When Yōulíng appeared again, he was several kilometers away from the tunnel.
“Holy crap, what kind of monster is this?”
Yōulíng’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. He performed spatial warp several more times, only feeling a slight ease when he reached the other side of Donghai City.
Meteor Star was right; he was alive only because the other party had shown mercy.
Yōulíng sat on a park bench, and a bottle of soda appeared out of thin air in his hand.
Looking at the soda, Yōulíng felt a bit dazed, as if he had returned to when he had first awakened his supernatural ability. Back then, he wasn't a top mercenary, and his greatest joy was shoplifting. He didn’t even need to enter supermarkets; he could empty an entire shelf with a telescope.
A gulp of soda brought him back to his senses.
“If we really fought, I wouldn’t necessarily lose!”
As long as he could create distance from Meteor Star, with his firepower capable of suppressing an entire fleet head-on, he could surely make the opponent scurry away in panic. He could transport thousands of tons of skyscrapers and giant stones onto enemies’ heads at will. Under gravity, each strike would have the destructive power of hundreds of tons of explosives. How many hits could Meteor Star withstand?
“If it weren’t for the enhancement vaccine, I’d be running right now.”
No supernatural ability user could refuse such temptation. This vaccine represented money, status, power—everything that could be obtained on the Blue Star. After learning how to use his abilities, Yōulíng immediately became the strongest mercenary. Once he made a name for himself, even fully armed legions and fleets had to detour when encountering him. This was what his supernatural ability had given him! With his ability, Yōulíng could fight a nation alone; in ancient times, he would have been a living god.
A bottle of carbonated drink went down, dispelling Yōulíng’s annoyance. He closed his eyes, relaxed his mind, and prepared to take a short nap right there. As is widely known, the public security in Xia Nation is the best in the world. In other countries, if he dared to sleep in a park, he might wake up to see several burly men pulling up their pants. Or he might not wake up at all, having been targeted by illegal black market doctors, with every part of his body utilized.
“Yōulíng, you don’t seem to have paid?”
“Stop yapping, believe it or not, I’ll…”
Yōulíng jolted, all sleepiness gone. The voice was so familiar, a synthesized voice with a mechanical texture. Meteor Star had found him!
Before he could use his supernatural ability, Meteor Star punched Yōulíng directly on the head, sending him into dreamland.
“He really can run.”
Bai Li slung Yōulíng over her shoulder and flew straight towards the Hero Association.
“His supernatural ability ranks among the top 10 on the Blue Star. It’s a shame he doesn’t know how to use it, and as a human, his body is too fragile. He’s just a glass cannon.”
Icarus made a qualitative analysis of Yōulíng, with a hint of regret in its words. In its understanding, this was a great waste of resources. If he were a member of the Shell Civilization, with complete training, Yōulíng could become a qualified warrior, one capable of defeating super lifeforms alone.
“System, how is my strength now? World number one?”
Meteor Star carried Yōulíng on her shoulder, her speed as slow as an old propeller plane. She dared not fly too fast. As a non-body- 강화 type supernatural ability user, the unconscious Yōulíng was not durable; she had to be gentle.
“Host, you have always been number one. This is an undeniable fact,” Icarus answered without hesitation, then accurately predicted Bai Li’s thoughts.
“Currently, the host is battling Progenitor Variants. For humanity, it’s the apocalypse. The entire Blue Star will turn into purgatory.”
“Of course, you will be the final victor.”
“What’s the difference between such a victory and losing? Let’s just forget it.”
Bai Li dismissed the thought. This wasn’t the first time she had this idea; in fact, she had already fought Progenitor Variants. When she first obtained Meteor Star, Icarus had praised it extravagantly, which inflated Bai Li’s confidence. She directly sought out the Progenitor Variant whose location she knew—Leviathan in the Arctic Ocean. The result was that half of Greenland Island was gone, now it could be called the “Greenland Peninsula.”
With Meteor Star protecting her, Bai Li was naturally unharmed. Leviathan, a thousand meters long, experienced a barbecue feast, its skin turning charcoal-grilled style. But for Variants with monstrous regenerative abilities, superficial wounds were like no wounds at all. It was Greenland Island that suffered, destroyed by the aftermath of her battle with Leviathan.
After this battle, the most active Progenitor Variant also fell into a deep sleep. The fight with Bai Li caused it to receive more suppression from the Blue Star, forcing it to sleep to adapt to the new changes.
“These Progenitor Variants are all sharpening stones for the host. I will not provide any assistance in battles with them,” Icarus had replied to Bai Li’s plea at the time.
…
“Notify Chairman Wū Ài that I’ve caught a big fish, from Cold Steel International Security Company, the top mercenary Yōulíng.”
In the interrogation room, the unconscious Yōulíng finally woke up. He felt a splitting headache and couldn’t even open his eyes.
Didn’t they say Xia Nation had the best public security in the world? He dared to sleep in a park and was still attacked. Was it not any safer than other countries?
Who attacked me?
His ears were once again filled with the demonic mechanical voice, “Did you sleep well, Yōulíng?”
Hearing this, Yōulíng immediately sobered up. He instinctively initiated spatial warp, his back against the interrogation room wall, trying to distance himself from Meteor Star as much as possible.
Bai Li looked at the terrified Yōulíng in the corner and said helplessly, “Chairman Wū Ài, I told you it was useless.”
The handcuffs and leg shackles on the interrogation chair, as well as the needle previously inserted into Yōulíng’s neck, all measures designed to control Yōulíng, became ineffective. To extract information, they had to keep Yōulíng awake. Once Yōulíng woke up, all control methods became useless against him. It was a dead end.
Countries around the world had attempted to develop items to restrict supernatural abilities, but due to the myriad and diverse nature of these abilities, with no commonality, they eventually gave up.
On the other side of the one-way glass, Wū Ài confirmed through Telepathy that the unremarkable-looking man inside was indeed the legendary Yōulíng, the strongest mercenary.
“Did the Savior Foundation really come to Donghai City?”
Wū Ài’s thoughts raced, a myriad of questions flashing through his mind. Why did the Savior Foundation come to Donghai City? What was special about Donghai City? Why choose this particular time?
“How did you find me? No one can track me!”
Yōulíng vigilantly observed his surroundings. Except for the one-way glass and iron door behind Meteor Star, the interrogation room was completely sealed. He had no idea what was outside.
Without external intelligence, using spatial warp rashly was extremely risky, for example, appearing directly in front of a speeding truck. He wasn't a Japanese high school student with a passive ability to reincarnate into another world; he would go straight to meet God.
“Do you usually take missions in Africa?”
Bai Li suddenly asked, confusing Yōulíng. Why was she suddenly interested in his business scope?
“What do you mean? I take commissions based on the reward. I’ve been to all five continents.”
Bai Li raised her hand and pointed at the camera on the ceiling, asking doubtfully, “Don’t you know about surveillance?”
Yōulíng was stunned, then his face turned red. “I forgot.”
Bai Li: “…”
Wū Ài: “…”
Donghai City had surveillance cameras on every street and alley, drones, and police maintaining public order. There were also satellite monitoring from space, forming the Sky Eye System, leaving criminals nowhere to hide and facilitating the immediate detection of Variants.