Chapter 89: The Mysterious Duo

What kind of power was that? Could the intruders be Awakened?

But even if they were, was there any need to open with a bomb? In such a narrow stairwell, weren’t they afraid of hurting themselves?

Still, whatever the case, if they had made such a dramatic entrance, then there was no doubt about it: they were enemies, not friends, and they had definitely come looking for trouble.

The only question was whether they had come for her, or for Xue Feifei, or for Kong Zhe...

Though she was braver now than she had once been, and had even gained some experience hunting monsters on her own, that was all it amounted to. She knew full well that if she ran into another Awakened, she was done for. Even if she was still wearing the cloak of invisibility, she had no idea whether that thing would even work on an Awakened.

So Hong Ling was now watching the surveillance screen with some tension.

Amid billowing smoke, a man and a woman strolled casually into the room.

The man wore a gray trench coat, and atop his head sat a bizarre shock of spiky hair in a riot of colors that immediately reminded Hong Ling of the legendary tribes of flamboyant oddballs.

As for the woman, she was actually quite pretty, but she had caked on heavy smoky eye makeup and so much foundation that she looked as though she had just been dredged out of a vat of flour. On her ears hung a pair of oversized, wheel-shaped earrings. And in this snowy weather, she was actually wearing a raincoat and rubber boots.

...

Hong Ling had no words for their appearance. Their sense of style was appalling. Was this really the latest fashion? Had she simply fallen behind the times?

What relieved her, however, was that neither of them was an Awakened. She could not sense the presence of any magic in either of them, and neither of them was wearing any magical equipment.

That made her let out a quiet breath. As long as they were not Awakened, it was fine. If a fight really broke out, at least she would not have to fear them.

With that thought, Hong Ling was about to go out and teach them a lesson for blowing up the door without warning. Even if she was about to leave soon, this was still Xue Feifei’s house. How was she supposed to keep living here after this?

But just as Hong Ling had already reached out to press the door-open button, her eye suddenly caught something on the monitor.

On the screen, the man with the explosive hairstyle seemed to realize that no one was inside. Looking annoyed, he scratched at his hair in irritation, then slammed his fist into the wall beside him.

The instant his fist struck the wall, a massive explosion erupted on the spot. A large section of the wall visibly caved in, and from the center of the blast, concentric cracks spread outward. If the wall had not been so thick, the entire side would likely have collapsed right then and there.

Hong Ling snatched her hand back as though shocked by electricity and clapped a hand over her mouth, too astonished to speak. What had just happened? She was certain that he had not used any bomb or device at all—he had merely punched the wall. Could the explosion have come from him? But how could it have had such tremendous force?

If it had been a magic skill, that would have made sense. But this man was plainly not an Awakened.

And yet he had been standing right at the center of the explosion, completely unharmed.

Hong Ling was confused and amazed at the same time, though also a little relieved. Good thing she had reacted quickly and had not managed to press the button. Otherwise, she would already have been exposed.

No matter what these two were, one thing was clear: they were definitely not decent people. If she went out now, she would absolutely be caught. Judging from the ability he had just displayed, she was no match for him.

On the screen, the man and woman seemed to be talking about something, but lip-reading alone was useless. Hong Ling hurriedly grabbed the earbud nearby.

The moment she put it on, a jumble of voices poured out, but the sound was fuzzy, as if the radio had not been tuned properly, riddled with static and impossible to make out.

Hong Ling frowned. For someone as professional as Xue Feifei, the equipment she made should have been cutting-edge. How could there be such a minor problem?

Was she using it wrong?

Then she remembered that Kong Zhe and Xue Feifei had once discussed restoring communications. According to him, it seemed that after the apocalypse, communication devices all over the world had become useless.

At that thought, Hong Ling immediately understood. But then she felt a little helpless. At this rate, she would not be able to hear what they were saying at all. She could only try turning the volume up.

Only after she cranked it all the way to the maximum did she finally manage to distinguish the conversation with some difficulty. But the volume was now so high that her ears buzzed painfully. Still, in order to hear them, she could only bear it and strain to make out the voices.

The first voice that came through was the woman’s.

"...the target of the mission seems to be named Xue Feifei, right? Ugh, what a headache. She actually got away before we could grab her..."

Xue Feifei?

