Work Text:
The air shifted, and Liu Qingge’s surroundings changed from one blink to the next.
[°˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° Welcome to the Upside Down!
This realm is home to the Mind Flayer, a super-organism connected to most of the creatures of this realm, including humanoid, predatory creatures classified as Demogorgons. A fully grown Demogorgon is known to be able to stand on two legs, equipped with claws and a flower-like mouth that are full of teeth.
Asking Dearest Customer to proceed with caution!! (>_<)]
Liu Qingge took stock of his immediate surroundings. The air was strange, with what seemed like dust or ash everywhere. The light was muted by a fog, despite him being in a sparse forest with the sun high in the sky. It was also unnaturally still, with nearly no movement nor sound from the trees.
“Even the trees are monsters?” Liu Qingge asked, wondering just how he could kill it.
[Affirmative! (￣^￣)ゞ
There are no human or otherwise sentient life forms originating from this realm aside from the Demogorgons and the Mind Flayer! The Mind Flayer has control over flesh-like tendrils that follow its commands and can infect humans and bring them into the hive mind, asking Dearest Customer to avoid contact, especially through open wounds or orifices!
Known weaknesses are; fire and sharp objects. The main body of the Mind Flayer can be killed along with the Demogorgons that are part of its hive mind.
Dearest Customer need not worry! The System is fully equipped with all the latest translation models, including ones that adjust spiritual power to the current world’s settings! ☆⌒(≧▽° )
Dearest Customer’s strength remains the same in every realm! Trust in the System for any additional protection! (o^ ^o)]
Liu Qingge smiled, satisfied with the information. He brandished his sword, ready to test out his strength on the monsters that resided in this realm. The System displayed more strange face-characters while he did so.
“Where are the monsters?” he asked. He could hear distant sounds, if he focused, but not enough to help with directions.
[( ･ω･)☞ There are several Demogorgons closest to you. Would Dearest Customer like the System to provide a map?]
Liu Qingge nodded wordlessly, watching the box give him another character-face (was it winking?) before blinking away. A moment later, another blue box appeared, this time in the form of a floating map, with a single blue dot and several red dots scattered across it.
[( ˘▽˘)っ Tada! The map covers a 5 mile range! Red dots are classified as monsters, while the blue dot is my Dearest Customer! Other items may appear on the map, I shall do my best to alert the Dearest Customer of any danger!]
Liu Qingge walked in a slow circle, watching the blue dot on the map adjust and move with him. He gave the System another, nearly impressed smile before heading straight for the nearest red dot.
The first so-called Demogorgon was on all fours, looking more like a strange dog-beast than the description the System gave. It moved fast, jumping on Liu Qingge in a good attempt at a surprise attack.
If it weren’t for the System’s map already telling him it was there, at least. Liu Qingge evaded the attack and swung his sword hard, beheading the dog-beast in a single move. Flicking black, sticky blood from Cheng Luan’s blade, he glanced at the System’s word box with a raised brow.
[σ(￣、￣〃) Ah, well… The Demogorgon has six stages of growth, each looking distinctly different from the other.]
The System listed said stages and what they looked like, including their supposed ‘danger levels,’ with the later stages obviously being more dangerous. The dog-beast was the fifth one. Huh. He could only hope the sixth stage would be stronger, or perhaps the Mind Flayer would give him more challenge.
Liu Qingge looked towards the map next, surprised to see some of the red dots begin to move towards his spot. They must’ve sensed their comrade die, from that hive mind thing they had. Or maybe they smelled the blood.
Either way, it made Liu Qingge’s job all that easier.
He rolled his shoulders, adjusting his grip on Cheng Luan and anticipating the attack from several directions.
Now it was getting fun.
Eight cat-beasts, 19 dog-beasts and about 26 adult Demogorgons later, the red dots have actually started moving away from Liu Qingge. Which, by the way, was just rude and cowardly.
Liu Qingge wasn’t sure how long he’d been in this ‘Upside Down’ realm, because the sun didn’t look right and the surroundings didn’t help. He was yet to get out of the forest, but he spied what looked like manmade structures in the distance, sometimes.
When he asked, the System insisted that there were no humans who lived in the Upside Down.
