Right on Target (TARGET)
"Like this."
Su Heting showed no expression.
He gazed at the empty city, recalling Inspector's eyes, and detected a hint of sorrow. But this sorrow felt so distant to him that he couldn't immediately find the right words of comfort.
"Dead is dead," Xiao Gu, on the other hand, was quite nonchalant and continued walking forward. "Life wasn’t much happier anyway, with gods and demons roaming freely every day. There’s no hope in this kind of existence."
At the end of the road was an underground parking garage. As Su Heting entered, he glanced at the security booth—empty. The information recognition systems here were just for show.
Xiao Gu didn’t even need to bend over to pass the railing. He walked along the wall downward, his chatter never stopping. "It’s just a pity everyone turned into electronic ghosts, dissipating without even a tombstone."
The garage passage had no lights, and the deeper they went, the darker it became. The further the two ventured inside, the more stifling and oppressive the air felt. A damp, moldy scent floated in the gloom, like spoiled fungi.
Su Heting’s tail flicked lightly as the tip switched into a small light. The light swayed at his side, dispelling some of the darkness. He grabbed Xiao Gu by the back of his collar and effortlessly lifted him. "You come here often?"
"Yeah, the cars here are usable." Xiao Gu’s feet dangled in the air as he casually pointed in a direction. "Go further in. I remember there’s a T-type armored vehicle over there."
What’s wrong with the Main God System? Spawning armored vehicles here?
Su Heting’s cat ears perked up, but aside from his own footsteps, he heard no other movement. Holding Xiao Gu, he leaped over the garage’s drainage ditch and found the T-type armored vehicle.
"Get in." Su Heting pulled open the door and shoved Xiao Gu into the passenger seat. He took the driver’s seat and noticed the information card to start the armored vehicle was conveniently placed beside him. Turning around, he saw a row of neatly arranged weapon cases on the back seat.
"Pretty amazing, huh?" Xiao Gu also turned, half-leaning against his seatback. "There are lots of armament points inside the city. They reset at dawn. Eighty percent of our weapons come from here."
Su Heting said, "You sure you guys didn’t plant a mole inside the Main God System?"
Even Xingtian wasn’t this considerate toward Hybrids.
"Honestly, I’ve wondered the same thing," Xiao Gu turned back to sit properly. "I heard—"
His voice cut off abruptly.
Su Heting sensed something wrong and whipped his head around. On the windshield, a face half the size of a human’s was pressed against the glass.
The face was covered in wrinkles, as if aged at an accelerated rate. Its sunken eyes were murky and yellow, rolling like a gecko’s and accompanied by a "gloop" sound effect. Its lips were cracked, and when it opened its mouth, a glint of cold light was visible, with some unknown liquid oozing between its teeth. "Meat…"
Without hesitation, Su Heting started the armored vehicle. He slammed the accelerator, and the car roared forward, crashing straight into the rear of the vehicle ahead.
Xiao Gu’s delayed scream finally erupted. "Go! Go! That thing’s a pain to deal with!"
Su Heting turned the steering wheel, the heavy T-type armored vehicle lurching left and ramming into the cars parked alongside.
"Crash—"
The surrounding vehicles were knocked askew as the armored vehicle’s tires screeched against the ground.
Through the rearview mirror, Su Heting saw several more faces clinging to the back, with their withered, bulging eyes glaring.
"This is Xiao Gu," Xiao Gu shouted into the communicator. "Reporting—we’ve encountered Black Worms!"
The car window on Xiao Gu's side let out a bang as the face of a black worm pressed tightly against it, distorting its features. Up close, the glint inside its mouth was actually a dense cluster of syringe-like needles.
One bite from this thing, and you’d be lucky to escape with your life!
Su Heting’s driving skills were notoriously bad, and reversing was a real struggle for him. Fortunately, the T-model armored vehicle had been modified specifically for ramming through obstacles, so he plowed straight ahead, smashing through everything in his path.
“These things don’t have limbs—they’re worms, you get it?! They’ve got suckers on the bottom, hard to shake off, and they love living in groups… Why are there so many here?!”
As the headlights swept across the garage’s back wall, Xiao Gu gasped.
The wall was crawling with black worms, some of them monstrously large, their bodies nearly five or six meters thick.
The armored vehicle rumbled over a drainage ditch as Su Heting spotted the exit. He floored the accelerator, only for a heavy thud to sound from the roof—a black worm had dropped onto it and latched on.
The one at the windshield spewed venom, splattering the glass with a purplish-red fluid. The stench was overwhelming, but thankfully, all the windows were tightly shut, leaving only the relentless thuds of the worms slamming against the vehicle.
Xiao Gu covered his nose, the sight of the worms’ faces pressing against the glass deeply unsettling him. “Get us into the light! Sunlight kills them!”
A rapid series of bangs erupted from the roof—who knew how many worms had landed up there and gnawed at the metal with their mouths. The purplish liquid oozed everywhere, the stench of rot filling the cabin and churning Su Heting’s stomach.
The armored vehicle, like a raging bull, smashed through the barricade, but then the rear tires let out a long, grinding screech as the vehicle lurched violently—the worms had jammed the wheels.
“Meat…” The black worms’ vocalizers were crude, capable only of repeating a few simple words. “Human…”
They fought to squeeze their bodies into the gaps beneath the vehicle while swarming like maggots, writhing under the wheels. Even as they were crushed into pulp, they showed no sign of retreat.
“Couldn’t this damn car come with a manual?” Su Heting wanted to switch to attack mode, but the dashboard was a constellation of buttons.
“Yu Cheng! For fuck’s sake, call Yu Cheng!” Xiao Gu yanked the communicator off the console and shoved it at Su Heting, shouting into it, “Tell the cat how to drive this thing!”
