by N. Heller
Now, the duoluozhong’s expression started to change. At the start, a flash of disappointment seemed like it was trying to smile. The muscles under the duoluozhong eyes wrinkled together as it narrowed its eyes. “So you don’t have other abilities? So why did you come out here?”
Before Luther could think of an answer, it continued speaking, “Let me see, why don’t you follow me back? I will protect you? How’s that?”
As it said this, that uncomfortable half-smile on its face became more visible.
The duoluozhong primped himself and actually gestured for Luther to walk first. Luther smiled at it shyly like a girl and walked ahead. The duoluozhong followed behind.
Deep in the night, their unhurried footsteps filled the empty streets. “Meiye, do you still remember when we first met?” the duoluozhong asked from behind him.
Luther felt his heart skip a beat. His shapeshifting skills did not provide him any sort of information, so he just muttered a sound of affirmation.
“When I first saw you, I knew you were that you were the right person for me.” That well-nourished duoluozhong which had no worries about food actually had the mood to recall its good memories. “Do you remember? We were so happy together.”
“Y… yes.”
“Because you liked the beach, we went to Boracay, the Maldives, Tahiti… all those places. When I think about that, the time spent with you was just like a dream,” as it continued talking, something else crept into its voice, “If only your dad didn’t intervene. Haha. I admit that you had spent a lot during the time when we were together. But, I was truly in love with you.”
Luther was actually clueless about what to say next. After he had thought about it for a moment, he started sobbing fakely, “I understand.”
“You understand? If you understood my feelings, why did you end up with that second-generation heir? You are just like your father, you think that I am not good enough for you, right!?” the duoluozhong suddenly raised its voice, genuinely scaring Luther a little. Unexpectedly, he suddenly smiled again, “Meiye, you don’t know how the world has changed, I am so happy!”
Luther felt a slight breeze behind his back. He could hear a faint sound of moving air heading toward him. He was long prepared for this, as he focused his full attention behind him. He bent forward as he heard the sound of moving wind.
Luther smiled coldly as he kicked off the mid-heels on his feet and adopted a fighting stance. Luther stepped onto the hot tar road with “Meiye’s” delicate b.a.r.e feet. It was so hot that it hurt slightly, but it somehow cleared his mind.
“You managed to dodge that?”
“I think you lived off too many women, so you aren’t as nimble as you think.” Luther laughed. Before he even finished his sentence, the mouthpart lurched forward at him again.
Chapter 31 - Sorry, I Lied.
The street had long lost any semblance of its former facade after the ravages of the unforgiving heat. A long black shadow danced between the silhouettes of two combatants engaged in an aggressive fight on that very street. The silhouette with the slightly shorter stature dodged each attack swiftly. Even with twenty successive whip-like attacks from the duoluozhong’s long mouthpart, not even one touched the clothes of its opponent.
The duoluozhong was so exhausted that it would be panting heavily right now... if it still had a mouth.
“Who… who… are you? You are not Meiye!” the duoluozhong’s enraged buzz rang out in the air. At the same time, he snatched the opportunity and swung its mouthpart toward Luther’s face.
As the mouthpart approached, Luther suddenly shrunk in a blink of an eye, and the mouthpart swung over the head of a “little countryside girl”, totally missing its target. Even before the duoluozhong could withdraw backward, the little girl ducked down and slid toward the duoluozhong’s legs, and just as he delivered a low sweep kick, he transformed into a tall dangerous-looking man—obviously Hei Zeji. The heavy blow immediately shattered the duoluozhong’s ankle. The duoluozhong shriek in pain and collapsed to the ground.
Regardless of whose form he took, Luther did not possess the ability to replicate the ability stats of his reference target but was restricted to the upper limits of their overall stats. If Luther’s original strength was 89, and the security man’s sister’s strength was 14, Luther would only be able to deliver up to a 14 rating. Conversely, when he transformed into Hei Zeji, he could fully utilize the full amount of his strength at 89 since Hei Zeji was many times stronger.
