MMPS Ch. 53

Chapter 53: The Mole

Under the dusky sunset, Zhao Ran flashed through the desolate woods with Yu An in his arms. The not-too-intense sunlight scattered over his snow-white hair as he panted slightly, forced to slow his pace.

The cooing of pigeons approached from behind. Several balloon-twisted white doves flapped their wings, chasing after Zhao Ran. They exploded in front of him with a loud bang, splattering white corrosive goo everywhere. Zhao Ran skidded to a stop, kicking up a cloud of dry dust to shield the face of the person in his arms. His leather gloves were burned through in several places by the splattered goo.

The magician followed at a leisurely pace, elegantly twisting a long balloon in his hands. The small animals he created were lifelike, charging forward toward Zhao Ran and exploding along his path, constantly driving him toward a predetermined direction and preventing him from entering any shaded areas.

Zhao Ran was forced into the public cemetery on the outskirts of Hongli City, finally stopping at one end of an arched bridge over a river.

As he stepped through the entrance, he felt a chilling, sinister aura rising from beneath his feet. The atmosphere was far from the peaceful tranquility one would expect in a cemetery.

A tall, bespectacled man slowly walked to the highest point of the arched bridge, his face filled with smug confidence as he looked down at Zhao Ran.

“Hmm? Mr. Fang.” Zhao Ran looked up at him, smiling in surprise. “I heard you crawled out of the hotel on all fours this afternoon. It seems our young lady went too easy on you. Just one afternoon, and you’re already out for a stroll.”

The thin, tall man was none other than Mr. Fang, the pharmacist who had been negotiating with the young lady. He was a core member of Drift Racing and highly valued by Boss Xiong.

“Boss Xiong is magnanimous and doesn’t hold grudges against Miss Kong.” Mr. Fang coughed lightly into his fist. The embarrassing incident of nearly being wiped out by a seemingly weak woman during the noon negotiations was still fresh in his mind.

He didn’t waste any more words. Suddenly, he spread his arms and scattered a handful of green capsules around. The capsules burst upon hitting the ground, and the fluorescent green powder inside was quickly absorbed by the soil.

The capsules took effect almost instantly. The soil dried and cracked, and a purplish hand suddenly burst through the ground. Fingers covered in cadaveric spots clawed at the dirt, and a rotting, broken zombie face emerged from the soil with a low growl.

Dozens of “resurrected” zombie aberrations crawled out from beneath the cracked ground. These escaped prisoners from hell converged on Zhao Ran.

Zhao Ran adjusted Yu An in his arms, freeing his left hand to draw a dagger from the sheath on his leg. He calmly scanned his surroundings. His retreat was cut off, and the rushing river below the bridge left him with nowhere to run.

The cemetery should have been filled with urns, so why were there corpses? Judging by the level of decay, these bodies had been buried for at least a week. The magician had forced Zhao Ran into this pre-set trap, aiming to catch him like a turtle in a jar.

But the mission for Gray Crow: Toy House was supposed to be completely confidential. To ensure the safety of the trainees, even the technical staff of Gray Crow Games were not allowed to participate, and the linking location was decided at the last minute to be the Circus Illusion Chamber. How did Drift Racing know about it?

“Sunset is in an hour. Where do you think you can run while carrying someone?” the magician said leisurely. “Why don’t we talk terms? What will it take for you to hand over that boy?”

Zhao Ran stood calmly under the sunlight, his entire body fading to a pale white.

The magician stepped closer, smiling: “In all these years at Underground Metro, you’ve been less and less active. Even in urgent missions, you always hide behind your subordinates. It’s rare to see you out alone. I’ve always wondered—is it because you’ve risen in rank and gotten lazy, or is it because of some old injury that’s weakened you?”

Zhao Ran’s expression remained unreadable, but Yu An, whose face was pressed against Zhao Ran’s chest, could feel his heartbeat suddenly quicken.

So, this was why Drift Racing had suddenly dared to openly provoke Underground Metro.

