After the Black Moonlight’s "Death Escape" Failed [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Survival Day Two

◎Who bit this tooth mark—?!◎

Seeing that the faces of the two people in front of him did not show the fear or despair he expected, K04, after a brief moment of annoyance, grew even more expectant of their subsequent reactions.

Particularly with Jiao Qingyin—K04 absolutely loathed those black eyes of hers. The way she looked at him was like looking at a weed by the roadside; that flat contempt pricked him in his most hated spot.

He wanted to see if she could still make that expression after he killed Wen Fengyue and dumped the corpse in front of her.

Just as K04 was about to raise his arm, Jiao Qingyin noticed the movement. She leaned forward, about to act, but was gently blocked by Wen Fengyue.

“I’ll protect you,” Wen Fengyue said.

Jiao Qingyin instinctively glanced at Wen Fengyue. The latter’s expression was composed, appearing no different from when they were taking a walk earlier, as if K04’s presence or absence couldn’t affect her mood at all.

Only when she felt Jiao Qingyin watching her did she turn her head and flash a reassuring smile.

Jiao Qingyin’s heart skipped a beat.

She could see the raging waves hidden beneath the calm surface of the water, and it made her think of other things.

The two giant trees broken by Wen Fengyue, the wolf pack following them for no reason, and her natural and certain performance now… all the evidence suggested that the power belonging to “Al” was returning.

What about memories? Wen Fengyue was dreaming about their experiences in the previous world; did that mean her complete memories were also about to be restored?

After a moment of distraction, Jiao Qingyin nodded.

Wen Fengyue’s anger was no less than hers, and she was willing to hand this opportunity for indirect revenge over to her.

Besides… being shielded and protected behind Wen Fengyue’s back felt quite nice.

K04 was not the purely reckless type. He hadn’t forgotten how Jiao Qingyin had remotely destroyed his vocal organs—installing a new throat had wasted a lot of his time.

So, while he appeared arrogant on the surface, K04 had not entirely let down his guard.

He planned to first disable Jiao Qingyin’s mobility before moving to the next step of the plan.

But given the gap in strength, no matter how cautious he was, it only amounted to so much.

From the moment he raised his arm to fire a grappling hook from his modified wrist, Jiao Qingyin had already sentenced him to death in her heart.

Sure enough, the moment the hook fired, Wen Fengyue dashed in front of K04 like an arrow leaving a bow, her speed many times faster than the hook.

Then, with a flying kick, she caught the tow rope of the hook and used the momentum to swing the metal claw at the tip right into K04’s face.

Her movements were too fast. Although K04’s modified prosthetic eyes could predict the enemy’s trajectory, he simply had no time to dodge. Compared to Wen Fengyue, every move he made looked like it was on slow-motion playback, pathetically sluggish.

K04 watched helplessly as the sharp tip of the hook stabbed toward his left eye. He tried desperately to dodge to the side, but to no avail.

In the nick of time, he decided to “cut off the limb to save the body,” sacrificing that eye to take the opportunity to snap Wen Fengyue’s neck, which was now within reach.

Anyway, as a cyborg, his pain receptors were nearly non-existent. Even if his bones were crushed, he would only feel a momentary throb, and as long as he reached a safe place, he could replace the body parts.

Wen Fengyue was different. Even if she made the slightest mistake, she would become a corpse under his hands—

The memory metal on K04’s face twisted into a vicious expression.

CLANG—

The ear-piercing sound of metal scraping rang out. K04 let out a scream of agony, his arm bending at an angle impossible for a human, reaching straight for Wen Fengyue’s neck.

Just as his fingers were about to touch Wen Fengyue’s skin, a cold laugh drifted into his ears: “Idiot.”

[Detected dangerous attack source, direction—left knee, estimated within one second—]

For his major joints, K04 always used the most expensive prosthetics. For instance, his knees—a titanium alloy mixed with Star-Source ore, capable of withstanding a one-ton heavy blow.

But now, it was shattered by a single kick from Wen Fengyue.

K04 instantly lost the ability to stand and fell to his knees on the ground.

When facing simultaneous attacks from multiple directions, the scanning system installed in K04’s bionic body would prioritize marking the highest-threat source to ensure he could avoid fatal risks as much as possible.

