On the return trip, Gu Yue and Bai Xinjian did not speak. Bai Xinjian had intended to have his driver pick him up, but Gu Yue insisted on driving him, so he let it go. Sitting in the seat, Bai Xinjian felt that tentacle winding around his fingertips. Inch by inch, it wiggled up his sleeve along his finger joints.
“0048,” Bai Xinjian asked the system internally, “do you feel like something is wrong?”
[Where?] the system replied. [Aside from my signal being interrupted and blocked just now, I do not feel like anything is wrong.]
Bai Xinjian raised his hand. “What about now?”
The dim roadside lights shone into the car, illuminating the squirming tentacle. It was a dark gray color, covered in complex and vibrant dark blue patterns. This reminded Bai Xinjian of a textbook he had read about poisonous marine life, where a certain type of octopus had tentacles of the exact same strange color.
[What are you talking about?] 0048 complained to Bai Xinjian. [The Transmigration Bureau’s master control system really needs a quality check. It always has these problems, failing at critical moments. How are we supposed to work like this?]
Bai Xinjian remained silent. It seemed the system truly could not see the tentacle. Not only could the system not see it, but Gu Yue could not either. Bai Xinjian began to ponder what species this tentacle actually was.
“Captain Gu,” Bai Xinjian asked, “you mentioned last time that not only humans but also flowers, plants, and animals could become Unfortunate Ones. Have you ever seen an Unfortunate One other than a human?”
“I have,” Gu Yue replied. “However, these flora and fauna pose little threat to humans. We still do not know how pollutants infect these species, so the Alliance suppresses the news. Even if abnormal plants or animals appear, the Alliance sends people to handle them privately, and the methods used or the final destination of these mutated species are never made public.”
“Then what about the monster that appeared in the restaurant today?”
Gu Yue paused for a moment. “I do not know what that was, but I have reported the news to the Alliance. They are responsible for investigating and handling it.”
In other words, the news of the monster’s appearance today would also be sealed. Bai Xinjian took out his communicator to search the web. This device was different from a normal phone and took some getting used to, but the logic was the same. He quickly browsed through the search results.
In reality, the public discussion about Unfortunate Ones had never ceased. There were all kinds of guesses online, perhaps because people subconsciously refused to face the fact that the apocalypse was coming. People in the upper class continued their song and dance in reality day after day, completely blind to the fact that the number of Unfortunate Ones was growing daily, and entirely ignorant of the painful struggle of the people at the bottom of society. No wonder Bai Xinjian had seen so many people over the last few days, and not one of them had been glued to their communicators like the people in his original world.
As for the claim that flowers, plants, and animals could also turn into Unfortunate Ones, it existed online, but due to the chaos and the Alliance’s deliberate concealment, it had not attracted much attention. It was true that living was already difficult; whether it was only humans or also flora and fauna that could become Unfortunate Ones, it made no difference in this era. Ordinary people struggling on the brink of death while the upper class buried their heads in the sand was the best description of the current social state.
It was no wonder Bai Yu was in such a hurry to find a new patron after learning that Shen Yuhuai had become an Unfortunate One. He had harbored a restless heart even before learning the news. Although he was born into the Bai family, it seemed that the only years that truly belonged to him were those five-plus years he was lost. Those mere five years seemed to have caused him to remain permanently trapped in that dim, crowded home, the one with the broken lamp, ever since the Bai family servant’s negligence, where his father drank and gambled and his mother was weak and useless.
However, thinking about this was useless for Bai Xinjian; he was just a bystander in this story. Summarizing the information he had collected, Bai Xinjian reached a simple conclusion: the monster was equivalent to Shen Yuhuai, yet not entirely. He could become Gu Yue, Claude, or anyone else. He could allow people to see him, or he could remain completely undetectable. So, what on earth was this thing?
The system had previously mentioned that there were monsters with abnormal energy in horror worlds that relied on devouring the world to be eliminated. Was this that kind of monster? If so, what should he do now? Monsters only devoured the world once they upgraded to high-risk species, and their level needed to match the level of the story world. Bai Xinjian strongly suspected that these story worlds might belong to some form of matter that was repelled by the energy within the monster.
So, what exactly was the monster? What role did the Transmigration Bureau play in all of this? Bai Xinjian began to grow curious about his own situation. However, he did not want to act rashly until he had a full grasp of the situation. After all, this system could enter and exit his mind at will and could even read parts of his consciousness. Acting rashly would easily lead to unexpected consequences, and he did not want to exert effort in vain, even if he was just a worker doing as he was told.
As he thought, Bai Xinjian noticed the tentacle wrapped around his hand had wiggled into his sleeve. The tip of the tentacle seemed quite interested in his arm; its suckers adhered to his skin, and as it wiggled upward, its tiny mouth kept attaching to and releasing his skin. Bai Xinjian could almost hear the popping sounds the suckers made as they attached and released, as if the little tentacle were secretly licking and kissing his arm inside his sleeve.