Luther delivered another kick to the duoluozhong’s leg. When the impact of the 89-strength kick landed on the duoluozhong’s leg, fragments of shattered bones flew out as they pierced through the skin of its calf. This time, the duoluozhong could no longer stand up. It laid down taking gasps of air as it rested its mouthpart against the ground. Its mouthpart trembled uncontrollably as it touched the scalding hot ground.
Maintaining his Hei Zeji’s form, Luther walked to the side of the duoluozhong looking down on it with an icy cold expression.
“Ok, ok… I admit defeat. I lost,” the duoluozhong said changing his tone, gasping, “I sprung a surprise attack on you because I thought you were that b*tch, Meiye. It was just a personal grudge! Since you are not her, why do we have to fight?”
“I’m okay with that…” Luther smiled—the amiable smile which could have look endearing on his original face looked twistedly oppressive when it appeared on Hei Zeji’s face, “if you let me cut off your mouthpart.”
Suddenly, it rolled to its side and forced itself up. Thereafter, lifting its mouthpart…
“This again? No matter how times you try, you won’t be able to touch me—” Even before Luther could finish his sentence, the duoluozhong swung its mouthpart downward, not in Luther’s direction, but toward its own calf instead.
With a sharp howl, its utterly shattered calf fell off—it actually severed the entire portion of its leg below its knee. “Once I absorb you, I can regenerate as many legs as I want.” The duoluozhong gave Luther a deadly stare, looking even more malevolent than before. “Actually, I couldn’t decide on using this… but now…”
Luther felt a chill and took two steps back, looking back at it cautiously.
The duoluozhong let out a sneering laugh and took something out with a quick gesture. Luther almost suspected that his eyes were lying to him because—apparently that something was a lunchbox.
“Luckily, I brought this with me.” The duoluozhong laughed in a buzzing manner as it opened the lunchbox.
Much to Luther’s surprise, wobbling pink bubbles slowly floated out from the lunchbox. They quickly covered the combat zone, hovering between the two opponents, dyeing the night sky a faint pink. Luther was distracted for a moment as his gaze followed the direction of the floating pink bubbles unconsciously. When he pulled back his focus and looked toward where the duoluozhong was previously standing, he realized that it had disappeared. Under closer inspection, the duoluozhong was not the only thing that disappeared; the surviving remnants of the shops, the wrecked and dusty signs, the few abandon cars on the streets had all disappeared.
He only saw an endless amount of pink bubbles surrounding him. Through the spaces between the bubbles, he only saw more. They filled the sky, glowing with a beautiful faint light, almost creating an enchanting fantasy-like dreamscape.
[So this is that woman’s ‘trap’?] Luther scoffed, he had already made sense of the situation. He couldn’t help feeling somewhat vexed. Feeling dispirited, he raised his voice and gibed, “I have never seen anyone who likes eating soft rice[1] as much as you! You even bring a lunchbox around with you everywhere to store that soft rice you love so much!”
Luther did not expect the duoluozhong’s verbal retaliation. Its voice rang from behind the many layers of bubbles. Luther immediately tried his best to listen and search for the source of the sound, but he failed; the bubbles were like small speakers, creating a surround sound environment around him. It was impossible for him to figure out wh
ere the sound was from.
“I would advise you not to move rashly. Not all the bubbles here are harmless. Some of them are explosives, and some of them are corrosive. I can’t even tell them apart, but you are welcomed to test them out!”
Luther expression turned grim as he turned to look around him. Each of the bubbles looked exactly the same to him. If he continued maintaining his form, he might expend too much of his energy. Under such circ.u.mstances, Luther immediately canceled his transformation and regained his original looks.
