Want the sword? Fine, it's mine.

Ye Jiang unwrapped a candy and popped it into her mouth, making one cheek bulge. Sweet.

The nurse had taught her a few things about getting along with people back at the hospital. She would count this as repaying her.

Oh, "repaying" was something the nurse had taught her too. She was working hard to adjust.

Ye Jiang grew dazed for a moment, feeling as though this was not the first time someone had taught her these strange restrictions.

Having settled things with the nurse, Ye Jiang turned to the elderly couple and asked about their plans. She had already received their transfer. It was not much, but it was extra money earned along the way anyway, so that was fine.

The elderly couple said they wanted to go home. The place they mentioned was quite far away. Ye Jiang did not immediately offer to take them there. Her mission was only to bring them to City S, and she had another mission afterward, so...

"I'll take you there," said the ability user the elderly couple had originally hired. This ability user, named Liu He, had a cold face and looked a little unapproachable, but he clearly had a soft heart, as was evident from how cheaply he had accepted their mission.

Liu He said, "I'll look for some usable medicine for my injuries along the way."

-That made it evident too.

In a city this big, he could look for medicine anywhere. Why insist on taking the long way to the elderly couple's home?

Liu He had been badly injured earlier, but thanks to a B-rank ability user's formidable constitution, he had recovered somewhat over the course of the journey. If there were not many Polluted in the city, he could handle them as a B-rank ability user. Once both sides had agreed, the elderly couple thanked Ye Jiang again. At last, their hearts settled, and even their deeply stooped backs straightened a little. Clutching the bottle like a treasure, they said goodbye to Ye Jiang's group and were about to get back into the ability user's car. Just as they opened the door, a dark blur flashed before them, and the bottle vanished from their hands.

"Ah!!"

The elderly couple cried out miserably. Ye Jiang, who had already returned to the passenger seat, looked over at the sound and saw the ability user chasing off in one direction. The elderly couple looked ashen, and the thing that had such a strong presence was gone from their hands. The ability user stopped after chasing for a while and returned with a frown. "A speed-type ability user. I don't know where they went."

He walked toward the elderly couple, unable to bear it. "We might not be able to find your bottle..."

Before he could finish, a gust of wind swept past him. He barely caught a glimpse of an afterimage before losing track of it entirely. Seeking confirmation, he looked toward where the expert had been. Sure enough, she was no longer in the passenger seat.

Was the expert a speed-type ability user too?

The "speed-type ability user," Ye Jiang, pushed off and leaped into a ruined building. When she entered, the thief who had stolen the bottle of ashes had just opened it and discovered that there was no treasure inside. Finding it utterly unlucky, he raised his hand to smash it. Ye Jiang tapped the wall with her bone blade. The Little Thief instinctively stopped and looked over, his eyes widening at once. "How did you get here?!"

Ye Jiang remained expressionless. "Who taught you to snatch things from old people?"

The Little Thief's face twitched. Whoever wanted this thing could have it!

He tossed the bottle of ashes toward Ye Jiang. "Fine! Take it back! Take it back!"

Ye Jiang caught it. The Little Thief was about to leave and move on to his next job when Ye Jiang tapped the wall again. He ignored her and activated his ability to run, only to brake abruptly a second later. Ye Jiang, who had been some distance away, now stood right in front of him with an expressionless face. He had nearly crashed into her. Horrified, he looked back at where Ye Jiang had just been standing. She was gone. She had run ahead of him.

A speed-type ability user!

And she was faster than he was!

Cold sweat instantly broke out over the Little Thief. He hurriedly tried to flee to the side, only to get a thump on the head from the bone blade, sending stars bursting across his vision.

Ye Jiang leisurely withdrew her bone blade and poked the Little Thief's back with its unsharpened side. He had lost all thought of escape, and she poked him as though prodding a slab of pork.

Ye Jiang held the bottle out in front of the Little Thief. Still dizzy, and now realizing that the person facing him was a stronger speed-type ability user, he admitted defeat and weakly lowered his head. "Wh-what?"

Ye Jiang said, "Return it. Apologize."

The Little Thief: "..."

Return it?

And

apologize too?

Wasn't that far too humiliating for a thief?!

The Little Thief had relied on his speed-type ability to break into people's homes. Though he was not particularly powerful, he had always come and gone like the wind, living carefree. This was the first time he had felt so stifled.

"I'm not going," he muttered.

Ye Jiang switched to poking him with the sharpened end, its edge gleaming coldly. The Little Thief's heart lurched, and he hurriedly spoke up. "Boss, it's not that I'm unwilling! There's something else going on! Look outside!"

Ye Jiang was not afraid of him running away. She cast a quiet glance outside and saw a chaotic scene. A few rats had emerged from somewhere and set their sights on the food in their vehicles, rummaging through everything. Liu He was fighting them. Ye Jiang watched for only a moment before he dealt with those pathetic specimens, who could do nothing but rub out a few sparks or spray a little drizzle. Liu He had not even used his ability.

Unaware of the situation outside, the Little Thief loudly explained, "See? The Hyenas have their eyes on you! This organization is terrifying. Arson, murder, plunder—there's no evil they won't commit. If I go over there now, I'll become their next meal!"

Ye Jiang was speechless.

