Chapter 4

Lin Jie was waiting at the private airport in H City.

He had received word from Xiao Zhan and the others that they would be landing here on a private plane, and they had asked him to come pick them up. Lin Jie hadn't wanted to go at first, but when he remembered that Thirteen was with them, he couldn't help coming over to take a look.

"They're an hour past their scheduled arrival. I guess they must've crashed somewhere along the way," Lin Jie thought. "Looks like there won't be any entertainment today."

Just then, a shuttle suddenly appeared in Lin Jie's field of vision.

"They're finally here," Lin Jie said, watching the shuttle.

But then he noticed something was wrong. "Have shuttles started spewing black exhaust? That's not very environmentally friendly. And they're this close—why aren't they descending?"

Then, to Lin Jie's shock, the shuttle reached the airspace above the landing site and made a sudden ninety-degree turn. Nose pointed straight down, it plunged toward the ground.

Fortunately, a parachute suddenly opened behind the shuttle, while the airport staff activated their emergency preparations. An antigravity field formed beneath the runway, holding the shuttle aloft.

The airport fire department then rushed out in full force.

Only then did Lin Jie realize that the black smoke trailing behind the shuttle wasn't exhaust at all. Some of its components were on fire. Billowing black smoke spread across the airport's runway.

"As expected of Thirteen. His talent for bringing bad luck hasn't diminished one bit." Lin Jie gave the shuttle a thumbs-up. "Coming here wasn't a waste after all. I really did get to see a show."

Muttering to himself, Lin Jie walked toward the shuttle.

The flames on the shuttle had barely been put out when someone leaped out of it, shouting as he jumped, "Yahahaha! I told you, the airport's antigravity field is the best part! I get to enjoy it every time I fly!"

Lin Jie recognized the speaker and froze in place.

The man had shaved the hair on both sides of his head, leaving only a strip down the middle, dyed gold. He wore a sleeveless black leather outfit, held a chain in his hand, and had a pair of shoulder pads on.

"Where the hell did this Mohawked mook come from?" Lin Jie cried inwardly.

"Yahaha! You made it, brother!" The man walked over to Lin Jie. "Long time no see! Let's go find a motorcycle later. I can't wait to race around H City!"

"Who are you?" Lin Jie stared at him in bewilderment. "I don't remember knowing any Mohawked mooks."

"What did you say? I'm Thirteen! We haven't seen each other that long, and you've already forgotten me? Are you asking for a beating?" the Mohawked mook shouted at Lin Jie.

"You're Thirteen?" Lin Jie was utterly horrified. "I thought you were doing intensive training. Did you go through some kind of end-of-the-world performance?"

The last time Lin Jie had seen Thirteen, he'd been a mature, dependable young man who always wore a gentle smile. How had half a month turned him into a Mohawked mook with a swaggering grin?

"What? I've just awakened my true self," Thirteen said. "Forget about all that! Come on, brother, let's go find a motorcycle!"

"..."

"Lin Jie, it's been a long time, my dear friend." As Lin Jie stood there in shock, Xiao Zhan's voice reached his ears.

"Xiao Zhan! What happened to Thirteen?" Lin Jie turned to look at him. "And what the hell happened to your whole look?"

Xiao Zhan was dressed in the same end-of-the-world style as Thirteen, but the biggest difference lay in their roles in this post-apocalyptic world. If Thirteen looked like a mook, then Xiao Zhan looked like the protagonist.

"We haven't changed at all," Xiao Zhan said.

"Not changed? My ass!" Lin Jie looked at Xiao Zhan. "Forget the outfit! Your whole look has changed! What's with all those muscles? And what are those seven scars on your chest?"

"I've become stronger through this training. I'm the new inheritor of the Big Dipper X Fist," Xiao Zhan said. "I've mastered Formless Rebirth."

"Mastered my ass! Should I start calling you Xiao Shiro?" Lin Jie said to the man before him.

"I'm still myself. I've improved this style of fist!" Xiao Zhan said, producing a censored stick. "You'll see my new skill soon: the Big Dipper Mosaic Stick."

"Your whole look has gone completely off the rails! I've never seen Shiro with a censored stick in his hand! Give me back the real man I had in mind!" Lin Jie stared in despair at Xiao Zhan, whose end-of-the-world look was complete with a mosaic-covered vibrator in his hand. "Can someone do something about this guy? And where's Feiwu? Come out and deal with him! Your boss has gone mad!"

