Puzzle Madness

Chapter 8 Fat —
As soon as Doudou caught a glimpse of the monster's outline, he realized that it couldn't be compared to the Pleiades mantis he had seen in the magazine.

He opened the photo in the insert of "Parapsychological Exploration", held it in front of his face, and compared it repeatedly -
"Eh? It's not the Pleiades Mantis, it's really not!"

Doudou clapped his hands and exclaimed:

"Oh!! It's a new monster! Even I haven't seen it before!"

But after a few slaps, Doudou lost his temper.

"How tacky—"

The surprise just now faded a lot, and Doudou even felt a little lost in his heart.

Without any obstruction or cover, the monster sat in the middle of the open space behind the corner - and turned its gaze at the sound of Doudou clapping his hands.

Corresponding to the lack of mystery, the monster's design is also unoriginal: it looks like a fat, ugly, naked, and extremely huge [human].

Its upper body was hunched, with its back and hairless head pressed against the ceiling; from rubbing against the rough cement for who knows how long, it had become covered with yellow-green sores, abscesses and blisters.

Loose skin, holding the fat within, drooped like liquid, covering the lower half of the body. Within the gaps between the drooping skin, several human bodies could be seen—but only legs and scattered reflective vests remained. Judging by the cement stains on the rubber rain boots, these remains, eaten by the monster, were likely from workers who had previously worked on the midnight construction project.

However, the monster did not seem to treat these limbs as stored dry food: iron chains, steel bars, and decoration materials were passed between these limbs and the torso; Doudou remembered that the teacher of the model aircraft class also used this method to connect and fix the hand-made models.

Doudou didn't expect that the monster was so relaxed on weekdays and did some handicrafts when he had nothing to do.

The delicate yet crudely kneaded cleaning lady dummy was hanging in the air like a hanged man, its legs dangling randomly: there was a narrow flesh column on the back of its neck, hooked like a rope, extending all the way to the back of the monster's head. It must have lost its purpose as bait.

It looked like the lures that grow on deep-sea anglerfish, also known as lantern fish: only they weren't the little, shiny balls of flesh that looked like lanterns. Doudou had seen them in Animal World; they were used to attract prey and catch them.

Amidst the monster's tangled hair, resembling the whiskers of a banyan tree, were a pair of eyes with only a hint of white—the pupils alone were the size of solid balls.
"Ha ha?"

The monster opened its mouth, and from its empty gums, two incomprehensible gasps emerged. Even its breaths, befitting its size, rumbled like thunder.

It's like a grown man stuck in a drain: unable to break free for so long that he's lost all reason and sense.
-
"So earthy! So ordinary. No. Ugh. Where's the imagination?"

Doudou couldn't be happy even though he saw something that shouldn't belong to this world.

The greater the expectation, the stronger the disappointment when it comes; he thought that when he first saw the monsters called "unverified creatures" in "Parapsychological Exploration", he would see more novel and creative wonderful creations -
But the one in front of me seemed to have eaten too many people, so fat that he was stuck in the building. Besides being a little big, his taste was a little strange, and his body was a little dirty:
It doesn't look special; it's like a giant that's been magnified to the same scale. He even has the leisure time to hide on the top floor and make models - Doudou himself has to go out in the middle of the night during the summer vacation and has no time to finish his homework for the model aircraft class at home.

Thinking of this, Dou Dou was so disappointed that he felt a little upset.
-
But Doudou's mind raced quickly—the slight displeasure was quickly forgotten. He had other important things to do.

Since I didn't have a camera, I couldn't capture this somewhat clichéd yet meaningful moment.
Then, Doudou had to complete another small goal first: the thing he had already decided to do when he saw the real monster face to face -
Bend your waist, bend your legs, and push off the ground.

boom!
A cloud of white mist exploded from the ground. This pale cloud of dust was then blown apart by the air currents, like a sharp blade.
throat!
Doudou smashed into the monster's massive, corpulent body like a cannonball—his feet dug into its cheeks. From the point of impact, the impact spread through the thick subcutaneous fat, rippling the leathery skin. It was as if countless tiny, wriggling snakes were burrowing beneath the soles of Doudou's shoes, stealthily burrowing into the monster's skin.

puff.

With a sudden, loud popping sound, a water-filled balloon burst open; huge gashes erupted from the monster's cheeks, gushing out bodily fluids like fountains; through these enormous holes, one could see stone-like molars and blackened gums, with a lone forearm caught between the teeth. *Sizzle*: The monster's head plowed a long, crooked line into the ceiling, and chunks of cement fell in a flurry.

Doudou reached out, dug his five fingers into the monster's nose, and pressed his feet against the wings of its nose to keep himself from sliding down.
The pores on the monster's face were like golf holes - the oil was still secreted from them, making it difficult to maintain balance.

call--
The violent wind blew Doudou's raincoat, and the corners of his clothes flapped and made a loud noise.

Perhaps it was an instinctive reaction: the monster's face was still confused, but an arm as big as a small car suddenly swung towards Doudou - the half-clenched fist was already longer than an adult's head and toes.

Squeak:
Doudou dug his entire forearm into the monster's nose, locking his elbow right in the middle, allowing him to hang onto the slippery surface.

Blood splattered everywhere like a broken faucet; the bright red splashed onto Doudou's orange raincoat.

He raised his right leg; his calf and thigh pressed together, then suddenly stretched straight and popped out in an instant - his knee, shin and instep hit the monster's middle and index fingers.

"I rely on!"

[Ouch! I think I pulled a muscle!]

Doudou couldn't help but grin:
Bang!
It sounded like the crisp sound of metal striking metal, and also carried the muffled sound of branches being wrapped in a wet towel and then crushed.
In the blink of an eye, the [fist] transformed into a bouquet of flesh and bone: the five fingers, which were not human-like to begin with, now twisted in all directions; huge and strange, like a sculpture.

What followed was the monster's other arm - it seemed that it originally wanted to put its two palms together to smash the small body in front of its face.

Doudou stopped kicking; the flailing of his legs just now had strained his already clumsy ligaments. He didn't want to wake up tomorrow with a sore calf for a few days.

Then Doudou suddenly raised his head and opened his mouth wide:
hiss--
It was as if there was an invisible vacuum pump hidden in the chest cavity - the dust overflowing everywhere drew the trajectory of the air: they rushed into Doudou's mouth, filling his lungs and trachea; they even drew a tornado-like shape, making Doudou's chest look huge.

Doudou suddenly curled up: his torso suddenly bent forward from backward, and his cheeks bulged.

Then he opened his mouth—and exhaled all the air he had just swallowed at once, squeezed by his body.

"Pooh!"

Crack--
Snapped!
The monster's other hand, which was reaching towards Doudou, was bent back at the forearm with a loud noise. Although it was still nearly two meters away from Doudou, it seemed as if it had been broken by an invisible giant hammer. The white-brown bone fragments protruded from the skin, exposed to the outside, just like the supporting pillars around it.

The remaining gale blew across the top floor, making the exposed steel bars vibrate; gravel and debris on the ground smashed through the gaps in the windows and fell out like rain.

I learned this vicious exhalation trick from watching Tom and Jerry. It was my first time using it today, and the effect was pretty good.

There were no screams or wails; the monster's distorted facial features still showed confusion, as if the deformed and bloody things hanging beside it were not its own arms.

Doudou looked at his arm embedded in the monster's nose: his fist was stained bright red with blood and body fluids, and even seeped into his sleeves through the gaps, causing him to feel indescribable discomfort.

But at this moment, there are more important things to do--
Since the monster showed no sign of moving, it was time to ask that question.

(End of this chapter)