The Gentleman at the End

Chapter 237: Chapter 236 Facing Death

The smoothly and cleanly severed head slid horizontally off the neck,

dropping between the legs without any flipping…

Thud!

The sound resembled a whole block of tofu slapping against the ground.

This was the first time Yi Chen witnessed a companion die before his eyes in this world, and he was utterly powerless to do anything.

“Barry…”

He uttered the name in a low murmur.

This time, however, the call for the name received no response, and even though not a drop of blood had splattered on Yi Chen, his vision had filtered out all color, leaving only black and white.

Staring through the gap between Barry’s legs, which still stood erect, Yi Chen gazed at the fallen head on the ground, rooted to the spot with no intention of fleeing.

Or rather, from the moment his toes and the tip of his nose had been cut off,

Yi Chen was entirely certain that the vice director had never overestimated his abilities, and that escape from the hotel was impossible, let alone reaching the bright Sunlight Hospital several streets away.

The opponent’s range, precision, and destructive power were all far beyond his own. All the methods he had were incapable of helping him out of this predicament, much less defeating the opponent.

[Deadly Situation]

Huh~ Yi Chen took a deep breath.

Moving in front of Barry, he squatted down in front of the fallen head and closed its eyelids from behind.

Yi Chen also put away the exposed iron chains, the spikes, and packed the axe and firearms back into his suitcase, even switching his combat coat for a formal suit.

With one hand straightening his tie,

and the other carrying his suitcase, he approached Vice Director Evatt,

Although Yi Chen appeared completely harmless, Vice Director Evatt did not relax his guard at all.

Having been deceived once before in the elevator, and having witnessed the pain from the Old World inside Yi Chen, he remained very cautious.

Considering the possibility that Yi Chen might make a desperate move, he had abandoned the thought of capturing him alive.

With a single lift of his hand!

The surgical thread sprung from the floor and wrapped around Yi Chen’s neck, hanging him alongside the other dead in the hall.

To be safe,

after ensuring the hanging was stable, Evatt switched to using the “sensory line” to implant a cross-shaped death symbol into the deep layers of Yi Chen’s consciousness.

Facing such an absolute death trap, Yi Chen simply accepted it calmly.

If death was certain, it was better to face it squarely.

As the distinctly clear death symbol took form in his brain, the unresisting “Death Plague” swiftly invaded every corner of his brain.

In an instant, the somewhat uncomfortable hanging state became strangely comfortable, to the point where he was unwilling to detach himself from the coils voluntarily.

“So this is what it feels like? No wonder those infected with the plague were so eager to commit suicide, just like a traveler in the desert, who hadn’t had water for days upon seeing an oasis, could not possibly resist drinking.

But then again, I never resisted death. [Death] is something that has accompanied me for a long time; it was the key reliance that helped me escape the orphanage and become an independent adult.”

By now, the Death Plague had invaded the hippocampus in the brain, the area responsible for managing memory, as an invisible pathogen commenced a complete “Infection Transcription.”

This process was crucial for constructing the memories of the deceased, and before its completion, the Death Plague would even sustain the individual’s life to ensure the brain tissue remained actively functional.

Through infection transcription, it copied all of an individual’s memories and took them away with the “last breath.”

However,

as the Death Plague transcribed the memories, some deep, dark memories were unearthed.

Here, ‘dark’ meant literally, as strands of black liquid flowed out from the core of the hippocampus, interacting with the Death Plague.

On the outside.

Yi Chen, still in a hanging state, felt his primary consciousness gradually fade.

And in the instant his eyes went completely black…

“`

Ding ding ding!

The alarm clock’s urgent and noisy ringing frantically sounded,

jabbing at Yi Chen’s teenage body, barely twelve, as he sprung up from the bed. It took him merely ten seconds to slip on a sweatshirt, jeans, and running shoes,

stretching his right hand out of the sleeve to effortlessly switch off the alarm clock.

It had been exactly two years since he escaped from the Black Mountain Orphanage.

