Era of Mist

“Hm?”

As the corpse came flying like a cannonball, Shi Tiexin stomped and tripped, effortlessly knocking a burly man off balance. He then scooped the man up and held him in the path of the incoming body.

CRACK! The corpse’s head and the goon’s smashed together, both bursting on impact. With the burly goon dealt with, Shi Tiexin took a half-step back to absorb the force. He then looked toward the door, where Ah Hui had already begun to charge.

In the glare of the car’s headlights, Ah Hui’s right arm swelled to a disproportionate size, transforming into a monstrously thick and swollen limb. The skin of this giant arm was a dark, bluish-black, and its hide looked incredibly tough. With a casual pull, the already ravaged door was torn wide open with a sharp CRACK.

“He’s mutated?” Shi Tiexin frowned, staring at Ah Hui’s giant arm. “What kind of drug could do this?”

Shi Tiexin was surprised but not panicked. In the Main World Line, after all, all sorts of strange skills existed. He’d seen things like growing a giant arm on TV plenty of times, so he remained perfectly calm.

With a bizarre smile on his face, Ah Hui let out a weird laugh and lunged at Shi Tiexin.

The next moment, Shi Tiexin hooked a corpse with his foot and precisely slid it under Ah Hui’s instep.

THUD! Ah Hui pitched forward onto his knees, his forehead smacking the ground hard, like a child performing a deep kowtow for the New Year.

The sudden kowtow left Ah Hui dazed, but he quickly recovered. He pushed his massive arm against the floor, using the force to propel himself back up. But just as he lifted his head, a large foot came stomping down on his face—WHAM!—like a grandfather giving a generous New Year’s gift.

With a thunderous crash, Ah Hui flew back out the same way he’d charged in. It hadn’t even taken a second move. He rolled a couple of times on the ground, then lay there face down, silent and still.

Judging by the look of his cervical spine, the best-case scenario was quadriplegia.

Sanfan was speechless.

His face was already a zombie-like mask, and now it looked even uglier.

He raised a hand, and the gunmen all lifted their weapons to aim, ready to fire. But in the next instant, Sanfan’s hand froze. He held the order, because Ah Hui, lying silent and still on the ground, suddenly convulsed. With a series of CRACKS, Ah Hui’s short, stout frame seemed to lengthen.

“Boss!!” Ah Fei’s voice came from behind the kitchen. “We found a small staircase in the back! It leads upstairs! We have to get out of here!”

Shi Tiexin was about to turn when a rapid series of pops and snaps, like a string of firecrackers, echoed from outside the door.

He turned back to see a massive, bluish-black figure slowly climbing to its feet. The figure was at least eight feet tall, its muscles so developed they had completely ripped its clothes to shreds. Beneath the tatters of fabric was a damaged, malformed, and disproportionate body. Its upper limbs were overdeveloped, while its lower limbs were somewhat long and thin, giving it a top-heavy, unbalanced appearance.

But no matter how disproportionate it was, the body’s strength was beyond the imagination of an ordinary person.

“ROAR—!!”

The figure threw its head back and roared. Only then did it become apparent that the muscles on its back were so overdeveloped they formed a hump, preventing it from straightening its spine.

Its neck especially couldn’t straighten—it was unclear whether this was part of its new structure or organic damage from the kick. In any case, its neck was almost invisible; its head seemed to be sinking into its overdeveloped trapezius muscles, and turning it looked extremely difficult.

Then, the monster spun around. A large footprint was stamped on its face, making its bizarre smile look even more bizarre.

It was Ah Hui. Ah Hui had actually turned into this!

‘Is this some kind of berserker transformation?’

“Looks pretty good,” Sanfan chuckled. “Now this is more like it. Go. Kill him.”

Ah Hui’s eyes were locked on Shi Tiexin, and he let out a dry, rasping laugh. He spread his grotesquely thick and long arms. One step, two steps. THUD. THUD. THUDTHUDTHUDTHUD! He broke into a run, accelerating from a slow start, his footsteps as heavy as a tank.

And so, Ah Hui rushed forward, arms spread wide as if to embrace a long-lost friend. To any observer, however, those arms looked more like the giant plow of a snowplow, or a deadly iron pincer. Anyone caught in that embrace was sure to be crushed to death.

Shi Tiexin glanced at the expressionless Sanfan, then at the gunmen who were ready to fire at a moment’s notice. He made no unnecessary moves.

CRACK! The towering Ah Hui smashed through the doorframe and rushed screaming toward Shi Tiexin, arms outstretched.

“You want revenge?”

Shi Tiexin’s gaze hardened. He straightened up and charged forward, spreading his own arms to meet the oncoming Ah Hui.

With a loud SMACK, their hands met. Shi Tiexin precisely caught Ah Hui’s grasp. Hand to hand, arm to arm, muscle against muscle, they were locked in the most direct and primal contest of strength.

Sanfan’s gaze sharpened, and he quietly raised his hand. At the slightest sign of Ah Hui faltering, he would order the gunmen to open fire on them both, then toss in a few grenades just to be sure.

But the stalemate didn’t last long. CRACK! CRACK! The ground beneath Shi Tiexin’s feet began to fracture. His powerful frame, as if unable to withstand the force, was pushed back step by step.

“Heh heh, hahahaha!”

THUD. THUD. Ah Hui advanced, his pace picking up from slow to fast, his bizarre laughter echoing as he pushed Shi Tiexin backward.

With a loud CRACK, Shi Tiexin’s back slammed into a wooden partition.

Ah Hui put in another burst of strength, and the partition CRACKED and buckled inward.

With one more push, the already fragile partition shattered completely.

Amidst a symphony of CRACKS and SPLINTERS, Ah Hui pushed Shi Tiexin back with the force of a battering ram. The scene descended into chaos, vision obscured. All that could be heard was a triumphant, maniacal laughter growing more and more distant.

“Worthy of an elite product. The results exceeded my expectations.” Sanfan waved a hand, and the gunmen lowered their weapons. “Now, we’ll just see what the final test results are.”

Meanwhile, Ah Fei and the others guarding the back door heard the crazed laughter, and their expressions all changed. Just from the sounds, they could tell their boss was in a bad spot.

“Damn it, the Boss is in trouble!”

Ah Fei turned to rush to the front.

“Hey, are we… are we still going over there?” one of the guys suddenly stammered. “Those are monsters over there. Even if we go, we won’t be any help! The back door is right here. We… we shouldn’t hold the Boss back. Let’s retreat first!”

“That makes sense, that makes sense! If we don’t leave, the Boss won’t be able to fight without worrying about us.”

“The right thing to do is to go get reinforcements!”

“The Boss will definitely understand!”

“I… I… We’re just here to make money, not to get ourselves killed…”

Ah Fei froze, staring at his men all talking at once. He listened to the roars from the front hall, to the crazed laughter that sounded like the approaching footsteps of death. Then he looked at the small staircase in front of them—a path to survival.

Letting the boss hold the line while they ran for it first—that was the best way to survive.