Chapter 25: The Irritable Little Boy
Han Su climbed out of the window, first taking a glance before feeling slightly at ease; the black, rusted pipe clinging closely to the castle’s exterior was still there, stretching straight upward toward the top of the castle.
The broken parts he had utilized inside the castle, along with small items like candles, would be repaired, disappear, or moved to other locations the next time he was kidnapped and brought back, but the original pipes and staircases of the castle usually remained unchanged.
Han Su had long discovered this pattern, though he couldn’t quite explain why.
Perhaps it was because the bunker itself remained unchanged?
He had no time to ponder these things and climbed out the window, ascending the rusted pipe.
For someone like him, still small in stature but agile in technique, this was an extremely simple task.
In a few steps, he had climbed up, then pushed the window beside his hand, and his heart sank slightly.
Last time, he had climbed up to the third floor from here; this time, the pipe outside the window remained, but the window that had been able to be pushed open before was now unexpectedly locked.
Han Su pondered for a moment, then clenched his teeth, hugged the pipe with both hands, and forcefully kicked the window glass.
Crash!
The glass shattered, and Han Su quickly examined the remaining shards of glass, then carefully detached himself from the pipe and climbed into an unknown room on the third floor through the window.
This place resembled a giant machine repair room, filled with dusty precision instruments and parts.
Gears of various sizes were piled together, emitting a strange, sinister aura.
Many of the gears even resembled human eyes or internal organs.
Every time Han Su saw these gears, he would feel an inexplicable chill, but he couldn’t afford to waste his time here.
He quickly lightened his footsteps and approached the doorway.
The sound of him breaking the glass just now was obvious.
Even though smoke was still billowing from the first floor, firelight flickering, and the cries of children faintly audible below—enough to theoretically mask some of his movements—it still wasn’t safe.
The monsters in this bunker were all extremely sensitive to intrusions in their territory.
Pressing his ear against the door, Han Su vaguely heard a sharp woman’s laughter coming from outside.
The walls gave off a knocking sound, as if a spider was swiftly crawling on the outer surface.
His heart leapt into his throat.
Han Su couldn’t quite judge the timing—he didn’t know whether the woman on the third floor would immediately come into this room.
Fortunately, just then, a sudden bang rang out—a door had been opened—and then the sound of stumbling footsteps echoed in the corridor.
“Perfect timing…”
As soon as the footsteps sounded, Han Su gently pushed the door open.
Rushing into the long corridor, he saw not far ahead a monster whose body was only half intact.
The upper half was wrapped in bandages, appearing like a seductive woman with disheveled hair, while the lower half was a finely crafted mechanical structure resembling a spider’s body.
It was crawling along the wall.
This monster had nearly reached the door of the room he was in.
Its two eyes glowed with a chilling light.
Han Su could even see the glee and greed in the monster’s eyes as it looked at him, as if it had discovered a previously overlooked treasure.
But just then, a bit further away, a little boy wrapped entirely in bandages, holding a rusty iron shard wrapped in cloth, looked blankly in this direction, then turned and ran.
It had been his door opening that Han Su had heard earlier.
He was the third chosen child, brought up to the upper floors—a little boy.
It had only been a few hours since he was taken upstairs, yet his body was already wrapped in gauze and bandages, with faint traces of blood seeping through.
He limped as he ran.
‘The irritable boy on the third floor…’
Seeing the boy, Han Su couldn’t help but let out a long sigh of relief.
“That guy still runs every single night, just like before…”
He wasn’t the only one trying to escape.
As he had taken different escape routes through the bunker each time, Han Su had run into this boy at least two or three times also trying to escape.
He had, in fact, been the first boy to die on the fourth floor during Han Su’s last escape attempt.
The boy seemed incredibly stubborn—his desire to escape was even stronger than Han Su’s.
Sometimes, he wouldn’t even make a plan—he’d just run.
But precisely because of his existence, as if playing some ceaseless game of chase with the half-body monster on the third floor, the monster’s attention was distracted, which made it easier for Han Su to escape.
To Han Su, the way out was on the fourth floor, and the half-body monster on the third floor was the most terrifying one.
