Chapter 122: Aberrant 12

Chen Cailing quickly realized that the things emerging from the ground, while ugly and numerous, weren’t actually capable of harming them.

At first, she trembled as she used a brick to smash them, but eventually, she became quite skilled at wielding the brick—and even found it rather useful.

During this seemingly endless night, aside from that first wave of strange creatures crawling up from the ground, they didn’t encounter any other danger.

Chen Cailing clutched her brick for a long time, but eventually, exhaustion overcame her and she fell asleep without even realizing it. After all, she was only twelve. After being tense for so long, she simply couldn’t resist the pull of sleep.

The sound of rustling near her ear—like a little mouse nibbling on a biscuit—startled Chen Cailing awake. She sat up straight from where she’d been leaning against the door.

Wiping her cheek, she saw Qian sitting on her lap, her mouth puffed out.

Chen Cailing instinctively smiled, a tiny dimple appearing on her cheek.

Then she remembered where they were. Her expression grew wary as she turned to look outside. Lifting the curtain on the glass door, she peeked out.

The night had just passed. A sliver of dawn light fell on the corner of a distant building.

“How long did I sleep? It’s just now getting light?” Chen Cailing muttered. She quietly pushed the door open and peeked outside. It was very quiet.

The sun had risen a bit, but its brilliant rays brought no warmth.

Standing in front of a faucet on the street corner, Chen Cailing wet a small towel she’d found and wiped the dirt from Qian’s face.

“I can wash my own face,” Qian said.

“So good!” Chen Cailing said, just like she would coax the younger girls in the orphanage, handing the damp towel to Qian and watching her wipe her face. Then she scooped up a handful of cold water and splashed it onto her own.

“Here, drink a little—but don’t swallow it. Just rinse your mouth and spit it out.”

Carefully guiding Qian through everything, the two of them crouched there, rinsing their mouths and washing their faces. Chen Cailing even took the time to redo Qian’s slightly crooked ponytail.

They sat on the steps eating, and as Chen Cailing rummaged through the plastic bag, she realized Qian had eaten quite a lot.

“Qian, you’ve eaten so much. Doesn’t your stomach feel full?” Chen Cailing asked, a little worried, reaching out to touch Qian’s belly. But it was the same as it had always been—round and plump, with no real change.

“Not full!” Qian said, sucking in her little tummy.

No matter how much she ate, she never felt full. She could still eat a lot more.

But Chen Cailing was worried that she’d eat too much and get a stomachache. So she made a deal with her: no more eating until noon.

But they hadn’t gone far before Qian tugged on her hand and said, “It’s noon. We can eat now.”

Chen Cailing looked up at the sky. The sun really was overhead—it did look like noon. But that was way too fast.

Not long after eating, the sky gradually darkened again. Qian tugged on her hand once more and said, “It’s nighttime. Time to eat again.”

Chen Cailing had her suspicions yesterday. Now she was sure: here, day and night didn’t follow the same rhythm as the outside world.

That night, she found a new place to hide. She wanted to find a spot with a bed, where Qian could lie down and sleep at night.

Not far from the street they’d hidden on the night before was another street. The buildings there didn’t look as rundown. Shops lined both sides of the road, all about the same size. There were many signs above the doorways—if the lights had been on, the place would’ve looked colorful at night.

Chen Cailing looked up and saw that many of the signs said “KTV”—she knew that was a place for singing. There were also some doors without signs, leading upstairs.

There were other signs she didn’t understand, with names like “Waters of the Clouds” and “Azure Sky.” Beneath those signs, the glass doors had red words pasted on them: “Massage” and “Foot Spa.”

Chen Cailing took Qian into one of these “massage” shops to take a look.

The front was a small reception area with sofas and stools. In the back, there were tiny rooms partitioned by wooden boards, each with a bed inside.

She decided to hide here with Qian for the night.

When night fell, she and Qian sat on one of the cleaner-looking beds. Qian sat in front of her, sipping yogurt. As long as she had something to eat, she was well-behaved. When Chen Cailing told her not to make noise, she stopped crinkling the snack bag.

Chen Cailing had no idea that this street was, aside from the Tianzi Building itself, the most dangerous place in the entire domain.

Every time the domain activated and new players entered, nearly a third of them died right here.

Most ordinary players, unaware of the situation, would only wander near their random entry point for the first few days. As night fell, the closer they were to the Tianzi Building, the more dangerous it became, so the players would gradually cluster at the outer edges.

This was the second night, and many players nearby were still hiding.

After dark, while Chen Cailing sat with Qian playing a game where they groped in the dark to grab candy, she suddenly sensed a commotion around them.

At first it was faint and distant, but gradually grew louder.

There were voices of women chatting and laughing next door, and shouting overhead—Chen Cailing listened for a moment and realized it sounded like gambling. There had been a mahjong parlor near the orphanage that made noises just like this.

She even smelled a foul smoke.

Unbeknownst to her, the many signs on this street had begun to glow faint red—a deep, murky red that wasn’t obvious in the dark. But nearly every sign was lit. The curtains behind the glass doors of the foot spa shops had also been drawn back.

Only the storefront where Chen Cailing and Qian were hiding—its sign flickered twice and failed to light.

Chen Cailing held Qian tightly, ears alert and tense.

Then she heard a man scream out in the street outside. It was a scream of agony, filled with terror—and then, abruptly, it stopped.

Clamping her hands tightly over Qian’s ears, Chen Cailing didn’t let go until the screams had been gone for a long while. But it wasn’t long before someone else started screaming, and she had to cover Qian’s ears again.

