After all, from a medical perspective,
a case like Fan Shang's, where his heart rate had slowed by half, could be considered extremely dangerous.
Dizziness, weakness, and fatigue were minor issues. In severe cases, it could even lead directly to cardiac arrest or sudden death.
But all of that applied to ordinary people.
And Fan Shang was no ordinary person.
Judging by his exchange of blows with the Compound-Eyed Sunflower earlier, Fan Shang was certain this side effect hadn't affected him much.
At least he hadn't experienced any dizziness or weakness. How could that not count as good news?
With that thought, Fan Shang stopped dwelling on it.
Bracing himself against the axe, he pushed himself up from the ground.
Then he looked around.
It was already late at night.
Blood-red moonlight spilled from the sky, staining the highway an eerie crimson.
There were no trees on either side of the highway, only endless wilderness and fog.
Just then, a cold wind swept past.
It stirred Fan Shang's white hair.
Only then did Fan Shang finally realize that, at some point, every sound around him had vanished.
Whether the eerie laughter or the human screams,
they had all disappeared without him noticing.
His surroundings were utterly silent, save for the wind howling in from the wilderness.
If that were all, it wouldn't have been so bad.
But with the strange moon bearing a human face overhead and the dark silhouettes flickering in the fog on either side,
the silence carried an indescribable chill.
It felt as though something was watching him on this silent stretch of highway.
Waiting to devour him.
Even though Fan Shang hadn't spotted anything.
"No, I can't stay here any longer."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Not seeing something didn't mean it wasn't there. Fan Shang had never been the sort to court death.
Otherwise, he could never have survived that first week of Orange City's battle royale.
So when something was this obviously wrong, he always trusted his instincts.
Especially with one of Apocalypse's Three Iron Laws to consider.
Don't leave the highway for extended periods.
Although that implied the highway was safe, it didn't mean it was completely safe.
Staying in the same spot on the highway for too long could also bring danger.
At that thought, Fan Shang suddenly realized something.
He seemed to have... spent quite a while on this stretch of road already.
The realization made him whip his head toward both sides of the highway.
Those dark silhouettes were still in the fog.
But... compared to before, hadn't they... grown a little more solid?
The moment that thought surfaced, an inexplicable, hair-raising chill spread across his back.
And those hands stretched forward with all five fingers splayed-why did they look so much like they wanted to tear through the fog and burst out?
As for what would happen if they did, Fan Shang had no desire to find out!
"Damn it!"
Cursing under his breath, Fan Shang straightened without further hesitation and prepared to borrow any car he could find to escape.
But as the saying went, whatever you feared most was bound to happen.
The thought had barely crossed Fan Shang's mind
when a line of vivid red words slowly appeared before him.
He knew what it was. No, he couldn't have known more clearly.
[My name is Fan Shang. By the time you read these words, I am already dead. I should have run sooner. Awakening my Sequence made me lose my head and forget even the dangers of this strange world. So I overlooked it. I overlooked its arrival. It was that Cat-Faced Ghost. It was actually a level-two anomaly. It actually caught up! Damn it, damn it, damn it!!! It... is here...]
As the final punctuation mark appeared on the Death-Announcing System, a drop of crimson blood slowly trickled down the panel.
It fell to the ground.
Plop-!!
Plop-!!
"Meow~!"
An unsettling meow sounded softly in the night, so faint that anyone not listening closely would have missed it.
But because of the system's warning,
Fan Shang was on full alert, and he heard it.
The instant he heard that meow, he froze.
Then he turned his head stiffly and saw a small figure at the far end of the road behind him. He had no idea when it had appeared.
It had an old person's face and a pitch-black body, while its tail was made from several infant arms.
Blood stained its face.
Crimson droplets ran down its cheeks and fell to the ground.
Under the blood-red light, that face looked grotesquely eerie.
When Fan Shang looked over, the Cat-Faced Ghost saw him too. Its mouth split into a grin that stretched all the way to its ears.
