5: murderer

The night was thick. Lu Jianchuan pedaled the shared bicycle, the chain emitting a slight “clack” that sounded exceptionally clear in this sleeping suburban area. He arrived once more at the periphery of the Bishuiyuan residential area, but did not approach. Instead, he parked the bike behind a distant bus stop sign, hid himself in the shadows, and watched the detached house, which was still cordoned off, from afar.

In just a few days, superficial calm had returned, but what replayed constantly in his mind were the eerie empty cavities at the scene, the veteran police officer Li Ming's judgment that “the ingredients were taken,” and his own reluctance regarding the case being forcefully taken over.

“One... or a group of extremely cruel, psychopathic killers,” he muttered, setting the tone for himself. “They committed the crime using some kind of specialized, powerful tool, operating skillfully, and... they have cannibalistic tendencies.” This conclusion sent a shiver down his spine, but it was currently the most plausible deduction based on the clues.

He pulled out his phone, opened the map app, lowered the screen brightness to the minimum, and tapped his finger on the crime scene location.

“The killer successfully committed the crime here and disposed of... the 'trophy,'” he substituted the word, trying to keep himself calm. “They are familiar with this place, but they definitely won't linger. It's too conspicuous now.”

His gaze searched the map. To the west were older residential areas with denser populations. “That environment is complicated and easy to hide in, but with many people, there are also many eyes. Carrying... ‘things’ in and out carries a high risk.”

His fingertip slowly moved eastward. The map showed that the east side was a large area pending development, dark in color, scattered with abandoned factories and warehouses. “Here... the population is sparse, and surveillance is almost non-existent. The large number of abandoned buildings makes for excellent hiding spots and... processing sites. If they are transient criminals or need an undisturbed base, this is the ideal choice.”

This deduction, based on human criminal psychology and geographic environment, made him feel the possibility was extremely high. He stopped hesitating, got on his bike, and plunged into the deeper darkness of the East District.

The streetlights here were far apart, their light dim and weak. Relying on the beam of his phone flashlight, he cautiously navigated between gravel and trash. He checked a half-collapsed shed, finding only choking dust inside. He then slipped into an abandoned warehouse with an open iron door. His flashlight beam swept across the empty workshop, and the only reply was dead silence.

Sweat soaked his undershirt. Frustration surged again. “Did I judge wrong? Maybe they fled long ago?” He leaned against a rusty signal box beside a stretch of abandoned railway, breathing heavily, almost ready to give up.

Just at the moment his vigilance slackened and he prepared to leave—

“Wuaah—!”

A howl, extremely brief, full of pain and savagery, as if muffled by something covering a mouth, faintly echoed along the empty railway corridor, coming from the direction of the deeper cluster of abandoned warehouses where even the moonlight seemed to be swallowed up!

The sound was completely unlike a human voice, twisted and maniacal, but Lu Jianchuan was convinced at that moment that it must have been made by the psychopathic killer, or the victim!

He froze instantly, as if struck by electricity! His phone slipped from his trembling hand, dropping onto the gravel with a “snap.” He quickly bent down to retrieve it, his heart pounding wildly. He turned off the flashlight, completely merged into the darkness, and fixed his gaze firmly on the direction the sound had come from.

Found it! That bastard is likely inside!

Lu Jianchuan's heart hammered wildly against his eardrums. He held his breath tightly, almost able to hear the rushing sound of his own blood.

He pressed his body against the cold, rough brick wall, covered in peeling paint, inching his way deeper into the warehouse.

This place was like a steel graveyard, piled high with rusted machine wreckage and massive containers, casting countless twisted, ferocious shadows.

The air was filled with the heavy smell of rust, the greasy odor of stale machine oil, and... a faint, almost imperceptible, but absolutely misplaced sweet, bloody stench of decay.

Just around the corner of a container so rusted it was almost falling apart, he saw it!

A blurry, unusually massive humanoid figure was half-crouched on the ground, its shoulders rhythmically jerking with a subtle grinding sound, as if it were... tearing something apart.

