The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 53: Departure

White Rabbit and Wu Dahai took the lead as they headed to the top of the hill of the Gu Family’s Village.

Outside the ancestral hall, the funeral tent had been disassembled, leaving only the remains of firecrackers and flower wreaths. They opened the door to the ancestral hall and walked up to the old well at the center of the courtyard.

“This should be it,” White Rabbit said with some uncertainty. She pulled off her mask and reached out to Wu Dahai. “Give me the Rune Circuit.”

Fat Jun hurriedly got closer and snuck a glance at her, his face instantly flushing red. As expected, she was a cute girl with pointy canine teeth—exactly his type. She would be even more perfect if she dressed less boyishly and more in the cute softer style popular in Japan.

While Fat Jun’s mind wandered, Wu Dahai took something round out of his pocket. It was about the size of a cushion foundation and quite thin, about 1 centimeter at a glance.

All eyes were drawn to the delicately crafted item. It was made of light silver metal and etched with circuit-like lines, through which glowing light continuously flowed. At the center of the circuit was the pattern of an eye, looking both ancient and mysterious yet advanced at the same time. It looked like an artifact from an ancient civilization where technology and magic prospered in harmony.

“What is this?” Gao Yang’s curiosity was piqued.

“We call this a Rune Circuit.” White Rabbit held it up. “It’s very rare and very useful. Thanks to the five of you, we’re able to get our hands on this one.”

“Heh, our organization now has a total of two Rune Circuits,” Wu Dahai said proudly.

“What does it do?” Gao Yang asked.

“I’ll go into more details later. Let’s get out of here first.” White Rabbit held the Rune Circuit above the well, and vroom, a beam of light shot out from the bottom of it.

She put the Rune Circuit away and smiled like things were going as she foresaw. “Yeah, this is just like the underground domain back then.”

She turned back and said, “We’ll go one by one. There’s no rush. You go first, Electric Mouse. I’ll go last.”

“Got it.” Wu Dahai got into a cool posture and jumped toward the well. Rather than falling in, he defied gravity and hovered in the orange light coming from the well.

After about two seconds, he soared into the sky following the trajectory of the light beam with a swoosh, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Realization dawned on Gao Yang. This was essentially a more advanced elevator.

“Next,” White Rabbit said.

“I’m going!” Wang Zikai jumped into the light excitedly and ascended in a second.

Then Officer Huang, Fat Jun, Qing Ling, and Gao Yang took the ‘elevator’ in order.

The moment Gao Yang jumped into the beam of light, he felt the pull of gravity vanish. Then a powerful yet gentle magnetic field wrapped around him and brought him up into the air at great speed. All he could see was the energy particles flowing at high frequency around him. His mind seemed to go blank for a moment, and he found himself reaching what seemed like the edge of the sky and moving past a long underground tunnel, until his vision suddenly cleared up.

When he regained his senses, he was already right in front of the ancestral hall of the Gu Family’s Village. He would’ve wondered if he hadn’t moved at all if not for the now crumbled well.

Gao Yang walked out of the light, closely followed by White Rabbit. Then she did something with the Rune Circuit, and the light beam disappeared, the portal closed.

“Welcome back.” White Rabbit smiled.

“We’ve been underground this whole time?” asked Officer Huang.

“Yeah, you can think of it as an enclosed space a thousand meters underground, but that’s far from the end of it. We’ll talk about it soon.” White Rabbit put her mask back on. “Aren’t you hungry?”

The five of them exchanged a look before exclaiming at the same time.

“We are!”

“Yes! Barbecue it is! Fully reimbursed!” White Rabbit waved an arm happily and then, seemingly remembering something, looked down at her bare feet. “I’m also getting new shoes!”

...

The five of them departed from Gu Family’s Village. This time, they were able to get out of the small forest without any strange barriers stopping them.

Officer Huang’s patrol car was parked by the roughly paved road.

Beside it sat an orange sports car, the body long and the chassis low, shaped perfectly for aerodynamics. It was quite a trendy and bold design.

“McLaren!” Wang Zikai ran up to the car animatedly. “Oh my god, I’ve always wanted one, but my old man wouldn’t buy it for me because it’s too expensive!”

“Oh, you’ve got taste, bro.” Wu Dahai walked up to his car and took out his car key nonchalantly. Beep, the car doors raised like a pair of robotic wings.

That was a surprising revelation.

Who would’ve guessed that the seemingly average Wu Dahai was actually filthy rich?

He threw Qing Ling a leering glance. “Wanna take a ride in my car, Qing Ling?”

Qing Ling didn’t even spare him a glance before diving into the back of the patrol car. After a pause, Gao Yang followed her in.

“Fat Jun is it? You’ve got a bigger physique, so you should ride shotgun.” White Rabbit took the backseat as well, sandwiching Gao Yang with Qing Ling. Gao Yang tensed up immediately, not knowing where to even rest his hands.

“Whoa, I’ve never ridden on a patrol car. My heart’s pounding.” White Rabbit seemed to be in a good mood, and she chattered like a girl excited for a picnic.

“I can handcuff you to make it a more immersive experience,” Officer Huang joked.

“Sure, I’m game.” White Rabbit was excited.

Officer Huang actually threw her a pair of handcuffs. “Here.”

She took the handcuffs and cuffed her left hand before grabbing Gao Yang’s right and cuffed it with a click.

“What are you doing?” Gao Yang was surprised.

White Rabbit shook her hands. “Don’t we look like Bonnie and Clyde? The bank-robbing couple! No, no, no...serial killers! Serial killers are cooler! I even have an ending in mind. The patrol car flipped, and you died with the officer in order to save me, leaving me with a great fortune. Later in life, I could only splurge everyday to soothe my great sorrow.”

Gao Yang was speechless.

You said Wu Dahai had chunibyo, but you’re even worse than him!

Laughter and chatter came from the patrol car, while the 20-million dollar sports car attracted no one’s attention other than Wang Zikai’s.

“Brother Wu, can I ride shotgun?” Wang Zikai’s eyes were glued to the car. He had never talked to anyone in such a pleading way. Such was the power of money.

“Get in.” Wu Dahai let out a long sigh and shook his head with envy. “Fuck, Gao Yang’s the real winner in life.”

The patrol car drove away first.

Wu Dahai ignited the engine, and Wang Zikai shouted, “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! This is crazy! A 500-horsepower engine sure is something! It takes only 2.8 seconds to reach a hundred kilometers per second, and it can be pushed to 380 kilometers per hour with the limiter lifted! The sound of the engine...oh does it get my blood pumping.”

Wu Dahai wasn’t happy at all. “I’ll lend it to you for a year if you like it so much.”

“Really?” The gift fell on his lap so suddenly that Wang Zikai burst into happy tears. “You’re my best buddy from now on, Brother Wu. Even Gao Yang will only be my second!”

“Alright, alright.” Wu Dahai waved a hand dismissively while driving. “What’s a car when you don’t have a girl? Life’s meaningless without a beauty to enjoy it with.”