Chapter 4: Subway Station Showdown

Hiss…

Seeing Lu Xin stand his ground and turn back defiantly, the coffee shop clerk smirked.

As the smile twisted grotesquely his flesh ripped apart revealing a black pulsating mass beneath. This mass writhed extending outwards into thick distorted tentacles. Some tentacles sprouted huge mouths filled with short sharp fangs while others rolled up and down revealing massive eyeballs.

Then all the mouths gaped open simultaneously spraying streams of viscous fluid.

A violent shiver ran down Lu Xin’s spine. “We need to run… now!”

But his sister just watched the monster with fascination. “I’m not running. Look, isn’t it cute?”

Before she could finish the monster let out a screech whipping its countless thick tentacles towards him.

Shock and terror seized Lu Xin. “I—” he cried out.

But mid-cry his sister yanked him forward charging straight at the creature.

…

…

“Mental power fluctuations have reached their peak…”

Inside the observation post a staff member typed furiously yelling under their breath, “A Level 1 Mental Monster has manifested!”

On their monitors the entire empty subway station seemed to shake violently as if hit by an earthquake. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ground centered around the coffee shop clerk, deep pits appeared as if struck by immense force. Countless people around him, even the ‘customers’ from the coffee shop were torn apart.

It was as if an invisible force field was twisting shattering and annihilating everything in its path.

“A train is arriving in three minutes! There are at least thirty passengers aboard!”

Another staff member shouted nervously turning to the short-haired woman. “What’s the plan?”

The short-haired woman took a deep breath unable to make an immediate decision.

“Logically speaking a Spider-type deviant without standard-issue weapons can’t handle this kind of Mental Monster…”

“But…”

…

On the flickering screen she watched as the subject actually flew straight towards the coffee shop clerk who was surrounded by a vortex of distorted force. With a flash of movement a deep crater appeared where he’d just been blasted by unseen telekinesis. He dodged sharply and seven or eight meters behind him a hole suddenly blew through another person’s body.

Against all odds amidst such extreme danger he managed to close the distance to the coffee shop clerk.

Then he reached out and grabbed one of the clerk’s arms.

Shhk…

At that moment the image on the monitor vanished completely.

The invisible telekinetic force had destroyed all the cameras in the subway station.

The short-haired woman gasped then suddenly yelled, “Move!”

Everyone scrambled into action including the little girl in the adjacent room.

…

…

“Hehehe…”

Inside Lu Xin felt nothing but dread yet a smug taunting laugh escaped his lips his eyes gleaming with a feverish excited light. Innumerable sinister tentacles whipped towards him. His instincts screamed that even the slightest touch from any one of them would bring irreversible terrifying consequences.

Yet facing this overwhelming danger he seemed to feel only exhilaration.

He rushed forward twisting his body into countless grotesque poses dodging the tentacles until he was right beside the monster.

“Shlrrrk…”

He grabbed a piece of the monster’s flesh twisted sharply and ripped. Foul ichor sprayed everywhere.

He had actually torn off one of the monster’s tentacles.

The monster went berserk with pain its countless mouths screaming simultaneously.

Lu Xin’s expression however grew even more excited as he began circling the creature relentlessly.

His strength was clearly inferior to the monster’s and he knew that if it caught him he’d be dead instantly. But instead of fear he seemed to find the whole thing immensely amusing like a cat toying with a mouse. His figure flickered around the monster darting close then retreating tearing off another long tentacle each time he closed in.

He was dismantling the monster piece by piece…

The monster had fewer and fewer tentacles left. It grew incredibly furious and terrified but its frantic reactions only fueled Lu Xin’s excitement. His figure flashed around it like a phantom tearing off chunk after chunk of flesh…

The monster’s roars grew weaker. Severed limbs and bloodstains littered the ground around it.

But strangely both the limbs and the blood slowly faded away disappearing over time.

Finally the monster was too weak to fight back filled only with terror it began crawling towards the station exit.

But Lu Xin leaped onto the wall above it pursuing relentlessly. He ripped a thin iron pipe from the ceiling laughed maniacally then jumped down aiming carefully before plunging the pipe straight down through the monster’s back.

“Pfft!”

The pipe pierced the monster’s head pinning it directly to the ground.

The monster thrashed desperately flailing its few remaining tentacles unconsciously.

Lu Xin crouched nearby watching its screams and struggles with wary but intense satisfaction.

Fear filled the countless eyes on the monster’s tentacles. Suddenly all the tentacles went rigid simultaneously.

Then with a ‘splat’ they exploded into masses of blood plasma.

The exploding gore surged outwards in all directions like a bloody mist.

