A Step Too Late

"The source of the Erosion Point is right inside the room." Wang Baihu glanced at the indicator on his wrist and said in a low voice, "Be careful."

Honglian nodded, gripped her gun with both hands, and slammed open the door. Her muzzle swept across the empty room.

"Hey, what's going on?"

When nothing happened for a long while, Wang Baihu, hiding in the corridor, couldn't help asking.

"She's dead."

"Dead? Who?" He froze for a moment before following her into the room.

A withered woman lay sprawled on the floor, her eyes wide open. One hand reached toward the Erosion Point, as if she had wanted to flee back to another world.

Honglian crouched beside her, her right hand pressed against the woman's neck. "There's still a little body heat. She's been dead for less than two hours. Xiao Jiu, can you confirm her identity?"

"Give me a moment. I'm coming." The person who had been called came huffing up from downstairs, unloaded the equipment from her backpack, and began scanning the corpse.

"Could this person be the Wanderer we're looking for?" Wang Baihu frowned. "How did she die?"

"I don't know." Honglian examined the body. "There are no obvious external injuries. There are marks on her face from being struck, but they weren't fatal." She swept her gaze around the room. "There must have been a fight here, but it wasn't particularly intense either. Considering those two points..."

"An ability killed her." Wang Baihu finished for her.

"The bone, blood, and iris data have all been checked. There's no record of her." Xiao Jiu finished the scan at that moment. "She isn't from this world."

"Then she's probably the Wanderer." Wang Baihu's expression grew solemn. "This Erosion Point was extremely well hidden. The Intelligence Unit only recently included it in the range of suspicious fluctuations. I didn't expect someone to move faster than us."

"Was she killed by another Wanderer?" Xiao Jiu asked timidly.

"Hard to say." He shook his head. The so-called Wanderers were merely a particularly unusual category among those who possessed abilities. Any degree of intrusion would destabilize the world. On the surface, this manifested as certain people awakening strange and unusual powers. He and Honglian belonged to this category. There were many others in the city whose fates had converged despite taking different paths. A considerable number had never been registered by the Dimensional Limit Organization. These people did not count as Wanderers, but that didn't mean they couldn't use their abilities to kill.

"If not for the previous Mirage Incident, the Intelligence Unit might still have been able to investigate who did it. But now, that's definitely impossible." Wang Baihu sighed. "Even dogs were affected. I don't dare imagine how many ability users appeared in the city after that day. This job is impossible."

Although they weren't responsible for the cleanup, everyone worked in the same place. If the Execution Team did a poor job or the incident became too serious, the Logistics Team's complaints would still reach their office.

"Then what do we do now? Contact the Logistics Team and have them clean up the scene?" Xiao Jiu asked.

"We can only do that for now." He agreed. "Though the mission went awry, it may not be a bad thing for you. Who knows what kind of ability a Wanderer might have... If you end up fighting one, a moment of carelessness could mean the difference between life and death."

At that, he couldn't help complaining again. "Who knows what the people upstairs are thinking? You only joined the organization recently and haven't had any real combat experience, yet they shoved you straight into an Execution Team. They really don't care whether newcomers live or die."

"Hehe, it's not that bad... The organization is short-handed right now, and I was willing to join the Execution Team." Xiao Jiu smiled mischievously. "I may be pretty weak, but I'll definitely work hard and won't hold you back!"

"Wait. Don't call anyone yet." Honglian suddenly stopped them.

"What's wrong?"

Her gaze remained fixed on the corpse's hand. Wang Baihu turned his head and saw a conspicuous bruise on the woman's wrist. A handgun had fallen beside it.

Even though Wanderers didn't belong to this world, obtaining a gun was nothing unusual. In fact, that was precisely one of their advantages. Since they often traveled between multiple worlds, they had an easier time acquiring unknown weapons and abilities. People like that were usually harder to deal with than ordinary ability users.

"The killer was standing at the entrance to the private room at first." Honglian followed the trail of footprints on the floor with her eyes. "But after a single exchange, he switched positions with the victim and blocked the Erosion Point. It didn't look accidental. He did it cleanly, and the victim was dragged out before she could react."

"You mean... the woman wasn't reaching for the door to the Erosion Point, but for her enemy?"

"Not only that. She fired during the switch." She pointed at two inconspicuous holes in the wall. "Unfortunately, neither shot hit."

"Maybe she wasn't good with guns?" Wang Baihu spread his hands. He didn't understand what his colleague was hung up on.

"But judging by what Sister Honglian said, the two of them must have been extremely close—practically firing point-blank," Xiao Jiu muttered.

"The killer cut off the victim's escape route from the very beginning. That means he knew the door was the physical manifestation of the Erosion Point. This wasn't a chance encounter that turned into a fight. The killer had planned it in advance—he discovered this abnormal Erosion Point before the Dimensional Limit Organization did." At this point, Honglian closed her eyes, and a figure surfaced in her mind. The gunfire had also been point-blank, but that person possessed extraordinarily sharp eyesight. He could see even the trajectory of a bullet with perfect clarity...

