The Platform 5

Xiao Chun had no experience with fighting. Ever since he could remember, he had been the gentle, likable, bright, sensible good child his elders and teachers praised.

For one thing, because of his family background, no one would go looking for trouble with him. For another, he was good-looking and sweet-talking; under his family's influence, he had grown accustomed to being considerate in every respect, and naturally had never made enemies for no reason.

When he rushed onto the platform, he had been certain he couldn't do it. When he blindly stabbed for the first time, his mind had even gone blank. He thought of nothing—terror, fear, worry, excitement, hesitation.

Nothing at all.

Because he hadn't seen clearly, his first stab landed in the flesh-mass enforcer's butt. He hadn't meant to, but the flesh mass was obviously furious. A muscular arm swung toward him. Xiao Chun could say with certainty that if it hit him, it would send his head flying and kill him on the spot. He watched the arm come at him, his legs too weak to move. In that split second, he couldn't think of anything at all, much less have some so-called life flashing before his eyes.

There was no time to look back over his short life. He had only won himself half a day's chance to live, and now, like everyone else, he was going to die in this inexplicable place.

He refused! He refused to accept it!!

But as the slap reached him, Xiao Chun's body moved on its own—he couldn't explain the feeling. A reflex? Muscle memory? Body possession?

His mind had been completely blank, his useless heart hammering wildly. Before the anger and unwillingness inside him could reach his limbs, his legs had already carried him sideways in a leap.

Everything that followed was beyond Xiao Chun's expectations.

From Yu Gu's perspective, Xiao Chun hadn't frozen for long at all. He stabbed the flesh mass once, twisted aside before its arm swung down, threw away the shard of glass in his hand, then bent and wrapped one arm around the flesh mass's thigh. He had tremendous strength in that arm; with his other hand, he drove the strip of steel straight up from below into the flesh mass's side.

Every motion was crisp and fluid, completed in one seamless burst. He looked nothing like a handsome young gentleman who only knew how to hold a pen.

The arm the flesh mass had swung in agony lost its aim and swept past the back of Xiao Chun's head.

The cold wind, reeking of blood, lifted Xiao Chun's hair. He looked up at Yu Gu. Their eyes met across the distance, and in half a second, Xiao Chun understood Yu Gu's intent.

Yu Gu's lips curved, but the almost-smile vanished in an instant, as if it had been an illusion. He plunged the steel strip in his hand into the flesh mass's side from the other direction. From the front, strips of steel had been driven into both sides of the flesh mass, as if they meant to prop it up. With the shard in his other hand, Yu Gu slashed from the creature's chest all the way to its lower abdomen. Then he flicked his hand back in a quick, practiced motion, slipping the glass shard into a length of cloth tied at his lower back.

It was a "cloth pouch" he had made specifically for carrying glass shards. Thick strips of cloth wrapped around both front and back, and together with the waistband of his pants, largely kept the shards from cutting his skin.

The motion had been as smooth as sheathing a sharp dagger. When he lifted his eyes again, a keen gleam shone in them, killing intent blazing without the slightest reservation.

He knew Xiao Chun could keep up with him.

Without needing to count off their timing, Xiao Chun and Yu Gu exerted force at the same moment. The steel strips propping up the flesh mass hurt it so badly it could no longer stand. Its towering body was forced to pitch forward. But the next second, the extra feet of the flesh mass braced it firmly, and its four hands struck at Xiao Chun and Yu Gu at once.

Xiao Chun reacted quickly, abandoning the steel strip, ducking low to evade, then snatching up broken ceramic shards from the bowls and plates on the platform and stabbing straight for the flesh mass's vital points. Yu Gu circled behind it, locked an arm around its neck, pulled out the glass shard, and stabbed it into its eye.

Attacked above and below at once, both strikes to vital points, the flesh mass finally panicked. It roared and shrieked in fury. The middle head shook wildly, while the head on the right bellowed with the wrathful authority of someone in command: "Stop! Stop!!"

The flesh mass kicked at them. Its enormous body was nowhere near as nimble as Xiao Chun and Yu Gu. Apparently, its three heads could not coordinate perfectly in directing its limbs to attack; at the very least, the head on the far left had kept its eyes tightly shut, as though it dared not look.

"How much time did we spend, how many people died, before fairness could reach below the hundredth floor?!" the right head roared. "And because of you—because of you, you're going to make all our efforts come to nothing?!"

"You are sinners! Sinners!"

