Unable to repay my student loans, I had no choice but to work part-time as a demon hunter.

Suddenly, a long, thin, and strange hand emerged from the crack in the clam shell.

Those fingers were incredibly long, with membranes connecting them, as if they were groping outwards for something.

Then, Harold poked his head out.

Gordon paused for a moment.

That face had become incredibly bizarre; the skin was delicate, but the cheekbones stretched the face wide, revealing a toothless expression that was both crying and laughing.

Then he quickly crawled out on his arms, his body no longer formed from the waist down. He pulled out a huge bag of flesh and blood from the clam, filled with intestines, cartilage, and strange organs whose purpose had not yet been decided.

Vera stared intently at Harold, trying to figure out where to aim her first sword strike.

"Gao... Deng... I... am in pain." His voice sounded like a baby crying.

Vera glanced at Gordon out of the corner of her eye and noticed that Gordon wasn't laughing or even saying anything back.

That frivolous feeling that had always been on his face vanished without a trace.

In fact, Gordon saw a strong evil aura emanating from Harold.

"Ouch!" Harold suddenly screamed.

Under his guidance, three streams of black water rose from the reservoir, soaring into the air and forming whips that crashed down.

Gordon rolled quickly, his shoulder scraping the ground.

boom!

The water whipped the ground, causing it to dent and crack.

A loose bolt grazed Gordon's ear, embedded itself in the wall brick, and scraped his ear, causing him excruciating pain.

  

Vera didn't turn around to check. Hearing that his breathing was still relatively normal, she stopped being distracted and leaped forward.

Using the momentum of her forward thrust, Vera cut close to the ground, the black spike shooting out from the mist and precisely piercing below Harold's left chest.

laugh!

The gelatinous skin split open, and dark blood blisters oozed out from the blade.

A large cluster of white fleshy buds immediately rolled out from the wound, like maggots suddenly exposed to light, tightly wrapping around the sword and dragging it inward with the force, trying to swallow the entire sword.

Vera quickly rotated her wrist, causing the sword to vibrate and turning the fleshy buds into a pile of mud. Then she withdrew her sword and retreated, landing steadily on the ground.

Harold swiftly swung his arm, which was thin and long, yet when swung it was like a steel beam, cracking loudly in the air.

Before Vera, the world seemed to have two paths.

On one road, her head will be smashed to pieces, her brains splattered; on the other road, her shoulders will be shattered.

There is no third way.

[Tearing Fate Apart: Rewriting a Dead End]

This is another of Vera's source essences, which she only activates when certain death is imminent.

She took a step toward the side where she would die slower.

boom!

Harold struck her in the left shoulder, sending her flying and crashing into the hall wall.

Vera landed on the ground and used one arm to push herself up.

As she regained her footing, she spat out blood, and her left shoulder slumped down inexplicably, the blood beginning to spread.

"He's growing," Vera said.

Gordon saw it too.

Above the hall, the burst water pipes continued to pour black water into the hall, and with each bath, Harold's deformities lessened a little.

The crooked face became symmetrical, ribs grew in the chest cavity, and the unformed legs began to stretch.

Especially his exceptionally smooth skin...

Just as he said, she was reborn from the water, her skin so smooth that her pores were almost invisible.

The Rice Pumping Station is still in operation.

Water falls above, a reservoir lies below, and steam rises all around...

This is Harold's home ground.

Although the wound could not heal, the person kept getting bigger and taller.

"How do we kill him?" Vera asked, her hand still holding the sword, her balance already compromised. "Think of a way."

Gordon pondered.

Turning off the boiler is not enough.

The main pump stopped, but there was still water in the pipeline, and the reservoir was enough to restore Harold countless times.

The water inlet must be shut off, and then all the water in the pool must be drained.

"Wait for me!" Gordon searched for the control room.

"quick!"

Gordon forced himself to remain calm.

