The Hand of Confession – Chapter 170

Volume 6: Days of Being Zapped in the Lab

Beauty Rescues Beauty​¹

My beloved​²is a peerless hero​³.

Shen Maomao’s breathing echoed in the long, dim corridor. Terrified and alarmed, she hugged Little Ancestor and ran straight ahead, her footsteps not daring to pause for even a moment.

            

The big spider behind her had already adapted to its new mode of movement. Its actions, stiff at first, became increasingly flexible. Its four arms and four legs were exceptionally coordinated, and its forward speed grew faster and faster.

A sticky, disgusting tentacle attacked from behind. Little Ancestor, perched on her head, let out several beast-like roars in anger, opened its fourth pair of eyes, and engaged it in battle.

The two collided. Shen Maomao was sent flying by a huge impact force, slamming heavily onto the ground. Inertia sent her sliding forward several more meters. Fortunately, the floor was smooth enough that she didn’t feel much pain, just a stinging heat where her skin contacted the floor.

            

But the next second, the big spider leaped from a distance, soaring directly above Shen Maomao, its two crimson eyes flashing with hunger and greed. One could easily imagine the consequences if it pounced on her.

Shen Maomao certainly wasn’t going to sit and wait for death. She quickly took out the props Lou Jingmo had given her—the simplest, crudest kind, the mass-producible little blasting balls—and threw out a handful at once.

Her heart was bleeding​⁴ as she threw them. On the surface, it looked like throwing small balls, but in reality, she was just throwing money away​⁵! That handful could have cost tens of thousands of yuan, but the effect was undeniable—the big spider was directly blasted away, and Shen Maomao slid several more meters due to the reaction force.

            

She scrambled up, grabbed one leg of Little Ancestor who was just ahead of her, and continued running forward like mad.

Although the big spider was blasted back some distance, it hadn’t suffered any substantial damage. After two seconds of dizziness, it got up again, full of life and energy​⁶, its four legs and four arms churning rapidly, constantly closing the distance with Shen Maomao.

“F%ck!” Shen Maomao cursed. “Stop chasing me! I don’t have any Jizhi Tangjiang!”​⁷

            

Little Ancestor also started yelling, “Yaya ya!!” It was unclear whether it was cursing the monster or Shen Maomao for dangling it upside down​⁸ by the leg.

She hadn’t run far when Shen Maomao took a sharp turn and abruptly stopped.

When misfortune strikes, it really strikes—even drinking water can get stuck in your teeth​⁹. Before her, at the end of the bend, appeared a tightly locked gate. There were no other paths branching off to the sides; it completely sealed off all her escape routes.

            

With the monster relentlessly pursuing from behind and no key card for the gate ahead, Shen Maomao could only put down Little Ancestor, turn around to face the rear, and pull out the series of small life-saving gadgets Lou-jie had given her.

Little Ancestor seemed to sense the grave atmosphere too. It sat solemnly by her leg, its four pairs—eight red eyes—wide open, looking even more like a giant tarantula than the spider monster.

The next second, the big spider appeared around the corner. Shen Maomao once again threw a pile of small round balls, then charged forward holding a dagger—the same model as Lou Jingmo’s, one that could cut through iron like mud​¹⁰.

            

The massive explosion was deafening​¹¹. Shen Maomao thought to herself that she had studied Judo for so long, surely she couldn’t be that much worse than Lou Jingmo, right? But the moment she made contact with that sticky tentacle, her right hand was entangled, and she was rapidly pulled towards it by the tentacle.

She quickly switched the dagger to her left hand and slashed directly at the tentacle’s wrist.

Though called a tentacle, it was actually a softened, elongated arm. One end connected to the monster’s body, the other ended in a small hand about the size of Little Ancestor’s. As she slashed downwards, that small hand came over and gripped the back of her blade with such strength that she couldn’t budge it an inch.

            

In the blink of an eye, she had been brought right before the monster.

The smell of blood assaulted her face. The huge tentacle grabbed her and started trying to stuff her underneath itself. Shen Maomao didn’t dare let go and hand the weapon to the enemy, so she could only plant one foot on one of its faces, halting its next move.

With one arm wrapped around her right hand and one head under her foot, Shen Maomao strained backwards, her body hanging in the air tilted back at a 45-degree angle. She thought about maybe playing tug-of-war​¹² with it, stalling for time…

            

But she forgot, this thing didn’t just have one head.

She was completely immobilized now, which gave the other head its chance. That head opened its mouth wide and approached her, drool mixed with blood dripping down in two lines.

At a time like this, who cared about weapons? Shen Maomao released her grip, letting it have the dagger, then used her right hand to grab onto its other head, her whole body practically forming a “大” (big) character shape.

            

This was a true stalemate. Shen Maomao’s muscles were taut, the tendons in her calf twitched, on the verge of cramping.

At this critical moment​¹³, Little Ancestor scrambled towards them on all fours, then nimbly climbed onto the monster’s body and bit down hard on the neck of the head beneath Shen Maomao’s foot.

Blood spurted out.

            

The hand wrapped around Shen Maomao’s waist quickly retracted as the monster turned to grab Little Ancestor. Losing her support, Shen Maomao fell directly to the ground. The dagger fell with her. She immediately scrambled over to pick it up, then rolled away from the monster’s attack range and quickly got back on her feet.

