Escape (1)

Got. You.

Although Steve couldn't hear Loen, he still could somehow read Loen's mouth.

When Loen's figure disintegrated into thin dust and moved towards the air vents, adrenaline quickly gushed in his body as he shouted,

"RUN!"

Raven was the first to stand up, following him was the man trembling across Steve. The four other men had also seen Loen's terrifying figure and quickly came out from their seats.

BANG!

And when Steve was about to crawl his way out of his chair, a loud door slam was heard on the other end of the corridor.

Steve's head subconsciously turned in its direction and happened to see humanoid figures in different sizes and shapes.

Despite them standing far from him, he could still clearly see their disfigured and imperfect faces, as if they were molded from clay.

Some of them had no eyeballs, yet their eyelids remained open, making their inner skulls visible to the naked eye.

Some of their mouths were misplaced and misaligned. Their lips were curved too high, positioned away from the chin, and closely leaning in their cheeks.

Steve quickly realized that they were the creatures that his subordinate met earlier. He finally understood why the man returned extremely frightened.

However, Steve was forced to stop observing them as he started to notice them moving in his direction.

"Go! Go! Go!" Steve shouted, pushing his men to quickly run to the opposite side.

The creatures followed them, running with their unproportioned legs. Even though their bodies weren't as functional as of a normal human body, they could still follow Steve and his men's tempo.

It was as if the ground was helping them push their feet forward, making them move as quickly as Steve.

Sensing that they would be caught by them at any second, Steve gritted his teeth and unlocked the briefcase in his hand.

"Free Money! Free Money Everyone!"

While holding the opened case with his left hand, stacks of money quickly fell to the ground.

This shout had awakened some of the passengers along the way. While their minds were in a trance, their bodies subconsciously moved to pick up the scattered bills.

"Out of the way!" shouted one of the passengers. She quickly kneeled on the floor and simultaneously moved his arms around.

Seeing this, other passengers followed suit. They immediately made their way out and grabbed as many bills as they could.

All of them were focused on picking the bills and fighting against each other, making them not notice the monsters coming in their direction.

Steve's effort was fruitful as he managed to slow down the creatures following them.

He didn't even have an ounce of guilt on his face after using the other passengers as scapegoats. In his mind, 'They were all fakes living in a fake world anyway.'

When they arrived at the other end of the wagon, what immediately greeted them wasn't only a locked door but a door encased with hardened soil.

His men tried to forcibly open the door by kicking but with the presence of the strange soil embroidered around the door, they couldn't easily continue their way forward.

It was then Raven, who remained a close distance behind Steve, made his way and started slamming the door.

BANG!

Although the door remained closed, his action was still effective as some soil fell on the ground.

The six mercenaries were shocked upon seeing this sight. They didn't expect that behind Raven's petite stature, there was an enormous power hidden behind it.

When they were about to help him quicken the process, their pursuers had arrived before them.

However, they weren't on their initial humanoid figures, rather, they transformed into a mud-like slime crawling from the ceiling.

Although they transformed into a new form, there were still some shreds of evidence that they were once humans.

Because, even though they were in their slime form, their arms and legs protruded and tingled in the air as they moved. These monsters hadn't fully integrated into their new forms.

"AHHH!"

The passengers finally noticed this strange phenomenon and quickly escaped onto the other end of the train, leaving behind Steve's team alone.

After reaching a fairly close distance, the creatures fell from above and slowly transformed back into their humanoid figures.

Leading them at the front and the first to transform was the perfect copy of Loen. Behind him was the server lady that Steve had seen earlier.

Steve didn't wait for others to transform and quickly ordered the six mercenaries, "Go fight them!"

Although hesitant, they still followed his orders. They started their fight by throwing miscellaneous items they saw around at their enemies.

It was effective. Some of the monsters even stumbled due to the force. However, this was only momentarily as the monsters quickly consumed the things with their mud-like bodies.

