Staring at the kitchen cleaver in his hands, Jiang Ming felt a surge of interest regarding its item description, which boasted it could slice through iron like mud. He went to the fridge, pulled out a massive rack of ribs, and slammed it onto the chopping block in the kitchen.
He brought the blade down. With a soft metallic snick, the enormous rack of ribs was cleaved perfectly in two; the blade even bit deep into the thick chopping block.
“Holy shit, this vending machine actually spits out the good stuff!”
Overjoyed, Jiang Ming lifted the kitchen cleaver to inspect the edge. The steel remained devastatingly sharp. Swept up in the thrill, he could not resist planting a few quick kisses on the flat of the blade.
As he brandished the weapon, it felt as though the very air was being sliced apart. An arrogant sense of invincibility washed over him, a feeling that with this kitchen cleaver in hand, the world was his for the taking. He was even tempted to march straight over and hack that mutated hound to death!
However, he quickly suppressed the reckless urge.
Making a move himself might invite unforeseen disasters. If that dog fully underwent an aberrant mutation and turned into a bona fide monster, he would definitely be outmatched in such a confined space.
It was better to wait until tomorrow morning and pass this wonderful opportunity on to Uncle Li.
Jiang Ming had always believed in respecting his elders.
Having reasoned things out, he stowed the blade away and returned to the bedroom. A quick glance at the clock told him it was getting late; it was time to sleep.
Lying in bed, Jiang Ming checked his status panel.
Sanity: 76 …
Day Four, 8:00 AM.
“Haa…”
Jiang Ming rose from bed right on time. His eyes were shot with red, and he felt deeply exhausted and profoundly on edge.
During the first half of the night, he had occasionally heard strange noises. They were hazy and indistinct, making it impossible to hear them clearly, yet they were undeniably real.
As a result, he had slept poorly. He guessed this was a side effect of his Sanity dropping below eighty, which triggered mild auditory hallucinations.
Thus, when his Sanity recovered to eighty in the latter half of the night, the phantom sounds vanished.
Beyond the hallucinations, Jiang Ming felt terrible this morning. A portion of his physical strength had vanished into thin air once again.
His limbs felt weak and leaden, and even his spine seemed to hunch slightly forward.
“What is going on? I definitely ate all three meals yesterday.”
Jiang Ming racked his brain but could find no answers. The unease in his heart only grew stronger. He originally intended to go straight out for breakfast, but the moment his hand grasped the bedroom doorknob, he reconsidered.
“I have not changed my dressings yet,” he told himself.
Walking over to the desk, he began replacing the bandages and medicine on his left hand and head. While doing so, he initiated a gacha pull in his mind. Unsurprisingly, his luck remained abysmal. He pulled a beverage: a large bottle of Strike.1Strike ‘雷碧' is a popular knock-off of Sprite. See more here: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%9B%B7%E7%A2%A7/10111283
That is right, it was a bootleg Sprite.
He silently stored the drink away and resumed changing his dressings.
Soon, the fresh bandages were wrapped tight. Jiang Ming was about to stand up, but his gaze fell upon the papers scattered across the desk, prompting him to sit back down.
“I should take another look, just in case I missed something,” he reasoned.
After reviewing his compiled clues and rules once more, he still found no major breakthroughs. It seemed there was nothing left to do inside the bedroom.
Wordlessly, Jiang Ming rose and walked to the bedroom door. As his hand gripped the handle, the dread in his heart intensified, as if some unspeakable terror was lurking just outside.
“Forget it, I have to go out eventually. Let us see exactly what is waiting for me out there.”
Taking a deep breath, he violently threw the door open!
The living room was dead silent, looking just the same as always.
“Phew, there is nothing here. Just scaring myself over nothing. Whatever, time to eat.”
Jiang Ming breathed a sigh of relief, the tension in his chest finally easing slightly. Right at that moment, a hoarse, grating voice echoed out, sounding like the harsh wheeze of a dilapidated bellows.
“You are right. Come and eat.”
The split second those words registered, the lingering dread within Jiang Ming nearly solidified into physical terror!
Ignoring his frantically pounding heart, he snapped his gaze toward the source of the voice. Without a sound, the kitchen cleaver materialised in his grip.
The kitchen door creaked open slowly, pushed by some irresistible unseen force.
Then, an absurd and horrifying spectacle unfolded before his eyes.
