Chapter 60: The Thorn of Agony

Raindrops pattered against the black umbrella, water sliding down the edge and falling onto the gloomy alley floor, merging with the foul-smelling puddles and sending ripples across their surface.

Li Nanke closed his umbrella, looking up at the night sky beyond the alley, where distant skyscrapers stood tall, their neon lights vivid and dazzling. In front of him, however, was an old shop with its shutter firmly closed.

He studied the paper taped to the shutter: "Owner is out for a blind date. Come another day to buy dreams." Beneath it, several lines of messages in different handwriting had accumulated.

"How many days has it been? Why is the shop still closed?"

"Boss Li must have failed the blind date and lost the will to run the business."

"Or maybe he succeeded, found a wealthy lady, and is preparing for a career change."

"Got a job, open the door."

"......"

At the bottom of the messages, someone had drawn two curved ram horns.

Li Nanke's gaze was somewhat vacant as he unlocked the door, raised the shutter, and entered his little shop.

"Welcome~"

The shop was pitch black. The electronic lucky cat, sensing someone pushing open the glass door, waved its paw and meowed softly.

He switched on the lights; beneath the orange glow, dust danced in the air. Several shelves displayed rows of exquisitely packaged artificial dreams.

He climbed the stairs to the second floor, returning to his familiar single bedroom.

Compared to the fine decor of his apartment, this single bedroom was nothing short of a filthy dog’s den.

The only thing that made it seem less destitute was the dream synchronizer on the bedside table.

Li Nanke had thought he might feel nostalgic, perhaps even tempted to lie on the small bed for one more night.

But no such feelings arose.

Days ago, he had been gravely ill, forced to lie on this bed, wearing the synchronizer, struggling to make money and survive. Now, everything was different.

After a series of medical examinations, his health was excellent, his physical condition far exceeding ordinary limits. The numb limbs and lung infections had vanished without a trace.

Even the neurological disease caused by malignant gene mutation had greatly improved thanks to his extraordinary abilities.

As long as he continued to enhance his powers, what once seemed a deadly, untreatable illness would simply fade away.

Li Nanke picked up the synchronizer and the burned dream data disk, then went back downstairs to the shop.

After a long wait, the glass door opened, and the electronic lucky cat meowed again.

Sunglasses, mask, gray trench coat—the ram-headed figure was still wrapped up as tightly as ever.

Now, two days past their agreed delivery date, the ram-head asked, "Did something happen?"

"In a way," Li Nanke replied. "The data disk burned."

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

The ram-head frowned. "By the rules, you need to compensate a third of the payment..."

He glanced at the severely burned data disk, stood silent for a moment, then sighed, "Never mind. The last job’s price was much higher than usual. Even if I ask for compensation, you couldn’t afford it. As long as you're unharmed."

"There’s a new job, not as lucrative—sixty thousand credit points. Can you handle it?"

Li Nanke shook his head, took out the five bundles of cash from last time and tossed them back to the ram-head. "I've decided to quit."

The ram-head was stunned. "So sudden—are you sure?"

Seeing Li Nanke nod, he sized him up for a while, then smiled sincerely. "Looks like you’ve struck it rich... That's good. If you stay in this line of work, trouble is inevitable."

With that, the ram-head said nothing more, turned and left coolly, waving goodbye. "Live well."

Li Nanke sat alone in the shop for a long time.

He pulled out a sheet of paper, wrote "Shop for Transfer" on it, went outside, lowered the shutter, and covered the previous messages with his notice.

Li Nanke opened his umbrella and stepped into the rain, his figure gradually fading into the distance.

"I will live well."

-----------------

Seven days later, Crisis Control Bureau, Research Department.

An unusual blood-red thorn arrived in the study room.

It was housed in a sealed transparent glass box, with three sets of cameras installed inside, their lenses constantly fixed on the solitary blood-red thorn.

After the security personnel escorting the forbidden item departed, Jiang Lei flipped through its dossier. "Li, the director picked this forbidden item especially for you. Low risk, and its pheromone type is meat-based."