[Although this realm is connected to a parallel dimension much like the Earth of the Trial Package, there should not be any humans in this realm! (¯ . ¯٥)]
Liu Qingge also had to ask the System to widen the range of the map to find more monsters to hunt, eventually moving further and further into the forest. He was hoping those monsters went to the main body of the big monster, the Mind Flayer, so that it would come after him and he could kill it.
In the meantime, he was going in the direction of the nearest red dot that wasn’t running away. He was nearing another suspiciously man-made structure when he heard a scream.
A distinctly human scream, he was sure.
In the map, a green dot had blinked into existence, right beside the red dot. Liu Qingge frowned, increasing his speed. What happened to having no humans?
But there she was – a young woman in odd clothes, screaming and attempting to run from an adult Demogorgon from where she was trapped in a large, smooth, rectangular hole carved into the ground. She was definitely human.
With an annoyed huff, Liu Qingge jumped into the hole, aiming for the Demogorgon’s head. He kicked the monster sideways, slamming it into the ground with its own weight.
This resulted in both the monster and Liu Qingge tumbling away from the woman. The demogorgon ended up lying on the mossy, slippery stone with Liu Qingge’s legs tangled around its upper half.
The monster screeched, attempting to claw and bite at him. Liu Qingge blocked an arm that got too close with his own, stabbing Cheng Luan into its gaping, toothy mouth. The angle was awkward and suboptimal, but it did the job.
The monster gave another shriek, twitching wildly as the life drained out of it. Liu Qingge held it in place with his sword, waiting until it stopped moving entirely before untangling and hauling himself up. Just to be sure, he beheaded the monster with another swift slash of his sword.
Then he turned his gaze towards the System’s box, with its apologetic looking face-character and a message at the ready.
[( ; ω ; ) Asking Dearest Customer for forgiveness! Initial scans of the realm showed no human life signs!! The System can perform another realm-wide scan, I will do so immediately! Asking Dearest Customer for patience! (シ. .)シ]
[Performing Realm-wide Scan…]
Liu Qingge frowned at the System’s ellipses for a moment longer before turning to look at the woman instead. Belatedly, he remembered that others weren’t able to see or supposed to know about the System.
Well… she looked too dazed to have noticed?
Barb knew she should’ve talked Nancy out of going to that stupid party. Or at least going home early. Or maybe she should’ve gone home early, see how Nancy dealt with the goddamn monster that kidnapped her into a scary monster world.
God, but what if Nancy was the one that got kidnapped? Eaten? Barb would surely have been eaten if it weren’t for the – the strange guy with the sword, that rescued her and killed the monster in just a few minutes.
Barb did her best not to hyperventilate, controlling her breathing and tearing her eyes away from the dead monster corpse just a few feet away. Instead, she looked towards her saviour, standing there with a bloody sword and –
Oh good Lord, he was – he was pretty.
He looked to be a foreigner, in weird white and grey clothes that were stained with monster blood in lots of places. His sword looked fancy, just as fancy as the hairpiece he had on his long, black ponytail. He had slanted eyes, a smooth face, a straight nose, and a mole beneath one of his eyes.
He was frowning, but his face looked like – like that one time Great Uncle Clark showed her a picture of a friend of his from the war, and Barb thought he looked… nice. This guy definitely looked way nicer, and he had a slender figure and was probably a foreign super model of some sort. Though, she was pretty sure super models weren’t supposed to be using swords in monster worlds?
Unless that was a thing foreigners did now, Barb wasn’t sure. There were a lot of conspiracies going around about foreigners nowadays, particularly the Russians, and she wasn’t all that interested in them enough to check if they were actually true or not. No, that was more Cousin Joannah’s thing.
“Are you all right?”
The stranger startled Barb out of her thoughts, making her jump in place. She blinked, adjusting her glasses with shaking hands.
“I’m – I, I’m,” she swallowed hard, trying to speak around the lump in her throat. “I’m – that was – what was that?”
The maybe-super-model raised a brow at her, and wow— Barb almost wished that monster had eaten her, oh man. A small, Nancy-sounding voice in her head asked, could she not be embarrassing for just one minute?
“I mean, I’m – I’m okay,” she mumbled, covering her face and trying to hide her embarrassment.