It seemed there wasn’t just a mole in the company. This person had access to the core members’ information. Zhao Ran suddenly remembered the recent abnormal behavior of the mechanical logistics team leader. During the promotion meeting, the leader had tried to leave under some pretext but was stopped by Zhao Ran. At the time, nothing seemed amiss, but now, recalling that the technical and mechanical teams had been working together on the linking equipment for Gray Crow: Toy House all week, the mechanical team leader, Li Xing, had been absent from his post several times.

The mole was actually a high-ranking leader. The entire company was now in unpredictable danger.

“Did I guess right?” the magician sneered. He had already closed the distance to attack. Suddenly, he leaped high into the air, diving toward Zhao Ran. A red Ace of Hearts appeared between his fingers, its thin edge as sharp as polished metal. The tip of the card aimed straight for Yu An’s head.

If luck was on his side today, he might even pry out Zhao Ran’s aberration core and display it at home as a work of art. What a delightful thought.

The magician dared to challenge Zhao Ran because of his confidence in his own abilities. As a carrier human, he had a Tier 3 Silver aberration core embedded in his wrist, and this core came from his teacher, the world-renowned magician, Charlie Hanna.

When a human who has reached the pinnacle of their profession is infected by aberration radiation, there’s a high chance the core they produce will be a professional core.

Charlie Hanna’s will stated that the professional core, Magician, would be gifted to his most outstanding student, embedded in his proud right wrist.

Professional cores are a rare type of aberration core, second only to Mutant variant cores. Their abilities are far stronger than other cores of the same tier. However, the student recognized by the old man had developed a penchant for killing in secret, moonlighting as an assassin with ease.

Zhao Ran, holding someone in his arms, couldn’t fully extend his limbs, but he refused to put Yu An down, fearing that without his protection, the boy would be attacked by the magician’s poisonous balloons.

Yet, Zhao Ran remained composed, not even taking a step back. “Where did you hear that rumor? I thought you were making a wish.”

The playing card descended with a silver arc, coming within ten centimeters of Yu An’s forehead before it was suddenly blocked. The magician’s wrist was caught in a powerful grip, and he froze in surprise.

Zhao Ran’s right hand clamped down on the magician’s wrist, while his left hand swung the dagger in a sweeping motion, mercilessly slicing through the magician’s carotid artery. Blood gushed out, but at the same time, Yu An remained securely cradled in Zhao Ran’s arms.

The magician pressed tightly on the gushing wound, his face pale. “Ugh, four hands…”

“Ah.” Zhao Ran tossed the dagger into the air, letting it spin before catching it again. Two extra arms took Yu An from him, detaching from Zhao Ran’s body and elegantly floating to the side. Zhao Ran raised an eyebrow and smiled, “Even if I need one hand to hold a knife and another to kill you, I still have hands to hold him.”

Before the words had fully left his mouth, Zhao Ran’s figure had already charged toward the magician. The dagger plunged downward, but the figure beneath him suddenly transformed into a black human-shaped balloon. The dagger couldn’t stop in time, puncturing the balloon and releasing a burst of black goo that corroded the surrounding tombstones.

The magician reappeared behind Zhao Ran, three playing cards flicking between his fingers. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the cards slicing downward. Zhao Ran rolled to the side, and the deadly cards embedded themselves inches deep into the ground.

The magician pressed his advantage, closing in on Zhao Ran.

Suddenly, Zhao Ran let out an ear-piercing screech. The corners of his mouth split open, the tear extending to his cheeks, revealing rows of sharp teeth. His pale irises burned into a deep red, the whites of his eyes consumed by the same fiery hue.

The beast-like scream carried a heavy, oppressive force, halting the magician’s advance.

Seeing the situation turning dire, Mr. Fang directed the drug-induced zombie aberrants in the cemetery to attack together.

Zhao Ran’s pale cheeks and neck were now streaked with flowing, magma-like red patterns. A golden ring appeared beneath his feet, a glowing dot tracing out a symmetrical sun pattern.

The Banner of the War God fluttered on the ground. Dozens of golden rings flew out from the center, encircling the feet of the swarming zombie aberrants. Within each ring, a phantom knight in iron armor and wielding a heavy sword appeared. The zombies roared and bit at their opponents, but they couldn’t touch the phantom knights. With a single swing of their heavy swords, the knights cleaved through the zombies, shattering the newly formed Aberrant Cores within them.

