The hooded man, now a hybrid monster, sprinted across the ground of black-and-white mosaic tiles without so much as glancing at Black Rock Shooter behind him. An overwhelming sense of danger drove him to flee on instinct.
Rather than running on foot, Black Rock Shooter summoned a sleek black motorcycle and pursued him with her aibo (Chen Xiao) in tow.
But no matter how Black Rock Shooter attacked, the hybrid monster never dared to fight back.
Soon, he was cornered.
"Give up. You can't escape Black Rock's domain. Surrender quietly... seriously?!"
Although the hooded man could no longer hear him after becoming a hybrid monster, Chen Xiao still wore a triumphant expression as he urged him to surrender.
But before he could finish, the expression on the terrified monster's face suddenly froze. His eyes were solid crimson, without a trace of pupils.
Then he reached behind him and actually tore an opening in this overlaid dreamscape!
"Black Rock!"
Seeing him rip through space, Chen Xiao turned to Black Rock. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw she was unaffected.
Black Rock Shooter: ... (shook her head)
Seeing how worried Chen Xiao was about her, Black Rock Shooter shook her head to indicate she was fine, a faint warmth stirring in her heart.
Then they discovered that the monster had escaped through the tear into another area, which appeared to be someone else's dream.
"This guy can still use his superpower even after mutating so badly that he's lost his mind?"
Chen Xiao sounded surprised.
After a moment's thought, he asked Black Rock Shooter to take him after their enemy.
"Black Rock, let's follow him!"
Black Rock Shooter: ... (hesitated)
Black Rock Shooter did not immediately agree to Chen Xiao's suggestion. After all, she had materialized to save him.
Now that he was safe, there was no need to risk pursuing an enemy who had gone berserk. What if this was a trap set by the sponsor the hooded man had mentioned?
"Black Rock, the victims on the news fell into comas because this guy tortured (killed) their Spirit Forms. If we let him run amok through ordinary people's dreams in this berserk state... the consequences will be unimaginable!"
Having already chosen not to attend school, all Chen Xiao wanted now was a quiet life like Yoshikage Kira's, free from the outside world's troubles.
But if the hooded man caused a major incident in Magic City and sparked a nationwide uproar, young people like him whose mental stats met the threshold might all be forced to attend school for their own safety.
Things would be awful if they went that way!
Not only would his decision to skip school have been pointless, but he might also end up with a whole heap of problems.
Of course, there were also two much simpler reasons...
First, Chen Xiao disliked tragedies.
Second, the hooded man's filthy remarks earlier had really pissed him off! (Jotaro face.jpg)
Black Rock Shooter: ... (nodded)
After Chen Xiao appealed to both her feelings and her reason, Black Rock Shooter finally agreed.
She immediately drove the motorcycle through the tear.
"Help... a m-monster! Stay away!"
The moment they entered the neighboring dream, Chen Xiao spotted a guy in swimming trunks being chased by the hybrid monster. Several claw wounds already marked his back.
The man looked somewhat familiar. He lived in the same neighborhood.
Unfortunately, because he lived near Chen Xiao and happened to be asleep, the tear had connected to his dream.
"Black Rock, get him!"
Black Rock Shooter immediately fired, blasting the hooded man away just before he could grab the guy.
"Ah...! Hah... hah... th-thank you... ah!"
The man panted after his narrow escape and started to thank Black Rock Shooter, only to recoil at the sight of her when he looked up.
After all, Black Rock did look somewhat inhuman.
But Black Rock Shooter did not care. All she knew was that Chen Xiao would always see her as cool and adorable, and that was enough.
"Raa-whimper!"
The hybrid monster had intended to let out an angry roar and breathe fire, but the moment he saw Black Rock Shooter, he wilted in terror. He even forced the flames in his tubular tongue back down.
Then he tore open the dream again and fled.
"Don't even think about escaping! Black Rock, after him!"
Without a word, Black Rock Shooter drove after him, leaving the man in the dream staring dumbfounded at her retreating figure before he jolted awake in reality.
"Holy shit! What kind of nightmare was that? Ow... why does my back hurt?"
The man instinctively felt his back. There were clearly no wounds, yet the pain of being clawed in his dream had carried over into his real body.
Meanwhile.
As time passed, the drug's effects on the hooded man seemed to be wearing off. Driven from place to place, he gradually slowed down, and one careless moment even let Black Rock Shooter's machine gun shred the wings on his back.
In pain, he fled into the dream of a "David Dai" and took a bite out of the fat pig lying in bed eating.
Not only did he end up with a mouthful of grease, but his injuries did not heal either!
Hooded man: That's not right! I definitely tasted blood!
Then his gradually returning reason helped him realize the problem.
Oh, sucking blood from Spirit Forms in dreams doesn't work!
Now I can only run on all fours...
Hiss, wait!
I feel like I forgot something... something, something, something really important?
"What... was it?"
The hooded man, who had begun reverting to his original form, made a sound resembling human speech.