But relying too much on the prosthetic caused K04 to overlook Wen Fengyue’s true attack hidden behind the feint of the grappling hook.

Wen Fengyue took a step back, dodging the mud splashed up when K04 hit the ground.

She was wearing the same style of hoodie as Jiao Qingyin today, so she didn’t want to get it dirty at all.

Before confirming the state of the wailing K04, she first looked back at Jiao Qingyin.

Jiao Qingyin was watching them intently. Seeing her look back, she immediately broke into a happy smile and walked over quickly.

“Teacher Wen is so amazing,” Jiao Qingyin praised unreservedly, her eyes bright. “With a bam, you knocked him flat.”

The tips of Wen Fengyue’s ears turned slightly red. She said “It was alright” out loud, but she straightened her back even more than before.

She looked entirely like someone who was very happy to be praised and hoped Jiao Qingyin would say a few more words.

Speaking of which, it was strange; this was clearly her first time fighting someone, yet her bodily reactions felt as if she had been through countless similar experiences.

At the moment she shattered K04’s knee, a vision even flashed before Wen Fengyue’s eyes of herself holding a military knife, hacking down enemies.

Wen Fengyue quickly pushed these illusions out of her mind. What she cared about more was something else—Jiao Qingyin didn’t feel any fear toward her because of the violence she displayed.

When acting, Wen Fengyue realized she hadn’t hesitated at all; her mindset was as cold as a seasoned killer’s. This made her worry about Jiao Qingyin’s opinion of her.

Fortunately, the other person seemed to only think she was very impressive.

At this point, K04 recovered from the pain. Seeing the two of them chatting casually in front of him, he nearly spat out a mouthful of mechanical parts.

Rage dominated his brain—they actually looked down on him so much!!

Die die die! All of you die!!

With the hook still stuck in his head, his one uninjured prosthetic eye lit up with an ominous black light.

[Initiating self-destruction escape program…]

This world’s Wen Fengyue lacked experience after all and didn’t notice the abnormality immediately. But Jiao Qingyin saw it. Her eyes sharpened; she grabbed Wen Fengyue and took her to a safe area at maximum speed.

Almost the second they left K04’s side, a massive explosion rang out.

Jiao Qingyin’s sharp eyes spotted a dark shadow darting out from the smoke of the explosion, rushing toward the other side of the forest.

Wen Fengyue saw it too. She raised her foot to give chase, but the sound of the optical computers starting up rang in her ears—the three devices that K04 had forcibly shut down earlier resumed their normal functions after his self-destruction.

The two stopped in their tracks simultaneously. After exchanging a look, they couldn’t help but laugh, and then performed an action with high synchronization.

They sat down next to a fallen giant tree and closed their eyes.

Given their fame, this incident would definitely become a huge deal. When following legal channels later, these images captured by the optical computers would be first-hand evidence.

“It’s on! It’s on! The picture is back!”

“Why can’t I see anything? Is the camera damaged?”

“It’s smoke! It’s clearing up! Holy crap, why is there a giant crater here!”

“I only care if they’re dead.”

“Relax, how could K-bro disappoint anyone.”

“The heart rate monitoring system shows that everyone’s heart rate is normal, except for K04 who threw away his bracelet. This means Xiao Jiao and the others are fine for now.”

The smoke was too thick; viewers couldn’t see the screen clearly and could only judge what was happening through the blurry shadows in the haze.

“Why does it feel like Xiao Jiao and Teacher Wen are just sitting there motionless—! Did something happen!”

“Even if they’re not dead, they’ve probably only got half a life left, hahaha.”

“No one survives under K-bro! Hope they died miserably, haha!”

As the smoke cleared, viewers saw the wreckage of the scene. The impact of the explosion was significant. Jiao Qingyin and Wen Fengyue were just outside the blast radius, both looking as though their fate was uncertain.

As for K04, there was no sign of him.

But that pile of metal and mechanical debris at the center of the explosion… looked very familiar no matter how one viewed it.

Even K04’s fans realized something was wrong at this point.

All three live perspectives were aimed at Jiao Qingyin and Wen Fengyue. Where did K04 go?

