The young man's half-visible face, aside from the dust and blood, was clean and clear-skinned. His eyebrows and hair were dark and dense, and he looked no more than twenty.
His uninjured eye was narrow and tapered at the corner. Even as he stared blankly at Lin Sanjiu's raised blade, frozen with fear, his delicate features were still evident.
"What... what do you mean by this?" Eight-Heads De asked on behalf of the young man, who couldn't seem to speak.
Brandishing a blade in front of him made her meaning unmistakable. It must have been a blow to Eight-Heads De.
Lin Sanjiu didn't regret doing what needed to be done, but she still felt a twinge of guilt for Eight-Heads De. She didn't look at him. Her gaze remained fixed on the young man. Once more, she said, "Move your hand and explain. I won't hurt you."
The young man's face was pale, and his body trembled slightly, whether from pain or fear. From the silent group behind him, a brown-haired girl no older than sixteen or seventeen suddenly ran forward. She clung tightly to the young man's arm, her tearful eyes darting between him and Lin Sanjiu, as if she had much to say but couldn't bring herself to speak.
The gleaming tip of the blade hung motionless in the air.
"Move your hand. I won't say it a third time," Lin Sanjiu said, ignoring the girl.
A few tears rolled down from the young man's unharmed eye. Slowly, he lowered his hand, revealing the other half of his face smeared with blood. Lin Sanjiu heard a sharp intake of breath from one of the posthumans behind her.
Injury was commonplace for posthumans, yet his wound was enough to make anyone cringe. Lin Sanjiu could no longer discern the shape of his right eye. Not only were the lashes gone, but most of the eyelid was also a bloody mess, as if it had been ripped away.
Lin Sanjiu slowly lowered the blade.
The young man's eyeball, now completely exposed, revealed a wooden splinter embedded deep within. The splinter wasn't long, at most a few centimeters, but it was driven so deeply that only a small, fingernail-sized tip remained visible. Fortunately, it hadn't pierced his brain.
"I..." His voice quivered, as if he might vomit at any moment. "I was hiding in a cabinet, thinking a layer of wood would protect me... but one of those black things shattered the corner of the cabinet. I didn't have time to react... Something lodged into my eyelid... and then got torn away, taking my eyelid with it... Only this splinter stayed. I blacked out from the pain for a long time... I guess I'm close to dying."
His tone turned oddly calm at those final words, as if he had already accepted death.
Apart from the oddly precise nature of his wound, Lin Sanjiu couldn't pinpoint any real suspicion. Whether she chose caution or leniency, the consequences would be unpredictable and possibly irreversible. What should she do?
Eight-Heads De wiped his face heavily. No one dared look directly at the gory eye socket, but he forced himself to. Sweat beaded on his forehead. "It's amazing you're still standing. Head to the west gate shelter," he rasped. "Tell the posthumans there that Eight-Heads De sent you. Have them remove... the splinter. We'll figure out the rest later."
He paused, then added, "The Twelve Worlds Centrum has no shortage of miracles. It's just an eye; there's always a way."
Eight-Heads De clearly didn't doubt the young man's story.
Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth and decided to trust him this time. She sheathed her blade and stepped aside, watching the young man and the girl, likely his sister, silently support each other as they walked past.
The girl barely glanced at her brother's face before bowing her head, her body trembling with sobs. But as they passed Lin Sanjiu, the girl suddenly lifted her tear-streaked face and shot her a fierce glare, a wordless accusation.
1
Lin Sanjiu pressed her lips together tightly.
Once they disappeared into the depths of the corridor, Dreadlocks exhaled loudly. "I thought... Thank goodness it wasn't."
Everyone knew what he meant and what they were relieved about.
Eight-Heads De, busy tending to the injured, giving instructions, and organizing the evacuation, didn't hear. Dreadlocks glanced at his back, then whispered to the other posthumans, "Do you hear that? The city's quieted down, hasn't it?" ℞ÅＮốＢÊS
It had indeed.
