Overall, Xu Fang encountered a normal author.

In the past, the authors Xu Fang had dealt with were either psychologically abnormal or selfish, or idealistic lunatics.

Not to mention normal communication, there were various calculations before even meeting, and a slight mistake could lead to a disastrous outcome.

Therefore, Xu Fang set a very low standard for a "normal author" - as long as they did not have malicious intent and could communicate, they were considered normal authors.

Although Black Frame seemed a bit abstract, Xu Fang did not feel threatened by it.

"Why don't you know what the situation is now? Do you have any memories about authors?"

"No."

"Okay then, let me ask, how did you discover me and why did you think I would kill you?"

Black Frame said it didn't know, perhaps it was just intuition.

A long time ago, Black Frame felt that something was not right with this world, and it felt something was not right with itself as well.

No matter what it said or wrote, it would turn into garbled code, even its name was obscured by the black frame, as if it had experienced a bug.

How to break free from this situation? It vaguely felt that "suicide" might be a way out.

Few people could calmly end their own lives, let alone with this inexplicable feeling.

It tossed and turned, unable to sleep at night. It had a premonition that even if it didn't commit suicide, someone would come to end its life.

Finally, tonight, it encountered Xu Fang.

After listening to Black Frame's account, Xu Fang fell into deep thought.

Intuition? Premonition?

"..."

"You need to die once in order to remember the author's memories - I did come to kill you, would you like to give it a try? I regained the author's memories after experiencing death once."

The mist on Black Frame's body slightly fluctuated, revealing its inner anxiety, but soon it made up its mind, "Really?"

"It won't hurt, please close your eyes."

Black Frame hesitated for a moment, closed its eyes, and Xu Fang stared at it for a few seconds, then ignited its brain with an energy beam.

Blood concealed within the mist and spread throughout the body. Black Frame fell to the ground.

Xu Fang knew it hadn't died because the golden dot symbolizing the author had not dissipated, but instead became more intense.

This was an experiment, testing whether other authors had a common point of "need for awakening".

From the current situation, it was highly probable that the authors were similar to the original Xu Fang, their memories buried. Perhaps there were other ways to awaken them, but ending their lives was undoubtedly the simplest and most brutal.

Xu Fang retreated to the window, vigilantly staring at the fallen author.

If Black Frame was awakened, Xu Fang would face the real author. It was unknown how much Black Frame's personality would change.

Seconds later, Black Frame sat up again, and the bloodstains on the ground disappeared without a trace.

Its appearance did not change, still unable to see its figure, gender, or appearance clearly, but it could vaguely sense that its temperament had undergone some changes, gaining a trace of composure.

"I can't die, because the person I'm protecting will die."

"You're welcome, because we are on the same side now... You have regained all your memories, but your body hasn't recovered, right?"

"That's just temporary inconvenience, nothing serious."

"The curse of the soul? What does that mean?"

The black frame slowly approached the window, looking up at the stars, lost in memories.

Before becoming an author, the black frame was just an ordinary person, working near the company and living with two brothers.

Then, one day, the black frame was unexpectedly chosen by "Horror Novel Web" and became an author. At first, the black frame was proud and felt like it had found a cheat code, believing that its life was about to change.

Soon, the black frame finished writing fifty thousand characters and was able to make some small requests to the website, such as setting itself to "become a millionaire" in the profile, or giving itself "superpowers." The black frame believed that having superpowers was the most important, as money was easily attainable. So, it wrote down its wish in the profile.

And that's when the nightmares began.

After waking up, the black frame found itself and its two brothers trapped in a sealed room.

The room had a pitch black hole, narrow enough for only one person to crawl into, but once someone entered, they couldn't turn back.

There was also a slowly dripping faucet under which grew a pot of fleshy flowers that resembled tentacles.

This pot of flowers could talk, and it told the black frame and others that if they stayed here for one month, they could return to the real world. Though they could leave through the pitch black hole, it was not recommended because once they entered, they could never come back. The tentacle flower also warned them not to eat anything, and especially not to drink the water from the faucet.

This was the first bizarre event experienced by the black frame, and both of its brothers were involuntarily involved.

The black frame and its brothers stayed in the room for a day without eating or drinking. On the second day, the eldest brother couldn't bear it anymore and told the black frame that he would crawl into the hole. If it led to an exit, he would let the black frame and the second brother know.

After drinking a few mouthfuls of water, the eldest brother squeezed himself into the hole with difficulty.

At first, the black frame could still see the elder brother's moving feet as he crawled forward, thinking that if he got stuck, it would be able to pull him back. However, as the eldest brother climbed deeper, the black frame and the second brother could no longer see him inside, nor receive any response when they called out to him.

The second brother became extremely frightened; he was thirsty and hungry. Ignoring the black frame's dissuasion, he drank the water from the faucet and ate the tentacle flower.

