The Collapsing Mom

Outside the main gate.

The Walking Corpse froze halfway through turning around.

“What?”

Zhu Yan, huddled inside Li Panlong’s body, heard it mutter.

Its neck twisted toward them inch by inch, bones cracking with every movement, as if it wanted to make sure of something but was too afraid to confirm it.

“My… son…?”

Jin Rongxu looked from one to the other, as though he had realized something.

Something was wrong.

This was completely different from the information Zhu Zeyu had given him.

According to Zhu Zeyu, Li Panlong should have been alive and well!

Jin Rongxu immediately backed away two steps. Through the red letters displayed across his retinas, he scanned Li Panlong’s bloodless face, unfocused pupils, and slightly rigid limbs.

He tensed his back, glanced at Pot Lid, the military doctor, and Ma Dong beside him, then nervously looked at his private-message window with Zhu Zeyu.

Even an idiot could tell that something was off.

These things were far too close to him. What if they suddenly went berserk?

He had a health-lock cheat, but with no one around, how was he supposed to use it?

The Hunter could appear at any moment. All he could do was count on Zhu Zeyu to hold it back.

Where had that Zhu Zeyu gone…?

Jin Rongxu stared anxiously at the private-message window while cursing at Zhu Zeyu on the other end.

“Where the hell are you?!”

…

The level-thirteen military saber was razor-sharp, slicing effortlessly through the edge of the skin on Li Daochang’s back.

A moment ago, Zhu Zeyu had tried to put the headless body into his ring, but unfortunately, he had failed.

With no time to spare, he had used the saber without hesitation.

However, whenever Zhu Zeyu tried to cut any deeper, the blade met resistance as though it had struck a steel plate and could not advance an inch.

“Meow.”

The Tuxedo Cat said.

Zhu Zeyu glanced at it, then crouched down.

The cat did not understand anything. It was merely curious.

He studied the pattern on Li Daochang’s back, still holding the memorial tablet in one hand as he tried to find some kind of pattern.

Li Daochang’s back had been neatly divided into four sections by thick black lines.

Inside the square frames, four scenes had been drawn in an extremely modern style, almost like a four-panel comic strip.

It seemed to tell a complete story, but time was too tight for Zhu Zeyu to examine it closely.

His gaze swept hastily downward. In the first panel, he saw the familiar Li family house. Then the viewpoint shifted indoors, where offerings and three burning incense sticks had been placed on the dining table in the living room.

Zhu Zeyu’s heart stirred.

There were offerings and incense, but there was no deity, photograph, or…

memorial tablet being worshiped.

…

The Walking Corpse’s scattered pupils stared directly at “Li Panlong,” while its “precious son” stared back.

Its retinas barely managed to make out “Li Panlong’s” equally unfocused eyes, and the sight made the Walking Corpse shudder.

No.

No, this couldn’t be!

Why had its son become like this?

It must be that this dead man’s eyes were defective and he couldn’t see clearly.

Without time to worry about Jin Rongxu, the Walking Corpse hurriedly extended an arm and seized “Li Panlong’s” hand.

“Panlong!”

The sensation of that hand struck it again.

The real Li Panlong had always hated being touched, but the Walking Corpse had touched his face while he slept.

A dead person’s body was cold, so whenever it touched its precious son through the skin-suit, it always felt that he was burning hot.

But now, that was gone—

All it could squeeze was a layer of stiffened skin. Beneath it, through the skin, it could feel the limp, inelastic fat, and below that, muscles that were just as rigid and unresponsive.

The vitality unique to a living human had vanished from this body.

For once, the Walking Corpse began to tremble all over.

Terror swept over it. It stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly at Li Panlong.

“…Panlong?”

Jin Rongxu retreated little by little. As he passed Ma Dong, however, an iron-clamp-like hand seized his arm.

In his terror, he instantly produced a lump of flesh from a horrifying creature. When he turned his head, he saw Ma Dong’s lips trembling incessantly as he murmured Li Panlong’s name.

“Panlong…”

…

I wonder if a horrifying creature can survive after losing its obsession.

Zhu Zeyu thought gleefully, without slowing his hands in the slightest.

In the short time that had passed, he had carved away more than half of the picture on Li Daochang’s back, taking skin and flesh alike. The stench of his organs had filled the entire space.

The blade continued shaving away at the first panel. A red memorial tablet had appeared on the small table in the picture, shining as brightly as a piece of red mother-of-pearl embedded in the skin.

Zhu Zeyu carefully cut through the skin around the edge of the picture. Then he stood up and rolled the thick piece of human skin, still covered with plenty of rotting flesh and connective tissue.

He tentatively focused his mind.

The heavy roll of human skin was effortlessly stored inside the ring.

Zhu Zeyu’s heart began pounding violently.

He split his attention, opened the ability “Everyone Has Their Own Fate,” and then lowered his voice to give the Tuxedo Cat at his feet an instruction.

“Turn into Fog in a moment and stay close to me. Understand?”

“Meow,” said the Tuxedo Cat.

…

At the garden entrance.

“Li Panlong” gave the Walking Corpse a playful wink with his right eye.

It was an expression Li Panlong would never have made.

On this bloated, corpse-like face, it was even more greasy and repulsive.

“So you figured out I’m dead?”

“Li Panlong” said with a grin, not forgetting to glance at Jin Rongxu from the corner of his eye.

That guy was being held back by Ma Dong—

Though for some reason, he still had not used the ability “Paranormal Armor.” Had fear turned him stupid?

“Mom, you’re so slow. Look, what do you think this is?”

He manipulated Li Panlong’s body and held up the other hand—the one that had been carried behind his back but remained empty the entire time.

The Walking Corpse seemed not to have understood. It continued staring blankly at Li Panlong’s face.

Zhu Yan cursed its stupidity inwardly.

He controlled the Fog to emerge from Zhu Zeyu’s body, put away the puppet, and desperately squeezed through the crack beneath the movie theater door with the Tuxedo Cat.

Li Daochang’s prepared ashes were outside.

The Fog formed a pair of arms and picked up the urn. To his delight, Zhu Yan discovered that after obtaining the Nightmare Book, even the ashes could be stored in the ring.

“Mom,” Zhu Yan said, carefully controlling his pace to buy himself more time. “Look, I brought your memorial tablet with me.”

“Li Daochang just died. You felt it, didn’t you?”

“Oh, Mom.”

Zhu Yan watched the Walking Corpse’s face. The loose flesh hanging from its sagging cheeks trembled violently.

“I’m really sorry, but your memorial tablet…”

He deliberately dragged out the last words while another portion of the Fog raced across the living room, shot through the wide-open door, and floated into the garden.

“…was taken to the basement by me. I also cut the skin off Li Daochang’s back. Did you…”

Zhu Yan never finished the sentence.

The Walking Corpse opened its mouth, and a shriek loud enough to rupture eardrums tore through the night sky.

“My son! My son!!”

Pfft.

A stiff, dead hand pierced straight through “Li Panlong’s” chest, followed by a second.

The skin-suits no longer paid any attention to Jin Rongxu. One after another, they lurched toward the basement in a mad rush.

Li Panlong was still smiling at the shrieking Walking Corpse, even shrugging with apparent good humor.

“Oh, Mother, your son is dead. He can’t even feel pain, so I certainly wouldn’t—”

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

The Walking Corpse tore Li Panlong’s heart out in one savage motion. His blood vessels stretched like springs before snapping with a sharp crack.

“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”

“You killed my son long ago! You tricked me into handing over his memorial tablet. I’m going to kill you, you liar!”