142. Cletus, Star Gate Desperate Defense Plan

A wild night had passed.

Early in the morning, Dean gently pushed away the arms and legs draped over him, ordered breakfast, left a note, and checked out of the hotel ahead of time.

Back home, taking advantage of the fact that Rust hadn't returned yet, he set up the spiritualist kit, drew the curtains, and plunged the bedroom into darkness and quietness.

He summoned the Ghost Armor, channeled his mental energy into the ouija board, and locked onto the most powerful spirit within it.

The blue curtains fluttered without a breeze, and an icy wind blew from the ouija board, settling right in front of Dean.

Peering through the glass piece of the ouija board, he saw a spirit emitting a faint, soft glow materializing in the air. She was slender with sweet facial features—none other than Cletty, the telekinetic esper who had died just a short while ago.

Yet, unlike the ghosts Dean had previously imprisoned, her facial features were not blank and doll-like; instead, they were as vivid and lifelike as a living person.

"Where am I?" Cletty actually spoke, her voice sounding light and ethereal.

"Have you forgotten? You're already dead."

"Then what on earth am I now?"

Cletty looked bewildered for a moment, her pale cyan face instantly turning fierce as she parted her hands and invisible forces converged.

A violent gust of wind whipped up the bed blanket and the books on the bookshelf, spinning them in mid-air.

However, in the next second, the muzzle of the Gun of Blood and Soul was aimed right at her hazy, translucent face, and a massive wave of terror froze her body in place.

"If you don't want to be blasted into nothingness, don't move," Dean said, holding the gun in one hand while observing through the ouija board with the other. "Listen, as long as you honestly answer my questions, I can consider sparing your life."

The female ghost locked eyes with him for ten seconds before saying with a conflicted expression, "Vance, Donna, Miller, Bradley?"

"I kept my promise and cremated them along with you. As for their souls," Dean said, enunciating every word, "they are currently still with me. If you behave, perhaps I'll show mercy and let them reunite with you."

Cletty said dejectedly, "I admit that this operation was a complete and utter mistake. We shouldn't have provoked you."

"But we clearly searched your body. Exactly how did you pull out a grenade, manipulate and imprison souls? Just how many superpowers do you even have?"

"I ask, you answer. Understand?"

A trace of helplessness appeared on Cletty's semi-transparent cheeks. She gritted her teeth and nodded.

"Good. Now, we have plenty of time. Tell me from the very beginning about your team's growth... I'm quite interested."

Cletty turned to gaze at the blank wall, hesitated for a few seconds, stood still, and began to recount her story in a soft, flowing tone. "Vance, Donna, Miller, and I all came from an orphanage in a remote suburb of Indiana."

"What about your parents?"

"I left them when I was three or four. I can't even remember what they looked like or what their names were..." Mentioning her parents, Cletty was unusually calm. "My earliest memory is living in that orphanage with hundreds of other kids for over a decade."

"That place was hell!"

"The staff bullied the orphans at will, and the orphans themselves were divided into castes. Those who knew how to suck up and butter up the director and administrators became the lackbies, helping them beat and curse their peers. The lackeys' friends became the second-class citizens, who never lacked food or clothing. Someone like me—introverted, timid, and sickly—was at the very bottom. Anyone could beat me, insult me, and steal my food..."

"So, your psychokinesis wasn't awakened since birth?"

"If it had been, I wouldn't have had to endure so much suffering, and I would have slaughtered those demons long ago." Cletty clenched her fists, and anger caused her semi-transparent body to ripple like the surface of water. "That fat, pig-like disgusting director, the cook with tumors all over his face, the hunchbacked janitor—every once in a while, they would drag some poor kid into the office. When those kids were let back out, they were tortured beyond recognition, and some even died directly."

"They also threatened and intimidated the other kids. Anyone showing the slightest sign of leaking a secret would vanish the next day."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Nobody cared?"

"Who could possibly care?" Cletty smiled, her smile full of intense irony, as lifelike as any living person.

"We orphans are the scrapings of society. Only one in a hundred lucky ones gets adopted by kind people who spend a fortune; the rest of us continue to suffer in hell!"