“Good,” the really-pretty-stranger said, and Barb looked up to see him gazing at somewhere off to the side. Then he looked at her again. “Your hand?”
Barb blinked, before remembering that she’d injured her hand earlier. Right, of course, because her luck was really just that bad.
“Oh, I, this was from the party,” she said, then realized he might not know what the hell she was talking about. “Well, I was at a party earlier – Nancy convinced me to come, even though I told her I really didn’t want to. She’s my best friend and she’s dating Steve, and we were at Steve’s house when I – we were trying to impress his dumb friends, and it…”
Barb interrupted herself with a sniff, because this was dumb and she was rambling and she almost died, oh my God. And now she was going to cry in front of this super pretty maybe-super-model and she just really couldn’t stop being embarrassing!!
Her eyes were tearing up, and she really shouldn’t be this affected but the shock was getting to her –
A hand landed on her head, patting her like she was five again. For one startling moment, she forgot all about wanting to cry.
“Stay close,” the kind-of-nice stranger said, quickly taking back his hand and turning around purposefully. He began walking in the direction of the woods.
Barb hurried to follow him, sparing a fearful glance at the monster corpse they left in the empty pool before looking around them. This monster world was so creepy. How did they even get here?
There was a moment of silence when something occurred to her.
“Uhm, where are we going?” she asked.
The stranger – God, why didn’t she ask for his name? Was it too awkward now? – the stranger made a sound.
“To find the other one,” he said with a vague gesture.
“The other…” Barb repeated to herself, wondering. Who else would be in this creepy monster world – oh God.
“Do you mean Will?” She asked, hurrying to keep up with his pace. This guy walked way too fast. “Is Will here, too?”
Mr. Hot Stranger looked back at her and slowed his steps with a grunt. Was that a yes or a no or an I don’t know?
“But what if there are more of those monsters out there?” Barb asked next.
“I’ll kill them,” the stranger said, as if it was that simple. Thinking back to what he did to that monster earlier, though… maybe it really was that simple for him.
Barb was definitely gonna stick close to him.
***
[Σ(O_O) !! Dearest Customer, another human has entered the Upside Down.
Expanding map to show the third human’s location.]
Liu Qingge watched with mixed feelings as the map expanded to show locations past the forest. They had only encountered a handful of monsters since he rescued the girl, protecting her adding a bit more challenge to the whole deal. Maybe more people would attract more monsters, maybe he could even find the Mind Flayer?
Sadly, the mixed feelings morphed and turned into dread soon enough.
The second green dot was still in the forest, in something marked as a man-made structure. But as the map expanded, another green dot appeared, near a bigger clearing, with a bigger building marked. And close to it was two red dots.
Even if he ran now and left the girl behind, he wouldn’t be able to reach that one in time. That would also leave the girl vulnerable to other monsters.
What a shame.
[Σ(°△°|||) Dearest Customer, the third human has disappeared from the map! That could only mean that the third human has found an exit from this realm!]
He looked over the map again, sighing. He at least knew what that meant.
There was a whole town nearby, or what probably only looked like a town. This realm made everything look old and abandoned, with decaying walls and strange flesh-mould everywhere. The edge of that was where he found the girl.
They were deeper in the forest now, following the tracks of the second human – Will, the girl had said. A good strong name, especially for someone who had so far survived the pursuit of a monster, from what the map showed.
“Hey, uhm.” The girl spoke up then, distracting Liu Qingge. He turned towards her. For some reason, the girl hesitated and stammered, but she forged on and kept talking.
“It’s just – I mean, are we… how do we get out of here?” she asked, looking down at her feet. In a small voice, she added. “I wanna go home…”
Well. Liu Qingge knew how he was going to get out of there. What about the other humans?
[The System has an answer for that! ٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶
The parallel dimension connected to this realm have several gates through which crossing between realms is possible! Some of the fully grown Demogorgons have the power to open a temporary doorway between the realms through their strength, while more stable and lasting gates can also be found.
One is now indicated in your map! The other is too far outside the map’s boundaries, asking Dearest Customer for his understanding. (⇀‸↼‶)
If Dearest Customer wishes to know where the other gate is, of course, he need only to ask! This System will deliver! (･ω<)☆]
Liu Qingge nodded, considering the options. It looked like the stable gate was where that third human came from. It’d be easier to fight the monsters if he didn’t have to protect the humans. There’d be less humans to have to protect if there were no gates. But some of the monsters could create gates and kidnap humans if they wanted.
