Free Web NovelChapter 13: Kill Her
Then came silence and stillness, both just as suffocating.
This stifling, fetid underground garage had never been this crowded. An almost tangible tension had piled up until it reached its peak, stretching between Ji Jue and Zhu Hong.
It was like sitting down on an eighteen-hour flight and realizing your ex, with whom you’d just had a massive breakup, was on your left, and her new boyfriend was on your right. It was a suffocation you couldn’t escape.
Ji Jue forced a smile and stared at that rapidly healing face, sneaking quick glances at Lu Feng, who was barely hanging on. His face twitched, and he asked, “Oh, you again? Ha, what a coincidence. So that’s how it is.”
Zhu Hong’s frozen expression slowly shifted. Between the torn features, her long tongue slithered like a snake’s. “I knew it... I could smell something familiar. It’s you...”
It’s me!
Ji Jue wanted to puff out his chest and announce it, but Lu Feng’s neck was still in the grip of that freak. His dropped hand twitched slightly, making a gesture. Struggling in midair, Lu Feng was unable to grab the weapon in the holster on his back.
Zhu Hong giggled. “What a delightful surprise.”
Her sharp limbs stripped Lu Feng of his night-vision goggles and mask, while her right hand’s talon-like nails slowly sank into his neck. Blood seeped out of Lu Feng’s neck, then vanished under the lick of her long tongue.
On her pale face, a flush of intoxicating red appeared. Her eyes flickered as she said, “Such a shame, Mr. Ji. I was going to invite you to join me... but your scent is getting ever more enticing. Don’t you want to do something fun with me here? Maybe... you’d even be more successful than me.”
She studied the boy’s face, patiently savoring the panic and fear he tried to conceal, like a predator playing with its trapped prey.
Ji Jue smiled awkwardly and spouted nonsense off the top of his head. “What’s so fun that you’re in such a rush to do it with me? You want to team up like we’re playing a game[1]? Sure, sure. I’m amazing at jungling[2]!”
His gaze couldn’t help drifting downward, right over those three white cone-shaped objects that quivered as Zhu Hong laughed. His gaze did not linger, settling on her right hand twisting the gun barrel and her wrist.
Momentarily, his mind went blank. In the flickering lights, a luxurious watch inlaid with diamonds glimmered faintly, exquisite and solemn. The logo indicated it was a Crown Series Navigator Red Wing watch.
Those who fetishized luxury always said wearing such watches was like wearing a real crown, outshining the jewelry of other rich women. As a top-tier luxury brand from the Southern Continental Empire, a commemorative Red Wing sold at boutique price for a jaw-dropping 3.24 million. In the second-hand market, it easily went for over five million. To even take a look at one in a boutique, you had to be a VIP who’d cumulatively purchased ten base-model watches or more.
Even someone like Ji Jue, a total pauper, could sense the fragrance of wealth from someone wearing it. The watch was unattainable, something a mere mortal crawling through the mud like him could never hope to reach.
Zhu Hong licked her fingertips, her smile growing even brighter. “You really don’t get it, do you, young man? At first, it feels a little strange, but later... you’ll understand what real pleasure is.”
Her wicked long tongue licked the blood trickling across her face alluringly, like a flower blooming from crimson.
“How great,” Ji Jue murmured.
“Hm?” Zhu Hong blinked, noticing his sudden distraction, unsure what he was up to.
“I mean... having money... it must feel really good, right?” Ji Jue sighed, lifting his head to look at her with a focused and serious look. “You must be rich... extremely rich, richer than I ever imagined.”
Because of that, he was confused and bewildered, and utterly incapable of understanding her. She could casually wear on her wrist something most people would never touch in a lifetime, and to her, the wealth Ji Jue dreamed of was just a string of trivial numbers.
Is that not enough? What more could you want? Do you need some grand ambition or lofty desire that requires chewing up your own kind to fulfill? Must you create hell and turn yourself into this...? I don’t get it.
In fact, he didn’t want to get it either.
Ji Jue exhaled. “Forget it, then.”
“What did you say?” Zhu Hong asked, puzzled.
“I said... screw your dreams!” Ji Jue raised his voice, unable to contain his anger any longer. “I didn’t spend my whole life struggling, fighting and competing with everyone to become some monster like you! I’ll never be like you!”
In the suffocating silence, Ji Jue abruptly raised his hand and aimed at her face. He abandoned all pretense and all hesitation. With no hesitation, he pulled the trigger, only to hear a disdainful, mocking laugh.
He was too slow.
Ji Jue, barely alive after surviving the crushing coil of the giant snake, the high-voltage shock, and exhausting nearly all his spirit matter, could barely stand, let alone have steady hands.
Even with the gun aimed at her, Zhu Hong didn’t flinch. She mockingly raised her arm, using it to shield Lu Feng from the muzzle, and watched eagerly, savoring the look on Lu Feng’s face as his best friend supposedly killed him. She was dazed, shocked, and confused, but she did not despair.
On the contrary, in that instant of realization, her bloodied face broke into a smile, because there was no gunshot—just the click of the striker against air, the dry sound of the Hunter pistol’s last round being chambered. It had only twelve bullets, which had all been spent during Ji Jue’s support fire and the snake struggle.
