Chapter 23: Volume One and Two: Chapter 23: The Pursuer

After their relaxing entertainment session, Fuling curled up in Linglan’s arms and fell asleep as happily as ever.

The generator had been shut off, and the room had returned to oppressive darkness.

Linglan didn’t need sleep, so she tried to recall everything she knew about the Mother Entity.

She was a neat freak, hated noise, loved to eat, and enjoyed playing pranks. She had very little empathy. All in all, she was a huge pain—and often downright annoying.

But she had one virtue that more than made up for everything else: she never minded sharing.

It wasn’t so much that she lacked empathy as that she took everything in stride. She never thought any of it was worth getting upset about.

That was the principle she lived by.

If someone died, they were dead. If something was lost, there was no point wasting time looking for it. If you had no home, there was nothing you could do. Crying wouldn’t help.

I’ll bury him for you. We should think about tomorrow.

I can’t find what you lost, but I can make you an exact copy.

If you don’t have a home, you can stay with me.

Here. This is a tissue. Wipe your tears.

In the novel, her relationship with Fuling seemed awful on the surface. But when it mattered, they trusted each other with their backs without a second thought.

It was a shame that such a lovable, infuriating character died halfway through the story.

Linglan gazed at the ceiling and slowly closed her eyes.

Since she knew what the future held, she was going to set right every single thing she couldn’t stand!

Click.

The intelligence center’s doorknob turned.

?

Not that knob!

The moment the strange sound rang out, Fuling sprang upright from Linglan’s arms.

Was it a beast?

What was out there?

Linglan felt a flicker of fear. The two watched the doorknob twist and rattle. It was less like someone was trying to open the door…

and more like a severed hand had been left hanging from the frame, swaying against the knob with every gust of wind.

The door was locked from the inside, yet whatever was outside kept trying to turn the handle.

Click, click.

Click, click, click.

The two lowered themselves and pulled out their weapons. Linglan tossed a chocolate bar into her chest cavity, and the vines tore open the wrapper and held it between them.

The doorknob turned faster and faster, as if it were growing impatient.

The restless noise made it impossible for Fuling to stay calm. Linglan crouched and crept to the opposite window, then used gravity to pull the curtain aside.

She peered outside and confirmed there was no enemy nearby. Then she poked her spear through the window.

No one.

“Click, click, click, click!!!”

The knob began to jerk violently. The doorframe shuddered with a series of bangs, and the two hastily climbed out the window.

Was this place haunted?!

What kind of beast could do something like that?

They already had the base’s coordinates, and the map was packed away in their bag. Keeping their steps low, they headed toward the main entrance. After putting some distance between themselves and the building, they broke into a run.

Linglan glanced back. The oppressive, dead airport was deserted, and the loud banging on the door had stopped at some point.

“The car door’s open?!”

Fuling’s alarmed shout made Linglan pause. She reached out with gravity and opened the car door from a distance. The two warily checked inside. Once they were sure nothing strange was hiding there, they started the engine.

Vrooom—

They’d shut it off after making sure the area was safe. Now they had to wait several seconds for it to start again.

At that moment, Fuling saw a small black figure leap out of the intelligence center and dive toward them.

In the moonlight, a crown of bones surrounded a beating heart. Six arms grafted to its back spread out like the petals of a blooming flower.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Fuling activated her ability and squeezed the trigger. In just one second, she fired eleven 5.8-millimeter intermediate cartridges.

Every bullet struck the figure’s body. One of them hit its heart directly.

The bullets’ impact had no effect. They passed through the monster’s body as smoothly as water.

The shattered heart turned into countless Fibers. Like living things, they drew together and reformed into their original shape.

Linglan stared in horror.

This was a C-Rank Mutant!

As its small body was about to land on the car, gravity trapped it in midair.

Fuling realized the bullets were useless, so she pulled out a lighter and a propane cylinder and tossed them to Linglan.

Vrooom!

The car surged forward. Linglan used gravity to push the lighter and cylinder toward the mutant. At the same time, the corpse-white creature raised its head toward the car.

Its head swelled and peeled open, revealing a soft pink membrane that expanded like a frog’s throat pouch.

In the blink of an eye, the membrane stretched more than ten feet and stuck to the side of the car like a gigantic mouth.

Ugh!

That’s disgusting!

The car lurched as the membrane’s suction slowly lifted one side, its tires spinning against the ground as it drove in a circle around the mutant.

Fuling didn’t know what was inside the membrane. Worried that shooting it might release gas into the car, she hesitated.

Bang—whoosh!

Luckily, the lighter ignited the propane. Flames curled over the membrane from the side, forcing it to pull back.

Freed from the monster’s grasp, the car slammed back down. Amid a loud squeal of tires, Linglan shifted into top gear, floored the accelerator, and sped away.

The mutant landed lightly on the ground. As the membrane withdrew into its body, it returned to its small, harmless-looking form.

It lowered its head to sniff the place where Linglan had been. Then its body began to shudder violently. The pore in its head trembled as it released a piercing shriek.

It gripped the muscles on its back with four of its arms and tore its own body open. A rush of gas burst from the wound, propelling it toward the car.

“It’s chasing us! It’s faster than we are!”

Fuling put a chocolate bar in her mouth and fired. She deliberately aimed for the mutant’s back and swollen belly. Each bullet passed through its body, leaving a brief wound behind.

The gas escaping through those wounds slowed it down. The mutant hugged the ground and switched to running on six limbs, jets of air blasting from the pore in its back as it pursued them.

“I can’t stop it!”

Fuling clenched her teeth and pulled out a Molotov cocktail, shaking it hard.

The sticky membrane seemed to have a range of about ten feet. She couldn’t let it get close!

She opened the firing port and threw the bottle. The mutant raced toward it at full speed without the slightest hint of fear, neither dodging nor slowing down.

The flames spread over its bulky body, but the monster didn’t seem affected at all.

Fuling was at a loss. She had no idea what to do.

“It’s catching up!”

A hand landed on her shoulder after she shouted.

Linglan signaled that they should switch places.

They’d already reached the southbound expressway. It should be fine to change drivers for a moment.

Fuling felt a little nervous, but she had no other choice.

It’s just turning the wheel and pressing the gas. I can do this!

Once they’d changed seats, Linglan moved to the back of the car.

A ring of light solidified in the air around her, its glow illuminating her face.

She had no idea why she seemed to attract monsters…

but a mere C-Rank Mutant wasn’t enough to stop her.