And Chu Yunyi had managed this by using his abilities.
NO.2 [Shadow Clone] and NO.14 [Welcome and Farewell].
With the help of these two abilities,
Chu Yunyi first sent his shadow to the riverbed, then used [Welcome and Farewell] from the bridge to switch places with it.
Once he was at the riverbed,
Chu Yunyi switched places with the Wrath patient again, putting himself on the river's surface.
Finally, Chu Yunyi on the water's surface and his shadow on the bridge switched places, completing the cycle.
That was a loop.
As long as nothing from the outside interfered, the Wrath patient was trapped in a dead end with no way out.
Of course,
Chu Yunyi had only managed it after the Wrath patient had already expended a great deal of energy.
If the Wrath patient had been at full strength,
with his mind clear of rage and an overwhelming advantage in stamina, he could have plunged to the riverbed, kicked off hard, and leaped out of the water without much trouble.
Furthermore,
as long as he could catch his breath, even just once, the Wrath patient had what it took to keep battling Chu Yunyi.
By then,
killing the Wrath patient so easily would not have been nearly so simple.
And now,
Chu Yunyi looked around, but couldn't see a single door.
That was a bit of a headache.
Without a doorknob, he couldn't use NO.1 [Void Gate].
In the distance,
Chu Yunyi could see two fighter jets speeding toward him, occasionally breaking the sound barrier. They looked to be in quite a hurry.
"Hm? Is there some kind of mission?"
Chu Yunyi glanced at them, then decided to leave.
NO.14 [Welcome and Farewell] activated again.
Chu Yunyi had excellent eyesight. Even the tiny print on the last line of an eye chart looked perfectly clear to him.
With vision that sharp, using NO.14 [Welcome and Farewell] was even more convenient.
"If I were nearsighted..."
"Would this ability be practically useless?"
The thought crossed Chu Yunyi's mind, but he kept searching, intent on finding a door and simply heading home.
After all, he had killed a powerful Wrath patient. He would probably gain quite a bit of Control Power this time.
But just then,
suddenly,
Chu Yunyi felt his whole body tense, as if danger were closing in.
It wasn't the fighter jets in the distance. They were heading toward another part of Yunzhou City, so they probably weren't coming for him.
"What's going on?"
"This inexplicable sense of unease..."
Chu Yunyi felt something was very wrong. His instincts were usually spot-on.
So spot-on that you could practically call them an ability in their own right.
Everyone had this sixth sense to some degree.
But Chu Yunyi's sixth sense was unusually strong. Even when playing battle royale games, he could sense someone nearby before hearing footsteps or gunfire, giving himself the chance to strike first.
His teammates would have thought he was cheating.
But now,
this wasn't some simple game. This was a real battle!
Chu Yunyi's alarm bells were ringing. Something felt terribly wrong.
"Something's not right."
"I need to find a door first."
It was rare for Chu Yunyi to feel this uncertain. He hadn't panicked when he killed the Gluttony patient without any special abilities.
He hadn't panicked when facing a horde of Envy patients, either.
Even when fighting an unbeatable Wrath patient, he'd remained completely calm, with enough presence of mind to crack a few jokes.
But now,
Chu Yunyi had a terrible feeling!
Sure enough!
The situation took a sudden turn for the worse!
A lazy voice rang out. It sounded languid, but it held even more arrogance.
"Ha ha, Chu Yunyi, oh, Chu Yunyi."
"Why so nervous?"
At those words, Chu Yunyi felt as if a needle had pricked his heart. He whipped around.
'Boom!'
A gigantic hand came crashing down, engulfing Chu Yunyi completely!
NO.14 [Welcome and Farewell]!
His eyes caught sight of a streetlamp, and Chu Yunyi instantly blinked away.
When he looked again,
another Wrath patient had appeared in his field of vision without him noticing.
No...
Chu Yunyi looked around. One, two, three!
Three enormous Wrath patients had him surrounded, hemming him in with walls of flesh as far as the eye could see!
And the voice had come from—
Chu Yunyi looked sharply above one of the Wrath patients!
That was... a human!
And not just any human, but an ordinary-looking boy, around sixteen, at the age when a young man was full of himself.
He was the one who had called out Chu Yunyi's name!
Chu Yunyi's eyes were full of confusion and bewilderment.
The boy seemed to notice.
He spoke:
"Ha. Confused?"
"Fine."
"I'll explain, so at least you'll know why you're dying."
As he spoke, the boy launched into his story, brimming with self-confidence.
'Classic villain, talking too much.'
'Not many people know my name. Could it be...' Chu Yunyi thought, already putting most of the pieces together himself.
But now,
the boy spoke again, telling his story from the beginning:
"My name is Xia Tian. I grew up in an orphanage."
"My name isn't anything unusual. The director took me in during the summer, so I was named Xia Tian."
"If she'd taken me in during the winter, maybe I'd have been called Dong Tian. Ha ha..."
"But don't look at me with pity. The benefits for registered orphans these days are better than what most wage slaves get."
"A living allowance of 2,100 yuan a month, plus up to 600 in reimbursable rent assistance. Ha ha."
"And they even assign you a life coach, like a maid."
Seeming to realize he'd gone off on a tangent, Xia Tian changed the subject:
"Want to know how I know you?"
"Because you, Chu Yunyi..."
"Personally killed me!!"
Xia Tian stared at Chu Yunyi, his face contorted with madness. Saliva dribbled from his mouth.
"Ha ha!"
"Thanks to the Seven-Day Demon King, Mo Xun, I managed to infiltrate Blue Star's self-rescue program."
"That's how I was reborn!"
"And thanks to Mo Xun, I now carry all seven kinds of virus in my body!"
"The Seven Deadly Sins Virus!"
As he spoke, Xia Tian leaned forward, looking down at Chu Yunyi as if he were above him:
"If you're the one who can wipe out the apocalypse..."
"Then I'm the one who can destroy you!"
"Now, die..."
Xia Tian's mouth had gone a little dry. He'd let his excitement get away from him and said quite a lot.
But
Chu Yunyi didn't seem impressed.
There he was,
picking at his ear with a look of impatience as he said:
"Are you done?"
"I hate this kind of cliché. Rebirth, revenge—boring."
Xia Tian was taken aback.
He was the one who possessed the Pride Virus, but now...
He could only feel that...
Chu Yunyi was even more arrogant than he was!
Before you continue