Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 107: Unconscious Action Detected

The mortuary became a tableau of shock and murmured disbelief for almost an hour. Medics, aides, and officials whom Leon knew nothing about gathered around him, their expressions ranging from awe to naked fear.

Some stretched their hands, wanting to feel the warmth of the boy’s skin, just to verify that he wasn’t a ghost.

That night, under the dark, starless sky, Mr. Lee guided Leon away from the dead and led him to a different room that seemed to hold life.

The smell of old herbs and antiseptic floated about in the room like a stubborn spirit.

Leon’s eyes became heavy the moment his back touched the top surface of the bed laced with blue silk. He fell into a deep sleep that was devoid of dreams, most especially the vast green ocean and the grey-skinned beings.

After what felt like two hours, a low, groaning hum filled the room. Leon jolted up from his sleep, feeling the hum vibrating through his teeth.

He blinked. "Is it just my eyes, or is the ceiling melting down?" He swiped his hands over his eyes once, then twice.

Then, on the third swipe, a chime vibrated in his skull.

[SYSTEM WARNING!]

Unconscious Action Detected.

Environmental Alteration: Confirmed.

Risk: Severe.

’Unconscious Action?!’ Leon screamed in his thoughts as the panel hummed for a heartbeat, then vanished from his sight.

Smoke popped up like a bomb blast, engulfing him. His eyes opened wide, noticing the silvery streams of molten metal weeping from the light fixtures.

They hissed as they struck the floor and glowed with a faint cherry-red heat as they pooled in one section.

"What’s going on?" Leon screamed, scrambling backward off the bed. The smoke swallowed his voice, leaving him hearing only his own echo.

Suddenly, his mind drove back to the notification panel that appeared before his vision again: Unconscious Action Detected.

’Am I the cause of this?’ he screamed in his thoughts as panic seized him.

He lunged off the bed and made for the door. He fumbled with the handle, but after he swung it to the left, he yanked it open.

"Help! Help!! Help!!!" he cried out the moment he stumbled into the corridor. His voice echoed down the dark, empty hallway and bounced back to him in a more severe tone.

From the twelfth floor, his eyes blurred when the idea of jumping struck him like a blow.

"Nah," he said, sighed, then shook his head.

He sank to the floor at the base of the staircase of the eleventh floor, where it led to a locked exit door.

He curled himself, wrapped his arms around his knees, and stayed there, shivering in the dark.

Meanwhile, the metallic door of the room he had just exited melted to the floor like acid on skin, leaving the room without a door. The smooth walls, which were painted white, became jagged and darkened.

The smoke seeped out of the room through the slightly opened window and spiraled in the air outside the towering building.

In the sky, night birds spiraled around a cloud formation that had the look of an eye. The number of birds increased as the silver streams of molten metal dripped from the edges where the hinges of the door had been.

As the grey, misty dawn light began to seep through the window, the formation in the sky vanished, together with the birds.

A low, gathering rumble echoed in the ground as lots of people assembled on the ground floor of the building. Their faces were a mixture of shock and dread.

"What’s going on?" Mr. Lee asked, stretching his arms forward and paddling his way through the military personnel.

A man wearing a black outfit that seemed to glitter as the morning sun’s rays fell on it drew closer to him. "Corporal Lee, the cleaners reported to us that they can’t get access to the eleventh floor."

A smile tore across Mr. Lee’s face, then he shook his head. "I know," he said, and walked past the young man without even caring about the guy’s expression.

He walked into the elevator, pressed the number 10, then exhaled calmly.

The hum of the elevator filled every floor it moved past. At each floor, the doors remained closed, no sign of life streaked across them.

When the elevator stopped at the tenth floor, Mr. Lee smiled and walked out. He pulled out a single red key from his pocket the moment he climbed the stairs leading to the eleventh floor.

He inserted the key into the keyhole, turned his head for a glance at the hallway behind him, then back at the door.

Click.

He swallowed hard as smoke slammed him in the face. As if pulled on a string, he dashed forward at great speed, neglecting a glance at the figure curled at the side of the stairs.

The shock on his face deepened when he halted in front of the completely melted door. "WHAT!" he screamed, his eyeballs shaking in their sockets.

Instantly, the memory of the catastrophic events, both the hospital one and the field one, popped up in his mind like a wound that wouldn’t heal.

He stumbled a step back but balanced himself, grabbing the edge of the wall.

The walls were slagged and scarred as he forced his legs to move inside the darkened room. Every metal surface—the bed frames, the sink, the chairs, and even the ceiling—had melted into a surreal sculpture.

His nose twitched as the smell of acid and ozone pierced his nostrils. Being the only person who knew how and who could cause that, he turned and searched for the only boy that came to mind.

’Who was that curled at the stairs?’ he asked himself, then realized he had walked past Leon without noticing.

He went back to the base of the stairs and found Leon looking smaller and more lost than he had ever seen him.

"Leon," Mr. Lee said, kneeling beside the boy. "What happened?"

Leon’s eyes were red-rimmed as he lifted his head and stared at the man. Fresh tears traced clean lines through the dust on his face.

"I don’t know," he whispered. "I just woke up... and all of it was melting."

Mr. Lee studied him for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Come with me."

A grim grin slowly appeared on his face as he and the boy exited the eleventh floor in the direction of one of the closed doors on the seventh floor.