Red Eyes

The sudden sense of terror made Xiao Xiao soften.

The fruit knife clenched in his hand instinctively shifted position, stopping him from thrusting it decisively into the other man's heart.

Instead, he casually raised it and merely severed one of his tentacles.

"Swish..."

After one of the tentacles was severed, the twisted monster that had once been Foreman immediately trembled all over in agony and rapidly retreated.

Xiao Xiao even saw an expression of pain appear on every part of his shattered face. But in the next instant, countless vicious curses surged from his mouth as he desperately shouted for the surrounding monsters to take Xiao Xiao down. Even more monsters came flooding over.

"There's no need..."

In that split second, Xiao Xiao had already thought of more.

Perhaps his guess was correct. This time, after the monsters were killed, they would not revive.

But it was also possible that he was overthinking things. Perhaps they would only revive under the power of the City Will after he had killed all the monsters and completely resolved the crisis before him, once again becoming as friendly and honest as before.

Regardless, he could not continue entangling himself with them here.

They were simply impossible to kill. Every so often, more people came running from the distance and joined the ranks of the monsters.

At this rate, he could keep killing until nightfall and still never finish them all.

For him now, finding the source of the hatred that had been watching him all along was the most important thing.

That was the key.

However, the malice around him was layered upon layer, making his perception extremely chaotic.

How was he supposed to find the dog hiding among a flock of surging goats?

The growing oppression and dissatisfaction in his heart had already eroded Xiao Xiao's patience.

But just then, a hoarse, low musical sound suddenly rang beside Xiao Xiao's ear.

"Momma, I just killed a man."

"Put my gun against his head, pulled my trigger..."

"..."

The abrupt music struck Xiao Xiao's mind.

Then more sound sources rang out, weaving into a flood that reverberated across the chaotic scene.

The high-pitched, raspy male voices converged at once, as if the blood gushing around them had stained the song with a thick scent of blood.

Xiao Xiao's scalp prickled. For a moment, he had no idea where the song was coming from.

But he soon realized it was the phone.

The phone in his pocket had inexplicably begun playing the song.

Immediately afterward, the phones in the surrounding monsters' pockets began ringing as well. With every additional sound source, the song grew louder. Soon, like a rising tide, it covered the entire area, high-pitched and strange, burrowing into everyone's ears, then into every person's mind, and even forcibly drilling into their bizarre, intense malice...

"Old Gramophone?"

Xiao Xiao was startled, but immediately thought of where the music had come from.

Could it be that the Old Gramophone he had just bought yesterday was using the phones at the scene to play music?

So this was why he did not need to carry the Old Gramophone on his back.

It could automatically connect to phones nearby and use them as sound sources?

"Who would've thought such an old device would have Bluetooth..."

Xiao Xiao grumbled inwardly.

But immediately afterward, his whole body jolted. He instantly sensed something unusual.

As the music played, the monsters surrounding him seemed to be affected. The malice on every one of them had become somewhat scattered. It was not severe, as though they had merely been cloaked in an aura of dejection—far from enough to help Xiao Xiao deal with these monsters. Yet because all of them had been affected, one strand of the malice surging around them was exposed.

It was like a reef hidden beneath raging waters finally emerging as the tide receded.

"There..."

Never before had Xiao Xiao sensed things so clearly. It felt as though cold needles were pricking his skin.

He turned his head at once and looked toward an office building in the distance, narrowing his eyes.

That was the Dock Dispatch Center, located just over fifty meters from Warehouse One. It was not tall, only four stories high.

The moment Xiao Xiao looked over, he locked onto someone on the third floor.

It was a man in a black suit, standing behind a third-floor window and drinking a bottle of yogurt.

Xiao Xiao saw his eyes—scarlet, as though filled with blood.

He also saw the malice and savagery in those eyes, along with a teasing amusement like a cat toying with a mouse.

"So it really is him!"

The instant he saw those eyes, Xiao Xiao's heart constricted.

The enhancement brought by Extreme Sensitivity gave him extraordinary perception, allowing him to distinguish certain things.

He could immediately determine that these were the eyes that had been watching him since morning, following his every move. He could also confirm that these same eyes had been hiding among his coworkers earlier, watching him with ill intent. He even quickly judged that yesterday's Huang Mao had likewise been influenced by Red Eyes, which had been part of his abnormal hostility.

This seemed to be a kind of trait. His sensitivity could distinguish that trait and recall where it had appeared before.

