by N. Heller
Not just burping — coughing, sneezing, farting, sweating… all this sort of unsightly bodily functions that everyone had, Lin Sanjiu had never seen Ren Nan having.
If she thought about it carefully, she was not sure if she ever even saw him using the toilet.
"You didn't even eat much just now. Why don't we go out for dinner tonight?" Ren Nan pulled both her arms and gave a kiss on Lin Sanjiu's neck.
Goosebumps surfaced all over her back, "Nah, it's okay. I am too lazy to move… plus I want to sleep early tonight; I have to wake up early tomorrow."
"Well, then I will personally cook you some salmon," Ren Nan replied smilingly.
Lin Sanjiu nodded her head quickly.
Ren Nan's cooking skills were like himself, perfect without flaws. After eating the dinner he had meticulously prepared, the sun outside the living room's glass windows was slowly setting to the west. As the sky darkened, it turned to a star-filled nightfall.
"There is an ongoing global heatwave. And today is the 104th day..." After clearing up the dinner utensils, Lin Sanjiu watched the television as if she was interested in the news. She honestly did not want to match gaze with Ren Nan. "Following the deaths due to hyperthermia in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, our country's death toll due to heat stroke has already reached 67 people. Relevant experts remind all..."
She felt Ren Nan walked over, sitting beside her and the sofa sinking down.
An arm settled on her shoulder naturally, and Lin Sanjiu's body stiffened.
Even though she did not turn her head, she could feel that he wasn't watching the television.
Chapter 2 - Blistering Hot Night with a Steak
What was the difference between the temperature from midnight to 1 am?
If things went as usual, no one would probably feel it.
However, tonight was vastly different. The sun had long been set, but the temperature of the sweltering heat in the air seem to rise gradually with each passing minute. And to make matters worse, it had been days since there was even a little wind. The surrounding air outside the windows was no longer just air, but suffocating, scalding hot air which was waiting to rush towards you.
As if someone had given an order, the small number of families in the city who, for various reasons did not switch on their air conditioner, had also switched them on. Whereas, the people without air conditioners simply could not tolerate it any longer. Pubs, 24-hour convenience stores, offices... Wherever there was a trace of cool air, they would go.
After 30 minutes, with a “Ke Da” sound, a few night lights in the 38th-floor apartment were extinguished. The room was plunged into an absolute darkness — the constant soft buzzing sound in the bedroom had also unknowingly stopped at some point in time.
The central air conditioning had stopped.
After the air conditioner had stopped, Lin Sanjiu tossed frustratingly whilst asleep. Without the maintained temperature of a comfortable 26°C, her body was quickly covered in a layer of sweat. This layer of sweat was like an unbreathable blanket, and before long she woke up due to the heat.
“Ughh... the remote control seems to be on the bedside cabinet…” a thought flashed passed her hazy mind. As she was about to stretch out her hand to reach for it, she suddenly felt that something was wrong. She immediately stopped moving her hand. After remaining motionless for a while, she squinted slightly and peeked upward.
A snowy white face hung directly above her own face, two black, cavernous eyes stared straight at her.
“Again! It's that again!” A loud screech exploded in Lin Sanjiu’s mind, yet her throat was so dry she couldn't even make a sound. Her heartbeat became faster and faster, louder and louder, and that white face leaned in with his ear to listen; with a swiftness, it came closer to Lin Sanjiu.
Two weeks before, she had once woken up in the middle of the night because she was thirsty. When she got up, she knocked that face. At that time, she was so shocked that she yelped and scrambled to switch on the lights. Only to find that it was Ren Nan.
She didn't know when Ren Nan had sat beside her, with an expressionless face in the dark, how long he had been staring at her in this manner — just like tonight.
He explained that since young he often sleepwalked.
If it weren't for her doubts, she would have believed him. At that moment, she forced down her fears and acted like she hadn't woken up. She rubbed her eyes and asked casually, “Ren Nan, are you sleepwalking again?”
In the dark, a smile cracked on Ren Nan’s face. “Yes, I've done it again. I didn't scare you, did I?” he spoke totally articulately.
