Chapter 429 - 373: Mai Mingle: Go Back to Where You Came From

Chapter 429: Chapter 373: Mai Mingle: Go Back to Where You Came From

The instant it made contact with the baseball bat, Ivan’s head caved in, forming a deep groove.

His face seemed to be made of modeling clay, suddenly going soft and collapsing on one side. Mai Mingle watched, wide-eyed, as his cheekbone folded inward, his facial features scattering across his face. The muffled thud of bone hitting the bat was almost inaudible.

The next second, however, as he crumpled to the ground, his head and face returned to their original shape, as if it had all just been a trick of her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Emily raised the bat again. Seeing that Ivan didn’t seem to be getting up, she quickly looked Mai Mingle up and down and asked, "Can you stand?"

"W-wait for me..."

About ten meters behind her, Hai Luwei was still running toward them, panting for breath. He hadn’t arrived yet, but his face was so pale and ashen that you could see it from a block away.

Ivan fell to the ground with a THUD.

The moment he was hit, strength began to flow back into her own veins, like water into a dry riverbed. Soon, Mai Mingle could feel breath filling her chest again. She looked up at Emily, who was extending a hand to her, and said with some difficulty, "When he was hit just now..."

Behind Emily, Ivan’s neck shot up from the ground like a live fish.

"Watch out!" Hai Luwei shouted, quickening his pace. "He’s getting up—"

Neither of them got to finish.

As Emily whipped around, Ivan leaped to his feet. He ducked under her outstretched arm, seemingly aware his chances were slim, then turned and bolted into the street.

’We finally found him. If he gets away again, who knows when he’ll ambush me next?’

Mai Mingle was so frantic she felt like her breath was tying itself in knots, but she still couldn’t get up. All she could do was cry out in a trembling voice, "Don’t let him get away..."

"Get away? In his dreams," Emily cursed, winding up her arm.

The bat in her hand drew an arc through the air before leaving her grasp, whistling as it sliced through the atmosphere. Just as Ivan reached the middle of the road, the bat slammed viciously into the back of his head.

This time, the sound of the metal bat striking bone echoed halfway down the street.

Caught completely off guard by the heavy blow, Ivan pitched forward, his face smashing straight into the ground.

You really couldn’t underestimate Emily’s ruthlessness.

She charged into the street after him. Before he could get up, she planted her foot on the back of his head and stomped down hard several times, as if crushing a rotten watermelon. She, too, had noticed something was off about Ivan. As she stomped, she snarled, "So your skull can cave in? Fine. Let’s see you spit the back of your head out your mouth."

One of her stomps sank so deep into Ivan’s skull that Mai Mingle could only see her lower leg sticking out of the back of his head. The sight alone was enough to make one’s skin crawl, but Emily’s face remained taut, her expression cold and hard as she raised her foot to stomp down again.

"Wait, stop stomping! Just hold him down,"

Hai Luwei shouted to her as he helped Mai Mingle up. "We’re on a public street, in broad daylight..."

As if taking offense to the words "in broad daylight," the sky answered before he could finish his sentence, and huge raindrops began to tumble from the low-hanging heavens.

Dark, damp spots bloomed across the sidewalk and the road. The daylight, as if exhausted, closed its eyes behind clouds like sodden cotton.

Emily had come fully prepared.

She had come out today specifically to catch Ivan, and she’d clearly thought of everything. Not only had she brought a baseball bat, but she reached behind her back and, to their surprise, pulled out a pair of handcuffs. Pinning Ivan down with her foot, she cuffed his arms behind him.

The rain quickly grew heavier and more intense, pelting them so hard they could barely open their eyes.

"Get up," Emily said, hauling Ivan to his feet just as Hai Luwei and a recovered Mai Mingle arrived.

The back of Ivan’s head looked like a deflated ball, caved in with the shape of a foot, but it was slowly starting to bulge back out.

He glanced at Mai Mingle out of the corner of his eye, his face blank, not saying a word.

They had caught the man—or perhaps not a man—but now the three of them didn’t know what to do next.

In just a few minutes, the world was consumed by a torrential downpour. The empty street seemed to have sunk to the bottom of a murky lake; not a single car was visible. Of course, their vision didn’t extend far before it was swallowed by the endless curtain of water.

Over the roar of the rain, Hai Luwei raised his voice. "What do we do? Where do we take him now?"

They couldn’t just kill him in Blackmoor City. Besides, it was possible he couldn’t be killed.

"We can’t kill him, right?"

Hai Luwei, still mindful of the Dominion Game for Mai Mingle’s sake, wiped the rain from his face and said, "Don’t we have to help him ’get back on track’ to complete the action point?"

"That’s got to be a lie," Emily said irritably. "Look at this thing. Does he look human to you? Get back on track? If you ask me, sending him back to the Nest is the only ’track’ he should be on."

Ivan’s "track," of course, couldn’t possibly be in the Nest. Otherwise, the "Dominion Game" wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to get him into Blackmoor City.

