Foundation Exusiai, Containment Breach!

"You're amazing... You're a great warrior. I'm really looking forward to seeing you again. You're an opponent I must defeat..."

With a splat, Abel watched helplessly as the terrifying bullet reached him.

The instant the projectile touched his forehead, Abel's skull burst like a watermelon struck by a sledgehammer.

Bone fragments and brain matter sprayed outward, instantly coating the trunks of three oak trees behind him in a gray-white and crimson slurry.

The shockwave created a cavity effect inside his skull. His right eyeball, which had not yet flown away, was forced from its socket by the pressure difference, its optic nerve trailing behind as it traced an arc through the air.

Abel's body was instantly blasted into pieces.

The immense force bent his body backward with it, tearing his spine apart at the third lumbar vertebra. The two halves of his remains slammed into tree trunks in opposite directions, smearing fan-shaped trails of blood across the bark.

Drip. Drip.

Horrifying chunks of flesh fell everywhere.

Smoke curled from Xiao Huasheng's gun barrel. Looking at Abel scattered across the ground, she covered her mouth.

Blue, red, yellow, black—it was everywhere on the ground.

One shot, instant kill. What was there to say?

Abel had spilled out.

"Huh? How did you die?!"

She had originally thought that even if the bullet hit Abel, it would not do much.

She had been planning to turn herself invisible next, then frantically snap Abel's bones.

After all, whether it was SCP-682 or Entity 096, they had all been fine after taking her bullets.

Even if they went down, they recovered quickly.

But Abel showed no signs of recovery at all. His parts were scattered everywhere.

Facing Abel, who had been able to suppress her in battle, Xiao Huasheng had naturally assumed that one shot would not accomplish much.

Instead, Abel had been sent off on the spot, with not even scraps left behind.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to kill you!"

Xiao Huasheng hurriedly spoke as she tried to use her reality-warping ability to bring Abel back directly.

The chunks of flesh on the ground, about to rot away into ash, began to tremble.

Some pieces had already started reversing toward their original positions, about to gather together and reassemble his parts.

But soon, the chunks of flesh instantly lost their strength and fell back to the ground.

The next moment, they immediately decayed into ash.

If it had been an ordinary person, she probably could have pulled them back the moment she had the thought.

But Abel was different. With just that thought, Xiao Huasheng's energy was instantly drained, leaving only 10% remaining.

It consumed far more energy than her indiscriminate bombardment or enhancing her own physical abilities.

She immediately felt an overwhelming wave of exhaustion.

With a thud.

She immediately collapsed onto the ground, shut her eyes tight, and fell asleep on the spot.

She held on for only a moment before dropping her head and falling asleep.

Good night, Makka Pakka.

Seeing this.

The squad responsible for after-sales service soon rushed over carrying a stretcher.

They immediately lifted the unconscious angel onto it, and then the squad members reported back to the facility.

"Codename: Exusiai. Following the termination of Entity 076-2, she has fallen unconscious. Medical support will now be provided."

At this point, the Foundation had gained a general understanding of Xiao Huasheng's strength.

Once she fell asleep, she naturally arrived at Lobotomy Corporation.

Angela soon held her forehead. "Don't directly use your reality-warping ability on those guys anymore. Our energy has bottomed out. We only have twenty units left—we're at the line between life and death."

"I-Is that so?" Xiao Huasheng lowered her head and spoke, not quite daring to look Angela in the eyes.

In fact.

Angela had originally been about to use the surplus energy to create an antimemetic department, but that battle had interrupted her.

Her battle with Abel had only consumed 5% of Xiao Huasheng's energy, and she had utterly crushed him.

But trying to reassemble Abel afterward had immediately driven their energy down to the warning line.

Sure enough, no matter what kind of abnormality it was, directly applying reality warping to it consumed an enormous amount of energy.

After chatting with Angela for a while, Xiao Huasheng joined the work as well.

Her work mainly involved the Silent Orchestra.

The Silent Orchestra shut its doors to everyone else and merely kept composing music.

Therefore, while it remained here, it could only provide energy to Lobotomy Corporation when Xiao Huasheng was present and working with it.

Fortunately, the Silent Orchestra was very willing to interact with Xiao Huasheng and provide her with various kinds of energy, on the condition that she continuously learned its Song of the Apocalypse.

So she became its student and painstakingly studied for quite a while.

Because their energy had truly bottomed out.

Xiao Huasheng stayed a little longer and studied Song of the Apocalypse for almost an entire day.

