EM CH16

Chapter 16: You Have Too Many Hands

Yu An held Miss Bo aloft the entire way as he sprinted back to the X-ray room. Along the way, the smiling janitors parted and backed away one after another, daring not act insolently before their boss.

The right hand, which had been struggling bitterly between the two doctor Aberrants, was moved to tears of gratitude upon seeing Yu An kick the door open and double back to rescue it.

“Don’t move! Your boss is in my hands.” Gripping Miss Bo, who was folded up like cardboard, Yu An brandished her toward the two doctors as if chasing off vicious hounds.

Her head tilted, blood seeping from her exposed gums and trickling down her sharp teeth, the female doctor closed in on Yu An step by step. Dragging his leg-bone battleaxe, the male doctor limped along to flank Yu An alongside his wife.

“…” Frowning, Yu An scrutinized Miss Bo in his grip.

“A fashion designer can scare off mannequins, but can’t scare off doctors? Heh, that makes total sense.” Darting swiftly between the two monsters, Yu An executed a slide right before the X-ray machine. Pulling a screwdriver from the tool kit in his backpack, he began dismantling components from the apparatus.

He scrubbed forcefully at the patina on the machine’s nameplate. Beneath the grime, the original lettering was revealed: “Hongli Breeding Base.”

The very origin of Aberrant emergence. After the breeding base was ignited by lightning and exploded, experimental waste was exposed to the open air, dispersing radiation and causing objects to undergo aberrant mutation.

If this machine had been transported here from the breeding base, there was no question that its radiation would affect the entire office building.

“Xiongdi, hold on for five more minutes,” Yu An urged the right hand over his shoulder. Resting his knee directly onto Miss Bo’s face as a cushion, his hands shuttled rapidly between the rusted components.

Miss Bo roared in fury, but Yu An paid her no heed.

“Hauling an X-ray machine here from the strictly cordoned-off breeding base is a crime worthy of dying a hundred times over. Do you want me to find a paper shredder and feed you into it right now?” Yu An focused on prying off a heavy steel plate.

“I wasn’t the one who brought it here!” Miss Bo shrieked shrilly. “They locked me inside this salon and made me guard this machine!”

The internal structure of the X-ray machine was intricate; the slightest carelessness would result in contacting high-voltage cables. Yu An glanced back at the lead aprons on the floor five meters away, then looked toward the right hand, battered and covered in injuries from fighting between the two doctor Aberrants.

His mind suddenly went blank. The words from the torn diary page surfaced from memory: “Don’t become a villain; be a hero instead.” An unprompted surge of courage spurred him to thrust his entire right arm into the machine, searching blindly with all his might.

Found it.

Yu An grabbed the spherical drive core and yanked outward with force.

With a muffled pop of burning circuits, Yu An hauled a dark red Aberrant Core out from inside the X-ray machine.

Name: Functional Core: Roentgen’s Eye

Origin: X-ray Machine

Category: Common Species

Rank Assessment: Tier 3 Red (Burgundy Red)

Base Abilities: X-ray Vision

Usage Restriction: Cumulative 100 uses

Description: I see right through you.

Resonance Condition: Unknown

Following the rarity hierarchy of blue, purple, red, silver, and gold, the grade of this Aberrant Core was actually Tier 3 Red. Fitting indeed for the energy core that sustained an entire office building.

Gritting his teeth, Yu An shoved Roentgen’s Eye into his empty eye socket.

Establishing a link with a core above purple felt completely different. The surface of the core seemed to sprout thorns, brutally piercing the interior of his socket as a torrent of ferocious, domineering energy nearly split his skull apart.

Propping both hands against the floor, every friction of Yu An’s joints brought excruciating agony. Yet the circulation of energy simultaneously repaired his damaged sternum and the fractures across his flesh.

He slowly lifted his head, a trail of dark red light sweeping from his left eye as he looked toward the two doctors.

In the vision of his left eye, only two animated skeletons remained across from him. Hidden within their bone frames, a pale red core was nestled in the female doctor’s right wrist, while a purple core was lodged in the center of the male doctor’s cranium.

Situated in such tricky locations, no wonder searching so many times yielded nothing.

“Kill the female doctor first!” Yu An shouted.

Hearing the command, the right hand instantly pivoted midair, clamping around the female doctor’s neck and slamming her heavily against the wall.

Survival was paramount. Yu An decided to forgo salvaging the cores of these doctor Aberrants entirely, drawing his dagger and charging forward.

The female doctor had extracted her left arm bone to wield as a fencing rapier, leaving her boneless left arm dangling limply at her side, making her left flank a glaring weak spot. Yu An gauged her strike range; the moment she lunged with her bone sword, he immediately targeted her vulnerable left side. Forced to parry across her body, she stepped right into his trap: Yu An’s blade plunged directly into her wrist bones.

