Despair Swamp

"Hm?"

Xiao Xiao's heart jolted. He spun around quickly, only to find nothing behind him.

He was standing on a small platform jutting out from a second-floor room. The door behind him was locked, and the platform was so cramped that there was nowhere for anyone to hide.

But he had heard that voice clearly. It definitely had not been an illusion.

The bizarre situation felt almost supernatural, making him slightly tense as his thoughts raced. His gaze swept across the platform once more.

Every subtle trace fell into his eyes, quickly filtered and analyzed. In the end, his pupils narrowed slightly, and in disbelief, he fixed his gaze on a hole in the upper-left corner of the platform.

It seemed to be a hole that had once connected to some kind of pipe. It was no more than twenty centimeters in diameter, pitch-black, and he had no idea where it led.

Yet now, someone was crawling out of it.

His face was pale as he slowly squeezed himself through, a dark-red card clenched between his teeth. It was identical to the one on Xiao Xiao, seemingly indicating that he had the same status.

Xiao Xiao was actually startled badly, but because he was too tense, his expression failed to keep up. Instead, he looked unusually calm, with only a trace of curiosity in his voice:

"Who are you?"

"..."

"My name is Little Four. I'm an investigator for the Outlander organization in Black Gate City. Yang Jia ordered me to come investigate something."

The person in the hole spoke clearly despite the card in his mouth. As he talked, he extended a hand so thin it seemed to consist of nothing but bones toward Xiao Xiao.

"Little Four?"

He thought over the name and vaguely remembered hearing Ruan Ruan mention it.

The Outlanders on the Black Gate side had also formed an organization to help one another. According to Ruan Ruan, it was quite powerful.

Xiao Xiao had not joined the organization yet. The only people he knew from it were Yang Jia and Ruan Ruan, and Little Four was someone Ruan Ruan had mentioned during one of their previous conversations.

He just had not expected to meet him here.

He was still somewhat wary, but after a brief hesitation, he took the hand Little Four extended and shook it up and down. "Hello."

"Hello to you too..."

Little Four answered weakly. Still holding Xiao Xiao's hand, he said awkwardly, "But I was actually hoping you'd pull me up..."

"..."

Expressionless, Xiao Xiao dragged him out of the hole by the hand.

Only then could he clearly see what Little Four looked like. He seemed quite young, with a pale face and eyes habitually narrowed into slits, as though he was somewhat afraid to look people in the eye.

He was absurdly thin, as if he had no bones, yet it was still hard to imagine how he had squeezed through such a tiny hole.

Slightly curious, Xiao Xiao asked, "You know me?"

"I've heard of you..."

Little Four seemed somewhat surprised by Xiao Xiao's calm and composed air. After glancing at him, he looked away and said quietly, "Sister Hard said you're a super-promising newcomer."

"Very handsome, and very twisted."

"You can resolve a Class C incident without injury as a newcomer, but you also like feeding dead people's hands to dogs..."

"..."

"?"

Xiao Xiao froze for a moment, then suddenly understood who he was talking about.

Compared with Ruan Ruan, Sister Hard really did suit her better. But... wasn't she being a little too excessive by saying things like that about him outside?

"It's all a misunderstanding. She was probably joking..."

He shook his head awkwardly, then glanced toward the alley, where the fight was nearly over, and changed the subject. "By the way, the Pain Substance you mentioned just now is..."

"You haven't learned about that part yet?"

Little Four looked at Xiao Xiao in surprise. "The Pain Substance inside that girl has already reached its critical point. She's about to undergo aberration."

"If we wait until the aberration appears and then clean her up, we can immediately earn quite a lot of points."

"..."

"Aberration?"

Xiao Xiao's expression shifted slightly as he thought of Rat-Man and Suffocation Puppet.

Had the little girl next door almost turned into that kind of twisted Aberrant Creature as well?

It did not seem strange. After all, he had felt such intense despair and pain coming from her just now...

Many thoughts flashed through his mind, but Xiao Xiao completed them all in an instant. His expression barely changed. He merely nodded and said lightly, "She's my neighbor."

"Your neighbor?"

Little Four nodded silently. "No wonder you saved her. Her pain has been released now, so she won't undergo aberration anymore."

As he spoke, he glanced into the alley. "Those three dogs were ones you bought after awakening?"

Xiao Xiao felt somewhat awkward. He turned to look into the alley and said, "They're cute, aren't they?"

"Mm..."

Looking at the gruesome scene inside the alley, with flesh and blood flying everywhere, Little Four sighed softly. "They really are different after being raised on human flesh..."

"?"

For a moment, Xiao Xiao had a feeling he could not quite put into words.

He really had not done that. He had thrown that dead person's hand into the fire soon afterward.

