The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 839: Madman’s Childhood

Having failed his sneak attack, War Tiger leaped back, steadying himself as he slung his massive Dragonslaying Giantsword onto his back. "As expected of Absolute Defense. You can really take a beating!"

"You flatter me," Gao Yang replied.

Blocking the attack wasn't as effortless as Gao Yang made it appear; his entire arm had gone numb from the impact. Recalling War Tiger's brutal killing of Tia in Aurora Town, Gao Yang had summoned the densest energy shield he could muster without hesitation. Had he not, the giantsword's vibration power would have damaged the energy pathways throughout his body.

Gao Yang could have employed an Absolute Barrier, but he refrained from expending excessive energy on what was merely a test of strength between them.

"Alright. Now we've confirmed each other's identity," War Tiger grinned. "Let's get to business."

"Have you forgotten someone?" Gao Yang reminded him.

"Oh, right!" War Tiger slapped his own forehead. "I almost forgot about him."

With an almost gleeful expression, War Tiger darted to the overturned wheelchair and picked it up. He roughly grabbed the stroke-afflicted old man and unceremoniously tossed him back into the seat. The old man's face and body were covered in wilted grass and soil. His eyes darted about ceaselessly, the corners of his mouth twitching as he made unintelligible noises. An aura of helpless rage radiated from him.

War Tiger bent down, bringing his face close to the old man's. Cupping a hand to his ear in mock concern, he taunted, "What do you want? How should I know if you don't tell me? Huh? What did you say? I can't hear you. I can't hear you at all..."

“Ugh...ugh...” The old man raged harder. Gao Yang worried that he would drop dead just like that.

“Hahahaha!” War Tiger guffawed. “What a useless piece of trash. You can’t even speak right.”

He patted the old man on the face. “Adios! I’ll visit you again.”

He shoved a hand into his pocket while waving at Gao Yang. “Let’s go.”

“Do we just leave him here?”

Gao Yang caught up with War Tiger. They entered the oak forest.

“It’s fine. Don’t be fooled by appearance. He’s built sturdy. He won’t get frozen to death overnight. When the day comes, his caretaker will notice he’s gone and find him.”

Gao Yang asked casually, “Who is he?”

“My old man.” War Tiger lit a cigarette. “Not my biological one, of course. He’s a stable wanderer.”

“What a model son you are,” Gao Yang said with some marvel.

"Hahaha!" War Tiger's laughter grew even more gleeful. "My old man was once a famous boxer in West Nation, dominating the ring for years with unmatched glory. Then a rising star defeated him. He lost his shit and never recovered from the slump, leading to his retirement."

War Tiger took a long drag from his cigarette and continued lazily, "After that, my old man stopped punching other boxers and started punching women instead. It's the usual shit you see in movies—alcohol abuse, domestic violence. Nothing new."

"Eventually, my mom had enough and threw herself into that lake," War Tiger said, jerking his thumb backward. "The one you saw earlier. I'd played in that lake since I was five, thinking of it as nothing more than a large bathtub. Yet she found a way to drown herself in it. Guess the saying is true: where there's a will, there's a way; if someone truly wants to end their life, they'll do it one way or another."

As he spoke, War Tiger's tone remained detached, as if recounting someone else's life rather than his own. "After my mom died, my old man started beating me up. I was his punching bag until I turned fourteen. Then he couldn't beat me anymore."

"One night, I broke his nose and two front teeth. Probably cracked a few ribs with my kicks, too. I took all the money from home and left."

"I snuck away to Li City, my mother's hometown, hoping to see where she grew up. But her childhood home was gone. Not long after that, I awakened. Then I ran into Dragon and joined the Twelve Zodiac Signs."

He grinned at Gao Yang. "I'm an awakener now, but well, I'm a model son, as you said. I visit my old man every once in a while to beat him up, showing him his son's love up close and personal."

"It's a shame he had a stroke two years ago. Things haven't been as fun since then."

Gao Yang listened to the story calmly. It didn’t surprise him that a madman like War Tiger would have such a childhood. Actually, he expected War Tiger to have an even rougher past.

“Enough chitchat. Let’s talk business.” War Tiger dropped the smile. “Our home got torn down. You know that, right?”

“I do.” Gao Yang nodded.

War Tiger shook off some ash from his cigarette. “Our people have long split up to different bases. Quiet Book created our substitutes with her Talent and had the substitutes stay in the underground base in the Millenium Tower. She also had them walk around outside in the neighborhood every now and then to make things believable.”

War Tiger paused, sorrow flashing through his eyes. “Songstress wouldn’t leave with us, and I didn’t tell her the plan or make a substitute for her. The night the Union struck, Songstress had taken Liu Qingying to the underground sixth floor. Liu Qingying talked to our substitutes in the meeting room, and the substitutes responded in preprogrammed ways.”

“After that, Liu Qingying left the meeting room with Songstress. Liu Qingying took out a strange small object during the conversation. It looked like a Rubik’s cube. Then the whole floor was gone. It seemed like a bomb but wasn’t one. I suspected that it was a spatial weapon of sorts.”

“How do you know so much without being there?”

“The cameras installed in the shared space there backed up all footage to a hidden server in real-time, but we only see the images and not hear the sound, so we don’t know everything.”

Gao Yang mused and shared what he knew. “Liu Qingying sought me out before joining the Ocean River Union. She seemed to expect herself to meet an untimely demise.”

War Tiger narrowed his eyes. “The Union’s quite a safe place to be now. If she worried that something would happen to herself, it could only mean that she was there as a spy.”

“I agree.” Gao Yang nodded. “There must be a secret faction behind her, and she went to the Union to carry out a mission the organization assigned her.”

War Tiger stroked his chin as he walked. “If Liu Qingying wasn’t loyal to the Union, she couldn’t have volunteered to suicide bomb us. She was either under duress or manipulation.”

“Manipulation?” Gao Yang started.

War Tiger took out his phone and played a video. “Take a look.”

Gao Yang took the phone, which displayed surveillance footage from the pantry on the underground sixth floor. In the video, Songstress abruptly lunged at Liu Qingying, tearing at her collar. Liu Qingying reacted swiftly and shoved Songstress away.

Gao Yang hit pause, focusing on a faint, yet familiar web-shaped brand visible on Liu Qingying's exposed collarbone.

He sucked in a breath. “That’s the energy brand for Puppeteer.”

“Are you certain?” War Tiger’s face darkened.

A grim certainty settled over Gao Yang as he replied, "I'm positive. The former Black Tortoise controlled numerous wanderers and even awakeners’ corpses. That brand is seared into my memory."

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