by N. Heller
"Shit!"
Lin Sanjiu shuddered and rose to her feet at once. She had forgotten that she'd put the bottle of wine on the center of the walkway!
Just when she had gotten up from the floor, the anemic, full of lesions face turned back into the kitchen. The moment his gaze fell on Lin Sanjiu, he offered her a contorted smile, "Pretty good at hiding, huh." Then, he pounced on her.
Lin Sanjiu didn't have time to think—not that thinking would have been wise at the moment. She lunged, and held tightly to the refrigerator beside her, trying to push it forward. Yet, the weight of a large double-door refrigerator was something she couldn't overcome in her current state. Even she had strained every ounce of power from her muscles, the fridge did not crash down as she wished. Nevertheless, it's still foiled the oncoming of the man.
Right now, making a detour around the cooking island was her sole escape route, yet that was also the direction where the man was attacking from. Speed was of the essence here, for the one who outsped the other would be the winner of this game of chasing. However, just as she began to sprint, something had barged into her field of vision and she stopped her movement abruptly.
There was a cleaning spray, sitting obediently on top of the cooking island.
"What happened? Why have you stopped running now?"
The bloodless face took on an even grislier tone in the ill-lit room. The man had blocked the other side of the cooking island and completely trapped Lin Sanjiu in the kitchen.
Lin Sanjiu recoiled two steps and her back hit the stove.
"I hate to say this but I have to admit that it feels great to have a corporeal body," the man panted as he walked into the kitchen, "...It has been ages since I last slaughtered a woman with my own hands… I'll give you a treat, cutie pie—I won't kill you straight away; instead, I want you to feel the fear of your life ebbing from your body as I drain your Potential Growth Value dry."
Without turning her head, Lin Sanjiu fingered across the stove for the knob. Then, she placed her finger on the knob and prayed to God in her heart earnestly. "Oh God, if you're listening, hear me out. Please, if this house is a grand abode, then this has to work."
Snap. She had ignited all four burners on top of the hob.
"Where do you think you are going?" The man asked with a parched voice.
Suddenly, the world began to turn on itself. The man dragged Lin Sanjiu over and pinned her on top of the cooking island. His disfigured face covered by a mask came closer to her own.
"This is not your real body, as it is the result of the transmogrification of your Higher Consciousness," he said in a low voice. Using one hand, he clenched on Lin Sanjiu's throat and used the other to gouge into her eyes, "... So you won't pass out no matter how much pain is inflicted on you."
The air was choked off her lungs, and her face reddened but Lin Sanjiu's mind had never been so clear before. She yelled soundlessly like a demented goldfish. She used one of her hand to block the hand of the man from reaching her eyes. At the same time, she stretched her other hand and grabbed the kitchen cleaning spray.
Unfazed, the man didn't even turn his head to see what she was doing. He panted and smiled, "Seriously? Do you really think you can kill me with that thing? Not even a steel tube could harm me."
Lin Sanjiu couldn't speak a word now. She yanked the tool free, and the cleaning spray flew across the kitchen. She somewhat had seen that the bottle had dropped on top of the burners through the corner of her eyes—this was all she could manage to see before the man squeezed harder on her throat and the world before her eyes swirled into darkness.
Hold on for a little longer, hold on for a little longer…
Every minute seemed like a year for her.
When the spray can on the hog finally exploded behind the man with a loud bang, the explosion had sent bright inferno onto the ceiling, flooring, and the back of the man. The burst swept everything into nothingness, engulfing the two people that were struggling in a fracas at the cooking island in its wake.
Lin Sanjiu's ears went numb from the pained howling. And she couldn't tell if the howl was coming from the man or if it was her own. The man was standing in between her and the stove, hence he took most of the blast. When Lin Sanjiu felt that the hand on her throat had loosened its grip, she kicked the man a few times and rolled down the cooking island.
… She didn't know how she managed to drag her badly battered body from the kitchen to the living room as the explosion continued to gobble down more parts of the house. The blast had gradually turned into an intense fire. With a strength born of desperation, Lin Sanjiu pushed the sofa away and reached out for the knob. Her eyes, nose, mouth, and every part of her was bathed in fresh blood. But the good thing was that she's still alive.
