40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 8 8. Experience, Lessons, Time Bomb

Stay away from darkness.

I have to stay away from the darkness.

but why? The darkness protected me.

pain.

Am I bleeding?

Complex and chaotic thoughts passed through his mind. The ghost didn't know if he was still alive. He only felt pain and another emotion that he was not too willing to admit.

He wanted to go back into the darkness, back into the depths of the mine. It's damp and warm, with rats for food and mud for shelter.

He didn't want to endure this torture and he didn't deserve to be treated like that.

However, a voice whispered to him, urging him to give up such thoughts.

Stay away from the darkness, ghost, that is not the fate you deserve. So it said.

destiny?

This unfamiliar word broke into his already chaotic thoughts, making it even more crazy.

Countless illusions rushed towards him in the next second, baring their teeth and claws, grabbing him with sharp claws, clarifying to the ghosts the truth they believed in.

"You don't have a choice, kid, you don't have a choice!"

They roared, their sound was like a bell and thunder at midnight.

"A fool's dream! There is no way to change the established facts, you must obey! You are destined to be full of blood and infamous. Only in this way can you become--"

Become what?

The ghost looked at the distorted scene in confusion, and then, there was light.

——

"woke up?"

Ghost sat up suddenly and began to breathe heavily. Without thinking, he got up from the ground and returned to the corner he was most familiar with using his hands and feet based on his sense of smell.

After shaking for more than ten seconds, he realized who the greeter was.

And where is this.

Khalil sat in the darkness and looked at him expressionlessly: "Are you leaning against the wall, ghost?"

".What?"

"I said, are you leaning against the wall?"

"Yes." Ghost replied tremblingly. "I'm leaning against the wall."

His shoulders were shaking at the moment, and the fear caused by the hallucination still hadn't subsided. He didn't understand what those things were, and he didn't want to. He just wanted to forget about them.

"Come here," Khalil said. "Stop leaning against that wall. That posture is not good for your injuries."

"No, I don't want to-"

Ghost instinctively wanted to refuse, he was unwilling to leave this corner. It was as comfortable to him as the bottom of the mine.

However, all instincts disappeared the moment he saw Khalil's eyes.

The neon light coming in from the broken door was chopped into many irregular broken light spots by the holes of the wooden door itself. They hit half of Khalil's face, making his pale face look like a strange one. painting.

His eyes are glowing.

The ghost's trembling stopped.

"Come here, Ghost," Khalil repeated softly. "Don't lean against the wall."

This time, the ghost complied.

He bent down and carefully left the corner. The pain in his back prevented him from walking smoothly, and a sticky feeling slid down his spine.

Blood, my blood. The ghost thought.

He pursed his lips in agony.

"Your injuries are serious." Khalil tilted his head, looking a little careless. "They shot you with a hook and line gun, that thing was for hunting, you're lucky."

"hunt.?"

"Yes, there are many people outside the city who were kicked out because they couldn't pay. They managed to survive outside, but the price was to become like wild beasts."

"So the nobles invented a new way of entertainment, and the gangs also liked to participate, but not with the nobles. They called this process jumping on the bandwagon. Interesting, right?"

He laughed, but there was no smile in his eyes.

"This isn't fun," the ghost whispered. "What's a grappling gun?"

"That thing is very scary, ghost." Khalil smiled and shook his head.

"It will explode the moment it hits, and the arrow will break into more than a dozen pieces, each piece with cruel barbs. It will get stuck in the flesh and bones of the prey and extend as far inward as possible. So, you My back is in terrible shape now.”

Will I die? Ghost asked silently, he didn't speak, but his expression was enough to tell Khalil his question.

"No, you won't," Khalil said. "Actually, in a few hours at most, your still bleeding wound will begin to scab over, Ghost."

"."

The ghost didn't answer his words, but just sat on the ground in silence. He seemed slightly frustrated, a sentiment not missed by Khalil.

He rarely makes mistakes, in fact, he almost never makes mistakes.

"Are you depressed?" Khalil asked.

Ghost raised his head, glanced at him, and then buried his head again: "...Can I not get the answer to that question?"

"Yes."

".I forgot to close the window." Ghost said sadly. "They responded so quickly."

"Are you trying to justify yourself, Ghost?"

"."

Khalil couldn't help but laugh, smiling at the ghost's reaction, but there wasn't much real joy in the smile.

This smile is more like a mockery of himself.

He thought, you were hit by something that could tear an adult apart, and then you fell from the roof of a dozen meters and were dragged along.

The combined power of the three motorcycles pulled your flesh and blood - and then, you shed almost a bucket of blood under the wash of acid rain.

You are not dead yet, and can be called healthy.

Your injury may even be healed in a few hours.

