Being the Wife of a Fluffy Creature [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The First World (9)

“Creeeak—”

With a soft sound, the anti-theft door opened, and a figure in a protective suit stepped silently inside. Several others followed behind him, and the last person to enter locked the door behind them.

The leader gestured, and the five men split into two groups. Three went to the bathroom to recover the rotting corpse inside. The leader walked toward the bedroom with the other man, peering through the crack in the door.

“Why is there a big black dog on the bed? You didn’t mention the target had a dog. A dog of that size isn’t easy to deal with.”

“It’s fine, I brought medicine.”

A deep, aged male voice emerged from under a gas mask. He pulled a hazy crystal ball from his coat and tossed it into the room. The sphere exploded, filling the bedroom with white mist.

Two minutes later, the man opened the bedroom door again. The room was deathly quiet, save for two steady, rhythmic breathing sounds. The large dog, which had been lifting its head to look around earlier, was now dead to the world, and the long-haired man was sleeping soundly, wrapped around the black dog.

They walked to the bedside. One of them looked closely at Wu Yao. “You really weren’t kidding, this face, this build—he really is top-tier merchandise.”

“I’ve been in this business for years, my eye for quality is still sharp. You drag the dog down and tie it up; I’ll carry the guy.”

“Can’t I be the one to carry him? I’m afraid of dogs.”

“Bullshit, you just want an excuse to cop a feel. Get to work!”

With the target sedated, they stopped lowering their voices, chatting unrestrainedly and cracking crude jokes.

The System, wide awake and pulling an all-nighter crafting a prop mannequin head, watched the entire scene, so anxious it was practically clawing its own head. “Xiao Yao! Wu Yao! Wake up! Someone is breaking and entering to rob you and kidnap you!”

Wu Yao remained with his eyes closed. ‘The sound of them picking the lock was deafening. Shi Yi is the same, its dog paws are pressing on me so hard I can’t breathe.’

“They threw a ball that let out gas, how are you not knocked out?”

‘I’m not breathing.’

The moment the lead man spoke, Wu Yao recognized the voice: Uncle Wang, the apartment manager.

The “blank slate” persona the System had set up for him was designed to be a social-anxious shut-in who avoided all human contact. The fact that the persona had actively asked Uncle Wang to deliver a knife implied something special was going on. It seemed the “blank slate” had discovered Uncle Wang’s true nature and, fearing he would interfere with its “work,” had decided to lure him home to dispose of him.

The “blank slate” had lured Uncle Wang in to buy a knife and fix the toilet, intending to end him. Unfortunately, the timing was poor, Wu Yao had transmigrated just as Uncle Wang arrived to seal his own fate, so the murder plan didn’t go off.

The System was stunned. “The blank slate isn’t supposed to be this bloodthirsty!”

‘It’s the most advanced AI from the Quick Transmigration Company. Its job is to perfect the host’s background info and ensure the denizens of the small world don’t discover the company’s existence. It mimics the personality of whoever it’s a “blank slate” for, and its adaptability is incredibly high.’

‘You were the one who deployed this blank slate, why are you so unfamiliar with it?’

“The manual was too long, I didn’t feel like reading it.”

Uncle Wang hoisted Wu Yao up. Wu Yao kept his body limp, feigning sleep to see what they were actually planning. Why were they wearing protective suits? Could this be related to the administrators of Paradise Island?

No, based on their earlier conversation, they were grabbing him simply because Uncle Wang had taken a liking to his appearance. There were so many gay men in this world, thankfully, his target wasn’t one of them.

Wu Shi Yi hadn’t moved either, whether it was actually drugged or just feigning sleep like him. Only after Uncle Wang dragged the black dog out did Wu Yao feel relieved.

The three men emerged from the bathroom, each carrying a bulging large bag. Wu Yao thought for a long time, but couldn’t think of anything in his bathroom worth stealing.

With both the goods and the man secured, the group visibly relaxed, chatting idly as they walked downstairs.

“This d*mn dog is heavy as lead, did we really have to bring it?”

“This dog is likely a numbered fighting dog the pretty boy stole from the Hot Pot City. That fat guy’s source of goods is always top-notch. If we sell this dog, we’ll make a killing.”

The man carrying the black dog’s voice trembled. “Fight-fighting dog? The kind that kills people? F***! Why didn’t you say so sooner! I’ve seen fighting dog matches. Those things are run by lunatics. I’m not carrying this!”

Seeing them about to argue, Uncle Wang coughed and pulled something from his chest. The arguing men fell silent instantly.

Wu Yao opened his eyes a sliver. Uncle Wang was holding a handgun. The manager of an old apartment building wasn’t just a human trafficker; he was hoarding firearms. Paradise Island was truly a land of “talent”—surprises everywhere.

Wu Yao lived on the 7th floor, and since they were carrying heavy loads, they moved slowly, stopping often. Uncle Wang handed Wu Yao off to an underling and pulled off his gas mask to light a cigarette. “After I finish this job, I’m taking my grandson and getting out of this hellhole.”

The others looked at each other. “We can still leave? The Mayor allows you to leave?”

“Yeah. You guys want to leave? I can take two more people.”

The man carrying Wu Yao shook his head vigorously. “This town is heaven for guys like me. You see a girl you like, you drag her into the car. You don’t like someone, you hack them to death in the street and no one cares.”