The door opened and Lin Sanjiu rolled into the walkway.
A pair of high heels, shiny and delicate, was standing right in front of her eyes.
Chapter 468 - Greened Lin Sanjiu
Streamlets of blood trickled down her forehead, seeping into her eyes. The sudden pang of stabbing pain had made Lin Sanjiu close her eyes. She ran her hand over her affected eye to wipe the blood off. When she unglued her eyes again, she saw nothing in the walkway. The high heels were gone.
Was she having a hallucination due to her injuries?
The pair of black high heels rang the bell in her mind. Yet, she couldn't remember where she'd come across that similar pair of high heels before.
Every breath she took felt like an invisible chainsaw grazing at her c.h.e.s.t cavity. Enduring the pulsating pain that undulated over her entire body, Lin Sanjiu scrambled her way to the border of the walkway and leaned herself against one of the pillars.
The inferno grew more abundant, faster, wilder. Like a hungry beast on its hunger hunt, it swept through half of the living room in a twinkling of time, inflaming everything that crossed its path. The crackling of the fire was loud, and the firelight was brilliant; it had cast a scarlet red on her body. The sweltering hot air baked her cheek, and her back was wet with sweat.
Now, she could leave the house and return to her higher consciousness form, but she did not dare to make any move. Without the protection of the house, she would be hunted, like a sheep surrounded in a pride of lions. Though staying in the house meant she could only be a normal human being, at least she still had the chance to fight for her survivability.
The flame had spread to the front of the living room, and judging from its speed, it wouldn't be long before it reached the walkway. Even though she was fully aware that this house was not a real establishment, Lin Sanjiu felt she should stop the fire from spreading further.
As she'd made up her mind, she mustered up strength and propped herself up. She made a detour, lurching her way via the walkway and entered the house through the glass door at the rear of the house.
When she ran into the house with her nose and mouth covered, she found that her vision was greeted with a sea of flame. Both living room and kitchen were full of fire; blazes of flame pressed their ways into the space that had yet to be inflamed. The blistering heat wave and thick smog almost pushed Lin Sanjiu back into the walkway, yet she held on. She looked around, and her eyes glowed as if she had found an oasis amongst the desert. Then, she dove into the washroom.
The washroom was the only spared land, free from the onslaught of the relentless flame, for the time being, at least. She hurried to open the shower curtain and grabbed the shower from the wall. She then turned on the water tap, and to her surprise, there was water!
She stepped and applied pressure on the shower hose and pulled the shower head. A blast of water shot out from the tube and quenched the few blazes of fire that were sparking to life outside the bathroom. As if it wasn't enough, she removed the shower curtain to block the opening of the drain pipe in the water basin and on the bathroom floor. In the meantime, she turned all the water faucets to their maximum degree. She even pulled the flush pipe out from the back of the toilet. Soon, the bathroom
floor was filled with water, and after that space could no longer contain the mass water body, it slowly flowed into the area outside the bathroom.
She couldn't save the front part of the house but, with the water barrier she had put up, she could at least prevent the fire from spreading further into the deeper region of the house. In consequence, she was able to secure a piece of land to shelter herself.
Lin Sanjiu heaved a sigh and plopped herself on the puddles of water as the water pillar continued to send more water into the surroundings. She was drenched from her head to her toe. There were cuts and burns here and there around her body, shards of glasses jutting out from her wounds. Whenever the water rippled past those wounds, it caused her so much pain that it brought her out in a cold sweat. When she realized the fire was getting under control, she found herself a water hose and began to clean her wounds.
Suddenly, a series of wobbly footsteps came from the dark. Lin Sanjiu's heart shuddered, and before she could make any retaliation, she was pounced to the ground by a shadow that barged into the bathroom. The water on the floor instantly filled her nostrils and mouth, choking her and causing her to flail fiercely like a fish out of water. She slammed the assailant with the water hose in her hand for a few times, and then one of her attacks suddenly connected, hitting the assailant in his face. The man loosened his grip, and Lin Sanjiu seized the chance and rolled free before clambering from the floor.
