Chapter 44

Ye Jiang met her employer at the road leading out of the city. He had parked by the roadside and stood beside his car, a refined-looking man wearing glasses.

"My name is Ji Jia." The man extended a hand to Ye Jiang, introducing himself first.

Ye Jiang neither gave her name nor shook his hand. She did not understand this human custom. The man did not mind and withdrew his hand.

Ye Jiang studied his hands. Noticing her gaze, the man adjusted his glasses. "Sorry, I'm not an ability user."

"Oh," Ye Jiang said. She had only been checking casually, a reflex she had developed since becoming an ability user.

They wasted no time and got into the car. Ji Jia drove, and Ye Jiang sat in the passenger seat. As he drove, Ji Jia confirmed the mission details with her. It was simple: finding someone. Ji Jia would do the searching, while Ye Jiang would protect him. Of course, Ji Jia also showed her a photograph of the person he was looking for, a young woman who loved to smile. Ye Jiang did not ask about their relationship, and Ji Jia did not say.

Driving from City A to City S by highway would take a full day and night, including rest stops. With such a long journey ahead, Ye Jiang returned to her old occupation and took out her phone to watch dramas. Nearly two months had passed since she regained her memories, and her standards for films and dramas were much higher than when she first woke up. She picked several, but found them all shoddily made. She watched reluctantly, in a less-than-pleasant mood.

The farther they traveled from City A, the more desolate their surroundings became. Some places were completely barren, the ground covered in cracked, infertile wasteland. Elsewhere, vegetation grew excessively lush, jungles rising from the earth, so overflowing with life that they instead resembled green sores. These places were all fenced off with wire mesh, hung with blood-red restricted zone signs. Outside the city walls, restricted zones of all sizes were everywhere. After some Polluted died, the abilities they had unleashed lingered for a long time, making the areas unsuitable for human contact and creating one restricted zone after another.

Ye Jiang turned off the dull drama, rolled down the window, and looked outside. At a glance, she saw Polluted roaming the wilderness as though they were having a party-the Ability Control Bureau regularly organized personnel to clear Polluted from the wilderness, but because the entirety of City S had been designated a restricted zone, clearing operations between City A and City S were rare, leaving quite a few Polluted here.

Ye Jiang: "..."

Invisible Man had only said there were not many Polluted in City S. He had said nothing about how many there were on the way.

Fortunately, most of the Polluted were far away and had not approached the highway, and tall protective fences lined both sides of the road.

She had barely finished feeling relieved when an agile Polluted suddenly sprang out from the side and slammed into the protective fence with a smack. The Polluted, which resembled a long-tailed monkey, grabbed the fence and shook it violently. The moving car swerved in alarm, skidding out and nearly overturning. At the sight, a malicious smile curled the Polluted's lips, and it cackled shrilly.

That was only the appetizer. Giving the humans no chance to catch their breath, the malicious Polluted spread its limbs and leaped toward the car, which had only just come to a stop. The tip of its dangling tail gleamed coldly-it was actually a venomous bone blade. Fine sweat broke out on the driver's forehead, his heart pounding wildly as he floored the accelerator.

Danger!

Ji Jia knew how dangerous the journey to City S was. He should not have hired only an E-rank ability user as a guard, but there were few civilian ability users who could fight, and the powerful ones would not spare a glance for his entire paltry fortune. He had no room to pick and choose. He had already staked everything.

He had posted this mission on nothing but a hope of getting lucky. In the end, he had expected too much. Never mind finding someone in City S-how far had he even gotten?

A trace of sorrow flashed through his eyes. Was this where it ended for him?

"Miss Ye, the mission is suspended. You can..."

Leave me and run for your life.

That was what Ji Jia wanted to say. After all, the person in the passenger seat beside him was an ability user. She might not be able to deal with this obviously vicious, malicious Polluted, but perhaps she could escape.

He should not have dragged an innocent person into this for his own selfish interests. Willing to accept his paltry fortune despite the dangerous journey, this ability user was clearly an inexperienced, low-ranked newcomer.

In the instant the Polluted's bone blade cut through the air toward them, many thoughts flashed through Ji Jia's mind. His throat nearly closed up, and his voice cracked as he shouted, "Run!" Yet the next second, the Polluted's shriek rose and abruptly fell silent. At the same time, a foul-smelling gust blew into the car. Ji Jia turned his head blankly. A drop of the Polluted's bodily fluid landed on his sweaty forehead. In his unsteady vision, the slender, pale ability user beside him was wiping a bone blade.

A familiar bone blade.

The one from the Polluted's tail.

A few broken, unintelligible syllables escaped Ji Jia's throat. He was utterly bewildered.

What had just happened?

Nothing much. The instant the Polluted lunged at them, Ye Jiang had taken a liking to its tail blade, so she had graciously accepted it.

The man beside her looked shocked and bewildered. Ye Jiang paused briefly, stopped wiping the bone blade, and tilted her head slightly toward him. "Ye Jiang, E-rank ability user. My ability is-"

With an expressionless face, she uttered one word. "Luck."