The yellow Labrador was currently standing in a completely alien posture.
Its fur had shed almost entirely, revealing skin as smooth as a mirror underneath. The flesh was a sickly pale hue, looking distressingly similar to flayed human skin.
Its torso had grotesquely bloated, reaching half the height of a grown man, exuding a profound aura of wrongness.
The Labrador's limbs were continuously elongating. Its paws tore through the original skin, exposing elongating bones beneath. The twisted bone structure looked horrifically similar to human hands.
Due to the immense internal pressure, its skin split open all over, sending blood pouring down in rivulets. It was as if an indescribable monstrosity was thrashing around inside its body, fighting to break free from its fleshy prison.
But what shocked Jiang Ming the most was its head.
The originally rounded snout had flattened out, shifting ominously close to human facial features.
Yet the most striking detail was undeniably its eyes: a pair of human-like eyes brimming with malice and cruelty.
It now stood upright on its hind legs, flashing Jiang Ming a bloodcurdling smile.
The sheer horror of the sight made Jiang Ming's scalp go numb!
Right then, it was actually holding a plate of egg fried rice in its hands. This absurd scene played out before him, feeling simultaneously bizarre and terrifyingly logical.
As the Labrador chewed the egg fried rice mouthful by mouthful, Jiang Ming's own body suddenly underwent a violent, aberrant mutation!
Over his arms and legs, his once-smooth skin was being encroached upon by a layer of coarse yellow fur. The hairs sprouted rapidly, seemingly intent on cocooning his entire body.
At the same time, his back began to hunch. His spine felt like it was losing its structural integrity, forcefully contorting his posture into something grotesque.
Jiang Ming felt the strength rapidly leeching from his limbs, bound by some formless, oppressive force.
It all happened in a flash. Staring at his mutating body, Jiang Ming finally understood the source of his creeping dread: it was stealing his physical form!
In a fraction of a second, Jiang Ming made his decision.
Kill the beast!
A flash of ruthless conviction ignited in his eyes. Gritting his teeth, he mustered every ounce of strength to force his hunching spine straight.
Despite his gnarled fingers, he maintained a death grip on the kitchen cleaver and charged fearlessly at the hound.
The dog clearly had not anticipated such a decisive assault, leaving it no choice but to hastily raise the bowl in its hands to block.
The moment the blade struck the bowl, an ear-piercing metallic screech echoed out. The outcome was a foregone conclusion.
Powered by unrivalled sharpness, the kitchen cleaver sliced through the bowl like butter. Egg fried rice scattered across the floor, interspersed with vivid spatters of blood.
A gruesome, bone-deep gash erupted across the hound's canine face, sending blood welling out in a thick torrent.
The wounded beast unleashed a wretched howl. Yet instead of retreating, it lunged at Jiang Ming with even greater ferocity.
It knew its back was pressed against the cramped confines of the kitchen, making it a terrible battleground. Thus, it had to force its way out into the spacious living room.
Moving with blinding speed, it vaulted onto the living room table in a flash, glaring down at Jiang Ming from a position of authority.
Jiang Ming instantly noticed that his aberrant mutation had slowed considerably following the creature's injury. His eyes lit up. Brandishing the cleaver, he immediately resumed his charge.
The blade carved vicious arcs through the air, every single swing fuelled by Jiang Ming's unadulterated killing intent.
However, the hound moved like an agile dancer, dodging and weaving across the living room to brilliantly evade every strike.
Although the creature had siphoned away a portion of his strength, Jiang Ming still had plenty left in the tank. Bolstered by the lethal kitchen cleaver, the advantage remained firmly in his grasp.
But the dog was simply too fast. Unable to land a solid hit, the skirmish rapidly devolved into a tense stalemate.
This drawn-out deadlock began to fuel Jiang Ming's anxiety.
He knew his physical stamina was still being steadily siphoned, and the underlying mutation showed zero signs of fading.
Under this agonising war of attrition, it was only a matter of time before he collapsed.
The dog seemingly understood this perfectly. It was deliberately stalling for time, waiting for the exact moment Jiang Ming fully succumbed to the mutation.
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Ming fought to maintain his composure.
He had to manufacture an opening to shatter this stalemate.
Locking onto the hound's every twitch and feint, his eyes gleamed with the sharpness of a falcon hunting for a fatal flaw.
