“Wind speed changing, direction shifting from right to left at 9.6 kilometers per hour—adjust right by a quarter mil.”
“Understood.” A voice devoid of any emotion responded.
Two people dressed in gray-brown camouflage, perfectly blended with their surroundings, worked together as sniper and spotter.
Gray cloths wrapped around their faces served not only to guard against wind and sand and for camouflage but also to conceal their identities.
Facing the vast, boundless wilderness, even if all of Union City’s standing forces combined, they would be like a single grain of sand on a beach. Not to mention stopping crimes—even discovering them was difficult.
Unless it was a special case, the Tribunal and police bureau’s enforcement was limited to within the city walls.
Outside the walls was a lawless land.
This led to many people having dual identities: a respectable gentleman by day, donning a hood at night to rob and kill outside the city, attack transport convoys, or even hijack trains.
As long as their identities weren’t exposed, they could keep playing this role-playing game until the day they slipped up.
This wasn’t hunting out of survival necessity but an instinct tied to sex and slaughter. Ruthlessly killing someone outside the city released the pressure in their hearts, allowing them to return to the city refreshed, fully immersing themselves in work and family, appearing busy and fulfilled. They even greeted neighbors with a smile every day and lent a hand when needed—everyone thought he or she was a good person.
At that moment, the spotter in the bushes shifted slightly, causing a rustling sound. From the motion of trying to raise their upper body for a better view, this person didn’t seem very professional.
“It’s a little girl—you know what I mean, Diamonds 4. I don’t know what she looks like, but this night is boring. We need some entertainment to pass the time. We could flip a coin to decide who goes first. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
“Not fun at all. A little girl who solo-killed a Shriek Devil Crow is far more terrifying than the crow itself. She might… no, she definitely possesses supernatural power. I bet if you get within thirty meters of her, you’ll die, Hearts 3.”
The sniper, codenamed Diamonds 4, said coldly.
“Aaah, that’s why I hate working with you. No fun at all…”
The spotter let out a string of meaningless grunts and said impatiently,
“Then hurry up and shoot. She hasn’t moved for a long time. No matter what she’s doing, this is a good opportunity. Stealing our targeted prey must be punished. Maybe the corpse can still be used. I’ve never tried a headshot corpse before. I’m not a pervert.”
The duo had been eyeing that Shriek Devil Crow for weeks but had been blocked by the crow flock and never succeeded.
The valley had a gentle slope with open sightlines. Forget entering the core area’s woods—even on the periphery, the omnipresent crows would raise the alarm.
“If I’m not mistaken, she’s making a cadaver,” Diamonds 4 suddenly said.
“Huh? Doesn’t making a cadaver take a long time? The steam-snout horse I custom-ordered last time took half a month from reservation to delivery.”
“I’ve heard it takes at least a day for a cadaver to become mobile, but aside from that, there’s no explanation for why she’s crouched over the demon crow’s corpse so busily,” Diamonds 4 insisted.
“Hey, don’t overthink it. What you need is to pull the trigger, not explanations. If killing a kid bothers your conscience, let me do it.”
Hearts 3’s eyes, peeking between the cloth and his bangs, were cold and mad.
“I have a feeling that figuring this out is crucial—like identifying a mushroom before eating it. Even if it looks like a shiitake, it might be poisonous.”
Diamonds 4 had a faint sense of danger lingering in his heart, foreseeing that these details were connected and could lead to a vital conclusion, but he couldn’t pinpoint it yet.
In the end, he couldn’t withstand his companion’s urging and decided to act.
He held his breath, steadied the crosshair until it stopped drifting, then… pulled the trigger!
A massive, elastic gunshot rang into the sky, startling flocks of birds into flight.
In the woods, the little girl bent over processing the demon crow’s corpse suddenly rolled to the side without warning to evade!
The bullet thudded into the dirt, muffled.
Ashley had long sensed the telescope’s reflection through the visual proteins spread across the flesh on the back of her neck.
Even in the dim, dusky sky with no sunlight to reflect, in her perception, the three lenses of the telescope and scope flashed at her like high beams from a rabid dog.
But she hadn’t expected them to actually try to kill her!
“Damn it!! I’m still a kid! And they want to blow my head off!”
Ashley’s pupils contracted as she locked onto the two figures on the distant slope. Seeing their faces wrapped in cloth, she immediately realized they weren’t ordinary bandits or vagrants but beasts in human skin unwilling to abandon the identities granted by human society.
