Monster - Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Reckless Abandon

Once again scattering the monsters trying to rush the second floor, Lou tossed aside the empty HK416 and didn't bother picking up any other firearms, carrying only a handgun as she ran towards the end of the corridor.

It was naturally more convenient to be lightly equipped when escaping. Having navigated various Tower Worlds, Lou understood how to make advantageous trade-offs. While the HK416 wasn't excessively heavy, it still weighed several kilograms, making it a burden to carry.

Under Miu the crow's guidance, she ran into a bedroom in the southwest corner of the second floor. It was near the main gate, but since Lou had just wiped out a wave of monsters that had entered, the area was now clear.

Jumping down from the bedroom window, Lou prepared to make a clean getaway. The night was thick. Just as she landed, Lou didn't see a dead branch as thick as a wrist on the ground and accidentally twisted her ankle. A bullet, fired from her front-left, grazed the outside of her thigh. A piece of fabric was torn from her long maid's dress, and something fell to the ground.

Lou immediately ducked and lunged towards a nearby tree, dodging the sniper's next shot. Without needing Miu's warning, she had already spotted a woman in a qipao standing by the villa's main gate. She was holding a handgun, its muzzle aimed right at her.

"Impossible! She's inside the 'Island,' but I can't sense her presence!"

Lou paid no heed to Miu's cry of alarm. She glanced at the rabbit ornament on the ground that had taken the bullet for her. Half of the rabbit ornament's body had been shattered, and it lay forlornly on the ground.

Veins bulged on her forehead as she gritted her teeth. A murderous glint in her eyes, Lou raised her gun and fired back. In that moment, it was as if her original soul had been snatched away. She strode towards the woman who had ambushed her, continuously pulling the trigger. Lacking all reason, she acted purely on instinct, giving her the appearance of someone with a death wish.

Faced with Lou's irrational attack, the other woman, clearly valuing her life, sought cover. She hid behind a large vase by the villa's entrance, avoiding the brunt of Lou's assault. The plaster vase was blasted apart, sending soil flying. Lights in the surrounding villas began to switch on one by one.

Upon realizing Lou's gun was out of bullets, the woman in the qipao who had ambushed her raised her gun and darted out, preparing to subdue Lou in one move.

But the latter had already reached her, driven by sheer ferocity. Just as the qipao-clad woman raised her weapon, Lou's hands shot out like claws and grabbed the gun. In less than a second, she had stripped the slide. The middle of a handgun's frame usually has a disassembly latch. This required exquisite strength and courage to accomplish. With the right maneuver, one could separate the slide from the frame, rendering the gun useless.

The moment the qipao-clad woman pulled the empty trigger, she immediately let go, allowing the handgun to fall to the ground. She ducked and delivered a heavy punch to Lou's abdomen, just above the navel. This was where the solar plexus was located, a network of nerves radiating from the navel. Stimulating the celiac plexus could trigger a powerful nerve reflex, causing abdominal pain so intense it made it impossible to breathe or stand. In severe cases, it could even cause fainting or unconsciousness.

The blow made Lou break out in a cold sweat, but she didn't stop her movements. She clenched her left fist and swung it hard at the qipao-clad woman's face, sending her staggering back with blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Giving her opponent no chance to react and ignoring the intense pain in her abdomen, she kicked the staggering woman hard as she stumbled. This sent the qipao-clad woman sprawling to the ground, but Lou didn't let up. She grabbed the large, pockmarked vase nearby and brought it crashing down on the woman.

At the last second, the woman rolled away, dodging the vase, then twisted her body and kicked out at Lou's shin. The qipao-clad woman, perhaps having just come from some banquet, was still wearing high heels. The kick was steady and swift, nearly fracturing Lou's tibia. The latter gasped in pain and staggered back two steps, finally regaining a sliver of reason. But this didn't slow her attack; instead, she launched even more vicious moves at the woman.

And so, on this late spring night, two women, both strikingly beautiful and dressed in unusually peculiar attire, fought ferociously. They were like two savage beasts locked in combat. Even when injured, the ferocity in them didn't diminish in the slightest.

However, this irrational brawl didn't last long. Less than ten minutes after Lou called the police, various police cars had surrounded the villa, warning those present to drop their weapons. Xing Meilu, who had also rushed to the scene, directly handcuffed Lou, who hadn't had time to escape, and shoved her into a police car.

She had too many questions to ask her.

It seemed someone had come for the qipao-clad woman as well. It was a man in a sharp suit. As soon as he reached her side, he immediately handed her a handkerchief. Sitting in the police car, Lou scanned their information.

Name: Zhang Jun
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Current Identity: President of the Rose Society in Disorder Land.
Resume: Ruler φ, Upper House candidate

Name: Kang Youyou
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Current Identity: Vice President of the Rose Society in Disorder Land.
Resume: None

"Stupid straight girl! You just wait!" Lou rolled down the car window and shouted at the qipao-clad woman with extreme arrogance.

Kang Yi, who was wiping blood from her face while talking to Zhang Jun, turned her gaze over. Her almond-shaped eyes held a hint of a smile. She smiled, waved at Lou, and replied in a syrupy voice, "You just wait, too~ Fucking dyke."

Zhang Jun, standing beside Kang Yi, also looked at Lou and nodded with a smile. However, unlike Kang Yi's simple retort, his expression held an indescribable, sinister air.

