Damn! He'd Met His Match!

The boy actually had two different-colored eyes!

His fair face still had a trace of childishness, but his orange-red and amber eyes were extraordinarily bewitching.

He really was born to be a nine-tailed demon fox.

Xin Lan pinched his cheek and grinned wickedly. "Little brat, do you know your name and where you came from? Tell your fairy big sister, and I'll take you home."

The Freedom Auction House had no information on the nine-tailed demon fox's human identity. According to its records, he had only just begun mutating when they caught him, but he was already capable of bewitching people. The auction house's people had therefore injected him with a large dose of anesthetic, leaving them unable to get any information out of him.

That approach would have been reasonable anywhere, though. After all, no one could have imagined that a human who had begun mutating could still turn back into a human.

The boy blinked. His eyes were clear, but he was still instinctively playing dumb.

"Really? But, fairy big sister, I don't remember where I came from anymore. I only remember that my name seems to be Chao Bai. I can't remember anything else."

"Is that so?"

He was so young and already such a liar. Smiling, Xin Lan released her mental power and drove it into his Mental Landscape again.

This time, though, she wasn't purifying it. She was attacking it with brute force.

"Ah-"

Chao Bai clutched his head and collapsed to the floor again, screaming in pain as his body curled up like a shrimp.

Yu Yuan was utterly shocked by what she had done.

In an instant, countless stars sparkled in his eyes as he looked at Xin Lan.

Heavens!

Xin Xin could actually use her mental power to attack a sentinel!

What kind of heaven-defying ability was that? She was far too powerful!

He was truly blessed across three lifetimes to be one of her people!

Ignoring Yu Yuan's eager, worshipful gaze, Xin Lan withdrew her mental power soon after giving Chao Bai a small punishment.

Still smiling, she said, "Little brat, are you sure you really don't remember anything? Should I help you remember some more?"

"N-no need, big sister. I remember now. I remember everything..."

Still curled up on the floor, Chao Bai continued to gasp for breath. The pain that had struck his very soul seemed to linger deep in his brain, but his mismatched eyes had inexplicably lit up with excitement, shining astonishingly bright.

"Big sister, my name really is Chao Bai."

It took him quite a while to recover enough to sit up again, and he spoke slowly.

"Big sister, I may look young, but I'm actually an adult. I'm also an SSS-rank sentinel. I used to live in the East Tower in District K2, and an S-rank guide even took a fancy to me and wanted to make me her exclusive sentinel!"

At that, his expression darkened, and his voice gradually grew faint.

"I just had bad luck. Right after I was admitted to the guard team, that guide had an accident and was captured by the Free Alliance. She was rescued soon afterward, but the administrator still unbound all of us because our guard team hadn't protected her properly. Later, high-grade Guide Pheromones gradually stopped working, and I couldn't suppress my rampage level, so..."

There was no need for him to continue. Xin Lan had already put everything together.

Though the boy looked young, he was extremely cunning.

She didn't believe for a second that he would honestly tell the truth after being tormented once.

There were definitely lies in what he had said. For all she knew, it might all have been fabricated.

But she didn't have the patience to look into it now. Rather than spend time figuring out his identity before deciding whether to use him, she might as well use him straight away.

If a problem arose, she could simply kill him and be done with it.

"...Big sister, you saved me, didn't you? I remember you were the one who purified my Mental Landscape. Your mental power must be really high-level, if you could actually save us after we'd completely mutated."

Chao Bai glanced at Yu Yuan, who was dressed in the same outfit as him, and had already made a rough guess at what had happened.

Xin Lan ignored him completely and called Mo Yilai by video right in front of them.

Sure enough, he answered immediately.

"A-Lan~ You finally remembered me! Boo-hoo, I've missed you so much I'm going crazy."

As soon as Mo Yilai received the call, he quickly fixed his hair and pulled his collar into a V-neck.

But when he looked up, he saw Xin Lan standing in a terribly dilapidated house, with two somewhat familiar-looking sentinels behind her.

"A-Lan, who are those people with you?"

He narrowed his eyes for a closer look, then his gray-blue eyes suddenly widened.

