Fallen Demon Hunter VS Superpowered Individual 1

I was Kong Da, Luoshan's probe.

At work, I was generally addressed as "Agent Kong."

Looking at Zhuang Cheng lying before me, I changed my arm, which had taken the form of a blade, back to normal.

"I warned you long ago, Zhuang Cheng." I took out a handkerchief and casually wiped my hand before tossing the dirty cloth onto his corpse. "The weakness of a Flame ability user lies in their margin for error. As long as someone catches them off guard even once like this, they're doomed."

Yes, I was the true Fallen Demon Hunter.

At this moment, Zhuang Cheng was unquestionably dead. His head had been chopped off and fallen to the ground, his eyes destroyed by the blade. The slash had even carved deep into his skull, completely destroying his brain tissue.

There was still some blood and brain matter on my palm that I couldn't wipe clean. I had killed so many people already that I no longer felt sentimental about taking someone's life, but the sticky, disgusting sensation was truly unpleasant.

That was also the drawback of physical enhancement types. Unlike ability users who wielded firearms and authority, or those who could kill invisibly, physical-enhancement Demon Hunters had to kill with their own hands. Sometimes, they even had to hear the dying person's screams up close and watch their agonized expression.

If I had possessed a Flame ability like Zhuang Cheng's, perhaps I could have killed more cleanly and efficiently. Of course, if someone offered to exchange that kind of superpower, which excelled only in offense, for mine, I would never agree.

The current situation was the best reason why. Zhuang Cheng's superpower was incredibly powerful. He only needed to glance at the clones I summoned to destroy them. Even if I had personally tried to block it, the result would not have been much better. But what did that matter?

Being able to kill an opponent in one hit was never anything worth bragging about. It was only natural.

On ancient battlefields fought with cold weapons, piercing an enemy's vital point with a blade or spear was enough to take their life. On modern battlefields with firearms, the one who raised their gun and fired first could win. Even in unarmed street fights, people sometimes died from an accidental elbow strike. In human-on-human slaughter, overwhelming attack power was commonplace. Thinking that "emptying the health bar in one hit" was impressive was merely gamer logic.

What truly mattered was striking first. Even if I had a dagger and my opponent had a cannon, hitting them first meant victory. A novice fighter like Zhuang Cheng probably couldn't understand that.

So what if he could kill with a glance? A sneak attack from behind would solve the problem. An ordinary person could kill him if they put their mind to it. In the world of the bizarre, there were countless skills even more unreasonable than that. And this was already a skill whose countermeasure was easy to devise.

...But now that I thought about it, when he released an all-around flame attack just now, killing several clones and dragging me into it as well, I was so frightened that I nearly transformed on the spot. I thought he had exposed me, or that he had gotten carried away and forgotten that his "ally" was still there. It turned out that his flames could distinguish friend from foe, and he had simply forgotten to warn me beforehand. What a fellow with no sense of teamwork.

I had briefly analyzed his personality. In my eyes, he was a very typical person who had become conceited after obtaining great power.

Many people might assume that people of this type would inevitably run wild in society after gaining power, but that was not necessarily true. Based on the cases I had observed over the years, at least half of them merely felt superior to those around them while still retaining some awe toward powerful nations and collectives.

Most of them felt more transcendent than ordinary people and showed a certain tendency to disregard human life. That was perfectly normal. Put anyone in possession of the power to kill someone with a single glare, then let them live for years with the awareness that they could kill without consequence at any time, and their thinking would inevitably become warped. As the saying went, when you held a hammer, everything looked like a nail. Carrying a deadly weapon naturally stirred murderous intent.

He likely rehearsed killing scenes in his mind from time to time, perhaps even wanting to kill someone just to see what it was like. Not because he had a motive, but simply because he could. A lawless glint lurked in his eyes. He might even have considered how to counterkill if he ever clashed with the police or military. He appeared humble and cautious on the surface, but was extremely confident in his power. Although he would not actively cause trouble, deep down he believed, "Even if we really fight, I'll definitely be the one who wins."

