In the early morning, the Amber City Investigation Bureau building was already beginning to buzz with activity.
An invisible figure moved swiftly along the wall, gripping a blade with murderous intent.
Bai Wanyang maintained the hidden state provided by the black feather, blending completely into the air. He was transparent and impossible to observe.
At the same time, he kept his breathing light and his footsteps silent as they touched the floor tiles, making not a single sound of friction.
Only the sound of his heartbeat was overly intense.
The blade in his hand was ready to strike, the martial instincts it provided boiling in his blood.
He soon reached the Special Operations Section office area.
The glass doors were tightly shut, and there was no one inside.
This was normal. Given the Amber City Investigation Bureau's slack style, no one would show up for work at this hour unless there was an emergency; most were likely sleeping in.
Bai Wanyang didn't use his access card to enter, as that would leave a record.
His fingers touched the area near the door lock, and he took a small, inconspicuous metal strip from his spatial pocket.
It had to be said that Yue Shi had prepared things very thoroughly, taking many scenarios into account.
The metal strip slid through the electronic sensor area at the door's edge, producing a faint sizzle of a short circuit.
The lock's green indicator light flickered twice and then went out.
Bai Wanyang pushed the door open gently and slipped inside.
The office was empty, but it smelled of overnight coffee.
His target was clear: the third workstation by the window, Zhang Songyun's desk.
The station was very tidy. The keyboard was centered, the water cup was empty, the chair was pushed under the desk, and the computer screen was black.
Bai Wanyang stood by the workstation. His expression was hidden by his invisibility, but the hand gripping the blade tightened significantly.
He waited patiently. The moment Zhang Songyun sat down, he would strike, killing him with a single blow without giving him any chance to react.
As for any posturing monologues about revenge and face-slapping comebacks, those could wait until Zhang Songyun was dead and he was standing over his corpse.
...
At the same time, in an apartment building three streets away from the Amber City Investigation Bureau.
Zhang Songyun sat on his living room sofa, having just finished washing up after waking.
The morning light through the window outlined the furniture. He was dressed in loungewear, holding a glass of plain water that he hadn't touched.
A subtle sense of unease had been clinging to him for a while, an itchy prickling on his back.
He couldn't pinpoint the source; it was like a faint scent of blood in the air.
His intuition had always been sharp. This ill omen had helped him dodge fatal crises many times before.
He was supposed to go to work as usual today.
But at this moment, that sense of unease made him decide to stay home and go nowhere.
He sent a message requesting leave, citing that he wasn't feeling well.
This was no big deal. Given the bureau's slack style, no one would look into it even if he just skipped work without asking.
Zhang Songyun tried to find the source of that unease, but in the end, he found nothing.
He decided to stay home all day and absolutely not step outside. He didn't believe anyone would actually come knocking on his door!
...
In the Special Operations Section office, several investigators began arriving for work one after another.
There weren't many people in this office to begin with, making it feel quite empty.
Soon, everyone else had arrived except for Zhang Songyun.
Bai Wanyang waited for another hour, but Zhang Songyun still didn't show.
He quickly realized that with Zhang Songyun's unnerving good luck, the man might not be coming to work today.
Bai Wanyang was so frustrated he wanted to punch the wall, his chest burning with suppressed rage.
If the mountain won't come to me, I must go to the mountain. Since Zhang Songyun wasn't coming, he would have to take the fight to his doorstep.
...
Zhang Songyun stayed obediently in his room, neither going out nor ordering delivery.
That sense of crisis still haunted him. He didn't even plan to cook or use any electrical appliances.
He had personally experienced certain things and had seen plenty of movies and TV shows.
When one has a premonition of danger, it's best not to do anything extra. Anything could become a source of peril.
But even though he was being so cautious, he could still feel the danger drawing closer.
It wasn't coming from outside the window, nor from the neighbors above or below. It felt more like... a malicious gaze targeted specifically at him.
As if some filthy thing were watching him from the shadows.
Zhang Songyun frowned deeply and set down his water cup.
A blue shimmer flickered in his palm, condensing into a small energy ball.
This was the power he had stolen from Bai Wanyang, and its power was not to be underestimated.
He also had his incredible luck. He truly couldn't understand where this sense of crisis was coming from.
Suddenly, he felt as if something were rapidly approaching!
He snapped upright from the sofa.
...
Bai Wanyang stood below Zhang Songyun's apartment building, looking up at a certain window on the third floor.
