V2C4

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Moths covered the see-through doors, blocking most of the outside light. Lin Jue swallowed and took a step back.

Ominous rustles came from the dark corners of the room, as if long limbs were rubbing against something.

The pressure of having an unknown, hidden enemy was horrible, and being trapped on all sides did nothing to help. With the dim light remaining, Lin Jue tried to make out what exactly it was that was hiding in the dark. As his eyes gradually adjusted, the creature behind the counter became clearer and clearer, its antennae vibrating as if they were separate living things.

──A cockroach!

The soccer-ball sized cockroach watched Lin Jue and slowly crawled its grotesquely large body out from behind the counter.

Lin Jue’s fingers convulsed and all the hair on his body stood on end. An instinctual disgust.

It was awful, the eerie pressure from the magnified insect, the discomfort in the pit of his stomach. It made Lin Jue feel like his very organs were trembling.

The giant cockroach crawled along the ground like a starving beast calculating how to take down the sweet prey in front of it. Suddenly, it leapt upwards, the wings on its back spreading open. It was flying!

Lin Jue slashed down with the machete instinctively. The hard shell of the cockroach had a different resistance to the moth and the blade stuck in its chitin. In his shock, Lin Jue hurriedly shook the knife about, the cockroach waving its antenna and long legs, the fur on its legs rubbing against Lin Jue’s skin, bringing out goosebumps.

After finally ripping the machete out of the cockroach’s shell, Lin Jue glanced over to the other shadows behind the counter and without any further hesitation, slammed into the glass door and sprinted outside.

Compared to hard and difficult to deal with cockroaches, he would much rather fight soft moths.

The cold air from outside greeted him as the moths lying against the glass door flew up. Lin Jue’s attention had never been so focused before.

One slice, the first moth was slashed in half at its furry abdomen; two slices, the second moth fell down with shredded wings; bend down, turn, third slice, the third moth was flung to the pavement. Lin Jue stepped down on its soft body, the feeling of the sticky fluids inside like an overfilled water balloon sending prickles through his skull.

One downward strike and dark green liquid squirted out, forming a sickening puddle on the ground.

Lin Jue didn’t stay for long.

Suddenly, a scream sounded in the distance, a shrill female voice broken and crying. “Don’t come! AHH! Go away, go away! Don’t kill me, dont──!”

Lin Jue frowned. Was that a new player?

A figure sprinted around from across the corner. It was a girl in a short skirt. She ran hysterically, the thick fog covering her surroundings. She didn’t notice Lin Jue not far away.

Suddenly, her ankle rolled and she fell onto the ground, immediately starting to cry.

Lin Jue sighed. Logic told him that he should leave new players who couldn’t even keep their cool alone, but emotionally, he was still unable to leave a defenceless female in such a dangerous situation. He decided to at least bring her to the plaza then leave it to Xuezhang.

With that in mind, Lin Jue approached the girl. “Are you alright?”

She raised her head, her smudged eyeliner making her look a little scary. She seemed to want to ask for help, but after seeing the machete in Lin Jue’s hands still dripping with questionable liquid, her eyes widened and she whimpered, unable to speak.

“Can you still walk? It’s not safe here, we need to get to Time Plaza as quickly as possible.” Lin Jue reached a hand towards her.

Rhythmic footsteps sounded from the other side of the fog, slow and steady, followed by a familiar voice. “Yo, good evening, big rabbit.”

Lu Ren stepped out from the fog, a bright yet eerie smile on his face. Only looking at his expression, one would assume that he was on a field trip somewhere. The strangest thing was that he was holding a rebar that he had picked up somewhere, two sink-sized cockroaches skewered on the end. Lin Jue wasn’t sure how to respond and simply nodded.

The fallen girl on the ground covered her mouth and started whimpering, her eyes filled with terror.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen a cockroach this big,” Lu Ren grinned and thrusted the rebar into her face, the still half-alive cockroaches on it waving their feelers feebly next to her face.

“AHHHHHH──!!!” The girl scrambled backwards, almost fainting from crying. This was probably the most realistic and terrifying nightmare she had ever experienced.

Lin Jue frowned and stood in front of her. “Stop, is it that funny to scare girls?”

Lu Ren pouted and said regretfully, “Isn’t it interesting? Humans spent millions of years to come to stand at the top of the food chain, yet they’re brought to tears by such tiny creatures. Something must have gone wrong in the evolutionary line.”

Lin Jue looked helplessly at the girl who couldn’t even stand up from fear and sighed.

──If she was like this now, she wouldn’t be able to survive, even if she did get to the plaza. The situation would only get worse as time went on.

Lu Ren bypassed Lin Jue and walked to the girl, looking down on her. “I’ll give you one last chance, tell me the hint on the easter egg.”

The girl opened her mouth multiple times but all that came out were shaky sobs.

