AZI Volume 1 Chapter 23

"…"

"What happened here?"

As the entire group gets off the truck, Ye Chen and Li Xue take the lead, while Long Hua is positioned at the back with Yu Ji and Qing Yue.

"This should be the supposed village that guard told me about. But…"

Crouching down, Ye Chen scoops up a bit of the soil.

"Dark and rough to the touch."

Dusting off his hands, Ye Chen continues to look around.

"Scatter and search the area a bit. Don't go too far though."

This place clearly had a fire outbreak recently, but enough time had passed for the scent of smoke to settle.

"Claw marks…?"

Approaching a rundown building, Li Xue notices a total of four diagonal cuts on the surface of its walls with each cut being an inch deep.

"I smell blood here."

Standing in front of a large hole that was originally the walls of a two-floored building, Qing Yue frowns. Beneath her feet are slabs of rubble, arranged together in the form of stairs.

"Anyone in there? Hello?"

With these rubbles placed in such a way, people should have lived here before, but regardless of how loud Qing Yue calls, not a single voice of life replies to her.

Approaching from behind Qing Yue, Yu Ji holds a disk-shaped device in his right hand, and upon activation, the device emits four blinding beams of light outwards.

Tossing the device into the darkness, Qing Yue and Yu Ji see it fly a few meters forward before it drops, and bounces five times, to reveal—

"…Uh."

"…"

A room filled with blood and gore.

With limbs scattered here and there, there is seemingly not a single body that is whole in this area that was the scene of a massacre.

"…"

"…How repulsive."

Compared to Qing Yue and Yu Ji—whose complexions have been completely drained of color, and seem to want to vomit at the sight, Ye Chen and Li Xue merely raised a frown.

"D-Do we need to go in?"

"Hold down your urge to vomit. C'mon, don't give me that look. Sights like this should be things you get accustomed to quickly. Besides, the terminal is in the building."

"Why don't you go in alone?"

"If I get cursed by some resentful ghost, I'd at least want someone to accompany me in my misfortune. Alright, quit complaining. Where's 2nd Lieut. Long Hua?"

"I saw him heading off in the opposite direction following after some blood tracks."

Reporting this, Yu Ji turns the other way, but before he can take a step forward, Ye Chen grabs him by the back of his cropped black jacket.

"And I said not to go too far. Whatever, he should be fine. Let's go."

"That guy must have run off. Captain, it's not too late, how about I chase after him and bring him back?"

Seeing a chance to bail from this, Qing Yue speaks up immediately.

"No need 2nd Lieut. Qing Yue. Come, come, come, no need to be afraid."

Practically dragging them at this point, Ye Chen pulls the two lieutenants into the bloodstained building.

...…

"…"

Following a track of blood, Long Hua walks down a damaged road that is covered by moss and grass.

And as he continues down this path, an additional track appears from the sidelines.

(This track…)

Looking at the new set of tracks closely, Long Hua is able to tell that whatever this track belongs to, it must have possessed some weight and with the amount of distance that it managed to cover, it also appears to be rather agile.

(Instead of running on the ground chasing after the blood tracks' owner, it seems to have been leaping with every step.)

The further along that Long Hua goes, the greater the number of violent signs there are—whether that be on the grounds or on the trees that are nearby.

These signs of violence take on the form of bloodstains or fierce looking claw marks.

Eventually—

"…"

The blood tracks end, and with it, the owner's corpse lies face flat on the ground with their back slashed open by four cuts.

"…"

Waving away the insects that are surrounding the rotting corpse, Long Hua crouches down and examines the wound with narrowed eyes.

(There's quite a bit of distance from where these tracks started till here. A beast this aggressive isn't unheard of. It would probably head for the city soon if it's not dealt with.)

Standing up from crouching, Long Hua turns his head to the side upon detecting the sound of footsteps.

"…"

A deer with crystal horns is walking towards his direction, but upon it taking three more steps forward, it abruptly falls onto its side, revealing four hideous gashes.

"…Uh?"

*…!!!* upon Long Hua taking a step towards the fallen deer's direction, a bone chilling wave of hostile intent washes over him, causing him to immediately leap backwards!

"…Apotheosis."

Blinking his eyes, Long Hua sees an animalistic figure of steel landing by the dead deer's side.

"…"

As the steel beast casts Long Hua a side glance, it begins to dine, filling the air with the sound of the deer's flesh being torn and chewed upon.

Measuring at over two meters in height, is a four-legged beast that resembles a hound with five sharp claws on each foot.

(Those claws are basically daggers in length. I see, so that's why it must leap around. With claws that long, running around would be a hassle.)

Looking into the red eyes of the steel beast, Long Hua can't help but feel a sense of nervousness. Up until this point in his life, he has only ever fought wild beasts and other Sinners.

The chances of being able to fight an Immortal, or an Apotheosized Sinner—

(Well, this is a first…)

Sinners that have reached a Hazard Level that is over 2,000 are kept under strict observation by the government.

Should they show any signs of undergoing Apotheosis, they would be put down immediately, so the odds of them appearing within cities is extremely low.

However, here in the wastelands, that is a completely different story.

This is a place that isn't under the direct control of GC012, hence whatever happens here will not be seen, which in turn had allowed this Sinner to undergo Apotheosis.