Chapter 7: ‘He’ Has Arrived
“Because of safety…”
Xiao Xiao’s expression appeared quite composed. Sensing the scrutiny in Yang Jia’s gaze, he explained: “You brought me here and identified this… this rat, which shows you have deep knowledge of it. Moreover, when it crawled out of the human skin, you warned me in advance, indicating that all these changes were within your expectations. On your face, I can’t see any tension at all, which suggests you never took it seriously in the first place…”
“The most crucial thing is…”
He spoke while crouching down, pulling the dagger out of the rat-man’s head, casually wiping it on the bedding beside him, then stood up and handed it to Yang Jia, saying:
“I noticed just now that you took out the dagger early on, ready to strike at any moment.”
He let out a light sigh and continued: “This thing is too terrifying, and it’s the first time I’ve seen one. I’m not sure if there’s anything else abnormal about it. Even with a gun in my hand, I don’t feel safe.”
“So, it’s safer to just hide behind you…”
“……”
Yang Jia listened to his explanation and found it surprisingly reasonable.
Although, initially she just wanted to observe whether he would still have the courage to shoot after seeing the rat man’s true form…
But after hearing his analysis, she herself suddenly felt that hiding behind her was actually the most reasonable choice.
It was me who was reckless?
But after a moment of reflection, I suddenly got the key point. Taking the dagger, I asked suspiciously: “In such a short time just now, you managed to see so many details?”
“Well…”
Xiao opened his mouth arrogantly and said: “I react a bit faster than others, and I’ve always been pretty good at games.”
He deliberately made his answer sound more casual when responding to this question.
Ever since four years ago when I inexplicably fell into panic and headaches, I began experiencing a state where my attention could not concentrate, and my thoughts became chaotic and cluttered.
In my own perception, time seemed to stop from time to time, progressing extremely slowly, and every single second felt extraordinarily torturous.
In that state, he could not speak or think normally, and when going out, even if he saw a car coming toward him, he did not know how to dodge—only an invisible and enormous panic would occasionally engulf him.
The hospital found nothing wrong, and even his parents did not quite believe him, thinking he was faking illness.
So I could only endure it alone in my bedroom, trying to resist this feeling, using games or reading to gradually adapt myself to this state of panic, and to concentrate my attention under this condition.
Over four whole years, I seemed to have made some progress.
At least now I can think effectively even in a state of panic, but the slowed sense of time and heightened sensitivity that come with panic attacks still remain.
This resulted in his reactions seeming just a tiny bit faster than those of normal people…
In games, this was obvious. Under the same mechanics, his speed wouldn’t be faster than others, but his reaction time and thinking time were always slightly more than others’.
And this was also why he increasingly liked using games to train his attention.
Of course, it was only after he started going out that he realized he could actually do the same thing in life as well.
Although physical limitations prevented him from executing overly complex movements, in chaotic situations, he could still judge how to make the most correct choices.
He didn’t elaborate, mainly because he didn’t think it was a big deal.
Couldn’t anyone achieve this with a little training, and perhaps even do better than he did?
Was he supposed to tell Yang Jia that he’d had a brain illness?
The doctor didn’t find anything, and didn’t give him a certificate for mental illness either, so he didn’t even have the confidence to call himself a patient.
Yang Jia instinctively noticed that Xiao Xiao seemed somewhat evasive in answering this question, but could sense that he didn’t really want to discuss it further, so she didn’t press for details, only pondering it silently to herself.
From that class reunion until now, this old classmate’s behavior always gave people the impression of having a kind of aura that was different from others…
“How could there be something so strange in this city?”
At this moment, Xiao Xiao had already crouched down, observing the rat-man that had completely died, examining it bit by bit, as if he wished his face could get even closer.
His brows were tightly furrowed, as if his heart was also enduring the nausea and visual shock brought by the contorted body.
Yet strangely, he was watching with utmost seriousness.
Yang Jia watched from the side, suddenly worried that he might lick it.
After pondering for a moment, she let out a soft sigh and said, “I think you should get used to it and adapt as soon as possible!”
“This city is not only inhabited by rat-men, but also breeds some other mutated and twisted monsters.”
“These creatures spawn in the dark corners of the city and often possess the characteristics of being twisted, terrifying, and capable of rapid reproduction.”
“Once they are not discovered in time, they will cause great harm to this city.”
“And our mission is to eliminate these things to ensure that this city operates in normal order and logic, far from the fate of panic and collapse.”
“……”
“Mission?”
