Chapter 386: A Terrifying Sound

Those words only seemed to provoke the squad leader further. His expression grew more manic.

His brow furrowed, the muscles in his face twitching faintly, before a disdainful sneer spread across his lips.

The corner of his mouth lifted only slightly, but the contempt within was unmistakable.

He said nothing more—merely cast a cold glance at the three members who had refused to follow.

It was the look one might give a pack of ungrateful wretches.

Then, as though forgetting the others entirely, he turned and stepped out of the Susurrus Mist alone.

The gray-white fog churned behind him, like countless hands trying to claw him back. But his steps never faltered.

Soon, his silhouette vanished around the corridor’s bend.

His footsteps faded into the distance until they could no longer be heard at all.

The corridor returned to dead silence.

Only that faint, almost nonexistent whisper of sound remained.

Rustle... rustle...

Jack stood rooted in place, lips pressed tightly together, his gaze fixed on the direction the squad leader had disappeared.

For a long time, he didn’t look away.

A strange, indescribable ache churned inside him.

The squad leader had saved him.

In the final moment—when the Bonebeast was lunging at him—it was the squad leader who had thrown himself in front of him.

Without the squad leader, he would already be a corpse.

Yet at the most critical juncture, he had stood against him.

He hadn’t followed.

He hadn’t even tried to persuade him further.

A nearby member noticed his unease and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

The hand trembled slightly as it landed—whether from the cold or from fear, no one could say.

“Don’t overthink it. The squad leader’s mental state is off right now. It’s not your fault. Anyone else, facing him in this condition, wouldn’t have felt safe following either.”

Another member chimed in:

“Exactly. Leaving the Susurrus Mist on impulse is definitely not the right call. Both Betty’s disappearance and the assistant squad leader’s death prove that.

“If anything, staying together is what’s kept us safe—just look at how nothing happened on our way here.”

His words were harsh, but they were the truth.

The three of them had walked from the rest room all the way to the boundary of the mist without encountering a single anomaly.

But Betty had left alone—and vanished.

The assistant squad leader had acted alone—and died.

The squad leader had left alone... no one dared to keep that thought going.

After a moment, Jack drew a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

One member asked, “So what do we do now?”

Jack pondered briefly, then made up his mind:

“We go back. Back to that room from earlier.”

“On one hand, we can recover our strength and prepare to fight. On the other... we wait for a Rank-3 master to arrive. If Betty can find her way back, or if the squad leader can turn around once he’s cooled off, even better.”

Even as he spoke those final words, he knew how slim that hope truly was.

But he said them anyway.

Because here in this expanse of gray-white mist, they had nothing else left to cling to.

The others agreed.

Or rather, they had no better option.

So the three of them turned and headed back the way they had come.

Footsteps echoed through the empty corridor once again.

Tap, tap, tap.

Their three gaits didn’t quite align—sometimes falling out of step, sometimes overlapping—colliding into strange echoes within the narrow hallway.

The subtle ambient sounds around them seemed to sharpen as well.

Rustle... rustle...

There were only three sets of footsteps.

Yet in this environment, Jack couldn’t shake an eerie feeling.

As if... there was always a fourth person in their group.

Or even a fifth.

An invisible presence that seemed to press against their backs, giving off faint, scraping sounds.

The sensation came and went—like fabric brushing against skin, or breath falling on the back of a neck.

But when he looked carefully, the surroundings were utterly empty.

Only the black fur swayed faintly on the walls.

Those black fibers shivered in the gray-white mist, as if responding to some unseen wind.

It’s just an illusion. It has to be an illusion.

Jack tried to convince himself.

But that did nothing to dispel the bone-deep chill.

The cold seeped from between his joints, like something crawling slowly along the inside of his spine.

Perhaps it was that strange feeling interfering with his perception, or perhaps the journey simply felt more oppressive, but Jack felt the return trip dragging on endlessly.

Even longer than the trip out.

Coming here had only taken a few minutes.

But now, he felt as though he had been walking for over ten.

Still, they didn’t stop.

Until they pushed open that familiar door.

That was when something truly chilling happened.

Behind the door was not the room where they had just rested.

Not the room with the charred skeletal remains, where they had sat in a circle catching their breath.

Instead, it was a winding corridor.

At the corridor’s mouth, the boundary of the mist loomed faintly—gray-white fog cut clean as if by an invisible blade, the line sharp and distinct.

On one side lay the mist they were in.

On the other, a passage beyond the mist, leading to the lower floors.

What was going on?

How had they ended up back at that same spot?

No one had an answer.

A cold terror crawled up their spines, sliding from their tailbones all the way to the backs of their skulls.

No one spoke.

No one knew who moved first, but all three turned with perfect synchronicity and quickened their pace.

They didn’t want to accept it.

Maybe they’d made a wrong turn.

Maybe they’d just misremembered the room.

Maybe the next door would be the right one...

This time, they walked fast.

Their footsteps echoed urgently through the corridor, nearly overlapping.

That familiar feeling surfaced again in their minds, telling them: This time it should be right. Around this corner, push open that door, and it’ll be there!

And yet—

When they pushed open the door again,

Just outside was a passage leading up and down.

Near the passage’s mouth was the mist boundary...

They had come back again!

The terror swelled, tightening around their hearts like a vice.

The member who had opened the door trembled all over, his face deathly pale as he turned to the others.

“What the hell is happening?”

“Are we... are we trapped in here?”

A few trembling exchanges later, despair began to seep through the air.

And then—

A strange noise came from nearby.

Within the mist, something seemed to have been thrown over.

The sound was faint at first, like something slicing through air.

Then it grew louder.

Thud—

The object landed like a ball.

But from the sound alone, it was clearly far heavier than any ball.

The dull impact echoed through the corridor.

It rolled twice along the winding passage, gradually slowing, until it came to a stop at the doorway.