"Ahh!?" I gasped.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t heard clearly—it was sheer disbelief. But Senior didn’t give me time to process. Her face flushed, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me lightly.
*Charging foul!* *That’s a foul!*
They looked modest at first glance… but wow. Seriously hidden assets.
"S-Senior…?" My voice cracked. Her small hands clinging to my waist, that uniquely girlish fragrance, the softness of her body—I froze. My mind went blank, short-circuited. My hands flailed uselessly in the air. Honestly, today’s brain had crashed more than once already.
"Xiaobai," Senior murmured, tilting her head up in my arms. Her eyes held tender affection.
"W-What is it, Senior?"
"Am I pretty?"
"Pretty!" The answer slipped out instinctively.
"Then… kiss me?"
"Ahh!?" Same gasp, same shock. And again, Senior gave no reaction time. She slowly rose on her toes, eyes closed, her lips already pressing against mine.
*Ah… those cherry-red lips. Screw it. Death be damned.*
When her lips brushed mine, her warm breath ghosting over my cheek, I squeezed my eyes shut tight. I didn’t dare open them. I focused only on the sweet, girlish scent radiating from Senior Xiaowu’s mouth.
For a nineteen-year-old virgin like me, this simple lip-to-lip kiss was already intensely stimulating.
But Senior Xiaowu seemed determined not to let me off easy. Her tongue slipped into my mouth unnoticed.
I jolted violently, eyes flying open. Unlike me moments ago, she wasn’t closing hers. She stared right at me, mischief dancing in her gaze.
*Damn it!* No way! My masculine pride felt wounded. I thrust my tongue forward, tangling it fiercely with hers.
"Mmm~" A soft, breathy moan escaped her.
…Kissing (censored for 100 words).
Huh? Something felt… off? Teeth? The shape of her teeth was wrong. How…
*Riiip!* Sudden, searing pain exploded in my mouth. Senior wrenched herself from my embrace, standing beside me with a playful smile.
Blood trickled from my lip. "Nngh—ahhh! Ughhhhh—waaaaah!!" Agony ripped through my jaw, sending waves of dizziness crashing through my brain. Cold sweat drenched me. Weakness flooded my limbs. My knees buckled, slamming me onto the ground.
"Guh… *cough cough*… ughhh…" I spat out mouthfuls of blood. It choked my throat. Nausea churned in my stomach.
Xiaowu had bitten off half my tongue…
"*Spit*—ugh, *cough*—" More blood.
"Mmm~ Impressive. You didn’t faint right away." Xiaowu’s amused chuckle cut through the haze.
*What the hell is happening?* Kneeling there, my chin and shirt soaked crimson, blood still bubbling from my mouth, I looked up—and froze in horror.
Her teeth… they weren’t the pearly whites from moments ago. Not human teeth at all. Jagged, serrated fangs, unnaturally neat. And her eyes… under the moonlight, they glowed with an eerie green luminescence.
She still held my severed tongue between those fangs, swaying it slightly—as if sensing my stare. Then deliberately, she drew it back into her mouth. Chewing slowly. Swallowing. I watched, sickened, as my own flesh slid down her throat. She grinned, a chilling, bone-deep smile.
"*Cough—spit!*" The sight triggered violent retching. Blood and bile splattered the ground.
"*Ghk*… *cough*… *d-demon*…" This woman was absolutely a demon.
"Heh~ Demon? Close… but no."
"*Cough*… *huh?*" How did she know my thoughts?
"Mind Reading. It’s my ability." Xiaowu smirked wickedly.
"*Cough—spit!*" As the dizziness lessened slightly, I pushed myself up, spitting blood. *Mind Reading? Ability? Nonsense!* I had to escape. But the pain from my mangled tongue drained all strength. My legs trembled, numb. I needed a plan.
"*Cough—spit! Cough!*" Suddenly clutching my stomach, I dropped to my knees again. My hand slipped into my pocket, closing tightly around a small pocketknife.
"*Cough… cough cough…*"
"Mmm~ Xiaobai? You okay? Let Senior check." Xiaowu’s voice dripped with false concern. She took a step closer, bending down, reaching out her hand.