It was him! That cruel, psychopathic killer! A rush of heat, mixed with anger, duty, and instinctive fear, shot straight to his head; his adrenaline instantly spiked.

Lu Jianchuan suddenly leapt out of the shadows, stabbing the beam of his phone flashlight forward like a sharp sword, while simultaneously letting out what he believed was his most intimidating roar:

“Police! Don't move! Hands on your head, turn around!”

The figure's movement abruptly froze, and its jerking shoulders stopped. Dead silence fell over the warehouse, broken only by the dust motes dancing in the phone's light beam.

Then, amidst the frantic pounding of Lu Jianchuan's heart, it... began to turn. It wasn't the natural twist of a human being, but a smooth, chillingly mechanical rotation that slowly aimed its front side toward the light source.

The light beam first captured its head and neck. On its dark, rough face, which seemed covered in a layer of biological keratinous skin, a pair of eyes suddenly reflected a faint green light—they were not round pupils, but two cold, vertical slits belonging to a predator!

Under the stimulation of the bright light, the pupils rapidly contracted into thin lines. There was no human emotion within them, only pure dead silence sizing up an obstruction.

The light trembled as it moved downward, illuminating its torso and arms. The arms were abnormally thick and unnaturally defined, as if beneath the skin were not muscle, but some kind of hard, embedded skeleton, displaying a dull, matte metallic texture.

And its “hands”... they weren't hands at all! They were ten slightly curved, integrally formed, arc-shaped claw blades that shone with the cold light of bone-ceramic, thick at the base and so sharp at the tip they seemed capable of slicing through air!

What... what the hell is this?! Lu Jianchuan's mind went blank instantly, as if struck by a heavy hammer. All previous speculations about a “psychopathic killer” were shattered in that moment, replaced by the most primal fear, stemming from the instinct for survival!

He felt his blood freeze; his teeth began chattering uncontrollably. He stood rigid, forgetting even how to breathe.

No expression could be discerned on the monster's face covered in mutated bone structure, but its vertical pupils locked onto the stunned Lu Jianchuan like aiming scopes.

A low, grating sound, like sandpaper rubbing, emerged from its throat. Slowly, with the composure of a predator assessing its prey, it lifted a foot covered in dark bone armor and took a step toward him.

The shadow of death rushed toward him!

Just as that blade-like foot was about to land—

“Bang!!”

A deafening gunshot suddenly tore through the dead silence of the warehouse! The roar echoed repeatedly within the enclosed space!

The bullet barely grazed the monster's mutated shoulder blade before violently slamming into the sheet metal of the container beside it with a clang, blasting open a hideous hole and sending sparks flying!

The monster's head whipped violently toward the direction the bullet came from at a speed far exceeding human limits; its neck bones even made a faint clicking sound.

At the warehouse entrance, Li Ming gripped his service pistol tightly, maintaining his shooting stance, his arms trembling violently from the immense shock and the recoil.

All color drained from his face, which was filled with incomprehensible horror. He had followed Lu Jianchuan, worried he might act rashly and get into trouble, but he never dreamed he would witness such a scene—a sight that completely overturned his understanding of reality, pulled straight from the depths of a nightmare!

Although not directly hit, the kinetic energy and scorching heat carried by the bullet made it feel a clear threat and pain.

From deep in its throat, it let out a hiss that was a mix of anger and savagery, completely unlike a human voice. The sound was also interspersed with a high-frequency vibration that set teeth on edge, as if its claw blades were resonating!

It ignored the terrified young police officer in front of it. Its legs, wrapped in bio-steel bone, exploded with astonishing power, and its figure flashed diagonally backward like a phantom. Using the mountains of scrap machinery and containers as cover, a rapid clang and scrape of metal impact and friction quickly faded away, and in an instant, it completely vanished into the boundless darkness deep inside the warehouse.

Silence returned to the warehouse. All that remained were Lu Jianchuan, who was leaning against the wall, slowly sliding to the ground, mouth agape but unable to utter a sound, and Li Ming, still holding his gun, the muzzle still smoking faintly, his face pale as paper, his chest heaving violently.