Chapter 24

Chapter 24

"Wu Yin, I've got it, Wu Yin, just give me a moment, Wu Yin." Jie Lin Yuan repeated his name three times in an attempt to calm him down, and when that wasn't enough to appease this temperamental young master, he transformed his left hand into a fan made of alloy with hollowed-out carvings, frantically fanning Wu Yin to cool his temper.

Distracted by the new "toy," Wu Yin's attention was finally diverted. He scrutinized the exquisite folding fan with a frown. Its metal silver bones were decorated with carved dragons, phoenixes, and auspicious clouds, a craftsmanship so intricate it belonged in a museum, not in Jie Lin Yuan's arsenal of mechanical weaponry, especially not being used as a fan to cool off.

Seeing Wu Yin's eyes follow the fan's movements like a cat watching a toy, Jie Lin Yuan simply detached the fan from his hand and handed it to Wu Yin for him to cool off.

Wu Yin immediately went off happily playing with his new toy.

With the explosive troublemaker out of the way, Jie Lin Yuan finally had the chance for a normal conversation with Kama: "What's your relationship with HI004, and why do you want us to save him?"

"He... he's my brother," Kama confessed with difficulty.

"Your brother?" Wu Yin, playing with the alloy fan embellished with a lotus flower, leaned in to join the conversation, "He's your brother and you treat him so badly? Calling him scum, and what about the insults about eyes and mouths?"

Kama: "..." You have a good memory, remembering all the insults verbatim.

Jie Lin Yuan also remained skeptical: "Really your brother? Why has he ended up like this?"

"Yes," she explained reluctantly and laboriously: "Before the apocalypse, he was no good, idle and uneducated, proficient in gambling, prostitution, and debt; he sold the family house, infuriated his father to death, and never repented. After the apocalypse, he committed many misdeeds, robbery, theft. I personally arrested and imprisoned him. Later, he voluntarily became a test subject for the first-generation vaccine against the core station disaster pollution, ending up in this inhuman, ghostly state..."

Kama paused, "I know this is all his own doing, but... I still don't want him to just die in prison, dismembered, chopped up, and cooked, becoming food for the people outside. As long as you can get him out of the shelter, that's enough. Then just leave him somewhere, let him fend for himself."

Jie Lin Yuan and Wu Yin exchanged glances. The former subtly shook his head, indicating his stance: Don't believe this guy's nonsense.

Wu Yin blinked to acknowledge, tore off a small beauty flower bud clinging to the fan, and neatly folded the fan. Resting the fan's edge against his lower lip, he pondered for a few seconds, then handed the fan back to Jie Lin Yuan: "Alright, I agree."

Jie Lin Yuan: "..."

Kama's eyes gleamed with cunning, "Then wait until I release Eli, and I'll open the MTHC1 door for you."

Jie Lin Yuan frowned, about to object, but was stopped by Wu Yin raising his hand: "Okay."

Jie Lin Yuan: "..."

He looked at Wu Yin, wanting to speak but stopping himself. Finally, he remained silent, fitting the metal fan back onto his damaged palm, flexing his fingers, and then drawing a pitch-black bolt-action rifle, "So it's just about opposing me, right? Fine, go open the door. Didn't you hear Mr. Wu's command?"

Hearing this, Kama immediately turned and quickly walked towards HI004's cell. She stood in front of the door, swiped her work card, entered the password, scanned her fingerprint. During this, Kama kept an eye on Jie Lin Yuan's rifle held in front of him and surreptitiously observed the peculiar black-haired man and the bottle of mutant plant he held.

With a beep, the outer cell door opened. Normally, there should be another iron bar door inside that required a key, but frighteningly, all the bars in HI004's cell were twisted and bent from the inside, several missing, leaving a huge gap.

Kama must have known this already; the moment the outer door opened, she swiftly leaped aside to dodge. The next instant, a humanoid shadow burst out of the cell, crashing into the opposite wall of the corridor like a cannonball, creating a crack on impact.

A gaunt bald man staggered to his feet from against the wall, tilting his head, with a heedless, remorseless chuckle escaping his lips.

His head bore scars from surgical stitches, and his face and body were covered in dark red swellings like blisters. Touching one, it burst immediately, leaking black viscous fluid.

The bald man carelessly flicked the filth from his hands. His eyeballs, protruding and veined like those of Jie Linyuan during a period of turmoil, seemed as if the optic nerves holding them might snap at any moment. He fixed his gaze in the direction of Wu Yin, his few remaining teeth grinding noisily, as a creepy, granular laughter bubbled up from his throat.

Seizing the moment of chaos he created, Kama abruptly shifted from her previous demoralized state, sneeringly taunted, "Fools! Did you really fall for my 'sincere outpouring'? Brother? Hahaha, nothing but a dog."

Calmly aiming his gun at her, Jie Linyuan had already suspected Kama's request was a trap, and indeed it was.

Though he knew Wu Yin to be unpredictable and difficult, he was certainly no fool. Likely agreeing to Kama's demands meant he had a plan, so Jie Linyuan decided to observe from the sidelines this time, to see how Wu Yin intended to handle them.

Then—

Jie Linyuan saw Wu Yin duck behind him, pointing at HI004 and saying, "Deal with him."

Jie Linyuan: "..."

Jie Linyuan: "So you—? If you can't handle him, why agree to let Kama release him!"

"If we don't let him out, Kama won't open the door for the ugly dog. What choice do I have?" Wu Yin argued convincingly.

Jie Linyuan: "..."

Even the reincarnated sage Jie Linyuan couldn't suppress his anger, scolding, "Are you insane! Even after letting him out, does she look like she plans to help you open the door!"

Wu Yin: "Then what do you suggest?"

Jie Linyuan was speechless, not expecting Wu Yin to actually throw the question back at him.