Then an old person's hoarse, chilling voice rang out.
"Heh, young man, why are you all alone...?"
The voice sent a sickening chill through Fan Shang.
Looking more closely, he finally noticed quite a few wounds on the Cat-Faced Ghost's body. And because of those wounds,
he could sense black mist several times denser than the Compound-Eyed Sunflower's pouring out of them.
It was repairing the Cat-Faced Ghost's injuries.
But it wasn't working.
Specks of some unknown substance clung to the wounds. No matter how hard the black mist tried to heal them, progress was slow.
Still, this was clearly no time to concern himself with that.
Fan Shang stared at the Cat-Faced Ghost, his expression grim.
There was no doubt.
This anomaly was stronger than the Compound-Eyed Sunflower, and by far more than a little.
Fan Shang didn't dare linger for even a moment.
He turned and ran.
After all, he had never been recklessly stubborn. If he didn't run after the system had spelled out how he would die, wouldn't he be a complete fucking idiot?
He had only fought the Compound-Eyed Sunflower because he couldn't escape.
Now, faced with an anomaly a whole level above that sunflower, Fan Shang didn't think he was that foolhardy.
"Damn it, why am I so unlucky?!"
Cursing, Fan Shang swiftly opened a relatively intact car and hauled out its driver, whose skull had been pierced and pinned inside through the punctured door panel, then tossed the body aside.
He started the engine and drove straight off.
As he passed his bicycle, Fan Shang opened the door and vaulted out without hesitation.
He stripped off his clothes and wrapped Little Black's body in them.
Then he sprinted straight toward the driverless car.
With a leap, he vaulted back inside.
Fan Shang had never considered himself a good person, but when someone helped him and did him a kindness,
he never forgot it.
Even if that someone was only a cat.
He had always remembered how Little Black had tried to save him.
"Senior, hang in there. We'll be safe soon."
Fan Shang spoke, then gently set Little Black, bundled in his clothes, on the passenger seat.
He glanced at the anomaly behind him. The Cat-Faced Ghost was rapidly pursuing him.
He had expected as much.
After all, an anomaly seeing a human was like an Impostor seeing a boxing match-it couldn't possibly resist throwing a punch.
That was also why Fan Shang had jumped out of the car instead of stopping it.
That way, he wouldn't have to get it moving again.
Even so, the Cat-Faced Ghost had closed a considerable distance.
Seeing that, Fan Shang didn't hesitate.
He floored the accelerator, and the entire car shot forward.
Toward the winding highway ahead, in the direction the convoy had taken!
After driving like that for several hours,
Fan Shang finally shook off the Cat-Faced Ghost.
[Ding. Host has escaped the Cat-Faced Ghost's pursuit. Survival Points +500]
He also found traces of the convoy that had left ahead of him.
Looking at the tire tracks on the ground,
Fan Shang couldn't help letting out a breath of relief.
After all, anyone would have felt unnerved after driving for so long without seeing another person, with a human-faced moon hanging overhead.
Now that he had found signs of other people, it was hard not to feel relieved.
Fan Shang looked up at the faint firelight ahead, then said,
"Senior, we're safe."
He waited a moment after speaking, but received no response.
Sensing something wrong, Fan Shang froze.
He looked toward the passenger seat.
Little Black was still wrapped in his clothes.
But throughout the journey, Fan Shang had been fleeing and dealing with the Cat-Faced Ghost's pursuit, matching wits with it along the way.
He hadn't had any time to check on Little Black.
As a result, Fan Shang had no idea how Little Black was doing. He hadn't even been sure whether the cat was still breathing when he carried him into the car.
Only now did he notice a problem.
There wasn't even the slightest rise and fall around Little Black's belly beneath the clothes.
Fan Shang instantly panicked.
He hurried to check Little Black's condition.
But what he found gave him a terrible shock.
Fan Shang had already expected Little Black to be badly hurt. After all, Wang Xiaoxue had sent him flying with a lash of her whip, leaving him in a pool of blood.
