Falling into the Abyss

Warning: This chapter may be uncomfortable for some readers.

The crowd yelled and cheered as they went southeast along the street. Ethan also took advantage of the nearby alleys to follow from a distance, not daring to appear on the main road and attract their attention. He couldn’t see who the leader of those people was, but it didn’t seem to be Chen Zeng. He was shorter and fatter than Chen Zeng. There were Alphas, Betas, and even Omegas following him. They strode forward enthusiastically as if they were going to accomplish a grand matter on a spectacular scale. Ethan tried to throw sticks and stones at the silent robot policemen, forcing them to make some noise and startle the large group of believers.

However, the robot policemen did not seem to respond to his attacks.

It was very likely that someone had modified the policing program of these machines…… On the other hand, they ignored any violations when the Lord Grace’s Association members showed up. But if that was the case, as long as the whole city became believers, wouldn’t the Forbidden City be without any guards?

Why would Vasiliev agree to do such a thing? Didn’t he want to live? Once the nonhumans came to know of this secret and everyone wore the symbol of the Lord Grace’s Association, the Forbidden City would only have an empty wall to hold a city of vicious criminals. Even if these guards had guns in their hands, they couldn’t handle 100 times more people than them, could they?

Or……only part of the robot policemen were set up this way?

Ethan didn’t understand, but now all he could do was inform a guard. Although this would expose his illegal behavior of sneaking into the east area, it was likely that Samuel and Schneider’s lives were at risk, so he couldn’t care less about himself.

He ran through several streets and finally found three patrolling guards. He rushed over immediately and was out of breath as he said, “A human life is about to be lost!!! There’s a riot over there!!!”

The leading guard was a blond Alpha in his thirties. When he saw him coming, he immediately raised his gun to him and said, “Report your identity!”

“I’m Ethan Eldridge, number 252!”

“You said there was a riot?” another guard asked.

Ethan nodded, “Yes! They’re going southeast through 16th Avenue now! There are hundreds of people!”

“Hundreds of people are loitering outside in violation of curfew?” The blond guard tsked and said, “These fuckers have gotten more daring?”

Seeing that the three guards didn’t seem nervous at all, Ethan became suspicious. However, the next moment the blond guard said, “You’ve done a good job. Now bring us to take a look.”

“Shouldn’t you call for backup?” Ethan frowned. “There are hundreds of them!”

“Mike, call the guard hall.” The blond guard turned around and causally ordered one of the other guards, and then, towards Ethan, he lifted his head as he glanced at him. “Let’s go.”

Ethan saw that the guard called Mike was actually using his capsule to contact the guard hall, so he turned to lead the way according to the instructions of the blond guard. However, as soon as he turned his back to them, he felt that something hard hit him in the back of his head, and the darkness quickly engulfed him.

His pale and thin body fell to the ground. The blond guard slowly put away the butt of his gun, grinned with a mocking smile, and said to the other three, “It seems that they have started. Do you want to go to see the fun?”

“Of course I want to see. Maybe those two bitches can give us brothers a good time before they’re hung.”

“Seriously, don’t you think that Samuel, with a stronger body, must have a different flavor when he’s pressed down?”

“I’d like to try Schneider’s ass more. Damn it. He used to look like he was always so high up. I’d like to make him cry for his father and mother and let him have a taste of a real Alpha.” The guard who had ordered Mike wore a vulgar smile as he carried Ethan on his shoulder and then went towards the dark lane with the other two guards.

Schneider next to him was not in any better shape. He limped as he walked and was pushed to the ground several times, and his clothes were torn to pieces. He was silent, and he would only occasionally look at him. His eyes had always contained calmness, but now it was difficult to hide the fear encroaching within them.

The last time Samuel saw him show this kind of hopeless fear was when he was still on the Red Earth mission. Even when he met those disgusting worms on Pales, he never gave up and maintained the calm a soldier would have. But this time, when they were in human hands, he showed such a desperate expression.

This period of time had been as agonizing as being in hell, and the façade Samuel had tried to maintain for more than 30 years had finally completely disintegrated. He was forced to conduct a gender test in public in the Court of Ethics. He was stripped completely naked under pairs of malicious eyes, and his dignity was broken and trampled on the ground. He watched Typhoeus identify him and Schneider on the witness stand and watched his former subordinates and partners betray him one by one. Later, he began to grow numb, and the only good thing was that he didn’t see Ethan on the witness stand.