After investigating his never-before-seen father, he killed a horrifying non-human woman on the thirteenth subway and consequently encountered a mysterious organization, the very one his father had belonged to.

Thus, he learned that his father was not a killing maniac at all; his nightly rides on the last train were merely to carry out “hunting tasks,” hunting those anomalies that mingled among humans, cloaked in perfect disguises.

As these monsters had normal identities in society and even formed families,

their eliminations naturally resulted in related missing persons news.

In these two years,

Yi Chen had maintained contact with the organization through special means, receiving 1 to 3 tasks almost every month. Some tasks directly involved the elimination of anomalies, while others were simply human tracking and abnormality screening.

Once the organization confirmed the task was complete, Yi Chen’s personal account would receive a large sum of money, enough for his personal expenses, even enough to settle down in a big city and lead a quality life.

Yet he chose to rent in a lower-cost suburban area, his diet always reflecting the orphanage’s weekly nutritional plan, meticulously consuming vitamins and proteins.

All extra money was saved.

He spent the remaining time on various exercises, ensuring the healthy growth of his body. Yi Chen wouldn’t allow himself a moment of slack before the orphanage was eradicated.

Since he was currently only a “temporary worker,” he could only passively accept tasks from the organization and couldn’t ask for relevant information, so he also had not inquired about the orphanage from the organization.

But today was a special day.

After two years of scrutiny, the barely 12-year-old Yi Chen was accepted as an official member by the organization with an impressive 91.3% task completion rate and was scheduled to report to one of the organization’s bases.

Before he left, there was one important thing to do—makeup.

This was a daily necessity, needing sufficiently realistic “Dead Man Makeup” to cover the cadaveric spots on his face and the most exaggerated bullet holes.

If seen by others, it would certainly cause quite a stir.

Over two years, Yi Chen’s makeup skills had become exquisite; if he weren’t working for the organization, he could easily apply to be a Funeral Master.

Once everything was ready,

he slung his rather heavy backpack over his shoulders and pulling the hood of his sweatshirt, walked out of the urban village he was renting.

Following the information on the note, he found a newspaper office at the street corner, bought a freshly printed Story Meeting magazine from the owner, and sat on the nearby 107 bus at the station.

[The last stop, Lushan Psychiatric Hospital has arrived. Welcome to board the 107 bus, and we wish you a wonderful day! Please take your belongings and exit the bus in an orderly fashion.]

Continuing along the winding mountain road for several hundred meters,

a completely enclosed psychiatric hospital situated against the mountain appeared, its exaggerated main gate structure as if welcoming the arrival of a giant Mountain God.

Yi Chen came to the shrine of the Earth God next to the gate, tore a page from the Story Meeting, and placed it into the hidden compartment.

The shrine moved aside, revealing a secret passage that led straight to the main building of the psychiatric hospital.

After half an hour of traversing the secret passage, Yi Chen emerged from a wall of bookshelves.

A female doctor wearing round glasses and a white lab coat sat at the desk, approving documents, her soft black hair just falling on the desk.

Her exquisite profile made it impossible to guess her age; she could easily be anywhere between 20 to 35 years old.

The female doctor was the Connector from the organization who had recruited Yi Chen at the subway station two years ago.

“There is a cup of water and suitable tea leaves on the desk for you, help yourself,” she said.

Yi Chen did not have the habit of drinking tea, but upon smelling the tea leaves with the scent of rot, he felt invigorated.

He quickly brewed himself a cup and took hearty gulps. His throat, dry and decrepit, felt as if it were reviving, even giving him a sensation of rebirth.

He even made up his mind to inquire about the origin of the tea and how to purchase it.

The comfort from his throat made him involuntarily squeeze his own neck,

only to feel as though he was touching a surgical thread tightly strangling his skin, a forced sensation of hanging emerged. But as he focused his mind, the sensation of hanging disappeared.

“`

Source: Webn0vel.com, updated on Novg0.co