"Back then, my deepest memories were endless curses, beatings, and hunger. I was so hungry I couldn't sleep. Every day I could only bite down on a rusty water pipe and swallow large amounts of cold water to soothe the churning stomach acid."

"I was hungry and tired, weak, in pain, and terrified, having nightmares every day. Sometimes I just wanted to die."

Her angry tone shifted, and her sharp gaze suddenly became exceptionally tender.

"Until the year I turned eight, Vance entered the orphanage. He was two years older than me, stronger than kids his age, and looked very intimidating, yet he was exceptionally nice to me."

She smiled. "He took the initiative to protect me, bore all sorts of malice on my behalf, and kept me company, chatting and playing with me just like a real family member."

"I wasn't used to it at first, until one time, the director tried to drag me into the office by force. Vance was only ten years old back then, powerless to stop an adult, yet unable to bear watching me get bullied."

Cletty paused, covered her mouth, and choked back a sob, though the ghost had no tears. "He went into the office in my place. When he came back, he was covered in injuries, bleeding heavily, and stayed in bed for three full days. From that moment on, I knew I would never leave this man in my lifetime."

A long silence fell over the bedroom.

Dean inwardly sighed. Compared to his own starting point of both parents dying, this esper's starting difficulty was set to nightmare mode.

...

"Later on, Big Sister Donna and Miller entered the orphanage one after another. Our personalities clicked, and we quickly became inseparable friends. When I was fifteen, our bodies had matured enough, and we snuck out of the orphanage one night."

"Didn't you set a fire in the orphanage before escaping? Burn that place of sin to the ground?" Dean asked with dissatisfaction. If it were him, he would have killed dozens of people before leaving.

"That came later." Cletty shook her head.

"To make a living, we took odd jobs all over the country, begged, and stole. Life was hard, but free, and far happier than being in the orphanage. The four of us weathered crisis after crisis together, becoming true family."

"One year, we were sleeping on a bench in a park in New York when we were ambushed by four vagrants... One of them pulled a knife and held it to Vance's neck."

"I was terrified of losing him. I had to save him, even if it cost me my life." Cletty's tone grew hurried, her eyes staring straight into the void. "I had never desired anything so intensely, a will so overwhelming it made me dizzy... And then, a miracle happened. My mind felt like it exploded, my nose bled profusely, and a powerful force surged out, striking the vagrant holding Vance hostage, blasting him straight into a large tree and snapping his neck!"

This was the power of emotion.

Intense emotion was the key to unlocking psychokinesis and also a power amplifier.

Dean committed this firmly to memory.

"Your psychokinesis was this powerful the moment it awakened?"

"No... After the first outburst in the park, my psychokinesis returned to normal levels, barely able to move heavy objects like boxes or mattresses."

"But the more it was used, the more skillful and powerful it became. Gradually, I could lift a car and discover other functions, like opening door locks, safes, retrieving objects from afar, and creating barriers to stop bullets..."

"With these superpowers, making money became effortless for me. Well, I simply 'took money' from the villas of the rich, changing locations each time, and the cops simply couldn't catch us."

"So, did you kill people?" Dean asked.

"Killed quite a few." Cletty openly admitted, "Shortly after awakening, we returned to the orphanage, killed all the staff, and burned it to the ground."

"Well done."

"But we didn't involve ordinary people and civilians."

Although this group had launched a shameless sneak attack, they still had a baseline and hadn't targeted Gretchen or Rust.

Otherwise, Dean would have reduced them to ashes long ago.

"After burning the orphanage, the four of us drove around the country traveling and spent two carefree years. In the third year after my psychokinesis awakened, we were targeted in Ohio by a superpowered criminal who could instantly hypnotize with his gaze... and was proficient in stealth, combat, and marksmanship."

Cletty said with lingering fear, "He silently sneaked into the house where we lived, controlled Vance and the other two, and threatened me into surrendering."

"Right at that moment, Bradley suddenly appeared and teamed up with me to kill the hypnotist, resolving the crisis."

"He told us that the hypnotist had already committed a dozen bloody crimes in Ohio, taking pleasure in slaughtering and torturing people, making him a true madman and pervert."

