Chapter 212 102: Shadow Demon

"Your paintings are mediocre, lacking creativity, and your techniques are crude, all poor imitations of predecessors. I guarantee that unless you are wealthy, no academy will ever accept you at this level."

"But your painting of 'Hands of Hell' is pretty good. I'm willing to pay 50 euros for it."

In the park, Louis occupied a piece of lawn as usual, put on the lawn several old paintings that he was satisfied with, and sat aside to paint. When someone approached him, he introduced his paintings and mentioned the result that was one place away from being admitted to the Victoria Academy of Art, hoping to give the guests some confidence and slightly increase the price of the paintings.

"Sir, this is not called the Hand of Hell, it's called God." Louis explained to a man in a suit who seemed to be interested in buying it. "This is the painting I am most satisfied with. If you really want to buy it, it can't be less than 200 Euros."

The man shrugged, muttered something in his hometown dialect, and said, "I don't care what it's called. Eighty euros is the limit. In my opinion, it's worth the price."

Louis's expression suddenly became very ugly, and he looked at him carefully: "Are you a David?"

"Hmm? Any problem?" the man asked doubtfully, shifting his gaze from the painting to Louis.

"Damn it, get out of here! I would rather chop my work up and use it as firewood than sell it to the David people! Get out!" Louis picked up an unfinished painting and pretended to throw it at the man.

"Damn it, you're crazy! You deserve to be a painter that no one cares about." The man was too lazy to argue and was even more afraid that his expensive suit would be stained by dye. He cursed a few words and ran away in a hurry.

"Screw you Davids! Don't try to tarnish my work!"

Louis carefully put the painting down and put his hands on his hips like a victorious general.

Ignoring the strange looks from other people in the park, he calmed down his breath and put the unfinished work back on the easel. He was just pretending just now. If he really wanted to destroy the work, he would be reluctant to do so. Those Davids were only worthy of being educated with cheap industrial products like bullets, not his works of art.

Walking in front of the painting of "God", he admired it over and over again without getting tired of it.

That was when he went to Gaul to sketch. He witnessed with his own eyes the scene of hands reaching out from the earth to support the Eiffel Tower, and the inspiration that came to him was so great that he spent several days, almost without sleep, to combine inspiration and reality into a work.

But when he was excited to sell it locally, he was almost beaten.

"Your painting clearly shows the devil's hand! You bastard Hans, stop slandering our angel's hand! Take your painting and go back to your country!"

Indeed, in the painting, the giant hand appears extremely hideous, which is quite different from the actual picture. Even the surrounding scene has an inexplicable sense of decadence.

"Superficial people can only see the first level and cannot even feel the gaze of God." Louis murmured, thinking of the angry boss.

"Louis."

"Hmm? Ah, it's Miss Hedwig! Welcome!"

Someone came over. It was Hedwig, whom he had met a few days ago. She bought one of his paintings, and Louis could feel that she sincerely liked his work. He always welcomed such guests, no, friends, with great enthusiasm.

Hedwig seemed a little absent-minded, his eyes fell on the painting "God", and he subconsciously said: "The perspective of your painting seems very cold."

Louis was startled, and then became very excited: "You figured it out? Yes, you figured it out! The name of this painting is "God", you must understand the meaning of this name, right?"

"Is this how God sees the world? Why does everything seem so hideous and dirty?" Hedwig asked sincerely.

Lewis paused in excitement, his eyes slightly disappointed, but he still raised his spirit to explain: "In the eyes of God, since the existence of human beings, this world has never been pure and flawless, it must be full of dirt, and these extraordinary people are like cancer cells, harmful and useless."

"I didn't expect Mr. Louis to view the extraordinary in this way. I thought you would be eager to become an extraordinary like everyone else." Hedwig's smile was a little forced.

"No, you misunderstood me. Who doesn't want to be extraordinary if possible?" Louis denied her words.

Hedwig was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly said, "Can we find a place to talk?"

"why not."

Without any hesitation, Louis deftly gathered up his paintings and placed them on a cart.

The place they chose was Louis' home.

