I Am Extraordinary Alone

The dining location was in the hotel lobby on the first floor, where the members of the Black House had pushed together the small low tables in the corner.

Considering the current state of this small organization, dinner could be deemed sumptuous, on par with the street-side eateries of Chicken Snake Country, a bit better than ordinary households.

On the low tables was a spread of local delicacies from Chicken Snake Country. Everyone was busy distributing bowls and chopsticks, conversing with smiles, under the flickering candlelight, creating a harmonious atmosphere.

The staple food was of course rice produced in Chicken Snake Country, regrettably not Yin Rice, but Wei Tianyang couldn't ask for too much. Everyone got a bowl, and there was also a hot pot of it on the floor behind, satisfying those with bigger appetites.

There were two metallic basins filled with chicken foot salad, the most famous dish in Chicken Snake Country. It was affordable and rich with the local flavors of Chicken Snake Country, crispy and sweet to the bite, juicy and tender, with chili dipping sauce on the side, very tempting.

Right next to the chicken foot salad were four slightly smaller metal bowls filled with spicy and fresh boiled vegetables, an easy dish that wasn't picky about ingredients, spicy and savory, perfect with rice.

Additionally, there were several small basins with chicken livers, pork intestines, and blood blocks among others, all steeped in marinade, which Wei Tianyang could smell.

Kacha had given Wei Tianyang a set of bowls and chopsticks, and had even served him a bowl of rice.

He could only accept the other's kindness; it seemed Kacha was insistent on making him a friend.

Wei Tianyang chose an inconspicuous spot and wasn't too restrained when eating. After all, he had worked on a construction site carrying bricks before and had eaten communal meals, if he had acted timid and constrained, he would have ended up just eating plain rice and wouldn't touch any dishes.

The members seated nearby were all curious about him and wanted to strike up a conversation, but since he was eating with great relish, they felt it would be rude to disturb him.

While eating, Wei Tianyang was also discreetly observing this small group. He noticed, aside from those with superpowers gathered on the rooftop, there were a few who had not worn masks at his initiation ceremony.

One of these was Yaha's driver; the rest, Wei Tianyang guessed, were cooks or assistants helping Yaha with other matters.

However, it was very strange...

Where did Yaha get the funds to maintain this small group's operations? And as he said himself, using superpowers would accumulate toxins in the spinal cord, requiring regular injections of an antidote. This substance... where did he get it?

Wei Tianyang couldn't guess, and knew better than to inquire recklessly. Yet he had to admit, he was starting to like this place.

The people here, like himself, were Medicine People who had escaped death, all harboring hatred towards Tiantai Pharmaceutical. Compared to the people he had met while working temp jobs over the past few years, this small group was undoubtedly warmer.

Whether his heart could accept them depended on one question: were they trustworthy?

Wei Tianyang would find the answer.

If Yaha was just using him like Ruan Yu was…

"Then I'll kill them all," Wei Tianyang blurted out, inexplicably…

The scene suddenly went quiet.

Over thirty people holding their bowls and chopsticks stopped their movements, the food remaining in their mouths, all casting puzzled glances at Wei Tianyang.

Wei Tianyang was also quite embarrassed, but his mouth didn't stop; he continued to chew on the chicken feet in his mouth.

"Haha, our little Ishmael sure has a lot of resentment," Yaha joked at that moment.

Yaha's joke eased the atmosphere, everyone just smiled towards Wei Tianyang, and the lobby once again filled with the sounds of conversation and people chewing their food.

Kill them all...

This thought continuously, perpetually surfaced in Wei Tianyang's mind. Whenever he felt a hint of resentment or a touch of anger, those four words would instinctively slip out... and he would act rashly...

He hadn't been like this before.

Ever since the first injection of the Black Medicine, his temperament had slightly changed, and after the second injection... and after contact with the black, incomplete giant...

Were these the side effects of the Black Medicine?

After dinner, it was almost 9 pm, and everyone had returned to their rooms. Considering the need for sleep, no one except for Starbucks had drunk coffee.

Most lived on the second floor, while only six rooms on the third floor were occupied, with Kacha and Starbucks among them.

And Yaha lived alone on an even higher floor.

After returning to his room, Wei Tianyang lay on the bed with his legs resting on the ground.

He gazed at the moon outside the window, and for a long time, an inexplicable fear and sorrow churned in his heart. He took a deep breath, his left leg trembling nonstop.

Suddenly, he sniffed a hint of blood in his nose.

He looked up, and sniffed carefully again. It was indeed blood... and there was also some rotten odor mixed in it.

Closing his eyes, the web of scents unfurled in his mind.

The intense coffee aroma was coming from Starbucks's room, along with the smell of shoe polish and metal from Kacha's room. The stench of blood and decay wafted down from the floor above, through his window.

Wei Tianyang got up and went to the window, gently pushed the wooden bed aside, and poked his head out to look upward.

The home just above him, on the sixth floor, had a window pushed open, and Yaha's hand reached out, tossing down a clump of something black.

Wei Tianyang quickly pulled back into the window, narrowly avoiding being hit by Yaha's high-altitude projectile.

Below, a dull thud resounded.

He looked down again and, in the moonlight, spotted a bloody, mangled dead rat lying in the bare green strip at the base of the wall.

After that, he caught a whiff of a bitter odor... some kind of medication?

What was Yaha up to?

He softly closed the window, filled with questions as he walked to the bed.

Although he did not have much interaction with him, there was no doubt that Yaha was a strange person, but could such a person be a good leader?

Thinking this, he blew out the candle, turned over in bed, and closed his eyes to try to drift off to sleep.

"That morning, waking up from a dream."

"Goodbye, my friend, goodbye, goodbye."

"Oh guerrilla, oh, take me away."

"I really can't bear it anymore."

"If I fall, in battle."

"You must bury me."

"Bury me on, a high hill."

"And plant a beautiful flower there."

...

The singing echoed in his ears.

Wei Tianyang groggily opened his eyes; he was alone in the room.

The song was coming from outside the door... to be precise, from downstairs.

Who was singing?

It was a bit cold at night. Wei Tianyang touched his arm, quietly opened the room door, and found that all the candles in the corridor were out, pitch black.

The singing originated from the stairwell at the end of the hallway, ascending with the stairs to the third floor, the source probably in the lobby on the first floor.

It was not the sound from any electronic device, but a choir of about a dozen people accompanied by an accordion and a harmonica, the voices inexplicably mournful.

Wei Tianyang first guessed it was some of Yaha's subordinates who hadn't appeared at the initiation ceremony but quickly dismissed the thought.

He remembered the woman at the front desk carrying an RPD light machine gun and the man reading a book in the courtyard.

More than just Yaha's little group were occupying this building.

By rights, this wasn't his business.

But Wei Tianyang still decided to meet these "people."

Thus, he quietly closed the room door and tiptoed down the stairs.