...If the face that had been deformed by syphilis was a scene too ghastly to look at, then the appearance of the man right now was terrifying enough to make any seasoned posthuman weep in fear. On his charred skin were countless of large burn scars and avulsions, caused by the fire and explosion. If it weren't for his opened eyes, nobody would think he was a living human specimen. Even then, his eyes were half-opened, as his eyelids had slid down after being melted by the heat of the flame.
"Give me your Potential Growth Value, give me your Potential Growth Value…" Instead of saying that he was talking to Lin Sanjiu, it was better to say he was mumbling to himself. He extended his arm and reached out to Lin Sanjiu. His mouth quivered, wanting to say something, yet the words that came through his burnt tongue carried no meaning at all, "These injuries… I can…"
Overwhelmed by fury and fear, Lin Sanjiu blinked and dodged to a side. She was now being trapped in the little leeway between a toilet and a bathtub. Seeing that there was no way to run, she lifted the heavy ceramic lid from the water storage tank behind the toilet. She waited, and when the man charged at her, she slammed it hard on his face.
She somewhat had infused all her emotion in the "smashing" action. With the weight of the lid plus the strength that she had erupted, she smashed the cover heavily on the man's face, again and again. When she finally had grasped her reason and stopped, she couldn't tell which part of the man was his head and his body. The man had been reduced to mere blood and meat pulp, just like a crushed ant.
Duang. The ceramic lid covered in the blood dropped to the floor and water splashed in all direction. Lin Sanjiu sloped down with her back leaned against the wall. As she panted, she closed her eyes.
The water continued to flow. The fire was getting smaller and smaller as there was nothing left that could keep the fire alive. Suddenly, Lin Sanjiu opened her eyes. She fired a deadly glare at the door of the bathroom.
From the direction of the aisle, came a strange noise. Click-clack, click-clack , it sounded like the staccato beat of high heels echoing off the marble floor.
Her body wrung up as she waited. However, nobody showed up.
"No matter who is it, he or she is just a normal human being here," Lin Sanjiu mouthed a few words and calmed down her racing heart. Then, she forced herself to sit straight and peered at the badly mutilated dead body, "...Just now he said he wanted to absorb my Potential Growth Value?"
"He said something like his injuries would get better after he'd soaked up himself with my Potential Growth Value? Is this the reason so many posthuman chases after me? So I am a can of Potential Value Growth that couldn't even put up a decent resistance to them?
Lin Sanjiu continued to study the corpse as she didn't know what to do.
"How should I extract the Potential Growth Value…?" She muttered. She tentatively placed her hand over the corpse but, to her dismay, nothing happened.
"Oh silly girl, you need to extract it with your Higher Consciousness."
A titter that suddenly appeared had caused Lin Sanjiu to jerk up in fright. Driven by her instinct, she grabbed a water hose from the floor and quickly spun around. There was a woman, with a head full of wavy hair, leaning against the door frame. As of that moment, she was hugging herself and smiling at Lin Sanjiu.
Her head of wavy auburn hair was dr.a.p.ed over her shoulders in a disheveled mess. She wore a lot of jewelry, her attire had two oversized and soft sleeves, and she was bare-footed. She reminded Lin Sanjiu of the Indo-Aryan ethnic group, Gypsy, a nomadic tribe best known for their unconventional, usually artistic lifestyle. When she once again parted her lips, her distinctive husky and saccharine voice instantly sparked the memory in Lin Sanjiu's mind of who she was, "I couldn't believe you have actually killed "Syphilis"... Half of my house for the death of this disgusting man… Hmm, that's a pretty good deal."
"You—," Lin Sanjiu rose from the ground and put on a defensive stance. She swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue and changed, "...Thank you."
"Don't mention it." The corner of her lips curved upward under her curly hair; her smile was as seductive as her raucous voice, "You're the one who pulled it off. I, on the other hand, just provided you a field. The name's Bohemia, that's what they call me in the astral plane... Peradventure, they called me by that name probably due to my outfit. Anyway, you can address me with that if you want."
