Chapter 157: The Two Scourges: Dance Night ‘Wolf King’ VS Cyborg Cat [Part 2]
Cillin suddenly frowned. The brilliant performance by the one man and the one cat on the tall, round platform was slowly but surely forming a hypnotic effect. He turned around and saw that Tang Qiuqiu’s breathing rhythm was already starting to show signs of abnormality. He took over the headphones in Tang Qiuqiu’s hand and put them on her head.
After the headphone was put on, Tang Qiuqiu slowly came back to herself. She was both baffled and puzzled. Her memories seemed to be slightly out of order just like those hungover people mentioned in books.
“What happened, brother Cillin?” Tang Qiuqiu asked. While saying this, she could feel that her breathing was still a little rough. She even thought: Was there something wrong with the noodles here?
Cillin shook his head and pointed at the one man and one cat on top of the tall, round platform, “You were too engrossed watching them and fell into a trance. Just listen to some soothing music and it’ll be alright.”
This was the first time Tang Qiuqiu had come to such a place, so her resistance was definitely incomparable to those old foxes.
“Oh.” Although Tang Qiuqiu did not quite understand why something like this had happened just from watching a performance, when she glanced at Udoze at the side and saw that his breathing was growing more and more irregular, she resolutely played the music in the player.
On the inside Tang Qiuqiu thought: This place really is too scary!! Although she was no longer as repulsed as when she had first arrived at this place, there was still some trepidation in her heart. As Udoze had said earlier, this place was for adults only, wasn’t it?
The people outside and beneath the tall platform had no idea about the distorted strangeness in this place. They continued to cheer passionately.
On the dance floor, the people’s gazes were now stuck as they imitated the man and cat’s movements until their heartbeats were almost beating on the same wavelength. The segmented cadence and the changes caused by every beat were tightly held by the two dancers above the tall, round platform, so when the strong beats of the tune landed on unexpected segments of the cadence, the man and cat’s movements became unusually stimulating and exciting.
Although they were obviously dancing as they pleased, there was a complexity within their simplicity, and strength coupled with gentleness within their movements. Their next move could never be fathomed or predicted. The people were unable to catch up to their rhythm, even as they chased closely and unconsciously after it.
The people who were concentrating their attention on the moving duo on top of the tall platform slowly felt as if they could not catch their breaths. At first they thought it was just a misperception. After all they had fun in ‘Dance Night’ for many years. What kind of madness had they not seen before? They had not experienced the same symptoms back then either, had they?
But as time passed minute after minute, there as finally someone who could not catch his breath and fell to the ground, fainting. Then there was a second person, a third person, a fourth person...
These people felt as if the flow speed of their blood had increased, and yet the blood flow was severed when it turned around a certain corner. Hence, the circulation of bodily fluids became disorderly and uncontrollable. Since the people were unable to control their emotions as they wished to soothe this circumstance, they were slowly dragged into darkness by a pair of invisible, psychedelic hands.
In the past, there had been dancers who fainted from overly intense beats or excessive excitement because their heart and lung functions were unable to keep up. There was a group of security guards in ‘Dance Night’ who specifically paid attention to the state of affairs indoors. If there was a scuffle they would discreetly appear, but if a fainted person was discovered then immediate action was demanded.
Blackouts could not be treated casually since one one knew exactly what kind of factor had caused the person to faint. The security guards were physically much stronger than the onlookers of weaker constitution on the dance floor though. At the very least, none of the security guards had experienced a blackout when the onlookers on the dance floor began to faint one after another. At most, they felt that their breaths were a little unsteady, but it was a natural reaction to such an atmosphere. No one would think deeper into it.
Of course, it was exactly because there were blackouts in the venue that the security guards were forced to look away from the two performers on stage. This ultimately prevented them from suffering the same fate as the onlookers inside the venue.
On stage, the two dancers continued to dance as if they had forgotten themselves, looking like they would not stop until the victor was decided at the very end.
Off stage, one fainted onlooker after another were being carried out of the venue. When the managers finally took notice of the situation, they discovered that one third of the people in the venue had vanished before they realised it. Judging from the irregular ear and breathing rhythm of the remaining people, they could not hold on for much longer either.
But they couldn’t interrupt the two dancers either. This was a situation that no one had ever run into in perhaps a millennium, or even ten millenniums. At the very least, they had not seen any such reports in official publications.
Is this a business opportunity?
This is the scoop of a lifetime!
There were foreign businessmen and managers of reputable electronic publications at the back of this night club. Therefore, with almost no discussions at all both sides had sent down the same order by chance to send the fainted people to the first aid room and keep the dance floor going as it was.
Every camera was pointed at the man and cat on top of the tall, round platform. The duo paid no heed to the people who were collapsing one after another beneath the platform because of them, or rather they never cared about the people below in the first place. They continued to dance to their heart’s content and were unaware if the people below were collapsing.
Time arrived at midnight before anyone realised it. It then continued to tick away.
There were now less than half of the people still standing on the dance floor.
Another hour passed.
There was now only one quarter of the people still standing on the dance floor.