At this moment, Jiao Qingyin slowly opened her eyes.

Her expression looked somewhat dazed. Upon waking, she immediately gripped Wen Fengyue’s hand, and Wen Fengyue gripped back, also opening her eyes.

They silently looked around, and then, Jiao Qingyin asked the optical computer in front of her: “What happened just now?”

Comments: “…”

“Wait, why are you stealing our lines!”

“That’s what we want to ask!”

“Waaaaah, thank goodness, Xiao Jiao, it’s good that you aren’t hurt.”

“Crap, where is K04?”

Seeing that some people in the comments were still looking for K04, Jiao Qingyin tilted her head at the right moment. “Who is K04?”

After asking, she turned to Wen Fengyue. “Teacher Wen, who is K04?”

Wen Fengyue paused in her movement to stand up. She didn’t know what Jiao Qingyin was trying to do, but she naturally played along.

She shook her head, looking very confused. “It doesn’t sound like a human name.”

“???”

“What do you mean? One second ago he was trying to hunt you, the next second you say you don’t know this person?”

“Why do I feel like they aren’t acting…”

The comments had just started to argue when they were distracted by the person saying “they aren’t acting.” They subconsciously observed the expressions of the two and found… it really didn’t look like acting.

Whether it was Jiao Qingyin or Wen Fengyue, the doubt and tension on their faces were too real, making it impossible to see any flaws.

Looking at their current performance alone, no one would think the two knew K04; their reaction upon seeing the name was exactly what it would be the first time seeing it.

Then here comes the question—during those three minutes when the optical computers were shut down, what on earth happened!!

And where is K04 now?!

The production crew finally arrived late and intervened in the accident. The first thing they did was release an announcement:

“We regret to inform the audience that we have temporarily lost contact with guest K04. Since K04 discarded his tracker, heart rate bracelet, and other personal items, and it is currently raining in the forest, our search progress is very slow. Please remain calm.”

The comments under this announcement were mostly curses. Half the people were cursing K04, half were cursing the production crew, and that remaining small cluster firmly believed K04 was fine.

“K-bro couldn’t possibly have an accident. He’s probably lying in ambush somewhere, waiting to restart the hunt.”

“Exactly, waiting for these two celebrities to be scared out of their wits.”

“Fun fact: Wen Fengyue’s heart rate during what you call the “K04 hunt” wasn’t even as high as when Jiao Qingyin invited her to sleep.”

“Don’t even talk about the sleep part. Since Xiao Jiao came out of the tent last night, Teacher Wen’s heart rate hasn’t dropped below 120, while the highest during the “lost contact” period was only 119.”

“Could it be he ran away because he couldn’t win?”

“How could K-bro lose to two minor celebrities? Don’t be ridiculous.”

On the other side, K04, who was left with only a small portion of a mangled body, stumbled and fell onto the muddy ground.

He twitched in agony, unable to stand up.

Once the self-destruction escape program was activated, most of his body was destroyed, leaving only a portion of the prosthetic body to protect him and allow him to survive the impact of the explosion.

However, at most, he just survived. If he didn’t find replacement parts soon, he would completely lose his ability to move.

But he wouldn’t die—his brain was housed in a bionic skull. As long as the brain wasn’t damaged, he could keep living in a humanoid mechanical form forever.

K04’s target was the tracker he had discarded. Once he found the tracker and sent a signal to the crew, given his current status, he could be directly picked up off the island.

At that time, he could re-equip himself with a new body…

Thinking of this, K04, who was crawling forward step by step, was so angry he pulled up the grass by his hand.

The previous body was something he had specially polished and upgraded on his original foundation specifically for this show, spending all his savings.

If he wanted to change his body after getting out this time, he would have to borrow money and go into debt everywhere—

If it weren’t for Wen Fengyue, if it weren’t for Wen Fengyue—a roar squeezed out of K04’s throat, which was damaged down to only half.

His face was blown to pieces, leaving only half. The injured half exposed rebar, looking terrifying.

“I will definitely have my revenge…” As he crawled, he cursed Jiao Qingyin and Wen Fengyue with extremely disgusting and vile words, as poisonous as a bone-deep maggot.

