Another fireball exploded!
Boom—
The light from the explosion illuminated the dim underground garage, making the walls tremble.
Wilson was now completely sobered from his fright. He scrambled away in a panic, eventually hiding behind a medium-long float-car. He didn't even dare to raise his head, fearing the girl would throw another fireball at him. He only dared to peek at her position through the rearview mirror.
"Calm down! Calm down, I think we can still talk this out!"
Wilson growled in a low voice, sharp claws extending from his fingers.
Xu Xiaoyou stopped, no longer advancing.
"Let me tell you something, the company's underground garage has surveillance! And if someone at my level, a department head, is killed inside the company, it will trigger an alarm!"
"I know," Xu Xiaoyou replied dismissively. "That's why I did my research before clocking out."
"Every half-month, the company's surveillance equipment undergoes maintenance to delete unnecessary backups. During that time, there’s a one-hour gap."
Xu Xiaoyou looked up at the monitor hanging on the wall, its red light flickering.
"Those cameras are dark right now."
"Damn it!" Wilson cursed loudly.
Xu Xiaoyou didn't waste any more words. She stepped forward quickly, darting out from behind the vehicle with a fireball already condensing in her hand.
Under the flickering red light, the girl’s figure moved like a reaper harvesting lives in the shadows, closing the distance rapidly.
Wilson was stunned and instinctively raised his arms in front of him.
After activating the werewolf's Moon Frenzy, his muscles bulged, his body expanded by more than a size, hair grew wildly, and his eyes turned blood-red!
"Roar!"
Wilson let out a wolfish howl.
"You've left me with no choice!"
After one fireball, Wilson's figure flew backward, slamming heavily into the wall.
With a whimper, Wilson was knocked directly back into his original form.
This werewolf department head didn't seem as tough as he looked.
"Cough, cough..."
Xu Xiaoyou said coldly, "Any last words?"
Just as Wilson opened his mouth, Xu Xiaoyou condensed another fireball. Without giving him any chance to react, she threw it directly into his wide-open maw.
She aimed for the lethal spot right from the start!
'Why aren't you following the script? Such shameless tactics, playing so dirty!'
Just as Xu Xiaoyou saw her attack about to land, the air in front of her suddenly began to twist and distort.
Her attack was like sinking into a mass of cotton; it suddenly vanished into the air, replaced by a voiceless silence.
Sizzle—
Electric sparks flickered, and a grid-like electronic wall suddenly appeared in the empty air. Then, the silhouette of a person manifested. A girl wearing tight leather combat gear and a half-mask appeared out of nowhere in front of her.
Xu Xiaoyou's wrist was gripped tightly by the girl. She tried to condense fire elements, but it felt as if the bridge connecting her to the elements had been severed. The flames flickered twice and then went out completely.
She recognized the combat suit the girl was wearing: the Night Crawler series combat suit. It was developed by the Kang Tao Security Training Company and was extremely expensive, with a single set often costing hundreds of thousands of credit points.
This combat suit had numerous functions that were dizzying to list: enhancing neural reflexes, strengthening the locomotor system, altering body gravity, and most famously, its optical camouflage camouflage capability, which allowed the wearer to blend perfectly into the environment.
The girl had likely been near the werewolf from the very beginning, yet Xu Xiaoyou hadn't even sensed her presence before she revealed herself.
"Tch." Xu Xiaoyou clicked her tongue inwardly.
She tried to break free from the girl, but the other's strength and agility were far superior to hers. Her movements were instantly read. Her raised leg was pinned, and her raised left fist was pressed against the wall.
In the next moment, an eerie green light flashed in the eye of the girl's half-mask. From the back of the combat suit, a long mechanical tail tipped with a green-tainted stinger shot out, plunging into Xu Xiaoyou's body. Then, the girl grabbed Xu Xiaoyou's throat, lifted her up, and slammed her hard against the wall.
As the neurotoxin was injected, Xu Xiaoyou let out a muffled groan and slowly stopped struggling, looking at the girl with a face full of frustration.
"Hehe..."
Wilson seemed to suddenly regain his confidence. He straightened his clothes and slowly stood up from the floor, adjusting the position of his expensive wristwatch.
He smoothed his messy collar, no longer looking at all like the pathetic wreck he was moments ago:
"Did you think I wouldn't plan for this?"
"I still understand the principle that those with nothing to lose are the most dangerous."
