Chapter 41: Light

A dead end.
He had run into a dead end.
As the light swept across the thick, gray walls, Shi Rang’s face turned gray to match.
This space of less than five square meters looked more like a tomb tailored specifically for him with every passing second.
I must get out before that thing arrives, keep running...
He gripped his phone, his hand fumbling blindly for the door bolt, but his fingers trembled so violently that he couldn't tell if he was trying to latch it or open it.
Suddenly, a force slammed against the other side of the door, extinguishing the last shred of Shi Rang’s hope.
It was here.
The phone slipped from his palm; the light wobbled, flipped, and finally cast his pale, terrified face upward. He slid the bolt shut, stumbled back against the iron door, and collapsed to the floor, shivering like a leaf in a gale.
What was that?
What on earth was that?!
A scream caught in his throat, unable to escape, while his severed right arm drained his blood and strength. He couldn't tell if he was crying; his mind was a blur of delusions and regret. As a heavy impact struck the door again, Shi Rang realized he was staring at that beam of flashlight—he summoned the courage to crawl to the door, retrieved his phone, and retreated into the deepest corner of the boiler room.
His hands were covered in blood. Fearing he might ruin his only hope, he wiped them frantically on his clothes before daring to press the power button.
The lock screen was a photo of him and Ying Shang on graduation day, wearing their caps and gowns. Their smiles, set against a backdrop of vibrant flowers, were aimed directly at Shi Rang’s face.
[Battery Remaining: 7%]
The screen failed to recognize his fingerprint. He typed in his passcode, unlocking the phone, but the call wouldn't go through.
No signal.
And even if it did, what then?
The door was buckling; the monster could break in at any moment.
Why was this happening to him?
At that moment, small details he had observed earlier flooded his mind. Shi Rang felt increasingly certain he knew what was ramming against the door; he seemed to recognize the human torso at the very top of that monstrosity...
Where?
Where had he seen it?
In a trance, he found the answer.
In this dead zone, he was miraculously still logged into the Administrative Bureau’s main terminal. The last page he had browsed was still displayed before his eyes—
[CVA-B-108-2: "Stitched Ghoul"]
An entity composed of fused human bodies, possessing intelligence, high infectivity, and structures resembling distended blood vessels and nerves on its surface.
The object of his idle curiosity and fantasies had charged into reality.
Was he the one who had gone mad, or was it the world?
If all this were merely a hallucination in the dark, then his arm, his feet...
The waning adrenaline made his trembling worse. Shi Rang took a sharp, icy breath filled with dust and coughed, scrolling down the page to search for a way to deal with the monster.
["Stitched Ghouls lack defensive structures. It is recommended to use standard lethal firearms to strike the lower limbs, causing incapacitation and self-detonation."]
Shi Rang’s mouth twitched.

Right, why hadn't he thought of using a gun?
Besides, the file was wrong; the ghoul outside was clearly more advanced. It no longer possessed distinct lower limbs, and its intelligence was higher.
In that moment, he finally recalled the source of the face on the ghoul.
The active file page contained a photo of the subject.
The fugitive Deputy Director of Facility 031, Bjorn.
Thud!
Another heavy impact hit the door. Shi Rang raised his phone’s flashlight, taking in the warped iron. The gap wasn't wide enough for the ghoul to squeeze through yet, but the door wouldn't hold much longer.
On the ground lay a pool of shimmering, dark red liquid, like spilled, dirty paint.
He had lost so much blood.
Shi Rang curled into a tight ball. The bone-deep cold blurred his pain and fear. He struggled to breathe, his thumb moving unconsciously across the screen.
Should he record some final words, leave a message?
But to whom would he leave them?
He still hadn't found Ying Shang...
And no one would come looking for him anyway...
Shi Rang stared blankly at the text on the file page, pressing it into edit mode.
He could add a plea for help to the description, but such an act of vandalism would likely be deleted as a prank immediately, wouldn't it?
Boom!
The iron door was knocked off its hinges, slamming against the opposite wall.
The flashlight beam outlined the ghoul's horrifying silhouette. It was bloated, like a brain covered in too many limbs and faces, with surface vessels that looked like intestines.
With so many limbs, yet it moved by slithering...
So inefficient...
Shi Rang watched as it moved toward him.
It was slow, as if it knew the prey had nowhere left to run, creeping gradually over the bloodstains.
If only it would dissolve upon contact with water—that would be an interesting design.
Maybe it really would; it probably hadn't encountered a rainy day before, right?
Chaotic thoughts and fragments of the past flashed before his eyes, mingled with the sound of Ying Shang’s voice and her laughter.
Shi Rang dared not look at the encroaching death. He wanted to close his eyes, escape all of this, and sink into memory to find a peaceful end, but fear held his eyelids open.
His finger hovered over the phone screen, the input cursor resting on the [Weakness] section of the edit page.
The massive ghoul blocked the flashlight’s beam, the converging light gathering into a dazzling point on its body.
An inspiration struck him in his final moments—
How wonderful it would be if the light could burn through it.
Shi Rang moved his finger, typing [Light] after [Physical Impact, Incapacitating Strike, Electric Shock], and pressed save just as one of the ghoul’s arms reached for his face.
This was the final mark he would leave on the world.

The edit bar loaded and refreshed back to the file page.
The cold touch of the ghoul’s skin brushed against his forehead, pressing down, its nails slicing into his skin.
Suddenly, the pressure vanished.
As the ghoul approached, the point of light that had shifted from its torso to its outstretched arm acted like a blade, severing the limb clean off. It rolled away from Shi Rang, thudded against his shin, and landed aside, the thick nerves wrapped around it twitching as black blood oozed from the stump.
Shi Rang witnessed what followed in disbelief.
The beam of light, no longer obstructed, fell upon the nearest object—the ghoul’s torso. It pierced the body like a focal point, and as the obstruction dissolved, it rapidly expanded into its original circumference, burning a massive hole through several crowded faces!
It took a moment for the monster to realize what had happened.
It scrambled backward, retreating into the darkness beyond the flashlight's reach.
Severed vessels and meridians whipped through the air like cut water pipes, spraying a foul-smelling rain across the room.
This gaping hole was not a fatal wound for a ghoul; it had no internal organs and had only lost volume. It quickly gathered its flesh to repair the damage.
But then, the lethal light, now resting in the distance, suddenly flickered upward and pursued it.
[Battery Remaining: 3%]
Shi Rang held the phone up, limping in pursuit of the bloated monster.
The tables had turned; now the hunter was fleeing, and the prey was chasing.
The ghoul’s flesh steamed under the light, melting away like ice on a searing hot plate.
At first, it moved faster, but as its body collapsed, Shi Rang roared and caught up to it.
[Battery Remaining: 2%]
The two dying figures swayed back and forth in the darkness, connected by the cone of light.
[Battery low, shutting down...]
Before collapsing from exhaustion, Shi Rang used his final ounce of strength to throw the phone.
The beam spun through the air, slicing the ghoul in half.
With a faint popping sound, it finally died.
Shi Rang didn't see the phone land; it went dark while still in mid-air.
Darkness engulfed him once more.
"I won."
He lay on the ground, lifting his left arm toward the darkness, and forced out a laugh.
"I won..."
Severe blood loss stole his consciousness. He lay in the pool of blood, slowly sinking to the bottom of the dark.
As his awareness faded, he saw his home in the distance, the door shut tight. He was standing there, two years ago, on the last day he and Ying Shang had spent together, waiting by a table of food for her to come home.
The next moment, the phone rang.