An Uncanny Night

Alice clutched her head, trembling. "I devoured his memories, but then he suddenly changed sex. To be precise, this person isn't Li Kang, but the beautiful woman Li Kang assaulted."

"Meow, that's horrifying! My head is full of those scenes now. Xu Ye, next time it's your turn to use [Soul-Seizing]. We'll take turns..."

"I'm... tainted!!"

Alice returned to Xu Ye's mind and kept howling.

"Huh? This is the beautiful woman from Li Kang's account? How is that possible?" Xu Ye silently stood up, staring awkwardly at the person's crotch, because there was still a package down there.

Alice roared, "That's not the point! The point is my feline innocence! Want me to share those memories with you?"

"...I'm still a kid." Xu Ye refused mercilessly.

Alice went berserk.

Meanwhile, his thoughts began racing.

If this person wasn't Li Kang, where was the real Li Kang?

Or had Li Kang already died, and everything was the work of that original Aberrant?

He kept feeling that a crucial link was missing from this pollution incident.

Just then, his heart began to writhe.

[This pollution incident was shrouded in mystery. As someone from another world, I stood at a crossroads in life and began to feel frightened and uneasy.]

[I requested permission to end my assignment. After all, I was already exhausted today. That was perfectly reasonable.]

[The captain approved my request. On the way back, I crouched down to tie my shoelaces. Suddenly, an out-of-control truck crashed into me. I didn't die, but I was left in a vegetative state.]

[Alice took over my body, put on women's clothes and a wig, and ten years later married a man with a cross-dressing fetish.]

[I was in agony, but my will was weak, and I couldn't resist.]

[Fortunately, I hadn't gone with the captain to the body dump site back then. The captain and the others all died there. At least I was alive.]

[And that was how my life after transmigrating ended. If I could do it all over again, I would definitely wring Alice's neck.]

Fuck!

Women's clothes again! Xu Ye was stunned.

After reading the messages in Xu Ye's mind, Alice's fur stood on end. "I only bad-mouthed you once! Do you really have to get back at me like this?"

"Xu Ye, there's something wrong with that heart of yours! It isn't objective. It clearly has feelings of its own. It's slandering me!"

Xu Ye ignored Alice's yelling. Although his heart was bizarre and occasionally unreliable, the information it generated through its simulations should represent one possible future.

If he went back, he would get into a traffic accident.

But any traffic accident that could take down an Awakened clearly wouldn't be ordinary.

Thinking back to the nobles from Sky City, Xu Ye was certain that some people still hadn't given up on killing him.

As for the place where Li Kang had dumped the body...

There probably really was something wrong with it. Anything capable of killing even the captain, a Sequence 8, was most likely an extremely terrifying Aberrant.

While the medical staff came in to clean up the cockroaches littering the floor, Xu Ye helped them and prompted his heart to run a simulation.

Since becoming an Awakened, he had learned about some of his heart's functions.

For example, if his life was about to be threatened, his heart would automatically run a simulation to warn him.

Conversely, Xu Ye could initiate a simulation of a particular action.

"If I go to the body dump site..."

[I followed the captain to the body dump site without hesitation, demonstrating a transmigrator's fearless resolve in the face of hardship. I was moved to tears by my own courage.]

[The plants and animals there had become strange and bizarre. I almost thought I'd entered the mind of a psychiatric patient. Details omitted.]

[We didn't find a body, but we discovered a wooden cabin on the eastern side of the foot of the mountain.]

[I approached the cabin. I died...]

[Before dying, I was filled with regret. I shouldn't have gone inside. I should have stayed outside and thrown Alice in. Alice couldn't die anyway.]

"!!!"

Alice was just about to go berserk when Xu Ye muted the cat.

Xu Ye rubbed his chin.

From the look of things, his heart's simulations might be limited by his strength, leaving it unable to fully reveal certain things.

Or perhaps it simply couldn't be bothered to show them.

Maybe once he reached Sequence 8, he could unlock more of his heart's abilities.

Still, no matter what, he had to visit the body dump site.

He had seven simulations left today. He needed to use them sparingly.

"Xu Ye, we got word from the operations room. They've found Li Kang's home, and his movements also let them identify the mountain where he dumped the body. It's not far from his house."

Meng Chengfei paused. "But you've already done very well today. For a rookie, you're doing much better than I did back then. You can choose to go back and rest."

"Captain, I'll go with you."

With that, Xu Ye headed toward the hospital entrance.

Once he got into the car, Meng Chengfei handed him a cup of tea. Only after accepting it did Xu Ye notice the two soldiers sitting in the back seat.

One was older, around his thirties, with a prominent nose and brow and a full beard. He stared straight at Xu Ye while taking a swig of erguotou liquor.

The other was a young man who looked about Xu Ye's age, with thick eyebrows and large eyes. His face still held a trace of boyishness, but a keen edge was already emerging in his deep eyes. Holding a rifle, he sat ramrod straight, looking directly ahead.

"Old Zheng is the captain of our operations room's assault squad, and my partner. He's a crude bastard. The young fellow is a new recruit, Zhou Ye. He's the same age as you. We brought him along this time to give him some practice."

"Partner?" Xu Ye was a little puzzled.

As Meng Chengfei drove, the heavy-jowled Old Zheng grinned, revealing gleaming white teeth. In a coarse voice, he said, "So what if I'm crude? Unlike you, acting like some nagging woman, yapping in my ear every damn day. What the fuck is there to yap about?"

"Kid, don't go thinking your Captain Meng is some hotshot. Without me protecting him, we'd all be dancing on his grave by now."

"I took him on his very first mission. Back then, every Awakened in the Ninth Team had died. I practically raised him, wiping his ass and cleaning up after him. That's how the Ninth Team got where it is today. It wasn't easy..."

Meng Chengfei was so furious that he laughed and stomped on the accelerator. "Zheng Chengdong, say another couple of words and I'll crash this car and kill us all."

Old Zheng pursed his lips. "Then I'll just say one."

Meng Chengfei took a fierce gulp of tea.

Having fun being a smartass?!

The car soon reached the foot of the mountain.

Many staff members from the Dawn Blade's Ninth Team were already there. Floodlights and jeep headlights pierced the dark night, illuminating the foot of the mountain as brightly as day.

The moment Meng Chengfei got out, his brow knitted tightly. He narrowed his eyes and scanned their surroundings.

"Everyone, on alert!"

Seeing Meng Chengfei's expression, Zheng Chengdong immediately grabbed his radio and barked the order.

All the noncombat personnel grabbed their detection equipment and quickly crouched beside the jeeps.

Meanwhile, the dozen or so armed combat personnel raised their guns and formed a circle facing outward in every direction.

Xu Ye surveyed the area with a grim expression. His skin had been crawling from the moment they arrived.

"Xu Ye, I feel like tens of thousands of people are watching me. Something's very wrong here!" Alice warned.

The mountain was still wet from the recent rain. Beneath the crimson moonlight, movement suddenly stirred all around them.