Chapter 158#
The Hunt 09#
Ten seconds later, Yu Feichen — now possessed of a mental healing skill — returned his consciousness to reality.
Bai Song and Windsor looked at him expectantly; Mofei tilted his head over as well.
“Well?”
“Got it,” Yu Feichen said.
Mofei: “The mechanic?”
“Six types of items, a hundred in total, first come first served.” Yu Feichen said.
After he selected the ability corresponding to mental healing, that cluster of grey mist had entered his body — and the ability vanished from the selectable pool, no longer available to anyone else.
Mofei said: “The slaughter is going to get even more frenzied.”
First come, first served — you could pick the most powerful abilities, and latecomers would be left choosing from whatever others had passed over.
Yu Feichen made no comment either way.
Ever since key-holders had been able to enter this place, the killing connected to Mist City had already been frenzied. Like an exam paper that had already scored zero — the score couldn’t get any worse.
“So, Yu-ge, you were the first to get an item. You’re probably the strongest person in all of Mist City right now.”
“……”
In shadowy alleyways, on crowd-filled squares, in mildew-spotted little inns — people kept claiming their Bequests on a whim, only to find that they could actually receive them now.
“Healing, Guardian, Attack… I want Attack.”
“Obviously you pick Attack first~”
“If you’re not picking Attack, are you even human?”
The grey mist carrying the Attack abilities flowed into their bodies. Even as they congratulated themselves, the same thought rose in everyone’s mind.
“No idea what Attack ability the first person took — but whatever it is, we’d better be extremely careful.”
At the same time, Yu Feichen tested his own mental healing ability.
Healing came in three varieties — physical, mental, and soul — each with different emphases within. What Yu Feichen had selected was an ability leaning toward assessment; its full name was “Mental Appraisal and Healing Recommendation.”
With no usage limit, he ran a trial on Mofei first. It was called “healing,” but given that it was Mist City’s handiwork, he felt it was best not to use it on An Fei rashly.
Upon activating the ability, a sleek, pale-blue monocle with a half-silver frame appeared over Yu Feichen’s right eye, giving off a distinctly technological air.
His field of vision, tinted by the lens, turned a wash of pure, cool blue.
Within that field, Mofei’s gaze went briefly vacant. In his chestnut-brown irises, two distinct flames seemed to clash violently — one subtly gaining the upper hand over the other.
Appraisal Result: This guest appears to be in a state of mental disturbance. What sort of reality is he running from? In the face of a truth he refuses to confront, he truly is helpless. Sometimes, we all carry this kind of pain.
Healing Recommendation: Tear open the reality he refuses to face and make him look at it. A childish little boy crying is sure to be quite a sight.
Next, he appraised Windsor.
Appraisal Result: This guest’s mental state is perfectly fine. How disappointing.
Healing Recommendation: Even if there’s nothing wrong — does that mean we can’t go ahead and create a problem?
Then Bai Song.
Appraisal Result: This guest’s mind seems to have a few small issues. In the face of evil and chaos, holding fast to one’s original gentle principles is a truly exhausting thing.
Healing Recommendation: Have him go kill an innocent person. The feeling of falling from grace is really quite delightful.
Yu Feichen withdrew the ability.
He thought back to the item on that young man who had tried to kill An Fei — named “Proof of Friendship,” but in reality a weapon that delivered a lethal strike after ten seconds of a handshake. He thought of the item Windsor carried, named “Fire-Suppressant Liquid,” which was in fact an accelerant. That “Mental Healing” would produce effects like these was, somehow, not surprising at all.
Mofei: “What were you doing just now? What kind of ability is that?”
Yu Feichen: “Seeing through an enemy’s weaknesses.”
Mofei: “Not bad.”
An Fei in his field of vision still looked the same as ever, except that his eyes were open.
The colour of his irises seemed layered into many depths — the outermost frost-blue, cold and proud; deep within, a vast and empty blankness.
