ATL | Chapter 1

Yujing is raining.

Neon blurs outside the mirror window, and the midnight bustle of Dawn District also seems distant. The Crew Cut mercenary moved quickly, and after clearing away the fingerprints and skin flakes he might have left behind, he stopped and glanced toward a corner of the room.

There was a section of slender bare ankle.

Looking up along that patch of snow-white skin, its owner was curled up with his knees hugged to his chest, trembling badly. In the inner room thick with the smell of blood, he seemed to lack even the courage to raise his eyes and look. Only after the gaze locked onto him did he stammer and lift his head, "Sir."

Crew Cut stared at those beautiful red eyes, and could not help feeling his throat tighten. "You are Ganlin?"

Ganlin was tense all over, and nodded in difficulty.

There was a hint of water in his eyes, and the red in his irises had spread to the corners of his eyes, making even his disheveled state look vivid. As if he could not bear the scrutinizing gaze, he looked away and asked softly, "Young Master Canus, he has already..."

Crew Cut threw something over. The heavy object crashed with a clang beside Ganlin's feet. His words were forced to stop. He lowered his head to look, and saw a long, soft yet tough whip.

This sort of ancient thing was already rarely seen in Yujing, and the channels to buy it were narrow too, only circulating in secret in the black market of the Lower Nest. It appearing here, however, was perfectly reasonable, because Canus happened to have this kind of fetish. As the Eldest Son of the Lion family, Canus was constantly surrounded by scandal, changing lovers every few days.

Ganlin was his new flame.

"You and Canus met in Nanke." Crew Cut said, "He fell in love with you at first sight, bought your entire three-month use rights, and took you away, secretly keeping you in this apartment. Tonight was your first night together. Unfortunately, after killing the last male prostitute, he had been pent up too long, and as soon as he got on top he had no restraint, frightening you."

"You struggled desperately and pushed him to the floor, smashing his head until it bled. Then you were even more afraid, and knowing you had only one road left, you simply decided to kill him with the whip and fled in panic."

After Crew Cut finished, he paused. Seeing Ganlin trembling badly, a trace of contempt could not help rising in his heart. He felt that Nanke's so-called treasure was nothing more than that, and what was most fascinating about him was nothing but his origin in the Lower Nest and his alluring face.

But in the end, Ganlin's companion gene was only sheep, a creature renowned for its docility even before the era of catastrophe. It simply could not change the cowardice in its bones.

Still, just seeing himself grab Canus by the head and smash him into the corner of the table had already frightened Ganlin. If he were asked to kill someone himself, he would probably be scared out of his wits. Too bad there was no choice, the employer required this murder case to be watertight, and they had to leave behind biological traces unique to Ganlin, enough to mislead the police.

"Don't worry, you won't be caught." Crew Cut said without changing expression, "Afterward, we will transfer you to a completely safe place. Once the storm passes, you can change your face and start over, undergo facial reshaping and voiceprint and fingerprint replacement. The employer has already prepared contribution points and a new identity for you, so you can establish yourself in Huizhi District."

He patiently told him so many good things before finally moving Ganlin. The latter hesitated as he picked up the soft whip and stumbled toward Canus. He looked as if he were trying hard to keep calm, but a trembling, soft white sheep tail still gave away his unease.

Useless decoration, completely different from the scandalous rumors.

Crew Cut subconsciously glanced at his own strong and powerful long tail, born from lizard gene companionship, and made his judgment of Ganlin.

When he looked up again, the long whip had already tightened around Canus's neck. Ganlin bent his legs and stepped onto Canus's shoulder, then turned back to look at him, with the last trace of hope in his eyes.

"Hurry up." Crew Cut was somewhat impatient, "The pickup people are already waiting."

Only then did Ganlin make up his final resolve, tugging the long whip upward and pressing down hard with his legs. His movements were clumsy, and he killed clumsily and very unskillfully. By the time Canus's neck had gone limp and tilted to one side, completely losing his breath, Ganlin's right hand had also been cut open by the rope, and blood beads seeped out from several places in his snow-white flesh, dripping onto the soft carpet.

Crew Cut watched coldly, and did not speak up to remind him, only nodded at Ganlin. "Let's go."

Ganlin hurriedly covered his hand and staggered after him. They passed through the apartment airflow system, which had already been secretly paused, and climbed into a hovercar. Crew Cut shoved Ganlin into the back row, sat down in the driver's seat himself, and then started the car.

