NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14
Anna!!!
In the instant that the slender girl plummeted sharply, Leon, who was observing the situation on this side with his telescope from the diagonal opposite, felt as if he had fallen into an icy abyss! At this moment, his mind didn’t even have time to process the concept of death; his consciousness went blank instantly. His heart felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand, seemingly cutting off all blood supply to his body, and his limbs became stiff and cold, losing all sensation.
The entire world, in this moment, was eerily silent. Everything froze on the image of a pale little face helplessly falling, her thin lips pressed tightly together in effort. All Leon could do now was watch helplessly as his sister fell from the sky with eyes full of despair!
“BOOM!!!”
A thunderous explosion echoed down half the street. Following closely behind was the sound of glass shattering en masse and the low, piercing screech of metal bending under immense force.
Most of the windows in the hospital were shattered by the violent impact. The exterior wall on the fourth floor also suffered significant damage, with embedded metal frames bending outward and pushing the outer bricks to fly everywhere, leaving the street below in a state of chaos.
But what filled Leon with joy and relief was that Anna, who had just been plummeting rapidly, did not hit the ground but instead stopped abruptly between the first floor and the ground.
Although she fainted due to the tremendous impact and seemed to have been cut on her thigh by flying shards of glass, Leon could still see through the telescope that Anna’s chest was rising and falling violently, proving that she was at least still alive!
Thank you… thank you! I owe you a life!
However, just as Leon was overjoyed and staring at Anna being gently placed on the ground, feeling grateful to the reliable bandage woman, the Black Goat narrowed its eyes and furrowed its brows, saying, “Not good, we’re in trouble now!”
That’s right!
Upon hearing the Black Goat’s words, Leon snapped back to reality and immediately realized something was off. The point of impact was right at Anna’s ward! The bandage woman was still inside! Although the fact that the bandage woman managed to catch Anna proved she was still alive and her soul remained stable, could she really be unscathed after such a massive collision?
“I’m not saying Emma is in danger; don’t worry about that! That bandage woman’s survival skills rank highly within the entire Clearing Bureau. Even if you died, she might not. What I mean is,” the Black Goat shook its head and explained proactively upon sensing Leon’s mental disturbance, “this incident isn’t normal. The out-of-control contaminator is probably not a ‘natural’ occurrence; he likely knows about the existence of the Clearing Bureau.”
Hearing this… it seems true! Leon couldn’t help but stiffen his expression, noticing the oddities.
Whether it was the hospital gaining a soul precisely when the bandage woman entered or the collision occurring exactly when Anna was lifted out of the window, making it impossible to dodge, everything seemed too deliberate, as if specifically targeting the bandage woman for an attack.
So… there might be accomplices? Staying outside might not be safe either, right? After watching Anna being untied from the curtains by the nurse who arrived first and then carried away unsteadily, Leon took a deep breath, suppressing the fear that urged him to flee. He continued searching for the souls belonging to the out-of-control contaminators while gritting his teeth and asking,
“You guys… does our Clearing Bureau have any enemies?”
“That’s plenty.”
The Black Goat smirked and said,
“Demons, evil gods, contaminants, True Gods, Moon People, Prehistoric Humans—your enemies in the Clearing Bureau are countless! If they ever united, your bureau would be wiped out even if it were ten times stronger! But the good news is, your enemies aren’t on the same team; their hatred for each other is even greater. Whenever one side seems close to succeeding, others will secretly sabotage them or even openly sell out their weaknesses to the Clearing Bureau, so you’re safe for now.”
After explaining the situation of the Clearing Bureau, seeing Leon’s increasingly grim expression, the Black Goat chuckled and said,
“Alright, those things aren’t something you should concern yourself with now. Focus on your job!
As for Emma, she’s an old employee of the bureau and has surely noticed something fishy about this incident. You just need to keep track of the positions of those souls and provide timely support when necessary!”
…
Sure enough, there was something wrong with this contaminator!
Even earlier than the Black Goat had guessed, the moment the bolts mysteriously broke and the metal cabinet came crashing down, the bandage woman had already suspected something.
There had been no abnormalities on her way from the hall to the fourth floor, yet the attack happened exactly when she was rescuing Leon’s sister, making it impossible for her to dodge.
Therefore, this out-of-control contaminator must know about the existence of the Clearing Bureau, understanding that ordinary attacks are ineffective against people like them, which is why they chose to strike at such a moment.
