Chapter 295: Guardian (6/10, Autumn Subscription)

Seeing Hai Ming ignore her, Liao Moran grew even angrier, jabbed a finger at him and cursed: "Bullshit! Did you lose your memory? The three of us were just stripped of our shadows in that dark room, and Zhenjiu got hurt too!"

But Hai Ming still paid her no attention. After fumbling the ground for a while, he slumped down on the floor: "Gone! Gone, gone… gone! Gone! Gone!! My shadow is gone!! What have I become!"

Hai Ming was so agitated that he burst into tears, the tears sliding down from the corners of his eyes.

Liao Moran was stunned for a moment, fell silent for a while, then patted his shoulder: "Stop crying, we lost our shadows too. But Captain Ye went to help us look for them, he'll definitely come back with them!"

"You don't know shit!!"

With a slap, Hai Ming directly swatted Liao Moran's hand away!

The force was so great that the back of Liao Moran's hand turned red and swollen. Rage surged up in an instant, and she started hurling ugly curses.

Zhenjiu furrowed her brow, feeling something was off.

Losing the shadow—wasn't that something he already knew before going offline? Was such an extreme reaction really warranted?

Watching Liao Moran curse with increasing vigor while Hai Ming's gaze grew more sinister and icy, Zhenjiu hurriedly stood up and said: "Alright, alright, both of you take a step back…"

Crack!

In the middle of cursing, Liao Moran's arm suddenly snapped backward at an eerie one-hundred-eighty-degree reverse angle, folding directly behind her body.

On the scene, a momentary pause.

The next instant…

"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!"

A shrill scream rang out through the entire space.

Before Zhenjiu and Hai Ming could even react… crack!

Liao Moran's head suddenly rotated one hundred eighty degrees, her face now aimed at Zhenjiu behind her back. The terrified eyes and gaping mouth became her final expression in life.

Thud.

Liao Moran, her neck twisted, collapsed onto the ground.

But… this was not the end.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Her corpse kept rotating, twisting, folding!

Her original height of about one meter sixty-five was now folded in half into a rectangular volume only as tall as her chest. All the other organs—arms, long legs, head—were folded onto her chest, like neatly folded clothes, folded in perfect order!

Only the blood slowly seeping out from that folded corpse, and the terrified expression Liao Moran wore in the end, like a death stare, fixed upon the two who were still alive.

"Ah… ah… ahhh! Aaaaaaaaaah!!!"

Hai Ming clutched his head and screamed.

His whole body was trembling, more violently than ever before.

Because his life was very likely going to end right here!

In his mind now, there was only one thing he was thinking.

That was why he had played this game, why he had played this garbage game!!

He was going to die… he was going to die!!

Suddenly, as if sensing something, Hai Ming's trembling body paused inexplicably for a moment.

Like a basin of cold water poured from head to toe, Hai Ming felt his whole body turn icy.

He raised his head, looked at Zhenjiu who was also looking at him, and forced out a smile uglier than crying.

"Zhenjiu, I, I don't want to die…"

Boom!!

Almost the instant his words fell, Hai Ming's head exploded with a bang!

Blood splattered onto Zhenjiu's face, and Hai Ming's body toppled to the ground.

Zhenjiu, hands trembling, wiped the blood from her face, took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and kept muttering to herself, self-suggesting.

"This is just a game, this is just a game, this is just a game…"

But for some reason, at this moment, her mind kept echoing that despairing smile uglier than crying on Hai Ming's face in his final moment.

It was clearly just a game, so why… was he afraid to such an extent?

It was as if… when he died in the game, he would die in reality too.

"There's no way that's possible… right…"

Tap tap tap!

And just then, from the darkness ahead came the sound of footsteps, and a dark figure could faintly be seen approaching.

……

"Aaaaaaah!!"

Hai Ming screamed out loud! As if using every ounce of strength in his body.

And ringing in his ears was the sound of violent pounding—thud thud thud! Thud thud thud!

Where… is this?

Slowly opening his eyes, the glaring light made him somewhat uncomfortable.

Squinting for a careful look, what came into view was a familiar ceiling.

This is… my room?

I… didn't die?

Perhaps because the shock was too great, Hai Ming's thinking had even become sluggish.

Only after his eyes adjusted to the light and he climbed out of bed did he gradually regain a sense of reality.

I, I didn't die! I really didn't die!!

His body was trembling, trembling with excitement. The thrill of escaping death made his entire spirit surge with exhilaration.

Thud! Thud! Thud!!

The crashing sound that had just rung out by his ear appeared once more.

It was the door to his room, being battered by something.

Just as Hai Ming was about to go open the door…

Bang!!

An axe chopped straight through the door, hacking out a gap.

Hai Ming gave a start, startled, and instinctively stepped back.

Immediately after, a face appeared in the gap in the door, as if saying: Let me have a look!!

Looking closely, it was unmistakably his old man's stubbly face!

"Hai Ming! Hai Ming, are you all right!"

Seeing Hai Ming, Hai Ming's dad excitedly called out, then pulled his face back, reached a hand through the gap, and opened the door.

Dad rushed in and hugged Hai Ming first, followed by Mom's embrace, and sobbing cries.

"You scared me to death, scared me to death. You snatched the Game Watch and just hid in your room, then suddenly started screaming — scared me to death, scared me to death."

The family of three held each other, and Hai Ming strangely felt a sense of security.

Games — to hell with them!

Just as Hai Ming was thinking this, he suddenly felt his head itch a little, ache a little.

The feeling carried an indescribable sense of familiarity.

As if, as if… that feeling from right before dying in the game!

Almost the instant Hai Ming thought this, his pupils contracted sharply…

Boom!!

His head exploded.

Fresh blood dyed the room red.

The old parents, still immersed in joy, stared blankly, dumbly at the headless corpse as it toppled to the floor.

They slowly opened their mouths wide and made a sound.

"Ah… ah! Ahhhhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!"

The shrill, anguished cries spread outward through the room's open window.

And on the rooftop of this tall building stood two people, paying no heed to the shouting from below.

One had long hair streaming, dressed in ancient costume.

One was smoking, his face deep and inscrutable.

"Another one's dead." The smoking man blew out a smoke ring.

"What can we do? We already rushed here as fast as we could to patch the breach." The man in ancient garb gazed into the distance, his voice ethereal.

Yan Nan flicked off his ash: "We won't be able to keep it hidden."

"Even if we can't keep it hidden, we still have to. The more people who know the truth, the faster the Weirdness Line rises. The less preparation time we have left."

Yan Nan glanced at his companion: "You're sounding more and more like the people up top. Did the application for the weird artifact last time get approved?"

"Mm, we'll be able to use it in the next couple of days."

"Hmph! I don't want to hold onto that many of these things. You already can't cry, can't eat, even had your heart replaced with an artificial machine just to keep living — already this miserable, and you still want to apply for a new weird artifact? That's just asking to die."

"The great tribulation is coming; no one can escape. I'd rather do wrong than do nothing."

"…Madman."

(End of chapter)