Chapter 35: The House That Hunts (Part 8)

Chapter 35: The House That Hunts (Part 8)

Zhu Ning's palm pressed against the wall, feeling the "pulse" beneath her hand.

Thump, thump, thump—

It was as if the heartbeat came from deep within a cave.

Steel was the traditional construction material, reinforced with concrete and rebar, forming a grid-like structure, much like the meridians and bones of a person.

In an instant, Zhu Ning connected with the entire house—every door, every wall, every tiny screw. She was palpating the house’s pulse, caressing its skeletal frame.

To Huang Yaruo, Zhu Ning's actions seemed very strange; she looked as if she were praying against the wall.

Suddenly, her fingers on the wall curled slightly, and then the entire house began to shake.

The rebar twisted inch by inch, gradually breaking through the plaster. It was as if Zhu Ning was peeling off its skin and extracting its bones.

Huang Yaruo watched in disbelief. Was Zhu Ning dismantling the house? Could she tear it down with her bare hands?

In just a moment, the interior of the house started to crumble.

The ceiling-mounted incandescent lamps swayed wildly, and with a loud crash, the carefully chosen light fixtures shattered on the ground.

Wallpaper peeled off in sheets, like discarded newspapers. Plaster and broken bricks rained down, smashing onto the furniture and television that Huang Yaruo had meticulously selected.

The TV cracked, the sofa split open, and when the fallen refrigerator hit the snail creature, a scream echoed.

Huang Yaruo watched helplessly as the entire house collapsed, almost in a daze. The house she had bought with all her savings and lived in for fifteen years was dying.

Boom!

The largest part of the ceiling crashed down.

Huang Yaruo reacted quickly. She stopped staring at her furniture, put on the dead demon hunter's helmet and protective gear, covering her head.

She covered her ears, but she could still hear the house speaking to her, crying out as it broke apart.

"Pain, I'm in pain, I'm in so much pain."

"Mama, Mama—"

"Shut up!" Huang Yaruo clamped her ears tightly, not wanting to hear anymore.

I am not your mother!

Devil! You are a devil!

The earthquake inside the house, accompanied by the cries, kept drilling into Huang Yaruo's ears. She squatted next to Zhu Ning, covering her ears and closing her eyes, ignoring the cries.

Zhu Ning, however, was focused on dismantling the house. She couldn't hear the cries, only the sound of steel breaking.

A beehive was easier to control because it was entirely metal. This house was more challenging to dismantle, but with her absolute control, the steel kept twisting, being crushed into scrap metal.

Her nose bled slightly under the helmet, but she didn't have time to wipe it away.

The system's voice sounded in her ear: "Do not overuse your mental energy."

Screw it. If she didn't overuse it, Zhu Ning would die here today. She preferred the latter option—damage to her mental energy rather than death in a house.

"Mental energy is decreasing."

"Mental energy is decreasing."

"Decreased by 30%."

"Decreased by 40%."

"Decreased by 50%."

With a bang, Zhu Ning withdrew her hand, stopping at 50%.

She panted heavily, blood streaming from her nose under the helmet. She couldn't even reach up to wipe it away. The blood flowed freely, making her look extremely disheveled, and her current state was even worse.

For a moment, she lost both her hearing and sight. Despite her enhanced senses due to genetic enhancement, she now had no sensory perception.

Darkness enveloped her vision, as if everything was fading away.

If losing control of her body was the first level of terror, the second level was losing all her senses.

Zhu Ning tried to steady herself by leaning against the wall, but she realized the wall she had been leaning on was gone. In the darkness, she couldn't find direction or hear anything.

Snap!

Someone grabbed her. The person was very thin, reduced to mere bones from years of torture.

For her, Zhu Ning's body was too heavy, but she still managed to support her, preventing her from falling.

"Hey!" She heard a faint voice, "What's wrong with you?"

Swish—

It felt like water flowing from her left ear to her right ear and back again. After the water passed, her ear canal cleared.

