Chapter 33: Spider's Crawl, Cicada's Metamorphosis (1)

Load the bullet, insert it into the barrel, install the spring.

Thunk!

A heavy thud came from outside the cabinet, as if something had smashed open the front door and burst into the classroom, followed by the fine, dense sound of legs scuttling across the floor.

Judging by the distribution of the sounds, there should be three spiders.

Ye Jiaying's face went deathly pale; the image of that human figure trapped in a cocoon, carried off to god-knows-where, instinctively surfaced in her mind.

Even so, she didn't scream. Instead she forced herself to stay calm, tilted the hand holding the phone up slightly, and covered the flashlight on the back with her fingers, leaving only the faint sliver of light Yuan Zhixia needed to assemble the gun.

Her other hand put the unrelated items—the buzzer alarm, the pepper spray—back into her backpack and slowly zipped it shut.

The sound of the spiders' legs grew closer and closer.

Yuan Zhixia shot Ye Jiaying an approving glance, silently quickening her hands. She finished assembling the entire pistol, then took out a titanium-alloy suppressor disguised as a water-bottle filter.

The front of the suppressor had openings connected to a series of internal baffles. When fired, the propellant gas first passed through the baffles, was weakened, and then vented out the front.

This way it both suppressed the sound and kept the burning gas from backwashing onto the shooter.

Likewise, this suppressor was also something Yuan Zhixia had made herself with a metal sintering printer.

With the suppressor attached, the entire pistol was fully ready.

Yuan Zhixia gripped the gun in her right hand, cupped her left palm beneath the right, and with a look told Ye Jiaying to turn off the phone flashlight and put foam earplugs into both their ears.

The wooden cabinet sank into total darkness, leaving only the ever-approaching sound of legs outside.

Creak—

A single leg hooked open the cabinet door. In the instant the outside light spilled in, Yuan Zhixia pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Bang!

The bullet flew from the barrel, erupting into a violent noise inside the cabinet's half-enclosed space.

Even with the suppressor on the muzzle and foam plugs in her ears, her ears still rang.

The unknown creature hit by the bullet had its head caved in, spurting green ichor. Its eight legs instinctively curled into a ball and it tumbled backward.

The reason it was called an unknown creature was that it was not simply a scaled-up version of an ordinary Earth spider.

Its limb joints were thicker, the sides of its abdomen bore gill-like breathing organs, and the iridescent pattern on its head faintly traced out a human face.

No matter how you looked at it, it didn't seem like a species that could have arisen naturally in Earth's ecology.

"Run!"

Yuan Zhixia slammed open the cabinet door and burst out of the classroom, Ye Jiaying right behind her.

The two spider-monsters that had been searching the front of the classroom immediately gave chase, moving no slower than a human at a full sprint.

Whether drawn by the gunshot or using some long-range means of communication, more spiders crawled in from the webs on the outer side of the corridor.

A dark, dense shadow blotted out the sunlight beyond the corridor; all her ears could catch was the rustling, scuttling of legs.

The two of them forced down their fear and sprinted along the corridor.

Through window after window, they could see the classmates in the classrooms still slumbering through their lunch break in the shadows, oblivious, completely unaware of what was happening on the other side of a thin curtain away.

They reached the end of the corridor, ran down the stairs, and arrived at the first floor.

By now at least six spider-monsters were on their tail, and they were about to be overtaken. Yuan Zhixia slotted the Glock into the holster on her tactical vest, unclipped a Coca-Cola glass bottle from the vest, and bit the cap off with her teeth.

The bottle was actually a Molotov cocktail; inside was a brownish flammable liquid disguised as cola.

Stuck to the bottom of the cap was a short strip of soaked cloth.

Stuck to the front of the cap was a piece of sandpaper and a match.

Yuan Zhixia pressed down on the matchstick with one hand, struck it across the sandpaper, and the match head flared alight at once.

She flipped the cap over, lit the cloth with the match, then spun sharply and hurled the Molotov crashing to the ground.

Bang!

The glass bottle shattered on the floor tiles. The splashing flammable liquid ignited instantly; roaring flames formed a wall of fire, temporarily cutting off the spider-monsters' pursuit.

Fire, flee, down the stairs, throw the Molotov.

All of it had happened in just over a minute. Within the limits of what was possible, Yuan Zhixia had achieved the optimal solution.

But when she turned to look at the teaching building's exit, despair still rose unbidden in her heart.

The science building next door had most of its surface covered in spider silk.

