EP.4 · [Number One · Number One]

Foreword:

[Do not pick up a weapon unless you are prepared to use force.]

[--Vladimir Vladimirovich]

[Part 1: The Yin Yang Demon Realm]

The atmosphere suddenly became very strange.

--On this side is the train conductor who stole the Red Mountain Stone, and on that side is the helpless flight attendant crying with her head down.

If it were any mentally and physically healthy man in the world, he would probably stand on the side of the beautiful and gentle flight attendant without hesitation.

But Jiang Xueming was different. The moment Mr. Wood stepped out of the restroom, he seemed like a completely different person.

All the previous fear, surprise, panic, and tension vanished.

"Bomberwoman, you mean she's Butch?"

"I don't know, but all I want to say is, don't believe her nonsense." Wood whispered in Xue Ming's ear, "Before the little cat Tootles stretched out her long legs to seduce these lecherous men, I couldn't tell who was the enemy, who was the friend, and who was the innocent victim."

"What are you talking about?" The flight attendant looked up, revealing her smudged eye makeup, with dark eyeshadow dripping down her face along with the tear tracks. "How strange, how weird. Why are you suddenly talking about cartoon characters?"

Just as Wood was about to pull Xue Ming to his seat, he heard this sentence—

--The train conductor turned the train around 360 degrees on the spot.

"Excuse me, I have a question, and I would appreciate it if you could answer it for me."

The flight attendant caught Wood Plark's intense gaze and couldn't help but tense up.

Wood: "I only mentioned Butch and Tootles, why do you immediately understand that they're cartoon characters?"

"Oh! I also watch Tom and Jerry, I really like it," the flight attendant immediately explained. "I just want to be alone with this gentleman. He makes me feel very safe, if you..."

At this point, the flight attendant's face inexplicably turned red.

"If you two are a couple, then I'm so sorry, so very sorry."

"Gunsmith, do me a favor." Mr. Wood pulled out a cat bell. "Make a sturdy wire for our beautiful Tootles, as sexy as the fishnet stockings on her long, shapely legs."

Xue Ming couldn't actually do that right away.

The drawing of steel requires very sophisticated forging and melting processes. While his spirit body can achieve extremely high precision cutting, it is difficult to stretch and elongate steel of a given shape.

However, things like silk thread can be replaced with other materials.

In just a few seconds, several scratches appeared on the toilet door, and the cut wire was twisted into a thin, tight rope.

"Flight attendant, do you recognize this?" Mr. Wood wound the iron chain wire around the Red Mountain Stone. "If you are Butch, you will definitely recognize the cat bell. If you are not, this thing is probably worthless in your eyes."

To Xue Ming, this was practically a declaration of war.

The flight attendant still looked confused and clueless.

"Sir, what do you want?"

Wood was like a raging fire, pulling on the rope and shaking the Red Mountain Stone.

"I'm afraid many people don't know that we have such a bell. Those short-sighted, wicked cats only think about catching us two little mice to fill their bellies—now I'm going to show them all."

"Mr. Wood! Do you mean...?" Xue Ming stared in surprise at the bell, which spun faster and faster in Wood's hand.

"Butch is the most impatient cat." Wood let go, and the Red Mountain Stone flew out along the crew passage!

It rolled all the way to the end of the road, crashed into the metal panel of the tailgate, flew past each passenger, and was then pulled back into Wood's hands by a steel wire.

"If you don't care about it, I'll just throw it away a few more times until other bad cats get interested, become agitated, and secretly take it away."

Finally--

--The flight attendant's expression changed.

"You bastard! If you dare do that, I'll kill your whole family!"

The veins on her forehead bulged, and in an instant, her face almost changed completely.

Her Madness Index visibly soared; the moment she sensed the alluring spiritual essence of Ming De, she could no longer remain sane.

To the passengers outside, the cat bell flying out of the customer service room curtain seemed quite strange, but the carnivorous passengers among them dared not look directly at it.

--Besides being hunters, they are also prey.

At least four different denominations of Madness Butterfly followers were lurking on this plane.

They fight individually, and if a direct conflict occurs, resulting in a duel between their soul powers, the best outcome will be the destruction of their machines and the death of their crew.

If one were to encounter the bizarre Madness Butterfly spirit, even a peaceful death would become a luxury.

"You are Butch!" Wood grabbed the Red Mountain Stone, unable to move freely in the narrow space, but pushed Jiang Xueming forward.

"So what if they've seen through my identity!" The flight attendant raised her hand, and a powerful aura emanated from her body.

The dark, hair-like spirit quickly transformed into a grotesque creature with a snake's head and a human body.

The feathered lizard flicked its red tongue and spewed green venom from its teeth.

