[System Notification: Player Li Gou suffers fire damage, HP -15, Sanity -15. Severe mental shock detected, Sanity continues to decrease... Sanity below 40.]
[System Warning: Player Li Gou is about to experience a surge of subconscious terror hallucinations! Please restore Sanity immediately!]
Amidst the searing flames, Li Gou's agonized screams drowned out the system's warning. Even if he had heard it, there was nothing he could do—Bai Liu had already taken all his points, leaving him unable to purchase any bleach.
Suddenly, the bomb strapped to Li Gou's back grew damp and reeked of raw flesh. A single drop of hot blood slid down from his neck. Though the flames around him were scorching, a chill ran through Li Gou's body.
His back was swiftly soaked in a warm, metallic liquid. Blood-soaked, jet-black hair—belonging to a young girl—slipped from his shoulder, swaying gently. Crimson droplets splattered onto his feet. Two pale hands encircled his neck, one of them bearing a message scrawled in black marker: "Countdown to the college entrance exam (blurred) days! Guoguo, you can do it! The teachers' college awaits you!"
A girl's voice, soft and tuneless, hummed a song as her feet dangled against Li Gou's back: "Where is the world filled with flowers? If it truly exists, I will surely go~"
It was "Chasing Dreams with a Childlike Heart," the anthem of Liu Guoguo's senior year rally. Li Gou had often seen her, headphones on, singing as she passed through his alley—a vision of pure, radiant youth. He had only ever gazed at her with greasy, covetous eyes, and in the end, shattered that fragile beauty with a butcher's blade, again and again.
Li Gou swallowed stiffly, not daring to look back, muttering under his breath, "It's just a hallucination, just a hallucination—"
"I want to stand atop the highest peak—" The girl's sweet voice interrupted his mantra, her laughter tinged with chilling malice. Her icy hands tightened around his throat. "I don't care if it's a sheer cliff—"
A face, hacked to pieces, nose caved in, leaned over his shoulder. With a grotesque, almost whimsical smile, Liu Guoguo greeted him, "Uncle Li, long time no see."
Li Gou broke completely, shrieking as he ran. If not for Zhang Gui's puppet strings, he would have lost all sense of direction, desperate to escape the specter at his back.
Though he ran through a burning station, the world twisted into the alley where he once worked. No matter where he fled, Liu Guoguo's bloodied visage awaited him, smiling beside his slaughterhouse, singing as she drew ever closer.
Panicked, Li Gou fled blindly, but behind him, Liu Guoguo multiplied, each as large as he. Smiling, they seized his flailing limbs, pinned him to a butcher's block, and, eyes lowered, began to hum as they drove a sharp knife into his abdomen, slicing through bone and viscera—just as he had once done to her.
"Stop! Stop! It hurts! Don't cut me!" Li Gou's screams bulged his eyes, but as he cried out again, Liu Guoguo, annoyed by his noise, plunged the blade into his throat, twisting it as she sang.
"That's the mark of a coward~" she sang, delighted.
Blood gushed forth. Li Gou retched in agony, his body convulsing, his legs trembling uncontrollably. Yet even so, the puppet strings dragged him onward, blood bubbling from his lips as he was pulled toward the reservoir.
His limbs, shattered by Liu Guoguo in his hallucination, could no longer support him. He crawled through the ashes and flames, eyes vacant, dragging his broken body.
Liu Guoguo perched atop him, methodically slicing his scalp. Even as pain reached its zenith, Li Gou could not utter a sound, only weep silently, blood surging from his throat.
In his vision, his clothes and chin were soaked in blood, but in reality, he merely convulsed on the ground, eyes rolling back, tormented by his own mind.
Nothing had truly happened—Li Gou was simply being devoured by the horrors of his own subconscious. He had never regarded Liu Guoguo as a person, killing her as easily as slaughtering a pig, and so had never felt guilt. He should not have been haunted by such visions, for he had never feared her.
He had always believed he could decide her fate as easily as that of a helpless kitten.
But Bai Liu had transformed Liu Guoguo from a powerless victim into the architect of his doom. Terror awakened in his heart, and at last, he understood what he had done.
I killed a person.
Liu Guoguo was a person. She had suffered.
With Guoguo clinging to his back, Li Gou crawled, inch by inch, to the reservoir, his breath ragged. Her blood mingled with his, her black hair tangled at his neck. Rationally, he knew it was a bomb, but now, it was Liu Guoguo—murdered, butchered, violated by his own hands.
