Nightmare Shuttle

A pleasant and leisurely voice hummed in the silent corridor, hands gently scratched the chin of the black cat in his hands before turning unhurriedly into the next corner. The heavy darkness seemed to shy away briefly wherever he passed, only after his footsteps had disappeared would it come creeping silently back into the lifeless walls. The man wore a long white lab coat, the broad shoulders hidden beneath it was bursting with strength.

His gait was akin to taking a calm stroll by a peaceful stream. He passed the bloodied walls, walked past the open room doors, avoided a glass shard on the ground, and stepped into the cold basement. With lips subtly lifted, and his features were schooled in pleasantry he moved both hands to gently fondle the cat. 

The walls echoed with the sounds of his footsteps stepping on the cold floors, the smell of sterile alcohol and chemicals seem to drift in the air as he passed by. The man's clean and untainted look was severely out of place in the erratic and despondent building, like a spot of white had been abruptly splashed onto a black canvas.

Glaring and discordant. 

The man glanced at the dark void behind him and the smile on his lips seemed to deepen thoughtfully. He stood before the crimson door, listening to the sounds of the naughty subjects inside, the pitch-black eyes couldn't help but narrow with amusement. The man slowly traced from the cat's ears to its long tail, watching it arc pleasantly in his hands.

"Yu'er, I have to go and deal with the little monsters inside." he speaks, his syllables purposefully lowered, as if to coax, "Brother won't take long, it'll just be a little noisy."

The cat seemed to understand him and cast a fleeting glance at him, the dark green dilating into thin slits, it meowed and shook its body haunting before leaping from the man's hands and disappearing into the darkness without hesitation. The man chuckled softly and turned away, looking towards the door. A faintly regretful light flashed in his eyes but his hands still reached out to push the door inwards. 

After all, that was the subject he used to have the most anticipation for. 

Behind him, a faint seaweed scent seemed to linger in the air briefly before fading away.

******

The monitor flickered slightly before shutting off, leaving only a short blank screen in front of their eyes. The room was silent for a moment before Chu Yi suddenly turned to Tang Shun, his voice was low and serious.

"Find a way to hide the monitor screen while the progress is still ongoing."

Tang Shun only took a second to comprehend his meaning and without hesitation, he walked back to the computer and started a new wave of operation. 

Chu Yi turned to Chao Bin and tossed something into his hands, it was a small transparent bottle as well as an injection.

Chao Bin raised his head to look at him, Chu Yi didn't explain only said quietly, "When you see my signal, I need you to throw the bottle to me. Don't think, don't act, just give it to me."

Although he was confused, he was infected by Chu Yi's seriousness and nodded solemnly.

In a minute, Tang Shun appeared beside him and nodded, the screen behind them was completely black as if it had never been turned on.

They looked at each other once more and turned back to the slightly closed door. Not long after, as if purposefully teasing its prey, clear footsteps gradually closed in on their location. 

The soft humming voice was not disguised in the least and Chu Yi seemed to hear the frivolous and hidden contempt dispersing maliciously from the man's mouth.

The crimson door opened with a low creak and the air instantly fell into tensed silence. Chu Yi's eyes glinted with brilliant scarlet light!

However, when the figure was finally revealed in front of him, a heavy disappointment suddenly crashed into his heart. The person, he anticipated seeing did not come instead the figure that appeared before was someone they were familiar with.

R89!

From beside him, Chao Bin gasped, there was a low and heavy pressure that crashed into after they were pressed down by the weight of Mount Tai! The pitch-black eyes were cold and malignant as he slowly strolled into the room with two hands placed casually into his coat pocket.

Even facing him, it still felt as they were gazing at him through a blurred screen, a mysterious and unfathomable entity that managed to crack the code that limited human life. He looked at him casually but didn't speak, but a cold and sharp killing intent seemed to pierce straight into their hearts! 

Chao Bin understood a lot of the more inconsistent clues at this moment.

Chu Yi's eyes narrowed faintly and were the first to speak, "It seems that it is only now you're finally willing to stop hiding in your large tortoiseshell and come out to face us."

The man paused and seemed amused by Chu Yi's word, "Oh no dear–" Chu Yi's eyes flashed with disgust, "I've been watching you guys for a long time now. After all, you are my creations."

They sneer at the corner of his lips only grew deeper, "Creations? You mean the bunch of failures that you have crawling around here."

The man chuckled softly, "Failures. What a fitting word to call them." His eyes flashed deeply, "But so are you– so are all of you in this building."

His eyes swept Tang Shun and Chao Bin's figure with meaning, before smiling back at Chu Yi.

"Don't you know, none of you can be called a true success. You don't even live up to your name as experiments. I've created so many failures, in fact, even the Federation itself is a failure."

"Those dying old farts back at the council don't even deserve the name of humans, because they are all inferior."

"You my dear and the rest of you here, are only trash that need to be discarded."

Chao Bin rolled his eyes and almost wanted to spit on him, if it wasn't for the current situation, he would have long cursed the man's nine generation. 

Chu Yi wasn't fazed by the man words and instead said softly, " Aren't you a failure too."

The man suddenly froze and his smile actually dropped from his face instead of answering he only shook his head faintly, "Regardless, since we're already here, I have no choice but to break both your legs and throw you to the fishes to act as their next egg container."

Both Tang Shun and Chao Bin immediately frowned but Chu Yi's red eyes seemed to be stained with a strange excitement.

It was time!

Chu Yi had said so many meaningless words before the battle, entertaining this farce, because he was waiting for this prompt. His red lips suddenly curled into a heavy smirk.

"R89, don't they always say not to reveal your intentions before a fight."

Before he finished speaking, Chu Yi suddenly pulled a strange crimson red sword from the void, the blade was shining with a heavy, bloody light as if all the sin in the world had been condensed onto it.

