by N. Heller
The grand prize's grimaced, and his face turned sour at the sight of bowl, chopstick, and dishes Melor served them with. Even Lin Sanjiu was also reluctant to eat the food as well. After pondering for a while, Lin Sanjiu took out the food she purchased in Red Nautilus and shoved a piece of bread into Ji Shanqing's hand.
Initially, she was worried that Scholar and Melor might see their actions; however, to her surprise, they finished the dinner without much of a fuss. Melor's and Scholar's mind seemed to be occupied by something such that they only focused on eating. Even if they saw the bread in Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing's hand, the room was too dim to allow them to realize that it wasn't the food prepared by Melor.
"Where are you guys going to spend the night?" Scholar wiped his mouth clean and asked, "I remember we have quite a few vacant rooms in the neighborhood."
"We'll look around later."
Then, she rose to her feet.
"She's right. We don't have to stay here now as we have the information we need," Ji Shanqing murmured.
Scholar walked them to the door. Just as Ji Shanqing bowed down to fit himself through the gap, he suddenly felt a tug at his shirt. He looked over to his shoulders and sensed Scholar and Melor staring in the darkness.
"Your clothes are weird. I have never seen the like before around here," The light from the [Ability Polishing Agent] had caused a reflection on Scholar's spectacles. His face was gloomy and the question he asked caused Ji Shanqing's hairs to stand on end, "Could it be that you two are one of those monsters?"
"Of course not," the grand prize's heart skipped a beat. Then, Lin Sanjiu, who was a step ahead of him interjected before dragging him out, "When we have found a room for ourselves, we'll invite you two over."
Hearing what Lin Sanjiu had said, Scholar's expression turned mild. Melor snuck her head out from a small gap in between the carton and watched them leave. Their gazes were so intense that Ji Shanqing couldn't shrug them off until he turned the corner.
Huffing, he hastened his steps to catch up to Lin Sanjiu to have a discussion with her regarding their next move. However, when he saw her expression, his words were stuck in his throat.
Lin Sanjiu's complexion was terrible. Ji Shanqing had never seen such an ugly expression on her face before, not even when she was on the verge of death.
"Shanqing," When both of them arrived beside a parterre, Lin Sanjiu stopped moving. She said, "Don't look back and listen to me."
As ordered by Lin Sanjiu, the grand prize didn't turn his head; instead, he slowly came to a halt as if he was admiring the flowers on the flowerbed.
"I suspect they are not ordinary humans," Lin Sanjiu's voice was that of a whisper. Her voice instantly dissipated into the air as soon as it came out from her mouth.
"Not ordinary people?" Ji Shanqing was perplexed by her remark. He asked, "But I didn't sense any ability from them."
"I can explain this. Because—" Lin Sanjiu breathed a heavy puff, "I can not use my ability either."
Chapter 409 - Stairway Terror
Nothing.
Nothing was here but b.a.r.e land.
The wind along the rooftop was intense and violent. Each time a gust of cold hit Ji Shanqing, it stole some of his body heat away. His cheeks turned numb in the freezing air, yet it didn't stop him from trying. Again, he craned his neck and looked into the distance, hoping eagerly to see something, anything. However, what greeted him was a decaying ruin filled with crude and damaged buildings, the remnants of a once busy and beautiful capital.
Countless vehicles were crumpled together as if somebody had pushed the pause button and caused all of the cars to stop at the moment of the collision—crushed deep inside a crumbled shopping mall, collided and melted together into a huge iron block or rammed into an electric pole. There was more than one way a person could've imagined how the vehicles could bang into each other. The large banner was stripped from its rightful position and ruffled in the air. Splashes of blood stained the area, and the charred black left by the fire were the primary colors of the city now.
In the distance, a row of buildings that were supposed to be residential apartments had caved in. A few large airplanes were sticking out from the ravaged building, shielded by heavy smoke and rubble.
This was the first time Ji Shanqing was exposed to a real doomsday. When the initial bemus.e.m.e.nt and shock slowly faded away, anxiety surfaced and overtook his mind. He didn't see any "large refugee camp" around as mentioned by Scholar.
