Becoming The White Moonlight’s Human Weapon After My Death - Chapter 14

CW: For brief depictions of child abuse.

Once the crowd had been effectively intimidated, it wasn’t a matter of life-or-death animosity, and there was no need to go all out in a fight. They spat a few coarse profanities, and that injured man cursed especially fiercely, but his brothers helped him up and they quickly fled.

The thing that surprised Shao Dongmi was that the Executioner’s weapon wasn’t actually a firearm used in modern combat. He held a huge weapon in his hand that was twice as tall as himself, it had a long handle which ended in a large crescent moon-shaped blade, its entire body was pitch black, but the sharp inner edge of the blade was white and shining, reflecting light in a dazzling halo.

The lines of the weapon’s body were clean and sharp, it had a sort of mechanical beauty unique to modern engineering, but seeing that kind of bladed weapon in this era was actually a little strange.

“My name… isn’t it Venus? …Chen Xing is…?” Venus stood rigidly in place, his slightly childish face had been splattered by the rain of blood at close range, which drew fine lines on it like cracked glass. He stared vacantly, eyes empty, and the number on his collar jumped to [35].

Was this also a sensitive word?!! Shao Dongmi wailed from the bottom of his heart, hurrying to press down on his weapon hand, “It’s you, it’s you, you’re Venus, don’t think about it, don’t think! Ah my ancestor, it’s time to finish work, let’s not think about it okay? Let’s get you back to sleep okay?”

Venus’ wrist was tiny, but Shao Dongmi used plenty of strength to push it down and it didn’t budge. Venus stared blankly for a moment, then was dragged back to his senses by Shao Dongmi, “Sleep? …oh. Okay.”

Venus lowered his head and realised Shao Dongmi was trying to pry open the hand that was holding his weapon, so he just let go, and the huge weapon fell to the floor with a clang in the next second, splitting the outdated stone bricks in half.

“Damn, it’s that heavy??” Shao Dongmi wanted to take the weapon from the unstable person’s hold out of professional instinct, but hadn’t expected that the weapon would be so heavy he couldn’t lift it at all and was almost dragged down by it instead. Luckily, Venus caught him by the waist and held him up.

Once the weapon was separated from the Executioner the connection points all over its structure quickly changed shape, shrinking into a long and heavy black box in the blink of an eye.

“I can hold it myself. I’ll move it.” Venus blinked at him.

“……” Shao Dongmi looked at him, speechless, and it was a long time before he nodded, “Fine, okay, okay, but you can’t just suddenly cut other people’s heads off without explanation again.”

Venus easily picked the black box up and slung it across his back, tilting his head in confusion, “They were just about to attack the Adjudicator.”

“Even if that’s true… it wasn’t that dangerous! We still need to pay attention to the limits of reasonable self-defence, if someone uses their fists to hit you, you can’t take your big sabre and stab them, you hear? And, uh, also, you can still call me what you used to, what’s with saying Adjudicator? It sounds too official. But it’s okay, you can only say it when there are no others around.” Shao Dongmi used to lead Chen Xing by the hand when they were young, and now he both wanted and didn’t want to grab his hand to go back. However, he turned his head back and didn’t see Liu Hao, who they’d just saved, so he looked around everywhere for him.

“Hey. Mimi!” Venus laughed, leaning his head over to look him up and down, “Mimi looks really tall, you’re 1.8 metres, right?”

Was this topic okay to talk about? Would there be no problems? Shao Dongmi turned his head to stare at the value on Venus’ collar, and the number didn’t rise, so it seemed safe.

He gave a resounding response, “I’m 1.79.”

Venus was half a head shorter than him, so he had to look up at him, “Wow, it’s actually 1.8! Mimi is such a dashing grownup.”

“It’s 1.79, just 1.79, one centimetre more or less is not 1.79!” Shao Dongmi was resolute, “You can’t say 1.8, otherwise you’ll sound like a 1.75 metre tall stubborn mule.”

Shao Dongmi walked around his surroundings without seeing Liu Hao, opened the car door, and found him in the back.

Liu Hao raised his hands, shaking the gauze he was holding, “I’m sorry, I took your first aid kit without asking. I just got hurt in many places, those assholes were really fierce!”

“Ah, oh, don’t worry, want my help?” Shao Dongmi got Venus inside the car and glanced around, only the first aid kit had been opened, and a few band-aids had been torn open.

