Volume 1 - Chapter 7: Fate!

Chapter 7:Fate!

Translated by:Chua

Edited by: Elkassar

The motorbike engine rumbled louder than it worked, as the black fumes dissipated into the rain. Sanzi’s motorbike was like leftover goods, tossed around between many owners and finally passed to Sanzi for a dirt cheap price. The offshore road was extremely muddy, the bumpiness caused agonizing pain to Sheyan, he pressed down on the pedal as he bent down in pain. Listening to the rumbling of the old rusty motorbike, he feared that the engine may fail at any time.

Listening to the urgent cries and shouts from far behind, Sheyan could not help laughing out coldly. Huashan Fei should have figured out Xide was killed by now, he must surely be like an ant on a hotplate* (Chinese idiom meaning panicking frantically), his situation is no better than mine. Dying now is no big deal, to him Uncle Dasi, Sanzi and the rest had already escaped. However, Huashan Fei still had his entire family of old and young in town. That cruel and ruthless Black Devil would surely want something to vent his frustration on, Huashan Fei’s family will definitely be affected.

Quite a big group of men were chasing him, but Sheyan was not hasty in panicking. Right now, the people chasing were all fired up, over time their enthusiasm was sure to die off. After riding for 10 minutes, right ahead about 10 more meters lies the entrance to this small muddy dirt road, looking at his view, Sheyan heaved a sigh of relief and a smile escaped his cold expressionless face. Once on that dirt road, cars and runners will never be able to catch up to him. No matter how lousy this motorbike was, it was the king on the right terrain.

Suddenly, the motorbike gave off a loud choking cry, as the engine came to an abrupt stop. Sheyan’s eyes widened, feeling that this shocking downturn of events was extremely unfair and the sudden dead end when freedom was in sight. Sheyan suddenly halted, his seemingly hopeless chasers suddenly came to life as though they had just won a lottery.

Sheyan did not brood over his misfortune, or rather he did not have time to, discarding the motorbike he starting sprinting forward. At the same time he continue to wield his pistol in order to strike fear and precaution into his chasers.

When his chasers finally caught up to him, Shenyan had already made it a few hundred meters into the muddy road of the national highway 703, clutching his stomach as he ran for his life. Fresh blood was dripping slowly from his wound, as it formed an obvious redding trail. His current goal was to make it to the gigantic construction site nearby.

Currently a factory was being built, it’s current state was at about the halfway mark, and construction had paused temporarily due to the typhoon. With such a huge mess of construction, it was extremely easy to hide. However the main idea was that Sheyan had confidence in finding a vehicle or another motorbike here.

Bearing with the pain, Sheyan overturned part of the fencing and entered the site. Three of his chasers who had their own vehicles had already caught up nearby, they were following the red trail as they saw a small pool ending at the fencing. Excited at the thought of that 500 thousand just beyond the fence, they gave off a gleeful shout. Sheyan clutched his chest, as he staggered alongside the wall finally entering into one of the buildings under construction. Although he was currently forced into a corner, Sheyan’s gaze maintained a steady fierceness, deliberating for a while, he threw down his pistol and fled up the building.

Shortly after, Huashan Fei’s 3 underlings rushed in like a pack of hungry wolves. They quickly discovered the abandoned pistol, feeling their only threat eliminated they excitedly scampered up the building. However upon reaching the second floor, excitement turned to worry. Exiting from the stairs, in front of them lay an extremely long corridor, with tens of side offices laced along the corridor. Even worse, they had no clue which floor Sheyan went to, and this was only the second floor! If they went to search all the rooms individually, nobody would be guarding the staircase, and Sheyan could easily escape if he was on another level. The safest way is to station 1 man to guard the staircase, while the other two proceed to search the rooms individually.

The crux of the problem was now choosing who was to stay at the staircase!

Although this could have been easily solved, but Sheyan’s bounty was a hefty 500 thousand! That brat not only sustained heavy injuries, but his only threatening weapon was now gone. Hence to the three men, the one that found him would surely be the receiving end of that 500 thousand bucks! Under this conditions, who would be willing to stay back and disadvantage their chances.

The three looked at each other in frustration, they were lucky enough to find a vehicle, but the rest should be catching up by now. If they continued wasting time, their prize would be snatched by others. The three battered their eyes at each other, as one shouted out:

”

“Red you go to the fourth floor, I’ll take the third, the second is yours Bingzai! Even if we go alone there is nothing to fear! How could we lose to an already half dead brat? Lets leave it to fate, there are still a couple of brothers behind us so there is no way he can slip out!”

