Chapter 232: Balancing Both Ends 13
Kui Xin was discovered two minutes after she stood at the street corner. Before she was discovered, she had been in a state of Shadow Transition, her body completely indistinguishable black mist, not a normal physical form, yet Augus still found her.
He must have an Investigative Eye-type Extraordinary Ability, which is actively activated; if it were a passive ability that didn’t require activation, Augus wouldn’t have taken two minutes to uncover Kui Xin’s existence.
The entire row of Extraordinary Abilities visible to the Investigative Eye confirmed Kui Xin’s speculation.
Even though Kui Xin had experienced many storms, Augus’s abilities still amazed her. The abilities intertwined in front of her, the characters flashing before her eyes, left her feeling dizzy.
“Air Bounce… no ability description, A Rank.” Kui Xin quickly assessed one by one.
“Mental Command, no ability description, also A Rank.”
“Tissue Regeneration… A Rank.”
“Strong Enemy Marking, B Rank, the ability indicates the enemy’s position within the visual field; the greater the threat level, the more conspicuous the marking.”
“Blood Spike Thorn, B Rank, after injuring an opponent, leaves an invisible mark at the location of the wound, allowing perception of the mark’s position within a certain range.”
“Shadow Realm, B Rank, communicates with shadow space, can place the body in an independent shadow space to block external investigation and be immune to external attacks to a certain degree.”
“Trajectory Locking, C Rank, bullets shot can automatically track the target within a certain range; if they miss, the lock will fail against that target.”
“Telekinesis, D Rank, effect is to control objects from a distance.”
“…”
At a glance, Kui Xin couldn’t help but blink rapidly.
Augus had a plethora of high and low-ranked abilities; the number of abilities he possessed far exceeded the counts reported on the forum. Augus’s methods of acquiring powers definitely went beyond just killing players; he might have also taken action against some official organizations, like the TQC and Investigation Bureau.
If he only had A Rank abilities, Kui Xin could simply use Reset to nullify all of them. If he possessed S Rank abilities, then Kui Xin wouldn’t be able to see the name of that ability at all.
Augus clearly wouldn’t allow Kui Xin to keep silent; he said with curiosity in his tone, “Do you know? You might be the strongest player I’ve encountered so far; you’re different from the others in my view.”
Augus glanced at Yu Hansue and then back at Kui Xin: “Remover 9908 is just a halogen bulb that can illuminate the darkness in my visual field. You’re different from her, different from all players… you shine like a sun in the night.”
Kui Xin remained motionless and quiet. Augus patiently waited for her response, but Kui Xin didn’t speak.
“Aren’t you going to do a self-introduction? Is this meeting too hasty?” Augus asked.
After a long silence, Kui Xin said in accented English, “You speak… ese?”
Augus smiled, “…”
Yu Hansue looked alarmed, “…”
This couldn’t be blamed on Kui Xin; her vocabulary allowed her to understand written English perfectly, as long as it didn’t involve specialized terms. Speaking in English, however, resulted in her using standard Chinese-style English; she hadn’t practiced spoken English for the college entrance examination, and her listening comprehension was quite average, especially since the English used by her teacher in class was significantly different from everyday spoken English.
Most importantly, Augus also spoke with an accent, not in the formal American or British style, but rather with a… rustic feel. She only understood a few key words.
In the Second World, there were handheld translators that could translate any language, allowing her to communicate with anyone without barriers. Yet, upon returning to the First World, she faced the challenge of a language barrier.
“Hello, can you tell me what this guy is saying?” Kui Xin politely looked at Yu Hansue, “You can understand him?”
“My inherent talent is linguistic comprehension; this guy’s accent is indeed strange. Have you seen ‘The Godfather’? The Godfather’s accent is like that; he might not be a native of their country but rather an immigrant…” Yu Hansue’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch.
Kui Xin persistently asked, “What exactly did he just say?”
“He said you’re different from others, and in his view, I’m a halogen bulb in the night, and you’re the sun in the night.” Yu Hansue briefly translated, “I guess he means you’re very strong.”
