Apocalyptic Forecast - Chapter 14
Chapter 14: Nue
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In the darkness, Huai Shi once more felt that paralyzing chill coming from his forehead. It was that horrifying feeling he had in those countless nightmares, the skill that he had honed by experiencing death more times than he could count— his Premonition of Death skill had been activated!
Huai Shi did not even have the time to think. He fell to the ground abruptly and rolled around like mad, remembering what the crow had said earlier. An endless stream of painful memories filled his mind, and his right hand soon felt warm again. He had created a handful of Disastrous Dust by reliving those negative memories.
There was the sound of the ground shattering behind him. He held his breath and scattered the powder.
There was a second of silence.
The next second, he heard the Vicious Ape’s tragic scream.
“F*ck… Lights!”
Liu Dongli shouted, “Lights! Lights! Lights lights!”
“Pfft!”
It was an extremely dangerous situation, but hs could not help but burst out laughing. ‘Sorry, I didn’t think you’re a motherf*cking Intel…’1
Without wasting any more time, he pulled Liu Dongli’s phone out of his bag, turned on the torch, and threw it at Liu Dongli.
“Catch!”
Smash!
The phone shattered in mid-air, and he saw merely a glimpse of the Vicious Ape’s gruesome face in the revolving light. It seemed to have noticed what Liu Dongli’s ability was, so it would not allow even a shred of light.
Huai Shi’s hands did not stop, and he tossed his nearly-defunct phone at Liu Dongli. “Catch again!”
Smash!
The phone shattered in mid-air again.
Alright, now both of them lost their phones.
“F*ck, couldn’t you have waited a little longer?” Liu Dongli was furious. Since Huai Shi threw one phone and it was smashed, why the heck would he throw the other one?
“Or you could’ve done it faster! That would work too!”
“So do you want me to go faster or slower?!”
Huai Shi was mad now too, and as he ran clumsily away, he searched through the bottles and tubes in Liu Dongli’s bag. “Here’s your lotion, catch!”
Smash!
That was squeezed so hard it burst too.
After that, there was a gunshot and a flash of gunfire, but no one could tell if the bullet hit that creepy monkey. Either way, Huai Shi felt something sweep past his heel, and it scared him so badly he nearly fell to his knees.
“Couldn’t you aim any better?!”
“Shut up!” Liu Dongli howled impatiently.
“So do you want your stuff or not?” Anger rose in Huai Shi’s heart, and he grabbed another bottle, throwing that instead. “Your eye cream, catch!”
Smash!
“Sunglasses and keys, catch!”
While Liu Dongli and that damned monkey fought to the death, Huai Shi kept throwing things over, and the endless loop of shattering sounds made Liu Dongli’s heart shatter too.
Eventually, the bag was becoming empty, so Huai Shi just threw everything at once.
“Serum, eye cream, facial cream, essence, and what’s this…?” Huai Shi gave it a glance. ‘Oh, a make-up mirror! Catch!”
Even the Vicious Ape could not be bothered with all that junk now.
To its surprise, however, Liu Dongli actually threw caution to the winds and pounced forth, fishing his mirror out of the air. He even ignored the fact that the Vicious Ape was right in front of him.
In an instant, Liu Dongli caught it and turned around to give that cursed monkey a cold smile through the darkness.
“—Behold my breathtaking beauty, motherf*cker!”
The next moment, light shone from his hand.
It had not expected this, but Huai Shi and Liu Dongli had been waiting for this moment— That dandy Liu Dongli even had a light attached to his make-up mirror!
It was a ring-shaped 360-degree blind-spot-free whitening gentle LED light too!
Under that instantaneous light, the Vicious Ape’s metallic claw was barely inches from Liu Dongli’s face, but the moment it lit up, the attacker stopped suddenly.
At that moment, there was nothing it could do. Even Huai Shi fell for it and accidentally saw that face.
He immediately froze to the spot, unable to move.
All he could say, again and again, was “oof!”
Liu Dongli was falling, but he did not even have the time to recover. Raising his gun, he shot randomly and cleared out his last two bullets… but there was still no sign of any blood.
Finally, he crashed to the ground, almost face-first, before scrambling back to his feet.
