Right on Target (TARGET)
Su Heting's tail light flickered out after just a few minutes. He tried shaking his tail to reignite it, but to no avail.
“All lights eventually go out.”
Remembering Inspector’s words, Su Heting gave up on relighting it.
A biting wind rushed through his collar, sending a shiver down his spine. He tightened his grip on his shirt, trying to block the cold, but the thin fabric did little to help.
What awful weather.
Su Heting strained to keep his eyes open. His modified eyes displayed only a few simple lines of information:
[X-Character Patrol: No hostile targets detected.]
No targets?
Bracing against the icy wind, he scanned the endless darkness.
Today’s Punishment Zone was darker than the previous two visits—he couldn’t see a thing. He pulled a small bell from his pocket and shook it vigorously, but the storm drowned out its faint chime.
"Over here."
A reply suddenly came from nearby.
"Over here! Walk this way."
The voice was crisp and articulate, like a late-night radio host’s, though slightly forced, lacking natural ease.
Su Heting followed the sound, only to kick something in the dark.
The object rolled a few times before continuing, "A little more light, please. See who I am."
The words fell like a stone into a pond, rippling with countless echoes.
"The rain is so heavy."
"Have you come to see me? How nice."
"Commander once came too."
"But he never lit a lamp, never spoke. He wandered here like a machine."
"Yet I saw him weep in the storm with my own eyes—a scene frozen in time by Zhurong and played over and over like a film. On that night of rain and fire, he—"
Su Heting’s right hand erupted in sparks, blasting forward to cut off the voices. The brief flare illuminated his surroundings.
This appeared to be a rooftop—no wonder the wind was so strong. But it was also lined with hanging heads that were packed together like bats.
Their pale faces and frozen purple, stared wide-eyed at Su Heting.
Su Heting scowled. "Enough rambling. Shut up!"
The moment he heard "weep", he knew it was trouble. He hadn’t come to pry into Inspector’s past—that was rude. No one wanted their pain and vulnerability broadcast like this.
The flying heads shrieked at the sudden light, squeezing their eyes shut. "Fire! Put it out, quick!"
Su Heting kicked over a broken railing, silencing them. "No more noise!"
The heads whimpered, trembling like frightened groundhogs under his glare.
Su Heting picked one that looked slightly less horrifying, untangled its hair, and held it up. "Where is this?"
The head sniffled. "This is Flower Plaza!"
Su Heting pressed on. "What are you all doing here? Any Yanguang's nearby?"
At the mention of "Yanguang's," the heads shuddered violently—they hated being captured and turned into radios by those creatures. "N-none! If there were, we’d have run already. We’re here for a singing party. Tonight’s weather is perfect!"
Su Heting, currently pelted by hail: "..."
He switched topics. "Do you just blabber about the Commander’s private life to anyone?"
The head wailed. "N-no! We mistook you for a Conqueror!"
Su Heting frowned. "Conqueror?"
The head explained, "That’s the god-slaying team led by Commander. They called themselves ‘Conquerors.’ A few years back, they hunted deities and demons everywhere."
Su Heting let out a thoughtful "Hmm."
The flying heads, not receiving another question, couldn't hold back and blurted out, "The Conquerors had thousands of people!"
Other heads chimed in: "The Conquerors had 300 squads!"
"Too bad they were all killed by Zhurong!"
"Only the commander survived."
"The commander can resurrect!"
"He watched everyone burn to death."
"Him—"
Su Heting snapped, "Enough!"
The flying heads immediately fell silent. The one in Su Heting's hand was especially terrified and whimpered, "We mean no harm."
Su Heting scoffed, "Liar. Weren't you the ones who called me over?"
The flying head argued, "We just wanted to chat with you."
Su Heting didn't believe it. His cat ears ached from the hail, and he wanted to find shelter from the rain. But his instincts told him these heads weren't being honest—something might be lying in wait ahead.
He asked, "Is it safe over there?"
The flying head's eyes rolled and its crying face dramatically shifting into a grin, with two red blushes appearing on its cheeks, making it look eerily bizarre. In a sweet, coaxing tone, it said, "Safe, very safe! Hurry over and take shelter! The sky will clear up soon."
Su Heting replied, "Alright, I believe you."
With that, he swung his arm and hurled the flying head forward.
The flying head hadn't expected Su Heting to be so ruthless. As it was thrown, it screamed in panic.
Despite being capable of flight, its reflexes were oddly sluggish. It wobbled unsteadily, crashed into something, then tumbled to the ground while shrieking in pain, "Help! Help! It's waking up!"
As it spoke, Su Heting felt an icy gust of wind sweep from ahead—bone-chillingly cold, accompanied by a dull "whoosh" that bent the copper pipes on either side of the rooftop.
The heads all cried out, "So cold!"
The hail intensified. Su Heting covered his head, soaked to the bone, his hands and feet freezing. He probed ahead with his cybernetic eye.
[X-Sign Scan: No hostile targets detected.]
The cybernetic eye still reported nothing, but the violent wind was clearly unnatural.
The flying head was blown back by the wind and rolling to Su Heting's feet while still screaming, "Demons and gods pass—"
Su Heting kicked it away, refusing to let it mimic the Mechanical Eunuch's words.
