Show lessThe playground was chaotic, with people running around—some scattered and others still lingering. Even those who stayed were far from the center, making it difficult for anyone to clearly see Beverly's appearance.
However, her voice was unmistakably loud and recognizable, and someone quickly identified her.
"That voice sounds like Beverly! She actually became a police officer!"
This was a housewife who had participated in yesterday's protest and vividly remembered Beverly's heroic appearance and striking red hair.
"Who is she? What do you mean she became a police officer? Is she one of those reality TV influencers?"
Someone who didn't know Beverly asked about her identity.
"No, she's the hero of this town," the housewife quickly recounted the events of the previous day, along with a jab at the incompetence of the police force, praising Beverly for her bravery. If it weren't for her, the town's child abduction case might have ended unresolved again.
The person who asked was shocked, "Her first day as a cop, and she encountered something like this, yet she charged in without hesitation. Truly admirable!"
Another Black parent sighed, "Exactly! She's the kind of cop taxpayers deserve! Meanwhile, those other useless guys—who knows what they're doing while my kids are at risk!"
"Yeah, after something this big, why are there only two cops here?"
"Do you know what the rest of the police are doing? They're stuck in a pig farm, fighting pigs!"
A parent who had just called the police angrily shouted.
The Black parent looked shocked. "Fighting pigs? Are those white cops that extreme?"
"No! They went there to arrest Dave, the suspect! But they got trapped in a room by the pigs on the farm, and they even called all the nearby cops to support them!"
"This is ridiculous! What's wrong with our town's police? They leave the rookie to deal with a killer while they gang up on pigs. Honestly, they might as well be pigs, visiting relatives at the farm!"
"Exactly!"
"…"
Meanwhile, Beverly was feeling a headache coming on.
She had initially planned to take it easy, but Jackson, caught up in the heat of the moment, followed her, which was unexpected. Luckily, Jackson was easy to manipulate—just a few words were enough to keep him in line.
What she hadn't expected was that Jackson had also provoked the teacher.
Now, the teacher was following them too.
And she was livestreaming!
"Everyone! You won't believe what's happening at the school…"
The Black female teacher started giving a recap of the recent events.
Her camera was focused on Beverly, Jackson, and the chaotic sports field, where students occasionally ran away in terror.
"This is Officer Beverly, the brave woman who just fought off the suspect! She even managed to hit him several times, but the guy wasn't human—bullets didn't affect him at all."
Facing the camera, Beverly could only offer a bitter smile.
"Ma'am, could you please stop livestreaming? We're about to take action, and if you accidentally alert the suspect, it could be disastrous."
"Oh, don't worry. You guys go ahead; I'll stay back and keep filming. The whole town needs to see your courage!"
The teacher looked at them with admiration.
Jackson even posed for the camera, as if eager to make a name for himself before things got serious.
"That guy is definitely a monster! Bullets are useless!"
"Absolutely, I can confirm that!" the Black teacher nodded in agreement.
Jackson, now on a roll, added, "I can't even imagine what would've happened to the students if Officer Beverly hadn't arrived! Meanwhile, my supervisor is still busy catching pigs! And the suspect? He even reported to the police earlier, but my supervisor, Luke, didn't take it seriously—he didn't even file the case!"
Beverly's frown deepened. With Jackson's careless remarks, it would be better if he didn't make it back from the encounter with Dave—otherwise, he'd have a lot to answer for back at the station!
The teacher, now fully immersed in her role as a reporter, asked, "Oh? Officer Jackson, could you elaborate on the situation?"
"Of course."
Jackson eagerly started detailing all of Luke's failings, including his neglectful attitude towards Dave and the dismissive comments made at the station.
"'Non-urgent matters don't need handling'... Is that something a sheriff should even say?"
The livestream chat was filled with comments supporting Jackson, with many agreeing that he was the kind of officer who truly cared about the taxpayers!
The teacher was entirely captivated by Jackson's story, her camera zoomed in on him. Given that the sports field wasn't too chaotic anymore, both of them let their guard down.
It wasn't until Jackson had revealed plenty of details that the teacher suddenly realized.
"Wait, where's Officer Beverly?"
"Huh?"
Jackson quickly turned around, only to find that Beverly had disappeared.
"I saw someone in the comments say that the female officer slipped away with an axe just now."
The teacher looked at Jackson in shock.
Jackson, on the other hand, looked deeply moved.
"I understand now. Beverly must be worried about me. She wants to face the suspect alone. We can't let her fight alone—let's go after her!"
With a serious expression, Jackson rolled across the ground like a special agent, landing by the wall to check the surroundings, then motioned to the teacher.
"Come on, let's follow her!"
The Black teacher, completely entranced by Jackson's suave moves, mustered her courage and followed after him.
…
Beverly had left because of an inexplicable feeling of dread.
She had been on high alert, observing the sports field when she suddenly spotted a red balloon floating in the hallway.
Then, a strange-looking boy poked his head out and waved at her.
"Come here. I know where that guy is."
Beverly's unease grew stronger. Something about this person didn't feel right, and yet, he seemed oddly familiar.
"Don't worry. I'm Randy's friend. You'll get used to seeing me around," he said, pulling a lotus flower from his coat like a magician. "Isn't it beautiful? This is how your house's flowers will bloom."
This was enough to slightly ease Beverly's concern.
"Hurry up. He's at his weakest right now, and we don't need those two idiots."
Beverly turned to glance at Jackson, still basking in the camera's attention, before grabbing an axe and following the boy.
But the closer she got, the stronger that sense of familiarity became.
"Do we know each other?"
