Bullets poured at him as if they cost nothing.
Chen Mo walked forward through the hail of bullets, his entire body covered in a black carapace. Bullets struck his chest, shoulders, and the side of his face, throwing off showers of sparks.
He could hardly feel anything through the carapace.
At most, it felt like someone flicking him with a finger.
Chen Mo raised his head, spread his hands, and clenched them hard.
"Finally. I can at least take on Translucent now, right?"
The fat man with the gold chain was completely stunned.
Earlier, the guy had been sneaking around in the dark, which could have meant he was afraid of guns.
But now?
He was taking bullets head-on without even blinking.
So he hadn't been scared.
He'd been playing with them.
"His head!! Shoot him in the head!!"
The fat man with the gold chain screamed until his voice cracked.
One of his men immediately swung his gun around, aimed at Chen Mo's head, and pulled the trigger.
Bang, bang, bang!
Bullets struck the side of Chen Mo's face, sending up a few sparks.
Chen Mo tilted his head.
"I almost got to use the 'next time, remember to aim for my head' line."
The man's hand trembled.
"Monster!!!"
Chen Mo pushed off, cracking the concrete beneath his feet.
He shot into the crowd in an instant.
His black blade swept across.
Gun barrels, arms, and bulletproof vests were all severed at once.
Screams and wails rang out as the gangsters descended into chaos. They were fine when it came to bullying ordinary people, but expecting them to handle a scene like this was giving them far too much credit.
The thugs began fleeing the warehouse in droves. Anywhere was fine, as long as they didn't have to face that monster.
Chen Mo didn't stop.
His black blade swept through a vehicle, slicing the whole thing apart in one stroke.
The three men hiding behind it hadn't even reacted before all they could see was a black shadow.
Bang!
One was kicked into a pillar.
Crack!
Another was slammed into the front of a vehicle.
The last one trembled with his gun raised, pulling the trigger for ages before realizing the magazine was empty.
Chen Mo stood before him, watching his expression change from viciousness to despair, and couldn't help sighing.
"You can't beat me, but you won't run either. What an idiot. Look, your boss is almost out the door."
A punch came down.
The young man dropped and went straight to sleep.
The parking lot had descended into utter chaos.
The buyers who had been drooling over the refrigerated container moments ago were now running faster than anyone.
The headscarf-wearing group clutched their case of drugs and tried to rush for the exit.
The Eastern European man dragged his men toward the back door on the other side.
The fat man with the gold chain was even worse. He shoved the men beside him straight toward Chen Mo.
"Stop him!! Stop him!!"
One of the men looked back at his boss.
His eyes said, "Stop him, my ass."
Unfortunately, he hadn't been paid enough, and now he was about to lose his life.
Chen Mo reached back, grabbed a severed car door, and flung it like a Frisbee.
The door whistled through the air and slammed into the headscarf-wearing group with a bang, sending them flying.
Several people at the front died on the spot. Their leader tumbled, dropping the case of drugs and scattering blue glass vials across the floor.
Chen Mo's eyes lit up.
"Oh, wild Compound V."
The headscarf-wearing leader's eyes darted around. He grabbed a vial, pulled off the cap, and poured it down his throat.
"Kill him! As long as I get stronger too~~~"
Before he could finish, his neck suddenly swelled up.
It looked as though several snakes had been stuffed under his skin and were wriggling around.
One of his men recoiled in terror.
"Boss? Are you okay?"
The headscarf-wearing leader opened his mouth to speak, but a stream of blue foam sprayed out.
He convulsed twice and hit the floor with a bang, his body still swelling frantically.
Chen Mo's mouth twitched at the sight.
"Seriously, man, how could he possibly be okay?"
The swollen corpse exploded.
Several nearby men were knocked over and covered in blue-black slime. Terrified, they scrambled away on their hands and knees.
Amid the chaos, Marlow retreated to the SUV.
His face looked as if he'd just eaten a can of expired food.
"Shouhou!! Get out of there!!"
Beside the gray-skinned man's cage, Shouhou finally pulled free of the iron bars.
His left arm had been bitten bloody, and his face was covered in cold sweat.
Hearing Marlow's order, Shouhou's eyes hardened. He reached back and yanked the safety latch off the gray-skinned man's cage door.
Clang!
The cage door sprang open.
The gray-skinned man charged out like a raging bull and pounced on the nearest living person.
Shouhou used the moment to retreat, moving as fast as a shadow. He circled the chaotic crowd and headed straight for the SUV.
Chen Mo had just smacked two gunmen under a vehicle when he caught sight of that slender figure out of the corner of his eye.
"Oh, Brother Monkey, ready to clock out?"
Shouhou didn't even look back.
Speed-type enhanced humans understood one principle better than anyone.
If you can't win, run.
No matter how much Marlow paid, it wasn't worth risking his life against a monster like this.
Shouhou stepped on a car roof and leaped off it, racing along the wall toward the maintenance passage.
He was just about to slip inside.
A black claw suddenly shot out from the side and grabbed his ankle.
Shouhou's pupils contracted.
"Impossible!!!"
Chen Mo stood by the wall, his arm stretched halfway again as long, its black-red fascia pulled taut like rubber.
"Anything is possible."
His arm snapped back.
Shouhou flew backward and was slammed into the ground, landing at Chen Mo's feet.
