Chapter 465: Everyone Has A Weakness

The waning moon was barely visible as the dark clouds covered the sky and the illuminating shine of the moonlight grew dimmer.

A large luxurious house stood erect at the foot of the mountain. It had European-styled architecture and fence walls. However, the interior of the house was quiet and everything was enveloped by the darkness of the night.

Qiao Qiao and Soo Soo stood quietly at the junction.

Qiao Qiao was shocked. She turned around and looked behind her, but the cave opening had disappeared. Subconsciously, he held little Will, whom she was carrying, tighter. Next, she reached out her hand to pull Soo Soo.

Unexpectedly, her hand caught thin air.

“Soo Soo?”

Qiao Qiao turned and noticed a dazed look on Soo Soo’s face. Soo Soo slowly stepped forward, moving toward the gates of the house. The little girl’s skirt billowed in the night wind.

“Soo Soo?”

No answer.

Qiao Qiao sensed something amiss. She quickly stepped forward and grabbed Soo Soo’s hand. She moved until she was beside Soo Soo and looked right at her face. When she did so, she became shocked.

Soo Soo’s pair of eyes appeared devoid of emotions. They looked straight ahead at the house.

“Soo Soo! Soo Soo, what happened to you?” Qiao Qiao waved her hand before Soo Soo’s eyes. However, Soo Soo’s face remained emotionless. She had seemingly ignored Qiao Qiao’s existence. Next, the little girl screamed sharply and ran forward. She ran unsteadily until she was before the gates of the house, her little body slamming upon the gates. In her haste, her forehead struck the gates and a red bruise appeared on her forehead. However, she just ignored it.

It was then that Soo Soo suddenly opened her mouth. She issued out a strange yet mournful cry.

It almost appeared inhuman.

The voice was filled with sadness, rage, despair and fear.

Soo Soo struggled while both her hands held onto the iron gates. She shook even as her mouth continued to issue out the screams, screams resembling that of a wounded animal.

“Soo Soo!” Qiao Qiao panicked. She reached for Soo Soo but had her hand pushed away.

In that instant, Qiao Qiao noticed the rage and ferocity in Soo Soo’s eyes.

At that very moment, fire light suddenly flashed out from within the house.

The fire light seemed to have appeared all of a sudden from a place near a window on the second floor. Next… …

Bang!

Glasses broke as flames erupted outward, their light shining out through several other windows. Thick smoke clouds instantly rose around the house.

The flames raged with intensity as it rose to the sky.

“Help! Help! Help! Help!” Soo Soo struggled to shake the gates. She appeared mad as she shouted. After shouting for a bit, she abandoned her use of the Chinese language and switched to the Korean language before shouting anew.

“Soo Soo!”

Seeing the house going up in flames, Qiao Qiao subconsciously moved to embrace Soo Soo, intending to drag Soo Soo back. However, she was fiercely pushed away by Soo Soo.

In the next instant, flames erupted from both of Soo Soo’s hands.

The iron gates quickly melted under the barrage from Soo Soo’s flames. With a scream, Soo Soo rushed forward, running toward the house.

“Daddy! Mommy! Daddy!” Soo Soo cried out. “Help! Help! Hurry up and help save them!”

Hearing that, Qiao Qiao’s body gave a shudder.

She looked up in shock at the flaming house. She suddenly understood… … what this place was.

This was… … Soo Soo’s house.

Her old house!

Within their guild, Qiao Qiao was the one who knew the most about Soo Soo’s life.

This Korean little girl’s father was a friend of Qiao Qiao’s father. They were also business partners. One day, an unexpected fire broke out, killing Soo Soo’s parents. Fortunately for Soo Soo, she managed to emerge from the fire alive. After that, Old Father Qiao adopted her and brought her with him to China.

This incident left a shadowy scar within Soo Soo. It was also the reason why she ended up with a split personality.

And now…

A reproduction of the incident?

Qiao Qiao suddenly raised her head to check her surroundings.

This is… … an illusion?

Seeing Soo Soo run into the fire, Qiao Qiao was left with no more time to think. She quickly chased after…

…

Roddy observed the ruins on the street and his brows furrowed together.

He carefully pulled out a rifle. Holding the rifle with both hands, he moved along the street.

This street appeared… … very familiar.

Soon, he caught sight of a collapsed convenience store. There on the top was a damaged signboard with Japanese words. When he saw that, a bolt of lightning seemingly arced through his mind.

This place is… Japan…

Tokyo!

There were craters everywhere as gravel littered the grounds. Buildings had collapsed and the whole place seemed like a scene from the apocalypse.

However, Roddy knew this was not the apocalypse… what he was seeing right now, he had seen it before back in the Tokyo instance dungeon. During the final battle in that instance dungeon, the whole of Tokyo became a battlefield and was left in such a sorry state.

Pa ta!

Hearing the sound from behind him, Roddy’s heart grew tense and he quickly turned around just in time to see a silvery blur.

Bang!

A forceful impact sent Roddy flying. His back slammed into a collapsed wall before falling onto a heap of rubble.

He hastily got up and turned to check on little Will.