[Name: Madman's Sword (Natal Weapon)(Upgradable)

[Quality: Unknown.]

[Current Level: Level 2]

[Conditions to upgrade: 0/1000 souls]

[Effect: According to the evaluation of the shuttle, the effect of this blade is extremely unstable, the cold resentment on this blade will continue to increase after every kill and upgrade along with its owner. However this blade has had previous owners before and every owner has been devoured by the hungry blade. The higher the level is the more souls it needs, once it becomes too hungry, the blade will devour its owner instead.]

[Remark 1: The blade can devour the souls of all things. However it is restricted by its level and can only devour the souls of ghosts and monsters in low level copies. If it absorbs a soul beyond its capacity, it might backlash on the owner and their soul will be corrupted with corroded yin energy]

[Remark 2: This blade is very picky and it's origin are mysterious. It is not restricted with form and can be transferred to any weapon. It has been integrated with its current owners scalpel but can be changed at later stages.]

The sword that Chu Yi held in his hand seem to tremble with a strange cry, the lines were cold and sharp, revealing a kind iron-blooded deterrence formed from the baptism of blood. In the light of the cold screen, it seemed to have been engraved with countless sharp grooves meant to tear flesh. 

The man grinned strangely and shrugged his shoulders, "Well–come on."

Chu Yi's red eyes glinted and suddenly he moved, with a flicker of light, he appeared behind the man, sword raised to his head and slashed down, from behind him Tang Shun pulled the trigger neatly with his fingers, from the black muzzle there was only a loud bang like a thunderous explosion! The strong inertial force shook his body and he almost couldn't resist it, stumbling back before he could stand firm.

This gun was special because it carried three types of bullets, the normal ones, the ones meant for ghosts and would not hurt other entities and the last kind, the withering. A strong poison would explode from the bullet that could burn even the soul!

From beside him there was a shrill roar and Tang Shun only felt a surging torrent of psychic energy pouring down like the boundless yellow river and rushing towards the man standing immovable in front of the door. This psychic energy was too strong, the surroundings was soon filled with a thick white smoke, making it so that nothing could be discerned in the room. 

The only he could see was the amber eyes shining with a brilliant light.

The torrent of power gushed!

Boom!––

The three powerful attacks came barreling down onto the man, it was estimated that the three had used their most powerful attack all at once. There was surely no way R89 could avoid it!

Faint anticipation defusd in Chao Bin's eyes.

There was only a sharp sound of collision and then silence, a faint smell of blood erupted in the room but before they could breathe a sight of relief there was a low chuckle in the room and the mist that had arisen suddenly became pitch black. Chao Bin's face changed and he immediately tuned pale and he immediately stumbled back as something had been ripped from him.

Tang Shun frowned and threw something to him, he could feel that this battle would be difficult but since they were already at this stage they couldn't leave with any regrets!

Chap Bin swallowed the contents of the red bottle and nodded firmly, Tang Shun withdrew his gaze, and said lowly, "Protect the system and stay here." He threw down the gun decisively and plunged into the thick black fog like a angry cheetah.

In addition to the faint laughter, the fog was filled with a strong smell of blood. Although not life-threatening, the attacks must have hurt R89!

The strong smell of blood made Chu Yi's eyes redder and brighter like a blazing sun, his breathing was rapid, and his heartbeat was astonishingly fast. In the thick black fog, his eyes could not see the direction, but his devil-like intuition could tell where the enemy was. His sword slashed down towards the place the man was but he only cut air, from behind him there was a gust of wind and a whip like a long snake smashed toward his legs!

It was just like what he said, R89 really wanted to break Chu Yi's legs!

Chu Yi's face changed and without hesitation he raised his sword to meet the attack, his hands that held the blade actually trembled and the skin between his thumb and index fingers tore bloodily!

Chu Yi didn't seem to feel pain and used his other hand to grab onto the sharp barbs of the whip with a harsh tug, he yanked it forward! From the fog, the man appeared just a few meters in front of his body– 

His lips were still stretched into a smile and he seemed to want to say something but from behind him, there was intense force and Tang Shun lunged towards his back!

Realizing that he was about to collide with him, he let go of the whip and bent his body almost to the floor, Tang Shun's fists only narrowly missed him and with a sharp turn, he turned away and stepped onto the wall with one feet and shifted away!

Tang Shun glanced at the bloody hand that held the whip, and turned away to start closely at the man standing before them.

There was a short tense lull before the man suddenly disappeared on the spot!

From beside his ears, Tang Shun heard a faint whooshing sound, just as he dodged away a hand shaped like an eagle's claw suddenly appeared right at the spot where his head had been! Tang Shun's arm's bulged and without hesitation he powerfully launched an attack to the air! 

There was nothing there –

Missed again!

The whip that had torn his skin was thrown down at will and Chu Yi's eyes unnaturally focused as in his vision he caught a faint black shadow. Without hesitation he moved, flinging his sword forward!

There was a sharp smell of blood and the man's face briefly appeared before him with a shallow slice on his cheek!

R89 looked back and was silent for a moment before grinning and disappearing once again, the dark grooves on Chu Yi's sword was filled with blood as they fought violently, the pungent smell of blood only thickened in the heavy fog.

Chao Bin looked at the flashing figures in the dark fog, and glanced around uneasily, he didn't know when but the grass had suddenly been into a plant wasteland, dark green vines withered and black had flooded the room, covered in black roses!

He looked towards the front, vaguely able to see a cunning shadow always hidden in the thick black fog. Occasionally, his body would be exposed like the tip of an iceberg, revealing the pure white coat that had now been stained red with blood.

He looked back at the black screen,

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Come on–

A sense of burning crisis was striking against his heart!