Becoming The White Moonlight’s Human Weapon After My Death - Chapter 13

Shao Dongmi and Chen Xing had parted in junior high school.

The two of them were actually the same age, but since Chen Xing’s health was poor, he had always grown slowly and had a slight build, so he gradually started looking like a younger brother. Now Shao Dongmi was already 27, but Chen Xing was still 17 years old.

Shao Dongmi had originally wanted to try and wake up his Executioner.

Yan Chenli had said that the Executioner’s hibernation process was a very painful thing for them. As a result, most Executioners would display intense aggression the moment they were woken, so one had to wait until they calmed down to undo their binds.

Some Executioners would even struggle so much they would directly break them, so they would have to rely on physical or pharmacological means when encountering such extreme circumstances.

——Does that mean I have to beat him up? Shao Dongmi thought.

Shao Dongmi circled Chen Xing again and again.

Is he in pain right now? I can’t tell. Will he struggle later? Will I really have to beat him up? Will his small body be able to endure it?

That being said, was this really Chen Xing? Or was it someone who just coincidentally looked alike?

That possibility didn’t seem low either. After all, he hadn’t seen what Chen Xing looked like at 17 years old, and this lifelessly stiff face was completely different from that of the Chen Xing of his memory.

Shao Dongmi went in circles for a while, but didn’t move. Forget it, forget it, he’d avoid it for a while and drive off first.

He found the command centre button on the panel and, after connecting, a fast and steady male voice with clear diction came through the loudspeakers:

“This is the Command Centre, I am Zhang Jing. I will be responsible for the communications and data collection for the current operation, as well as relaying the overall plan and dispatching orders. The goal of the current operation is finding the two missing Adjudicators, Du Xiang and Liu Hao.

“Du Xiang, female, 28 years old, 163 cm tall, stout build, long black hair, wearing a white shirt and a brown mid-length skirt, and a light flaxen cap.

“Liu Hao, male, 26 years old, 172 cm tall, thin build, grey short hair, wearing a khaki overcoat and jeans, and a blue-grey scarf.”

“Weren’t there three people?” Shao Dongmi immediately had a bad premonition.

“One of the missing Adjudicators has been confirmed to have been murdered.” The voice from the panel paused.

“Do you only have a written description? Are there any photos?”

“An Adjudicator’s photograph is taken at the time of reporting, they went missing before reporting in, so there aren’t any.” Command Centre continued speaking, “Mr Shao, have you finished verifying the profile characteristics of the missing personnel? Please pick your own search and rescue route.”

A map of Augustus1  popped up on the screen, a river flowed from the northeast to the southwest, dividing the city into two halves, and the Tribunal was located in the northwest. There was an obvious port in the middle of the map marked as the Central Port, and the city was divided into several regions originating from the Central Port.

“Which direction did the missing Liu Hao come in from? Which places did the other officers focus their search on?”

After Zhang Jing answered him one by one, Shao Dongmi avoided the areas with the most officers and picked the place with the largest probability apart from those, then sped off.

Midway, Yan Chenli jumped into the frequency with Shao Dongmi and the dispatcher Zheng Jing without warning, startling Zheng Jing.

“Wait?! Why are you here, Chief Adjudicator?! Weren’t you taking separate action? Was I mistaken??” There was a burst of mad keyboard clattering sounds on the other end.

“You’re not wrong, don’t worry. Shao Dongmi’s first shift is a solo operation, so I’m just giving him a few more details.”

Yan Chenli then simply introduced Shao Dongmi to a few other items he should pay attention to, and Shao Dongmi didn’t have time to ask about Chen Xing before Yan Chenli suddenly said “wait”, then disconnected abruptly.

A few minutes later, he connected again, “Xiao Zheng, go report to Jin Sen. A female corpse was discovered on the South of 21st Street, her drivers license was still there and I confirmed it, it’s Du Xiang.”

“…Roger that.” Came Command Centre’s brief answer, then the dispatch channel made no more sounds.

There was only one rescue target left.

It wasn’t time to get distracted by talking about other things, so Shao Dongmi pressed down his multiple disorderly thoughts and focused on looking around his surroundings.

He drove the vehicle along the road in his search, this place was not as desolate as that place on the fringe of Augustus, he could occasionally see a group of people wandering about in shabby clothes. The gazes of those people with nothing to do followed him in the same way a starving person looked at a piece of meat.