The Little Thief saw her expression and sensed something was wrong. He cautiously edged over and looked out. The terrifying doggies who committed every evil lay scattered on the ground, clutching their heads and begging for mercy. Beads of sweat slowly rolled down the Little Thief's forehead.

Ye Jiang stared straight at him. The Little Thief cried, "It's the Hyenas' leader who's fierce! He has two animal forms. One is a hyena form for attacking, with sharp claws and fangs and agile movements. He can bite through steel! And that's not all. His chameleon form lets him vanish into his surroundings, appearing and disappearing without a trace. You can't guard against him!"

The Little Thief wailed, "He must be hiding nearby, waiting for a chance to attack. It's not that I don't want to apologize. I don't dare go over there!"

"You mean that?"

"What?"

Ye Jiang raised her head slightly and looked toward the ceiling diagonally opposite them. Bewildered, the Little Thief followed her gaze. A second later, he saw a drab gray creature concealed against the ceiling. Without a close look, it practically blended right in!

"Ah!" The Little Thief shuddered, his legs trembling.

Ye Jiang said nothing. She had spotted this thing long ago and had simply assumed City S had an unusual ecosystem where animals grew particularly large.

The chameleon's body suddenly changed. Its frame lengthened, its limbs extended and grew thick and powerful, and coarse, stiff fur emerged. In the blink of an eye, the chameleon became an enormous hyena! The hyena lowered his forelegs and lunged down at her. Ye Jiang raised her hand and hurled the bone blade. Utterly unafraid, the hyena opened his huge jaws and caught the bone blade in his mouth, contempt flashing in his eyes.

Crack-

An ominous sound came from the hyena's mouth.

The hyena was ferocious, his bite strong enough to snap steel. My weapon's probably done for, Ye Jiang thought, raising her fist to fight bare-handed. But before she could throw a punch, the hyena stalled in midair. Something hard came tumbling out of his mouth, and then he fell from the air, landing awkwardly and barely managing a defensive stance.

Huh?

Ye Jiang looked over doubtfully. All his imposing air gone, the hyena struggled to keep his mouth closed.

Her gaze shifted to the ground, where she saw several broken teeth, along with... her completely intact bone blade.

For an instant, even the air fell silent.

With her fist raised, Ye Jiang could neither attack nor hold back. Finally, she turned to look at the Little Thief beside her. His mouth hung wide open, and his eyes bulged like a dead fish's. He was utterly stunned.

Ye Jiang: "..."

Not a single thing the Little Thief said held up. It was all exaggerated advertising.

Meanwhile, seeing that Ye Jiang was no longer looking at him, the hyena tucked his tail and ran.

I let my guard down!

This woman looks so frail, but on closer inspection, that bone blade she's holding is actually the tail blade of a B+ rank long-tailed monkey. As a B-rank ability user, I misjudged her and kicked an iron plate today!

Ye Jiang did not chase the little dog. She kept her eyes fixed on the Little Thief. "Anything else you want to say?"

The Little Thief had nothing to say and feared getting sliced if he said too much. What kind of team was this? Dealing with the city's Hyenas organization was like dealing with a litter of toothless puppies...

Hunching his shoulders and drawing in his chest, the Little Thief said meekly, "...I'll apologize sincerely."

Hearing that, Ye Jiang stopped bothering with him and went to pick up her weapon. The Little Thief followed behind her, without even the courage to flee.

Ye Jiang led the Little Thief back. He obediently returned the stolen item to the elderly couple and stammered out an apology. They did not care whether he apologized or not. They hugged the bottle they had lost and regained, tears streaming down their faces. Once he finished apologizing, the Little Thief looked at Ye Jiang. She was not looking at him, but at the Hyenas members on the ground.

Liu He walked up beside her and said with a frown, "Something's wrong with this city."

Ye Jiang: "?"

Liu He said nothing. He turned and walked toward the abandoned security checkpoint, only to slam into an invisible barrier. He was bounced back. He tried another spot but still could not get through. He attacked with his ability, and nothing happened.

Ye Jiang's gaze shifted slightly. She walked over and struck the space ahead with her bone blade. Thud, thud. It seemed as though the blade had hit something, yet also as though it had hit nothing. An invisible barrier blocked their departure.

With a grim expression, Liu He said, "You can enter this city, but you can't leave."

That was what the Hyenas members had told him.

An upheaval had turned the city into a cage, a sealed place where chaos ran rampant.

Chapter 39: Want the sword? Fine, it's mine.

City S had become a cage that allowed entry but no exit. Liu He's expression was extremely ugly. To seal off an entire city invisibly, there had to be an unimaginable power supporting it. And the rule allowing entry but no exit meant that this power was filled with malice. He, they, and everyone else like them had probably fallen into a trap.

Come to think of it, everyone had been saying City S would soon reopen. How had that topic started spreading?

City S had been sealed for three years and remained quiet for three years, only to suddenly become a hot topic. Thinking about it this way, perhaps it was not a ripple effect caused by City A's S-rank Polluted, but something pushing things along behind the scenes.

The purpose?

What was the purpose?

Returning to City S, the greatest danger here was that it had once produced the S-rank Polluted "Stormbringer." Could Stormbringer still be alive?