The Creatures That We Are

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Gao Yang widened his eyes at Wang Zikai as he sat cross-legged in the corner, meeting eyes with him.

The air was eerily still. None of them moved.

“You...” Gao Yang finally broke the silence. “When did you wake up?”

“Just now.” Wang Zikai grinned, his eyes were filled with excitement as he gazed at Gao Yang.

“What do you mean by ‘just now’?” Fat Jun took an instinctual step back.

“A few minutes ago, I think.”

Gao Yang had a bad feeling about this. “You saw everything?!”

“I did!” Wang Zikai perked up and sprang to his feet. “Holy shit! When I woke up, I saw you all flying around and fighting. That’s badass, man... I thought I was dreaming...”

He flailed his arms around as he recounted what he saw. “Qing Ling was thrown into the air, and the glass shattered all over the floor. Whoa, dude! What else can I say but whoa! Only then did I realize that I wasn’t dreaming. I was so shocked and scared, I tell you! So I lay back down and pretended to be dead...”

Gao Yang rubbed his forehead. He felt a headache brewing.

“What was that woman, bro? It was insane. I swore she turned into a lizard person. Why did she turn back into a human after dying?”

“And who are you three? Y-Men? Do you have superpower? It’s like a pig flying a fighter jet! Insane!”

“Wang Zikai,” Gao Yang interrupted him.

“Yeah?”

“Quiet. Let me think for a moment.” Gao Yang was ready to have a mental breakdown.

Fat Jun took a step back. “Brother, Sister-in-Law, we can’t keep him alive... Do it.”

“Not your sister-in-law.” Qing Ling remained unmoving on the water bed. “I’m tired. I don’t care what you do with the idiot.”

“Idiot?” Wang Zikai pointed at his own nose. “Are you talking about me?”

“No!” Gao Yang shouted, pointing at the older woman pinned to the wall. “We were talking about the lizard monster.”

Wang Zikai got even more excited. “Whoa! So she was a lizard monster!”

Gao Yang took a deep breath, his mind made up. “I’m going to say something very important, Wang Zikai. Listen carefully!”

“For sure!” Wang Zikai pricked up his ears.

Five minutes later.

With an awestruck look, Wang Zikai tried his best to summarize Gao Yang’s explanation. “So, I was modified when I was young, which made me special. And the lizard monsters want to kill me because of that...”

“That’s right! We’re all new humans. In order to fight the lizard monsters, all our bodies have been modified to some degree. You, however, are the most special among us, the fated champion in this whole world, the chosen one who was the only new human capable of fighting the boss lizard monster at the very end!”

“Wait, it’s too much to digest at once. Let me sort it out first.” Wang Zikai mused with a hand on the wall.

Gao Yang marched up to him and pushed more emotions into his voice. “Wang Zikai, Qing Ling and I had been protecting you in the dark this whole time. I distanced myself from you these couple days because I was exposed, and I didn’t want to drag you down with me... As you can see, the lizard monster almost killed all of us...”

“For real?” Wang Zikai turned around.

“I’ll swear it!”

“My best bro! I knew...I knew you wouldn’t have abandoned me!” Wang Zikai clutched on Gao Yang’s hands, his eyes red. “To tell you the truth, I took a liking to you on the first day of school, no, the moment I saw you in the crowd!”

“Since I was young, I’ve always disliked everyone around me, even my parents! But for some reason, you’re an exception. Who would’ve known...you’d been hiding yourself so well!”

“That’s the fated bond between us.” Gao Yang smiled. “It seems we are meant to fight alongside each other!”

“Shit! Of course we are!” The talk raised Wang Zikai’s spirit further. “Let’s kick those lizards’ asses together! Beat them up and save the world!”

Gao Yang let out a sigh of relief. Who knew Wang Zikai’s stupidity would end up saving his life? 𝐟𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘄𝗲𝐛𝐧𝐨𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Fat Jun struggled to recover his jaw. Seriously? That works?!

Qing Ling was still lying on the bed and never said a word of opposition—or it would be more accurate to say that she was too tired to speak.

Fat Jun forced himself to smile. “You gotta keep a low profile, pal. Humans are at a disadvantage at the moment. We’re surrounded by lizard people. You must keep up a front and cultivate power in the meantime. As long as there is life, there is hope!”

“Got it.” Wang Zikai thumped himself on the chest. “Worry not, I’ll protect all of you once I get stronger!”

...

Ten minutes later, Officer Huang arrived after taking their call.

He pushed the blockade they had set up aside and walked into the room.

“There’s been an accident. Mission failed.” Qing Ling sat on the bed. Fat Jun was healing her injured arm.

“I can see that.” Officer Huang took out a cigarette and glanced at Auntie Ho, who was still pinned to the wall. “You’ve made quite a scene. Let me guess...she looked like a lizard?”

“Yeah, what was she?” asked Gao Yang.

“Wrath monster. To my knowledge, there are three kinds of wrath monsters: slaughterers, devourers, and summoners.”

