The Shepherd's Visit

"..."

The man emerging from the vines was expressionless, but his pupils flickered slightly.

The scene was somewhat strange.

It's unimaginable how shocking it would be for a killer skilled in bizarre powers to appear before his prey with the air of a king among sheep, only to find his prey lounging lazily in a man's arms, looking at him with a mocking and smug gaze. But one thing is certain: in an instant, he made the judgment. "Have I fallen into a trap?"

You usually only see that contemptuous look in someone's eyes when you've fallen into their trap.

"Whoosh..."

Almost instantly, he launched his attack. The vines connecting his lower body suddenly tilted forward, his face pressed forward, and then he opened his mouth wide, which grew larger and larger, like a pocket covering the Rabbit Ears.

"Bang!"

But Xiao Xiao's reaction was definitely faster than his.

As he leaned forward, the Silver Revolver in his hand suddenly rose and fired a shot at him.

Since getting the Silver Revolver, I've fired it several times unloaded, but this is the first time I've fired it with live ammunition.

Its power was surprisingly great.

With a loud bang, the specially made silver bullet whistled out of the muzzle, the immense force almost making the room tremble.

It seems that firing blanks regularly is not enough to completely calm the Silver Revolver's emotions.

Instead, it caused its intention to be released to accumulate and brew, resulting in terrifying power.

The man who emerged from the vines was also taken aback.

His body shape was bizarre, as if he had no bones.

In the nick of time, he twisted sharply to the side and dodged the bullet that had just left the gun barrel.

However, he hadn't expected that, even though he had dodged the bullet's trajectory, it possessed a strong bloodthirsty quality, automatically circling in mid-air and drawing a semi-circular trajectory before flying straight towards his body.

"Puff..."

The bullet still struck his body, instantly blasting a horrific bloody hole in his upper body.

The putrid sap splattered everywhere, and the air seemed to echo with the screams of vines.

The man's face showed a pained and shocked expression, his body writhing in agony. Two blood-red tentacles suddenly grew out rapidly, like giant whips, one on the left and one on the right, quickly swinging forward and wrapping around the necks of Xiao Xiao and the rabbit earphones respectively.

The immense force was unleashed, creating a tearing sound as the air was ripped apart.

But Xiao Xiao remained seated calmly, seemingly ignoring the situation, and simply raised his gun again to aim.

From the surrounding darkness, three thick and agile monster shadows had emerged, none other than the Thorn Hound. Two of them charged forward, one on the left and one on the right, fiercely opening their blood-red maws and biting the two tentacles that were flung forward, pulling them back. The third one leaped into the air and bit at the person inside the vines.

"Splash..."

The man inside the vines was clearly taken aback, and suddenly even more vines grew around his body.

Blood-red tentacles grew rapidly, some coiling towards the two Thorn Hound, others towards the vicious dogs that pounced on them.

Some of them pounced on Xiao Xiao and the Rabbit Ears.

However, before these crazy and bizarre tentacles could even touch their target, they suddenly scattered on their own.

Like a hand that's about to grab an opponent's neck, suddenly raised in mid-air, gesturing wildly.

The moment the Thorn Hound bit the tentacle, strange, dark red thorns suddenly began to grow in clusters on the vine. These haphazardly growing dark red thorns pierced the vine's skin, emitting a foul stench. At that moment, some unknown substance was injected into the vine, causing the man inside to show a pained and embarrassed expression.

Enveloped by chaotic and painful memories, he was temporarily unable to launch an attack on his opponent.

"Being able to be affected by painful memories means you're human?"

Xiao Xiao made a decision in his mind in an instant, and then pulled the trigger without hesitation.

The power of the Thorn Hound is built on painful memories.

Regardless of how their shape and external capabilities change, this fundamental principle remains unchanged.

For living people, the impact of such memories is terrifyingly strong. However, if the other person is completely unaware, or has an abnormally chaotic mind that ignores the impact of memories, or has a blank past, they can be perfectly immune to this ability.

The fact that the other person is clearly reacting to this painful shock shows that no matter how strange his appearance is, he is still a living person.

"Outsider or a mutated native?"

"If they were indigenous people, why didn't they trigger the alarm for the mutation? Instead, they exist in this city as killers."

"Could this kind of person be considered a new Enhancement Element that I've discovered?"

"..."

Many thoughts flashed through Xiao Xiao's mind.

After this exchange, he realized that the strange man in front of him was not that terrifying in strength.

Even those with abnormal abilities cannot control their emotions as freely as normal people.

However, his distortion and shape did indeed give people a great visual impact, but I could still digest it. Now that we have just met and I have the upper hand, I even have a vague idea in my mind: should I deliberately hold back and wait for him to attack so that I can carefully observe his abilities and judge whether he can be considered a new Enhancement Element...

But I only thought about it for a moment before giving up the idea.

Intentionally letting the opponent attack, just to observe their tactics—that's a really high level of showing off.

I may not be a complete novice anymore, but I'm definitely not at the level where I can pretend like this.

Kill them first, then we'll talk!

With this thought in mind, the bullet in the gun was fired instantly, carrying a sense of bloodlust and venting, rushing towards the man in the vines.

"Hiss hiss hiss..."

The man looked at the three bullets flying toward his face and seemed to show a look of fear.

But under the onslaught of painful memories, he was unable to respond effectively. In desperation, he could only rely on his instincts. Suddenly, the vines beneath him shot upwards, as if the vines that had grown from the bottom of the building to the top floor had once again gained enormous growth energy. They instantly broke through the ceiling and grew to the top of the building. At the same time, the vines' bodies were also rapidly thickening.

Splash...