Since almost all of the buildings that surrounded the neighborhood were flattened to mere rubble by the large planes that had fallen from the sky, the ten-story apartment that had survived the passage of time under their feet became the highest point in the area. Standing on the rooftop, Ji Shanqing had taken in the situation surrounding them, but he could not see a refugee camp around nor any sign of human activity.
It seemed like what his master had envisaged might be the reality.
"What did I say to you just now?" Just as the thought flashed across Ji Shanqing's mind, Lin Sanjiu scoffed, her voice filled with disdain, "Melor and Scholar were lying to us. This neighborhood isn't a refugee camp nor is it an establishment built by the government to protect them from the invasion of posthumans."
She talked with short breaths, wheezing as she struggled to finish her sentence. Ji Shanqing couldn't tell if she panted because they had sprinted up ten floors or if she was just very nervous right now. As she spoke, she gestured with her hand, trying her best effort to summon her [Planar World] again.
Under their intense gazes, a piece of card blinked in Lin Sanjiu's palm. Before they could see it clearly, the card disappeared like a bursting bubble, leaving only Lin Sanjiu's b.a.r.e palm.
Lin Sanjiu tried again and again and again, unable to accept the fact that she could no longer use her ability. However, she was thwarted. Nothing came out this time; not even a shade.
Crestfallen, Lin Sajiu uttered a growl like a confined beast as she buried her face into her palm and pressed her body against the bal.u.s.trade, "What should I do? I have lost all of my abilities!"
Ji Shanqing tasted bile in his mouth as he realized the gravity of the situation.
The thing that Lin Sanjiu lost was not merely her [Planar World].
Posthumans had a physical structure that surpassed an ordinary person's due to their passive skills such as [Strength Augmentation] and [Eagle Eye] and active skills such as [Planar World] and [A Twinkle in the Sky].
"Calm down, sis," Ji Shanqing comforted her as he verbalized his postulation into words, "You see, I still have my Evolved Ability. Perhaps something in this neighborhood or this world is affecting you and hindering the activation of your Evolved Ability. It doesn't affect me since I am an item. As long as we can discover the cause, I'm sure your ability will return at no time."
Be that as it may, every word he said seemed had hit the nail on the head, but Ji Shanqing had no confidence at all. This was because even after he had run through the episodes that happened tonight countlessly in his brain, he still couldn't find anything suspicious.
Upon hearing Ji Shanqing's conjecture, a spark of hope appeared in Lin Sanjiu's heart. She raised her head and clawed tightly at Ji Shanqing's arm, grimacing, "Yeah, you're right! Let's go back and look for Melor and Scholar!"
Her nails stabbed deep into Ji Shanqing's skin, causing him to wince in pain. While Ji Shanqing personally didn't feel that was a good idea, when he saw his master's expression, all he managed was a stiff animatronic nod. Lin Sanjiu didn't pay mind to Ji Shanqing's reaction as she had already darted toward the exit.
Sighing, he gave one last look at the wasteland that stretched far into the edge of the horizon and
"Something-- something isn't right. Something is missing. What could it be?"
Just when Ji Shanqing frowned at the thought that found a way into his mind, Lin Sanjiu's impatient voice rang out behind him, "What the heck are you doing? Hurry up!"
"Right behind you," Ji
Shanqing replied to her and put away the thought as he followed Lin Sanjiu down the stairs.
There was no difference in the building they were in compared to the others. Cartons occupied half of the hallway and the air stank with the stale smell of sweat. Lucky for them, Lin Sanjiu never stored the [Ability Polishing Agent] away, and she couldn't keep it away now either, so Ji Shanqing had been the one holding the Special Item, illuminating their path as he held Lin Sanjiu by her arm to help her move forward.
Hence, when a sharp howl sliced through the air suddenly, it shocked them both. Before they could react to the sound, a loud thud, as if somebody was banging on the anti-theft door, filled the air. Then, an unflagging, heart-wrenching, banshee-like screech followed after, piercing their eardrums and causing an echo through the hallway.
"What happened?" Guessing that the person wasn't going to come out anytime soon, with a frowned eyebrows Ji Shanqing quickly walked away from that door, "Did somebody die in that apartment?"
