40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 5 5. An ordinary rainy night in Nostramo (1)

“The key to a successful hunt is silence.”

On top of the huge bronze gargoyle, the ghost listened quietly to Khalil's words. He was indeed born with a lot of knowledge, but not what Khalil was talking about.

He is still too young, too young to understand the principles of the world beneath his feet. Knowing it from birth would only bring more doubts to him.

"As you can see, there are tens of thousands of gangs in the entire Quintus. Their territory is divided very carefully, even down to an inconspicuous alley. This means that if you don't be quiet, the sound of killing will be Will be heard by other gangs."

"Aren't they already accustomed to killing?" Ghost asked doubtfully. "Do they also care about the noise coming from other gangs' territory?"

"Civilians and gangs make different sounds when they die, ghosts."

Khalil grinned cruelly.

"Civilians die when they die. Not many of them care about life, and there are not a few who commit suicide. Do you think there are so many corpses with no scars in the corpse incineration plant? Could it be that they all died of illness?"

"As for the gang members who killed them, tell me, Ghost, what sound did they make when they died?"

"Curse." Ghost thought for a while and said. "They cursed me and said someone would avenge them."

"More than these."

Khalil waved his left hand, and the smile became more obvious on his pale face. "And gunshots. Ghosts. They'll keep shooting, and if you can't block out the sound like I can, you'd better keep quiet."

"Then why don't you block out those sounds for me?"

"Because this is your solo hunt."

Khalil flexed the muscles in his shoulders and neck and narrowed his eyes.

"Listen, I'm going to die one day. I'm just an ordinary person. I can't tear apart an armored car with a wave of my hand like you can. And you, Ghost, you obviously have a common purpose with me to some extent. "

"So I'm going to teach you everything I know, so that even if I die, you can change this hellish place. That way, even if I die, I will be very happy."

Khalil finished speaking and shrugged. The ghost listened to his words quietly, with a calm expression.

He kept nodding, but his expression clearly revealed the truth: he still couldn't quite understand what Khalil's words meant.

Once again - Khalil Lohars felt an extreme irony at this naivety.

You innocent little monster, why do you have to appear on Nostramo?

Khalil smiled and shook his head.

"Go ahead," he said. "A gang, kill them all."

The ghost came to the edge of the gargoyle, and just when he was about to fall, he suddenly stopped moving.

He turned his head and said to Khalil: "Killing does not solve the problem, Khalil, you told me this."

"Yes."

"Then why do we keep purging these gangs?"

"Complete the mission, clear out the other gangs without them being discovered, and I'll tell you the answer."

"Really?"

"I didn't lie to you."

The ghost no longer hesitated, he nodded and jumped down from the top of the gargoyle. Khalil stared at him until the tall shadow completely disappeared into the night, and then he sighed.

"Only eighteen months old." He muttered to himself. "What kind of psychopath created such a monster and threw it into Quintus?"

——

"The coroner of the Scolewocks is dead," said a bald man.

He has no lips, and his face is so damaged by countless punctures that it is difficult to look straight at him.

His upper body was naked, with chains buried deep in his flesh protruding from his wrists, extending all the way to his waist, which looked weird and terrifying.

Piercings don't matter, many gang members like to add something to their faces to show that they are different. The same goes for body modification, where pain-loving perverts can be found everywhere.

But the severed lip was the crux of the problem.

This means he belongs to Shivertooth.

This means that he belongs to a noble family from the upper echelons of the hive city.

"I heard that the woman had a special metal arm that was powerful enough to smash the head of a sharp-toothed cow with one punch - how did she die?"

Another woman asked in the room with burning candles.

She wore an exaggerated white dress with many layers. The waist is slender, and the exposed chest is soft and white. It looks beautiful, but there is a necklace made of finely polished human bones on the chest.

The bald man looked at her impatiently and spoke in a bad tone.

"You have nothing to say, do you, Guvas? Everyone knows that the Skolywok family is extremely rich, and they can have anything as long as they are willing to be their dogs. Does it matter who killed her? What matters is her body. where!"

"Oh, I can't tell, Kangja, I can't tell you that I'm just trying to find something to say—but you'd better talk to me politely."

The woman smiled charmingly, her lips stained red by human blood slowly spreading.

"I recently bought a batch of hallucinogens from the top. If you don't want to wake up one day and find yourself being hung up and skinned by your subordinates, please give me some respect."

The bald man named Kang Jia snorted coldly. He raised his right hand and touched his exposed teeth. His free left hand kept piercing the flesh of his thigh with his sharp fingers.

He needs a little physical pleasure to remind himself not to lose his mind.

"That's almost it."

In the hall, another person who had always been silent finally spoke. Compared to Guvas' flamboyant court dress and Kangjia's cruel body modification style, he, dressed in black, looks like the only normal person here.