He used this method to encourage himself forward, desperately ignoring the pain brought by raindrops falling into the gaps of his mechanical bones. The words coming out of his mouth became increasingly unbearable.

Everything stopped in the next moment.

An abrupt rustling sound came from behind. K04 froze in place. His detection system was ruined, but not to the extent that he couldn’t sense someone near him.

He didn’t dare make a single sound. He just lay there motionless on the ground, not even daring to drive away an earthworm as it crawled over his eye socket.

Time passed gradually. Every second was an ordeal for K04. For the first time, he discovered that the insects in this forest were so numerous, and the mud by his mouth actually smelled of blood.

He wished he had blown up his sensory system as well.

After an unknown amount of time waiting, K04 was finally certain that no one was beside him.

But just as he breathed a sigh of relief and propped up his elbow, preparing to flick away the bug crawling inside his cheek, the eerie rustling sound rang out again.

Dread seized K04’s brain. He didn’t dare move or think, lying on the ground like a corpse.

This time he waited twice as long as before. He could feel bugs laying eggs on his body but was powerless to stop it.

Not until the sky had turned completely dark, the rain had tapered off, and stars were faintly visible behind the clouds, did he slowly begin to move.

Every movement was like a probe.

No movement.

This time, K04 was completely relieved. He collapsed and slapped the bugs on his body to death, spat out the filth in his mouth, and cursed everyone he hated once again.

He hated Jiao Qingyin, he hated Wen Fengyue, he hated those idiotic fans who encouraged him, and he hated the people he had killed in the past for not producing more money for him to buy the top-tier equipment.

A cold laugh.

The entity that had been probing K04 seemed to have finally played enough. In K04’s suddenly horrified expression, she asked softly:

“Why aren’t you running anymore?”

K04 looked up in terror. A black figure on a tree branch was reflected in his only remaining prosthetic eye.

It was Jiao Qingyin.

She wore a black trench coat. Strangely, despite being in the rain, her hem was so dry not a single drop of water had touched it—forming a sharp contrast with K04, who was covered in mud and so soaked he could barely crawl.

And K04 could clearly sense Jiao Qingyin’s emotion—she was angry—very, very angry.

“I’ve always been too lazy to talk nonsense to dead people, but this time is different—” Jiao Qingyin smiled and said in an extremely gentle tone words that nearly drove K04 insane: “I’m going to make you die ten thousand times.”

Gurgle, gurgle.

Gurgle…

How many times has this been?

K04 kept his eyes open, watching several fish swim over him. The dense fish scales rubbed against his eyeballs, leaving a spine-chilling sensation.

And he couldn’t even perform the simple action of “closing his eyes.”

K04’s brain operated sluggishly.

How many times has this been?

Whenever he felt he was about to lose consciousness and welcome a beautiful death, a bio-current would stimulate his cerebral cortex, pulling him back from drowsiness or despair to force him to face reality.

Every time before his consciousness was about to dissipate, it was like experiencing death once, yet he could never reach the end of death.

He began to recall his life.

The biggest reason K04 chose to become a “Hunter” wasn’t money, but because he liked the process of hunting “prey.” Ever since he was an underground boxer, he loved to torture his opponents to death bit by bit.

He prided himself on being a perfect “Hunter.” That thought completely vanished when Jiao Qingyin cut off his head, inserted a small chip into it, and then threw it into the river at the bottom of the cliff.

He couldn’t distinguish how many times he had hovered on the edge of death only to be brought back by the bio-current within the chip—that chip had completely transformed him into a cyborg. He didn’t need to eat or drink, he didn’t need to excrete; survival required only a tiny bit of current.

This was the “immortality” achieved through technology that K04 had once craved, but now he only wanted to die.

It was only at this time that K04 finally understood what “I’m going to make you die ten thousand times” meant.

—Unless the river water completely corroded him, he would never welcome a true death.

Unfortunately, before participating in the show, he had used the money that boxing couple earned for him to buy himself a brand-new skull.

Made of stainless Star-Source ore, it wouldn’t corrode even if soaked in water for five hundred years.

Three wolves appeared by the river but did not bow their heads to drink. Instead, they lay on the bank, sniffing something.