Hong Ling froze. She had assumed these two were so powerful that they had probably come for Kong Zhe. She had never expected their target to be the ordinary, powerless Xue Feifei instead.

"Damn it, this was another wasted trip. And this was a rare B-rank mission, too... Seriously, is that woman really so important?"

The shock-haired man looked around in frustration as he spoke, not even turning his head.

"How should I know? Anyway, the organization seems to value her a lot. I heard she’s some famous scientist who invented all kinds of things... Well, whatever the case, she’s definitely worth more than the people we captured before, otherwise this mission wouldn’t have been rated so highly..."

"Invented things? These things?"

The shock-haired man pointed in disbelief at the pile of metal instruments in the room.

Xue Feifei had only taken away the most useful equipment. The rest she had not been willing to destroy, so it had all been left exactly where it was.

The shock-haired man walked over to a spherical device and gave a cold laugh, then raised his hand and placed it on top of it.

The back of his hand bore a strange tattoo: blood-red lines forming the shape of a sun.

If Kong Zhe had been here, he would have recognized that symbol at a glance. The same pattern had been on the hand of He Jie, the man who had spent a month with him on that island in his previous life!

Feeling the icy metal beneath his palm, the shock-haired man’s face twisted into a manic smile.

"Hahaha, explode!"

At his words, Hong Ling watched in terror as a violent blast erupted from the man’s palm on the screen. With a deafening roar, the area was engulfed in flames, and the metal device had already shattered into a scattering of charred fragments.

Hong Ling hurriedly tore off the earbud. Even so, it was already too late. Her ears rang from the immense sound that had come through it.

She cried out in pain, then immediately realized what she had done and clapped a hand over her mouth.

Then she stared at the monitor, hardly daring to breathe.

There was a twisted psycho outside now, after all. She had seen it clearly: the explosion had come from that shock-haired man’s hand, and the blast wave and flames seemed almost to possess a will of their own, perfectly avoiding his body and surging only outward in other directions. That was why he had emerged completely unscathed.

Something like that should be impossible even for an Awakened. The man was practically like a superpowered being.

She did not know exactly what his ability was, but it was obvious that she was no match for him. If her voice had carried outside and they had heard her, she would be finished. Her path to power had only just begun—how could it be cut short so easily?

She wondered whether the walls of this house had good soundproofing. She had just screamed pretty loudly.

After waiting a moment and seeing that the two people inside had not noticed anything unusual, Hong Ling finally relaxed. Apparently the room’s soundproofing was fairly good.

She exhaled, feeling her ears recover somewhat, and put the earbud back on. This time, however, she kept one hand on it so she could yank it off at any moment.

That shock-haired man was definitely hot-tempered and did things entirely by instinct. If he did that a few more times, her ears would be ruined.

"...Honestly, you really do love explosions..."

The woman in the raincoat frowned and waved away the dust in front of her face, saying helplessly, "Being assigned to a team with you has been bad luck for me eight generations over..."

"Hahaha, explosions are art! The art that creates everything! How could common people like you possibly understand!"

The explosion-crazy man laughed boisterously, his voice muffled and rough, while he kept waving his arms around.

Hong Ling’s eyelid twitched. She quickly removed the earbud. Sure enough, the next instant, a thunderous barrage began to pour through it.

On the monitor, the room had already become a sea of fire. Wherever the man touched, something would explode. In an instant, the house was filled with smoke and dust, and fragments and debris were flying everywhere, yet somehow not a single piece ever struck him.

Hong Ling’s astonishment kept rising, wave after wave. What on earth was this man? Even the magic skills of an Awakened could not possibly be used this frequently, could they? As far as she knew, Kong Zhe and the others always had fixed intervals between uses, and even their skills did not seem to have such terrifying power.

Could it be that this man, though not an Awakened, was even stronger than one?

Watching the man grin madly as he created explosions without end, Hong Ling could not help thinking of the mutants from the X-Men films.

It seemed only someone with powers like that could produce this effect. Could this man be a mutant?

Hong Ling was pondering this in confusion when something else suddenly occurred to her. She quickly began searching for the woman’s figure in the firelight on the screen.

This man was using his explosive power with such abandon. He might not be injured himself, but what about his companion? What was going to happen to that woman? She seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary... person...