Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 221: Chapter 188: The Collection Room

After guarding for a long time, nothing happened. The Drama Robe lay quietly on the ground, motionless, until finally Yang Xiao approached, picked up the robe, and stuffed it back into his backpack.

The night passed peacefully, and early the next day Yang Xiao hurried to the office. The issue with the Drama Robe was temporarily unresolved, but improving his abilities was urgent.

Sure enough, when office hours started, only Zhuge Zhijie arrived, looking miserable and laughing wryly. Upon learning that Yang Xiao was there for training, Zhuge Zhijie didn’t say much and sat at his desk, burying himself in his research that nobody else could understand.

Yang Xiao had already contacted Huang Qiang in advance, and Huang Qiang arranged today’s training for him. As usual, the first session was combat training.

Zhu Yina was a very responsible coach. After thoroughly warming up with Yang Xiao, she first conducted a phase of physical training and then acted as his opponent in combat training, beating him soundly.

After taking off her boxing gloves, Zhu Yina looked at Yang Xiao who was lying on the ground, panting, and couldn’t help but nod her head, "Captain Yang, you’ve improved quickly. You couldn’t last more than three moves against me before, and now you can hold out for 7 or 8 moves."

"Your upper body movements have also gotten better, your punches, dodging, and even integrating elbow strikes, which is quite rare." frёeωebɳovel.com

"But your lower body movements are still terrible. Your footwork can’t keep up with the rhythm, your offense and defense are unbalanced, lacking strength and explosiveness in your lower limbs. This will be our focus in future training."

"Let’s call it a day. Take off your outer pants, and I’ll help you relax your muscles."

Leaving the training area, Yang Xiao’s legs were as soft as noodles, and he could only move forward with difficulty, leaning on the wall.

After lunch, Yang Xiao dozed off in the office, facing an afternoon of relatively relaxed firearms training.

"Bang!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

"Bang! Bang!"

...

Yang Xiao took off his heavy soundproof earmuffs and gently blew on the muzzle of the empty handgun, his face showing a mixture of cool disdain and contempt. The bullet holes on several human-shaped target papers across from him said it all.

With a reverse grip, he placed the gun back in the holster at his waist and waited quietly for the scoreboard to announce his score.

"Performance for Shooting Station No. 5."

The loudspeaker began to chime in, and Yang Xiao narrowed his eyes slightly.

"A total of 13 shots fired, 5 hits on the target, of which 1 headshot, 1 in the left chest, and 3 in non-immediate fatal areas, totally killing 2 and injuring 3. Total score: 26 points."

"3 shots hit the hostages, all headshots, totaling 3 hostages killed. With 3 hostages, none survived—score: minus 60 points."

"In addition, 5 shots missed, score: minus 15 points."

"In summary, the assessment for Shooting Station No. 5 results in a total of minus 49 points."

"Congratulations, Captain Yang, you’ve set a new scoring record."

Listening to the electronic voice from the player, Yang Xiao wanted to find a hole to crawl into. This evaluation was a trap—he had no idea there were hostages involved. He saw two paper targets together and thought they were two thugs putting on a play.

Standing behind Yang Xiao, the coach operating the equipment brought the target papers over and could not help but exclaim in admiration, "Captain Yang, you truly have a unique talent, headshots on hostages every time. Right, those of us in this line of work don’t need too much compassion. Once the hostages are dealt with, the thugs lose all their leverage and have to surrender."

Looking at the coach’s admiring yet slightly fearful eyes, Yang Xiao couldn’t tell if he was being mocked or praised.

The following days Yang Xiao spent in training, during which Ms. Wen represented Director Nalan in visiting him once, fully expressing her care for Yang Xiao.

Special equipment training also began, and this time his instructor was a man who had lost almost half of his left palm.

The man had a shaved head, a hunched figure, and a face that looked as though it had been scorched by fire or corroded by acid. His nose was half gone, no eyebrows, the kind of frightful appearance that would prevent children from sleeping at night upon a single glance.

Yang Xiao only felt pity for the man; after all, he had seen ghosts, and the person across from him was just a man, moreover a colleague from the same unit.

