Chapter 466 - 408: Mai Mingle: New World

She wasn't one for conflict, but Mai Mingle was discovering that she might have a knack for fighting.

After eighty-six years of life, she was only just now discovering her aptitude for brawling. 'If I manage to keep on living, what else will I find out about myself?'

As Mercury charged forward, gun in one hand, Resident Ted had already reacted.

Just as it had said, a Black Abyss Belt forced into the human world lost its disintegrating power. Its head being inside the Black Abyss Belt had no effect on it. The moment it recovered, it immediately swung its arm back in a wide arc—its shoulder joint moved like a lump of hot butter as its arm swung nearly a full one hundred and eighty degrees.

The Resident's strength was immense. The force of its swing whipped through the curtain of rain, sending a heavy sheet of raindrops crashing down on them like a warning before the blow even landed.

Mai Mingle's eyes narrowed. In that instant, her body acted before her mind could.

With one hand still pressed to the back of the Resident's neck, she quickly ducked, barely dodging the arm that whistled over her head.

But she had dodged too abruptly, and the ground beneath her was slick. Mai Mingle completely lost her footing.

'In that case, I might as well—'

Still hunched over, like a goat about to headbutt someone, she threw her entire center of gravity forward, half-falling, half-crashing as she slammed viciously into the Resident's lower back.

The long-unresponsive driver instantly lost his balance. Her impact sent him toppling backward—Resident Ted and Mai Mingle fell right on top of him, forming a human-Resident sandwich.

"Over here, quick!"

Mai Mingle kept a death grip on the Resident's neck—but her strength was limited. Pinning it for even a few seconds was a miracle of luck. At any moment, Resident Ted could throw her off and leap back to its feet. "I'm losing my grip!"

Amidst the wave-like spray of rain, Mercury arrived.

Without a word, she spun the machine gun and jammed its muzzle against Resident Ted's back.

"Wait," Mai Mingle cried out instantly. "Aim for its head!"

Mercury knew this wasn't the time for questions. She shot Mai Mingle a glance, followed Resident Ted's neck up to its head, and thrust the gun's muzzle into the Black Abyss Belt. "Why?"

Mai Mingle had no chance to answer. Blinding muzzle flashes, spent casings, and muffled gunshots erupted from within the Black Abyss Belt, like a festive burst of bonfire and fireworks cheering from a tiny crack between worlds.

As she felt Resident Ted's struggles weaken, Mai Mingle grabbed its arms and back, shoving it forcefully into the Black Abyss Belt.

During a lull in Mercury's firing, she raised her voice to be heard over the ringing in her ears and the roar of the rain. "If you shoot through its body, the driver will die!"

"He's already dead," Mercury replied, firing a few more shots into the head of the now-struggling Resident Ted.

...In truth, Mai Mingle knew the driver was probably beyond saving.

'But hadn't I turned into a Resident once, too?'

'If we just leave him a sliver of a chance... what if?'

She had no time to explain, of course. Gritting her teeth, she said nothing, using her hands and feet to wrestle with Resident Ted, desperately trying to shove it back into the hole in the driver's head.

Luckily, Mercury's aim and technique were uncannily precise. Had anyone else been with Mai Mingle tonight, Resident Ted would have had at least five or six opportunities to plant its hands and push itself up.

Its strength was nearly irresistible for a human, but Mercury always managed to catch it just as it was about to exert force. She would jam the muzzle into a joint and sever sinew and bone with a burst of bullets, shattering its momentum without so much as touching a hair on the driver's head.

The instant the Resident's resistance faltered, she would cease fire and move to the next target.

Though bullets couldn't kill a Resident, the gun in Mercury's hands was like a scalpel, capable of dissecting any critical joint on its body at her will.

When they found the Resident's shoulders were too wide to fit through the head-sized black hole, Mai Mingle didn't even have to ask Mercury to come up with a solution. With surgical precision, Mercury used the kinetic energy of her bullets to dislocate its joints. Then, she spun the gun around and jammed the butt between the bones, preventing them from resetting.

Next, with a sharp downward wrench of the stock, she brutally tore Resident Ted's shoulder down toward its waist.

She did all of this with just one hand.

Resident Ted was going berserk with rage.

Even with its head and half its torso buried deep within the Black Abyss Belt, Mai Mingle could still hear its shrieks and curses. If its head weren't so far removed from the human world, its furious roars alone would have likely been enough to make them faint.

The farther back it was pushed, the less it could resist, and the faster it went.

As she gave the Resident's legs one final, forceful shove into the Black Abyss Belt, even Mai Mingle couldn't believe it. She had actually stuffed a Resident back into its Nest. 'But what now?'

It had fallen back into the Nest, but all it had to do was turn around and it could crawl right back out.