Little Ancestor, though small, was even more agile than its tentacles. It climbed up and down with incredible speed. The big spider, however, only had one tentacle extending from its back that counted as an “arm”; the other four limbs had all degenerated into legs, useless in this kind of fight.

Shen Maomao frowned, observing the giant composite monster.

            

She had been too panicked earlier and only saw clearly that this thing was formed by combining two people. Now, looking closely, she realized the one on the left seemed to be dominant—the face of the man she had stepped on.

The one on the right was a woman’s face. Although her eyes were open, her movements were always slightly slower than the left side. It was clear at a glance which side was primary and which was secondary.

Shen Maomao gripped the dagger tightly in her right hand and crept closer along the base of the wall, silently.

            

There was never a guaranteed death scenario in the game. This thing looked huge, but it wasn’t omnipotent. It definitely had a weak spot, she just didn’t know if that weakness was its head, or its heart…

Thinking this, she took out another dagger.

One stab left, one stab right. One stab to the head, one stab to the heart. She could do it. She was capable.

            

Taking advantage of the big spider’s attention being completely focused on Little Ancestor, Shen Maomao dashed forward in a single bound​¹⁴, and using all her strength, kicked its left jaw.

Crunch! The big spider’s upper teeth slammed against its lower teeth, its head also kicked slightly upward by her blow.

Shen Maomao gritted her teeth, reversed her grip on the dagger, and stabbed downwards into its temple. Blood splattered all over her hand, feeling disgustingly sticky. Then she bent her knees, lowered her body, slid directly under it, raised her hand, and stabbed the other dagger into its chest cavity.

            

The big spider let out an earth-shattering roar; the entire experimental base seemed to tremble slightly because of it. Shen Maomao continued sliding with inertia, planning to “enter from the head, exit from the tail,” sliding straight out behind the monster. Who knew her plan would only be half-successful—she got in, but getting out was not nearly as easy as she’d thought.

Just as she slid her legs out, a tentacle wrapped around her ankle, instantly hoisting her upside down.

“Holy sh%t!!” Shen Maomao cried out in alarm. “Where did another hand come from!”

            

From her angle, she could easily see its full form—the previous tentacle was clearly still entangled with Little Ancestor. Where did it get another hand?!

Looking closely, one could see—that hand branched off from the man’s real arm, while the one entangled with Little Ancestor was the tentacle from the woman’s back. One man, one woman, one hand each. But why hadn’t the man used this hand earlier? The two fatal wounds were still gushing blood, yet its movements showed no sign of slowing. She wasn’t sure if the stab to the heart had missed, but it was more likely that its vital weak points weren’t in those two places at all.

Shen Maomao’s mind raced. Suddenly, she shouted at Little Ancestor, “Its other tentacle! Find a way to break it!”

            

Little Ancestor looked like it didn’t understand.

Shen Maomao: “!!!” Dropping the ball at the critical moment​¹⁵!

The man sensed the danger, swung his arm, flinging her away, and turned to focus entirely on dealing with Little Ancestor.

            

Shen Maomao landed heavily on the ground, pain racking her as if her internal organs had been displaced​¹⁶.

“Cough cough…” A metallic sweetness welled up in her throat, and she coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Something in her bosom began to emit a chill. Her heart leaped, and she gripped her right hand: “Wait! It’s not worth it!!”

            

Using a Card on such a minor instance? That would be overkill​¹⁷!!

The chill gradually dissipated. Shen Maomao breathed a sigh of relief, pushed herself up from the floor into a sitting position, her eyes fixed intently on the trajectory of the man’s tentacle, preparing to catch her breath for a couple of seconds before launching another attack.

Little Ancestor was still young, after all, and gradually began to lose ground. Six pairs of its eyes were already open, only the last one on its forehead remained closed; it was clearly nearing its limit.

            

She didn’t have much time to rest, because the two tentacles had already wrapped around Little Ancestor, grabbing it and about to stuff it into its mouth.

Shen Maomao ran over in just a few strides, attacking the man’s tentacle. As expected, the man immediately abandoned Little Ancestor and turned to deal with her.

She hadn’t guessed wrong!

            

But even with the two of them working together, they were still no match for the monster going all out. After another struggle, Shen Maomao was sent flying for the second time. Little Ancestor was also about to be shoved into its mouth…

At this critical moment, her falling body was caught from behind by someone, then gently placed on the ground. Then, a fleeting shadow flashed past her, rapidly rushing towards the monster. One foot stepped on the small hand at the end of its tentacle, the other foot stepped on its back. Bending down, hand rose, blade fell—three clean, fluid movements executed in one go. Then, a backflip landed them on the ground. Only in the next second did the tentacle, severed cleanly, detach from the monster’s body and fall silently to the floor.

Blood sprayed everywhere. The monster collapsed with a crash. Little Ancestor bit down on its other tentacle, which now hung limply, as if taking revenge.

            

Lou Jingmo stood before her, unstained by even a drop of blood, her long hair slightly messy. She looked down from above and extended a hand towards her.

Shen Maomao truly heard the sound of her own heartbeat.

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The author has something to say:

            

I repent, I forgot whether I typed this on my phone or computer. I couldn’t find it on my phone during class and thought I’d lost it, almost scared me to death 555​¹⁸

To compensate you little cuties, and to celebrate the group members reaching one hundred, I’ll give out one hundred little red envelopes for comments on this chapter! Charge!

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LP: That blockhead is finally feeling something!!!

            

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