Chapter 55 Ghost Ape

Under the cover of night, the city's hustle and bustle was soaked in the glow of red lights and green wine.

Neon lights flickered.

Signs of various colors dressed the city up to look like a city that never sleeps.

A woman who had just gotten off the night shift was walking home on her way.

The woman looked very young, probably in her early twenties, dressed without the boldness and poise of a mature woman; she must have been a recent graduate.

She walked along this quiet path, a small bag slung over her right shoulder, her right hand tucked inside the bag, tightly gripping a self-defense spray.

Although the city's security was quite good nowadays, the old residential area where she rented her apartment meant that the stretch she had to pass through was completely unlit.

For a young girl like her, having this kind of vigilance was always a good thing.

The main reason she chose to rent here was simply because she had no money.

After all, children who had just graduated were all in this situation.

But youth was the greatest capital.

Although working overtime was quite tiring, her internship was about to end, and her salary would increase significantly after that.

Then she could move away from the old district and find an apartment closer to the company.

By that time, after deducting rent and utilities, she would still have enough money each month to dress herself up prettily.

The young girl imagined a bright future in her heart to distract herself from her fear of the darkness. With a flashlight in one hand and the self-defense spray gripped in her bag with the other, she quickened her pace and walked into the dark alley.

And in this dark alley, clinging to a wall, was a strangely shaped, unidentified object.

That unidentified object looked just like a xenomorph; its four limbs gripped the wall as it stood against it, and its face bore a pair of amber-colored vertical pupils that occupied almost half of its entire face. Its mouth was located between its chin and Adam's apple, perfectly concealed when it lowered its head.

"Hoo—"

The monster's breathing was like the wind, completely inaudible in this dark section of the road.

The girl's flashlight kept illuminating the path ahead, and even when she brushed past the monster, she didn't notice its existence at all.

Yet, the monster had already regarded this girl as today's hunting target.

Behind the girl, the monster hid in the darkness, slowly approaching her, and finally opened its hands as they reached a side alley.

"Hmm?" Sensing some sudden gust of wind from behind her, the girl abruptly spun around.

With a loud thud, as the girl turned around, she saw a refined man wearing a suit, a tie, and silver-rimmed glasses appearing behind her with a somewhat bizarre posture.

For a moment, a look of panic crossed the girl's face. When did this man appear?

How could he be here?

There was clearly no one behind me just now.

And for him to appear behind me... how could he make not even the slightest sound?

Could he... could he be... a pervert? A lecher? A fiend? A stalker? A gangster? A violent maniac?

"Put that light away! Don't you know it's rude to shine it directly in people's faces?" The man said with a displeased expression, feeling somewhat dazzled by the light.

"Y-You... don't come over here." Only after the man stood up did the girl realize how truly tall he was; he must have been well over six feet tall.

Once he straightened up, the five-foot-three girl instantly looked as petite as a minor beside him.

"This is not a place where you should be. Hurry up and get moving!" The man in the suit said with a hint of impatience in his tone.

"You got it!" Today's young people were all about taking good advice; she was already terrified of him, and since he told her to leave, she certainly wouldn't stand on ceremony.

Clutching her small bag, the girl turned around and ran for her life.

After all—who on earth could relate to walking home in the dead of night, in pitch-black darkness, only to suddenly find a strange, muscular man in a suit following right behind you? Who wouldn't be terrified?

However, no sooner had the girl run a couple of steps than the monster rushed out from the side alley toward the man in the suit.

"Boom!"

A loud noise suddenly exploded behind her. Even though she was in a hurry to run forward, the girl couldn't help feeling a bit curious at that moment, turning slightly to glance back while running.

And that single glance made the girl feel as though her entire worldview had shattered.

Right behind the spot where she had just been standing, that man was currently pinning a humanoid monster to the ground with one hand and rubbing its face in the dirt.

Although the monster had four limbs like a person, it looked more like a long-haired ape, and its limbs were exceptionally long, resembling those of a four-legged spider. Its face was even more terrifying, featuring only two massive pupils with neither a nose nor a mouth.

No, or rather, the monster's mouth was concealed beneath its chin.

At this moment, the man was pressing the monster's head down with his right hand, forcing it directly onto the ground. Judging from the crater where the monster's head had smashed into the earth, the earlier sound must have been caused by this man slamming the monster's head into the pavement with a single hand.

"W-What on earth is going on here?" The girl's pupils trembled, while the monster's roar echoed through the alley.

Its dark, long, black-fur-covered hands featured five-fingered claws of extraordinary hardness as it swiped at the man in the suit.

Yet the man showed not a trace of panic; his other hand directly grabbed the monster's arm, hoisted the two-to-three-meter-tall creature over his shoulder, and hurled it away. Then, grabbing both of the monster's claws with his two hands, he slammed a foot viciously onto the monster's face and, with a sudden burst of violent force, directly ripped both of the monster's arms right off.

"Roar—roar—roar—roar—roar......"

The monster's shrieking roar filled the air.

With a displeased expression, the man turned his head to glare at the girl and snapped, "What are you still doing here? Get lost!"

"Ah-ah-ah—"

Only then did the girl snap out of her stupor, letting out a piercing scream. Tears welling in the corners of her eyes, she turned and fled in terror.

This time, she didn't dare look back again.

"How troublesome! Being seen." At that moment, the man in the suit—Wang Zhong—looked with some displeasure at the monster whose two arms had just been torn off and said, "Ghost Ape! To grow up looking like this and cultivate this level of power, you must have eaten plenty of corpses up in the mountains."

As he spoke, Wang Zhong pressed his foot down onto the Ghost Ape's face, instantly cutting off its shrieks.

"Wouldn't it have been better to stay nicely in the mountains? Who gave you the guts to think that small fries like you could fish in troubled waters during an event like this?!" Wang Zhong looked down at the Ghost Ape, whose skull had been crushed beneath his foot.

He pulled a cigarette from his pocket, placed it between his lips, and lit it.

Then he walked step by step out of the dark path, arrived under the streetlamp at the intersection, raised his head, and exhaled a deep cloud of smoke.

A delivery truck had pulled up at the crossroads. Someone got out, reported to Wang Zhong for instructions, and then hurried into the alley to clean up the Ghost Ape's corpse and haul it away.

Wang Zhong let out a sigh.

He reached up to rub his temples and muttered, "And that girl saw everything, what a headache. Do I really have to go ask that bastard Wang Dali for help to erase that girl's memory?"