"Captain Yang, let me introduce myself. My surname is Lu, Lu Youdao," the man’s voice was hoarse, suggesting that his throat was damaged as well.

"Coach Lu," Yang Xiao responded politely.

Lu Youdao nodded, then turned and pushed open the iron door behind him. The special equipment training room was a separate room, divided from the shooting range by a sliding iron door, making it appear quite mysterious.

"Leave your shoes outside and put on shoe covers from the right side as you enter."

Following Lu Youdao’s instructions, he put on shoe covers and entered the enigmatic training room. Only after stepping in did Yang Xiao realize that the room was just as spacious as the shooting range. In front of him was a deep corridor with a dozen doors on either side.

The doors varied in size, shape, and even color and material; some were the common wooden doors, others were metal, and one closer to the inside actually looked like it was made of stone.

What astonished Yang Xiao the most was a door on the right, about 10 meters away from him, that was wrapped in what seemed to be a layer of skin-like material that had, due to its age, dried into a brown hue.

Looking at this skin, Yang Xiao immediately had a bad feeling. It instantly reminded him of his Drama Robe; just yesterday, when he touched his robe, he had felt the texture of human skin.

"It is exactly what you’re thinking," said Lu Youdao’s voice from behind.

Yang Xiao’s heart skipped a beat, "What do you mean?" ƒrēewebnovel.com

"That is human skin," Lu Youdao’s voice was deep and raspy, "a cherished collection of a living Buddha from the Western Regions, his favorite magic artifact. It came from a pure 16-year-old girl, peeled off by her own parents. Allegedly, only in this way can the spiritual essence of the skin be assured."

This story, coupled with the emotionless, raspy voice of the storyteller Lu Youdao, sent shivers down Yang Xiao’s spine.

"Why hang something like that on a door?" Yang Xiao pressed on.

Lu Youdao, staring at that door, with his already terrifying face becoming even more grotesque, said, "Because it is necessary."

"Necessary for what? What’s behind that door?" Yang Xiao felt he was getting closer to the truth and his curiosity about what lay beyond that door grew even stronger.

But Lu Youdao instead turned and opened the nearest door, "Nothing much, Captain Yang, let’s start training."

This was a not-so-large room with high, dark-red velvet curtains hanging around the walls. In the center of the room, there was a tripod, and something was covered by a piece of velvet on top of it.

Through the shape outlined by the velvet cover, Yang Xiao guessed it was a camera—specifically, a Ghost Camera that could restrict ghosts, which he had seen Da Xiong use before.

"Captain Yang, you might not be aware of the rules here. In this place, all actions must be approved by me. You can only do what I allow you to do, understand?"

"Without my permission, you must not leave the room you are in, and especially must not approach the doors of other rooms." Lu Youdao’s bloodshot eyes fixed on Yang Xiao like a beast, "Can you promise me that?"

"Of course." Yang Xiao wasn’t easily frightened; he was merely curious, "May I ask why?"

Lu Youdao’s gaze flickered, and his raspy voice rose again, "Didn’t Director Nalan tell you about the rules here?"

The question struck a chord with Yang Xiao. Cupping one hand in the other before his chest, he apologized: "I apologize. Director Nalan must have been too busy and has yet to introduce me to you, sir."

"In this place, I make the rules. I am the only one with the key to this collection room; even Nalan Shuo doesn’t have one. Without my permission, he cannot enter, and of course, he doesn’t wish to."

Lu Youdao pulled a bizarre expression, his bloodshot eyes staring intently at Yang Xiao’s face. After a moment, he spoke in a haunting laugh, "What fine skin you have; even compared to myself back in the day, it’s not inferior at all."

The hairs on the back of Yang Xiao’s neck stood on end as he acutely sensed the naked greed and resentment in this strange man’s eyes—one who seemed to want to peel off his own face and paste it onto his.

"Young man, remember my words if you don’t want to end up looking like this ghost of a person," warned Lu Youdao.

Suddenly diverting his gaze, Lu Youdao turned and walked towards the tripod with a limping gait.