As such, the three split up to search, and to Sheyan, the reason he discarded his pistol was for this very reason. Only by splitting them out was he able to give himself a chance to escape!

The place where Sheyan was currently hiding was the exact location Red was searching, the fourth floor!

This punk nicknamed Red was a compulsive gambler, his merits were being able to fight and taking risks, because he loved wearing red he got that nickname. Amongst the three, his greed for that 500 thousand was the greatest and he hurriedly climbed up to the fourth floor. Who would have known, there was actually a trail of fresh blood greeting him leading to one of the left rooms along the corridor. Without hesitation, he followed the trail like a mad dog.

The room could be seen clearly constructed by red bricks as it was not painted over yet, and cement and dirt covered the floor. Unsightly wires were hanging loose from the ceiling and a musty smell filled the air. The railings were yet to be constructed around the balcony, and only a safety net surrounded it.

Red suspiciously raised his head because the red trail strangely ended at the balcony and the balcony was still without railings. He could not see the entire balcony due to the uncomplete construction at the left, as the wall was still blocking the room and the balcony. From his view, it was as though Sheyan had jumped off the building after meeting a dead end. However, Red’s eyes flashed with an unbelieving look, knowing for sure that Sheyan would never commit suicide, but instead was hiding behind the balcony blind spot.

Creeping forward, he paused in front of the balcony, shouting out fiercely while wielding his steel rod, aiming to the left as he charged forward. However he was taken aback as his steel rod crashed onto the empty left wall and he felt pain in his arms due to the impact. What greeted him was only a pair of shoes, mocking him.

Right at this moment, the pale faced Sheyan still holding onto his stomach appeared behind Red, carrying a taunting look in his eyes, he lifted his left leg and furiously kicked the confused Red directly at his ass. This was a fourth floor balcony without any safety features installed!

A loud sorrowful scream pierced the air followed by silence. Even with an ox-like build, Red fell to his death from this height. Using his blood, Sheyan created a fake trail and utilized the balcony blind spot to his advantage.

For this own preparation, he gritted his teeth as he leaped and grabbed onto the loose wires and metal bars hanging from the ceiling. Lifting himself up, he rested at the top of the left wall. If this careless punk was able to see through the trap in this situation, Sheyan would be left speechless.

There is a deathly silence in the air, without hesitation, the other two stuck out their heads when they heard the scream and immediately hurried to the fourth floor. Following common sense, under the atmosphere of what had just happened, they would not stop to think upon seeing the trail of blood in the fourth floor corridor. All their focus would be directed towards the blood trail and where it led to, Sheyan just needed to hide himself at the right side of the corridor, and wait for the perfect opportunity to escape down the building.

Following reasoning, this plan had a huge chance of success, especially now that Sheyan had managed to hide from the two others who rushed off in following the trail foolishly. However something unexpected occurred. This was due to several factors, the building’s construction was still ongoing and was a safety hazard, also Sheyan had lost too much blood and he was in a frenzied state of mind. As Sheyan was desperately running down, he accidentally tripped over a jagged floor tiled, and started tumbling down the stairs. The tile broke off and followed him crashing down on the floor as he broke into pieces with a loud “Pam!” While Sheyan was regaining back his focus, and pulled himself up again, the two men awakened from their folly, started running back as they cursed.

“Dammit…” Sheyan coughed out a mouthful of blood as he gritted his teeth. He was extremely strong willed, not knowing to give up until the very last second as he continued fleeing. He had a very straightforward look, frantically running without thinking, ahead of him was a flight of stairs that had not been renovated. His two persistent chasers cursed and chased, closing up the gap to just one storey level.

Although this flight of stairs was newly constructed it had its naked interior exposed, showing the fresh red bricks within, this gave the stairs a haunting ancient look as though it had been here for centuries. Losing so much blood caused dark spots to appear in Sheyan’s vision, pressing on he continued to run for his life, he was not willing to admit defeat! Inevitably, the condemning footsteps and curses from behind grew louder and louder.

“I don’t want to get caught, I can’t die here!” Sheyan’s heart imploded within. Unsure if it was because of over exertion, he started to feel his chest rapidly heating up, he would have torn off his shirt to take a look, if not for him needing to concentrate on running.

