Apocalyptic Forecast - Chapter 29
Chapter 29: Provoking A Monster To Lure It
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The lightbulb hanging from the iron wall shone dimly, illuminating the bubbling crucible as well as pieces of metal littered all over the place.
Aside from the sounds of thunder outside and the raindrops hammering the ground, in the sealed room, only heavy breaths akin to a low bellow could be heard.
Red Glove, with his upper body bared, gritted his teeth and changed the bandages on the half of his body that was a mess of flesh and blood. As he peeled off the gauze sticking to his bloody flesh, scarlet blood gushed from behind the torn scabs.
It was as if multiple blades had been plunged into him as the fine slits opened little pink mouths, spitting out blood-red saliva.
“F*ck! That monstrous East Xia junior high student…”
Red Glove cursed in a low voice. He took up the spray can and aimed it at his wounds. A spurt of green mist landed on his body, immediately reacting as sulfuric acid does when meeting an alkaline solution, hissing violently.
While he repressed a pained roar, wisps of the pale green aerosol squeezed into his wounds as though it was alive. Right after this, his entire upper body started to wriggle like a snake’s nest.
He laid limp on the ground, spasming in pain, no longer able to resist roaring in pain.
Something was warring in his torso like it was a battleground. Very quickly, extravasated blood and pieces of his internal organs flowed out from his wounds in a deep green muck, alongside wisps of cinder-like black ink.
This was Chang Geng’s poison that had been forcibly squeezed out of his guts…
If it were somebody else, they probably would have died much sooner, would they not? If it were not for his Stigma – Taxim being able to temporarily zombify his torso, he was afraid he would not have been able to withstand this fighting-poison-with-poison methodology.
In a few short seconds, he was already sweating buckets. His sweat mixed with the spoiled blood as it flowed from his wounds.
He looked like a living corpse that a graverobber had dragged out from a coffin.
However, regardless, he was still alive.
This near-death experience even helped him gain a firmer grip on advancing past the nightmare and going into the fourth stage.
When the alarm rang, he finally had the strength to crawl up from the floor. He took up the tongs and poured the silver fluid from the bubbling crucible into an iron mug.
Hissing noises rang out.
This was not some tasty beverage, it was just a puddle of boiling metal liquid!
Even if he was half-zombified at that moment, Red Glove still hesitated for a long while after picking the mug up. However, this silver blood potion that was brewed at the last minute was only effective in liquid form.
Therefore, he steeled himself and downed it in one go.
Amid excruciatingly scorching pain, he half expected his esophagus and mouth to burn to ash. Regardless, this was a necessary price to pay.
This type of liquid that was deadly to regular people was actually a type of priceless mini-stigma—a small miracle compressed in the form of a metal liquid that could fix all damaged stigmas as well as the torso in a short amount of time, like a universal glue.
The technique to ensure it maintains liquid form under room temperatures was every alchemy workshop’s secret and could not ever be revealed. As of now, in his haste, he could only concoct this unrefined version that would undoubtedly have serious after-effects on his body.
Very quickly, the half of his body that was a mess of flesh and blood started to close up. Slivers of metallic light shone through the wounds. The solidified metal mixed with his flesh and blood, re-sealing the torso that was on the verge of breaking apart.
This excruciating pain also depleted the last of his energy, making his consciousness grow fainter, until he nearly fainted.
His trembling hand groped about his pocket until he pulled out a pouch. Opening it, he fished out the incense inside and lit his elementium’s fire.
Plumes of smoke entered his nostrils.
His pale face gradually reddened. His depleted energy slowly recovered a little under the stimulation of the incense, but it was not enough to bring him back to a tenth of his regular state.
Those red-bottle, blue-bottle types of convenient creations in online games were not realistic at all. Even if they existed, the cost of them would be high enough for each one to be sold for millions as they were a critical-point life-saving tool.
Moreover, with metal mending the body and incense maintaining soul, this was a daily occurrence for every border Ascender.
Only now did he finally reach out his hand and bring the cellphone that had been vibrating for a long time to his ear, answering the call.
“It’s me. I’m still at New Ocean.”
“How’s your condition?” The person on the other end of the line asked.
“I’ve received some injuries and am still losing blood. Thankfully, I have the Four of Spades you gave me, or I’d really have been in trouble.”
He put on his jacket using his free hand with difficulty. “New Ocean has already been completely threaded through with the Astronomical Association’s fuse now. The spare safe house has been discovered too… Don’t worry. I’ll leave at midnight and prepare an escape route myself. I won’t leave any evidence behind.”
“Be wary of everything. Don’t stay in the interior any longer. Come back as soon as possible.”
The caller urged him, “Although New Ocean’s intruder wasn’t caught, it doesn’t change the bigger picture—your mission has been completed. We’ll be able to clear the route to Magic City very soon… If the situation is dangerous, then act according to your own judgment. Put your safety first.”
Red Glove hung up apathetically and started destroying everything he could not bring with him. Very quickly, he was done tidying up.
The time was 11.15.
It was time to leave this city of living corpses…
Bang!
Suddenly, the loud boom of a collision reverberated from far away.
Red Glove stopped in his tracks before looking at the monitor screen in the corner.
Somebody was here.
He spread his palms and called out a fish tank, bending his head to peep through the water.
Just outside the door, a crimson sports car had crashed into a mountain of containers and was emitting black smoke.
A car crash?
