Chapter Ten: Restricted Scenes

The vast hall was littered with clothes. Their owners were nowhere to be seen. On the floor, a mass of pale, ribbon-like creatures writhed and intertwined like a nest of snakes, caressing one another.

Amidst this serpentine tangle, a woman resembling a noblewoman, dressed in a wine-red gown, sat with elegance, raising a teacup to her lips. Although the cup was only half-full, she gracefully bit off a chunk of it, chewing with a refined, lip-closed etiquette that produced a rhythmic crunching sound, completely indifferent to the bloody holes punctured through her cheeks.

"I must have committed many evils in my life to be subjected to such a scene," Fu Qian sighed silently, turning to look at the other four. Judging by their expressions, they were just as traumatized.

"Move!" The captain was a captain for a reason; he was the first of the four to regain his composure. Seeing the woman’s prominently distended abdomen, he issued the order to attack immediately. There was no choice; the imagery practically screamed "I am the boss." In this situation, no one would believe she was an innocent bystander.

The four-man squad showed remarkable coordination. At the captain's command, the man with the crew cut lunged forward almost instantly, followed closely by the old man, who, despite his apparent reluctance, did not lag behind. The crew-cut man wore a pair of peculiarly designed gauntlets, and each punch he threw carried the faint sound of wind and thunder. The old man held no weapon, yet a simple gesture from him unleashed a burst of flame. Under their swift assault, the noblewoman had no chance to dodge and was instantly submerged by the onslaught.

Meanwhile, the captain, who appeared to be the strongest, did not rush in. Instead, he stayed put, pulled an object from his coat, and locked onto the noblewoman from a distance. Su Gao, the porcelain-skinned woman, drew her sharp blade and stood guard by his side, preventing the disturbed snakes from reaching him.

*So, he’s preparing to unleash his ultimate move. Decisive and ruthless,* Fu Qian thought. He knew what the captain intended to do. Having already jumped aside, he now saw the captain’s "big gun" clearly. It was a bizarre-looking device, about the length of a forearm, with a fist-sized sphere at the top and a long, thin handle below. With its odd shape and the countless electric arcs crackling around it, it looked as if it had been ripped off a Tesla coil.

This was the weapon that had killed him just moments ago. The captain was clearly channeling its power for a massive strike. In just a few seconds, the energy accumulating on the device far exceeded the bolt that had struck him earlier; the searing white electricity was almost too blinding to look at. Compared to the current terrifying power, the strike that killed him earlier had been nothing more than a stray spark.

However, just then, trouble erupted on the side of the crew-cut man and the old man. A sharp, shrill cry rang out. Even from a distance, Fu Qian felt his head reel, and he could almost feel a nosebleed coming on.

With a spray of blood, the crew-cut man was sent flying backward, slamming heavily into the nearby wall. Before he could recover, a blood-drenched figure lunged at him, pinning him to the wall with a sharp bone blade as if skewering a kebab.

Damn! The noblewoman, once so elegant, remained so even now. One of her legs had lost all its flesh, yet she stood as poised as ever. Four bone-like claws of varying shapes had burst through the back of her gown; one of them was pinning the crew-cut man. The moment this image hit his eyes, Fu Qian felt as if his head had been hammered, and his consciousness blurred.

[SAN points -5]

*Holy crap!* Fu Qian was shocked. Just one look at this thing cost him 5 SAN points. That was equivalent to five lives! The risk of this mission was far too high!

After the kill, the noblewoman did not pause. She withdrew the bone blade and flashed to the side, slicing the old man—who had just crawled to his feet—clean in half, along with the floor beneath him. Her movements were so swift and ghostly that she seemed to possess no weight at all.

A roar erupted from the side. The captain had finished channeling, and a straight pillar of electricity, composed of countless bolts, instantly engulfed the noblewoman and the old man’s corpse.

*A lightning railgun?* Watching the endless beam of lightning, Fu Qian finally understood the true power of the captain’s weapon. However, under this world-destroying attack, countless thin black threads rapidly wove themselves into a cocoon in front of the noblewoman, blocking the lightning bolt for a fraction of a second. Using that brief delay, the noblewoman’s ghostly figure escaped the range of the lightning.

With a flicker, she appeared right in front of the captain. The shrill crying sound, much sharper than before, rang out again. The captain shuddered, blood gushing from his nose and mouth, and his body froze in place. Under the barrage of the lightning railgun, one of the four bone blades had been vaporized, but the remaining three pierced straight through the captain’s body, lifting him into the air.

The captain’s weapon was powerful enough, but the target had maxed out her evasion.

The baby’s crying grew louder. Looking at the now-monstrous noblewoman, Fu Qian fired a series of air bullets. The transformed woman didn't even bother to dodge; after a crisp sound of clashing bones, not a single mark remained on her. As expected, his attacks couldn't even break her defense.

[Evil God's offspring has descended. Containment failed.]

The notification sounded in his ears, and the scene before him blurred rapidly.

The last thing Fu Qian saw was Su Gao leaping high into the air, unleashing a flurry of blade light toward the noblewoman.

*Whoosh!*

Back in the storage room, Fu Qian let out a long breath, feeling a lingering ache in his head. He hadn't expected to fail even with that setup. Strictly speaking, the squad's plan had been sound. They were swift, efficient, and wasted no words. Once the target was locked, some drew fire to buy time for the heavy hitter. It all seemed perfectly logical. It was just that the crew-cut man’s attack had startled the Evil God's offspring, and its mother was simply too powerful. Her speed after transforming was blinding, and that strange shield meant the captain’s ultimate weapon never landed a direct hit.

*Decisiveness is a double-edged sword,* he mused.

[Would you like to consume 1 SAN point to attempt containment again?]

After summarizing the failure, Fu Qian pressed his hand against the mist-gate that had appeared.

"Yes."

He already had a new idea.

...

Back in the eye-opening hall once more.

"Prepare to move!"

"Wait a moment!"

Just as the captain was about to issue orders, Fu Qian blocked him. "If you want that thing in your coat to be useful, it’s best not to disturb her. And those two must wait here as well."

"Who are you to give orders!" The crew-cut man and the old man were furious.

*How does he know?!* The captain was shocked to have his greatest secret exposed, but he reached out to stop his men. Regardless of how Fu Qian knew, his performance along the way made the captain feel that this young man wouldn't speak without purpose.

Seeing the captain’s cooperation, Fu Qian nodded in satisfaction. Carefully avoiding the ribbon-like creatures and the unidentified fluids on the floor, he walked over to the noblewoman and sat down opposite her.

"Hello there, beautiful."