This was really troublesome.
“Sir?” the girl asked, reminding Liu Qingge that he hadn’t really answered her.
“There’s a gate,” Liu Qingge said and left it at that. He’d figure it out later.
Right now, the map was showing another monster getting close, both to them and the second human.
Another kid. A younger kid.
It was a younger kid, huddled up in a little shack, looking scared out of his mind. He didn’t even look old enough to start cultivating. Or, hmm…
That wasn’t the point, though. The point was that he seriously needed to find a way to stop kids from ending up in this realm. At least the girl and the other kid seemed to know each other.
“Oh my God! Will!!” the girl shouted, once she’d looked over Liu Qingge’s shoulder and into the shack. She nudged Liu Qingge aside and went over to the other kid, making comforting noises.
Liu Qingge thought he heard the girl say something like, “everybody’s been looking for you!”
Liu Qingge let them talk for a while, deciding to go ahead and hunt down the nearby monsters. With this many humans in the same place, the monsters were really starting to notice.
After killing only three monsters, the two kids came out of the shack. The older one held the younger one’s hand. The younger one looked sick, but he stared at Liu Qingge with what looked like wide-eyed awe.
“Are you a superhero?” he asked, voice weak.
Liu Qingge blinked.
“I’m a cultivator,” he said.
The kid frowned, apparently not satisfied with this.
“What’s that?” he asked.
Liu Qingge… wasn’t sure how to answer that. He couldn’t remember the last time he met anyone who didn’t know what a cultivator was.
“Stay close,” he said instead, turning around. The map helpfully highlighted the fastest route to the gate, staying small and not hindering his vision by much. He didn’t have to worry about hunting monsters either, because it looked like they were coming his way.
Maybe he’d hunt down the Mind Flayer as soon as he got the others out of the way.
Will wondered if this place had started making him see illusions or ghosts. But that would mean either Mike’s sister Nancy’s friend – she said her name was Barb – that would mean she was dead, or that Will was dead, and why would he hallucinate her when he didn’t even know her name?
He also didn’t think he could hallucinate a super awesome warrior like the person who rescued them.
Well, he said he was a ‘cultivator’ but Will didn’t know what that was. Maybe it was a different class like wizards and clerics were a different class. Either way, Will was sure that he was a warrior. What else would someone who can kill a Demogorgon with a slash of his sword be?
Scratch that, he killed multiple Demogorgons. Will had to wonder how he survived this whole time. He didn’t know there were so many! And there were other monsters – like smaller versions of the Demogorgon.
The warrior had a really cool sword and even a super cool costume, though it was kind of covered in monster blood by now. Will wondered what colour it was before – it looked like there were some silver and white there? He bet the warrior looked super cool. He wished he knew what it looked like without the blood, he wanted to draw it.
There was a distant roar, no doubt from one of those monsters again, and the warrior headed straight for it. His sword was almost glowing, even if Will wasn’t sure with all the fog and weird stuff in the air.
At some point, watching the warrior take down the Demogorgons became somewhat normal – he still felt like he was going to be really sick if he didn’t get out of here soon, but Barb explained that they were going to find a ‘gate’ so that they could go home.
Will wondered how the warrior knew where the gate was. He didn’t know if he was allowed to ask, though. Sometimes when they ask him things, the warrior would just stare at them and then pretend he didn’t hear.
They were just walking along when the warrior paused, making a noise.
“Tch,” the warrior said, looking at something off to the side.
It was kinda like the same noise Will’s mom made when she thought she’d already washed most of the dirty dishes but it turned out she’d put some more in the dirty pot the night before.
The warrior shook his head, then turned to face them.
“Stay close,” he warned. He didn’t really say much else outside of that, but usually that meant they were going to be facing a monster again.
They walked faster, Barb holding Will’s hand and dragging him along a little bit. He was really tired and hungry, he didn’t know how long he could keep walking like this.
The warrior paused again, looking at something, and then continuing. They came upon the Demogorgon, and he attacked it without warning. Barb pulled Will behind a tree so they could hide and wouldn’t be in the way.
