Zhu Shi 3

"Zhu Shi, what are you thinking about?"

It seemed I had been standing there with my head lowered in thought for too long, so Agent Kong asked curiously.

"Nothing." I came back to myself and shook my head. "Weren't we just talking about how strange incidents have been occurring so frequently? It reminded me of the doomsday prophecy circulating in Luoshan."

"You mean that prophecy claiming the world will be destroyed within ten years, with all life and matter vanishing completely in the Great Tribulation?" Agent Kong paused for two or three seconds before recalling it. "That's obviously alarmist nonsense. The situation around the world is indeed a little strange right now, but calling it the end of the world is still a gross exaggeration."

Agent Kong's attitude was also the attitude of the overwhelming majority of people in Luoshan, including me.

The doomsday prophecy had not only appeared in recent years. From ancient times to the present, alarmist predictions proclaiming that "the world will end at such-and-such a time" had never ceased. Some had predicted that the Terrifying Great King would descend in 1999 and destroy the world; others had predicted that the world would end in 2012. Yet it was already 2023, and every predicted doomsday had been proven to be nothing more than "another ordinary day."

Periods of heightened anomalous activity had also occurred more than once or twice throughout history. From a long-term perspective, the threat such incidents posed to human civilization was not necessarily more severe than global warming, the melting of the Arctic ice caps, and other environmental problems.

People who made prophecies always liked to exaggerate bad things, whether they were occultists or scientists. Of course, they could not be blamed for that. Once someone noticed ominous signs, it was their responsibility to make those around them take them as seriously as possible.

The problem was that the source of the "doomsday prophecy" was unknown. No one knew who had started spreading it, and there was no direct evidence to lend it any credibility.

I had not underestimated the trend of anomalous phenomena occurring more frequently. The grit of the times became a mountain when it fell upon an individual. Even if this trend was not enough to shake everyone's world, shaking mine and the worlds of those around me would be effortless.

"I don't know whether the world will end within ten years, but if I can't complete the assignment my superiors gave me, my own doomsday will arrive within ten days." Agent Kong sighed.

"You mean the mission to find someone?"

Agent Kong often shared the experience he had accumulated while investigating anomalous incidents with me. It had helped me quite a bit when I had first become a Demon Hunter, so I wanted to return the favor. "If there's anything I can help with, I can lend my strength."

"Then forget it. After all, this job doesn't sound very good when you put it into words." He shook his head first, then complained, "I really don't know which genius came up with this idea. They actually want me to impersonate a police officer, accuse a little girl who looks under fourteen of being a Serial Killer, and go door to door investigating clues about her whereabouts.

"Do you know? One of the homes I visited today belonged to that Zhuang Cheng. When I handed him the girl's photo, his expression was practically asking whether I was dreaming."

"If I remember correctly, that girl is apparently the only known patient in the world to have awakened from Soul Deprivation Syndrome, right?" I racked my brains, searching through the information I had heard. "I remember her name was... was..."

"Her name is Maza. 'Ma' as in troublesome, and 'Za'o as in 'early.'" Agent Kong finished my sentence. "It happened yesterday morning. After she woke up in the hospital, she immediately vanished without a trace."

"I know she's extremely important. If possible, I'd like to find her too. But is it really necessary to go this far? The higher-ups directly accused her of being a Serial Killer. They clearly didn't care about her human rights at all." The more I thought about it, the more wrong it felt. "And if they want to find someone, why not ask the Public Security Department? They're far better at this than we are."

"For some reason, the higher-ups are extremely anxious. Accusing the girl of being a Serial Killer was also a case of acting first and reporting later. They're still negotiating with the Public Security Department, trying to finalize the accusation. But the Public Security Department hasn't budged." Agent Kong sighed as he spoke. "As for asking the Public Security Department to find her... you know that Luoshan's relationship with the official forces has grown increasingly tense. Perhaps a full-scale conflict will break out in the near future."

Many Demon Hunters in Luoshan were arrogant and believed that strength was the primary factor determining one's rank, and thus that they themselves should belong to the ruling class. They were completely out of place in modern society.

Nominally, Luoshan was a "Demon Hunter department" under the authority and command of the official forces. In reality, it was nothing like that. In the eyes of ordinary people—assuming they knew about Luoshan—we were probably an evil, violent organization operating outside society.

This conflict would erupt sooner or later.

Rather, I only wanted to ask, "How had society managed to bury such a land mine so deeply until now and still continue developing?"

"All right, let's not talk about that for now..." Agent Kong took out a tablet computer. "I found you footage of the Fallen Demon Hunter's battle. The official forces have been considering how to deal with Demon Hunters using conventional weapons. Not long ago, they found the Fallen Demon Hunter before we did and dispatched a team to engage him. And this was the result."

