Chapter 15

Shadow could no longer keep hiding. The reason was simple: the stick-like object in the hands of a pixelated man was flinging white milk everywhere. Even though she knew the liquid was milk, as a young woman, her body still instinctively dodged the droplets flying toward her.

"Who are you?" Xiao Zhan asked, looking at the woman who had suddenly jumped down from the ceiling.

"The one who's going to kill you." Shadow dropped her disguise and pulled out a Laser Dagger.

"Did President Ouyang send you, or was it the Evolution Company?" Xiao Zhan asked.

"You don't need to know." Shadow charged at the pixelated creature in front of her. She'd had enough of the mental contamination caused by this filthy thing. All she wanted now was to cut down the disgusting creature as quickly as possible.

As she rushed toward Xiao Zhan at incredible speed, she was splattered with white milk. At the same time, a pixelated black object flew toward her.

Faced with this censored black prop, Shadow still couldn't control her instincts as a woman. She let out a shriek and stumbled backward, dodging the unidentified object. She didn't know what it was, but instinct told her she didn't want to touch it.

"Good thing I came prepared." As Xiao Zhan spoke, he pressed a switch on the wall. The next moment, the walls flipped around. To Shadow's astonishment, several walls in the room turned over at once, revealing hundreds of pixelated, stick-like objects embedded in the backs of each one. They were all pointed straight at her.

This was what Shadow saw.

All around her, the walls were lined with pixelated sticks pointed at her. In the middle of the room, a human-shaped mass of pixels dotted with white spots edged closer to her. The censored stick in its hand kept squirting milky-white liquid everywhere.

The creature edged closer and closer, leering as it said, "Miss, would you like some milk first..."

The scene was simply too much. You'll have to imagine the rest for yourself.

"Just as I thought... I really can't fight something this disgusting!" Faced with this scene, Shadow had completely lost the will to fight. It had nothing to do with rank or strength. If you had to seriously battle something that looked like a pile of shit, you wouldn't be able to bring yourself to do it either.

Shadow slashed the glass behind her with her dagger, then leaped out of the building.

After jumping a long way, Shadow finally stopped on the roof of another building. Perhaps because of her encounter with Xiao Zhan, now that she looked at the shape of Xiao's Building, it seemed to resemble...

Unlike the scene at Xiao Zhan's home, things were peaceful at Lin Jie's. Lin Jie was in his room, catching up on the anime he'd fallen behind on, while Lin Wan was in the bathroom with Little Girl.

In the bathroom, Lin Wan was washing Little Girl's hair as the child played with the bubbles in her hands.

"All right, stop playing. I'll rinse the bubbles out of your hair," Lin Wan said.

"Look, big sister." Little Girl held the bubbles in her hands up to Lin Wan. Before her eyes, they formed the shape of a girl with a ponytail.

"Huh? That's me!" Lin Wan exclaimed. "How did you do that?"

"I don't know," Little Girl said after thinking it over.

Could this be why my brother said someone wanted to capture her and study her? Lin Wan thought.

The bubbles in Little Girl's hands then changed into two men holding weapons.

"Ah! That's my brother and Xiao Zhan!" Lin Wan said excitedly.

Next, the bubbles formed a pair of glasses.

"Ah! That's the guy with glasses who was with my brother and the others," Lin Wan said. "You're amazing!"

Laughter rang out from the little bathroom.

"Looks like my sister really is the one best suited to take care of kids!" Hearing the laughter from the bathroom, Lin Jie couldn't help but marvel.

About an hour later, Lin Jie went out for a drink of water. As he passed his sister's room, he heard Lin Wan's voice from inside: "Then Jia Baoyu..."

Confused, Lin Jie pushed open the door to Lin Wan's room and walked in. He saw Little Girl and Lin Wan lying on the bed. Lin Wan was holding a thick copy of Dream of the Red Chamber and reading from it, while Little Girl looked around with wide eyes. Lin Jie was certain she hadn't understood a word.

"You're reading Dream of the Red Chamber to a little kid as a bedtime story?" Lin Jie asked Lin Wan.

"Are you questioning my early education methods?" Lin Wan said. "I'm helping her develop her mind in advance so she won't get tricked as often as I did when I was little."

"...That's still no reason to tell such a young child Dream of the Red Chamber," Lin Jie said.

"What's wrong with Dream of the Red Chamber? It's a literary classic. Do you know how much Cao Xueqin sacrificed to write it?" Lin Wan said indignantly. "It's people like you who are causing our traditional cultural heritage to risk disappearing."

