Xu Youyou glanced at his best friend, watching as Zuo Lin'an reached out, grabbed a prisoner, and dragged him inside the door.
It looked like he was planning to take these people to the rooms downstairs.
Guided by the faint moonlight, Zuo Lin'an spotted the staircase inside. It was covered in dust and trash. As he walked, a thin layer of dust kicked up into the air.
Dragging the man behind him, he headed downstairs, planning to find any random room to put these people in.
Seeing this, Xu Youyou grabbed a prisoner in each hand and followed him down.
Working together, they quickly dumped all the prisoners into a room on the top floor near the staircase.
During the process, they also took a moment to observe their surroundings in this abandoned residential area.
Although it was abandoned, the basic structure of the building was still in decent shape. The doors and windows could still be used, though they were heavily decayed and couldn't withstand much force.
Standing at the doorway, Zuo Lin'an looked at the people they had thrown inside. There were thirteen in total. The only woman, who had been spared a beating, was huddled in a corner, behaving herself.
Only then did he pull out his mini electronic clock to check the time.
It was 8:46 PM.
There were only fourteen minutes left until the hour.
He needed to prepare in advance and select a target who had no ability to fight back.
Xu Youyou leaned in cautiously to take a look, then pulled out the map he had hidden on his person earlier.
He had a rough idea of where this abandoned residential area was located.
Just as the staff member had said, there were several black dots marked nearby.
Those were the locations where food and water were stored.
After studying the map, Xu Youyou mumbled a few words to Zuo Lin'an.
“Once it's past nine, I'm going out to find some food.”
Zuo Lin'an understood his meaning.
Xu Youyou planned to guard this place while Zuo Lin'an committed the murder, and only head out once it was done.
Furthermore, Xu Youyou hadn't spoken a single word to any of the prisoners, which made his intentions clear: he was leaving all of them for Zuo Lin'an.
At least, until they found other criminals.
As expected of his best friend.
When it came to serious matters, he was always incredibly reliable.
Of course, Zuo Lin'an wouldn't be stingy either.
Once he was in a stable position, he would definitely return the favor and help Xu Youyou.
The two of them picked a random spot to sit down and rest. Zuo Lin'an casually grabbed one of the backpacks distributed to them earlier.
Upon opening it, he found nothing but a few changes of clothes.
There was absolutely nothing else.
No food, no water, and no other tools or supplies.
It made sense.
Sin Hunter City existed solely because they needed to cultivate dungeon bosses of the Human-Specter Symbiont variety. Thus, the death row inmates were brought here to serve as prey.
They weren't here to enjoy themselves.
Cutting off water and electricity was just the baseline. Beyond that, no manufactured industrial goods of any kind were allowed to exist here.
Over ninety-nine percent of the criminals in this city lived like primitive humans.
It was a form of punishment for them.
Zuo Lin'an checked his electronic clock from time to time. Time flew by, and soon it was 8:55 PM.
“It's about time...”
He stood up, walked into the room, and let his gaze fall on the person closest to him.
The man lay motionless on the floor, likely still unconscious. Zuo Lin'an bent down, grabbed him by the arm, and dragged him out.
Instead of choosing another room on the same floor, Zuo Lin'an dragged him down the stairs.
Since he still had time, he went down two floors, picked a room in the furthest corner, and threw the man inside.
He did this to prevent any loud noises from causing panic among the death row inmates upstairs. It would be troublesome if they realized that he and Xu Youyou were capable of killing them.
Zuo Lin'an casually shut the door, blocking out the cold moonlight behind the dilapidated, rotting wood.
Only then did a subtle, cruel smile play on his lips.
“Time to begin.”
Reaching into the inner lining of his clothes, he pulled out the boning knife he had hidden earlier and slowly walked toward the unconscious man.
Perhaps because the commotion of being dragged downstairs had been too loud, the man was already showing signs of waking up.
Zuo Lin'an noticed, but he didn't care.
Right now, his eyes were glued to his electronic clock.
The execution had to be timed precisely on the hour.
And now...
【20:59:36】
There were less than thirty seconds left.
“Mmph...”
The man slowly opened his eyes. Zuo Lin'an merely spared him a casual glance.
The man's cheeks and mouth were swollen, and blood was constantly oozing from his lips. He mumbled incoherently, his words completely unintelligible.
Perhaps he could no longer speak?
“Urgh!”
As soon as he regained consciousness, he couldn't help but gag.
Had Xu Youyou's slap given him a concussion?
Still, this was a good thing. It meant he wouldn't make too much noise when the time came.
Zuo Lin'an watched for a moment, then walked over and gave the man a casual kick, flipping him onto his stomach.
He stood beside him, looking down with a cold, indifferent gaze.
The cool moonlight filtered through the dust-covered glass, casting a glow over his face. However, his bangs shadowed his eyes, hiding his expression.
Exactly 9:00 PM!
The moment the clock ticked over to exactly 9:00 PM, the tip of Zuo Lin'an's knife descended precisely onto the back of the man's head.
The cold blade sliced through in a flash of silver.
Concussed and still groggy from just waking up, coupled with Zuo Lin'an's sheer speed, the man didn't even react initially.
He might have sensed something amiss behind him, but his sluggish consciousness couldn't keep pace.
It was only when Zuo Lin'an was about to complete the first step of the execution that the man finally reacted.
“Mmph...”
“No... Who are...”
Zuo Lin'an's movements were swift and fluid.
After all, he had undergone extensive training back at the base.
The entire process took less than five minutes.
Having finished without making a single mistake, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Right at that moment, Zuo Lin'an suddenly felt a strange sensation.
It felt as if... a mysterious wisp of aura had emerged from his own body.
It felt bizarre, but more than anything, it was a novel sensation.
Could this be the specter aura that Instructor An had mentioned—the one born from the deepest depths of one's heart?
He could sense this wisp of aura floating right behind him. Yet when he turned around, there was nothing to see, even though the bone-chilling cold was undeniably real.
Far from being afraid, he felt an innate sense of familiarity—so intimate that he wanted to absorb this aura into his body immediately.
He knew that for a Human-Specter Symbiont, the living body and the specter body naturally attracted each other.
Both sides desired to fuse as quickly as possible.
This was why once a specter body fully materialized, it would immediately attack the living body, pushing it to the brink of death to facilitate a better fusion.
But whether the living body could successfully complete the fusion before actually dying depended entirely on their own obsession and luck.
Rate on N.U.
