by N. Heller
"Are you really not a Vindice?" a middle-aged man with a goatee asked. He had two big eyes and bushy brows. He studied Lin Sanjiu meticulously from head to toe and said, "You… you indeed look more human than them."
"What exactly is the Vindice you guys keep talking about?" Lin Sanjiu asked earnestly.
Bewildered expressions dawned on the group of posthumans' faces, as if they did not expect her to ask this question. All of them looked at each other, as they did not know where they should start. The middle-aged man, who was supposed to be the leader of the group, hesitated for a moment before asking again, "If you don't mind… can you tell us where you come from first?"
Lin Sanjiu sighed. She knew full well this would come somehow. Judging from the time point, it was evident that the apocalypse had just occurred in this world not too long ago. There was no way these people would know about the world leaping. Their expressions got uglier as Lin Sanjiu continued to speak. In the end, all of them fell into an awkward silence. Lin Sanjiu could see that there was some skepticism lingering on their faces.
"I have answered your question. Can you now tell me what happened to your world already?" Lin Sanjiu looked at them and asked, "What is a Vindice?"
Just as the middle-aged man opened his mouth, sharp sirens, one growing more intense than the other, went off madly from the summit of the inner wall as they further spread into the sky. As Lin Sanjiu wondered about what was going on, she heard somebody yell through the speaker, "Red alert! All posthuman, please report yourself at the main gate! I repeat! All posthuman, please report yourself at the main gate! There is a group of incoming Vindice!"
As soon as the sirens went off, a few human figures ran down from midair through the stone staircase that connected the inner wall to the outer wall and darted towards the gate.
In unison, the countenance of the group of posthumans in front of Lin Sanjiu turned pale. The goatee man gave a bitter smile and said to Lin Sanjiu, "I guess I don't have to explain it to you anymore. You are going to see one with your own eyes. We have to go to the main gate now to support our team. Since you're so powerful, mind giving us a bit of help?"
Just as Lin Sanjiu wanted to nod, something came into her mind, "Do all posthumans have to go to the main gate?"
Seeing that the goatee middle-aged man nodded, she smiled. "All right! Let's go, then!"
Chapter 582 - Meeting Puppeteer Again
Although the landmass of Sector 9 wasn't big, Lin Sanjiu was amazed that it could hold so many posthumans.
There were four stone cyan staircases that acted as bridges between the inner city and outer city. Sirens went off madly in quick succession across the entire city. One after another, human figures hopped down the staircases frenziedly, gathering around the main gate.
By the time Lin Sanjiu and the goateed man's group arrived at the main gate, there was more than hundreds of posthumans gathered there. The number may not sound that significant, but upon turning the figure into numbers of humans, it was enough to cause a huge congestion at the main gate.
The siren continued to scream out, getting more intense each time. Through the speaker, the fear of the announcer was evident. His voice trembled, "Condition Red, Condition Red! Currently, an unknown number of Vindice is coming fast from the northwest of the gate. Eyewitness suspect more than three… wait, what!? There are more than four Vindice coming this way! All posthumans, please gather in front of the main gate! I repeat! All posthumans, please gather in front of the main gate! All emergency facilities in the inner city please stand-by for any consequences!"
Lin Sanjiu clearly heard the goateed man next to her gulp. His countenance was grim.
Not only the goatee, everyone in the crowd had taken on an ugly expression. Cold sweat trickled down their foreheads, and their cheeks blanched with fear.
On their side, there was more than hundreds of posthumans while their opponent had only four members. However, the atmosphere at the party with the massive crowd was thick with apprehension, and everybody was seemingly breathing in fear.
But the silver lining was this group of posthumans wasn't a herd of sheep waiting to be slaughtered. It seemed that this wasn't the first time they faced this kind of situation. Their responses and job division was fast, accurate, and well-organized. A few teams made up of a few posthumans went out the gate and set up some traps before the Vindice arrived. There was another group that climbed up the outer wall through a nonfunctional elevator and laid in ambush. The major crowd of posthumans waited inside the gate, using the wall as cover, making their final check for the coming confrontation.
