CHAPTER 57: CHAPTER 54: LATE-NIGHT HOUR ON ALLEY NO. 5

At dusk, the afterglow spilled, painting the entire city with a golden border.

Inside a tavern.

Silhouettes flickered, every seat filled with people; office workers just off shift, students gathering for parties, and a few scattered Cleaners drowning their sorrows in drink.

"Recently, near Alley Five, disappearances continue and the strange creature known as the Dissector frequently appears. Citizens are advised to be more vigilant and reduce unnecessary nighttime outings..."

Amidst the news broadcast, three Cleaners clinked glasses: "Cheers!"

Three glass cups clinked together under the lights, the liquid inside swaying, reflecting the smiles on their faces.

"Walking all the way to today in this city is really not easy." The bespectacled Cleaner said. "This job was really beautifully done, got rid of that troublesome guy, we earned quite a lot this time, right?"

The bespectacled Cleaner looked quite young, with a hint of naivety, like a youth just graduated from college and stepping into society.

Beside him, a quiet girl snuggled up to him, like a dependent bird, sipping her juice little by little.

Clearly, the quiet girl was the young man’s girlfriend.

"Glasses guy, this job pays over three thousand credit points, same as usual, you two take sixty percent, I’ll take forty percent, how about it?" The burly Cleaner swiftly downed his beer, his voice exuberant.

"Hmm, Xiaowen and I are about to save enough for the down payment, soon we’ll be able to buy a house in the suburbs, and the day of our wedding isn’t far off."

At the mention of marriage, happiness and joy flashed across the faces of the young man and the girl, as if they were already envisioning a blissful future. After exchanging glances, they shyly looked away.

The man took in this scene with a hearty laugh: "Look at you young people, what’s there to be embarrassed about with such matters."

"It’s not easy to have someone to rely on in this city, being able to trust each other with your backs and such, tsk tsk tsk, I wish you happiness."

"Brother Qiang, when it’s time for the wedding, you must come to celebrate, you’re the one who helped me the most, without you we wouldn’t be where we are today." The glasses guy said shyly.

"Of course, we’re all from Sunset Office, and in the future, let’s continue to support each other!" Brother Qiang laughed heartily.

"To our bright future, cheers!"

"Cheers!"

The three glass cups clinked together once more.

The atmosphere was beautifully uplifted, with the refracted light still illuminating their smiling faces, their discussions about future expectations intertwined with the pleasant conversations among people in the tavern, creating a picture.

At night.

Three drunken figures stumbled out of the tavern, walking forward along where the streetlights pointed.

"You know, when I was young, I was just like you, ambitious! Absolutely awesome, fearless of anything."

The burly man leaned on the glasses guy, despite being drunk, his voice still loud.

"Sheng, you know? I love you... you don’t know how happy I was when you confessed to me before."

The girl’s face, red as a ripe apple, pressed against the glasses guy, leaning on the young man’s body, her words filled with happiness:

"I’m going to marry Sheng, become Sheng’s bride."

The glasses guy nodded, saying nothing, and continued walking forward with the two.

Under the moonlight, the shadows of the three were stretched further and further.

They passed through winding alleyways into the old city district, the surroundings gradually becoming dilapidated, old illegal buildings lining either side, wires and cobwebs interweaving above, streetlights long in disrepair starting to flicker, occasionally emitting buzzing sounds.

Dust churned under the dim light, moths fluttered their wings, the patterns on the wings resembling ghost faces, with scales emitting an eerie glow.

The alleys grew narrower, darker, and more eerie.

Arriving at another alley covered in graffiti, where almost the entire wall facade had peeled off, the burly man stopped, confusion on his face.

"Eh? What’s going on, where have we walked to?"

"I remember... the office isn’t this way."

He looked up at the sky, suddenly breaking out in cold sweat.

A blood-red moon hung in the sky.

The moonlight was wickedly vivid, soaking the entire street in dead silence.

The entire city’s people seemed to have vanished, the bustling city suddenly turned into a ghastly red ghost town, the surroundings quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

"Hiss, where is this, I’ve never seen this road before?"

It was only then that the burly man caught a whiff of the metallic, rusty smell hovering in the air.

Not the rusty smell of old alley pipes, but the aroma of fresh blood, extremely strong.

Fearfully surveying the surroundings, he finally realized something was wrong, his vision began to blur.