Water dripped from the broken pipe, steam gasped, gears meshed, and the metal beams hummed in the aftershocks.

What he was looking for was the unique sound of the control lever assembly and drive shaft.

The main pump's heartbeat is very strong, while the pressure relief valve's movements are particularly short.

Then there's the drive shaft... On the right side of the hall, there's a series of metallic creaking sounds...

...Found it!

On the right side of the lobby, at the top of the iron staircase, you can go to the second floor.

Gao Deng rushed to the right side of the hall.

The cast iron staircase leading to the second floor was warped by the explosion, and the bottom two steps had detached from the wall.

Gordon quickly approached, grabbed the horizontal ladder above with both hands, exerted force with his arms, pushed off the wall tiles with the soles of his shoes, tucked in his stomach and swung his legs, and swung his body up to the second floor.

Harold's face split open, and a black tongue shot out at lightning speed, piercing through more than ten meters of water mist, heading straight for Gordon's back.

Vera stepped in and slashed out the tongue with her sword.

when!

The tongue and the sword clashed, producing a metallic clang.

Vera lowered her wrist, using the momentum to slide to the side, and the blade sliced ​​a long gash across her tongue.

Harold withdrew his tongue.

Just then, a stream of river water crashed down from above, and the black tongue convulsed violently within the water column.

Fine tendrils grew on both sides of the wound and stuck together.

When he closed his mouth again, his tongue had actually grown into two!

Gordon rushed up and flung the door open.

The room was filled with instruments and a row of levers with hemp rope wrapped around them so that the night shift workers could distinguish them by touch, with faded brass nameplates hanging below them.

He quickly identified it.

"Power valve"

"Inlet gate"

"Drain valve"

"Settling basin bypass"

"Emergency Discharge"

[A bunch of levers. Pulling the wrong one will make you the last intern engineer on this site.]

Gordon realized he only had one chance.

If you pull the wrong order, the wasted time will never come back.

He quickly turned the power valve.

buzzing...

The roar of steam inside the pumping station abruptly stopped, as if a giant beast had been choked.

The instrument pointers stabilized immediately, changing from wildly jumping to low-frequency twitching. The impact sound inside the large pump tower rang out one last time, and then fell silent.

Then, he tried to pull the [water gate].

The control lever of the water inlet gate was heavy and shiny with oil. He took off his coat, wrapped it around the control lever, and then tried his best to pull it down.

click!

Pull the control lever all the way down, and the roaring sound from the pipes everywhere will be greatly reduced.

Above the hall, the amount of water pouring from the pipes has noticeably decreased.

Harold looked up, and for the first time, panic appeared on his face.

Gordon rushed toward the drain valve, a giant metal wheel that required two people to operate.

He planted his feet firmly on the floor, found the most suitable posture to exert force, and pushed with all his might.

One lap...

Two laps...

The roulette wheel wore his palms raw, but it spun faster and faster.

Gao Deng was covered in sweat as he heard rumbling sounds coming from the bottom of the pumping station.

It was as if the underground had opened its gaping maw and was drinking heavily from the reservoir, causing the pipes at the bottom to shake violently.

The water level dropped rapidly, and the markings on the pool wall became clearly visible.

But it's still too slow.

With a determined heart, Gao Deng rushed towards the "Emergency Discharge" warning sign, which read, "Operation Prohibited in Non-Accident Conditions."

What is this if not an accident? Gordon glanced at Harold, who was several meters tall, through the observation window.

He pulled it down.

boom!

Six emergency drainage gates were opened simultaneously.

The floodwater rushed into the fully opened underground culvert, turning the reservoir into a huge black vortex.

Gordon watched as the water level plummeted and the broken pipe stopped dripping, but his heart was still in his throat, and he couldn't even feel the pain in his hand.

Harold and Vera were locked in combat in the hall.

Vera is facing Harold sideways.

Only at this moment did she truly unleash her core essence.

