What If You Like It (Seeking Recommendations and Collections Ahhh)

Fang Cheng had originally thought that having lived two lifetimes, his mental journey was comparable to that of a seasoned veteran, reaching a state where he could remain unmoved by honor or disgrace, his expression unchanging even if Mount Tai collapsed before him.

It wasn't until he stepped out of the elevator and saw a robot flying toward him from a distance that a "holy shit" slipped out of his mouth.

Once the thing flew closer, Fang Cheng took a careful look and realized it wasn't a robot, but a person wearing a powered exoskeleton; with the helmet on, their features were obscured.

The opponent suddenly raised their hand toward Fang Cheng, and the thick gun barrel on their arm lit up with a white glow.

"Shit!"

In an instant, Fang Cheng felt his scalp tingle. It was too late to retreat into the elevator, so he directly activated his Short-Range Dash ability, fleeing to the side.

The gun barrel spat out a mass of white light that landed in front of the elevator and exploded with a boom, kicking up a sandstorm-like cloud as countless red particles billowed out.

Missing the first strike, the opponent circled in the air and chased after Fang Cheng rapidly. The small rotary gun on their left shoulder spat out tongues of fire, and a dense stream of tracer rounds formed a flow of light.

Fang Cheng continuously activated Short-Range Dash, his entire body turning into a blur as he scrambled and dodged throughout the corridor.

The pursuer behind him remained relentless, spraying bullets as if they were free, chasing right at Fang Cheng's heels.

Strangely, the sound of these bullets hitting was not loud; instead, it carried a unique, dull thud.

Fang Cheng noticed this anomaly, but he dared not stop.

Fortunately, he had been training consistently during this period, never missing his daily free point of physical fitness, which gave him enough stamina to luxuriously use Short-Range Dash multiple times.

Dashing through the long corridor, Fang Cheng burst into an empty training area, grabbed a barbell from the side, his arm muscles bulging, and spun around to hurl it with all his might.

The barbell whistled through the air, but the opponent dodged it with ease, and a red light lit up on their right shoulder.

The next moment, a red laser beam shot out.

When Fang Cheng realized he had been locked onto by the laser, it was already impossible to dodge unless his speed could reach the speed of light.

The laser struck Fang Cheng's body, but the expected pain did not arrive.

Fang Cheng was slightly stunned, only then realizing that this laser was just a common beam of light, not the same thing as the one that had sliced Kuroishi Yuto in half some time ago.

Fang Cheng looked toward the corridor outside—the floor was covered in black rubber bullets.

Without a doubt, he had been played.

Fang Cheng glared at the person in the air with a deadpan expression. The opponent slowly descended, removed the black helmet, and revealed a beautiful, smiling face.

It was indeed Kanzaki Rin.

She was laughing quite happily: "Not bad, your reaction exceeded my expectations."

Kanzaki Rin rarely laughed, unless she saw Fang Cheng getting humiliated.

So, she wasn't laughing now because Fang Cheng's reaction was good, but because she was laughing at the sight of him being beaten into a frantic retreat.

"Nice performance, kid."

Takeda Masumi also appeared; she must have been hiding on the side, waiting to watch the show.

She crossed her arms, looking at Fang Cheng with an expression of amazement.

Although he was hit in the end, being able to hold on for so long under the surprise attack of this individual exoskeleton suit had already far broken the record.

Fang Cheng's movement speed while dodging was truly fast—Takeda Masumi had almost been unable to keep up with her eyes, which was not something an ordinary person could do.

She attributed this to a special ability Fang Cheng possessed.

"Is that so? Then let's spar a bit later."

Fang Cheng dropped a line that made Takeda Masumi's expression change, then he composed himself and adjusted his mood.

Usually, he was the one pranking Kanzaki Rin; being played back once in a while was nothing, and he wasn't the type who couldn't handle losing.

In any case, there was plenty of time, and there would be plenty of opportunities to get even.

At this moment, Fang Cheng's attention was entirely on the gear Kanzaki Rin was wearing; there was probably no man who could refuse such a cool piece of equipment filled with mechanical charm.

"Is this an individual exoskeleton? Where did you get it?"

Fang Cheng leaned in with glowing eyes, his hands already unable to resist reaching out to touch it.

"That's right, this is an individual combat system, including the exoskeleton power armor, weapon platform, life support, communications, fire control, computer..."

Kanzaki Rin began to rattle off a list, but halfway through, she suddenly let out an "ah" of surprise.

She turned and threw a punch at Fang Cheng, shouting angrily: "What are you touching!"

Fang Cheng raised his hand to catch her fist, but was actually forced back two steps by the impact; this exoskeleton armor provided Kanzaki Rin with immense strength.

He was a bit startled, shook his hand, and laughed: "This thing doesn't have enough protection for the buttocks. You shouldn't neglect it just because there's a lot of meat there; what if some pervert likes to hit butts..."

"I think you're the pervert!"

Kanzaki Rin's face turned cold as frost, and she strode toward Fang Cheng: "You're asking for death!"

This bastard was getting more and more out of line. Verbal harassment before was one thing, but now he actually dared to get handsy.

"Forget it, forget it..."

Takeda Masumi hurriedly blocked Kanzaki Rin.

Given Takeda Masumi's personality, she was actually dying to see Kanzaki Rin give Fang Cheng a sound thrashing to teach the brat a lesson.

However, she had a premonition that if a real fight broke out, Kanzaki Rin would likely be the one getting beaten to a pulp.

Even though Kanzaki Rin was currently wearing the individual combat system and shouldn't be losing, Takeda Masumi just had this irrational intuition.

If Kanzaki Rin got beaten up, could she, the bystander, really escape unscathed?