"Were you calling for me?" Bu Feiwu came out in her maid outfit.

"You look pretty normal," Lin Jie said. "What happened to your boss?"

"I don't know!" Bu Feiwu said.

"They've all turned out like this, and you still don't know what happened?" Lin Jie asked, puzzled, looking at the beautiful woman.

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" The woman clutched her head and crouched on the ground, looking terrified. "Sorry! I'm so useless! I couldn't help at all! Sorry! Sorry!"

"Hey, hey! I didn't say anything that harsh!" Lin Jie quickly said, seeing that she looked ready to cry. "I just wanted to ask what happened."

"Sorry! I'm so useless. I can't even answer such a simple question properly!" Lin Jie's words seemed to have the opposite effect, and she grew even more frantic. "A woman lower than a bug like me needs your comfort? I deserve to die! Sorry! I'm useless. I can't help with anything. A woman like me must disgust you."

"Hey, hey! What happened to you?"

"Please punish me, or I won't be able to live with myself. Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" Bu Feiwu kept apologizing.

"I never said I wanted to punish you! You're Xiao Zhan's maid, after all," Lin Jie hurriedly said.

"Hehe, hehe. Has a piece of trash like me become so worthless that I'm not even worth punishing?" Bu Feiwu wore an eerie smile and pulled out a Laser Dagger. "Useless trash should be destroyed as soon as possible. Otherwise, it'll just get in the way."

As she spoke, she thrust the dagger toward herself.

"What are you doing?" Lin Jie quickly snatched the dagger from her hand. "What the hell is this supposed to be? Can't anyone be normal for once?"

"Exactly!" White Gold's voice rang out. "If everyone keeps turning out like this, how are we supposed to protect H City?"

"Mr. White Gold! At last, someone's talking normally." Lin Jie happily turned toward the voice—then was shocked all over again.

White Gold was wearing a suit of gleaming golden armor.

"What's with that outfit?" Lin Jie shouted at White Gold. "What kind of training did you do?"

"I've become a Gold Saint through training!" White Gold said. "My Cosmo is burning fiercely! I can't wait to protect my goddess."

"Holy crap! Since when did you learn a skill this outrageous?" Lin Jie looked at White Gold. "Weren't you gay? How did you manage to turn yourself straight in half a month?"

Just then, Yatan and Weapon, both wearing Bronze Armor, were carried out of the shuttle.

"What the hell is going on?" Lin Jie asked.

"Hmph! Those two Bronze nobodies tried to challenge me, a Gold Saint. I beat them on the plane!" White Gold said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Aren't they on our side?"

"No one can take away my right to protect my goddess," White Gold said.

"Damn it! You were gay before!" Lin Jie said.

"That was the old me. The current me is different. Now I go for both men and women!" White Gold said, striking a Pegasus Meteor Fist pose.

"I'd better send this pervert to the Mental Hospital later," Lin Jie said.

Just then, a hand slapped Lin Jie on the shoulder!

"What is it this time?" Lin Jie had already composed himself, but the sight before him still left him speechless.

A dark-skinned face looked at him. It was Black Gold, and his eyes were brimming with tears.

"Could you not look at me with tears in your eyes? It's gross."

As soon as Lin Jie finished speaking, Black Gold fell to his knees with a thud and began to cry.

"What the hell is going on with you?" Lin Jie asked, baffled.

"Lin Jie! I want to play basketball!" Black Gold said through his tears.

"..." Lin Jie held back for a long time before finally saying, "Do you think you're X Jing? With that look, you'd be lucky to play Akagi X Nori!"

"I don't actually like fighting. I want to play basketball."

"Your job is violence, you know that, right?" Lin Jie said.

Dong Xue'er also got off the shuttle.

"Brother, let's go! Everyone's here," Thirteen said.

"Where's Dong Xiaoye? Didn't she come with you?"

"She went back to B City to recuperate," Thirteen said.

"What about the glasses? Did they go back to B City with Dong Xiaoye too?" Lin Jie asked curiously.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you." Thirteen took out a pair of glasses with a crack in them. "Sorry. By the time we got there, this was all we could find."

When he saw the broken glasses, tears welled up in Lin Jie's eyes.

"Glasses! My glasses! How could this happen to you?" Lin Jie's anguished cry echoed across the airport.