The blade tip penetrated the Aberrant Core with pinpoint precision, producing a sound like shattering thin glass. The female doctor stiffened entirely, toppling straight over.

Seeing his wife harmed, the male doctor swung the leg-bone axe in a frenzy. Yu An dropped flat to the floor to narrowly dodge; the axe blade scraped against the wall with a harsh screech, instantly carving a sharp trench into the surface.

What happened next startled Yu An even further.

The male doctor took hold of his wife’s bleeding hand. The wound cleaved by the blade closed rapidly, and the Aberrant Core hidden in her flesh restored itself at blinding speed.

Twisting her joints, the female doctor rose once more. Opening her bloody maw into a chilling grin, she slotted her left arm bone back into place, then snatched the leg battleaxe from the male doctor, gripping it in both hands.

With her left arm bone restored, the female doctor turned into an all-around powerhouse with zero weaknesses, grinning wickedly as she charged straight at Yu An.

“Killing only one is useless… Retreat first.” Yu An scooped up Miss Bo, folded on the floor. The right hand was still bouncing around throwing combat poses ready for battle, but Yu An scooped it up in one sweep and stuffed it into his backpack.

“Dawn is approaching; Officer Ye should be arriving soon!” Carrying the shoulder bag and holding Miss Bo aloft, Yu An fled the X-ray room, retracing his steps along the memorized path back toward the entrance.

He sprinted across the skybridge, through Room 704, pushed open the locked white door, and plunged headlong into the smiling consultants clogging the corridor while hoisting Miss Bo high.

Catching sight of their boss, the smiling consultants backed away from Yu An one after another.

Brandishing the long-handled bone axe with both hands, the female doctor cleaved through obstacles in relentless pursuit, with the male doctor limping contortedly right behind her.

As he ran, he smashed the corridor lights, hoping to impair the doctor Aberrants’ vision. The illumination dimmed inch by inch until the corridor was pitch-black. Yu An relied entirely on his memory to navigate the path back.

The elevator he had taken up still rested on the seventh floor. Yu An jabbed the down button incessantly, as if that could hasten the doors opening.

He looked back as he pressed the button. The doctor couple closed in through the shadows down the hall. Judging by their footsteps, they were twenty to thirty meters away, their heavy strides shaking the floor.

The elevator doors opened with a ding.

The sound gave away Yu An’s position. The doctors’ pursuit accelerated sharply, closing the gap between them to five meters in mere seconds.

Yu An charged recklessly into the elevator.

Amidst the stench of the sinister beauty salon, a faint woody fragrance appeared. Yu An slammed headfirst into something firm, only to be instantly gathered into an embrace.

“Close the door!” Yu An roared.

Taking the full impact of his collision, the other man held him with one arm while unhurriedly pressing the door-close button with the other. The rust-stained elevator doors slid shut leisurely, shutting out the monsters just a single step away.

Warily, Yu An broke free from the embrace and backed to the other end of the elevator gripping his bat. Only when he lifted his eyelids and made out the face under the dim light did he pause.

“Interviewer.” His lips parted, slowly lowering the bat to stand with arms at his sides.

Suddenly his knees buckled. Having been strained for too long, his taut nerves went slack all at once; dizziness flooded his brain, and he pitched forward.

“Whoa.” Zhao Ran caught him by the shoulders in a rush, crouching down with him, smoothing the back of his hand along Yu An’s spine to smooth down his ruffled fur.

“Where’s Lipu?” Zhao Ran scanned around without spotting the right hand, scolding under his breath, “Where did it run off to? Useless thing, I’ll deal with you later.”

“…” The right hand hopped frantically inside Yu An’s backpack, pinned beneath the newly stuffed Miss Bo, unable to squeeze out.

Yu An squirmed and thrashed clumsily in Zhao Ran’s arms: “Let me go. Did you bring a gun? I’ll turn their heads into showerheads…”

“Alright, you did great. No intern besides you could crack an Illusion Chamber single-handedly; you really brought pride to my name.” Zhao Ran laughed aloud. Removing Yu An’s Pure Black Hood, he pressed his wrist against Yu An’s feverish left eye to cool it down. “I’ll be able to show off properly at the regularization meeting in a few days.”

Yu An finally settled down significantly.

“An Illusion Chamber?”

“Yes. Rooms where Aberrants have devoured humans have a chance of forming an Illusion Chamber: a distorted space where you will encounter many phenomena impossible in reality. Cracking an Illusion Chamber requires two things: one is unraveling its operating rules, and the other is slaying the Aberrant guarding it.”

“So the X-ray machine was the operating rule of the salon?”

“Correct.”

