MMPS Ch. 16

Chapter 16: Your Hands Are Many

Yu An ran down the hallway, clutching Miss Bo, her body dangling in his arms as he dashed toward the X-ray room. The janitors along the way, their forced smiles a veil for their fear, scattered, retreating into the shadows as though not daring to breathe too loudly in the presence of the boss.

The right hand, struggling valiantly between the two malformed doctors, felt an overwhelming surge of gratitude as Yu An broke through the door, charging back to save it. For a brief moment, it almost wept with relief.

“Don’t move! Your boss is in my hands.” Yu An growled, his grip tightening around Miss Bo, now folded like discarded paper. He swung her, almost like a weapon, toward the two grotesque figures that dared approach.

The female doctor tilted her head, her gums exposed and seeping blood that dripped in dark, twisted lines from her sharp, jagged teeth. With every step she took, the blood trailed, her movements slow and deliberate as she closed in. Her husband, dragging his broken leg and wielding a bone-axe, limped beside her, their twisted forms closing in on him like a nightmarish duo.

“…” Yu An’s brow furrowed as he assessed the hand holding Miss Bo. His grip tightened, but his thoughts remained clear, steely.

“A fashion designer can scare off a model, but can’t deter doctors?” Yu An muttered with a smirk. “How utterly logical…” Without hesitation, he darted between the two monsters, sliding beneath the X-ray machine. From his bag, he pulled out a screwdriver and began dismantling the machine with rapid, precise movements.

The copper-green stain on the machine’s logo was scrubbed away with a harsh swipe, revealing the inscription beneath—Hongli Cultivation Base.

The very birthplace of these abominations. When the cultivation facility had been struck by lightning and exploded, the experimental waste was left to fester in the open air, the radiation spreading uncontrollably and mutating the organisms exposed to it.

If this machine had been transported from that very base, its radiation would undoubtedly contaminate the entire building.

“Hold on, just five more minutes.” Yu An urged, glancing back at the right hand, which was doing its best to keep the monsters at bay, its movements desperate yet determined. His knee was pressed into Miss Bo’s face, and his hands moved swiftly through the rusted parts of the machine.

Miss Bo let out a furious roar, but Yu An ignored her entirely.

“You brought this X-ray machine from a sealed cultivation base to this building? That alone is enough to condemn you a hundred times over. Do you want me to throw you into a shredder right now?” Yu An’s voice was cold, his focus unbroken as he dismantled the heavy steel plates.

“I didn’t move it!” Miss Bo cried out, her voice cracking with terror. “They locked me in a beauty salon and told me to guard this machine!”

The machine’s internal structure was complex, and one misstep could trigger a deadly shock from the high-voltage cables. Yu An turned his head to eye the lead apron lying five meters away on the floor. He quickly glanced back at the right hand, fighting valiantly between the two malformed doctors.

An eerie emptiness suddenly filled his mind. A memory flashed before his eyes, words written on a torn diary page: Don’t be the villain. Be the hero. It was an impulsive, almost unexplainable surge of courage that drove him to reach his arm deep into the machine, groping blindly for the core.

He found it.

Yu An’s fingers wrapped around the spherical core, his muscles straining as he yanked it out.

There was a deafening bang as the circuits fried, and from the innards of the X-ray machine, Yu An pulled out a dark red, Aberrant Core.

Name: Function Core – Radiograph’s Eye
Source: X-ray machine
Type: Common Variant
Grade: Tier 3 Red (Burgundy Red)
Base Ability: X-ray vision
Usage Limit: 100 uses
Description: I see through you.
Resonance Requirement: Unknown

In terms of quality, this Aberrant Core ranked as high as a Tier 3 Red. No wonder it could power an entire building.

Yu An gritted his teeth and shoved the Radiograph’s Eye into his empty eye socket.

The sensation of linking with the purple-core was unlike any other—this one was far more vicious. The core’s surface sprouted jagged spikes, violently piercing into his eye socket. A surge of unrelenting energy coursed through him, and the power nearly shattered his skull.

Every joint in his body groaned in agony, but as the energy flowed, it began to repair his fractured sternum and skin. Slowly, painfully, he lifted his head, his left eye glowing with a deep, ominous red as he fixed his gaze on the doctors.

In the distorted vision of his left eye, the figures before him had transformed into nothing more than skeletal remains, with two glowing cores hidden within. One was nestled in the female doctor’s right wrist, the other embedded deep within the male doctor’s skull.

The cores were hidden so cleverly, no wonder the attempts to locate them had failed.

“Kill the female doctor first!” Yu An barked.

The right hand, hearing the order, shifted into action. It lunged forward, grabbing the female doctor by the throat and slamming her into the wall with brutal force.

Survival was paramount. Yu An quickly decided to abandon the idea of extracting the doctors’ cores. With a flash of steel, he drew his dagger and dashed forward.

The female doctor pulled out her left arm bone, wielding it like a fencing sword. But with her left arm now just a dangling stump, it was the perfect weakness. Yu An gauged the distance, waiting for her strike, then attacked her vulnerable side. She twisted to block, falling straight into his trap as his knife drove into her wrist bone.