“Zhao Ran’s Banner of the War God… He’s serious… What is that trainee to him?” The magician gritted his teeth, fighting off the dizziness from blood loss. A golden ring had also appeared beneath his feet. He shook his cloak, transforming into a black human-shaped balloon and floating away, narrowly avoiding the knight’s heavy sword.

The last golden ring chased after Mr. Fang, who scrambled up a pine tree in the cemetery. The ring encircled the tree’s roots, and the silver-armored knight, mindless and single-minded, raised its battle axe and began chopping at the tree.

“Ow, ow!” Mr. Fang clung to the violently shaking tree trunk, cursing under his breath. “Damn it, who fed us false information?”

In the fading light, no one noticed Zhao Ran’s heavy breathing. He took a step back toward the river, where a massive shadow was approaching from beneath the dark, churning water.

Zhao Ran covered Yu An’s mouth and nose and leaped into the water, diving into the approaching shadow. “Da-ge, save me.”

The giant clamshell opened instantly, swallowing the two into its vast cavity before snapping shut. The shell blocked the slanting sunlight, and Zhao Ran’s pale skin and hair began to regain their color as darkness enveloped him, restoring his energy.

A string of eyeballs squeezed out from the shell’s crack, each flying in a different direction. One of the eyeballs locked gazes with the magician.

Ha Bai’s ability, “Death Gaze,” froze the target in place when eye contact was made, leaving them vulnerable to the phantom knight’s strike.

The magician took advantage of the eyeball’s blink to pull his cloak over his face and escape, but the eyeballs could fly, maneuvering around obstacles to force eye contact from different angles.

The magician was briefly trapped, and the silent silver-armored knight closed in, raising its heavy sword and bringing it down with a bloody strike.

The eyeball finally blinked, and the magician quickly threw out a balloon dog. The balloon exploded next to the eyeball, splattering corrosive goo onto it. The eyeball sizzled and screamed, evaporating into a puff of black smoke.

“What the hell… Were they setting a trap for us… We’ve been played.” The magician was drenched in blood, his wounds saturating the soil beneath him.

*

Inside the Giant Clamshell

The giant clamshell floated underwater, its interior filled with ample air, dry and warm.

Zhao Ran sat cross-legged inside, pushing aside the skull of his brother’s ex-boyfriend that had been sitting in the center of the shell. He gently patted Yu An’s face, whispering in his ear, “An An, wake up.”

A cluster of grape-like eyeballs crowded around, glaring at Zhao Ran as he coddled the boy. They growled in a low, hoarse voice: “Take your little pet and get out of my house.”

“Shh, don’t be loud.” Zhao Ran picked up the skull that had rolled into a corner and stuffed the string of sticky eyeballs inside.

The eyeballs rolled dozens of disapproving looks, two of them squeezing out from the skull’s eye sockets to glare at Zhao Ran. It was like watching a furious parent with high blood pressure, helplessly watching their bratty child bring home a stray cat from the garbage dump, place it on the clean bed, and demand to sleep with it. The parent was left calmly considering whether to throw out the cat, the child, or both.

Yu An’s head was still adorned with the linking chip. Under Zhao Ran’s patting, he half-opened his eyes, his pupils empty, clearly still trapped in the Toy Room, unable to be forcibly awakened.

But his body’s instincts remained. Yu An wrapped his arms around Zhao Ran’s neck, his strength feeble, like the tendrils of a climbing plant.

“Ah…” Zhao Ran’s ears turned red. It was rare to see the little troublemaker so soft and pliant. He wanted to cuddle and snuggle him properly, but with his big brother present, he settled for patting Yu An’s lower back.

“Isn’t he cute?” Zhao Ran tilted his chin toward his big brother, effortlessly lifting Yu An and letting him rest against his shoulder again. “He loves it when I hold him. As soon as I pick him up, he stops causing trouble. So well-behaved.”The eyeballs stared at their utterly bewitched younger brother, twitching slightly.