The originally yellowing alleyway walls suddenly bore countless bloody handprints, densely packed, covering the entire wall!

The glasses guy stood before the blood-handprint-covered wall, head lowered, emitting a strange laugh.

"What the hell did you do!?" The burly man yelled out, eyes wide open. "Where did you take us!?"

"Sheng, what happened to you?"

Xiaowen, in a state of panic and unease, stepped forward intending to grab the young man’s arm, but was rudely shaken off by him.

Seeing the bespectacled man’s eyes filled with intense hatred and murderous intent, the girl lying on the ground was startled, her lips turning pale.

"Where is this, where is this!?"

The burly man completely ignored the young man’s strange behavior, searching restlessly for a way out of the alley like a drowning man grasping for air. Just as he followed his memory to the entrance of the alley, he froze.

A chill surged directly from his feet to his head.

At some point, a blood-red wall had appeared at the alley entrance, blocking it completely, towering as high as several stories!

In the middle of the wall, a number was written in flowing scarlet script.

—5.

"Alley 5... Alley 5..."

The burly man took a few steps back, muttering the words like a curse.

As if realizing the terrifying fate that awaited them, the blood vessels in the burly man’s eyes seemed to burst. He shouted at the bespectacled man:

"You son of a bitch, why did you lead us to this place?"

"Why are you trying to get me killed?"

"I have shown you so much care, has your conscience been eaten by dogs?"

"Yes, yes, Sheng, Brother Qiang never did anything to wrong you, and we were just about to get married, what’s wrong with you?"

"Enough!!" The bespectacled man’s eyes were nearly tearing apart.

"Wang Qiang, I treated you as the most respected senior, always sharing the rewards from the commissions with you—what have you done to me!?"

"You tricked me into signing an organ loan with Cosmic Heavy Industries. After years of compounded interest, I realized I’ve been handed a debt I’ll never repay in my lifetime! In a few days, if I haven’t paid it off, those fucking Jackal Wolves will come to dismember my body for parts!"

"How many times have you schemed against me, wronged me, both openly and in the shadows?"

"Sheng..."

"And you, you bitch, shut up! Do you think I don’t know what you two dogs have been doing behind my back?"

"That day I came home, I saw with my own eyes your promiscuous expression, telling that bastard to go faster. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t have believed you could say such things!"

"My whole life, I crawled like a dog on the ground for our marriage!" The bespectacled man shouted, "This is how you repay me!"

As if breaking down, the bespectacled man spread his hands, his face twisted: "If I can’t live, since none of you will let me live, then let’s die together!"

"It is now 8:15 PM."

"The blood banquet of Alley 5 is about to begin..."

Countless viscous, blood-red liquids, reeking with a putrid stench, surged up from the sewers, quickly flooding over the trio’s feet.

"They’re coming..." The burly man also broke down, seemingly seeing visions of despair, giving up all resistance. "They’re coming..."

Distorted, grotesque humanoid monsters crawled out of the putrid, blood-red liquid. They wore metal masks, their bodies covered in crimson Alchemy Armor, their arms replaced by hook scythes marked with rust, and the most conspicuous feature was the giant metal canister on their backs, filled with this red liquid, with uncorroded organs vaguely visible swaying inside the tanks.

"tsu ta saka."

The monsters noticed the three in the alley, communicating in an unknown language.

"saka."

A hulking monster wiped the chainsaw on its arm, red lights flickering beneath its metal mask.

The chainsaw wildly roared to life.

"Ah!"

Seeing the monsters heading towards them, Xiaowen screamed and ran towards the alley entrance.

The wildly spinning chainsaw ripped into her chest.

Buzz buzz buzz—

Under the eerie moonlight, the girl was torn into pieces, scattered everywhere.

She became the first living sacrifice of this blood-red night feast.

Buzz buzz buzz—

Buzz buzz buzz—

After an indeterminate amount of time passed.

The red moon in the sky gradually turned pale, and the bloody handprints on the wall slowly disappeared.

The viscous blood-red liquid, like a retreating tide, surged back into the sewers.

On the surface of the last gel-like mass of red liquid, the facial contours of Wang Qiang, the bespectacled man, and Xiaowen could be vaguely seen.

Their faces were pressed tightly against each other, their flesh and blood intermingled and fused, eyes closed as if they had entered a peaceful slumber.