The blade found its mark in the Aberrant Core, and there was a sickening crack, like the sound of thin glass shattering. The female doctor went rigid, and with a strangled cry, she collapsed to the floor.

Fury ignited in the male doctor’s eyes as he saw his wife fall. He swung his bone-axe, a frenzy of wild, violent strikes. Yu An barely ducked, rolling to the ground as the axe’s blade scraped the wall, gouging a jagged trench into it.

Then came something even more bizarre.

The male doctor grasped his wife’s hand, the wound she had received from the knife already beginning to heal. Beneath the flesh, the Aberrant Core inside her was rapidly regenerating.

The female doctor twisted her joints, rising again with a sickening groan. She raised her monstrous, blood-spattered mouth into a feral grin and inserted the bone back into her arm. With an eerie snarl, she grabbed her husband’s axe and prepared for the next attack.

Rearmed and now invulnerable, the female doctor became an unyielding, hexagonal warrior. She charged at Yu An with terrifying force.

“Killing just one of them won’t help.” Yu An muttered, his gaze darting around for an escape. “Time to retreat.”

He grabbed Miss Bo from the floor, tucking her into his backpack. The right hand continued to jump around, preparing to fight; but Yu An grabbed it and was already on the move, heading for the exit.

“It’s almost dawn. Officer Ye should be here soon!” Yu An said as he ran through the corridor, retracing his steps, toward the original entrance.

He rushed past the hallway, through the 704 beauty room, and pushed open the locked white door, bursting into the midst of the grinning consultants who had blocked the corridor.

The consultants, seeing their boss, parted like frightened animals, retreating into the corners.

Behind him, the female doctor’s bone-axe swung wildly as she cleared a path, her mad pursuit relentless. The male doctor hobbled after her, his grotesque form trailing behind.

Yu An swung the axe aside, smashing corridor lamps as he ran, hoping to plunge the hallway into darkness and slow down the twisted doctors. The shadows grew longer, and the hallways plunged into pitch blackness. He had to rely on his memory to find the way.

The elevator he had arrived in earlier was still on the seventh floor. Yu An jammed the down button repeatedly, willing it to descend faster.

The sound of footsteps grew louder behind him, the doctors’ heavy strides shaking the floor. They were closing in.

The elevator door pinged open with an eerie sound.

That sound betrayed Yu An’s position. The monsters sped up. Within moments, the distance between them had closed to a mere five meters.

Without a second thought, Yu An bolted into the elevator.

The foul stench of the beauty salon mingled with the faint smell of wood as Yu An collided with something solid. Strong arms wrapped around him, pulling him into a protective embrace.

“Close the door!” Yu An shouted.

The figure holding him paused only briefly, using one hand to wrap him securely, while the other slowly pressed the door close button. The rusted elevator doors creaked shut, just in time to keep the monsters at bay, their grasping hands barely inches from him.

Yu An jerked away, slamming his back against the far wall of the elevator. He gripped the bat, ready to fight.

Then, through the dim light, he looked up and met the face of his savior.

“Interviewer.” he murmured, slowly lowering the bat, and stood with his hands down.

Before he could react, his legs buckled, and the tension that had kept him standing

Suddenly, Yu An’s knees gave way, the tension that had held his body together for so long snapping. The strain on his muscles released all at once, leaving his mind dizzy and his vision blurring. His body lurched forward uncontrollably.

“Hey.” Zhao Ran reacted swiftly, catching him by the shoulder before they both sank to the ground. His hand ran down Yu An’s spine, soothing the wild, spiked hair that had sprung up from the chaos.

“Li Pu.” Zhao Ran muttered, his eyes scanning the room. He couldn’t spot the right hand. He cursed softly under his breath, “Where did it go? Useless thing. I’ll deal with you later.”

The right hand, trapped inside Yu An’s bag, was jostling around, squashed beneath Miss Bo’s newly stuffed form, unable to escape.

Yu An, disoriented, tried to wriggle free from Zhao Ran’s hold: “Let go of me. Did you bring a gun? I’ll make his head burst like a sprinkler…”

Zhao Ran chuckled darkly, the sound hollow and detached. “Alright, alright. You’re the only intern who managed to crack the Illusion Chamber. You’re really making me proud.” He removed Yu An’s black hood and pressed his wrist to the burning skin around his left eye, trying to cool the feverish heat. “In a few days, during the intern conversion meeting, I’ll make sure you get some real recognition.”

Yu An finally started to settle, his body relaxing slightly.

“The Illusion Chamber?” he asked, his voice shaky.

“Yes.” Zhao Ran replied, his tone turning clinical. “Rooms where mutated beings have consumed humans sometimes give birth to Illusion Chambers—a distorted space where the laws of reality are twisted beyond recognition. To break the illusion, you must do two things: First, you need to understand how the room operates. Second, you need to kill the Aberrant guarding it.”

