"Rumble... rumble..."
The noise of the subway echoed in his ears.
Inside the carriage, Yue Shi, dressed in an old black trench coat, sat upright in a seat near the door, looking down at his phone.
A push notification suddenly popped up on the screen—
【The Heart Thief Strikes Again Despite High Pressure!!】
Clicking on it, the first thing he saw was a photo of a corpse. The chest cavity had been sliced open, the heart was missing, and blood stained the floor.
The victim’s mouth was wide open, eyes staring blankly in death, with pain and despair still etched onto their face.
Scrolling down, there were photos of other victims, all with their hearts carved out.
These people were of different ages, professions, and identities, with no connection between them whatsoever. It seemed like a series of purely random crimes.
"Screech—"
A cold voice announced over the intercom.
"Arriving at Emerald Shopping Center..."
Yue Shi quietly observed his surroundings.
Some people got off, and some new passengers boarded.
Many of them looked lifeless and numb, their eyes lacking any spark, occasionally revealing a hint of exhaustion and anxiety.
A beautiful woman wearing sunglasses stepped in just in time. She stood by the door, and as the sound of the tracks grinding resumed, a faint, indistinct buzzing suddenly filled the carriage.
A large, fuzzy bee was flapping its wings at a high frequency.
At first glance, it looked somewhat cute, but a closer look revealed it was quite ugly.
Its compound eyes flickered with a ghostly light, and on its back, there was actually a pattern resembling a skull!
The bee flew straight toward Yue Shi.
Yue Shi flicked his middle finger lightly.
Splat—
The burst bee stuck messily to the window.
The beautiful woman in sunglasses instantly changed her expression, but before she could do anything, a sharp voice of accusation lunged at Yue Shi.
"How cruel of you!"
The speaker was a very young girl, her eyes seemingly filled with pure, unadulterated stupidity.
"Bees are so cute, why did you have to kill it?"
Yue Shi responded calmly, "That bee might have been a mutated supernatural creature."
The girl froze for a moment, then glanced at the bee's corpse. "That's impossible, right? If it really were a supernatural creature, how could you have killed it so easily? I think you're just making excuses!"
Most of the other passengers were just watching the spectacle, while a few remained indifferent.
Yue Shi remained expressionless and didn't bother to argue further.
The girl, however, felt she was becoming more reasonable the more she spoke, her words growing sharper. "Only a transcendent can fight the supernatural. Looking at your shabby appearance, don't tell me you're trying to claim you're a transcendent?"
Her gaze swept Yue Shi from head to toe—the old trench coat, faded pants, and dirty shoes. Aside from a handsome face, every part of him screamed poverty.
In her simple understanding, a transcendent wouldn't be this poor.
"Bee lives matter, too. What right do you have to deprive it of its right to live?"
"I can see you're just scum. If you dare to kill a bee today, you'll dare to kill a person tomorrow!"
"You're a butcher who has no respect for life! I suspect you're a lowlife who snuck in from the Chaos Zone outside the city!"
"I'm definitely going to expose you!"
The girl's saliva flew as she spoke, her mental state showing a strange sense of excitement.
Next to her, someone finally couldn't help but whisper, "Who is this person? A fanatic from some extreme animal rights group?"
"Who are you calling a fanatic?" the girl snapped in a rage.
"You bunch of vulgar people..."
"Ah—"
Mid-sentence, she let out a sharp scream, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
Another large bee had flown in, landing right on her cheek. Its stinger plunged deep into her skin, and along with a piercing pain, her entire face rapidly became red, swollen, and then turned black.
Perhaps the venom was particularly potent, for after a short wail, she collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth and struggling to breathe. She could no longer make a sound, her hands flailing wildly as if suffering an electric shock, seemingly pleading with the surrounding passengers for help.
Some people showed expressions of pity.
"Bee lives matter, after all. No one should meddle, lest you save someone only to be bitten for your trouble."
Yue Shi's slightly raspy voice rang out at the perfect moment, seemingly carrying a certain magic that temporarily clouded the kindness in everyone's hearts.
Under gazes that were either indifferent or mocking, the stung girl initially had the strength to struggle for help. But as the toxin spread, she quickly fell into total despair, finally staring at Yue Shi with eyes full of resentment and accusation.
It wasn't until more buzzing sounds filled the carriage that everyone snapped out of it. They didn't have time to think about why they hadn't helped; one unknown large bee after another forced them to focus on their own survival.
Someone tried to call the police, but the bees targeted them first. These flying insects were extremely fast, and passengers began to collapse one by one.
Yue Shi stood up, slapped several bees trying to attack him to death, and walked quickly toward the beautiful woman standing by the door.
Bang—
A full-force strike from his clenched fist caused the woman's face to cave in and deform. Her sunglasses shattered, and her body was sent flying, rolling several times on the floor before stopping.
A middle-aged man who had luckily not been stung wanted to shout and stop Yue Shi's violence, but after seeing the woman's true face, the words got stuck in his throat.
"Ah—" the woman screamed, revealing a pair of eyes that took up far too much of her face. There were no pupils or whites, only dense, tiny hexagons, like a honeycomb.
She staggered to her feet, her mouth swelling and mutating into a massive insectile proboscis, spewing out countless amounts of a yellow, viscous liquid.
Yue Shi was quick, grabbing the middle-aged man nearby and pulling him in front of himself as a shield.
The mucus, which far outweighed the woman, solidified rapidly. In no time, the entire carriage was covered in a thick layer of wax.
Yue Shi then threw the middle-aged man back with a heavy toss.
The half-human, half-bee monster was struck, twitched a few times, and went still.
"Fuck!" The middle-aged man, coming to his senses, stood up with wide, angry eyes. He looked around and then at the unharmed Yue Shi with a hostile expression.
"You saw there was something wrong with that woman in sunglasses long ago, didn't you? Why did you just stand by and watch? Why didn't you warn everyone earlier? Why did you wait until almost everyone was dead before you bothered to act?"
Indeed, why?
A cold arc curled at the corner of Yue Shi's mouth, a deep malice swirling in his eyes.
The middle-aged man continued his tirade, but at that moment, the supposedly unconscious monster suddenly lunged, grabbing him by the throat.
Before he could even cry for help, his neck was snapped, and he died with his eyes wide open.
Only then did Yue Shi take action. The five fingers of his right hand transformed into sharp, curved talons as he lunged forward.
Deep claw marks were carved into the monster's body. Decay and festering spread along the wounds, and she fell to the ground, her life force extinguished, with a trace of ferocity still on her face.
From the void, a phantom tentacle invisible to ordinary people slowly reached out. The tip of the tentacle possessed three golden eyes; two were darting around wildly, while the third was half-closed.
Under the gaze of the golden eyes, the dead monster's body vibrated slightly, as if something were about to spill out.
In the next second, a mysterious aura erupted and spread from the corpse, which was then sucked in and devoured by the tentacle. The third, half-closed eye immediately snapped wide open!
Yue Shi had obtained his third supernatural ability!
Rate on N.U.
