Editor: Elanor
Those things had been staring at them for a while.
They varied in size; some of them were over two meters tall, others as small as infants. Some were crawling and some were walking upright like people, but all of them were moving extremely fast and approaching the players.
The moment the lights were turned off, about a dozen white shadows crawled out of the darkness. They were on all fours and moved in groups. Their shapes were almost similar to humans, making the onlookers feel unsettled.
As soon as they were within ten meters of the players, a white shadow in the front jumped up and rushed towards them. Xia Tian dashed in front of Bai Jingan in a flash and pierced its head horizontally with a sword.
The hardness of its bone was close to that of a human, but the thing actually did not stop and continued to rush towards him. Xia Tian crossed the sword and cut off half of its head. It had even lost its eyes, but still did not stop.
Xia Tian kicked the monster to the ground, stepped forward, and chopped off its head.
Its body kept twitching, and its human-like mouth kept opening and closing, trying to bite something.
At that moment, a claw riddled with tumors suddenly tried to grab him from behind, and Xia Tian swerved to avoid it. His movements were very small, and the tip of its claws left a blood mark on his back, but he backhanded a sword in this position, and the blade skimmed a murderous arc before cutting the creature behind him in half.
He couldn’t care less about getting hurt, he only needed to be quick. This thing was not something that could be easily dealt with cold weapons.
The two parts of the monster’s body fell to the ground. The top half didn’t seem to know that it was dead as it crawled with both hands, still trying to attack.
Xia Tian had no time to watch it, his companion was already in critical condition. He threw his sword violently, stabbing a monster that was trying to bite Wei Xi in the neck, and nailed it firmly to a tree.
Wei Xi fell to the ground. Bai Jingan, who was next to him, after having just finished solving the one attacking him, pulled out the Marshmallow from the monster, severed its head in the process, and then threw the sword back to Xia Tian.
The latter reached out and took it, and rushed forward without stopping.
A monster hiding in the grass jumped out and ruthlessly slashed at his waist with its sharp claws, making a whistling sound. The wound was bone-deep, but Xia Tian continued to move. With one strike, he split the creature that had been attacking Eric, freeing Eric from under its sharp claws before immediately turning to save Bai Jingan’s side.
The attack was sudden and deadly, and each person had to deal with more than three creatures. With the addition of a rookie like Wei Xi, the workload was even greater.
Each of them had some blood on them, but Xia Tian had the most, his whole body was drenched in blood. Without Marshmallow, all of them would have their fates sealed here.
Ten minutes later, they stood on the ground that was full of dismembered bodies. Even now, the monsters were still twitching, their half remaining faces distorted and their teeth cackling. Their desire to devour was so deeply ingrained into their bones that they finally began to eat themselves.
Xia Tian swayed a little, and reached out to hold a tree trunk. He had to exert every effort not to fall to his knees.
He stared at the scene of extreme gore and disgusting cannibalism that was happening at his feet. He knew that this was more like a punishment from the planning team than a hindrance or a ratings gimmick.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
He struggled to stand firm, it didn’t matter, he was used to it.
Sglm kjixfv bnfg klat j mbiv fzqgfrrlbc, olclrtlcu boo atf vfobgwfv wbcrafgr bcf ys bcf, jcv Qfl Wl obiibkfv ab tfiq. Dea lc atf fcv, atfgf kfgf ralii rbwf ogjuwfcar atja kfgf ralii aklamtlcu. Ktfs gfjiis vlvc’a xcbk ktja ab vb, rb atfs pera ifoa atfw atfgf.
The players called these creatures “White Specters“. These monsters and specters did resemble each other greatly. These creatures had faces that were similar to a human in pain. It was as if there was a great deal of anger in their bodies making them unable to rest in peace even when they became corpses.
Pa kjr pera atja la kjr cba rbwf wsrafglber fcfgus atja wjvf atfw aklamt, yea atflg ufcfr.
Bai Jingan came over and extended his hand towards him.
