Right on Target (TARGET)
Xie Zhenshu gazed quietly at Su Heting, as if discerning the truth behind his words.
Su Heting leaned in closer. "What? I don’t lie. Oh, so you’re Xie Zhenshu. Tell me, why did you trick me?"
He had known all along that Inspector was Xie Zhenshu, but now he feigned ignorance, eager to hear how Xie Zhenshu would respond.
Xie Zhenshu averted his eyes. "I didn’t."
Su Heting took a step forward, blocking Xie Zhenshu’s line of sight, ready to tease him further—when suddenly, a piercing shriek tore through the air above them. Su Heting’s expression shifted as he clapped his hands over his ears, but it was futile. The screech was like a steel spike, drilling into his skull and sending his head into a violent, buzzing frenzy.
The dragon, for some unknown reason, had fallen into a rage. With a flick of its tail—a motion that would have been ordinary for any other creature—its colossal size turned the movement into a devastating wave of collapsing buildings.
Su Heting shouted, "What’s it doing?!"
Xie Zhenshu replied, "Looking for its son."
Su Heting gasped. "It has a son?!"
Xie Zhenshu grabbed Su Heting’s wrist and pulled him toward the direction he had come from. "That’s Zhu Yin!"
The shrieking paused briefly as shop signs on either side of the street plummeted to the ground. Display windows that were unable to withstand the force, shattered one after another in rapid succession. Glass shards scattered across the pavement. The rain-drenched street is now a scene of apocalyptic ruin.
The ringing in Su Heting’s head refused to fade. As he ran, dizziness crept over him, but he dismissed it as lingering effects from the fall, paying it no mind.
[X-character lock engaged…]
The message in his cybernetic eye froze there, refusing to update.
Zhu Yin’s shriek erupted again, this time nearly deafening Su Heting. His steps faltered, and he nearly crashed into Xie Zhenshu’s back.
Su Heting muttered, "Damn—"
His tail drooped and his entire body went limp as if drained of power. He began to slump downward, only for Xie Zhenshu to catch him.
Xie Zhenshu asked, "Zhu Yin induces 'silence'. Can you still see with your eye?"
Su Heting couldn’t hear Xie Zhenshu’s voice as his mind slipped into a dazed haze. His right eye was blind, and the world spun around him as though he weren’t running on solid ground but drifting in a careening vehicle. Fighting back nausea, he mumbled, "My implants are failing…"
Cats relied more heavily on implants than humans did—his ears and tail functioned as his information manager and central processor. Without them, he lost all sense of balance. Forget fighting; even standing became a struggle.
Xie Zhenshu lifted Su Heting higher.
Su Heting, disoriented and unable to hear, dragged out his words longer than usual. "Maybe—you—could—drag—me—along—"
Xie Zhenshu simply slung the cat over his shoulder.
"Oh," Su Heting murmured, arms dangling limply. "This works too."
Zhu Yin slithered forward while wailing in grief for its missing son. Its sobs stirred the worsening storm, sending hailstones crashing down with even greater fury. It tilted its head skyward and let out a long, mournful cry, then turned its mechanical skull, revealing the side with its open eye.
Su Heting’s left eye—his organic one—was seared by the sudden burst of white light. He squeezed his eyes shut and his fingers tightening around Xie Zhenshu’s shirt, grounding himself against the rhythm of Xie Zhenshu’s sprinting back.
Run!
That was the only thought left in Su Heting’s mind.
This thing was too damn eerie.
He suspected that Xie Zhenshu's diamond fragment had also been "silenced" by Zhu Yin, otherwise it wouldn't have shattered just now. Facing Zhu Yin barehanded was a hopeless battle, especially with him now being a burden—running was the best option.
Flower Plaza was shaped like a "口", surrounded by flower beds and street lamps on the outer edges. The lamps were all broken, leaving only the Flying Head Fiends darting chaotically through the air—even they couldn't endure Zhu Yin's white light.
This white light not only hurt the eyes but also attracted creatures that loathed light.
From Xie Zhenshu's earpiece came Yu Cheng's voice: "Sir! Our vehicle is at Intersection 3!"
