Deception and Trickery

Two men arrived at the scene, showing no surprise at the corpses strewn everywhere. The one holding a shield shrugged and said:

"Oh, Thornton, it looks like we're late. That bastard Fang has already gotten his hands on it."

Thornton, the man holding a silver pistol, said flatly:

"There's nothing to be done about it, Gale. This might very well be a hidden quest of B-rank or higher, but the boss said the main quest takes priority. Don't the Easterners have a saying? The steak that's digesting in your stomach is the one that truly belongs to you."

The two then split up to inspect the scene. After a few steps, Thornton spotted the cracked silver case and said excitedly:

"Oh! We're not too late after all. It seems the key quest item hasn't been taken by Fang yet!"

Gale immediately walked over, bent down to examine it, and his eyes lit up as he said:

"It really is the Retroviral Vector Injection! This thing is incredibly hard to obtain—it's a quest item for a B-rank hidden quest! With this, we can successfully approach that CEO suffering from pancreatic cancer and get a ticket into Area 51!"

But just then, a slightly hoarse voice came from the darkness nearby:

"Oh, gentlemen, please don't touch my things. I only went to catch an escaped prey—that doesn't mean I've abandoned my spoils."

The sea surged endlessly under the night sky, and the wind carried a faint briny smell. A black man slowly emerged from the darkness. He was bare-chested, with a burly build, but a crescent-shaped scar ran across his chest.

Though the scar had clearly healed long ago, it was still obvious how brutal the injury must have been. He wore only a pair of tight black shorts.

In his right hand, he carried a bloody human head! The moment he appeared, he exuded a terrifying pressure like a savage beast.

Seeing the black man, Gale and Thornton both changed expression. Thornton immediately raised his silver pistol and aimed, while Gale stepped forward, raising his toy-like shield in front of him. One attacked, one defended—their coordination seemed flawless.

Only then did Thornton speak in a low voice:

"Fang, we have no conflict of interest! I only came to check on a lead, not to be your enemy. So how about we each take a step back? I'll return the Retroviral Vector Injection to you, and you let us leave."

Fang grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth:

"What a coincidence. I was just about to say the same thing. It seems we think alike. Maybe we can grab a drink sometime."

Fang Linyan, hiding on the second floor, was deeply disappointed. He had been hoping for a full-blown fight, ideally with one side fleeing and the other pursuing, so he could fish in troubled waters.

After hearing about the "Retroviral Vector Injection," he had quickly pulled out his smartphone to look it up. He found it was an extremely advanced anti-cancer technology.

Its origin was the "gene therapy" that won the Nobel Prize in Medicine a few years ago. The principle was that cancer was essentially caused by mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, so injecting mutated genes into the body could fundamentally curb the disease!

Online, he could only find the full name of the retroviral vector as a "retrovirus vector," which was still just a theoretical technology. He never expected that an actual injection had already been developed.

So Fang Linyan was certain that the injection in the silver case was his only hope at the moment!

But to his dismay, neither side seemed eager to fight. A few words had defused the tense atmosphere, and he couldn't help feeling quite frustrated. Still, he could only wait silently.

When Fang mentioned grabbing a drink, Gale smiled and said:

"I know a bar with great liquor. How about tomorrow night? My treat."

Fang laughed heartily:

"It's a deal."

He raised his fist and gave a casual swing in their direction.

This fist-bump gesture was a common greeting among black people, seemingly harmless.

But the moment Fang swung his fist, he suddenly opened his loosely clenched hand. A ping-pong-ball-sized object dropped from his palm and exploded before hitting the ground, emitting a blinding flash!

A flashbang!

Fang Linyan felt a sharp sting in his eyes, and everything went white. He instinctively raised his hands to cover his eyes, but tears still streamed down uncontrollably.

That wasn't all. While Fang launched his attack, Gale, who had been talking about "treating," suddenly crouched and hurled the toy-like Blue and White Five-Pointed Star Shield from his hand!

The moment the shield left his hand, it created an illusion—as if what had been thrown wasn't a shield at all, but a massive truck roaring forward, charging straight ahead.

The small shield shot out, bringing with it a gale-force wind like a level-12 storm. The immense air pressure pushed aside debris, corpses, wooden crates, and even vehicles on both sides!

But facing the shield head-on, Fang revealed a sinister grin. Instead of dodging or retreating, he charged forward with his arms outstretched!

He pressed his hands hard against the edge of the Blue and White Five-Pointed Star Shield. Immediately, a sizzling sound came from his hands, smoke rose, and the air filled with the pungent smell of burning flesh.

It was as if he had pressed his hands against a red-hot steel ingot, not a shield.

Not only that, but Fang underwent a rapid transformation. Hair began to grow all over his body, his skin turned green and rough, his bare muscles swelled instantly, his jaw jutted forward, and two fangs grew from his lower gums! His entire body expanded by more than half, transforming from a normal man into a giant over two meters tall!

This was Fang's proud ability: Orc Transformation! By instantly activating his orc bloodline, he could drastically increase his combat power!

But even after completing the Orc Transformation, he still couldn't resist the immense force from the shield. His thick arms blocked it for less than a second before being knocked aside. His entire body was pushed backward, and then the shield slammed solidly into his chest!

Half of Fang's chest immediately caved in. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and his massive frame was sent flying five or six meters, crashing heavily into the front windshield of a Lincoln Navigator.

The windshield shattered with a loud crack. The impact was so great that the vehicle was pushed back over two meters, its tires leaving two half-meter-long black skid marks on the concrete pier. The air filled with the stench of burnt rubber. The car's alarm began to blare loudly.

After this strike, the Blue and White Five-Pointed Star Shield rebounded, arcing through the air before returning to Gale's hand. But Gale's expression was grim. A clear crack had appeared on the shield's surface. It seemed that while this weapon was powerful, using it came at a cost.

Thornton, meanwhile, opened fire directly at Fang!

His gun was clearly modified, with a tremendous recoil that required both hands to hold. After each shot, his hands would jerk upward to absorb the force. The gunshots weren't loud, but they carried a dull rumble that shook the organs.

Fang was hit by a bullet and was knocked sideways half a meter off the car, tumbling to the ground with shards of glass.

The flashbang Fang had thrown seemed to have no effect on the two at all. As the saying goes, one misstep leads to another. Fang's mistake had clearly cost him dearly.