He grew up on the dirty and messy Seventh Space Station. The only appropriate word to describe the situation there was squalor. It was the Earth Union’s largest slum. He didn’t know who his Alpha father was. He only knew that his Omega father had suffered a lot of grievances to survive and even needed to sell his body in exchange for food to support him. No matter how the people in other bright and rich space stations preached about equal rights for Omegas, or whether Omegas in other planetary states had been granted the same rights as Alphas, in any backward and remote place, Omegas still existed as petty and lowly goods. His father was afraid that he would be bullied, so he always lied to others and said he was an Alpha. Even after puberty, when he had his first estrus, his father refused to let his child become an Omega who would suffer grievances.

However, Samuel didn’t want to reveal his gender because he always thought he was an Alpha. Even if he entered heat, he never thought he was an Omega. He loved boxing and has been fascinated since he was seven years old when he first saw the video of the boxing championship. However, an Omega could not appear in the boxing circle. Even if there was no explicit regulation, it was a hidden rule. He used the identity of an Alpha to enter the boxing club, emerged with a fierce fighting style in every match, and climbed to the throne of champion little by little. No one doubted that his gender was an Alpha. He took his father out of the rotten mouse hole and sent him to a beautiful mansion on the Fifth Space Station. His life became better and better, and he was full of hope.

Once his gender emerged, he hid it for a full thirty years.

Now, in the Court of Ethics, everything he had worked so hard to maintain for 30 years had come to nothing. In an instant, he changed from a respected Alpha to an Omega. Everyone pointed and commented on him, and even his friends who he had gone through life and death with also looked at him with disdain or hunger.

Back in the Forbidden City, the nightmare had only just begun. Obviously, Ethan had been taken elsewhere by Vasilev, and he was also forcibly transferred to another unfamiliar residential area. The whole building was full of Alphas, and they were all Alphas who had a history with him before, so they tried to rush in and mark him. Once the fact that he was an Omega became known, it was as if those Alphas forgot the pain of being beaten all over until their teeth were scattered all over the floor, and they no longer gave up easily. Even if they were beaten until their faces turned bloody, they would rush forward again. Then, just as Samuel was about to run out of energy, an unexpected person appeared to save him.

Cavin, who was once his opponent, unexpectedly ruthlessly declared to those who tried to attack him: he would deal with whoever dares to do a horrible thing like forcing a mark on his territory.

Samuel thought that Cavin was trying to hit him when he was down. However, he didn’t expect that the other party just glanced at him with a pair of complex and compassionate eyes and said, “Although I hate you, you are also a worthy opponent after all.” Then, he left.

Under the fear of Cavin’s influence, most Alphas no longer dared to attempt it openly. Still, they obviously did not intend to give up. Samuel met with ambushes several times in dark alleys, one of which was particularly serious. His stomach was being hit so much it bled. However, he finally resisted and did not give in to the Alpha.

Then, Schneider was sent to the Forbidden City.

He was not only deducted 50% of his moral value points for forgery of identity, but his crimes were also aggravated due to having an affair with an Omega. He was deducted 90% of his moral value points and directly thrown into the Forbidden City.

Schneider was in a worse position than he was. Although he was only half Omega, he used to be the “King” of the whole Forbidden City. Now the king had been dragged down from his throne, and he was also touted as a toy that people could play with, even Omegas. How would that not make some monsters eager to try?

The first day he entered the city, Schneider was almost marked by a group of thugs. If it wasn’t for a young guard who still had the conscience to stop him, Samuel was afraid a tragedy would have happened. When Samuel saw Schneider, he was naked, and there was blood on his cheek, but he didn’t look disgraced, and his gaze was still cold and firm. When he saw him, the first question he asked was, “Are you okay?”

Samuel wanted to hug and comfort him, but Schneider’s body trembled, obviously a reflexive action out of fear. He imagined that Schneider must have experienced a lot of humiliation in the prison as he waited for the trial, and he fell into chaos when he returned. He must have developed a shadow in his heart, and Samuel’s heart could not help but feel a sharp pain.