"Bradley had been investigating him all along. After eliminating him, he seized the opportunity to invite us to join him, and in doing so, he taught me a principle."

"Most psychic espers have mental illnesses and are extremely dangerous. Rather than being ambushed by them, it's better to strike first, capture them, and sell them to the Company in exchange for some pocket money."

"We hit it off with Bradley. He was a good teacher, teaching us first aid, firearms, and tactical knowledge, turning our team into professionals."

"Then, using his identity as an FBI agent, he investigated bizarre mysteries all across the country. Whenever he found traces of the supernatural, he would contact us to cooperate in hunting them down."

"How many captures did you carry out before me?" Dean tapped his finger against the floor.

"We cooperated with Bradley for fifteen years, carrying out five operations in total and capturing five espers... until we met you."

Hearing this, Dean was somewhat surprised. Relying on the FBI's intelligence network, it still took them three years to find a single esper.

The frequency was very low.

"What abilities did those people have?"

"Two telekinetics. Their telekinetic strength was far inferior to mine."

Dean nodded. Just as he had surmised, psychokinesis was not rare, but its upper limit was high.

"One poison-emitter whose bodily fluids contained deadly venom."

"How toxic?"

"A single drop of his saliva could kill a strong adult."

"Yet his physical body was still that of an ordinary person. After we hogtied him, we shoved him into a diving suit and locked his helmet."

"Then there was a physically enhanced individual."

"How high was the degree of enhancement?"

"Impervious to blades and gunfire. Conventional pistols, rifles, and even sniper rifles couldn't pierce his skin. Moreover, his strength was several times that of a normal person, though his reaction time and speed were within the normal range," Cletty explained. "After I used psychokinesis to suffocate him, we cuffed him and locked him into that iron coffin."

Dean rolled his eyes. Back then, these people must have mistaken him for a physical enhancement type as well.

"The last one was a telepath. On the day we carried out the capture, he read Donna's thoughts and almost successfully escaped, but his physical fitness and intelligence were simply too average, and he failed to seize the opportunity."

...

Dean learned the detailed process of capturing these five espers in depth, using it to spy on the strengths and weaknesses of various abilities.

...

"How did that old fox Bradley discover these five espers? Where did they slip up?"

Cletty looked at him with a complex gaze and uttered the ultimate truth:

"Their mistake was identical to yours—staying in the same place for too long and committing multiple crimes consecutively."

"If an esper wants to live in peace, they cannot stay in any single place for more than a year, and they must keep as low a profile as possible, especially avoiding the attention of the media, the police, and the public."

Listening to this, Dean let out a self-deprecating laugh. The cases he thought were carried out seamlessly had flaws galore in the eyes of those who knew what to look for.

"Who do you sell the kidnapped goods to?"

"The Company, a very mysterious experimental institution."

"What kind of projects do they run?"

"I don't know. Our relationship with the Company was limited to delivering goods for cash; we never asked a single extra question. Besides, Bradley handled the communications."

Dean nodded. "So how much money did you get in total for selling those five espers?"

"An average of over 4 million each, adding up to more than 25 million. And you alone are worth all of them combined."

Dean found it somewhat amusing. "So I'm worth that much. But you guys spent fifteen years sharing just over 4 million each—for that little money, was it worth it?"

Cletty nodded in recognition. "People in our line of work dance on the blade's edge and can meet with misfortune at any moment, so we always indulged in instant gratification in the past, spending the money almost as soon as we got it."

"No need to explain, I have no interest in your savings." Dean wasn't sure if touching that money would draw the attention of the Company behind the scenes; he was more concerned with another question.

"Did you reveal the operation's plan and my identity information to the Company?"

Cletty stared at him for five seconds, pressed her lips together, and shook her head. "Without getting paid, how could we possibly reveal the target's information? What if we ended up losing both the person and the money?"

Dean breathed a long sigh of relief inwardly. If the Company knew his background, he would have had no choice but to abandon his current legal identity and flee for his life.

"Besides you guys, are there other bounty hunter teams capturing espers for the Company?"

"I've never seen any, but I imagine... they most likely exist."

Dean continued to ask about the Company, but Cletty couldn't provide any further details, so he changed the subject.

