"OK, then right here."
Not just them, but many scavengers were huddling together. It was clear now that they couldn't fall off the ship, or they would be swallowed by that sea of flesh.
However, running into the cabins wasn't a clear choice either. The layout of the cabins was complex; once those flesh monsters followed them inside, it would only be a matter of time before they were found.
Of course, most of the scavengers stayed put simply because no one else was moving. A primal herd mentality kept them from daring to act rashly.
Those flesh monsters, some crawling and some standing, slowly closed in and surrounded the four of them.
Watching these things up close—looking as if they had been flayed alive with their raw meat turned inside out—Wen Xiang Yuan covered her mouth, desperately suppressing the urge to vomit.
The others didn't look much better. Nan Yue noticed that Jiang Siyan hadn't run into the cabins either. He stood slightly further in, leaning against the cabin wall, watching the monsters before him with indifference.
In that moment, Nan Yue had a sudden feeling...
It was as if he were waiting for these things to kill him, as if he had a suicidal impulse.
Compared to the other aggressive scavengers, Jiang Siyan, who was somewhat despondent or perhaps just giving up, was the perfect target.
More and more flesh monsters that had climbed onto the ship crawled toward him.
Even as the others remained wary of their own surroundings, they broke into a cold sweat for him. Jiang Siyan frowned, looking as though he utterly loathed these disgusting things.
The foremost monster, which only had half a torso, grabbed Jiang Siyan's foot, but his face showed nothing but deep disgust.
More monsters crawled onto his body. From a distance, Jiang Siyan looked like he was being buried under a small mountain of flesh.
But he remained alive.
His expression only grew more unpleasant. Nan Yue saw him glance down at the sea a few times, only to be forced to abandon the idea of jumping down to end it all because the sight below was even more revolting.
Nan Yue retracted the black mist and patted Gu Xiang Kai's tense forearm.
"It seems they won't attack."
Gu Xiang Kai reached out and punched the thing in front of him. Its eye socket caved in, splashing foul, putrid blood.
But aside from being disgusting, the monster indeed did not seem to attack.
It merely howled, smearing juices and blood onto Gu Xiang Kai's body.
Gu Xiang Kai: ...Gag! Gag!
Wen Xiang Yuan squeezed toward Nan Yue with a look of revulsion. "What is this? An illusion?"
Nan Yue looked down as those things crawled onto her. The slimy, damp, and heavy sensation made her nerves twitch.
"Psychological stability, I suppose."
Nan Yue gave a cryptic smile. "This feeling reminds me a lot of the stress-resistance course at the academy."
It wouldn't cause actual physical harm, but it was a psychological torture that the scavengers had to overcome on their own.
Many people felt that as long as something couldn't hurt them, it wasn't worth being afraid of, especially not to the point of losing one's mind.
But in reality, that was a very arrogant way of looking at it.
True fear is when something makes you want to scream and flee even if it causes no physical damage.
Some people are afraid of bugs, some are afraid of snakes, and some are afraid of ethereal sounds...
Nan Yue remembered during the first class at the academy, a boy had mocked a girl who came out of the simulation room crying.
"So stupid. You know it's fake, yet you're still scared."
But when he went in himself, he was submerged in a bathtub full of cockroaches and beetles.
Even though he knew those bugs wouldn't hurt him, they were just crawling.
The rustling sensation of a centipede's countless legs, the fuzzy and light touch of a spider, the ugly insects with shells clacking as they tumbled over each other...
That boy didn't pass the simulation room. Nan Yue never saw him again after the second semester.
The growing weight on her body and the crushing sensation of being surrounded by rotten meat and blood pulled Nan Yue's thoughts back. Those things had already crawled up to her chest.
She couldn't help but wonder. Back at the school, she had never thought about where that boy who never appeared again had gone.
Did he... go to another class because he was unqualified?
Although the academy was meant to train scavengers, they were all precious purification resources. Only missions were supposed to take their lives.
Dry heaving, screams, and cries from other scavengers echoed from afar. Everyone realized these things wouldn't attack, but they didn't dare to make a scene or act recklessly.
They could only endure and pray for this torture to end as soon as possible.
Zhu Xi Ning stood there motionless, perhaps because the shadow these things cast was too deep or for some other reason.
Gu Xiang Kai wiped his face and pulled Wen Xiang Yuan over, shielding her.
This girl was great at academic classes, but her stress resistance was probably lacking. He didn't want her to be scared witless.
"Old Zhu, are you okay?"
A monster that was about to crawl onto Wen Xiang Yuan was blocked by Gu Xiang Kai and began tearing at his clothes.
Zhu Xi Ning coldly raised her eyes and looked at Gu Xiang Kai.
"...Old Zhu?"
Gu Xiang Kai felt something was wrong just as he saw Zhu Xi Ning pull out the tool dagger Nan Yue had specifically bought for her. She plunged it straight into the crown of the flesh monster's head.
The dagger had no special functions; it was just incredibly sharp, and Nan Yue felt it suited Zhu Xi Ning well.
This action startled the three of them. Zhu Xi Ning was covered in putrid blood as she kicked the monster away and then cut off the head of another.
"Disgusting,"
Zhu Xi Ning commented, then kicked the head toward Long Qinghe's side.
Long Qinghe, who had become a mountain of meat: ...Thanks, sister.
Nan Yue was the one who had adapted the best. If she ignored the disgusting visuals and focused only on the sensation, it wasn't as suffocating as the things she usually carried.
She turned to look at Zhu Xi Ning and frowned. "Why did you come out?"
The current situation wasn't life-threatening at all. Why would Zhu Xi Ning's alternate personality appear?
Zhu Xi Ning gave Nan Yue a cold look. "She fainted from the disgust of these things."
Nan Yue: ...
Gu Xiang Kai was a bit intimidated by this version of Zhu Xi Ning. It wasn't that he was afraid she would hurt him, but their two brief encounters had left a shadow on his young heart because she never followed common sense.
While protecting Wen Xiang Yuan, he struggled to kick away the things crawling toward him.
"Old Zhu..."
"No, Xi Ning, Xi Ning," Gu Xiang Kai immediately corrected himself at the look Zhu Xi Ning gave him. "Can you... not cut them anymore? They aren't hurting anyone..."
Zhu Xi Ning's blade rose and fell like she was chopping melons, one after another. Covered in blood with a cold face, she looked very much like an eerie boss from a mission.
"Disgusting."
Gu Xiang Kai was silent for a moment. "...But it's even more disgusting now that you've chopped them and blood is splattering everywhere..."
Zhu Xi Ning didn't listen at all. With a face full of ferocity, she hacked the flesh monsters around the four of them into pieces.
Others tried to follow her lead, but they soon gave up. There were too many of these things. The sea of flesh below had swallowed an unknown number of corpses lost at sea, and it was continuously spitting out new ones.
There was no end to the hacking, yet Zhu Xi Ning alone continued to slash away like a madwoman.
Rate on N.U.