He didn't hear any response from Lin Sanjiu, so he turned to look at his master. With the help of the light from the [Ability Polishing Agent], Ji Shanqing could see Lin Sanjiu's face was abnormally pale. Her eyes were vacant and flat, and beads of sweat were oozing out from her forehead.
She looked like a patient suffered from transient global amnesia.
Amidst the ear-splitting howl that was enough even to arouse the deceased, Ji Shanqing pushed down the fear that came from nowhere in his heart and whispered to Lin Sanjiu, "Sis, are you all right?
Blinking, Lin Sanjiu shook her head while biting her lower lip. With a confused face, she pushed him and ordered, "Keep moving."
"Okay—"
However, the moment the two resumed walking, Ji Shanqing saw something that caused his heart to skip a beat. He quickly crammed the [Ability Polishing Agent] into his shirt, holding it tight in his embrace. While trying to prevent the light from leaking out from his cloth, he turned to Lin Sanjiu and urged her, "Quick! Return to the upper floor!"
Lin Sanjiu didn't know what had happened; she just gripped firmly to Ji Shanqing's sleeve as both of them marched toward the upper floor. Just when two of them set foot on the top level, they heard human voices echoing from the other end of the hallway on the lower floor. Then, a flash of light beamed out from a flashlight.
"Somebody came?" Lin Sanjiu, who was crouched beside Ji Shanqing whispered, "I didn't sense anything." Her voice filled with loss.
A sudden of sadness clutched at the heart of the grand prize upon hearing Lin Sanjiu's voice.
"He started screaming again," A male voice rang clearly against the background of his almost faint footsteps from the downstairs. "...It's so damn annoying."
"You should really control your temper, dude," a female voice interjected.
While Ji Shanqing was wondering what attracted both of them here, somebody kicked the anti-theft door twice. Then, a soft and tender female voice which Ji Shanqing could only attribute to the female prowler of the divide swam into his ear, "Xuennie, Mommy is going to abandon you if you don't stop crying now, do you hear me?"
As if her words were some kind of magic spell, the crying did stop. It turned into a violent whimper that the bawler couldn't control for the moment.
The howling earlier on was way so ear-piercing that it hindered Ji Shanqing's ability to differentiate if the bawler was a man or a woman. He couldn't tell if the person was a child or a grown-up either. While he was immersed in his thoughts, the male-female duo had begun walking upstairs.
He was instantly brought back to reality by the approaching footsteps. He poked at Lin Sanjiu, as a signal for her to go upstairs. Moving in the dark, Ji Shanqing felt his master movements were so slow and sluggish that he had no choice but to push her to move faster up the staircase. Lucky for them, the duo was seemingly not in a hurry as they seemed to be treading slowly down the hallway. When both of them had successfully reached the upper level, the man and the woman had just arrived on the floor on which they previously took cover.
"Above us is the rooftop, and we'll end up in a deadlock position if we keep going," Ji Shanqing gulped. He could feel it real that the two intruders were posthumans. "I have to think of a way out."
He had no idea how strong their opponent was, but considering the fact that Lin Sanjiu had now become a mundane person and with his tenth-rate combat capabilities, he was confident that both Lin Sanjiu and he would end up in a pretty bad situation if the two decided to eliminate both of them.
Ji Shanqing was getting more and more panicked with every footstep the man and the woman took. Then, just when Ji Shanqing couldn't control his heart from pumping faster anymore, the woman spoke, "806. It's here."
"For heaven sake, what a close call," Ji Shanqing sighed inwardly.
The man took a step forward and rapped on the door to the unit 806. His voice changed. He now seemed like a different person, "Madam Cui, open the door, please. It's me, Jory."
After his greeting, the hallway plunged into a deadly hush.
Ji Shanqing had passed by unit 806 twice, but he didn't know the unit was occupied. And now, it seemed like there really wasn't a tenant in that unit.
The woman of the team grumbled, her voice thick with irritation, "Where is she? Why isn't she answering the door?"