He didn't take the main entrance. Instead, he circled to the side of the building, where there was an old, rusted fire escape leading to a second-floor platform.
He moved nimbly, using both hands and feet to quickly climb to the second floor.
Then, from the edge of the platform, he climbed onto an open balcony on the third floor.
That balcony was less than two meters away from Zhang Songyun's balcony.
Although Zhang Songyun's windows were closed from the inside with the curtains drawn, such a window could only stop a gentleman, not a villain.
Bai Wanyang used to be a gentleman; now, he was a villain.
He jumped onto Zhang Songyun's balcony, took out the Bomb Paintbrush, and painted a circle on the glass.
The moment the circle closed, the lines glowed slightly.
Bai Wanyang counted down in his head while moving away from the balcony to avoid being caught in the blast.
The three minutes were up.
With a loud bang, Zhang Songyun's balcony was blown apart.
The apartment building was quite sturdy—not a shoddy construction—so it didn't collapse from the explosion, but it looked miserable.
After the blast, Bai Wanyang stepped through the dust and jumped into Zhang Songyun's apartment through the hole.
The room was a mess, with fragments of furniture and broken glass everywhere.
Zhang Songyun stood at the junction of the living room and the kitchen, his face pale.
The sleeve of his left arm was torn, revealing a deep wound that was bleeding, the skin charred and curled.
He had clearly been injured in the explosion.
Yet, despite such a large explosion, he had only suffered a minor arm injury.
Bai Wanyang's eyes narrowed as he cursed inwardly. That bastard's luck really was good enough.
In Zhang Songyun's uninjured hand, he held a fist-sized energy ball.
Even though Bai Wanyang was in a hidden state, Zhang Songyun somehow sensed that someone had entered his home.
“Who is it?”
“Whoever you are, please stop. We can talk...”
His voice held a hint of testing as his gaze swept the surroundings, trying to lock onto the intruder.
He was answered by a sharp slash.
Bai Wanyang didn't waste words. The blade in his hand swung directly at Zhang Songyun's neck.
Although Zhang Songyun couldn't see the blade, his scalp tingled. He instinctively leaned back and fired the energy cannon in his hand.
By leaning back, he happened to dodge the fatal attack, and the energy cannon he fired struck Bai Wanyang's blade exactly!
Everything was such a coincidence.
Bai Wanyang's eyes tightened. He quickly pulled back his blade, not clashing head-on with the energy cannon.
After all, it was a power he once owned and mastered; he knew its strengths and weaknesses all too well.
The energy cannon hit the wall, causing the already precarious structure to collapse with a boom.
Bai Wanyang swung his blade again, slashing at Zhang Songyun.
Zhang Songyun rolled backward clumsily, knocking over the coffee table in the living room.
The sharp edge grazed his neck, drawing a line of blood, but it still didn't kill him.
The energy cannons he fired were all easily dodged.
“Bai Wanyang, it's you!” Zhang Songyun hissed.
The attacker was too familiar with the energy cannon's trajectory, dodging perfectly every time. Coupled with the immense hatred and the determination to kill him, Zhang Songyun was ninety percent certain the attacker was Bai Wanyang!
Realizing the attacker's identity, Zhang Songyun panicked even more.
He had clearly ground Bai Wanyang into the dirt; how could the man have turned the tables so quickly!
And gained such powerful assassination abilities!
Could it be that Bai Wanyang was the true protagonist?
That no matter what hardships he faced, he would always rise again!
As these thoughts flashed through Zhang Songyun's mind, a wave of turbulence rose in his heart.
“I only took your power back then. I was willing to leave you alive and didn't hunt you down!”
“Instead of being grateful, you actually came to ambush me!”
“I advise you to stop now, or don't blame me for being ruthless!”
This perverse speech was purely intended to interfere.
If Bai Wanyang were provoked into an emotional breakdown by these words, he would easily reveal a weakness.
But Bai Wanyang had already grown much stronger and wouldn't be caught by such petty tricks.
Moreover, he knew Zhang Songyun was very bizarre.
Talking to Zhang Songyun might lower his intelligence and spoil his luck.
So Bai Wanyang didn't respond at all. He simply pressed forward with his blade, seeking a swift resolution.
Seeing this, Zhang Songyun's heart sank.
His usual methods were ineffective; the opponent didn't even deign to say a single word.
It seemed the man was determined to kill him today!
Zhang Songyun gritted his teeth, slammed open the apartment door, and rushed into the hallway.