“Pfft! So you’re just a kid. Unfortunately, you won’t live for long,” the duoluozhong’s buzzing voice traveled through thousands of bubbles, reverberating through the entire space. Luther ignored it. He continued scanning the space around him and focused his attention on finding the patterns within the movements of the bubbles
Suddenly, he heard a soft “pop”, like the sound of a bubble bursting, coming from behind him. At almost the same time, he noticed a sharp mouthpart rapidly lunging toward him. Since he was already alerted by the sound, he twisted his body and jumped backward, nimbly dodging the mouthpart. However, as he was surrounded by bubbles, one of his elbows unintentionally touched a pink bubble when he was dodging. The bubble burst with a “pop”.
A hissing sound quickly followed, and a white smoke rose from Luther’s elbow. The pain was so intense that he could not utter a word at that moment. He lowered his eyes to observe his wound. His elbow looked as if it had been burned, a large patch of his skin seemed to have dissolved, revealing the layer of blood covered flesh underneath.
“HA! HA! HA! Didn’t I tell you not to move carelessly? It’s just acid this time, who knows what’s next?” The duoluozhong’s savage laughter filled the air. Cold sweat covered his forehead as Luther endured the pain. He simply could not differentiate the bubble which had just burst from the thousands that surrounded him.
Clearly, the duoluozhong wouldn’t give him time to slowly analyze what was before him, this time, the mouthpart targeted him from another direction. The duoluozhong’s intentions were obvious. The attacks from the duoluozhong’s mouthpart were really not much of a concern to Luther as he could dodge them easily. To counter that, it filled all the possible “dodging space” with these dangerous bubbles, forcing Luther to make a choice between getting stabbed by the mouthpart or receiving damage from the bubbles.
As Luther once again dodged another attack from the duoluozhong’s mouthpart, he accidentally burst a couple of bubbles with his back. This time round, three to four bubbles burst behind him with a “boom”. The draft of air currents from the mini-explosions tore off the shredded fabrics covering his back, exposing a bloody and messy blast injury. Luther was about to bent over when he was suddenly overwhelmed by so much pain from his back that he nearly blacked out. His breathing became heavy as he bit so hard on his lower lip that it started bleeding.
Luther’s fair face was covered with the ashes from the explosion and his own blood. His head drooped slightly, and in somewhat bashful manner, a smile appeared on his face; his buck teeth looked exceptionally white against his blood-covered lips. His temper rose, and he softly commented, “Are all men who live off women so full of nonsense?”
“Guess you won’t weep until you see your own coffin!”
With a sharp howl, the duoluozhong’s mouthpart attack came again from Luther’s left side. He turned his head to look at the mouthpart which was right in front of him. He shifted his body slightly and turned into a girl who was about over ten. Instead of avoiding the attack, he lunged himself forward, facing the attack head-on.
“Splitch!” The mouthpart pierced into the girl’s shoulder, producing a spray of blood. Before the duoluozhong could laugh celebratorily, Luther bore with the pain and rushed forward, allowing the mouthpart to pierce all the way through his flesh. Despite that, he continued forward as if he felt nothing. Within half a second, Luther found himself with a large gaping wound on his shoulder. At the same time, he had created a path through the bubbles and was now standing right in front of the duoluozhong.
Bubbles had burst around him, but nothing happened.
Before the stupefied duoluozhong could react, Luther canceled his transformation, reached forward with a claw-like gesture and grabbed its throat—based on pure muscular strength, the duoluozhong was still one level below him.
“If I can’t tell which bubbles are dangerous, all I have to do is just stand beside you, right? It’s not that hard to charge toward you following that mouthpart of yours.” Luther spat out a glob of bloody spittle and grinned as he panted. “I know that the building that both of you are camping at is filled to the brim with traps, so I am going to ask you one question.”
The duoluozhong had been strangled so tightly that his face was turning purple and copious amount of fluid was spilling out from the tip of its mouthpart. Not having the leisure to ponder about how the young man got that information, the duoluozhong tried to shake its mouthpart but only found that it was hopelessly trapped by Luther’s shoulder—the movements dug out grisly chunks of flesh. The young man shivered but held his stance.