The others kept working with the Queen of Hatred and One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds to provide energy.

Even so, their energy remained quite scarce—not nearly as much as they had imagined.

Together, they could only produce eighty units of energy a day, which was just 40%.

After deducting fifteen units for Angela's research, ten units for daily operations, and ten units as wages for the temporary worker Quack Doctor.

At full calculation, they only had a net gain of forty-five units of energy per day.

It could not be called pitifully little. It could only be said that it was barely enough to keep them alive.

Fortunately, the Silent Orchestra was incredibly reliable.

After Xiao Huasheng joined in and pushed their energy to 100%, Angela adorably rubbed her face against hers and said they did not need to worry for the time being.

After enjoying Angela's cuddling for a while, the slave angel finally returned to reality.

At this time.

A day had already passed since she had fallen asleep on the ground.

When she came back to her senses.

She found herself lying on a pristine white bed.

This time, she did not run away. She merely wrapped herself in the blanket, her mind filled with the scene of Abel being blown apart by her.

That must have hurt a lot, right?

"I didn't mean to... I killed you in one hit..."

The red-haired angel hugged her head pitifully and began to regret it.

If she had known, she would not have used so much force. She had thought Abel could take it.

But he had been sent off with just one blow.

"I didn't mind."

At the side, Abel peeled an apple and looked at her gently as he spoke.

Xiao Huasheng's eyes widened as she looked at him.

Now it was Xiao Huasheng's turn to be surprised.

"I hit you that hard. How are you still alive?"

Foundation Captain, Using the Speed Force!

Xiao Huasheng's voice caught in her throat, because something more eye-catching had drawn her attention.

She stared at Abel's hands. Those fingers, which could easily crush a skull, were now holding a small knife, the gleaming silver blade rotating at a steady speed along the apple's skin.

Just one second later, the apple had been perfectly peeled.

The peel formed one flawless spiral ribbon, hanging down onto the medical tray.

"It's my first time seeing someone peel an apple so fast."

"I've peeled too many people. This naturally isn't difficult."

"Ha ha ha... uh." Xiao Huasheng ultimately had nothing left to say, realizing that the person before her was not exactly a good person.

But after Xiao Huasheng remembered that the man in front of her had just been blasted all over the ground by her and was now completely fine.

She knew that he really did have something special.

Xiao Huasheng muttered a complaint.

"I thought you died because you were showing off. You looked so impressive, after all."

A faint smile rested on Abel's lips, making him seem like a completely different person from the berserker in the forest.

When the final strip of peel fell away, he flipped his wrist and held the apple out to her on the tip of his knife.

"I won't die." His voice was deep and steady. "No matter how many times it happens, I'll start over from the beginning."

"Want some?" Abel asked afterward. Xiao Huasheng frantically shook her head.

After hearing Abel's words, she suddenly lost all interest.

Footsteps sounded in the corridor, and Abel had already retreated to a safe distance.

At that moment, someone walked in and spoke directly.

"The O5 Council has approved your squad application. You may begin training all squad members. This is your squad now, and you will have full authority over it from now on. However, others will still supervise this task force."

Then the man noticed that Xiao Huasheng was awake.

He let out a surprised sound. "You're awake?"

The red-haired angel nodded slightly.

"If I hadn't woken up, would you have sent me to the crematorium?"

The man chuckled and waved his hand. "You really know how to joke. Of course not. Since you're so lively, let me introduce myself while we're at it. I'm Klaus, the liaison for this task force. From now on, I'll personally relay all of your missions."

Klaus, a Class B personnel member, spoke. He looked refined and scholarly, as though he had never weathered any storms.

After seeing him, Abel surprisingly did not attack him.

Abel respected the strong—anyone even slightly stronger than him.

Whether in games or anything else, as long as someone was stronger than him, they would earn his respect.

Otherwise, no matter what the person before him was, he would kill without hesitation.

At this time, the place where Xiao Huasheng had awakened was not inside the facility, but in a specially constructed infirmary exclusively for Pandora's Box Squad.

And since most members of Pandora's Box Squad would be humanoid entities, this infirmary was theoretically useful to them as well.

Few people came here. Other than people Abel acknowledged, no one was permitted to enter.

Xiao Huasheng looked at Klaus, muttered something, and slowly sat up.

"Is that so? Then you should be here to... assign a mission?"

Was the Foundation going to use her again so soon?

It truly was the Foundation's style.

"That's right. You could call this your first mission."