Xia Tian turned to face him. His comrade stood in the darkness, the corners of his forehead still seeping blood, the dull moonlight shining on his face, a hardness clear in his eyes matching the hardness of the menacing night.
There was no weakness and helplessness, only a deep-seated rage.
Looking at those eyes was like looking in a mirror.
Xia Tian handed him the sword.
The group ran into the white specter twice more on the way. Seeing how they quietly surrounded them each time, these monsters obviously had intelligence and collaborative skills.
Barely able to stand, Xia Tian leaned against a wall as he watched his teammates solve the attacker, and not participating anymore. Bai Jingan had asked him to stay still with a very serious expression.
When Xia Tian first got the Marshmallow, Bai Jingan tried handling it, and expressed that he wanted to buy one when he went back—he quickly learnt how to wield it skillfully.
The man raised the sword, cut into the monster’s chest, and then turned around. The man swiftly appeared behind a white specter, the sword in his hand turned into a long whip and wrapped around its neck. He gave the whip a yank in the opposite direction while blocking the claw that sneaked up behind him.
Then, Bai Jingan pushed the twitching corpse forward. The whip solidified in the air and turned into a long sword. He violently thrust it into the back of the corpse, and it came out the assailant’s abdomen on the other side, and then he slashed downward—
He looked like a different person. This man grew in the darkness. His killing actions were simple, brutal, and purposive. Also, he didn’t want to die.
Bai Jingan didn’t do it often, and usually gave the illusion of always being gentle, but he was not that type. Xia Tian thought this man’s skills were typical of the Lower City style, with the efficiency and brutality of an underground arena style.
Xia Tian looked at him quietly, waiting for the fight to end.
There were very few moments in his life when he waited like this, he could never stand to wait, but he knew he could relax at this moment and wait for the other man to greet him and move on. They were going to the same place.
A half-mutilated corpse flew over diagonally—there were mutilated bodies all around his feet—and Xia Tian carefully observed it.
He noticed that it was covered with stunted scales, and surmised that some of these creatures might live in the water. No wonder there were so many ponds in the garden, and all of them bottomless.
In the future, they would definitely face off with this creature, and it would be a fierce battle without any doubts.
After dealing with the last monster, Bai Jingan walked towards Xia Tian, stepping over the bodies on the ground as he did so. Leaning against the wall, Xia Tain smiled at him. He was still shaking, having lost a lot of blood, but now he had a smile so bright, it could light up the night.
Bai Jingan extended his hand, and Xia Tian grabbed his arm and straightened up.
He knew that the planning team didn’t want his life, at least not right now. The third sub-arena was already in a mess, and the ratings, which was the heart of the matter, were more than likely shooting all the way up. They wanted high ratings, and killing him would not help with that.
If they were going to kill him, Xia Tian thought, there would certainly be a big enough scene.
Now was not the time.
But sooner or later, that day would come.
Many people retrieved their vehicles to contribute to the resources needed to open the arsenal. Then, Bai Jingan found the dead master’s abode and helped Xia Tian treat his wounds.
Although the garden was extremely dangerous, the medical service was good enough to ensure that the contestants quickly healed from their wounds and contributed to the great cause of ratings.
Xia Tian injuries were shocking, with some areas heavily contaminated and some requiring stitches. Bai Jingan cleaned the wound, stopped the bleeding, pressed Xia Tian’s shoulder with one hand, and applied medicinal gel on him. He could clearly see Xia Tian’s body was tensed up because of the pain.
“You, be gentle,” Xia Tian said.
“Even if I were gentler, it’d still hurt when you get injured.”
Xia Tian stopped talking, and after a while, he began to mutter, “This time, it’s particularly painful.” Bai Jingan responded saying that it was because of the irritating secretions on the monster’s claws, and gave him one-half of the painkiller.
Next to them, Wei Xi’s monitor screen shrank into countless light spots, scattering around him like a nebula, and they were varying in size according to the degree of focus marked. The biggest screens showed the perimeter around the house, and there were two more near the arsenal.
