Chapter 16: A Mess |
Chapter 16 A Tangled Mess 6
Facing six experts, Infinite Summer still had enough fighting power to protect himself.
But Lu Guangqi could arrive at any moment, and if he showed up with backup it would be extremely dangerous.
So Infinite Summer decided to buy time for Wu Zhong to retreat on his own.
"I can't hold these guys for long. You run now!"
"Remember: don’t approach any door marked in red... except the one Gizzard led you to."
"Also, if you see zombies, force your mind to think of the most annoying, painful things—fill yourself with resentment."
"If black-backed hounds chase you, just bark at them like a dog."
Gunfire had terrified Wu Zhong, and Infinite Summer’s rapid-fire instructions left him even more bewildered.
"What the—zombies too?"
He stared, stunned.
The pursuing Unit 985 personnel, however, changed expression. "What! How do you know that?"
At that, the group suddenly slapped their hands together and combined their efforts to form an enormous air shield, sealing off the corridor.
"Hum!"
The air shield was so huge—nearly a hundred meters long in a continuous stretch—that it slammed into Wu Zhong and pinned him to the ground.
Infinite Summer couldn't withstand it either and was slammed against the wall; his bones cracked loudly.
The air shield pressed down like a massive physical palm, suppressing them.
"Plasma downpour!"
Infinite Summer growled. Several gunports opened across his purple armor, furiously spraying purple plasma missiles.
"Extreme overload!"
After forcing the opponents back with his artillery, Infinite Summer trembled violently; his eyes wild, his body instantly turning a pale violet, almost transparent.
He became a blur, thudding through the air! With a crash he smashed through the air shield’s suppression and shot through the corridor at breakneck speed.
He flickered left and right, easily dodging several devastating attacks.
The enormous air shield functioned as a unit; with a pair of strikes and a charge he finally tore it apart, and the entire condensed-air region shattered.
"Go!" Infinite Summer roared.
From far behind, Wu Zhong also escaped suppression and sprang up, sprinting for his life.
He still had a ghost on his back...
The specter hissed: "Left turn..."
Guided by it, Wu Zhong poured every ounce of strength into his dash. The ghost shattered gates along the way; they turned and twisted, evading other garrison troops.
From one direction, violent tremors rang out—combat raged intensely.
"This is dangerous even for Xia-ge. I have to get out of here..." Wu Zhong muttered, then a gust of force knocked him over.
Looking back, a lanky young man in firefighting gear had caught up.
It was the firefighter who’d sketched the Night Wandering Deity portrait in the hospital—the same one Lu Guangqi later introduced, apparently named Gu Yue.
"Get down!" Gu Yue barked, eyes blazing. With a swoosh his arms moved and formed a pair of massive air shields.
Using the shields as weapons, he slammed into Wu Zhong with a clang, sending him crashing into the wall.
"Pff!"
Wu Zhong gasped in pain and tried to struggle, but the air shield pinned him tight and pressed him against the wall.
Damn—Infinite Summer had missed one pursuer. With just this one left, Wu Zhong was hopeless.
But Infinite Summer had already assigned the ghost Gizzard to protect Wu Zhong.
"Rip!"
Gizzard’s ghostly claws slashed out. Only when they neared Gu Yue’s throat did he realize, goosebumps rising, and recoil in horror.
"Who’s there?"
Gu Yue sniffed the air, seeming to taste it, then probed for something.
Wu Zhong took advantage to catch his breath and edge backwards. He could actually see Gizzard: the ghost’s claws ripped through the air, warping it, nearly grazing Gu Yue several times.
Gu Yue clearly couldn’t see the ghost, but sensing danger and the air’s movement, he dodged the claws.
"Amazing..." Wu Zhong was astonished; only now did he know Infinite Summer had sent out Gizzard, and that only he could see the ghost.
The human and ghost fought fiercely; he couldn’t help—only kept his distance and watched.
Gu Yue fought and retreated as if deliberately drawing the ghost somewhere.
Wu Zhong caught on and shouted, "Stop! Gizzard, don’t chase after him."
Gizzard could speak but seemed slow-witted; this bait-and-lure tactic was obvious even to Wu Zhong, who’d played a few games, but Gizzard didn’t notice.
Still, Gizzard had some intelligence; upon the warning he paused and did not continue the pursuit.
Gu Yue then pulled out a grenade, primed to throw.
"Oh shit!"
Wu Zhong was terrified—grenades were lethal. Gunpowder didn’t care if the target was ghostly; if it exploded, wouldn’t it also kill the ghost and maybe himself?
"Gizzard!"
Worried, Gizzard lunged at Gu Yue like lightning.
"Anti-explosion shield mountain!" Gu Yue roared, glaring. He didn’t use the grenade—this was a lure to pull the ghost close. Suddenly he spread his arms and condensed massive sheets of air to strike in all directions.
For a moment he became like the eye of a storm; layers of physical air pushed outward.