But the surrounding flying heads began chanting in unison, "Demons and gods pass, mortals make way!"
Their voices were piercingly loud, carrying an extraordinary force. The building beneath Su Heting's feet trembled violently, as though something was awakening.
[X-Sign Scan: Hostile target charging.]
—What the hell?!
The rain lashed at Su Heting's face like pellets. He couldn't see the hostile target clearly—the X-Sign couldn't lock on, scanning aimlessly in the darkness.
The flying heads darted about chaotically in the wind, laughing and cackling. Not just Su Heting's building—the surrounding commercial towers also began shaking.
A massive billboard facing the square crashed down as if an earthquake had struck.
Then, deep in the darkness, two enormous white lights suddenly flared to life. Like flashbangs, they illuminated the entire area, turning night into day.
Su Heting shut his left eye, clearly seeing the X-Sign in his cybernetic eye turn red and kept flashing "WARNING", urging him to run.
The rooftop's copper pipes snapped with a "bang," tumbling off the building. The white lights shot toward Su Heting—only then did he realize they weren't lights at all.
They were eyes.
Su Heting didn’t hesitate—he turned and bolted. With a powerful leap, he grabbed the edge of the rooftop shed and flipped over it just as a shell exploded behind him with a deafening boom.
The shockwave slammed into Su Heting, sending him tumbling across the roof before he plummeted downward!
THUD—!
He landed on an old-world transmission box half a man’s height below, which let out a tortured groan before collapsing with a CLANG and plummeting from the nearly hundred-meter-high rooftop.
Damn it!
Su Heting flung out an arm and caught the nearby iron railing, his legs dangling in midair as the fierce wind tore at him and his shirt flapping wildly. He looked down and finally saw what was below him.
A crimson dragon.
Only a section of its body was visible in the shopping street—the rest was coiled between towering skyscrapers. Its undulating form was as thick as half a building, and its skin translucent, revealing layers upon layers of crimson fluid-filled tubes inside, resembling the tangled wires of the old world. It had no claws or limbs, instead using its massive body to crush buildings as it slithered.
This thing was way bigger than Fei Yi.
Su Heting had no appreciation for the System’s oversized aesthetic. Clinging to the railing, he felt like even his tail was going numb from the wind.
A shadow loomed over him as a crudely carved mechanical head emerged. Its eyes were designed to mimic human ones, but they were entirely white, and were just motionless like a statue—except for the blinding glare. Even Su Heting’s modified eyes couldn’t handle the intensity as it drew closer.
Su Heting managed a weak, “Hey—”
The building tilted. The railing, long neglected, gave a SNAP and broke apart just as the dragon opened its maw to unleash a devastating blast.
Su Heting’s voice cracked, “Fuck—!”
His grip failed. The wind howled past his cat ears and his hair whipping wildly. He didn’t even have time to find another handhold before he was falling.
The dragon’s head twisted, revealing another face on the back—this one with closed eyes. The entire area darkened in response, plunging back into shadow.
As he plummeted, Su Heting stretched out an arm as flames swirled around his fingers. He wanted to fire off a shot, but before he could act, the flames vanished.
This dragon could silence his attacks!
—I’m dead!
“Cat!”
Diamond-shaped fragments suddenly reassembled midair, transforming into a three-headed, six-armed Asura. One of its arms, "Loathing", shot out and grabbed Su Heting—but the grip tore straight through his shirt. With a rip, his fall slowed for just two seconds before he dropped again!
Su Heting reached out and seized "Loathing’s" fingers, but for some reason tonight, even Inspector’s fragments were failing. The pieces scattered with a shatter.
Seriously, man?!
The fourth-floor window exploded as Xie Zhenshu kicked off the railing and lunged, intercepting Su Heting midair. The two crashed onto a sales canopy below, the flimsy structure collapsing under their weight.
Su Heting gasped for breath. “Good timing.”
Xie Zhenshu’s chest heaved. He lay on his back and closed his eyes briefly as if steadying himself. “Yeah. Almost didn’t make it.”
Their breaths mingled as the distance between them suddenly became too close. Su Heting felt the weight of Xie Zhenshu’s hand pressing against his back and pushed himself up, breaking free of his hold.
He yanked away the tangled canopy fabric. “You just smashed through a window—you good?”
Xie Zhenshu opened his eyes. “I’m fine.”
Su Heting’s shirt was in tatters. He reached behind his back and was about to say something, when a jacket was draped over his head.
The coat still held a lingering warmth.
Su Heting froze for a moment before pulling the coat off. "...No need."
Xie Zenshu had already stood up as the diamond-shaped fragments reattached to his arm. The cross-shaped star by his ear swayed as he turned to look at Su Heting.
This gaze wasn’t cold—just a little dejected, as if what Su Heting had rejected wasn’t just the coat, but something else. His face was strikingly handsome, aloof when unsmiling, yet his eyes could pierce straight through someone’s heart.
Suddenly, Su Heting recalled the things the Flying Head Fiend had mentioned and silently put the coat back on. Shoving his hands into the pockets, he thought to himself: I’ll humor him.
He said, "Next time, you can wear mine."
His tone was cocky, as if Xie Zenshu could even fit into his size.
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