"What exactly should I do?"
"Should I summon Pain Hound now?"
They had only exchanged blows twice, yet both were already deeply wary of each other.
Xiao Xiao in particular was so tense that, in this frozen atmosphere, a thin layer of cold sweat had already seeped across his back.
Mixed with the blood, it made his wounds begin to sting fiercely.
It was too strange. It was as if the moment he escaped Xiao Xiao's sight, he would vanish completely.
Extreme Sensitivity gave Xiao Xiao a keen intuition at times like this. If someone stood behind him, he could confirm their presence without turning around. But this person was different. Sometimes he darted behind Xiao Xiao, who could sense him—but when Xiao Xiao turned, he was gone.
And whenever he vanished, his next appearance would inevitably bring a fatal strike.
Relying on Mind Burst and Extreme Sensitivity, Xiao Xiao had already dodged several attacks in a row.
But every one of them had been perilously close. He had come within a hair's breadth of death each time.
His nerves had been taut for too long, leaving his legs somewhat weak. After operating Mind Burst for so long, his head had begun to ache as well.
If this continued, he would inevitably be killed.
Yet he could not even escape. Under such bizarre attacks, the moment he tried to flee for his life, the other man would surely seize the opportunity.
"No. It's still too early to summon Pain Hound..."
"This man's ability is too strange. He hid himself, and I can't find him at all. Pain Hound would only become his clearest target... Speaking of which, although those three dogs have been enhanced once, they can't possibly be immune to bullets. What if one shot takes it down...?"
"I'll try using that Erha next time and see whether bullets can kill it..."
"But for now..."
"..."
As his thoughts raced, Xiao Xiao quickly sifted through the choices available to him.
The image of Old Record Player surfaced in his mind.
He had no idea whether Old Gramophone would actually be useful, but at least... it was the only method he had left, wasn't it?
At a desperate moment, put on the BGM—wasn't that what they always did in movies?
With that thought, Xiao Xiao's mind stirred. In the quiet room brimming with murderous intent, a melodious tune suddenly rang out.
The music came from the computer on the office desk, as if an invisible hand had opened a playlist.
From the speakers came an eerie, plaintive, ethereal melody:
"Her eyes, her eyes..."
"Shining like, like stars..."
"..."
"Hm?"
The sudden music startled Xiao Xiao and the presence hiding somewhere in the room at the same time.
One was merely caught off guard and surprised, while the other's heart stirred.
Xiao Xiao was in an extremely tense state, and his senses were already exceptionally sharp.
The instant the music began to fill the office, he suddenly sensed an unusual fluctuation.
He spun around and lunged forward, arriving beside the large vase next to the desk.
The vase was only about a meter tall, with an opening less than twenty centimeters across.
Xiao Xiao leaned over to look inside. In the pitch-black mouth of the vase, a face was squeezed into the tiny opening, gazing up at him.
Its blood-red eyes blinked lightly, seeming both astonished and somewhat innocent.
"How could a person hide inside such a tiny vase?"
The instant he saw that face, Xiao Xiao's heart jolted violently.
Even amid such a tense confrontation, he could not suppress the shock brought on by the distorted scene before him.
But with his thoughts racing in his tense state, he quickly reacted:
Little Four could hide inside such a tiny hole. What was so strange about this red-eyed fellow hiding inside a vase?
Not only did he suppress the panic brought on by that eerie scene, Xiao Xiao immediately reacted as well.
Gripping the fruit knife tightly, he thrust it toward the body of the vase.
At the same time, there was a loud crash.
The vase shattered outright, and a black shadow shot out from inside.
The man with a pair of red eyes looked at Xiao Xiao with an unmistakably strange expression.
"You found me even when I was hiding here?"
"..."
He did not know that he had just frightened Xiao Xiao.
In any case, from his own perspective, he had been hiding perfectly well. Suddenly seeing an expressionless face appear at the mouth of the vase had been pretty frightening too.
At that moment, the two stood at opposite ends of the office, staring at each other. In truth, both were panicking.
One had encountered an opponent from another world for the first time, and that opponent followed a path he completely failed to understand. He could not imagine how the other's bizarre abilities worked, nor did he know how many other incomprehensible abilities the man had yet to reveal. The other could not understand how he had been forced into such a state by a novice with, at most, basic enhancement...
Only the eerie music continued drifting from the computer speakers:
"Bright moonlight spills out, vengeful ghosts sway in the wind."
"The night deepens, the mist grows colder."
"Wandering souls tread every secluded road."
"Seeking a substitute, the sinister wind chills the moonlight..."
"..."
"Swish!"
Amid the music, Xiao Xiao's reaction was actually a little faster. He attacked first, closing in with the fruit knife in hand.
His thought speed did not allow him to waste time. He could only strike first.
Stab him.
The red-eyed man was clearly unaccustomed to close-quarters combat face-to-face.
The Hunter route did not favor fair duels either. Fear of others was already part of its innate elements.