The hovercar was a five-seater, and could not be considered spacious. Once it started up like this, the windows and windshield were left only pure black, and only the driver's special glasses could see outside. Besides Ganlin, there was also a young mercenary with a head of green hair in the back seat. On catching sight of Ganlin, he immediately said excitedly in a pure Duck Voice, "Yo, that good?"

"Didn't the mallard gene's heat period just end?" Crew Cut cursed, "Look at that useless expression on your face."

"This is called 'residual charm,' do you understand what's left wanting?" Duck Voice moved a little closer to Ganlin and said with a smile, "Besides, people from Nanke, where do we usually get to see them? We can only feast our eyes on him for this little bit of time. Ganlin, right? Oh, I can't bear to have you tied up."

Though he said that, his hands were very nimble. Very quickly he pulled out a roll of binding strap, intending to tie Ganlin's wrists.

Ganlin lowered his eyes and calmly looked at that strip of silver metal, flat as cloth and soft as fabric.

This thing was called a strangling cord. As the name suggests, its harmless appearance was only a disguise. Once it sensed human skin and matched the preset body temperature range, it would immediately return to a hard state, binding limbs seamlessly. It tightened as one struggled, while releasing electricity to break resistance.

Once bound, it could almost only be undone by a magnetic key or a specific cipher code. But it was easy for it to go out of control when it saw blood, and there had been several incidents of it strangling people to death on the spot. It was rather terrifying, with the fear of old-world gallows, and by now its use by civilians had already been banned.

Ganlin's companion gene determined that his usual body temperature was two degrees lower than Duck Voice's, who had a mallard gene companion. Therefore the strangling cord was very obedient in Duck Voice's hands, and would not turn back on its user.

Ganlin obediently stretched out both hands, showing no intention of resisting.

But the instant the strangling cord touched his palm, he hissed softly, then bit his lip. Duck Voice paused, and asked considerately, "What's wrong?"

"My right hand is injured," Ganlin hesitated for a moment, then said in a small voice, "The skin is broken, it hurts when the binding strap tightens."

He did not say strangling cord, nor did he say blood, as if he had no idea how terrifying this thing actually was. Duck Voice used the rearview mirror to exchange a look with Crew Cut, and the latter reluctantly gave an "Mm," adding, "He lost control when he did it, and it drew blood."

Duck Voice adapted quickly and was about to tie Ganlin's neck instead. This time Crew Cut immediately stopped him. "By the time I got there, the target had already prepared to make a move, and there were injuries on his neck too."

Sure enough, there was a bit of red soaking into the white collar. Looking further in, the fingerprint marks were distinct one by one, and there were blood spots at the ends. These were the marks left by the lion's claws.

Duck Voice slapped his forehead. "Look at me, I almost ruined things!"

This time he was extremely careful and only dared to bind Ganlin's left arm. After the strangling cord solidified and attached itself, Duck Voice, under Ganlin's curious gaze, took out a roll of fine chain and fused the strangling cord and the car wall into one, making nearly half of Ganlin's body unable to move.

"Bear with it a bit longer," Duck Voice clicked his tongue and said, "We're also just taking money to do a job. It's just a little pity, even though we earned quite a lot of contribution points, once we get to Nanke we won't be able to point at you anymore. With a personality like yours, just how did you climb to Dawn District, and how did you survive in Nanke until now? All by your face?"

The light inside the car was white, falling on Ganlin's soft curly hair. He looked somewhere between a boy and a young man, with a touch of just right innocence. And when he looked at someone seriously, that innocence would give rise to a kind of pure curiosity, a kind of trust without guard.

This kind of feeling was too rare in the present era. Duck Voice's throat tightened, and he suddenly understood a little.

Then he heard Ganlin say softly, "Afterward I went to Huizhi District. If you want to see me, you can come too."

Duck Voice laughed in astonishment, for a moment unable to tell whether Ganlin was truly naive or just pretending to be stupid. It could only be said that Ganlin looked very sincere, not like he was acting.

It seemed he did not know what fate was waiting for him at all. Although the employer required them to take Ganlin to a specific place, those who had been sent there before would, within a few days, become corpses, and then be taken away by them for disposal. The brothers did nothing but dead people's business, so they simply slapped their foreheads and changed the team's name to "Cleanup Crew."

The "Cleanup Crew" had been formed for more than ten years, and their hands had no fewer than a hundred lives on them. They had long passed the age when kindness overflowed and conscience still remained. So Duck Voice did not plan to extinguish Ganlin's fantasy, and instead pretended restraint. "That won't do, we have professional ethics. We can't go past the employer and contact you privately."

"After I get to Huizhi District, I won't be Ganlin anymore." Ganlin said in a low voice, "Once I start a new life, I won't know anyone or the place, I, I will..."
He stopped speaking.