"Is this person the one harming me?"

Xiao Xiao gritted his teeth slightly as a cold resentment erupted from him.

During his battle with the monsters formed from his coworkers, Xiao Xiao had already discovered a trace of uncertainty, which had filled him with unease. The countless crises in which he had narrowly escaped death had further caused immense anger to build within him.

All those emotions had piled up in the depths of his heart.

Now, he had finally found the culprit behind everything. Although his facial expression remained exceptionally calm and indifferent because it could not keep up with the speed of his thoughts, an unprecedented, frenzied hatred had already accumulated inside him.

This hatred seemed to have an excellent effect on driving the Violence Factor.

At this moment, Xiao Xiao's body seemed to have surpassed the limits of an ordinary person. He instantly passed through the mass of writhing tentacles that lashed toward him. In a few short seconds, he had rushed to the office building, leaped high into the air, pounced onto the wall, and, with a springing push, climbed onto the third floor.

Watching Xiao Xiao rapidly approach, Red Eyes, who had been quietly standing by the window and enjoying the show, revealed an excited, strange smile.

Just as Xiao Xiao was about to climb through the window, he took a small step backward and vanished from sight.

"Whoosh!"

The next second, Xiao Xiao flipped through the window.

He tightened his grip on the fruit knife, which was already slick with blood, and thrust it forward.

But at that moment, he paused slightly.

The office was empty. There was not a single person in sight.

Only a second ago, he had clearly seen that strange-smiling man with Red Eyes standing by the window.

Yet by the time he charged into the room, the man had vanished without a trace.

Xiao Xiao slowly held his breath and gripped the fruit knife tightly as he stood silently in place.

He did not relax in the slightest, because the intense sense of danger brought by Extreme Sensitivity still remained.

He knew that man was somewhere in this office.

"Are you the one harming me?"

He asked in a low voice, simultaneously raising the power of Mind Burst and Extreme Sensitivity.

He did everything he could to rapidly observe and analyze every inch of the office, searching for suspicious traces.

But then he was shocked to discover that he had found nothing.

The office door was still closed, and there was no large wardrobe or anything else capable of hiding a person.

That Red-Eyed man should still be here, yet somehow Xiao Xiao could not see him.

Even his breathing seemed to have stopped as the world fell into an eerie silence.

"Hahahaha..."

Then, in the very next instant, an excited laugh suddenly rang out above Xiao Xiao's head. "Hello, newcomer..."

"Whoosh!"

Xiao Xiao abruptly raised his head and saw a thin figure hanging from the ceiling above him.

Their two faces were less than twenty centimeters apart. A pair of blood-red eyes stared fixedly at him from extremely close range.

The moment he suddenly looked up and saw those blood-red eyes, his heart contracted sharply.

But before he could react, the red eyes above him had already curved into crescents. The man wore an unusually excited smile as both hands dropped downward, gripping a pistol. Its dark muzzle was aimed straight at Xiao Xiao.

"The fact that you noticed me and found me means your potential is truly impressive..."

"Unfortunately, so what?"

"It only means I'll have to go to a little more trouble and kill you myself..."

"..."

"Bang!"

The bullet left the barrel from less than twenty centimeters away and shot toward Xiao Xiao's head.

No one could dodge a bullet from such close range, not even someone on the strengthened Physique route who had undergone a second enhancement.

Thus, the man hooked over the ceiling already wore deep satisfaction in his red eyes.

Although he had been forced to personally fire the shot and eliminate this fellow, leaving Yang Jia with clues that might allow her to find him and possibly causing other trouble afterward, he still felt immensely satisfied and exhilarated by the shot.

The look on a newcomer's face when he thought victory was in his grasp, only to suddenly plunge into hell, was truly enough to excite him...

Come on, newcomer. Let this senior teach you a lesson.

As he thought this, he had already decided to put away his pistol and make a stylish landing.

But then he suddenly froze.

Xiao Xiao's head had not exploded as he imagined. Instead, Xiao Xiao rapidly took a step backward. Even though he had not yet completed the motion of raising his head to look at him, he had already retreated and dodged as if he had foreseen it. His movement was fluid, possessing a strange beauty...

There was not even a trace of surprise or fear on his face.

He merely swung his knife in an instant, accurately slashing toward the man's eyes, while calmly muttering:

"High potential?"

"You're not the first person to say that about me..."