He lived in an apartment bought by his mother. Unlike what Hedwig had expected, the interior was very tidy and not at all like the paint-filled picture she had imagined.

"Sit anywhere, I'm the only one at home." Louis brought beer, "Want some beer?"

"can."

"My family hasn't had guests for a long time, and I don't have any relatives in this city. I grew up in a small village near Munich when I was a child. Ever since those damn Davids came..." Louise didn't ask Hedwig's purpose. Instead, he drank beer and talked to her as if she were a confidant. It was obvious that he hadn't had such a frank communication with anyone for a long time, and once he started talking, he couldn't stop.

Hedwig listened carefully. She believed that knowing the other person's past would help her better understand the other person's character.

". Look at what the extraordinary people are doing with their powers now. The Gallic hero Abdul, is circling around Olivier like a bodyguard every day. His ability to control the earth can obviously be used in many more useful places. America is even more ridiculous. It was split because of the extraordinary. Although there is no clear evidence, I believe there must be extraordinary struggles behind their split, otherwise it would not have happened so quickly. Tokyo also hides the secret of the origin of the extraordinary. Haha, take a look around the world, and you will find that the country of Hans has been excluded from the core circle of the world."

Louis seemed to be no different from other men. After taking two sips, he began to look at the world and make bold statements.

Hedwig did not object to this, he just felt it was true. At least he was a man who said what he thought.

"What if there really is such an opportunity to become extraordinary? What would you do?" She interrupted Louis's chatter and said.

Louis seemed to have a premonition. He stared at Hedwig for a while and hesitated before speaking.

"Peace. I will strive to bring peace to the world."

He said this with a look of light in his eyes.

Half a day later.

Paradise Node welcomed a new apprentice who called himself a painter.

"Ivan, have you ever felt like someone was whispering something in your ear lately?"

An experimental base under the permafrost of Beilian has recently gathered a large number of researchers to conduct closed research experiments.

Because of their close contact with the extraordinary, Ivan and Alexander, two ordinary soldiers, also participated in it and became mascot-like existences.

My daily job is to patrol around and observe if there is anything wrong.

However, in reality, Ivan only felt that there was something 10% or even 90% wrong with the experimental subject, but when others heard it, they became alert, because that was what they wanted to know: something was wrong!

It was a black, egg-shaped, soft-bodied egg that was discovered by personnel at the scientific research site and would occasionally wriggle.

Any normal-thinking human being can sense the weirdness of this thing.

The experiment has been carried out uninterruptedly for more than half a month, and with the use of various methods, there has not been much progress so far. The only thing we can confirm is that it is alive, and the material of the eggshell is also something we have never seen before.

But what is inside the eggshell remains a mystery.

From lasers to high temperatures, and then slowly to hydraulics and drills. Although they were no longer so concerned about not damaging the egg, they still failed to achieve any results.

The only unexpected gain was that I discovered that the core temperature of the egg seemed to be rising slowly, from a few degrees at the beginning to more than ten degrees now.

The researcher lost some of his already small amount of hair, and seemed to be a little emotionally broken. "Have you reported to the KGB?" Ivan knew that Alexander could always stand loneliness, and he shouldn't have hallucinations after living underground for half a month.

"They recorded it, but they didn't say anything." Alexander shrugged and rubbed his ears. "Damn, that sound was so sexy. It made my Gil hard."

"." Ivan has never been used to Alexander's blunt remarks.

"So, that voice was seducing you?" he asked tentatively.

"No, that voice sounded like a man's." Alexander said seriously, then looked at Ivan's horrified face and laughed, "Haha, I was kidding you, actually I couldn't tell whether it was a man or a woman, it just seemed to seduce something in my heart."

"It sounds like the whispers of the devil." Ivan looked at the researchers who were in a hurry or discussing heatedly, "I wonder if they have this phenomenon."

"Who knows? I'm so sleepy. I'll go back and take a nap first."

Alexander left yawning. They had more free time than these researchers.

Ivan was still a little worried. After all, it was a matter of extraordinary things and any abnormal situation could not be ignored. So he found their person in charge and reported the situation in detail.