Two rows of air shields close to Gu Yue spun like shredding blades, the gears of their edges interlocking and cutting.
Wu Zhong was thrown far back and pinned to the wall, unable to move.
Gizzard, however, phased and stood within the torrent of rotating blades as if untouched.
Gizzard surged forward against the current, his hand passing through Gu Yue’s chest.
Then he re-solidified with a squelch; his arm was lodged in flesh, piercing Gu Yue through and through.
"Ah!" Wu Zhong cried, horror and pity on his face.
The ghost killed without emotion, cold and remorseless. Even though Gu Yue was human, watching that scene made Wu Zhong afraid.
"Multivariate Moment!"
Gu Yue, though in agony and with his face contorted, was not yet fully dead. He snapped his fingers and green energy circled his body.
With a pop, Gizzard took a heavy blow and recoiled, flickering in size and dimming.
Wu Zhong was shocked—this was the first time he’d seen the ghost get hurt.
Gu Yue’s chest wound, however, didn’t drop him; flesh crawled and closed visibly as it healed.
"It can heal! It can dispel evil too?"
Wu Zhong envied this Multivariate power; it seemed everyone in the disaster world had some unique ability.
"Hmph! Disaster fiends, come on then!" Gu Yue straightened, touching his mortally injured spot.
Gizzard, injured, still lunged again.
Gu Yue snorted and bounded around a corner to a door, slapping the air shield; the door slowly opened.
Wu Zhong’s pupils shrank. It was a door marked with a flash of red!
"What! Xia-ge said don’t go near red doors!"
He hadn’t expected that Gizzard would be so foolish as to chase after the bait.
In an instant Gizzard froze as he saw what was beyond the red door behind Gu Yue. Then, dazed, he drifted past Gu Yue and slipped into the doorway.
"No!" Wu Zhong saw Gizzard fall into the trap and turned to run.
But he couldn’t outrun the containment team; they caught up in a few strides and took him in one-handed.
He felt a ring of air bind him like manacles, tightly suppressing him.
"It’s over..." Wu Zhong sighed—his escape plan had failed.
He felt bitter. Even if he stayed and cooperated with Captain Lu and the others, his ability alone wouldn’t have led to him being traded to ghosts and gods.
But that had been before; after this mess, he’d certainly be treated as an accomplice and a criminal.
Gu Yue carried him to the recess beside the red door, inserted the air shield, and shut the door. Inside Gizzard still was; Wu Zhong shouted for him to come out.
No response—he could only watch the red door close.
"Don’t scream. Tell me honestly—what attacked me just now?" Gu Yue pressed, eyes sharp as he interrogated while maintaining the air-shield restraint.
How was Wu Zhong to know? Gizzard had been summoned by Infinite Summer to escort him out; this was his first time seeing the ghost.
"It’s a ghost. A ghost. I don’t know if it has anything to do with Mount Lu, but it had no physical body." He answered honestly, already planning to cooperate.
Gu Yue frowned. "A ghost? No physical body... When I unleashed Air Shield Mountain—did it phase?"
Wu Zhong nodded. "Yes. It phased to avoid your attack and its arm penetrated your chest. I saw it clearly... Wow, your wound healed already?"
Gu Yue’s chest had resealed. Although internal injuries might still be present, the surface looked mostly healed. His Multivariate power was oriented toward healing.
"Phasing... huh, can it phase while carrying things?" Gu Yue murmured.
"Uh..." Wu Zhong fell silent—he didn’t know.
Before Gu Yue could press further, he sensed a change and his expression shifted.
The red door gave a pop and a head poked out—Gizzard’s dead head.
It had simply passed through the heavy red door and drifted out, still clutching a tangled mess. Gizzard kept staring down, fiddling with that knotted mass like a toy cube.
"Damn..." Gu Yue shut his eyes the instant he saw the corpse head, so he didn’t see the knot, but he guessed where it was.
He seemed to foresee big trouble and hissed, "Don’t look! Close your eyes—do not look at whatever it brings out!"
Wu Zhong froze. What? He’d already seen it.
Then he recoiled in alarm. "What? Don’t look? Is that the Ever-Thirst Plum?"
Gu Yue wouldn’t hide the truth: "No. It’s a tangled mess—an eternally unresolvable, chaotic rope."
"The rope cannot be destroyed and no method can untie its chaotic knot."
"It warps the mind; it attracts anyone within about a meter to try untying it. Also, once you stare at it, you will be drawn in!"
"Those drawn will obsessively focus on untying the rope, neglecting sleep and food!"
He spoke as he backed against the wall with his eyes closed, trying to increase distance.
Wu Zhong gasped, "But I... I already saw it."
Gu Yue was suspicious. "What? Nonsense. Its mind-warping is an absolute trait. If you saw it you would be frantically trying to untie it—you wouldn’t still be here talking to me."
Wu Zhong tilted his head, telling the truth but finding the other skeptical.
Mind-warping? Seeing it must compel someone to untie it? Not him—he had looked closely but felt no urge to untie it.