However, even though she knew the opponent’s intentions, the bandage woman neither let go nor dodged but silently stood her ground and took the full brunt of the collision.
Under this impact, not only did her thigh bone bend backward under the tremendous force, but her entire spine was also deformed, causing her to collapse limply onto the tilted window frame.
Dead? At some point, the young nurse stuck outside the wall, who had previously been pleading desperately for help, had regained her composure and was now looking at the bandage woman’s condition with a detached gaze.
Multiple fractures throughout her body, unfocused eyes, her chest caved in by the stone window frame, and her bandages scattered all over the floor—she was definitely dead.
Like a bizarre gecko, moving upward along the exterior wall a couple of times and emerging from the inner wall beside the window frame, the young nurse walked to the bandage woman’s side and used her bloody right hand to remove her mask, checking her breathing.
She’s indeed dead.
With some disdain, she tossed the blood-stained crow mask aside. Just as she was about to turn and leave, she noticed something surprising: even though the bandage woman had passed away, her hand was still firmly gripping the curtain, knuckles white with strain and refusing to let go.
Tch… With this woman’s physical capabilities, jumping out directly wouldn’t have killed her, yet she didn’t even bother to dodge… Such persistence is boring.
Glancing downward, she saw the older nurse hurriedly untying the curtain below. The young nurse pouted her lips, picked up a huge shard of glass from the window frame, and hurled it forcefully downward! “It’s you!”
Just as the shard was about to leave her hand, a calm voice sounded from behind the young nurse.
In her utterly horrified gaze, the numerous bandages scattered on the ground suddenly shot up like pythons finding their target, tightly binding the young nurse’s arms and twisting them in the opposite direction with great force! “Creak!”
“Aaaaah!!!”
Looking at the young nurse whose limbs’ joints had been dislocated, almost wrapped into a ball-like shape, the bandage woman couldn’t help but shake her head and say, “To set up such a trap to ambush me shows you’ve got ideas, but your methods are still crude.”
Pushing hard against the corner cabinet with her hands, she threw this heavy weapon weighing over 300 pounds aside, then stood up unhurriedly, resetting her displaced bones one by one.
Even the indentation in her chest caused by the collision with the window frame slowly rose with her strong breathing. If it weren’t for the large amount of bloodstains on the bandages, it would look as if she hadn’t been injured at all.
“Hey, the reason they chose to go down the window was probably because you led them there, right? This plan was decent but riddled with flaws.”
Squatting next to the nurse-ball and pulling the bandage covering her mouth away, the bandage woman asked calmly, “Being able to expose yourself so easily makes me think you’re not smart enough to set up such a deadly trap. Someone else must have taught you this.
Listen, brainless thing, if you don’t want to suffer, tell me honestly who’s behind you?”
“Haha… hahaha!”
Breathing heavily, the captured young nurse stared intensely at the bandage woman while speaking with a grotesque expression,
Seemingly to prove her words, after finishing her speech, the young nurse’s expression suddenly changed. First, she appeared confused about why she was bound, then she seemed to notice the excruciating pain from her limbs, letting out only half a scream before fainting from the sheer agony.
Caught the wrong person?
The bandage woman raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, preparing to test whether the young nurse was pretending to faint to deceive her when suddenly, heavy footsteps echoed outside the intensive care unit.
“Do you believe me now?”
Walking past the many patients and stopping outside the intensive care unit, the fat director who had arranged Anna’s room sneered and said, “All the people in this hospital are my tools! I can control them at will! You don’t even know who I am, so there’s no way you can catch me!
Also, stupid woman, take a good look at your feet!”
Pointing at the bandage woman’s feet, which were already sunk into the floor, the “fat director” lifted his layered double chin arrogantly and said,
“Besides controlling this hospital, my real ability is to directly consume sick people! Within the range of this hospital, once infected, there’s no way to resist its consumption.
Got it? I didn’t act against you earlier not because I didn’t want to, but because you were always wearing a protective mask. But now, your mask has been removed by me! You’re finished!”
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“…”
For six years, I’ve been cautious, yet I still underestimated this?
Looking at the laughing fat director, the bandage woman, whose lower body had already been swallowed, felt her immobile feet and sighed regretfully.
Even though she could tear him apart in a second, as he said, these people weren’t his true form, so doing so would be meaningless. This time, she truly messed up.
Though she could have used her bandages to block the attack, she chose to endure it relying on her indestructibility to lure him out, only to grab a fake one and lose her mask that could protect against his abilities. How foolish.