The several dozen spider-monsters on the outside of the building had noticed the commotion here—some rappelling down on silk from the roof, some climbing down the outer walls, some spilling out of classrooms—all pouring toward them.

Enemies ahead, a wall of fire behind, no way to dodge. Just then, the sound of running footsteps came from the end of the corridor.

A figure burst through the teaching building's locked front door, ran up the wall and leapt forward, broke through the wall of fire, vaulted past the two of them before they could react, and charged headlong—straight into the spiders' encirclement.

"Careful—"

Yuan Zhixia only had time to call out one warning before she saw the man swing his arm; from beneath his wrist a strange bone blade like a folding knife extended, and with a backhand flick he sliced the spider-monster lunging at his face clean in two.

Twin bone blades hacked and slashed in every direction, slaughtering every spider that came within reach. After this was repeated several times, the spider-monsters stopped their pointless dying; those blocked behind by the wall of fire scattered and fled, vanishing beyond sight.

Drip, drip.

Green blood ran down the bone blades and fell to the floor.

An unremarkable-looking man in black—or rather, Li Cheng, whose face had been altered using worm genes—turned his head slightly and said hoarsely to Yuan Zhixia and Ye Jiaying, "Five million three hundred eighty-eight thousand six hundred seventy-seven yuan and thirty-two fen."

"Huh?"

"You two owe me that much money."

Li Cheng took out the alcohol wipes he'd prepared long ago, wiped the filth from his bone blades, and strode ahead, his tone flat: "Keep up. Don't die before you've paid the bill."

Who on earth was this person?

Yuan Zhixia and Ye Jiaying, following behind, exchanged a glance.

The stranger in black ahead seemed unusually familiar with the situation. There was no panic, no flailing; he walked with a steady stride through the web-covered campus, leading the way.

At the same time, the bone blades extending from beneath his wrists didn't look like a sleeve sword or a folding knife. They seemed more like… an organ?

And that figure of over five million — how exactly was it calculated?

The man seemed to sense the doubt in their hearts and said coldly, "Last year, the average monthly living consumption expenditure per resident of Yin City was 4,375 yuan. The annual inflation rate, roughly calculated, is 2.5%. Assuming you both started working at twenty-two and retired at fifty — twenty-eight years of work — the total comes to 2,693,438.66. Multiply that by two and you get 5,386,877.32. That is the price the two of you must pay for your lives."

The price for their lives?

Yuan Zhixia pressed her lips together slightly. From an economic-calculation standpoint, this figure was actually extraordinarily crude.

When measuring the inflation rate, one must select a price index to represent changes in the general price level. That index can be the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), the Retail Price Index (RPI), the Consumer Price Index (CPI), or the GDP Deflator.

The differences produced by different calculation methods are quite large. Calculated by CPI, the ten-year average inflation rate is only 2.6%; calculated by the year-end M2 growth rate minus GDP growth rate, it reaches as high as 4.6%.

Moreover, using the average monthly living consumption expenditure instead of the average monthly net transfer income to calculate the price for their lives isn't really reasonable either.

Still, given the perilous situation at hand, there was no room for haggling.

Yuan Zhixia carefully and cautiously revealed a gentle smile showing eight teeth, and without a trace of aggression, sweetly said, "Esteemed benefactor, what should we call you?"

Sis, get a grip — you're wearing a bulletproof vest and holding what is obviously a homemade gun in your hand. What kind of sweet girl are you trying to play?

Li Cheng ranted furiously in his heart, but kept a cold, stern expression on his face, and said indifferently, "Just a mercenary who takes money to do a job. You may call me Da Zai Zhi."

"What a fine name," Yuan Zhixia praised. "From the *Rites of Zhou · Offices of Heaven · Prime Minister · Grand Steward*, the Grand Steward's duty is to uphold the Six Standards of the State, assisting the King in governing the realm."

Li Cheng glanced at her and said coldly, "It has nothing to do with that. It's just a nickname. I have a younger cousin called Xiao Zai Zhi, and an older cousin called Tai Zai Zhi."

Why don't you say you have a younger brother called Xiao Bi Zai Zhi and an older brother called Da Zun Zai?

I really like a line from Dazai Osamu's *No Longer Human* — fuck your mother, you little forearm bastard, you've never actually seen the mafia, have you? Have you got the guts to have a go at me?

Yuan Zhixia's expression stiffened, and she nodded awkwardly.

(End of Chapter)