Xu Xiaoyou continued her search as she moved forward. This time, the range of influence for Alley No. 5 far exceeded the data she had seen on past news broadcasts.
She vaguely remembered that previous reports about Alley No. 5 covered a single block at most, an area ranging from a few dozen to maybe one or two hundred square meters.
Now, however, she had already ventured hundreds of meters deep into it, and she still couldn't see the iconic walls, nor could she see the boundary in the distance.
The deeper she went, the more horrified Xu Xiaoyou felt.
This time, the coverage of Alley No. 5 likely spanned more than a dozen blocks, almost swallowing half of Sector 9. An urban legend event of this scale would undoubtedly explode on the city's trending topics tomorrow.
Alley No. 5 was an urban eldritch creature, and everything indicated that it was 'growing' and becoming stronger by feeding.
A month ago, Alley No. 5 was just an ordinary, weak urban eldritch creature that only occasionally hunted vagrants wandering the city to satisfy its hunger.
Through its frantic feeding over the past few days, its current scale had increased nearly a hundredfold compared to its initial state. It could even wipe out dozens of well-equipped, organized fixers in under two minutes.
Such a terrifying growth rate was like a plague; by the time people noticed, it had already spread to an uncontrollable degree.
Seeing it with her own eyes, Xu Xiaoyou realized she had drastically underestimated the danger of Alley No. 5.
Even compared to the urban legends rated as disaster-class in the long history of the Corrupt Hive City, its growth rate was unheard of.
Thinking back to the words she had heard from those dismantlers—words like 'assimilation,' 'hunger,' and 'feeding'—Xu Xiaoyou felt a deep sense of unease.
She had a premonition, a sense that Alley No. 5 had suddenly entered this feeding state because it had perceived something. Its craving for fresh flesh had peaked, causing it to grow vigorously regardless of the cost, even risking being purged by the Fixer Association to prey frantically.
A human's senses were nowhere near as sharp as those of a creature that relied on primal instincts to survive. Just like how fish in a pond, birds in the sky, and squirrels in the forest always sense a crisis before a great disaster strikes.
This feeling of an approaching storm made Xu Xiaoyou very uncomfortable.
In the darkness, countless clues seemed to weave together, pointing toward the same place.
She recalled everything that had happened over the past month but couldn't pinpoint exactly what was out of place.
Creak—
An open, old iron door interrupted Xu Xiaoyou's thoughts and caught her attention.
She entered the house to search but found nothing. There was a pot of boiling soup in the kitchen; when she opened it, Xu Xiaoyou almost vomited on the spot.
A severed arm was boiling inside. It had turned white, the skin peeling away from the bone as the soup bubbled and hissed.
She had seen plenty of fresh severed limbs, but this was the first time she had seen one like this.
After being away from the junkyard for so long, her psychological resilience had clearly slipped, Xu Xiaoyou thought.
Instances of people cutting off their own arms to stave off hunger were quite common in this Corrupt Hive City. Some twisted individuals might even do it on purpose, seasoning it with various spices, brewing a pot of broth, and then sitting down at the dining table with proper etiquette to enjoy a full meal.
It seemed something had happened that caused the owner of this house to disappear abruptly before they could enjoy the meal.
Outside the window, the red moon grew increasingly eerie.
Xu Xiaoyou left the house and observed the rows of old residential buildings lining the streets. Peering through the windows, she saw nothing but dead silence. Every home was dark, as if the street had been uninhabited for a long time, the entire block devoid of life.
Sector 9 was a government-controlled area and was considered a public security zone. Even in the old district, there should have been many people living here, yet it now looked as if it had been abandoned for ages, without a single soul in sight.
She carefully searched every street corner.
The scenes before her grew increasingly gruesome. Severed limbs were everywhere—the corpses of the fixers from before. Their bodies were tangled and twisted together, with hardly a single part left intact.
The crimson tide of blood beneath her feet grew thicker, and the smell became increasingly unbearable.
Following her principle of being a diligent housekeeper, Xu Xiaoyou picked up and stashed away all the miscellaneous weapons the fixers had dropped on the ground.
"I'm just keeping these safe for you. Don't be mad at me, okay?"
Finally, as she passed a street corner, a beast-like roar came from behind her.
"You there! Put your hands up!"
Xu Xiaoyou turned around, her eyes trembling slightly.
A fixer, drenched in blood with more than half of his body missing, was pointing a gun at her with one hand. His eyes bulged and his teeth were bared, his ribs and breastbone appearing deathly white under the red moon.
It was hard to imagine how this guy was still alive in such a state. His heart, which looked ready to fall out, was still thumping rhythmically...
"Monster..."
"You must be a monster too!!"
The fixer seemed to have suffered a mental breakdown. His clerical robes were torn to shreds, hanging off him in tattered strips.
He roared, and every time he spoke, his body shuddered, causing a few more parts to fall off.
"How can you not have a single scratch on you!"
"You must be just like those monsters! You're their companion, aren't you!? Stop pretending, I know everything, hahahaha..."
Xu Xiaoyou remained alert and took a small step back, a ball of fire condensing in her hand.
Anya also dropped into a combat stance. If the man made any sudden move, she would pounce immediately and end his life!
"Hahaha..."
The man seemed to think of something. A smile that looked worse than crying suddenly squeezed onto his face as he turned the gun and pressed the barrel against his own chin.
"I know... we're all going to die... we'll all be assimilated, I'll turn into a monster too..."
He muttered some final, incoherent words before finally pulling the trigger.
"Everyone... will die."
Bang—
Blood splattered everywhere.
Xu Xiaoyou felt a wave of nausea.
Suddenly, she heard heavy breathing coming from a corner of the street, identical to what she had heard over the phone.
It was that heavy breathing filtered through a thick metal mask.
A dismantler had heard the noise and was heading their way.
Thinking this, she silently led Anya to hide behind a wall.
After a moment, a massive silhouette entered her field of vision.
"Cookies, delicious. This piece, that piece."
The dismantler stood nearly three meters tall, looming in the crimson pool of blood like a small mountain. It was covered in heavy alchemical armor, with a girth that reminded Xu Xiaoyou of the sumo wrestlers she had seen on TV.
"I am a little honeybee, buzzing, buzzing, buzzing."
The sound of metal grinding against metal set her teeth on edge.
It seemed to be in a great mood, humming a song as it used its pincer-like metal arms to pick up the scattered pieces of men from the ground, tossing them into the metal vat on its back.
"Lovely chocolate chip cookies."
Occasionally, when it found a 'cookie crumb' of particularly good quality, it would laugh like a four-hundred-pound child, pop it into its mouth, and make a terrifying crunching sound.
Judging by the metal vat filled to the brim, its harvest for tonight's late-night snack was very bountiful.
Its mood should have remained excellent,
Until that ball of blazing fire suddenly flew right into its face.
Rate on N.U.