Xiao Xiao was observing the extremely unreal rat-man before his eyes when he suddenly heard the word “mission,” and felt an overwhelming sense of strangeness in his heart.
“Yes, a mission.”
Yet Yang Jia’s expression was very serious as she said softly, “Only by accepting this mission will you receive ‘his’ permission to live in this city.”
Xiao Xiao instinctively looked around, and his anxiety returned.
“Who exactly is he?”
“Where is he?”
“……”
Yang Jia said softly, “Don’t rush. You’ll see ‘him’ very soon.”
Xiao Xiao’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly turned his head to look around, but only saw countless trembling gazes within the subway station.
By now, the last subway train had long since departed, and there were not many people left in this station, but there were still some homeless people like vagrants and drunks, among others. They had fired guns here, making quite a commotion, which had already awakened many people. They could only watch with trembling eyes. For these people at the very bottom of the city, even the capacity for terror seemed to have been lost—there were no screams, and no one called the police.
They all just tried hard to curl up their bodies, or covered their heads with blankets.
Whether Yang Jia and Xiao Xiao came to deal with some monster or came to kill someone, they all just hoped not to be implicated.
“These things don’t need to be dealt with?”
An extreme sense of bewilderment arose in his heart as he looked at the broken, shriveled corpse of the vagrant in the corner, and then glanced at the rat-man’s body still staring with two bloodshot eyes.
By the second day, when passengers enter the station, they’ll probably be frightened, right?
Yang Jia hadn’t expected Xiao Xiao to ask this question and suddenly let out a laugh, saying: “He’ll take care of it…”
“Look, ‘he’ is here.”
“?”
Xiao Xiao didn’t know why she said that, but suddenly sensed something and turned to look.
Behind her was empty, with only the shriveled human corpse and the rat-man’s body constructing a bloody and grotesque scene.
However, the incandescent light suddenly flickered a few times, and this space seemed to subtly have something changed.
Xiao Xiao thought his eyes had blurred, and hastily rubbed them vigorously, only to see the wall in front of him slowly beginning to writhe.
He suddenly felt his throat dry and his scalp numb.
He saw that what was clearly a floor and wall covered with ceramic tiles had somehow become soft and writhing, revealing their true nature—a vivid crimson color.
Then, bloated and indescribable flesh and blood tissue seeped out with difficulty from the ground and walls, bit by bit, submerging the ground before him.
The vagrant’s outer shell, as well as the rat-man’s corpse, and even the flesh and blood that had been torn and splattered by bullets, were all wrapped up by this mass of flesh and blood.
The flesh writhed, and from time to time grotesque faces slid slowly beneath the membrane of meat, as if this flesh were chewing on something.
After a long while, the flesh receded, and all the monsters and human shells on the ground had vanished without a trace.
Even the bullet marks on the ground that had just appeared from the gunfire had already restored themselves to their original state.
This nightmarish sight left Xiao Xiao standing motionless in place, unable to react for a long time.
“Our city is alive”
Yang Jia’s smile carried a faint sense of detachment and helplessness: “It has its own will, even a body. Its body is this city.”
“So, you need to get his permission to continue living here.”
“And now, he has already started paying attention to you…”
“……”
In this moment, Xiao Xiao’s expression on his face completely froze, instantly pulled by some powerful force to the very bottom of a nightmare.
Looking outward slightly, he saw the dim walls inside the subway station, saw everything around him seemingly melting, including the rusted subway tracks and the brightly colored graffiti on the walls.
His head spun slightly, and his gaze seemed to pierce through the subway station, seeing the city filled with neon lights and vehicles.
He saw buildings one after another suddenly transform into bloated, fleshy monsters.
He saw enormous tentacles intertwining, constructing the city’s roads and elevated railways.
He saw countless numb bodies like the walking dead, standing quietly on the streets, like robots awaiting orders.
The entire city is a writhing living organism, and everything I see is merely its organs and blood vessels, pulsating and functioning, constituting this indescribable colossal life form……
I can even feel the gaze this life form casts upon me, piercing directly into the deepest recesses of my spiritual world……
……
An indescribable sense of impact leaves Xiao Xiao’s mind blank for an extended period.
So this was what Yang Jia wanted to bring her to see, so this was the “him” she wanted her to meet.
Just moments ago, she had still doubted whether the fact that she was surrounded by monsters was real, and just now, she had still tried to find evidence from the rat-man that this might be another hallucination of hers, or some kind of elaborate false model.
It wasn’t until this moment that he realized how childish he had been.
Even the city he lived in was nothing but a massive, bloated monster…
And yet he had doubted other things…