Yet his remaining awareness could only bring something red to mind before Black Rock Shooter caught up and interrupted his thoughts, forcing him to focus on flee...
No, on making a strategic retreat.
And what was the red thing that had come to mind...?
It was the red talisman used to conceal him from "divination"!
Now, the final fifteen minutes had passed too!
Huang Qingque, the [Diviner] of the Superpower Crime Task Force, had located him. But because the hooded man's physical body was inside the dreams, she could only lead the team racing through Magic City's streets, following his shifting location in the dreamscape.
"Lieutenant Colonel! This isn't working! The target keeps changing locations. He hasn't stopped once!"
A Countermeasures Team member watched the marker Huang Qingque kept updating on the system map and turned the steering wheel so frantically it was practically smoking.
Uninformed onlookers might have thought the authorities were holding an Armed Police Brigade street race in Magic City that night.
"Team Leader Liu, can we use special authorization to call the phones of every citizen in this area and wake everyone who's asleep? Then the suspect will have nowhere to go in the dreams!"
Huang Qingque made the suggestion to Liu Yaowen.
"No problem."
Liu Yaowen nodded, then instructed the technicians beside him to route the calls through Shenzhou's military satellites.
The main reasons were the faster signal transmission and the special ringtone used for calls from military satellites.
Had Chen Xiao seen what was happening inside the vehicle, he would definitely have quipped, "I know this plot."
There's a mole. Abort the deal, right?
Soon, everyone in a certain block of Magic City received a call from a number beginning with [111]. The ringtone was traditional Shenzhou military music, startling quite a few people into a cold sweat.
It also successfully woke those who had been sound asleep.
Rumble, rumble...
"Raaaagh-!!!"
The hooded man clawed wildly at the air, but could no longer tear open a passage to another dream.
He was now half human and half beast, yet showed no sign of reverting any further. Some ingredients in the enhancer appeared to have permanently altered his physiology.
"The dream space is collapsing? The person in reality must be waking up!"
Chen Xiao guessed what was happening and immediately directed Black Rock Shooter to deliver the final blow.
"Black Rock! Finish him!"
Black Rock Shooter: ... (raised her gun)
"No-raaagh...!!!"
Facing the muzzle, the hooded man erupted with a fierce desire to survive. He squeezed out his last remaining strength and tore one final opening in the collapsing dream!
It was actually a passage from the dream into reality!
But before the hooded man could jump through, a black chain appeared behind him and bound his right arm tight.
It was a chain Black Rock Shooter had casually tossed out.
"He can actually do that... oh, I almost forgot. This guy entered the dreams with his physical body, so I guess it makes sense that he can open a way out."
After saying that, Chen Xiao looked at Black Rock Shooter, unsure whether she, as a manifestation of the "soul," could appear in the real world.
Black Rock Shooter: ... (nodded)
"You can? Good! Then let's show this guy that even escaping into reality won't save him from death!"
Chen Xiao clenched his fists.
The next instant, the dream space could no longer hold together and collapsed completely!
At the same time, in reality.
"The suspect has stopped moving, Lieutenant Colonel!"
When Huang Qingque stopped updating the marker on the screen, everyone's faces lit up.
The Superpower Crime Task Force's tactical vehicle immediately headed to the destination with the Armed Police Brigade following, and they quickly surrounded the building at the marked location.
"Good! Everyone, block every entrance and exit in this building. Don't let anyone suspicious get away! And Officer Li, take some people and evacuate the civilians nearby. Move fast!"
"Understood!"
After assigning their tasks, task force leader Liu Yaowen and his fully equipped team approached the building's main entrance, while Armed Police Brigade soldiers advanced slowly ahead of them with shields raised.
But before they could enter the ground-floor lobby, they heard a piercing scream.
"Raaaaagh-!!!!"
Everyone: -!!!
"Has someone been attacked?"
The scream was so agonized that most of the task force members and armed police officers thought someone had fallen victim, and anger rose on their faces.
But as well-trained officers, they did not let it cloud their judgment. They followed orders and took up defensive positions where they stood.
"That sound just now... didn't sound human."
Although a flash of anger had crossed Liu Yaowen's face too, he soon noticed something wrong with the voice.
"Team Leader! The suspect's coming! He's charging down!"
Before Liu Yaowen could think further, Huang Qingque's expression suddenly changed, and she shouted a warning to everyone.
Charging down?!
Everyone froze for a moment at her words, then their expressions changed dramatically too.
Because something really was charging down!
It was a half-human, half-beast monster with black chains wrapped around his limbs, waist, belly, and inside his mouth!
The instant it saw the Armed Police Brigade, tears streamed down its face. Tugging at the chain in its mouth, it roared in a voice that was almost a sob...
"Please save me-!!!"
Liu Yaowen: ?
Huang Qingque: ?
Superpower Crime Task Force members: ?
Armed Police Brigade soldiers: ?
Before you continue