I took the tablet computer and lowered my head to watch.

The clash had taken place in a bamboo grove in the outskirts. A drone had filmed the entire process from above.

The bamboo grove in the footage was illuminated by several flares, as bright as day, while a bizarrely shaped monster appeared at one corner of the screen.

The monster looked like a demon from an oil painting. It had a ferocious, goat-like head, a massive body over two meters tall, and dark-red skin covering its entire body. It wore no clothes or ornaments, while black fur covered its wrists, ankles, private parts, and other areas.

This demon-like creature was the Fallen Demon Hunter.

Naturally, he was not a demon, but a human with the ability to transform.

A well-trained modern force was also present in the bamboo grove. They were not only fully armed with live ammunition but had also brought combat vehicles equipped with heavy firepower.

When the Fallen Demon Hunter appeared in plain sight, they immediately raised their weapons and launched a relentless assault on the enemy from different angles. The natural scenery instantly became a battlefield. A storm of bullets and artillery tore ruthlessly through swathes of bamboo, completely engulfing the Fallen Demon Hunter as well.

But it was all useless. The Fallen Demon Hunter did not even dodge. He simply assumed a crouched starting stance, then shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, his body becoming a blurred streak.

The terrifying shadow effortlessly tore through the web of fire. And it was not only guns and artillery that proved useless—flamethrowers, sonic weapons, and the other specialized weapons were equally ineffective. The Fallen Demon Hunter moved through the bamboo grove as if no one else were there, slaughtering wantonly. The entire scene looked like mowing grass.

This was no longer a battle. It was merely the Fallen Demon Hunter carrying out a one-sided mechanical operation.

The battle footage ended shortly afterward.

"...What do you think?" Agent Kong asked, seemingly calm.

"It's more or less the same information I obtained when I fought him last time." I gave my conclusion. "He's at least at the 'Resident' level, and he's also a very well-rounded physical enhancement type. Among all the Demon Hunters in Luoshan, he would still be considered a first-rate expert. It isn't impossible to defeat him with conventional weapons, but firepower of this level could never do it."

In novels and manga, physical enhancement abilities felt very ordinary, seemingly the standard skill of a minor character.

But from a warrior's perspective, "physical enhancement" could be considered a first-tier ability. A powerful body meant powerful attack strength, defense, and mobility. Some physical enhancement abilities also increased the user's senses, recovery, and immunity, granting them formidable detection abilities, a higher survival rate, and resistance to toxins and curses.

And what about other abilities? Take Flame Manipulation, for example.

Being able to summon flames from thin air certainly produced dazzling visual effects and considerable destructive power. But the inability to provide the user with defensive power meant an extremely low margin for error in battle. An ordinary person might shoot them in the back and kill them on the spot. The inability to provide mobility meant they could only move at an ordinary person's speed, leaving them helpless against fast and agile enemies. The saying that nothing could withstand speed was not just empty talk.

That was not even mentioning their deficiencies in detection and other areas. Many Flame ability users were accidentally burned by their own flames, caught themselves in explosions triggered at close range, or suffocated after filling their surroundings with smoke. Cases of such injuries and deaths were so common that magazines published internally by Luoshan had collected them into a compendium of dark jokes.

In fact, it was not only flame abilities. Because of the "high offense, low defense" nature of many special abilities, their wielders were less like true Demon Hunters and more like ordinary people holding special weapons. And since they were ordinary people, there were naturally countless ways to bring them down.

The amount of water a barrel could hold was always determined by its shortest stave.

Even an ordinary person who could stop time would become just as fragile as anyone else in the face of an ambush, poisoning, and similar methods.

The modern combat force in the footage had been completely helpless before the Fallen Demon Hunter, but if their opponents had been those special ability users, it was impossible to say how many ways they might have had to kill them.

"What about you?" Agent Kong put away his tablet computer. "If you faced this Fallen Demon Hunter, what odds would you have of winning?"

"I can't calculate the exact odds." I answered cautiously. "All I can say is that if I fought him with my current cultivation, the outcome would be unknown. Whether he died or I died, neither would be surprising."

"Then what if it were the most elite 'Completion' level Demon Hunter? Or..."

Before Agent Kong could finish, I suddenly sensed a powerful surge of magical energy and involuntarily stood up.

I turned to look into the distance.

Two surges of magical energy had appeared in the distance, and they were clashing with each other.

I recognized one of them. It was the Fallen Demon Hunter's magical energy.

The other was unfamiliar. It felt like blazing flames.

In an instant, the flames completely overwhelmed the former.