The victim had drawn her gun immediately. But if her enemy could know in advance exactly when she would pull the trigger, then even from a distance of less than an arm's length, hitting him wouldn't be easy.

Next came a fist driven straight into the face, rather than those translucent blades floating in midair.

Why?

Was he trying to avoid leaving conspicuous wounds from sharp weapons?

Because he knew someone would come knocking soon.

Honglian felt a chill rise along her back. Yes, that was what had seemed wrong ever since she entered the room: Why hadn't the killer disposed of the corpse? Since he already knew that the door to the bathroom led to another world, throwing the body inside would have taken only a few minutes. Yet he had done nothing, leaving the scene exactly as it was... This wasn't a provocation aimed at the Dimensional Limit Organization. It was bait deliberately left behind!

Suppose there really was a group of people secretly dealing with the anomalies caused by ability users. How could they determine who those people were?

The answer was simple: See them with their own eyes.

"Don't move from here! Stay alert!" Honglian abruptly rose and ran toward a window.

"What? Where are you going?" Before Wang Baihu could react, he saw his colleague vault out the window.

She planted a foot against the wall, leaped upward, caught the eaves, and sprang onto the roof like a cat.

Where would that person be hiding?

On the mountain behind the club, in one of the houses near the farmland, or on the overpass not far away!?

Honglian swept her gaze around before finally landing on the ring expressway in front of the club. It was the only road connecting the club to the urban area. Traffic streamed across the bridge, and every vehicle looked suspicious. The killer might be sitting in the driver's seat, watching this place through the pitch-black windows.

"Hey, did you find anything?" Wang Baihu's voice came through her earpiece.

"...No. Maybe I'm overthinking it." Honglian shook her head, but a dark cloud lingered in her heart, as if someone were watching her from somewhere beyond sight.

Chen Xuan didn't return to Tianlu Residential Area immediately. Instead, he had the driver circle the city twice.

He sat in the back seat with his eyes apparently closed in rest, but in reality, he was calming the effects brought on by Coin Toss. Aside from the ability he had won from Fei Wuniang, he had also obtained several fragments of her past life. Those memories drifted hazily through his mind like clouds and mist, resembling a series of dreams.

Fei Wuniang wasn't her real name. She had lived in a brothel since childhood. From the window of a private room on the second floor, she could see the bustling streets below.

It was an ancient town much like Zhang Wei.

As her body matured, she became increasingly popular and met many clients from all over the world, including the foreign man who liked to play Coin Toss.

The man taught her the Union Technique, then died in her bed.

At the moment he breathed his last, there was no fear on his face, only the relief of release. His body melted into a pool of black water, staining the flower-embroidered bedsheets. Fei Wuniang clutched his empty clothes and wailed, as if he had been the lover she could least bear to lose.

After that, she became unstoppable on the path of taking abilities, while her appearance grew ever more alluring.

As for how she had found the Erosion Point and what she had done in this world, her memories contained nothing about it.

Several times, Chen Xuan had the strange illusion that he was Fei Wuniang herself, as if an entire life had suddenly been added to his own.

It took him a long time to free himself from the influence.

Why had the Dimensional Limit Organization's intelligence made no mention whatsoever of this ability's side effect?

Could it be that they didn't obtain all of Fei Wuniang's information through Coin Toss?

For the vast majority of ordinary people, it was impossible to know whether they possessed abilities. Before becoming the shopkeeper, for example, Chen Xuan had had no idea that having a good appetite and sleeping deeply counted as abilities.

In other words, the Dimensional Limit Organization must have other means of detecting abilities.

If a captured person was willing to obey the organization's orders, that was one thing. But if they firmly refused to cooperate, did the organization also have a way to strip them of their abilities?

Chen Xuan temporarily set the question aside.

Although there had been some unexpected side effects, this trip had indeed yielded a great deal. He had obtained no fewer than six abilities from Fei Wuniang. All of them had gone into his inventory. The only flaw was that they didn't increase his Performance Points.

Opening the Ability Butler app made everything clear. They were:

"Dance Prodigy" LV2.

"An artist who controls the body, until neural-control technology appears."

"Innate Charm" LV3.

"The moment you greet them, they've already chosen names for your children."

"Immunity to Poisons" LV5.

"You rarely get sick, and toxins cannot harm you. One component of longevity."

"Union Technique" LV5.

"One of the greatest obstacles on the road to propagating life is pleasure exceeding responsibility. This goes even further: not only does it pursue the ultimate pleasure, it also draws the other person's essence into nourishing itself. The question is... is that really yours?"

"Strong Seize" LV1.

"If you can't buy it, take it. An inferior ability. Permanent storage is recommended. Warning: Any ability obtained through non-transactional means constitutes a serious infringement of rights."

"Coin Toss" LV1.

"Forbidden +5."