Immediately after that, he heard the Vicious Ape’s shrill screech. It suddenly raised its metal claws and dug at its eyes. There was the sound of a layered thunk, and sticky blood spewed from the holes in the mask.
This time, it would never see Liu Dongli’s face again.
It suddenly swung its arm and tore a hole in Huai Shi’s arm. If Liu Dongli had not retracted his ability so quickly, Huai Shi’s neck might have snapped in half.
Huai Shi was so scared now that his face turned white.
“What the heck, bro! Does your ability work or not?!”
Liu Dongli grew furious as well. “I don’t have much hair left, so there’s not much I can do!”
‘So your breathtaking beauty primarily comes from your hair?!’
The two of them rolled to a side and did not even dare to breathe loudly. They tried their best to stay completely silent, making not a single sound.
In the silence, there was only the Vicious Ape with his eyes of blood pacing around, brutally tearing anything that made any noise into pieces.
Eventually, Huai Shi heard a helpless sigh.
The wind blew fiercely, piercing through the pitch-black cloud. The cleansing moonlight illuminated the dead-quiet street.
Directly ahead of them down the street, Ai Qing looked at them, dressed in black and sitting in her wheelchair. She shook her head crossly and pushed her wheelchair, advancing slowly.
There was only the soft whir of the wheelchair turning in the silence.
The maddened Vicious Ape shrieked and suddenly turned around. Its empty eye sockets glared in the direction of the sound, and it pounced!
Ai Qing shook her head somewhat impatiently and sighed. From the wheelchair pocket next to her, she pulled out a… gun of a model that Huai Shi could not recognize, and she released the safety with the hand of an expert.
Aiming ahead, she pulled the trigger.
In that instant, all Huai Shi saw was a string of scorching-hot light burst from the barrel. There was a high and piercing screech, and then the Vicious Ape froze in mid-air, shaking madly like a torn plastic bag floating in the wind. Finally, it fell to the ground, spasming and screaming in agony.
Having shot out an entire load of bullets, Ai Qing calmly yanked off the magazine and threw it to the side. There was only the sound of the casings clinking against the ground now.
Was it over?
Just as Huai Shi was shocked, the torn-up money on the ground suddenly crawled back up again, rushing toward the side.
It wanted to escape.
Ai Qing could not even be bothered to stop it.
Almost immediately, a faint red dot appeared on the Vicious Ape’s body.
Bam!
All of a sudden, there was a loud bang from the distance.
It was followed by an entire volley.
The Vicious Ape looked like it was struck by lightning. One of its legs was suddenly reduced to a cloud of blood, and soon after, a hole appeared in its chest as well. It was ripped open from the back, so the monkey’s organs spewed out like mud.
Several large holes appeared on the ground, like the craters formed when metal hammers instantly crashed down.
Thanks to those snipers from afar, that monster instantly became a torn-up ragdoll. The unbelievable part, though, was that it was still alive.
It struggled madly, getting up with the help of its hands and its remaining left leg. It then desperately ran outside on all threes, moving unbelievably quickly.
Finally, it was basically flying away while hovering near the ground!
Before they knew it, it disappeared into the darkness amidst the gunfire.
Only then did Liu Dongli finally heave a sigh of relief. He fell on his butt and pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. Lighting it, he took quite a few puffs before he managed to properly catch his breath.
If Ai Qing had not gotten here in time, he would have definitely died here earlier.
“Still, when did you call the cab to get here? You were so fast…”
“Why don’t you guess?”
Ai Qing did not give him a direct answer. Instead, she looked at him like he was an idiot, as usual. It made Liu Dongli sigh exasperatedly.
Fine, so there was no need for her to call a cab at all.
Over the past two days, it seemed there were probably several people taking turns to watch him from the shadows all day long… That woman was totally heartless, was she not?
“And here I thought the two of you could handle it on your own! Look how this turned out. You’re practically helpless once the lights are on, right? I can’t believe you’ve fallen so low.”
She insulted Liu Dongli heartlessly before asking, “Did you discover anything?”
“I’m not sure about his soul ability, but I think I saw his stigma in a professor’s chart before…” Liu Dongli scratched his head. “I think it’s the Nue, right?’
He gave it some thought and grew even more certain. “It’s a third stage Ether-grade stigma— the Nue.”
The Nue was a legendary creature.
