Chapter 45: Swallow
Finn!
The name dropped into the room like a stone into still water, sending ripples through the silence.
The way everyone looked at Finn changed in an instant. Lambert’s face twisted with disbelief, and he took two involuntary steps backward.
The three young men and Renee went from shock to wariness, then quickly to open delight.
“Mr. Benson, you really found yourself a treasure,” the Mohawk-haired youth sneered. He pulled a dagger from the pouch at his waist, practically vibrating with eagerness.
The one in ripped jeans drew a matte-black handgun, flicked off the safety, and racked the slide with a sharp click. He kept the barrel low but angled it steadily toward Finn.
A spark of fanaticism flashed in Renee’s eyes. Cold mist coiled around her hands as she formed a half-meter ice blade between her fingers. Frost spread beneath her feet, and intricate ice patterns raced outward across the floor.
The last young man had nothing on him. He glanced around, snatched a heavy iron wrench from the tool rack, and started creeping forward with quick, shuffling steps. His eyes gleamed with naked greed, as if Finn were a bag of cash waiting to be claimed. He raised the wrench high, clearly intending to cave Finn’s skull in.
“Well, well. Looks like things just got interesting.” Finn smiled, standing perfectly still.
The four of them spread out and closed in, cutting off the doorway and sealing every escape route.
The radio kept broadcasting in the same calm female voice: “Finn is a mutant. Caution! He is extremely dangerous—a Tier 5 Vanguard! Suspected to possess two special abilities…”
Tier 5 Vanguard!
The words cracked across the room like thunder, leaving everyone cold.
The three young men and Renee nearly fell apart inside. Radiant Path? You had intel this important? Why the fuck didn’t you say anything earlier?!
A Tier 5 Vanguard was a legendary, undefeated war god—a super mutant so rare that only one appeared among hundreds of thousands of people.
Among everyone here, aside from Finn, the strongest was Renee at Tier 3 Vanguard.
Normally they could push around ordinary people and act tough, but going up against a Tier 5 Vanguard on the level of a living legend? They were completely out of their league. No wonder Radiant Path was putting up an eight-thousand-dollar bounty to hunt Finn down!
The youth in ripped jeans took a step back, cold sweat beading on his forehead. He holstered his pistol and fiddled with it in his hands. “What the hell? I forgot to load it today! Damn it, how did I forget something like that? I’ve been jerking off too much lately—my memory’s gone to shit!”
The Mohawk-haired man lowered his arm, gaze drifting. He whistled and rubbed the dagger in his hand, muttering loudly to himself, “Haven’t used this little knife in ages. Pulled it out and found rust all over it. Gotta find some sandpaper and clean it up later.”
Renee quietly retracted the ice blade from her fingertips and stepped back two paces on tiptoe. The frost patterns beneath her feet melted into a puddle of water.
The young man holding the large iron wrench jumped backward and used it to twist a bolt on the jeep. “Mr. Benson, I’ll help you fix the car. This screw looks loose—I’ll tighten it for you!”
Lambert stood frozen, not even noticing that the oil can in his hand had tipped over and was now dripping steadily onto the floor.
He raised his grease-stained wrist and wiped the large beads of sweat from his forehead. His legs trembled. What kind of friend had he brought home?! A Tier 5 Vanguard! One look from him could probably kill a man outright.
Lambert thought back to the old paper magazines from before the Cataclysm. Those made-up stories and news pieces always had a few serial killers who looked clean-cut and acted polite on the surface, but were actually vicious underneath, killing without a second thought.
Sylvia leaned against the railing, her chest rising and falling. Her throat felt dry, and her knees drew together on their own, her legs heavy as lead.
She didn’t dare imagine what would happen if she provoked Finn further, yet she had already done so several times to this Tier 5 Vanguard.
Finn stayed where he was, letting them put on their clown show without moving a muscle.
Seeing no killing intent from him, the three young men and Renee felt the crushing weight in their chests ease slightly. The four of them began inching toward the door, one step at a time. “Mr. Benson, we’ll get going now.”
“Oh… uh, right. You… go on, then.” Lambert’s words came out slurred and unsteady.
“Did I say you could leave?” Finn asked calmly, his voice flat and carrying no emotion.
“What else do you want, sir?” The three young men and Renee looked miserable. They desperately wanted to run, but stayed planted in place, not daring to move.