Lin Sanjiu nodded in assent hesitantly. When the woman stepped into the bathroom, her muscles tensed up again.
"Don't fear me," Bohemia chuckled as she twirled her finger around her hair. "Though the house is mine, the "corresponding condition" is one-size-fits-all; it treats everybody in it equally. So, I'm a normal human being now. Don't you want to absorb that person's Potential Growth Value? I can show you how."
Lin Sanjiu didn't say anything. She moved two steps toward the side when the woman walked further into the bathroom.
The anklet on Bohemia's foot released a soft and soothing ring along as she walked. She stopped a few steps away from Lin Sanjiu before offering her a warm grin, "The bodies you and I have now are the imaginary figures formed by our Higher Consciousness according to the image that our sea of psyche think that's the most suitable for us. Close your eyes. Don't use your current body; imagine it, feel it with your higher conscious form. Now, can you see it?"
As she spoke, Lin Sanjiu slowly closed her eyes. However, the moment her eyes were closed, she shuddered and unglued her eyes.
Bohemia's smiley face froze. Her face, which was a few times larger than it was previously, stopped a few millimeters away from the tip of Lin Sanjiu's nose.
"... As easy as that," Bohemia's frozen smile thawed and began to spread across her face.
Lin Sanjiu released a low guttural roar as she yanked her arm free, throwing the water hose in her palm toward the woman's face. Taking the opportunity as Bohemia ducked to avoid her attack, Lin Sanjiu slithered through the small gap between Bohemia and the concrete wall and darted outside.
"I have helped you, don't you think you should respond me with gratitude?" The woman husky yet e.r.o.t.i.c giggle rang out behind her. Then, the jingle of her anklet followed after, "Since you have killed Syphilis, I'll have half of your Potential Growth Value."
Lin Sanjiu escaped from the bathroom in an unstable gait. There was nothing in her mind besides her own screaming. Even if Bohemia was restricted by the rules of the house, it was certainly not as she said; her restriction must be lighter than other people's. After all, how could a normal human suddenly appear in front of her as if she was teleporting
?
Lin Sanjiu couldn't utter any sounds. She swerved, darting into another direction toward the glass door at the back. Since the walkway outside had been burned down by fire, she had no other choice but to return to her higher consciousness form and float into the cosmos. She didn't dare to stop for even a minute, flying at full throttle and making half a circle around the house before shooting into it again.
However, to her surprise, Bohemia didn't follow after her.
Hiding beside the door, Lin Sanjiu looked around for a few seconds but she saw no figure of the woman with curly hair. It felt like Bohemia had forgone her attempt to chase after her the moment she reached the walkway.
"As long as I can keep an eye on both of the front and rear entrances, I would be able to see the moment Bohemia came out, and then I can easily thwart any ambush Bohemia throws at me," Lin Sanjiu talked to herself as she suppressed the doubt in her heart. Then, she capped her mouth and her nose with her hand as she took in the surrounding while snuck her way to the bathroom—she wanted to take back the Potential Growth Value she left at the bathroom.
Even if she could only mend her injuries by absorbing the Potential Growth Value, she still had to give it a try.
… What Lin Sanjiu didn't expect was that Bohemia had really stopped at the walkway.
"Magus," She looked at the woman who was sitting at the bal.u.s.trade, offering her a big grin. However, Lin Sanjiu could hear the faint trepidation in her voice, "What day is it today. What made both you and Nüwa come here?"
As the owner swayed her delicate, glistening black high heel in the air, she snorted. A smile found its way onto the corner of the rouge color lips of that golden hair woman clad in a black blouse.
Upon closer inspection, one could notice that her facial features were not flawless as the age had left its impress upon her skin. However, like a bottle of fine wine, her feminine charm became better and more intoxicating with age.
"Don't be so shocked; I'm here because of that screwball," the woman known as Magus lifted her chin and a lock of golden hair rolled down her cheek. "That's a toxic notion you have there. If you think you can dismiss me by saying that name, you can drop that thought now."