“How do you go upstairs?”
“Wrong. My only goal is to kill that woman. But if you refuse to talk, I will really kill you,” Luther said as his eyes flashed with sincerity, “Your life or that woman’s? Choose one.”
To the duoluozhong, it did not even need to think to make such a choice. Once it explained everything, Luther slowly placed the duoluozhong down, but he continued to tighten the grip around its neck. Then, he asked suspiciously, “You’re not lying to me, right?”
“No! No! If you don’t believe me, you can tie me up and bring me along! You can trust me like this, right?” The duoluozhong’s eyes were nearly popping from their sockets from the pressure asserted by Luther. In its desperation, it quickly thought of this idea to survive.
“That seems like a good idea.” Luther nodded his head in a thoughtful manner and suddenly eyed the duoluozhong which startled.
“Sorry, I lied.”
In a split second, the duoluozhong widened his eyes, and the last sound it heard was the frivolous “craaaack” as its throat was crushed.
Translator’s note: [1] “eating soft rice” is an insult used to describe men who live off/sponge off women.
Chapter 32 - Kill Her or Spare Her?
Ever since he came to this particular world, Luther didn’t have the chance to fully appreciate the night sky.
Luther slowly blinked his eyes; he felt as if his body and thoughts were about to amalgamate into a column of smoke and merge into the starfield above him. The silver stars dotted the deep dark blue sky, glowing resplendently like scattered diamonds, twinkling with lights that have existed in the universe billions of years before.
[It’s so beautiful…] He exhaled lightly, feeling a little sleepy.
Suddenly, the star-speckled sky was blocked by a large magnified face. Li Zhijun peered down at Luther with his sly fox-like eyes beaming with a playful amus.e.m.e.nt.
“What are you doing?”
“The night sky is so beautiful… Huh? Brother Jun?” Luther, who had been panting in his pool of blood, regained his clear-headedness and only reacted after a while. He weakly turned his eyes to the side, “Are Marcie and the others here too?”
“I’m here!” he heard Marcie’s anxious and furious voice beside him. “Are you an idiot? You are almost going to faint from blood loss! And you’re thinking that the night is beautiful!”
Luther only realized then that his entire body felt cold, his mind was murky, and he did not even have an ounce of strength left. He turned to Marcie and smiled weakly, his mind was still occupied by the most important thing, “I waited so long for all of you… why are you only here now? The duoluozhong said that… only it could go upstairs as the traps only recognize it… what shall we do now?”
The others exchanged glances when they heard his question, realizing that dealing with the situation wouldn’t be easy.
After that, Marcie carried a small first-aid box with a red cross sign and sat down beside Luther. When she opened the first-aid box, Luther looked over sideways as if he wanted to say something… Marcie probably got that first-aid box from some small pharmacy. There were only a few sparse items in the box, and each of them seemed to have been manufactured for the sole purpose of cheating consumers, the quality was abysmal.
“Really? That’ll be great!” Lin Sanjiu barely smiled as Hei Zeji stared at her coldly, without any intention to move. Everything fell silent as if the air around them had frozen over.
Since he didn’t respond, no one dared to prompt him to take the medicine out.
Luther blinked his eyes drowsily, probably because he heard Hei Zeji’s name. He had been drifting in and out of consciousness, so he did not know what they were talking about. He only recalled his battle just now. He gave a feeble smile and said softly in a dazed voice, “I turned into Brother Ji just now and broke that duoluozhong’s leg… Brother Ji’s upper limit… so powerful…”
Due to his serious injuries, his speech was slurred, but everyone there understood what he meant. Three pairs of eyes simultaneously landed on Hei Zeji. After a short while, the latter finally threw out a small bottle with a darkened face. Before Lin Sanjiu could cheer, Hei Zeji suddenly spoke, “Get him to eat this and wait for him to wake up. Don’t bother me anymore.”