Xie Zhi patted Ji Tan’s flailing legs and instructed him, “Hold tight!”
Ji Tan obediently wrapped his arms around Boss Xie’s neck.
The neighbors from Broken-Wire Street had vacant eyes and stiff limbs. When they walked, their joints seemed to drag their muscles along, flinging their legs forward. They looked remarkably like zombies from an apocalyptic movie.
Swinging his huge red hammer, Xie Zhi swept aside the people charging at him. With Ji Tan on his back, he leaped into the air and began running and jumping across the piles of junk inside the old warehouse.
The black-robed leader did not give chase. He climbed onto the raised platform where the corpse had lain and made a gesture. The two guards who had thrown Ji Sinan outside sprang from the darkness and firmly blocked the entrance.
“You’ve destroyed food bestowed by the god! Hand over what you’re hiding inside your outdoor jacket, and I can beg the deity to forgive your sins!”
Ji Tan felt the faint warmth against his chest. “He wants the proposal.”
There were few places to hide in the warehouse. All the furniture was scrap, and none of it was stacked very high. The people had lost their reason, feared neither pain nor falling, and crashed headlong into broken wood and sharp pieces of iron. A long-limbed man suddenly burst out of a heap of junk, his blackened, elongated fingernails reaching straight for Xie Zhi’s ankle.
Xie Zhi knocked him back into the lumber pile with one blow of his hammer. The warm proposal inside Ji Tan’s jacket was pressed tightly against Xie Zhi’s back by the momentum. He raised an eyebrow and remarked casually, “Mm. Probably a competitor of our company.”
Ji Tan ducked the flying splinters. “…Business competition really is fierce.”
Xie Zhi chuckled. “Director Ji, let me teach you a secret of doing business today: there’s nothing a round of golf can’t settle.”
As he spoke, he abruptly accelerated and launched himself into the air. The red hammer slammed hard into the black-robed man’s lower back, sending him flying straight into the hole the long-nailed man had made earlier.
“Whew! A hole in one! I’ll give you a red envelope with a hundred thousand when we get back.” Xie Zhi turned his head and lightly bumped it against Ji Tan’s, which was resting on his shoulder.
“Thank you, Boss! How generous of you!” Ji Tan hurried to play along.
Xie Zhi then swept everything off the platform in one motion and jumped onto it with Ji Tan.
The fallen candles came into contact with the black slime on the ground and the tablecloth. With a whoomph, flames erupted and encircled the altar.
The two door guards and the neighbors crawling out of the wreckage surged toward them from every direction. But when they reached the flames, they stopped. Like agitated livestock, they stamped back and forth on the ground, unable to bring themselves to advance.
“Ghouls, and people on the verge of turning into ghouls, are drawn to light but afraid of large fires,” Xie Zhi explained quietly. That meant that if someone encountered ghouls in an emergency out in the suburbs, lighting a fire could keep them at bay.
Now all they had to do was hunker down until the TS Task Force arrived.
The man in black robes got up, raised the bone in his hand, and shouted a string of obscure, unintelligible words. Something poured out of the bone, though Ji Tan could not see it. He could only feel a disturbance in the air.
The wave struck the half-human, half-ghoul creatures that had been too frightened to approach. As if they’d suddenly been pumped full of stimulants, they went berserk, charged straight through the ring of fire, and lunged toward the platform made of old wood.
“They aren’t all full ghouls yet! If you kill them, you’ll go to prison, too! Keh-keh-keh!” The old man in black robes let out a sinister cackle. It was hard to tell whether he was chanting a slogan or simply expressing his delight.
Ji Tan stared at the neighbors’ bluish-white faces, his scalp prickling. “How are we supposed to tell them apart?”
Xie Zhi held out a hand. “Lend me the proposal.”
Ji Tan pulled it out of his jacket’s inner pocket without wasting a second.
The thick stack of A4 sheets landed in Xie Zhi’s hand and instantly transformed into a transparent golden book suspended in the air. He gathered Ji Tan close. “Jump!”
Just as more than a dozen bluish-black hands reached for the platform, both men leaped into the air, and the altar built from rotting wood broke into pieces. Suspended in midair, Xie Zhi placed one hand on the golden book and proclaimed solemnly, “Death is permitted here!”
At those words, all the ghouls collapsed in unison. Within moments, a pall of death engulfed them, and they fell silent.
“No!” A scream unlike any human voice came from the black-robed man. His entire body seemed to melt, dissolving into thick black slime. In the end, only an empty black robe and the rotting leg bone remained.
Ji Tan stood on a broken plank, grimacing as he looked around at the humanoid figures that seemed to be corpses, yet somehow not quite corpses. He could neither open his mouth nor move his legs.
With one hand resting on the golden book, Xie Zhi slowly descended to the ground. His face was pale, and his breathing came fast.
“What’s wrong?” Ji Tan took the proposal, which had turned back into ordinary A4 sheets, and hurriedly caught Xie Zhi as he began to topple sideways.
“TS Task Force! We’re carrying out an operation!” Blinding light streamed through the gaps around the sheet-metal door. The silver-clad Order Officers arrived, fashionably late, like the police in a movie.
Powerful searchlights illuminated the entire warehouse. The silver-uniformed officers rushed inside and surveyed the scene.
“Ghoul transformation inhibitor!” The captain assessed the situation at once and gave the order. Two team members pulled spring-loaded injectors from their pockets, inserted cartridges filled with medicine, and went from person to person, administering injections to the necks of those lying on the ground.