Shao Dongmi asked as he sat back in the driver’s seat. He was about to report in when Liu Hao suddenly leaned over, speaking in an urgent tone, “There’s no time to worry about those little things, we need to hurry!! I came to Augustus with my little sister, and she was taken away by the people just now!! We need to go get her right now!!”

“Sister?” Shao Dongmi found it hard to believe, why would someone with a family to care for come to this battle ground?

“Look here.” Liu Hao tapped on his phone a few times and pulled up a heart-wrenching video. In a dimly-lit, dilapidated corner, a young girl of less than 10 years old could be seen being grabbed by the hair and beaten by a few men, her entire body was covered in bruises and scars, and her expression had broken down into a panic. Other children could be vaguely seen behind her, and muffled cries of despair could be continuously heard through the screen.

Liu Hao urged impatiently: “They’re extorting me for two hundred thousand… I absolutely can’t gather so much money together. They told me that if I couldn’t pay the ransom, they’ll kill her at 3:28. It’s almost time!! Help me, help me go save my sister!!”

Looking at the screen, Shao Dongmi just knew that he couldn’t not go.

“Okay, sit down, I’ll apply for assistance and we’ll go right away… Zhang Jing, can you hear me?” Shao Dongmi pressed the button on the navigation panel, but the screen did not respond. The map was lit up like normal, but command centre didn’t give any reply.

Was it broken? At such an unlucky time?

Shao Dongmi took out his cellphone to check the internet and, just as expected, there was no signal.

Yan Chenli had already given him a heads-up about the lack of signal. The reason was also simple, after the city had gone bankrupt, signal towers had been torn down and sold for scrap iron. But it would be useless even if a few had escaped, no carrier would do charity in a place they couldn’t squeeze a single drop out of.

The Tribunal’s armoured vehicles had a mobile signal station, so one could communicate as normal near the cars. But now, the equipment was clearly failing.

Their current situation was like being stranded in a mountain manor in the middle of a snow storm, they were completely cut off from the outside world.

Liu Hao was really worried, “Hurry, are you coming or not? If you’re not, I’ll just go by myself!! I need to go save my sister!! She’s my dearest relative, if anything were to happen to her, my life would be over…!! I can’t just sit and watch, so I’ll go throw away my life alone even if you won’t help me…”

He clutched his phone on the verge of breaking down, muttering to himself, rigidly staring at the numbers on the clock.

“If you’re willing to help me, I’ll give you an astonishing reward as thanks.” He said.

“Got it, got it, give me the address.” Shao Dongmi looked at him again, then lowered his voice and told Venus, “Help me keep an eye on him.”

Although Venus didn’t really understand why, he still nodded and stared fixedly at Liu Hao from behind the passenger seat.

Shao Dongmi started the car and looked at the time. 2:45. There was less than an hour left.

Something was wrong.

If the kidnapping was really for the purpose of extorting money, the time limit shouldn’t have been so short, they were going to kill the hostage in just a few hours if he couldn’t get the money.

Shao Donmgi couldn’t be certain. He couldn’t use his past experiences to judge a place like Augustus.

But he knew he didn’t have the option to hesitate or doubt. Whatever it was, he couldn’t gamble on a hostage’s life.

After the car began moving, Liu Hao let out a breath and rubbed his hands together from his spot in the passenger seat, wrapping the scarf tighter around his neck and muttering, “It’s too cold… Isn’t it just September…?”

Shao Dongmi thought his scarf was weird, so he glanced at it again and realised something, “What’s that you’ve got wrapped around you? Trousers?”

Liu Hao continued wrapping them tighter around himself, “It’s too cold, I had no other option. I didn’t know it was going to be so cold before I got here, I could only wrap what I had around me.”

“Do you still have your ID on you?”

“My wallet and luggage were all stolen, as well as the car I rented. I don’t have a single penny on me, there’s no way I can gather enough money for the ransom…” Liu Hao kept his head lowered, staring at his phone.

The phone suddenly lit up with a video call request with the name [Kevin Lomax] on the display, and Liu Hao gave a frightened jump.

“Answer it, be careful not to film either of us.” Shao Dongmi reminded him. He slowed down the car and focused his attention on the screen of the phone.

Liu Hao nodded, holding the phone a little further and ensuring Shao Dongmi could see the screen, but that he wasn’t capturing the people around him.

The video call connected. On the screen was the place from the video, the pitch-black room, and the abused little girl. The sounds of cries could be continuously heard in the background, and someone paced back and forth.

“It’s already 3 o’clock.” A deep male voice spoke up slowly near the microphone.