The warrior slashed at the monster’s back, making it screech. Then he jumped back to avoid its claws, slashing at the monster again. He chopped off its arms, then its head, and the monster collapsed. The warrior flicked his sword, somehow cleaning the blood off of it with a single swipe.
Will had seen it a few times now, but that was still so cool.
The warrior looked around, eyes narrowed. Barb tensed, pulling Will closer. He couldn’t blame her – when the warrior made that face, it usually meant there were more monsters around.
But after a while, he shook his head. He muttered something about a gate closing, then gestured for them to come out of hiding.
“What – did you say a gate?” Will asked, unable to help himself. He just really, really wanted to go home. “There was a gate?”
The warrior looked at him weirdly. Then he shook his head.
“It’s closed now,” he said. He patted Will’s head, his gaze softening a little bit. “We’re going to the open one.”
Will nodded, feeling himself tear up a little. The warrior hand was warm on his head, and he felt comfort wash over him with it. He just needed to hold on a bit more. They were going to get home.
They were getting close.
Liu Qingge could see the building in the distance – a strange looking, decaying, white fortress. The girl had called it ‘Hawkins Lab’ and seemed unhappy with the fact that the gate was in there. She started asking him about experiments and something called a ‘conspiracy.’
He didn’t know anything about that, though, and told her as such. She looked even more displeased with that answer, but thankfully stopped asking for explanations. The kid was a lot quieter, which was maybe bad. Liu Qingge felt the disturbance in his body when he’d patted the kid earlier – he was getting sick from the air.
He didn’t have whatever protection the System was giving Liu Qingge, after all. The girl was holding up a little better, but probably not for long. He really should get them out soon.
They kept walking, almost no more monsters getting in their way. A little boring, but overall safer, Liu Qingge supposed.
[Warning: Transmission Incoming; Indirect Transmission Interrupted.
(☆_@) Asking Dearest Customer to be cautious! Someone is attempting to access the mind space of your companions! The System detected no malicious intent from the transmission, but it’s incredibly unstable. It may cause harm to both the source and the recipient.
Do you wish to access the transmission?]
[Yes] [No]
Liu Qingge had heard of dream demons before, though not quite how to defeat them. Did this world have the same sort of monster? The apparent Mind Flayer couldn’t have this kind of power, could it?
[Dearest Customer can be rest assured, the transmission is not coming from the Mind Flayer. (￣ω￣)]
Then it should be fine. He wanted to see what could get into people’s minds in this realm.
The [Yes] glowed orange and the box disappeared. The surrounding fog seemed to thicken, a figure appearing before him. It seemed to have been formed from the fog, solidifying into clear features.
It was a kid, no older than the boy Will. She had very short hair – had most likely been shaved off, and wore a dirty, old-looking dress that reached down to her ankles. She was looking right at Liu Qingge with wide, scared eyes.
“Who are you?” She asked, voice small.
“Liu Qingge.”
The kid tried to repeat the name, slow and thoughtful. She looked behind him, where the two kids Liu Qingge had picked up stood. Come to think of it, he didn’t know if they were seeing this.
“Barbara… Will…”
Ah, so the kid knew them.
Just as Liu Qingge thought to confirm, she looked back up at him.
“Who are you?” she asked again.
Liu Qingge frowned. He’d already said his name, though?
“I’m here to kill the monsters,” he said, if that was what she was asking.
She looked doubtful, which only served to annoy him.
“Who are you?” he asked.
The kid flinched visibly, staring at Liu Qingge like he might attack her. A tense moment passed, before she lifted her hand. She pointed a shaking finger behind him.
“F… friends,” she said, dropping her hand to her side again.
Ah. Hmm.
Liu Qingge nodded decisively.
“At the Gate,” he told her. “I’ll get them out.”
The kid’s face went through several emotions for a while. She decided to settle on worried and fearful, giving Liu Qingge big, teary eyes.
“But the bad people…” she said.
Liu Qingge narrowed his eyes. Bad people, huh? That could be interesting.
“I’ll deal with them,” he said, simple and easy.
The kid just looked more troubled with his words. She kept looking between him and the kids behind him.
“Will you promise?” she asked him.
