The Creatures that We Are

Secret room in the underground sewage, Li City, the next evening.

Gregor, dressed in a yellowed white wifebeater and loose gray shorts, slumped on the sofa with the ceiling light shining on his face, highlighting his oily skin and acne scars.

He was in a complicated mood.

Sitting across from him were four people. Gao Yang was the only one he recognized. With him was an intimidating-looking high school girl, a brooding little girl, and a beautiful lady with a numb look in a wheelchair.

Gregor knew that they were all members of the Nine Scions.

“Gao Yang, oh, Gao Yang, I never expected this from you.” Gregor looked at the little girl sitting on the sofa with pity. It was Wang Weiyan. “She’s just a kid. How can you exploit a child as labor?!”

“Seeing isn’t believing.” Gao Yang was unfazed. “Her father passed away last spring. Then a few days back, on the night of New Year, her mother passed away, too.”

Gregor choked. He did have a conscience as a human, and looking at the orphaned girl, he didn’t know what to say, but he felt sympathy for her.

He scratched his face awkwardly and changed the subject. “What about the wheelchaired woman?”

“Her brain was formatted by Qilin. Or it could be something else. You may consider her in a vegetative state. There’s no way to cure her at the moment.”

“Bastard!” Gregor slapped his thigh. His stance toward the Qilin Guild immediately shifted from neutral to abhorrence. “The girl’s beautiful like a flower. How could he do that to her?”

Gregor sighed and turned to Gao Xinxin. “This girl can’t also be…”

“I’m fine.” Gao Xinxin pursed her lips. “Just lost my grandmother, father, and mother in the last six months.”

Gregor was speechless. He was better off not talking.

“Ah.” Gao Yang’s expression was impassive as if what Gao Xinxin said had nothing to do with him. “Lithe Snake died. I’ll be taking over his job.”

“What?!” Gregor shot to his feet. “How, how did he die?”

“Simply put, he died from the Qilin Guild’s ambush,” Gao Yang said calmly.

“Fuck!”

Gregor cursed out loud, enraged. He paced around barefooted. “The Qilin Guild is a fucking den of bastards!”

He hadn’t been with the Nine Scions for long, and technically, he had had little interaction with Lithe Snake, but he had taken a surprising liking to the man.

Although Lithe Snake had a sharp tongue, he had an impressive attention to detail and knew Gregor well. Whatever Gregor needed, Lithe Snake could always get it for him and more.

Once, the wiring here shortcircuited, and Lithe Snake came to fix it for him. They had a chat then.

Lithe Snake brought up his experience as a mercenary. It was then he learned a little about everything for survival. Gregor had found the man captivating then. He would make for a good character in a story.

“Would you channel your rage and join the Nine Scions in our future fights?” Gao Yang asked tentatively with a joke, a half smile tugging his lips.

Gregor paused and sat back down, quickly regaining composure. “I’ll pass.”

That didn’t surprise Gao Yang. He got back to the main topic. “The three of them will be living with you under the same roof for the foreseeable future, Mr. Gregor.”

Gregor had long guessed the purpose of this visit, but he still put on a look of reluctance. “You know I like being alone. Outside of the time I get enthralled by my carnal desires, that is.”

“I understand.” Gao Yang nodded. “But this is a time of war. If you reject us, they will have to stay by my side. They may become the next Lithe Snake one day. Do you really want that to happen?”

Gregor looked up at the three girls and thought back to their tragic stories. He immediately relented.

“Alright, alright. But they’re not stepping into my study room. I need complete silence when I write. If they bother me, I’ll be mad!”

“Thank you.” Gao Yang produced a Black Gold bracelet in his right hand. “Put this on and don’t take it off.”

“Why?” Gregor was confused.

Gao Yang said bluntly, “To restrict you and protect them.”

“What?” Gregor frowned.

Gao Yang went for “honesty” as a weapon. “Letting the three of them stay with…a regular man with desires like you worries me even though I’ve given Gao Xinxin a Black Gold handgun.”

“Really? You’re guarding against a moral man, too?” Gregor was exasperated. “I’m not a monster!”

“Consider it me seeing the worst in everyone,” Gao Yang said. “I’ve injected the bracelet with a curse. Please don’t take it off or use your Talent, or you’ll black out for days.”

Gao Yang lied. What he had injected the bracelet with was the energy of Absolute Defense. It would last forty-eight hours. If Gregor took off the bracelet or used his Talent, a small Absolute Barrier would be created to isolate Gregor from the outside world, and Gao Yang would immediately be notified.

He hadn’t told anyone about his acquisition of Absolute Defense. He wasn’t going to tell Gregor now.

He was betting that the man wouldn’t recklessly take off the bracelet.

“I’ll swing by every two days to bring you supplies and to reinforce the curse.”

“Ha, you’ve thought it all out.” Gregor was displeased, but putting himself in Gao Yang’s shoes, he would be worried about leaving his family with a male stranger, too.

He wouldn’t lose anything by putting on the bracelet anyway, so he did. “Happy?”

“Thank you.” Gao Yang nodded. “And outside of the study room, toilets, bathrooms, and bedrooms, I’ve installed surveillance cameras in every other place. If you do anything untoward, I can’t ensure the integrity of your manuscript on your computer.”

“You…” Gregor jumped to his feet. “You’ve gone too far! You may as well kill me! Now I think you’re as shameless as Qilin!”

“Yes, I’m shameless.” Gao Yang looked at him openly. “But I believe that none of the unpleasant things will happen given Mr. Gregor’s integrity.”

“Stop talking me up.” Gregor scowled.

“That’s not it.” Gao Yang smiled slightly. “I trust you enough to leave them with you not because of these safety measures, but because Lithe Snake told me you’re trustworthy.”

Gregor paused before breaking into a resigned smile. “Fine. Stop blabbering. Remember to install a ventilator in the study room the next time you visit. They won’t like the secondhand smoke.”

Gao Yang’s heart stuttered. DearLithe Snake, you sure are a good judge of character. I’m probably your only mistake.

…

Room 509, third boys’ dorm, Li City University. Two o’clock in the morning.

The dorm room’s light was off. The only light source was the computer screen, which illuminated Lin Dajian’s oily face.

He was paying full attention to the newly released horror game, Evil Resident 4 Remastered[1]. He had used a mod on the protagonist to replace him with the lead of Devil Cry[2]. And with his skillful control, he turned the horror game into a crowd brawler.

After slaughtering all the zombies in a village, he encountered a small boss, and he got killed in a moment of distraction.

Before, he would’ve made a sarcastic exclamation and kept challenging the boss until he figured out the pattern and killed it. Tonight, though, he deflated and suddenly found the endeavor meaningless. He quit the game and picked up the pack of cigarettes on the table, taking one cigarette to light it.

He had gotten into smoking recently.

1. A reference to Resident Evil. ☜

2. A reference to Devil May Cry. ☜

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