The man gestured to the woman. Then, as if he had gone through this thousand or millions of times, the man spoke through the door, "Madam Cui, I'm back with the answer to the question you asked me last time, do you want to know it?"
The moment he finished talking, the wooden door to unit 806 creaked opened.
"J-Jory," a deep female voice, laced with a bit of apprehension and anticipation resounded in the hallway, "I-I fell asleep, so I didn't hear your call. How was it?"
"Let me in first, and I'll tell you the answer," the man paid no heed to her excuse. He turned to the woman beside him and introduced her to Madam Cui, "She is my colleague, so don't be so scared."
"Alright. I'll open the door now." Though she still felt a little bit uneasy, the woman called Madam Cui opened the door as the man commanded. No sooner had the anti-theft lock opened with a click than a subtle thump wafted over. Those were the last thing Ji Shanqing could hear and then everything fell silent again.
Stunned, Ji Shanqing turned to Lin Sanjiu, and when he wanted to ask Lin Sanjiu if she had seen anything he missed, he instantly closed his mouth.
With the help of the dim glow from the flashlight of the duo, Ji Shanqing could vaguely see that his master was now crouching on one of the staircases. One of her arms was hugging her knees while she put her other hand into her mouth biting her fingernails.
Ji Shanqing lowered his eyes and did not say anything. Then, he turned his head again.
A sound, as if something heavy was grating against the floor resonated downstairs. After having a tussle with himself inside his mind, Ji Shanqing emboldened himself and snuck his head out to have a quick look.
He turned so fast that everything blurred before his eyes; he could see nothing. He only saw a wide opened door, a bald man with a thick neck, and… a pair of eyes from a short-haired woman.
Ji Shanqing's blood turned cold.
"Hey, is somebody up there?" To prove her eyes didn't fail her, the woman asked the man.
"Isn't that normal?" the man replied, "This building has only people ."
The woman fell silent for a second before replying, "Hmm, no. I have never seen that face around here before."
"Go ahead and check it out, then!" The man replied hastily as if he had used up his patience, "Be quick. We still have many jobs to do."
Hearing the suggestion of the man had caused all the hair on Ji Shanqing's body to stand on their end. He turned over to Lin Sanjiu and gave her a few hard pushes to urge her to start running, the clack-tap from the female leather shoe stopped.
"Let it be," She seemed to have lost her interest, "You are right. There wouldn't be anybody else here."
Ji Shanqing breathed a sigh o
f relief and stopped moving. He tugged at Lin Sanjiu who was standing up. His position now was uncomfortable. The [Ability Polishing Agent] had been poking his stomach all along, and he had to maintain an intolerable position to prevent the glow from leaking out. Very soon, his forehead was covered in sweat.
When the glow along with the rustle disappeared to the other end of the hallway, Ji Shanqing still didn't dare to make a move. After he waited for another ten minutes and he could no longer hear any sounds, he let out a breath and took the [Ability Polishing Agent] out from his body before standing up.
Lin Sanjiu, who was crouching beside him, slowly and stiffly turned her head to look behind them.
Ji Shanqing's whole body trembled, and he followed suit.
The face of an unfamiliar, middle-aged woman hung behind Ji Shanqing. A streak of blood streamed down her face. Her eyelids were half-lifted as if she was in deep thought.
...Madam Cui.
"You're a cautious chap, aren't you, sweetheart?" The woman who called herself "Mother" laughed. Her voice was as soft and tender as always, "We have been looking at you guys for ten minutes… Hmm, is she your friend?"
"Not bad. Both of your muscles look tender and tasty," the bald man interjected as he licked his lips.
Chapter 410 - Lin Sanjiu’s POV 1
Whatever happened next was like flashes of fragmented images to Lin Sanjiu.
She had a vague impression of someone shrieking and laughing loudly. Someone expressed something in astonishment. Another person was mumbling non-stop as if he or she was chanting, speaking or singing… Lights. There were all sorts of lights. They flashed in the darkness as these images appeared before Lin Sanjiu like a strange, haphazard montage...
When Lin Sanjiu finally snapped back to reality, the scarce moonlight was shining on her shoulders. Unbeknownst to her, she had somehow gotten out of the residential building.