Shouhou reacted quickly too. He flipped his short blade around and stabbed at a gap by Chen Mo's knee.
The tip struck the carapace and snapped with a crack.
Shouhou's expression shattered.
"What kind of ability do you have?"
Chen Mo looked down at him.
"Sorry, the updates are coming so fast I'm still reading the manual myself."
Fine black-red tendrils emerged from his palm.
Shouhou turned deathly pale and finally panicked.
"Wait! I know where Marlow's goods come from! I can tell you!"
Chen Mo didn't stop.
"After I kill you, I'll know anyway."
His palm came down.
The fine black-red tendrils instantly pierced Shouhou's body.
Shouhou struggled a couple of times, making a sound like a broken bellows in his throat.
Memories came flooding in.
At the edge of a forest.
Music thundered from a house, where a bunch of freaks were having a party.
Deep inside the house.
Marlow was embracing a familiar-looking guy.
Chen Mo's eyes flickered.
"Rubber Man from the show?"
Shouhou's body was quickly devoured completely.
Chen Mo felt his body grow a little lighter.
He tapped the ground lightly and shot several meters forward.
His speed had increased.
He wasn't as fast as A-Train.
But his explosive power, reactions, and ability to track movement had all reached a new level.
Chen Mo landed on a car roof and looked down at the sheet metal dented beneath his feet.
"Not bad. Eating you wasn't a waste, Brother Monkey."
When Marlow saw Shouhou disappear, the last of the color drained from his face.
This monster had gotten faster. He could devour abilities from other people.
The realization struck Marlow's mind like a hammer.
Marlow no longer cared about the deal. He turned and scrambled into the SUV.
"Drive!! Drive, now!!!"
The driver fumbled to start the car.
The engine had barely started.
Chen Mo leaped down from the car roof and swung his black blade.
The front half of the SUV was sliced clean off and sent flying.
The front end veered out of control and crashed into a concrete pillar. The airbag burst out with a bang, knocking the driver unconscious on the spot.
Marlow crawled out of the back seat, blood running down his forehead, still clutching a black briefcase.
Chen Mo walked over at a leisurely pace.
The gunfire around them had already become sporadic.
Those who could run had run.
Those who couldn't were lying on the ground.
The gray-skinned man and the acid woman had just finished fighting. Half the gray-skinned man's body was smoking, and he was crawling around on the ground.
The acid woman, meanwhile, was frantically spraying acid at the thugs around her who were still moving.
The telekinetic girl was still huddled in her cage, staring blankly at Chen Mo.
Marlow leaned against the wall, breathing rapidly.
"Hey, buddy, listen."
"I can give you more superhumans to devour."
"We can work together. It'll be a win for both of us."
Chen Mo stopped in front of him.
"Got anything more original?"
Marlow gritted his teeth and continued.
"Keep me alive, and I can give you more drugs. Without me there to receive the shipment, they'll start investigating this soon enough!"
Chen Mo crouched down and looked at the case in his hands.
"I don't believe you."
Marlow suddenly opened the case.
Inside were three vials of a darker blue drug. He grabbed one and moved to inject it into his neck.
But Chen Mo's hand was faster.
The black blade flashed, sending the syringe flying along with half of Marlow's hand.
"Don't waste the ingredients."
Fear finally appeared in Marlow's eyes.
"Aaaah, my hand! No, no, no, don't kill me! I can get you more!"
Chen Mo pressed his palm against Marlow's head.
"No need to tell me."
Black and crimson threads surged out.
"I'll see for myself."
Marlow's scream had barely left his throat before the wave of devouring force pushed it back down.
The memories were more jumbled than Shouhou's, and dirtier.
Chen Mo saw a cold, white laboratory.
He saw rows of babies lying on beds.
He saw a pile of Compound V being reformulated, diluted, modified, and packed for shipment.
He saw Marlow kneeling before Rubber Man and receiving the first batch.
He wore short sleeves and had his arms around another man.
"This shipment is yours, Marlow, my darling. Don't disappoint me."
The scene shifted.
An underground warehouse.
The boxes bore a label.
Samaritan's Embrace.
Marlow's body vanished completely.
"Oh! I remember now, Ezekiel."
Chen Mo stood where he was, lost in thought.
The power within his body rose once more.
The day he could kick Homelander over and punch Soldier Boy was just around the corner.
Chen Mo looked down, picked up the two remaining vials of deep-blue liquid from the box, and tucked them inside his clothes.
"Ezekiel had this kind of operation under him too?"
"Am I in the TV series? Or did I jump straight into the comics?"
As he pondered, a faint rattling of chains came from behind him.
Chen Mo turned around.
The girl in the cage pulled herself up by the iron bars, the mess strewn across the floor reflected in her vacant eyes.
Chen Mo walked over and reached out to tear the metal ring off her ankle.
The girl said nothing.
She just looked at him.
Chen Mo scratched his head.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm really not very good with kids."
In the distance, sirens finally sounded.
They were slow to arrive.
Just like in every TV show, they arrived at the scene only after everything was over.
Chen Mo clicked his tongue, swept the usable vials from the cooler into a bag, and then fished the car keys out of what remained of Marlow's clothes.
He turned back to look at the acid woman, the gray-skinned man, and the little girl.
"What should I do with you?"