…
“Kuh kuh kuh, kuh kuh kuh…”
Amid the heavy smoke, Huai Shi crawled out from the car with difficulty, his head spinning. At the same time, the ice-cold rain poured down, rousing him.
He looked lazily at his surroundings, only to see the mountainous layers of containers stacked up at the quayside with the cold-as-steel surface of the sea glistening beneath the gloomy sky.
“We’ve arrived?”
“Uh-huh, we’re here.”
The crow who had just escaped death flew out of the car and peered at her surroundings. “Couldn’t you find a parking lot? Even if I said to be rash, there was no need for you to be so reckless as to intentionally crash the car, was there?
“Have you forgotten the sin you committed yourself?” Huai Shi glared at her. “Even if I parked the car, I don’t have money to pay the parking fare, alright?!”
“Then you could’ve just left the car behind and let Liu Dongli pay for it himself after he leaves the hospital!”
Huai Shi paused for a moment, realizing that if they compared their respective lack of consciences, this rotten bird was a rank above. ‘When it comes to being hearted, I, Huai Shi, acknowledge you as the strongest.’
Under the heavy rain, he looked left and right, making out the terrain. He was completely confused. No matter where he looked, it all looked the same. They were surrounded by crossroads made from stacked cargo containers of various colors.
There was no way to tell exactly where he was.
Much less find Red Glove who was hiding here.
He had said he would come out to fight monsters.
He had now arrived.
So, where was the monster?
The crow was silent for a moment before making a bad suggestion. “Why don’t you try calling out a couple of times?”
Huai Shi paused for a moment before immediately nodding his agreement. He cupped his two hands around his mouth and shouted, “Hello? Are you there? Is anyone there? Fellow, open the door, I’m here to deliver some warmth… Red Glove, old boy, which alley are you hiding in?”
Nobody answered.
In the dark, Red Glove stared coolly at the image on the surface of the water, expressionless.
“What’s this? Did he come to make jokes?”
Suddenly, the water in the fish tank rippled slightly.
The faraway angle moved over the surroundings. After making sure nobody was waiting to ambush him, it seemed to put down a telescope before immediately picking something else up.
After this, a neat and fine crosshair appeared on the image…
He aimed for Huai Shi’s head through the slowly-moving water.
At the top of a tower crane high in the sky, a figure that had been draped on the derrick under a dust sheet slowly got up, letting the rain wash over his pale skin. There was not a hint of expression in his dull eyes—only a goldfish swimming slowly.
The heavy sniper rifle in his hands was held level.
His breathing was controlled.
In the middle of the suffocating pain, the long barrel of the gun held steadily in his hands was raised. The ink-black steel reflected the endless rain falling from the sky.
Now, separated by sheets of rain hundreds of meters away, the rifle scope was locked onto the completely-defenseless figure in the rain.
His index finger pulled back slightly.
At that moment, the view in the rifle scope suddenly moved to one side, and a pair of enormous scarlet eyes appeared through in the sights. It was as if the image in the reflection was staring straight at Red Glove’s face.
That sudden shock caused Red Glove’s hands to shake, and he nearly flipped the fish tank.
What was this!?
“Just what are you doing, little boy?”
The crow that had landed on the gun and was currently sneakily looking through the rifle scope opened its mouth and spoke, “Isn’t it dangerous to be standing so high up when it’s raining?”
“Well…”
After she said this, she lifted a claw and put what she was holding into the lifeless puppet’s hand.
“I’ll give you something good.”
Under Red Glove’s control, the puppet instinctively looked down and saw he was holding a long, thin… metal wire?
At that moment, a faint azure light shot out from the wire.
In the next second, thunder roared, and he could see nothing.
Bang!
“What the f*ck!”
It was like Red Glove had been struck with lightning. He staggered back a step and subconsciously covered his forehead, feeling the agony of his split elementium having been burnt to a crisp by lightning.
What made him even more uneasy was that the weird crow reminded him of that coronated White Emperor now famous in East Xia, that girl constantly running around with a dove…
He suddenly found himself shuddering a little—just how many monsters did those lunatics from Jixia create?
If this was a similar case, there was no point evading and hiding any longer.
Only by risking his life would he have any chance of survival.
His expression sobered up, and he clenched his fists tightly. After he heard the sharp sound of steel breaking from a distance away, he slowly pushed open the door and left, walking out of the container he had hidden in.
In the rain, at the crossroads between the layers of stacked steel, the shouting of the young man abruptly stopped.
“You actually came out?”
Huai Shi was astonished. It was as though you were yelling about how nobody would save you and, immediately after, someone named Nobody suddenly appears.
“Are you alone?”
Red Glove tilted his head to look around and did not detect anyone else. His expression became colder. “East Xia’s people really are worsening with each generation, huh?”
“Ah, no, you’ve probably misunderstood.”
Huai Shi waved a hand awkwardly, lamenting helplessly, “Although it’s not our first time meeting, I should probably introduce myself a little. I don’t like formalities though, so if you really want to know how to address me, you can call me…”
As he said this, he took off his hood and revealed his face as well as his pink mask.
“—Little Piggy of Huaihai Road.”
“…”
Red Glove froze.
What game was this?
‘Are you kidding me?’
What “huai”, what “hai”, what “road”, what “little”, what “piggy”?
It was understandable. Anyone who saw the mask would be stupified.
At that moment, he was stunned. Meanwhile, Huai Shi, who had prepared for this moment for a long time, simply produced Liu Dongli’s gun and aimed it at his face before pulling the trigger.
Bang!