Silver text surfaced beside An Fei.
Appraisal Result: This guest appears to be in a state of mental dissociation. Does he truly not know who he is — or does he simply refuse, from the very depths of his soul, to remember? Sometimes, we too sink into this kind of reverie.
Healing Recommendation: Find the knot in his heart, and then shatter his soul. A crystal crown is beautiful, certainly — but how could it compare to the sight of crystal fragments scattered across the floor?
The moment he withdrew the ability, An Fei in reality actually opened his eyes, fixing Yu Feichen with a cold, narrow stare.
“You were prying into me.”
Yu Feichen gave a quiet sigh.
“I was showing concern for you,” he said.
As though he had never been on the receiving end of such unguarded “concern,” An Fei’s gaze paused for a moment, and then, with a faint air of discomfort, he turned his head away to look out at the street.
They were nearly at the circus. Strangely, once they entered the surrounding area, the “be a decent human being” graffiti on the walls disappeared — replaced by posters pasted up all over.
The posters were vivid with colour and bold in style, reading: “The circus performance begins today. All guests are warmly welcome.”
“Didn’t someone warn the circus about us last night? Should we be on our guard?” Bai Song said quietly.
“I remember Ac saying there’s a very fierce… ‘female bodhisattva’ here? Why on earth did he use that phrase,” Windsor said.
“That guy always talks in a weird way.”
They were still speaking when the carriage suddenly lurched with a violent jolt.
Amid a chaos of hoofbeats, the horses screamed, and the carriage tipped backward. Yu Feichen kicked open the door, seized An Fei by the shoulder, and pulled him out in a jump. They landed steadily; the other three tumbled out behind them in various states of disarray.
Ahead on the road, several people were sprinting toward them — from their speed and expressions, clearly fleeing for their lives without a second thought. Whatever strange items they’d used, a dazzling array of multi-coloured lights criss-crossed around them at varying distances, muddling the eye considerably and making it nearly impossible to tell how many people there were or exactly where they stood. It had been those flashing lights that startled the horses just now.
The group who had just scrambled out of the carriage watched these fleeing figures — whose self-generated special effects made them look especially absurd — with bewilderment. An Fei’s eyes even carried a faint shade of disdain.
They couldn’t make out the other group clearly. But that group could see them.
“Run——” someone shouted mid-sprint.
Yu Feichen was turning over a question in his mind.
What kind of attack would drive someone to flee like this?
First: it operated from a distance.
Second: it required aiming.
Something surfaced suddenly in his mind. Yu Feichen: “……”
A defensive item materialized in his hand, ready to deploy at any moment.
The next instant, from a great height to the southeast, a sustained burst of heavy machine gun fire erupted like a string of firecrackers.
Gunshots fell like rain. Bullets flew in a dense volley, tearing wildly toward that cluster of dazzling lights. There was no discernible attempt at precision — it was pure, indiscriminate carnage.
What accuracy couldn’t achieve, volume made up for. After a full minute of sustained fire, the multi-coloured lights vanished. Five bodies lay sprawled across the ground at every angle, the earth around them pocked with black scorch marks from the bullets.
Windsor had never witnessed anything like it. He turned, dazed, to follow Yu Feichen’s gaze.
At the very top of the circular open-air circus grounds — vivid with colour, festooned with pennants and streaming ribbons — a figure in a black witch’s robes stood at the highest point. A witch’s hat obscured the upper half of her face, leaving only deep-crimson waves of curled hair exposed, drifting in the wind.
Beside her, mounted on a black iron stand, sat an enormous, jet-black Gatling gun nearly half a person’s height tall, its barrels gleaming with blue light.
Bai Song stammered: “Maybe… we… should just… go…”
If they stayed any longer, the next thing turned into a colander would be the four of them.
Yu Feichen: “……”
In the awkward silence that followed, only Mofei’s voice drifted over.
“I understand the logic of it all,” he said. “…But why would she pick such a bizarre weapon?”