The Flesh Engine

Lu Xiao stared with his dead-fish eyes as the sharp knife plunged toward him.

At the same time, Dante reacted swiftly from the back seat, immediately drawing his pistol and pressing it against the driver's head.

The knife stopped an inch from Lu Xiao's chest.

An invisible aura radiated from Lu Xiao.

Lu Xiao had already determined the level of the anomaly before him.

The oppressive power of a Higher Being pinned the driver in place, leaving him unable to move.

Lu Xiao's lips spread into a friendly smile.

"Friend! We can talk without getting physical!"

He extended a finger and lightly flicked the blade.

The knife trembled nonstop, then shattered into countless fragments.

The sight left Dante a little dumbfounded.

The driver was equally dumbfounded. He stammered.

"M-my lord!"

"I was blind not to recognize your greatness!"

At this point, how could he fail to realize that these two had clearly come to bait him?

The driver was filled with regret.

Dante picked up the half-burned cigarette butt that had fallen into his crotch.

"Buddy! That's it? We're done?"

He hadn't expected this containment mission to go so smoothly either.

Lu Xiao shook his head.

"Not yet. There should be a bigger fish!"

Then he spoke to the driver in a friendly tone.

"Don't be afraid! I won't eat you!"

The driver nodded woodenly.

Lu Xiao grinned.

"Wherever you originally planned to take us, take us there now!"

At Lu Xiao's words, the driver gave a smile uglier than a crying face.

"No, no! I wasn't planning to take you anywhere!"

Dante cut in with a question.

"Where did all the humans who got into your cab end up?"

The driver froze, then spoke with a guilty air.

"They... I killed them all!"

Dante had already suspected as much.

Humans who fell into the hands of anomalies generally didn't meet a good end.

"What about their bodies?"

Dante pressed.

The driver glanced hesitantly at Lu Xiao.

Lu Xiao gave a soft snort.

"Although I've never eaten a low-level anomalous creature, if you dare lie, I wouldn't mind finding out what one tastes like!"

Hearing this, the driver immediately began trembling uncontrollably with fear.

Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined it.

He had casually gone out to pick up some unlucky bastard, only to pick up a vicious big shot who ate Weird Creatures raw.

It turned out he was the unlucky bastard.

He didn't doubt Lu Xiao's words in the slightest.

As an anomaly himself, he knew all too well why Lu Xiao, a human, would possess the aura of a high-level anomalous creature.

He must have eaten plenty of Weird Creatures.

Judging by that big shot's words, he had even been eating high-level Weird Creatures.

Someone that ruthless was only a legend even in their circles.

The driver stammered.

"I wouldn't dare lie! I wouldn't dare!"

"I really did kill them all!"

"And I fed their bodies to this taxi!"

The driver's answer stunned Dante too.

"Fed them to the car?"

Lu Xiao said nothing, merely watching the driver with those dead-fish eyes.

Lu Xiao's stare unnerved the driver, so he hastily spoke.

"It's true! This car is an anomalous item!"

Afraid the two wouldn't believe him, he hurriedly added.

"I'll show you!"

Dante looked at Lu Xiao and saw him nod.

Then the driver opened the door, walked to the front of the car, and lifted the hood.

Lu Xiao and Dante looked beneath the hood in front of them.

That was the engine compartment, but there was no mechanical engine inside.

In its place was a flesh engine made from a mass of flesh and blood.

Densely packed blood vessels resembled fuel lines, looking utterly horrifying.

The flesh engine was still trembling slightly, like the heart of the car.

Dante took a deep drag on his cigarette.

"Well, aren't you a pretty little monstrosity!"

The driver spoke shakily.

"This car needs flesh and blood to run now. I had no choice but to come out and hunt some humans!"

Dante glanced at Lu Xiao.

"Buddy! What do you make of this thing?"

Lu Xiao pondered for a moment, then said.

"Something's wrong. There's another anomalous creature's scent! And it smells so good I can't help drooling!"

As he spoke, he looked at the driver.

"Where did you find this car?"

The driver blurted out.

"In Prison!"

"I found this car in Prison, then drove it into this world full of humans!"

Hearing this, Dante's expression grew grave.

"Are you saying this car can travel freely between the Dark Prison and the Present World?"

If this car could do that, it would be terrifying.

The driver shook his head.

"No. I drove into the Present World by chance, and then I couldn't get back!"

"The car only started needing flesh and blood to run after it came to the Present World. It didn't need any at all in Prison!"

Dante looked at Lu Xiao.

"Is he lying?"

Lu Xiao shook his head without speaking.

He was thinking about something else.

"When I first saw this car, I smelled three different scents on it!"

Lu Xiao pointed at the orange taxi.

"One scent belonged to the car!"

"Besides the driver's scent, there was another one that made me want to drool!"

"It must belong to a Higher Being of an extremely high Ontological Rank. That also means the driver isn't this car's real owner!"

Lu Xiao analyzed calmly.

"I originally thought this driver was working for that being!"

"That's why I said there was a bigger fish! But now it seems that wasn't the case!"

Lu Xiao wasn't concerned about whether the driver was lying.

Low-level anomalies couldn't lie in front of a Higher Being.

This driver was the sort of anomaly that occupied the very bottom rung.

Back when he was in the Dark Prison, Lu Xiao wouldn't even have spared an anomaly like this a second glance.

Dante pondered for a moment.

"Buddy, what should we do next?"

Lu Xiao scratched his head.

"Forget it! Let's go back and ask Mr. Doctor first!"

Dante nodded, then switched on his communicator.

"Doctor! Dante here. Mission complete!"

The Doctor's voice came through the communicator.

"Very good. Thanks for your hard work! Bring 292 back!"

Dante nodded, then looked at Lu Xiao.

"The Doctor wants us both to head back first!"

Suddenly, he seemed to remember something and pointed at the driver.

"What should we do with this anomaly?"

Lu Xiao rubbed his chin in thought for a moment, then gave a friendly smile.

"I'll drive this car back with him. You go drive the ambulance!"

Dante nodded without hesitation.

Inside the car.

"What happened to that beautiful wife of yours?"

The driver looked like he wanted to cry but had no tears left.

"She died!"

"Didn't you say she was as noble as a swan?"

"I'm a toad!"

Lu Xiao: "..."