Fortunately Lu Xin was extremely vigilant. He instantly dodged aside avoiding a mass of writhing flesh.

But the ‘customers’ who had chased him out of the coffee shop were instantly enveloped by the bloody flesh jolting them awake.

During the earlier battle they had suffered heavy casualties under the ‘coffee shop clerk’s’ indiscriminate attacks but hadn’t moved seemingly impervious to pain or fear. Now however they snapped back to reality as if waking from a dream scattering frantically in all directions.

Some rushed towards the exits on either side others even leaped down onto the subway tracks.

Each one seemed completely crazed utterly unafraid of being crushed into paste by the incoming train…

“Trying to run?”

Lu Xin’s eyes burned with manic excitement. His gaze flickered and his body shot towards the person nearest him.

It was a plump woman limping badly.

One of the coffee shop clerk’s tentacles had struck her earlier shattering her left leg at an unnatural angle. Yet she was still desperately trying to escape albeit slowly. Sensing Lu Xin approach from behind she suddenly spun around her mouth stretching wide open ripping all the way to her ears. Her yellowed greasy teeth suddenly looked much sharper than usual.

Right then she looked less like a person and more like a mindless beast.

“Swish!”

Lu Xin sidestepped easily dodging her snapping jaws. Then his arm shot out twisted and snapped her neck.

He then leaped away swiftly chasing after the other fleeing figures.

His eyes held an unnatural fervor and his speed was uncannily swift. In moments he had caught and killed four or five ‘customers’. But there were too many of them and they fled for their lives. By the time he finished off his fifth victim the others had scattered in every direction leaving the subway platform eerily empty once more.

“Click…”

Suddenly a faint noise echoed through the station.

Lu Xin whipped his head around and saw an old security guard standing in the security booth staring at him in utter terror.

The old guard had been incredibly lucky.

Even though the entire subway station had been ravaged by the fight his little booth remained miraculously intact. And he himself was completely unharmed.

But just then he’d made that tiny sound drawing Lu Xin’s attention.

Lu Xin stared at him his eyes looking pitch black and bottomless. A twisted excited expression spread across his face.

The next instant his figure blurred rushing towards the security booth his fingers outstretched aiming straight for the old guard’s head.

The terrified guard threw his hands up instinctively covering his head.

But the expected blow never landed.

…

“Enough…”

Lu Xin roared furiously suddenly grabbing hold of his sister.

Her slender fingers halted just centimeters from the old security guard’s face.

His sister was wild but Lu Xin could stop her.

Especially when he truly wanted to.

During the fight earlier the slightest misstep could have gotten them caught by the monster so Lu Xin hadn’t dared restrain his sister. Even when he wanted to flee and she wanted to charge back in he couldn’t risk forcibly dragging her away. Disagreement would slow their movements and reactions potentially leading to disaster. Besides those ‘customers’ weren’t normal so killing them didn’t matter.

But this old security guard was undeniably a normal ordinary person. Lu Xin absolutely could not let his sister harm him.

“Alright alright…”

Pulled back forcefully by Lu Xin his sister seemed furious at first. But when she turned and saw the anger twisting Lu Xin’s face she suddenly became docile wrapping her slender arms around his neck. She smiled “Don’t be angry Big Brother. I was just trying to protect you wasn’t I? Look how fierce and scary those monsters were…”

“If they’re scary we can just run…”

Veins pulsed on Lu Xin’s forehead. He wanted to say more but his sister’s expression suddenly changed.

“Oops those people are coming! We need to go now…”

Startled Lu Xin immediately flipped onto the wall scrambling rapidly away from the station.

The vast empty subway station was left with only pools of bloodstains and the trembling old security guard.

“Rumble…”

The subway train suddenly pulled into the station shaking dust loose from the ceiling.

At the same instant a white shadow flashed through the station. A girl resembling a doll appeared.

She held an umbrella and was actually floating in mid-air.

Following closely behind her the roar of a motorcycle echoed as the short-haired woman rode directly into the station.

They glanced around. There was no sign of the mental monster not even any residual mental energy. They also couldn’t find the subject they had been observing. All that remained in the station were fragmented corpses pools of blood and the pinned remains of the coffee shop clerk reduced to a pile of residue.

Surprise and a touch of disbelief crept onto the short-haired woman’s face.

“How did he manage it?”

She murmured in astonishment.

A Spider-type mental deviant with no standard-issue weapons and no armed backup…

…how did he eliminate the contamination source’s main body?

Her mind filled with bewildered questions she slowly turned her head and saw the old security guard in his booth.

The old guard was frozen stiff scared witless the terror practically spilling from his eyes. In his trembling hands he clutched an old-fashioned digital camera from a bygone era.