God of Drama

Chapter 13: The Second One?

"The aura of [Judgment] has disappeared."

"The aura of the calamity has also vanished."

"If nothing went wrong, Brother Meng should have succeeded."

"Han Meng is too fast. Even if we wanted to share the credit, we wouldn't have had the chance…"

On this rainy night, four figures clad in black trench coats sped toward the battlefield in the wilderness. They were the remaining enforcers of District Three.

Their eyes swept over the devastated land, silently shocked.

Just how intense had the battle been to leave the place in such a state?

"This calamity… seems to be quite something…"

As they spoke, they turned their gazes to the other side of the battlefield, where a blood-soaked figure lay motionless on the ground, like a corpse.

"Brother Meng?!"

One enforcer immediately rushed forward, picking up Han Meng and nervously checking his breathing.

The other three stood still, exchanging glances. A flicker of strange light flashed in their eyes…

"Is he dead?" one of them asked.

This was Ma Zhong, the second-ranking enforcer of District Three.

"Not dead! Still alive!"

A subtle disappointment flashed across the trio's faces. Two of them looked toward Ma Zhong, who hesitated briefly before shaking his head.

"What about the calamity? I don’t see a corpse."

"Escaped?!"

"There’s no corpse, so it must have gotten away…"

The group immediately searched the area, but under the relentless rain, no traces were left behind. The calamity that had just been battling Han Meng seemed to have vanished into thin air.

"Ma-ge! Ma-ge!!"

Just then, a uniformed enforcer in black and red rushed over.

"What's the matter? Why are you in such a hurry?" Ma Zhong raised an eyebrow.

"We just received intelligence from District Two… Last night, there was also a calamity attack in District Two. Half a street was slaughtered, with a total of thirty-six deaths."

"What?" Ma Zhong exclaimed in shock. "Was it the same one?"

"They say the one that attacked District Two was a Grade Three calamity, so it should be a different one."

"Two calamities emerging from the same Grey Realm convergence? That’s not common…" Ma Zhong mused. "Did they take it down?"

"No, after it killed all those people, it fled toward the back mountain… There's a chance it crossed over and entered District Three. District Two is requesting reinforcements. They've suffered too many casualties and are short on enforcers."

"Understood. I’ll handle it."

As the enforcers carried the unconscious Han Meng toward the hospital, Ma Zhong's gaze lingered on the ravaged battlefield and the shadowy outline of the back mountain in the distance.

"Two calamities… from the same convergence point… Interesting."

"Bro, shouldn’t we be running?"

As night deepened, two young figures walked along an empty path, heading straight for Frost Street.

"Why should we run?" Chen Ling countered.

Chen Yan was momentarily stunned, scratching his head as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

"Besides, even if we run, where can we go?" Chen Ling sighed. "The Aurora Territory is only so big. One city, seven districts. Regular people can't enter Aurora City, and the districts are sealed off—Districts Two and Three are locked down…"

"Then… what if we hide in the mountains?"

"Hiding won’t help. They’ll find us eventually. We can't just keep running." Chen Ling responded vaguely.

In truth, he also wanted to find a place to hide, but he simply couldn't!

Even though he had reclaimed the "stage," the audience's anticipation value was stuck at 20%. If he didn’t do something soon to raise their expectations, he would once again lose control of his body and turn into a monster.

Chen Yan felt like something was off about this logic… but he didn’t dwell on it. If his brother said they couldn’t hide, then there must be a reason.

"Ah Yan."

"Hmm?"

"Aren't you afraid of me?" In the darkness, Chen Ling turned to look at him. "You saw it just now… I turned into a monster."

Chen Yan lowered his head and remained silent for a long time.

"Brother, turning into a monster… doesn’t matter, as long as… you're still you."

"How do you know I'm still me?"

"I just… feel it."

Chen Ling stared at him for a while, his expression unreadable in the dim light.

"By the way, how’s your body holding up?" he asked. "A heart transplant usually requires a long recovery. Are you sure it's okay for you to be running around like this?"

"That doctor seemed really skilled. I recovered quickly."

"Oh…"

Chen Ling suddenly realized that this world had supernatural powers. Otherwise, with no electricity, performing a heart transplant would have been impossible… Perhaps there were also accelerated healing methods?

His gaze fell on Chen Yan’s smooth neck, and a thought struck him. "Wait, where's the protection charm I gave you? The one you always wore around your neck."

Chen Yan was stunned, reaching for his chest, only to find it empty.

"I don’t know… I must've lost it while running back."

"…It’s fine. I’ll make you another one when we get back."

"Okay." Chen Yan hesitated, then spoke again. "Brother… are you really not going to wash up? If you walk into the city like this, you’re going to scare people."

Chen Ling froze and instinctively touched his neck—slick and sticky with blood.

Strangely, ever since he emerged from the red-paper monster, the wound on his neck had been healing at an unnaturally fast rate. In just half an hour, the flesh had almost completely fused back together. But even so, he still looked like a demon straight out of hell.

With no other choice, he found a nearby stream, shrugged off his crimson opera robe, and began washing the blood off his body.

"Bro, I’ve been meaning to ask you something…" Chen Yan said hesitantly.

"Why are you wearing my opera robe?"

"I… don’t know."

Chen Ling stared blankly at the garment draped over him. He distinctly remembered that when he was killed by the axe, he wasn’t wearing this.

Thinking back, when he returned home that night, he had also been wearing this crimson opera robe. Based on what Chen Tan and Li Xiuchun had said, it seemed they had used this robe to wrap his corpse after murdering him.

But why hadn’t they dressed him in it this time? And why had the opera robe found its way back onto his body?

Chen Ling couldn’t make sense of it. Ever since he arrived in this world, strange occurrences had only multiplied…

He originally wanted to burn the robe, thinking it was cursed, but when he saw Chen Yan's pitiful expression, he sighed and silently washed it along with the rest of his clothes.