When blurry light was slowly starting to emerge from the horizon, there was only one tenth of the original number left on the dance floor. These people were indeed of extraordinary constitution, or they could not have held on until this point.
Rikulab had never enjoyed dancing to the full as much as today. So the sigh of regrets he experienced when standing on this stage in the past was due to the lack of an opponent.
However, Rikulab seemed to have slowly forgotten the fact that his opponent was a cat. It was true that this was an extraordinary cat, but still, it was a cat.
The music was starting to lose its charm. Without needing to communicate with words and as if their hearts were linked, the man and cat both decided to end this contest.
Thus, just when Rikulab was preparing to take a perfect curtain call, a rueful event happened and made Rikulab wish that he could spit out a mouthful of blood – there seriously was a fucking cat beyond a man*!
*The literal translation of the original Chinese idiom is: mountain beyond mountain, man beyond man. It warns that there is always someone better out there, and in this case, it was a cat.
A meow that gathered every emotion and agitated the nerves to the extreme ‘killed’ the remaining one tenth of the people on the dance floor instantaneously!
Cillin looked at the people who had fainted on the dance floor and felt great pity for them. Look at them; because they hadn’t fainted earlier they were now ‘instakilled’ by this meow instead. Hence, their conditions were a lot worse than the people who fainted earlier. Perhaps they would not even remember this night when they finally woke up. Perhaps they would even suffer from sequelae in the future. Every time they heard a cat meow their bodies would reflexively twitch to it. Of course, the twitching would be over after several years, but who could tell exactly how many years that might be?
Udoze had been chopped down by Cillin with his palm and fainted a long time ago. He could at least save his brain nerves from some poisoning.
Before they left, Cillin looked at the man and cat playing at curtain call performance on the tall, round platform and curled his lips – these two scourges!
There were many people who were fated to be at a loss tonight.
When Cillin dragged Udoze and led Tang Qiuqiu back to their accommodation, the lights at the first floor was still lit up. The lights at the front yard were lit up as well. Mrs. Vento hadn’t slept and was sewing dolls inside the house on her chair and was waiting for them.
Although they had informed Mrs. Vento earlier that they would be having fun outside tonight, they hadn’t thought Mrs. Vento would sit here and wait for the entire time.
Udoze was a very lucky man. He had a great mother, and a great mother was something that many people would never have.
When she saw Cillin and the others had returned, Mrs. Vento put down the work in her hands and wore a gentle smile on her face, “You’re back.” while speaking, she stood up and got ready to take over Udoze.
Cillin shook his head while smiling and pointed at Udoze on his shoulder, “He was too excited and drank some alcohol today, so he’s pretty heavy. Allow me.”
Mrs. Vento led Cillin to Udoze’s room and brought out the soup that could relieve the effects of intoxication to Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu (T/N: Why TQQ?? She didn’t drink... did she??) she had prepared a long time ago. Then, she prepared hot water and told Cillin and Tang Qiuqiu to wash themselves and rest. She would tend to Udoze.
Cillin did not object after seeing Mrs. Vento’s determination. After thanking her, he went up the second floor with Tang Qiuqiu.
He hadn’t gone upstairs for long before the gray cat returned cockily from outside. It held its head high and generally looked like someone who was full on the success of its first battle. Adding that to Tang Qiuqiu’s praise, right now the gray cat’s tail was about to soar into the sky.
“Hmph hmph, there were some people who tried to follow I, but I have taken care of them directly!” the gray cat rubbed its whiskers and wore a look that said: see how great I am?
“You ate them?” Cillin asked. This guy might be a cat, but it was fully capable of eating humans.
The gray cat shook its whiskers disdainfully, “No way. I just slapped them out of consciousness.”
Cillin fell silent. The fate of the people who were slapped out of consciousness by this cat would be worse than those who were instakilled by its meow. He wondered if those people could even remember such a cat after they woke up.
After a moment’s thought, Cillin asked again, “What about the footage and records in ‘Dance Night’?”
“I destroyed them all of course!” there were some things that the gray cat could take care on its own now without relying on Cillin’s instructions.
“Good job.” Cillin gave it a rare praise.
“I know~” the gray cat seemed to have thought of something, because its face suddenly turned serious even as it eyes shone brightly, “Cillin, I have an idea.”
...
When he returned home, Rikulab was still somewhat absentminded. Earlier, he had wandered around the city of desires and danced about in both satisfaction and loneliness. Now that his excitement had cooled, he was feeling something like desolation after prosperity.
Rikulab tossed himself on the bed and felt depressed. His body should be very tired after such a long period of dancing, and yet the nerves in his brain kept stimulating him and preventing him from sleep.
Keeping his eyes open, he felt like a severe case of insomnia. Suddenly, a little bit of despair crept over him.
Rikulab felt just like a fruit who had been forgotten on the ground. No one paid attention to it, and it slowly fell into darkness and rotted to the core.
Just when would this fruit core re-enter a new land, sink its roots and grow once more?
What Rikulab did not expect was that rebirth would arrive far quicker than he had imagined.