The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 61: Pride Monster

“What are you talking about, Sis?” Gao Yang’s palm was sweating, and his heart pounding. He hoped against hope that he could get this under control, but his rational mind told him that no, he was not talking his way out of this.

Was he scared? Of course he was.

What did an acquisition rate of 3000 times mean?

He and his four companions had failed to defeat the hair monster before. Now, his sister—if the girl before him could still be considered his sister—was three times more dangerous than it!

To conclude, he was doomed.

Strangely, compared to his fear, the more overpowering emotions filling his chest was actually a mix of regret, self-resentment, and sorrow.

Why wasn’t I more careful?

Why did I let her see the Talent list?

Why oh why didn’t I memorize the list and destroy it?

“Don’t be scared, Brother,” Gao Xinxin said gently, sounding even a little resigned and sad. “I’ll be quick with it.”

Bam!

Gao Yang didn’t even see what happened before his throat was constricted, his back slammed into the wall with a heavy thud. His sister was strangling and pinning him with a fair, delicate hand around his neck.

Gao Yang did his best to pry her fingers off him, yet the soft hand he had held countless times as they grew up were now more unyielding than any metal.

She could’ve easily broken Gao Yang’s neck, yet she didn’t. She was confident and demanded obedience.

“Sis...ter...” Gao Yang struggled to speak, his eyes welling with tears he could not stop.

After a pause, his sister laughed like she was amused. “Come on, don’t look so sad. Look scared. Otherwise, how am I going to enjoy killing you?”

“Why...” Gao Yang’s voice grew a little pleading. “Why must we go for each other’s throat? We can continue to be family...”

“You got it wrong, Brother.” His sister clicked her tongue. “First, we and you humans aren’t enemies going after each other. We are the hunters, and you humans the prey.”

“And you are my brother.” His sister sounded almost gentle. “And I, your sister. Even though you’ve awakened and I must kill you, that will never change. Tomorrow morning, I’ll forget about all this and shed tears for your death. I’ll miss you forever. And it’ll be real... Even now, I can hear myself crying at the bottom of my heart. I love my big brother so very much.”

“I don’t get it...” Gao Yang was lost.

“You don’t have to get it. You awakeners die because you can never leave well enough alone.” His sister’s eyes grew cold. “Good bye, Brother.”

“Wait!”

“Hm?”

“Before death...I have one last question.” Gao Yang struggled to breathe against the pressure. “What...kind of monster are you?”

Wordlessly, his sister gave him a once-over with an unreadable expression. Under the silver moonlight, her lovely face seemed as pure as ever, and her body showed no trace of transformation.

“Do you want to see my true form?” To his shock, His sister smiled with what could be embarrassment. “But I think it’s better that you remember me as I am now before you go, Brother.”

The grip around his neck tightened.

“Delusion monster?” Gao Yang listed off. “Wrath monster...greed monster...pride monster...”

The fingers around his neck stilled for a moment.

Pride monster it was.

He knew nothing about them, but he couldn’t die here, not yet.

“Sister...” Warm tears streaked down Gao Yang’s flushed face. “I’m sorry...”

He suddenly grabbed onto Gao Xinxin’s head. “Fire!”

Swoosh! A burst of flames shot out of his palms, enveloping Gao Xinxin’s head in an instant, and the grip on his neck went slack for a moment.

“Ahhhh!” Gao Yang shouted, pushing all his energy into his hands and crossed the two torrents of blazing fire in close distance, burning Gao Xinxin’s head with mad abandon. The firelight illuminated the whole room and heated the air, creating powerful heat currents that rampaged around in the limited space. The heat almost burned Gao Yang’s eyes, and he had to close them.

Gao Yang kept shouting, both with a desperate want to survive and a heart-rending sorrow. His fire burned at the highest intensity he could manage for close to a minute, draining him completely.

His arms dropped, and he opened his tear-filled eyes.

His heart stopped.

Gao Xinxin’s shirt was almost completely burned, exposing her collarbones and young body. Her hair was a mess, but not even a little charred. It was as if Gao Yang had merely ruffled her hair with his hands.

Her face was also entirely free of burn marks. She considered Gao Yang with a bemused expression. “I’m your little sister, Brother. How could you hurt me like that?”

“What...what manner of monster are you?” Gao Yang felt himself plunged into a bottomless fear.

Then he screamed as the grip around his neck tightened, taking away his breath and inflicting him with great pain. He was lifted off the floor and slammed into the wall again.

“Monster? That’s what you call us, isn’t it?” Gao Xinxin stared at him. “Aren’t you the monsters? Our adorable kittens transform overnight into cunning, repulsive vipers seeking to kill their masters with a bite. What would you do if you were us? Would you tell yourself that it’s still your kitten? No, you would kill the vipers and mourn the kittens who would never come back again.”

“You...are not my sister!” Gao Yang glared at her. “You’re not my Gao Xinxin! Give her back to me!”

“Haha, hahaha, hahahahaha!” Gao Xinxin laughed like that was the funniest joke in the world. She even had tears in her eyes from laughing too hard.

When she finally had enough, she extended her left hand and penetrated Gao Yang’s chest easily.

This time, there was no miraculous escape.

Gao Yang threw up a mouthful of blood, feeling like his heart and lungs had just been torn apart by tens of thousands of arrows.

And he screamed. Oh, he screamed. Tremendous pain blurred the line between consciousness and unconsciousness. He felt himself melting, disintegrating, changing until he was no longer himself, but an insignificant, inanimate part of the vast world.

He was the energy-saving light on the ceiling, the pool of blood on the floor below his feet, the burned, yellowed A4 document on the computer desk, the messed up blanket on the bed, her sister’s eyelashes, the metallic, charred smell in the air—he was everything in the world, everything but himself.

Then his soul returned to his body after a fraction of a second.

In his blurry vision, he saw a bloody, still pounding human heart, and it was in Gao Xinxin’s grasp. It was his heart.

Gao Xinxin looked at his heart with big eyes, innocent yet so very eerie. She seemed awe-struck.

After a few seconds, she looked up with a bashful smile like a little sister acting cute to her big brother.

“Can I eat this, Brother?”