Mad Red pulled his hand out of Gao Yang’s lungs. He had lost his human soul completely, and he kept repeating the word ‘human’, an evidence of his craving for human blood and hearts.
Just when he was going to reach into Gao Yang’s chest again, Gao Yang said through his clenched, bleeding teeth, “De...tonate...”
Boom!
Mad Red’s right arm exploded.
The fingers around Gao Yang’s neck loosened, and he fell to the ground.
Mad Red’s right arm was barely attached and bleeding profusely, yet he didn’t seem in pain at all.
Gao Yang had replicated Detonation during the fraction of second he grabbed Mad Red’s right hand. However, he hadn’t had the time to use it, so he opted for the more effective tactic of quick melee attacks.
Mad Red’s Detonation operated under a specific mechanism. There were two steps to it: touch, and detonate. The first step, touch, was the passive part of the Talent. No activation was required to mark one’s targets.
While Gao Yang overwhelmed Mad Red with a flurry of punches and kicks, every single hit left a mark on the man, amounting to a few dozens by the end of it.
Gao Yang had planned to activate Detonation once Mad Red spoke his last words, leaving only ashes behind, but that plan was disrupted when Mad Red injected himself with a strange solution and transformed into a ‘monster’.
Gao Yang wasn’t going to let that happen again. All monsters were gifted with impressive ability to regenerate, let alone a terrifying being so dangerous that he was granted a 5000 times bonus.
“Detonate!” Gao Yang exclaimed.
Mad Red’s abdomen exploded.
“Detonate!”
Followed by his calves.
“Detonate!”
Then his chest.
“Detonate, detonate, detonate, detonate!”
During those ten seconds, Gao Yang lost count on how many times he had exclaimed the same word. Mad Red’s body writhed and shook and fell apart under the series of quick explosions until he barely resembled his original form, like the aftermath of a man-shaped play dough wrapped with firecrackers getting lit.
The flickering light illuminated the running track as blood and embers sputtered in the air.
Afterward, Mad Red was left a charred skeleton.
He wasn’t done yet. Gao Yang ignored the pain in his lungs and rushed up to the skeleton, hitting it with Fire with one hand.
It took one minute of intense burning for the skeleton to turn to ashes.
Finally, it was done.
Having exhausted the last of his energy, Gao Yang collapsed. Before his consciousness slipped away, he heard someone calling out to him.
“Gao Yang, Gao Yang...”
“Gao Yang, Gao Yang...”
Gao Yang opened his eyes and found himself back in the orphanage, lying on the soft futon in the small wooden bed. The dorm keeper squatted by the bed to pat him on his chubby face. “Rise and shine, it’s time to wake up!”
Gao Yang sat up confusedly and rubbed his bleary eyes. Was it all a dream?
Emotions rushed up to him, and he felt tears prickling his eyes and nose. He wailed.
“Ah, what’s wrong? Did you wet your bed?” The woman smiled with fond exasperation and pinched his cheek. “You’re six, too old to wet your bed! What a little troublemaker you are!”
“Auntie, I had a nightmare...” Gao Yang clutched on her sleeves and sobbed. “So many monsters... They wanna kill me...”
“Haha, you silly boy.” She reached out to pull him into her arms, caring and resigned. “Don’t be scared. It’s alright. If the monster comes, Auntie will drive it away for you...”
...
Gao Yang slowly opened his prickling eyes. He had no strength in his body.
He tried to move and realized that his face was pressed into a pair of warm, silky thighs. He turned his head and saw the familiar face of a girl, only upside-down.
So that was the dream.
“You awake?” White Rabbit, whose lap he was lying down on, looked down at him.
“Yeah...” Gao Yang croaked weakly.
“Open your mouth.” She was holding a small red pill. “Take this.”
Gao Yang opened his mouth to swallow the pill. Warmth returned to his body, as well as his strength.
Then he belatedly realized that there was a weight on his abdomen. He shifted his gaze and spotted Lovely Lamb. She was sitting on the ground with her head resting on his belly, sound asleep.
