The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1102: Less than Nothing

War Tiger looked ready to make good on his threat, cigarette clenched between his teeth, but he had been smoking particularly slowly. A few minutes passed. The yellow light remained stubbornly unlit.

“Fine, fine. Pretending to be deaf, are you?”

He hooked the Black Gold greatsword from the ground with his foot, swinging it up to his hand. “Do you know what this baby’s name is? Dragonslaying Giantsword! This is some serious weapon! If you don’t wake up now, I’ll cut you and the coffin in half!”

No response.

War Tiger buried the sword into the ground with a frustrated thrust and took out another cigarette. “Fine! Good for you! Just you wait. I’ll finish another cigarette and slice you up!”

He started smoking again, even slower this time. His unblinking eyes fixed on the signal lights. All he could think about was the color yellow for the next few minutes.

He had gone through all the yellow things he could think of; if only he could use those things to light up the yellow signal light before him.

But alas, it didn’t happen.

Shaking off the ash with a sharp flick, War Tiger drew the Dragonslaying Giantsword and raised it above his head, eyes glinting with killing intent.

“This is an ultimatum, Dragon! Don’t force my hand!”

Five seconds passed. Then ten.

The yellow light didn’t light up.

War Tiger brought the sword down. The force of it rippled and scattered the dust on the hibernation chamber, but that was it. The sword halted a centimeter away from cutting the chamber.

“Fuck, whatever! Sleep as long as you want! I’ve had enough!”

He retracted his sword and turned to leave. After taking two steps, his rage compelled him to turn back and spit at the hibernation chamber.

“From now on, I’m the captain of the Twelve Zodiac Signs! You’re nothing!”

“You hear me? You’re less than nothing!”

“Trash!”

He slammed the door shut.

...

Northbound Funeral Home, Li City.

The messy security room was dim before dawn. A security guard had fallen into a deep sleep on the sofa.

The computer was on, the screen flickering slightly. A black-haired young man in a trenchcoat sat before it, concentrating on the footage of all the cameras in the morgues. He played ten of them at the same time at the top speed.

Gao Yang had been doing this for two hours.

Upon arriving at Li City, he had rushed to the morgue first thing and found Surnamed Li’s body gone. He had to look for clues through the surveillance footage. Indeed, there had been a few minutes on April 1st when all the cameras of all the morgues in this building went down. Only white noises remained, as if some sort of energy had interfered with the recording.

Gao Yang checked the time. It was the few minutes after the summoner prime awakened the death monsters.

Only after he was certain that he had gleaned everything he could from the footage did he turn off the computer. Shutting his eyes, he rubbed at his forehead to rest and think.

Based on the current evidence, the seven death monsters woke up immediately after the summoner prime sounded the horn, and Surnamed Li’s body disappeared at the same time.

That doesn’t make sense.

The death monsters should seek each other out or seek awakeners out immediately after waking up. And the death monsters who knew where I was would come straight to me, like...Envy.

Let’s suppose that the death monsters can sense each other. After Greed woke up, it would head to the dried well and seek out Pride and Envy, finding the blood and severed fingers I left behind.

Pride and Envy both knew about Surnamed Li’s Prophet. And Greed has the ability to overtake a body. Hence, Pride and Envy told Greed to take Surnamed Li’s body so that it could glimpse into my Fate Slides through the fingers, finding us and catching all of us.

Gao Yang frowned as he analyzed the timeline. That would make sense, but the sequence of events didn't match.

Surnamed Li’s body had disappeared as the death monsters awakened, but according to his theory, the two events should’ve happened one after the other, with at least a half-hour interval.

As it stood, the awakening of the death monsters and the disappearance of Surnamed Li's body must be deeply connected for them to happen at the same time. What could it be?

Wait! Can it be...Surnamed Li is Greed?!

The possibility took form in his mind. It was entirely plausible. The greed monster primes, Dust and Clear Mirror, were able to hide in a living host. Then Greed should be capable of that as well.

Suppose Greed has been hiding in Surnamed Li's body like Dust has hidden in Goldthread...

Wait, but that doesn't make sense. If my grandpa's summon was the key to awakening the death monsters, how did Greed wake up beforehand? When was Surnamed Li turned into a host?

Could it be...the White Disaster?!

Gao Yang's mind raced as he pieced together the fragments of information. According to Surnamed Li, a few pride monsters tried to exterminate humans back then, and to stop that from happening, the Elusive Sect almost got wiped out. Surnamed Li also got attacked and lost her mobility.

Awakeners should be able to recover from all regular damages. Even if her legs had been cut off, they should have regenerated.

They had only seen unrecoverable injuries in three cases: Qilin, Qing Ling, and Surnamed Li. Qilin's crippling was his price for glimpsing God. Qing Ling lost her arm to the Malediction.

Surnamed Li’s legs must have remained untreatable because they weren’t damaged by simple attacks. Was it because of a death monster taking her as host?

Gao Yang decided to pursue this line of reasoning.

Back then, a few pride monsters decided to turn in their answer sheet. They tried to wipe out all humans. Unsure if they could do it, they started the White Disaster. On the surface, it was a grand-scale fight against the Elusive Sect, when in truth it was a ritual to bypass the summoner prime and the rules of the Heavenly Way to wake up the death monsters beforehand.

So, Greed awakened early.

Its premature awakening must have resulted in an incomplete form, forcing it to pay a price. That prompted Greed to enter Surnamed Li's legs.

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Of course, Greed might have been the one pulling the strings. Perhaps Greed had some power before awakening, and it guided the pride monsters to help it take over Surnamed Li.

That was a distinct possibility. Pride had manifested some of a death monster's power before its monsterhood fully awakened.

Gao Yang continued following the logical thread. So it turned out that Surnamed Li had thought he was the Malediction because she dreamed of the future—a dream that Qilin had fabricated for her.

That had always seemed odd to him. Could Surnamed Li really not tell the difference with Prophet?

Now it made sense. Greed must have influenced its host somehow, preventing Surnamed Li from figuring out the lie. Greed did that to eliminate Gao Yang as a threat.

There was another thing. Greed might have been the reason Surnamed Li couldn't reach level 8 Prophet with the Knowledge Rune Circuit.

Wait, while she hadn’t reached level 8, she had suddenly acquired a new ability: Fate Slides.

Could that have come from Greed?

Gao Yang’s eyes flew open. He felt like he was reaching the truth. There seemed to be one puzzle piece missing that would make everything make sense. It was right within reach yet seemed so far away.

Think, remember it!

“Ah!”

Gao Yang exclaimed two words.