Chapter One: Crimson Twilight
5
It was a girl.
In her early twenties, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans with a backpack slung over her shoulders, she looked like a tourist. She had fallen to the ground, scrambling backward on all fours, her face streaked with snot and tears. Standing before her... was that thing.
Zhao Yan couldn't think of a more fitting word to describe it.
About two meters tall, humanoid in shape, but its skin was a dark red, like raw, peeled muscle. It had no head; above the neck was a thick, twisting spinal column, split open at the top to form a mouth full of sharp teeth. It had six arms, each clutching a rusty knife, axe, saw, or something similar.Now it was slowly bending down, its mouth approaching the girl with a hissing sound, as if sniffing.
The girl's screams had turned into choked sobs.
The surrounding "pedestrians" all stopped.
The frog-headed man in the suit stopped his car, tilting his head to watch. The faceless old woman's shoulders shook even harder. The compound eyes on the back of the sailor-suited girl's head turned in unison toward them. They stood there watching, as if observing a performance—a feeding show.
Zhao Yan's feet moved.
Before his mind could process it, his legs had already surged forward. Firefighter training, the instinct honed from countless charges into burning buildings, that conditioned reflex to "someone needs help"—it propelled him forward.
"Hey! Stay away from her!"
He bellowed, charging to the girl in a few strides. Turning, he spread his arms wide, shielding her behind him. His eyes locked on the headless monster as his mind raced—weapons? None. Anything usable nearby? Nothing. Escape routes? Behind him was an intersection, shops flanked left and right, and the monster directly ahead.
The monster's spine cracked as it twisted 180 degrees, its gaping maw now aimed squarely at him.
"Hiss..."
It seemed to find this quite amusing. Six arms slowly rose, six weapons gleaming coldly under the neon lights.
The girl trembled like a leaf behind Zhao Yan, clutching the hem of his shirt.
"Don't be afraid," Zhao Yan whispered, his eyes fixed on the creature. "On the count of three, run to the convenience store on the right. Don't look back. One..."
The creature moved.
It didn't charge forward—it vanished in an instant, reappearing three steps to Zhao Yan's left the next second. Its speed left afterimages trailing behind it.
Zhao Yan's pupils contracted as his body lunged rightward, simultaneously shoving the girl in the opposite direction.
"Run!"
The girl scrambled out, rolling and crawling.
The monster's saw sliced past Zhao Yan's back, tearing a gash in his clothes and leaving his skin burning. He rolled once on the ground, half-kneeling as he rose. His hand groped the earth—finding a broken brick fragment.
Better than nothing.
The monster vanished again.
This time it materialized directly in front of him, six weapons slashing down simultaneously.
There was no dodging them.
Zhao Yan's heart sank. He could only raise the broken brick, preparing to take the blow head-on. He knew the outcome—the brick would shatter, his arm would break, and then it would be his turn. But every second bought time. The girl should be far away by now...
Clang!
A shrill clang of metal collision erupted.
The expected excruciating pain didn't come.
Zhao Yan opened his eyes.
The monster halted three paces away, its six weapons suspended mid-air as if they'd struck an invisible wall. Ripples spread out from before it like water ripples in the air.
"Huh?" The creature uttered an indistinct sound.
It tried again, faster and fiercer this time. The axe struck the air, rebounding with a shower of sparks.
Zhao Yan slowly rose to his feet, glancing at the invisible wall, then at the monster, then around his surroundings. He tentatively extended his hand, reaching forward.
About two meters from the creature, his fingers encountered something soft yet surprisingly firm. It felt like rubber, or perhaps gel—elastic, yet impossible to penetrate no matter how hard he pressed.
A barrier?
"Oh my, a new player, I see."
A sickly sweet female voice, tinged with amusement, drifted down from above.
Zhao Yan snapped his head up.