As long as he encountered no conflict, he would try to conceal his identity as a superpowered individual. But if he truly could not keep it hidden, he would expose himself without the slightest psychological burden. Zhu Shi mentioned in her report that she had witnessed him at the battle site and spoken with him, yet he had concealed nothing about what he had done. That was because he secretly desired to reveal his special nature to those around him.

How stifling ordinary life must have been for him. That was why he wanted to go to the extraordinary world, like a fish thrown onto land longing to return to the water. Perhaps he believed that was the world where he truly belonged.

It was a desire born of ignorance and arrogance.

My first contact with the world of the bizarre and the Demon Hunters came twenty years ago.

I was still young then, and fascinated by all kinds of inexplicable phenomena recorded with solemn seriousness in miscellaneous books. Ghost ships whose entire crews mysteriously vanished, the sounds of hell transmitted from the world's deepest drilling wells, ghostly walls, paranormal photographs, doppelgängers, and so on. Ever since I could remember, I had possessed an interest in such supernatural matters that surpassed everyone else's.

These experiences, which common knowledge could not explain, completely exceeded my life and experience. They frightened me yet filled me with longing. I imagined how I would react if I truly encountered such events, whether I could be as clever and brave as the characters in those stories, and whether I might even obtain power beyond reality after solving the predicament.

Likewise, I enjoyed occult and spiritual practices. Meditation, communicating with spirits, exorcism, divination... For a time, I secretly tried them behind my family and friends' backs, practicing them as if I truly believed in them.

If my family and friends had known what I was doing, they probably would have thought I genuinely believed in those things. Of course I didn't. I merely wanted those things to make me believe. They allowed my spirit to temporarily escape from the dullness of study and work and travel to a fantastical imaginary world. As time passed, I became increasingly obsessed, eventually reaching the point of fanaticism.

Unfortunately, good times never lasted. When someone became truly obsessed with something, traces of it would inevitably appear in their life. After my family and friends discovered my secret, they began looking at me strangely, treating me as an eccentric oddball and whispering about me behind my back.

In truth, I had never considered myself different from anyone else. If I laid out my innermost thoughts, most people, if not everyone, would sympathize. Wanting to escape reality's gravity and travel to an incredible time and space where one could experience marvelous encounters and adventures was a dream countless people had entertained in their youth. Even those who mocked fantasies and claimed to be realists must secretly have wished that fantastic things truly existed. I was merely more honest about my desires and had dreamed for a little longer than those around me.

After graduating from university, I still did not give up these interests. I even found some new friends who shared them. Outside criticism did not necessarily make people abandon their hobbies. It could instead make them persist more firmly and grow more united. We began using our free time and holidays to investigate clues about urban legends and supernatural powers, sharing the clues and failures we encountered along the way.

Finally, one day, I encountered the supernatural event I had dreamed of.

In a deserted dead-end alley said to be haunted, several friends from our offline gatherings and I entered with the casual attitude of "We might as well take a look." We never expected that this exploration, so insignificant among all our failed experiences, concealed a genuine evil spirit.

At first, we reached the end of the alley and found nothing. The change occurred on our way back. We chatted and laughed as we walked, then gradually realized that no matter how long we traveled, we could not see the alley entrance we had used to come in. By the time we finally realized something was wrong, it was already too late.

We panicked and searched for a way out, but our companions vanished one after another. The sounds of the busy streets outside gradually faded until they disappeared. The city's neon lights and the stars overhead also went out one by one without us noticing. The dead-end alley slowly transformed into a demonic realm far from civilization.

When I recovered from my dark and terrifying imaginings, not one of my companions remained. I had been abandoned alone in that eerie dead-end alley.

This place really was haunted!

In extreme terror, I broke into a run toward the exit.

Yet no matter how long I ran, it felt as if I were merely treading in place. The dead-end alley, which should have been straight, had become a Möbius strip with its ends joined together. I was an ant uselessly scurrying across its surface.