Lu Ren yawned lazily. “Incorrect clothing, minus ten points; messed up makeup, minus ten points; high heels, minus ten points; way too loud, minus ten points; zero courage, minus a hundred points. Alright, you can die now.”

Saying that, he slowly raised the rebar in his hand.

Lin Jue’s machete blocked his way.

“Oho? Do you want to stop me?” Lu Ren laughed, his eyes narrowed.

“There’s no need to kill her,” Lin Jue frowned and replied solemnly.

Lu Ren cocked his head. “But she can’t even stand up now, she’s just struggling on the ground like an ant. Why not let something so pitiful die as a man?”

Lin Jue didn’t say anything and stared into Lu Ren’s eyes.

Lu Ren stared back, a terrifying murderous intent on his grinning face.

“What kind of expression would Song Hanzhang have if I killed you?” A strange light shone in Lu Ren’s black eyes. “He wouldn’t get angry at me because there’s no point in doing that… He would only think about how to keep going. Always looking forward and never turning back, that’s the cutest thing about him.”

“……”

Lu Ren smiled, flashing his teeth, and passed the rebar to Lin Jue. Confused, Lin Jue took it and watched as Lu Ren walked past him to crouch down in front of the girl.

The girl had finally stopped crying and was hiccupping in between her sobs, her expression lost and afraid.

“You’re really cute up close,” Lu Ren said kindly.

The girl stared at him blankly, her face stained with tears.

“It just seems like your luck is a little shit, eh? Be careful next time, don’t just accept any random gifts, yeah?” Lu Ren patted her face like a lover.

Lin Jue was perplexed by Lu Ren’s sudden gentleness. The girl also looked baffled, but not as afraid as before.

“Remember this in your next life as well~”

The hand gently rubbing against the girl’s face was suddenly against her throat, and then a clear crack resounded in the air.

Silence.

Lin Jue didn’t get a chance to stop him. Or rather, before he had even realized what had happened, Lu Ren had already let go of the girl’s neck.

He stood up and spread his hands, a smile filling up his whole face. “You’ve got two weapons in your hands right now and I’m weaponless. Would you like to give it a try? Maybe you’ll even win.”

A flood of anger surged in Lin Jue’s chest. He took a deep breath and attempted to rein in his emotions.

──There was no point, there was no point in breaking off the pact now.

He threw down Lu Ren’s rebar, the steel clanging against the concrete ground, echoing across the foggy night.

He didn’t have the courage to look at the girl’s dying expression and didn’t want to stay in this place any longer, so he turned and left.

He had been delayed for too long already. Xuezhang was probably at the plaza by now, he had to get there as soon as he could.

The two walked towards the plaza, one in front of the other, their matching footsteps echoing through the fog. Lin Jue felt like there were needles stabbing into his back, but his intuition told him that he shouldn’t turn around.

“Angry?” Lu Ren asked.

Lin Jue didn’t respond.

“Wait a second,” he called, then walked into the nearby supermarket.

Lin Jue hesitated, but in the end, didn’t walk away by himself.

They would have to meet at the plaza together anyway and he didn’t want to offend Lu Ren over something so trivial. Plus, it was indeed much safer to walk with Lu Ren than by himself── if Lu Ren was sane.

From the supermarket came the sound of toppling store racks and fighting, which stopped in a few seconds. Lu Ren walked out from the store, two cans of insecticide in his hands.

“I don’t know if this’ll work, but it should affect a crowd of insects at least a little.” Lu Ren threw a can at Lin Jue.

“…Why didn’t you get more?”

“It’s the thought that counts, you know?” Lu Ren smiled.

“…” He was asking a completely different thing.

“Those that rely too much on props are all weaklings. I don’t like rabbits with no resolve,” Lu Ren sighed and swaggered forwards.

In the heavy fog, the road forward seemed to have no end.

The plaza, it was right ahead.

Author’s Comments:

“What kind of expression would Song Hanzhang have if I kill you?” A strange light shone in Lu Ren’s black eyes. “He won’t get angry with me, because there’s no point in doing that… he will only think about how to keep going. Always looking ahead and never turning back, that’s the cutest thing about him <3”

I was too ashamed to upload the love heart symbol as well.

My image…

VeraLuc’s Notes:

Luci: What can I say, I have lost all respect for the author after reading the extra chapters. Also, I hate insects. This arc disturbs me greatly. I forgot how different reading about insects being killed was compared to actually translating it orz

Vera: *cackling* Also fun fact, you shouldn’t be afraid of anything like this ever happening since insects breathe through their skin and have to supply oxygen directly from their skin to their organs, capping their size at a given maximum! An insect can’t grow as big as a man since they don’t have lungs like we do, which let us breathe in through just our mouth and then use our veins to pump blood around our body. As the length of an insect increases, its volume increases much quicker than its surface area, which leaves a large part of its insides simply unable to receive that sweet sweet skin oxygen if it’s too far from the skin distance-wise.

Poor nameless girl. We’ll miss you.

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