The Birth of Specters

Three days had passed since the establishment of the Special Bureau.

Night fell.

Lücheng was a city built upon a great mountain.

It was famous throughout the Nanming Kingdom for its complex, multi-tiered terrain.

“Why are you cutting my wages? Do you have any idea how much pressure I'm under? If you cut my wages again, how am I supposed to survive?!” outside a factory in the suburbs, a haggard middle-aged man in grey overalls roared.

Standing in front of him, a harsh-looking female supervisor in a suit looked at him with disdain. “Don't yell so loud. The factory isn't doing well right now. If you don't want to do the work, then leave.”

Hearing the supervisor's words, the middle-aged man clenched his fists. He still needed to rely on this job to support his family.

Seeing this, the supervisor sneered, “Look at you, what a pathetic sight. Out in society, just because you have a loud voice doesn't mean people are going to be afraid of you. If you called me out here just to say this, then hurry up and go back.”

She had seen plenty of workers like him. They had parents to support, children to feed, and could endure hardships; no matter how much you pushed them, they would never dare to do anything to you.

Hearing this, the middle-aged man turned and walked back, his face filled with resentment.

“What a useless coward. Who does he think he is, shouting at me?!” The supervisor spat on the ground and walked back toward the factory.

On the road, only the faint glow of a few streetlamps made the surroundings barely visible.

'Look at you, what a pathetic sight. Useless coward...'

The supervisor's mocking and disdainful words echoed repeatedly in the middle-aged man's mind.

His body trembled, and his eyes turned bloodshot. “I am not a useless coward! I am not a useless coward!”

The intense sense of humiliation was about to overwhelm his mind. He felt as if his mental state was starting to go awry.

“I am not a useless coward, I am not a useless coward...” Underneath a streetlamp, the middle-aged man stopped, repeating the words as his body trembled more and more violently.

Veins bulged on his face, and his speaking mouth suddenly stopped. A white line extended from his forehead all the way down to his chin.

Centering on the white line, his head split into two halves. Inside, there was no brain or blood, only a mass of white liquid flowing down.

A brand-new white face appeared. Its eyes were slightly closed, and its mouth was wide open, with tiny white spiders crawling out one after another.

The middle-aged man's body grew taller, and his lower half rapidly bloated. One by one, white insectoid legs over two meters tall sprouted from within.

The split halves of his face were still muttering, his eyes rolling back. “I... am not... a useless... coward...”

A total of six white legs moved on the ground, making distinct tapping sounds as they walked toward the factory behind him.

“Useless... coward... Useless... coward...” Along the way, a low, intermittent voice drifted out.

His consciousness was changing. It wasn't just his physical body that was transforming; his consciousness was also forgetting his past memories, retaining only the most deeply ingrained ones.

From the moment of mutation, he was no longer himself.

Inside the factory office, the female supervisor returned. Several other women were sitting there.

A chubby woman wearing small glasses smiled and said, “Sister Yu, where did you go? Don't tell me you went looking for some young eye candy.”

“Hah, what eye candy? I just went out and got yelled at by an idiot. The more I think about it, the angrier I get,” Yu Gui said with some annoyance as she sat down in her chair.

Another woman spoke up, “Is it about cutting the wages? Quite a few people downstairs have been unhappy lately. Should we fire someone to make an example out of them?”

Hearing this, and remembering how she had been yelled at by a lousy worker, Yu Gui nodded. “That's a good idea. Let's fire Zhang Jianguo.”

She immediately pulled out a termination notice and was just about to start writing.

“Ah!”

“Monster!”

“Run!”

Outside the office, screams rang out, followed by a flurry of chaotic noises.

“What's going on?” Yu Gui frowned.

She was currently in charge of the factory's night shift. She walked to the office window and pulled back the curtain to see what was happening outside.

As soon as the curtain was pulled back, a white human face appeared. Glued to the left and right sides of this face were the facial features of the worker who had yelled at her earlier.

“Useless... coward...” A low voice rasped from the face that was split in two.

Staring at this scene, Yu Gui's pupils contracted. Her legs trembled, and a smell of urine wafted from her lower half. “You... how did you turn into a monster?!”

This was the third floor. How had the other party located her so precisely?

The white face smiled faintly. Its legs clung to the wall, and one of the white limbs suddenly whipped up, piercing through the window.

The glass shattered, and Yu Gui, who was standing by the window, had her abdomen impaled. Blood gushed out.

“Ah!” Inside the office, the other women screamed in terror upon seeing this and fled toward the door.

The chubby woman with glasses had just opened the door when she saw countless tiny white spiders had appeared in the hallway at some point.

Behind the tiny spiders, countless white silk threads blocked the path.

The tiny spiders launched themselves onto their faces. Upon contact, white venom seeped into their skin, causing several of them to collapse on the spot.

On the other side, Yu Gui was dragged out of the office, impaled upon the leg.

“I am... not... a useless... coward...” As the Specter spoke, the mouth of the white face opened, and it began to gnaw on Yu Gui raw.

“Ah, help me...” Yu Gui shrieked in agony as she watched herself being eaten.

Seven or eight minutes passed, and the sirens of law enforcement vehicles drew closer.

Behind the law enforcement vehicles followed a wheeled armored vehicle equipped with a heavy machine gun and a small-caliber autocannon.

In the sky, two attack helicopters armed with portable missiles appeared.

The vehicles stopped at the factory gates. Inspectors got out and quickly set up a cordon.

Leading them was a middle-aged man, his brow furrowed. “Another one? This is already the eighth occurrence in Lücheng.”

“Captain, the personnel are in position. Shall we begin the purge?” an inspector beside him asked.

They had rifles slung over their shoulders, and some carried sniper rifles on their backs.

Since various supernatural incidents and monsters were frequently appearing, and on top of that, no supernatural humans had emerged yet, the Nanming Kingdom's authorities could only integrate soldiers into the inspector teams, using heavy firepower to deal with the simpler Specters.

Just as the middle-aged man was about to give the order...

A black car rushed up from behind with its siren blaring. While the middle-aged man frowned, the vehicle screeched to a halt right in front of him.

The car door opened, and a young man in a suit emerged. His eyes were lifeless. He pulled out a black identification badge and held it in front of the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man read out the words on the badge: “Special Bureau, Team Two, Chu Jizhen?”