Once again, she had encountered a low-level Polluted that could not withstand a single blow. She poked a little fun at herself.

"So, don't be afraid," she said.

Ji Jia: "...Ah."

Ye Jiang added, "If possible, employer, please focus on driving."

Ji Jia: "..."

He mechanically turned his head forward and began driving attentively.

After driving for a while, he could not resist stealing a glance at her. Her ability was... luck?

It was nothing of the sort.

But it made little difference.

After encountering several more low-level Polluted in succession, Ye Jiang became utterly convinced of her good luck.

Half a day later, Ye Jiang and her employer came across a car stopped on the highway. An elderly couple sat inside, while an ability user outside fought a green Polluted covered in vines. The ability user was already at the end of his rope and on the verge of giving out when Ye Jiang's car arrived.

But neither the ability user nor the elderly couple in the car believed anyone would lend strangers a hand in the middle of nowhere. This highway to City S was not peaceful. Outlaws sometimes lay in ambush by the roadside to rob passing vehicles. Well aware of this, none of the three called for help. The ability user simply kept his head down and attacked.

Ye Jiang's car stopped.

It had no choice. The vine Polluted was enormous, blocking the highway ahead like a millstone

in their path, its vines flailing wildly. It showed no special favor to the newly arrived Ye Jiang and her employer. Beneath its vines, all beings were equal.

Ye Jiang got out, dodged a lashing vine, and stepped forward to prune the Polluted with a few swishes of her newly acquired bone blade. Then she dragged the now-bare Polluted to the roadside.

Having dealt with the obstruction, she did not hurry back into the car. Instead, she took the opportunity to admire her pruning skills. The more she looked, the more she felt she had some talent for gardening.

While Ye Jiang admired her gardening masterpiece, her employer, Ji Jia, watched her from the car in complete silence, his expression numb. Was this the luck ability?

It seemed he did not really understand luck.

Was this not simply strength? What did it have to do with luck?

It seemed he was the lucky one.

He had actually hired such a powerful ability user for a mere 200,000.

Ji Jia adjusted his glasses, put away all his emotions, and called outside, "Miss Ye, time to get in."

Hearing him, Ye Jiang walked back, asking as she went, "What do you think of my aesthetic sense?"

"What?"

"My gardening aesthetic."

"...Very good."

With her aesthetic sense affirmed, Ye Jiang was thoroughly satisfied.

As employer and employee chatted casually, the wounded ability user beside the other car clutched his chest, stiff as a statue. This was a B+ vine Polluted. It had put even him, a B-rank ability user, through hell, yet in this brief span of time, it had become a ridiculous thing for humans to critique.

The ability user stared in shock at the woman holding the bone blade. She was so slender and pale, giving nothing away, yet she was actually an expert.

Complicated emotions flashed through the ability user's eyes. He looked at the expert, hesitating to speak. Seeing that she was about to get into the car and leave, he finally swallowed his embarrassment and spoke. "Um..."

Ye Jiang paused and looked over.

The ability user licked his lips. "Are you two going to City S?"

Ye Jiang did not deny it. The ability user struggled to get the words out. "Could you give my employers a ride?"

Hearing this, the two elderly people held each other's hands and stared at Ye Jiang. Their lips moved slightly. They wanted to stop the ability user from pleading with her, but some expectation kept them silent.

"I'm a Cat hired by these two elderly people to escort them to City S," the ability user said. "I overestimated my strength. I'm not capable enough to complete the mission. I'm willing to transfer all my payment to you, as long as you get them to City S."

Part-Time Cat had many bounty hunters with varying moral standards. Whatever else might be said of the Cat before her, he had professional integrity.

Ye Jiang looked at the two elderly people. They had been badly frightened, their thin bodies trembling slightly. They held a jar in their arms. Ye Jiang did not know what it was, and her gaze lingered on it for a few seconds. One of the elderly people hugged it tighter and said hoarsely, "Young lady, we're from City S. Three years ago, our whole family died in the storm. We were forced to leave with their ashes. When we left, we swore we would bring them back. My spouse and I are old. We don't have much time left. We just want to go home with our family..."

Ye Jiang paused, realizing what the jar contained, and stopped looking.

She turned back to Ji Jia in the driver's seat to see what her employer thought. Ji Jia nodded.

"Get in," Ye Jiang told the elderly couple.

She forgot to ask how much they were paying.

No big deal. If another ability user could accept that payment, so could I, Ye Jiang thought.

The elderly couple were overwhelmed with excitement. They had not expected her to actually agree, without making things difficult or taking advantage of their plight. She had simply let them get in.

The elderly couple shakily got out of their car and supported each other as they climbed into Ye Jiang's. Once inside, they looked at the ability user they had originally hired, now left standing outside alone, and their eyes reddened slightly. He was a very good young man. He had escorted them all this way and even found them a safe group in the end. But what about him? What would he do?