Chapter 96: Cannibalism

“Is that really a human?”

Tanya asked in disbelief, her hushed whisper not disturbing the others in the least.

The creature before them only cast her a sidelong glance before lowering his head again to eat with devoted concentration from the mangled corpse on the ground. Squatting there, he extended his sharp claws and casually tore off a strip of flesh.

“Maybe. I don’t know how this thing managed to make itself into something half-human, half-monster,” Chu Ning said with some disappointment, staring at the figure gnawing on human flesh ahead. This was absolutely not their target.

Most importantly, the gender was wrong.

“Roar!”

“You really are quite rude, aren’t you?”

The crouching figure rose to his feet. He drew a white handkerchief from his chest and wiped his mouth. After cleaning himself, he crumpled the cloth into a ball and clenched it in his palm. He forced out a smile, trying to present a gentle demeanor.

“Hello, I am—”

Chu Ning gave a cold snort and said sharply, “Evil spirits and heretical scum must all be killed. Monster, die!” With that, he kicked out.

He had no interest in learning the name of some extra in the scene. Besides, they were rivals; eliminating a competitor in advance was only natural.

“Hmph! Since you’re so eager to die, I’ll grant your wish!”

The man leaped backward to avoid the joke of an attack, frowning at the two of them. There was not the slightest trace of charm in his expression.

That was also why he had not bothered with them. Without the exquisite fragrance of fresh flesh, he had no desire to waste his strength.

Tanya blinked. She absolutely did not believe Chu Ning was the kind of person who hated evil with a passion, nor could he possibly attack others at random for no reason. When she first saw him devouring a corpse, revulsion had surged through her, but never any thought of extermination.

“Not bad skills,” Chu Ning said arrogantly. He lifted his chin and did not even spare the man a glance. “Still, I can give you a chance. Surrender and I’ll make it quick. Be grateful for my mercy!”

The man was so enraged he nearly spat fire. He was being told to surrender with his hands tied, and even if he did, he would not be treated properly. His intelligence was still functioning just fine; there was no way he would listen to Chu Ning.

Instead, he thought that anyone capable of asking such an idiotically arrogant question was the one with mental problems. Just how inflated did a person have to be to say something like that without caring who heard? Could it be that this fellow believed the one at fault was not himself, but the entire world?

Tanya wanted nothing more than to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it. She did not know why Chu Ning’s intelligence had suddenly gone offline, allowing him to say such brain-dead things. Especially when the man was staring at them as if they were fools, Tanya felt mortified to the extreme.

“This is just asking to be beaten,” she could not help thinking. At last she understood the feeling villains in dramas gave people. He was doing an excellent job of drawing hatred.

“You’re all going to die! Ah, ah, ah...”

Chu Ning’s words were not very harmful, but they were extremely insulting. He had successfully enraged the man, who now charged at him in fury. Both sides had confidence in their own strength. Anyone willing to join a contest with a massive prize pool naturally had to be full of self-assurance.

Chu Ning lifted the man by the neck as though he were a chick, letting him struggle helplessly in midair before slamming him hard into the steel wall.

Some mere flesh-eating monster still thought he could threaten him?

“Utterly overestimating yourself!”

He picked up bricks from the ground and smashed them viciously against the man’s head, cursing all the while. He felt especially ill at ease with someone who devoured their own kind. That was why he had deliberately provoked the man, so he would have a proper reason to kill him.

Blood flowed down from the man’s forehead, proving that he was indeed a human being, one who liked to consume flesh and blood. Tanya did not try to persuade Chu Ning to stop. She herself found such behavior contemptible.

To lay hands on one’s own kind was truly unforgivable. It was not that Tanya still stood on humanity’s side and therefore naturally hated those who killed humans. Yet she did not realize that, toward Chu Ning’s actions, she felt no reaction at all. On the contrary, she considered it entirely reasonable.

Chu Ning smashed the man’s head into pieces. Still not at ease, he added a few more blows to the vital points. Even he did not know why he had become so impulsive. By his usual standards, making peace and avoiding conflict would have been the best choice.

He could have pretended not to see anything. Moreover, he could sense that the man had no interest in them either; the two of them could have passed each other in tacit understanding.

Unfortunately, the instant he saw the man devouring a human, Chu Ning’s reason vanished without a trace.

His heart thudded in chaos, cold sweat breaking out all over him. His body, in the worst possible timing, gave him negative feedback, and he could feel himself on the verge of fainting at any moment. The sound of chewing only grew more irritating, until it finally pushed him to smash the other man’s head apart.

When the bricks landed on the man’s skull, Chu Ning’s mood inexplicably became calm. That uncontrollable panic finally disappeared, replaced instead by an incomparable exhilaration brought on by destruction.

“Haah, haah, haah...”

Chu Ning collapsed onto the ground, gasping violently. There was no fear or unease after killing someone. Seeing brains and blood splattered everywhere, he actually smiled sincerely, without the slightest trace of nausea at the bloody scene.

If one were to compare them honestly, the scene Chu Ning had created was far more gruesome than the man’s murder of another. It could even be said that Chu Ning looked more like the villain.

“Are you all right?” Tanya asked, forcing herself to speak. She kept a certain distance from Chu Ning; at this moment, he was definitely not the person she knew.

She also understood that this could not be explained away as some second personality suddenly emerging. If it were another Chu Ning appearing, he would never use such a crude method, nor would he allow filthy gore to splash all over his clothes.

He was someone who always maintained elegance.

Tanya knew Chu Ning was willing to abide by human rules. He did not want to expose his identity recklessly, nor did he want to invite some disaster that could not be cleaned up afterward. The way he was acting now was completely unlike him. She was trying to figure out what had happened to him.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Chu Ning looked at the tragic scene before him and suddenly let out a breath. He casually tossed aside the blood-red brick in his hand and struggled to his feet, exhausted. He stared at the corpse for a long time in silence, but in the end he gave Tanya no explanation for his behavior.

“Let’s go. Find the target quickly and get out of here. I’m a little tired.”

There was an indescribable fatigue in his voice. From beginning to end, he never met Tanya’s eyes, as though avoiding her.

“All right, let’s go.”

Tanya glanced pityingly at the two bodies lying on the ground, repeatedly comforting herself that these were wicked men who richly deserved death.

She also did not dare gather the courage to question the abnormal Chu Ning. Instead, she watched the scene before her in silence. Then she suddenly remembered the mysterious person’s warning: be careful of the danger behind you.

Combined with Chu Ning’s uncharacteristically off state, Tanya quietly slowed her pace and fell several steps behind him.