Chapter 8.2 - Incomplete Mission
Habitat K7 was completely quiet. Even though most of this inhabited area had already entered the land of dreams, there were still some individuals who indulged themselves in the pleasures of alcohol, drugs, and sex. Tonight, however, Habitat K7 was a bit too quiet.
The night was Su’s domain. He retrieved his modified rifle and loaded the bullets. Like a specter, he headed towards K7.
Every corner of Habitat K7 was recorded within Su’s mental map; moreover, it wasn’t flat but rather three dimensional. It could be said that Su already knew K7 like the back of his hand. K7’s refugees numbered around two hundred. Compared to other inhabited lands, it wasn’t a large number, nor was it a small one.
After their renovation, the habitat’s constructs formed a ring shape. The purpose of this was mainly to defend against outside threats. At the center was a small vacant area that the refugees normally used to hold gatherings or conduct business transactions. The habitat’s commander lived in a small metal house that was situated at the fringe of this vacant area.
Right now, there were a few things in the vacant area that weren’t previously there.
On top of a three or four meter tall wooden pole hung a corpse that was being blown around by the intense night winds. The winds would sometimes flip the corpse around. Through his Glimmer Sight, Su recognized this corpse to be K7’s commander. A rope was wrapped around the commander’s neck, hanging him from the wooden pole; however, the rope didn’t seem to be the cause of the commander’s death. There were traces of burns all around his body. His entire body seemed to have been burned into processed coal except for a few limbs that seemed to have been purposely left intact. The burnt clothing had been deeply embedded into the skin surface. Meanwhile, his face miraculously didn’t have any signs of burns either. Only through this process could his pain and suffering before death be perfectly preserved.
Below the wooden pole was a thick pedestal, one formed from layer upon layer of corpses.
Su slowly examined them one after another. There seemed to be something similar between these corpses: regardless of how badly mangled their limbs were, their faces were all left perfectly intact, along with the despair, pain, anger, and cries that their expressions held. Su recognized some of these faces, while the rest were unfamiliar. However, they should all be K7’s refugees.
In the quiet vacant area, Su stood all alone, as if he was this cemetery's vengeful spirit.
Not only the vacant area, but also the various houses of K7 were emitting a fresh stench. K7 became a cemetery. There were only a few areas where weak breathing sounds could still be heard.
He slowly stooped down to pull up the scorched arm of a corpse. When he made contact with the arm, coal ashes immediately flew everywhere. It was clear that the flesh had been completely burned through. What was strange was that the outer layer of the arm had been thoroughly carbonized, while the inside flesh was left intact. This meant that the temperature at which the corpse was burned was extremely high, far surpassing that of ordinary flames. Only then could the flesh be carbonized in such a short period of time after making contact with the fire. Su sank into a moment of thought before standing up again.
Su didn’t touch the corpses in the vacant area again. Instead, he lightly pushed aside the door leading to small house. Inside, he saw inside a skinny and shriveled old man. When the old man heard the noise, he turned around and looked towards the door. He swept a hurried look over Su’s body, but he didn’t show any reaction. Inside the several square meter house, apart from this elder, there were three corpses: one male, one female, and one child. The corpses had long begun to rot, and a thick stench filled this entire room, but the elder seemed completely unaffected by it.
Su disappeared like a ghost. Meanwhile, the old man continued to sit in a stupor.
Those that remained in K7 were all immobile elderly people that were awaiting their deaths, while the survivors had long left this place. Apart from being relatively safer, there was nothing in this inhabited area that was worth staying behind for. Once K7’s corpses began to rot, the plague that would ensue would quickly seize the lives of those that remained. Regardless of whether it was the new or old era, this fact had never changed.
As Su prepared to leave, he suddenly stopped; something caught his attention. It was the sound of wind flipping through pages of paper.
Within the pile of corpses, the corner of a booklet could be seen. It all happened quite abruptly.
Su slowly untied the bandages around his right hand. His fine, long, satin-like finger gently made contact with the book’s cover, and they slowly retrieved it from the corpse. It was a palm-sized booklet roughly a centimeter in thickness. The black hard cover was extremely refined, and a single golden word was etched on its surface: Revelation.
When the cover was opened, he saw that the title page was inscribed with words written with an extremely beautiful calligraphy:"Those that have lost their way will find rest from here on out."
The signature on the bottom read: O’Brien.