She seemed a joyous bird, singing a song only he could hear:
"Perhaps I lack talent, but my dreams are pure. I will prove myself with my life. Though my hands and feet are clumsy, I will never cease to seek…"
"Even if my arms are drenched in blood, I will run on, carrying the pride of a child's heart."
Liu Guoguo was beautiful, diligent, sensible, a seventeen-year-old girl who loved pork, about to take her college entrance exams, dreaming of becoming a teacher. She loved to sing "Chasing Dreams with a Childlike Heart," tucking her hair behind her ear when she smiled. Nothing in this world should have been able to break her. Even if she had been violated, she might have wept, raged, or hidden away, but there was always a chance to begin again. It was never her fault; she did not deserve a lifetime of sorrow.
She could have turned this into a scar, nothing more.
But that was only a possibility.
Li Gou closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face. He tried to speak, but no words came—only blood poured from his throat. Eyes wide with unwillingness, he felt Guoguo's arms around his neck. When her song ended, she laughed softly and pulled him into the reservoir's depths.
Countless bubbles surged to the surface.
With a thunderous roar, the bomb exploded.
Li Gou was blown to pieces at the water's edge, reduced to bone and dust—just as Liu Guoguo had been.
The reservoir slowly collapsed, water gushing through the breach.
A girl's laughter echoed faintly by the water, cold and mocking, then faded without a trace.
[System Notification (to all players): Player Li Gou's HP has reached zero. Confirmed dead. Exiting game.]
Inside the carriage—
The group, pursued by the thief brothers, ran desperately. Mu Sicheng, dragging Bai Liu, led the way, while Zhang Gui and the others gathered shards behind them.
But exhaustion was setting in. Without Du Sanying's help to distract the thieves, everyone's resources were nearly depleted, while the brothers, enraged by the theft of their shards, attacked with renewed ferocity.
If the chase continued, and the younger thief's ultimate move charged, they would all be doomed.
Mu Sicheng swung from a handhold, gasping, his face pale. "Bai Liu, I can't hold on much longer!"
Bai Liu glanced outside, exhaled, and smiled. "No need to hold on—the water is here."
Water cascaded down the subway steps, hissing as it quenched the flames. In moments, steam filled the station, shrouding the train in a translucent mist. The burning passengers, relentless in their pursuit, were doused and extinguished.
The charred corpses' feet seemed to melt into the water, pinning them to the train's floor. They howled, heads thrown back, withered hands flailing, but could advance no further, frozen in the rising steam.
The younger thief, caught by the water, slipped and fell, collapsing into a heap of blackened charcoal, wailing. The elder thief, abandoning the chase, rushed to his brother's side, but even shrunken, the younger was too large to lift.
The two clung to each other, shivering, pitifully calling out encouragement, reduced to a pair of drowned rats.
Mu Sicheng set Bai Liu down to rest. Now, the thieves' strength and speed were greatly diminished; they could no longer give chase. Mu Sicheng glanced at Bai Liu's blood-soaked shirt, his face pale and exhausted, then at the weeping thieves in the "rain," and clicked his tongue in complicated emotion.
Who could have imagined that the brothers who nearly wiped them out would be reduced to this by Bai Liu, who was barely clinging to life…
"Put on your diving gear," Bai Liu reminded Mu Sicheng, fitting a mask over his own face, breath fogging the glass, his eyes still dark and composed. "When the train starts, the tracks may collapse, and the water will flood in."
"The train is about to depart. Passengers, please disembark. Next stop, the final station—Antique City."
Author's Note:
My home has been flooded—no water, no electricity, no internet. I can't guarantee updates or word count, but I'll try to post once a day. Please check the next day, don't wait up!
I'll catch up on the sponsored updates later!
Tavel is about to make his appearance!
The next arc will return to the main storyline! Comrade Xiao Ta will finally get more scenes after 300,000 words—please applaud for 6's long-awaited partner!
6: So I actually have a partner?
Tavel: I exist in your heart (scales), encircle your waist (bones)…
6: Can I change partners? He's not right.
Tavel (confused): …?
Tavel's character is a cool, aloof, purely sensual type—he doesn't realize he's being seductive even when he is. We call this Schrödinger's seduction.