Mistaken for Weak, but Mistaken for a Powerhouse

Another boulder hurtled toward her, even larger than the last!

Xiao Pei shot out her black iron chains, but the boulder dragged her some distance by sheer force. After two exchanges, she had gauged her opponent's strength.

There was no time to hesitate. She shouted at the convoy, "Drive!"

Then she turned to Ye Jiang on the roof and entrusted her with a solemn expression. "Ye Jiang, I'm leaving the rest of the journey to you."

Ye Jiang: "..."

Huh?

Why was it suddenly up to her?

Some people inside the vehicles were already foaming at the mouth. The four drivers had the strongest constitutions and had barely held out through this wave. Hearing Captain Xiao's shout, they steeled themselves and floored the accelerator. Captain Xiao had clearly run into trouble. Staying here would only hold her back. The vehicles sped off, scattering the words already on the tip of Ye Jiang's tongue.

Ye Jiang: "..."

Forget it.

She was an ability user, after all. She should be able to hold out... right?

Sitting on the roof, Ye Jiang watched her boss's figure grow smaller and smaller. She was locked in combat with the black-scaled Polluted. Both moved exceptionally well, exchanging several blows in the blink of an eye. Judging by the fight, the Polluted had a slight advantage.

This was an A+ Polluted, a rare sight even across the entire span of three hundred years.

Even so, the foremost A-rank ability user showed not a trace of fear. Every strike was resolute.

Ye Jiang blinked slowly. An emotion she could not understand stirred in her heart, heavy, pressing against her stomach.

They rounded a corner, and her boss disappeared from Ye Jiang's view.

She could no longer see her boss. Ye Jiang thought that perhaps she could go without her wages this time.

A furry Polluted suddenly attacked. It opened its enormous mouth and spat out an incredibly long tongue. Ye Jiang was pondering the important matter of her wages, and this Polluted was so oblivious that it actually attacked her at a time like this. Thoroughly displeased, she momentarily forgot that she was merely a frail F-rank ability user. She raised her hand and grabbed the tongue covered in sharp teeth. It was very brittle, snapping off with a single tug.

Ye Jiang came back to her senses. She looked at the unidentified organ in her hand, fell silent for a few seconds, then tossed it back to the now-disabled Polluted.

She seemed to have gotten a little lucky.

It was a really trash-tier Polluted.

She encountered quite a few more Polluted after that. There really were a lot of them in the city. The "pilgrimage" phenomenon became even grander when its object was S-rank. Ye Jiang dealt with them all easily. Every Polluted she encountered was trash.

She might not be strong, but she seemed incredibly lucky.

Every single time.

Chapter 28: Mistaken for Weak, but Mistaken for a Powerhouse

Inside a small supermarket, an elderly man hid behind the shelves. He was very thin, nothing but bones beneath his clothes, but he was not short. Tall and thin, he tried to curl up as tightly as possible, reducing his presence in a cramped position. Parting the snacks to make a gap, he quietly watched outside... one, two, three. Three Polluted were prowling the street outside. They seemed to have caught the scent of a human and lingered for a long time.

The old man's body was taut. His eyes had stared outside without blinking for so long that they felt as dry as if someone had stuffed a handful of hay into them, stinging painfully.

Unable to find any humans, the Polluted left one after another.

Phew-

The old man let out a deep breath and relaxed his tense body. He was old and had held the same position for too long. The moment he relaxed, the bones throughout his body creaked in protest, and a line of reflexive tears spilled from his dry eyes.

He raised his thin, withered hand to wipe them away, then lowered it halfway, letting the tears flow.

He stared at the ceiling with dull, cloudy eyes, tears pooling in the furrows of his face.

They... should be far away by now, right?

He could not help thinking.

Half an hour earlier, the Ability Control Bureau had issued a citywide evacuation notice. The old man had hurried downstairs and encountered a group of people as panicked and at a loss as he was.

Evacuate?

Were they really going to leave the city where they had lived their entire lives?

Everyone was bewildered.

But the gathering Polluted had no intention of giving them time to consider. They steeled themselves. Evacuate!

Evacuating required transportation. Leaving the city on foot was simply a pipe dream. Only a small portion of those present owned cars. Those people gave up bringing their possessions to leave room for others, but it was still not enough, not enough. Too many people, too few cars.

The old man volunteered to stay behind.

Compared with the others, he did not have much time left to live, nor did he have any family, so he stayed.

Two other elderly people without families stayed with him, but half an hour later, he was the only one left.

An S-rank Polluted...

An S-rank Polluted was coming. City A would be destroyed.

Ha, why think so much? Before that happened, he would probably die at the hands of some other Polluted.

The tears on his face had dried. The old man shifted his cloudy eyes and leaned toward the gap to check the situation.

What a fright!

