.
"These two girls, they’re like the same person from parallel worlds, one naturally stands in the light, the other in the shadows. They are truly a perfect combination ... I have a feeling that today, we will create the greatest work in our guild’s history!"