It was plain to see that this toy factory excelled at keeping up appearances.
Many enterprises, such as toy or candy factories, frequently hosted tours for schools or social groups. This required the facility to have a grand lobby, a cultural exhibition hall, and a specialized showroom for visitors to admire.
Naturally, the equipment put on display was the finest available. The entire observation area was decorated in sophisticated shades of off-white and grey. As for the actual assembly lines, they had long since been worn down to a wretched state by the apocalypse.
Tang Qiuqiu lifted a panel from a workbench and discovered several mutated silkworms spinning cocoons underneath.
He turned to ask Xin Ye, "Do these count as domestic animals?"
"They do. I raised silkworms for two summers back in elementary school," Xin Ye said, his blade shredding the golden silk webbing with one stroke and severing the bodies of two mutated silkworms with the second. "They aren't much trouble otherwise, but their reproductive capacity is terrifying. If you leave them for a year, I suspect the entire factory would be overrun by silkworm larvae by the next."
The warehouse was built near the back gate to facilitate truck transport. Xin Ye compared several paths leading to the rear and decided to stay indoors; at least there would be fewer mutated plants.
He explained as they walked, "When a mission site is a large architectural complex, you have to weigh the pros and cons of going indoors versus outdoors. The advantage of being indoors is the confined space, which makes it easier to check for threats and defend yourself, and there are fewer plant mutants. However, the internal structure can be complex, and without a map, there will be many blind spots."
"It’s also troublesome when dealing with mutants that like to nest—spiders, for instance..." Xin Ye spent a moment pulling an example from his memory bank. "Oh, like the Satin Bowerbird. Because they are particularly fond of the color blue, they love nesting in aquariums. If you walk indoors and destroy a blue nest, you’ll easily enrage them."
Lian Muyun had seen this type of avian mutant in the field guide and asked curiously, "Captain, you know this in such detail—did you read someone else's mission reports?"
"No," Xin Ye said.
He thought to himself that if the five of them had the chance to stay together for another year, they would have eventually taken on that specific mission.
Before reaching the warehouse area, they encountered silkworm larvae, geckos, pet dogs, and red-eared sliders. None were difficult mutants to handle. Some pets even lay piteously on the ground, whimpering softly for mercy before Lian Muyun could even raise his gun.
In the end, it was Xin Ye who fired the shot for him.
"Judging by the breed, it was a Labrador—man's best friend," Xin Ye said, grabbing the creature's paw to show Lian Muyun after confirming its life signs had vanished. "It looks pitiful, but if you had hesitated a moment longer, it likely would have lunged. No one has trimmed its claws in a long time; it would have been easy for it to maul you."
The person who had been mauled last time was him. The entire team's progress had been forced to a halt while they watched him finish his rabies vaccinations before they could move on.
The most troublesome thing about pets wasn't that their intelligence had evolved slightly more than wild animals, but that they knew better how to exploit human soft-heartedness.
Lian Muyun was startled by Xin Ye’s sudden shot. "Really? Don't lie to me. Domestic animals shouldn't have that much malice toward humans, right?"
"That’s toward their owners. They’ll still bark at strangers." Xin Ye looked at Lian Muyun’s somewhat foolish expression, feeling a pang of worry for the boy's future.
At the warehouse entrance, Leng Xianye stood at the front. Before his hand could even touch the door, a shrill voice rang out from directly above them.
"Someone’s here! Someone’s here!" A budgerigar suddenly spread its wings, hopped off the doorframe, and flew through the gap between them, leaving behind a few pale blue feathers.
Tang Qiuqiu instantly manifested cat claws to snatch the bird, but caught only air.
"Quite clever, knowing to find a sentry to sound the alarm," Xin Ye remarked with interest, glancing at the window the parakeet had flown out of. "But when the power gap is this large, no amount of struggling will help, will it?"
Regarding the issue of power gaps, no one felt it more deeply than he did.
"Let's move. Split up inside the warehouse to clear it. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can clock out and head back to HQ."
Before Leng Xianye pushed the door open, Xing Yue’s silk threads had already slipped through the cracks, weaving an inescapable net within the space to prevent any fleeing animals from escaping through other exits.
"Qiuqiu, want to practice our coordination?" A portable cannon appeared on Lian Muyun’s shoulder. "I’ll blast them, you mop up the stragglers."
Tang Qiuqiu’s tone was slightly disdainful as he bared his claws, but he obediently stepped forward. "Aim carefully. Don't blow me up."
Xin Ye circled around to the outermost shelves.
The first few rows were filled with hard plastic toys packed in cardboard boxes; only the last few rows contained plush dolls.
He picked off the distant targets with his gun. He had swapped his pistol for an assault rifle, his semi-automatic fire hitting every mark. Just as he raised his muzzle again to aim at a panicked white rabbit, a force slammed into him from behind.
Caught off guard, Xin Ye’s aim was knocked wide, allowing the rabbit to escape.
Behind him was another, larger rabbit. Xun Yin was clearly up to no good: *[Those two rabbits are mother and child. You must have read those textbook stories about animal mothers saving their babies, right? You can actually bring yourself to do it...]*
Before the entity could finish, Xin Ye turned, grabbed the rabbit by the scruff of its neck, and drove a knife through its head. His black half-finger gloves were stained with bright red rabbit blood.
He tossed the mutant's corpse aside and quickly caught up to the fleeing rabbit, putting it down with a single shot.
Xun Yin: *[...You really are something. Your heart is made of stone.]*
As Xin Ye searched for his next target, he noticed a teddy bear on a shelf vibrating slightly.