In the early morning hallway, many neighbors had already been startled by the explosion.
Some thought they were facing a supernatural incident and were rapidly evacuating.
“Help! A madman is killing people!” Zhang Songyun shouted at the top of his lungs, his face filled with terror.
He specifically ran toward the crowded first-floor lobby and the area outside, using his neighbors as shields.
Bai Wanyang's pace was significantly slowed by the crowd in the hallway.
Faced with these obstructive, innocent bystanders, he ultimately couldn't bring himself to slash through them all.
Zhang Songyun seized the opportunity, scrambling down the stairs and squeezing into the crowd.
There were housewives just returning from the market, office workers rushing to work, and elderly people walking their dogs.
“Despicable!” Bai Wanyang was even more infuriated. He chased after him and struck again.
The blade stabbed toward Zhang Songyun's back from a tricky angle.
But Zhang Songyun happened to slip, crashing into an office worker who was looking down at his phone.
The worker cried out and fell. The fatal blow grazed Zhang Songyun's back and sliced open the worker's sleeve, leaving a shallow gash on his flesh.
The worker collapsed in pain, and the crowd fell into a panic.
Zhang Songyun was unscathed.
Bai Wanyang gritted his teeth and swung again.
The blade was about to pierce Zhang Songyun's ribs.
At that moment, Zhang Songyun was shoved by the crowd and collided head-on with an old man returning from morning exercise.
The thermos in the old man's hand flew out, perfectly hitting and knocking Bai Wanyang's blade off course, causing the edge to veer slightly and only tear Zhang Songyun's clothes.
Bai Wanyang, hidden at the edge of the crowd, wanted to scream in frustration.
His gaze swept over the chaotic crowd and the innocent bystanders who had just been dragged into the fray.
He looked at Zhang Songyun, who, though disheveled, always managed to use others to deflect disaster at the critical moment.
Combined with his own experiences, Bai Wanyang roughly understood.
The good luck on Zhang Songyun wasn't generated out of thin air; it was stolen from others. In a crowd, he had many targets for Luck Stealing. The more people there were, the more good luck he had, sometimes even magnifying it infinitely.
Misfortune would be borne by others on his behalf.
Bai Wanyang wasn't just fighting Zhang Songyun now; he was fighting the collective luck of everyone around them.
Ill luck would fall on the bystanders; the crowd was Zhang Songyun's protective talisman.
He couldn't let this continue!
Bai Wanyang withdrew his blade and stopped his frantic pursuit.
He began to move and herd the target intentionally. Using his hidden state and the chaos of the crowd, he no longer sought a one-hit kill. Instead, he used his blade to cut off Zhang Songyun's escape routes, forcing him in a specific direction.
Like a sheepdog herding a flock, he drove Zhang Songyun toward a less populated area.
Zhang Songyun naturally noticed this change. He wouldn't compromise so easily and tried to charge toward the busier morning market.
But each time, he was forced back by Bai Wanyang's attacks.
Zhang Songyun could clearly feel that his crisis didn't just come from Bai Wanyang's assault.
There was also an obscure malice entwining him, penetrating every opening.
The feeling of being watched by something filthy grew stronger, and even his own good luck was being affected.
If not for this, he wouldn't have been truly forced into a deserted area by Bai Wanyang.
‘Who is it?’
Zhang Songyun's heart grew more frantic. He knew he was definitely being targeted by someone!
It was impossible for Bai Wanyang to have gained such powerful abilities to attack him for no reason; there had to be someone pulling the strings behind the scenes.
‘A noble benefactor appearing just as he hits rock bottom... this really is the protagonist treatment!’
Zhang Songyun felt this thought surge in his mind again, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he got.
Before he knew it, he had been forced into a deserted dead-end alley by Bai Wanyang.
Bai Wanyang stopped pretending and deactivated his invisibility, coldly watching the panicked Zhang Songyun as a sense of vengeful satisfaction welled up in his heart.
...
“How stupid.”
Yue Shi, far away, had been watching Bai Wanyang ever since he sent the black feather, witnessing the entire revenge plan.
His final evaluation consisted of only two words: clumsily naive.
The boy knew to ambush Zhang Songyun at his office and not to use his own access card, but he forgot about the existence of cameras. The footage of a door opening by itself in his hidden state had been captured!
And before even finishing off Zhang Songyun, he deactivated his invisibility and revealed his identity...
How should he describe it?
Are people who have never been villains this idiotic the first time they try to do something bad?
Rate on N.U.