*Now!* I snapped my head up, lunging with the hidden knife.
But the instant I moved, her hand clamped like a vice around my wrist.
"*Ghk?!*" How?! At this range, how did she react so fast? How did she know my move? And why was this tiny hand so impossibly strong?!
"Hehe~ Xiaobai, this won’t kill me." She gripped my knife hand, then *yanked* it toward her own throat.
*She’s insane!*
This woman was utterly deranged—stabbing her own throat!
The blade’s tip slammed into her neck… but no gush of blood followed like in the movies. The knife didn’t pierce her slender throat. It stopped dead against her snow-white skin, not even breaking the surface. Not a single drop of blood.
"*Cough—what?!*" Monster! A real monster!
"Mmm~ Monster. Good guess this time. But I hate that word." Her smirk vanished. Her eyes narrowed, locking onto mine. The absence of that creepy smile felt even more dangerous.
"*Dangerous?*" she echoed my thought aloud, flashing an even more terrifying grin. Her grip twisted.
*Crack!* A light twist—yet my arm snapped like dry wood.
"*Uuuuugh—cough!*" The pain was nothing compared to my tongue. The earlier agony had numbed me; this break barely registered. Cradling my broken right arm with my left, I struggled upright, glaring at her.
*Calm down! Li Xiaobai, calm down!* Fighting was hopeless. This woman wasn’t human—her appearance was a lie.
Blood loss from my tongue was worsening. Dizziness blurred my vision. This wasn’t just fainting… I was dying.
*Run!* Get to crowded streets. Escape this alley.
"You think I’m not human? Fine. I’ll show you something special before you die."
*I knew it. She really can read minds.*
Her playful smirk vanished. Now, she threw her head back, mouth wide open in a roar that revealed those horrifying serrated fangs. Her eyes no longer just glowed—they were entirely consumed by crisscrossing veins of vivid green, the pupils reduced to pinpricks of ghastly white.
Without warning, impossible things sprouted from her back. Spider legs. Eight jointed limbs—four on each shoulder down to her waist—unfurled like an insect’s. Each limb stretched over two meters long, segmented into four parts. Backward-facing serrations lined the inner edges; hard, chitinous armor covered the outer surfaces. The tips tapered into vicious stiletto points. Under the night sky, the exoskeleton shimmered with a faint, ominous violet sheen. Those eight Spider Spikes swayed, radiating pure death.
But it wasn’t over. Just below the lowest spider limb, near her hips, something else erupted. A scorpion tail. A massive, ashen-gray stinger arched over her head, swaying like a venomous snake locking onto prey.
"*What?!*" I stared, dumbfounded. How could someone raised in a scientific age believe this? I’d thought I’d just met a psycho killer—I’d even planned a counterattack! This was beyond reason.
I spun and ran. Blood still poured from my mouth. My broken right arm swung limply.
I ran for my life.
Light! The alley’s end! Crowded streets! My apartment building!
No footsteps behind me. Not chasing? I risked a glance back while sprinting.
No one!
*I can make it!*
Five meters left!
"*Huh?! AAAHHH!*" A shadow dropped from above—a Spider Spike—impaling my left shoulder.
"*COUGH—SPITTTTTTTTT!!*" The backward serrations hooked into my flesh. It yanked me off the ground, dragging me back into the alley’s darkness… then slammed me into a corner.
"*UUUUUUUUUGH!*" Another Spider Spike speared my right shoulder. Then both limbs hoisted me up, pinning me to the wall.
"*Uuuuuh—AAAAAAHHH!*" A third spike drove through my thigh.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Her maniacal laughter echoed.
"*Cough—!*" A fourth spike plunged into my abdomen.
"You know? Boys your age… your meat is the most tender."
This scheming woman had played me from the start.
"…" A fifth spike tore through my other thigh.
"Time to meet Xiao Hui." She giggled like a child. The scorpion tail arched over her head, then *stabbed* downward toward my skull.
A searing pain exploded at my crown. Then—darkness. The agony, the monster’s presence, the distant train sounds… all vanished. The world froze.
"Hehe~ Things just got interesting."
That was the last sound I heard as a human.