"Did you think you could kill me with your hot-headed indignation and a few little fireballs?"
"People like me cherish our lives the most. I worked so hard to climb from the bottom to this high position, living the luxurious life that the lower classes can only dream of."
"I am a predator at the upper levels of power in this steel forest city! It would be too ridiculous to be killed by a filthy cockroach full of hate."
"Don't bother struggling. Juzi is the ace of the Kangpei Security Company. Low-life characters like you wouldn't be a threat to me even if there were more of you."
At that moment, Xu Xiaoyou let out a cold laugh.
"Anya."
Wilson felt a sudden bad omen. He felt a sharp claw press against his throat from behind. A thick killing intent wrapped in a cold aura surged from behind him, as if it were about to swallow him whole.
The low growl of a wolf-like creature was very familiar to him.
It was a sound only made when its territory and prey were severely encroached upon, and it was prepared to fight to the death.
Behind him, Anya's expression was fierce. If the person in front of her dared to make any out-of-line move, or if Xu Xiaoyou just nodded her head, she would tear this werewolf apart!
Wilson silently raised his hands, his arrogant bluster vanishing again:
"It seems we've entered a cycle of threats."
Sensing that Wilson's life was in danger, the girl in the combat suit's eyes shifted, and she increased the pressure of her grip, tightening it around Xu Xiaoyou's throat.
"However, I should remind you that I have more than one guard like Juzi around me."
"You damn gambler, I guessed long ago that you would take action and choose to risk everything."
The werewolf suddenly showed a sinister expression: "But let me remind you, not every 'all-in' yields a reward!"
"I've told my subordinates that if I die, the report about you will automatically be sent to that investigator's ears."
"Do you dare to kill me!?"
Wilson roared, his voice deep and piercing!
In this moment, he once again looked like an arrogant predator from the top floor.
Thud—
An iron rod swept across Wilson's punchable face, knocking him to the ground. From the dull sound, that hit was quite hard.
"I've had no idea what you've been muttering to yourself for a while now."
The blonde girl's legs appeared in his line of sight. Until he lost consciousness, Wilson couldn't understand why Xu Xiaoyou, who had just been restricted by the throat, would suddenly appear in front of him.
"Talking to yourself like that... it gave me a headache just listening to it."
The girl named Juzi froze for a moment. Looking back, the figure she was choking—whose face had been expressionless for eternity—suddenly melted like flowing liquid. Its limbs stuck together, eventually collapsing to the ground and turning into a card with golden patterns that flew back into Xu Xiaoyou's hand.
"Wilson!"
She shouted and tried to turn back to counterattack, but Anya immediately pounced in front of her to block her.
Xu Xiaoyou raised the iron rod again and struck the werewolf several more times until she was sure he wouldn't be able to get out of a hospital bed for several days. Then, she tossed the rod aside.
"Idiot."
Xu Xiaoyou disdainfully tossed the coin from earlier that day in front of Wilson, whose nose was crushed and teeth were broken.
"Dealing with someone like you doesn't require going all-in. I just need one more chip than you have."
"Wilson..."
Juzi suddenly broke away from Anya and jogged over to the werewolf's side, kneeling on the ground to check his injuries.
Anya let out a low growl in warning, but Xu Xiaoyou raised a hand to stop her.
Juzi pursed her lips tightly. The long tail extending from her spine split into four petals at the tip, and a needle emerged, plunging into the werewolf's chest and injecting a certain liquid.
As the ice-blue liquid was slowly injected, the werewolf's pale face eased slightly.
After confirming that the werewolf's breathing had smoothed out and his vital signs had stabilized, Juzi finally let out a long sigh of relief, holding the werewolf's hand with a touched gaze.
"Does he have some kind of debt of gratitude over you?" Xu Xiaoyou asked casually.
"Not really. It's just that if this idiot dies now, I'll have to pay the security company a huge sum of money. I just sold my reproductive organs to barely afford this combat suit on a loan, and I still owe quite a lot," Juzi said.
"If you insist on killing him, I will do my best to stop you. Even if I can't kill you, I can certainly stall until the company's security forces arrive."
It was a plea, and at the same time, a threat.
If possible, Xu Xiaoyou certainly wanted to end the werewolf's life right now to eliminate any future trouble.
But the risks were simply too high. This girl named Juzi alone possessed combat power far exceeding a typical grade 2 fixer, and once the alarm was triggered, waves of security would swarm in.