He always felt that the one who was experiencing these experiences wasn’t Schneider. It shouldn’t happen to Schneider, who in his heart was proud and serious, but also gentle and just.

Why did the people he cared about always experience all sorts of pain? Was he really the embodiment of bad luck?

Schneider thought that Samuel’s painful expression was due to his refusal. He lowered his eyes and said, “I’m sorry, give me some time. I’ll be fine in a minute.”

That night, they hugged each other carefully and listened to each other’s heartbeats. That night was as cold as death. Now, in this dangerous hell, they probably only had each other.

Just this evening, before they were dragged out of the room, they were hugging each other on the bed as they did previously. Schneider asked him in a whisper, “If we can get out of here one day, where do you want to go?”

Samuel gently stroked the other’s angular face and chuckled in a low voice. “Anywhere would be fine, as long as we don’t stay in the Earth Union.”

“I want to go to planet Milo,” Schneider said, a deep sadness hovering inside his dark eyes, “Because it’s said that it’s very similar to Earth in ancient times, with a blue sky and sea.”

“Do you like the sea?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen it.”

“Well, when you get out, I’ll go with you.”

This was their last conversation before their door was kicked open. They fought hard, but they couldn’t resist the fighting prowess of the sea of people and were dragged out of the room.

At this moment, their hands and feet were tied, and they kneeled on the ground. Over their heads hung two thick knots.

The chubby Beta was standing behind them, wearing a kind of strange robe with a deformed cross on his chest. He held Chen Zeng’s pamphlet in his hand and shouted to the passionate people around him.

“The Great Evil God descended because the universe was full of dirty sins. As an Omega, they shoulder the sacred mission of reproduction, but they do not know how to love themselves, committing such dirty acts! Their behavior is the shame of all of mankind. If we ignore their acts, we will be hated and punished by God! Such a sin can only be washed clean with blood, and it is only then that we can quell the anger of God.

People who don’t want to be burned by the Great Evil God’s hellfire must listen to the Lord’s instructions, thank Him for His blessing, and offer everything to Him. Today, we are going to follow the doctrine of the Lord and quell God’s anger with the blood of these two blasphemers!”

The people below cheered and agreed with his preaching. Pairs of eyes filled with lunacy, bloodthirst, and excitement stared at them. Just looking at those eyes, Samuel felt that he would rather go to Red Earth to face the disgusting God of Disorder or the head-eating worms on Pales.

He didn’t even understand. He had just hidden his identity and didn’t affect the interests of these people. Why did they hate him so much? Just because he was different from them, just because he didn’t want to live by their rules?

Why did people hate people that were different from themselves?

At this time, there was a riot in the crowd. Three guards passed through the crowd and went straight to the high platform. The blond guard threw the unconscious man on his shoulder onto the stage and said with a smile, “John, we have another one for you. Doesn’t this man seem to have been an accomplice to both of them before?”

Samuel saw Ethan groaning on the ground as though he was slowly waking up, and his heart twisted. He yelled at the crowd, “No! He has nothing to do with me! You made a mistake!”

“Shut up!” The stout man known as John slapped him heavily, then walked up to Ethan and crouched down to have a look.

Ethan’s eyes slightly opened, and his brow was tightly wrinkled. He seemed to be very confused. John laughed, “Ha! The three happened to be together. It seems that it is God’s will to punish them today!”

“Hang them! Hang them! Hang them!” They were unable to differentiate the nonhumans from the guards now. They all shouted until their throats were hoarse. Their voices made the entire sewage system hum and vibrate, and one was afraid that their voices could even be heard above ground.

Ethan struggled to wake up and found himself in the middle of the storm. This was obviously the broad riverbank that the Lord Grace’s Association used for their gatherings. He was lying on the platform where Chen Zeng usually preached. Not far from him, Samuel and Schneider were kneeling side by side……

This was…… What was going on……

“Hang them! Hang them! Hang them!” Gazes twinkled and burned with hatred, overlapping as light and shadows crisscrossed. The air was hot and sticky, and there was an aura of lunacy everywhere. Ethan propped himself up, ignoring his dizziness, and yelled at John, “Are you all crazy!!!”

