PNB Chapter 411 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (22)
Chapter 411 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (22)
Lu Liruan could vaguely see the movement of his wrist.
Something was pulled out stickily and dangling precariously as he moved.
It's an intestine.
In the dark, vision is limited, while hearing is amplified infinitely.
Lu Liruan thought she heard a "gurgling" sound of sliding and squeezing.
Shh—don't bite me.
When Lu Liruan heard Liao Tingyuan's clearly panting and trembling voice close to her earlobe, she realized that her trembling jaw had already closed, biting down on Liao Tingyuan's knuckles.
The force was so strong that Lu Liruan felt her teeth ache from the pressure.
Lu Liruan barely managed to control her facial muscles and free Liao Tingyuan's fingers.
As she closed her lips, Lu Liruan tasted a metallic, sweet flavor that spread through her mouth and slid into her body as she swallowed.
That was the smell of Liao Tingyuan's blood.
Does that mean I've eaten a part of him?
Lu Liruan herself didn't know why she suddenly had such thoughts. Perhaps her mind had really been stretched to its limit and was on the verge of going insane.
When Lu Liruan rolled the third flashlight along the ground, it was at a perfect angle, pointing directly at the two "people".
Influenced by the darkness, the light and shadow flickered, blending with the eerie and unsettling atmosphere of the space, illuminating everything as if it were a silent film unfolding before one's eyes.
The two "people" did not make a sound.
Lu Liruan couldn't look away, staring intently at the "person" whose abdomen had been ripped open, whose features were indistinct, and whose mouth was open.
It writhed and opened and closed, as if emitting a huge, painful, unbearable scream.
It opened wider and wider, its jawbone opening beyond its limit, as if creating a black hole. On the face that was otherwise indistinct, only that black hole was visible...
But Lu Liruan couldn't hear anything; his cries seemed to dissolve and be swallowed up in the thick darkness.
The "person" who was holding his intestines, not satisfied with the pain he was suffering, reached into his open abdominal cavity again.
In a fit of rage, he rummaged and plucked at his abdomen, as if trying to hollow it out completely.
The fresh, still-warm organ, heated to the same temperature as human flesh, wasn't so easily removed. A mass of flesh mixed with tendons and blood vessels prevented him from pulling his hand away.
Then the "person" raised the knife again and chopped down, again and again!
His attention was completely drawn to the bloody scene; just looking at his silhouette, Lu Liruan could feel the manic excitement.
He kept stabbing and hacking tirelessly.
a bit.
a bit.
a bit……
Even though those things had fallen to the ground, he didn't let them go. Lu Liruan watched as he squatted down, his upper body prostrate forward, and he piled up the fallen items.
He swung the knife, chopping away: "Thump—thump thump thump—"
"Thump thump thump thump thump thump thump"
It looked like they wanted to chop that pile of stuff up!
Lu Liruan felt that she knew why yesterday, that thing was so rotten that even just walking around would cause it to fall off along with rotting chunks of flesh.
Because he had already been chopped into pieces.
"Hmm—" Lu Liruan heard Liao Tingyuan let out a soft gasp behind her.
His hands were colder than usual, as cold as ice. Lu Liruan raised her arm, grasped his hand, and dug her fingertips between his knuckles.
It felt like his fingers were like a hibernating, cold snake, which, upon sensing warmth, coiled around her as if on the verge of death, gripping Lu Liruan's hand tightly!
Lu Liruan could feel his exhaustion. He leaned against the wall, his neck drooping, his forehead resting against the back of Lu Liruan's head, his disordered breathing falling on Lu Liruan's ear.
Within the confined space, the chaotic and malevolent aura seemed to be driving everyone insane. Lu Liruan wondered if Liao Tingyuan had also been severely affected.
Will the injury make the impact on him more severe?
How is he now?
Lu Liruan felt as if her throat was choked, unable to make a sound. She could only try to stand up straighter, hoping to make him lean on her more securely.
The "person's" actions were not yet finished. He staggered to his feet and pushed the "person" who was still screaming silently down to his knees, as if in repentance or in the posture of being executed, with his head bowed facing his own bloody, pieced-together internal organs.