But, the Nest—

Mai Mingle suddenly looked up. She was about to speak but hesitated.

"What were you going to say?" Hai Luwei noticed her hesitation.

Mai Mingle wiped the water from her face. The words were stuck in her throat, unable to come out. The sound of rain filled the world, connecting heaven and earth.

’This new, young life of hers... only had 25 days left.’

’If she didn’t obtain the Time Illusion within 25 days, when the Snake Belt’s countdown ended, so would she.’

’Compared to her own demise, whatever intentions the Nest and the Dominion Game had for the human world became a distant, minor concern. To her, when her world went dark, the universe itself would cease to exist.’

’Let alone Blackmoor City and all the people living in it?’

’The Dominion Game told her that if she rescued Ivan and helped his life get back on track, she would receive the next action point prompt. With that prompt, she might be able to live past these 25 days and step into a truly new life.’

So, Mai Mingle had two choices.

One, lock Ivan up at home. Interrogate him, test him, try various methods, and wait for the next action point notification. At the same time, she would naturally risk him attacking her again, contacting other strange things, or escaping into Blackmoor City.

Two, send him back where he came from.

’But... if she sank Ivan back into Central Bay, the second action point would undoubtedly be a complete failure, and she would lose her chance at the Time Illusion.’

’Twenty-five days... was that enough time for her to start from scratch and find another Illusion that could keep her alive?’

"What’s wrong?" Hai Luwei asked. "It’s pouring. Why did you suddenly zone out?"

Mai Mingle’s gaze swept over him.

He was good at taking care of himself. Of the three, only Hai Luwei had remembered to wear a raincoat today. Although he’d been a step too late in remembering to put up the hood, his hair and face were soaked through, his skin pale from the drenching.

Even though his expression wasn’t one of distress, he still looked somewhat forlorn, like a dog that had found a new master but couldn’t forget the shadow of being abandoned.

Emily squinted against the pelting rain, her thin lips pressed into a tight line. She didn’t rush Mai Mingle to make a decision.

She was like an ascetic from legend, demanding of herself to remain unmoved by the elements, be it wind, rain, snow, or frost. In the inescapable, almost suffocating downpour, she still stood ramrod straight like a sentry, the metal bat still in her hand.

Mai Mingle gently wiped the water from her face. ’Thank goodness for this downpour. It provides some cover.’

"I know what to do," she said, giving the two kids a smile. "Can you call a car?"

’Everyone is born having already received their allotted lifespan from the heavens. She had been granted eighty-six years, longer than many people live.’

’It was just that she had been in a daze back then, never realizing that a lifetime could fly by so quickly.’

’So much of that time had gradually vanished, never to return, spent worrying, being cautious, balancing accounts, working, scrubbing floors, caring for her parents, caring for patients, caring for the children at the orphanage, cooking meals...’

’She had thrown away a lifetime on tedious chores.’

’But she had no right to gamble with the lives of others for a chance to live again—that would be far too greedy.’

’Mai Mingle had already received more than enough. She was already unbelievably lucky.’

’Whether it was entering the Nest, being attacked, or standing here now with these two kids, escorting Ivan to Central Bay Pier under a torrential downpour...’

’Every minute since opening the Path, every breath she took after seeing this new world, was a vigorous heartbeat she had never experienced before, thrumming in a world of violent wind and rain.’

"Are you sure about this?" Hai Luwei asked, turning his head to look at her through the dark curtain of rain. "What if..."

"Just go," Mai Mingle urged.

Ivan looked at Hai Luwei, who was heading to the pier to get a boat, then back at Mai Mingle.

"What are you trying to do?" He seemed unable to believe Mai Mingle would actually go through with this decision, repeating himself over and over. "You can’t scare me. This trick won’t work on me. Besides, aren’t you afraid the police will arrest you?"

"Do you really think you’re a person?" Emily snapped, shoving him hard on the shoulder. "Shut up and walk."

The small boat they had used to pull Ivan from the water two days ago was still moored in the same spot. It was being rocked and shoved by the fierce storm and rolling waves, looking as if it might trip on the sea’s surface at any moment and never get back up.

’Going out to sea in this weather, and in a small tourist boat no less, was tantamount to throwing one’s life into the waves—but what was so bad about danger?’

’In her final days, Mai Mingle couldn’t wait to experience more thrills, to do more things that others would never get the chance to do in their entire lives.’

’...Come to think of it, shoving a person into a raging sea during a storm was probably also something very few people in the world would ever get to experience.’

She closed her eyes, wiped the rain from her face, and took a deep breath.

’Ivan looked so human. To steel herself to push him off the boat felt just like committing murder. It really required some mental preparation.’

Emily looked at her and said, "How about I do it..."

"No." Mai Mingle stood up. On the violently rocking boat, she steadied herself with the railing. "This is my decision. I’ll do it."