An adult man could be seen from behind as he walked towards the little girl, his leather shoes stomping down on her shoulders and ruthlessly grinding down as a shrill, miserable shriek rang out.

The leisurely voice near the microphone spoke again, “What are you waiting for?”

“I’m finding a way to get there!! You don’t need to rush me!!” Liu Hao widened his eyes and gave Shao Dongmi a displeased glance.

“That’s good. Remember, third floor, innermost room. You can clearly see the intact windows from the outside, I think you all will easily be able to find it.”

Then, the videocall ended.

Shao Dongmi was so angry his teeth hurt, and he resolutely stepped down on the accelerator.

Shit, that was really overdoing it.

But he had to go no matter what the other party had planned.

Shao Dongmi drove to the designated place like a whirlwind, the heavy steel behemoth becoming imposingly fierce after picking up maximum speed, crushing countless fences and small shrubs.

Liu Hao, who was secured to his seat by the seatbelt, had his insides shaken by the momentum and couldn’t help but shout for Shao Dongmi to drive steadier. Shao Dongmi continued speeding up with clenched teeth: “What are you panicking for? I used to drive a Wuling Hongguang1 ! Their motives are unclear, but tough enemies will make you stronger, we’ll definitely get there on time!!”

Their destination was an abandoned steel mill, with several torn-down and broken pieces of large machinery like cranes still left at the site. From a distance they could see a few vagrants holding steel pipes roaming underneath who immediately surrounded them when they saw the vehicle approach, shouting things like “Do you know what kind of place this is? You’ve got guts”, and “You’ll die if you come any closer”.

It was a group of territorial gangsters gathered at their lair.

Liu Hao, who’d been like a hurricane all the way here, glanced at the time in uncertain panic, and let out a glad sigh after surviving the calamity, “Good, there’s still ten minutes, we’ll make in time…” But Shao Dongmi had already gotten up from his seat and ruthlessly hit him over the head without saying anything further, knocking him out. Afterwards, Shao Dongmi took out a pair of handcuffs from his belt and quickly shackled Liu Hao to the seat.

Venus stared at him with wide eyes: “Mimi?”

“Something’s wrong.” Shao Dongmi felt around his body, but found nothing apart from a bit of cash, so he took his cellphone and put it in his own pocket, “On the call just now, the other party said ‘[You all] will easily be able to find it’. Shit, the other person knew he wasn’t alone, how did he know? And Liu Hao didn’t seem worried about that little girl at all, he was anxious and angry instead, everything about this is wrong.”

“How about we don’t go?” Venus asked.

“Regardless of whether this Liu Hao is real or not, the hostage is definitely real.” Shao Dongmi took the safety off of his pistol, “A ten-year-old girl, those bastards… We’re going to bring her back safe and sound.”

Venus nodded, and grabbed the black box.

Shao Dongmi got a headache from looking at that huge weapon, so he poked his head out of the car window and warned: “Tribunal law enforcement!! Put down your weapons, stop what you’re doing, any unrelated personnel should take shelter, this is your first warning!!”

A crowd of almost two-hundred people surrounded the vehicle, the vagrant thugs were excited, cursing incessantly and picking up things to greet the armoured vehicle by smashing them into its frame. Seeing as his three warnings had no effect, Shao Dongmi knew this crowd would certainly not budge until faced with the grim reality, so he asked Venus, “Can you drive them away without making them bleed?”

“I’ll try my best.” Venus weighted the handle of the weapon, and the broad crescent moon-shaped blade transformed into a blunt hammer weapon. He cleared a small area as soon as he got out of the car, but the crowd immediately pounced again.

This group was harder to deal with than the thugs from before, every one was a desperate criminal who still rushed over in an unending stream even after watching their companions get their bones crushed.

Venus had his hands an feet tied by Shao Dongmi’s order and didn’t dare use too much force, so he was quickly surrounded.

There were only five minutes left until the time limit, and Shao Dongmi had no other way, so he let out a deep sigh, “We’re going to have to kill our way out.”

A giant silver blade cut through the crowd like bright flashes of fleeting moonlight over the ground. A large swath of thugs fell in front of Venus, countless severed limbs and injured corpses were densely scattered along with the rain of blood that obscured the sky and covered the earth, and the crowd suddenly began to panic2 .

Shao Dongmi couldn’t help but feel a chill from the bottom of his heart, so he looked away and tried to shift his attention towards their real goal.