Once those mechanical guards entered combat mode, they would turn into a fortress of firepower in the blink of an eye. With her current physical strength, she would be easily riddled with holes or even torn to pieces in a metal storm.
Confronting the corporate security forces head-on was the stupidest thing one could do in the Corrupt Hive City, not to mention that even if she bypassed the alarm and killed the werewolf with this girl's help, she would still face the risk of her secrets being exposed if what he said was true.
The risk-reward ratio didn't add up. She had to stay rational.
"I was never here tonight," Xu Xiaoyou said.
Juzi nodded and gave a thumbs-up: "I get your drift."
The two exchanged a smile, reaching a silent consensus.
Moreover, she already had a plan for how to collect the debt from Alley No. 5.
"Let's go, Anya. Giving him a lesson and making him tuck his tail between his legs is enough."
Xu Xiaoyou said, leading Anya out of the underground garage and vanishing from Juzi's sight.
...................
On a certain street within the hive city.
Several fixers dressed as Taoist priests were driving residents off the street, pulling a long yellow cordon.
"Anyone who doesn't want to die, get lost! Keep looking and I'll gouge your eyes out!"
one of them shouted at the crowd of onlookers on the street.
The people who originally planned to watch the excitement scattered, leaving only a few brave ones watching from a distance.
Time ticked closer to 8:15 PM.
People watched those fixers in Taoist robes sitting in a circle, looking like they were performing some kind of spell, their mouths chanting obscure and difficult language.
"What are they doing?" someone asked.
"No idea. Based on their lip movements, it looks like they're just chanting 'one, two, three, four, five'."
"These quacks don't even have any professional knowledge. Pretending to be priests with all this ghost and god stuff, they're just here to scam money, right?"
"Shh, keep it down. Don't let them hear you. They're from the Breeze Agency, a grade 3 agency. They're all fixers. It'll be trouble if they hear you."
"Scatter, scatter."
On the street, looking at the senior brothers sitting upright around an alchemy furnace several people high, looking profoundly mysterious, a young Taoist who had just joined the agency had a look of admiration in his eyes, not noticing anything wrong at all.
He excitedly approached an old Taoist, observing the way the man drew talismans, lost in thought.
"Master, are we going to use this to exorcise demons? To resolve Alley No. 5?"
Looking at the peach wood sword and talismans the young Taoist brought out, the old Taoist smiled kindly and gently shook his head.
"Then what are we using?"
The old Taoist pulled out an assault rifle: "We're using this."
Young Taoist: "???"
Seeing the old Taoist's practiced movements of changing the magazine and racking the bolt, the young Taoist was stunned.
The old Taoist slapped a talisman onto the body of the rifle, and it burst with golden light!
"As expected, this is still easier to use."
"Master, everything is almost ready! Hmph, those dismantlers, we'll make sure they never return!"
A tall figure appeared, carrying a rotary machine gun with a long belt of ammunition trailing on the ground.
The old Taoist grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.
"We'll smash those dismantlers, refine them into pills, and eating them will surely bring us the Three Flowers Gathering at the Top, allowing us to ascend to immortality!"
"Light the furnace!"
Buzz—
The fixers dressed as Taoists stood up, their mouths rapidly chanting something. After a series of complex ritualistic movements, a burst of flames actually erupted from beneath the alchemy furnace with a whoosh, burning brightly!
The light grew brighter and the fire grew more intense!
Xu Xiaoyou, watching this scene from a distance in the crowd, was silent.
She really shouldn't expect to meet any normal people in this hive city.
Every single one of them had a truly 'wonderful' mental state.
After a brief sigh, Xu Xiaoyou checked the time, her brow furrowing slightly.
It was already 8:15 PM. Alley No. 5 should have entered its predatory state by now. With such a big commotion, could it still not be lured out?
Just as she thought this, a sudden change occurred!
The sky suddenly darkened, the inky black clouds stained red as if with blood. The hanging crescent moon also gradually became eerie, turning a horrifying shade of crimson.
One blood-red handprint after another began to crawl across the walls!
Suddenly, the street in front of her began to change. As if swallowed by a giant bloody maw, the scene became blurred and distorted. The figures of the fixers vanished into thin air, and a wall several meters high blocked the entire street entrance, pressing down heavily like a mountain!
The onlookers let out cries of alarm as they watched a bright red, dripping '5' manifest on the wall.
Rate on N.U.