But when he saw the scrutinizing yet fearful look Little Four was giving him, he suddenly realized that Little Four probably would not believe him no matter what he said...

At the same time, the alley was already a bloody mess.

The girls, who only minutes ago had been arrogant and imperious, had been torn and bitten until their flesh was mangled. They wailed and screamed in pain.

Some had shrunk into trash cans, trembling all over. Others had crawled and rolled their way out of the alley. Yet every one of them had been branded deeply with fear in the depths of their minds.

Nuo Nuo was currently hugging the big black dog around the neck and sobbing miserably.

Yet for some reason, there seemed to be a hint of happiness in her sobs.

As for the three vicious dogs, they tilted their heads and watched. Their thoughts were simple: The master is right beside us. This girl is acting so close to us. Won't the master get jealous?

"This has caused quite a commotion. We should leave first..."

On the second-floor platform, Little Four shook his head and nodded at Xiao Xiao. He continued to sigh, "Although we lost quite a few points, seeing how pitifully this girl is crying, I suppose it wasn't a loss..."

Xiao Xiao nodded as well and prepared to return first. After all, this had only been an unexpected encounter, and he did not feel as though he had lost any points or anything like that.

He was more eager to find out about the Pain Substance and why the points required to strengthen the three vicious dogs had decreased.

But just then, he suddenly got goosebumps.

He abruptly looked up in a certain direction as a sense of danger surged toward him like a tide.

Even Little Four was startled. An incomprehensible expression appeared on his pale face. "Are we really this lucky?"

Inside a café by the street, the clerk looked at the woman wearing sunglasses, whose body was trembling faintly. Her face seemed to show some guilt as she lowered her voice and said:

"Don't be like this, Zhang Xiao. It's all in the past, isn't it?"

It was obvious that she really did feel somewhat guilty. Smiling, she said, "We had a little conflict back then, but we were both young, weren't we?"

"Haha, looking at what you're wearing now, you must be doing really well..."

"Leave me your contact information later. If we get the chance, we can go out for a meal together. Today's coffee is on me. Consider it my apology for being immature back then, all right?"

"..."

"A-apology..."

The woman wearing sunglasses finally spoke, but her voice trembled faintly, as though she was desperately holding herself together.

The coffee cup in her hand suddenly fell to the floor and shattered, splashing coffee all over the clerk's shoes and frightening her into hurriedly stepping back. The woman wearing sunglasses, meanwhile, spoke in an uncontrolled, shrill voice, nearly hysterical:

"How could you..."

"How could you just appear in front of me like this and make me remember everything all at once..."

"You even want me to forgive you. Forgive you..."

"Just because you're buying me a cup of coffee, you expect me to forget everything that happened before? You want me to forgive you?"

"..."

"Oh, come on..."

The female clerk hurriedly stamped her foot, then crouched down to wipe the coffee off her new shoes. The woman's voice was so loud that it drew everyone's attention in the café.

Especially with her exaggerated accusations, it made the clerk feel humiliated.

Her temper flared as well, and she cursed, "What are you doing? I came over to talk to you nicely. Why are you yelling at me? Do you think you're so great just because you're doing well now?"

"You really think you're somebody, you piece-of-shit woman..."

"..."

"Ah..."

The moment the insult "piece-of-shit woman" rang out, the woman wearing sunglasses suddenly let out a cry of agony. She clutched her head and crouched on the floor.

The scream was so intense that even the café's glass windows buzzed.

A coffee cup trembled twice before suddenly developing a crack.

"Why? Why..."

She covered her head and shouted loudly, as though her consciousness had already become confused. Her body trembled, and her elegant, refined appearance was completely gone. She looked like a small beast curled up in fear.

"I already forgot. I already forgot..."

"Why did you have to make me remember again? I took so much medicine just to forget. Why did you have to make me remember..."

"..."

"Is that really necessary?"

The clerk had also begun to feel afraid. She could not help backing away, wanting to leave, while muttering, "It was just a joke back then..."

"How old were we at the time..."

"..."

But her voice was quickly drowned out by the woman's screams.

The screams seemed to be filled with pain and exceeded the limits of an ordinary person's voice. The woman crouched on the floor, and that single scream seemed to shatter something invisible. A crack suddenly split open in her body as well, and scarlet tentacles crawled out from within.

Slender vines like crystal spread instantly, clinging to the floor and walls as they rapidly grew...

"What's that?"

Only one building separated him from the café. Xiao Xiao sensed the intense danger and saw the red tentacles growing wildly.

"Despair Swamp..."

A faint flush appeared even on Little Four's pale face. Excited, he said, "We were just saying we'd lost a batch of points, and now we've run into a big job..."

"Let's go. We're going to make it big..."