Liu Qingge was thrown for a minute, but he nodded. Of course, that was what he had wanted to do, anyway.
“Promise,” he said.
Finally, the kid looked satisfied. She gave him a small, shaky smile. Then she vanished.
[Transmission ended.]
They came upon the white fortress called Hawkins Lab in more or less the same way they came upon anything in the Upside Down; with Liu Qingge mowing down monsters and the two kids hiding until it was safe enough to follow him.
The inside was a maze of corridors and locked doors, with little boxes on the wall beside them. The girl named Barbara – or Barb, as she insisted, explained that the boxes needed a key ‘card’ to open. But the System just used its magic to open the ones they had to go through to get to the Gate underground.
The closer they got to the open Gate, the squishier and fleshier and mouldier the path became. It was kind of disgusting. But they didn’t encounter any more monsters, all up until they were at the Gate itself. It looked extremely gross.
There was some sort of growth on the wall; black, mossy, web-like things forming a rough circle, surrounding a thin, fleshy membrane. Was it pulsing? It looked like it could’ve been pulsing.
Horrible.
Liu Qingge quickly brought up Cheng Luan and hacked at the membrane. It gave way easily, showing a different room on the other side. While it still looked dark, there was obviously no fog nor mould in it. Almost immediately, the membrane slowly started to fix itself.
He hacked at it again and opened it up more before turning to look back at the two kids with him. He gestured for them to go. The two of them immediately scrambled ahead of him, going through the Gate with cries of relief.
[(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧₊˚ Congratulations, Dearest Customer! You have gotten your companions to safety!!]
Liu Qingge brushed the message aside, knowing it wasn’t quite true just yet. There were still the ‘bad guys’ to take care of.
The air in the parallel dimension really was different from the Upside Down. He could breathe much better here and the temperature wasn’t as cold. Though it was still dark, it was because they were in an enclosed room underground rather than any problem with the natural light. In any case, he still had his sword, which glowed softly with spiritual energy. Its glow might’ve been even stronger, no longer obscured by the oppressive fog from the other realm.
Will stared at him with awe. He and Barb already had better complexions just by being in the right dimension.
“You – you’re here with us!” he said like he couldn’t believe it.
“Mn.” Liu Qingge patted his head as he passed him, looking around the room. There was a door on the far wall, with a huge window beside it looking out into the next room.
Hmm, the other little kid wasn’t there yet. Maybe he should head out to look for them?
Just as he was about to ask for the System’s map of the place, there was a commotion in the other room and its doors slammed open. A woman came up to the window, looking frantic. At the same time, someone opened the door to the room Liu Qingge’s group was in.
Will saw the woman at the same time she saw him, and they cried out wordlessly when they did. Ah— no, the kid said a word.
“Mom!”
The woman, evidently Will’s mother, shoved the other person aside to get through the door. Liu Qingge was almost impressed with her speed. She had Will wrapped up in a tight embrace in seconds, sobbing into his hair even as she assured him everything was going to be all right.
Liu Qingge looked away to give them some sort of privacy, gaze naturally falling on the other stranger in the room. He stood by the doorway with his arms still raised from when he let the woman pass, some sort of odd device held in one hand.
The stranger was looking at him warily, tired and rugged but alert in a way Liu Qingge recognized. He was ready for a fight, leading Liu Qingge to wonder if the thing in his hand was a weapon.
“Who’re you?” the stranger asked.
Liu Qingge obligingly gave his name, watched with some amusement as the man tried to repeat it incredulously under his breath. Without the System’s translations, just how different would their language sound like?
“Are they there? I heard a shout!” Someone else came barreling in— a girl with a ponytail and a spiky club she brandished like a weapon.
“Nancy!” Barb exclaimed, heading straight for her. They hugged and cried too, while the stranger who had been shoved aside again started shouting angrily.
“I told you to stay outside!” he scolded, largely being ignored. “Where’s El? Did you leave her alone?”
“I’m here.”
The man jumped with some harsh words, stepping fully into the room to reveal a little girl standing behind him. Now this one, Liu Qingge recognized. She was the source of that ‘transmission.’ She looked past Liu Qingge, at the Gate that had stitched itself closed behind him.
Then something else came over her features, her hands coming up to cling to the still-unnamed man’s side.