"Hmph, I don't know anything about Cao Xueqin, but I do know a story about his classmate," Lin Jie said.

"Yeah, right."

"Little girl, want to hear a story about Cao Xueqin's classmate?" Lin Jie asked Little Girl, who was watching them with wide eyes.

"I do, Brother Lin," Little Girl said.

"Don't believe him," Lin Wan warned from the side.

"But I really want to hear it," Little Girl said.

"Then I'll tell you." Lin Jie cleared his throat. "A long, long time ago, Cao Xueqin had a classmate whose grades were just as good as his. But one day, Cao Xueqin wrote a book called Dream of the Red Chamber and became a famous author overnight. His classmate read it too, and he was certain it would go down in history as a masterpiece.

"How could someone with grades just as good as Cao Xueqin's accept being surpassed by him? So he decided to write a marvelous book that would outdo Dream of the Red Chamber.

"From then on, he spent every day planning his book. Year after year, he researched what to write and the historical setting. He spent twenty whole years planning it."

"And then? Did he write a book even better than Dream of the Red Chamber?" Little Girl asked curiously.

"No. After twenty years of thinking, he went bald—and got stronger. So he gave up writing and took up the sword, eventually becoming an invincible general," Lin Jie said.

"Hmph, you're making things up again." Lin Wan shot Lin Jie a disgruntled look.

"Brother Lin, what does 'classmate' mean?" Little Girl asked curiously.

"A classmate is someone who studies with you at the same school," Lin Jie said.

"What's a school?" Little Girl asked.

"A school is a place where children go to learn," Lin Jie replied.

"Are there lots of kids my age there?"

"Yeah." Lin Jie nodded.

"Can I go to school?" Little Girl asked, her big eyes glistening.

"Of course. Get a good night's sleep, and once we've beaten the bad guys, I'll send you to school, okay?" Lin Jie said, patting Little Girl's head.

"Really? Promise?" Little Girl asked.

"I promise," Lin Jie said with a smile.

At midnight, a tall man arrived outside the apartment where Lin Jie lived.

"Is this the place? The orders only say to bring that child back. Dead or alive should be fine, right?" the man muttered to himself.

"What are you muttering about outside my building?" Lin Jie suddenly appeared beside the tall man.

"Are you Lin Jie?" the tall man asked. "I didn't expect you to stay here instead of escaping with the others. You must be very confident in your strength."

"Oh? You know about me?" Lin Jie asked curiously.

"Of course. You have to understand your enemy before you take them on," the man said. "Your rating is only E-Class, but you've knocked down two B-Class body-enhancement heroes with a single blow each. That means you have more than B-Class strength. But..."

Before the man could finish speaking, a Wolf Fang Club came crashing down on his head. He blocked the blow with both hands in the nick of time, but the immense force drove him into the ground.

"Hmph. If you want to fight, just fight. Why all the blabbing?" Lin Jie said, yawning.

"But today, you've run into me." The tall man climbed out of the ground, his body swelling until he stood over five meters tall. "I'm someone with more than B-Class strength too..."

Before he could finish, Lin Jie's club came down again, driving the five-meter giant into the ground.

"I said, why all the blabbing?" Lin Jie said.

But the man climbed out of the ground once more.

"I admit, you're strong. But do you really think you can take me down that easily?" the giant said. A layer of hard scales appeared across his body. "The fact that you've made me use my second form is enough to make you proud. Now I'll show you..."

Lin Jie cut him off again, raising his club and bringing it down. The man in his second form was driven into the ground for the third time.

Lin Jie glanced at the giant, who was about to climb out again, and raised an eyebrow. "You can still get up?"

As he spoke, he raised the Wolf Fang Club once more.

"Wait!!!" the giant hurriedly shouted, stopping Lin Jie.

"What?" Lin Jie asked.

"That's too underhanded! It's no way for a real man to fight! What kind of skill is it to attack before I've finished talking?" the giant said as he climbed out.

"Oh, then go ahead."

"Today, I'll show you the difference in our strength." The giant's muscles swelled, and a searing heat seeped out from beneath the scales covering his body.

"Finished?" Lin Jie asked.

"Finished..." As soon as the words left his mouth, the giant was knocked back into the ground with another swing.

"This is impossible!! Even in my strongest form, I can't fight back against you at all!!" the giant cried out in shock from the hole. He'd kept his eyes on Lin Jie the whole time, yet Lin Jie had still sent him into the ground. "Who are you? Your strength must be A-Class! Why are you still hanging around in the E-Class hero ranks?"