People working in the wilderness had no need to cover their faces. The only purpose for masking was to commit crimes.
Just like when Ashley used to play Red Dead Redemption 2—she always pulled up her mask before doing bad things.
The first shot missed, but Diamonds 4 didn’t shift. His scope continued tracking the little girl’s figure, though the crosshair dropped from her head to the more hittable chest.
The opponent had no sniper rifle and couldn’t counterattack. This would be a one-sided massacre.
Ashley’s heart pounded wildly. Under the threat of death, she felt her condition was off—exciting currents raced through her nerves, lighting up nodes and bringing fresh, exhilarating pleasure. Her reaction speed and pain tolerance seemed to increase as well.
This wasn’t good. Battle lust and violent tendencies were two sides of the same coin, meaning once she started unleashing violence, it would be hard to stop until she was fully satisfied.
But she needed this right now.
“Though it’s still half-finished, I’ll have to use it…”
Snap!
Two black wings spanning several meters suddenly unfurled!
The demon crow’s corpse trembled eerily as it slowly stood. Slick, scorching innards spilled from the abdominal wound with a splash.
At the head and abdomen where the blood buds clustered, a deep crimson glow suddenly erupted!
Like a lighthouse in the night, it cast long shadows through the gaps in the trees.
The red light was blurry and turbid, eerie and ominous, buzzing with vibration that overturned reason and swept in terror.
Pop, pop, pop…
Accompanied by a staccato mechanical rhythm, hook-like ribs flipped open one by one on both sides, like a pair of opened skeletal hands!
After shedding the burdensome organs, an empty cavity appeared in the chest and abdomen.
The demon crow’s body, reduced to skin, muscle, and bones, was like a large coat that suddenly moved. It lunged onto the little girl’s small body like a ghost possession, then the ribs clamped tight like a giant bony hand!
Ashley’s vision went black as muscles and soft tissues enveloped her from all sides, adhering firmly.
The demon crow’s U-shaped clavicle locked her small body in place like a rollercoaster safety bar. Her arms aligned with the humerus, her legs followed the femurs downward. Blood buds sealed the entrance like stitches, completing the closure—all in mere seconds.
Synchronization rate… 100%!
A cadaver’s emptied cavity after organ removal could store items or seat a person—like a storage and cockpit.
A combat-type cadaver’s cockpit was extremely compact, soft and form-fitting like muscle-powered armor, with excellent shock absorption.
Air exploded with a boom as the demon crow spread its terrifying black wings, spiraling into the sky. After a brief hover, it adjusted direction and shot toward the slope a kilometer away!
“Hey, why haven’t you finished her off? What are you doing…”
Before he finished speaking, Hearts 3 saw the black triangle shrouded in deathly glow growing larger in his telescope’s view!
At the same time, an extremely unsettling low-altitude roar approached from afar.
Hearts 3’s mouth gaped wide, his voice turning dry and hoarse without realizing it.
“A Shriek Devil Crow cadaver… how… how was it completed so quickly… impossible…”
The cognitive upheaval and brain chaos hadn’t ended when the terrifying black light cleaved heaven and earth, streaking right at them!
Hearts 3’s vision suddenly shook violently, then lifted into the air, spinning. It felt strange, like a car crash—unable to control his body’s rotation. When his perspective stabilized, the blood-red sky in his view gradually dimmed.
…
The Black Winged Demon Crow strode through the crimson mist formed from shattered blood, the mist swirling in the sunset’s afterglow like fine dust vortices—resembling deep, mesmerizing ocean currents. Severed limbs and bone fragments littered the ground, stuck to dry grass and stones.
Hearts 3 was pulverized as if hit by a high-speed train. His clothes hung in tatters like burst balloon scraps, soaked in blood. The aluminum telescope shell was twisted and deformed, lodged in a rock crevice.
After the deafening explosion came deathly silence.
This silence brought bone-deep fear. A chill raced up Diamonds 4’s spine to his brain. Like an electric shock, he flung away the sniper rifle camouflaged with dead leaves and fled frantically in the direction away from the demon crow!
Diamonds 4 finally understood the puzzle that had nagged him—why the little girl was making a cadaver on the spot.
The answer: It only took a moment.
But he hadn’t run far when a shrill screech erupted behind him. Overlapping sound waves battered Diamonds 4’s brain relentlessly. He grunted, blood streaming from his ears and nostrils. Losing balance, he knelt on the ground, hallucinations flickering before his eyes as the monster’s massive shadow gradually enveloped him from behind…