“How about this,” Finn said with a faint smile. “The four of you stand in a circle.”
They stood in a circle as Finn ordered, hearts pounding with unease. They stared at one another and could clearly see the fear in each other’s eyes, wondering what horrifying punishment would come next.
“Each of you piss into the mouth of the person on your left,” Finn said.
The command made all four of their scalps prickle.
Renee’s face turned ashen as she clenched her fists.
The Mohawk-haired man wanted to roar that a real man would rather die than suffer such humiliation.
“Don’t like it?” Finn asked calmly. “Then let’s switch it up. Each of you put one bullet into the person on your left. Of course, you could all shoot me instead. But then four families would lose their kids, and that would be a real shame.”
The Mohawk-haired man immediately dropped into a squat and said to Renee beside him, “Piss in my mouth.”
“What?! How the hell did you give in that fast?” Renee stared down at the Mohawk-haired man squatting in front of her with his mouth open, furious. She didn’t mind pissing into someone else’s mouth, but a glance at the person on her right made her stomach turn at the thought of drinking anyone else’s piss.
“Get on with it. Stop wasting time. I’ve got other things to do today,” Finn said impatiently.
The four of them exchanged looks. Survival instinct won out. They chose to submit. Belts came undone as they took turns pissing into the mouth of the person on their left. The ones receiving it squatted down with mouths stretched wide open, like toilet bowls with the lids flipped up, to catch it more easily.
Soon all four had bulging cheeks full of piss, their lips and chins streaked with it.
“Swallow,” Finn said, his face expressionless.
They swallowed with loud, reluctant gulps. The taste was awful—worse than Level 4 purified water.
The four of them glanced at one another, staring at the piss still streaked across each other’s lips, and felt themselves crumble inside. They wanted to cry but had no tears left.
Renee wiped her mouth and asked cautiously, “Is that enough? Are we done?”
Finn nodded. “Don’t tell anyone about what happened today. Understood?”
“Yes! We understand!” the four replied in a rush, nodding frantically.
They didn’t dare refuse. Ironatom didn’t have a single Tier 5 Vanguard, and even Tier 4s were rare. If Finn decided to kill them, even the full might of Refuge City wouldn’t be able to stop him.
Besides, if word got out that they had drunk piss, they would never be able to hold their heads up among their peers again.
The next moment, the four of them shot out the door like frightened rabbits and vanished.
Finn looked up toward the second floor at Sylvia. The rebellious young woman drew in a sharp breath and immediately ducked into her room, not daring to show her face again.
After thinking for a moment, Finn realized he had made a mistake. He hadn’t used a radio or watched television in hundreds of years, so he had completely overlooked this method of communication.
On this wasteland continent, radio broadcasts were a common way for major factions to spread news. The crackling waves carried messages straight into ordinary people’s radios, and listening to the radio was also a popular form of entertainment for many.
Lambert turned his head away, not daring to meet Finn’s eyes, terrified that a single glance from him would kill him on the spot.
Finn spoke in a mild tone. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. I only killed one high priest from Radiant Path, which is why they put a bounty on me. I’ll be leaving in a few days anyway. Just pretend this never happened.”
“Understood, sir.” Lambert nodded repeatedly, his face plastered with an apologetic smile.
Finn knew clearly that a rift had formed. This family would never treat him as an ordinary person again.
Still, Finn didn’t care. He didn’t take this little episode to heart at all. After leaving Benson’s auto repair shop and asking for directions, he got on his bicycle and headed toward Ironatom’s administrative center.
Finn carried a handwritten letter from Darius Smith, the city lord of Black Mountain.
Darius had said that once Finn arrived in Ironatom, he only needed to show this letter to city lord Congreve Murphy, who would treat him well and openly provide him with information and supplies.
Finn rode through the wide asphalt streets until he reached Ironatom’s administrative center—a towering concrete high-rise. A massive emblem hung on the building: electrons entwined around an atomic nucleus.
Two military police officers in green uniforms stood guard at the steel gate, rifles in hand. Their expressions were stern, their eyes cold and sharp as blades.
Notably, a giant hydrogen bomb model stood tall in the square in front of the administrative center. Welded together from iron sheets, it had rusted and blackened after decades of wind and rain.