Only then did the captain approach Xie Zhi. He snapped to attention and saluted. “Sir!”
Xie Zhi nodded weakly and pointed toward the puddle of black liquid in the distance. “E-rank mutated ghoul. Seal the bone in a box for testing.”
The captain acknowledged the order. He personally fetched a silver-alloy case, put on soft-metal gloves, and sealed the rotting leg bone inside. Then he returned to report to Xie Zhi. “Thirteen civilians at the scene. Eight had already become ghouls and have now undergone a second death. Five hadn’t completed their transformation and were saved by the inhibitor, but their sanity levels are all below forty. They’ve been given sedatives. The E-rank mutated ghoul with favor-power has also undergone a second death.”
Ghouls were like zombies: physiologically, they were already dead by human standards. Yet they could still move, and some even retained consciousness. Those with favor-power could even rise through the ranks like Orderbearers.
That was why killing a ghoul was called a second death.
Xie Zhi explained this to Ji Tan in a low voice.
“Stop talking.” Ji Tan interrupted Boss Xie’s impromptu lesson. The man sounded as if he were about to breathe his last.
Only then did the silver-clad captain notice Xie Zhi’s condition. He asked with concern, “Sir, what’s happened to you?”
“Overused my favor-power.” Xie Zhi waved a hand and simply leaned against Ji Tan’s shoulder. He looked as though all his strength had been drained from him. He could not even hold his head up.
“Do you need treatment?” the captain asked anxiously.
“No. I’ll be fine after spending the night asleep at this fellow local’s house. You handle the rest.” Without sparing a thought for the dumbfounded team members, Xie Zhi nudged Ji Tan, demanding to be taken away.
Ji Tan gritted his teeth and whispered, “When did I agree to let you sleep at my house?”
Xie Zhi raised an eyebrow. “There might still be ghouls in this neighborhood. Are you sure you and your brother will be all right on your own tonight?”
Ji Tan: “…”
Seeing that the local resident was in a difficult position, the silver-clad captain hastened to ask, “Sir, if it’s inconvenient for you…”
Ji Tan hauled Xie Zhi’s arm over his shoulder and began dragging him away. “It’s perfectly convenient! The people and their protectors are one big family, close as fish and water! Leave him to me. You can rest easy.”¹
Elio’s Note ¹: “Close as fish and water” evokes a Chinese expression of solidarity between civilians and those serving or protecting them. Ji Tan borrows its earnest, public-spirited tone to cover his reluctant hospitality.
The moon stood high in the sky.
Ji Sinan stood with his arms folded, staring at the two men in his living room.
“Brother, hear me out. The thing is, Xie Zhi is actually a friend of yours. You’ve just forgotten him.” Ji Tan tried to awaken his brother’s memories of their old roommate friendship.
Sitting on a little stool, Xie Zhi put on the expression of someone weak, pitiful, and helpless. “Old Ji, I swear by Argus, we’re really good buddies.”
“Hmph. Hmph. Hmph.” Ji Sinan snorted three times, then turned to fill a bowl with noodles and set it in front of Ji Tan. He put the outdoor jacket and spatula, both stained with black liquid, into a plastic bag and went out to throw them away.
Ji Tan exhaled, looked at the single bowl of tomato noodles in front of him, then at Xie Zhi, whose face was still a little pale…
A little later, Xie Zhi and Ji Tan were each holding a small bowl of noodles, squatting on the doorstep and slurping away. They also kept an eye on Ji Sinan as he went some distance off to throw out the rubbish, in case a ghoul suddenly sprang out of the dark and attacked him.
“That proposal of yours is a magical object of exceptionally high standing,” Xie Zhi said, explaining what had happened earlier.
The proposal possessed the power of rules. When it came into contact with favor-power, the higher-order power of rules overflowed and activated the ghouls, driving them into a frenzy in accordance with the world’s rule that ghouls ought to go berserk.
Ji Tan frowned. Why did a high-level item work like something that attracted monsters? So far, instead of protecting him, it seemed to bring trouble to his doorstep.
“Actually, it’s from my Sequence.” Xie Zhi stroked the stack of A4 papers. Unable to resist the attraction of a power that shared his own source, he looked at it with naked longing. “It’s no use to you right now, so why not…”
Ji Tan snatched it back and sat on it, using it as a cushion. “No.”
Xie Zhi sat down as well, slurped some noodles, and put on the face of a man trying to trick a child. “This proposal was supposed to be handed over to me in the first place. Director Ji, I’ve already paid you your performance bonus. Shouldn’t you turn in your assignment on time?”
“I’m not your employee anymore. Even my ID number has changed. If you don’t like it, sue me.” Ji Tan shamelessly took a huge mouthful of noodles.
A gray dog with a bald patch on top of its head came over, drawn by the smell. It stood in front of them and wagged its tail vigorously.
Xie Zhi picked out a piece of scrambled egg and tossed it to the dog. The dog caught it happily, munched it up with loud smacking sounds, and continued staring at their bowls while wagging its tail.
“I’m better suited to use the book right now. It would help me protect you two in the Western District. With you holding on to it…” Xie Zhi paused and pointed at the dog wagging its tail. “It’s like this mangy dog finding a hundred yuan. Sure, that’s a good thing, but the money’s no use to it as it is. Wouldn’t it be better to give me the money and let me exchange it for a hundred yuan’s worth of eggs?”
Ji Tan stared at Xie Zhi’s confident explanation for a long moment, then punched him. “Who are you calling a mangy dog?”