“ A.. a little…” Lin Sanjiu got out of the bed almost as if escaping. She stood at the door which gave her a false impression that she could escape anytime, so she calmed down a little. Only then did she felt the steamer-like temperature of the room. “Why is it so hot? Did you switch off the air conditioner?”
Ren Nan didn't say a thing. He pulled open the thick, heavy curtains, revealing the set of full-length windows. Normally, Lin Sanjiu could see the dazzling night scene of half the city through these windows. On this night, however, the city had lost its everlasting illumination. Even the starlight was blocked by the clouds, leaving only a dead darkness.
In the apartment with closed doors and closed windows, it was so stuffy that it was even hard to breath.
“The electrical load must be too high; it seems like there is a power outage throughout the city.” There was still a cheerfulness in Ren Nan’s voice which showed his composure. While he spoke, he slowly stood up, walking past the end of the bed and headed to the door, step by step.
Suddenly, the alarm bells in Lin Sanjiu’s mind rang. Without waiting for him to approach, she rushed towards the living room. She finally got some repayment for the decorating and cleaning of this penthouse over these three months; in this pitch-black darkness, she still succeeded to reach the living room entrance. Without stopping to take a breath, with a “bash”, she stretched out her hand and smashed the elevator button.
Unexpectedly, it didn’t light up red. There isn’t a backup power supply system in such an expensive c.o.n.d.o.minium?!
“The backup power supply is only for the lights in the stairways; they couldn't care less for the lifts — even more so personal ones.” The voice came from behind her; a voice which she had known for half a year. Ren Nan was just as gentle, but as he enunciated his words, Lin Sanjiu heard a wetness in his tone. As if… Ren Nan could not control the saliva secreting in his mouth.
In the dark, the shadowy, blurry outline which represented Ren Nan crept towards her, finally stopping in the middle of the living room.
Lin Sanjiu felt giddy. Her sixth sense was right. A sense of regret welled up in her heart, “What… what do you want to do?”
“Your senses are quite keen,” Ren Nan swallowed a mouthful of saliva, “You should have already felt it? But you should really listen more closely to your intuition… otherwise, you wouldn't have followed me back here. Over these few days, you should have felt conflicted… I really should thank you for your trust.”
Lin Sanjiu did not realize it herself, but her clenched fists were now trembling uncontrollably.
“Xiao Jiu, in such a hot weather, are you sweating a lot?” Ren Nan suddenly asked such a random question with concern.
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. She touched her arm subconsciously, finding that she only had a thin layer of perspiration on her skin. She started wondering why he would ask about this now.
Ren Nan nodded his head in a satisfied manner. “Xiao Jiu, you're great! I didn’t groom you for half a year in vain…”
What the hell was he talking about? She did not understand a single thing he was saying. Lin Sanjiu wanted to open her mouth to say something, but realized that her jaw was quivering. The thought that had been in her head for these few days made her say something that she never thought she would. “Are you going to… eat me?”
“Your intuition is really sharp!” the
black figure praised.
She purposely raised her voice, secretly hoping that someone would be able to hear her, as she felt her way to the open-concept kitchen at the side of the living room.
Ren Nan sighed. “On the account that you have accompanied me for 6 months, I will explain things to you before you die.” He raised his hands and snapped his fingers.
With a sudden “boom”, one of the glass walls in the living room shattered into a thousand pieces. A wave of heat, unlike what Lin Sanjiu had felt before, rushed past the glass pieces and engulfed the room. This was accompanied by a muffled scream from a distance. The last bit of remaining leftover cool air from the air-conditioner was swallowed in an instant.
“Why… why is it so hot?” It was as if someone had taken the entire city and roasted it over a barbecue pit! Before Lin Sanjiu could react, Ren Nan spoke in his gentle voice again: “From night onwards, this world is no longer the world that you people are familiar with. In this new world, according to your metric, it is… oh… 56°C.”