Seconds ticked by like hours; the entire living room felt suffocated by the volatile tension.
Suddenly, Jiang Ming's body gave an almost imperceptible shudder, as if he had momentarily lost his footing.
A gleam of cunning flashed through the dog's eyes. Sensing the dawn of victory, it lunged forward with bared fangs, aiming to take Jiang Ming down in one fell swoop.
Seeing it take the bait, Jiang Ming rejoiced inwardly. The stumble was a deliberate feint, designed solely to lure the beast into committing to an attack.
Watching the creature rocket toward him, he tightened his grip and unleashed a devastating slash.
Suspended in midair, it was physically impossible for the dog to alter its trajectory. Jiang Ming possessed absolute confidence in this strike!
However, the subsequent scene left him wide-eyed in sheer disbelief.
Instead of cleanly cleaving the hound in two as anticipated, the creature impossibly contorted its body mid-flight, folding around the blade's murderous arc to bypass the attack entirely and continue its lethal dive!
In a fraction of a heartbeat, the beast was practically on top of his face. He could see the naked cruelty and ravenous hunger swirling in its eyes.
“Did you really think I could not tell you were faking it? Pathetic!”
The dog spat out a merciless sneer.
Yet in this dire, life-threatening crisis, the corners of Jiang Ming's mouth curled into a smirk. The hound had been scheming against him, but was he not doing the exact same thing?
Just as the beast closed to within arm's reach, a massive vending machine materialised out of thin air directly above its head!
The dog's previous movements had simply been too fast. Without a guaranteed hit, Jiang Ming had bided his time, using the kitchen cleaver as nothing more than a flashy distraction.
Now that he had seized the ultimate opening, the trap worked flawlessly!
Boom!
The wiry hound was crushed beneath the colossal weight of the machine, leaving only a single, blood-drenched, malformed human arm sticking out. Wasting no time, Jiang Ming brought his blade down!
“Aaaagh!!”
An agonised screech erupted from beneath the heavy machinery as blood sprayed violently across the floor!
Jiang Ming prepared to press the advantage and finish it off, but a sudden, overwhelming spike of mortal peril gripped his mind. Abandoning his greed for a quick kill, he violently kicked off the ground and retreated.
Crash!
Barely a second after he moved, two gigantic, grotesque white insectoids smashed down from the ceiling, landing precisely where he had just been standing.
It went without saying that had he not fallen back, or had he been even a fraction of a second slower, the ambush would have crushed him instantly!
He would have been crippled, if not killed outright!
Stabilising his footing, Jiang Ming looked forward.
The two monstrous insects possessed bizarrely writhing bodies, lined with dozens of elongated legs of varying lengths.
Embedded atop their heads were pairs of bloodshot eyeballs, radiating an aura of sheer terror. With just a slight exertion of force, they effortlessly tipped the heavy vending machine over with a resounding crash.
The hound crawled out from the debris. Its original eyes were completely gone; instead, the two hideous insectoids docilely scuttled onto its shoulders to serve as its new vision. Fixing its hollow eye sockets on Jiang Ming, it rasped:
“I truly underestimated you. You are far stronger than I was back then.”
“I told you, you were too impatient.”
The dog subtly shifted the insects on its shoulders, as if recalibrating its field of vision, before slowly speaking again:
“You are right, I was indeed lacking just a little bit. But I could wait no longer.”
Jiang Ming frowned in confusion:
“Lacking a little bit?”
“What exactly are you lacking?”
“You can speak human language, eat human food, and even walk on two legs like a human. What else could you possibly be lacking?”
The hound abruptly let out a jarring, uncanny laugh that echoed through the empty room, grinding painfully against the eardrums.
It appeared unwilling to answer the question directly, shifting the topic instead:
“Jiang Ming, perhaps we can sit down and talk.”
The beast opposite him seemingly gave up, plopping onto the floor in a completely defenceless posture, aiming to negotiate.
“What is there to talk about? You want to become human, and I have no desire to become a dog. There is nothing to discuss.”
“Actually, we could opt for a compromise. You lure a neighbour inside, I take his place and turn him into a dog. It is a win-win for both of us, is it not?”
The hound pitched this supposedly ‘win-win' proposition to Jiang Ming.
“Great idea, but inviting a neighbour into this house is far too dangerous. How about you go to his house and turn him into a dog over there?”
