"Please spare me something, I'm starving to death..."
A beggar whose face had been disfigured by sulfuric acid squatted beside a trash can, dressed in rags.
His eyes were vacant and numb as he mechanically shook the battered iron basin in his hand over and over.
There were only a handful of coins in it.
The occasional passerby hurried past without so much as looking at him.
Clang-
A gold coin landed in the basin.
The beggar's eyes lit up.
He eagerly picked it up and bit it.
"Thank you, boss!"
"May you have this day every year and this moment every age, live forever, and never die!"
Pisces stood before the beggar in a black robe, smiling. "Begging in North City? You're quite a talent."
After the Law Enforcement Department's cleanup, North City, known as Jiang City's Little Gotham, was indeed much quieter.
But as Pisces had said, how desperate did you have to be to beg from a bunch of people from every walk of life?
The beggar patted his legs beneath the rag covering them and said helplessly, "I'd like to go somewhere else too."
"I can't move. My legs are crippled."
Pisces nodded. "You really are pitiful."
"Let me ask you something."
The beggar put on a fawning smile. His wrinkled features scrunched together like a piece of old, dried tree bark.
"Go ahead."
"I'm looking for the Hater Circus. I have something to discuss with them. Do you know where they are?"
The smile vanished from the beggar's face, and he waved a hand. "I really don't know."
"That's not my area of expertise."
"Then what are you good at?" Pisces asked.
The beggar said, "If you asked me whose widow was pretty, whose daughter was good-looking, or whether Old Wang was home at night, I could tell you everything, clear as day."
Pisces sighed. "That's a shame."
The beggar nodded. "It really is."
Watching Pisces turn and leave, the beggar weighed the gold coin in his hand and tucked it into his pocket.
Whoosh-
A brick suddenly came flying at him.
The beggar kicked off hard with both feet and rolled sideways like a donkey, dodging it.
"Fuck!"
"What uncivilized asshole is throwing trash around?!"
The beggar cursed.
The brick had come almost straight for his head.
If he hadn't dodged quickly, his skull would have been cracked open.
"I didn't realize I was a divine doctor."
"With just one brick, I cured a patient who'd been paralyzed for years."
Pisces leaned against a wall not far away, a faint smile on his face.
The beggar's eyebrows twitched violently.
When had this guy come back?
He hadn't noticed a thing.
"Thx a lot! You really do have the healing touch. My legs are cured!"
The beggar stood up jubilantly.
"I can walk, and I can run too."
"Big jump! Look at me, I'm doing a big jump!"
The beggar jumped farther and farther away, vanishing at the end of the street in the blink of an eye.
"Fuck, where did that monster come from?"
The other man's strength was unfathomable, and the beggar didn't dare confront him head-on.
He gave himself a thumbs-up for his cleverness.
Time to bolt.
The buildings in North City were all left over from the last century.
Dark, narrow alleys crisscrossed one another like a giant maze.
Even locals who had lived there for years could easily get lost in them.
The beggar took turn after turn before finally entering an abandoned warehouse.
Inside, three beggars whose faces had also been disfigured were playing Fight the Landlord.
"Why are you back so early today? It's not time for the shift change yet."
"I'll be the landlord!"
"How are you going to beat me in one turn with seventeen cards?"
The three were engrossed in their game.
"Don't even ask."
"I ran into some bastard cosplaying a Gold Saint. He asked me about the Circus."
"Good thing I reacted quickly, or we'd have been exposed."
The beggar who had just come in poured himself a cup of water and drained it.
The other three were intrigued. Rather than searching their memories, they eagerly wanted to hear him tell the story.
"A Gold Saint? Which constellation?"
"Can he use the Pegasus Ryusei Ken?"
"Was he wearing a Gold Cloth?"
All three clones were focused on the Saint.
The beggar sat down cross-legged. "He was only wearing a black robe, a budget Pisces Saint. But the gold mask on his face was pretty cool, classier than ours."
"Budget? Doesn't that make him just like us?" The three immediately lost interest.
The four of them were clones Qin Ze had left in North City.
They usually collected information by disguising themselves as beggars.
To avoid exposing the original, they had all disfigured their faces with concentrated sulfuric acid.
While the vast majority of the little haters kept a low profile, they still had to stay at their posts and keep an ear out for every rustle of wind and grass in the jianghu.
"Wait, how did he know you were a little hater?"
One of the clones remembered the important matter.
The beggar scratched his head. "I was wondering that too."
"I hid it so well. What normal person would think a street beggar was a member of the famous Circus?"
The four cobblers put their heads together for a brainstorming session, but still couldn't figure it out.
"Found you."
The half-closed warehouse door was pushed open from outside,
and Pisces appeared in the doorway.
The three clones froze.
A budget Gold Saint!
They all turned to look at the beggar.
"You led the imperial army here?"
"You freak, you didn't even know you were being followed."
"Grab something and get him!"
The three clones were hotheads too. They grabbed stools and charged.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
But before they could get close, the three of them exploded into clouds of bloody mist.
The beggar raised both hands.
"I'm just a harmless Frenchman."
"Where's your boss?"
Pisces was somewhat disappointed.
He had thought this was their headquarters, but it was only a small outpost for four people.
The beggar's anger flared.
"Who the hell knows where he's eating and drinking like a king!"
"He just got lucky and became an ability user."
"Why does he get to do nothing while I have to beg outside every day? It's not fair at all."
Pisces nodded. "It isn't fair."
"Tell me where your headquarters is, and I can give you a chance to join Fairness."
The beggar said, "I'm just a peripheral member. Dunno."
Pisces asked again, "Do you know where Wang Biao is right now?"
The beggar was utterly baffled. "I've only heard of Debiao. Are Wang Biao and he good brothers who hauled bananas together?"
Pisces sighed. "A pity. The Fairness Society will remember your sacrifice and contributions."
The beggar saw ripples spread through the space before him.
A mirror nearly two meters tall appeared.
The beggar's face was reflected in it.
Immediately afterward, cracks spread inch by inch across the mirror.
With a bang, the mirror shattered into countless fragments, which turned into specks of starlight and vanished.
The beggar's body cracked and vanished along with it, leaving no trace.
"This getup really brings back memories!"
Pisces's robe and mask both vanished.
He became the beggar.
His disfigured face and tattered clothes were identical.
Pisces picked up the battered iron basin that had fallen to the ground and walked out of the abandoned warehouse.
Five minutes later, a beggar appeared beside a trash can on a North City street.
He sat on the ground, continually shaking an iron basin containing only a few coins.
"Please spare me something, I'm starving to death..."