Augus listened to their back-and-forth, and the smile on his face was close to fading.
“9908, are you two whispering in front of me?” Augus said.
Yu Hansue turned and translated, “She doesn’t understand what you’re saying, and you don’t understand what she’s saying. We’re not whispering; we’re talking openly. She was just asking me what you said.”
Augus pondered, “Do you know her?”
“No,” Yu Hansue said coldly.
“Then how does she happen to be here?” Augus asked oddly, “The density of players in the world is so low; she can’t be just passing by, can she?”
Yu Hansue replied, “She doesn’t seem to have any intent to attack, nor does she carry weapons; otherwise, she would have attacked us as soon as she saw us.”
“What you’re saying has some logic, but she also doesn’t seem to have any intent to leave. Perhaps we need to communicate with her properly.” Augus continued, “You’d better hurry up and kill that Heterogeneous Blooded; I estimate he’s about to wake up.”
Yu Hansue’s palms were sweating, sticky and clammy, making it hard to grip the scalpel and gun.
She also wanted to kill that Heterogeneous Blooded right then and there, but now she couldn’t… She hesitated, shrank back, and felt a subtle fear arising in her heart. She couldn’t do this; how could she kill someone in front of Kui Xin?
“Are you afraid she will see?” Augus said thoughtfully, then smiled, “We need to kill her to keep her silent. She saw, she’s very strong; her ability won’t be weak. If you’re interested, 9908, I can let you have her, so you can claim her life.”
In that brief moment, Yu Hansue realized—Augus was suspicious! He was testing the relationship between her and Kui Xin. No, it might not be that simple. From the moment Kui Xin stepped into the trading scene, Augus had seen her as prey! He seemed to have noticed that Kui Xin possessed a high-level Extraordinary Ability, and he wanted to kill her!
Yu Hansue opened her mouth, about to shout to Kui Xin: “Get out of here!”
But in the next second, Kui Xin put down the snack bag in her hands, her body disappearing on the spot. Black mist surged, and without changing expression, Augus reached into shadow space and pulled out a silenced gun, firing several shots at the air without even aiming.
Sparks flashed, bullets were discharged, and they curved in mid-air, heading straight for Kui Xin. Enhanced by Shadow Transition, her figure zipped through the wall, while the bullets struck the wall directly, leaving her untouched.
The black mist reappeared, and Kui Xin’s figure condensed behind Augus, a fruit knife appearing in her hand. She accurately stabbed toward Augus’s neck. At the same time, Reset activated, and the intangible boundary descended, making Augus’s Shadow Realm and Air Bounce, Tissue Regeneration immediately ineffective.
The fruit knife’s tip had already pierced Augus’s neck, blood erupted, it was just a millimeter away from slicing his carotid artery. However, at that moment, the asphalt road beneath Augus’s feet surged upward like it was alive, directly knocking the soon-to-succeed Kui Xin away.
Kui Xin adjusted herself mid-air like a gymnast and landed steadily, retreating tens of meters, her calm heart stirred by turbulent waves.
She was caught off guard; to inflict substantial harm on Augus, she must exit the Shadow Transition state. The suddenly rising stone wall had dealt her real damage.
At this moment, she felt a dull pain in her abdomen; if she lifted her shirt, she would surely find a large bruise forming. The sensation of pain slowly faded as Tissue Regeneration took effect.
Augus touched his abdomen with a strange expression, “Pain, your pain, I can feel it too… You’ve already showcased three Extraordinary Abilities… you are… you are…”
“Ma Yi?” he said, “Remover 233?”
His face was filled with a joyful smile, and he laughed openly without restraint, the laughter echoing down the silent street.
“Finally met you! My old friend!” Augus spread his arms, exclaiming in an exaggerated tone, “You’ve given me quite a surprise!”
The grammar and words of that sentence were very simple, and Kui Xin understood it.
