Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"I didn't," An Zhe took another step back, his back now against the plastic board. "I got lost."

"Lost?" The woman asked. "The second floor is a gambling den. Were you trying to go there?"

A cigarette was tucked between her right fingers, which she drew into her bright red lips for a puff before she chuckled. "Be careful not to lose yourself in there."

An Zhe scanned the surroundings, but he was cornered by the woman and couldn't escape. This glamorous human was more troublesome than any abyssal creature.

"Don't be afraid," she exhaled a stream of white smoke. "I won't devour you."

An Zhe replied, "Then can you let me go?"

The woman laughed again.

"Leave?" She raised an eyebrow. "Only those with nowhere else to go come to the third floor. Where do you plan on going after you leave here?"

With that, she looped her arm around his shoulder, guiding him forward. "Did this scare you? You don't have to stay here. I'll give you a spacious room."

"Thank you," An Zhe said, bowing his head. "But I really did get lost."

"Hmm?"

"I was just looking for an ordinary job," he explained. "Someone told me to come to the third basement level."

"The Black Market only has one floor above ground that's decent enough to be seen in," the woman responded, blinking. Her gaze seemed to drift like smoke. "You didn't know that?"

An Zhe: "I do now."

He also learned about the "Free Market" mentioned in the Base Handbook, which people referred to as the Black Market.

"The laws of the Base don't protect the Black Market," the woman said, leaning against the wall and smoking. She no longer pressed An Zhe into the corner but instead created a small gap between them.

An Zhe thought this was her signal to let him go. He took a step forward, only to see two tall men in black emerge from behind her, one on each side, blocking all possible escape routes.

"No one leaves the third level once they arrive," the woman's voice was no longer sweet or alluring; it was now tinged with coldness. "But lucky for you."

An Zhe looked up at her.

"I'll give you a chance," she offered. "Master Xiao's workshop is short on hands, and if he wants you, you'll join him. If not—"

Her words trailed off as she turned and walked in a certain direction. "Come along."

After three seconds of contemplation, An Zhe followed her deeper into the maze.

The partitions were tightly packed together, making him feel as if he were navigating a labyrinth constructed by bees. The lighting grew dimmer with each step.

At last, at the end of this space, a door materialized on a gray wall.

The woman raised her hand to knock. "Master Xiao, I have a proposition for you."

With a creak, the door opened.

Inside stood an elderly man with snow-white hair, dressed in black attire with a bow tie at his collar. He squinted at the woman. "Du Sai, what a rare visitor."

The woman smiled, finishing her cigarette before extinguishing it against the wall. "I have business with you."

"How big of a deal?" The man referred to as "Master Xiao" glanced at her and then at An Zhe.

The woman – Du Sai – rested her elbow on An Zhe's shoulder. "Not too big of an issue, but tricky. I was worried you wouldn't agree, so I brought a little gift to sweeten the deal – I heard your previous apprentice passed away from drinking, and you're looking for a replacement. Women, you find unappealing; men, they can be slow-witted. What do you think of my child?"

Boss Xiao's grayish-blue eyes swiveled, landing on An Zhe. "Looks obedient."

"Indeed, he is," Du Sai flicked her hair. "The moment I laid eyes on him, I knew he'd be to Boss Xiao's liking."

Boss Xiao chuckled.

Then, he spoke to An Zhe, "Stretch out your hand, let me see."

An Zhe extended his hand, fingers slender and fair with a hint of pink.

"Du Sai," Boss Xiao said, "where did you get this boy? How could you bear to bring someone like him to the third floor?"

Du Sai replied, "I lured him here."

An Zhe: "…"

Boss Xiao then instructed An Zhe, "Make a fist, but do it slowly."

An Zhe gradually closed his fingers.

Boss Xiao said, "Again, but even slower this time."

An Zhe slowed down his pace.

"Even slower."

Eventually, An Zhe's movements were so slow they were almost imperceptible to the naked eye. Although he didn't know why Boss Xiao wanted him to do this, it wasn't particularly challenging for him. When he assumed his mushroom form, he had to control thousands of delicate fungal threads simultaneously; controlling just five human fingers was much easier in comparison.

In the end, even Du Sai came over to watch.

"Boss Xiao, you've struck gold," she said, lighting another cigarette. "His hands are steadier than your previous apprentice's."

Boss Xiao looked at An Zhe's hand and chuckled. "Let me borrow it for a few days. If it works well, I'll keep him."

Du Sai replied, "You should pay the kid for his work."

Boss Xiao agreed, "Sure thing."

An Zhe furrowed his brow. The pay was indeed what he needed, but the term "useful" made him feel somewhat uneasy.

"Don't be afraid—" Du Sai seemed to have perceived his concern and patted his shoulder, "—even though Boss Xiao isn't exactly an upright person, his skills come at a high price."

"I'm not a good person?" Boss Xiao chuckled. "I'm the best one in this entire base."