Lu Liruan didn't know if that "person" was still conscious? Was he still... "alive"?
Can he see the fragments of his own body?
He is now at least motionless, only experiencing instinctive muscle twitches caused by the electric shock to his nerves.
"Don't look...don't look."
Lu Liruan heard Liao Tingyuan suddenly speak, as if he had used up all his strength, his voice barely a whisper.
But Lu Liruan couldn't control herself; Liao Tingyuan's words came too late.
Lu Liruan's slow-witted brain finally grasped his meaning, and by the time she tried to transmit it to her peripheral nerves through secretion, it was too late.
The "person" standing there raised a knife.
wave.
wave.
wave.
The blade became suddenly clear under the flashlight beam.
The blade is curled at the edge.
Because the human neck bone is too strong.
The blade curled up.
Lu Liruan felt something splash onto her face.
She raised the hand that Liao Tingyuan was holding and touched it.
It was a drop of cold sweat.
Transparent.
When the head fell off, the rest of the body, as if rigor mortis had eased, fell forward and collapsed.
Lu Liruan heard Liao Tingyuan softly read out a time.
But she had no idea what time she was hearing.
has it ended?
It should be over by now.
Is it over...?
Lu Liruan's body stiffened, and the "person" stopped moving, standing there like a withered tree, motionless, exuding an aura of "death".
He wouldn't... be heading this way again, would he?
Lu Liruan had no idea where the large ladle had fallen.
She and Liao Tingyuan are now completely powerless to fight back.
Liao Tingyuan was extremely exhausted. Lu Liruan could feel the weight of him pressing against her gradually increasing. His panting, mixed with the faint gasps of breath from not being able to take in enough oxygen, continued intermittently in Lu Liruan's ears...
The aura of "death" was so strong that Lu Liruan was already imagining what it would feel like to have that blunt, rolled-edge knife fall on her.
Will I die here with Liao Tingyuan?
Lu Liruan retreated, but had nowhere left to retreat to.
The "person" turned around, as if he was thinking about something, but Lu Liruan didn't know if he still had any thoughts.
He was shrouded in a chaotic sense of evil. He killed a "person," but he didn't act as if he had killed someone. He felt neither fear nor joy.
Lu Liruan felt... he was in great pain and very anxious. Lu Liruan couldn't tell whether the pain emanated from this "person" or from the space itself.
But that feeling was something that Lu Liruan could sense.
why?
Lu Liruan watched as he slowly raised his hand, silently twisting and roaring, the thick darkness around him seemingly twisting along with him.
It didn't even feel like she was in the same space as Lu Liruan and the others anymore.
What is he going to do?
Lu Liruan wanted to call Liao Tingyuan to suggest that they go inside and hide for a while. Although the door couldn't be closed, it would at least allow them to maneuver a little.
But she couldn't make a sound.
The light from the third flashlight dimmed again.
The "person" raised the knife.
He raised the knife above his head, as if preparing to strike, but somehow he simply lowered it gently.
He stepped into the pile of flesh and stayed with the headless body.
Then he raised the knife again.
The blade tip changed direction.
Lu Liruan twitched her eyelids.
The "person" will dull the blade, its edge curled, and aim it at the center of their forehead.
It slid down!
The sound of flesh tearing open was bloody.
The knife tip grazed his forehead, nose, chin, neck, and chest...
It was as if he wanted to split himself in two.
He twisted and screamed silently, like a malevolent shadow from the abyss, struggling at an unbelievable angle, far beyond what a "human" could achieve.
Perhaps due to the interplay of light and shadow, Lu Liruan could no longer make out the difference.
"What...what's going on?" Lu Liruan stammered as she heard herself ask. She no longer knew if her voice was loud or soft, or if that "person" would hear her.
"He's dead too."
Liao Tingyuan's voice was light and airy, as if stating a fact.
"Those who appeared in this space-time... are all dead."
Lu Liruan heard her own voice trembling: "Did he kill himself?"
"Maybe. We are the only ones who exist alive in this space and time, so everything is aimed at us and is meant for us to see."
