“Xiao Ming, it's me. I've come for the dog meat. You've been stalling for a whole day now, don't try to fool Uncle Li.”
Uncle Li's voice drifted through the door. Inside, the man and the dog, or rather, the two half-man, half-dog monstrosities, offered no response. Silence descended upon the room.
Jiang Ming lamented inwardly. Plans truly could never keep pace with changing circumstances!
He had originally intended for Uncle Li to butcher the mutt. He never anticipated the dog's mutation would progress at such a terrifying velocity. In just a single day, it was on the verge of completely transforming into a human!
This was a severe deviation from the information recorded in the diary!
Could it be because he had drawn S-grade difficulty?
Lowering his head to inspect his own canine paws, Jiang Ming sighed. If he opened the door now, Uncle Li might just slaughter him alongside the beast!
The dog across from him seemed to glean his exact thoughts, fixing him with a look of pure, unadulterated mockery.
“Cough, cough.”
Jiang Ming coughed, only to discover to his horror that his voice had grown raspy and dry. The transformation sent a violent shudder down his spine.
He knew the truth. If he dragged this out any longer, he would irrevocably metamorphose into a dog!
Even more terrifying was the nascent thought beginning to surface in the depths of his mind: the insidious notion that he had been a canine all along.
His sense of smell had grown extraordinarily acute. He was even developing a ravenous craving for the scent of the dog food sitting on the nearby table.
This was a deeply horrifying realisation; his very cognition was being rewritten! He could not delay any further!
Listening to Uncle Li outside, Jiang Ming quickly surveyed his surroundings. Thanks to their earlier chase, his current position was situated close to the front door.
“If I can yank the door open quickly and duck behind it, the first thing Uncle Li sees will be the dog. I might just be able to reap the spoils while they fight it out!
“Clashing head-on with the beast right now is a sheer death wish. My only chance of survival lies in introducing a chaotic variable.”
Jiang Ming calculated his odds internally. He began inching toward the entrance while simultaneously speaking up to pacify his adversary.
“I think you have a point. There is no need for us to fight to the bitter end. Wouldn't it be the best of both worlds to let the neighbour in to be our scapegoat?”
The dog held the absolute advantage, so it betrayed not a sliver of panic. It simply licked its lips and replied:
“You finally see reason. Let us confer on how to trick the neighbour into stepping inside.”
“Indeed, we should discuss it…”
Jiang Ming crept deliberately toward the entryway. However, he soon realised something crucial: as he moved toward the front door, the dog was slowly backing away. Its target was none other than the bedroom!
Without a doubt, the mutt had seen right through his stratagem and was repositioning itself accordingly.
The moment Jiang Ming opened the front door, the creature would dart into the bedroom, leaving Jiang Ming as the sole ‘dog' in the living room!
As for who Uncle Li would target at that point, the answer was self-evident.
Witnessing this manoeuvre, Jiang Ming felt the overwhelming urge to curse out loud.
Was this really the same mentally deficient Xiao Jiang from the diary? How was it this cunning?!
Yet, Jiang Ming knew in his heart of hearts that even with this setup, the door had to be opened!
By the time Jiang Ming reached the entryway, the dog was already hovering near the bedroom. The instant the front door opened, it would pounce inside!
Jiang Ming watched this unfold with a complex expression. Letting out a soft sigh, his gaze hardened with absolute resolve.
He rapidly twisted the doorknob and wrenched the door open, exposing Uncle Li outside. Upon seeing this, the dog did not hesitate for a fraction of a second and immediately lunged toward the bedroom.
In the very next moment of its sprint, a vending machine abruptly materialised in the air above it.
The dog, however, was prepared. Two hideous worms shot skyward, intercepting the bottom of the vending machine and violently swatting it aside.
Swiftly, another vending machine spawned overhead, only to be slapped away by a blood-drenched human hand, exactly as expected.
Such petty tricks could not impede the creature's momentum in the slightest!
At this juncture, the dog was but a single stride away from breaching the bedroom. Even if more vending machines rained down, it would be utterly futile!
Believing the outcome was set in stone, the dog rejoiced inwardly. But an instant later, a violent sensation of weightlessness assailed it.
Bang!
A vending machine erupted from the floorboards below, blasting the defenceless dog into the air.
Seeing this, Jiang Ming was instantly elated.
“Didn't see that coming, did you? My vending machine doesn't just drop from above; it can breach from below!”
The previous ambushes had lulled the dog into a rigid pattern of thinking, tricking it into believing the machines could only materialise from the ceiling. Ultimately, it had been mercilessly outplayed by Jiang Ming!
In that brief window of delay, the front door swung completely open.
Jiang Ming concealed himself behind the door. Bereft of the time to overthink, Uncle Li spotted the dog hovering near the bedroom. Eyes entirely suffused with crimson, he charged at it, completely disregarding the other ‘canine' hiding behind the entrance.
Watching Uncle Li's frenzied back, Jiang Ming dared not hesitate. He bolted out of the apartment, thoughtfully pulling the door shut behind him.