Bai Xinjian, “…”
Fortunately, the other person in the car and the system in his mind could not hear this sound. But this made the situation even more awkward. Just as the tentacle was about to reach the end of his sleeve and transfer to his chest, Bai Xinjian reached out and pressed down on it. He gave a light cough, signaling for the tentacle not to move recklessly. Gu Yue, however, thought he might be uncomfortable.
“What is wrong?” Gu Yue asked while driving. “Is it too stuffy? Do you need the window down?”
“I am fine,” Bai Xinjian shook his head.
The restaurant where they had eaten was far from the military residential area. Halfway through the drive, Gu Yue realized he was low on gas. He immediately turned toward a nearby gas station. This station was in a very remote location, with very few cars passing by; even the streetlights near the station were broken. In the current situation, after 9:00 PM, there were few pedestrians on general streets, except for the commercial and political centers of the Imperial Capital. Although the Alliance dispatched patrols every night to ensure public safety, no one was willing to gamble with their lives.
Gu Yue parked the car. While waiting for the self-service pump to fill the tank, he told Bai Xinjian to wait in the car while he went to the convenience store to buy water, deciding to bring him a box of throat lozenges as well. He thought Bai Xinjian’s light coughing earlier was because he had a sore throat. Bai Xinjian was about to refuse, saying he was fine, but the man was already gone.
The night was deep, and it was perfectly quiet both inside and outside the car. Only the buzzing sound of the self-service pump remained.
[Jianjian,] Bai Xinjian heard 0048 say in his mind, [I, the signal is bad. You remember to…]
Then its voice disappeared as well. Bai Xinjian felt that the monster was probably about to appear. Sure enough, a moment later, the self-service pump stopped working. Black mist shrouded the surrounding car windows.
“Thump, thump.” It sounded as if someone were knocking on Bai Xinjian’s window. Bai Xinjian lowered the window. He saw a tall, dark-haired Gu Yue with a blue eye bending down outside the window, leaning toward him. “I bought throat lozenges. Do you want one?” He opened his palm. In the center, a light green lozenge was emitting a faint scent of mint.
Bai Xinjian’s eyes curved. “You only bought one?”
“Is one not enough?” the Gu Yue with the dark blue eye stared intently at Bai Xinjian. “Will you eat the candy I bought for you?”
“Will you eat the candy I bought for you?”
“Will you eat the candy I bought for you?”
He asked Bai Xinjian repeatedly, his voice becoming increasingly hoarse. His face was veiled in black mist, gradually distorting and becoming blurry, as if the moment Bai Xinjian answered no, he would begin to monsterize.
“I will eat it.”
Bai Xinjian poked his head out the window, and his mouth brushed against the monster’s palm, taking the candy into his mouth. His damp lips and tongue left warm, wet traces on the monster’s palm.
“Mint flavored,” the monster muttered to himself. “Fragrant, fragrant. Bai Yu, fragrant.”
After speaking, he bent down, leaned toward Bai Xinjian, and kept sniffing around his neck and behind his ears. “Fragrant, fragrant, so fragrant, eat him, cannot eat.” He murmured in whispers, but because his voice was too deep and hoarse, Bai Xinjian could not hear him clearly.
“Hiss, hiss.” The sound of inhuman breathing echoed behind the monster. The monster, whose interest in the delicious human before him was interrupted, turned around impatiently, only to discover an Unfortunate One that had appeared from out of nowhere.
Bai Xinjian seemed to have discovered the Unfortunate One as well. The Unfortunate One, with twisted limbs and a ferocious face, let out a low growl and lunged toward the monster and Bai Xinjian. Compared to the monster, who was devoid of life but smelled of strange, fishy decay, the Unfortunate One was clearly more interested in the Bai Yu inside the car. But the monster would not let it get close.
Letting out a threatening hiss from his throat, the monster’s hands transformed into a thick tentacle, which lashed out toward the Unfortunate One. With a thud, the Unfortunate One was whipped aside, landing under a tree stump nearby, with yellow-green blood blooming like a flower on the ground.
Bai Xinjian laughed. He propped his hand on the window, rested his cheek against it, tilted his head, and said to the monster, “Beautiful. You are giving me flowers again.”
Flowers? The monster looked back, confused, at the Unfortunate One lying dead on the ground, and suddenly realized. He extended his thick tentacle, the tip elongating, dipped it into the yellow-green blood on the ground, and on the patch of ground near the car where the moonlight hit, he meticulously drew a rose for Bai Xinjian.
“Black Baccara,” the monster said foolishly. “Gift for Bai Yu.”
“Thank you,” Bai Xinjian said with delight, his smile becoming more pronounced. He leaned over and planted a kiss on the handsome face of the Gu Yue monster. “I love it.”
“Hehe.”
The monster giggled foolishly. He kept chanting in his mind: He likes it, he likes the rose I gave him, he likes the flower I gave him. So happy. So happy, so happy, so happy, so happy, so happy, so happy.