Su Heting grabbed the communicator.
“Received.” But the voice on the other end wasn’t Yu Cheng’s—it was Inspector’s. Calm and composed, he said, “Press the red button in the third row on the overhead panel to activate the vehicle’s AI system. Switch to auto-attack mode.”
Su Heting did as instructed. He reached up and pressed the red button, hearing the AI system announce, “Welcome to T-Model Armored Vehicle No. 999.”
Before the AI could finish, another deafening crash came from the roof. It hadn’t caved in, but the sound was terrifying—like a sledgehammer strike mixed with the grinding of suction cups.
Su Heting said, “Switch to auto-attack mode.”
Vehicle No. 999 responded, “Acknowledged. Switching to auto-attack mode.”
The undercarriage suddenly lifted, revealing spinning blades from a hidden compartment. They whirred to life, slicing through the tangled worms and turning them into minced flesh. The wet splats of falling chunks were sickening, accompanied by the thick stench of blood.
“Bottom clearance complete…”
Inspector cut in, “Reject auto-drive. Maintain attack mode.”
Right on cue, the AI asked, “Would you like to enable autonomous driving?”
“No,” Su Heting said. “Keep going.”
The vehicle's system registered the word "continue", lighting up the central control screen, which displayed a 3D model of the T-type armored vehicle. The model rotated and zoomed in, its top covered in red warnings.
The external roof panel switched with a "swish", the middle section sinking inward as the mech was replaced, and a mounted machine gun rose into position.
"Foreign object attack detected," the vehicle system announced. "Processing."
Su Heting heard the "click" of the gun locking into place, followed by the machine gun's rapid fire. Shell casings clattered to the ground in a staccato rhythm.
"Keep driving outward," Inspector paused briefly, "Can you handle it?"
Su Heting slammed the accelerator in response.
The armored vehicle "clanged" over the ground littered with black worms and plowing straight through the railing and skirting the edge as it charged forward.
Inspector said softly, "Well done."
His praise was delivered in the same flat tone as his usual speech, but the lowered volume made it almost like a whisper, sending an itch through Su Heting's ears.
The cat vigorously shook his feline ears.
Xiao Gu didn't hear it. He touched his waist and muttered, "I'm running low on ammo," before turning to climb toward the weapon crate in the back seat. "Thank god we got in the car first. Just thinking about having those black worms all over my head makes me sick. You want a gun?"
As he spoke, he opened the weapon crate.
A pungent smell suddenly sprayed out, hitting Xiao Gu's child-sized sunglasses. He immediately covered his face and let out a sharp cry!
The black worm coiled inside the crate sprang up and sank its teeth into Xiao Gu's arm.
"Fuck!" Xiao Gu felt the sting of the needle-like bite. He yanked at the worm's head while kicking the crate over.
Guns and ammunition spilled out, and thuds echoed from several other crates.
—There was more than one worm in the car!
Xiao Gu acted decisively, slamming his weight onto the crate to pin it shut, wailing, "I'm tainted now!"
Su Heting's car screeched to a halt on the road, his back slamming hard against the seat. He rolled down all the windows, and as the temperature inside instantly spiked, he turned around, grabbed a pistol from near Xiao Gu's feet, and fired a shot at the black worm.
The worm's tail twitched a few times as its sound emitter squeezed out a distorted "hiss". It couldn't withstand heat or bullets—smoke rose from the bullet hole in its back, and it died instantly.
Xiao Gu shook his head violently, flinging off his sunglasses. Drenched in sweat, he said to Su Heting, "Knife... knife's under my arm..."
Su Heting pulled out a short blade from beneath Xiao Gu's unbitten arm and wedged it into the worm's tightly clamped mouth. He pried open the soft flesh, revealing a cluster of solid needles inside.
"I'm dizzy," Xiao Gu said, his face pale but forcing a weak smile. "Be careful."
The liquid stored in the black worm's injectors varied widely. Xiao Gu wasn't sure what had been pumped into his body—if it was neurotoxin or a paralytic, fine, he could just close his eyes and wait to die. What terrified him was the possibility that the worm had injected him with one of the experimental drugs from the farms—those harsh, mutation-inducing substances.
"It's fine," Su Heting said, sweating slightly as he spoke into the comms. "Can we pull this thing out?"
"No," Inspector replied. "Keep talking to Xiao Gu. I'm almost there."
Su Heting pressed down on the other weapon crates, checking their locks to ensure they wouldn't spring open again.
"The crates were locked," Xiao Gu said, his face slick with sweat. His tears hadn't stopped, mixing with the sweat until they were indistinguishable. "You get what that means? Fuck me, they spawned inside—they were already in the crates, waiting for me to open them."
If Xiao Gu had taken the weapon case into the underground pipes, or if someone else had picked it up, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
"This has never happened before," Xiao Gu said, his voice breaking as pain surged through him. "I don’t even want to think… what if the other weapon points are also—"
"Stay calm," Su Heting looked at him with steady eyes. "Only we operate above ground. You were the first to reach the weapon point."
His tone gave Xiao Gu confidence.
Xiao Gu forced a smile. "You're right." The moment he smiled, tears spilled over. "Fuck, this hurts so much."
Author's Note:
①Black Worms: Varying in size. They thrive in damp, stuffy, dark environments. Their bodies resemble worms with human faces, equipped with steel teeth and exposed flesh. Their mouths are lined with syringe needles, and their bodies can store over a dozen types of fluids. They are rumored to be defective medical products from the Old World. —”Punctual Sniper Chronicles”
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
Advanced chapters are now available up to chapter 110 on my Ko-fi page!
If you appreciate what I do, please consider supporting me on kofi. Thank you!
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•