Chapter 273: It Can’t be Her? [Part 2]
Dantu’s mother had passed away since a long time ago, and his father hadn’t returned from a hunt since he was seven years old. In fact, less than one fifth of the hunting group had returned to the city because they were unfortunate enough to encounter a Glass, a higher species among the Claws. At the time, it was impossible for Dantu to have gone on a solo hunt, and there was no one who would lend him a hand. There were so many cases like Dantu in the city that the people had become desensitized to their presence. Then, just when Dantu was about to starve to death, Grandpa An, the strange old man who rarely exited his room and wasn’t particularly close to anyone, had given him food. Grandpa An’s savings was something his offsprings had left behind, but after they were gone he became a lot quieter than he used to be. He almost never left his room either because he was a disabled person. For as far as Dantu could remember Grandpa An had always sat on a wheelchair, and there was no one who would take care of him.
Chi Lafang and Sediya exchanged a glance with each other while everyone in the control room was listening to the conversation. Assuming that they hadn’t misjudged the situation, Cillin must have cast a hypnosis spell on Dantu! Considering how cautious the little guy had been since the beginning, it made no sense for him to become so talkative all of a sudden.
Dantu’s expression became much gentler when he spoke of the time after he came to know Uncle An, but when Cillin and the group started asking about entering the city and borrowing Dantu’s room, his face suddenly distorted as if he was trying to resist something. Sweat beads started pouring down Dantu’s forehead like the rain, and a while later the boy suddenly looked up and glared at him with such anger and madness that felt Cillin like the little guy would attack in the next instant.
“What did you do to me?!” Dantu breathed heavily as he asked. His hands were clenched into fists, but he couldn’t stop himself from shaking. He had said far too much just now, and he could only imagine consequences it would bring!
Cillin smiled at him before pushing in the final component of the car model. Then, he passed it to Wheeze to play with at the side.
“Your willpower isn’t bad,” Cillin commented.
“You… You can’t hurt Grandpa An! You can’t!” Dantu shouted at Cillin.
“I never said I was going to hurt him,” Cillin stood up, patted his thighs and started walking towards the exit of the control room. However, he came to a stop after just two steps before turning around to look at Dantu, “You were smiling when you were talking about your time with that Grandpa An. Someone once told me that a person who was reminiscing must be truly happy if they blinked as they smiled.”
Dantu’s fingers loosened for a second before he clenched them once more.
There was a time Dantu had thought himself to be happy and blessed. Although he was an orphan in every sense of the word, he still had Grandpa An at the time. The old man who always wore an amiable look on his face had told him many stories that he had never heard before, and he had also taught him how to hunt and protect himself.
Dantu’s wish was to accumulate enough money — the kind that was circulated within the city — from his hunts and move in to one of those tougher, wider buildings that looked like a fortress one day. He wished that they could both lead a better life…
The final hunting squad had returned to the city just before the sky had darkened completely. It was none other than the hunting squad Dantu had been part of earlier.
Dantu hadn’t returned to the hunting squad within the promised time, and they hadn’t been able to contact him through a communicator either. Their experience had told them that Dantu had either lost his direction or had gotten himself into a pickle. It didn’t matter either because the outcome of both scenarios was the same: the chances of a lone person surviving was close to zero, not to mention that Dantu was just fifteen years old. He might have had nearly five years of hunting experience under his belt, but he was still lacking in many ways compared to the veteran hunters.
After failing to contact Dantu even after they had gotten ready to return to the city, the hunting squad decided to give up waiting and return to the city with whatever prize they had gotten. However, no one had noticed the man hiding inside a Crow’s dead body, just as they had missed a small, unassuming bump attached to their armored vehicle as they passed through the city gate.
“Very good, Cillin had successfully infiltrated the city,” Inside the spaceplane, Nikki commented while staring at the signal on her screen. It was a transmitter that they had installed on Cillin’s body.
Rubu and Armadillo were the only ones left inside the control room behind Nikki. Dantu was also sitting on the side, watching them nervously as they made their move.
