Chapter 659. Investigating (4)
Clack...
The soft noise of a door closing entered Guo Liqin's hearing.
Stimulation? Yes, that was a stimulation. After being deprived of any and all stimulation for quite some time, Guo Liqin's eyes had become dried and bloodshot. Yet he desperately moved his creaky eyeballs and searched for the source of that sound.
'Who is it?'
That question didn't ultimately matter, though. He only cared about someone being there. Anyone!
'Please, please...!'
Please, someone, anyone! Please be there. I don't care even if you don't talk to me. I don't care even if you don't free me. That's why, that's why... Please! Just be there!
Guo Liqin desperately screamed within this darkness. No sound came out of his paralyzed throat, but the voice he imagined screaming out was perhaps the most desperate and pleading since his birth. If he wasn't paralyzed, Guo Liqin's face would've been a mess of tears and snot by now.
He had no idea. He didn't know something this terrifying existed in this world!
Guo Liqin believed he had experienced so many cruel, inhumane things this profession had to offer, but this torture was on another level of cruelty altogether. Maybe watching his fingers get sliced off one by one might be more calming than this experience!
This darkness... The inside of a bathroom with no lights on was the darkness itself. There weren't even any noises to latch onto here, either!
Guo Liqin couldn't lift a finger. He couldn't even squeak out a sound. Imagine what it'd feel like to be confined in a dark bathroom with a paralyzed body, and the only thing that could move somewhat was your eyes!
If Guo Liqin hadn't been a martial artist, he'd have lost his sanity within a few hours of his confinement. Actually, he... He preferred going insane at this point. He wouldn't vividly experience this horrible situation if his mind was fractured into pieces, now would he!
'Please, please!'
Why don't you just kill me! Please don't abandon me like this on the floor and leave! Please!
I don't care who it is! Anyone!
Guo Liqin thought he might endure this terror if only someone was next to him. Even if his paralysis remained, even if no one talked to him... As long as he wasn't alone! That would be enough for him.
His eyes, now containing his desperate will, began quaking powerfully. He couldn't see anything other than the same old darkness.
There was nothing here. No one. As if that sound of the door opening was his mind playing tricks on him... As if he heard a phantom noise of a...
'...A phantom noise?'
Could he really say that was wrong? Could Guo Liqin say with confidence that the door did open in reality? Or, maybe... He had finally gone crazy? And that was why he could hear phantom noises and saw things that weren't there?
He couldn't tell whether his inability to cry was a blessing or a curse in this situation. He couldn't even figure out whether he was still alive or not, either.
However, one thing seemed certain at this point. And that was... If he did die, then his soul must've fallen to the most wretched Hell in existence. After all, Guo Liqin couldn't imagine a Hell any worse than this!
Even if he fell to the lowest depths of the Eight Hells and the demons there started torturing him, at least Guo Liqin would still be able to scream in agony. That little freedom would still be permitted. However, he couldn't even do that right now.
He might be alive, yet also dead. He might as well be dead... but was still alive! This remarkable contradiction tortured him to no end.
That was when...!
“I'm now in a dilemma.”
There was a person's voice! A still voice dug sharply into Guo Liqin's hearing.
Could it be another phantom noise? No, it couldn't be! That voice sounded too vivid and real for something cooked up by his imagination. His cells, numb from not receiving any stimulation for hours, were seemingly getting tauter in tension from that voice.
Guo Liqin screamed again. He screamed he was here. He pleaded with the person hidden in darkness to talk to him.
Unfortunately for him, though... Not even a sliver of his desperate cries escaped from his mouth. Even though his emotional state was visceral enough for his body to jump up and down and roll around on the floor out of control... His body could only express it through a barely noticeable tremor.
Even then, Guo Liqin still felt this overwhelming ecstasy washing over him. Someone was here. Someone was in the bathroom with him!
That was when something suddenly appeared mid-air. This change to his vision, not just to his hearing this time, sent so much happiness through Guo Liqin's body that he felt his tension instantly ebb away.
The 'thing' appearing mid-air was actually two crimson dots. Upon a closer inspection, though, Guo Liqin realized those weren't dots but eyes. Eyes burning in a crimson hue!