Lin Sanjiu was dumbfounded. At 56°C, normal humans would have died a few times over due to acute hyperthermia and severe dehydration. With this sudden thought, she quickly touched the back of her neck. Unexpectedly, Lin Sanjiu did not really sweat much more.
“See! I have only nurtured you for a few months, and you already evolved and gain the ‘Heat Resistance Adaptation’ and ‘Keen Senses’ traits. Two traits... as expected from a potential seed I've spotted the first time I saw you. Too bad, this new world came too early; otherwise, I would have liked to nurture you for two years before consuming..."
After the glass wall was shattered, there a dim light flooded the living room. With the aid of that bit of light, Lin Sanjiu could see Ren Nan's face clearly.
His usual handsome model-like features gradually gave way to his large mouth, that kept getting wider and wider. Clear bright saliva poured from the corners of his mouth without restraint, and at this time, Lin Sanjiu was already forced to the corner of the kitchen.
Even if she could only delay him for one minute, it would give her a shred of opportunity! Lin Sanjiu used her shouting voice as she secretly stretched out her hand towards the knife holder on the countertop behind her.
His large mouth stopped for a while, and then shrunk a little, revealing Ren Nan’s original facial features. “Sigh… Why are you so stupid? Of course, I am a human and Ren Nan is my name. However, I am not like your sort of “backward” types. I come from another “New World”. Anyone who survives a New World will evolve and gain different abilities… I have abilities that you would not even dare to imagine.”
Ren Nan wiped his clammy chin. “You better put that knife down, I am warning you. My eyesight is really good. Just let me eat you obediently, I promise it won’t even hurt a bit…”
“No way!” She shouted furiously. Before he barely even finished his sentence, Lin Sanjiu, filled with fear and anger, rushed towards him with a sharp knife in her hand.
The gleaming silver boning knife moved extremely quickly as it drew a bright light in the darkness. Just as the tip of the knife was about to pierce into Ren Nan’s c.h.e.s.t, he shifted a step silently. Lin Sanjiu missed her target. She staggered forward and slipped on a piece of glass. Unable to keep her balance, she fell heavily to the ground.
His large mouth, which was almost tearing his cheeks apart, lunged forwards to attack Lin Sanjiu. He did not even give her the chance to stand up. In a panic, she only managed to turn aside and flung out the boning knife. Ren Nan dodged quickly but still received a shallow cut from the knife.
With a clash, the knife fell some distance away.
Angered and humiliated, Ren Nan pinned Lin Sanjiu to the ground, he stared at her black pupils which had shrunk to the size of a pinhead. “A steak should act like a steak!”
In the dim light, Lin Sanjiu watched in despair as the black figure close in on her throat.
Chapter 3 - Card of Something, What Kind of Nonsense is That?
Ren Nan sank his teeth into the fresh tender flesh of the young woman. The smell of iron rust filled the air as his chin was dyed red by her fresh blood. He only needed to bite down a little harder, and Lin Sanjiu’s fragile life will forever disappear from this world.
But Ren Nan could not move. It wasn’t that he did not want to eat this good progeny, he just could not move. At that moment, there was a kitchen knife in the back of Ren Nan’s head. Its blade was fully embedded, and only its handle remained in sight.
There was still a shred of excitement in Ren Nan’s eyes — even as he died, he could not understand the situation. Lin Sanjiu was bare-handed, she was just struggling uselessly with her arms in the air. [How could he just die like that?]
Momentarily, Lin Sanjiu could only hear the intense drum-like thumping of her heart. “Ba-dump. Ba-dump.” Her heart pounded as she laid under the heavy corpse. Overcoming the sharp pain in her neck, she used all her strength and finally pushed Ren Nan off. “Thump!” The corpse rolled off her and laid supine on the floor. With that, the knife in Ren Nan’s head was pushed further in. The blade pierced through, revealing itself in his large opened mouth.
Lin Sanjiu held her neck tightly. One of her hands was already covered in blood. She rapidly took in a few large gulps of air before giving a ruthless kick to the corpse on the floor. She cursed softly with her hoarse voice, “Who told you that I only evolved to get two abilities?” she only muttered a few words, but the acute pain around her throat was too unbearable.