Sediya and Chi Lafang were hiding somewhere not too far away from the city; Cillin and White Night were the only ones who were making the infiltration. White Night had infiltrated the city by concealing himself among the second last hunting squad to pass through the city gate, and his objective was different from Cillin’s in that he was heading towards the castellan while Cillin was heading to Dantu’s apartment.
Since the city’s equipment was very backward, they had failed to detect White Night or Cillin in any way. Well for Wheeze, it was even more out of their league.
After Cillin had entered the city, he waited for an opportunity to detach himself from the hiding squad and hid in a secluded spot, waiting for night time. When the sky had turned completely dark, and the citizens had all secured themselves snugly behind closed doors, Cillin started moving towards Dantu’s apartment.
Most of the people living in the city were experienced hunters, so their senses were honed to be extremely sensitive towards danger and unusual activity. Moreover, most of these traces were impossible to conceal through technology alone. That was why both Cillin and White Night had practiced caution as they were moving through the city.
Cillin had memorized the city’s entire layout. It didn’t take long for him to reach the building where Dantu was staying.
Cillin had excellent hearing, and he caught several households talking about Dantu’s disappearance through the walls. The hunting squad had brought news that Dantu hadn’t returned with them to the city, and they all thought the boy must’ve been lost forever to them. However, it was obvious from their tone that they didn’t really pity or miss Dantu in any way; he was just a convenient topic to bring up and spend time on after dinner.
These people were indifferent because they were numb, and in this city the relationship between people was as cold as cold as the metal that made up their homes. Moreover, the city’s unique environment-driven social structure also meant that no one could be bothered to point fingers over minor injustices, and that the right belonged only to the living.
Cillin arrived at the floor where Dantu’s room was situated. There was no one lingering outside the building because there were always some unknown danger lurking behind the darkness. To these people living in this city, the one place that was truly safe when it was night time was their home.
Cillin paused for a second and shot a glance at Uncle An’s room. The main door was tightly shut, and the lights inside the room were completely off. After that, he moved on to Dantu’s room and took out the keys Dantu had given him, but he sensed someone inside the room the second he had opened the door.
Inside the spaceplane, the feed on Nikki’s screen suddenly started blurring before it cut out completely. It meant that the transmission had been disrupted by an electromagnetic jammer! Why would such a high level piece of technology exists in a rundown place like this?!
The person we’re looking for is right there!
That was the first thought that entered Nikki’s mind, and she immediately contacted White Night, Sediya and Chi Lafang outside the city.
Cillin had immediately gone on high alert the moment he noticed that there was someone inside the room. He dodged a blow that was directed at his face, blocked the follow-up attacks that came after, turned sideways and leaned backwards towards the ground. Then, he pushed the floor with a finger and bounced to the side before pulling out his long blade with his free hand and pointing it at his opponent.
The transmission didn’t stay disrupted for long thanks to Wheeze’s countering the electronic jammer. Although there was no light inside the room, the faint ray of light entering the room from outside was all Cillin needed to see his attacker’s face clearly. It was the same with the people inside the spaceplane thanks to the night vision filters on the transmission device.
Surprisingly, the person with the biggest reaction wasn’t anyone from Nikki’s group. It was Dantu. The young boy had jumped up from his seat with eyes that looked to be filled with disbelief, “Impossible! It can’t be her… I thought she’s already…”
“That girl looks a little familiar to me.” Chi Lafang commented after giving the photo Nikki had sent them a look.
Nikki shook her head in response, “I’ve never seen her.”
“Well, I did just a while ago. I’ve never spoken to her, but I’ve seen her in the same racing competition our Cillin boy had participated in,” Sediya said while staring at the image.
Inside Dantu’s room, Cillin’s opponent had ceased attacking after her initial failure. In fact, the reason Cillin hadn’t turned her into a corpse already was because he didn’t sense any killing intent from her.
Cillin pointed his blade at the girl before him. Honestly speaking, he hadn’t expected to run into her here of all places.
“We meet again, Qiu Xu.”