Even if every player was busy, it did not mean that they were safe now and no one would fish in troubled waters. The composition of the players in the Killing Show was extremely complicated, but without exception, they were all villains. Inside the arena, these people would have no qualms when it came to surviving or making a fortune.
And it was quite likely that something could happen anytime to them now.
After Bai Jingan finished administering the medicine, Eric took a suit to Xia Tian, who slowly put it on.
“Can you still fight?” Eric asked.
“Yeah, somewhat,” Xia Tian said, “But there is no need to be in such a hurry, the fight will probably start around tomorrow morning…”
Although he said so, he still grabbed a handful of painkillers and stuffed them into his pocket. People like them grabbed painkillers, knives, and bullets as easily as grabbing candies.
Wei Xi talked about the latest situation on the arsenal operation and they discussed it. Xia Tian was staring at a stack of screens, when he suddenly reached out, dragged a small piece of it, and zoomed in.
The camera was facing the dark garden. The light faintly shone on a small part of the forest. The forest was so dark that it was almost black and white. After that, there was deep darkness, images of humans appeared as thin as ghosts, and the whole residential area looked like it would be swallowed up by the barbaric forces of the outside world at any moment.
Xia Tian realised that he knew that place. On the other side of the residential area, at the end of a narrow trail that passed through a wide expanse of golden Osmanthus, was a lake. It had a good name, called Broken Golden Lake.
But at night, the night easily swallowed up the power of civilization… No, to be exact, civilization never existed here.
A torture session was going on in the screen.
At first glance, it was clear that two teams had just fought here.
The losing team lost two men in battle, one of whom was tortured to death. The men had tied him to a tree with wire in a gruesome manner.
There was also a survivor. The victors used wire to tie his hands behind his back. He was naked. The group seemed to have been torturing him for a while.
When Xia Tian opened the screen, a guy in a black jacket said “I’ve got a great one” and dragged the victim by his hair to a tumbled-down stone sculpture by the trail. There were a lot of these things here, to amplify the dilapidation effect.
Xia Tian didn’t know what statue it was. It seemed to be a disk a long time ago, with a four-sided stone pillar pointing to the sky, and now it had slumped to the ground.
The victim screamed, “All the treasure maps are with you, I swear—”
It sounded like torture for the treasure maps, but Xia Tian realized what it was the moment he saw it.
He also knew that this man really didn’t know anything, and that these people were just looking for a reason to torture him.
By now, Xia Tian was well aware how common this kind of thing was in the Killing Show arena.
He used to think that because almost everyone here was a criminal or a pervert, and inside the arena where pressure was high, unscrupulous and cruel behavior was encouraged, torture and rape were not unthinkable.
But now he realized that this kind of thing was deliberately prepared for VIP seats; it was simply the unspoken rules of the show.
In the show, there was never a shortage of people doing such things.
A bald-headed player stroked the sharp stone edge as he sized the tortured guy up. When the victim realized what these people wanted, he stiffened for a moment before desperately backing away and struggling to escape with all the strength he could muster.
The leader was leaning against a tree, looking down at his phone and occasionally looking up at the torture. He suddenly said, “I think he needs a little ‘lubrication’.”
One of his teammates was stunned for a moment and laughed, and the man next to him commented that he was too wicked and laughed along. It was the very picture of harmony and happiness.
Xia Tian knew this group of people. When they went out yesterday, they saw bodies floating down at a scenic river, and afterwards they came across a robbery and murder scene.
The scene was appalling, and the one looking at the phone, Qi Qing, was the leader.
The leader had greeted them with a bright smile. He had little tiger teeth and had said that he was a fan of Xia Tian and they should find a chance to have a drink.
Bai Jingan returned the same smile. Both sides looked calm but the undercurrents were raging. They all knew that at another time, they would never be greeted with a smile.
I hope they can bring this horrible city down