Chapter 43: The Confusion

Su Ling let out a heart-wrenching scream.

The two insects before him were now speaking with the voices of the two nurses from moments ago.

“Mr. Su Ling, please cooperate with us.”

“Ahhh, monsters! Get away, get away from me!”

Looking at those two insects, Su Ling felt his scalp go numb.

He struggled desperately, only to discover in horror that he was tied to the bed and could not move at all.

Watching the two insects approach him with syringes in their hands, Su Ling’s eyes filled with despair.

‘Am I going to die here?’

‘I finally managed to come back… I finally reunited with my mother…’

‘And Miao Miao…’

Images of his recent past flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern.

Just as Su Ling thought his life was ending, the sound of shattering glass suddenly rang out from thin air.

*Crash!*

“Empress! I finally found you!”

An extremely pleasant voice reached his ears.

Su Ling instinctively looked over and felt his breath hitch.

She was beautiful.

The one who had broken through the window was a girl with white hair and red eyes.

Her figure was slender, but her aura possessed an unexpectedly reassuring quality.

“M-Monster!”

To Su Ling’s confusion, the two insects let out sharp, piercing shrieks upon seeing the beautiful girl. They dropped everything in their hands and fled in terror, as if they had seen something truly horrific.

“Who are you?”

“K424, Empress. My name is K424.”

The girl calling herself K424 ignored the strange insects and rushed to Su Ling’s side with an anxious expression, quickly tearing through the restraints on his body.

“K424… wait, are you K424? Do you have an older sister named K423?”

“That girl… sigh, yes. Empress, we can’t stay here. We have to leave immediately.”

K424 grabbed Su Ling’s wrist and rushed out the door.

By now, the hospital alarms were blaring, and the corridors were flooded with red light.

Su Ling saw a swarm of insects wielding clubs pouring in from the end of the hallway, and his face turned deathly pale from fright.

“What is happening? Why is everything full of insects?”

Su Ling was on the verge of a breakdown.

Everything had been fine just a moment ago.

Why did it feel like the whole world had changed the moment he opened his eyes?

“Also, aren’t you a Witch? This is Earth. How are you here? Can other people really travel from the Witch World to Earth?”

“And why are you calling me Empress? I’m clearly a man!”

Su Ling had too many questions.

“Watch out, Empress!”

K424 cried out. In the next moment, Su Ling felt the world spin until he sensed a wave of softness.

K424 had actually taken him into her arms.

The number of insects grew, but strangely, the moment they saw K424, they acted as if they had encountered a terrifying beast.

They screamed desperately and did not dare to step forward even though they held weapons.

This allowed K424 to easily break through the encirclement while carrying Su Ling.

“Ahhh, monster! What kind of monster is this!”

“Call the police! Call the police!”

The swarm of insects was a chaotic mess, and their cries were even mixed with the sounds of people sobbing in fear.

“Ling Ling?”

At that moment, Su Ling heard an extremely familiar voice.

He instinctively looked over and found that the source was also an insect.

Yet, for some reason, he felt a profound sense of familiarity from that particular insect.

“Mom…” he murmured unconsciously.

Before the word could fully leave his lips, Su Ling felt another bout of dizziness.

The scene before him began to flicker with colorful mosaics, like an old television set.

He saw the insects transform back into humans.

He saw his mother looking at him with a dazed expression.

He saw that the person holding him was not a beautiful girl at all, but a strange, half-human, half-insect monster.

But when he blinked again, the image reverted.

They were insects again, and the one holding him was the beautiful girl.

“What on earth is going on?”

Su Ling was going mad.

Insects, humans… he could no longer tell them apart.

“Empress, please close your eyes. I am here.”

K424’s voice drifted over, sounding as if it possessed a certain magic.

His agitated heart gradually began to calm down.

“Empress, hold me tight.”

Su Ling instinctively hugged K424.

In the next moment, following a chorus of terrified screams from the insect swarm, he felt a sensation of weightlessness.

He slowly opened his eyes and discovered to his horror that he was in the sky!

A pair of thin wings had grown from K424’s back.

“You!”

Su Ling’s pupils shrank.

Everything that had just happened had completely overturned his understanding of reality.

“Empress, I know you have many questions right now. Rest assured, I will explain everything to you later.”

K424 gave him a gentle smile.

However, for some reason, her face was deathly pale.

“You’re injured? Quick, put me down!”

Su Ling finally noticed that K424’s abdomen was soaked in deep red.

She had been wounded while charging through the swarm of insects earlier.

“Don’t worry… I…”

K424’s voice was incredibly weak.

A moment later, Su Ling felt a surge of weightlessness as the two of them plummeted toward the ground.

K424 pulled Su Ling tightly into her embrace, as if she were holding her entire world.

*Boom!*

With K424 protecting him, Su Ling was not injured.

However, K424’s condition was far from optimistic.

“Don’t die! What is going on?”

Su Ling looked at K424, his voice thick with tears.

To wake up back on Earth only to be treated as a mental patient, and then for the world to suddenly change…

Su Ling’s taut nerves finally snapped.

He could no longer hold it back and sobbed as he leaned over K424’s body.

“Do not cry, my Empress.”

They had fallen onto a mountain.

Su Ling heard movement coming from the base of the hill.

That swarm of insects had managed to track them down.

He could hear the rising and falling sounds of dogs barking.

“Run, Empress! Run quickly!”

“They are ‘The Confusion.’ They are the confusion used by the Insect Hive to trap you!”

“This is a trial every Empress must endure. Forgive me, Empress, for interfering with your trial and causing The Confusion to descend early.”

K424 gripped Su Ling’s wrist tightly.

She struggled to sit up, her battered body managing to squeeze out a weak smile.

“What confusion? What Insect Hive?”

Su Ling stared at her blankly.

But in the next second, K424 shoved him off the cliff.

“Run, Empress! Right now, you are no match for The Confusion. You will be completely lost here!”

“The Zerg need you, Her Highness needs you… K423 needs you, too…”

The wind whistled past his ears.

In Su Ling’s eyes, K424’s figure on the cliff began to shrink.

Her appearance flickered constantly, switching between the white-haired girl and a half-human, half-insect form.

“Empress, I have already died once and returned to the Insect Hive.”

“The Hive wanted me to become the ‘Confusion’ that traps you. But, my Empress, you are my everything. How could I have the heart to trap you?”

“Before, it was the call of Her Highness that allowed you to break through The Confusion yourself.”

“Now, please let me be the blade that shatters The Confusion for you.”

K424 turned around.

The tears at the corners of her broken eyes had already been stained red with blood.

Before her, a swarm of insects that blotted out the sun lunged toward her frantically.

She knew that the Insect Hive was furious.

“So, even you can feel rage?”

She took one last, lingering look back toward the cliff.

Then, with a look of absolute determination, she charged into the insect swarm.

“Empress, take care. Please… look after K423 for me…”