During the brief standoff, the flight attendant still tried to persuade her.

"Wood Plark! I advise you not to be ungrateful! At first, I intended to find and kill you, but now I've changed my mind. If you become a tank commander in my tutelage, you will offer up the Red Mountain Stone of Ming De with both hands. Wait! Wait!"

Xue Ming lost her balance and was pushed into the arms of the flight attendant by a tremendous force.

This young follower of the Madness Butterfly Sect never expected this to happen; Jiang Xueming just crashed into her like that!

Wood: "Are you going to kill him? I'm curious! Butch! You see such a sexy little kitten, and you're going to destroy her too? Judging by the destructive power of your Soul Might! That's snake venom that can destroy a human brain in an instant! It must be a divine power bestowed upon you by the Blood-Given Monster!"

"Wood Plark! How dare you—" The flight attendant panicked, fearing that the spirit's power would harm Xue Ming in the slightest, she could only push him away, no longer daring to call out to the spirit, "Despicable and shameless!"

"Your weakness is a handsome boy?" Wood looked puzzled, then regretful. "I thought you'd be more mature and ruthless."

The flight attendant shoved Xue Ming aside, cursing, "Do you know that the toxins released by my [Yin Yang Demon Realm Zone] can kill a person in thirty seconds?!"

Wood shook his head. "I don't know."

The flight attendant pointed at Xue Ming: "He's innocent!"

Wood: "Indeed."

Flight attendant. "He was just trembling! Trembling! Concerned about my safety! I could barely sense any spiritual pressure from him. He's just an ordinary person, isn't he!?"

Wood: "You just killed..."

"That Korean man deserves to die! I won't allow a woman prettier than me on this plane!" the flight attendant said viciously. "But this young man is different. Open your eyes and look closely. His spinal injury hasn't healed, and he's as weak as a patient just discharged from the hospital. How could you bear to push your companion into my arms? Or is he just a scapegoat you coerced into boarding the plane after you beat him up?"

Wood: "Okay, I was wrong."

"You're so wrong!" the flight attendant babbled on, her eyes full of suspicion. "Hey! Wasn't he the [decoy] you captured? Someone like Jiang Xueming, the leader of the Nameless Gang, would never show such pitiful and helpless eyes. I can't bring myself to harm such beautiful eyes."

Jiang Xueming didn't know what to say.

He simply raised his Browning pistol in protest.

The flight attendant immediately started yelling, pointing at Wood and asking Xue Ming, "You idiot! How much did this guy pay you to do this dirty and tiring work?"

Xue Ming: "I really am Jiang Xueming."

Flight attendant. "Don't lie to me, I don't kill unarmed, good men."

Xue Ming couldn't understand this kind of "feminism," but she was deeply shocked.

Xue Ming clearly showed the crew's boarding passes.

"I really"

"Shut up!" The flight attendant frowned and glared, like a hero holding a little princess. "Your gun is unloaded! If you don't intend to fight, don't pick up a weapon!"

Xue Ming and Wood asked, "Is she serious?"

Wood: "I'm serious."

[Part ②·Genius]

The flight attendant held Xue Ming protectively in her arms and summoned her soul power.

Wood made no move, staring at the vicious, Madness Butterfly cultists in the cramped customer service room, without even making a move to summon the spirits.

"You should know very well that if a fight breaks out here, I'm afraid none of us will survive." Wood said casually, twirling his fingers. "We're standing on the sea and solid ice. If the plane crashes, even if we land alive, we'll freeze or starve to death."

"Are you scared?" The flight attendant grinned. "You're scared? You want to negotiate and do business with me?"

Wood: "How about we cooperate?"

Flight attendant. "How do we plan to cooperate?"

Xue Ming: "Bomber!"

Wood: "Gunsmith, stop talking nonsense."

Xue Ming: "Bomber! You don't understand me! I will not make deals with any cannibals."

Wood: "Are you serious?"

Xue Ming: "I'm serious."

The flight attendant, holding Xue Ming, merely glanced down at her.

At such close range, her powerful spiritual pressure immediately enveloped Xue Ming, almost crushing Xue Ming's mental world.

This is the hardware gap between the morpho butterfly and the cocoon, an insurmountable chasm.

Wood clapped. "Bad cat Butch and big cousin Marsol won! We got two votes, and little female Tootles zero votes."

"What's your name?" Wood asked his new partner.

The flight attendant shook her head. "Just call me Butch, lest you, you traitor, turn around and put my real name on the wanted list when you get back to the station."

Wood: "Okay, Butch, what are you planning to do? What do you want me to do for you?"

Miss Butch: "I've never seen your Soul Power. Tell me, what can you do?"

