EM CH3

Chapter 3: Conversing with Zhao Ran

Zhao Ran stepped out from the shadows into the light, and his ferocious aura receded with it, like a blaze temporarily extinguished.

His skin was very fair, his brow bones sat high, and his double eyelids were wide. His features seemed to incorporate some Russian ancestry, and he suffered from an unusual form of albinism, causing even his hair and irises to naturally take on a pale pink hue.

This appearance was inexplicably familiar, causing Yu An to zone out for a brief second. Yet when he let his thoughts chase the feeling, he only retrieved a void of nothingness.

Could he be sensitive to light? Yu An keenly perceived this possible weakness, hoisted the fire extinguisher, and swung it right toward the pink figure.

Taken by surprise, the other party could only parry, raising a wrist to smoothly deflect the heavy momentum of the strike, leaving a faint dent on the canister wall.

The fire extinguisher flew out of his grasp, but Yu An couldn’t care less. Like a ravenous hound pouncing on its prey, he tackled Zhao Ran to the floor and straddled his chest, pressing the tip of the fruit knife against his carotid artery:

“Don’t move.” His voice sounded like a cold wind carrying light snow from a mountaintop.

Lying flat on his back against the icy floor, Zhao Ran raised both hands above his head without putting up any resistance, looking as if he were amused to the point of anger: “You haven’t even joined the company, yet you’re already riding on top of me?”

The exact words were repeated with a slight delay through Yu An’s earpiece: “You haven’t even joined the company, yet you’re already riding on top of me?”

A gentle attitude and pacifying body language, night and day compared to just a few seconds ago. Yu An could no longer find a single shred of lingering madness on him.

Zhao Ran propped himself up off the floor and sat up to face him, curling the corners of his lips: “I’m on your side.”

Yu An’s taut nerves relaxed slightly. His fingertips tentatively brushed against the other man’s face. It was warm and soft; he was just pale-skinned.

Zhao Ran reached into his inner trench coat pocket, took out a business card, and handed it over: “Three days ago, you submitted a resume to our company. I am your interviewer.”

Yu An took the business card and scanned it. Printed on it was: Underground Railway, Emergency Order Team, Team Leader, Zhao Ran.

Underground Railway, the most reliable Aberrant hunting company in Hongli City. Their primary activities were conducted underground, radiating outward around the subway lines. The Emergency Order Team was responsible for carrying out public hunting missions, with the team leader position second only to the boss.

“I seem to have forgotten a lot of things.” Trying hard to remember, Yu An suddenly clutched his throbbing temples tightly as fragmented memories surfaced before his eyes.

He did remember receiving an interview letter signed “Underground Railway.”

Feeling awkward, Yu An rolled off Zhao Ran’s body.

“Yesterday was interview day. I waited for you until evening. Why didn’t you show up?” Zhao Ran brushed the bandages on Yu An’s cheek with the back of his hand. The thin leather glove rubbed against his cheek, rough yet warm.

Having assumed that whoever came to rescue him in such a situation would be the police, Yu An remained somewhat distrustful of this pink guy.

“Oh… body searches are also a required subject.” Sensing his wariness, Zhao Ran took hold of Yu An’s wrist over his sleeve, guiding Yu An’s palm flat against his chest and abdomen. He moved it slowly from top to bottom, looking straight into his eyes: “Only by doing this can you feel the small hidden components tucked close to an enemy’s body.”

As Zhao Ran spoke, he extracted a concealed razor blade from inside his shirt and flicked it two meters away onto the floor.

Rather than being guided, Yu An was more like being controlled. Both of his hands felt the other man’s body through the thin layer of the shirt, his palms passing over the warm, solid contours of muscle, as if rolling over burning mountain ranges.

Yu An shifted his gaze away, trying not to look into those captivating eyes, his throat feeling parched.

“Ah, ah. If your mind wanders during a pat-down, you’re dead.” Zhao Ran’s left hand swiftly brushed past the leather holster on his outer thigh. From drawing the forged-steel dagger to reversing the hold on Yu An with the blade pressed against his throat, the entire process occurred in under a second.

He had maneuvered behind Yu An, mocking him: “If I wanted to kill you, you wouldn’t even have had the chance to see my face. Stop overthinking, kid.”

Forced to raise his chin, Yu An couldn’t help but be intimidated by his effortless mastery.

Just then, the entire building seemed to shudder. Startled, Yu An looked toward the other end of the corridor.

Two sharp goat horns pierced through the steel door panel of the nurses’ station. The security door wouldn’t last more than a few seconds.

It was still alive? Its tenacity for survival reached a terrifying degree. Yu An backed away cautiously, his back bumping into Zhao Ran’s chest.

Zhao Ran rested his forearm on Yu An’s shoulder, tilting his head to ask: “Do you know what kind of monster this is?”

“An Aberrant.” Yu An was suddenly unsure, but he couldn’t leave this question blank.

