Persuading Sandman

Sandman had barely escaped to a place he considered safe when he dumped all the money from the bag and carefully counted it. This was his daughter's life-saving money!

"Even if you have your reasons, robbery is still illegal."

"Who's there?!" Flint instantly turned around and saw a cloaked figure standing in the doorway.

"Why was there always someone trying to stop him?! Didn't these people know how to spell death?" Flint was furious. He only wanted to save his daughter—what had he done wrong?! He decided to teach this guy who had delivered himself to his door a lesson.

"Ah!" Flint formed a giant hand from yellow sand, grabbed Li Nian in its palm, and slammed him into the ground again and again.

Li Nian was helpless. Why did villains always think they were in the right? And why did every one of them overestimate themselves enough to attack him? Did he really look that easy to bully?

Li Nian simply lay there and let Sandman hit him a few times. It could not break through his defenses anyway, so he could hit as much as he wanted. It was fine.

Sandman furiously hammered Li Nian again and again, but unfortunately, he did not cause any damage.

"Ha~~ Put some strength into it! Even Brooklyn's zero-dollar looters have more strength than you."

Flint was a little dumbfounded, and his movements could not help but stop. Even that Spider-Man could not withstand those blows. How had so many freaks appeared outside after he had only spent a few years in prison?

Li Nian figured he had hit enough, so he slowly floated up. "I know your difficulties, and I can understand what you did, but breaking the law is still breaking the law. I can give you two choices."

"First, I beat you senseless and throw you in prison. Second, you join my team!"

"Are young people these days all this naïve?" Flint sneered. He did not think he could trust this strange-looking guy in front of him.

"Are circuses trendy again? Or did some pet escape from the zoo?"

"You refuse to repent!" Seeing that words were useless, Li Nian had no choice but to use force to make him submit.

A laser blast instantly struck Flint, scattering him into a pile of sand that fell to the ground.

"Ah!" Flint roared. In the blink of an eye, the sand on the ground gathered into a huge sphere, then transformed into a giant made of sand. A palm that blotted out the sky came crashing down on Li Nian, driving the floor deep into the ground.

Li Nian stood amid the yellow sand without budging, his expression unchanged. He lazily yawned.

"Do you think you're Crocodile? You think you can go even with anyone!" Li Nian mocked him. Knowing physical attacks were useless against him, he fired laser blast after laser blast at Flint. The fierce barrage turned the gigantic Flint into a living target, leaving him only able to watch helplessly as his body was shattered bit by bit.

Flint was quickly reduced to a pile of loose sand. After returning to human form, he lay on the ground and stared in horror at Li Nian as he approached step by step.

He raised both hands before his head and quietly waited for Li Nian's next attack.

But... no further attack came. Flint slowly opened his eyes and saw Li Nian, a faint smile on his lips, extending a hand toward him.

"This world needs heroes, Flint Marko. I may need your help." Li Nian held out his hand and smiled warmly.

"But what if I say no?" Flint had endured too many beatings from society and seen far too many betrayals and wounds to blindly believe Li Nian's words. Though he had no ability to resist, Flint believed that if he truly wanted to escape, even this guy would not be able to catch him.

"Fine. Then I can only let you go." Li Nian chuckled and stepped aside, indicating that Flint could leave on his own.

Flint glanced at Li Nian suspiciously, his brows tightly furrowed. After thinking it over carefully, he realized Li Nian really did not seem to want to stop him.

Flint gave Li Nian a deep look. He had no idea what Li Nian was plotting, but seeing that he truly was not stopping him, his body slowly turned into a stream of flying sand, preparing to leave.

"What a pity. I might have been able to save your daughter..." Li Nian's light voice drifted past behind Flint. The sand filling the sky instantly paused, swirling in the air and refusing to leave, as though making some momentous decision.

In the end, the yellow sand fell back to the ground and gathered into a human form once more.

Flint's eyes widened as he asked in disbelief, "Was what you just said true? You have a way to cure my daughter?"

Yes, a stranger's words were indeed untrustworthy. But once those words struck at his weakness, he would carefully weigh them and choose to believe in that faint, intangible possibility.

And Penny... Flint's daughter, was clearly his weakness. Li Nian's casual remark was like a sharp blade. Flint would not utter a sound even if it left wounds all over his body, but once that blade pierced straight into his heart, even the strongest person would likely fall.

Flint chose to believe Li Nian's casual mention because it concerned his daughter. And that simple trust was precisely a father's deep love for his daughter.

"I can't say I can cure your daughter with one hundred percent certainty, but there's at least a seventy percent chance," Li Nian said softly. "Flint, I know you're a bastard, but how can a man who loves his daughter remain a bastard forever? Join my team. You don't want your daughter's memories of her father to be nothing but people saying, 'Your father is a murderer,' do you?"

"Enough, stop talking!" Flint interrupted Li Nian, a vicious gleam rising in his eyes. "I'll join your so-called team, but if I find out you lied to me..."

Flint stepped forward and viciously pointed a finger at Li Nian's nose. "I'll make you experience the pain of losing your family!"

Li Nian said nothing. He only smiled.

At that moment, light suddenly flashed in the sky above the outskirts. Like a meteor, it crashed heavily into the ground, blasting a modest crater into the forest.

"Roar!"

A dark figure was drawn over by the violent impact. If Li Nian and the others had seen it, they would certainly have recognized it as one of the same kind as the monsters that had previously wreaked havoc in the streets.

After a long campaign of extermination, most of the monsters had been cleared out by Li Nian's squad. However, some remained, slowly evolving considerable intelligence. They learned to hide in dark corners and developed a craving for food.

But that food... might have been their own kind.

And the figure before it was the final victor to survive after all that slaughter.

The dark figure slowly stretched its grotesque mouth into an imperfect smile. It raised its right hand and drew the black mud-like mass on the ground toward itself until it covered its entire body...

On its raised hand hung a black ring...