Kui Xin stood straight, cautiously refraining from attacking. A strong sense of dread arose deep within her.
The stone wall beside Augus slowly descended, and the asphalt road regained its flatness.
No one knew better than her what that scene just now meant—one of Augus’s abilities was uncontrollable by Reset; he had S Rank abilities!
“Hello, Augus,” Kui Xin straightened up and simply said in a language Augus could understand, “This is a surprise for me too.”
Surprisingly, Augus did not attack anymore; he turned to look at the fully on-guard Yu Hansue.
“Sorry, 9908. May I ask you to leave first?” Augus said, “What’s to come is a matter between me and Ma Yi, and it’s best for outsiders to leave.”
Yu Hansue stiffly shifted her gaze to Kui Xin.
The development of the situation was far beyond her expectations. She felt a shock, but at the same time thought it reasonable… Remover 233 was her, so it was like this, indeed like this!
“Augus, what are you and 9908 doing?” Kui Xin did not look at Yu Hansue.
Augus replied, “We’re conducting a transaction; I didn’t expect to encounter you during the transaction. Don’t you really know her? Ma Yi?” He said with great interest, “Have you come to this city specially to welcome me?”
Then Augus’s tone became gloomy, “Isn’t this a game between just the two of us? You didn’t involve 9908, did you? You’ve jeopardized the purity of the game.”
Yu Hansue realized that Augus’s sentence structure was a bit complex; Kui Xin might not understand, so she hurriedly translated, “He said this is a game between you two; he seems quite resistant to me being involved; he suspects that I know you.”
Kui Xin said, “You leave here… but don’t go in the direction of home.”
She nullified Reset, and Yu Hansue’s abilities returned, as did Augus’s.
The problem now was that Yu Hansue had been injured by Augus, and he was very likely to mark her position with his ability, Blood Spike Thorn. But with the Wheel of Time in play, it was still uncertain whether she would get marked, as Yu Hansue could potentially rewind her physical state; perhaps she could revert to a state before being marked.
This guy seemed crazy, yet he was very cautious. The few shots fired at Yu Hansue had an actual purpose that was definitely more than just testing the Wheel of Time’s ability; he wanted to control Yu Hansue’s whereabouts!
Similarly, Augus coming here likely had more than one aim. He wanted to complete the transaction with Yu Hansue, intended to challenge Remover 233, and perhaps even aimed to harvest more Extraordinary Abilities at the only large gathering place for players, Tonglin City…
Two Removers were in confrontation, with another Remover observing the scene.
An immense pressure enveloped Yu Hansue. She didn’t want to leave, but she should trust Kui Xin… She could leave first to call for help, report to the police, and disrupt the scene to force Remover 777 to leave.
As she stepped back, a suitcase nearby suddenly made a noise.
The Heterogeneous Blooded, who had fainted, completed his body regeneration. He struggled, directly breaking the suitcase and the rope, countless bloody flesh buds and tentacles bursting out of his clothes.
As soon as he jumped out of the suitcase, instead of attacking anyone, he scurried up the wall like a gecko, fleeing in a hurry. His speed was so fast that he became a blur, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Yu Hansue’s expression changed, and she dashed after him.
The escape of the Heterogeneous Blooded was a major concern; he might attack ordinary people in the city, and the crisis had to be quashed in its infancy.
Just as Yu Hansue’s figure vanished, sirens rang out from the streets in the distance.
Augus’s expression grew grim as well, and he asked, “Did you call the police?”
“You fired a gun at the wall, which might have awakened those nearby who were sleeping,” Kui Xin calmly replied.
“Let’s stop for now; tonight might not be the right time after all,” Augus said, his tone significant. “Ma Yi, our agreed battlefield is in Tonglin City; I’ll wait for you there.”
He retreated into the darkness, disappearing from sight.
Temporarily stopping, Tonglin City, waiting for you… Kui Xin caught onto these keywords. She put away the fruit knife and wrapped it securely in the snack bag.
That knife was stained with Augus’s blood.