Yet even then, Fan Shang had underestimated it.
Little Black's intestines were hanging out.
If there was any good news at all, Fan Shang supposed it was the fact that Little Black wasn't dead.
Yes, just moments ago, Fan Shang had thought Little Black was already dead.
But when he pulled back the clothes, he realized it wasn't that Little Black wasn't moving. His movements were simply too faint.
In short, more air was leaving him than entering.
Looking at the dying black cat before him, Fan Shang took a deep breath.
Then, without any hesitation,
he immediately asked,
"System, how many Survival Points would it take to heal Little Black?"
As before, he remembered how Little Black had risked his life to save him.
So even if saving Little Black also cost 2,000 Survival Points, Fan Shang wouldn't have blinked.
Whether it was a waste had never entered his considerations.
After all, Survival Points were earned to be spent. If he didn't use them now, when would he?
But the instant Fan Shang finished speaking,
the system naturally issued a notification.
That notification, however, left Fan Shang disappointed.
Because the system didn't display the number of Survival Points required, as it had when he wanted to heal his own injuries.
Instead, it displayed a notification that caught even Fan Shang off guard.
[Name: Little Black] [Species: Black Cat (unusual double pupils, black with a reddish tinge)] [Constitution: 3] [Spirit: 5] [Qi: 7] [Bloodline: Evil Warding lv1, Yin-Yang Eyes lv1] [Ding. Would the host like to spend 4,000 Survival Points to upgrade the black cat's bloodline? After the upgrade, this creature may become a supernatural creature.]
Fan Shang's eyes widened at the sight.
"4,000 Survival Points? Why don't you just rob me?! I meant healing Little Black's injuries! How many Survival Points would that take?!"
Fan Shang cursed furiously.
It wasn't that Fan Shang couldn't bear to spend those 4,000 Survival Points. He simply didn't have that many right now.
[Host's current Survival Points: 2,900]
If he had them, Fan Shang would have spent them on Little Black without a moment's hesitation.
But... he didn't.
Yet even after he finished speaking, the system offered no response.
At that, Fan Shang's heart sank.
Because that meant one thing.
For some unknown reason, the system apparently couldn't heal Little Black's injuries.
And if it couldn't heal Little Black's injuries, that meant...
Little Black was about to die.
At that thought, Fan Shang looked at the black cat on the passenger seat, now breathing out less than it breathed in.
For some reason, his feelings were complicated.
Perhaps it sensed Fan Shang's gaze, or perhaps it sensed its impending death. At that moment, the black cat opened its eyes too.
It looked toward Fan Shang.
Its once-bright eyes were now unfocused.
The man and the cat simply gazed at each other.
Fan Shang opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
But with the words on the tip of his tongue, he didn't know how to begin.
He could only feel the irony. After all, he'd finally managed to survive, finally managed to awaken his Sequence, only for things to end like this.
Yin soldiers, yin soldiers. He, the one connected to the underworld, hadn't died, yet the cat that had tried to save him was going to die instead.
"Heh..."
Fan Shang truly found it ironic.
Just then, perhaps because it had heard the self-mockery in Fan Shang's voice, Little Black stirred.
The cat let out a weak cry toward him.
"Meow..."
But to Fan Shang's bewilderment, he actually heard a trace of joy in it.
It sounded as though it were saying:
Two-legs, I'm so glad you're all right.
Fan Shang froze at the sound, then couldn't help laughing.
Right, right. How could Hajime possibly understand human emotions? It only knew Fan Shang hadn't died, that Fan Shang had survived. That was all...
As he thought this, the emotion on Fan Shang's deathly pale face began to fade, giving way to calm.
Then he looked at the Sequence ability field on his status panel before him.
Since Survival Points can't heal Little Black's injuries...
Then it looks like... this is the only way.
[Sequence Abilities]: Yin Soldier's Borrowed Road, Edict of Symbiosis.
Before you continue