He seemed to have regained some strength; although his speech was intermittent, he no longer felt completely exhausted.
Lu Liruan felt him support her back and straighten up a bit.
The "person" in front of me split me in two.
Lu Liruan had a vague feeling that the next second, he might really be split in two and separate into two sides.
But clearly, that "person" didn't have that much strength.
"Clang-"
The knife fell to the ground.
"Bala——"
"Bala——"
Lu Liruan didn't know why she knew, but she just knew that it was the sound of flesh being torn apart.
It wasn't the sound of slicing, but rather a tearing sound—an irregular, slow tearing sound, almost discernible as the skin separated from the fascia and muscle…
The "person" cut him in two, and reached into the wound in the middle.
They started peeling off their own skin.
It was torn off.
The excruciating pain seemed to travel through the sticky air, making it palpable.
Lu Liruan clutched her chest, panting heavily.
"Are you... are you alright?" Lu Liruan felt that Liao Tingyuan's condition was probably worse than hers, and she tried her best to squeeze out the words.
However, no reply was received from Liao Tingyuan.
Something was thrown at his feet.
When Lu Liruan moved, she stepped on a piece of skin that was still elastic.
Lu Liruan felt fortunate that the third flashlight beam was so dim that she couldn't see the color of the skin or how much skin was left on the "person".
He was in endless agony, yet he kept peeling away, as if trying to tear all his skin off...
Lu Liruan felt that she was in a daze. It was as if her mind had reached a peak and she would become numb if she stayed at that level for a long time.
Now even fear is no longer clearly felt; instead, my mind has become more active.
Lu Liruan wondered when today would end. Compared to everything else, she felt that Liao Tingyuan's condition was really not good right now...
More than anything else, her clearest thought right now is about Liao Tingyuan.
When will this end?
tonight.
Will it ever end?
It really feels like an endless nightmare.
The struggle stopped at some point, and everything fell silent instantly. The "person" finally collapsed, leaving only intermittent twitches.
Lu Liruan didn't know how long the stalemate lasted, but finally, the suffocating feeling in the space dissipated.
Lu Liruan suddenly fell backward. Liao Tingyuan tried to catch her, but he was too weak to do so. The two of them fell to the ground together. Lu Liruan felt as if Liao Tingyuan had cushioned her fall, and she had ended up sitting on his lap.
Lu Liruan really couldn't get up, so she tried to crawl to the side using both her hands and feet.
But she felt a hand on her shoulder, keeping her in place.
"Don't move, just stay here for a while... You're going to kill me."
When Lu Liruan heard Liao Tingyuan's weak voice, she realized that she had added additional damage to Liao Tingyuan by using both her hands and feet.
"Behave yourself and let me rest for a bit." Liao Tingyuan's hand slid down Lu Liruan's back and clasped her waist, as if to prevent her from unexpectedly hitting him again.
Lu Liruan stood there blankly, leaning against him, completely unaware that she was now sitting in Liao Tingyuan's lap, like a little girl sitting on her parent's lap.
Liao Tingyuan leaned his head against her back, using it to support himself.
He was so dizzy from blood loss that his vision blurred.
Then suddenly, she heard Lu Liruan whisper to herself, "Touch your fur, it won't scare you..." and then she touched her head.
Liao Tingyuan wanted to laugh, but he only had enough strength to twitch the corners of his mouth slightly.
Judging from Lu Liruan's own experience, no one would be terrified by this scene, right? Anyone who is breathing would be quite frightened.
"Mmm." Liao Tingyuan listened to her murmur and repeat, feeling that she was actually comforting herself, and responded softly.
The two remained in this mutually supportive posture for an unknown amount of time until Lu Liruan noticed that the flashlight beam had become slightly brighter.
"I'll go take a look." Liao Tingyuan moved slightly.
"I'll go!"
With the help of the dim light, Lu Liruan could finally see that Liao Tingyuan's body was covered in large patches of blood.
On his ungloved hand, there was a horizontal cut on his wrist, near the vein. Fortunately, it wasn't deep enough to reach the underlying artery or vein.
Otherwise, the bleeding would have been fatal long ago.