She was terribly worried that some terrifying monster would burst into the small room and devour them, but aside from the occasional terrifying screams from outside, nothing appeared. In fact, it was even quieter than the night before—not even a single monster showed up for her to fight.

Compared to Chen Cailing, Qian was much calmer. She was used to hearing all sorts of screams inside the Tianzi Building.

So while Chen Cailing was still nervously on edge, Qian had already fallen asleep in her arms. Once the noise outside gradually faded, Chen Cailing couldn’t resist sleep any longer and dozed off too—just as Qian, now fully recharged, opened her eyes.

As soon as she woke up, she eagerly rummaged through the plastic bag that held the snacks.

But nearly all of her favorite snacks were already gone, and now that she’d satisfied her cravings, she didn’t really feel like eating.

After hesitating for a moment and glancing at the sleeping Chen Cailing, Qian jumped off the bed, opened the door, and stepped outside.

Sneaking out to play while the grown-ups slept was a long-standing habit of the little tyrant from the Tianzi Building. After all, it only takes three days to form a bad habit.

Qian ran to the entrance, pulled open the glass door of the storefront, and peeked out. The hand she used to hold the Aberrant-tied ponytail pressed against the glass. In that instant, the dim red glow from the signs outside suddenly went out, and several half-open doors slammed shut with a bang.

With the storefronts below closed up, the sounds from the floors above became even more obvious.

It seemed like there were a lot of people on the second floor. Qian stood at the entrance, lifted her foot, and was about to step outside when she was scooped up from behind.

Chen Cailing hugged her tightly, her heart pounding so hard it nearly leapt out of her chest.

She had been lying groggily on the bed when she suddenly felt a chill. Opening her eyes, she saw that the walls of the room were bulging out in the shape of a human figure. Even the ceiling bore the clear contours of a face.

What frightened her most was realizing Qian was no longer in her arms. For a moment, she thought something had taken her—dragged her off or eaten her. Her whole body turned cold with terror, blaming herself for ever falling asleep.

She had rushed out in a panic and was overwhelmed with relief to see Qian standing at the door.

There were monsters in the room, so of course Chen Cailing wasn’t going back. She grabbed Qian and ran into the dark streets, as far from that place as possible.

Panting, she said, “You scared me to death. You can’t run off alone—it’s dangerous out here!”

But after running for a short while, Chen Cailing was too exhausted to keep going. Qian was too heavy, so she had to put her down and walk holding her hand instead.

Qian pointed to the second floor of the storefront and said, “There’s a lot of people up there.”

Chen Cailing whispered nervously, “Shh, those aren’t people up there!”

She found another place for them to hide. Because of the way the walls had bulged with human-like forms and faces, she didn’t dare sleep again and barely managed to hold out until dawn.

They had left in such a rush that she had forgotten the half-bag of food in that room. But looking at the ever-hungry Qian, Chen Cailing decided to take her back to the supermarket they’d visited earlier to get more food.

Qian was quite happy when she heard this. She skipped and bounced as they walked and said to her, “Make sure to get lots of yogurt!”

The first time, Chen Cailing had been too afraid to take much. This time, she was much bolder. Not only did she grab more food, but she also took some useful items. And of course, as Qian had asked, she packed plenty of yogurt.

But just as they left the supermarket with their arms full and turned the corner of the street, they ran into five people head-on.

Four men and one woman, chatting in low voices. When they saw the two girls—one big, one small—they all looked surprised.

Chen Cailing’s first instinct was to run with Qian. She had just turned around when a hand clamped down on her neck.

A bald man grabbed her by the throat with one hand and lifted Qian with the other.

Chen Cailing felt herself choking, dropped everything she was holding, and struggled to snatch Qian back into her arms.

“Take… take it all!” she managed to gasp out.

The bald man laughed, and the other four also smiled, as if they found her words amusing.

“That little bit of stuff? We’re not that desperate. Do you think we’re robbers or something, little girl?” the only woman said.

She looked to be in her thirties or forties, the corners of her eyes crinkling slightly when she smiled, but she had an air of elegance.

Among the four men: the bald one still clutching her, a middle-aged man as thin as a monkey, and two younger ones—one of whom stood behind the other like a bodyguard.

They seemed to take their cues from the youngest man. He was fairly good-looking but had a gloomy expression, frowning with clear impatience. “What are you grabbing two brats for?” he said.

At his words, the bald man released Chen Cailing’s neck.

“Young Master Li,” the woman said with a smile, “these two kids aren’t ordinary. I think they might be useful.”

She cast a light, casual glance, and the bald man immediately stepped on Chen Cailing’s foot when she tried to run again.

Qian raised her hand to push his foot away, but Chen Cailing pulled her back tightly into her arms, holding her still. The two of them clung to each other in silence.

Chen Cailing knew very well—if they struggled, these people might do even worse things to them. She’d seen it happen once already. The culprit had eventually been killed by that older sister, but this time, there was no sister to come to their rescue.

“What use could they be?” that Young Master Li asked.

The woman nudged the plastic bag with her foot, revealing the pile of snacks inside. She gave a light snort and said, “This all came from that supermarket down the street. Normal players who go in there are as good as dead. Yet these two kids came out with bags full, completely unharmed. They’re clearly not ordinary.”

“Tonight is the third night. The Aberrant should be awakening. If we’re going into a dangerous place like the Tianzi Building, having a couple more to scout ahead can’t hurt.”