Above them, countless people—or rather, countless NPCs—began shouting too. They clapped out a steady rhythm, like they were chanting a hymn.

"Sinners! Sinners!"

"Die! Die!"

"Sinners! Sinners!"

The eerie chant was like a curse. The flesh mass grew even more frenzied.

"You must accept judgment!"

"You will pay for what you have done—!"

Xiao Chun barely dodged a kicking leg and a grasping hand. Sticky blood dripped onto him. He looked up to see Yu Gu, unmoved, viciously drive his shard in again through the flesh mass's ear, straight into the brain of the right head. By all rights, any normal living creature should have died long ago, yet the flesh mass raised a hand and seized Yu Gu's head, its entire palm almost covering him, then yanked him hard to the other side. Blood ran from Yu Gu's temple, veins standing out along his neck. But he seemed unable to feel pain. His head was pulled askew, yet his hand remained steady as he stabbed through the jaw of the flesh mass's right head again.

At that moment, the platform's allotted stop time ran out. With a rumble, it began to descend slowly.

Without even looking, Yu Gu stabbed at the giant hand dragging him. The sharp edge of the glass shard severed two fingers outright and sliced the tip of Yu Gu's own ear.

The left head of the flesh mass shrieked and threw itself back. The instant its grip loosened, Yu Gu tucked away the shard, crouched into a half squat, and lunged up, securely wrapping his arms around the waist of the violently panting Xiao Chun. Carrying him, he charged off the platform.

Xiao Chun faced the flesh mass, the hem of his trench coat whipping up, one shoe falling from his foot. Suddenly, an image flashed before his eyes—

Yu Gu landed while holding him. The flesh mass slapped down. Xiao Chun pulled Yu Gu aside, but Yu Gu's leg was still hit. He heard bone shatter. As the platform descended, the flesh mass grabbed Yu Gu by that broken leg and lifted him high into the air. The broken wine bottle in Yu Gu's hand slipped loose. At the instant he was lifted away, Yu Gu stared at Xiao Chun without blinking.

The platform descended. The flesh mass, holding Yu Gu, vanished from sight.

The vision disappeared.

Cold sweat streamed down Xiao Chun's entire body, his pupils contracting sharply. They still hadn't made it off the platform when the flesh mass roared and brought both hands together in a clap. At the same time, it raised one leg to block the way ahead, leaving them nowhere to run.

Xiao Chun reacted at once, pulling the glass shard from Yu Gu's lower back and driving it hard into the creature's palm. The two of them were caught between its enormous palms, using the shard as a fulcrum. Yu Gu pressed down on Xiao Chun's head to keep him from being hurt. The next second, another bloody, mangled hand reached out and grabbed Xiao Chun's arm.

For that instant, Xiao Chun thought he was going to lose the arm. The pain was too vivid. He cried out, and Yu Gu was already gripping a broken red-wine bottle from the platform in one hand, plunging its sharp glass directly into the flesh mass's wrist. This time he struck with such force that it pierced straight through. Clenching one end of the bottle in one hand, veins bulging across the back of it, the muscles in his arm taut, he unleashed tremendous strength.

"Aah—!" With an angry roar, he used the wine bottle like a blade and dragged it sideways through the puncture wound.

Blood and flesh splattered everywhere. Xiao Chun's eyes were coated in it; he couldn't see a thing.

The left face of the flesh mass screamed. The right face roared, "Don't retreat!" But the left face shook its head frantically. Its fingers loosened, and Yu Gu hoisted Xiao Chun over his shoulder and leaped off the platform.

Xiao Chun wiped his face with one hand. Hanging upside down, his gaze fell on the broken wine bottle Yu Gu was holding.

The details matched.

The instant they landed, Xiao Chun's vision was still full of blood mist, but he had no time to care. He immediately lunged for Yu Gu and dragged him away. That wasn't enough—he also kicked him hard.

Caught completely off guard, Yu Gu slammed face-first into the wall and fell beneath the sink.

Xiao Chun pounced after him and pinned him beneath his own body. His mind was blank; he wasn't thinking of anything. Shards from the mirror he had smashed earlier were still scattered beneath the sink. He grabbed one at random and faced outward. Sure enough, the flesh mass struck first with a palm, missed, then reached in to grab them.

But that delay had already made it too late to pursue them. And because the three heads disagreed, something went wrong with how well they coordinated the limbs, so it could only descend with the platform, leaving the thirty-fourth floor.

Furious roars continued to rise from the platform below, punctuated now and then by the middle head trying to break up the fight.