…
Thud! Crash! Bang!
Feral roars and the cacophony of a brutal brawl echoed from within the apartment. The noise was startlingly clear even through the heavy door, a testament to the terrifying intensity of the battle inside.
“This is absurd. Killing me must have offered no benefit to the mutt, which is why it held back earlier. This must be its true combat prowess.”
“If I faced either of them alone while they harboured genuine murderous intent, I would be dead without a doubt!”
Having temporarily escaped the jaws of death, Jiang Ming cast a glance down the fog-shrouded corridor and could not suppress a sigh.
“Although my mutation has temporarily halted, likely because the dog sustained injuries brawling with Uncle Li, my fate remains bleak regardless of who emerges victorious.”
“If the dog wins, I'll still transform into a hound. If Uncle Li wins, I doubt my half-man, half-dog state will earn me any mercy.”
Jiang Ming was deeply distressed. The corridor was no sanctuary either. Not only did he risk running into ‘Mother' out here, but the faint, omnipresent sensation of prying eyes from the shadows was incessantly aggravating.
Watching his dwindling Sanity, an audacious idea suddenly seized Jiang Ming: what if he just made a run for it?!
He could escape outside and lie low for a few days, only returning on the seventh day to wait for ‘Mother'. He would be far away from both the neighbour and the mutt. It was an absolutely flawless plan!
Jiang Ming let his imagination run wild, but he quickly discarded the notion.
If the apartment was already this lethal, he dared not fathom the horrors lurking in the outside world. After all, ‘Mother' apparently hailed from the outside.
Moreover, the most critical flaw in his plan was the architecture itself: this building possessed neither elevators nor stairs. Even if Jiang Ming wanted to flee, there was no avenue of escape! New chapters come out on novelping . com first.
It wasn't as if he could jump out of the building, could he?
Did that mean his only remaining option was to sit in the corridor and await death?
A sense of despair gnawed at his heart. He slumped against the door and sat down. Yet, a singular thread of hope remained. Today was the fourth day; ‘Mother's' friend was scheduled to visit.
Under Little Black's interference, the Xiao Jiang from the diary had chosen not to open the door for ‘Mother's' friend. From this, one could deduce that the friend was likely a beneficial entity to humans.
Waiting was Jiang Ming's sole recourse. If ‘Mother's' friend only arrived in the afternoon or evening, he would be utterly bereft of options.
At this thought, Jiang Ming felt a wave of speechlessness wash over him. How could these Rule-Based Anomalies be this punishing? Barely half of the seven days had elapsed, and he was already cornered in an unsolvable dead end.
…
Time trickled away, second by agonising second. The roars inside the apartment gradually subsided. A victor between the two monstrosities was about to be decided, yet ‘Mother's' friend was still nowhere to be seen.
Slumped against the door, Jiang Ming felt despair steadily devouring his mind. Just then, he noticed a grotesque transformation occurring upon the blood-red door on the opposite wall.
The intricate patterns framing the door warped and twisted, emitting a spectral, crimson luminescence. A nauseating stench of fresh gore rapidly saturated the air.
…
Inside the apartment, the victor had been crowned.
Uncle Li's ferocious bellowing was completely extinguished, replaced by the dog's heavy panting and the grating friction of a massive object being dragged across the floor.
Heavy footsteps approached; it was evidently making its way toward the entrance.
Jiang Ming silently rose to his feet and retreated into the centre of the corridor.
With a prolonged creak, the door swung open. A blood-soaked dog callously discarded a gargantuan, red-furred abomination out into the hall.
The creature's head bore a face on its front and another on its back, though the eyes on the rear face were firmly shut.
Six eyes were evenly distributed along the sides of its primary visage. As it gasped violently for air, three separate tongues lolled from its maw.
This was undoubtedly Uncle Li's true form, but it was starkly apparent that he had lost.
The dog fixed a ravenous gaze upon Jiang Ming.
“You possess a sharp mind. It is a pity, but you should obediently return home. The household requires a guardian deity.”
Sensing the increasingly potent spiritual fluctuations emanating from behind him, Jiang Ming broke into a faint smile.
“You are entirely correct. This household indeed requires a guardian deity.”
“However, I have grown accustomed to humanity. I believe you are much better suited to play the dog.”
Observing the smile dancing on Jiang Ming's lips, the beast did not take offence. After a moment of contemplation, it chose to step over the threshold, returning a sinister grin.
“Hahaha. As am I. I haven't had my fill of being human yet…”
Before it could finish its sentence, an incandescent crimson light erupted from behind Jiang Ming, heralding the awakening of a profoundly formidable power.
The radiance intensified exponentially, eventually drowning the entire corridor in a deep, sanguine wash!
Visceral terror surfaced in the dog's eyes, while Uncle Li, still sprawled on the ground, began to convulse uncontrollably.
Just as Jiang Ming was reeling in shock at this phenomenon, a melodious, distinctly feminine voice echoed from behind him, tinged with a hint of surprise:
“Oh? Xiao Ming, did you come out here to welcome me?”