Sweet Hunting Ground [GB] - Chapter 4.2

Even if he wanted to smile right now, his lips wouldn’t move. Some deep, inescapable instinct told him that the little monster was telling the truth.

Ani carefully collected every piece of him that was unique.

Zero-One-Three’s pupils were striking—both the real and the artificial. The cruel, feral grin on his face shattered as his pupils trembled, dazed for a fleeting second. Ani, overwhelmed with euphoria, pressed a kiss against his eye.

“Mmph…” The man was too stunned to react, too restrained to evade. His throat was still choked tight, and as saliva pooled at the back of his mouth, he nearly suffocated on it. His chest convulsed in a fit of coughing.

Ani swirled the vial of collected liquid before tucking it securely into her pocket. She loosened the tentacle sealing his mouth just slightly.

“…Fvck,” Zero-One-Three growled the second he could breathe, his teeth grinding audibly. “You mother fucking little—ngh… hiss—”

Another wound split open across his body.

Pain had never dulled him. If anything, Ani’s inflicted injuries only sharpened his sensitivity to it.

For once, Zero-One-Three was in too much agony to speak. Cold sweat beaded across his forehead.

“No cursing at my mother,” Ani said seriously.

“Fvck your m—”

Another wound, sharper this time, and inexplicably worse.

Zero-One-Three curled in on himself, his posture wrecked by the pain. He had never been in a worse state. A body that could always heal had made injury a child’s play to him. But now, he hesitated. He wouldn’t die, but it hurt like hell.

Beads of sweat dripped from his hair.

His breaths were ragged, but he swallowed down the sounds of his suffering. After ten seconds of eerie silence, he swallowed his fury as well. “Let’s make a new deal.”

“I’m listening,” Ani said.

“I let your old flame go, you let me go.”

Ani laughed. “So what you mean is, you pretend to make a deal, I let you go, and then you command every last pirate in this vessel to rain advanced firepower on me until I’m nothing but dust? Even if everyone died in the process, that’s nothing to you, is it?”

Caught, Zero-One-Three’s expression didn’t flicker, and continued on shamelessly. “That long-haired guy is a merman? You just showed some obvious merfolk-traits. He’s one of your victims, isn’t he? …A merman like him, pampered from birth, wouldn’t willingly sit in a place like this. So tell me, is he the missing second son of the Blue Dragon Family?”

Ani blinked. “What? Say that again? Second son of who?”

Zero-One-Three studied her face. She seemed earnest and genuinely confused. He clenched his sharp teeth and hissed out, “…Idiot.”

Ani cupped his face with both hands, grinning. “Can an idiot keep studying your body a little more?”

Zero-One-Three would rather be torn apart than hold his tongue. “Are you some kind of fucking breeding parasite? Is your whole brain wired to this sick sh1t? Or is your entire bloodline so damn close to extinction—”

“Ah,” Ani murmured absently. “Yeah, extinction is coming.” Then, she slapped him hard across the face. “And stop swearing.”

—

By the time they reached an agreement, the countdown Zero-One-Three had mentioned wasn’t up yet.

The broadcast crackled to life. This time, the audio was warped and static-ridden. Zero-One-Three’s voice was hoarse beyond recognition: “That’s enough. We’re pulling out.”

A burst of static, then a low, pained grunt. “You goddamn animal—fvck—” The sound cut out briefly, as if the mic had been smothered. Then, even more distorted, his voice lashed out, “What the hell are you all waiting for? For the damn cops to storm in?!”

He was referring to the United Police of Blue Ocean Star. This wasn’t the prestigious District Eight. There was no elite security force here. The local enforcers didn’t differentiate between pirates and hostages. They would exterminate them all.

They weren’t worth the trouble.

The pirates hesitated, then begrudgingly complied, retreating from the ship back to their own crafts. Only two remained, standing guard over Lin, knocking excitedly on the cockpit door. “Boss! We found him!”

The door slid open. The girl with white hair stood before them. Ani held out a hand. “Give him to me.”

They froze. On instinct, their eyes flickered past her, towards the cockpit’s interior.

Their boss’s clothes were drenched in bl00d.

Zero-One-Three was in ruins. His outfit was shredded, ribbons of fabric hanging over flawless, unmarked skin. No wounds. No scars. But his hair clung to his sweat-slicked neck, his human eye locked on the metallic ceiling above. His exposed throat gleamed, drenched in cold sweat.

The guards blinked in unison. Their boss… played rough.

The girl before them, however, was unscathed. Just bl00d-scented. Ani stretched out her hand again. “Give him to me.”

They hesitated. Then, from behind her, Zero-One-Three rasped, “Give her the merman.”

“But boss, we checked his ID. He’s the Blue Dragon—”

“I said give her the damn merman!” Zero-One-Three’s voice snapped. His fist slammed into the now-functional control panel.

The two men stepped back immediately, releasing Lin. Ani took his hand, while the guards muttered to themselves. Their boss really was weak to a pretty face. Handing this guy over meant losing billions.

Zero-One-Three inhaled sharply. “We’re leaving.”

He pushed off the console, his movements slow, almost imperceptibly delayed. Then he walked, steady again. As he passed Ani, he yanked down the tattered collar of his shirt, exposing the wound on his throat—

Raw, ragged flesh struggling to knit itself back together. Writhing tissue, laced with a severed, pale-pink tentacle.

His body refused to heal.

“Take it back,” Zero-One-Three ordered.

“You bit it off yourself.” Ani met his gaze, voice level. “It hurt me too.” Then she gestured to the two guards. “Let them go as well. All of them. I don’t want to see any of you on the radar.”

Zero-One-Three turned to the two men.

They froze. Then, in unison, they slammed the door shut behind them.

The console screen flickered to life, displaying a series of red dots dispersing. Those were pirates or even unauthorized passengers, vanishing from the scanner one by one.

Even the cheapest transit ships were ruthlessly precise when it came to ticket fees.

Ani reached out, grasping the severed tentacle. It melted into her skin, rippling like liquid, merging back into her body.

Tainted with his bl00d.

Zero-One-Three had never been this weak. In all his life, he had been untouchable, immune to pain. But wounds inflicted by Ani—they tore into him deeper every time. And every time, they hurt more.

Yet the monster who had done this to him cupped his face, thumb brushing over the red imprint of her slap. She sighed wistfully. “We’ll meet again, right?”

Zero-One-Three was too livid to respond. Then he let out a sharp, breathy laugh. “What the hell are you saying?”

“I don’t want to part with you,” Ani said. “I need to study you more. If I can figure something out, maybe we’ll meet again.”

Zero-One-Three laughed, hoarse and dangerous, voice laced with venom. “Oh, we’ll meet again. Next time, I’ll find out what you really are and carve you into pieces and grind you into dust.”

Ani grinned, patting his cheek lightly, and said rather cheerfully. “Okay. See you next time.”