Chapter 376

Chapter 376: Chapter 376

Suzy reached into her backpack, pulled out some biscuits, and handed them to Mark. "Let’s have some breakfast," she said.

Mark took them, tore open the packaging, and began to eat.

Suzy chewed on a biscuit as she kept her eyes glued to the dark curtain ahead, even pulling out her phone to take a few photos just in case.

"Have you noticed that this dark curtain is much larger than the one we ran into last time?" Suzy remarked.

Mark squinted for a moment as he observed the dark wall in front of them. "It is indeed significantly bigger."

"It certainly knows how to pick a spot—specifically appearing right in the middle of the road. Is it trying to block people on purpose?" Suzy said, rendered speechless.

Mark cast an imperceptible glance at her. "It’s possible."

While the two were casually conversing back and forth, people from the surrounding cars gradually began stepping out as well.

Having waited far too long without any updates, these people simply couldn’t sit still any longer and opted to get out to check things out.

Most had no idea what was happening up front; the military vehicles completely blocked their sight line, making them hesitant to rush forward recklessly.

Folk as bold as Suzy and Mark were few and far between.

After stepping out of their cars, many were seeing a dark curtain for the very first time, each person filled with utter shock and marvel.

Driven by fear of the unknown, many took a single peek before quickly scurrying back inside their vehicles.

The brief lively commotion on the road faded almost as fast as it had started.

Only Suzy and Mark remained standing in place.

Before long, the soldier’s walkie-talkie chimed again.

"No. 3 is returning now."

"Copy!"

Suzy caught the exchange between the soldier and his teammate with complete clarity.

Lowering her voice, she whispered to Mark, "They’re coming out."

"Be careful in a bit," Mark cautioned. "The monster might show up again."

Suzy nodded, prudently taking a step back.

The soldier up front caught their subtle movements; his brows twitched slightly, though he said nothing.

Right at that moment, a ripple surged across the dark curtain.

"Look, someone seems to be coming out!"

At the surface of the dark curtain, the faint outline of a silhouette gradually materialized, followed by a figure stepping out from within.

The person who emerged was also a soldier. His pace was measured; his first glance landed on the soldier who had spoken with Suzy earlier, giving him a firm nod.

Then, their eyes shifted onto Suzy and Mark, clearly carrying a hint of confusion.

"Pay them no mind," the first soldier said.

Hearing this, the newly emerged soldier said nothing and averted his gaze.

"There’s nothing inside," the soldier reported.

"Yeah, completely empty. We didn’t see any of the monsters you mentioned," an unfamiliar voice chimed in.

Suzy looked over to see another man stepping out from the dark curtain.

The only difference was that this man wasn’t wearing camouflage fatigues; he simply wore a grey jacket over his clothes.

He appeared to be in his early thirties, wearing silver-rimmed glasses across the bridge of his nose, projecting a refined and scholarly air.

"Are you sure?"

"Certain. We checked everything."

The man with silver glasses repeated, "We walked about two hundred meters inside—no boundaries, no sounds, no living creatures. The ground is flat, just like a regular road, without any landmarks."

"As for the monster you mentioned, I didn’t see a thing." The man nudged his glasses up his nose.

The soldier turned to Suzy and Mark. "These two have also encountered a dark curtain before. It was them who said there were monsters inside."

At those words, both men turned their eyes onto Suzy.

"You’ve seen a dark curtain before?" the man with glasses asked.

"We have, not long ago," Suzy replied.

"If there really were a monster inside, it would be impossible for there to be zero activity. Besides, it’s the monster’s domain—there’s no reason for it to hide. Are you sure you didn’t mistake what you saw?"

"I didn’t mistake it."

The man with glasses fell silent for a short moment before asking again, "What did the monster look like?"

"Hard to say. It only reached out a single hand back then... but it didn’t look like a living human’s hand."

In that moment, no one noticed that the dark curtain behind them had rippled intensely once again.

The man with glasses let his gaze rest on Suzy’s face for two seconds. "A single hand that didn’t look like a human’s. Just based on that, you concluded there’s a monster inside?"

Suzy met his gaze head-on: "We saw that hand drag a living person straight inside. If you think that was just an illusion, I have no way to prove it to you either."

The man with glasses remarked, "Except there’s nothing in there."

The atmosphere instantly froze into a tense standoff.

Mark stared fixedly at the dark curtain, his pupils shrinking slightly. "Now there is."

Everyone was thrown off by his sudden remark.

Mark extended a finger pointing toward the back. "Look over there."

Everyone turned their heads in unison, every single one of them freezing as if turned to stone.

Not far away, the dark curtain began to ripple violently. The pitch-black void was being pushed open from the inside by something—first a hazy contour, then the distinct shape of a hand, as if searching for a leverage point.

Then, that silhouette continued to stretch outward... shoulders, torso, head—a complete humanoid shape stepped out from the edge of the fissure.

Yet that contour looked bizarre no matter how one looked at it.

Its limbs were absurdly elongated—twice as long as a normal human’s—especially its two arms, which dangled nearly all the way to the ground.

Most horrifyingly, it had no face.

The man with glasses froze as his eyes locked onto that shape, every word stuck dead in his throat.