On one side of the machine, a battered body was "embedded" within the flesh and blood. His neck was bent at an extrely unnatural angle, with his head nearly parallel to the floor. His cheek looked like it had been gnawed by so animal, a ss of blood and flesh, with many places exposing the white of the bones.
But he seed not to have died, a pair of bloodshot eyes firmly staring at Sun Hang and the scavenger who had barged in.
"Help... Help ... Save ..."
He struggled to open his lips, emitting a weak cry for help. But with each word he expelled, so sticky excretion welled up from his throat, then dripped down along the corner of his mouth.
His torso had completely fused with the grotesque creature’s flesh and blood... Rather than being embedded on the creature, it was more as if he had beco a part of it.
Apart from this scavenger, several other people were also "embedded" in the grotesque creature’s flesh. Judging by their attire, most of them were scavengers like him. One person was even hanging upside down with both feet towards the ceiling, his entire head wrapped in a mass of writhing flesh... Yet, this person’s chest was still rhythmically rising and falling, evidently, he too hadn’t "died."
Beside him was an elderly woman, wearing a dark blue work cap, a standard for shopping mall cleaning staff.
The life signs of this cleaning lady were already faint, her eyes slightly closed, her breath like a threadbare whisper.
Sun Hang noticed that every person embedded within the grotesque flesh had several fleshy tubes connected to their bodies, much like critically ill patients in the ICU covered in tubes — it was unclear whether these tubes provided them with life-sustaining nutrients, or were extracting the scant remaining vitality from their bodies.
"Whew... Whew... Whew..." Heavy breathing ca from behind. Sun Hang glanced with the corner of his eye to see the scavenger girl trembling incessantly, her teeth softly clacking, the arm holding a crossbow tensed to the limit, veins popped from her emaciated hand, her knuckles devoid of any blood.
"They’re no longer human," Sun Hang said, "Can’t save them."
As soon as the words fell, as if receiving permission, the scavenger girl instantly triggered the crossbow string, a bolt made of liquid tal striking directly at the head emitting a cry for help. In the next second, the head exploded like a waterlon heavily smashed on the ground!
The release of this arrow abruptly awakened "everyone" embedded in the grotesque flesh. They suddenly began to struggle vigorously like awakened zombies, crying, screaming, cursing, pleading... All sorts of chaotic sounds converged together, desperately burrowing into Sun Hang’s ears.
These sounds were extrely jarring, as if an invisible knife stabbed violently into Sun Hang’s cochlea — though Sun Hang felt nothing, the scavenger girl behind him suddenly let out a scream, dropped the crossbow, and squatted clutching her ears.
Sun Hang saw a trickle of blood oozing from between her fingers — these noises had a substantial lethality; in this instant, the scavenger girl had completely lost her hearing.
"It’s too damn noisy... Just be quiet for !" Sun Hang stomped the ground, and the once deafening underground machine room instantly beca silent as the grave — those people’s mouths still opening and closing, throats still writhing, limbs still flailing indiscriminately, but all the sound vanished as if soone pressed a mute button.
Several tal blades spiraled out, severing several fleshy tubes stealthily stretching towards the two from the shadows. Sun Hang walked to the scavenger girl’s side, hoisting her from the ground, asking: "Can you still hear?"
The scavenger girl glanced at him blankly, gasping: "I... My ears hurt so much..."
Another dozen fleshy tubes attacked from different angles, but beneath the three-dinsional defense of those tal blades, not one could approach within three ters of them.
After several fruitless attempts, the grotesque creature finally transford.
The "people" embedded within its flesh all struggled free from the flesh wrapped around them, landing on the ground.
They were still connected by those tubes, yet the tubes did not impede their movents — they slowly approached the two, soon forming a semicircular encirclent.
"I told you, there’s no need to save these people." Sun Hang shrugged, "They can co down on their own."
Terror in the scavenger girl’s eyes reached its peak. She instinctively tried to retrieve the crossbow she had dropped, yet the previously upside-down "scavenger" had already bent down, picking up the discarded crossbow.
It was unlike the others, its head still enveloped by a huge mass of decaying flesh, its entire face securely obscured.
"Did you get your head blown off? Or are you too ugly to face the world?" Sun Hang joked.
The reply ca as a bolt shot through the air.
This thing had no eyes, yet seed unaffected in its aim, almost instantly striking Sun Hang in the throat.
However, the grueso image of the bolt piercing Sun Hang’s neck did not occur — the instant the bolt tip contacted Sun Hang’s skin, it lted away, becoming a puddle of liquid adhering to Sun Hang. Imdiately, the liquid tal slithered like a tiny snake to Sun Hang’s fingertips, reforming into the shape of a bolt.
Sun Hang snapped his fingers, and the eerily silent machine room suddenly exploded with a thunderous crack — simultaneously, the body of the "faceless man" holding the crossbow exploded along with it!
A shower of blood rained down, the foul stench of this viscous blood splattering on the scavenger girl’s face, leaving her utterly bewildered.
Even the intense pain deep in her cochlea seed dulled.
One by one, the "people" surrounding them "shattered," with the blood rain lasting for over twenty seconds before ceasing. The stench of blood in the machine room grew so strong it was nearly suffocating.
Amidst the flickering bluish arcs, subtle explosions continuously emitted from within the machine equipnt that had beco the grotesque creature, as the scent of scorched electronics mingled with the blood.
After several seconds, the flesh clinging to the machine’s surface began to retract, degrade, clusters of blinking indicator lights extinguishing, radiator fan blades caked in thick plasma, the sound of their rotation akin to a dying beast’s mournful wail.
Sun Hang pulled out his phone for a glance, finding the signal had returned to normal. He quickly switched the phone back to silent mode.
Sure enough, after a brief delay, one unread ssage after another and missed calls erged onto the screen.
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