Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Big-Head Monster

The woman lowered her lashes, hiding whatever flickered across her face. “No. The Guard Team arrived too fast. They noticed me before I could even make a move.”

Fatty snorted, pure contempt.

The thin man looked disappointed too. “Don’t act alone for a while. Unless we get intel on a Hidden Boss, we focus on finding the Maze.”

“Mm.” The woman answered lazily. “Got it.”

Fatty complained in a loud, ugly voice, “Picking a fight with the bureau is pointless! How many points do you get for killing them? It’s a waste of time. If we find a Hidden Boss—even a juvenile form—that’s at least three thousand!”

“We don’t have scouting skills,” the thin man said with a sigh. “Finding a Hidden Boss is luck.” He stood. “I’m going out to finish this week’s basic tasks. You two keep an eye on her. Pry the clue out of her mouth.”

Outside, in the yard, Feng Ling lowered herself further.

She heard the front door open. Footsteps faded away.

One of them left.

Feng Ling’s mind sped up.

Three aberrants remained inside. The little girl clearly had no fighting power. The woman’s blood-worm ability didn’t scare Feng Ling much anymore—not if she solved the “unkillable” problem.

That left the fat man. Unknown ability. Unknown danger.

Feng Ling narrowed her eyes and watched him.

He was fat in a way that didn’t look human. His neck was thick and buried. His arms were round as pillars. His belly sagged so heavy it almost covered his thighs, like a giant, greasy dumpling of flesh.

He grabbed the girl by the back of her collar and snarled, “Don’t think silence protects you. You must know something about the Maze, or you wouldn’t have posted on the forum looking for a team!”

The girl had clearly taken a beating. Her voice came out thin and shaking. “I really don’t know… please… let me go…”

The woman yawned, blanket pooled around her. “We’ve questioned her for ages and got nothing. Just kill her.”

“Don’t tell me how to do my job!” Fatty roared. He lifted the girl and slammed her into the floor.

She cried out and curled into herself. Tears spilled from the skull mask’s eyeholes, making her look both pathetic and absurd.

“Don’t kill me… please don’t kill me…” she begged. “I don’t even have enough points to make a new account anymore… please…”

Fatty stomped toward her. “I hate running into garbage players. If you can’t play, logout already! Don’t drag us down while we clear the Maze!”

He seized her slender arm and shouted, “Talk! Where’s the Maze entrance?!”

“Aaaah—!” The girl screamed. Under the mask, the exposed part of her mouth and jaw went pale in an instant, like blood had been drained straight out of her.

Feng Ling, watching through the glass, leaned in.

Why did a simple grip hurt that much?

A few seconds later, she understood.

The girl’s pale forearm began to corrode in Fatty’s hand—rotting, melting, turning into purple-green sludge. With a wet plop it fell to the floor, releasing white smoke like something burning through metal.

The girl rolled, screaming, clutching at the stump.

Half her arm was gone.

So that’s his ability.

Acid. Not just a splash—something his body produced, strong enough to dissolve bone.

Tricky.

Her bone blade probably couldn’t take direct contact for long. But Fatty wasn’t agile. He was heavy, slow.

She could still win.

As long as the thin man didn’t come back.

Feng Ling slipped away from the window, circled to the villa’s side, climbed out over the wall, and drove the truck slowly to the front.

Either the villa’s insulation was too good or the girl’s screams covered everything. Feng Ling climbed walls and moved around without drawing attention.

She stacked cotton mattresses, charcoal, and flour at the front and back doors. She soaked everything in gasoline.

Then she carried the half-bucket she’d saved and returned to the glass doors, watching the two inside.

The gasoline smell crept in fast.

The woman stood abruptly, frowning as she sniffed the air.

Fatty was still absorbed in torture, pinching the girl’s jaw as he snarled, “Talk or not? If you won’t talk, then you don’t need that mouth—”

“Hey,” the woman snapped, annoyed. “Do you smell that?”

“Stop fucking bothering me!” Fatty barked back.

The woman’s expression tightened. She strode to the sliding glass door and pulled it open.

Feng Ling moved the instant the gap appeared.

She sprang from the shadows and flung the gasoline jug.

A third scythe arm burst from her shoulder, slashing the jug open in midair.

The woman’s eyes widened—no time to scream before the gasoline drenched her.

“Aaaah!” Terror cracked her voice. She collapsed into a thick pool of bright red blood and shot toward the outside, fast as a thrown knife.

Feng Ling already had a lighter in hand. She flicked it and tossed it into the spreading fuel.

Whoosh.

Fire swallowed the blood worms in an instant.

Flames raced across the floor. Smoke rose in thick, choking sheets.

And the other aberrant didn’t panic at all.

Fatty stared at Feng Ling like she was a prize he’d been dreaming about. His eyes burned with manic excitement.

“Hidden Boss!” he shouted.

He charged.

His bulk surged forward like a collapsing wall. But just as Feng Ling expected, he wasn’t quick.

She sidestepped easily and chopped down with her bone blade.

At the same time, she flicked a glance toward the flames.

The woman convulsed within the fire—half human, half insect. Her human form screamed and thrashed. Her insect form rolled and boiled, a living slurry of worms.

“Logout! Logout!” she shrieked, hysterical.

Then she collapsed.

Blood worms burst and splattered, painting the tiles and walls with scattered red stains.

Was she dead?

Smoke and fire hid the answer.

Feng Ling didn’t stop moving. She evaded Fatty’s clumsy swings, guiding him back toward the blaze, then cut in sharp, her bone blade striking without mercy.

She aimed for his neck.

The blade bit through skin and into fat. A slick, translucent grease spilled out, mixed with thin threads of blood.

Feng Ling frowned.

She’d meant to take his head—but his fat was too thick, blunting the cut.

She shifted to strike again.

Fatty’s cheeks puffed suddenly. His head began to swell, like it was inflating from the inside.

It grew—bigger, bigger—until his neck disappeared completely, his head fused directly to his shoulders.

His mouth split wider than it should’ve been possible. His eyes were squeezed up toward his forehead.

A big-head monster stood in front of Feng Ling, mouth yawning open, a wet laugh bubbling out of it.

“Heh… heh… Hidden Boss…”

Feng Ling’s instincts screamed.

She turned and ran, trying to open distance.

She took two steps before something yanked her calf hard.

She twisted—and saw a tongue, impossibly long, lash out from the monster’s mouth and stick to her leg like glue.

In a flash, she saw the girl’s arm melting away.

No hesitation. Feng Ling chopped down on the tongue.