Weeping Angel
The water beneath their feet was rising. Xiang Zhengming paused for a moment, then suddenly reacted—the water level was going up!
“Holy crap, let’s go! The water is rising!”
“Where is the water in the museum coming from… What did you do!”
Yan Hengze turned his head and stepped into water that was already ankle-deep. He felt completely unwell. The self-repairing door was already enough to shatter his worldview, and now the museum was being flooded like the Golden Mountain Temple. [1] He looked at Xiang Zhengming, who was standing not far away at a loss, and felt black lines appearing on his forehead. Was this guy some kind of automatic trouble-making machine?
“What does this have to do with me? I didn’t do anything! Check the surveillance if you don’t believe me!”
He pointed at the surveillance camera and retorted loudly. Yan Hengze covered his head: “Lower your voice! How much louder do you want to shout!”
“Don’t look at the painting!”
“What?”
Li Nanyi turned his head abruptly: “Don’t look at that painting. Empty your mind. Don’t think about anything randomly.”
Out of subconscious trust, Xiang Zhengming immediately turned his head and closed his eyes, muttering, “I don’t want to think, I don’t want to think… empty, empty…”
His brain started playing various anime he had watched like a projector, trying to forget the image of the painting he just saw.
Simple and spacious images with a lot of white space generally trigger more association in people. Li Nanyi narrowed his eyes; he had guessed correctly. There was something wrong with this painting.
The spreading water on the ground was receding. Xiang Zhengming finally opened his eyes and looked at the ground through his visor. The water that had submerged his ankles disappeared in a moment without a trace. It was too weird. He shivered for no reason.
“Let’s move first. Don’t think too much along the way. Ahead is the sculpture hall. Going further down should lead to the center of the exhibition hall.”
This time, no one objected. They all followed Li Nanyi forward. Xiang Zhengming couldn’t help but look back. The painting seemed to have changed again. Yan Hengze grabbed his head and twisted it back: “Still looking? You think the water isn’t deep enough?”
The sound of shuffling footsteps echoed in the silent corridor. Everyone was on high alert, looking straight ahead, their eyes fixed on the road in front of them.
“I can agree to your request, but I have one condition. When necessary, I will act on my own. I hope you can allow me appropriate freedom of arrangement within the plan and respect my choices.”
This was the condition Li Nanyi had set when agreeing to become a mecha pilot. Zhong Yi recalled this as she connected the call to headquarters. A steady voice came from the receiver: “Zhong Yi, how is the situation? Do you think they are competent for this mission to save the world?”
“I’m not too sure either, but…”
Zhong Yi pressed her temples with a headache. After the giant computer gave the results, she contacted Li Nanyi through various means, but he refused in every way possible. It wasn’t easy to persuade him using the truth about his parents as leverage. She gave him the mecha summoning wristband, but he simply didn’t use it.
Subsequently, she contacted Yan Hengze. The Yan family’s company was also one of the base’s sponsors. As soon as his father heard that the useless snack who idled at home could be of use, he immediately sent him over. He could be considered the earliest mecha pilot to take the post.
Finally, she found Xiang Zhengming through the forum. This guy was a sports specialty student in real life and also a second-dimensional otaku who loved watching anime. He spent every day surfing the forums and liked collecting various models, especially Gundam models. Starting from his interests, it was very easy to pull him in.
The most difficult one among them was Li Nanyi. Although he was now dutifully completing the mission, Zhong Yi was still somewhat uncertain. Could the three of them really shoulder such a heavy responsibility?
If it weren’t for the fact that only people with the highest genetic similarity had the authority to use all the mecha’s functions, who would leave trained soldiers unused and look for this ragtag bunch? She sighed: “Director Qin, did we really make the right choice?”
“Well, we’ll know after this mission is over. Anyway, it’s a desperate measure for a desperate situation. You have to give them a chance.”
“You sure are optimistic.” Zhong Yi tilted her head, her hands flying across the keyboard.
Qin Dayu smiled tolerantly. Having been a leader for so many years, he had to have some leadership demeanor: “Alright, I won’t disturb your work. Waiting for your good news.”
“Yes.” Zhong Yi put down the phone and leaned close to the screen, her eyebrows knitting together. The radar showed a special signal source detected in the venue with huge energy fluctuations. She connected the comms: “Nanyi, Hengze, Zhengming, pay attention. A special signal source has appeared in the venue. I’m sending you the coordinates and signal.”
A signal source popped up on the screens of all three mechas simultaneously, marked on the mini-map very close to the sculpture hall they had just reached.
“Oh, it’s so close. Don’t worry, Sister Zhong Yi, we’ll go check it out right now. If there’s an alien monster, we’ll beat it back to its hometown.”
Xiang Zhengming turned left and right, trying to find the mecha’s weapon system. He asked himself, “Strange, where is my weapon? No laser cannon?”
Yan Hengze rolled his eyes at him speechlessly: “Look at the faceplate yourself. There’s a newbie tutorial on it.”
“Oh.”
Li Nanyi pulled up the signal source. About two exhibition halls ahead, a very strong signal source was moving slowly. He cautiously swept his palm across the side of the mecha, and a silver gun popped out. Li Nanyi loaded it and moved forward slowly with the gun held in front of him.
