Blood Neon-Chapter 24

Chapter 24
Hunting Ground
Idle adults indulged in the cheap sense of accomplishment.
Students chasing rebellion and unconventionality enjoyed their self-righteous sense of maturity.
Moonlight streamed through your window.
Whose stomach would you enter next?
Lin Ying silently muttered “Mogamikawa,” then tossed the bamboo skewer she had been eating from into the trash can.
.
Having eaten and drunk her fill these past few days, she wasn’t exactly in a rush to find prey. Coming here today was just to scout out places where prey might appear—in other words, she was surveying for a suitable hunting ground.
There weren’t enough surveillance cameras, nor enough public lighting. And due to the generally old housing in the area, the rental prices around here were also uniformly low. Taking these factors into account, she felt this place had a certain level of potential.
Previously, after a casual chat with Zhang Qiming, she discovered that this world didn’t particularly value school district housing. Only around those top-tier high schools recognized by the province did people care about such things. For a second-rate school like No. 3 High School, it wasn’t even a consideration. Moreover, most of the locals had already purchased new properties during the generation-long real estate boom.
As a result, the neglected old houses in this kind of old district—given the mindset of “better to rent them than leave them empty”—were often put up for rent to slowly liquidate the real estate. With sufficient market supply, these buildings housed mostly renters, aside from the elderly residents.
A lower cost of living naturally attracted outsiders. The increase in migrant population, in turn, barely managed to support some surrounding entertainment industries like old internet cafés, karaoke bars, and pubs.
And furthermore, as a ripple effect, the rise in migrant population also somewhat worsened public safety.
It wasn’t that migrants were inherently criminals, but dense populations and mixed demographics inevitably attracted people with ill intentions—those who targeted migrants in particular.
Middle-aged laborers who worked long days, young people from nearby counties doing odd jobs, and middle-aged women managing chores and watching children at home—among them, there would always be a few who either became perpetrators with ill intent or victims targeted by such individuals.
Places like this were naturally fertile ground for crime—whether it was gambling, loan sharking, pimping, drug trafficking, home invasions, or motorcycle theft, even petty things like stealing a neighbor’s thermos—everything was possible. The only difference was when these events appeared on the timeline.
Yes, when nothing was happening, the area looked quite peaceful.
Public safety could be good, and it could go bad at any moment.
.
All in all, this mixed and chaotic urban district was a place that attracted migrants, would-be criminals, and one supernatural creature.
After putting on her newly bought clothes, the cold night wind no longer so easily filled her from head to toe.
Upon arriving, Lin Ying first chose to return to last night's crime scene. If the main street outside could still barely be considered lit, with a fair number of pedestrians passing by, then this alley was pitch-black—no sign of anyone before or behind. Aside from a broken streetlamp just ten meters in, the next one was at least fifty meters away, and its dim glow could hardly pierce the darkness within the alley.
As expected, there was no one she wanted to see in the alley.
So after making a full circle inside, Lin Ying quietly stepped back out, not even managing to bait a single thief or mugger into following her.
That left her a bit disappointed. After all, she'd already wandered this area for nearly an hour, purposely going where there were fewer people and fewer lights—how could she not even run into someone with bold intentions?
It could only be said that, ultimately, the chances of meeting a robber were still quite low—unless she went to a place like San Andreas or something.
Thinking about it that way, how great would it be if she could transmigrate to the U.S.? She could hang around in those rough neighborhoods with poor public safety—like some of the Black communities in Chicago—make a few loops around at midnight, bond with the Black uncles, sing some rap together, watch them smoke weed. By the end of the night, she’d be full—like hitting up an all-you-can-eat buffet.
This would count as pulling cards with extremely bad luck but still failing to draw a "non," which in some twisted way, wasn’t entirely "unlucky."
Lin Ying shook her head to rid herself of the strange thoughts and bought two more skewers of oden from a street vendor.
She glanced at the large, wall-mounted old-fashioned digital clock inside the shop beside her. It was only around 9 p.m.
She was already starting to get bored. After all, her body didn’t have any real female hormonal cycle to stimulate or regulate anything—it wasn’t like she was truly a girl who could wander the streets all day for fun. Even Japanese schoolgirls walking the streets would be doing it hand in hand with their besties, going out in groups of three to five. Unlike her—skewer in each hand—looking like someone loitering at a matsuri in Japan's District 11.
Maybe she should just call it a night? Wander around for a little while longer and then go back to her little hideout? She had even thought about tidying it up when she had time—like building a secret base as she did in childhood. Maybe even copy Pekora and do a round of “Iron Steel City: Survival Construction” or something.
If she weren’t afraid of being a bother by showing up at someone’s place two nights in a row, she honestly wouldn’t have minded staying at Zhang Qiming’s place again tonight. After all, it was a proper windproof home, with a warm blanket and soft sofa—what more could anyone want?
With her mindset, it was just like hanging out at a same-gender friend’s house. No problem at all.
As she was lost in thought and rounded a corner, her attention was suddenly caught by a modest signboard at the side of the road.
The not-very-large sign hung above a semi-underground entrance. Most of the neon tubing stuck to it had already burned out. In the flickering red and blue light, only a few strokes of the large Chinese characters were still readable.
“Youthful Emo... Dynamic Bar?”
After getting a little closer and straining her eyes, Lin Ying finally managed to make out the bar’s name and muttered to herself.
