There was nothing.
This was far beyond Xu Xiaoyou’s expectations.
She had thought that within that thick alchemical armor, there would at least be a body of flesh and blood. Even if it looked terrifying, even if its face was covered in eyeballs, she had prepared herself mentally.
But it was empty. There was nothing at all. What on earth was powering this alchemical armor then?
And what allowed them to make sounds and think?
A ghost?
The thought of having just fought an armor as hollow as a ghost made an eerie sensation well up within her.
Xu Xiaoyou tried to lift its heavy frame, but as soon as she raised it off the ground, the entire alchemical armor collapsed like a sandcastle. With a clatter, it scattered across the pavement, parts and components rolling everywhere.
She picked up an arm piece that was several sizes larger than her head. Watching the bright red liquid continuously leaking from the gaps, she felt confused.
Something occurred to her, and she suddenly asked:
"Anya, when your claws pierced its neck just now, did you feel anything solid?"
As soon as she asked, Xu Xiaoyou felt like she was speaking nonsense.
Aside from reflexes or command words for attacking, Anya shouldn't be able to understand what she was saying.
Just as she was thinking this, Anya tugged at the hem of her clothes and opened her mouth slightly.
"Yes, Xiaoyou... yes."
Xu Xiaoyou froze.
Had she heard that correctly?
However, she quickly realized it was the effect of the Linguistic Artist technique. It allowed her to translate and communicate in all languages; she hadn't expected it to include animal languages as well.
Did this mean she could communicate with other small animals in the future?
Like birds or hamsters?
Being liked by small animals was definitely a bonus point.
"Anya touched it. Its body," Anya said.
"Inside... person."
Listening to Anya’s stumbling sentences, Xu Xiaoyou fell into thought.
She looked at the pools of blood filling every alleyway, reaching up to her shins, and recalled everything that had happened.
If that was the case, could it be that after these dismantlers die, their bodies dissolve?
Alley No. 5 itself was the eldritch entity, and these dismantlers were merely derivatives within it, like organs that could be infinitely regenerated.
Xu Xiaoyou suddenly hit upon a terrifying hypothesis.
Doesn't that mean these dismantlers can't be killed at all?
Even if they are slain, their bodies turn into blood, flow with the red tide, and regrow flesh in some corner.
If this were true, then forget a dozen fixers from Breeze Agency—even if Universal Heavy Industries sent their armed forces to suppress this place, they probably couldn't clear out these bizarre creatures.
The more she thought about it, the more her skin crawled.
Xu Xiaoyou stood up. Just as she was about to leave, her gaze swept over the scattered alchemical armor on the ground.
A moment later, looking at the several travel bags packed to the brim on the floor, Anya’s mouth twitched slightly.
The saying 'humans die for wealth' was perfectly embodied by Xu Xiaoyou.
Xu Xiaoyou laboriously wiped the sweat from her brow and waved her hand. The travel bags in front of her all dissolved into light, turning into cards that flew back into her hand.
The moment she touched these cards, the girl nearly stumbled to the ground.
"So heavy..."
Although turning things into cards reduced a significant amount of weight and made them easier to carry, a full set of alchemical armor stored in a card still weighed over a hundred pounds. She could barely handle it.
Her gaze drifted toward Anya.
"Anya hates Xiaoyou..." the little girl muttered.
..........
Xu Xiaoyou walked down the street, looking left and right.
The vast city was still devoid of people. The once-prosperous commercial streets were now left with nothing but a deathly silence. Advertisements on the giant projection screens flickered sporadically, and the girl’s footsteps echoed.
Nearly twenty minutes had passed since she entered Alley No. 5, yet she still couldn't see its boundaries. She had only encountered a few scattered dismantlers.
She didn't plan on fighting those wandering dismantlers anymore and would actively go around them whenever she saw them.
Her clothes were covered in red, viscous liquid that made squelching noises. Every step was agonizingly uncomfortable. Xu Xiaoyou just wanted to leave this place quickly and go home for a good bath.
Looking at the blood-red crescent moon in the sky, Xu Xiaoyou felt a bit dazed.
Twenty minutes had passed since Alley No. 5 descended. Sector 9 was a government public security zone, yet she hadn't seen anyone from the city guard bureau come to maintain order. Nearly half of Sector 9 had been covered. Such a catastrophic event had rarely occurred in the history of the Corrupt Hive City. No matter what, the government shouldn't ignore the lives of nearly ten thousand people.
A scandal of this magnitude could never be covered up. Even though the current mayor was a puppet propped up by Universal Heavy Industries, he wouldn't be stupid enough to ignore an urban legend of this scale unless he was prepared to be swallowed by the people’s rage and bombarded by social outcry.
Not just the residents of the Corrupt Hive City, but even the Fixer Association would come to demand answers.
Xu Xiaoyou looked toward the distance. It was a void; the edges of the city seemed to be completely swallowed and shrouded by a thick black mist. The sky was a chaotic blood-red.
There was no sound from the outside at all, as if that wall had separated them into two different worlds.
Furthermore, all of this was simply too bizarre.
The more she thought about her previous experience, the more she felt something was wrong.
From the moment Alley No. 5 descended tonight to the moment she entered it, only two minutes had passed.
Did a residential area housing nearly ten thousand people turn into a dead zone in just two minutes?
In only two minutes, did those dismantlers manage to go door-to-door and clear out every single resident in the area?
That was over ten thousand people!
While Xu Xiaoyou was thinking, someone suddenly pulled her into an alleyway, pinning her against a corner and covering her mouth. Before she could speak, the figure made a shushing gesture.
"Shh, shh, shh. Keep it down. If they find you, you're dead."
A dozen wandering dismantlers walked out from a distant street corner. They seemed to sense something; heavy breathing came from beneath their metal masks as their crimson gazes searched the surroundings.
As her eyes adjusted to the light in the darkness, she looked closely and saw it was a woman.
The woman's face was covered in a thick layer of dust, her hair was disheveled, and her clothes were soaked through with blood. There was a gruesome wound on her abdomen, tightly wrapped in bandages.
Xu Xiaoyou nodded silently.
"First, have that little thing take its claws off my neck," the woman said.
"Anya."
Xu Xiaoyou whispered a reminder. Only then did Anya retract her claws, though her gaze remained warily fixed on the woman.
Seeing those dismantlers move away, the woman finally sighed in relief, as if a weight had been lifted.
"Why is a child like you running around the city? Are you crazy?"
"Don't you know how dangerous those guys are?"
"If they catch you, it's over."
"Is this one next to you your sister?"
"I'm an adult," Xu Xiaoyou said in a low voice. "Not a child."
The woman didn't seem to hear her, muttering neurotically to herself.
"They're gone..."
"They're finally gone."
"But what's the difference between being alive and being dead?"
"We've all been abandoned. Everyone is going to die."
Her dim eyes were clouded with a grey despair. In a trembling voice only she could hear, she whispered:
"It's already been a month..."
"Why hasn't anyone come to save us?"
Rate on N.U.