Gao Yang lifted his right hand. It was as good as new, if a little numb when he moved his fingers.
“You should be grateful to Lovely Lamb. She looked for your fingers one by one on the running track and did her best to reattach them.” White Rabbit sounded tired, complaining out of concern like a parent would.
Gao Yang slowly sat up and pulled Lovely Lamb into his arms. Behind his back was the ginkgo tree he was all too familiar with.
“How did you get here?” Gao Yang asked.
“I tapped your phone,” White Rabbit said like it was obvious. “I heard it when the man called Mad Red called you. It didn’t sound good, so I grabbed Lovely Lamb and rushed here. You know how fast I run. When I got here, you had just finished Mad Red.”
After a brief moment of silence, Gao Yang asked, “Wan Sisi?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve cleaned everything up.” White Rabbit sighed softly. “I was going to take you back, but Lovely Lamb fell asleep after treating you. I thought it would be better to let you two rest here. I didn’t expect you to sleep the entire night. My legs are numb.”
She had kept watch on them throughout the night. Gao Yang was touched.
It was already six o’clock in the morning, and sunlight had broken through the sky in the distance. The thriving weed that had once overtaken the running track at the foot of the hill had all been burned, leaving the area a charred wasteland. Under the warm light of the dawning sun, the contrast was striking.
“Is this...yours?” White Rabbit was holding a wrapper.
Gao Yang took it. A chunk was missing because it’d been burned, and the rest of the wrapper had been dyed red by blood. It took careful inspection to make out the word yingxiong—hero.
“It’s mine. Thanks.”
Gao Yang lifted the still sleeping Lovely Lamb and handed her to White Rabbit.
Then he stood up and found the tin box near the ginkgo tree, putting the wrapper back into the box before burying it near the roots with great care.
“What are you doing when you haven’t even recovered?” White Rabbit looked baffled.
Gao Yang sat back down and looked up at the breaking dawn, his eyes slightly narrowed.
After a moment, he slowly opened his mouth.
“I made a wish.”
Mad Red pulled his hand out of Gao Yang’s lungs. He had lost his human soul completely, and he kept repeating the word ‘human’, an evidence of his craving for human blood and hearts.
Just when he was going to reach into Gao Yang’s chest again, Gao Yang said through his clenched, bleeding teeth, “De...tonate...”
Boom!
Mad Red’s right arm exploded.
The fingers around Gao Yang’s neck loosened, and he fell to the ground.
Mad Red’s right arm was barely attached and bleeding profusely, yet he didn’t seem in pain at all.
Gao Yang had replicated Detonation during the fraction of second he grabbed Mad Red’s right hand. However, he hadn’t had the time to use it, so he opted for the more effective tactic of quick melee attacks.
Mad Red’s Detonation operated under a specific mechanism. There were two steps to it: touch, and detonate. The first step, touch, was the passive part of the Talent. No activation was required to mark one’s targets.
While Gao Yang overwhelmed Mad Red with a flurry of punches and kicks, every single hit left a mark on the man, amounting to a few dozens by the end of it.
Gao Yang had planned to activate Detonation once Mad Red spoke his last words, leaving only ashes behind, but that plan was disrupted when Mad Red injected himself with a strange solution and transformed into a ‘monster’.
Gao Yang wasn’t going to let that happen again. All monsters were gifted with impressive ability to regenerate, let alone a terrifying being so dangerous that he was granted a 5000 times bonus.
“Detonate!” Gao Yang exclaimed.
Mad Red’s abdomen exploded.
“Detonate!”
Followed by his calves.
“Detonate!”
Then his chest.
“Detonate, detonate, detonate, detonate!”
During those ten seconds, Gao Yang lost count on how many times he had exclaimed the same word. Mad Red’s body writhed and shook and fell apart under the series of quick explosions until he barely resembled his original form, like the aftermath of a man-shaped play dough wrapped with firecrackers getting lit.
The flickering light illuminated the running track as blood and embers sputtered in the air.
Afterward, Mad Red was left a charred skeleton.