Frequently swapping Aberrant Cores placed immense strain on Yu An’s eye socket. Wincing in pain, he pried the X-ray vision core out, shutting his eyes tight to dull the agony.

Blood slowly seeped and pooled from tiny lacerations inside the socket, eventually rolling down his cheek in a scarlet tear.

Seeing him in this state, the faint smile on Zhao Ran’s face vanished instantly. Finding no medical bandages at hand, he had no choice but to take off his shirt to wipe the blood from Yu An’s face.

Yu An squinted his right eye, his gaze falling upon the interviewer’s bare torso beneath the trench coat.

Nobody would mind if he sneaked a touch amidst the chaos, right?

It felt remarkably smooth, devoid of visible pores. How did he sweat? He didn’t seem to ever sweat.

The skin on his abdomen was so thin it could be pinched up. Ah, it felt as though a flashlight could shine right through it; it really was so pale.

Wiping the blood from Yu An, Zhao Ran brushed away the hand causing mischief across his body, routinely scolding: “Get up, stop causing trouble.”

Yu An could only give up, yet his eyes couldn’t pull away. The skin he had pinched turned red, like the stem of a white rose dipped into red ink, a flush rising across snow-white petals, deepening by the moment.

Did he ever visit massage parlors? When massaged by a masseur, did he turn red wherever he was pressed? Once it was over, did he pay the massage parlor, or did the massage parlor pay him?

“Did Officer Ye secure the search warrant?” Yu An shook his head, doing his best to shake those thoughts away.

“According to her, approval was denied.” Zhao Ran had him hold pressure to stop the bleeding himself. “Yet she came anyway, in plainclothes. You stay inside the elevator and receive them when they arrive.”

“Where are you going?” Yu An tugged on the hem of his coat.

Going out to see who beat my intern into this state. Zhao Ran coaxed him: “Nowhere, just looking around.”

“Save the hostage first. Mr. Zhou is right in…”

Zhao Ran had already risen to his feet. Tightening the clasp on his gloves, he pressed the door-open button. Officer Ye had explicitly warned him before arriving not to indiscriminately tear the hostage apart as well, or she wouldn’t let him hear the end of it.

“The hostage? That’s not my responsibility.”

The two doctor Aberrants waited right near the elevator. The male doctor roamed the corridor with twisted limbs, while the female doctor tilted her head, gripping the white-bone battleaxe. The axe head was formed from the male doctor’s foot bones, the phalanges scraping along the floor and kicking up sparks with a hiss.

Knowing Yu An couldn’t escape the elevator, they waited leisurely for the prey to walk into the trap.

After waiting an unknown length of time, the elevator doors parted to both sides with a grinding rattle. Drawn by the noise, the two doctors contorted their limbs and approached the doors.

Unexpectedly, while Yu An had run inside, Zhao Ran walked out.

The elevator doors slowly slid shut behind Zhao Ran. He loosened his wrists, his pupils turning bloodshot and crimson. Pulling his lips back to reveal a row of pointed teeth, he asked affably: “Who laid hands on him first?”

The aura radiating from him drifted silently through the dim hallway. The obsessive, desolate scent of aged wood evoked withered roots intertwined across barren wastelands, desiccated ivy that engulfed an entire building in death, or even forgotten crypts buried deep within mountains.

The doctor couple stepped back in apprehension.

Having lost a leg bone and reduced to limping, the male doctor suddenly let out a screech. The leg supporting his weight seemed to be seized by a hand, throwing him off balance as he crashed heavily to the floor.

Humiliated and enraged, he roared as he struggled to rise, but just as he raised his arm, his wrist was shackled by yet another hand.

The male doctor looked around as sheer terror surged in like a tidal wave.

Sprouting from the salon’s flesh-pink walls were countless arms: pale-skinned, with long and razor-sharp fingertips. They covered walls, floors, and ceilings alike, a dense thicket of arms swaying like strands of hair drifting in water.

One hand couldn’t contain itself any longer, plunging its fingertips straight down through the male doctor’s chest. As the man howled toward the ceiling, another hand forced its way into his mouth, reaching deep down his throat. Omnipresent and unstoppable, like leeches sucking blood, they coiled tighter and tighter.

“Ah!” Seeing her husband trapped, a screech tore from the female doctor’s throat. Bloodshot veins filled her eyes as she swung the white-bone battleaxe in a full arc, cleaving straight toward Zhao Ran’s face.

Zhao Ran stood rooted to the spot, neither dodging nor parrying, his hands never even leaving his pockets.

The bone blade closed in at breakneck speed, carrying a harsh gust. When it was merely ten centimeters from Zhao Ran’s face, it ground to an absolute halt, unable to advance another millimeter.

A severed, well-defined left hand blocked before Zhao Ran, raising two fingers to clamp securely around the massive axe blade.