In any other situation, Guo Liqin's heart would've skipped a beat from the sheer creepiness of those crimson eyes. Such eyes were floating in the darkness, looking right back at Guo Liqin.
“My dilemma is about whether to ask you questions or leave you be. Maybe... What I'm doing right now could be granting unbridled happiness to you instead.”
Guo Liqin couldn't express anything. Not even his agreement or disagreement. Even if he could physically express his feelings, though... He most likely wouldn't. He was already mentally prepared, after all.
Guo Liqin was prepared to go along with every whim of the person talking to him in this darkness. If that person wanted agreement, Guo Liqin would've given it. If the disagreement was expected from him, then so be it!
As long as the person continued speaking to him, of course! As long as this person could keep giving Guo Liqin this stimulation seemingly more visceral than a blessing from God, he was even prepared to rip out his soul and offer it as a sacrifice.
“The biggest, most cruel punishment I can grant you is simply leaving this bathroom,” said the person in the darkness.
“...!”
“It'll be a repeating pattern. A repeat of what happened so far. You'd be left all alone in a world devoid of anything... And gradually wither away into nothing in this hellish eternity. And you'd not even be able to tell whether this is reality or a nightmare. You'd grow to welcome pain like burning thirst or desperate starvation as those... would prove that you're still alive.”
Guo Liqin could imagine it. And the shudder of pure dread ran down his spine.
He'd be left alone again? Just like this?
Visceral terror washed over Guo Liqin again. Terror so overwhelming that merely imagining it nearly blew his brain apart instantly ruled over every corner of his paralyzed body.
'No! Please! Please! No! Please! Please! Please! Please!'
Not even a cry of atonement toward God descending on the final hour of Judgment would be as ardent as Guo Liqin's internal scream. He squeezed out every ounce of energy stored in his body.
“Kkeuh...!”
“Hmm?”
That grunt was soft, almost inaudible. As if it had been suppressed to an unbelievable degree. But that was Guo Liqin's scream directed at the world and the person hidden in the darkness.
That person, Kang Jin-Ho, chuckled silently while observing Guo Liqin's unmoving figure. “Looks like I'll have to think about it.”
Kang Jin-Ho's voice was flat and calm. It was as stiff and unfeeling as a robot's voice.
“...Think about how to make it even more torturous for you, that is.”
Guo Liqin was sobbing. Even though his eyes couldn't produce any tears, even though his mouth couldn't produce any other moans or grunts... Without a doubt, he was sobbing.
Why? Why was this terrible thing happening to him?
Dying? Guo Liqin was always prepared to meet his maker. A man who traded the lives of other people for a living obviously knew he could also die at the drop of a hat. If death was the sentence for all the crimes he had committed until now... Guo Liqin was confident of accepting this judgment with a grin on his face. It would've been like a badge of honor for him. And he'd even mock those judging him, too.
Even if that was the case, wasn't this just too much?
He thought he had encountered a monster. A devil! Guo Liqin thought his death would be far more wretched and horrendous than his imagination. However, never in his life...! He never imagined this kind of torture!
If only he hadn't come here... If only he hadn't encountered this devil...!
If only he had never said yes to running errands for that loser bastard, Liu Wei!
Then, Guo Liqin wouldn't have ended up in this state!
“I originally planned to release you,” said Kang Jin-Ho.
His words landed like a thunderclap within Guo Liqin's head. Every syllable he spoke rocked the paralyzed man's mind like a mini earthquake.
“That's because I wanted to hear what you have to say. But now, looking at your state is putting me in a dilemma. It feels like granting you such freedom is too good of a reward, you see?”
Guo Liqin learned a valuable lesson just now. He never knew a person's heart could stop for a second merely by listening to someone else talk! Every word Kang Jin-Ho spoke sent Guo Liqin's insides into a chaotic tumble.
“So... What should I do with you?”
Kang Jin-Ho's voice was leisurely. Definitely not hurried. A voice of a man who understood the depths of this horrendous pain Guo Liqin was under, yet also derived maximum amusement from it!
Only a devil could produce such a voice.
Guo Liqin finally accepted it. This man, he... He was the devil! No, he was a creature that was fundamentally different from all the crooked, unsavory and cruel bastards Guo Liqin had encountered in his career!
