The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 74: -6F

The five of them walked out of the elevator.

Before them was a narrow path. Dimly lit, it was quiet and serene, and the walls had a fine texture like they had been sanded.

The two-meter wide path was covered in white pebbles, each about the same size with a smooth texture, over which were planks of black sander. The intermittent placements of the planks created stripes of black and white.

On the sides were bodies of water at the same level as the path, each about three meters wide with slim bamboo filling the space to create patches of green, thriving with vitality yet not without order. It was clear that the bamboo had been placed and trimmed with care, and amid them were ancient-looking marble lights. Installed with sensors, the marbles lit up following their steps.

The trickling sound of water was interrupted by the soft clacks of shishi-odoshi[1] every once in a while. It felt as if they were actually walking in the heart of a bamboo forest under moonlight, the perfect embodiment of zen.

“Heavenly Dog did a good job designing this place,” Officer Huang complimented.

“It’s alright,” Wu Dahai said from the front of the group. “His mother came from the Island Nation[2]. He’s incorporated the elements of his home country.”

They reached the end of the path, where a metal door with artificial wooden texture stood. After a series of complex identity verification processes, the door opened, revealing a well-illuminated circular living space.

A stark contrast from the pathway before, the room was bright and designed in a minimalistic way with white, gray, and black as the main colors. It leaned more toward the style common in Sci-Fi.

At the center of the room was a small display platform, upon which was a hologram that repeated every ten seconds or so. Twelve cyberpunk-style mechanical animals of the twelve zodiac signs chased after one another and play-fought until they became one, morphing into a complex polygon that looked abstract yet profound. Then the polygon exploded, shattering into countless shards before the shards morphed into animals chasing and playing with one another yet again. It was a seamless, endless loop.

At the far side of the room were twelve doors, placed in a curve and each represented a zodiac sign.

Wu Dahai started with the leftmost door. “The mouse door leads to the meeting room, the ox door, the lab and tech development room, the tiger door, the gym, sparring room, and training room, the rabbit door, the breakroom, the water cooler room, and a minibar of drinks, coffee, and snacks. The dragon door leads to Captain’s private room and does not open to others. The snake door leads to the dorm rooms and baths.”

Wu Dahai paused and turned to Qing Ling. “Fret not, those are separate for male and female. You don’t have to worry about getting harassed.”

The only one she has to worry about is you, Gao Yang thought to himself.

“The horse door leads to the armory. I’ll show you in a bit.”

“The lamb door leads to the infirmary, operating room, and medicine storage.”

“The monkey door leads to the entertainment room.”

“Entertainment?” Gao Yang was surprised.

“You can only work hard if you know how to play hard! Got it?” Wu Dahai huffed. “There are desktops with internet connection and all kinds of consoles. There are also arcades, my favorite. You’re welcome to challenge me any time.”

“Then the chicken door...leads to a karaoke?” Gao Yang guessed.

“Yep!” Wu Dahai seemed proud of himself.

“Build an amusement park, would you?” War Tiger sounded fed up.

“I’m only taking care of all our members, Teacher!” Wu Dahai said defiantly. “Do you know how difficult it is to make twelve rooms?”

War Tiger snorted noncommittally. “Go on.”

“The dog door leads to the laundry.” Wu Dahai pointed at the last door, the pig door. “That’s the canteen.”

Officer Huang was impressed. “I thought this was a simple base, but with all the facilities, it can provide accommodation for everyone.”

“Of course.” Wu Dahai boasted. “All the supplies and reserved energy will last us a year.”

“Why would we stay here for that long?” asked Gao Yang.

“You’d thank me when the next Crimson Tide came,” Wu Dahai said.

“Oh...” War Tiger pressed a hand to his forehead, recalling an unpleasant memory. “During the last Tide, I had to poop in the middle of nowhere and wipe my ass with dried leaves. It was terrible.”

“What is Crimson Tide?” Gao Yang couldn’t suppress his curiosity.

“Let’s talk about that later.” War Tiger gave him a meaningful smile. “You’ve gotten enough trauma today.”

Oh, so you do know?

Gao Yang didn’t voice his grievance.

Wu Dahai led everyone through the horse door, and they found themselves in a multi-room armory.

The first room housed the firearms. All four walls were covered in modern weapons, including handguns, rifles, light machine guns, heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, as well as grenades like flash grenades, smoke grenades, sonic grenades, and grenade bombs. Officer Huang’s eyes lit up, hit by a pleasure so great that it felt like a mental climax.

He picked up a light silver revolver and popped the cylinder, making it rotate once to check the bullets before popping it back. Then he twirled the gun for half a circle before holstering it in his belt.

“Cool move,” Wu Dahai commented. “But please put the gun back.”

“Oh.”

Officer Huang reluctantly put the revolver back and reached out for the light machine gun.

“No touching!” Wu Dahai ordered.

Officer Huang grumbled, “Stingy...”

“Stingy?! Did I not give you the sniper rifle when you asked for it back then? You hadn’t even joined the organization!” Wu Dahai found it both funny and infuriating. “What are you gonna do anyway? Pick up a machine gun and shoot at random targets on the street?!”

War Tiger patted Wu Dahai on the shoulder. “Why don’t you treat your junior member with more generosity, Electric Mouse?”

“Never!” Wu Dahai said with the pride of the owner of this household and opened the door to the next room.

The shelves were lined with cold weapons, including a variety of sabres, spears, swords, polearms, axes, greataxes, hook swords, tridents, whips, swordbreakers, hammers, flying claws, ranseurs, staffs, long spears, maces, tonfas, and morningstars, as well as all kinds of bows and arrows and hidden weapons.

“You’re free to grab what you want, Qing Ling.” Wu Dahai gave her a wink.

“No need.” Qing Ling didn’t even spare the weapons a glance.

Seeing Wu Dahai getting the cold shoulder, Officer Huang snorted to himself. That was what he got for his double standards.

The different rooms of the base were all connected. After giving everyone a tour, Wu Dahai took them to the dorm rooms for a quick shower and a change of clothes—the earlier fight had left their clothes tattered and torn.

Afterward, the five of them gathered in the breakroom.

It looked like a big flat in a north European style. There were bean bags, rugs, television, fridge, snacks, and drinks. It reminded Gao Yang of what he had seen in western sitcoms.

The five of them each sat down on a bean bag and chatted while they drank.

Then Wu Dahai seemed to have remembered something, and he called out, “Nesokia Genie.”

The large LCD screen on the wall lit up, and the image of a girl with mouse ears drawn in the style of manga popped up. She said in a sweet voice, “Greetings, Master. What may I do for you?”

“Check my current ranking.” Wu Dahai took a sip of coke, his face filled with anticipation.

“Understood.”

“Electric Mouse of the Twelve Zodiac Signs. Comprehensive power ranking among awakeners: 102nd.”

“Gahhhh!” Wu Dahai yelled in frustration. “Not only did I not get into the double-digits, but I actually dropped a rank?!”

“There’s a power ranking for awakeners?”

Gao Yang sat up, suddenly wide awake.

1. A device set up to scare away animals that’s often found in Japanese gardens. ?

2. Most likely referring to Japan given Tengu, Heavenly Dog, comes from Japanese mythology, and shishi-odoshi is a Japan thing. However, no real-life nations/locations have been named directly in this story as far as I know, so I opted to keep the literal translation here. ?

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