“The bad men are coming,” she said, fearful. That caught everyone’s attention.
Liu Qingge poked the System for its opinion.
[(￣▽￣*)ゞ Several hostile humans are heading your way. Six are armed with long-ranged weapons. I shall pull up the map for you!
Asking Dearest Customer to proceed with caution!]
The map showed red dots moving in groups along corridors leading to their location. His own group was comprised of his one blue and six greens.
“We have to get out of here,” the stranger spoke up, hefting his maybe-weapon up. He gave Liu Qingge a critical look, eyeing his sword with doubt. Liu Qingge would like to take offense at that.
“How effective is that with guns?” the stranger asked, gesturing with his maybe-weapon. Was that their long-ranged weapons? Liu Qingge had admittedly not encountered them before. But he was confident he was quick enough to evade them.
“I’m fast,” he said.
The man scoffed, seeming to doubt him more. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but El was pulling insistently at his arm.
“We have to go,” she said, eyes looking into nothing. “They’re close.”
They were, indeed, getting closer the longer they stood around. Liu Qingge pushed his way to the other room, annoyed at both the stranger-man’s judgemental stare and the fact that he had to do combat in such close quarters.
Glancing at the map, he confirmed the enemy’s positions again. There were three groups, all heading towards them from various directions in a slow pace. How would he be able to lead the enemies to him? Or should he simply go for the fastest route to get to all of them?
He turned towards the gathered group of people.
“I’ll fight them,” Liu Qingge told them. He tilted his head towards the door leading out of the room. “Go left.”
There were a lot of protest, mostly from the stranger-man and the two women with him.
Things like “You can’t handle them all by yourself!” and “It’s too dangerous!” were being thrown around.
The others stayed quiet but their worry was obvious on their faces. Liu Qingge had never been fond of group discussions, and his decision was not up for debate. So he simply walked off to do what he wanted.
“What about the Gate?” El asked, successfully stopping him.
Liu Qingge turned back, ignoring the other people in the room. This kid obviously had her priorities straight.
“Can you close it?” he asked. She seemed to have power enough for something like that. El frowned, but after a moment she nodded.
“Don’t,” Liu Qingge said. “I’m coming back. If anyone else gets lost, they need a way out.”
El nodded again, gravely this time. Liu Qingge smiled in approval and went on his way. The other people had gone silent behind him.
Once he was out on the corridor he sheathed Cheng Luan, thinking about the upcoming fight. It’d be both easier and harder this way. He wasn’t going against mindless animals, but they weren’t cultivators either.
He followed the map to the closest group of enemies, opting for a surprise attack. According to the System, only two of them had long-ranged weapons but the others had batons and small devices that seemed to generate a watered down version of lightning. Those looked nasty enough that Liu Qingge was immediately wary of them.
Disarming them was easy enough, but one of the men had fired his ‘gun’ and grazed Liu Qingge’s shoulder. It was loud and fast and the projectiles were deceptively small. Easy to lodge in someone to incapacitate them. Liu Qingge decided he hated guns.
It was still pathetic how fast the men went down with just his fists, once they had no weapons. He wasn’t specifically aiming to kill them nor was he trying to keep them alive. As long as they weren’t getting up anytime soon, that was good enough for him.
His two other encounters went in a similar vein, with more humans beginning to crowd into the building. If the System’s map was to be believed, the people he’d rescued had already left. At this point, he didn’t have any obligation to stay around.
Having to fight people reminded him how annoying they could be.
He was reminded of why he decided to go on this ‘vacation’ in the first place. They were also incredibly weak here, and he yearned for a bigger fight. One that would leave little room to think about stupid things like little kids and pleading looks.
He found the Gate again, and entered the Upside Down without looking back.
Liu Qingge tossed his ruined outer robe aside, shrugging off most of his tattered and monster-blood-soaked clothes until he was down to his shoes and pants. He felt only marginally lighter overall, but at least it was no longer in the way.
The Mind Flayer loomed over him, one of its massive limbs nearly cut away at the shoulder from Liu Qingge’s initial surprise attack. It could no longer move the limb, hanging by a few strips of whatever muscle it was made of. But it didn’t look like that would last long, the limb slowly beginning to repair itself like the membrane on that Gate.