Everything happened too fast and seeing their efforts were useless, they soon started to engage in a battle style they were most confident of.

With this, due to having no experience fighting a monster, they soon quickly made a mistake by engaging in close combat.

When the men advanced to deliver a punch at them, their eyes immediately widened in disbelief. Because when their fist touched them, it was as if they hit a cotton ball.

But it wasn't the thing that made their eyes widen. When they were about to retract their arm away, the monsters quickly engulfed them, starting from the fingers to their fists, until their arm submerged inside the monster.

"AH!! HELP!" They screamed and screamed, hoping for Steve to help them.

They immediately looked to Steve for help. He was the one who made them like this. If it wasn't him, then who?

But after their eyes met with Steve, their faces instantly wrinkled in anger and hopelessness.

Because what they saw in Steve's eyes wasn't salvation but resignation.

It was now clear to them that this child they called boss was an incompetent one. He was the kind of leader who would rather sacrifice his allies for his security.

If only they knew their future would be like this, fighting abnormal and mystical enemies at the forefront, they would have stepped back away from him.

But alas, everything was too late. They had been sold for an enormous financial reward offered by Steve.

If only they were suspicious of a child acting like an adult, their end would not be like this, like of cannon-fodders.

Slowly, the mud-like creatures started to devour them from their arms to their chest, until only their eyes remained bared, looking in Steve's direction.

The last thing reflected in their eyes were sorrow and anger… and a wish that Steve would meet a more horrendous end than them.

Steve stood frozen while watching his men submerged inside the monsters' bodies.

It wasn't that Steve chose not to help but it was just that he couldn't. What can he do? It was also his first time experiencing this phenomenon.

And he didn't even know why Loen was adamant about catching him!

CLANG!

When Steve was sure it was his turn next, a loud noise resounded behind him.

However, before he could turn around and see what had happened, his vision immediately turned 180 degrees.

Steve was stunned at first but after feeling the heat holding him tightly then he sighed in relief.

'I still have Raven with me!' he celebrated internally.

After countless kicks, Raven had finally destroyed the door. He then quickly seized Steve and held him like a sack of rice on his shoulder.

While carrying Steve, Raven ran through the destroyed door and soil debris on his feet.

Afterward, when his foot touched the floor of another train's wagon, what welcomed him was a space filled with boxes and luggage.

From this sight alone, Raven was pretty sure that this wagon was intended for storage use.

On the other end of the wagon was a fully-opened door. And ahead of this was outside, with rail tracks seemingly leaving away from the train.

This was the last carriage, with one short push, Steve and Raven could finally escape from the train.

But not everything would work as they imagined it to be. Because, when Raven dashed midway, he felt something pulling his foot and stumbled on the floor.

Behind him was Loen kneeling on the ground, his arms glued on the floor together with the soil debris Raven had kicked earlier.

His arms immediately disintegrated and restructured themselves to form a long and tentacle-like arm, keeping Raven's foot.

Raven tried to stand but the hold was too strong for him to flee away. And because of the sudden pulling force, Raven accidentally threw Steve forward.

"Argghh!" Steve hissed in pain.

Steve then looked back at Raven lying on the floor with a tentacle pulling him rearwards.

However, while Raven was trying to fend himself off against the monster Loen, Raven's eyes were strangely glued above Steve.

Steve subconsciously glanced up and his eyes instantly widened in fright.

Because above him was another congested soil particle sticking on the ceiling.

"WATCH OUT!"

Raven's cry made Steve forcibly push his feet away from the thing.

Immediately afterward, the thing gushed down, forming a thick mud-like wall, separating him from Raven on the other side.

CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.

While Steve was stunned by this sudden entrapment, a clap resounded around the wagon.

Steve followed the source of the noise and met another figure of Loen standing near the door.

Loen smiled at him, his eyes were filled with amusement as he opened his mouth and said,

"Hehehe. What a wonderful performance!"