The Unlucky Criminals

"Alaya, why did you suddenly come to Earth?" Once I had finally recovered from the shock of learning that she was an angel, the first thing I asked was why she had come to this world. From Sandora's description, I knew that the World Arbitration Organization was an extremely important entity to a Shilin Mother Planet. Under normal circumstances, these super-consciousnesses would not leave their mother planet.

"Alaya possesses the ability to remotely control the Shilin Mother Planet, so she can leave it at will. Considering that communication between the Monarch and the mother planet is extremely difficult, Alaya decided to come to Earth and serve as a signal relay station herself, strengthening the connection between the Monarch and the mother planet. Second Unit and Third Unit have already approved this proposal. Therefore, Alaya was granted the opportunity to come to this world."

"I see..." I nodded. It looked like these Shilin Apostles had once again acted on their own initiative. But they were doing it for my sake, so I could hardly bring myself to blame them. Still, having so many troublesome people showing up one after another was really difficult to deal with...

"Alaya." I looked at her enormous wings, which swayed gently behind her. "Can you put your wings away?"

"Put them away?" Alaya looked at me in confusion, apparently unable to understand why I was asking. But she did not dwell on it and simply chose to obey my command. Her pair of enormous white wings instantly turned into feathers of light that filled the sky, gradually dissipating into the air. Yet the next second, they returned to Alaya's body.

"I can't put them away..." Alaya answered honestly.

Sandora tapped her lower lip with one finger and analyzed, "She seems to be a rather special model. She actually doesn't have a secondary disguise function..."

Why did Sandora's words sound so strange to me?

"Then what do we do? She can't possibly show herself in public like this!" I said with a headache. Taking an angel and unidentified glowing object out onto the streets was obviously an incredibly unreliable idea.

"Then she simply won't show herself in public." Sandora shrugged and said casually, "An invisibility field is quite simple for a Shilin Apostle. A pure energy model like her can even hide herself in synchronous space. At worst, we can just have her remain invisible from now on."

"How can that be!" I immediately objected. "That would be far too unfair to her!"

Upon hearing me, Sandora first gave me a slightly surprised look, then nodded approvingly. "I never expected you to be even better than I imagined. But you can rest assured. This girl absolutely will not care whether she communicates with Carbon-Based Lifeforms. To a Shilin Apostle, only connections on the spiritual level count as true communication. I believe all this girl cares about is whether she can stay by your side. Whether anyone else knows she exists has no meaning to her at all. If you're worried she'll be lonely, you can always chat with her when no one is around."

I turned to Alaya and asked tentatively, "Would that be all right?"

She nodded lightly, and then her body gradually became transparent until she vanished completely into the air. Yet I could still clearly sense that the angel girl was hovering very close above us.

"All right, all right!" Sandora stretched lazily. "Recovery operation successfully completed, one little angel acquired. It's getting late, so let's head back first. While we're at it, we can plan where to travel in a few days..."

"Hostile target approaching Sister..." Pandora suddenly said in a highly mechanical voice.

I was startled. "What?"

Pandora continued in the same robotic voice, "EX-35 Shilin Observer reports: hostile targets are approaching Sister Chen Qian. Enemy threat level: zero... Error. Reanalyzing according to the protected individual's physical condition. Enemy threat level... extremely high!"

The sudden news left me stunned for a second or two. Fortunately, dealing with all sorts of abnormal beings and abnormal events for so long had multiplied my tolerance for stress, and I immediately calmed down. Since Pandora had set up a Shilin Observer in advance to protect my sister, a few minor characters with a threat level of zero to Pandora were nothing to fear. Still, I was very curious who would dare target my sister. As far as I knew, we had never provoked anyone.

"Pandora, which Shilin Apostle is closest to my sister right now?"

A faint blue glow appeared in Pandora's eyes before she answered, "Connection established. Ekma, Commander-in-Chief of the Pandora Legion Infantry Assault Force, awaiting orders."

I immediately thought of that unlucky guy who had been teleported into a tree trunk and ended up having burrs picked out of him for an entire night.