"How many years has it been since you awakened your psychokinesis?"

"About eighteen years."

"During this time, have you ever witnessed the Convergence Law?"

Cletty lowered her head and thought for a moment. "Are you referring to encountering supernatural events periodically?"

"Yes."

"Deeply impressionable." Cletty sighed, her eyes flickering. "Since my awakening, I've encountered supernatural events three times... roughly six years apart each time... and every time was a brush with death that almost cost me my life."

Hearing this, Dean couldn't help but marvel. "Only three supernatural events in eighteen years?"

This was practically nothing compared to the number of encounters he had experienced over the past year.

Was fate really that lenient toward Cletty?

"Those three supernatural events were far more dangerous than capturing espers, and they happened without any warning." A vivid terror flashed across Cletty's face; although she was a ghost, her voice was trembling.

"How were they without warning?"

"One night when I was twenty-one, I was sleeping in bed when I suddenly felt something strange with my thigh, as if something was pulling me. The moment I opened my eyes, I saw a humanoid creature standing in my shadow, pulling on my leg..."

"It had a round, oversized head like an alien and a protruding eyeball. Its entire face had no mouth, nose, or ears—only that single giant volleyball-like eye. Its skin was grayish-white, rough, and covered in dense scales. It was using its slender limbs to pull me inward, and my psychokinesis was completely ineffective against it, as if it was being absorbed by it."

"You're not joking?" Dean felt a chill run down his spine.

"What reason do I have to joke?" Cletty shook her head, still haunted by the memory of that scene. "If Vance hadn't turned on the lights in time, that monster would have dragged me into the shadow."

"How did you solve it?"

"We arranged high-powered lights in the bedroom with zero blind spots, shining them for a full half-month. Without shadows, the monster disappeared."

"Did it die?"

...

Dean fell silent.

This so-called monster had transcended the bounds of common sense, leaving him with a helpless sense of impotence.

...

"What about the remaining two incidents?"

Cletty recounted in detail her experience of falling into a cave in the Appalachian Mountains to fight mutant monsters, and encountering cultists summoning an otherworldly monster in an abandoned house before both sides suffered heavy losses.

Listening to it all, Dean felt thoroughly unwell.

Most of the events he had experienced in the past were not directed at him personally, and their danger and bizarreness fell far short of these three encounters Cletty had faced.

"I was sick of it a long time ago. The Convergence Law is like a curse; no matter where I am, it clings to me. It might be late, but it never misses an appointment." Cletty suddenly smiled with a carefree sense of relief. "Even if you hadn't killed me, the next time the Convergence Law flared up, I would have been doomed anyway."

"Dying early might not be a bad release."

Dean's expression turned as gloomy as water as he listened.

Espers in this world didn't just have bad luck—threatened by corporate organizations, ill-intentioned peers, and other bizarre supernatural entities—they also had to be careful not to lose their minds and turn into madmen.

No wonder the ancestors of the Van Helsing family chose to dilute their bloodline and have their descendants completely degenerate into ordinary people just to survive.

Speaking of mental derangement—

"Cletty, did you ever feel your mental state acting up before?"

"Yes. That's a side effect of psychokinesis. I often became emotional and moody... having nightmares all night, and suffering from various terrifying auditory and visual hallucinations for no reason during the day. During the closest calls, I almost accidentally killed Vance."

"Then how did you survive through it?"

"Thanks to my companions..." Cletty said with lingering attachment. "They constantly stayed by my side and comforted me... helping me through the period of mental derangement. I felt like their care healed me."

"But that wasn't enough. Every month, I would deliberately carve out two days to lock myself into that coffin, seal myself in the basement, and then use meditation to awaken my negative memories, actively triggering and burning off the accumulated negative emotions."

Actively detonating negative emotions?

Dean looked surprised. This was a novel method of self-control. If his own condition continued to deteriorate in the future, could he give it a try?

"I answered all your questions without holding anything back... Can I see Vance, Donna..."

Cletty pleaded with nervous anxiety, like a prisoner awaiting a judge's verdict.

Dean gripped the Gun of Blood and Soul in his hand again. All it took was a light pull of the trigger to reduce this ghost to ashes, just like countless times before.