[Tearing Fate Apart: The Predestined End]

The phantom chains bound their fates together, revealing all of Harold's weaknesses.

Harold raised his hand, forcefully pulling up the remaining water around him and condensing it into three water spears, which pierced straight towards Vera with a sharp whistling sound.

At the same time, a tail-like organ popped out of the amniotic sac, its surface covered with grayish-white nerve endings and broken scales, sweeping across Vera's side with mucus.

Three water spears blocked the front.

Cut off the tail of the meat to make it easier to escape.

The bloodshot light in Vera's eyes brightened.

[The Instinct to Burn: Last Reserves]

She ignited the source material that was not yet fully fused.

The meat, bread, hot soup, sugar... that you swallowed before are actually all inside it.

Now, they are all brutally converted into fuel and injected into muscles and nerves.

Transform it into a continuous source of strength and courage!

My heart is racing.

Blood pressure rises.

Vera exhaled a breath of scorching white air, flying almost close to the ground as she cut in front of Harold.

The water spear and tail struck the spot where she had been standing, shattering the ground into fragments and puddles.

She pushed off the ground and leaped directly onto Harold's swollen and deformed torso, aiming at the crack marked by fate.

The heavy sword pierced the skull the first time, the chest cavity the second time, and the shoulder the third time.

As Harold furiously struck her, Vera took advantage of the momentum to fall down, piercing, picking, and cutting through his long, twisted legs.

"Roar!" Harold lost his balance and screamed as his huge body recoiled violently, instinctively reaching out to grab the reservoir.

When you are injured, you seek water; when you are fearful, you seek water; when you are hungry, you seek water.

But the once abundant reservoir was now only filled with a layer of sludge, and the drainage culvert swallowed the last few trickles of water.

Harold tumbled over the edge of the pool and fell in.

boom!

Hundreds of kilograms of flesh and blood were smashed into the bottom of the pool!

The terrifying sound of a spine breaking bounced up layer by layer from the empty pool.

He struggled to get up, but the wounds left by the black thorns burst open at the same time, his head, face, chest, shoulders, knees... all exploding at once.

The abdominal cavity bulged high for a moment, then suddenly collapsed.

"My...my...last breath..." Harold exhaled a puff of hot, wet foam, then stopped moving. The colorful scales ceased pacing.

The hall fell silent.

Vera stood on the edge of the pool, her sword tip dripping blood and black water.

"We won," she said.

"To rid the people of this scourge." Gordon jumped back from the control room to the lobby platform.

"How did this person die?" Vera leaned against the railing, looking down at the horrifying, distorted shape below.

"Natural death," Gordon said. "I mean, the death of natural science."

"Well done." Vera looked at the transformed pump station. She had been on edge, completely focused. Only when she confirmed that Gordon was joking again did she realize the battle was truly over. She had defeated a cultist of at least "Swimmer" level, not just a mere wet-footed man.

"Thank you. You can say that more often in the future," Gordon said. His palms ached from being rubbed together, but he felt extremely happy. It was the first time he had brought such a behemoth into the water.

After savoring the moment, Vera stood by the railing, feeling that everything was incredible.

Looking at it from another angle, if she had come alone tonight, things wouldn't have turned out this way.

Perhaps she would have pounced on Harold directly, but he would have remained trapped inside the clam, and she would still be wondering where to pry it open, but Gordon would have blown it open. Harold probably never imagined he would encounter such a thing until his death.

Harold, who was crippled because he didn't complete the ceremony, lost an arm. If he had completed the ceremony... she probably wouldn't have been able to leave the pump station.

"...So, what's next?" Vera looked at him.

"Quickly, let's scrape this place clean," Gordon judged.

Just now, during an emergency discharge, the Rice Pumping Station released a whole pool of eerie residue into the Blackwater River. It's unknown what strange things it might attract, and Vera is clearly not in good condition.

Without further ado, the two immediately parted ways.