Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 142
“Strange…” Joshua’s hands froze in midair, hovering above the keyboard, unable to press down. “Why did the Fourth Auxiliary Control Room reject my command? Could the connection be faulty?” He sent the command again, only to be rejected once more. “Maybe the connection really is down,” he muttered to himself. “Forget it. Let’s skip that area.” After all, over such a long time, anything could have happened—perhaps a nest of rats had made its home in the research facility and chewed through the cables in the Fourth Auxiliary Control Room. Poor creatures, those cables probably didn’t taste good at all.
Alois sat cross-legged on the floor, staring boredly at the surveillance screens. Joshua was engrossed in working on the computer, so Alois was in charge of security. The guard’s duty was to keep an eye on the screens and immediately report to Joshua if there was any movement. But what kind of movement could there be? This was Old Earth, not the bustling commercial street of the Unfallen Star. Was there a chance a thief would break in?
Although Joshua’s focused expression as he worked was indeed a pleasure to watch, it didn’t help pass the boredom. I should have gone to find Casper, Alois thought gloomily.
Just then, something on one of the surveillance screens moved. Alois widened his eyes and saw a door in one of the images open, but no one was there.
“So, this door is fully automatic…”
Next, on the following screen, the previously stationary conveyor belt suddenly began moving, and the sensor lights embedded in the wall lit up. Theoretically, there should be a person standing on the conveyor belt for these things to happen, but there was no one. Everything in the image was moving on its own, with no one passing through.
“Hey, Joshua, what’s going on with your research facility?” Alois pointed at the screen and asked.
The assassin glanced over, then stopped his work, seemingly captivated by the surveillance screen, studying the unusual scene intently.
The conveyor belt had stopped moving, and the elevator at its end started operating, rising a floor before halting. The next screen was black, as the monitor there was broken. After a while, the door in the following image slowly opened.
Alois was genuinely frightened by the scene that could only be described as supernatural. “It’s like there’s an invisible ghost moving around…” he said.
“Or an invisible person,” Joshua remarked as he looked at the command line that had been rejected several times on his side. “It seems that those who invaded before us have already made their move.”
One after another, the surveillance screens began to show activity, and Alois realized that the invisible person was heading towards them, towards the First Auxiliary Control Room.
“Optical camouflage?” Alois shivered. “It really is an invisible person.”
Joshua drew his pistol and chambered a round with a crisp “click”. “Whether it’s an invisible person or a ghost, today, they’ll meet their end here!”
On the screen, the invisible person had already moved into the penultimate room, which was adjacent to the First Auxiliary Control Room.
Alois drew an alloy dagger and weighed it in his palm. For some reason, despite his earlier panic, he now felt much calmer. Joshua was right—no matter what this thing was, today, it would meet its demise here. He glanced at the assassin, who was poised and motionless, gun in hand, exuding a deadly aura. The golden ring in his eyes had expanded, now radiating a brilliant light like the sun. Just by standing there, Joshua seemed to embody the full meaning of his name, “The Mourner”.
With such a powerful ally by his side, Alois had no reason to be afraid.
Yet his heart still trembled with fear, his blood circulation faltering as a result. He didn’t know why—it was as if the enemy approaching them was not just an ordinary foe but Death itself, instinctively inciting terror in humans.
“He’s here,” Joshua whispered.
A side door of the control room slid open and then closed. The last surveillance screen now showed only the two of them. But Alois knew that the enemy was already standing before them.
Joshua pulled the trigger. Two beams of light shot towards the side door, only to be deflected by an invisible barrier before they could reach it. “Drop your optical camouflage,” the assassin commanded, his tone authoritative. “If you have the guts, face us openly.”
Alois felt the air tremble, and the invisible person let out a short, harsh sound, like a person laughing hoarsely after straining their voice.
Then, the optical camouflage was deactivated.
For a moment, Alois thought they were back in Neo Venice, encountering the terrifying cyborg on Green Star Diamond Island. However, this wasn’t the same being as the one on the island. The cyborg before them was even taller, no longer a chaotic mix of flesh, muscle, and steel but a complete metallic figure. His forearms ended in claws, with nails so long they could be used as knives, gleaming with a cold light that made Alois certain they could easily sever a human head. Their existence seemed to embody the very concept of “sharpness.”
The cyborg’s neck was half steel, half human skull. The moment Alois saw that grotesque face, he immediately understood the source of his fear.
It’s that guy!
A sharp pain shot through the connection point of his left arm and prosthetic limb as dark memories he tried so hard to forget flooded his mind. He recalled how this person in front of him had cruelly tortured him—the agony he endured as if suffering in hell returned to him. No matter how hard he tried to forget, to regain his strength, and to emerge from the shadows, he could never escape those horrifying memories. This experience would haunt him as an eternal nightmare, entangling him on every dark night.
By the time Alois realized what was happening, he had already collapsed weakly to the ground, his body seemingly drained of strength. Cold sweat trickled down his heaving chest, dripping onto the floor.
I must get up, Alois thought in a panic. How can I show weakness in front of this guy? Get up and kill him!
But he couldn’t move. He wanted to grab the dagger that had fallen to the ground, but his fingers, as if they no longer belonged to him, refused to obey his brain’s commands.
Get up!
He saw Leslie Faraday approaching with a sinister grin, the cold gleam from the claws on his hand like poisoned arrows piercing his body. Alois let out a whimper, curling up in pain on the floor, helplessly watching as the cyborg drew closer.
Then, a familiar figure stepped in front of him.
Joshua Planck—the Mourner—aimed his twin guns at the cyborg’s head.
“I’ll avenge you,” he said.
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