Somehow, the human world now seemed tethered to the Nest, as if one could cross over with a single step.

"There's a car coming," Mercury said suddenly, jerking her chin forward. "Go flag it down. We need to get out of here immediately."

Mai Mingle looked up and, sure enough, saw a pair of headlights submerged in the distant, dark curtain of rain. They were heading their way, like lanterns floating up from the bottom of a lake.

She immediately sprang to her feet and began waving her arms frantically. As she stepped into the beam of the headlights, a thought suddenly struck her.

'...a car arriving just now is too much of a coincidence. Mercury just wanted to get rid of me.'

'There was only one reason for her to do that...'

A muffled BANG echoed from behind her.

When Mai Mingle turned around, Mercury was just lifting the muzzle of her gun from the driver's chest.

In the rain, cast in shifting light and shadow by the car's headlights, their eyes met.

Mercury's expression was placid, as if she had just finished a cup of coffee and was gently setting it back on its saucer.

The next second, Mercury broke eye contact, stepped into the downpour—now washed a pale white by the headlights—and raised her machine gun at the approaching car.

"Mercury!" Mai Mingle cried out.

Mercury shot her a sideways glance, hesitating for a moment.

After a long moment, she finally aimed the gun at the sky and fired a burst.

The warning could not have been clearer, yet the car didn't slow down after the gunshots. 'Is the driver thinking? Assessing the situation? Seeing if they can make a run for it?' It wasn't until Mercury stood her ground and aimed the gun directly at the car that it finally, reluctantly, rolled to a stop.

Holding the machine gun level in one hand, Mercury pointed it at the driver's seat and jerked the barrel outward.

The driver was no fool.

Heavy raindrops hammered on the car's roof, sounding almost like the driver's nervous heartbeat echoing between heaven and earth.

After a few seconds, the car door finally creaked open.

A young woman emerged slowly into the rain, her hands held high, and straightened up.

As their gazes swept over one another, all three were taken aback.

"Jin Xueli?"

"Mercury?"

The words had barely left Mai Mingle and Mercury's mouths before they looked at each other and asked in unison, "You know her, too?"

To be precise, it was a one-sided acquaintance; Mai Mingle knew Jin Xueli, but after the gunfight in the alley behind the bar, she had no idea if Jin Xueli had even gotten a clear look at her face.

It was just that... Jin Xueli looked completely distraught tonight, as if she had just suffered a tremendous shock. Even with a gun pointed at her and after recognizing someone she knew, she still seemed unsure of what to do next.

'What happened to her?'

Regardless, running into her like this was a small stroke of luck.

Mai Mingle had already resolved to find every one of the game's players.

"Since you know each other, that makes things easier. Get in the car. We'll talk on the way." Mercury's tense expression eased slightly as she nodded at Jin Xueli. "We shouldn't linger here."

Jin Xueli glanced nervously behind them.

She must have seen the corpse, but she still looked as if a part of her soul were missing. Her face was clouded and vacant as she simply turned and got back into the driver's seat.

'Even if the driver was already dead...'

Before getting in the car, Mai Mingle took one last look at the motionless body on the ground.

The Black Abyss Belt still floated around his neck, but it seemed to be fading, as if about to dissolve back into a mere puff of breath. 'But when it vanishes completely, will the driver's head still be there?'

'His death hasn't stopped the endless stream of Residents still pouring into the world from all those public housing construction sites.'

'This wasn't a necessary sacrifice to protect the world; it was just an insurance policy the two of them had taken out for their own survival.'

If Mercury had offered an explanation, defended her actions, or said anything at all, Mai Mingle honestly wouldn't have known how to respond.

But Mercury never said a word about it. She acted as if she had done something as trivial as turning off a light on her way out the door—something not worth mentioning, let alone explaining to anyone.

The three of them piled into the car, slamming the doors shut.

For several seconds, no one spoke. No one moved.

It was as if all three were lost in a state of vague helplessness. At that moment, it didn't matter how experienced they were as Hunters or how many years they had lived. They all seemed to have regressed into helpless children, waiting for a grown-up to tell them what to do next.

The world had been turned upside down. None of them recognized this new reality.

"Drive," Mercury said, the first to break the silence.

"Where to?" Jin Xueli asked, her voice vacant.

"Where were you headed?" Mercury countered.

"...I don't know."

At this, Mercury turned and frowned at her. Just then, Mai Mingle chimed in from the back seat. "I have somewhere I need to go. Would you mind taking me?"

Jin Xueli stared back at her, dazed. "Oh, I think I've seen you before..."

"We're all players in the game."

Mai Mingle gradually composed herself, her voice steadying. After all, the two girls before her were young enough to be her granddaughters. "Please take me to the public housing construction site on Kaine Street. I heard another player is there, and I need to find her. I have things I need to tell both of you."