Chapter 412 - 359: Jin Xueli: Turns Out, You Really Do Have to Go to School

...Is this... really the human world?

Jin Xueli hid behind the rooftop machine room, squeezing her eyes shut amid her own heavy gasps, trying to stop her vision from swimming in a dizzying flux of light and shadow.

One of her shoulders burned with a searing pain. She'd slammed it against something when she'd rolled to dodge an attack, tearing her clothes. Fabric and gravel were now pressed into the raw flesh of her wound.

She rubbed her eyes a few times. When she opened them again, her vision had stabilized. Not daring to waste another half-second, she scrambled to her feet and ran.

As for the wound, cleaning it was out of the question. Jin Xueli couldn't even stay in one spot for more than a few seconds—because four head-like balloons floated in the sky, leaving no blind spots on the entire rooftop for her to hide in.

Those four things in the air... they were called balloons, but they didn't look light or flimsy. They were more like four severed human heads, thick-fleshed and heavy-skinned.

Where the "necks" should have been, the flesh and skin were cinched tight. Someone had even tied the binding cord into a bow. With every bob of the head-balloons, the bows and the excess flaps of skin swayed leisurely in the air, like the skirts of a self-consciously elegant dress.

They were several times larger than a normal human head. On each of the bloated, seemingly inflated heads was a face with extremely scattered features. But even though the features on each head looked like they were on the verge of a messy divorce, it was impossible to mistake one for another.

The face that had first spotted Jin Xueli was forever smiling.

Its eyes were just two arching black slits, and its red, smiling mouth split its face from ear to ear.

The second one to arrive, the one that had nearly pierced Jin Xueli's chest, had fierce brows and wrathful, upturned eyes, its face perpetually ablaze with fury. It was the most destructive. After just two swooping passes across the rooftop, the force of its wake had cracked the concrete, leaving two shallow gashes.

The third face had drooping, V-shaped brows, with downturned eyelids and mouth corners, a look of profound sorrow, as if it were about to burst into tears. The last one had a twisted face and a look of loathing, as if Jin Xueli's very existence was the greatest object of its hatred in this world.

Joy, anger, sorrow, hate... Without a doubt, these things were from a Nest.

'Are they Illusions?'

'No, Illusions don't usually have such a clear sense of self. But besides Vultures, residents can't enter either, can they?'

'This isn't the time for Nest research. I need to find a way out, fast—'

"How tragic!"

The sorrowful face balloon drifted into her peripheral vision, wailing loudly, "Jin Xueli is so unlucky! The door to the rooftop stairwell is closed, and now it can't be opened from the outside! She can't escape!"

'...It knows my goal is to get downstairs?'

Amid the sorrowful balloon's lamentations, Jin Xueli lunged the last few steps to the stairwell door.

Just a moment ago, this door had definitely been open.

She shot a quick glance at the angry face balloon rushing toward her from the distance, suppressed the urge to flee, and hurriedly yanked the handle—as expected, it wouldn't open.

'So that crying face can "predict" bad news?'

At the last possible second, Jin Xueli snatched her hand back and dove to the side.

The wind stirred up by the angry face balloon sliced her cheek. Droplets of blood leaped out against the gloomy sky, the spots of brilliant red spattering against the dark clouds as if suspended in time.

At some point, a storm had begun brewing over Blackmoor City.

'Can it break the door open—'

The fragmented thought flashed through her mind. Jin Xueli fell to the ground, the air knocked from her lungs as her own backpack dug into her, but she didn't hear the massive crash of the door being hit.

Jin Xueli managed to twist her head around just in time to see the angry face balloon floating in front of the door. It had apparently stopped just before impact. It now leisurely turned halfway around to glare at her once more.

"Die die die die die."

Seeing it was about to charge again, and with her lying on her back with no time to even get up, Jin Xueli blurted out in desperation, "Wait, I have something to say!"

Nest creatures probably didn't watch many movies.

This kind of cheap, time-stalling tactic, so obvious to any human, actually made all four balloons in the air pause and lower their faces toward her.

"What is it?" the sorrowful face balloon asked. "Is it your last words? How utterly tragic..."

"I know what you are!" Jin Xueli said, while secretly reaching behind her for the backpack pinned beneath her. "I... I took a general studies class in the Nest."

Thankfully, she had taken it recently, so she hadn't forgotten the content and could recall it at this critical moment.

"So what?" said the smiling face balloon. "You want me to congratulate you on your vast knowledge?"

"You're 'Mercenaries,' right?"

Jin Xueli recalled the contents of her class. "In the Nest, there's a portion of undefined, uh, beings—you are beings, right? Oh, sorry... Anyway, you're not residents, and you're not human. Sometimes, if certain conditions are met and an agreement is reached, you can be brought to the human world by a Hunter to act as Mercenaries for a few days..."

This was definitely not information an ordinary Hunter would know. Jin Xueli had been a Hunter for a long time, but she'd only first heard of this in that general studies class. Clearly, the Knight Family kept its internal information under tight lock and key.

"Well said! Good news!" the smiling face balloon suddenly shrieked. "We're about to complete our mission: 'Kill—'"

Before it could finish speaking its "good news" prophecy, Jin Xueli had already drawn a pistol and fired two shots at it. BANG! BANG!

She wasn't a great shot, but thankfully, the face-balloon was large enough and close enough.

One bullet followed right behind the other, burying themselves deep in the smiling face balloon's left cheek. In that instant, its skin sank inwards dramatically, forming two small black holes.

All four balloons shrieked at once. The sound waves vibrated through the air, making the surrounding high-rises seem to twist and distort.

The one that was shot screamed in pain. The other three, however, screamed for their companion's misfortune—one in indignation, one in resentment, one in grief... In any case, for a brief moment, the four balloons were quite busy, and none of them paid any attention to Jin Xueli.