“So the X-ray machine is part of the salon’s operations?” Yu An asked, his brow furrowing with confusion.

“Exactly.”

The frequent switching of cores was wearing on Yu An’s body. With a grimace, he dug the Radiograph’s Eye out of his eye socket, squeezing his eyelids shut to try and dull the sharp, agonizing pain.

Blood oozed slowly from the tiny wounds in his eye socket, collecting and pooling as it rolled down his face, leaving behind a trail of crimson tears.

Zhao Ran’s gentle smile faltered as he saw the blood. Unable to find medical bandages, he reluctantly took his shirt off, using the fabric to wipe the blood from Yu An’s face.

Yu An squinted his right eye, his gaze shifting to Zhao Ran’s exposed torso, wrapped in a windbreaker.

In the chaos of the moment, a thought flickered through Yu An’s mind—perhaps no one would notice if he just reached out…

His hand brushed against smooth skin, so flawless it felt like there were no pores. How could someone sweat without pores? He’d never seen Zhao Ran sweat.

The skin on his abdomen was so thin it seemed like light might pass through it if shone directly upon it. So pale, so strikingly white.

Zhao Ran continued to wipe away the blood from Yu An’s face, his movements precise, before swatting Yu An’s wandering hand away, his voice sharp yet habitual: “Stop. Don’t cause trouble.”

Yu An reluctantly withdrew, though his gaze lingered. The skin he had just touched now flushed red, as though a white rose’s roots had been dipped into crimson ink, the pale petals slowly staining, one layer after another.

Would Zhao Ran ever go to a massage parlor? If the masseuse touched him, would his skin blush in those places too? And afterward, who would pay—Zhao Ran, or the massage parlor?

“Did Officer Ye get the search warrant?” Yu An shook his head, trying to clear the disturbing thoughts that clung to him.

“She said they wouldn’t approve it.” Zhao Ran replied, his voice steady. He firmly held Yu An in place. “But she still came. She’s in civilian clothes. Stay in the elevator for now and meet up with them.”

“Where are you going?” Yu An grabbed the hem of his shirt, unwilling to let go.

“Just checking who did this to my intern.” Zhao Ran said with a soft chuckle. “Nothing to worry about, just a quick look.”

“First, save the hostage. Mr. Zhou is—”

Zhao Ran stood, adjusting his gloves and pressing the elevator’s call button. Officer Ye had specifically warned him not to indiscriminately tear apart the hostage. If he did, there would be consequences.

“The hostage? Not my problem.” Zhao Ran said, his tone dismissive.

*

The Aberrant doctors were waiting near the elevator, their forms a twisted mockery of human shape. The male doctor, his limbs contorted in unnatural angles, lurked in the hallway. The female doctor, head tilted at a disturbing angle, gripped a bone axe—the very foot bone of the male doctor. The axe scraped against the floor, sending sparks into the air with every step.

They knew Yu An couldn’t escape the elevator, so they waited, patient as predators.

Time stretched on, their patience unyielding, until the elevator doors finally let out a high-pitched hiss and slid open. The doctors turned, drawn by the sound, their distorted bodies moving toward the entrance.

But what they didn’t expect was for Yu An to rush inside, and Zhao Ran to emerge in his place.

The elevator doors closed slowly behind him. Zhao Ran flexed his wrist, his eyes gleaming red, pupils dilated. His lips curled into a smile, sharp teeth glistening as he asked, his voice deceptively gentle: “Who made the first move?”

His presence in the dark hallway was suffocating, an aura of twisted obsession and desolation radiating from him like decaying wood rotting in an overgrown wasteland—like ivy that devoured a building, then withered and died, or the scent of a tomb buried deep in the mountains.

The doctors hesitated, taking a step back, the primal fear of the unknown rushing over them like a tide.

The male doctor, already crippled, screamed in pain as his supporting leg was grabbed by an unseen force, sending him crashing to the ground.

In a fit of rage, he tried to rise, but his wrist was trapped by a hand that seemed to materialize from nowhere.

He looked around, panic setting in as he searched for an escape.

Suddenly, from the salon’s pale, fleshy walls, countless arms sprouted, pale and thin, with fingers that were sharp and unnaturally long. They covered the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling, like strands of hair drifting in water.

One arm couldn’t hold back. Its fingers shot downward, impaling the male doctor’s chest with brutal force. He screamed, but another hand shoved into his mouth, tearing at his throat. The hands swarmed around him, suffocating, relentless, as if they were leeches, tightening their grip with every passing second.

“Ahh—!” The female doctor shrieked, seeing her husband trapped. Her eyes bled red, and she swung the bone axe with frenzied desperation, aiming for Zhao Ran’s head.

Zhao Ran stood unmoving, his hands still tucked safely in his pockets.

The bone axe hurtled toward him, a blur of bone and sharpened metal, closing in with blinding speed. But just as it neared, it stopped. Frozen.

A hand appeared in front of Zhao Ran, fingers raised, effortlessly halting the blade mid-air.