The Labyrinth of the Beasts City

Interview

"Ah! Ahhh..." Fat Jun on the chair screamed and thrashed his bulky body crazily for seven or eight seconds before gradually calming down.

"I... I'm not dead?" Fat Jun gasped for air, looking down at his right arm where the bullet hit. Oddly, there was no blood, only a deep black hole.

Then, Fat Jun's right arm began to "melt," followed by "fermenting," and finally turned into a massive lump of flesh with a "plop" sound, spitting out the bullet.

Seconds later, the arm slowly returned to its normal state.

All this was witnessed by the other three.

Officer Huang holstered his gun: "Fat Jun, your arm is definitely a beast. None of the known talents in my database include such a bizarre bodily transformation." He rubbed his temples with his thumb, frowning, "But you, as a person, are still human for now."

"For now?" Fat Jun sounded disheartened.

Officer Huang sighed and looked at Gao Yang, "What do you think?"

"Brother Yang! Save me..." Fat Jun was almost crying, "I know you won't give up on me. You even saved Brother Kai, how can you bear to kill me!"

"Don't kill him for now," Gao Yang said.

"Why not?" Wang Zikai sounded a bit disappointed, "This guy is useless, might as well finish him off."

"I'm not useless!" Fat Jun protested, "I'm more useful than you! You're just a... a..." He couldn't bring himself to say "lost one."

Gao Yang looked at Fat Jun, "His arm's mutation is probably caused by the bite from that white cat. If the mutation spreads to his whole body, we can still kill him later. But if it's only limited to his arm, it's more valuable to keep Fat Jun alive."

"Right, right, right!" Fat Jun's will to live surged, "I can heal, I'm the only healer in the team! I'm valuable!"

Officer Huang pondered for a moment, "Alright, tie him up and observe for a few days."

He then looked at Wang Zikai, "This glorious and arduous task is yours. Make sure he's well-fed, don't starve him to death."

"No problem," Wang Zikai patted his chest, grinning mischievously, "I'll take good care of him!"

...

The three left the underground garage and returned to the living room.

Unknowingly, it was already 5 a.m., with dawn breaking. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the bustling riverside view began to light up, with the morning light slowly turning the grey-blue river into a pale pink. Sitting on the bean bags, the three of them sipped beer, watching the shimmering river under the dawn light.

After a discussion, Officer Huang concluded, "I've never seen anything like Fat Jun's situation. But he doesn't seem to be a beast, at least not yet."

"Is that cat-biter a beast?" Gao Yang pondered, "I thought beasts only disguised as humans. Are there animal forms too? And can some beasts infect others with their bite, like zombies?"

"I'm not sure," Officer Huang shook his head. "The organization's contact once told me that there's much more to this world than just the two main categories of beasts we know of... What we understand is just the tip of the iceberg."

Saying this, Officer Huang glanced at Wang Zikai.

Wang Zikai, overly excited the entire night and having partially transformed into a beast for combat, was now exhausted and had fallen asleep on the sofa, even snoring.

"Your friend here... could be a new type of beast."

Gao Yang nodded.

He also noticed that Wang Zikai was very different from Old Liu.

Old Liu automatically ignored and filtered out any language or visual information related to beasts. It wasn't clear yet what effect direct experiences related to beasts would have on Old Liu, but Officer Huang speculated it could trigger "lost ones" to go berserk and transform into beasts.

But Wang Zikai, whether it was language, visual information, or personal experiences related to beasts, he neither filtered them out nor went berserk. Instead, he directly remembered, understood, and rationalized them. Simply put, he never thought of himself as a beast, firmly believing he was human. Could all this really be because of his low IQ?

"I don't know if it's an illusion," Officer Huang said self-mockingly, "but ever since meeting you, I feel like this world is becoming increasingly unsafe. A subtle balance is being disrupted, and things seem to be spiraling out of control. I've been awakened for many years and never felt this way before."

Gao Yang didn't know what to say for a moment.

"I've encountered many awakened people," Officer Huang pulled out a cigarette pack. "Some are strong, some weak, some reckless, some cautious, some crazy, some cold-blooded..."

Narrowing his eyes, Officer Huang continued, "But most of them are dead, for various reasons."

Gao Yang remained silent, waiting for more.

"You're different," Officer Huang looked at Gao Yang, "You have a very unique quality."