Jiang Ming replied with a cold sneer.
The dog shook its head: “The dog is the guardian deity of this home. If I leave, all sorts of filthy things will crawl out from the shadows. When that happens, even standing in the light will not save you.”
“Therefore, you cannot kill me. If I die, they will butcher you.”
Jiang Ming's eyes flickered, visibly tempted: “If that is the case, then the neighbour…”
Before he could finish, a black blur shot toward him. Yet, Jiang Ming acted as if he had predicted it all along, snapping his cleaver horizontally to casually block the sneak attack.
He sneered coldly. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a second black blur ambushed him from the side.
Unable to dodge in time, his right hand was viciously bitten. A jolt of blinding agony seized his nerves, forcing his fingers to spasm and drop the blade.
Jiang Ming finally got a clear look at the shadowy assailant: it was the very same malformed hand he had chopped off the hound!
To think the severed appendage could still be weaponised by the beast!
The grotesque hand was currently scurrying along using its five fingers as legs. A monstrous maw lined with jagged, saw-like teeth had split open dead in the centre of its palm.
After tearing a chunk out of Jiang Ming, it immediately unlatched its jaws, scurrying away like a giant spider to vanish into the periphery, primed for its next assault.
The limb carried some form of potent venom, rendering Jiang Ming's right hand almost completely paralysed. The moment he tried to grab the fallen blade with his left hand, the two hideous insectoids scuttled forward, forcing him to back away.
Overjoyed by the sudden turn of events, the hound pounced forward, practically flying across the room to snatch the discarded cleaver with its one remaining hand!
Just as the beast's greedy fingers were a mere palm's breadth away from the handle, a flourishing ball-shaped cactus abruptly materialised right in its path.
The unexpected obstacle left the dog reeling in horror. Unable to arrest its momentum, its hand clamped viciously around the thorny plant.
“Aaaargh!”
A bloodcurdling shriek ripped through the apartment. The hound collapsed, writhing on the floor in unbearable agony, seemingly stripped of all combat ability.
Capitalising on the opening, Jiang Ming threw himself forward, reclaiming the kitchen cleaver. Just as he was about to seize the momentum and lop off its other hand, a sudden sixth sense flared in his mind. He whipped the flat of the blade heavily behind him in a brutal backhand!
Smack!
A paw, half-dog and half-human, smacked solidly onto the ground. Simultaneously, the screaming hound dropped its theatrical act entirely, launching itself forward with blistering speed.
Overwhelmed by the relentless barrage, Jiang Ming was caught completely off guard and pinned brutally to the floor.
He fully expected a frenzied mauling, but the beast merely flashed a savage, triumphant grin and shoved its own severed, bleeding stump straight into Jiang Ming's mouth!
Hot, metallic blood flooded down his throat. Jiang Ming fought with everything he had, finally managing to hurl the abominable beast off his chest.
But in the violent struggle, he had already swallowed a sickening mouthful of its corrupted blood.
Desperately clawing at the back of his throat, he tried to induce vomiting, but it was completely useless. Staring at the smirking dog, absolute fury ignited within him, and he prepared to charge.
Clang!
But right at that moment, a metallic clatter echoed out. Accompanying the sound, Jiang Ming suddenly felt an unnatural emptiness in his left hand.
Looking down, he realised the kitchen cleaver had clattered to the floor. And his left hand… had fully morphed into a furry, padded canine paw!
“This…”
A wave of suffocating terror threatened to drown his mind.
Yet, the sinister transformation was far from over. A splitting migraine abruptly seized his brain.
A bizarre sensation of temporal laceration descended upon him, exactly like the dissonance he had felt when the timeline between the bedroom and the living room had desynchronised.
Rendered completely powerless, he could only clutch his agonising head in despair.
Meanwhile, the hound standing across from him casually flexed its hands. It… looked even more human now.
Gazing down at Jiang Ming with aristocratic disdain, its voice had become sickeningly smooth and refined as it slowly drawled:
“It is useless, stop struggling. If this apartment did not explicitly require a dog to function, I would have butchered you long ago.”
Jiang Ming remained utterly silent.
Just as the two were locked in this macabre stand-off.
Knock, knock, knock…
Someone was knocking at the door.
Notes
Strike ‘雷碧' is a popular knock-off of Sprite. See more here: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%9B%B7%E7%A2%A7/10111283 ↩