After travelling along for about a dozen minutes, Shao Dongmi noticed something strange. A noisy circle of people not far away was pushing and shoving, seemingly having a row. And just as his vehicle approached, the row evolved into a fight. Among them, one of the boorish men ruthlessly punched someone, the person who came under attack was a man wearing a khaki coat, jeans, and a blue scarf.

His clothes completely matched the missing person’s description, but most importantly, the man’s clothes were clean and brand new, clearly different from those people with dishevelled hair and dirty clothes on the road.

Shao Dongmi touched the holster of his gun and, out of habit, wanted to get out of the car and rush straight in but, on second thought, this was not a place where he could intimidate a group of scoundrels by just flashing his pistol.

He turned on the hibernation cabin and the orange solution dispersed, making the other party’s facial features even more clear. The hostage was in the middle of taking a beating outside, so Shao Dongmi had no time to mentally prepare himself, he followed the steps as he remembered and put his hand on the Executioner’s neck.

The section of skin under his palm was cold and stiff, and there was no reaction. The young man’s neck was so slender it seemed like it would snap if he applied more force, and Shao Dongmi gulped.

Aaah whatever! I’m grabbing it!!!

He increased his strength resolutely and suddenly felt a pop underneath his palm, and that patch of iron-like flesh suddenly had a pulse. A light in the shape of a soundwave rolled past under his hand, and the young man suddenly opened his eyes. Shao Dongmi could see his own reflection in those pitch-black pupils.

Numbers scrolled past in those pitch-black pupils, while a mechanical voice from the cabin announced:

[Executioner: 049 – Venus. Current Pressure: 25. Current State: Normal. Latching onto awakener… Latching successful. Initiating duties.]

Looking at those familiar eyes, Shao Dongmi was certain.

He didn’t just look the same, he really was that Chen Xing who’d been gone for nearly ten years.

The numbers faded from his pupils, and Venus immediately closed his eyes and tilted his head, curling up in pain and drawing in air: “Ugh, ah… why— does it hurt… so much…”

“Are— are you okay?” Shao Dongmi nervously crouched on the ground and looked at him, making a wish in his heart: Please god, don’t make me have to beat him, this kid looks really fragile.

“Ugh… I feel— so dizzy— a little nauseous… cough cough…” Fortunately Venus didn’t seem aggressive, he just lay weakly on his side with his eyes closed as he pulled at his wrists, the metal buckle of the binds on the mechanical chair making a creaking sound as it was pulled, “What is this thing? It hurts…”

Shao Dongmi undid the last layer of insurance, and Venus fell down the instant the last metal buckle was released. He immediately grabbed him and anxiously held him up, looking at him with deep worry.

Can he really fight? It looks like it’d be better to carry him back to a hospital ward, right?

Venus rubbed the space between his eyebrows, and his slightly pained expression eased. He lifted his head to look at Shao Dongmi, staring blankly for a moment, then asked hesitatingly, “Ah… Mimi? Is that you?”

That teenage-girl-like nickname made Shao Dongmi’s thick-skinned face blush, “It’s— it’s me, but don’t call me that again, I’m twenty seven!! How am I going to face people again if it gets out?!”

“…Twenty seven…” Venus resembled a slow-moving old-fashioned machine, clumsy but making a great effort to think, “How long has it been?”

“I still want to ask you what happened! Didn’t you die? How come you’re here?”

“I… died?? What— I’m… then, right now I’m…??” Venus widened his eyes in disbelief, his expression began turning chaotic as he spoke incoherently, and Shao Dongmi watched as the number on his collar jumped from [25] to [30].

“Wait, wait! It was nothing, I didn’t say anything.” Shao Dongmi immediately pressed down on his shoulders, shaking him forcefully, “Look at me, don’t think, nothing happened… don’t think about anything, listen to my words, okay?”

Yan Chenli had just taught him that the numbers on the Executioners’ collars were the value for their real-time monitored mental pressure, ranging from 0 to 100 and divided into five grades. 00-19 was displayed in blue, and it meant [Absolutely Stable]. 20-39 was displayed in green, and it meant [Normal]. 40-59 was displayed in yellow, and it meant [At Risk]. 60-79 was displayed in orange, and it meant [Partially Out Of Control]. 80-100 was displayed in red, and it meant [Completely Out Of Control].