“Seems you still remember some useful things. That’s right, it’s a domesticated goat that escaped from its pen. It lost control after radiation mutation, becoming a goat Aberrant.” Zhao Ran placed the forged-steel dagger into Yu An’s palm: “As long as the Aberrant Core isn’t destroyed, it has an immortal body.”

“Get familiar with the company’s business first. We specialize in cleaning up Aberrants.” Zhao Ran kicked the goat-headed freak pinned to the floor by the iron bar: “Come, dig its core out. Don’t shatter it. Some machines can be powered by Aberrant Cores, and some humans with physical disabilities can use them. There’s a huge market shortage, so they fetch a good price.”

Zhao Ran wore a pair of thin leather gloves, their rough texture brushing against Yu An’s palm, sending a tingling sensation through it.

Yu An weighed the dagger in his hand. It was heavy, razor-sharp, and a genuine weapon soaked in blood.

“Interviewer, I’d still like to, uh, consider other jobs…”

“Of course you can, but you have to walk out of here alive first. This is an interview, but it isn’t a drill.” Zhao Ran gave a low chuckle as he naturally took off his outer coat and draped it over Yu An, who was soaked through and freezing to the point of numbness. That left Zhao Ran wearing only a thin, burgundy shirt.

Zhao Ran’s body heat still lingered on the trench coat’s lining. Yu An immediately wrapped himself up tightly, a faint scent of laundry detergent drifting into his nose.

Another thunderous boom made the hospital tremble once more. The door to the nurses’ station cracked alongside its frame, which collapsed with broken bricks and stones, kicking up a cloud of dust with embers drifting in the air.

The goat-headed man stepped out from the ruins. Its fur was charred black, its entire body giving off a burnt smell. Lettering was stenciled across its massive pecs: “Pizza Manor No. 6, Goodman Ranch. Goat milk tastes great, look for Goodman.”

“Do as I said.” Zhao Ran released his grip and tapped Yu An’s earpiece, gesturing for him to maintain contact: “I’ll go lure it away.”

“Don’t go,” Yu An couldn’t help reaching out to stop him, but inadvertently touched a bulge on his flank. There seemed to be a piece of hemostatic gauze taped beneath his shirt.

Zhao Ran paused. Hearing those two words asking him to stay, he turned back in surprise, wearing a bewildered expression. He waited patiently for a few seconds, wanting to hear what Yu An had to say.

Scrutinized by his blazing gaze, Yu An pulled his hand back and looked down. His palm was smeared with a patch of wet, deep crimson liquid that gave off a scent of blood.

He had a very serious external injury.

By the time Yu An looked up again, Zhao Ran had already moved away. His figure suddenly darted forward, then leapt up, gracefully sweeping past the goat-headed freak. The scent of blood on him and the noise he deliberately made clattering nearby prompted the massive guy to turn around and give chase.

Yu An had no choice but to grip the hilt of the dagger tightly, his gaze shifting to the goat-headed freak pinned to the floor. From the rhythmic rising and falling of its back, it was clear it was still breathing.

Feeling uneasy, he stepped back a little. His back bumped into the surveillance room door, which let out a creak.

Looking inside the room, Yu An’s pupils contracted sharply.

Scattered haphazardly across the floor of the surveillance room were bodies of people, all wearing work uniforms, and without exception, all knocked out cold.

Was this the interviewer’s doing? Yu An leaned over to check their pulses, a hint of suspicion rising in his heart. If the kidnapper were disguised as an interviewer, pretending to meet him for the first time, wouldn’t that also make sense?

Something shifted against Yu An’s body. Steadying his nerves, Yu An fished out a phone from the pocket of the trench coat left behind by the interviewer.

Had he left it on purpose?

The phone was vibrating. A call was coming in from an unknown number.

After brief consideration, Yu An pressed the answer button, but didn’t speak, waiting for the other party to talk first.

A woman’s voice came through the phone, and there seemed to be quite a few people beside her. Her lowered, tearful voice was laced with panic: “Mr. Zhao? This is Hongli City Guxian Hospital. We’ve been attacked by a goat Aberrant and are hiding inside the second-floor clinic, too terrified to come out. Please save us…”

Her voice grew quieter and quieter until she went completely silent, leaving only their tense breathing audible.

So there were still living people in this hospital. Yu An was slightly taken aback. Thinking for a moment, he lowered his voice to a whisper: “Understood. Stay where you are.”

“Mr. Zhao is coming, we’re saved, we’re saved…” The people on the other end of the line let out tiny whimpers of relief.

He hung up the phone and patted the trench coat pockets. The phone and cigarette pack were in the left pocket, and he remembered earlier that the dagger sheath had been strapped to the outside of Zhao Ran’s left thigh as well. It seemed he was left-handed.

Besides these miscellaneous items, Yu An also discovered a long electronic device from the pocket, shaped like a pencil box with a display screen on the lid. Opening the lid, the inside was empty except for two rows of ice-cube-tray-like slots, eight slots in total, designed to store specific items.

“Core Storage Analyzer,” read the label on the bottom of the case.

