Disgusted by Finger's words, Lu Chen had the urge to throw up. A wonderful roommate, he said? More like a wonderful source of income!
"Undoubtedly, your first mission won't be an easy one. You're the first Grade S to step foot here in the college after so many years, and you're still a freshman. Therefore, cultivating your skills would require circumstances that match up to your capabilities. I understand that as a trained fighter, you are passionate about combat, but you mustn't forget that you shouldn't be reckless during missions. The mind of a feral hybrid is completely different from that of a sound man."
Back in the theater, the hybrid that Lu Chen faced was indeed abnormal. Its behavior was totally out of the norm.
"What about you? What was your first mission like?" As he remembered that Finger was a Grade A student, Lu Chen got curious.
"Oh. You're interested?"
Stunned for a second, Finger wore an expression with a trace of nostalgia—one Lu Chen had never seen before.
"You don't have to if you don't want to."
"I don't mind, really. It'd be a good story for you to understand the danger of feral hybrids."
After a moment of silence, Finger waved his arm under his bed and grabbed a box of cigarettes. Picking up one of the cigarettes, he lit it up and smoke would start wafting.
"Want one?" He extended his hand to offer Lu Chen. Since Lu Chen had stopped smoking since entering Cassell College, he hesitated for a bit before accepting the offer.
***
Puff… Finger began upon exhaling a mouthful of smoke. "My first scrimmage took place in a small village near California. One day, the Executive Department received a report regarding missing livestock followed by blood trails in the village. Everyone thought it was just some beast from the wild. Oddly, after an inspection in the hills by the police, they announced that apart from hares, there weren't any larger, more threatening creatures around the area."
"However, since missing livestock wasn't a serious case, the police decided not to spend any more manpower on the investigation and finalized that the animals were hunted by a beast. Nevertheless, things calmed down after the investigation. Only until some time later, cows and sheep started going missing again. What's worse was that even people had started vanishing. Eventually, by the time the news reached the Executive Department, thirteen villagers had already disappeared. Among the panicking dwellers, except for the elderly who were resistant to leave, most citizens chose to abandon the village."
Hearing that, Lu Chen curiously interrogated, "Didn't the police do anything about the first missing person?" By right, they should have taken action when the livestock had gone missing. No matter how slothful the force was, they should have been looking into it once a citizen had gone missing.
"They did. The local police department sent thirty men guarding every corner of the village but to no avail. Seeing there wasn't a disturbance the entire night, the policemen withdrew themselves, only to receive news about one more missing person the next day. When they visited the missing man's home, blood was seen splashed all over the house—the floor, the ceiling, and elsewhere. The weird thing was that the particular house was guarded closely by two policemen who reported to have heard nothing nor seen any suspicious figures."
"Hybrid," Lu Chen blurted.
"Correct. It's something only a hybrid can do—a perilous, deadly hybrid. Then, the police would be replaced by the Executive Department's forces—us. We were safeguarding there for almost one week and the subject made not even a single move."
"Me and a few other men were patrolling in the village to see if we could find some clues. I even made some friends back then. I mean, I'm quite a sociable person myself. The most memorable moment was when a young lady… Why are you staring at me like that?"
While cringing, Lu Chen uttered, "Nothing. Go on. I'm not gonna judge you."
"You got the wrong idea. You think me a rascal? I was once a diligent grade A gentle lad, you know? Girls were literally lining up for me back then." Finger sounded like he was furious.
"Yeah, yeah. I believe you. Carry on." Lu Chen nodded perfunctorily.
"Man, whatever. I don't have to prove anything to you. Anyway, the young lady was miserable. As she was once an unwed, pregnant woman, living in a village full of uptight residents was naturally difficult for her. Not only did she have to work on the farm, but she also had to sell some handicrafts to make a living. The worst part was she had to do all these under the ostracization of others."
"I tried talking to her and apparently, she was a benign woman, though there were traces of despair when she spoke. After we got slightly more familiar with each other, I asked if she hated the man who left her. Surprisingly, she merely shook her head and replied, 'What for? Everything was pleasant when we were together, and that's enough for me. My only regret was failing to take care of our child.'"
"Curious, I inquired about the child, to which she explained that her infant died because she couldn't feed it properly. The baby was then buried at the foot of a nearby hill. She even expressed that if her child were able to grow up, she'd be a good person like me."
At once, Lu Chen held back his urge to puke. She's gonna regret what she said if that were the case.
"Then, I proceeded to comfort her, 'Life goes on with or without us, and we shouldn't dwell on our pasts.' Now that I think of it, for someone who has never lost anything, I shouldn't be saying things such as moving on like I know anything about loss."
Taking a pause, Finger took a deep hit and blew a thick puff of smoke, fogging Lu Chen's vision.
"Whoops! How far I've steered away. Anyway, another week passed by, and after going through every detail and trace, we concluded that the suspect was still in the village. And so, we made another thorough search as it was our final resort since we had no way else to lure the creature out."
"We told the villagers we were going to detect and defuse explosives in the area so they would evacuate. Accordingly, we started searching every house and finally found a trapdoor concealed by a metal foil in one of the houses. On top of the foil was a book as wide as the window frame. And that house… belonged to the young woman I mentioned."
"I was immediately stupefied. Why was there an underground tunnel in the house of a warm, gentle woman like her? Perhaps she had some unique fetish? Anyway, when the crew opened the trapdoor, they couldn't help but cover their noses as they were taken aback by a wave of nausea-invoking smell of feces, mold, and rots. Adding that disaster to the view, it was as if we had opened the gates to hell."
"Shortly after, the commissioner led the squad under the trap door and found carcasses of livestock… and human corpses. Seeing how all the missing animals and people were there, we instantly knew that that was the feeding place of our target, though he didn't seem to be present. At once, the commissioner ordered the arrest of the young lady who was evacuated. And that, was when shit happened."
"One of my squadmates and I discovered a hole in the wall that was about three feet wide. As he lowered his head into the hole to inspect it, a hand with sharp claws popped out and pierced him in the chest. Immediately, my squadmate fell into the hole where the subject was apparently hiding. Although the subject could have escaped instantly when he finally found it, after having starved through the fortnight of lockdown, instead of running away, it intended to devour the rest of our squad."
All of a sudden, Finger stopped talking as he extinguished the ember on his finishing cigarette. In a split second, Lu Chen caught the vexation in his eyes.