What drew her in wasn’t that dilapidated signboard with six huge characters spelling out “Youthful Dynamic Bar.”
From the entrance below, a rainbow of dazzling lights shone through the doorway, painting the descending staircase in fluorescent colors. Inside, you could hear loud music and chatter. Although the volume wasn’t deafening, the rhythmic “thump-thump” beat still resonated through the floor, vibrated up through the feet, and drilled straight into the soul. Every so often, a few young people would be seen walking in with arms over each other's shoulders, or stumbling out completely drunk.
Bars varied. Some were more decent, playing mild music, catering to those wanting to sip drinks, chat, and relax. Others were more entertainment-focused—blurring the line between a dance hall and a bar, giving young people a place to burn off excessive energy. Clearly, the one in front of Lin Ying belonged to the latter. In terms of classification, it leaned more toward a club.
Looking at the battered sign, she figured maybe the owner originally just wanted to run a normal bar, but when that didn’t make enough money, they pivoted into running a dance club instead.
Anyway, as far as Lin Ying knew, regulations in this world weren’t quite as strict as the ones she used to be familiar with. Business licenses and such probably just needed to be “more or less” in order. So sometimes, walking through this city gave off the vibe of watching a 90s Hong Kong gangster flick.
Well, for Lin Ying right now, this was all good news—the looser the regulations, the worse the public safety, the easier things were for her.
.
After a bit of thought, Lin Ying decided to head down into the bar for a look.
After all, bars and clubs had always been on her backup list of hunting grounds.
It wasn’t that drinking and partying automatically made someone a bad person—this kind of thinking was more or less the product of a long-standing prejudice and bias formed under a patriarchal society, similar in nature to the decades-long demonization of video games. These were essentially different branches of the same mindset. Putting aside real-world implications, it all boiled down to the older generation’s refusal to understand and their contempt for the younger generation.
Still, from an objective perspective, if a young girl ran into a place like this to have fun, the chances of something bad happening definitely increased.
Just like how, among Black people, most were likely good people. But would you dare step into their neighborhoods after ten at night? If you really looked at the crime statistics, you’d see that the crime rate among Black communities was indeed higher—but did that mean race was the reason?
In the end, it was all the result of overlapping social factors. It wasn’t that Black people committed more crimes by nature, but rather that most crimes ultimately arose from the lower classes. And due to a long list of historical reasons and unresolved legacy issues, the majority of Black people ended up positioned at the bottom of society.
If only the big shots on Wall Street could return the blood they’d sucked back to the people—
If only the kids in Black communities no longer had to pin all their hopes for success and upward mobility on basketball or rap—
If only they were willing and able to finish high school—
Then perhaps, with time, crime rates would eventually decline.
Lin Ying didn’t look down on those groups who stood on the edge of crime. Most of the time, she pitied them.
The real evil—those things that corrupted hearts and turned people into monsters—were the eldritch gods hiding in the shadows of the vast web of human society. Powerless against them, all she could do was mourn the world with bitter compassion.
But while she could lament their injustices and pity their fates, when it came time to act, Lin Ying never hesitated.
Pity was something to be felt before and after the kill—never during. When her teeth sank into prey, she had never once gone soft.
No matter what reasons led them down their paths of no return, saving them was not something Lin Ying, in her current state, could just casually do.
Modern criminal punishment topped out at the death penalty, and only a handful of the worst offenders ever received it.
Back in middle school, she too had wondered: why not sentence all criminals to death? That way, people would be too afraid to commit crimes, and wouldn’t that lower the crime rate?
But humans needed a graded system of punishment. If death were the only outcome, then every desperate criminal would go completely insane—no one would be able to stop them.
This led to countless crimes being too severe for life, yet too trivial for death.
Like rape.
Like school bullying.
These were the kinds of acts that could ruin someone’s life, yet the perpetrators often received no punishment even close to the damage they caused. A dozen years in prison? Sent to juvenile detention? Maybe it helped. Maybe it truly reformed someone, turning them into a good person upon release.
But regardless of whether punishment worked or not, regardless of whether the criminal truly repented or not, none of it could save the poor victim. No one could return them to the days before the crime. Punishment was only psychological comfort. Victims could only choose to forget the past and find their own path to salvation.
It was deeply unfair.
But humans were ultimately incapable of truly enacting an eye for an eye. True equality in revenge was something the law could never realistically provide.
And so, Lin Ying chose to stop thinking about it.
She was a man-eating creature. She didn’t even live by her own will. If she ever lost control from hunger, she’d definitely go berserk and attack everyone indiscriminately.
That’s why, in a world where even suicide had no viable path for her, the only thing she could do…
Was ensure that, at the very least, the people she killed weren’t entirely innocent.
She wasn’t a cop.
She wasn’t a judge.
She wasn’t some arbiter of justice.
There was no halo above her head, no wings on her back.
She could only use the remaining sliver of objectivity within her to act as a scale—
And bring swift endings to others' lives with absolute, equal death.
“Not deserving of death?”
“Deserving more than death?”
Let fate decide. She only hoped that in their next life, they could be happy and good.
.
Expressionless as ever, the girl stepped to the beat of the music, descending the stairs into the underground.
So then—who would be the next lucky one?
As Lin Ying thought this, she pushed open the door to the bar.
The already noisy music suddenly exploded in volume.