A thunderous roar echoed through the air.
Watching Anya appear before her amidst crumbling rubble and the wreckage of countless walls she had smashed through, Xu Xiaoyou came to a halt.
Anya's small face was covered in a thick layer of dust, and she had fallen unconscious.
"Shit... you've got to be kidding me."
Sensing that terrifying presence drawing closer, Xu Xiaoyou quickly hoisted Anya onto her shoulders. Without daring to look back, she sprinted out of the house and began racing down a narrow path.
After winding down for dozens of meters, a girl's loud shout erupted from behind: "Don't you run!"
Xu Xiaoyou felt a gaze so intense it felt like it wanted to tear her apart and swallow her whole. She didn't dare slow down for a second, using the sparse crowds as cover to quickly duck into a side alley at a corner.
Seeing that grey figure vanish at the end of her sight, Bai Youyou gritted her teeth and pushed through the people in front of her.
"Hey, who the hell is that?"
"Watch where you're going!"
"What's the rush? Take it easy... Kids these days, honestly."
This was perhaps the fastest Xu Xiaoyou had ever run in her life.
In this life-or-death pursuit, she was dead if she got caught. She couldn't withstand the wrath of a three-winged investigator.
Furthermore, given Bai Youyou's twisted personality, if she ever found out that she was the criminal who had been deceiving and toyed with her emotions... the investigator wouldn't even wait for the Association's court date; she would likely tear Xu Xiaoyou apart with her own hands!
The scenery on both sides blurred past her. Xu Xiaoyou forced herself to stay calm, observing her surroundings to find landmark buildings.
Before coming to the slum, she had memorized most of the intricate terrain through maps. While it was impossible to remember every single small path, as long as she could confirm her current position, she could still use the various secret passages to lose her pursuer.
She reached the end of the alley and pressed her body against a rust-stained railing. Looking down, she saw a massive circular crater with a radius of several hundred meters.
In the very center of the crater stood a giant, oval metal sphere, looming over the land like a massive barrier, casting a wide shadow from the dome above.
Xu Xiaoyou knew that was the Dunkirk, an industrial relic from the era when the Corrupt Hive City was still called the Star of the Universe. It was one of Universal Heavy Industries' milestones in heavy industrial development.
Unfortunately, this jewel in the industrial crown—a ship that many had pinned their hopes on—crashed into a residential area on the day of its maiden flight.
Like a meteorite falling from the heavens, the impact nearly leveled the entire district, causing tens of thousands of casualties.
It was considered the biggest scandal in the history of Universal Heavy Industries. After the war broke out, the reconstruction plans for the residential area were shelved, and countless refugees flocked to the site.
Radiating outward from the crash site, the largest and filthiest slum in the hive city was born.
Countless dilapidated shacks were scattered across this circular crater, resembling a massive open-air prison.
Most people living in this area were despondent vagrants. Beneath the wreckage of the ship lay the largest organ trade black market in the entire slum.
Xu Xiaoyou determined her position. She wasn't far from the slum's exit; following the path below all the way to the end was about a few hundred meters.
"Criminal!"
Bai Youyou's voice, thick with gritted teeth, came from behind.
With an explosive roar, a ball of scorching fire grazed past Xu Xiaoyou's arm, slamming into a wall and causing it to collapse!
A searing, stinging pain radiated from her arm.
Looking at the seven or eight-meter drop below the railing, Xu Xiaoyou swallowed hard. Steeling her resolve, she held Anya tight, aimed for a dumpster below, and vaulted over the railing.
Thud—
A homeless man sleeping next to the dumpster was startled awake by the noise. He watched as a blonde girl sat up from a pile of trash, expertly brushing off banana peels and what looked like eyeballs from her head.
"Buy an arm from me... I haven't eaten in so long... just five credit points for an arm..."
The homeless man approached pleadingly.
"Someone’s coming after me. She’s much more charitable; go ask her."
Without looking back, Xu Xiaoyou tucked Anya under her arm and vanished in an instant.
A few seconds later, a white figure plummeted from above, crushing the entire dumpster inward.
Boom—
"Buy—"
"Get lost!"
Bai Youyou was on the verge of insanity. This criminal had provoked her time and again. Like prey about to be netted, the person was right before her eyes, almost within reach, only to slip through her fingers yet again.
Glancing at the old homeless man trembling on the ground, Bai Youyou eventually fished out a few coins from her pocket, tossed them on the ground, and continued her pursuit in the direction Xu Xiaoyou had fled.
Eventually, she was intercepted after passing through a certain alleyway.
"Investigator, this is far enough."
There were many of them—nearly thirty people. Among them were several low-grade fixers, blocking the entire alley so tightly that not even water could leak through.
Observing the tattoos on their bodies, Bai Youyou guessed they were a gang power from within the slum.
"Move," she said.
None of them carried weapons, and none of them wavered. They simply surrounded Bai Youyou with hostile expressions, none of them moving a single step.
The air fell into a heavy silence.
During the standoff, the crowd suddenly parted to create a path. An aged figure was slowly wheeled forward. He sat in a wheelchair, his face weathered and covered in wrinkles, his right eye replaced by a mechanical prosthetic.
Beneath the mechanical eye was a dark, weary gaze, like an ancient well that had weathered many storms, seemingly able to see through human hearts.
"Chen Yifeng, a wanted fugitive of Universal Heavy Industries, one of the shareholders of the Fresh Meat Restaurant, who kidnapped and murdered a company executive thirteen years ago..." Bai Youyou spoke calmly. "I've researched most of the criminals in this hive city, especially a degenerate like you."
"So you were hiding in the slum!"
"The people trafficked into the slum, the organ trade, and the contraband circulating on the market! They're all related to you, aren't they? You're the one destroying social order..."
"It is my honor to be known by the young lady from Oasis," the old man chuckled. "However, I must correct you, Miss Bai."
"This chaotic area requires an iron fist. When the rules of civilization cannot restrain savage beasts, one must use stronger, more violent means to make the beasts behave and stop them from biting people randomly."
"I am not destroying order. I am the order that established this slum."
"Without gangs, this slum would turn into a man-eating hell."
"Move! I don't have time for your business right now!"
"Miss Bai, I cannot let you through," the old man chuckled.
"Why? What did that damn criminal promise you? Why is everyone helping him!"
"I am simply repaying a favor for an old friend," the old man said. "I am old, old enough to have one foot in the grave. If I don't repay this favor now, I'll never be able to."
"What does that criminal have to do with your old friend!?" Bai Youyou clenched her fists. "I don't care who your friend is, what favor you owe, or why you're harboring that criminal!"
"If that criminal really gets away this time, I won't let you off."
"Hehe, who knows..."
"These young men have all received my kindness; they are the death sworn I have trained since they were children. Unless I give the word, they will not move."
The crowd remained silent. Only the old man's voice echoed above the alleyway; the air was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
As Bai Youyou prepared to force her way through, the figures around her closed in. A slow, heavy voice rang out.
"They aren't carrying any weapons, Miss Bai."
"Threats, underhanded tactics, despicable acts, violence." The old man slowly stood up from his wheelchair, his gaze burning like a torch. "This is the way of survival in this area."
"No one will attack you. They will only block you. If you insist on moving forward, then kill every single one of these unarmed men. Let their blood and sin stain your pristine investigator uniform, and then step over their corpses."
Rate on N.U.