"Hey? Hey!" Huang Yaruo was speaking.

Zhu Ning blinked, her vision slowly returning. The outlines of the rubble and debris came into focus. The entire house was in ruins, and they seemed to be standing amidst a pile of wreckage.

At Zhu Ning's feet was slime—the dead snail creature had turned into a puddle of water.

Surrounded by contaminated spores, the blood-red spores enveloped the space like fireflies on a summer night, more numerous and dense than the last time.

Ding—

"Congratulations on completing the random mission: The House of Pursuit. Purification level 100%, sleeping in the house completion 100%, finding the missing Huang Yaruo, completion 100%, successful escape completion 100%."

"Reward calculation underway..."

"Congratulations on receiving the basic reward: mental energy restored to 100, luck increased to 20."

"Congratulations on receiving a purification reward of 3000 points. Current total: 3154 points."

"Congratulations on receiving the house reward: Stereoscopic Defense Space."

"Reward description: C-level contaminated item. Forms a 2x2x2 stereoscopic defense space. You are the sole owner of this space, and all people and objects must have your permission to enter. Effective duration: 30 minutes. Note: using this item will consume 20 life points."

"Congratulations on upgrading the basic talent: Metal Manipulation. Can manipulate metal within a two-meter radius. Note: excessive use can damage the brain."

"Congratulations on receiving the random mission reward: Blank Card."

"Reward description: Can store any item within the card, limited to one item only."

"This mission line has triggered a side quest: Investigate the Truth of Death. Key clues found, progress: 30%."

"Basic talent Danger Prediction activated. A 30-second warning has been issued. Please stay safe."

?!

While Zhu Ning was listening to her rewards, a sudden message appeared, indicating another danger prediction.

Zhu Ning abruptly pushed Huang Yaruo, who had not yet reacted and was immediately knocked to the ground.

Bang!

A bullet flew over, but Huang Yaruo was wearing a demon hunter's protective suit that could deflect bullets. She quickly ran behind the ruins.

Zhu Ning raised her head; she had just used Metal Manipulation and her mind was still foggy, but at this critical moment, it was the most useful talent.

The bullet stopped abruptly one meter in front of Zhu Ning, as she used Metal Manipulation to create a defensive wall.

"Suspected psychic ahead," her enhanced hearing from the gene serum picked up someone talking, "repeat, suspected metal-based psychic ahead."

Zhu Ning's vision was blurry, her helmet filled with blood, and everything she did was instinctive.

Indeed, there was an ambush. This house was an experimental subject, and someone had arrived after Zhu Ning entered.

Zhu Ning knew too much, and they were waiting here to kill her.

By clearing the contaminated area, Zhu Ning exposed herself to assassins, and the ensuing challenge was assassination.

Twenty minutes ago, four fully armed assassins had already set up an ambush in the hallway. They were like wolves hunting in the dark, constantly watching the green door.

They had just received news that someone wearing a cleaner's uniform had entered the 777th experimental subject, suspected to be sent by Prometheus to purify the contaminated area.

Two orders came down: if she was swallowed by the green door, it would be considered safe, and they could call off the operation, just like the demon hunters who had gone in before.

If she purified the contaminated area, they were to kill the intruder immediately. They were a seasoned team of assassins, specializing in killing for hire.

After waiting for twenty minutes, the green door began to show signs of change, emitting loud noises from inside.

Crack crack—

It sounded as if someone was tearing apart and chewing the house. After about three minutes, the house suddenly fell silent.

With a bang, the battered green door opened, revealing the broken walls and countless contaminated spores flying around.

The worst-case scenario had occurred—the 777th experimental subject had been purified.

This was the first time the assassins saw the person behind the door—a woman in a pure black cleaner's uniform, wearing a helmet, standing amidst the ruins.

She seemed a bit exhausted, and Huang Yaruo was helping her. Did she do all of this alone?