Just seconds after kicking the corpse, Lin Sanjiu’s vision went dark. She almost fell — the dizziness brought by her loss of blood hit her faster than she thought it would. Everything else did not matter now. Right now, the most important thing for her was to bandage her wound. She staggered around finding for a towel. When she found one, she placed it on her neck and applied heavy pressure to her wound. She gasped. She sat on the floor again and pressed the towel to her neck with all the strength she could muster.
After being in a state of half-consciousness for some time, the bleeding finally stopped. It seems that it was not her time to die yet; after all the bite missed her arteries. After she had rested for a while, she managed to acc.u.mulate barely enough energy to somehow stand up to get herself some water.
After she had put the glass of water down, she noticed that Ren Nan’s bizarre-looking corpse was still lying silently on the floor.
After some consideration, Lin Sanjiu dragged her weakened self and stood beside the corpse. Trembling, she put one of the hands on the corpse and whispered hoarsely, “Store this.”
Just as she finished her sentence, a white light flashed across her palm rapidly. The corpse, with a knife sticking out from it, disappeared. With a “pa” sound, a card which was the size of a poker card fell to the ground.
Lin Sanjiu felt for her mobile phone and used it to illuminate the card. Just as she expected, there was a simple squiggly crayon drawing of a man with a wide opened mouth and a sharp knife sticking out of his head. There was also a row of blank words underneath it: “Ren Nan’s Corpse”.
【Ren Nan’s Corpse】
Species：Human
Status：Dead
Potential Growth Value：204
Murder Suspect：Lin Sanjiu
Passive Skills：Extreme Temperature Adaption, Strength Augmentation, Strength Augmentation Body Modification
Active Skills：Good for Me, You and Everyone, Nutritionist
“What the heck is this?” Lin Sanjiu stared at the card, she was speechless for a moment. This weird item was produced by the third ability she had gained. Tonight, it just saved her life.
At will, Lin Sanjiu was able to transform items that she touched into a card and store them in her body. When she wanted to use an item again, with that intention in her mind, the card will revert back to its original form in her hands.
Previously, she threw the boning knife at Ren Nan to lower his defenses and as a ruse. She killed him by actually putting her
hand behind the back of his head when she was struggling as he bit her. With a quick thought, the “Chef’s Knife” card that she had hidden in the morning, reverted back to its original form and pierced deeply into Ren Nan’s cerebrum.
Even though the cards that she created no longer felt unfamiliar to her, this was the first time that she saw a card which showed such… rich content. She quickly flipped the card and indeed found that the back of the card was filled with tiny little words: “Ren Nan, Male, 28 years old, he came from another ‘New World’. He had been an introvert since young and was not popular with women. He even received a love confession from an older male schoolmate. When the New World arrived, he struggled to survive... you get the point. Anyways, after he had arrived in the world belonging to the murder suspect, Lin Sanjiu, Ren Nan ate a multi-millionaire who had the potential growth value of 2. He took over the man’s wealth and got close with the murder suspect, Lin Sanjiu with a hidden agenda. When he was about to consume Lin Sanjiu, he was killed instead.”
“It is frustrating enough that you don’t reveal what you should, you even labeled me as a ‘murder suspect’?” Feeling a little gloomy, Lin Sanjiu ran her finger across the paragraph. The words disappeared, and the next paragraph slid in and appeared on the surface of the card.
【Good for Me, You and Everyone】: You can spot a person with high potential growth value in a large population with your perception. Through intimate skinship (kissing, hugging, etc.), this ability is able to activate a normal human’s potential, speeding up the party’s evolution and allowing that person to gain their abilities more quickly. This is what’s called a “win-win situation”.
【Nutritionist】：After you finish consuming a person, you can efficiently inherit the potential growth value, evolved abilities and body constituency of your meal. A balanced and nutritious diet will guarantee a better tomorrow.
Note: The knife in his brain was manufactured in Germany. It is sharp, lightweight and sturdy. $599. Purchased from Jingxi Shopping Mall.