“This was most likely a slaughterer. They are a strong bunch. You’re lucky to have run into one long past its prime. Otherwise I’d have arrived to collect your bodies.”

Everyone gasped.

“However, the most terrifying of all wrath monsters are actually the summoners. You will die if you ever run into one.”

“Are they strong?” Qing Ling asked.

“No. But they’ll notify all the monsters in the radius of one kilometer with their specialized vocal cords.”

“...”

Gao Yang didn’t say anything. Perhaps that had been the silver lining amid all the dark clouds.

All the points he had put into his Luck hadn’t been in vain. It was better to not dismiss superstitions.

“Nice to meet you, Officer Huang.” Fat Jun walked up to him and extended a hand with a friendly smile. “I’m your new companion.”

“I can tell.” Officer Huang reached out to shake his hand before turning to Wang Zikai, who still looked confident despite being wholly out of the loop.

“And this young man is...”

His eyebrows suddenly furrowed, Officer Huang stared at Wang Zikai with eyes icy with killing intent.

“Officer Huang!” Gao Yang hurriedly stepped between him and Wang Zikai. “He’s on our side too.”

Officer Huang met Gao Yang’s gaze and stayed quiet for a moment. He could roughly guess what was going on here. It wasn’t necessary to kill wanderers. They were so much like humans that in theory, humans could coexist with them as long as they took care not to cross the line and provoked them.

Still, they knew too little about monsters, which made their mercy misguided at best. Officer Huang was in no place to judge Gao Yang though. After all, he hadn’t taken out Old Man Liu.

With a nod, he asked in a lowered voice, “You sure he’s safe?”

“I’m sure.”

“Alright.” Officer Huang lit his cigarette and took a deep drag. “Clean up and get out of here, you three. Don’t skip school.”

Officer Huang then turned to Fat Jun. “You’re the owner of this hotel?”

“I am.”

Officer Huang nodded and surveyed the mess in the room. “I could report this as a burglary, but there are too many traces left from the fight that cannot be erased in a short time. The risk of getting exposed is too high.”

“What else can we do?” asked Fat Jun.

“Would you mind becoming a newspaper headline? Explosion at Love Hotel Caused by Gas Leak Killed One and Injured One.”

Naturally, the one killed was Auntie Ho, and the one injured was Fat Jun. If they were to put on an act, they had to make it believable. With his ability to heal, Fat Jun could play the part without losing much.

“But...this is all I have! Do we really have to blow it up?” Fat Jun was heartbroken just thinking about it. “It’s not insured! I’ll get no compensation and may instead get fined...”

“Is that more important than your life?” Officer Huang asked.

Gao Yang spoke up to assure him, “Officer Huang is right. Nothing is more important than survival.”

Fat Jun sighed and cursed under his breath. “Alright, burn it, burn it all down! Losing a building in exchange for companions? It’s more than worth it!”

...

Ten minutes later, Gao Yang and Qing Ling walked out of the hotel.

It was early morning. The entire city bathed in the dawning sunlight as it roused from its sleep.

The road saw few pedestrians. There were only a couple carts selling breakfast, a group of seven or eight young people who had just pulled an all-nighter at the internet cafe, and a street sprinkler lazily driving past them.

Wang Zikai trailed after Gao Yang and Qing Ling, still pumped with adrenaline. “Shit, now everyone seems like lizard people to me!”

“Keep it down!” Gao Yang warned him. “Go home and stay put. Qing Ling and I will go to school. Pick us up at the entrance in the evening. I have a mission for you.”

“Roger that!‘ Wang Zikai ran across the road and jumped into his sports car.

Before he drove away, he even waved at Gao Yang and declared with pride, “Get them all! Save the world!” f(r)eenovelkiss.com

“It doesn’t make sense for a wanderer to not wake up to reality even after all that,” Qing Ling said coolly.

Gao Yang sighed. “I thought you were letting him off the hook.”

“Not a chance.” Qing Ling’s eyes were chilling. “We’ll be the prime suspects if he dies tonight. We’ll wait for a better opportunity...”

She trailed off, her expression darkening.

“What?”

Gao Yang realized that Qing Ling was looking behind his shoulder.

He turned around and couldn’t keep his calm.

“Gao Xinxin?!”

His sister stood a few meters from him. Wearing the new Lolita skirt he bought her and a blonde wig, she looked as pretty as a doll, and she was staring right at Gao Yang with an impassive face.

Any other day, Gao Yang would’ve complimented his little sister for the look, but now, he was so nervous that he struggled to keep his tongue straight. “Why are you here, sis? I, well, there was something I needed to take care of with my classmate...”

“Stop pretending,” Gao Xinxin said in a composed voice. “I saw you.”

Gao Yang’s heart sank.

Qing Ling took a step forward and curled her finger while maintaining her usual poker face, ready to strike at any moment.

Gao Yang clung onto hope and asked, “What are you talking about, sis? I don’t understand...”

“Too late.” The scoff on his sister's face did not belong to someone her age. “I’ve told everyone.”

Overwhelming despair and fear clutched Gao Yang by the neck.

A summoner?!