Chapter 5: Mission complete (not really)

“Hey, Sui, if you’ve got any tricks left, you’d better use them now, or we’re going to die together here.”

“I don’t want to.”

I was thoroughly annoyed at how he’d taken it upon himself to tie my fate to his.

As soon as I finished speaking, my body suddenly felt light—and I was dropped.

“Owwwwww… That hurts…!”

Why did he suddenly throw me down?

He didn’t even give me a warning.

“Hey, I’ll give you double the bounty, how about it?”

Lu Xiu ignored me, turning to the Black-Clad Man ahead and attempting to use money to defuse the crisis.

But it was clearly pointless; the Black-Clad Man remained unmoved, continuing to approach slowly.

“Alright, I’m out of ideas.” Lu Xiu gave up and simply raised his hands in surrender, dropping to his knees so fast it left me speechless.

“Why are you so spineless?”

“Nonsense! Dignity is for people who have power. I didn’t bring any self-defense tools, plus I’ve got a useless teammate—dignity? I’ll count myself lucky if I don’t end up with broken bones.”

Coward.

But still…

If what he said is true, if he dies, I’ll have to get buried with him.

That’s not worth it at all.

“Hey, I want you to remove the restrainer.”

Seeing the Black-Clad Man getting closer, I quickly scrambled up, back to back with him—or rather, back to head—and said.

“One at most.”

“Three.” I haggled.

“Then let’s just die together.”

The villains were professional enough to give us time to talk, then pulled out their guns and aimed at Lu Xiu and me.

This time there was no hesitation—they opened fire at once.

Bang bang bang!

The bullets, wrapped in heat, exploded with a blast of air.

“Click—”

A nearly inaudible sound was drowned out by the storm of gunfire.

The next second, a massive tongue-shield curled up, blocking all the bullets, making a sharp pattering noise.

I stretched my hand forward, my abdomen splitting open to the limit, with fangs jutting out from the gaping maw, steaming hot, the savage beast markings on my body glowing ever brighter, flowing like magma.

“Hehehe…”

I felt like I could devour the entire city right now.

After blocking the first wave of attacks, I didn’t just stand there. The huge tongue-shield morphed into an elongated arm, sweeping toward the attackers around us.

Boom!

Dust instantly filled the alley, the tremor even causing the nearby buildings to collapse.

Lu Xiu coughed and waved a hand in front of his nose.

“Are you tearing the place down or protecting us? What exactly are you guarding?!”

“Shut up. If you don’t watch it, I’ll smack you dead with my tongue. You only survived thanks to me—if you can’t even praise me, at least don’t mock me.”

Bang!

Suddenly, a flash of fire burst from the smoke. A bullet shot through the haze, aiming right at my brow, but just a meter from my face, my tongue curled around it with perfect precision, stopping it cold.

“Why aren’t you dead yet…? How are you still alive?”

Frowning, I flexed my tongue and crushed the bullet. Only tiny iron fragments fell to the ground, raising a barely noticeable puff of dust.

“Not a Bounty Hunter—probably someone from the Evil Faction, or a Demon Contractor.”

Lu Xiu warned.

Maybe in response to him, what walked out of the smoke was no longer the Black-Clad Man, but a sphere—no, not exactly a sphere, but his whole body had transformed into a ball, especially the torso, so overall he looked just like a Sphere Man.

Two of them, front and back, coming to surround us.

“How ugly.”

“Why don’t you look at yourself?”

Why does this guy always have to undercut me?

“Can I eat them?”

…Leave one.

Hearing that unexpected answer, I instantly grinned, baring my teeth in a wide smile.

“Hehe, then I won’t be polite.”

Crack!

The round, rolling humanoid moved.

He grabbed his own head, twisted it off, and hurled it at us like a howling bowling ball, flying on the wind.

With a loud crash, it collided with my flickering long tongue, bouncing away into the ruins, while my tongue pressed on, stabbing straight at the Sphere Man, punching through his entire body.

But before I could celebrate, the pierced body suddenly exploded, like a fragmentation grenade, launching the other spheres from his body, spinning in the air as if waiting for a chance to attack again.

Swept away.

On the other side, Lu Xiu had drawn a black pistol, engraved all over with silver-white patterns, lending it a kind of artistic beauty.