"But I’ve been deceived before," he said, picking up the doll and turning it over to find a tear in the back.
Xun Yin: *[The Labrador? That couldn't be helped. As a 'vase' character, you were meant to get hurt often to slow down the protagonists' progress.]*
"Not just the Labrador. The Headquarters, too." Xin Ye pulled a puppy from inside the plush toy and gave it a swift end.
This factory, these mutated pets... and the Headquarters. All of them were undoubtedly "gold and jade on the outside, rot and decay on the inside."
Being that kind of thing once was enough.
He had asked around that afternoon. Although this factory had a concentration of mutants, it didn't affect the base's normal operations. In principle, it didn't require an immediate purge. There was only one reason Headquarters had assigned it as a mission.
They needed to harvest a large number of mutant corpses to supplement their energy reserves.
With so many missions being carried out every day from the branches to the Headquarters, were they still unable to meet their resource demands?
Some questions only brought headaches the more one thought about them. In areas beyond his reach, Xin Ye could only close his eyes and cover his ears.
"...Xun Yin." Xin Ye’s vision blurred for a moment before clearing again. He had almost never called this person who had suddenly dropped into his life by name. Saying it now, he felt a strange sense of contradiction.
Simply regarding the name itself, he couldn't say he liked it, but he didn't exactly hate it either.
"Since you’ve already judged that I’m no longer human, then stop testing my humanity."
***
The mission at the toy factory was declared over after the last cockatiel was shredded by Xing Yue’s threads.
The mission had concluded quickly; it was only just past noon.
The five of them gathered at the warehouse entrance. Lian Muyun acted as the temporary leader of a "praise circle," complimenting everyone in turn.
Tang Qiuqiu grumbled, "What's the point of you praising me? I want the Captain to praise me."
"The Captain is busy messaging the person coming to pick us up; he can't praise you," Xin Ye said, glancing at Leng Xianye. "Let your Brother Leng praise you. Getting his approval is a true testament to your strength."
Tang Qiuqiu fell silent instantly. He was still inexplicably afraid of Leng Xianye.
Leng Xianye: "..."
Yi Ting arrived quickly, driving the same vehicle they had used to travel from the Seventh Branch to Headquarters. Xing Yue originally wanted to sit in the front passenger seat, but Yi Ting shooed her to the back.
"Let your Captain sit up front to chat with me."
She pushed Xin Ye directly into the passenger seat. Xing Yue found it a bit odd, as she usually sat there, but she didn't say much. After looking around, she sat down next to Tang Qiuqiu.
Lian Muyun had seen toys today that he and Leng Xianye used to play with as children. He was bursting with things to say and was waiting to chat with his childhood friend once they were in the car. However, as soon as he sat down, he caught a scent he didn't recognize.
"Sister Ting, is this a new car air freshener?" he asked. "You used to use fruity scents, right? Why the floral one this time? It smells nice, though."
Hearing him say that, Leng Xianye couldn't help but take a deep breath as well.
"Smells good, doesn't it? It’s expensive." Yi Ting started the car, her expression natural. "Breathe it in if you like it. I’ve been getting headaches from reading data lately; this helps soothe the nerves."
Tang Qiuqiu hadn't been sitting for long before he shifted into his cat form, let out a yawn, and curled up in his seat to sleep. Xing Yue stroked his fur for a while before her head also drooped, and she drifted off.
Yi Ting glanced in the rearview mirror and turned the steering wheel.
Leng Xianye and Lian Muyun only exchanged a few words before falling silent. Leng Xianye usually loved watching the scenery blur past the window, but today his head felt heavy and groroggy. All he could see were large blocks of color.
If he were still conscious, he would have realized that the direction the car was heading was no longer toward Headquarters at all.
In his fading consciousness, Leng Xianye thought about how he had gone to bed early last night and shouldn't be this sleepy. He tried hard to open his eyes, but Xin Ye’s voice drifted into his ears.
His Captain’s words were very ordinary, just a simple: "Sleep well. I'll wake you when we get to Headquarters."
All doubts were cast aside. Leng Xianye was the last to fall into a deep sleep.
...
Yi Ting stopped the car. "I can only take you this far. This car has a tracker; any further and I’ll be suspected."
"Give me your hand. I brought tools. Let me be the one to remove this metal film for you. I’ll take it back to HQ and have Fu Shu put it in your room. It’ll take Headquarters another two days to realize you’ve escaped."
Xin Ye obediently held out his hand. "Thank you."
After speaking, he tilted his head to look at his four teammates asleep in the back rows.
"It’s quite a distance from here to the coordinates. You aren't planning to walk, are you? But I really can't help you with a vehicle." Yi Ting removed the film and helped him reassemble the watch.
Xin Ye told her not to worry, though he truly couldn't tell her the solution. With Xun Yin around, finding a car by the side of the road would take only a matter of minutes.
Once the issue with the multi-function watch was resolved, Yi Ting didn't let go of Xin Ye’s hand. She bit her lip, pulled out a wet wipe, and helped Xin Ye wipe away the bloodstains on his gloves that hadn't been fully cleaned.
"...So, you're leaving?"
"I'm leaving."
Xin Ye watched as his gloves were wiped clean, then pulled his hand back and opened the car door.
"Do you have everything?"
"Everything, Sister Ting."
Yi Ting thought for a long time about what else she could ask. Just as she was about to speak again, Xin Ye interrupted her. "Sister Ting."
He thought for a moment. This might be the last time they saw each other, so he gave Yi Ting a smile. "I'm not trying to pull some trick to charm a girl... I'm really going."
"When you get back to Headquarters, wake them up for me."
***