Lin Sanjiu followed the goateed man and crouched beside him. She peered at the deep and dark gate. The massive overhead metal gate covered in moss remained suspended in midair.
"Why don't you all close the gate to stop the Vindice from entering the city?" Lin Sanjiu asked in a low voice.
"This is the most ignorant and hilarious question I have ever heard." The goatee smiled bitterly. The sound of the siren grew louder as he answered in a raspy voice, "...We have had peace for years; for that reason, the defense system of Mistral has been in a dormant state. To activate the defense system, we'll need an activation code. The code is in the hands of our Mistral's president. He is the only one who has the code. But after the fall of Sector 1, our president went missing. Nobody knows where he is now. We don't even know if he is still alive or already dead."
It seemed like the apocalypse came too suddenly and paralyzed this city-state nation before the government could react. Lin Sanjiu wondered, what was the cause of the apocalypse in Puppeteer's homeland?
As Lin Sanjiu thought, she swept her gaze across the crowd. But she still did not see Puppeteer around.
She wasn't afraid of the so-called "Vindice". It was just that the tension in the air was so dense and thick that it gave her the collywobbles. Her heartbeat slowly picked up its pace as she stared nervously into the distance.
Nobody spoke; every single person remained utterly silent. The pressure mounted with every passing second. After what seemed like an eternity, several faint black dots popped up from the horizon in the distance. The black spots were marching towards Sector 9, getting closer and closer with every confident step they took. With the help of the sunlight, the posthumans finally saw how many of them there were.
Lin Sanjiu heard a harsh sibilant inhalation of breath. Then, a murmur quickly spread across the crowd after the initial shock had abated. They became extremely restless, which befuddled Lin Sanjiu. After a few seconds, somebody amongst the group shouted in a sob-filled voice, "Six! There are six of them!"
The siren that had been going on the entire time suddenly ceased away.
The next time Lin Sanjiu heard the announcer's voice, he had already thrown away the speaker. A much weaker voice rang out from the top of the inner city. The announcer sounded terrified, but he remained steadfast, yelling with all his might and giving the final morale boost to the fighters that were protecting their homeland with their own lives. "May the prayers of God be with you, my fellow fearless brothers and sisters! All of the surviving civilians in the inner city will fight alongside with you! Here is our home; this is where we live and die! Protect our homeland! Let's show them what we've got!"
The moment the words spread out, all of the posthumans in the outer city yelled back in chorus, "Protect our homeland!"
As if aroused by the fiery reaction, an enthusiastic roar ensued at the inner wall. Unbeknownst to Lin Sanjiu, countless people were standing on top of the wall. Some of them were yelling and shouting while others were crying and sobbing. But if there was a similarity between them, that would be the words that they chanted, "May the prayers of God be ever with our children!"
The goateed man gasped loudly, pulling Lin Sanjiu back from her thoughts. Lin Sanjiu looked at him. She saw that the eyes and nose tip of this middle-aged bloke were reddened, and his jaw was as rigid as a horseshoe. He was about to lose control of the raging emotions that welled
beneath his heart, but somehow, he held back at last. He wasn't the only one.
Sensing Lin Sanjiu's gaze, the goateed man sniffled and offered her a grin. "I'm Musan. Mayhap you can survive this fight since you're far more powerful than any of us. It doesn't feel right not to tell you my name since this is probably the last time we will talk to each other."
"Don't be so pessimistic, dude! I'm certain you can get through this!"
Musan shook his head. "You have misunderstood me. I'm not afraid of dying," he said bluntly. Then he turned his head and looked at the inner city with a searing stare filled with so much determination that Lin Sanjiu was shaken to the core. Then, he continued to speak softly, "If I can take down a Vindice, I'll have no regrets in doing so even if it costs me my life."
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. Then, at this moment, a commotion spread across the crowd. Somebody yelled, "They are here!"
She quickly turned her gaze towards the outside of the gate, and she froze the moment she saw the few incoming figures.
"Puppeteers?"