Yu An looked toward the monitor in the surveillance room. In the four-grid black-and-white feed, he could see Zhao Ran hiding near the third-floor elevator. He smashed an alcohol bottle on the floor first, then nimbly grabbed onto a pipe, pressed against the ceiling, and smashed the corridor light with his elbow, plunging the entire screen into pitch darkness.

He was circling around with the goat-headed man. In the dark, the goat-headed freak couldn’t see him, and with its sense of smell disrupted by the alcohol, it could only rely on hearing to pinpoint his location.

It seemed Zhao Ran intended to lure that big guy into the elevator.

Yu An drew in a breath and looked back at the goat-headed man pinned to the floor. Its fingers twitched, and it began supporting its body off the floor. Blood gushed downward along the iron bar pinning it. It was trying to pull itself off the bar, which had already bent and wouldn’t be able to hold it for much longer.

Yu An kept his eyes glued to it, picked up Zhao Ran’s phone, and calmly dialed the Peeping Eagle Bureau’s emergency hotline.

“What is the situation?” The other end picked up quickly.

“Does a human killing an Aberrant count as self-defense?” He compulsively felt the need to confirm it once more.

“Yes.” The cold female voice gave an affirmative reply: “Where did you get this phone?” The oppressive weight in the policewoman’s voice practically traveled through the signal to bear down on Yu An.

At the same time, through Yu An’s earpiece, Zhao Ran gave him the exact same answer: “Yes.”

Hearing the definitive reassurance, Yu An was like a leopard that had paced by its prey for a long time, suddenly lunging forward. He pressed onto the back of the goat-headed man as it was about to stand up, gripping the forged-steel dagger with both hands, and plunged it in without any psychological burden.

Blood splattered across his cheek, staining the bandage over his left eye red.

If any onlooker witnessed his smooth, practiced movements, they would likely feel their hair stand on end. How could a mere student be so familiar with human vital points?

Searching with the blade for a long while, he finally felt something beneath the skin of the goat-headed man’s abdomen. Slowly pulling his hand out, he used his index and middle fingers to pinch a bloody, round, hard object out from the flesh.

The Aberrant Core resembled pale blue amber. It was spherical, the size of a grape, its surface engraved with patterns resembling a goat skull, with a faint light swirling within.

Yu An wiped the dirty blood off the surface of the core against his clothes, felt around to open the lid of the Core Storage Analyzer, and slotted the core into one of the grooves.

An automated scanning sound came from inside the box. Shortly after, the screen on the lid lit up. Following a brief loading animation, a profile page was displayed, while a cold electronic voice emitted from the speaker:

Name: Monstrosity Core: Goat Horns

Origin: Goat-headed Man

Category: Common Species

Rank Assessment: Tier 1 Blue (Pale Blue)

Base Abilities: Enhanced Strength and Agility

Usage Restriction: Cumulative 10 minutes of use

Description: Miracles happen with great strength!

Resonance Condition: Unknown

“What is… a Monstrosity Core…? Monster mimicry?”

All sounds subsided. Yu An knelt on the floor, panting slightly, his bloodstained fingertips wiping across the screen of the Core Storage Analyzer as he silently read the text.

It seemed an Aberrant Core was like a fully charged dry cell battery, used to provide energy to an Aberrant.

In the earpiece, Zhao Ran’s breathing grew heavier and heavier. It seemed that single word “Yes” earlier had given away his position in the darkness.

“Ngh…” A muffled groan of pain struck Yu An’s eardrum.

“How are you holding up?” Yu An pressed the earpiece and asked.

Zhao Ran answered with two taps: “Don’t worry.”

“…” Yu An stared blankly at the Core Storage Analyzer in his hand, recalling what Zhao Ran had said before leaving.

Humans with physical disabilities might possess the ability to use Aberrant Cores.

Physical disabilities… Yu An touched the bandage on his face. Did this count as a physical disability? How was it supposed to be used?

Yu An pried the pale blue core out of the groove, feeling it out by intuition.

This size and shape…

He tore the bandage from his face, gathered his resolve, and shoved the Aberrant Core directly into his empty eye socket.

The moment the core embedded itself, the vessel-like glimmering lights within it immediately began to flow, establishing connections with the blood vessels and nerves inside Yu An’s eye socket.

A dense, needle-like pain made Yu An instinctively want to gouge the core out, but as if taking root, the core had tightly intertwined with the socket. Tearing at it desperately proved entirely useless.

“What happened to you?” In the earpiece, Zhao Ran heard his suppressed groans of agony and discarded the need for silence: “Speak to me.”

Yu An suffered a splitting headache, as if suddenly afflicted by an aggressive form of cancer. Cells that didn’t belong to him proliferated rapidly, crashing against his internal organs and bones.

He could only pick up the dagger from the floor and use the wall for support as he stumbled toward the darkness deep within the corridor. Staggering, he would collapse onto his knees from exhaustion from time to time. A pair of curved little goat horns faintly grew out from beneath his pitch-black hair. It was as if he were being consumed and parasitized by an invisible entity, his body gradually taking on the shape of a demon.