The burly man carried that terrifying gatling gun, leading the way.
Whenever they encountered stray dismantlers, he would blast them to pieces with the machine gun.
His face remained expressionless, like a robot programmed only for killing. Xu Xiaoyou was reminded of Uncle T-800 from the Terminator series.
Could he have been modified into a metal robot long ago? Was there an alloy skeleton and integrated circuits beneath that flesh-and-blood exterior?
Xu Xiaoyou began to let her imagination run wild with these unrealistic thoughts.
After following him for nearly an hour, Xu Xiaoyou finally couldn't help but speak up: "Where are we going?"
"To find my junior brother."
His voice was still devoid of any inflection.
Junior brother?
Xu Xiaoyou tried to recall.
She remembered now; it was the young Taoist she had seen on the street more than half a month ago.
She thought to herself that while the people from Breeze Agency were unreliable, they were surprisingly loyal.
Even with a brain that probably wasn't functioning normally, he was still thinking about finding his fellow sect member.
"It's been so long. He might have already..."
"No, he's still alive," the burly man said.
"You're that certain?"
"Yes."
"Then, where is that exit?" Xu Xiaoyou asked tentatively.
"Find my junior brother. We leave together."
Xu Xiaoyou held her tongue.
She had already been in this sunless place for over half a month; staying a bit longer didn't matter. As long as he really knew where the exit was, what was a little more time spent looking for someone?
Perhaps after searching for a few more days, he would accept reality...
After that, no matter how much Xu Xiaoyou tried to start a conversation, the burly man ignored her. He kept his poker face and continued forward as if he were wandering aimlessly.
Eventually, Xu Xiaoyou gave up. She knew that in his current state, saying more was futile; there was simply no possibility of communication.
She simply put her hands behind her head, emptied her mind, and followed him with Anya in tow.
After an unknown amount of time, they entered a park. This memorial park in the center of Sector 9 covered a vast area. Heavy shadows of trees stretched out from both sides of the road, reaching out like withered ghostly hands.
As they walked,
Xu Xiaoyou stopped.
At the very center of the park, she witnessed a scene she would never forget.
Under the eerie red moonlight.
Tens of thousands of corpses were piled into a mountain, their limbs intertwined and tangled together. They were faces of pain, despair, and horror.
Some of them were even still alive; their chests heaved, and their broken necks wriggled like snakes. Finally, they looked at her, their mouths slowly widening as if they were desperately shaking their bodies. Rasping, unpleasant, and oddly euphoric sounds escaped their throats.
It was as if they were trying their best to call out, to make her stay, to merge with them, to become one of them.
Their blood dripped down through their fellow kind, onto the steps, onto the lawn, and finally flowed to Xu Xiaoyou's feet.
The mountain of corpses and sea of blood was moving. They were like countless evil ghosts crawling out of hell, reaching out their hands to drag her into the same abyss.
She finally knew where the missing people had gone.
Near the corpse mountain, she could see countless figures of dismantlers. There were nearly a thousand of them; almost all the dismantlers from Alley No. 5 were here.
They were carrying corpses and tossing them into an alchemical furnace that was several people tall. She could faintly see dozens of people churning inside that furnace, churning continuously, until they were refined into a thick, bright red liquid like blood. This liquid discharged from the bottom of the furnace, merging with the red tide and flowing into the vast, spreading crimson...
They chanted something in unison—obscure, difficult-to-understand prayers.
Linguistic Artist activated.
Xu Xiaoyou barely understood a few syllables.
'Mother'
'Mama'
"Are they... performing a sacrifice?" Alarm bells rang in Xu Xiaoyou's mind, and she wanted to leave with Anya.
Just then, the burly man moved.
He said nothing, raising the gatling gun and opening fire on the group of dismantlers. The muzzle flashes constantly illuminated his face in the darkness.
"Are you crazy?"
Just as she had feared, this guy might look normal on the outside, but he had long since lost his sanity! At a time like this, startling a horde of monsters was no different from seeking death!
This guy had come here specifically to die!
The thousands of dismantlers wandering the park were alerted by him.
Thirst for blood burned in their crimson eyes as they scrambled to rush toward the burly man.
She watched with her own eyes as the burly man was slashed in half by a jagged axe and torn to shreds by countless dismantlers.
His sturdy body fell, the machine gun hit the ground, and his head, still attached to a shoulder, rolled onto the earth. He looked at her with a gaze filled with total despair.
He mouthed something at the very end.
Xu Xiaoyou read it clearly.
It was an address.
The burly man had said an address at the end.
She cast all other thoughts aside and ran from that place with everything she had.
She couldn't remember how she left that park or how long she ran.
She only remembered that at some point, the sounds of the dismantlers began to fade, moving further and further away until they completely vanished into the horizon, disappearing into the city's night.
Repressing the nausea and discomfort in her heart, she arrived at the address the man had given.
It was an alleyway that looked no different from any other in the city, so ordinary it was mundane.
With a trembling heart, Xu Xiaoyou entered.
At the end of the alley was a high wall featuring an escaping stickman sign. It looked no different from the wall they had encountered when entering Alley No. 5—equally high, its top nowhere in sight, pressing down on her so she could barely breathe.
Like a prank by an innocent child, this escaping stickman symbol looked very similar to the emergency exit signs found in malls or kindergartens.
Just as she reached her hand toward the wall, Anya's Danger Sense triggered beside her. The girl bared her teeth, looking toward the mouth of the alley with high tension.
"The one in front, wait for me!"
A teenage figure ran out from the darkness of the alley entrance, his silhouette becoming clearer in the gloom.
Dressed in tattered Taoist robes, the youth's eyes shone with the light of hope as he ran quickly toward Xu Xiaoyou, carrying a peach wood sword.
He reached her, gasping for breath: "I didn't think I'd actually have a chance to get out, haha."
"When I was thrown into that alchemical furnace, I thought I was a goner for sure."
"I escaped too, I really escaped. Those monsters were way too scary..."
"Thankfully, the jade talisman my senior brother gave me kept my luck up."
As the young Taoist spoke, he carefully pulled the talisman from his robes, only to freeze for a moment.
The jade talisman was shattered.
He stared at it for a long time before saying silently, "So, has senior brother also met with disaster?"
The young Taoist muttered to himself, completely unaware that the blonde girl's face beside him had been clouded by shadow at some point.
"Senior brother said this kind of wall is the exit for Alley No. 5."
"An exit that only appears once a month."
"Let's go?"
"Why are you just standing there? If we miss this chance, we might never get out."
Suddenly, the blonde girl moved, lunging forward to drive a dagger into his chest.
The young Taoist gasped in shock, his face filled with disbelief. His body slumped weakly to the ground, unable to understand why the girl had attacked him.
Xu Xiaoyou remained silent.
She looked at the figure on the ground who could barely be called human anymore—more than half of his body had grown crimson alchemical armor. Her gaze was complex.
Metal plates had grown across the young Taoist's face, his flesh merging with the bizarre properties of the alchemical armor. Only now did he blankly raise his hand, staring at his deformed arm, finally realizing something.
"So... I've already turned into a monster too?" His lips trembled. "How could this happen..."
He tried to tear the alchemical armor from his body, but he couldn't do it. The metal was like his own skin, firmly attached to his frame; even if torn off, it would keep growing back, slowly encroaching on his healthy parts, devouring them until they were completely integrated.
"Kill me... please," he begged. "I don't want to be a monster, I don't want to..."
Bang—
Xu Xiaoyou's final bullet ended his suffering.
Rate on N.U.