Of the six Vindice, the one walking at the forefront was the first one to be seen clearly by her. The Vindice was wrapped in a black leather jacket. There was an indigo feather ornament on one side of his shoulder pads. It glittered brightly even though the sky was overcast.
The wind had tousled his black hair, covering up half of his ashen face. He seemed to be unaware of the fact that there were more than hundreds of posthumans waiting in the dark to take his life. He continued to walk forward with confident steps. The click and clack of his boots hitting the ground were clear in the air.
'Hold on a second. Puppeteer walked into the city. I saw it with my own eyes. So when did he go out of the city?' Lin Sanjiu wondered. Just when she was pondering about the possibility of the Veda having done something to this world, the rest of the Vindice also appeared in her sight. Much to her surprise, all of them had the same outfit.
The only way to distinguish them from one another was probably the leather jackets they wore. Each of them donned different jackets that were garnished with various adornments. From a glance, it seemed like there were six Puppeteers walking from outside the city.
"They are the Vindice?"
"Yeah," Musan summoned a sickly smile on his face, "We initially thought you were one of them since you looked so lost here… But we did suspect that you are a human."
"Attack!"
Before Lin Sanjiu could snap out of her daze, somebody in the crowd shouted, giving a command. A row of beams shot out from the inner wall. Lin Sanjiu instantly recognized these beams as the attacks that the goateed man used to ambush her earlier on.
The concentration and firepower of these beams could not be compared with what she had experienced just now. Everything the rays touched would evaporate instantly, leaving nothing but a crater behind.
The beams soon engulfed the six Vindice in their blinding luminance.
The inner city increased the power output, attempting to obliterate the Vindice with the most potent hits they had. For a moment, they couldn't see anything but blinding white light. The crowd waited and watched with bated breath.
The six Vindice clad in black leather jackets emerged from the blinding white light as it slowly dissipated due to the exhaustion of power. The beams failed to stop them. The Vindice continued to walk with steady steps, now even closer to the city.
"We have to stop them here! Our families are behind us!"
As a mighty bellow barked out of the mass, the posthumans charged out of the gate like a tidal wave, launching a wide-area attack as they roared at the Vindice. This time the Vindice finally stopped moving. Like a reef in the sea, they wouldn't budge no matter how many times they got hit.
Since she was already here, Lin Sanjiu wasn't going to stay behind and watch the posthumans die. She bolted out of the gate with the other posthumans. After deciding on her path, she moved dexterously like an eagle towards a Vindice. As she got closer and closer to the Vindice, she finally saw his face.
He wasn't Puppeteer.
'Then, where is Puppeteer?'
The moment the thought came into her mind, in the corner of her eye, she saw a figure dart past her and pounce on the Vindice as if he wasn't afraid of death. Her heart skipped a beat as she stared fixedly at the figure that moved with an animatronic stiffness.
Standing stock-still, the Vindice did not move even a finger, yet the figure burst into countless pieces. But thanks to that, Lin Sanjiu knew that that figure wasn't a "human".
It was a mannequin.
Lin Sanjiu stopped and turned her head around as she looked past the pandemonium. Roars of rage and groans of pain filled the air. A plethora of attacks in the forms of bullets, beams, and bloodstreams flew through the sky. In the fortification where death was decided by luck, Lin Sanjiu saw a familiar fair-skinned teenager, dancing in blood amongst the crowd.
Chapter 583 - The Dream Of A Teenager
'Is that Puppeteer?'
For a moment, Lin Sanjiu thought she had gotten the wrong person. The Puppeteer in her mind had a death-like paleness in terms of complexion. Although his age was shrouded under his flawless face, he projected an image that he was not young anymore. A sinister expression was fixed upon his countenance all year round, and he always breathed the air of nonchalance. He gave Lin Sanjiu an impression of a bottomless abyss that had existed for thousands of years, forever staring at you from the dark.
Meanwhile, although the teenager in the distance shared the same facial features as Puppeteer, the air about him was completely different. Lin Sanjiu could hardly believe that this was how Puppeteer looked like in his boyhood. He seemed so childish and fresh.