As the second Sphere Man moved, a bullet had already embedded itself in him. The next second, flames erupted, and a scorched body fell—

But almost immediately, the Sphere Man reformed, as good as new.

“Tch… Still useless.”

He tossed aside the pistol and pulled a longsword from his pocket.

Yes, from that tiny pocket, he pulled out a blade nearly a meter long. The blade had no edge, but shone with a strange, glassy gleam, and right at the center of the sword’s spine, a Snake Tooth was embedded.

He lunged forward to face the charging Sphere Man.

His attacks weren’t fierce; in fact, most of the time he only parried, launching the occasional attack—but every strike precisely sliced off a limb, and, more strangely, the severed parts would slowly turn to stone, eventually merging with the fallen rocks on the ground.

I wasn’t so lucky.

The Sphere Man’s exploded body was surprisingly agile, darting about like flies. Even if I hit one, another would come at me the very next second.

It was frustrating as hell—if I’d known, I would’ve just swallowed him whole.

Glancing at Lu Xiu, fighting with ease, only made me feel worse.

“I’m done, I’m done, let’s swap!”

I shouted up at the scattered spheres in the sky, and also to Lu Xiu.

“Huh? What’s with your logic—can’t win so you quit?”

“None of your business! I’m not fighting this thing!”

“Tch, why are you so troublesome!”

“I’m not troublesome!”

With a flick of my tongue, I swatted one Sphere away, then punched another sneaky one. Seeing even more balls swarming toward me, I turned around without hesitation.

Almost as if we shared the same mind, Lu Xiu suddenly stepped back, his downward slash turning into an upward cut, and the tongue I’d been gathering in my belly shot straight at the Sphere Man whose limbs he’d just severed and left frozen in place.

We passed each other, and I even caught a faint scent of grass coming from him.

Shiiing—

Boom!

Two utterly different sounds rang out together.

The sword, imbued with the Stone Curse, slashed a wandering Sphere in two, while my massive tongue blasted the Sphere Man, curling and crushing him, my jaws gaping wide, grinding him into pieces before swallowing him whole. I even let out a satisfied burp.

There.

The tide of battle turned in an instant.

Lu Xiu’s blade was deadly for these scattered spheres—touch it, and you’d be petrified, sinking to the ground, never to move again.

As for me, I rubbed my little belly and licked my lips—the aftertaste of a good meal put me in a much better mood.

When I turned around, he was already stepping on the Sphere Man’s not-yet-petrified head, ending the fight.

This guy isn’t as useless as he looks.

Then I saw him bend over, pull out the familiar restrainer from his pocket, dismantle the casing, and stick a needle into the spherical head. The struggling head gradually calmed, no longer moving.

“Whoof… That was exhausting.”

He kicked away the head and put the longsword back into his pocket.

“Hey, this is Lu Xiu from the Operations Division, at the West Street Abandoned Building. I’ll send you the address. There’s an illegal Demon Contractor here…”

Lu Xiu leaned against the wall, reporting into his phone.

“Yes, and my partner… Mm, got it.”

He hung up, finally relaxing and letting out a long breath.

“Level confirmed: Monster-class. Baota has been notified.”

“Estimating damages…”

I sat on the lawn, watching the busy figures not far away, all wearing beaked masks, weaving back and forth.

“That’s the Aftermath Processing Division, full name Strategic Bureau of National Anomalous Affairs, Border City Branch, Aftermath Processing Division.”

“Gibberish, I don’t get it.”

I looked away, lay back on the grass, and my tongue curled up a few blades of grass from my stomach and shoved them inside.

“It’s fine if you don’t get it. After all, they’re just a bunch of nameless people.”

He muttered, then copied me, lying down as well.

There were many stars in the sky, twinkling all around the moon.

“Not bad today… Even though you destroyed a huge swath of buildings, fell into a simple trap, and kept disobeying orders…”

“…Are you praising me?”

“No, criticizing you,” he replied honestly.

I couldn’t be bothered to respond. I stretched out my hand, pulled out that bright red, saliva-soaked fruit from my big mouth, and held it up, the dark red fruit blocking the moonlight and casting a ring of shadow.

I took a gentle bite.

Mm, still the familiar taste.

“By the way, where’s that silver coin?”

“You didn’t eat it, did you?”