Xie Zhenshu replied, "Understood."
Several mannequins from clothing stores toppled out, revealing the Nightwalkers hidden in the display windows. Under the white light, the Nightwalkers shrieked miserably while covering their faces with their black hair and retracting their sharp legs, curling into human-sized balls.
Xie Zhenshu didn’t slow his pace, swiftly passing through the shopping street and boarding the vehicle at the intersection.
Dong Fang opened the door and momentarily stunned before understanding: "No wonder."
No wonder the boss had suddenly come to this district.
Xiao Gu, nursing his injured arm, lay in the inner compartment. Seeing Xie Zhenshu return through the rain, he called out, "Is it cat? What happened to him?"
Xie Zhenshu lifted the small curtain and placed Su Heting on his own bunk. Rain still clung to his face, but he didn’t wipe it away, only asking Dong Fang, "Can the stowaway’s implants be repaired?"
Dong Fang said, "I’m not a modification doctor. I can handle minor malfunctions, but something like Zhu Yin’s 'silence' is beyond me. We’ll have to wait until dawn."
Zhu Yin stretched a thousand meters long, one of the largest demons in the Punishment Zone. Its body was crimson-red and semi-transparent yet incredibly resilient. The red fluid coursing through its internal pipes was as hot as molten lava and erupting like a volcano when expelled—its mere movement through the city caused countless casualties. Moreover, its mechanical head had a dual-faced design: the open-eyed side bathed the area in blinding light, mimicking daylight, while the closed-eyed side brought endless darkness and could "silence" certain devices, rendering some human implant modifications useless.
Dong Fang leaned over to glance at Su Heting: "Is he hurt?"
Su Heting tried to lip-read their conversation but couldn’t make sense of it. He attempted to lift his tail, but it remained unresponsive.
Damn it.
The cat resigned himself to staring at the ceiling.
Xie Zhenshu said, "No."
Xiao Gu shuffled over in slippers: "Oh, it really is cat." He greeted warmly, "Can you still hear me? Why’d you log in here? We usually don’t dare come this way."
Zhu Yin wasn’t their hunting target. Even when it appeared, they’d deliberately avoid it, opting to hunt other demons instead. Mainly because Zhu Yin was simply too massive. According to Conqueror records, they’d only ever managed to encircle and hunt it once during their peak.
Su Heting knew Xiao Gu was talking to him and sluggishly replied, "Huh—?"
Xiao Gu found his current dazed state—completely different from his last visit—rather amusing and said, "This kid’s all spaced out. Kinda cute."
Xie Zhenshu stayed silent, not even glancing at Xiao Gu, yet Xiao Gu suddenly felt a chill in the air and promptly shut his mouth.
Hua Zhi handed over a towel while eyeing Su Heting curiously: "Is it a central processor failure?"
Xie Zhenshu gave a faint "Mmm."
Hua Zhi said, "Seems the Great Explosion hit him hard."
"And he lost an eye too," Dong Fang sighed. "Fortunately, the survival modification surgery was done well, allowing him to stay lively. Otherwise..."
The compartment fell silent abruptly, and none of them spoke anymore.
Su Heting, seeing them all frozen, felt as if a cat were scratching at his heart. He asked curiously, "What? Why has everyone gone quiet?"
Xie Zhenshu draped a towel over his face and gave it a rough wipe.
At that very moment, the white light vanished, plunging the world back into darkness.
Yu Cheng, who was driving, lost his vision and couldn’t even turn on the headlights. Through the communicator, he reported to Xie Zhenshu in the compartment, "Sir, the road has disappeared."
Hail pounded against the windows, filling the vehicle with loud bang bang bang sounds. Yu Cheng’s communicator was also affected by the Zhu Yin interference, becoming fragmented and crackling with static. Not hearing Xie Zhenshu’s response, he repeated, "Sir! Our road has disappeared!"
But there was no answer.
Inside the compartment, Xie Zhenshu was replying, "Turn on the display."
Screech.
Everyone’s communicators turned to a busy signal.
Xie Zhenshu frowned slightly and looked out the window, but it was too dark to see Zhu Yin.