Lin Sanjiu only managed to take a glimpse before the teenager was drowned in a sea of people. Just when she was rushing towards the teenager's direction, her heart skipped a beat, and the hair on the back of her neck bristled.
The Vindice began to make their move.
Lin Sanjiu was by no means an amateur in battle, and she had seen more powerful posthumans than her fingers could count. However, in this instance, her blood ran cold as a shiver of thrill ran through her body. It was the kind of intuition she experienced when she was facing an opponent that could threaten her life.
The Vindice raised their heads slowly in unison. There was no expression on their faces.
"Somebody put up a shield!" A loud shout spread out across the entire battlefield, snapping Lin Sanjiu out of her reverie. "This is a—"
Before the person could finish his sentence, Lin Sanjiu sensed something invisible whip past her, and the next thing she knew, a man's head was flung up from the crowd of fighters. A spray of crimson red shot up into the sky and showered down on Lin Sanjiu like fireworks, drenching her entire face in blood. She subconsciously closed her eyes, and it was at this time that she heard another person shouted, "Did anybody hear what he said? What type of Vindice is this?"
'There are types?' The question flitted through Lin Sanjiu's mind, but another thought came in and bumped it out of her head before she could go deeper into it. 'I should probably try and be of some help.'
The moment she raised her head, she saw she was too late. The crowd of posthumans, who had been yelling madly and bombarding the Vindice with their attacks, suddenly ceased moving. Their eyes rolled back and showed the whites as their throats gurgled. Their bodies went limp, and they fell onto their knees one after another.
There was a large group of posthumans in between Lin Sanjiu and the Vindice. In the blink of an eye, all of the posthumans dropped to the ground. Their bodies twitched and squirmed helplessly in agony until they finally gasped their last breath and were liberated from the pain. The ashen-faced man stood staunchly amongst the corpses, his face bereft of any emotion.
A battalion that consisted of hundreds of warriors fell short against the six-man army. It was a sudden turn of events that Lin Sanjiu could have never predicted. Several posthumans survived the massacre, but their faces were paler than th
e arctic-white skin of the ruthless slayer.
They did not have the slightest clue of what had just transpired. Their faces were filled with mixed expressions of confusion, fear, anger, and sadness. Then, the Vindice lifted his arm, snapping them out of their trance. Somebody screamed and turned around, followed by others. When a man ran past Lin Sanjiu, she saw that his face was clouded with tears and snot, and his lips were bright purple.
"Stop! Don't go back to the city!" A desperate yell tore through the uproar. "That is a biochemical type of attack! You guys have been infected! Don't go back to the city! You'll get the entire city killed!"
Left with no other options, someone in Sector 9 barked a command, and a few lasers shot right through the infected posthumans, vaporizing them in the blink of a second.
The scene stunned the crowd that was fighting the Vindice. Nobody wanted such an outcome, but they had no other choice. In the distance, several people, who were possibly dead, were thrown high into the air. Someone let out a cry, "Put on your shields! Drive them back to their homes!" The crowd bellowed in reply. An electrified roar cut through the sky and shattered the heavens. They began regaining their tempo, slowly pushing the defensive line forward as they showered the six Vindice with abilities like a torrential downpour. The only place that lacked firepower was the area where Lin Sanjiu was in since a Vindice had wiped off most of the posthumans situated there.
"Girl, get behind me!"
A middle-aged woman rushed to Lin Sanjiu's side and pulled her behind. She gestured her hand in a circular motion as she yelled out to her comrades not far away, "Over here! I'm putting up a shield!"
As the few people rushed behind the woman in panic, the circular disk she was gesturing with suddenly gave off a bright radiance. Then, an invisible barrier that resembled the corkscrew pattern of a snail's shell appeared in the air. The moment the barrier rose, it was hit by a strong force, knocking several posthumans onto the floor. The middle-aged woman was the first to receive the brunt of the force. Like the other posthumans, she fell to the ground, and blood lined her lips. Coughing, she tried to pull herself up from the ground. Then she froze.