Xiang Zhengming, who was still reading the newbie tutorial, was dumbfounded, gaining a new understanding of Li Nanyi’s learning ability once again.
“Someone is coming.”
“Just bugs.”
Under the moon shadow, the tall figure moved into the darkness. The shadow named Bilal extended a hand, turning it towards the ground. He pointed a finger in a certain direction, and a patch of shadow wriggled slowly with His movement.
“The Major General need not worry. I have already opened a domain here. Within the domain, no one can hinder us.”
The low, heavy metal voice spoke a very strange language, like vines wrapped around bronze—mysterious and deep, winding and twisting, carrying a bizarre magic.
The three pushed open the door to the sculpture exhibition hall. The dim interior allowed no light to penetrate. Ghostly shadows flickered. In the truest sense, the room was chillingly cold. Yan Hengze turned his head to look at the sculptures on all four sides and the ferocious reliefs overhead, feeling that the person who organized this art exhibition had something wrong with their brain.
Yan Hengze: “Hela Art Exhibition. I heard it was invested in and organized by SkyNet Group. My dad always said their company CEO has a screw loose. Now I finally understand.”
With horror as the theme, the name was taken from Hela, the goddess of death in Norse mythology. The ruler of the underworld, in charge of death, aging, and illness. Half of her body was a beautiful woman, and the other half was a rotting, ferocious ghost. Yan Hengze discovered through the route map that the layout here was indeed very much like the underworld—rugged and gloomy.
Halfway through, Li Nanyi stopped. Xiang Zhengming also stopped with him and asked in a whisper: “What’s wrong, bro? Did you find something?”
Li Nanyi was a bit uncertain and shook his head slightly. Since entering, he always felt something was following them, but repeated scans with the mecha’s system showed no problems. The atmosphere was already tense enough; he didn’t want to rashly speak out and increase everyone’s burden.
Squeak—
Li Nanyi whipped his head around. The mecha’s built-in light shone on an empty spot where a sculpture stood quietly—it was a graceful woman covering her face with both hands, features invisible, with lifelike wings on her back.
Xiang Zhengming leaned in to take a closer look, poked the statue, and pointed at it saying, “Hehe, I know this one. It’s that very popular urban legend, called what… Weeping Angel. As soon as you turn your head or blink, it will open its bloody mouth and eat you!”
He even mimicked it by forming claws with his hands and pouncing forward, making meaningless noises in the building.
Yan Hengze turned his head away in extreme disgust.
The uneasiness in Li Nanyi’s heart grew more intense. He frowned deeply and scanned the statue again. The system showed there was still no problem.
The moment the light source moved away, a wriggling black shadow on the ground drilled into the statue. A harsh creaking sound rang out in the hall, exploding like a thunderclap beside the three of them.
Xiang Zhengming moved very quickly to shine the light on the statue beside him while jumping back a big step. The light illuminated the statue, and his scalp instantly went numb—the hands covering the statue’s face had been lowered at some point, revealing a ferocious face with a mouth full of sharp teeth wide open and eyes full of malice.
“Holy crap, this statue can move!”
“Stay away from it!”
Yan Hengze felt his scalp about to explode. That idiot was so close to it just now. Did he really think the mecha’s defense was strong enough not to break? He looked at that mouth full of sharp teeth; wasn’t he afraid of having his head bitten off?
Li Nanyi took a deep breath, aiming the gun in his hand at the statue. Time ticked by, the grandfather clock ticking away, but the statue showed no further signs of movement.
Click.
The hall lights were suddenly turned on. Yan Hengze immediately looked at Xiang Zhengming, who raised his hands to indicate his innocence.
The lights flickered twice, then click, went out, then turned on again, repeating in a cycle. Li Nanyi discovered with horror that the statue was already very close to him. He dared not move and whispered to Xiang Zhengming: “Tell me the characteristics of the statue again.”
“Oh, as long as you blink or turn your head, it will move. If caught by it, you’ll be transported very far away or have your head bitten off directly.”
Xiang Zhengming was also nervous inside, assuming a defensive posture and gradually moving closer to Yan Hengze. At this moment, Yan Hengze didn’t reject him anymore. The two stood back to back, wary of that statue.
Li Nanyi held the gun in front, eyes fixed on the statue, motionless.
The lights suddenly began to flicker rapidly. When the lights turned on just now, their attention was drawn to the lights, and their gaze left the statue, allowing it to move quickly. This thing might have intelligence; it even knew to use the light and darkness to create the effect of blinking.
Why not try this first. Li Nanyi fired a shot at the statue. A crimson beam of fire burst from the muzzle, instantly shattering the statue, leaving behind a wisp of rising white smoke.
“That’s fierce.”
Xiang Zhengming exclaimed in admiration. However, his praise got stuck in his throat the next second.
That statue returned to its original state in just a moment. The shattered stone fragments were attracted by a core magnetic force as if they had life, once again forming the Weeping Angel covering its face.
Li Nanyi’s expression was grim as he stared dead at the statue.
[1] “Flooded like the Golden Mountain Temple”: A reference to the Chinese legend “The Legend of the White Snake,” where the White Snake floods the temple to save her husband. It’s used here to describe a massive flood of water.
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