Yet this time, he hesitated. The world had never treated Cletty and her four companions gently—never once.

Most importantly, Dean had managed to maintain his mental stability with great difficulty; he didn't want to trigger a supernatural hunter again and have his brain blown out by a surge of mental energy.

"You've been honest, and I'm in a pretty good mood, so I've decided to spare you lot. Hold on."

He waved a hand.

The remaining four spirits flew out of the ouija board and appeared in the bedroom.

Dean subjected them to the same interrogation, and their accounts completely matched Cletty's. He further inquired about the corporate information behind their team.

And Bradley, the FBI agent, delivered a major surprise.

"The Company belongs to part of the Stargate Jedi Project."

Dean frowned deeply. "What is the Stargate Jedi Project?"

"Another psychotronic competition following the end of the space race with the Soviets," Bradley explained with a blank expression.

"The Department of Defense secretly hired psychics to research wall-walking, invisibility, and remote viewing, dreaming of relying on remote viewing abilities to disable all of Soviet nuclear missiles, and concocting assassins who could kill with their minds to build a superpower assassination unit."

"However, as time went on, many terrifying accidents occurred within the Stargate Jedi Project. For safety's sake, the department split into many small laboratories, and the research directions gradually evolved into three: studying the evolution and mutation of species, studying the origin and enhancement of superpowers, and studying extraterrestrial life like UFOs and otherworldly visitors..."

"The evolution and mutation of species?" Dean came to a sudden realization. No wonder DNA testing in this world was more advanced than in his previous one; it turned out the authorities were already researching more profound projects, and the slightest bit of leaked technology had raised the scientific standards of the entire society.

As for the US-Soviet hegemony and the space race... a legendary history like that existed in his previous world as well.

Yet the official research in this supernatural world ran deeper, making them high-level players behind the scenes.

"What achievements came out of the Stargate Jedi Project?"

"I don't know. Every link of the project is an absolute secret. Given my position in the FBI, after spending decades, I only learned some superficial information—dozens of small partner companies and laboratories belonging to the project are scattered across countless secret locations nationwide."

"Which company were you planning to sell me to?"

"One of the companies that studies the origin and evolution of superpowers, specifically purchasing espers from bounty hunters. The specific name and location are unknown; I spent over a dozen years testing and figuring out that it is located within Indiana."

"How do you usually contact them?"

"Using a pager... Every time we captured an esper, the other party would tell us the meeting location."

"A pager?"

"I had it on me at the time."

Dean's expression darkened. Back then, when he was knocked out by the 1.5 mental energy surge, he hadn't thoroughly searched the van, and the pager must have been burned to ashes directly.

Coincidentally, however, his uncle Paquete was currently in Hawkins, Indiana, and nine years ago, his parents' missing journey had also passed through Hawkins. Dean was bound to take a trip to Indiana where the "Company" was located before long.

Perhaps there would be more intersections.

"Did you ever leak my information to the Company?"

"No."

...

After that, Dean couldn't squeeze any more information out of Bradley, so he shifted his gaze. Opposite him, Cletty was reaching out to touch her lover's blank face and blurry blond hair, but neither he nor the remaining three showed any reaction, looking like mindless puppets.

"What's wrong with you guys? It's me, Cletty. Don't you recognize me?"

"They don't have your powerful mental strength and willpower, so they couldn't retain their living sanity." Dean rubbed his throbbing temples, looking at a bewildered Cletty before asking, "Where are you going next?"

"I heard a distant call, and somewhere is waiting for us. As long as we let go, as long as we want to, we'll enter that place immediately. This time, we'll never be separated again." Cletty hugged her lover tightly with her left hand and gathered the remaining three companions into a circle with her right.

The five souls stood in place, emitting a faint, moonlight-like glow from their bodies.

The place that called to spirits?

Dean nodded. That place must be Limbo, the Forest of Wanderers.

"Goodbye, my fellow kind. Try hard to survive, grow more powerful, and I wish that one day you can break the damn Convergence Law and the disgusting Company, granting true freedom to espers!"

Cletty smiled happily, and alongside her companions, dissolved into glowing, firefly-like spots of light, scattering into mid-air.