Chapter 144: The Hand Reaching Through the Window

As the others exchanged information, Colin suddenly felt an overwhelming weariness and emptiness envelop him within the room.

An indescribable sensation...

Powerlessness, weakness, exhaustion... yet unable to find rest.

He sat on the bed, his eyelids fluttering a few times before losing all strength to keep them open, collapsing onto the mattress.

In that instant, he nearly lost all rationality.

Lying on the bed, his face slightly contorted, his expression revealing an ineffable fatigue.

No pain—only an unrelenting weariness...

Born from the soul, stemming from the mind...

So tired...

So unbearable...

Colin’s body twitched intermittently.

He had never imagined that exhaustion could torment one’s spirit so profoundly, even surpassing ordinary pain.

It was as if he had been a secret agent for an entire year, and all the accumulated strain erupted at once, every muscle fiber ravaged, etched into his bones and soul, making it hard to bear.

Within the room, only the occasional sound of his breathing confirmed he was still alive.

Meanwhile, outside, almost at the exact moment Colin fell into this “withered” state, the glowing “sun” suspended high in the dome suddenly fractured like a shattered mirror, spewing countless shards of light.

Then the radiance swiftly dimmed...

As the cracks multiplied, the “sun” that illuminated the entire island began to disintegrate, and the scattered fragments melted away like snowflakes before touching the ground.

Within moments of the cracks appearing, all light vanished completely.

The island world plunged back into darkness, enveloped once again by mysterious and eerie gray mist, returning the world to deathly silence and peace.

At the same time, within the quiet third-tier territory, only Colin’s figure twisted occasionally on the bed.

He was utterly alone.

Nearby, on a table close to his bed, a horse lantern burned.

No matter how much Colin shifted, the lantern’s grimy, blood-stained light remained steady, quietly flickering.

Yet, at that moment...

The calm flame suddenly flickered.

As if something strange was about to happen.

The bedroom door, left slightly ajar, opened onto a hall. Colin’s room had no windows, but the hall did.

At the instant the candlelight flickered, a patch of gray mist outside the window began to stir, as if something was gathering.

When the mist thickened to a certain point, a face suddenly appeared pressed against the glass.

Its eye sockets were empty, but it seemed as though a gaze stretched from those hollow sockets, peering through the ajar door, into the bedroom, toward the figure weighed down by exhaustion.

The face was vague and pale, barely distinguishable as human, pressed closely to the windowsill, utterly unsettling.

Though the window was three stories high, and nothing but gray mist should have been there, this face appeared against all reason...

No, it was not just a face. Shortly after, a pair of pale, blurred hands appeared on the glass beneath it, pressing firmly.

It was as if someone was peering inside from outside.

If Li Hang and the others were here, they would surely recognize this as the eerie “watching sensation” they felt the night after.

But soon, this presence seemed unsatisfied with mere observation, wanting more.

The next moment, the entire window trembled, emitting unbearable cracking sounds.

Strangely, despite this, the fragile glass did not shatter.

After a while, with a sharp snap, the bolt securing the windowsill twisted slightly.

The window creaked open a narrow gap, allowing a cold draft to seep into the territory, but all sound ceased immediately upon the gap’s appearance.

It was barely wider than a fingernail, yet seemingly enough for that strange entity.

A peculiar aura flooded in, these transparent shapes warping the light as they slowly flowed inside, stretching toward Colin.

They passed through the hall, slipped through the barely open door, inching closer.

The lantern’s flame flickered wildly...

But Colin, utterly drained, was incapable of any response, oblivious to what was happening.

In his “withered” state, he was utterly consumed by extreme exhaustion, unresponsive to the outside world. His body existed on mere instinct.

His spirit was so weak it was nearly hollow.

He was utterly defenseless, no better off than an infant...

At that moment, the cold aura entered the room but seemed to bypass Colin on the bed, reaching instead toward the lantern.

Carrying a chilling, sinister aura, the closer it got to the lantern, the more it took the shape of a hand.

Or rather... it was a hand.

A grotesquely elongated, pale arm nearly ten meters long stretched through the window, relentlessly trying to reach the lantern, as if to snuff it out...

After several minutes, the hand finally touched the tabletop; it rested on the desk Colin had found in the Church of Suffering, attempting to drag it backward to more easily reach the lantern.

But then...

For reasons unknown, the grotesque, pale, chilling, and semi-transparent arm suddenly released its grip and withdrew swiftly...

Like a startled bird, it recoiled at incredible speed and vanished inside the room.

With a sharp snap, the window slammed shut...

It had left completely.

At that moment, the low, guttural sounds Colin had been making on the bed suddenly softened.

The overwhelming physiological exhaustion was alleviated by some special force.

Deep within his consciousness, the hollow soul gradually restored itself, reemerging.

His awareness broke free from the crushing fatigue; though still very tired, he was now capable of coherent thought.

Immediately, he “saw” the object that had suddenly appeared in his mind.

It was a deep red, writhing mass of information.

Colin was well acquainted with this deep red—it was the “rare tainted blood” of lord-tier aberrations, a high-grade blood enveloping what seemed to be an active “data stream.”

From this information cluster radiated a unique power, the very force easing Colin’s intense exhaustion.

This power was not unfamiliar to him.

A restoration card...

He did not try to “wake” fully, as that would subject him to both physical and mental exhaustion.

After briefly sensing his body inside and out and confirming no major issues, he focused all his attention on the blood-encased “data cluster.”

Colin stared at this sudden visitor in his mental world.

He vaguely sensed its purpose and issued a hoarse, weak “voice” within his mind.

“System.”