The Hand of Confession – Chapter 306

Volume 9: The Days Can’t Be Lived Anymore

Exit?

Run back!

“What time is it now, you don’t care about your own life anymore?” Shen Maomao asked in a high voice.

Boss Huo’s tears fell like rain: “Dongdong is someone I’ve watched grow up since he was little. I personally watched him grow from such a tiny little ball¹ into what he is now. He is very sensible and very obedient. He didn’t want to become like this either.”

Shen Maomao looked at him from across the distance. The distance was very far, and the light was very dim, but she could guess that that pair of eyes should be filled with reluctance and pain.

Lou Jingmo asked him: “What do you want to do? Take him outside?”

The current Huo Dongdong could no longer be considered a human. It was grabbing Boss Huo, and although it had not yet made any move to attack people, everyone present could feel that its emotions were becoming more and more frantic, the clarity in its eyes was diminishing, and it was not far from completely losing control.

“Go outside?” Two beams of light lit up in Boss Huo’s eyes. “There are fewer people outside… as long as we walk toward a remote place, nothing will happen, right?”

“Uh…” Shen Maomao said, not too certain, “I suppose… so?”

He seemed to have ignited with hope, patting Huo Dongdong’s hand and saying wishfully²: “Dongdong… Papa will take you out to play, okay… as long as there’s enough time, everything will get better…”

“So hungry…” Huo Dongdong could only unconsciously repeat to him, “So hungry…”

Shen Maomao felt that this was a bit inappropriate, but for a moment she couldn’t say exactly what was inappropriate. But in the end, this was Boss Huo’s own business, and since he was unwilling, it was natural that the several of them had no reason to go over the boss’s head and kill his son.

“Dongdong, we…” Boss Huo struggled to turn his body in his son’s grasp, attempting to direct him toward the maze exit, but in the next second, Huo Dongdong suddenly opened his mouth wide and took a bite of the upper half of his head.

His voice came to an abrupt halt, as if everyone in a movie theater was watching with excitement when someone suddenly pressed the pause button, stopping at an awkward, in-between position.

Afterwards, fresh blood gushed out from Huo Dongdong’s mouth.

A crow circled above its head, letting out a mournful cry. Black crow feathers rustled down, appearing exceptionally bewitching under the reflection of the red moon.

The event happened too suddenly. The three people not far away didn’t react at all. In the blink of an eye, Boss Huo, who had been filled with hope and despair, had the period of his life drawn by his own son’s hand.

“Huo—” Shen Maomao’s eyes widened. She took half a step forward with her right leg and froze in that posture.

Huo Dongdong took a second bite. His teeth closed with a kacha sound. The part of Boss Huo’s body that was bitten off fell softly to the ground. Fresh blood seeped into the snowy ground, flowing beneath the layer of snow.

Lou Jingmo grabbed her arm, pulling her into a forward sprint: “What are you looking at? Hurry up and run?!”

Shen Maomao subconsciously followed her, running forward. As she ran, she couldn’t help but glance back, and then glance again—Huo Dongdong was chewing on the rest of Boss Huo’s body, clearly having gone completely berserk.

“How did it suddenly become like this…”

Shang Zhou, who had caught up from behind, said while running: “The ghosts know… Boss Huo definitely didn’t tell the whole story. I’ve never heard of any Evolver who needs to eat ghosts to fill their stomach!”

Shen Maomao withdrew her gaze: “What do we do now?”

Lou Jingmo said: “The most urgent task is to leave immediately.”

The chewing sound from behind was still continuing, and at the same time, they could also hear Huo Dongdong’s low murmur: “So hungry… so hungry…”

Shen Maomao just felt her scalp go numb, her hair standing on end.

Judging from the flowers on Huo Dongdong’s body, I’m afraid there weren’t many ghosts left in the maze that could fill his stomach. Then what was left, wasn’t it them, these fragrant and crispy people?

She ran panting at the very front, leading the way for the two of them. In order to speed up, the three of them had already thrown away all their luggage, doing their best to travel light. If it weren’t for the fact that the wind was really too strong and the temperature too low, she would have even taken off her down jacket to run.

Under this intensity of running, Shang Zhou, whose physical strength was already slightly weaker than theirs, had already fallen behind by a distance. But in the face of life and death, Shen Maomao had no intention of waiting for him.

Soon they ran near the location where they had separated from Xing Tian’s squad. From a distance, Shen Maomao saw a blurry black shadow standing by the wall, seemingly waiting for them.

When she ran up to him, she finally saw that the person was unexpectedly Heng Chuan, whom she had thought had already run off.

Heng Chuan saw them and was just about to say something when he discovered the two women ran past him like the wind, without giving him a single glance.

He was stunned for a second, then saw the slightly slower Shang Zhou behind them and hurriedly went up to meet him: “What are you running from?”

Shang Zhou panted: “Talk while we run! Go!”

Heng Chuan hurriedly kept up: “What on earth happened? What’s going on?”

As soon as the words³ fell, a howl came from the distance; the sound was earth-shattering and deafening.

Shen Maomao seemed to hear a kind of sadness in it that was difficult to describe with words, but in reality, Huo Dongdong had no consciousness to speak of anymore. Perhaps she was the only one who felt the sadness.

The ground trembled slightly; it must be chasing them. Shang Zhou was so tired he couldn’t speak, intermittently reminding him: “You go… huff huff… go ask them!”