There was no time to think further; their cameras were on, and their earpieces relayed orders from their superiors.

"Kill her."

"Kill her now."

Anyone who just purifies a contaminated area experiences a brief moment of disorientation, the perfect opportunity for an ambush.

Bang—

The assassins' instincts kicked in faster, and they fired.

Their orders were to kill on sight without leaving any survivors, so they aimed straight for her forehead.

But the bullets did not hit Zhu Ning's body; instead, they stopped one meter in front of her.

An invisible barrier rose in front of Zhu Ning, and within a meter, the bullets were like toys in her palm.

A psychic?

Wasn't she wearing a cleaner's uniform? How could she be a psychic?

The assassins immediately sensed something was wrong. They had miscalculated; if they had known the target was a psychic, they should have sent psychics.

"The target is suspected to be a metal-based psychic." He communicated with his companions.

"Switch to air bullets."

Hunting down a person usually takes only three minutes, especially when hunting an ability user. If the target isn't taken down within three minutes, it likely means the mission will fail. It has already been over a minute.

Zhu Ning instinctively pushed Huang Yaruo away and, with her mind not fully functioning, struggled to assess the current situation.

The contaminated area had not been completely purified. After the house was crushed, it became an eerie void filled with blood-red contamination spores, with the ambushers lurking just outside.

The contamination spores were still floating around, and this was a densely populated residential area. Once contaminated, the entire neighborhood would turn into a contaminated zone, turning everyone into contaminants.

Zhu Ning should be grateful that her mind was still clear. She needed to prioritize her actions: first, deal with the enemy. In an instant, she made a critical decision.

The attackers were professionals; one of them was a sniper positioned in the opposite building.

A bullet that hit right between the eyes came from the rooftop of the opposite building. Zhu Ning's current vision allowed her to see a faint metallic gleam behind the rooftop.

Zhu Ning had been a sniper herself and could quickly locate the enemy's approximate position.

She knew a basic principle: to take down a team, eliminate their eyes—the sniper—first.

Zhu Ning's metal manipulation range was only two meters, so she couldn't use this ability to kill the sniper on the other side. She accessed the system panel.

System: "Use the Pig Man's Guillotine? Yes/No?"

Zhu Ning: "Yes."

The sniper held his breath, hiding on the rooftop of the opposite building. He had just communicated with his teammate, realizing that Zhu Ning could manipulate metal and immediately judged her as a metal ability user.

He put away traditional bullets and was about to switch to air rounds.

The sniper was well-trained; he made his judgment and switched ammunition in just thirty seconds. But those thirty seconds gave Zhu Ning an opportunity.

Just as he finished switching weapons and before he could raise his gun, he suddenly saw a flash. The sniper's pupils constricted sharply as a guillotine appeared in the scope, growing larger and larger.

Zhu Ning could manipulate metal, and this was his first thought.

The sniper tried to dodge, running at high speed, but no matter how he evaded, the guillotine followed him like a snake. This was definitely not a conventional metal ability. How could it have tracking capabilities?

What kind of ability is this?

Snap! The guillotine split him in half from top to bottom while he was still thinking, hitting him with perfect accuracy.

"Used the Pig Man's Guillotine. Entering cooldown. Next use available in 24 hours."

Having eliminated the sniper, there were still four enemies left. The moment Zhu Ning used the Pig Man's Guillotine, another assassin had already completed his weapon switch.

Bang!

An air round was fired, encased in air without any metal, which Zhu Ning couldn't control.

"Use the Rotten Fish Head's Speed Boost? Will cost 3 life points?"

Zhu Ning: "Yes."

Assassin Two was hidden in the shadow of the stairwell. He had just fired his shot, and when the bullet was only a meter away from Zhu Ning, she moved. She suddenly turned into a blur, instantly appearing behind Assassin Two, too late for him to react.

Bang!

This time, it was Zhu Ning's turn to fire.