The Man Drowned by Life

"It actually worked?"

At this moment, even Xiao Xiao couldn't help but feel a little excited.

The three hounds that had been summoned seemed a bit dazed, as if unsure how they had suddenly arrived here.

Due to their different breeds, their reactions also seemed quite distinct. One hound, with a large head, thick neck, and black muzzle, immediately noticed the corpses in front of Xiao Xiao upon appearing.

It emitted a low, threatening growl from its throat, pawed at the ground, and charged forward, baring its fangs and spraying saliva, perfectly embodying the ferocity of a vicious dog.

Another dog, of medium build with yellow fur, quickly surveyed its surroundings, then wagged its tail at Xiao Xiao before swiftly rushing towards the corpses ahead.

The last one, with black and white markings, excitedly looked around, wagging its tail frantically at the convulsing corpses, jumping around as if wanting to play with them.

"Did I get ripped off on that last one..."

Taking in the three dogs' behavior, Xiao Xiao thought to himself while seizing the opportunity to stride forward.

"Is this guy crazy?"

"Doesn't he realize the danger of the Choking Nest?"

"Where did the dogs come from?"

"..."

Xiao Xiao could guarantee that every step he took was the result of careful consideration, repeated deliberation, and even meticulous planning for the possibility of success.

He also believed that any ordinary person with a sound personality, stable mind, and a certain level of intelligence would make the same decision after careful consideration.

But in Ruan Ruan's eyes, he seemed exceptionally insane at this moment...

How could he, faced with such a terrifying and bizarre scene, rush forward without hesitation, even summoning three vicious dogs from who-knows-where to help clear the way?

Too rushed to ask, Xiao Xiao, with the help of the three dogs, had already torn a gap in the flailing mass of corpses in front of him.

Having undergone basic enhancements, his physical fitness had improved significantly, and his movements seemed quite fast, although still somewhat clumsy due to a lack of experience and coordination.

However, he acted decisively, instantly breaking through the seven or eight hands reaching for him and rushing into the innermost space of the warehouse.

Behind him, shadows flickered. The three dogs... no, two. One was slacking off, helping him deal with some of the corpses blocking the way, but unable to kill them. Now, they were surrounding him.

It seemed that Xiao Xiao had deliberately walked into a trap.

But similarly, upon arriving in this area, Xiao Xiao abruptly stopped, seeing someone distinctly different from the surrounding corpses.

It was a man in a white shirt, gaunt and kneeling in the middle of the warehouse's open space, his hands covering his face in agony, as still as a statue.

Countless scattered, twisted flesh organizations emanated from him, connecting to the scattered corpses behind him, constructing this nightmarish scene.

"Is that the Suffocation Puppet?"

Xiao Xiao abruptly raised his gun—though, in Ruan Ruan's eyes, he merely observed for a moment before calmly raising the gun in his hand.

His movements were even somewhat elegant.

However, after aiming for a moment, Xiao Xiao suddenly lowered the gun and strode towards the man.

"What's he doing? Just shoot him already..."

Ruan Ruan watched from afar, feeling extremely strange.

She didn't understand how Xiao Xiao, having found the Suffocation Puppet and being able to shoot, insisted on putting the gun down and walking forward instead.

Although, once the Choking Nest had formed, shooting the Suffocation Puppet alone wouldn't solve the problem.

Because the Choking Nest represented the spread of this distortion problem. The Suffocation Puppet and the surrounding corpses had formed a whole, like a festering wound that needed to be cleaned up entirely.

But regardless, if Xiao Xiao shot the Suffocation Puppet directly, it would have some impact on the Choking Nest, reducing the trouble of the incident.

But Xiao Xiao's reason was actually very simple—

Damn it, my marksmanship is so bad, I'll probably miss at this distance...

So, he had no choice but to quickly close the distance with the Suffocation Puppet, dodging the wriggling flesh organizations on the ground along the way.

But just as Xiao Xiao was rapidly approaching, the man in the soiled white shirt suddenly moved.

He slowly lowered his hands, staring at Xiao Xiao with empty, black eye sockets.

At this moment, Xiao Xiao was in a state of mental explosion, highly tense. Under the overload of his brain, his gaze collided sharply with those empty, black eye sockets.

"Buzz..."