John looked at him with a look of fake pity and put a hand on his head. “You lost lamb, don’t you know how to repent? Don’t you know that what you’re doing is wrong?”

Ethan shook off his hand and wanted to stand up, but he was kicked to his knees by a strong Alpha with a mask standing on the stage. His legs softened, and he knelt down again. He looked in astonishment at the crowd of people who were cheering on. He laboriously shouted, but his voice was so small that he couldn’t beat the more than 100 lunatics who wanted to see blood.

Under the repeated cries of “hang them,” the two masked Alphas each took a stool towards Samuel and Schneider, forcing them to stand on the stools. Ethan saw that Samuel raised his empty gaze to him and shook his head slowly. Schneider, on the other hand, closed his eyes in despair, his body trembling.

“Samuel,” Schneider whispered when he was forced to stand up by the man. He suddenly raised his eyes and looked at the people around him. “There was something that I might have forgotten to tell you. I love you.”

Samuel’s lips trembled, but he couldn’t say anything.

At this time, no one noticed that Ethan’s eyes changed when he was forcibly pressed to the ground by John.

His heart was burning.

But this time, it was not fear but anger.

Maybe this anger had existed in his heart for a long time. Perhaps it had existed when he was bullied by Tito’s people, when he was used as a tool by the head priest at Mars, when he was kidnapped by Roland on Pales, when he was isolated by everyone on Neptune, when he was on the verge of death on Red Earth, when he was taken into the Forbidden City, when his father broke all ties with him, when he was betrayed by Roland, and even when he was very young, when he was locked up in the closet, the seeds of anger and hatred had been buried.

He didn’t understand why people were still killing each other and doing such meaningless and stupid acts in the face of this chaotic and dark universe? Why were people so easily incited to attack strangers who had nothing to do with themselves when they were faced with a crisis, incapable of thinking for themselves? Why was it that when facing people and things that were different or unfamiliar to themselves, their first reaction was not to understand but to destroy?

Did such people really have any value to be protected? Were they more worthy of living than Samuel and Schneider?

In fact, he had not been a human for a long time, right? Why did he insist on being a member of this race? He had been robbed of everything. What was he still insisting on?

Look, the faces distorted by almost ecstatic excitement were no longer the same kind as him.

They were food.

Black lines quickly spread along the sides of his face. Two long black lines extended from the back of the neck and passed through his cheek to the corner of his eye. The green in his eyes grew richer, and his originally round irises suddenly elongated. It was too late for John to notice that something was wrong with the man he was pressing down.

No one knew how those black tentacles suddenly burst out from the pale and thin body. As gorgeous as black fireworks, the flower of death suddenly fell from the sky and expanded rapidly. The huge mouths at the top of the tentacles shattered human heads, and the venom hissed and smoked. The skin and flesh of the infected people melted like ice cream, and the spines full of barbs strung the people together like grasshoppers. Others were caught in the air by tentacles and abruptly ripped in two and shed blood like rain.

In less than a minute, the believers, who were just high spirited and excited, began to run around amid the screams of terror, only to find that no matter which direction they ran, endless tentacles swarmed around them. Blood and flesh splashed on the walls and fell amid the sewer’s sewage, dyeing everything red.

John’s legs grew weak, and he fell to his knees before Ethan. At this time, Ethan tilted his head and stood up slowly. Behind him, the flower of death danced as though it was joyous, and blood stained his face.

“Great……Great Evil God……” John looked up at Ethan. His fat body was shaking, appearing like a pocket, and his trousers were wet and smelled of urine. He looked ridiculous and pitiful.

Ethan suddenly grinned, revealing his white teeth. He reached out and touched John’s head, tilting his head slightly as he imitated John’s tone and asked, “You lost lamb, don’t you know how to repent? Don’t you know that what you’re doing is wrong?”

The author has something to say:

Many students have guessed that Ethan will explode in this chapter. Yes, he has to relieve his frustration after so long~

T/N: omg Ethan is so cool. That last sentence though. I really love Kaneki-ed (ref to Tokyo Ghoul) Ethan. That face slapping though. As you can see, our protagonist really isn’t anyone good. He isn’t anyone necessarily bad either~