“Exactly, Old Wang. Where are you going to find a second paradise like this? I grabbed a new one yesterday, tsk, top-quality. Want to go to my place and play later?”

Uncle Wang’s voice dropped extremely low. “Something big is going to happen on Paradise Island. There won’t be many people left alive in this town by then. If you can leave, do it fast. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The others looked at each other, none of them understanding what Uncle Wang meant.

The amount of information in that brief dialogue was immense. As Wu Yao was absorbing it, the man who had been cracking crude jokes suddenly shuddered as if electrocuted, collapsing to the ground with a thud. The rest were stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.

“What the hell, Brother Li? When did you learn that move? Great acting.”

One of them bent down and pulled off the man’s mask. “Hey, you…you’re dead!”

That sentence was like a switch. The men in protective suits started trembling simultaneously, as if suffering immense pain. Three dull thuds echoed in the stairwell one after another. In less than a minute, everyone except Uncle Wang was dead.

The System’s jaw dropped. “Uh?”

Uncle Wang kowtowed frantically in all directions. “I’m sorry, Mayor! I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have spoken nonsense!”

“I promise I won’t tell anyone those things. I swear, please spare me. I can still work for you, please!”

No one answered him; the surroundings were deathly silent. Uncle Wang slapped himself in the face as he spoke, stopping only when his face was covered in blood. Ignoring the corpses on the floor, he dragged Wu Yao and the black dog, struggling as he headed downstairs.

The way those four died was eerie; they had clearly been killed by a monster. They hadn’t eaten the apple, so they couldn’t access the “other world,” and they had been slaughtered by the monster without a chance to fight back.

Which sentence had killed them? Was it that the Mayor had approved Uncle Wang’s departure from Paradise Island, or that something big was about to happen on the island? Or was it that every word Uncle Wang said had stepped on the Mayor’s landmines?

The Mayor was monitoring the situation here; Wu Yao had to continue feigning sleep. If the Mayor found out he had heard that conversation, he might get slaughtered too.

Wu Yao had assumed there were limitations on the island, that the monsters couldn’t kill residents at will. It seemed he had overthought it.

The four corpses on the stairs gradually turned transparent and vanished. The System opened its rear-view vision, and Wu Yao watched the entire process, tilting his head in suspicion.

Uncle Wang shoved the man and the dog into a van by the side of the road, leaning against the car door and panting. Wu Yao lay on the backseat, continuing to play dead.

Wu Shi Yi hadn’t been drugged. It hadn’t made a move earlier because it saw the gun hidden in Uncle Wang’s jacket. There were too many people, and fighting would have risked harming Wu Yao. Later, though the numbers dropped, the surrounding monsters increased.

Its plan was the same as Wu Yao’s: feign sleep for at least another hour. Once the Mayor discovered they had heard the conversation, their fate would be even worse.

With a muffled sound, Uncle Wang closed the car door. The van pulled away from the apartment building and headed into the pitch-black streets.

Uncle Wang pulled out his phone and started a call. “Yuan Bao, Grandpa is working the night shift tonight, I’ll sleep with you when I’m done.”

A young, childish voice could be heard faintly from the phone.

Uncle Wang smiled, his voice finally losing its tremor. “Yes, Yuan Bao is the best and most sensible. The doll you wanted, Grandpa bought it for you. You absolutely must not leave the house, understand?”

It was all mundane conversation; Wu Yao quickly lost interest.

The System was rubbing its “waist” in anxiety. “What does that old man mean? What big event is coming to Paradise Island? Why is he in such a hurry to run? He said there wouldn’t be many people left alive on the whole island, should we take the black dog and run too?”

Wu Yao kept refreshing the task interface. ‘The last two times Wu Shi Yi was in mortal danger, the System issued sub-tasks. There aren’t any this time. I suspect Uncle Wang’s source of information is flawed, so there’s no need to worry.’

‘The most important thing right now is to figure out where Uncle Wang is taking us, what he’s planning to do, and the Mayor…’

“BOOM! CRASH—”

Before Wu Yao could finish, the van was struck, instantly losing control.

The man and dog in the back seat slammed into the door simultaneously, the window shattered, glass spraying everywhere. The black dog rolled onto Wu Yao, using the van’s oscillation to shield him underneath its body.

The deathly silent street became incredibly rowdy. Someone shouted from outside the van, “There’s someone in the car! That old bastard really did kidnap another tenant from the apartments! Save them!”

“Hurry, hurry! The cops are coming, don’t dawdle!”

The door was ripped open violently. A pair of hands pulled the big black dog away.

Wu Yao peeked during the chaos. A group of people dressed in black robes and bird-beaked masks, looking strikingly like plague doctors, were organizing the rescue.

Uncle Wang in the driver’s seat was still alive. A black-robed person dragged him out. Like they were performing some sort of ritual, the person pulled out a dagger and pointed it at Uncle Wang’s chest while talking to themselves.

“Those who attempt to hide the truth shall be punished by the gods. The True God will rescue you from the lies. All the suffering you endure from this moment on is your penance.”

With the end of the sentence came the flashing, cold-glinting dagger. The tip twisted in Uncle Wang’s chest, eventually digging his heart out in its entirety.

“This is the 97th heart of a liar. Keep it safe. If we find 3 more, we can fulfill the will of the gods and let everyone see the true Paradise Island!”

In the firelight of the car crash, Wu Yao saw the black robes of the group bearing two small characters: ‘True Knowledge’.

They were the True Knowledge Society.