"Maybe? I'm not sure. We might've met, but it would've been a long time ago."
Beverly assumed he meant early in her childhood, not realizing the truth was something far different—it had been in her nightmares.
The boy was Pennywise, though not in his usual form.
The chaos at the school provided a rich source of fear—so many terrified souls, a feast for Pennywise.
And running into an old acquaintance only made things more intriguing.
He knew all about Beverly's relationship with Randy, so he dared not make any sudden moves, merely offering some ominous advice.
"Come on, that guy's crying in the bathroom. Don't be afraid. Even though he's a pathetic man, he's killed many innocents in the school."
As they neared the bathroom, Beverly could hear sobbing.
"Don't worry, he won't put up any fight. Without his accomplices egging him on, his spirit is already broken."
Beverly reached the door of the girls' bathroom, the floor smeared with blood. Inside, Dave was holding a pig, crying softly, desperately trying to pour the blood back into its body.
"Go on, kill him!"
Pennywise's mouth watered as he urged Beverly forward, his twisted expression setting off alarm bells in her mind.
Something felt off. A blurred thought was on the verge of surfacing.
"What are you waiting for? Just like you did to your father—slice him through the head and take off half his scalp with one stroke."
His words snapped Beverly to attention.
"You're more dangerous than he is."
Pennywise quickly waved his hands. "Oh, don't say that. I'm not the biggest threat here."
He tapped his head, producing a hollow sound. "Go ahead. My head's a lot harder than his."
Beverly steadied herself and entered the bathroom, Pennywise right behind her.
But Dave remained unaware, cradling the pig and trying to stuff blood back into its body.
"Go on, sweetheart, that freak's been abandoned. He won't resist."
That familiar term of endearment sent a chill down Beverly's spine. The voice—it had always haunted her nightmares.
She slowly turned her head, and the person beside her was no longer Pennywise but her father, with a twisted smile and a gaze full of sickening desire.
"Sweetheart, you're becoming more of a woman every day."
"Wham!"
Without hesitation, Beverly brought the axe down!
The impact was harder than she expected, as if she'd struck solid wood.
This was the source of her deepest pain, but even now, Beverly wouldn't hesitate to kill the man who had ruined her life.
Yet her father's face showed no fear, only relief.
"Beverly, you've grown up. I can't scare you anymore…"
Suddenly, the sound of hurried footsteps approached.
Beverly turned sharply, on high alert.
Thankfully, it was only Jackson and the Black teacher.
"Beverly…"
"Oh no!"
They both stared in shock.
Beverly turned back, and only now realized she had struck Dave in the head, the axe buried deep in his skull. Dave was dead, beyond any doubt.
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Show lessIn a corner of the school playground, a nimble pig squeezed through a gap, its mouth covered in fresh blood, its eyes filled with a disturbingly human-like cruelty.
"You're really hopeless! Destined to be a pig slaughtered for its meat! Not even Biff's death could awaken your killer instinct!"
After rushing into the gym, the old pig urged Dave several times to start a massacre, but unfortunately, Dave refused to make a move. Instead, he followed the scent of blood to the restroom, where he heard the sounds of sobbing.
No matter how much the old pig persuaded him, Dave wouldn't get back up.
Helpless, the pig had to escape on its own. Its pig brain was much smarter than Dave's.
It was clear Dave no longer wanted to live. His earlier frenzy had been a fleeting burst of energy after killing someone, but deep down, he was still human. His wounds wouldn't heal quickly, and soon his life would drain away completely.
"Dave has betrayed the pig class! Looks like the hopes of nearly a hundred pigs from the farm are all on me now!"
Escaping the farm is all that matters!
From now on, the name Dave would be passed down by me. I'll be the new Dave II!
"I eat people! I eat people!"
Dave II snorted and bellowed with rage.
...
On Randy's side, he wasn't aware of what was happening with Dave.
To be honest, he had always seen through people well. That Dave guy never seemed like someone who could pull off a massacre. In his eyes, Dave was just a stinking pile of fertilizer.
Randy was busy refining the blood essence lotus, which was far more important.
Throughout the night, for every blood essence lotus he refined, Randy would rest for fifteen minutes. By the time it was 7 AM, he finally gathered ten lotus flowers.
They contained the energy equivalent to ten of him, but they could only sustain him for a short while, so he still needed to supplement more.
To modify the environment and climate, a lot more preparation was required.
Just as Randy was about to close his eyes to rest, he sensed a visitor at his home.
A familiar car had stopped at his front gate.
Then, a familiar nun stepped out of the car.
"Katherine?"
Katherine had missed Randy the previous day. When she returned, she felt too guilty to face the abbess, but luckily, the abbess was so busy she didn't have time to scold her, giving her a bit of relief.
At dawn the next day, Katherine woke up early just to make sure she caught Randy at home.
Seeing a car already parked in Randy's yard, Katherine finally felt relieved.
She checked her attire, and aside from the obligatory white, her nun's robes looked dignified and modest.
"This shouldn't offend him, right?"
Katherine opened the gate and, as soon as she stepped into the yard, her expression froze.
The graffiti on the door was particularly eye-catching.
"Devil. Demon. Go to Hell."
A window on the side had been smashed as well.
The curses were so vicious that even a devout follower like Katherine was momentarily stunned before her brows furrowed.
"That's too much! How can people curse someone like this?"
If she were the one being cursed like this, Katherine would have been heartbroken.
Just as she stood there angrily, the front door suddenly opened.
Randy, with his pale face and a hostile expression, appeared at the door.
"What are you doing here?"
On any other day, Randy might have been interested in chatting with the nun, but today he was extremely busy.
"I... "