Smart move, dumbass!
At that crucial moment, Lu Feng’s limp arm slid steel from his sleeve into his clenched hand, and thrust a dagger toward Zhu Hong without hesitation.
“Do you have a death wish?!” Zhu Hong shouted, her fingers tightening around Lu Feng’s neck.
A deafening roar interrupted her. Even though the barrel of the shotgun still gripped in Lu Feng’s other hand had been bent and crushed, the bullets inside the chamber still shot out, culminating in a spectacular barrel explosion.
Blood sprayed, exposing the bones of Lu Feng’s hand. The shattered chamber and fragments rained down on them like a torrential storm. Screams finally tore through the air from Zhu Hong. Lu Feng collapsed to the ground with a mutated, jagged hand still clamped around his neck, but that hand had already been severed at the wrist.
Meanwhile, Zhu Hong’s half-body, drenched in blood, screamed and howled in excruciating pain.
And there was another sound, an almost dying wail from beneath Ji Jue’s hand. Ji Jue’s left hand, the one wearing the watch, was pressed firmly against the remains of the giant snake.
[External active aberrant spirit matter detected. Absorb?]
Yes. Yes. Yes. Hell yes!!!
From within the flowing light of the matrix and from the charcoal-like remains of scorched flesh and blood, a surge of crimson burst out, shrieking like insects as it poured into Ji Jue’s hands, only to be drained dry in an instant by the watch.
The number that had fallen to zero skyrocketed, climbing to new heights again. No one knew how much blood the watch had consumed or how many lives it had devoured. Just a tiny fraction was already enough to push the value straight to the cap of 99.
“You think only you can transform?!” Ji Jue roared, raising the watch on his wrist. “I can do it too!!!” frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
With his last scraps of strength, he lunged forward and yanked out the cross-shaped awl from his pocket before jamming it into another outlet right in front of him.
He almost killed himself. Well, this was practically a suicide mission.
When the electric current surged again without the slightest resistance and slammed into Ji Jue, countless error windows exploded before his eyes.
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[Temporary employee detected in life-threatening danger... calling nearby stations, no signal response. Calling headquarters support center, no signal response...]
At the very end, a last lifeline appeared.
[Temporary employee emergency survival protocol activated.]
Click.
The number on the watch abruptly reversed.
This time, Ji Jue finally felt what it was like when the protocol truly activated. The matrix that could drain a monster’s soul now burst forth from the watch, spreading along his body and covering everything. It even pushed inward, enveloping his soul and piercing through before embedding and merging with him completely, as if it had always done that.
Within the matrix’s shroud, Ji Jue’s once distant and hazy ability rapidly surged, manifested, and became tangible. It was like a star igniting deep within his soul, blazing with light.
The world seemed to halt in an instant, and everything fell silent.
Within that frozen moment, Ji Jue’s consciousness felt as if it had slipped free of time, calmly overlooking everything: the spraying blood, Lu Feng falling, Zhu Hong raging, and more. It overlooked things that had always been here, yet had been completely ignored by everyone, like the light fixtures, outlets, cables, ventilation fans, mobile phones, and even a true, unquestionably giant object. That massive truck’s cargo bed was already more than half filled with equipment.
Ji Jue looked at the truck. Its headlights flared, spilling light, as if it, too, were looking back at him. It was humble and reverent, patiently waiting, devoutly praying, waiting, pleading sincerely in a silent act of worship.
Ji Jue ordered, “Kill her.”
The truck rejoiced. The engine roared, and the fuel lines shuddered. The drive shaft howled, the radiators sang, and the wheels chanted. The frame trembled as if breaking into hymn, cheering, shouting, and screaming in ecstatic joy.
As though a dormant soul had finally learned its most important duty, its greatest meaning, the unbreakable truth of the world and eternal justice.
It said, “Command received.”
A savage howl rose from the tremor of countless moving machines. From the world’s sole true order and command, sparks flew, pistons pumped, and the engine ran wild, ready to tear itself apart if needed. Sparks flew from the drive shaft, an earsplitting horn blared at point-blank range, yet even that was drowned out by the shriek of tires tearing against the ground.
The blazing headlights illuminated the crimson on Zhu Hong’s face. Her burning red eyes were filled with a fierce look.
Then, from a standstill, the truck accelerated from zero to two hundred ten kilometers per hour in just two meters. The Nanfeng truck, carrying a full load of twenty-six tons, unfurled invisible wings, its intangible embrace spreading wide to fully envelop Zhu Hong.
Boom!
1. “开黑” is a gaming term that refers to a group of players (usually friends) teaming up to play competitive games, such as Honor of Kings or League of Legends, while coordinating in real time through voice communication (either in person or online). This practice greatly improves teamwork in the game and became popular in internet cafes, where groups would form teams to play together. ☜
2. In MOBA games like Honor of Kings and League of Legends, the jungler is a core role that doesn’t stay in a lane. Instead, they gain experience and gold by killing neutral monsters in the jungle. The jungler carries the responsibility of controlling the game’s pace, by farming the jungle, roaming to help teammates gank enemies, securing neutral objectives (like dragons or buffs), and invading the enemy jungle to disrupt their farm. This role is key to shaping the flow and outcome of the match. ☜