To prevent the scenario of watching the show only to end up getting screwed herself, Takeda Masumi decided it was better to nip the trouble in the bud.

While blocking Kanzaki Rin, Takeda Masumi also shot a look at Fang Cheng, signaling him to smooth things over.

Fang Cheng shrugged and then stuck his rear out: "If you feel like you're at a disadvantage, I'll reluctantly let you touch it back. Maybe the texture is better than yours..."

Kanzaki Rin raised a leg to kick him, but he dodged it, and she missed.

"Masumi, don't stop me. I'm going to beat this bastard to death today."

Takeda Masumi slapped her forehead, black lines appearing on her face.

This bastard wasn't smoothing things over at all; he was clearly fanning the flames on purpose.

Of course, they didn't end up fighting in the end. After Kanzaki Rin threatened to stop paying for his nutritional expenses, Fang Cheng reluctantly offered an insincere apology.

Kanzaki Rin took the out; she couldn't wear this combat system forever, after all.

"Why didn't you take this thing out to use before?"

Fang Cheng asked while fiddling with the individual combat system Kanzaki Rin had taken off.

If they had this gear earlier, wouldn't fighting those two vampires have been like swatting primary schoolers?

"I only just applied for it in Masumi's name recently," Kanzaki Rin replied while struggling to peel off the exoskeleton armor. "Otherwise, do you think an intern like me could get approved for something like this?"

"Does the Countermeasure Department have a lot of this equipment?"

Fang Cheng asked again. If the Countermeasure Department could equip everyone with this individual combat system, that would be incredible.

High firepower, sufficient strength, capable of flying, running, and jumping—wasn't this just a budget version of Iron Man?

Kanzaki Rin shook her head: "There are quite a few, but not many people have the qualifications to use them. The SAT Mobile Team has one for every member, but they aren't deployed easily."

"The SAT Mobile Team is that badass?"

"They're just average. Internationally, they're only a second-rate unit."

Takeda Masumi suddenly interjected, her tone mocking and clearly hinting at a backstory.

Seeing Fang Cheng's surprised expression, Takeda Masumi sneered: "Kid, do you think humans rely on ability users like you to fight monsters? If you think that, you're dead wrong."

She reached out and patted the exoskeleton armor, which was filled with mechanical beauty, her tone laced with pride: "We rely on the power of technology."

Fang Cheng had no interest in arguing with her about whether technology or abilities were superior. Why argue? Why not mix them together to make a super-powered Iron Man?

Fang Cheng turned to look at Kanzaki Rin: "Is this set prepared for me?"

Kanzaki Rin said flatly: "Don't get your hopes up. This is a neutered version for training; the Countermeasure Department will detect it if it leaves the training grounds."

Fang Cheng was greatly dissatisfied: "Then what's the point of getting it?"

"To give you targeted training. In the coming days, Masumi and I will teach you firearms, swordsmanship, stealth, and intelligence gathering. You won't get far relying solely on your fists."

Hearing that this thing couldn't be taken out, Fang Cheng's interest dropped significantly.

He sent Ugou Mirai's social media account to Kanzaki Rin: "Investigate this and see what her background is."

Kanzaki Rin had already observed the conversation between Fang Cheng and Ugou Mirai via drone. Unlike Fang Cheng, she recognized at a glance that this young girl was one of the hostages rescued that night.

That night, she had used both soft and hard tactics to ensure that none of the survivors could leak information about Fang Cheng to the Countermeasure Department.

The fact that this young girl had found Fang Cheng in such a short time meant she wasn't an ordinary person. It was indeed suspicious and worth investigating.

While Kanzaki Rin was deep in thought, Fang Cheng started fiddling with the exoskeleton armor again.

Although his interest had waned, Fang Cheng still found this individual combat system extremely appealing.

After his persistent pestering, Kanzaki Rin finally agreed to let him try it once.

After putting on the exoskeleton armor, Fang Cheng, under Kanzaki Rin's guidance, activated the flight system and wobbled into the air.

He flew around like a headless fly, occasionally losing control of his distance and bumping into the ceiling.

Kanzaki Rin and Takeda Masumi both wore mocking smiles at the rookie.

That was until Fang Cheng flew above their heads and aimed his gun barrels at them.

Kanzaki Rin and Takeda Masumi's smiles froze instantly.

After the chaotic commotion, an exhausted Kanzaki Rin and Takeda Masumi entered the bathroom to wash away their fatigue with warm water.

Takeda Masumi suddenly said to Kanzaki Rin in the next stall: "Rin, you and Fang Cheng aren't a couple, are you?"

She had previously assumed that Fang Cheng and Kanzaki Rin were a couple, or at least had mutual feelings for each other.

However, after observing them for this period, she realized there was nothing of the sort between them.

"Of course not."

Kanzaki Rin denied it outright; when she told Fang Cheng she didn't want to date, she hadn't been brushing him off.

She had neither the time nor the interest.

Takeda Masumi spoke again, "Is that so? If you aren't interested, then I won't hold back."

Kanzaki Rin's tone betrayed her shock, "What, are you... serious?"

Takeda Masumi stuck out her tongue and licked her lips, "Don't you think this kid is quite exciting?"

Kanzaki Rin was silent for a moment before saying, "I advise you not to provoke him."

Takeda Masumi laughed, "What, can't bear to let him go?"

"It's not that..."

Kanzaki Rin shook her head, "I'm afraid you won't be able to handle him. Listen to me, he isn't an ordinary person."

Takeda Masumi, however, was eager to try, "If he were ordinary, I wouldn't be interested in the first place."

Kanzaki Rin stopped trying to persuade her, "Then suit yourself."