He said expressionlessly: "We have nothing to do with the Skolewock family. It's not our turn to worry about this kind of thing."

"But the Skolywok family has always spent a lot of money, Prey." Konja said. "Are we really not going to get a share of the pie?"

"The person who has the guts to murder the coroner of the Scolewock family on the eve of the Great Purge is not something we can deal with."

Prey shook his head calmly.

"And even if we're really lucky and find her body, how are we going to solve the next problem that the Scolewocks throw up? Of course they're going to want to know who murdered the coroner."

Kangjia nodded thoughtfully, which was in sharp contrast to the irritability he had shown during his previous conversation with Guvas.

"So, are we going to declare a curfew?" asked the gorgeous Guvas.

She squinted her eyes and took out a needle-like instrument from her handbag on the table as she spoke.

Through the transparent shell, you can clearly see the confusing scarlet color inside.

"Don't do it just yet - also, inject less. Type III blood mixture is so addictive that you will burn your brain out. Look at your lips. You are addicted to human blood." Right?"

Govas licked his lips, tasting the blood, and nodded absently.

Just staring at the tube of injection, her vision began to become confused, her breathing became rapid, and her cheeks turned red.

Kang Jia, who was watching, sneered.

This is what happens with Type 3 blood cocktail addicts, who are suddenly plunged into the frenzy of addiction at every unpredictable second.

If he didn't drink blood or inject a third-type injection, this crazy state would last for several days.

Seeing this, Prey angrily picked up a gold-inlaid dinner plate from the long table and threw it over, knocking the syringe in Govas' hand directly to the ground.

The woman's first reaction was not to be angry, but to subconsciously pounce on him like a dog, groping on the carpet, trying to retrieve the syringe.

Her behavior continued until a dark leather boot stepped on her right hand.

Guvas raised his head and saw Preu's expressionless face.

"I really shouldn't have agreed to let you go into the psychedelic drug business." Prey whispered, and started to use his left foot hard, grinding hard against Guvas' palm.

The bald Kangjia grinned. Guvas' face was pale with pain, but he did not dare to move.

"You have no ability to control yourself at all, and that's it. Your usual indulgences don't matter, but now it's a life-and-death moment, and you still want to take a shot of hallucinogens?"

Prey flew up and kicked the woman to the other side of the long table. He finally couldn't bear it anymore and started to curse.

"Let's not talk about that damn vengeful spirit. It's a private soldier arranged by some crazy family. Let's talk about the death of the priest and the razor! They were torn apart and thrown into that damn church. We fucking They even had to be cleaned!”

"The Purge is coming soon, Guvas!"

Prey stood up from the chair and glared fiercely at the bleeding woman. The latter's first reaction was not to stop the bleeding. Instead, he kept touching his bleeding nose with both hands and sending the blood to his lips.

Her face was full of intoxication.

Prey's face finally showed a trace of disappointment that could not be concealed.

He looked at Guvas and spoke again. Therefore, he ignored a fleeting black shadow outside the window of the room, and also ignored the small sounds that kept coming from the rain curtain.

Those sounds sounded like flesh and blood being torn apart.

"Kangja and Shivertooth have formed a relationship, which means that we finally don't have to donate money to survive this purge. But you are addicted to hallucinogens and can't extricate yourself."

"Look at yourself, the black-lunged guy in the factory who is sick and dying is better than you -"

".Pure?"

Kangja blinked, wondering why Prey stopped.

Of course he would be happy to see Guvas punished or even deprived of his rights and thrown out of the gang. He would be very happy to teach this idiot who is in the hallucinogen business a lesson. However, Prey's pause stopped everything.

He turned his head and looked at Prey. Then his eyes widened.

He didn't see Prey.

To be precise, he didn't see Prey's head.

A headless corpse stood swaying in front of the window, and the sour and smelly rain poured in, but they did not realize when the window was opened.

Kangjia stood up abruptly, drawing his gun and trying to shout for the gang members waiting outside the door to come in and help.

Unfortunately, he was destined to be unable to do this.

A long and pale arm had already grasped his neck first.

"Goodbye," the ghost said politely. "Plus, your windows are easy to open."

A dull sound sounded the next moment, and the last sight Kangjia saw in his life was a white bone stained with scarlet blood.

Half a second later, when his consciousness was about to fade into darkness, he finally recognized what the bone was.

That's a piece of vertebrae.

Whose is it?

With this question, he entered the dark sleep forever.

The ghost dropped the head with a section of spine, turned his head and glanced at the only ancient gas left in the room.

He could clearly hear the conversation between the three gang leaders outside. He knew her name and her addiction to blood.

In fact, the latter can be analyzed through her behavior at the moment.

A normal person would not lie down on the corpse of his companion and suck the blood hungrily.

The ghost walked over without mercy.

Outside the window, the heavy rain continued.