'Who would've thought their camaraderie ran so deep?' Jin Xueli scrambled up, grabbed her backpack, and broke into a run.

As she ran, she shouted, "Wait, I didn't mean to kill you!"

"Who are you kidding you already shot at us we have to kill you."

From the sound of their voices, they were already catching up. The rooftop was empty except for the concrete block of the machine room. Jin Xueli had nowhere to hide and no way to outrun them. The only way out was the hundred-meter drop over the railing.

She really didn't want to jump unless it was her absolute last resort.

"That's because it was about to curse me to death! Of course I know bullets can't kill you! Aren't the bullets still in its face?"

Jin Xueli had to dodge, run, and shout all at once, nearly biting her tongue several times.

"The Knight Family hired you, right? Whatever their terms, I'll double it!"

Even at such a critical moment, she couldn't help but marvel at the incongruity of it all. 'So this is what it feels like to say a rich person's line from a TV show? It's surprisingly satisfying.'

The resources she could mobilize were, of course, no match for an entire Hunter Family Faction. But her opponents weren't human. It would be a waste not to lie, as long as it meant she could survive the day.

"That's hilarious,"

The smiling face balloon, still holding the bullets in its cheek, seemed constrained by its persona. Unable to get angry, it resorted to a roundabout method: laughing hysterically. "Hilarious! Can you offer us double Jin Xueli's life?"

The Knight Family's terms, and the target they were supposed to kill, were both her, Jin Xueli?

'Is there such a bargain in this world? Is this even reasonable?'

"Doesn't that mean they get to kill me without spending anything?"

Jin Xueli was so angry she wanted to stop and argue properly, but the moment she slowed down, she was nearly smashed head-on by the angry face balloon. She could only continue her zig-zag escape across the rooftop, firing her gun to drive the balloons back while finding a moment to retort, "I'll offer the lives of two Knight Family Hunters, how about that? I can even offer ten!"

The head-balloons were more reasonable than she thought.

The sorrowful face balloon floated near her. It didn't attack for the moment, only saying mournfully, "Ten lives... how tragic, what a catastrophe. That's acceptable. Go on, tell us the full names of the ten Knight Family Hunters you're offering."

Jin Xueli was instantly stumped.

"Uh, Peter... John... Jack..."

'What are the most common names again?'

"Anyway, their last name is Knight."

The next moment, she realized it wouldn't matter even if she did know the names of any Knight Family Hunters.

"All nonsense. All wrong. Hurry up and say them, so we can kill them after we kill you."

There was no other way.

Gritting her teeth, Jin Xueli dashed diagonally across the rooftop one more time. She raised her gun, aimed at the lock on the stairwell door, and emptied the rest of her clip into it.

She didn't have time to see if the lock was broken. Shoving the gun into the back of her waistband, she pulled a hammer from her bag and swung it menacingly in the air. To her surprise, all four head-balloons paused, then drifted back a few paces.

"That thing in your hand," said the smiling face balloon.

"It has a disgusting complicated smell so angry want to kill you but don't want to touch it," said the angry face balloon.

'Good that you don't want to touch it.'

Jin Xueli seized the opportunity, spun around, and lunged for the stairwell door again.

The lock was completely destroyed, and the door panel was bent, leaving a gap. She grabbed the cold handle, gave it a single pull, and sure enough, the door swung open. A sudden gust of wind rushed out, making the wound on her face throb with pain.

Like a pebble in her shoe, a small detail suddenly pricked at her.

Just as she was about to plunge into the stairwell, Jin Xueli stopped dead in her tracks.

She looked down at the doorknob.

The door panel and lock were bent and broken by the bullets, but the doorknob was not only undamaged, it was still cool to the touch...

She looked at the dim, gloomy stairwell before her.

'...Why is the wind so strong inside a stairwell?'

The angry face balloon was the main attacker, and the smiling and sorrowful faces could each make prophecies. So... what did the hateful face balloon do?

Jin Xueli hadn't had time to think about it before, but now a suspicion began to form.

When the four balloons first appeared on the rooftop together, her vision had distorted for a moment, shimmering with light and shadow before quickly returning to normal. Busy trying to escape, Jin Xueli had pushed it to the back of her mind.

But was the vision that had stabilized and cleared up after the distortion the "correct" vision?

In other words, was what she was touching, what she was seeing, what she was about to rush into, really a stairwell?

They didn't know that her Path was "jumping from a high altitude."

After she had repeatedly dodged their physical and prophetic attacks, the best way to corner her—or rather, what the balloons *thought* was the best way to corner her—seemed to be forcing her to jump from the roof of a dozens-of-stories-high building.

'If I've discovered the problem and refuse to go down this way, then the balloons will definitely—'

When Jin Xueli turned around, she saw, just as she'd expected, the hateful face balloon charging straight for her, growing larger and larger in her vision.

"Hate you my hatred can twist the world twist you so hate twisted pretzel you twist hate."

'Well, isn't this a coincidence.'

If it hadn't shown her the distorted illusion, Jin Xueli really wouldn't have dared to jump off the building. But now, what lay behind her was just a stairwell.

She didn't dodge or evade. Standing her ground, she opened her arms toward the hateful face balloon.

"Huh what are you hugging me for."

Even though the hateful face balloon's power wasn't as terrifying as the angry one's, the force of the impact still made Jin Xueli's vision go black, nearly causing her to lose consciousness in mid-air. One hand gripped her hammer tightly, the other arm was wrapped firmly around the hateful face balloon, and her feet had already been knocked off the ground.

Together, she and it flew high into the howling wind of the "stairwell." From far away, she seemed to hear gasps of alarm from a nearby high-rise.

'Grab it.'

'All the way↓'

'Down↓'

'Falling↓'

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