Chapter 129: Aberrant 19

The black mask and black tattoos were the marks of the “Pyramid” organization.

No matter which aberrant Domain they were in, ordinary Players reacted to seeing Pyramid members the same way they reacted to anomalies—if they could avoid them, they would.

Many Players privately called them “shit-stirrers” or “plague gods.”

Pyramid wasn’t a friendly or united organization; internal conflicts were constant.

Just like their name, Pyramid Members had a strict hierarchy, but that hierarchy was always shifting—whoever got stronger became the boss, so their leader changed frequently.

Still, even the Pyramid boss couldn’t command all Pyramid Members to do something because too many rebellious hotheads existed in the group.

This youth, appearing alone in Monster Domain wearing a black rabbit mask, was also a notorious troublemaker within Pyramid—so much so that many Pyramid Members called him a shit-stirrer.

He was reckless, indifferent to friend or foe, and prone to sudden outbursts—his codename: “Black Rabbit.”

Besides the cheap, roughly drawn black rabbit mask on his face—looking like it had been colored with a marker—the black gloves on his left hand were another of his trademarks.

“Monster Domain… randomly ended up here this time,”

Black Rabbit stood on the rooftop railing, gazing toward Tianzi Building. He pressed down hard with his foot, making the iron railing shake and creak sharply.

Checking his System, he saw a special Mission had been issued.

“Enter room 414 of Tianzi Building?”

Glancing at the System-issued special Mission, Black Rabbit put his hands in his pockets and rolled his tongue along the inside of his cheeks.

Monster Domain was infamous even among all S-grade Domains, so he naturally knew about it. He remembered that not long ago, some Pyramid members had boredly used tool Tickets to teleport in—and none of them had come out.

No need to guess—they had definitely killed themselves.

Revenge for “comrades” was not in the Pyramid dictionary. He was more curious about how exactly they had screwed themselves over. He recalled one blond guy inside whose ability was pretty decent.

Lost in thought, his body suddenly shifted to the side, dodging a direct arrow shot.

The arrow grazed his short hair, piercing the nearby water tank, then quickly evaporated into a cloud of white mist.

Black Rabbit hooked his foot on the railing to steady himself and turned his head.

Not far away, on another building’s rooftop, a youth in a white shirt stood, seemingly about the same age, holding a tool bow.

Few dared to confront Pyramid head-on like this—his identity was easy to guess.

Black Rabbit shouted, “Judge?”

The white-shirt sneered, nocked another arrow aimed at his head: “That’s right. Prepare to die!”

The “Judges” were a group completely opposed to Pyramid.

From their name, it was clear they saw themselves as judges who not only actively eliminated anomalies but also hunted down any Players they deemed “evil.” Their mission was to purge all sin.

Originally, such a “righteous” group should be seen entirely positively, but in the outside world, both the Judges and Pyramid were considered evil organizations by the Association.

Because outside, Judges also carried out their own judgments.

Thefts, robberies, betrayal, adultery—crimes that didn’t warrant death under secular law—meant death when the Judges got involved.

Their doctrine placed their judgments above all secular laws.

So the Association’s stance toward them was intermittent crackdowns and continual attempts to bring them into line.

Black Rabbit had encountered these Judges before and, like all Pyramid Members, followed the rule of killing every one of them on sight.

He had been chased and nearly killed by them many times and had taken a few of them down in return, but for every one he killed, more came—endless.

He thought most people in that organization were even crazier than those in Pyramid.

Seeing the white-shirt raise his bow again, Black Rabbit pulled a blade from his pocket and flipped him the middle finger, then stepped off the precarious railing and jumped down.

His figure vanished in midair, then reappeared at the base of the building, flashing out of sight in an instant.

Black Rabbit’s special ability was spatial teleportation—what made him strongest was that he could teleport not only in real space but even inside illusory spaces created by certain anomalies. Elusive and unpredictable, impossible to defend against.

Another arrow missed, White Shirt on the rooftop lowered his bow.

His codename in the Domain was Tianping, an important figure in the Judges organization.

Tianping hadn’t expected to be pulled into Monster Domain this time, nor to encounter the infamous “Black Rabbit” here. Black Rabbit ranked in the top ten of the Judges’ internal hit list.

Tianping knew quite a bit about Black Rabbit.

Rumor had it Black Rabbit was once a member of a small group called “Wolf Walk.” Local gang-like groups like Wolf Walk were common—basically ordinary Players banding together. Back then, Black Rabbit wasn’t Black Rabbit yet, just a low-level ordinary Player.

Later, something happened—Black Rabbit defected from Wolf Walk, was forced into an S-grade Domain, and not only survived but killed the Domain BOSS, gaining special power and leaping to high-level Player status.

When Black Rabbit had just become a high-level Player, Tianping remembered his own brother praising Black Rabbit’s abilities and wanting to recruit him to the Judges. Unexpectedly, Black Rabbit joined Pyramid and became their enemy.

Though hard to kill, Tianping was confident that once he found him, he could definitely take him down this time!

Black Rabbit weaved through the streets, quickly noticing Tianping catching up—a relentless tail that seemed to have some special ability to track his traces.