Hearing this, Heng Chuan patted his shoulder: “Keep it up⁴.”

After speaking, he disappeared from before his eyes like the wind⁵.

Shang Zhou: “…Grass⁶!”

…

“Is there a problem with Huo Dongdong?” This was the first sentence from Heng Chuan, who had caught up.

Shen Maomao’s steps faltered for a moment, but she didn’t stop. She tilted her head to look at the man who was effortlessly keeping up beside the two of them and asked: “What do you know?”

Heng Chuan also threw his own luggage into the snow beside them and said: “I don’t know much. Huo Dongdong is an official experimental subject. Some time ago, his keeper⁷ took him and escaped from the laboratory, and now they are wanted by the officials.”

This term, “keeper,” made Shen Maomao frown.

In his mouth, it was as if the previous Huo Dongdong was not a living human child, but an animal with no human rights.

“Don’t look at me with that kind of expression,” Heng Chuan said helplessly. “That’s just what they call it there. I’m only repeating it. I’m not too clear on the specifics of the experiments. In short, Huo Dongdong is a 【weapon】 created by the officials to deal with monsters⁸.”

The result was obvious: they had already half-succeeded.

Huo Dongdong possesses the ability to eat ghosts, but his appetite gets bigger and bigger, and his consciousness becomes less and less clear with continuous eating, until finally, he completely becomes a monster that devours everything.

“There are many more 【weapons】 like this. Calculating the time, they should have all lost control like Dongdong. The center of Paradise Lost has already become a mess, and in a while, the number of people fleeing to the maze will only increase.”

Shen Maomao breathed out a puff of white air: “How do you know?”

Heng Chuan: “Because I’m an official. From the very beginning, I felt this method was not advisable. Unfortunately, because my position was low and my power was slight, I had no right to speak, so I could only run for it before things went completely south.”

“According to what you’re saying, you guys should be colleagues, then? Then how come Boss Huo doesn’t know you?”

“Although my rank is low, a minor lab worker like him is still not worthy of speaking directly with me.”

Shen Maomao felt his words were about half-and-half; she couldn’t fully believe them, but there was no need to completely disbelieve them either.

But for now, all of this had to be put aside. No matter how important the instance’s main quest was, it wasn’t as important as their own lives.

The shaking of the ground grew more and more intense. Behind Shang Zhou, one could even see a bulging mound of snow. The snow mound was like a dragon, rapidly approaching him.

Shen Maomao could already see the tightly closed main gate ahead. That was the exit of the maze, and perhaps also the exit of the game. As long as they got out, they would be safe.

Heng Chuan put on a burst of speed, quickly rushing in front of the two of them: “I’m going first, you guys keep it up!”

After speaking, he ran to the door in just a few strides and pulled the main gate open.

A white light came from inside the door, seeming to confirm her guess.

Lou Jingmo quickly walked over, grabbed the slowly closing door, opened it, and rushed inside.

Shang Zhou and Huo Dongdong also arrived at the doorway at the same time.

Shang Zhou forcefully lunged forward, rolling into the doorway. Shen Maomao closed the door with a backhand motion, but a claw fiercely grabbed the doorframe, and a twisted neck stretched in, looking at them as if they were plates of dessert.

Shen Maomao pushed the door forcefully, sincerely hoping that the door could clamp down and break its head.

But obviously, this idea was not realistic.

Her whole body was leaning against the door, observing the situation inside the door with narrowed eyes.

This place was a vast expanse of white. Besides the white light, there seemed to be nothing else, but—why hadn’t they logged out of the game yet?

Shen Maomao felt that something was wrong. It seemed that something had deviated from her predictions and was bolting⁹ in an unknown direction.

Shang Zhou was as tired as a dead dog. He climbed up and leaned his back against the door, which counted as helping. His eyes, however, kept circling the patch of white light: “The outside world is actually like this… Is this the white light exit you mentioned? How can we get out?”

Shen Maomao said uncertainly: “That’s not right… before, you would be teleported as soon as you got near the white light… why is this one not reacting at all?”

Huo Dongdong let out another roar, roaring until the white light trembled slightly, releasing rings of white light that looked like smoke rings.

Lou Jingmo’s pupils shrank, and she immediately said: “Run back!!”

Shen Maomao had long since developed the habit of doing whatever Lou Jingmo said, but at this moment, a certain Huo Dongdong was still blocking the door outside. Was it really okay to run back?

Although she was thinking this in her heart, her actions were not at all hesitant. She pulled open the left half of the door and, taking advantage of the moment Huo Dongdong retracted his neck, ran out from underneath him.

Shang Zhou followed closely behind.

Lou Jingmo did the same, but her position was further inside, so she was a step slower and was knocked back by Huo Dongdong, who was blocking the doorway.

Shen Maomao went forward, bit her lower lip, and plunged the dagger into the pistil of a flower on Huo Dongdong’s back, causing the face inside the pistil to let out a scream. She then turned her head and shouted to Lou Jingmo: “Lou-jie!!”

Lou Jingmo nodded to indicate that she understood, then charged over again.

The main gate closed bit by bit. Huo Dongdong completely ignored the attack from behind, single-mindedly defending against Lou Jingmo, looking as if he would rather die than let her out. Lou Jingmo tried several times but was never able to find a breakthrough point. With Huo Dongdong blocking the doorway like a small mountain, there was simply no chance to slip past.

It seemed that they could only leave after dealing with Huo Dongdong first.

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