Wood: "Anything I touch will explode."

Miss Butch: "That's it?"

Wood: "That's it."

Miss Butch scoffed, "Then you're a complete waste of space! You're utterly useless on the plane! Expecting you to fight the enemy and drive away those other sectarian pests for me is a pipe dream!"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you." Wood said with a long face, clearly unhappy. "I'm truly sorry."

"I'm so disappointed!" Miss Butch mocked Captain Wood's Soul Power: "An exploding Soul Power? What kind of weird superpower is that? I'm afraid the scorching airwaves and fire shockwaves will hurt you!"

Wood clicked his tongue. "Occasionally... actually, if you control the force properly, it shouldn't hurt me."

"How about this," Miss Butch launched a frenzied personal attack. "You hand over the Red Mountain Stone and the real Jiang Xueming to me, and as a member of the flight attendant team, I can guarantee your safety and ensure that you, this piece of dog shit, get off the plane alive."

She thought fiercely—whether she could leave the airport alive was another matter!

"I really didn't lie to you," Jiang Xueming said confidently, raising his gun, cocking it, and pointing it at Miss Butch's head.

"Little darling, don't rush. The way you're posing with that empty gun is just too cute." Miss Butch stopped mid-sentence, completely stunned.

Behind Wood, Xue Ming's spirit was frantically polishing the bullet.

--That was a 7.65mm bullet cut from the zinc alloy of a toilet faucet.

It landed gently in the hands of Plack the train conductor, who then tossed the breech of Xue Ming's gun out of its chamber.

Miss Butch barely reacted. Jiang Xueming flicked his wrist, swallowing the bullet hard into the ejection port, and pulled the trigger the instant the chamber closed.

"Click--"

The hammer struck the solid zinc bullet's rear, but there was no reaction.

"Hahahaha!" Butch burst into laughter. "Hahahaha! Are you guys in a cartoon? You're making it look so real with all those back and forth movements."

"I've already touched that bullet, Butch!" Wood Plark said. "[Sexy Bomb], through the heart!"

He slammed his Thumb into the detonator, and a burst of fiery flames erupted from the barrel!

The brittle and sharp zinc bullet shattered into more than a dozen pieces as soon as it left the muzzle. When the fragments hit Miss Butch's head, they bounced around in the narrow customer service room with brain matter and bone fragments, and the blood almost stained Xue Ming's entire body red.

A long time passed--

Xue Ming wiped his face clean.

"I still can't understand! I really can't understand!"

He was almost hysterical, losing all composure, and squeezed in front of the narrow dressing table with the train conductor, kicking the corpse at his feet into the luggage rack.

"What I don't understand is, why would she kill innocent people for such a reason? Her targets were clearly you and me!"

Wood put his arm around Xue Ming's shoulder, comforting the angry young man.

"Perhaps she prefers the natural? When it comes to competing for beauty, women will stop at nothing, even plastic surgery is a form of cheating, and cheaters must be dealt with severely."

Xue Ming: "But why did she yell at you when I fell into her arms?"

Wood: "Humans are visual creatures."

Xue Ming: "Bomberman, you're not bad looking at all!"

Wood: "I'm married, it's different."

Xue Ming: "What's different?"

Wood: "Married men are more mature, their hormones and pheromones are completely different. They're nothing like a fresh, delicate flower like you, you know? Gunsmiths—it's like some men who always boast about their incredibly sensitive noses, they can smell a virgin, that's what's incomprehensible. I've always thought that's a superpower even more powerful than Soul Might."

Suddenly, a passenger lifted the curtain and asked a question.

"Gentlemen, we think we just heard a [bang!] sound. What happened?"

Jiang Xueming's face was covered in blood--

--Wood talks nonsense.

"The kettle exploded, cutting his hand. There's blood everywhere. Don't come in."

The passenger immediately closed the curtain and shakily returned home.

Jiang Xueming asked again, "Bomber, were you serious when you pushed me into her arms and then took a half step back?"

"Otherwise what?" Wood feigned innocence.

Jiang Xueming: "What if I get bitten by her soul power and die from the poison?"

Wood shrugged dismissively. "You're the [Number One] in Ming De's heart, you certainly won't die so easily."

Jiang Xueming: "So you didn't have any backup plan at all, right?"

Wood: "Actually, yes."

Jiang Xueming: "What's your backup plan?"

"Even without firearms, I think you could tear her to pieces with melee weapons, but I didn't expect your attack power against female enemies to be enhanced by your good looks." Wood picked up the cat bell: "And if all else fails—"

"--I'll show this thing to your mouth."

Jiang Xueming gave him the middle finger.

"Genius."