13: Chapter 13 The bait has been laid; awaiting the devil.

The weekend sun was a bit blinding.

The paint on the park slide was peeling, looking like a row of gaping mouths.

Qin Ming sat on a bench, with Emma sitting beside him.

"So boring."

Emma stuffed the torn cotton candy into her mouth. "There are only idiots here."

"Be patient."

Qin Ming turned his gaze toward the nearby sandbox.

There was a young boy there who didn't seem to fit in.

Oliver.

His head was down, eyes fixed on the tablet in his hands; it was his only window to the world.

"Hey! Dummy!"

Three older boys on bicycles charged into the sandbox.

The fat kid in the lead kicked over Oliver's sandcastle.

A typical American bullying opening.

Oliver clutched his tablet in terror, letting out a meaningless whimper.

"Run, little dummy!"

The fat kid snatched Oliver's baseball cap and threw it into the distance.

Oliver didn't move.

The fat kid got annoyed and reached out to grab the tablet.

This time, Oliver moved.

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, he suddenly shoved the fat kid aside and turned to run.

"Catch him!"

The three bullies gave chase with weird shouts.

They headed straight for the abandoned wasteland on the outskirts of town.

"Look."

Qin Ming pointed at the chase. "Our bait is moving."

Emma's eyes lit up, and she jumped off the bench.

Qin Ming stood up. "Let's go. We can't let our guest get lost."

Wild grass grew past their knees.

This was the "grave" Qin Ming had chosen.

Oliver ran, gasping for breath.

The path ahead was blocked by a chain-link fence.

He turned back in a panic.

The three bullies had already surrounded him.

"Running? Why'd you stop running?"

The fat kid approached with a cruel grin.

Oliver retreated step by step, tripped, and fell into the grass.

The tablet flew from his hands and landed in a thick pile of withered grass several meters away.

The screen flickered once and went dark.

"Smash that piece of junk for me!"

The fat kid pointed at the tablet.

Just as his lackey was about to act...

Swoosh—

A stone grazed the fat kid's cheek and hit the fence behind him with a sharp clang.

"Who's there?!"

The fat kid was startled.

"Get lost."

A childish but cold voice rang out.

Emma stepped out from behind a pile of abandoned tires.

She was weighing a sharp, fist-sized stone in her hand.

"Who are you? Want to mind someone else's business?"

The fat kid shouted, putting on a show of bravado.

Emma didn't waste words.

She simply raised her hand, taking a standard throwing stance.

Her target was the fat kid's temple.

"I'll count to three."

"One."

That pure malice made the fat kid's scalp tingle.

It was a biological instinctual warning.

This little girl would really throw it.

And she would throw it to kill.

"Crazy... this girl is crazy!"

The fat kid swallowed hard. Looking at Emma's expressionless face, his mental defense crumbled.

"Let's go!"

The three bullies fled in panic, not even daring to throw out a parting threat.

Emma tossed the stone aside in disdain.

"Boring."

Qin Ming stepped out from the shadows and came before the shivering Oliver.

He crouched down, bringing his gaze level with Oliver's.

Qin Ming's voice carried a strange, piercing quality.

Oliver stopped trembling and stared at him blankly.

"The thing hiding inside the screen will come looking for you tonight."

Oliver's pupils suddenly constricted.

He tried to pick up the tablet in the grass.

Qin Ming pressed down on his shoulder.

"Don't pick it up."

"Leave it there."

Qin Ming pointed to the desolate ruins.

"If you don't want to die, or don't want your parents to die."

"Tonight, as soon as that monster appears."

"Take your parents and run here as fast as you can."

"Understand?"

Although Oliver couldn't speak, he understood.

He nodded stiffly.

Then he scrambled up and ran toward home, stumbling along the way.

He didn't even dare to look back at the tablet.

"Why did you let him go?"

Emma kicked the gravel at her feet. "Wouldn't it be easier to just tie him up here as bait?"

"That way, the monster wouldn't fully materialize."

Qin Ming looked at the pitch-black tablet screen in the grass.

A hunter's smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"We have to give the monster a little hope, make it think it can win."

"Only when it completely crawls out of that digital world..."

"...will it be the right time to pull in the net."

Night fell.

A parking lot toll booth.

Pale fluorescent lights buzzed.

Oliver's father, Marty, was looking at the surveillance screens with a weary face.

To take care of his son, he had to bring Oliver to work with him.

"Listen, Oliver, there are no monsters in the world. It's just your imagination..."

Marty tried to soothe his son, who was huddled in the corner.

Suddenly.

The surveillance footage began to shake violently.

All the screens turned into static.

Immediately following.

A distorted, elongated face flashed across the screen.

The lights went out.

In the darkness, heavy breathing echoed within the narrow booth.

A hand, thin as a skeleton, slowly reached out from the tablet screen.

It was physical.

Accompanied by the stench of rot and the burnt smell of electricity.

"Lar... ry..."

The voice sounded like two pieces of rusty iron rubbing together.

Marty was completely stunned.

His worldview collapsed at that moment.

It was real.

The monster was real.

"Run!!!"

Marty scooped up Oliver, kicked open the door, and rushed into the night.

But this was only the beginning.

No matter where they ran.

Roadside billboards, abandoned phones, even car navigation screens.

Larry's face was everywhere.

It was teasing its prey.

It was enjoying the fear.

In despair, Oliver suddenly broke free from his father's embrace.

He pointed toward the darkness in the distance.

That was the direction of the outskirts.

That was the path to survival Qin Ming had pointed out to him.

And it was also Larry's dead end.

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