Chapter 72: The Most Beautiful Person

“No! I didn’t see anything!” Although the branch chief had no real experience dealing with the supernatural, his years in the Public Security Bureau had honed his ability to handle emergencies far better than most. The bizarre scene before him was deeply unsettling, but he was well aware that Qi Chen at his side possessed far greater experience in confronting such anomalies.

His task was simply to cooperate with all his might.

Receiving the chief’s reply, Qi Chen immediately turned his gaze toward the wall of morgue drawers—specifically, the ones that had yet to be opened. The source of the anomaly might very well be hiding within one of them.

“Stay close!” With a roar, a fierce glint flashed in Qi Chen’s eyes. In his view, the best way to deal with supernatural threats was to uproot their source with the brute force of the Overlord—swift and absolute.

A guttural bellow echoed through the morgue, and the strange suits encasing Qi Chen and the branch chief seemed to be shredded by an invisible force, scattering into fragments within moments. Though these suits could heal themselves, such repair would take time.

“Open every drawer! Find the man who hanged himself!” Qi Chen shouted as he shoved the chief toward the morgue cabinets, turning himself to square off against the swarming, reassembling fragments of haunted clothing. The branch chief gritted his teeth, following Qi Chen’s orders to the letter—yanking open the unopened drawers and, with trembling hands, pulling back the shrouds to check the bodies within.

The clattering of metal drawers echoed incessantly. The chief’s face grew ever paler—he had checked seven or eight bodies, yet had not found the suicide victim. He vaguely remembered—the man’s body should be here.

Turning his head, the branch chief was horrified to see Qi Chen already engulfed by a cloud of flying fabric shards. The fragments swirled and reformed in the air, some latching onto Qi Chen’s body as though intent on assembling themselves right on his skin.

“Hurry!” Qi Chen shouted, tearing a stubborn scrap from his shoulder, as if it were glued on with industrial adhesive. Even with the Overlord’s unmatched strength, this kind of supernatural phenomenon was hard to counter head-on. Qi Chen estimated he could hold out for ten more minutes at most before the strange garments completely enveloped him. When that happened, the Overlord surely couldn’t be expected to strike at him, could he?

“One more minute...” A resolute light flashed in Qi Chen’s eyes as a desperate, do-or-die plan sprang to mind. He couldn’t wait until the last second—he had to leave himself an option.

If the branch chief still hadn’t found the suicide’s body within a minute, Qi Chen would risk being overwhelmed by the haunted clothing and have the Overlord destroy every single morgue drawer.

“I found him!”

A cry of suppressed jubilation broke out suddenly. The branch chief, face flushed with excitement, fixed his gaze on an open drawer. Beneath the lifted shroud lay a pale man’s face, and below the waist—a floral dress. The dress was slightly too small, clinging tightly to the corpse as if fused with his skin. Though its wearer was lifeless, the floral print remained garishly bright.

“Step back!” Qi Chen exhaled in relief and quickly called out to the chief, warning him to keep away from the body in case something went wrong.

Qi Chen was certain—the morgue’s supernatural aura emanated from the dress on this corpse.

The branch chief, however, did not move. The joy drained from his face, and the fear in his eyes was replaced by a disturbing, feverish obsession. He dropped his service pistol, hands shaking as he reached toward the floral dress.

“So beautiful... such a beautiful dress...”

“If I wear it, I’ll be the most beautiful person in City Three...” He mumbled dreamily, staring at the dress with mindless fixation, oblivious to Qi Chen and the surging haunted suits behind him.

Qi Chen whipped around immediately, noticing the unnatural look on the chief’s face.

“Mental distortion!”

His pupils widened in alarm. This was bad. Ignoring the whirlwind of cloth fragments around him, Qi Chen charged forward, accumulating even more scraps on his body, but he powered through, barreling into the branch chief and knocking him to the floor.

The chief hit the ground hard, his vision spinning. The crazed obsession faded from his eyes, replaced by terror as he regained his senses. But glancing up, he saw that Qi Chen was now in dire peril.

A mass of clothing fragments had formed a torso on Qi Chen’s body, two sleeves snaking out like elephant trunks to wrap around his face, sealing his mouth and nose.

Qi Chen struggled to pull the fabric away, but no human strength could match a supernatural force. Deprived of air, he felt his life draining rapidly from his body.

He could still... he could still use that forbidden fusion—

As long as he let the Overlord possess him, all the haunted clothing would instantly disintegrate. But after reading his department’s report, Qi Chen knew that such a fusion left him in a state of uncontrollable rage. He could barely recognize the “Warm Man” as an ally—could he really trust himself not to attack the branch chief?

A muffled roar of fury erupted from beneath the sleeves strangling his face. The branch chief, finally realizing what had happened, scrambled to his feet and, eyes tightly shut, lunged at the corpse, clawing desperately at the floral dress.

Immediately, Qi Chen felt the sleeves on his face shudder violently, as if alive. A piercing shriek rang out from every haunted garment in the morgue.

With a powerful tug, Qi Chen ripped the cloth from his face and looked up into the Overlord’s mask, twisted in wrath.

“Overlord!”

“ROAR!” Still blindly tearing at the dress, the branch chief suddenly felt himself hoisted aside as if by a giant. Opening his eyes, he saw the suicide’s drawer slam shut with a thunderous crash. An unseen force bore down upon the floral dress, crushing the morgue drawer into a flattened sheet of metal.

A cacophony of screams burst forth as the haunted suits, as if drained of all life, collapsed limply to the ground.

Qi Chen slumped to the floor, gulping in the chilly air.

One more anomaly, neutralized.

...