Li Nanke was silent. "Meat-based again..."

Jiang Lei gave him a look as if to say, "Li, you don’t understand the director’s good intentions." "We all know about the Omnipotent type. Sure, you can absorb other pheromone types, but you should minimize exposure if you can."

"If there’s a choice, the director will always select the extraordinary type you’ve already mastered, so you can absorb the matching pheromone... See how considerate he is."

Li Nanke wanted to say: Forget about the types, just give me a set of every kind. Don’t worry about my feelings. You are not a fish—how could you know what makes a fish happy?

He took the dossier Jiang Lei handed him and began to read the forbidden item information.

[Project Number: 5—792]

[Project Codename: Thorn of Pain]

[Danger Level: Warning]

[Containment Location: ████████████]

[Containment Measures: Place in a transparent sealed container, maintain a safe distance of 4.87 meters from the item, and ensure continuous 24-hour observation by an ‘observer’.]

[Project Description: On September 13, 2122, forbidden item 5—792, ‘Thorn of Pain’, first appeared in Wilderness E36 refugee settlement, resulting in associated deaths.]

[The item resembles a deciduous thorny shrub of the buckthorn family, manifesting as a solitary blood-red thorny plant.]

[It lacks chlorophyll and does not require photosynthesis; it can survive without water, minerals, or carbon dioxide.]

[Intelligent life forms that touch the item directly with their flesh will immediately experience extreme, intense pain.]

[Using trigeminal neuralgia as level 1, the pain caused is level 13—enough to cause shock, fainting, dementia, and prolonged exposure may even lead to loss of consciousness.]

[Research experiments show that even after local anesthetic injection, the contacted limb still feels intense pain. Blocking the relevant pain nerves does not shield from the pain, either.]

[Without an ‘observer’ present, any creature that falls asleep within a 4.87-meter radius of the item will begin to grow ‘black thorns’ inside their body, which feed on flesh and are accompanied by persistent pain.]

[Even if the host awakens, the ‘black thorns’ cannot be stopped from growing and spreading, continuing until the host loses all signs of life and transforms into a semi-organic, semi-plant form entwined with thorns; only then do the ‘black thorns’ cease to grow.]

[With an ‘observer’ present, as long as there is no direct contact, sleeping near the forbidden item has no effect. Even accidental touch only results in physical pain. No wonder its rating is merely ‘Warning’.]

[Note: ‘Observer’ is defined as either direct observation by the naked eye or video recording devices (cameras, recorders, etc.).]

[Note: ‘Black thorns’ are derivatives of this forbidden item; after the host dies, they lose all special properties.]

[......]

[Project Log: ……]

After reading the file, Li Nanke said, "So, as long as you don’t directly touch the forbidden item, and keep an ‘observer’ present, it’s safe. Even sleeping nearby is fine. If you accidentally touch it, it just hurts a little... No wonder it’s only rated as ‘Warning’."

Jiang Lei shook his head. "Li, it’s not just a little pain. Do you know how painful trigeminal neuralgia is?"

"Pain is subjective, but scientific research likes to quantify things."

"There’s something called VAS, the Visual Analogue Scale for pain. It’s a 10-centimeter line, one end ‘0’ meaning ‘no pain at all’, the other ‘10’ meaning ‘the most intense pain imaginable’."

"Test subjects mark their pain level on the line according to their own sensation. Guess what level childbirth and testicular pain are?"

Li Nanke thought for a moment. "Should both be level 10?"

Jiang Lei replied, "Early labor is level 2–3, peak labor is level 7–10. Testicular pain is in that same range, but trigeminal neuralgia is universally recognized as level 10."

"And this forbidden item brings pain thirteen times greater than trigeminal neuralgia."

Li Nanke: "......"

His synchronization rate was beyond ordinary limits; in dreams, all sensations, especially pain, were intensified.

Having listened to Jiang Lei’s explanation, even before entering the forbidden dream, Li Nanke already felt a faint ache in sympathy.