The entire office was pierced by wildly growing vines, and countless broken bricks and tiles collapsed and fell, like an earthquake.

Xiao Xiao quickly reached out and grabbed the small tea table next to him, using it as an umbrella to block the falling rocks.

At the same time, with a slight thought, a cabinet door in the office suddenly opened silently, and a dark red chainsaw emerged from the shadows. The saw teeth began to spin wildly, reaching directly onto the vines and then tearing apart their twisted bodies.

"Is this all we found, such a small thing?"

At the same time, in a secluded corner of Black Gate City, several bigwigs, whose business had been forcefully taken away by the Pink Maiden Gang and who were now at their wits' end, sat in a heavily guarded office, staring blankly at the child sitting on the carpet in front of them.

He looked no more than ten years old, but he was dressed very formally, sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest, surrounded by everyone's gaze.

"They spent a full two million just to hire this kid?"

Finally, someone couldn't hold back any longer and growled in a low voice, "You expect him to help us kill that arrogant rabbit?"

"It might sound outrageous."

Another person spoke calmly, "But he is indeed the number one assassin right now."

"Those previous incidents of monsters killing people were all caused by him."

"..."

"But he's been sitting here all night..."

Someone couldn't hold back any longer and said angrily, "Didn't you say you'd kill that rabbit at midnight tonight?"

"Let me tell you, if someone tricks me, even if he's just a little brat, I'll chop him up."

"..."

"It will kill..."

Just then, the little boy suddenly opened his eyes, his expression seemingly very proud:

"My brother is very powerful; he can eat anyone."

"..."

"Your brother..."

The other bigwigs nearby were even more confused. "Was it your brother who made the move? Are you the assassin or his manager?"

"My brother will help me kill anyone."

The little boy didn't answer, but his face still held a proud expression. "Because he's the best..."

"... vegetative state patient."

"..."

"..."

"Hiss hiss hiss..."

The putrid sap splattered everywhere, and the wildly expanding vines were cut in half by the chainsaw.

The upper half, having lost its support, fell helplessly to the ground.

The lower half, however, suddenly shrank, lost all its strength, and began to slide down through the stairwells.

The upper half, however, fell to the floor and lost its strength to struggle.

Xiao Xiao saw that the man growing at the top of the bud-like vine was struggling helplessly, but like a fish out of water, his struggles became weaker and weaker. Slowly, his body curled up into a ball, like an infant who had lost the will to struggle.

"What exactly is this?"

Xiao Xiao frowned, looking down at him. "A stranger? Aberrant Creature? Or a special item?"

He didn't sense any foreigner's air about this person.

But if they were indigenous people, how could they be so strange, yet their behavior seemed very rational and controllable?

Logically speaking, indigenous people live in a world that is relatively closer to reality in terms of logic.

In their eyes, the most irrational thing must be the massive maternal entity that rules over foreigners.

But upon closer examination, it becomes clear that the indigenous people had already begun utilizing Aberrant Creature, or rather, Pain Substance, long ago.

Gene enhancement drugs were developed using Violence Factor, weren't they?

Now that we have researched and utilized the Violence Factor, we cannot rule out the development and research of other elements.

Of course, Xiao Xiao had realized something interesting a long time ago.

From the conversation between the Suit Man and himself, we can see that they believe that the outsiders' enhancement was partly achieved by stealing the gene enhancement drug from the Black Forest. In the eyes of the outsiders, the Black Forest studied the Violence Factor brewed by the Aberrant Creature, which led to the appearance of the gene enhancement drug. Both sides have their own logic, resulting in an intertwined yet completely different understanding.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

For a moment, his head was spinning and his thoughts were quite confused, but thinking about these problems was only a fleeting moment for him.

With a slight blink, she caught a glimpse of the Rabbit Ears in her arms, only to see that the rabbit's eyes were blank and its expression was vacant.

And as all this chaos began to end, the massive building where I was located began to slowly undulate. The floorboards that had been drilled with holes began to heal themselves automatically, like flesh and blood. The rubble and broken bricks began to fill in automatically, as if a scene were playing in reverse.

The entire building is being restored to its original state, and even the flesh and blood on the floor are slowly disappearing.

"Buzz..."

After this change reached its limit, suddenly, a buzzing sound rang out, and the surroundings became brightly lit.

Xiao Xiao found himself still sitting in the Pink Rabbit's office, except for the Xiao Xiao coffee table he was holding, which was exactly the same as before. The Rabbit Ears, as if they had just woken up, suddenly let out a long sigh:

What just happened?

"..."

"So you don't even know what happened?"

Xiao Xiao was speechless for a moment, but a strange feeling arose in his heart, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"What do you think of the products of Farm No. 5, the power of the Fantasy Capsule?"

Suddenly, at that moment, a soft voice rang out.

Xiao Xiao instantly became alert and turned around abruptly.

Then, in the direction of the Rabbit Ears desk, a man dressed in a black cloak had appeared.

He sat quietly in the office chair with the rabbit-shaped headphones, his arms crossed, looking at himself silently.

As someone who can see things, I hadn't sensed his arrival at all!

A strong sense of crisis made Xiao Xiao's mind sharpen.

He immediately wanted to bring the Thorn Hound and the Butcher to his side, but suddenly realized that they had disappeared at some point.

The Mind Burst eased his panic, and Xiao Xiao slowly put down the small tea table and calmly looked at him.

"Who are you?"

"..."

"I have many identities."

The man sitting in the office chair slowly said, "In order to prevent the power of the Mother from finding me and corrupting me, I have created many false identities for myself, and I have never dared to let you see what I look like, so I cannot introduce myself to you."

"However, you can get to know me through a code name."

They all call me: the Shepherds.