All of a sudden, as Sheyan was running down, his entire body came to a sudden halt. It was an extremely strange feeling, as though he was dropping down into a swimming pool from 30 meters high, and there was an invisible membrane covering the pool. However, there was nothing in his path, yet the feeling of knocking into something was very distinct! Because of this, the two men caught up to him and charged toward him; one locking onto his shoulders, and one wrapping around his waist! As the three of them tumbled down the stairs in a huge mess.

While they were tumbling down the stairs, Sheyan struck his head against the stairs causing his skull to crack beneath his brows, his face was flowing with blood but still he never gave up. His gaze was murderous, pulling out a knife from his pants he was determined to struggle on till death! If he was to die today, he would definitely not die alone!

Living with great joy, Dying without regrets!

However Sheyan felt something was wrong, because his surroundings were extremely still. There was no trace of panting, no cursing and shockingly no exchange of blows! Only his shoulders and legs were tightly constricted and there were no further movements! He swung his head around in a daze.

Looking at the two motionlessly rigid big men tightly holding onto him, it was as though a sudden layer of frost had encapsulated over them freezing them in place. Even their frenzied facial expressions were captured in the timelock. As Sheyan tried to break free at this moment, his chest suddenly emitted a scorching acute pain from within! Unable to bear the pain, he groaned out loud, trying his very best to press down on this strange excruciating pain, attempting to remove it. When Sheyan finally loosened his hand, he unconsciously looked down and there it was again! Another red tattoo like scar on his chest!

Sheyan could not believe his eyes, he immediately ripped off his tattered clothings. He could see atop his very flesh, that bloody red tattoo started forming into very precise contours, eventually forming into an unknown symbol. The symbol appeared distinct and mysterious making absolutely no sense. Sheyan had already experienced many things in one night, but this event was simply out of this world.

Sheyan suddenly felt a frosty sensation chilling up his back, he turned around only to discover what was initially a flight of stairs had turned into a shroud of pitch blackness. Extending his hands to feel it, it felt like a formless cloud had decided to take up residence there. Breathing in deeply, looking down, he realized the entire flight of stairs has been enveloped by this darkness and this darkness continued to roll and expand itself growing larger by the second. Within it was a very faint hint of deep red giving off an extremely eerie feeling.

At this moment, the symbol started to flash brightly, immersing Sheyan in its bright radiance and as it wrapped around the other two men, they actually started to age rapidly! Initially two sturdy looking men in their youth, yet in a matter of seconds was reduced to a rotting old age with white hair and no teeth. Yet in another few seconds, their flesh was reduced to dust and blown away, leaving only their dense white bones, and even their bones were dispersed into ashes shortly.

What kind of sorcery was this, degenerating the flesh and decaying the bones almost instantly! Only time, only time!

Is it possible that in this short moment, time was sped up by a thousand years? The flashing symbol atop Sheyan’s body was extremely mysterious, it could actually produce such a terrifying power to save him.

Before him, the darkness continued to swirl about infinitely as though it had been there, constantly circling the eerie deep redness in the center. Sheyan could not understand why a raging anger was suddenly welling up his heart as though something was stirring his soul and it felt strangely vital to him.

After he tore of his clothes, the sinister tattoo had been radiating non stop creating a formless aura around his body. Unable to control himself, Sheyan tightly clutched his fist and wildly screamed to the heavens.

That scream echoed loudly into the surroundings, the darkness violently swirled and suddenly dispersed exposing an enormous door beneath it. The door was made up of ordinary metal, it had the color of flesh with numerous disorderly sharp teeth sticking out of it.

Suddenly a mysterious voice boomed:

“This is the nightmare realm! A mystical and mysterious place!”

“This place can satisfy your heart’s wishes, if you can pass the test given to you, it’s rewards will be unimaginable!”

“However if you are fearful, then leave! If you want your heart’s desire, then step forward!”

“Regrets? Fear?” Sheyan twitched his thick black brows, laughing out loud as he took a big step towards the door without hesitation. His heart was experiencing an unexplainable happiness, as though every pore on his body was twitching with excitement. After stepping nearer, he realized that the enormous sliding door was covered with bulging veins, as though it was made out of gigantic veins. From far it looked like metal, from near it actually contained characteristics of the human body!

Abruptly, Sheyan felt a sudden sharp pain in his chest, as an irresistible attraction forcefully sucked him in gradually from the front….

“Host’s physical condition: Spleen is semi ruptured, major blood loss, a total of 7 superficial wounds, normal current state of 40, restoring…. Restoration complete.”

“Current sample size of 6 399 people, this sums up the test for everyone who signed the contract, next test will commence in 72 hours! Nightmare realm…. begin!”