Xiao Chun panted violently, the hand clutching the glass shard still trembling. Fortunately, it was wrapped in thick strips of cloth, so the shard did not cut him. His heart pounded so hard he could hear nothing else; his ears rang, every nerve stretched to its limit. When Yu Gu moved beneath him, he startled so badly he nearly stabbed Yu Gu with the shard.

Yu Gu's voice was hoarse. "Throw down all the food that landed on our floor. We can't leave food here. Hurry."

Xiao Chun remembered the rule against hiding food. At the same time, the alarm on the thirty-fourth floor began to blare.

......

Xiao Chun practically scrambled on all fours, completely unable to care about his "bearing" as he swept up every scattered crumb of food with his sleeve.

Yu Gu moved even faster. Blood was still dripping from his head, but expressionlessly, he had already cleared all the food from the floor.

Only then did the bone-deep cold that could freeze someone to death on the thirty-fourth floor begin to fade bit by bit. In no more than ten-odd seconds, a layer of white frost had formed on Xiao Chun's eyelashes. His cheeks and nose were red with cold, his finger joints stiff, each breath a cloud of white mist.

He had now fully learned just how terrifying this hellhole's "punishment mechanism" was. Yu Gu had said that if food was hidden, the floor would randomly turn hot or cold until its occupants burned or froze to death. The punishment mechanism would vanish only after the food was thrown off the floor.

But this wasn't hiding food. Some food had merely been scattered during the fight. If they died because they couldn't clean it up in time, that would be far too unfair.

The two of them collapsed to the floor, gasping. Xiao Chun was freezing all over, his limbs nearly numb.

"Let me see your arm," Yu Gu said.

"How about you take a look at the state you're in first?" Xiao Chun panted. The reeking, bloody stench all over him made him retch again.

After catching his breath for a while, he forced himself to his feet and reached out to help Yu Gu up so they could tend to his wounds. But the moment his hand touched Yu Gu's arm, the man seized him first and yanked him down hard.

Xiao Chun lost his footing and crashed into Yu Gu's arms.

It was exactly the same position as when they had dealt with that bald NPC earlier. Xiao Chun reflexively thought there was some other ghostly thing behind him.

He was thinking, Seriously, is this ever going to end? when Yu Gu merely buried his head against the side of his neck. Unbothered by the sticky, foul smell on him, he gently breathed in at the hollow of Xiao Chun's neck.

Goose bumps rose all over Xiao Chun. He pressed one hand to Yu Gu's shoulder, afraid of worsening his injuries.

"Hey?!"

"Don't move." Weariness seeped through Yu Gu's voice. "Let me rest for a moment."

"..."

Xiao Chun thought he ought to push him away, but for some reason, hearing the drawl in his voice, somewhere inside him had already softened quietly before his reason could catch up.

He truly stayed still, letting Yu Gu hold him. They fell silent like that, able to hear each other's unsteady breathing.

A moment later, Xiao Chun felt a little awkward, and the sticky mess on his body was uncomfortable. He pushed Yu Gu again. "Are you done?"

Yu Gu reluctantly straightened up and pulled Xiao Chun to his feet. They went to the sink. Xiao Chun first used water to clean Yu Gu's wounds, then went to find strips of cloth to bandage him.

Yu Gu had injuries on his ear, temple, and scalp. His scalp had been torn badly from being yanked so hard, and the back of his neck was already covered in blood.

Looking at the varying depths of the wounds, Xiao Chun felt a surge of lingering fear. "If it had pulled any harder, your whole skullcap would've come off!"

"You should wash your face too..." Yu Gu said, completely beside the point.

"Worry about yourself!" Xiao Chun frowned deeply. Copying Yu Gu's method, he used a shard to cut plenty of strips from the bedsheet. When it came time to bandage him, though, he hesitated. "Is this stuff clean? Won't it get infected? Do you have any medicine on you?"

Then he realized he was asking stupid questions. How could this hellhole possibly have medicine? He glanced at the sink. "Should we wash them and let them dry first?"

Yu Gu smiled, the expression gone in an instant. His voice was gentle. "Use them as they are. It'll be fine."

Xiao Chun wanted to wash them first, but Yu Gu's wounds couldn't simply be left exposed. The safest course would really be to boil the cloth, but the conditions here obviously fell far short of that kind of sanitation.

Besides, merely bandaging Yu Gu's lacerations would do little good. If they were being honest, they probably needed stitches.

All they could do was treat a dead horse as if it were alive.