This man was different from those silly bastards who wrapped themselves up in cruelty and maliciousness as tools to threaten their opponents. This man, he... Evil had dyed him right down to his soul!
Listen to that low cackle! That hint of evil cackle barely noticeable in parts of his voice proved that. No sane person would behave like that while watching the torture and torment of his fellow human being!
What drove Guo Liqin even crazier about this situation was, though...!
To his ears, that devil's voice sounded like the angels' harmonious choir coming straight from heaven itself! After all, someone had finally answered his prayer and started talking to him. At least he could now hear someone’s voice in this darkness. Whether that someone was a devil or not didn't matter to him. He thought it himself, didn't he!
What a remarkable turn of events this was. An unfortunate one, too.
That was when the devil's hushed whisper registered in Guo Liqin's hearing once more.
“Get up.”
Guo Liqin's paralyzed body suddenly began spasming.
It... was moving? It was actually moving?! Guo Liqin's body, which had been paralyzed like a boulder for over a day... began moving again?
Like an entranced man, Guo Liqin silently stood up. Without any visible expression of happiness or terror, his body stood upright.
Every muscle in Guo Liqin's body screamed back at him. It felt like every muscle fiber had come undone, even though his paralysis hadn't been for that long. Trying to move his stiff, weakened muscles caused such agonizing pain that screams wanted to rush out of Guo Liqin's mouth all on their own.
However, Guo Liqin heartily welcomed this pain. After all, he finally stood up again!
Even after he finally stood up, though, Guo Liqin's mouth remained shut. He only focused every ounce of energy into the motions of standing up as if the devil's order was absolute. That was because he knew.
Guo Liqin knew that the devil hidden in the darkness had not permitted him to speak just yet. If the devil ordered Guo Liqin to stop breathing, he'd have to obey the command. If the next order had been for Guo Liqin to stop living, he would have no choice but to die!
Not even a tiny bit of his soul was under Guo Liqin's control. Right at this moment, Guo Liqin's everything was literally under Kang Jin-Ho's manipulation.
The corners of Kang Jin-Ho's lips curled up as he observed how Guo Liqin, despite his pitiful shivering, tried desperately not to fall down. “Well, then. Don't you have something to say to me?”
Kang Jin-Ho's voice dug into Guo Liqin's hearing like dancing sparks coming off the flames of Hell. Guo Liqin flinched grandly.
His jaw slackened, followed by his body spasming sporadically. And then... He desperately gestured.
Guo Liqin racked his brain. Then, racked it some more. As if he didn't care about using every bit of computing power in his brain reserved for the rest of his life, Guo Liqin desperately focused his entire being on thinking about his response.
Eventually, he raised his head. It seemed his reply was already set in stone.
“What... ever... it is...”
Guo Liqin's voice sounded turbid. Cracked. Withered beyond what was logically possible until it sounded like cracking metal bits were scratching against each other! Such inhuman sounds leaked out of Guo Liqin's lips.
“Any... thing... you want... I... I will... Tell you... Any... anything... If it's something I... I know... Even if I don't know... Whatever... it is...!”
Guo Liqin desperately squeezed his words out as if saying them put incredible strain on his body. Anyone watching this scene without context would've turned their head away in horror by this point, unable to endure this torture anymore.
Against this overwhelming terror and insurmountable powerlessness, Guo Liqin continued to murmur and groan his words out like a little kid with no room to escape from the incoming tsunami!
“I will tell you everything... Yes, everything... Whatever you... want to know... That's why... That's... why... I beg you... Please...”
Guo Liqin's body began quivering and quaking. All the emotions that couldn't be released until now were finally starting to leak out.
“That is why I beg... of you...” Guo Liqin repeated, 'I beg of you, please' several times before raising his bloodshot eyes to stare at Kang Jin-Ho. “That's why... Please, please kill me. I beg of you. Please, just kill me. Don't throw me back into that Hell again and just end my life, please. I'll do anything!”
Hot tears streamed down Guo Liqin's eyes next. The emotions rapidly escaped his control and flooded out of every pore of his being like a deluge breaking through a dam.
“Sob... Sniff... Sob...”
As Guo Liqin sobbed like a little kid, Kangy Jin-Ho bared his pearly whites and smirked.
Follow current nov𝒆ls on freew(𝒆)bnov𝒆l.(c)om