After circling twice and failing to shake him off, Black Rabbit grew annoyed, glanced at the darkening sky, spun on his heel, and slipped directly into Tianzi Building.

Monster Domain was home to ghostly BOSSes, and Black Rabbit wasn’t good at dealing with ghosts. Likewise, Tianping wasn’t skilled either. They both specialized more in physical attacks, which put them at a disadvantage against ghosts—especially in large numbers. Their only option was to buy talismans against ghosts using Survival Points.

Most importantly, Tianping wasn’t as skilled at running away as Black Rabbit.

After chasing Black Rabbit into Tianzi Building, Tianping blinked and lost sight of him, ending up alone in the eerie, ghost-filled courtyard of the building. He watched the lights flicker on floor by floor while footsteps echoed mysteriously from all directions.

Gripping his tool bow tightly, hand on the bowstring, Tianping shouted, “Black Rabbit, stop hiding like a coward. Do you dare come out?”

Black Rabbit stepped on the rusty stair railing, ignoring the shouting below.

He intended to complete the special Mission from the System first—go to room 414.

Suddenly, the railing beneath his feet turned slick and slippery. Black Rabbit felt as if he was stepping not on metal, but on a snake or a piece of intestine.

He jumped down and saw several pairs of shoes lined up on the stairs—those ominous shoes started moving toward him.

With his hands still in his pockets, Black Rabbit hesitated for a moment, then vanished on the spot, reappearing further up the stairs, above the shoes.

After only a few steps, he found the same pairs of shoes again on the upper stairs. Using his trick repeatedly, he shifted through space multiple times and realized he had entered an infinite staircase. No matter which stairway he was on, the same shoes were always placed on the steps above and below.

He looked up at the ceiling, then stepped onto the upper floor, leaving the stairwell behind. For the moment, everything around him returned to normal.

But when he stopped at a door, it suddenly swung open. The doormat under his feet writhed like a tongue, suddenly curling up to pull him inside. Then the door snapped shut like a giant mouth.

The next moment, Black Rabbit was back outside the door, hands in pockets, casually strolling forward.

He found these supernatural Domains tricky—one careless teleportation and he could fall straight into a pile of ghosts.

But these anomalies also found him hard to deal with—a duck about to be caught always flew away.

The visible doors weren’t that dangerous. The real danger was the invisible doors—you only realized you’d stepped through when it was too late, and if you didn’t react quickly, you’d be digested in the blink of an eye.

Upstairs, Black Rabbit encountered a strange trap every few steps, while downstairs, Tianping had already shot several arrows.

He had bought ghost-repelling talismans with Survival Points and stuck them on his arrows. Every shot was followed by a hoarse, chilling scream.

But no matter how many arrows he fired, the creeping cold feeling grew stronger. There were too many ghosts in this building for him to kill all of them, and this method was incredibly inconvenient.

If he stayed too long, he’d be completely surrounded by ghosts and breaking out would be much harder.

Anxious, Tianping kept firing to push the ghosts back, yelling up the stairs, “Typical rabbit—cowardly, just digging holes to hide!”

“Aren’t you so tough? What, scared to show your face?”

At that moment, Qian, who had just woken up, opened the door to room 414, rubbing her eyes as she stepped out.

During the week, there were always one or two mornings when her mother slept too deeply to wake, so she got up early by herself.

Hearing someone shouting downstairs, Qian curiously leaned over the railing to look. Just as her head slipped through the gap, Tianping, observing below, shot an arrow upward.

“Ah!” Qian stumbled backward, landing hard on her butt.

Tianping only caught sight of a flickering shadow upstairs but couldn’t clearly see what it was. It was either Black Rabbit or an aberrant—either was fine to kill.

On the fourth floor, closer to Qian, Black Rabbit suddenly heard a child’s voice and quickened his pace, stepping out from the stairwell.

Qian saw him. The black mask reminded her of someone from before, so she immediately scrambled up and ran off, pattering as if chased by wolves.

Black Rabbit found it amusing and followed.

He had killed many people but never children—especially never a moving little girl.

Yet this child… didn’t seem entirely human?

Qian twisted open a door and slipped inside. Black Rabbit glanced at the room number: 414.

He grabbed the doorknob and tried to push the door open—but it wouldn’t budge.

Mission locations given by the System were rarely simple. Black Rabbit didn’t force it but instead leapt onto the nearby window ledge to wait.

Soon enough, he saw the door open again. A small head peeked out, looking left and right.

From his vantage point above, Black Rabbit saw the two limp braids swinging behind the little girl’s head.

Finding no one else in sight, the child stepped out and, upon reaching the corner, cleverly crouched down, peeking half her head toward the stairs.

Silently, Black Rabbit followed behind Qian, then suddenly let out a “Hey!”

Qian turned to see him and immediately jumped up, running forward. Black Rabbit appeared before her in a blink—she was caught off guard and ran headfirst into him.

“Ah!”

She fell backward, and Black Rabbit appeared behind her, quickly scooping her up.

“Kid, are you human or ghost?”