"A-Lan, if I'm not mistaken, aren't they the former commander of the East Tower in District K1 and the SSS-rank sentinel from District K2 whose Spirit Body was a nine-tailed demon fox? But weren't they..."

Xin Lan knew he was shocked, but he would have to get used to this sort of thing sooner or later.

"That's right, it's just what you're thinking. They're my people now. If you're free, bring them two pairs of large-size underwear, and find them somewhere to stay while you're at it. It's not convenient for me to take them back."

"All right, I'll be right there."

Mo Yilai ended the call, and the smile vanished from his face in an instant.

He didn't know how to describe what he was feeling.

Perhaps this was what they meant by searching everywhere in vain, only to find something without any effort?

The Free Alliance had spent so many years plotting and scheming, trying every possible way to capture those guides for experiments. Wasn't it all to solve the problems of the guide shortage and the fact that mutants couldn't regain their sanity?

Xin Lan had appeared and solved the biggest problem outright.

So why couldn't he feel happy about it at all?

A top-tier guide suspected of being SSS+, who could purify a sentinel's Mental Landscape without letting the sentinel go into a rampage at any point, and who could now even turn mutants back into humans...

A-Lan, how many more surprises are you hiding from me?

Mo Yilai rushed to the dilapidated house where Xin Lan was as fast as he could.

The moment he saw Yu Yuan and Chao Bai with his own eyes, he couldn't even spare a thought for jealousy. As soon as he entered the house, he spoke to her earnestly.

"A-Lan, I know you may have your own ideas, but I have to warn you: never let anyone know you can turn mutants back into humans. Once word gets out, you'll be in terrible danger!"

It would be so dangerous that even the combined strength of the entire Free Alliance and the whole Federation couldn't keep her safe.

This was a critical period in the interstellar struggle for resources. The sudden appearance of a guide with special abilities like hers would surely make countless powerful planets fight over her.

Then it wouldn't be as simple as a struggle for resources. Countless planets would join forces to attack their Planet M19...

"I know."

Compared with his excessive anxiety, Xin Lan was utterly calm.

She was even in the mood to admire the large underpants he had brought.

"Oh, leopard print? How sexy."

The three solemn men: ...

Mo Yilai liked how calmly she handled things, but at the same time, her indifference to everything frightened him.

His shoulders slumped, and he called her name pleadingly. "A-Lan..."

"Don't worry. As long as I don't want to go, no one can take me away."

Xin Lan looked up at him. Seeing the long-suffering expression on his face, she couldn't help laughing. She grabbed his collar, pulled him over and kissed him. "Good boy~"

The kiss came so suddenly that Mo Yilai instantly forgot everything in his delight, losing himself in the memory of it.

Yu Yuan and Chao Bai, however, frowned at the same time, both feeling extremely displeased.

Just who was this pink-haired guy? Xin Lan had contacted him first when something came up, and they were so intimate. Could he be a guard sentinel who was about to become her official one?

As the two of them wondered, Xin Lan suddenly handed the underwear over.

"Here. They're large. Want to try them on?"

Yu Yuan accepted his pair with a complicated expression. "Do I have to wear them? I think going commando would be fine too."

Chao Bai also looked a little conflicted, but his face showed more curiosity and an eagerness to try something outlandish.

"Come to think of it, I've never worn this kind before. How about I try mine on first?"

Xin Lan gave him an encouraging look, and Chao Bai immediately began putting them on right there.

Mo Yilai instinctively raised a hand to cover Xin Lan's eyes, but when he saw that she wasn't embarrassed and was instead staring at Chao Bai in considerable surprise, he suddenly regretted it.

If I'd known, I would've brought two normal pairs. A-Lan might not even have bothered looking at those...

"Huh, they actually look pretty good! Guide big sister, what do you think?"

Chao Bai truly lived up to his reputation as a demon fox. He was born to be alluring.

Even in the bizarre leopard print, he still made it hard to look away.

Xin Lan nodded seriously. "They do look good. Keep them on."

Yu Yuan's expression grew even more complicated.

So, at a time like this, should he put his on or not?

Mo Yilai's vision also went dark.

Damn! I've met my match, and he's a naturally gifted player who's even sexier than me!