The monster was huge, faceless, and with a bunch of beasts and large tree-like tendrils at its command. There was no indication which part of its massive body was its weakest point, or if cutting it down would even kill it.
Liu Qingge grinned, eyes alight.
It was perfect.
The cover up that the government tried to do was never quite completed, because El had mysteriously vanished and the two previously missing persons refused to let themselves be experimented on. What was more, they insisted that a superhero had saved them, the same man who knocked out and grievously injured the people and security at Hawkins Lab before disappearing.
Last that Hopper heard, they’ve theorized that the man was on the run with El and was possibly a foreign spy. They promised to shut down Hawkins Lab ‘after the clean-up’ but that was most likely horseshit.
He didn’t really care, in the end.
Sure, he was curious as all-Hell about that mystery man with the sword. But what was important was that nobody else was going missing, Will was safe, Barbara was safe, and El was safe, in Hopper’s care and hidden until the government dogs stopped sniffing around.
El, Will and Barbara had formed a little club over that mystery man, for some reason. The high school’s guidance counselor, who was sworn to secrecy, suggested that it could be a coping mechanism for all three of them. Something about creating hope for themselves in the face of overwhelming trauma.
She didn’t want to encourage them too much lest they try to seek out their saviour and get in trouble, but apparently denying them outright would just make them distrustful of the real adults in their lives who could help. It all sounded a lot more troublesome than Hopper wanted to deal with, but he could manage.
It had been more than a week since then when El had looked up from the show on the television, giving Hopper a concentrated look. He tried not to tense too visibly.
“What?” Hopper asked, an eyebrow raised.
“It’s gone,” El said quietly, face unreadable.
“What is?” Hopper asked.
“The Gate,” El replied. Her brows knit, and she looked down. She hadn’t quite got the hang of hiding her expressions, but somehow, Hopper thought she was trying not to look sad. “It’s closed.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” Hopper tried for a smile. “No more monsters coming over?”
El’s face was pinched, but she nodded up at him. Hopper bit back a sigh, trying to think of a reason why the Gate closing would be bad. Then it occurred to him.
“Do you think that guy’s stuck in there?” Hopper asked.
El nodded again, eyes tearing up. Hopper couldn’t quite hold back his sigh this time, but he dutifully held his arms open, gesturing with his hands.
“C’mere.”
El abandoned the television to fall into his embrace, hiding her face in his chest. He couldn’t help thinking— that bastard better be fine somewhere.
Liu Qingge heaved a breath, stabbing his sword into the ground for something to lean on.
All around him the realm shook, flesh-mould plants and trees decaying rapidly as the single super-organism supporting it lost its life. Bodies of dead Demogorgons and pieces of the Mind Flayer were strewn about, its rancid smell clinging to Liu Qingge much like the persistent fog.
In front of him, the System sent a series of messages, its cheerful voice ringing over the rumbling in the ground.
[〜(＞＜)〜 You have defeated the Mind Flayer! Every monster in this realm has died with its death.
The Upside Down has become unstable with its death. The Gates between the Upside Down and its parallel dimension has become unstable. Both Gates have collapsed.
Asking Dearest Customer to please make his choice!
Would you like to go back to your original realm?]
Liu Qingge read the messages with narrowed eyes.
“The parallel realm?” he asked.
[(o･ω･o) Dearest Customer need not worry, the Upside Down will stabilize itself and the parallel dimension will sustain minimal damage as a result.
Would you like to go back to your original realm?]
“No.” Liu Qingge stood up straight, taking Cheng Luan off the ground and doing his best to wipe his sword off. “New place.”
[(っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ Asking for Dearest Customer’s understanding.
Your health and condition is less than the recommended limits. The System cannot endanger you!]
Liu Qingge tsked. He lost a lot of energy, sure. But aside from a new set of clothes, all he needed was a few hours of rest. That didn’t mean he was ready to call it quits.
“New place,” he insisted. The System only made sad face characters at him until he decided to throw in a compromise. “Place to rest. But there should still be monsters.”
[＼(＾▽＾)／ Of course! Leave it to your trusted System!! (￣^￣)ゞ
Please give me a moment to search for a world that suits the Dearest Customer’s needs and desires…]