"We are investigating this matter. Currently, Alexander is the only one experiencing auditory hallucinations. You don't have to worry too much."

His superior comforted him like this.

Seeing this, Ivan had no choice but to suppress all his doubts and continue to live this repetitive life.

late at night.

Ivan in the dormitory seemed to feel a gust of cold wind blowing in, causing him to shrink under the quilt and wake up in a daze.

Before his eyes were fully opened, he felt a shadow standing in front of him.

Ivan's dormitory is a double room, shared with Alexander. The basement space is limited, with basically an aisle between the two beds. Because there is no natural light, in order to avoid turning on the light when going to the bathroom, Alexander plugged in a night light in front of the table opposite the bed.

It was also with this faint light that Ivan could feel that there was a shadow blocking the light, standing straight not far in front of him, motionless and silent, like a puppet corpse.

Ivan subconsciously tensed his body, slowed down his breathing, and narrowed his eyes. He indeed saw the dark shadow that blocked the light. It was very close to his feet. He could even smell a cold and chilly breath.

What horrified him was that the person standing there was not Alexander.

Because Alexander was lying on the bed opposite, his eyes wide open, staring in his direction, just like the black shadow.

His heart was pounding, breathing became difficult, and Ivan could even feel waves of lack of oxygen.

Alexander had no habit of sleeping with his eyes open, so he must have been looking at himself. Although the door was not locked, a key was required to get in from the outside. Besides the administrator, only he and Alexander had the key, so how did the shadow get in? Or maybe it didn't come in from the outside, but was already there.

He seemed to see the black shadow slowly bending down, and the invisible head was approaching his field of vision. He was so scared that he quickly closed his eyes, not daring to open them even a crack.

Under this extreme torture, he fell asleep unknowingly.

"Ivan? Ivan!"

"Don't come here!!"

Ivan suddenly climbed up from the bed, pressed himself against the wall, his forehead covered with sweat, his eyes wide open, looking at Alexander with fear, who looked puzzled.

"What's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell today?" Alexander raised his hands, took a half step back, and looked at him suspiciously.

"Hey, hey. You, me. What time is it now?" Ivan wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked at the quilt, which was already wet with sweat.

"It's seven o'clock. Normally you would have gotten up long ago. What did you do today? Did you masturbate secretly last night?" Alexander teased.

Ivan was not in the mood to joke. He calmed his breathing and asked seriously, "What time did you go to bed last night?"

"I haven't woken up yet, don't you know?" Alexander yawned, "I don't know why, the more I sleep, the more sleepy I feel."

Ivan remembered that after Alexander returned home yesterday, he had been sleeping all the time. He didn't even eat dinner and slept soundly.

"Did you really not wake up last night?" Ivan confirmed again.

"I promise, absolutely not." Alexander almost swore.

"So, did you have any nightmares or see anything when you woke up?"

"No, I slept very well."

Unable to get the answer he wanted, Ivan felt a throbbing pain in his head.

"Forget about feeling uncomfortable. I'll ask your superior for leave for you."

"Don't—I'm fine. I can do this."

It would be terrible for him to continue staying in the dormitory alone.

"Hurry up, we still have to eat breakfast." Alexander urged.

Ivan put the quilt aside, planning to take it to the laundry room later. After quickly washing up, he and Alexander went to the cafeteria to have breakfast as usual.

"morning."

"Morning, Alexander."

"Good morning."

Along the way, Alexander greeted many people.

Ivan followed behind, still unable to get over what happened last night, but also a little confused: "When did you know so many people?"

"We'll get to know each other if we just hang out and brag more," Alexander said casually.

Ivan had to admit that Alexander had a unique talent for bragging. He could talk about everything from the origin of pornographic movie stars to quantum mechanics, so he didn't think much about it.

"Is this a nightmare?" Ivan said to himself.

"No, it's not. Did you see that too?"

A strange voice came from behind him in a low voice. Ivan turned around and saw a female researcher with heavy dark circles under her eyes.

"Dark Shadow Demon, you saw it too, right?"

(End of this chapter)