Chapter 112: Restriction, Anomaly

Chapter 112: Chapter 112: Restriction, Anomaly

"What the hell is that thing..."

Someone’s voice came through Lu Qi’s team channel, trembling with fear.

"All of you, keep your goddamn heads on straight. It’s just a Corpse Ghost — just a little smarter than usual, that’s all."

Lu Qi’s tone was firm, but deep down he knew full well — the Corpse Ghost they were dealing with was far more dangerous than anything they’d encountered before.

The gap between an Abnormality under a Spiritual Ability User’s control and an ordinary one was staggering.

The miniature Spiritual Energy Fluctuation Absorber could instantly paralyze any other corporeal Level 1 Abnormality — but this Corpse Ghost was a different story entirely.

The large-scale Spiritual Energy Fluctuation Absorber was meant to be used after an Abnormality had already been immobilized, just to make sure it stayed that way.

Now they were forced to break it out early. Two men dead in the first encounter.

But Lu Qi wasn’t about to walk away.

They had come here to probe the target’s capabilities. How could they turn tail and run when they hadn’t even laid eyes on the target yet?

The warden’s face flashed through Lu Qi’s mind.

When you owe someone your life, sooner or later you pay it back with your life.

At the very least... they needed to find a way to draw out some of the target’s abilities.

Under Lu Qi’s command, the group got moving again. The six who had been keeping watch on the perimeter rejoined the main unit, bringing Lu Qi’s headcount back up to twenty-one.

This time, no one dared to rush in. Everyone held their position, waiting patiently for the sniper to get into place.

A second Absorber round was fired from a distant high point, aimed straight at Shi Tie, who was moving through the alleys of the corrugated metal building cluster.

But this time was different. After being hit once, Shi Tie had already figured out which enemy posed the greatest threat.

The instant the sniper pulled the trigger, Shi Tie swung the massive heavy machine gun up in front of its body like a shield.

Clink.

The needle-like Absorber ricocheted off and went spinning away.

At the same moment, the sniper’s voice crackled through Lu Qi’s radio: "Give me five more seconds."

They were willing to wait. Shi Tie was not.

It had been moving slowly earlier because Lu Qi’s people had been the ones closing in on it.

But now that they were keeping their distance, it wasn’t going to just stand there and do nothing.

Shi Tie exploded into motion. All that sluggishness vanished in an instant. It covered ground in massive strides, smashing through one corrugated metal structure after another, and slammed a hand down on one of Lu Qi’s men who had been hiding inside, pinning him flat to the ground.

The impact was so violent the man couldn’t help but cough up a mouthful of blood inside his helmet. His whole body shook as he curled in on himself, letting out a faint, ragged wheeze.

Shi Tie crushed his helmet with one hand, confirmed he wasn’t Lu Qi, then hoisted him high into the air and hurled him headfirst into the ground.

Dead on impact.

All around, the sound of frantic scrambling feet erupted from the metal shacks.

Lu Qi’s men, who had thought they hadn’t been spotted, desperately tried to put distance between themselves and Shi Tie.

There was only one Shi Tie, and it couldn’t be everywhere at once — so it went after the nearest target.

The terror that Xiang Yi had once experienced was now descending on Lu Qi’s crew.

At least Xiang Yi had had several floors of building between them as a buffer. These men had deliberately closed in on Shi Tie to make their move — they were practically right on top of it.

The closest man had his arm seized and wrenched backward at a grotesque angle.

Shi Tie tore his helmet off, confirmed it wasn’t Lu Qi, and drove a fist straight into the man’s back, directly behind his heart.

Cardiac rupture.

Another one dead.

By the time Shi Tie looked up again, everyone nearby had already put some distance between themselves and it.

The nearest one had somehow slipped around behind it without Shi Tie noticing.

Shi Tie picked the closest target as always, and spun around to charge.

Like a tank, it plowed through another stretch of corrugated shacks and seized the man by the throat.

The man looked like he’d been scared stiff — just standing there, frozen in place.

But just as Shi Tie set the heavy machine gun down with its free hand and gripped the man’s skull, about to check whether this one was Lu Qi —

The man’s hand, which he’d been hiding behind his back the whole time, whipped forward. Choking and half-conscious, he used every last bit of strength he had to drive the large-scale Absorber he’d retrieved into Shi Tie’s arm.

Shi Tie’s movements stuttered to a halt.

The sniper, who had been hunting for a clean angle the entire time, squeezed the trigger at that exact moment.

The miniature Absorber struck Shi Tie in the back.

Hit by both simultaneously, Shi Tie dropped to one knee. Its entire body went rigid. Even the hand clamped around the man’s skull fell slack and released him.

Lu Qi and the rest of the group surged toward Shi Tie.

Several of them drove the large-scale Absorber deeper into Shi Tie’s arm and reinforced it in place, then forced the miniature Absorber further into Shi Tie’s body.

Others rushed to strip the protective suit and helmet off the man Shi Tie had just released, trying desperately to save the teammate who had bought them this opening with his life.

But it was too late. Shi Tie had already crushed his skull. He watched Shi Tie go down, then his breathing stopped shortly after.

"Finally..."

At least they had finally put Shi Tie down.

Over a dozen men stood there panting, all eyes turning to Lu Qi.

Faces hidden behind helmets, barely any time passed at all — but every voice was heavy and hollowed out.

The way their teammates had died was too brutal. It had gutted whatever morale they had left.

A team in this state wasn’t going to be good for much more.

"What are you all so scared of?"

"The Corpse Ghost is neutralized. All that’s left is one Spiritual Ability User. Since when is that a problem?"

His words reached their ears but didn’t sink in at all.

Everyone understood — if a single Abnormality controlled by a Spiritual Ability User was already this hard to put down, whoever came next was only going to be worse.

The team’s mood was starting to get to Lu Qi. Fear, frustration, and anxiety coiled together inside him.

Fear of how powerful the enemy was. Frustration at the mission falling apart. Anxiety over the warden’s orders.

And they still hadn’t even seen the target’s face.

Even if the target was a Spiritual Ability User, couldn’t they at least force him to show his hand?

All this preparation. All these deaths. Were they really going to slink back empty-handed?

"Then we blow the hardware store and get out."

At the end of the day, Lu Qi was only human. This was the only way left to show they hadn’t come here for nothing.

The team began to move.

The plan was to get close enough to the hardware store to lob some explosives over and then get the hell out.

That’s when one of Lu Qi’s men suddenly noticed a head poking out from behind a wall not far away.

He pointed and stuttered: "Ah Ge, you — you, you, you... aren’t you dead?"

Everyone in Lu Qi’s group snapped their heads toward where he was pointing.

And they did see it — their dead teammate’s head, poking out from behind the wall.

Confusion. Disbelief.

But when "Ah Ge" took another step out from behind the wall —

Every face went white with pure, undiluted horror.

Ah Ge’s head was stuck to a writhing mass of raw flesh and tissue, slowly dragging itself in their direction.

A severed arm dangled from the grotesque mound of meat, swaying gently — almost like it was waving hello to old friends.