The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 57: Half-Human

“The difference is that while the isolated islands can only be reached via official channels such as highways, airplanes, and high speed rails, the subspace can be reached with other means. Heavenly Dog is an awakener with a Space-Time Talent, allowing him to cut the space open momentarily so that we could enter the underground Gu Family’s Village.”

“Ah.” Gao Yang thought for a moment. “But why are there two Gu Family’s Villages? An underground one in addition to the one above ground?”

“Good question.” White Rabbit gave him a thumbs-up. “Unfortunately, I don’t know either.”

“...”

“Let me start from the beginning. Three years ago, our organization found the first Rune Circuit—the Life-type one. It was the fourth Rune Circuit awakeners had ever found, and it was inside an underground space. I won’t go into the details. Just know that it was a similar situation with Gu Family’s Village.”

“Last spring.” White Rabbit threw Wu Dahai a rare appreciative glance. “I lured Wu Dahai into the organization with my feminine wiles...”

“Ha, you said it!” Wu Dahai slammed his chopsticks on the table. “Don’t you feel a pang of consciousness for leading on a pure-hearted boy like me?”

“Don’t interrupt me.” White Rabbit couldn’t care less. “Anyhow, Wu Dahai told me about the tragic happening at Gu Family’s Village and said that it could be related to Rune Circuits. I looked it up and found out it was indeed a strange case. A family of five was killed, followed by the disappearance of all villagers.”

“We sent our people to investigate the ruin of Gu Family’s Village. The first time, we encountered the hair monster like you did, and we were brought to the underground Gu Family’s Village. However, our people were stronger than you lot, and the hair monster fled once it realized it couldn’t win. Then we stayed for another two days and found out all the information you’ve found, but the hair monster never showed up again.”

White Rabbit glanced at Wu Dahai. “We visited the place a few more times to no avail. The hair monster was cunning. Knowing how much of a threat we were to it, it refused to show up. We concluded that the hair monster must have mutated after devouring a Rune Circuit.”

“So you used us?” Officer Huang smiled bitterly.

“Yeah, it’s hard to find the right people.” White Rabbit batted her eyelashes. “First, it had to be awakeners, but not those belonging to the other organizations since we couldn’t trust them. Our best bet were free agents who didn’t even know about Rune Circuits.”

“That’s what we call awakeners who haven’t yet joined any organization,” Wu Dahai added.

White Rabbit continued, “Couldn’t be too strong, or the hair monster wouldn’t show up. Couldn’t be too weak, or the hair monster would kill everyone swiftly or notice it was a trap. Finally, there was one important thing...”

White Rabbit turned to Qing Ling and stroked her long, silky black hair. “It’d be best if the target had nice black hair. With its obsession with hair, the hair monster would be more likely to bite the bait.”

“So you picked the three of us.” Officer Huang raised an eyebrow.

“Yep!” White Rabbit grinned. “You were free agents and weren’t too weak, making you the perfect bait. On top of that, you didn’t know about Rune Circuits.”

“What a devilish scheme,” Officer Huang said, disgruntled.

“Speaking of this, I’d have to compliment Mr. Wu Dahai again!” White Rabbit gave him a thumbs-up. “He was quite worried about you and told you specifically to bring more help. If you hadn’t brought Fat Jun and Wang Zikai, things would’ve turned out differently.”

“You’re an evil woman!” Officer Huang said with begrudging respect. “I’m staying away from you from now on.”

“Haha, I only ever throw outsiders under the bus, never my teammates.” White Rabbit picked up a piece of potato for Officer Huang. “And teammates are what we are now. Please take care of me.”

“Go back to the Gu Family’s Village,” Gao Yang urged.

“Alright.” White Rabbit nodded. “According to what I know, what happened in Gu Family’s Village wasn’t complicated. Simply put, Huazi’s daughter-in-law, the woman who married into his family, had been devoured by an overtaker.”

“What’s an overtaker?” Gao Yang zeroed in on the key point.

White Rabbit sighed. “Dear lord, you really know nothing. You’re lucky to have survived for this long!”

“Overtakers are a type of greed monsters,” Wu Dahai said. “There are two known types of greed monsters at the moment: freeriders, and overtakers.”

White Rabbit continued, “As the name would suggest, freeriders entered and hitchhiked in the human body as parasites at the price of their deaths. They coexist with the human, maintaining some sentience and capabilities. But all in all, the human remains the owner of the body.”

“Ah!” Fat Jun spat out the meat he was chewing on and pointed at his own face. “That’s me!”

“Wu Dahai told me about your condition. That’s right. Your right hand is now a freerider.”

“Bodhisattva blesses me!” Fat Jun felt a weight lifted off his shoulders. “I’m still human! Hooray!”

“It’s a shame that you aren’t able to control the form and ability of your right hand yet. Please work hard on that!” White Rabbit winked at Fat Jun with a smile. “You’ll become an official member once you gain control of your right hand!”

“Yeah! I’ll prove that the organization is right to trust me!” Fat Jun declared with renewed determination.

“Wake up, loser!” Wu Dahai rained on his parade. “Once you become a valuable tool and sign your body to the organization, she won’t ever give you the time of day. I’ve been there myself.”

Fat Jun chuckled while touching his head. “Haha, that’s fine.”

Wait, that doesn’t make sense.

Gao Yang had been listening intently, and he realized something: if the white cat were a freerider, it should’ve died after biting Fat Jun.

Yet the white cat showed up again later. Could those be two different cats? He filed that in his head and pushed the question aside for now. At least Fat Jun seemed fine at the moment.

“I’ll continue.” White Rabbit went back to her original topic. “Another type of greed monsters are the overtakers. Basically, they enter and overtake the host bodies completely at the price of abandoning their own, turning into a brand new creature with the body of an awakener but the soul of a monster.”

Everyone quietly listened with rapt attention.

“The bride was an awakener who had been replaced by an overtaker,” said White Rabbit. “Biologically speaking, these overtaken awakeners are humans through and through. They can either choose to keep playing a monster, or abandon their past and live on as a human. We call someone like that a half-human.”

“Half-human.” Gao Yang pondered the name. There seemed to be something profound about it.

“The half-human bride married into Huazi’s family in Gu Family’s Village.” White Rabbit sighed. “And that night, she controlled everyone in the village to kill the entire family. You should know how she did it.”

“Why kill them though?” Officer Huang asked.

Gao Yang came to a realization on his own. “Are Huazi’s family...all humans?”

“Bingo!”

“That can’t be!” Officer Huang found that hard to believe. “The possibility is incredibly slim!”

Gao Yang was shocked as well, but he couldn’t help being happy to learn that. Perhaps his family were all humans too. At least...it seemed more likely to be true now.

But then something nagged at him. “But it doesn’t add up!”

“What?” White Rabbit asked, knowing full well what he was going to say.

“If Huazi’s Family were all awakeners, why would they lose to the half-human?”

“Yeah.” White Rabbit nodded. “In theory, four awakeners should be able to defeat a half-human even when the half-human was empowered by a Rune Circuit. Worst comes to worst, they shouldn’t have ended up slaughtered so easily and terribly. Moreover, why would four awakeners welcome a monster into the family? It didn’t make sense.”

“Stop being cryptic.” Wu Dahai crossed his legs. “Just tell them.”

White Rabbit lowered her voice and said, “It was because the four men of Huazi’s family were no awakeners. They were regular humans.”