Chapter 27: It Was Simply a Death Full of Grievances
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
“Lookie here! Isn’t this the missus who stabbed one of my eyes? Aren’t you going to run? My attack range is really wide. I think you will have to run… over there if you want to avoid getting stabbed by me.”
Under Lin Sanjiu’s horror-filled gaze, the duoluozhong did not attack. Instead, it pointed to an empty patch not far from her. His words were interjected with frivolous laughter, and he narrowed his long slit-like eyes in an exceedingly unpleasant manner. [When it was human, it should have been a repulsive man] somehow, this thought flashed through Lin Sanjiu’s mind.
She stared unwaveringly in the direction of the duoluozhong, her palm flashed with a white light, and she held another handful of cards. Despite the fact that her body was slightly trembling from her intense nervousness, she forced herself to stay in the same spot.
It was a joke if it thought that she would run out to the open space, allowing herself to get sniped! She was not stupid!
With such proximity, she could only strike first! Once again, Lin Sanjiu threw the cards in her hand toward the duoluozhong. However, the duoluozhong was prepared this round. It took a step back and swiftly deflected most of the cards with its mouthpart. The single card that it dodge was summoned back to Lin Sanjiu’s hand. But when she took a glance, she could not help silently swearing.
Of all cards, that remaining card was a support card which was used in tandem with the razor blades. It was a 【Black Cloth】used for obstructing the enemies line of view. She had finished all the razor blades in her arsenal this round. The razor blades that she used were now on the ground. If she wanted to use them again, she had to touch them. Otherwise, she had no other method of retrieving them back.
In that one month, she consciously kept many items as cards. However, with this incident, she was only left with various items that were useless in this situation...
Looking at the card in Lin Sanjiu’s hand, the duoluozhong merely squinched its remaining eye. It walked to the edge of the car roof and started chuckling menacingly.
Lin Sanjiu expected it to say something, but suddenly it swung its mouthpart and thrust it toward her. In that instant, she realized that she was too close to the mouthpart. She simply could not evade it if she did not run outward!
Marcie gave a shout of dismay as Lin Sanjiu rolled outward in desperation. She felt a burning sensation on her shoulder. In the end, she was still scratched by the mouthpart, and a bloody wound appeared on her shoulder.
Pressing down on her wounded shoulder, her eyes swept involuntarily to the building opposite them. She only realized then that she had already rolled away from her cover and was now exposed.
[No, it is too dangerous!] With a single thought, the 【Black Cloth】flew up in the air and opened up with a quick whoosh.
At almost the same time, sounds of gunshots rang in the air after that brief silence. Two consecutive shots were fired. Thanks to the distraction brought about by the movement of the black cloth, the sniper lost focus. One of the rays of light created a hole in the ground beside her. Unfortunately, the second shot pierced through Lin Sanjiu’s knee in an instant. It hurt so much that she let out a cry of pain. It was impossible for her to stand, so she just laid on the same spot gasping for air.
“You motherf*cker!” Witnessing that scene, Luther could not control himself. He leaped out, holding the police baton in his hand, and yelled out as he swung a violent blow toward the duoluozhong.
At the same time, Marcie lunged herself toward where Lin Sanjiu was lying. She planned to pull Lin Sanjiu to safety. The latter was just lying defenselessly on the ground. With another ray of light, that will certainly be the end for Lin Sanjiu. However, just when Marcie grabbed her hand, preparing to drag her behind the car. The sniper rifle rang out again.
Lin Sanjiu watched helplessly as a mist of blood erupted from Marcie’s chest, and tiny red droplets sprayed across her face.
“Marcie?” she called out in a daze.
Through Marcie’s lifeless light brown eyes, Lin Sanjiu could see the reflection of her own pale distraught face. In the next instant, Marcie’s dead body, stripped of all support, fell heavily onto Lin Sanjiu. Her tears gushed out as the dead body landed on her.
Even though she had already experienced it once, the death of a companion still brought her unbearable grief.
