Chapter 540 - 346: The Sealed Soul Beast (Part 2)

Chapter 540: Chapter 346: The Sealed Soul Beast (Part 2)

A wave of dizziness washed over him, and the scenery before him suddenly changed.

"Th-This... Where is this?"

Han Ning opened his eyes to find himself lying in an alley overflowing with sewage.

Rows of tightly packed skyscrapers shot up from the ground.

Not far away, the streets were bustling with traffic.

WHOOSH—

A recently departed airplane sped past overhead.

"I remember... Wasn’t I on my way to work...?"

Confusion clouded Han Ning’s face. His last memory before passing out was of feeling a sudden dizzy spell right after leaving home to take the subway. When he woke up again, he was here.

"MEOW! MEOW!!"

Suddenly, a series of pained wails echoed from the depths of the alley.

"What’s that sound?"

Han Ning froze. Fighting off the dizziness, he scrambled to his feet, peered past a garbage can that was blocking his view, and looked ahead.

Several enormous rats, standing upright on their hind legs and covered in coarse black fur, were kicking and punching a round-faced, orange-furred cat with a gold coin on its head.

"What are these things?"

An astonished expression appeared on his face as he stared at these bizarre-looking creatures.

"MEOW!!"

The shriek of the gold-coin cat pulled him from his stupor.

"Stop!"

Seeing the giant rats and the limp cat, Han Ning hesitated for a moment. But in the end, he couldn’t just stand by and watch a weak life be extinguished right before his eyes. Mustering his courage, he charged forward.

"SQUEAK?"

The three rats were momentarily stunned to see a bare-handed human rushing toward them.

But when they saw he had no companions, a human-like look of disdain crossed all their faces, and they continued to swipe their sharp claws at the cat cowering beneath them.

’These rats are so bold. They heard a human shout and didn’t even run.’

The thought flashed through Han Ning’s mind. He grabbed a broken mop handle from the side of the alley and swung it hard at the nearest purple-skinned rat.

The rat he hit staggered and tumbled to the side.

"SQUEAKA!!"

Seeing this, the other rats ignored the cat at their feet and fixed Han Ning with malicious glares.

GULP...

Faced with a pack of menacing rats, Han Ning subconsciously swallowed and tightened his grip on the wooden handle.

’Don’t be scared... Don’t be scared... They’re just a few stinking rats, about the size of a cat.’

Repeating this mental pep talk to himself, Han Ning gradually worked up his courage, raised the wooden handle, and swung hard at the other rats.

"SQUEAK!"

To his surprise, the rats didn’t flee. Instead, they leaped nimbly, extending their sharp claws and leaving deep gashes all over his body.

Han Ning bit his lip, shielding his face with his left arm while swinging the wooden handle with his right. He inched closer to the cat, then decisively reached down, snatched the nearly lifeless feline from the ground, and ran for the alley’s exit without looking back.

"HUFF... HUFF... HUFF..."

As Han Ning reached the mouth of the alley, clutching the cat tightly, a blinding ray of sunlight hit his face, washing his vision in white.

Realizing there were no more frantic footsteps behind him, he let out a long sigh of relief. He rubbed his stinging eyes and slowly opened them.

The street, crowded with pedestrians, was filled with all sorts of bizarre, strangely shaped creatures.

Some looked like small dogs with snow-white fur, while others were a deep yellow, resembling fat, oversized rats.

"Th-This... This isn’t the world I used to live in. Could it be... I’ve been transported to another world?!"

If the giant rats in the alley and the cat with a gold coin on its head could be explained away as rare genetic mutations, then the strange creatures living in harmony with humans before him proved it: he was in a completely different world!

"Hiss..."

A sharp, tearing pain from his arms and abdomen made Han Ning reach into his pockets to search for his phone.

But... his pockets were completely empty. Aside from his plain white t-shirt, jeans, and black underwear, he had nothing else on him.

Not even a single cent.

Gazing at the unfamiliar streets and strange creatures, Han Ning endured the intense pain, limping along as he tried to find a clinic that could treat his wounds.

The pedestrians on the street glanced at the bloodied and battered Han Ning but showed no pity. They walked past with blank expressions, as if he wasn’t even there.

Before long, a storefront with a red cross sign came into view.

"A clinic!"

Han Ning’s eyes lit up. He staggered to the clinic’s entrance and pushed the door open.

About a dozen people and strange creatures were sitting in the lobby, waiting for treatment.

He walked straight to the counter and said to the clerk:

"Hello, I’m injured. Could you please clean my wounds?"

"Pay the 30 yuan registration fee first, then get in line."

The clerk glanced at Han Ning’s t-shirt, which was torn to shreds, and said flatly.

"But... I don’t have any money," Han Ning said, embarrassed.

"No money... then there’s nothing I can do." The clerk shrugged.

"Please, can I pay you back later? Just help me and this little cat first. As soon as I have money, I’ll come back and pay you," Han Ning pleaded.

"Sigh. We get desperate vagrants like you asking for help every day. If we helped every single one, how would this clinic stay in business?"

The clerk sighed. Seeming to take some pity on him, he bent down, pulled a roll of gauze and a small bottle of iodine from under the counter, and tossed them to Han Ning.

"Take it, it’s free. Now go, don’t interfere with business."

Han Ning opened his mouth, but in the end, only managed to get out two words: "Thank you."

He picked up the bandages, turned, and left the clinic. He found a quiet park bench and sat down.

"Hiss..."

Enduring the biting pain, he dabbed some iodine on the long gashes covering his body, tore open the gauze, and bandaged the wounds. Then, he checked on the small cat in his arms.

"Meow~"

The little cat’s injuries were even worse than his. Its thin legs and flat belly were covered in gashes so deep you could see bone.

"I’m sorry, I can only bandage you up with this for now. After this, I’ll go find another way to help."

Han Ning murmured to the little cat in his arms. He tore off the last of the gauze, poured out the remaining iodine to clean the cat’s wounds, and bandaged them.

Even the searing pain of the iodine didn’t make the little cat open its eyes.

...

In the end, Han Ning couldn’t find anyone willing to help them out of kindness.

He wandered through the streets and alleys until he found a spot under a bridge, sheltered from the wind and rain, where he could rest.

Once some of his Physical Strength returned, he got up again and tried to find temporary work to escape his current predicament.

「Days passed...」

With no ID to prove his identity, he could only scrape by, collecting plastic bottles in the streets and alleys or handing out flyers for a meager living.

He had no memories of this world, no home, no family, and no identification. It was as if he had been created out of thin air. Stranger still, no one ever questioned his identity.

During his days spent wandering the city’s corners, the cat in his arms finally woke up. Every day while Han Ning was working, it would disappear for a while. When it returned, it would always bring some food and small-denomination bills and coins...

Gradually, Han Ning learned that these strange creatures were called Soul Beasts. The one living with him was a small Soul Beast known as a Gold-Picking Cat.

Night fell once again, and Han Ning returned to the cramped rental room that was his temporary home.

The moment he walked through the door, a bloodcurdling scream reached his ears.

His eyes widened involuntarily.

Inside the tiny room stood two burly, towering men and two large rats with sharp incisors and black fur.

At that moment, one of the rat’s incisors was clamped tightly onto the Gold-Picking Cat’s abdomen. Blood flowed freely from the wound, dripping to the floor...

In that instant, a Flame called fury suddenly blazed up in Han Ning’s chest.