It apparently had the face of a monkey, the body of a raccoon dog, the limbs of a tiger and the tail of a snake. It had no wings, but it could fly nonetheless.
“It looks like it just reached Ether-grade and can’t fly that well. If it weren’t for that, my body would be cold by now.”
Liu Dongli wiped the cold sweat from his face and panted. “F*ck, I barely just reached ‘Gold’ myself, but I managed to survive a fight with an ‘Ether’, someone one level higher than me? Sheesh, that was close.
“Where did this Ether-grade Ascender come from? I thought the only Ether-grade in the entire New Ocean is the professor.”
“So we even have an Ether-grade Ascender now, huh? Those guys sure have their hands full this time…” Ai Qing gave the distance an amused glance before tapping the armrest on her wheelchair. “The situation isn’t too bad, at least, and your efforts did not go to waste, the two of you. Now I have more scapegoats to use in an emergency, too.”
“…”
Liu Dongli was silent. As he looked at that pretty side profile, his heart felt cold.
With such a terrible invigilator on his case, his future was bleak.
After a short musing, Ai Qing raised her head and asked, “Are there any other findings?”
“Hmm? Nope.”
Liu Dongli paused and immediately shook his head violently.
“In that case, carry on with the operation. I’ll call you whenever I find a clue on my end.”
She finally gave Liu Dongli a glance, and her gaze swept across Huai Shi, but she did not say anything. She just turned her wheelchair around and left.
After a long time standing in the silence, Huai Shi finally reacted.
“Is it m, or is she not that fond of me?”
Liu Dongli rolled his eyes. “I’ve never seen her fond of anyone, okay? But you might really have offended her last time, so you better keep your fingers crossed.”
He patted the boy’s shoulder forcefully, but his heart could not help but sink.
This was the only thing he had kept hidden— the instant when the street lamps went off, he sensed a faint trace of elementium activating behind him.
—This kid… might have the potential to become an Ascender.
…
In the secret room. The ‘Master’ saw the mess of flesh and blood that used to be the Vicious Ape. The sight froze him on the spot.
“What the heck happened?!”
“It was a trap… A trap by the Astronomical Association!” the Vicious Ape screeched angrily. “That brat had an Ascender bodyguard with him! And a sniper, too!
The Master remained rooted and stunned.
“What’re you just standing there for?!”
The Vicious Ape withstood the agony and ripped off the mask, revealing a distorted old face that was lined with ruthlessness. “I can’t hold on much longer. Give me some elementium, stat!”
The Master instinctively held the box. “B-but… There isn’t much elementium left.”
“Don’t you have all those old farts you can harvest?!” The Vicious Ape clambered up from the bed and supported its body with one leg, approaching the Master dangerously. “Give me all of it! This all happened because I’m trying to help you clean your mess!”
The Master involuntarily took out the box, and the Vicious Ape snatched it away instantly.
It opened the box impatiently and opened it, staring at the layer of clear spring water within. It was as transparent as a fog. The Vicious Ape pressed its face into the box and sucked it in greedily.
Soon enough, there was a harsh grating sound. The flesh and bone regenerated with the cacophony of clashing metal. New organs and limbs sprouted from the disfigured body.
By the time all the limbs were back in place, the Master hurriedly took the box back. When he saw how much less elementium there was inside, his face grew even paler from the heartache.
“What about the powder? Can you give me some?” The Vicious Ape wiped its face and reached into the Master’s pocket, pulling out a packet of powder. It took a good whiff of the substance and shuddered, but the blood had now returned to its face. It stumbled a few steps backward and sat on the bed.
“You’re the chief the Lord chose, so what do you plan to do now?”
The Master stayed silent and instinctively bit his finger, as though lost in thought.
After a long time, a hint of ruthlessness flashed across his face.
“Since the Astronomical Association is onto us, we can’t stay here in New Ocean for much longer.”
He opened his mouth and looked at his finger, bloody from the biting. His voice was hoarse as he said, “After the last mass tomorrow, we’ll change locations. Let’s leave overnight… There are still six months until the New Year, so if we work harder and get enough elementium, the Lord won’t punish us…”
“What about the mission?” the Vicious Ape asked. “The mission in the quarantine zone?”
The Master shuddered.
He did not say a thing.