An entirely exposed eye without an eyelid filled the other side of the gap, staring at him without blinking. The inorganic eyeball was like an emotionless glass marble.

The old man froze.

...A Polluted.

One of the Polluted had come back.

Was he going to die?

Yes. He was going to die.

It was all right. He had already anticipated this when he chose to stay. He had no children and was all alone. If he died, he died.

He did not have many days left anyway.

The people with value had already left anyway.

Anyway...

He abruptly stood. Pollution enveloped him at close range, slowing his movements, but he still gritted his teeth and forced himself upright with all his might, stumbling out of the supermarket before the Polluted swept the shelves aside and attacked.

There was no "anyway." He had stayed because he wanted to give the young people a better chance of survival, but he did not want to sit and wait for death. That was why he had spent the past half hour fleeing. Even without transportation, he would rely on his own thin, withered legs to join the evacuation.

This life of his, which had survived until now under others' protection, had never been worthless. He, too, would fight to survive until the very last moment.

With all the willpower he could muster, he rushed out of the supermarket, his legs trembling and his heart aching.

Screech!

A vehicle braked sharply in front of him. A slender young woman sat atop it.

"Grandpa, are you all alone?"

A window rolled down, and two children in school uniforms poked their heads out.

This was a small evacuation convoy, but its members showed no fear or anxiety.

The Polluted's footsteps sounded behind him. The old man shouted sharply, "Go! It's dangerous!"

As his words fell, the Polluted charged out.

It was over.

Not only he, but this evacuation convoy would be caught up in it too.

The old man's heart turned to ashes. Yet the Polluted that charged out sensed more living people inside the vehicles and actually ignored him, pouncing straight at a vehicle instead. Sharp claws gleaming coldly like blades sprang out and stabbed viciously toward the people inside. The old man's eyes nearly split with anguish, an angry, broken cry squeezing from his throat. But... the girl on the roof moved. She reached out and lightly caught the stabbing claws, as easily as taking hold of a toy knife folded from paper. The Polluted, so easily disarmed, began to struggle. She kicked it away, sending it crashing into the ground hard enough to leave a crater, unable to get up for a long time.

The old man stood stunned.

Huh?

Ye Jiang: So lucky. Another piece of trash.

Everyone inside the vehicles: So strong! Another enemy beaten in one move!

The citizens in the convoy had gradually developed this relaxed, cheerful outlook precisely because they had seen this scene so many times.

When Captain Xiao left the convoy, everyone inside had been worried sick, both about her safety and about the fate of their weak little group without its protector. Yet the Polluted that pounced on them were dispatched one after another in a single move. Amid their shock, they finally understood. The reason Captain Xiao had felt comfortable leaving was that she had left them a powerful protector. The young girl on the roof looked pale and frail, but unexpectedly, she was actually a badass!

The person on the roof was so strong that they could not feel afraid even if they tried.

"Sir, you're heading out of City A, right? Get in and come with us!" Another young man leaned out a window and spoke to the stunned old man. "Get in the last car. There's room."

Originally, there had been no room, but they had encountered a lone car on the road. Its driver was also evacuating. Since no one had been around when he heard the broadcast, he had set out alone, terrified. He had hoped to encounter people from the Ability Control Bureau, but he had not. He had encountered them instead.

With the extra car, they had picked up two more people along the way. The old man was the third.

The young man said, "The girl protecting us is ridiculously strong. Come with us, sir!"

Ye Jiang, mistakenly believed to be ridiculously strong: "..."

The old man glanced at Ye Jiang on the roof, then at the Polluted smashed into the crater. She really was strong.

She wore ordinary clothes and did not seem to belong to the Ability Control Bureau, but she made no response to what the young man inside the car had said and seemed to have no objections. The corners of the old man's eyes grew slightly damp. He murmured his thanks and, not daring to delay, headed toward the last car. Someone opened the door for him in advance. Warmth filled his heart. At last, at last, he was no longer alone.

The convoy set off again. Not long afterward, they encountered a group of over a dozen vehicles. The scene was chaotic. The Ability Control Bureau member escorting the group had just finished fighting a B-rank Polluted and had fallen unconscious from their injuries. Several citizens had gotten out of the vehicles and were giving the member basic medical treatment. The others waited in their vehicles, their faces worried, not knowing what to do now that so many people, such a large target, had lost their protector.

When Ye Jiang's convoy approached, everyone looked over. Seeing someone sitting on the roof, they grew excited, but a closer look revealed that the person was not wearing a uniform, and their spirits sank again.

Just then-

"Did something happen?"

Someone from Ye Jiang's convoy called out.

Someone from the convoy ahead

stepped forward and briefly explained, inadvertently revealing some worry. After listening, someone from Ye Jiang's convoy called out, "Then come with us! See the person on our roof? A big shot! Super strong! Follow her and you'll be safe!"