Chapter 815: Spider

With the Butcher dead, the balance of power would be completely shattered. There was no way I could take on the Black-Robed Anchor and the final hidden streamer all by myself.

"I can only risk a rescue attempt now." Making a move meant stepping out of the shadows and directly exposing my presence, but right now, there was no better option.

Approaching the building, I found four entrances in total: front, back, left, and right. Iron chains hung over the back entrance like inverted black pythons. They looked identical to the chains the Black-Robed Anchor had used to whip the Butcher, radiating a biting chill.

The remaining three entrances were plastered with thick spiderwebs. However, from what I could see, the corridors inside were narrow; those massive shadow spiders shouldn't be able to fit into the building.

Time waited for no one. Without hesitating, I chose the leftmost entrance and charged straight into the building.

The instant my body crashed through the webs, something akin to an electric current shot through me. My instincts screamed that something was wrong, but there was no turning back now.

The interior was much more spacious than I had imagined. As I made my way up, I happened to glance out a window, and the sight outside made my heart skip a beat.

An absurdly massive shadow spider was crawling up the exterior of the building. It matched my speed perfectly—or rather, it was following me as I ascended.

"What the hell is this thing?!" Its hideous mandibles pressed tight against the building's surface, dragging huge swathes of viscous webbing. Its vivid, colorful patterns induced dizzying vertigo if stared at for too long. Slender legs, sharp as steel blades, effortlessly pierced the walls. Against it, the structures of the Deep Dream Layer were as fragile as tofu.

If stone and concrete could be punctured so easily, flesh and blood wouldn't stand a chance.

I had been wrapping myself in my willpower, entirely concealing my aura, but the moment I laid eyes on this monster, my will wavered.

That split-second lapse caused a sliver of my aura to leak out. At the exact same moment, the giant shadow spider outside seemed to sense something. One of its legs, several meters long and sharp as a Scalpel, stabbed precisely and swiftly into my floor, ripping the entire wall away.

The giant spider was like a child tearing open a present, a glint of excitement shining in its hideous eyes.

Logically, facing a single shadow spider shouldn't have scared me. With my current strength, handling one of them was more than within my capabilities.

Yet, for some reason, facing this spider—which was so much larger than its peers—sent an inexplicable tremor of dread through my heart. My instincts told me that the monster before me was incredibly dangerous and posed a fatal threat!

The Black-Robed Anchor had already dragged the Butcher to the rooftop. Treating him as a sacrifice, he placed the Butcher in the dead center of an altar and began muttering an incantation. Chains spilled out endlessly from beneath his black robes, surging up toward the rift in the night sky like an inverted river of stars!

As the chains snaked upward, the hole in the night sky was thoroughly stabilized. Meanwhile, the Butcher's aura continuously weakened. Wrinkles even began to surface on his face, as if his entire essence was being siphoned dry.

Tucked against my chest was the Crystal of Humanity I had obtained from the Butcher's sub-will. The energy contained within it could restore a portion of the Butcher's strength. I wasn't sure if I could use it to break the deadlock, but making matters worse, I was now neck-deep in massive trouble myself.

Through the wall torn open by the giant shadow spider, I could see outside. Countless shadow spiders from across the entire block were crawling toward this central building. Some had already scaled the outer walls.

The sheer numbers were enough to plunge anyone into despair. My Adam's apple bobbed. Steeling myself, I decided not to linger and prepared to keep climbing. My only way out now was to rescue the Butcher and join forces with him; only then would I have a glimmer of survival.

The giant spider outside seemed to see right through my intentions. A flash of cunning and mockery flickered in its disproportionately small eyes, and a massive wave of webbing sprayed from its underbelly, completely sealing off my path forward.

"This monster possesses extremely high intelligence?"

Rubble shattered as the giant spider made its next move—one that completely caught me off guard.

Forsaking its advantage of mobility, it squeezed its way into the building. Its massive bulk hollowed out one side of the structure. Its brightly colored abdomen flipped upward, and amid the tangled webs, the upper half of a man's body was revealed.

He looked very young, like a student who hadn't yet stepped into society.

As the webbing receded, I finally got a clear look. The young man's lower half was connected to the shadow spider's abdomen. He was a monster!

"We meet again." The young man brushed his bangs aside. The major joints of his body were bound by spider silk.

Upon seeing his face, I gritted my teeth. "I never would've guessed that you were the final hidden streamer among the Traitors."

Fair-skinned with a high-bridged nose, this monster connected to the shadow spider was none other than Chen Mo!

It was roughly as I had suspected. The real target the Live Show wanted to hunt down at Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital was him—this puppet Destiny had planted within the Live Show.

"If you had verified the backstory I made up afterward, you might have discovered my identity long ago." Chen Mo's body was connected to the shadow spider, and it was painted with complex patterns, looking incredibly bizarre.

During that broadcast, I had also grown suspicious of Chen Mo. He possessed many traits unique to live show streamers. However, he had broken his leg while being chased, and at the time, I figured no streamer would go to such desperate lengths just to hide their identity. Who would have thought it was a painful ruse?

"Driving ordinary people into this mess was your scheme too, wasn't it? After all, both you and that reporter were holding Death Invitation Letters." I stared coldly at Chen Mo. Even though he had helped shoulder some of the pressure during that broadcast, the feeling of being deceived was not pleasant.

"That's right. I invited a total of ten ordinary people to act as pawns to test the waters. Sadly, they were too useless. Before they could scout out anything worthwhile, most of them either died, were injured, or went missing. In the end, I had to step in myself." Chen Mo's voice was completely different from before. It wasn't a change in tone or timbre, but a shift in his very aura and core; he now carried a chilling air of superiority. "Give up your resistance. Time flows differently in the Deep Dream Layer than in reality. We have been preparing this trap for far too long. No one can change the final outcome."

"Is that so? Was my appearance here also planned out by you in advance?" I asked, trying to keep up the conversation with Chen Mo as I inched closer to the upward stairs.

"I admit, you're the only variable. You were an accident that wasn't supposed to occur in our plans. However, that won't affect the final outcome, because..." Chen Mo's mouth split wide open, revealing fangs that were completely different from a human's. "...you will be erased immediately!"