In that instant, he seemed to feel dense and complex mental power, cutting each other, flashing a series of crazy images.

He saw a man, a very ordinary man, so ordinary that he subconsciously thought he could be him.

[Born into an ordinary family, grew up in an ordinary environment, his grades in school were also ordinary, not particularly distracted from studying, but always lacked the cleverness of those high-achieving students.

After graduation, he found a job in a large factory, and even got promoted to the business department because he was relatively quick-witted, and closed a few big deals.

So, he smoothly got married and had children, and happiness quietly arrived.

Then, also very ordinarily, his mother got sick, and of course he had to take responsibility and spend money on treatment, but he didn't expect it to cost so much, but fortunately, the savings of the past few years could handle it.

Work hard for a few years, and the money will come back.

But unexpectedly, the factory closed down, and he had no choice but to look for a new job. However, the new factory wasn't friendly, offering a salary less than half of what he used to make, and the previously promised benefits were also canceled. Having experienced success before, he was naturally unwilling to compromise, so he quit after working there for a while, thinking he could find something better, at least something not too different from his previous job. But he didn't expect...

Time after time, he found new jobs, and time after time, he quit, as if some kind of curse had begun to haunt him.

The money dwindled, the debts piled up, the child's tuition, tutoring classes, household expenses, the four elderly parents to support – countless hands reached out to him.

He needed money so badly, but the money was right there, and he couldn't get it.

He worked harder and harder, desperately trying to make things work, like a headless fly bumping around in a glass bottle, but as a result, he earned even less money. Instead, he was careless and got swindled out of a sum by a friend from the past.

That was the money for the child's schooling. His wife cursed him out, and he just squatted at the door, holding his head.

In times of happiness, the days always slip away quickly, but in times of misfortune, time seems to stand still, and every second is so hard to bear.

Finally, when his child had a high fever and his wife made countless calls asking him to send money, he looked at the empty balance on his credit card and was overcome by a deep sense of helplessness.

His wife filed for divorce, and he came to the empty street. His father called, saying that his mother's condition had relapsed again.

And as he looked at the full list of names in his contacts, he didn't know which one to call.

When he finally couldn't bear his father's urging and cruelly turned off his phone, he felt like a complete and utter bastard.

Walking aimlessly down the street, he didn't know when he had arrived at the factory where he had once been happiest. He sat in the empty warehouse, thinking that perhaps it would be better to end it all.

He took out a match and pulled a cigarette pack from his pocket, wanting to give himself a moment of peace in the end.

But...

...the cigarette pack was empty.

He suddenly looked up, wailing in pain, feeling that something inside him had accumulated to the extreme, finally breaking down some fragile part of him.]

"The cigarette pack is empty..."

"..."

Xiao Xiao suddenly woke up, only less than a second had passed, but it felt like he had experienced a collapsing life.

A complex expression appeared on his face as he looked at the man in the white shirt, seeing a box of matches and a crumpled cigarette pack thrown at his feet.

He saw traces of some kind of liquid flowing from the edges of his dark eye sockets.

Xiao Xiao, who had already gripped his gun tightly, intending to rush forward and shoot him in the forehead, was struck in the heart by a sudden wave of emotion.

His movements slowed down, and Xiao Xiao quietly walked up to the man in the white shirt.

Behind him, the surging heads of the dead were tearing at the three vicious dogs.

In the swaying, chaotic shadows, Xiao Xiao and the man kneeling on the ground formed a moment of quiet eye contact.

The time was actually extremely short.

Then Xiao Xiao suddenly raised his hand, took the cigarette he had tucked behind his ear, and gently placed it between the man's lips.

He picked up the matches from the ground, gently struck one, and lit it for him.

"You've worked hard..."

With complex emotions, he dropped the still-burning match in his hand onto the man's coat, which he had thrown aside. The fire burned quietly.

The man remained motionless, his dark eye sockets quietly watching Xiao Xiao, the spark on the cigarette tip like the last warmth in the world.

Xiao Xiao slowly retreated, watching the figure being engulfed in flames, and after a few steps, he sighed, quickly turned around, and rushed into the pile of dead bodies.

Struggling left and right, he and the three vicious dogs desperately charged towards the outside.

So, life really can drown people...

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