Finally, as if he had mustered up his courage, he said awkwardly, "Sir, please come a little closer."

This was absolutely not a hint. In Yujing, where sexual awareness was open, this could already be called an "invitation." Duck Voice finally confirmed at this moment that Ganlin really was still fantasizing about a new life, too naive, and too ridiculous. His face and his luck had brought him out of the Lower Nest. However, Nanke clearly only intended to raise Ganlin into a docile plaything.

Anyway, there was still half an hour of driving left before they reached their destination.

Thinking this, Duck Voice licked the corner of his lips. As he leaned closer to Ganlin, he reached out and pressed a glowing knot, raising the invisible mirror layer partition between the front and back seats. Crew Cut let out a disgusted "tsk," turned the volume all the way up, and only then barely penetrated the partition.

"Do you have to get horny everywhere and anytime!"

"What are you rushing for?" Duck Voice also shouted back, his voice still distant and faint, "It'll be done soon. This time's pay, we split seventy-thirty."

As soon as those words came out, Crew Cut shut up. In the back, Duck Voice was already almost close against against Ganlin, but Ganlin's still movable right hand suddenly lifted, briefly stopping Duck Voice's movement.

"Sir," Ganlin stared at him, spread his long fingers and shook them, and said timidly, "I have injuries all over my body, can I help you with my hand?"

"Fine, I guess," Duck Voice was a little unhappy. He reached up and swept his hair back, then said irritably, "Don't keep dragging ou..."

In an instant, something sharp pierced his throat, cutting off that unfinished word, and Duck Voice's eyes flew wide in terror. After all, he was an old mercenary with more than ten years behind him, and Ganlin immediately felt the strangling cord on his left arm begin to contract violently. He knew that in less than a second, this thing should be releasing electricity.

Duck Voice's throat leaked air, and he could not make any sound order or seek help. So just as he had suppressed Ganlin, he immediately stretched out his arm to reach the glowing knot on the mirror partition.

At the very moment before he was about to touch it, the entire forearm was chopped off.

Duck Voice's throat made a hoarse sound, and he jerked his head up in disbelief, only to see Ganlin's face pale, his features pressed very close, while his eyes and lips were red in a way that was shocking to the eye.

"No... pos..."

Impossible!

Ganlin's left arm had been tightly bound by him and attached to the side of the car. The magnetic key was not in the car, and only he knew the cipher code. Ganlin absolutely could not have broken free. He had already given the strangling cord its command just now, and Ganlin should have been electrocuted unconscious. How could he still be conscious!

And that sharp thing piercing through the throat, the weapon that chopped off the forearm, what were they?

Countless thoughts churned together in Duck Voice's head, like dense tapeworms gnawing at his sanity and reason, and crashing into his internal organs. The urge to vomit made Duck Voice suddenly bend over, but in the next instant his throat was seized.

Not just seized by the throat.

Ganlin's right hand had already fully reached into his ruptured windpipe, almost forcibly rotating one full circle, spraying blood all over the seats. In the pain that was about to reach its peak, Duck Voice rolled his eyes and finally barely realized something was wrong.

The docility on Ganlin's face had completely vanished, replaced by a kind of indifference, a kind of contempt. His beautiful face was splashed dirty with blood spots, and most of his white hair had also been dyed red, with even the ends still dripping.

...Dripping Duck Voice's blood.

In addition, Ganlin also only had one arm left.

This madman, in order to get out of the strangling cord's control in time, he had actually cut off his own left arm!

But when he was locked inside Canus's apartment, he should have been carefully searched already. Not to mention that before getting on the car, Crew Cut had searched him again and found no traces of any limb modifications, and he was only wearing a bionic white cotton robe, with absolutely nowhere to hide anything. Then where had the weapon been taken from?

Duck Voice's eyeballs rolled wildly, saliva gushed out. He had lost too much blood, and his face finally went completely ashen. Even in death, he still could not understand what sharp weapon had killed him. Only after he had breathed his last did Ganlin lightly let go, then step on Duck Voice's arm with his foot and grind down on it.

The revenge interval was less than ten seconds, not too stifling.

Cold sweat poured down Ganlin's forehead. For the moment, he could only use the most primitive method to stop the bleeding, using the robe fabric as bandages, then fixing it with his teeth and right hand. During this time he glanced at the strangling cord. It still remained in a ring shape, and a pool of flesh mixed with white bone chips was softly flowing out from inside it.

It did not hurt that much at first. Seeing it like this, it started hurting again.

