Chapter 25 - Zhang Grandpa

The three of them lifted the blue cloth and walked out of the arcade room.

Wu Dahai reached out and pulled the roll-up door down. "Old Huang, don't blame me. I'm just a worker in the organization. The rules are set by the big bosses."

At this moment, Qing Ling was standing silently by the roadside outside.

"Qing Ling? Or Qing Ling?" Gao Yang asked cautiously.

"Qing Ling." She turned and looked at him. "Did you win?"

"I did." Gao Yang smiled wryly. "But this was just the warm-up. There's a second round of tests."

Qing Ling looked unsurprised. "I thought so."

"So it turns out I was the only one naïve enough to think that just winning the game would be enough?" Officer Huang said with a hint of injury.

"Actually, it doesn't matter how well you play the game. The main thing I'm testing is your patience, and I'm also observing your character. Our organization doesn't only measure strength," Wu Dahai said proudly, rubbing his nose.

"Now that our character has passed, is it time to test our strength?" Gao Yang asked.

"Of course. Our organization doesn't take in people who are 'five' ranked. Anyone whose talent serial number isn't in the top 100 is out."

Gao Yang felt a pang of unease: "Aren't you talking about me?" It seemed that the only way to get through now would be to bluff his way through. If that didn't work, he could let Qing Ling and Officer Huang join the organization first. After all, he could still grind for lucky points and slowly level up his new talents.

"Can I take this with me?" A hoarse and elderly voice came from not far away.

Gao Yang turned his head and saw an old man, hunched over and dressed in tattered clothes, carrying a filthy garbage basket and holding a rusty pair of tongs.

The old man was standing beside Officer Huang's patrol car, pointing at an empty cola bottle on the hood of the car with his tongs. "Could you give me this if you're not going to keep it?" the old man asked again.

"Sure, no problem." Officer Huang walked up with enthusiasm, poured out the remaining cola, crushed the bottle with his hands, and tossed it into the old man's garbage basket.

"Heh, young lad, full of strength," the old man said, his wrinkled face breaking into a content smile.

"Of course, I graduated from police academy, I practice every day," Officer Huang said, taking a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. "Grandpa, want one?"

"Sure." The old man's cloudy eyes brightened for a moment.

Officer Huang expertly took out a cigarette, placed it in the old man's mouth, and lit it for him.

"Mm... Not bad." The old man took a long puff, thoroughly enjoying it, without offering any thanks. Slowly, he turned and walked away.

The four of them watched the old man leave.

"At his age, still picking up trash. Not easy," Officer Huang said sympathetically.

"You wouldn't think that if you'd seen him in his younger years," Wu Dahai sneered. "I grew up around here. Back then, all the kids in the street were afraid of him."

"Really?"

"Old Zhang was a butcher. Very fierce. He always resented his wife for not giving him a son, and beat her every day. A few times, she ended up in the hospital. Eventually, his wife couldn't take it anymore and committed suicide by drinking pesticide. The day she died, his daughter had just finished her college entrance exams. She endured everything to wait until after the exams, not wanting to affect her daughter's performance."

The three of them fell silent.

"After his daughter went to university, she severed all ties with him. Zhang's wife died, and life became dull for him. He stopped slaughtering pigs, drank all day, and eventually destroyed his health. Later, he got into gambling and lost his house. Since then, he's been living on welfare and picking up trash."

Wu Dahai's expression changed from his usual flippancy to something much more somber. "Zhang lived his whole life, and now... I think even though he's the furthest from being human, in a way, he's the most human."

With that, Wu Dahai scoffed. "Of course, he's actually a beast."

"Keep your voice down," Officer Huang reminded him. "He hasn't gone far, and he might hear you."

"It's fine, he's a lost soul. Even if he hears, he'll just ignore it."

"He fell," Qing Ling interjected.

Wu Dahai turned around to see that Old Zhang had somehow collapsed to the ground.

"Old Zhang?" Wu Dahai quickly stepped forward. "Are you okay?"

The night breeze blew in their faces, and Gao Yang looked at the old man lying on the ground and suddenly felt that something wasn't right. What wasn't right, he couldn't say exactly, but it was an instinctive alertness he felt after his "perception" had improved.

"Wait! Don't go over!" Gao Yang shouted at Wu Dahai.

Wu Dahai was less than three meters from the old man and stopped in his tracks. "What's going on?"

The next second, everyone except Wu Dahai saw—Old Zhang stood up!

He didn't get up slowly like a normal person; instead, his rigid body was pulled upright with some invisible force, defying gravity.

Qing Ling drew her long knife, and Officer Huang quickly drew his handgun.

Gao Yang wasn't idle either, quickly backing up. He knew he was practically useless right now, and not dragging the team down was the best contribution he could make.

Wu Dahai, seeing the others' defensive actions, instantly realized something was wrong. He spun around, only to see Old Zhang tilting his head, his limbs rigid, like a "chopstick" with a broken neck. His mouth was twitching rapidly, foam dripping from his lips as he incoherently repeated, "Human, human, human, human, human..."

Immediately, Old Zhang's skin appeared to be scorched by some invisible flame, rapidly melting, releasing bursts of blood mist, exposing the blood-soaked muscle tissue. At the same time, his body trembled violently, and blotches of blood exploded out of him.

Old Zhang's voice shifted from painful groaning to frenzied wailing: "Human! Human! Human!" His chest expanded rapidly, and his ribs burst through the flesh, like the gaping mouth of a flesh-eating flower, opening wide. Inside his chest cavity grew a disgusting flesh tumor, covered with human facial features.

If it had to be described, it looked like someone had taken countless eyes, mouths, ears, and noses, wrapped them in thick plastic, and shoved them into an oven. After a chaotic roasting, they melted together into a horrific mass.

This tumor bloomed like a flower.

Old Zhang's upper body transformed into vines and tendrils that wrapped around the "flower bud," while his lower body melted and corroded, deeply embedding itself into the ground.

In less than half a minute, Old Zhang had transformed from a human into a monstrous, blood-soaked "carnivorous flower."

"What kind of beast is this?" Qing Ling furrowed her brows.

"I don't know." Officer Huang's voice dropped.

"Kill? Or run?" Qing Ling asked.

"Run. He doesn't seem like he'll chase, and he's lost his intellect..." Officer Huang didn't finish his sentence before "Old Zhang's" intestines turned into several bloody, fleshy "vines," one of which shot toward Wu Dahai.

Wu Dahai was startled and turned to run.

"Thud." The vine wrapped around his ankle and yanked him down forcefully.

"Don't touch me! Get away, get away!" Wu Dahai twisted on the ground, desperately trying to grab onto anything, but it was futile.

It seemed like he was about to be dragged under "Old Zhang's" feet and become its food.

"Bang!"

A shot rang out, breaking the vine around Wu Dahai's ankle.

The vine exploded in a burst of blood mist, immediately retracting. The severed section of the vine released Wu Dahai's ankle, slithering like a snake along the ground, quickly returning to "Old Zhang," merging back into its body.

Soon, the severed vine grew back.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

This time, three vines shot toward Wu Dahai.