Hua Zhi winced at the piercing busy signal and removed her communicator. "We’ve already taken down two Bifangs, but the Mechanical Eunuch hasn’t shown up. Could tonight’s death toll still be far from enough?"
Xiao Gu stroked his chin with one hand. "Hard to say. Ever since last time, I’ve felt like the Mechanical Eunuch has been targeting us."
As they spoke, the communicators in their ears suddenly returned to normal as the busy signal vanished.
Dong Fang asked, "Yu Cheng, Yu Cheng, can you hear me?"
The communicator responded with a giggle.
By then, all the lights in the vehicle had gone out, leaving only vague outlines of each person. The giggling was eerily clear as it played at the same frequency in everyone’s communicators like a looped recording.
A deathly silence filled the vehicle. No one dared to ask questions—they all clenched their jaws, pretending they weren’t there.
Yu Cheng, sitting alone in the front, didn’t hear the laughter. He fiddled with the vehicle’s settings, and faint starlight flickered from the ceiling. "Sir? Xiao Gu?" he called.
The communicator crackled screech screech, heavily disrupted by the Zhu Yin.
Yu Cheng muttered to himself, "Broken or something..."
The car door rattled a few times. At first, Yu Cheng thought it was the hail, but then it sounded more like knocking. Assuming it was a teammate checking the vehicle, he cracked the door open slightly and leaned toward the gap. "Zhu Yin is too—"
Cold rain splashed in, and an eye pressed against the gap, staring straight at Yu Cheng.
Realizing what it was, Yu Cheng screamed and slammed the door shut. But the door got stuck and the metal scraped against the seat as the intruder forced its head inside.
The Nightwalker, with its elongated neck, leaned its face toward Yu Cheng, its lips moving soundlessly. Its vine-like arms wrapped around the door, tearing it halfway off as it squeezed half its body inside.
The Nightwalker whispered, "Come..."
Yu Cheng grabbed the flamethrower under his seat and blasted it at the creature. Fire roared out, singeing the Nightwalker’s hair. It shrieked in agony while thrashing wildly and its head slamming into the interior and honking the car horn.
Knocked over by the Nightwalker, Yu Cheng scrambled through the gap between seats, flung open the opposite door, and yelled, "Sir, there’s a—"
Yu Cheng felt a sharp pain in his calf—he had been ensnared by the Nightwalker. The creature yanked him toward its embrace, but he clung desperately to the edge of the armored vehicle's door. A gust of wind slammed the door shut with a loud bang, crushing his fingers.
He had assumed only the Nightwalker was nearby, but then the road beneath them erupted with a deafening crack as Zhu Yin passed overhead, its massive belly flipping the armored vehicle over in one swift motion.
Inside the overturned vehicle, Su Heting knocked his head against something hard. He grabbed a bedpost with one hand and used a pillow to shield Hua Zhi from the impact as she tumbled toward him. But his strength was no match for the chaos—he couldn’t stop himself from sliding uncontrollably.
Xiao Gu rolled against the window, but before he could utter a word, the glass shattered. The Nightwalker’s bladed legs, along with the pouring rain, slashed through the opening, narrowly missing his face. “What the hell?!” he shouted.
Xie Zhenshu barked, “Abandon the vehicle! Zhu Yin is here!”
The armored vehicle crumpled like a tin can under Zhu Yin’s scraping weight, flipping once more. The ground around them fractured, unable to bear the colossal serpent’s mass. Coiling half its body upward, Zhu Yin formed a towering crimson wall a hundred meters high, trapping the armored vehicle within its grasp.
Author’s Note:
① Zhu Yin: Hates the Flying Head Fiends—hearing their songs sends it into a frenzy. For more details, refer to this chapter. — Strange Tales of the Sniper’s Strike
①-1 Inspiration for the setting: “The dragon has a human face and a serpent’s body, crimson in color. Its vertical eyes bring darkness when closed and light when open. It neither eats, nor sleeps, nor rests, commanding wind and rain. It is called Zhu Jiu Yin, known as Zhu Long (Dragon).” — Classic of Mountains and Seas
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
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!
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•