An Executioner’s instinct was to obey orders, but no one had any way of knowing what an Executioner would do after their value turned red. It was extremely possible that they would harm an Adjudicator, so their values had to be monitored constantly.

Shao Dongmi had seen that Shen Lu’s value was always very stable, not having moved even after going way over two hours, so he thought it was constant and steady by default. He never expected that Cheng Xing would be so sensitive, and that his value would leap up a huge chunk in just a few words, so he quickly stopped him.

Venus looked blankly at Shao Dongmi and nodded, his chaotic expression gradually calming. Shao Dongmi let out a breath and patted him on the shoulders as he loosened his hands, “We can’t waste any more time, the target of our rescue is getting beat up into a pig head. Stay here if you don’t feel well, okay? I can go by myself.”

Shao Dongmi turned around, but Venus pulled him back.

“No. You can’t. I must… protect Mimi… No, Adjudicator. My duty is to protect the Adjudicator.”

“Are you really alright?” Shao Dongmi didn’t really believe it. After all, the last time he’d seen Chen Xing, Chen Xing couldn’t even sit up straight while supported by a pillow.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Just leave it to me.” Venus was still a little bit confused, he seemed inexperienced, but he instinctually wanted to take part in Shao Dongmi’s mission, so he got up from the mechanical chair and leapt down.

His outfit, which looked like a black, gelatinous substance on his body, opened up and rearranged itself like a precise machine revealing metal armour, and mechanical bearings turned, letting out the steady, mechanical sound of a machine in operation. The thing that Shao Dongmi had originally thought to be clothes turned into an armoured skeleton attached to the Executioner’s pelivs2 , and he could see a metal spine and the exposed steel pipes of a hydraulic system on his limbs.

At the same time, a heavy and huge black box rose in the hibernation cabin’s right-hand side, and Venus raised his hand and took it without looking, then slung it over his back.

This process was fairly quick, taking less than three seconds and being completed the moment Venus landed and took a step forward.

“Damn, that was pretty cool, let’s work first, then let me see the transformation again later.” Shao Dongmi was excited but couldn’t take his time with it, so he opened the car door and rushed outside to go save the person.

The blue-scarfed man had already been suffering the beating for a minute, and was just shouting himself hoarse as he asked for help.

Shao Dongmi fired a few warning shots towards the sky, “Freeze!!”

The group was caught of guard by the loud gunshots, so they jumped and turned to look at him one after the other, stunned. The man took advantage of the distraction to get out from under them, and ran towards him.

“Name?” Shao Dongmi verified first.

“Liu Hao, I’m Liu Hao! I came to report to the Tribunal, help me, they’re about to beat me to death ah!!” The man cried out in pain and went to hide behind him.

The name and identity lined up, so he’d finally fished one up. Shao Dongmi relaxed and was planning on withdrawing, pointing at the group and warning, “Brawling, starting fights, causing trouble, I’ll let you off for today, but don’t think I’ll let you——hey, what are you all doing!!”

The raging crowd had already turned their fury towards him, brandishing their crude wooden planks and walking over: “What kind of damn brat dares bring us trouble!!”

“I’ll fucking kill you!! You little bastard!!”

He’d seen plain and simple police assault twice in one day. Shao Dongmi rolled his eyes inwardly, using his well-trained fighting instincts to dodge to the side. He wouldn’t open fire unless as a last resort, he felt that this group of homeless people seemed malnourished and shouldn’t have too much strength, so he thought that he should be able to settle things with his bare fists…

Just as Shao Dongmi was hesitating, he suddenly saw a black shadow flash before his eyes, and a huge, broad, black blade sliced the air as it severed the whole arm holding the wooden club directly in front of him. That split second happened too quickly, the broken limb hadn’t yet fallen to the ground when the large blade was already placed on top of the other person’s head, about to split it in two.

Shao Dongmi’s heart leapt wildly: “Fuck Chen Xing what the hell?!! Stop!!!”

The large blade immediately stopped in midair, not moving a single bit. A flower of blood spurted out of the severed arm, and the rain of blood seemed to shroud every person as they screamed out belatedly.

Venus slowly turned his head with a vacant expression, his eyes beginning to lose focus, “…Adjudicator, what did you call me just now?”

Shao Dongmi’s heart thumped.

Q: Excuse me, what was the inspiration behind an Executioner’s stress disorder upon waking?

A: Morning grouchiness.