167: Hell thinks I'm too hard to chew.
Chapter 167: Hell Thinks My Teeth Are Too Hard. Light.
A white light a million times more dazzling than the midday sun.
Followed by a silence where sound was stripped away.
Chen Mo felt Li Ke a fallen leaf, swept into a washing machine by a hurricane.
The moment the steel pipe smashed down, he saw Professor Qin's face, which always wore a perfect fake smile, crack.
It was a genuine crack.
Li Ke shattered porcelain, from his brow to his chin, what gushed out wasn't blood, but streams of eerie blue data and black engine oil.
Then came weightlessness.
The alloy platform beneath his feet instantly vaporized.
The scorching hot air current felt Li Ke it was trying to tear his soul from his broken body.
"It f*cking hurts..."
This was Chen Mo's only thought before he passed out... "Cough! Cough, cough, cough!"
A searing pain shot through his lungs.
Chen Mo abruptly opened his eyes, but saw nothing.
Black.
Pitch-black, where he couldn't see his own hand.
His nostrils were filled with a nauseating smell.
Rotting rat carcasses, fermenting kitchen waste, and the hydrogen sulfide stench peculiar to old sewers.
"Not dead?"
He tried to move his fingers.
Excruciating pain.
Li Ke ten thousand ants gnawing at his bones.
The pain sobered him up, and also made him want to curse.
If this was hell, then the King of Hell's hygiene standards were a bit too poor.
Splash.
He heard the sound of water beneath him.
Chen Mo struggled to prop up his upper body, feeling half of his body submerged in viscous mud.
He touched his chest.
Still beating.
Although the frequency was as erratic as someone clubbing, it was indeed still beating.
[Beep—]
[Host's vital signs are extremely weak.]
[3000 Sin Points deducted, emergency life support system activated.]
[Note: Due to host's body damage exceeding 65%, this repair only maintains minimum survival needs. You won't die, but it will be very painful. Endure it.]
The cold mechanical voice in his head sounded.
"Profiteer."
Chen Mo bared his teeth, pulling at the wound on his face, and gasped in pain.
He was alive.
He was flushed into Jiang City's underground drainage system by that energy storm, which was powerful enough to flatten half a city block, Li Ke flushing a toilet.
This was the city's intestines.
And the ultimate destination for filth.
"Is anyone there?"
He opened his mouth, his voice hoarse as if sanding a wall.
No one responded.
Only the sound of dripping water from afar.
Drip.
Drop.
Chen Mo gritted his teeth and grabbed a slimy steel pipe beside him, trying to pull himself out of the sludge.
His left leg was numb.
It must be broken.
A metal shard of unknown material was embedded in his right arm, and the blood had already clotted.
"Damn it."
He cursed.
Not because of the pain.
But because when he reached for his pants pocket, he found it was flat.
The unfinished pack of Hongtashan cigarettes was gone.
Just then, a dull roar came from above his head.
Li Ke a subway passing, or some kind of heavy machinery excavating.
Soil and dust fell rustling.
A faint beam of light penetrated through a gap in a manhole cover from the upper side.
It was the light from a streetlamp.
That was the human world... on the ground.
The heavy rain had stopped.
But the chaos in Jiang City had not ended.
The broadcast and television tower that once stood in the city center now only had a charred, half-collapsed remnant, Li Ke a middle finger pointing to the sky.
Police sirens blared throughout the city.
"Move! Everyone move!"
Su Qingxue frantically pushed away the SWAT officers at the cordon.
She was covered in mud, left from digging through the ruins with her bare hands just now.
Those hands, which were usually steady holding a scalpel or a gun, were trembling violently now, her fingernails all split and bloody.
"Captain Su! Captain Su, calm down!"
Old Lin grabbed her arm, almost stumbling as she pulled him, "That's the reactor core area down there! Even if it didn't explode, the radiation levels are..."
"Get lost!"
Su Qingxue turned back, her eyes fierce Li Ke a wolf protecting its cub.
"He told me to leave! He said he had a way!"
"Liar..."
"That bastard is a liar!"
Her voice choked, tears mixing with the dust on her face, leaving two muddy streaks.
Ninth Master sat on the curb by the road, a cigarette, already soaked by the rain, clamped between his fingers. He tried to light it several times, but it wouldn't catch.
He slammed the lighter onto the ground.
"Damn it."
Ninth Master wiped his face, "Fatty, can you get a fix on his location?"
Li Ke hugged the laptop with its cracked screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard, tears dripping onto it.
"Can't... can't locate him."
Li Ke sobbed, "The signal source disappeared the moment of the explosion. The magnetic field in that area is completely messed up, nothing can be scanned."
"So we just wait here? To collect that kid's body?" Ninth Master glared.
"Collect his body..."
Li Ke burst into tears, "With such a big explosion, there won't even be ashes left..."
"Shut up!"
Su Qingxue and Ninth Master shouted simultaneously.
Just then, static crackled through Su Qingxue's walkie-talkie.
It was Zhao Dahai's voice.
"All units, attention... cough cough... this is Zhao Dahai."
"Immediately seal all drainage outlets along the city moat."
"Repeat, seal the drainage outlets."
"Even if it's just a rat that crawls out, hold it down!"
Su Qingxue paused for a moment.
The next second, she spun around abruptly and rushed towards the dilapidated Wuling Hongguang parked by the roadside.
"Get in the car!"
...Downstream of the city moat.
The sewage outlet.
This was the edge of the city, reeking to high heaven, a place even vagrants avoided.
The iron grates had been washed away.
Turbid black water was continuously pouring into the river.
A pale hand suddenly emerged from the black water, gripping tightly onto the concrete steps on the bank.
Knuckles white, veins bulging.
Followed by a head.
His face was covered in blood, and his hair was tangled with water plants and unknown filth.
Chen Mo, Li Ke a wild dog with a broken spine, slowly, bit by bit, dragged his body out of the nauseating black water.
"Hoo... hoo..."
He rolled over, lying on his back on the riverbank covered in gravel and trash.
The night sky after the rain was clean.
He could even see a few stars.
"It's really f*cking... cold."
He shivered, muttering to himself.
His body heat was rapidly draining, and hypothermia made him start hallucinating.
He seemed to see the Old Dean.
He saw the children screaming in the Orphanage fire.
He also saw Professor Qin's shattered face, leering at him.
[Warning: Body temperature below 32 degrees Celsius, entering shock state soon.]
The system's voice was Li Ke a grim reaper.
"Shut up... let me... rest for a bit."
Chen Mo closed his eyes.
Just as his consciousness was about to sink into darkness, he heard sounds.
The screech of brakes.
The sound of car doors being slammed shut forcefully.
And chaotic footsteps.
"He's over there!"
It was a fat man's voice, laced with a sob.
Then a beam of flashlight hit him directly in the face, dazzling him so he couldn't open his eyes.
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