Even the high walls on either side underwent an incomprehensible change. I tried to climb over them and escape the alley. Quite apart from my lack of experience with urban climbing, when I racked my brains and exerted all my strength to reach a relatively high position, the walls rose visibly higher as well.

I had no choice but to return to the ground and continue moving toward the exit. By then, however, I no longer held any hope for my efforts.

The seconds and minutes passed, accumulating like grains of sand into a tower. I didn't know how many hours passed afterward. The dead-end alley remained trapped in a terrifying night, while thirst and hunger gradually emerged.

I didn't know how much longer passed—perhaps a day, perhaps two. The burning hunger and thirst finally reached the limit of what I could endure.

I couldn't tell whether my physical strength or my spirit had run dry first. At last, I could no longer walk. Prolonged anxiety and terror had rendered my mind utterly numb, like a piece of flesh that had completely lost its elasticity.

After that long numbness, I finally broke down, crying out in despair within the seemingly endless dead-end alley.

I regretted it.

I hated the person I had been until then.

Why had I entered such a ridiculous place?

Why had I been so ignorant and arrogant as to pursue something bizarre?

The life I had once found so tiresome—the boring, uneventful life that nevertheless guaranteed safety—seemed so warm and dazzling to me now.

I only wanted to return there, return home, return to that soft and comfortable bed, sleep properly, and forget everything that had happened here today. After that, I would work and live properly and never think about such unrealistic things again.

So please, let me go... Please, let me return...

I knelt and kowtowed to the ghost that watched me from somewhere I did not know, if it was even watching me at all, sobbing so hard I could barely speak.

Yet no response came back from the darkness, and despair swallowed my heart. Perhaps I was about to die here, stripped of all dignity and self-respect, dying here as meaninglessly as a starving animal.

Fortunately, as misfortunes went, I did not die there after all.

I lost consciousness from hunger, then was awakened by someone.

It turned out that while I was unconscious, a new visitor had entered the alley. That visitor personally destroyed the evil spirit occupying it. I was thus saved in a daze.

After saving me, that person asked about my previous experiences. I was exhausted in body and mind, but I still forced myself to tell him everything in detail.

After barely finishing, I couldn't help asking, "...Who exactly are you?"

"I'm Impermanence," he replied.

"Impermanence... Is that your name?"

"No. Impermanence is my identity. In Luoshan, Demon Hunters responsible for dealing with the bizarre on the front lines are called 'Impermanence.'" His attitude was quite friendly.

Luoshan, Demon Hunters, Impermanence... My mind had not yet escaped the nightmare, making it difficult to digest those concepts.

Suddenly, I remembered the friends who had entered the dead-end alley with me and asked the "Impermanence" before me whether he had seen them.

"I didn't see them. They were definitely all devoured," he said. "You're the only survivor. You were probably placed last in the evil spirit's order of consumption, which was why you survived by sheer luck."

"Only... me..." Fear made me tremble like acid rising from my stomach. "How... how did you destroy that ghost?"

"You're asking how I destroyed it? I simply found it, then struck it with my sword." He said, "This evil spirit wasn't particularly powerful. It was only good at invading people's minds and manipulating their fear to create illusions. It could deal with ordinary people like you, but with our Demon Hunters, its magic could do nothing. We're directly immune to it. Even ordinary people who encountered it could avoid harm as long as they kept control of their minds.

"Take you, for example. If you hadn't let fear control your state of mind in that dead-end alley, you wouldn't have been trapped for so long. Or if you had faced death calmly and regarded it as an acceptable outcome, an illusion of that level would have been ineffective against you.

"But then again, whether it's remaining free from fear in a helpless situation or facing death calmly, those are things even many Demon Hunters can't do. Expecting an ordinary person to accomplish them really is asking too much..."

At that, I silently lowered my head.

Yes... It wasn't my fault.

Anyone who realized they were going to die alone in a place far from everything would eventually collapse. Humans were social animals and could not endure absolute isolation and death.

A hermit was either a god or a beast.

Humans stripped of their social trappings were all beasts that yielded to instinctive fear, and I was merely one of those beasts.

Put anyone in my place, and they would ultimately become just like me.