“Marcie!” Luther, who was not far from them, yelled out furiously like an injured creature.
Lin Sanjiu’s heart dropped for a second, she mustered all her strength and shouted loudly, “Don’t come here, hide!”
But Luther turned a deaf ear to her advice, he waved his police baton pushing back the duoluozhong, then turned and rushed over. Within a second, he plopped down kneeling beside the two of them.
Luther looked at the dead body, unable to speak for quite a while. He was already exposed, but there was no sound of gunshot unlike what Lin Sanjiu expected. Besides, Luther seemed to have forgotten that—he reached them and touched Marcie’s hair with his trembling hands. He let out a sob and looked at Lin Sanjiu with reddened pleading eyes, “Let’s restart this. We still have one more chance. Marcie… Marcie is my family…”
The fresh red numeral flashed in front of her eyes. Suddenly, she felt a chill in her heart: [Do they really have one more chance? So far, everything was just a conjecture! What if it wasn’t a countdown and everyone just had a precognitive dream?]
Luther’s eyes glistened with tears, under the night sky, they shimmered with a pleading hope. Looking at his eyes, Lin Sanjiu practically could not bring herself to express her doubts.
“Okay…” she averted her gaze, forcing the word out of her mouth, but did not receive any response.
She lifted her eyes only to see that Luther’s face was now rigid and had turned an unprecedented ashen white.
Lin Sanjiu felt instantly crushed; like a crumbling ice tower. She stared fixedly at Luther’s face, calling his name urgently, “Luther, Luther! Say something! Talk to me!”
Emptiness shrouded Luther’s eyes as blood seeped out of his mouth. His limp body flopped over Marcie, revealing a blood-covered mouthpart piecing his fair white neck.
“Wow! Even when they die, they have to die together. I am so moved by such friendship. But are you all scared out of your wits? Restart this? Don’t tell me you believe that you can resurrect the dead?” The duoluozhong’s long, sinister eye gleamed with satisfaction. “Missus, don’t cry. Every bit of moisture from your body is extremely precious to me.”
Only then did Lin Sanjiu realized that she was crying wordlessly. Comparing the gravity of having witnessed her friends die one by one in front of her, that so-called chance was ever so illusive!
She could no longer feel the pain from her wound. The duoluozhong took its own sweet time pulling out its mouthpart and approaching her. Lin Sanjiu strained her eyes, staring at the building across the road. There were four or five metallic spots of light behind the window of an unknown level. The view behind the window was largely covered by a curtain so she could only make out a vague figure of a person whom gender she could not tell.
[Before I die, I must find out at least which story the gunshots were fired from.] Lin Sanjiu thought to herself. One, two, three… seven, eight...
“I bet you didn’t expect that there was another person there, right? How is it? My woman’s ability is not bad, huh?” Following her gaze, the duoluozhong turned back to Lin Sanjiu and said almost boastfully. His tone dripped with conceit.
Lin Sanjiu could not hear anything else clearly. Her mind was only occupied with the counting in her head. When she counted to twelve, through her eyes clouded by her unstoppable tears, she saw the mouthpart covered in Luther’s fresh blood. It rose in front of her. Her world suddenly became dark and blurry. Her consciousness dissipated into nothingness just like mere vapors.
……
“Has he left?” an unfamiliar male voice suddenly came from somewhere.
“Yeah. In the end, I could not resist using ‘that thing’,” another man replied. “This turned out as expected. “From what I see, these people have quite the potential. Who would have known that they would meet opponents much stronger than them at the get-go? They’re unlucky. If I don’t use it now, I might not be able to use it the next time!”
“Sh*t, that’s mine! We have to catch him…” the man gritted his teeth and said.
“Hey, look. This is a rare ‘growth type’!”
“Tut, tut. That’s true…”
“So... do you want to help them?”
The indistinct voices of the two strangers drifted away. Lin Sanjiu had totally slipped into an unconscious darkness. It was the “death” that she had already experienced once...
Second round: another complete wipeout.