"Do I?"

"Yes, I think you'll live a long time."

"Really?" Gao Yang liked hearing that. He was quite afraid of dying; death meant losing everything, while being alive always held hope.

"So... I think I'm in danger," Officer Huang's voice deepened.

"Why?"

"I used to love comics as a kid. People who live long are usually the protagonists. But people around the protagonist often don't live long..."

Gao Yang couldn't help but agree: it made sense, and he couldn't refute it. He was indeed different, first as a person who had traveled to this world, and then awakening with a miraculous system. It wasn't too much to call this a 'protagonist's aura'. But it could also be a survivorship bias. Maybe there were thousands of transmigrators, and he was neither the first nor the last...

Gao Yang got lost in thought.

Officer Huang stood up, "I've decided, I need to keep my distance from you."

"Ah?" Gao Yang was surprised, "Officer Huang, don't abandon me."

"I won't go that far," Officer Huang took a drag of his cigarette, revealing a cryptic smile, "What I mean is, we need to join the organization as soon as possible.

That way, you'll have more companions around you. Statistically, the risk of me biting the dust will be effectively distributed."

Gao Yang was speechless: I think you're the transmigrator!

Officer Huang took out a sticky note and pen, quickly writing down a time and address, "Tonight at 12, come with Qing Ling. I'll take you two for the interview."

"Okay!" Gao Yang took the note.

...

After resting a while at Wang Zikai's place, Gao Yang headed to school.

Wang Zikai stayed behind to guard Fat Jun and continued his training. Given his sudden "outburst" the previous night, Wang Zikai believed it was the result of his training and was now more motivated than ever. It seemed Gao Yang could easily coax him into behaving for a few more days.

After morning self-study, Gao Yang met Qing Ling on the rooftop, where he briefly explained what had happened the night before, downplaying Wang Zikai's outburst.

Qing Ling didn't express any opinion.

Later in the morning, Gao Yang approached the English class representative, Wan Sisi, for help with some English questions. She was pleasantly surprised and happily assisted him. After discussing the questions, Wan Sisi casually invited Gao Yang to lunch with other classmates.

Gao Yang gladly accepted and had a "quite enjoyable" lunch, convincing everyone that his previous antisocial behavior was due to being overly upset about Li Weiwei's death.

Nothing notable happened in the afternoon.

The evening self-study passed without incident.

After self-study, Gao Yang met up with Qing Ling in a small alley near the school, their usual rendezvous spot. Upon seeing Qing Ling, Gao Yang started to undress.

"No need," Qing Ling said.

"No disguise today?" Gao Yang was a bit surprised.

"Right." Qing Ling glanced at the note, "The location is 121 Huangsong Street in Feiyang District. It's too far and across the bridge; we can't walk there."

"So, what should we do?"

Qing Ling thought for a moment, "Let's just take the last subway, openly and legitimately."

"Okay."

As they left the alley, Qing Ling wrapped her arms around Gao Yang's arm and leaned her head on his shoulder, pretending to be a young couple in love. "Let's pretend we're students in a secret relationship. It's more plausible."

"Sure," Gao Yang had no objections. After all, being embraced by a high-powered beauty in a world full of beasts did provide a strong sense of security.

They took the subway and got off half an hour later in the Feiyang District of Hexi. After a twenty-minute walk through the night, Qing Ling even bought some spicy hot pot skewers from a night snack street—she really loved them!

Huangsong Street was in an old district scheduled for demolition. The streets were lined with low, two-to-three-story cement buildings. The outdated shops had closed early, the roads were in disrepair, and few streetlights worked, likely with malfunctioning cameras as well.

They found building number 121 without much trouble.

It was an inconspicuous storefront with a half-rolled rusty shutter door, behind which hung an old blue cloth. Behind the cloth, the glow of fluorescent lights flickered, accompanied by the sound effects of fighting and explosions from old arcade machines.

"I didn't expect to see an arcade room like this nowadays." Gao Yang loved these places as a child, where fifty cents could buy him half a day's entertainment. Of course, he was terrible at playing, mostly standing behind the older kids, watching them clear games with a single coin. Thinking back, it was like the earliest form of game anchor.

"Let's go in," Qing Ling put on her mask.

"Hold on," Gao Yang stopped her.

"What is it?"

"Give me the length of one song."