He’d already found the room the criminal pointed out when he was in the car, that building seemed to only have one entrance and exit.

Venus followed the path, “cleaning up” the crowd and leaving behind a trail of corpses. Shao Dongmi had been working for so many years and had never seen such a horrid scene, but he steadied his trembling hands and followed the path into the building.

The inside of the building looked like messy ruins, there were cigarette butts and green bottles scattered everywhere, as well as all sorts of non-degradable plastic bags. It looked just like the space under an overpass where many unemployed vagrants would gather.

A few random people came out to obstruct them along the way, but were all met with Venus. The end room on the third floor was tightly shut, and no clear activity could be heard from inside.

Not knowing what was going on inside, recklessly rushing in would be a very dangerous thing to do. But there were only ten seconds left, so there was simply not enough time to think any more.

Shao Dongmi suddenly remembered their games from many years ago. He turned his head towards Venus, and the other party also looked at him. They made eye contact and immediately knew what the other was thinking.

They nodded.

Venus turned into the vacant room to the side, and Shao Dongmi leaned against the door of the end room, tightly grasping his pistol, palms covered in sweat. He counted five seconds in his mind, then kicked the door open with everything he had, even pulling down and breaking the doorframe fixed onto the wall.

Shao Dongmi came face to face directly with the pitch-black muzzle of a submachine gun.

A fat middle-aged man with alarm on his face gave an angry roar and pulled on the trigger.

But Shao Dongmi wasn’t planning on rushing in, he had already prepared to dodge to the side as soon as he kicked the door open, and, at the same time, the sound of the glass window shattering came through as Venus rushed inside from the window behind the man and fell on him.

Shao Dongmi was in charge of creating a diversion by kicking the door open, and Chen Xing would fly in from the helicopter to arrest the criminals.

He thought this plan was flawless when he was young, it was only when he grew up a little that he realised how unreasonable it was. He never would have expected that he would come round to today, where he would really carry it out flawlessly on the first time.

Chen Xing didn’t even need a helicopter, he could fly in from outside the window by himself. Shao Dongmi sighed: You never know how unreasonable reality can actually be.

There was a loud clang, and the man was securely subdued by Venus. Shao Dongmi immediately rushed in to investigate. The inside of the room was well-furnished in comparison, looking like a regular residence, and there were a few unlocked partitioned areas, so Shao Dongmi also went in and looked around.

But there was no one there, there was no second person either inside or out.

“Where’s the hostage?” Shao Dongmi interrogated the man, grabbing his arm and twisting it as he held him up, “Hey, I’m asking you, where’s that little girl? Where are the other children?? Speak!!!”

The man glared at him and snorted disdainfully, turning his head and shutting his mouth tightly.

He seemed to be an old fox who wouldn’t say a single word. Shao Dongmi got up with no other choice, he would probably have to turn this place upside down first.

A cellphone suddenly rang.

Shao Dongmi was stunned, he shouldn’t have signal here.

He took out the cellphone and discovered it was the one he’d taken from Liu Hao. The name [Kevin Lomax] was shockingly displayed on the screen.

Shao Dongmi’s heart sank.

He gave Venus a look and motioned for him to keep the criminal quiet. Then he answered the call and quietly listened to the movement on the other side.

There was no sound from the receiver either.

The surroundings were very quiet, it wasn’t like before with the sounds of children crying, nor was there the noise from other people’s movements.

Both sides were so silent Shao Dongmi could almost hear the beating of his own heart.

“Congratulations, Mr Shao, you made it.” The other party spoke first. That voice was unhurried, with an indolent and leisurely tone as he let out a low laugh.

“Such a good boy. I’ll give you an astonishing reward.”

Shao Dongmi listened to the call with rapt attention, approaching the windowsill and looking all around. How was the other party able to know with such accuracy that he’d just come in, could it be that he was watching from nearby? Outside was a circle of buildings of similarly low height, there was one good window and one broken one, and he couldn’t find any clues.

“Don’t joke around, I don’t need anything. I’m just a newbie reporting in on his first day of work, what exactly did you want to do by setting up such a complicated game?” Shao Dongmi leaned on the window and looked outside while he asked with a gloomy expression.

“Believe me, you’ll like my gift.

“And you can relax, Mr Shao, I haven’t been conspiring to kill you from the beginning. The reason why we had to take such a large detour,” The other party drew out his tone calmly, as if he had everything in the palm of his hand, with all roads blocked off, and was not afraid of anything going wrong,

“Was in order to protect you.”