Su closed this ‘Revelation’, and placed it in front of the pile of corpses. Then, he disappeared into the night.
Under the dim light of night, thirteen people moved like a pack of wolves through the wilderness. They were true kings of this land’s night. Even the packs of rotting wolves seemed to sense danger and disappeared without a trace.
The hunter in the lead suddenly stopped and carefully began to differentiate the traces on the ground. He sniffed the air and said, “He changed directions here.”
Laiknar looked in the direction the hunter was pointing at and saw that it lead towards K7. A cruel smile surfaced on the corners of his lips. “It seems like our trap has done its job.”
The group of wolves smelled blood and turned directions. They began to slowly quicken their pace.
In the blink of an eye, the sky had already brightened.
Borrowing the dim light of dawn, Su could see the Falcons’ manor while he was still several kilometers away. Without even using his high level sight strengthening, he could see twelve stakes, and on top of those stakes were twelve corpses.
Su didn’t stop and continued to speed towards the manor’s door. Only then did he stop.
The twelve robust men whose eyes were focused on him that night were all here. The fourth from the left was the Falcons’ leader. It seemed like the other party did not seem to take his leader status or his single level of ability into consideration when he was put on the stake.
This time, none of them were set aflame, but their suffering were not any bit lighter. The dried blood that had flowed down from the stakes showed that they were still alive when they were pierced.
All of the houses in the manor had been burned, leaving ashes and collapsed ruins everywhere. From time to time, limbs could be seen sticking out from the debris. There were even more dark and indistinguishable scorched objects. From the amount of scorched ruins, it seemed like a portion of the elders, children, and women were buried here. As for the rest of them, he didn’t know their whereabouts. He didn’t know if they were driven out or if they died elsewhere.
At the bottom of the first stake from the left was a familiar black-covered ‘Revelation’. On the title page, it was written, “Immortality is gained through an ideal. By returning, there is redemption.”
The signature was once again O’Brien’s. It was similarly written in graceful calligraphy.
Su ran his finger over O’Brien’s name. Between his fingers, it was almost as if he could feel the stability and force of the hand that signed this name.
“O’Brien…” Su read this name once silently. He returned this ‘Revelation’ to its original position.
His gaze landed at the feet of the Falcons’ leader. There was a bottle that lied crooked in that area, and there was still a bit of turbid liquid inside. From the bottle’s shape and completely indiscernible label, this should be a bottle of alcohol from the olden era.
That night, when the Falcons’ leader brought out this bottle, there were still two-thirds remaining. Half of that had entered Su’s mouth as payment for a mission, and the other half was currently in front of Su’s face.
Su walked over to the bottle. After taking just a single step, he suddenly stopped. His eyes narrowed as he looked around. Su’s chest tightened, and his heart rate sped up. His blood began to flow at an extraordinary speed, and his body temperature quickly climbed. His light blond hair continuously moved about, as if wind was blowing through them. However, there was no wind right now.
This was a feeling of extreme danger. Moreover, it was getting closer and closer!
The muddled liquid within the bottle suddenly began to boil, and then the bottle completely left the ground and flew in a slanted manner. When it had just shifted half a meter, cracks appeared on the bottle’s surface, and then it blasted apart!
The scenery reflected within Su’s eye was distorted. Then, several jet-propelled engines roared. The intense fluctuations went from a low frequency of dozens all the way to tens of thousands, and these sound waves slammed into Su’s body!
Hundreds of wounds appeared on the corpse of the leader of the Falcons in that instant. At first, they were just thin unseeable seams, but soon, they extended outwards and turned into endless deep wounds. The leader’s blood had long ran dry, so when the injuries appeared, hundreds of chunks of rotting flesh flew everywhere like blue or green moths. Wounds also appeared on the corpses near the leader, only, there weren’t as many, and they were less severe as well. The further they were from the leader’s corpse, the less injuries they carried.
However, Su seemed to take on the greatest impact from this sound wave! The cloak around his body was blasted into hundreds of pieces, and the bandages around his skin flew everywhere. Countless cracks appeared on the modified rifle’s wooden shell, and quite a few white scratches appeared on the gun barrel.
Just like the Falcons’ leader, hundreds of criss-crossed lines appeared on his body. Large amounts of blood immediately flowed out from the fine lines. The threads opened, revealing interweaving red and white flesh. There were some crisscrossed wounds where entire pieces of flesh fell off!
In that instant, Su had turned into a blood-covered man!