Then, he turned to An Zhe. "Go take a look around the shop. I need to have a word with this crazy lady."

An Zhe was an obedient fellow. He turned his gaze to the nearest shelf, where there were peculiarly shaped small bottles filled with liquids or solids, their labels adorned with nude human figures. Further in, there were books with similar covers—he recognized these; the department that An Ze used to write for had collapsed in part because the base's publications went unnoticed while illicit pornographic literature thrived on the black market.

Below the shelves, transparent glass drawers held cigarettes, and next to them was another drawer filled with numerous mechanical USB drives.

Meanwhile, the conversation between Boss Xiao and Du Sai resumed.

"The kid seems decent. Mrs. Du is usually stingy, so the fact that she's giving me a gift must mean the business proposition is extraordinary," came the sound of a lighter from Boss Xiao's direction, followed by a doubling of the room's smoke density.

"The kid? Just a stray I picked up," Du Sai chuckled. "What I want you to do, Boss Xiao, is no simple task."

"Anything's fine," Boss Xiao said nonchalantly. "As long as the money's enough."

"You might not dare to," Du Sai replied calmly.

Boss Xiao responded, "As long as you pay more, I'll dare to do it."

Du Sai chuckled and spoke three words.

"Judge," she said, "would Boss Xiao dare to make one?"

An Zhe was taken aback. He had no idea how the term 'Judge' could be connected to these two people in the black market.

There was a moment of silence from Boss Xiao.

Eventually, he said, "I only deal with the dead, not the living, precisely because I don't want trouble. You're trying to bring me the biggest trouble there is."

"I'll be honest with you. I have a friend who's madly in love with that colonel and insists on getting him," Du Sai continued. "As you know, no living person dares to approach the Judge within a three-meter radius. There's no other choice but to buy a fake from you. It'll just be for amusement at home, I promise it won't cause any trouble. As for the price, it's up to Boss Xiao to decide."

Boss Xiao merely smiled but didn't respond.

In the meantime, An Zhe slowly moved towards the inner part of the shop.

Pausing in his stride, he kicked something.

Bending down, he saw a solitary, pale hand lying on the concrete floor. Judging from its condition, it had just been severed, yet the cut was clean and free of blood and flesh.

An Zhe crouched down and prodded the skin of the arm. It was soft, akin to that of a human's, but not quite.

This was an artificial limb.

He didn't pursue the matter further and stood up.

—As he rose, his gaze met with someone standing in the glass showcase. Under the dim lighting, a pair of dark eyes stared straight at him, half of the figure concealed in shadows, slightly eerie.

An Zhe held the man's gaze for a long while, but after three minutes, he still couldn't detect any sign of breath from him.

Perhaps, like the false arm, this was a dummy, he thought.

"Scared?" Mr. Xiao's voice suddenly sounded behind him.

An Zhe replied, "Not really."

Boss Xiao asked, "Does he resemble him?"

An Zhe replied, "Yes."

There was a soft laugh from Boss Xiao's raspy voice as he switched on a nearby light, illuminating the area significantly more.

An Zhe could finally see the man in the glass showcase in his entirety. He was a tall and slender man dressed in black with sharp and handsome features. The light cast upon his face reflected a thin layer of white glow, adding an inexplicable sense of severity to his appearance.

"Have you heard of Hubbard, the leader of the AR137 mercenary team?" Boss Xiao inquired.

An Zhe remained silent. In the room, only Boss Xiao's voice continued, "One of the best mercenaries around. He takes on missions rated five stars in danger, and it's like a walk in the park for him. He must be well-off, right?"

An Zhe replied, "Mm."

He knew that supplies brought back from outside could be exchanged for base currency at military supply stations. Those skilled mercenaries wouldn't lack money.

Boss Xiao pointed to the man standing in the display window. "This guy was his second-in-command. They grew up together and became mercenaries as adults. They had a bond forged through twenty years of life and death. On their last mission in the wild, he died, and not even a scrap of his body was left. It was tragic."

At this point, Boss Xiao chuckled and continued, "Three months after that, Hubbard came to me. He was a shadow of his former self. He spent a huge chunk of his fortune just to buy this man back from me, demanding not a single strand of hair be amiss."

"As for me, I certainly couldn't afford to make mistakes. Apart from not being alive, it was identical in every way," Boss Xiao sighed. "After all, she'll be spending the rest of her life with this dummy."

"I used to make these for amusement, the inflatable kind. Later on, people found my creations so lifelike—given how easily people lost their lives outside, they tended to go mad. That's when my craftsmanship became valuable." Boss Xiao patted his shoulder. "If you study well under me, in a decade, you'll be wealthier than any mercenary out there."

Looking at him, An Zhe recalled their previous conversation with Du Sai and asked, "Then are you planning to become a judge?"

"Why not?" Boss Xiao chuckled. "His Excellency the Arbiter is too busy with his killing spree to bother with such trivial matters."