You are such a terrible monster, ghost, but you also have a heart that only humans can have.

What should I do with you?

The smile gradually subsided, and Kalil did not continue to speak. He stared at the ghost, and his expression became calmer little by little.

After a while, he spoke again.

"For a newbie, you did a good job. You bypassed the guards and the sentry on the roof, and you opened the window without making a sound."

"It took you less than a minute to kill those three bosses. Those are all good."

"But don't look at me like that, Ghost," Khalil said calmly. "I'm not complimenting you, you're no longer a novice."

Ghost nodded dejectedly, agreeing with Khalil's statement. He didn't argue because he knew Khalil was right.

Khalil is always right.

He lowered his head again.

"You joined this job six months ago. You're not a newbie, Ghost. You've killed a lot of damn people, and you still haven't learned the most important thing about the job. a little."

"You must always be cautious, Ghost. Mark my words, always be cautious."

"If killing the person in front of you will expose you, don't take action. If the enemy's whereabouts are unknown, wait until they appear before taking action. If you don't know what's in the dark, don't go in."

"but--"

"No buts, Ghost," Khalil said softly. "Listen, if you don't understand, just write it down. You will understand sooner or later. You must also understand that I don't have much time to continue. You must learn all this."

Ghost's eyes widened. This was the first time he had been so unprepared.

"What does that mean?" he asked quickly. "Why don't you have time? Are you leaving?"

"No, I won't leave. I don't have time because I'm dying." Khalil replied calmly.

"But you are obviously very healthy!"

Ghost said urgently. "I can see, I know a lot of things, Khalil—you're not going to die, I know that, just like I know how long I've been alive! Do you know how long you've been alive?"

Khalil didn't answer the question.

The ghost's incoherence made him laugh again, a pale smile. Then he turned to another matter.

"Do you know what a time bomb is, Ghost?"

"It's a very interesting gadget. A normal bomb will explode within a few seconds after being triggered. That's not the case with a time bomb."

"It will be artificially set to a time, a constantly beating countdown. The moment the countdown reaches zero, it will explode."

The ghost looked at him with great uneasiness, waiting for his next words.

"And I just have a countdown," Khalil said. "There are two problems here. First, I don't know when this countdown will end. I can't see the specific numbers, only a vague sense."

"Second, I'm much more dangerous than a time bomb, and I can detect it - and so are you, Ghost, remember? You said the kind of power I use is dangerous, and yes, it is."

The ghost bared his teeth angrily at his words. His teeth were neat and white, but his face was stained by acid rain and dirty with his own blood. But Khalil could see the truth.

Underneath this filth, the ghost is perfect.

There is no doubt that he is not human.

But he was angry at the moment.

"You said the time bomb was man-made!" Ghost roared. "Countdown? Who set the countdown for you? I will find out and kill him!"

Anger rushed over his face, and Khalil narrowed his eyes. He felt an obvious and terrifying threat.

The ghost is not hostile to him. In fact, the ghost's anger at this moment is to protect him. However, just the aftermath of his anger made Khalil want to swing his knife.

Perfect, perfect, ghost. You can definitely change the world.

"Relax, Ghost," Khalil said with a smile. "No one set a countdown for me. In fact, if you have to find someone to take responsibility for this, then that person can only be myself."

".What?"

Faced with his question, Khalil did not explain it—or rather, he chose another way to explain it.

"Everything in this world has its price, Ghost. Some are obvious, some are hidden."

"For example, the power I use. It is convenient, responsive, and powerful enough that it does not need to follow the logic of reality. It can even evoke a dead soul floating in the universe."

"And the price is often linked to these things."

"It's changing me, Ghost," Khalil said softly, almost sleepily.

"I can detect this subtle change. And according to my experience, the price I have to pay for such a powerful force must be staggering."

The ghost looked at him in confusion, completely unable to understand what he was saying. However, this is fine. Khalil didn't want to reveal all the truth in just half an hour.

Some things require action to make Ghost understand that he is already wary of this world. But for a world like Nostramo, his vigilance was not enough.

He is still too naive.

He should be ruthless with his enemies and treat them as the most terrifying monsters in the world before he even decides to attack them.

A person's attitude towards the world should depend on how the world treats him. If the world kisses you with pain, you don't have to sing in return.

But you don’t have to burn the world with fire either.

"Continue to rest, Ghost."

Khalil stood up. "Your first solo hunt was not a complete failure, but you were not successful either. As for the answer to that question, I will consider it later."

"Where are you going?" Ghost asked.

Khalil turned back with a half-smile: "Where do you think I'm going, returning the car? The night in Nostramo never ends, ghost, and your bad hunt obviously needs a ending."

The ghost watched him leave in silence, and the dark corner no longer felt so comfortable for the first time.