He wasn’t done yet. Gao Yang ignored the pain in his lungs and rushed up to the skeleton, hitting it with Fire with one hand.
It took one minute of intense burning for the skeleton to turn to ashes.
Finally, it was done.
Having exhausted the last of his energy, Gao Yang collapsed. Before his consciousness slipped away, he heard someone calling out to him.
“Gao Yang, Gao Yang...”
“Gao Yang, Gao Yang...”
Gao Yang opened his eyes and found himself back in the orphanage, lying on the soft futon in the small wooden bed. The dorm keeper squatted by the bed to pat him on his chubby face. “Rise and shine, it’s time to wake up!”
Gao Yang sat up confusedly and rubbed his bleary eyes. Was it all a dream?
Emotions rushed up to him, and he felt tears prickling his eyes and nose. He wailed.
“Ah, what’s wrong? Did you wet your bed?” The woman smiled with fond exasperation and pinched his cheek. “You’re six, too old to wet your bed! What a little troublemaker you are!”
“Auntie, I had a nightmare...” Gao Yang clutched on her sleeves and sobbed. “So many monsters... They wanna kill me...”
“Haha, you silly boy.” She reached out to pull him into her arms, caring and resigned. “Don’t be scared. It’s alright. If the monster comes, Auntie will drive it away for you...”
...
Gao Yang slowly opened his prickling eyes. He had no strength in his body.
He tried to move and realized that his face was pressed into a pair of warm, silky thighs. He turned his head and saw the familiar face of a girl, only upside-down.
So that was the dream.
“You awake?” White Rabbit, whose lap he was lying down on, looked down at him.
“Yeah...” Gao Yang croaked weakly.
“Open your mouth.” She was holding a small red pill. “Take this.”
Gao Yang opened his mouth to swallow the pill. Warmth returned to his body, as well as his strength.
Then he belatedly realized that there was a weight on his abdomen. He shifted his gaze and spotted Lovely Lamb. She was sitting on the ground with her head resting on his belly, sound asleep.
Gao Yang lifted his right hand. It was as good as new, if a little numb when he moved his fingers.
“You should be grateful to Lovely Lamb. She looked for your fingers one by one on the running track and did her best to reattach them.” White Rabbit sounded tired, complaining out of concern like a parent would.
Gao Yang slowly sat up and pulled Lovely Lamb into his arms. Behind his back was the ginkgo tree he was all too familiar with.
“How did you get here?” Gao Yang asked.
“I tapped your phone,” White Rabbit said like it was obvious. “I heard it when the man called Mad Red called you. It didn’t sound good, so I grabbed Lovely Lamb and rushed here. You know how fast I run. When I got here, you had just finished Mad Red.”
After a brief moment of silence, Gao Yang asked, “Wan Sisi?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve cleaned everything up.” White Rabbit sighed softly. “I was going to take you back, but Lovely Lamb fell asleep after treating you. I thought it would be better to let you two rest here. I didn’t expect you to sleep the entire night. My legs are numb.”
She had kept watch on them throughout the night. Gao Yang was touched.
It was already six o’clock in the morning, and sunlight had broken through the sky in the distance. The thriving weed that had once overtaken the running track at the foot of the hill had all been burned, leaving the area a charred wasteland. Under the warm light of the dawning sun, the contrast was striking.
“Is this...yours?” White Rabbit was holding a wrapper.
Gao Yang took it. A chunk was missing because it’d been burned, and the rest of the wrapper had been dyed red by blood. It took careful inspection to make out the word yingxiong—hero.
“It’s mine. Thanks.”
Gao Yang lifted the still sleeping Lovely Lamb and handed her to White Rabbit.
Then he stood up and found the tin box near the ginkgo tree, putting the wrapper back into the box before burying it near the roots with great care.
“What are you doing when you haven’t even recovered?” White Rabbit looked baffled.
Gao Yang sat back down and looked up at the breaking dawn, his eyes slightly narrowed.
After a moment, he slowly opened his mouth.
“I made a wish.”