Thus, when he saw Xiao Xiao charging at him, his first reaction was still to dart quickly toward the other side.
He seemed to want to find another place to hide himself...
But this time, things clearly did not go so smoothly.
Xiao Xiao was now staring fixedly at him as well. Under someone's gaze, he could not perform a "perfect ambush."
Moreover, the eerie singing filling the entire office had left him somewhat distracted, affecting his ability. He had only been discovered inside the vase because the sudden music had disrupted his emotions, allowing Xiao Xiao—with only preliminary sensory enhancement—to detect him.
Perfect concealment required a heart that was equally steady. With his will disturbed, he had been affected to some degree as well.
He darted through several places in succession, but Xiao Xiao kept his eyes locked firmly on him.
Unable to conceal himself successfully, he was finally forced into a corner by Xiao Xiao.
Facing that rapidly approaching face—half its body smeared with blood, yet utterly expressionless—his heart suddenly filled with terror.
With a swish, he snatched up his pistol and repeatedly pulled the trigger at Xiao Xiao.
But Xiao Xiao's figure flashed strangely to the side, completely dodging the bullets.
Closing in like a ghost, he drove the fruit knife viciously into the man's lower abdomen.
"He can actually dodge bullets?"
The red-eyed man panicked, unable to suppress a faint scream.
"That was close..."
At the same time, Xiao Xiao felt a chill run through him, grateful that he had landed the blow.
In the Mind Burst state, even while charging forward at full speed, he could still clearly see every movement the red-eyed man made.
From the moment the other man grabbed the gun, to raising his hand, to firing.
Those movements played out in Xiao Xiao's vision like a slow-motion replay.
Thus, the instant the man raised his arm, Xiao Xiao had already judged where he was about to aim and tilted his body ahead of time.
In that sense, the red-eyed man's gun had never been aimed at him from the start. The man had simply frantically pulled the trigger in his panic without realizing it, mistakenly believing that Xiao Xiao's speed was so strange he had actually dodged the bullets.
Of course, if the footage were reviewed on a surveillance replay, it would be clear that Xiao Xiao's speed had not exceeded the limits of an ordinary person.
It was just that...
Seeing the uncontrollable terror on the other man's face, Xiao Xiao suddenly felt a little puzzled as well.
"Why does this man seem a little afraid of me?"
"His ability enhancement is clearly stronger, and he has more combat experience..."
"Right. My face is expressionless right now, and my movements are decisive. Did I scare him a little?"
"..."
Once he realized this, Xiao Xiao reacted quickly. He forced a faint smile onto his face and stared into the other man's eyes.
At the same time, he drove the fruit knife deeper into the man's lower abdomen, even remembering to twist his hand and churn the blade.
"Ahhhhhhh..."
The red-eyed man was frightened by that twisted smile—a smile belonging to someone who had dodged bullets, stabbed into his lower abdomen, and was now staring directly into his eyes.
The Hunter route was already somewhat fearful of people, a side effect of Lurking Instinct.
On top of that, he had secretly observed Xiao Xiao earlier and had already developed a certain psychological shadow from Xiao Xiao's abnormal performance while dealing with those thugs.
Now, all his panic suddenly erupted, and he lost his head.
Amid his shrill scream, his body suddenly began to struggle violently. He flung his arms, and his immense strength instantly sent Xiao Xiao flying.
At the same time, he abruptly grabbed something beside him and hurled it toward Xiao Xiao with devastating force.
"Crash..."
Xiao Xiao had just been thrown away and was about to roll over and leap up when his expression suddenly changed.
He saw the red-eyed fellow casually yank at something, yet somehow lift the heavy redwood storage cabinet in the office and throw it at him.
Facing its tremendous momentum and the documents scattering through the air, he hurriedly dodged to the side.
Taking a direct hit from that thing would probably be no easier than being struck by a small car.
"Huh?"
But when the red-eyed man saw Xiao Xiao swiftly dodge the storage cabinet, he was startled as well.
Then, as if realizing something, he suddenly thrust himself off the ground. His entire body shot forward like a cannonball, and he slammed a fist toward Xiao Xiao's chest.
Xiao Xiao had not expected him to move so quickly. In the rush, he crossed both arms in front of himself and blocked the punch.
Bang!
He felt his bones compressed and torn apart in an instant, as if they had broken. His body could not help retreating backward.
The wounds on his left arm and shoulder were squeezed by the forceful punch, spraying additional blood onto the snow-white wall beside him.
The blow had truly been unexpected, and horror filled his heart. "How can this man be so strong?"
"So that's how it is..."
The red-eyed man was also overjoyed. He clenched his fist again.
His right arm seemed to swell faintly, covered in twisted blue veins. Like a beast, he lunged toward Xiao Xiao.
"You really are still just a newcomer."
"But outside the Hunter route, I've already received one unit of Mid-Tier Gene Serum."
Before you continue