Little Will had fallen to the side of the street. After turning to look for little Will, Roddy became stunned.

There in the middle of the street, a pair of eyes were coldly staring at him.

Roddy had dreamed of meeting those eyes many times.

The sleek Floating Angel armour was in combat form and its pair of magnificent wings unfurled behind the Floating Angel, emitting star like specks of light…

“Ni… Nicole?”

…

There was a dazed look on Lun Tai’s face as he stood in the doorway of a rundown garage. The garage’s signboard was so rusty it was practically about to fall down. There was a strong scent of white alcohol inside and… … there on the left side of the door was an old tire – that was the toy that he and Bei Tai used to play with back when they were young.

Confronted by such a familiar scene, the stocky Lun Tai was left dumbfounded.

As he was lost in thought, he suddenly heard the sound of a child screaming coming from inside.

The voice had the tell-tale signs of voice changing age and it contained terror.

Lun Tai was very familiar with the voice.

He frantically rushed into the garage.

After rushing inside, he saw a nightmarish scene.

Beneath a repair platform, a middle-aged man in dirty work clothes held onto a stick, beating a thin boy.

The boy’s body was covered in wounds and blood stained his face. He rolled on the floor, attempting to dodge the incoming strikes. However, it would appear that his legs had been injured. No matter how he tried, he was unable to dodge. In the end, the boy could only prop up both hands to cover his head as he sobbed. Even as he sobbed, he cried, “Daddy! Daddy! Why are you beating me? Daddy! Daddy! I am your son!”

“Bastard! Scum! Scum! Scum born of that slut! That slut cuckolded me and gave birth to you two scums! She ran off! Now everyone is laughing at me! They are ridiculing me!”

“Daddy! Daddy…”

“Scum!”

Lun Tai fell on his knees, tears flowing down his cheeks.

He turned his gaze to the side. There was a rest room there; there on the old table was a calendar.

19th of June, 1993.

This day… … the things that happened here…

All of it… … will it repeat again?

Lun Tai remembered this day very well. This was the day he brought his little brother away with him as he ran away from home.

One week before this, his father suddenly rushed home with a paternity test result in hand. He dragged out his mother, who was cooking in the kitchen, and the two of them began fighting. Nearly everything smashable was destroyed.

The next day, his mother got her things and left, never to return.

The next few days would remain an indelible part of Lun Tai’s memories.

His father, who had loved carrying him and his little brother on his shoulders, became a changed man. He would drink alcohol every day and shout at Lun Tai and Bei Tai after he finished drinking. If he drank too much, he would randomly grab something and threw it at them.

That was the first time he had beaten Lun Tai. It was soon followed by a second time, a third time…

Lun Tai recalled the events of that day. After his father beat him up, he cried and ran away. Only after a long time had passed did he return home, because he was worried about his little brother.

There, he saw his father beating his little brother.

That day…. I… what did I do?

There was an absent-minded look on his face.

His eyes fell upon a wrench lying on the floor.

Ah, right…

I had picked up the wrench and struck him from behind, knocking him unconscious. Then… … I went over to pick up my little brother… … and then… … I ran away with him. Ran away from this place… … ran to the train station… … I don’t know how, but we ended up inside a coal car. When we finally woke up, I don’t even know where we went…

He watched as his young little brother rolled around while being beaten. Rolling beneath a scaffolding, he continued crying out like a terror-stricken puppy.

Lun Tai’s chest rose up and down and he shouted, “Stop it! Don’t hit him anymore!”

He rushed forward and attempted to catch the stick in his father’s hand. However, his outstretched hand failed to catch anything.

Lun Tai was shocked. He tried again, and again, and again, only to realize…

All of it was an illusion. No matter how he tried, he could not touch any one of them. They too, can neither see nor touch him.

The man charged into the scaffolding and used the stick to force his little brother out. Seeing his little brother roll around in every direction, Lun Tai roared out furiously.

“Why! Why! What sin did we commit? Even if that woman tricked you, does that mean the 10 plus years we spent as family is fake? Is it fake?”

Lun Tai was a strong man, his body as tough as iron. Now, he cried.

“Little Bro! Just wait, hold on, just a while more… … I will be coming to save you! Hold on! Aaargh!”

Lun Tai swiped his hand out again to grab the stick. However, each time he did so, the stick will move past his fingers and strike down on the thin body of his little brother.

“Why aren’t you coming?! Why?!”

Looking at the time… … the younger version of him should already be here.

The time. The time for him to appear had already passed.

Lun Tai looked at the clock on the wall with a maddening expression.

If this goes on… … Little Bro will be killed by this man!

Lun Tai’s heart suddenly gave a pound.

He had received a system prompt.

[System prompt: If only one of these two can live on and if you have to make this choice, which one will you choose?]

“What? What?”

[Now, you have the opportunity to choose. Choose to let your father die immediately and your little brother will be freed. Or, you may choose to do nothing and let your father kill your little brother.]

“No! This is wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Where am I? I should be appearing now! I should be appearing to stop this! Where am I? Where am I?”

After a few seconds of silence, the system responded.

[You are here now.]

…