Compared to true silence, Chimeric City was still far from it. Amid the cries, footsteps, and dragging sounds, the occasional "boom" of crumbling brick walls could still be heard. For the first time, Lin Sanjiu realized that disaster had a distinct sound.
Yet, compared to earlier, she noticed that within the chaotic cacophony of pain and confusion, one of the loudest sounds was missing: the heavy, terrifying rumble of mutated humans flooding the corridors like a tidal wave. That ominous vibration through the floors had somehow dissipated into the maze of corridors.
"What's going on?" A curvaceous female posthuman with a sharp chin and delicate features voiced everyone's suspicion in a whisper. "Did the mutants... disappear?"
The image of countless arms spraying from a gaping wound flashed through Lin Sanjiu's mind.
Disappear? How could mutants like that middle-aged woman just vanish? And where could they have gone?
Everyone seemed to share the same question. Following this line of thought, their expressions collectively grew darker.
"I don't feel good about this," the posthuman woman said, pulling out a small black device that looked like a communicator. She was a bit older, slightly plump, but her feminine charm remained. "How long ago did that injured man leave? I'll ask my friend at the west gate to see if they've arrived."
The young man hadn't yet reached the west gate, but news from other parts of Chimeric City arrived first. "They really just disappeared!" a voice shouted from the communicator, so high-pitched with excitement that it cracked. "The Noble Accord patrol checked several times. Not a trace left! In some places, there were only bits of limbs that posthumans had cut off... but the rest vanished into thin air."
The posthumans exchanged uneasy glances.
"What are you doing now?" the female posthuman asked.
"I'm at the west gate, setting up defenses. Hupi took a team back into the city. Some of the mutants were seen before they transformed. Hupi and the others are checking for... anyone who looks similar." The voice dropped to a serious whisper. "If you've got skilled fighters on your side, send them over to help. There are... too many ordinary people here."
"Damn it," Dreadlocks muttered. "If that injured man really is... Nika, tell them to be careful. If necessary—"
"Wasn't there a splinter in his eye?"
Eight-Heads De's voice suddenly rang out softly beside them, startling the group of posthumans who hadn't noticed him approach. Lin Sanjiu turned to see Eight-Heads De's face drawn tight, his expression unreadable.
"She explained it to us; she attacked with an air current, nothing to do with the splinter." Eight-Heads De gestured toward Lin Sanjiu. "And that splinter was really embedded in his eye. I checked it closely... What more do you need to question?"
The posthumans fell silent. Even the man on the communicator said nothing.
"I know what you're implying." Eight-Heads De looked at the group of ordinary people slowly making their way down the corridor. "You're saying that ordinary people are turning into monsters, and these monsters can turn back into people, hiding in Chimeric City and waiting for the next attack, right? You've all seen a lot, but have you ever heard of anything like this? No? Then what's your plan? Kill every ordinary person just in case?"
There was a long pause before the voice in the communicator spoke again.
"Eight-Heads De? I'd recognize your voice anywhere." The man spoke briefly to someone nearby, then handed the communicator to another voice.
"I'm Chonglin from the Noble Accord. We've compiled preliminary data: four to five mutants appeared today, all within a short period. We allowed you to organize your own patrols, but that doesn't mean we don't know what you've been up to. The locations where these mutants appeared are exactly the places you've patrolled personally in the past few days. According to witnesses, each mutant had contact with you, Eight-Heads De. Quite the coincidence, isn't it?"
He paused and continued, "I want to know what you've really been doing under the guise of protecting ordinary people. I've always wondered how someone like you, so dedicated to serving others, could exist in the apocalyptic world. Come to the west gate within ten minutes and explain yourself. I'll be waiting. If you don't come... someone will bring you."
Just before the line disconnected, Chonglin added, "Anyone who patrolled with Eight-Heads De should come too. To anyone hearing this, you're welcome to bring Eight-Heads De and his companions to me. Remember, Chimeric City is the Noble Accord's territory. Think carefully and act wisely."