She could crawl along the walls, spew mechanical silk, move at strange speeds, and react with great agility.
Without the little boy on the third floor, it would’ve been difficult for Han Su to deal with her.
“Sorry, little brother. I respect you, but doing this won’t work…”
While thinking this silently, Han Su also turned and ran toward the staircase opposite the fleeing boy, looking tense and frightened.
The mechanical monster crawling on the wall clearly hesitated for a moment, but only briefly.
She merely glanced at Han Su with flickering eyes, then unhesitatingly turned her head, her mechanical legs tapping quickly along the wall, chasing after the little boy.
As she chased, she let out a sound like a goat’s bleat, laughing loudly as it echoed down the corridor.
She seemed to be having great fun.
But she never expected that Han Su, after taking a few steps, would immediately turn back, stick close to the wall, and follow behind the half-body woman, striding toward the staircase on the opposite side of the corridor.
There were staircases on both sides of the bunker, but the staircase on the right leading to the fourth floor had already collapsed.
Children couldn’t jump across it.
There was one time Han Su saw that large gap and had to retreat, find another way, and only then managed to reach the fourth floor.
Up ahead, the half-body woman chased swiftly and was already close to the limping little boy.
The little boy realized that the half-body woman was chasing him and actually calmly made a judgment.
He turned and darted into a room on the opposite side, where the sounds of countless bottles and jars shattering soon rang out.
Amidst them came the little boy’s shout: “Monster, I’ll fight you to the death…”
“Meh meh meh, meh your mother…”
“Ugly freak, come and fight!”
Han Su didn’t stop to admire the intense battle, but instead quickly crossed the corridor and dashed up the stairs on the left.
He felt a bit of pity inside.
This little boy—regardless of his overall capabilities—had truly fierce fighting spirit.
If he could run, he’d run.
If he couldn’t run, he’d circle around the monster.
And if that didn’t work, he’d start trash-talking…
Unfortunately, Han Su knew that the boy’s repeated attempts to escape and resist were ultimately meaningless.
The ancient castle had long since repaired every possible loophole that children might exploit to escape.
Starting from the fifth escape attempt, even Han Su could only succeed by relying on the door summoned by the key.
What this boy was doing now would only result in the half-body woman’s twisted amusement.
It was like a game she never tired of playing.
“Chatter chatter…”
Sure enough, just as Han Su swiftly passed by the doorway and rushed toward the stairwell, hearing the series of iron racks collapsing inside, he couldn’t help but glance back.
He saw that everything inside the room had been knocked over—the boy was using debris to block the half-body woman.
But the woman, crawling on the wall as if it were flat ground, easily bypassed the obstacles and reached the boy’s back.
A mechanical leg stomped down firmly on him, and with an excited grin, a sharp metallic foot pierced through his shoulder blade.
The little boy lay sprawled on the ground, a look of frustration on his face.
At that moment, he struggled to lift his head and saw Han Su passing by outside the door.
Immediately, he forcefully raised his hand.
‘Is he asking me for help?’
Han Su wasn’t sure, and he didn’t slow his pace for it.
But then he saw the little boy suddenly fling a black object out the door with great effort.
Clang!
It was that knife wrapped in cloth strips.
The boy’s final hand movement was to throw that knife out…
This had never happened before.
Even Han Su’s heart stirred for a moment.
Had this irritable little boy realized he couldn’t escape and decided to toss his only useful tool to Han Su, who was still fleeing?
He swiftly bent down, grabbed the knife, and accelerated again, rushing toward the left staircase and stepping quickly onto the fourth floor.
At the moment he slightly relaxed, the scene just now flashed through his mind.
When picking up the knife, he had caught sight of the half-body monster.
Her metallic foot was embedded in the boy’s body, and under her drooping black hair, her eyes carried a strange grin.
She slowly lifted her head, eerily staring at him.
Beneath the metallic foot, the little boy lay in a pool of blood, his eyes fixed on Han Su’s disappearing figure.
He slowly lowered his hand, disappointment flickering in his gaze.
‘Why are you running…’
‘Come at her with the knife already…’
‘……’