A few minutes later, these wolves raised their heads and howled toward the bushes behind them.

The alpha wolf came out. It also lowered its head, sniffed around the bank, then turned to the other wolves and howled toward the sky.

“Awooo—”

The alternating wolf howls pierced through layers of forest and fell into Wen Fengyue’s ears.

Wen Fengyue’s movement of roasting jerky paused slightly, a look of confusion appearing in her eyes.

Why did it seem like she suddenly understood the wolves’ voices? Not sure, let me listen again.

Wen Fengyue pricked up her ears and listened intently. She could distinguish that what she heard were wolf howls, but when those sounds entered her ears, it was as if they passed through some automatic translator, becoming language she could understand.

“Strange thing, by the river, no need to chase, A-woo are you hungry?”

Wen Fengyue frowned, trying to understand these wolves’ words.

After setting up camp in a new place, Jiao Qingyin had crawled into the tent to sleep because she was too tired. She stayed outside, passing the time by carving wood.

She wanted to find the escaping K04, but that thought was completely inferior to the idea of staying by Jiao Qingyin’s side, so Wen Fengyue didn’t move.

That pack of wolves wasn’t following them anymore. Some of the wolves seemed to have returned to their habitat, while only a few seemed to have chased in the direction K04 escaped.

Could the “strange thing” refer to K04?

He fell into the river, so there was no need to chase… Wen Fengyue’s movements stopped. The more she thought about it, the more she felt this guess was very likely.

As for “A-woo are you hungry,” Wen Fengyue felt there was no special meaning to this sentence; it was simply those few wolves communicating their feelings.

And at this moment, she also very much wanted to communicate feelings.

Wen Fengyue looked up toward the tent. Jiao Qingyin’s scent remained inside, so she was at ease. But no matter how at ease she was, the fact that they were separated by the tent fabric and she couldn’t see her still made her inevitably anxious.

Why didn’t Jiao Qingyin invite her to sleep together this time… Wen Fengyue lowered her head glumly.

Just then, she smelled a burning odor.

“!!!”

She had been distracted just now and accidentally roasted one side of the meat for too long!

Wen Fengyue scrambled to deal with the blackened parts of the jerky, barely managing to restore the meat to an edible state.

But since the burnt parts were sliced off, the whole piece of meat looked like it had shrunk by more than half.

It still smelled quite good. I wonder if Jiao Qingyin is hungry… thinking this, Wen Fengyue cast her gaze in a certain direction.

She noticed the tent seemed to move.

Wen Fengyue’s eyes instantly lit up. She put down the skewered jerky, stood up, walked to the tent, and lightly tapped on the door.

“Jiao Jiao, are you awake?”

“Mhm mhm.”

A sleepy response came from inside. Jiao Qingyin pulled open the tent door from the inside. “I’m awake. Are you roasting meat?”

She didn’t get an answer and couldn’t help but feel it was strange. She followed Wen Fengyue’s gaze—

Wen Fengyue was looking at her left hand resting on the tent door.

Her hand was very fair, so the light red tooth mark at the web of her thumb was extremely prominent.

The air fell into silence for a moment.

Jiao Qingyin’s brain worked at high speed, wanting to say something to ease the atmosphere, but before she could speak, her wrist was grabbed by Wen Fengyue.

Then she was pushed directly onto the soft sleeping bag.

“Who bit this—” Wen Fengyue looked like she could barely remain calm, but her reddened eyes still exposed her mood.

This wasn’t the first time Wen Fengyue had seen this tooth mark. Long ago, she had seen this abnormal mark on the web of the other’s thumb.

At that time, she thought she had seen it wrong. But now the evidence was laid out clearly before her; even if she wanted to lie to herself, she couldn’t.

How could a tooth mark stay for so long?

And why did Jiao Qingyin show a guilty look when she questioned her?

Wen Fengyue’s mind was spinning. She stared intently at Jiao Qingyin, wanting to ask countless questions.

But she also realized that her suddenness might scare Jiao Qingyin.

So, Wen Fengyue took a deep breath, changed to a coaxing tone, and asked again:

“Jiao Jiao, this tooth mark… who bit it? Can you tell me?”