Hmm… Also, the reason she chose to endure it was partly to deliberately play the victim so the rookie would owe her a favor for future assistance.
But unexpectedly, she failed miserably, and in the end, she might need his help to call for reinforcements. When the director learns about this in three days, she doesn’t know how much he’ll laugh at her…
Shaking her head helplessly, with a less-than-pleased mood, she closed her eyes and chose to stop communicating. However, the other party seemed unsatisfied, bringing more doctors and nurses besides the fat director, standing outside the ward and mocking her in turns, “You think you’re smart? You’re incredibly stupid!”
“There are more than five hundred people here. Once I absorb them all, my power will become even stronger!”
“Ho ho, don’t you want to know who’s targeting your Clearing Bureau?”
“Telling you won’t hurt! The one preparing to attack you is a great True God!”
Um? Upon hearing this, the bandage woman, who had planned to stay silent for three days waiting for backup, twitched her eyelid and felt extremely delighted.
This guy is truly… even more foolish than I expected!
Casually revealing the trigger range of his abilities is one thing, but casually disclosing who’s behind him? Logically, the True God who selected him would probably hate to descend and kill him outright if they knew how dumb he is. Unaware that his intelligence had already plummeted in the bandage woman’s eyes, the “fat director” looked down arrogantly at his opponent whose lower half was already sunken into the tiles, raising both arms high in an embrace of the sun posture and announced with fervent eyes, “Listen carefully! Stupid woman! My god was born in the mi…”
Just as the bandage woman was fully focused, perking up her ears to listen to this crucial information, something strange happened. The expressions on the faces of the dozen or so doctors and nurses in front of her simultaneously froze, then as if receiving some kind of command, they all collapsed at the same time. Her originally restrained lower half was strangely “spat out.”
And when she looked up bewildered, a deafening sonic boom just reached from the rooftop of the mall across from the hospital…
“BANG!”
…
‘Kid, that shot was pretty accurate!’
Watching the dim soul on the sixth floor of the hospital disappear instantly, the Black Goat licked its lips greedily and praised cheerfully:
“At nearly three hundred meters, you managed to eliminate the target with one shot. Maybe you have a natural talent for shooting!”
Talent… definitely none of that. The reason this shot hit was half due to the bandage woman helping adjust the position beforehand, greatly reducing the aiming difficulty, and half due to external assistance.
Silently shaking her head to indicate it was just good luck, Leon glanced at the badge slots on his emblem. The two badges that had been glowing with gray-black light had just dimmed.
The work efficiency bonus from the [Probationary Worker] badge combined with the accuracy enhancement from the [Shooting Rookie] badge seemed to have a synergistic effect greater than the sum of their parts.
At the moment before firing, the two badges activated simultaneously, and Leon’s hand instinctively pressed down slightly, lifting the gun barrel by about two millimeters.
And that tiny adjustment was enough to elevate a shot that might have only wounded the target, perfectly aligning it to deliver a fatal blow! As for how to confirm who the target was…
‘This contaminator probably isn’t very bright.’
Regretfully looking at the position where the sinful soul dissipated, the Black Goat couldn’t help but chuckle,
“This fool might not realize that when he controls others, the soul fluctuations of the controlled individuals become identical to his own.
If he only controlled someone once, it might have been fine. Even focusing on the darker souls, filtering him out among six or seven hundred people wouldn’t have been easy.”
“But he kept controlling again and again, even having those people surround Emma… the predecessor, creating a bunch of souls with identical fluctuations, making him stand out quite noticeably.”
Taking over from the Black Goat, recalling the somewhat absurd scene just now, the serious-looking Leon couldn’t help but purse his lips and added,
“After identifying those souls with identical fluctuations, the only one who didn’t go to the fourth floor was naturally the real contaminator… By the way, I remember you mentioned that the Clearing Bureau also has performance metrics?”
“Yes! And there are additional benefits!”
The Black Goat nodded repeatedly upon hearing this, its excited demeanor suggesting it would have gleefully given Leon a thumbs-up if it had more than just its head.
“You’ve been on the job for just three hours, and under my guidance, you successfully discovered and eliminated a contaminator, even rescuing a trapped veteran employee. The rewards will be substantial! And, haha! We cooperated so well this time, handling things cleanly and efficiently, so that red-haired woman, no matter how unpleasant she is, will have to treat us a bit better, right?”
(The chapter ends here)