When he got back, he would have Cizhu print out genes and give himself a better biomorphic arm, plus some high-tech stuff.

And now, he still had one little problem to solve.

There were only ten minutes left in the drive, but the mirror partition still had not lowered. Crew Cut was getting a little impatient, so he shouted, "Are you done yet?"

No response.

Thinking of the contribution points he could get more of, he patiently waited another three minutes. But even until they were close to the private domain that should have been guided by Duck Voice, the other side still did not make a single sound. He did not know the cipher code for this private domain at all, and simply could not get through.

Crew Cut could not bear it anymore, and decided not to bear it.

While smashing at the glowing knot, he turned back and roared, "What the hell are you trying to..."

His words had not finished when his head fell off, rolling onto the passenger seat. There was no other reason, Ganlin's movements were too fast, and he attacked from behind, so one strike was fatal. Crew Cut's lizard tail reflexively lifted halfway, only to be slapped down by Ganlin with one hand. The tip landed just right on the suspended light knot, and forcefully stopped the hovercar right outside the private domain.

Ganlin nimbly flipped to the front seat, kicked away Crew Cut's head, and indeed found a medical kit and a compact carry-on parachute pack in the compartment beside the seat. There were three parachute packs. After thinking about it, Ganlin took them all out, and did not touch the medical kit at all.

Afterward he noted down the current coordinates, then rapidly operated the system one-handed, deleting all the data in the recorder. Five minutes later, because there had been no touch from Crew Cut's living fingerprint, the hovercar's driving authority was completely locked, and it was judged to be about to enter a rest standby state.

Ganlin wiped clean his own fingerprints, returned to the back seat with the three parachute packs, put on one of them, then held the other two in his arms, no longer looking at his severed arm, but instead beginning to silently count.

Three.

Two.

One.

The suspension was lifted, and the hovercar suddenly dropped. The sound of wind muddled hearing. A few breaths later, the hovercar completely fell out of the private domain's surveillance range. Ganlin braced his breath and broke through the window, disappearing into the night rain like thin mist.

Behind him, a fierce explosion sounded, flames shooting high and lighting up half of Ganlin's face. The remaining blood on his face had already been washed away by the rain. The tips of his silver-white curls dripped water downward. The dirty blood had finished flowing away, and only clear rain remained, pooling in the hollow of his delicate collarbones.

He still had two parachute packs left, one wrapped around the severed arm to avoid leaving any possible biological DNA traces, and one thrown away on a detour to confuse the issue. The rain sound was dense, covering Ganlin's footsteps and faint humming. He was seriously injured, but his mood was quite good.

At the eve of dawn, he finally hid the last remaining parachute pack, turned into some intricately twisted building, and crossed a maze-like winding staircase, until he pushed open a door.

Inside the door, someone suddenly turned around and met Ganlin's gaze.

"Doctor Lu."

The color on Ganlin's face was nearly gone. His broken and tattered robe and hair were all soaked through, clinging to his body, utterly miserable. Yet his eyes were even wetter, carrying a kind of water-red urgent longing.

"I, I really killed him." Ganlin's voice was choked, and he said incoherently, "I really... I, I beg you, Doctor Lu! You must send this news back to the Lower Nest, to Qize."

"Tomorrow, at the latest tomorrow, Yujing will announce Canus's death notice!"

At those words, the other side suddenly grabbed Ganlin's shoulders and said in disbelief.

"You alone?"

Ganlin's face was pale, and he only had the strength to nod, breathing faintly like a thread.

Seeing him so miserable, Doctor Lu also felt somewhat unable to bear it, as if unwilling to question him further. He helped Ganlin toward the crude hospital bed, while at the same time taking care to watch his forked huge antlers, to avoid them hitting Ganlin's head.

"Wait a moment, your arm is broken, I'll go get hemostatic medicine."

Ganlin's eyes were half open and half closed, and he nodded weakly.

Not long after, Doctor Lu went and returned. Ganlin closed his eyes and only felt a chill at his neck. Very soon, most of his muscles were forced to relax, and he could only watch helplessly as Doctor Lu inserted more than ten needles into his skin, then sat down in front of a machine.

"The latest brainwave resonance analyzer." Doctor Lu patted the mechanical head and said proudly, "I researched it myself."

Ganlin nodded slightly, indicating approval.

"But what use is this for treating my broken arm?"

"Who said I was going to treat your arm?" Doctor Lu said righteously, "This device is used for lie detection, and in several recent experiments, the accuracy has been one hundred percent."

"Come on, now tell me in detail the whole process of how you killed Canus."