From the very beginning, He Ao had felt that Mu Xiu was the typical sort who looked rough but was actually meticulous. You could see it from how he had contaminated passersby to draw Selina and He Ao away. Moreover, his aggro toward Dancer ran extraordinarily deep, driving him to pursue her tirelessly for decades.
And with enough Homeless Men around this abandoned industrial building, Mu Xiu could easily gather sufficient sacrifices for the God of Chaos.
Taken together, these factors led He Ao to a different conclusion than Selina's. He believed Mu Xiu would definitely return.
But he had not shared his opinion with Selina. Instead, he had waited here alone for Mu Xiu.
He was waiting for a first meeting—and a final one.
"I have a question for you."
He Ao watched Mu Xiu slowly rise to his feet, staring at him warily. His tone was calm. "Five years ago, when you were pursuing Dancer through Kaya City, did you encounter a Molden United Mining Company prospecting team?"
Mu Xiu did not answer He Ao, but he was clearly stunned for a moment. His pupils shifted upward as he thought.
"So you did encounter them." He Ao tilted his head. There was no need to think for so long about something that had never happened. "To please the God of Chaos, you slaughtered that team?"
"Who are you?"
Mu Xiu did not deny it. He watched He Ao vigilantly, his voice hoarse and irritable, like the growl of a wild beast.
"So all my guesses were right." He Ao adjusted the pockets on his clothes. "Would you be willing to hear a story? The story of a rather troublesome child."
Mu Xiu frowned but did not answer. He continued to scan his surroundings with extreme caution, worried that this was a trap He Ao had set.
"This was an ordinary child. He did not have any particularly outstanding talent. The only thing worth praising was that he was good at fighting." He Ao paid no attention to Mu Xiu's movements, nor did he care whether Mu Xiu wanted to hear the story. He simply began recounting it with a calm expression.
"His parents paid to send him to an expensive private school, hoping he would make enough elite friends there, or get into college and become a respected doctor or lawyer.
"But clearly, he was not cut out for studying. Other than the one time he scored a perfect hundred in second grade, his days at school were spent fighting, causing trouble, and hanging around with kids who had poor grades. His parents had even been forced to transfer him to another school once because of it."
Mu Xiu seemed to have been drawn in by He Ao's story. He quieted down and watched him.
He Ao continued, "At thirteen, he learned how to play cards and became addicted to it. The habit followed him into high school, and his grades only got worse. At seventeen, close to graduating high school, he had become one of the bottom ten percent of students in the entire school. He clashed with his parents again and again, until he finally ran away from home.
"He began taking odd jobs to support himself, refused his parents' help, and never went home again.
"At eighteen, his parents died. During a wilderness prospecting expedition, they were killed by cultists."
He Ao raised his head and looked at Mu Xiu. "He completely changed his ways. He studied tirelessly, cut off all social contact, slept only three or four hours a day, and ultimately entered Kaya City's best public university, Kaya City Municipal University, with excellent grades. Then, in his junior year, he entered the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an intern through a prestigious university program.
"He finally saw the photographs from when his parents died. Their bodies had been blasted apart by immense force into several pieces."
He Ao looked at the corpse behind Mu Xiu, its head shattered. "Yes. Just like him."
He turned his gaze back to Mu Xiu, meeting his eyes calmly. "To you, they were merely two sacrifices you could kill at will. But to that child, they were his parents. They were his whole world."
At that moment, He Ao and Ander overlapped.
"I know why you came to Dawn City. You came to pursue Dancer. You came for revenge." He Ao's gaze was cold and calm. "And I stand here now for the very same reason."
Mission complete
"So you came to stop me?"
Mu Xiu looked calmly at He Ao, but beneath that calm gaze lay twisted ferocity and madness.
Current Mission Evaluation Settlement...
"No." He Ao shook his head and stared into Mu Xiu's eyes. "I came to kill you."
Returning to the original world in 90 seconds
Super Memory, burst!
Return immediately (90)
A massive fist smashed straight through the wall behind He Ao. The giant standing over four meters tall burst through the ceiling, shattering the floor slab between levels.
He Ao dodged the deadly blow. Tremendous power spread from his soul into his body, rapidly raising Ander's original Physical Fitness of (13) to (70).
This was not Super Memory's original power. It seemed to be the power inherited from the waiter after Super Memory had devoured it.
The increase in Physical Fitness was not merely an increase in strength; it also enhanced agility and dexterity.
That sensation of seeing every minute detail in the entire world appeared in He Ao's mind again. He immediately drew the Gauss Gun at his waist and fired at the massive Mu Xiu's forehead.
The muscles across Mu Xiu's body writhed, and he violently twisted his head aside, dodging the shot by force before swinging at He Ao again.
He Ao rolled away from the enormous fist, rapidly reconstructing a model of Mu Xiu's body in his mind.
Though this guy was huge and cumbersome, he was not slow, especially when it came to explosive bursts of speed. If He Ao's body had not been enhanced, Mu Xiu would have smashed him into pulp in the very first instant.
In terms of attack power, Mu Xiu was far stronger than Dancer.
He Ao rolled repeatedly again, evading Mu Xiu's attacks. Then he raised his hand and fired. This shot successfully predicted Mu Xiu's movement and struck directly into his left shoulder, the sharp magnetic bullet piercing his skin.
Mu Xiu roared in pain. The muscles in his left shoulder writhed and actually forced the bullet out. The puncture wound was sealed by muscle, without even a drop of blood spilling out.
But that stabbing pain only made Mu Xiu more frenzied. His speed rose by another level, and as He Ao darted across the ground, he narrowly avoided being struck several times.
Was a D-rank defense really this strong?
He Ao frantically evaded Mu Xiu's attacks while constantly reconstructing Mu Xiu's body model in his mind, searching for the weak point Mu Xiu had consistently protected.
No matter what, people would always prioritize protecting their weak points—unless they had none.
The Gauss Pistol had only ten bullets. Four had been used in the battle with Dancer, and two more had just been fired. Only four remained.
Countless possibilities for Mu Xiu's next move flashed through He Ao's mind. He had already circled halfway around Mu Xiu, and his speed had begun to slow, while Mu Xiu only grew faster. Just as Mu Xiu swung another punch at him—
Bang! Bang!
He Ao raised his gun and fired two consecutive shots at Mu Xiu's eyes.
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