Something horrifying happened - the second brother also transformed into a tentacle flower, and then he went insane, crying and begging the black frame to kill him.

With tears in its eyes, the black frame killed the second brother and ate him in the form of a tentacle flower. After that, the black frame no longer felt hunger, but it was incredibly thirsty, thirsting to the point of insanity. It desperately wanted to drink water, but it remembered the tentacle flower's warning: never drink the water.

And so, the black frame endured a month of agony between life and death and returned to the real world.

Once back in the real world, the black frame quickly drank several kilograms of water and ate a full meal. In a daze, it came in front of the mirror, only to realize that its appearance had completely changed.

The black frame had finally obtained superpowers as it wished, but it paid the price of losing two loved ones and being cursed.

From then on, the black frame worked hard to accumulate points to change its body, but it couldn't escape the curse.

The curse had already engraved itself into its soul, becoming a permanent mark.

...

Xu Fang was a little surprised to find out that the person behind the black frame was actually the author from ten years ago, even longer than Ye Huai. It was necessary for Xu Fang to reevaluate the abilities of the black frame. To be able to survive under the control of Horror Novel Web for ten years, it was definitely not an ordinary person.

"Can you tell me about the abilities you have gained?" Xu Fang asked.

"I can't fully disclose everything, but I can at least tell you that I can see things that others can't," the black frame replied.

It seemed that the black frame did not want to reveal all of its abilities, indicating that it still didn't fully trust Xu Fang.

"Alright, then how did you enter this place?" Xu Fang asked.

The black frame remained silent, staring straight at Xu Fang, as if it was saying, "I've already said enough, now it's your turn."

"Okay, then let me tell you about the information I have gathered so far from this bizarre event," Xu Fang began to recount the events he had encountered in the past three weeks. He did not hide the existence of Luo Xiaoming, as it would seem unnatural to do so. However, he did not fully disclose the truth either, referring to Luo Xiaoming as another mysterious author.

Xu Fang had thought that the black frame, with its ten years of experience, would know something about what was happening. However, when it heard the names "Eternal Life Church" and "Death God Attack," its reaction was only confusion and bewilderment.

Although the black frame had experienced many bizarre events, this was the first time it had encountered something so outrageous. Furthermore, the three life-saving items it carried with it had mysteriously disappeared.

"The most urgent matter now is to quickly find the other authors, but there is only a seven-day cycle... Do you have any way to locate the positions of the other authors?" Xu Fang asked.

The black frame nodded, saying that it could try, but it couldn't "calculate" accurately, and it would require a lot of effort as a cost.

It seemed that the black frame was hesitant to use its abilities, but it needed to prove its worth through this ability.

There were no fancy special effects or spell-casting actions. The black frame simply took out a world map and made marks on it with a ballpoint pen.

If it weren't for its trembling hand and the cold sweat dripping down, Xu Fang would probably have thought that it was just randomly drawing.

When making the thirteenth mark, the black frame couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed to the ground.

Xu Fang approached and saw that it had fallen into a deep sleep.

He lifted the black frame onto the sofa and covered it with a piece of clothing. After leaving a phone number, Xu Fang set off again with the world map in hand.

"The marked locations are where the authors are?" Xu Fang sat on the edge of the rooftop, studying the map. Although the range of the marks was as large as the size of a city or even a province, it was still accurate enough compared to the vast earth.

How exactly did it do it? Was this a superpower? This ability was truly terrifying. If it happened in reality, no author would have any privacy.

The distribution of the authors was extremely scattered, with authors in China, Southeast Asia, West Asia, North Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States.

Xu Fang called Luo Xiaoming to keep a record and then contemplated how to awaken these authors in the shortest possible time.

Usually, the Bellman-Ford algorithm was used to calculate the shortest path, but considering the timeliness of flights and the search time, it would probably take at least four or five days to awaken all these authors.

Alternatively, Xu Fang could have the black frame or other authors actively search for the other authors. Perhaps they would be able to recognize them?

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

The Global Infinite Information Center is located in a remote military base.

Several men dressed in military uniforms are standing in the intelligence room, facing the computer experts who have just joined the Eternal Life Church.

"Have faith in the Eternal Life Church!"

"Have faith in the Eternal Life Church!" The experts respond fervently.

"Who is our enemy?"

"Those who disrupt the order of eternal life!"

"The Lord has issued an order to eliminate all resistors and let us embrace eternal life!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Advance towards the goal of eternal life and find and eliminate those pests!"

"Yes, sir!"

Leaving the intelligence room, the men in military uniforms gather together, communicating in strange syllables.

[Another author has awakened...]

[Where is the information from?]

[From the readers.]

[Location, purpose, and... who?]

[Gibberish, hidden.]

[Stay vigilant, don't be careless, must... eliminate... the author.]

[Understood.]