"Little Crow, that guy Zhang Jun seems to be Yan Ting's husband." Lou stroked her chin, resuming her conversation with Miu and recalling her previous encounter with Zhang Jun.

"…"

"Little Crow?" Seeing that the usually noisy Miu didn't reply, Lou called out again, puzzled.

"If you want to apply to dissolve our partnership now, I will cooperate to the fullest extent," Miu said dejectedly.

Before partnering with Lou, it thought it would be a good Guide. It had even fantasized about achieving what other Guides couldn't: making Lou rely on it. But after today's events, it realized it had overlooked far too many things. This had not only endangered itself but had also put Lou in an extremely perilous situation. Although Lou acted as if it were no big deal, Miu knew that in those brief ten minutes, the slightest mistake from Lou would have left them both dead on the spot.

What Miu blamed itself for most was not considering that the NPCs of this world already knew about Sentinels and Guides. And since it and Lou had learned about the existence of special items in this world, it meant there was a high probability that some of these items could interfere with the "Island." It hadn't even considered this, hadn't thought to use its physical sight to confirm the surroundings. It was a bird, after all; that wouldn't have been difficult.

It had almost gotten Lou shot by that woman in the qipao.

If the woman's goal hadn't been to capture Lou alive by shooting her in the thigh, but to kill her, Lou might really be dead now.

The thought that it had nearly caused the death of a Main God's Inheritor made Miu's entire heart tremble.

"I thought you were going to say it was all because I was too reckless." Lou pinched the crow brooch on her collar, smiled, and flicked the crow with her index finger.

"You are indeed reckless, but I approved of your actions. Shirking responsibility isn't my style…"

"It doesn't matter, Little Crow. Tonight was pretty interesting, anyway." Lou interrupted Miu's self-recrimination and pinned the brooch back on her collar. She did this because she saw Xing Meilu, having finished handling some matters, walking back.

Opening the car door, Xing Meilu took a long look at Lou, who was sitting in the back seat. That face, identical to Lin Sandie's, was now black and blue, with blood trickling from the corner of her mouth and her chin. Yet her expression was full of life—a wild version of Lin Sandie.

Sitting down next to Lou in the back, Xing Meilu tapped the front seat, signaling for Shen Fan to drive.

"Trespassing and killing so many people… you can wait to rot in Disorder Land until the end of the world." Xing Meilu stared coldly at Lou's face. Seeing Lin Sandie's face like this left her somewhat speechless.

Her hands cuffed, Lou cupped them together under her chin like a small child. She scrutinized the officer before her.

Xing Meilu's brow furrowed under her gaze, and she was about to snap.

"Little Police Flower, were you in a hurry to get out? Your button is undone." Lou pointed her index finger at Xing Meilu's neck. "And your hair isn't combed properly. There's a strand sticking out by your ear."

A vein throbbed on Xing Meilu's temple. She wanted to yell, Weren't you the one who told me to come quickly? But she felt that saying so would be falling into the other's trap. So she could only glare fiercely at Lou. "Don't make me add another mark to that face of yours!"

"Really? This face of mine is identical to Lin Sandie's, you know."

"Get lost."

The driver in the front, hearing his boss get angry enough to curse, pursed his lips and prepared to accelerate to get back to the Inspectorate quickly. Unexpectedly, two black sedans suddenly pulled out in front of them, blocking their car.

"What's going on?" The emergency brake sent both Lou and Xing Meilu lurching forward uncontrollably in the back seat. Xing Meilu frowned, looking ahead.

Shen Fan shook his head, silently unfastened his shoulder holster, and carefully opened the car door. He saw a young man in a black suit get out of one of the sedans first. After exiting, he respectfully opened the rear door of the same car.

A middle-aged woman emerged from the black sedan. She was dressed in casual clothes, with short, slightly curled black hair and an unremarkable face, looking like the most ordinary middle-aged woman.

"Ms. Sui?" Recognizing the woman, Xing Meilu quickly got out of the car. The middle-aged woman before her was a senior councilor of the Lower House and a leader respected by all citizens of Leviathan. She had worked hard to promote many bills beneficial to the public.

"She kept her promise, more or less. Too bad about my Little Rabbit." Lou watched Sui Xi, who had come to her rescue, and gave a bored yawn.

Previously, when scanning Lin Sandie's glasses, Lou and Miu had discovered that the glasses' ability to shield the true appearance of monsters was due to the lenses being secondarily infected by a special item called the "Star Eye." Like "Xu Yao's Notebook," "Sui Xing" also sounded like a person's name. It didn't take Miu much effort to look up this senior councilor of the Lower House named Sui Xi and learn that she had a daughter named Sui Xing who had committed suicide three years ago due to a mental breakdown.

Lin Sandie's glasses came from the illegal organization "Glory Road," which meant there was a high probability that Sui Xi was the one backing it. She also knew that many people in Leviathan were turning into monsters, and she was also investigating the truth.

Confirming that Sui Xi could help them complete their mission, Lou went directly to Sui Xi's home and made a deal with her. Lou would obtain information on the monsters, and in return, Sui Xi would help her out of trouble and analyze the cause of human monsterization. Driven by Lou's "sincere" request and her own goals, the senior councilor of the Lower House agreed to Lou's proposal.

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