The Interlocking Plan

Aoki Taisei, who had just chickened out, finally mustered his courage again and chased after them into the corridor. He pointed his katana at Li Bai and yelled furiously, "Baka! I'm challenging you to a duel! Come on! Fight me like a man!"

Li Bai raised his hand and aimed his palm toward the space in front of him.

"SHOCK! WAVE!"

BOOM!

The combustible gas in the administrative assistant's office beside the Conference Room hadn't reached its optimal concentration, so the flash explosion was delayed by two or three seconds. Then the tremendous blast slowly but surely erupted.

The rapidly expanding wave of scorching air not only blew out the office's entire glass curtain wall but also knocked down the partition facing the corridor.

That wasn't all. The wave's residual force spread in both directions along the long corridor.

But when it reached Li Bai's side, it seemed to hit an invisible barrier. Unable to advance any farther, it was forced back.

Part of the rebounding shock wave burst out of the administrative assistant's office, whose entire front had been blown away. The rest caught up with the wave rushing toward the other end of the corridor and slammed into the brash young man.

"Waaah!"

Aoki Taisei let out a yelp and flew backward.

It looked as though Li Bai really had unleashed a shock wave and blasted him away.

At the same time, countless chunks of tempered glass rained down onto the sidewalk in front of the Aoki Building. Glass beads the size of soybeans clattered everywhere, even reaching the other side of the road.

Fortunately, it was just before dawn, and there weren't many pedestrians around. When the glass curtain wall fell, there weren't even any cars on the road. Otherwise, innocent bystanders might have been hurt, and