If Kama refused to reveal the password, he truly had no solution, but he stubbornly decided to shift the blame: "It was you who started this nonsense plan of 'back to the shelter, pick up the ugly dog, and leave. You drive.' It was supposed to be your job to figure out how, as I was against this rash action from the start."

Wu Yin, unable to argue further, decided to change the subject and moved behind Jie Linyuan again, "Stop talking nonsense."

Seeing HI004 suddenly attack, laughing maniacally as he lunged at them, Jie Linyuan fired several shots quickly. However, the creature seemed immune to pain; the bullets did nothing but slightly slow its movements. Jie Linyuan instantly switched from gun to shield, blocking HI004's fierce pounce.

Then, switching from defense to offense, he used the shield to pin HI004 against the wall. The restrained creature, still uncooperative, stretched its neck like a snail, baring its teeth in a sharp, menacing laugh, attempting to bite Jie Linyuan, only to receive a direct punch in the face from the infuriated mechanical god of war, nearly forcing its eyeballs back into the sockets.

In the midst of action, Jie Linyuan noticed Wu Yin wasn't entirely useless; at least he had the sense to draw his gun from behind his waist, aiming it at HI004's forehead.

Though somewhat brainless, he still had his uses... Jie Linyuan reassuredly shifted his gaze away.

Behind him, just as Wu Yin was about to pull the trigger, he caught a glimpse of Kama's expression from the corner of his eye. It was indescribably complex, the once haughty sneer now frozen, mingled with tension, pain, and a barely perceptible sense of relief.

Wu Yin keenly captured these nuances and instantly changed his plan.

Meanwhile, Jie Linyuan, having waited in vain for the gunshot and getting a faceful of HI004's foul saliva, turned around in anger and confusion, only to see Wu Yin leisurely holstering his gun. Jie Linyuan's breath hitched, feeling that even the best of tempers would fail in the face of this irrational man. "You—!!"

"Quiet," Wu Yin commanded emotionlessly, stepping forward and seizing HI004's wildly flailing right hand.

The moment their skins touched, the mad HI004 suddenly ceased struggling. He raised his head, his eyes, hanging out of their sockets like rotting flesh, suddenly showed emotion. Seconds later, his twisted face finally bore a human expression, as blood-red tears streamed down, signaling endless terror and agony.

The throat that only knew how to scream and laugh croaked out, emitting a rough and pained wail: "Kill me, please kill me! It hurts too much, I can't take it anymore! Kill me!"

Jie Linyuan watched in shock as this subject suddenly regained his senses, and after a moment, he managed to digest the scene before him. Fortunately, the numerous shocks he had received today had toughened his psychological resilience, preventing his mechanical warrior from crashing at this critical moment.

After a brief moment of astonishment, Jie Linyuan's gaze shifted to Wu Yin at his side. He saw the man smiling satisfactorily amidst HI004's cries, provocatively turning his head to look at Kama, the prison guard standing not far away.

Jie Linyuan was all too familiar with Wu Yin's expression at that moment. Not long ago, this man had used the same haughty and arrogant demeanor to order him to become his slave. Back then, Jie Linyuan was filled with rage, wanting nothing more than to break the man's nose with a punch and beat him down.

But now, their roles were reversed. He stood as Wu Yin's teammate, while the one enduring this torment was the detestable Kama.

Even Jie Linyuan couldn't help but laugh smugly from behind, quickly resuming his stern facade.

Kama's expression finally changed. She was no longer the overbearing prison guard nor the enemy who feigned misery for sympathy. She truly became a sister.

A lone woman, bereaved of her parents, her fiancé brutally killed, her brother turned into a monster.

"Eli..." she called out incredulously.

Her voice immediately triggered a violent reaction from HI004. He paused momentarily, then began crying out loudly, "Sis! Save me! Sister!"

"Eli!!"

Kama's voice sounded almost on the verge of collapse.

She could endure HI004's disgusting laughter, his arrogance in banging against walls and iron bars, tilting his head to spit and provoke the guards. She could accept having a brother who no longer...

The reason Kama deliberately released HI004 was thinking him a thoroughly contaminated madman with extreme violent tendencies, utterly forsaken by the core station, devoid of any sanity left. If the madman could kill the intruders, great; if not, letting the intruders kill him was no loss either, better than having him madly rave here daily, better dead than alive.

But what if there was still a chance for HI004 to regain his sanity?

Wu Yin released HI004's hand, his chest heaving with deep breaths, exhaustedly stepping back to lean on Jie Linyuan for support, yet his spirits were high, a smug smile curling his lips, "Kama, the password, open the door."

He didn't need to explain, just the command was enough for Kama to understand the implied threat.

Want to save your brother? Cooperate with us, I'm the only one who can.

Kama could pretend to be indifferent towards the bald monster and continue to resist, but it was pointless now; her true intentions were already exposed.

She looked at her brother, now again lost to madness, hunched over, made no struggle and walked to the door of cell MTHC1, entering the password to unlock it. Before using the key to open the inner iron bars, she quietly asked, "Eli... is there still hope for him?"

Jie Linyuan, just having tied someone up with a steel wire rope produced by his mechanical arm, let out a placating lie, "Of course, there's hope, as long as you cooperate with us..."

"No hope," Wu Yin bluntly stated, "If there's anything you'd like me to tell him, let's give him a quick end."

Jie Linyuan: "..."

Jie Linyuan, furious, strode over, "If you can't speak properly, don't speak at all. Leave the communication to me from now on!"

Wu Yin blinked innocently, then turned his gaze back to Kama, urging her with his eyes to hurry up and open the door.

Kama paused in her key insertion but went ahead, pushing the door open.

Wu Yin peered inside, where a massive silhouette lay quietly in the center of the cell, akin to a small mountain of black.