"Have him bring the enemies here—remember, take them alive!"

In a dark alley, Chen Qian nervously watched the three suspicious men in front of her.

"Miss, we already told you, we're Chen Jun's friends. Why won't you believe us?" said the triangle-eyed man on the left, flashing what he believed to be a friendly smile. Unfortunately, that false smile could not conceal the evil and brutality in his eyes. Chen Qian would have been crazy to believe him.

"Since when did A Jun have friends like you?" Chen Qian forced down the fear in her heart, but the slight tremble in her voice still revealed her nervousness. The three men in front of her were clearly no good, and they certainly had not come looking for her brother to catch up. She absolutely could not let them find him.

But her own situation was even worse. This was already a secluded, dark alley, and it was the middle of the night. No one would possibly pass through here. K City's restrictions on firecrackers were fairly lax, and celebratory firecrackers welcoming the New Year were going off everywhere around them. Even if she shouted for help, there was a strong chance her voice would be drowned out by the surrounding noise. Thinking of this, Chen Qian could not help but feel despair.

Just moments ago, she had seen something in the eyes of that sinister-looking triangle-eyed man, something she could not drive from her mind no matter what—desire. It was naked, undisguised desire, as though he wanted to see straight through her clothes. It made Chen Qian even more worried about her predicament, but compared to that, she was even more concerned about someone else's safety...

At that moment, the bald man in the lead seemed to have lost his patience with Chen Qian. He waved a hand sharply and said hoarsely, "Enough nonsense. I'll tell you straight: your precious little brother offended someone he absolutely shouldn't have offended. Now that person wants him dead, and us brothers came here for exactly that. If you know what's good for you, tell us where he is, then let us have some fun with you. We'll naturally spare your life. Otherwise, heh heh... we don't mind having some fun first, then finding a way to pry whatever we need out of your mouth..."

The bald man's words made Chen Qian feel as though she had plunged into an ice cave. The thing she feared most had finally happened.

Watching the three leering men draw closer and closer, Chen Qian began trembling all over. She understood that she was no match for these men on her own. At that moment, she thought of death. Only that way could she preserve her innocence and keep them from learning where her brother was.

So Chen Qian closed her eyes, prepared to smash herself into the concrete wall beside her the very next second.

But just as she closed her eyes, an earth-shaking scream suddenly rang out, making her whole body jerk in fright.

That scream seemed to have come from the bald man.

Chen Qian cautiously opened her eyes and saw that the bald thug, who had just been so vicious and imposing, was now lying on the ground in agony, convulsing violently from head to toe as though every inch of his nerves were suffering powerful electric shocks.

Behind the bald thug stood a burly, bearded man with a blank expression. Chen Qian vaguely remembered that he seemed to be a security guard at a nearby hotel.

At last, the bald man's two accomplices came to their senses. They shouted angrily in unison, then turned and lunged at the suddenly appeared burly man.

Two screams rang out. The triangle-eyed man and the thin-faced man were already dangling in midair by their necks, their arms hanging limply at their sides. In that instant, the bones in their arms had been completely crushed.

But that did not seem to be the end of it. The stranger placed the two groaning men face-down on the ground, then punched the bald thug, who had curled into a ball in a daze. He lined the three men up side by side, then extended his thumb and pressed it against the back of one man's neck. The man struggled to crawl away, but his pitiful muscles, powered by oxidation, could never break free from a Shilin Apostle's restraint. Amid a bloodcurdling, heart-rending scream, blue light flashed from the burly man's thumb, and the man immediately lost consciousness.

Aside from the already unconscious bald man, the one remaining conscious man was terrified out of his wits by the bizarre sight. But before he could react, it was already his turn...

After finishing all this, the burly man stood up and gave a respectful bow to Chen Qian, who had been frightened senseless. Then, as though completely ignoring Earth's gravity, he easily dragged up the three unconscious men, slung them over his shoulders, and leapt onto a rooftop several meters high!

Chen Qian's legs gave out, and she finally collapsed onto the ground.