Chapter 32: Sea Without Light 32
Kui Xin discovered an awkward fact during her repeated training of Extraordinary Abilities.
That is, if she didn’t wear clothes, the volume of carryable objects would increase.
She realized this when she managed to grab an expired fire mask from the neighborhood security guard, intending to cover her face completely without any gaps, so as not to expose her identity during her actions.
Kui Xin planned to wear long clothes and pants to cover her body while carrying a weapon. She prepared her clothes, put on the mask, and attempted to utilize Shadow Transition. However, she found that the long-bone knife she prepared was too cumbersome to handle, and only a smaller triangular dagger could be carried with her.
Later, she experimented with adding and removing clothing and accessories to her outfit, ultimately concluding that clothes also counted towards the volume of carryable objects during transitions. If she wanted to carry more weapons, she would have to wear fewer clothes and bring fewer items along.
It turned out that one shouldn’t have overly high expectations of E-class Extraordinary Abilities.
If only she could get her hands on a gun; the small size and light weight would make it easy to carry, allowing for smooth operation during Shadow Transition.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t obtain a gun.
Without a gun, she had to focus on weapons.
Kui Xin couldn’t abandon her clothing and mask disguise; she needed to find suitable weapons.
She grabbed a piece of paper and listed her options.
Spring knife, triangular dagger, Swiss army knife, butterfly knife, dagger… these weapons all had suitable sizes and considerable lethality.
The problem was that these knives were regulated items, and there was no way to buy them through any channels.
After finishing her weapon list, Kui Xin opened a shopping app to search for knives. As expected, most of the search results were blank, and even if some items appeared, they were merely dull toy knives. The butterfly knife was particularly popular among young people, and there were numerous sellers online, but most buyers just wanted to show off; the knives were flashy with little actual lethality.
Despite being made of metal, these toy knives lacked the required hardness and toughness of military-grade weapons. Even if she bought one and had it sharpened, it wouldn’t be usable; the blade would get stuck between bones when stabbing.
Expensive knives, on the other hand, could meet the standards, and Kui Xin clenched her teeth and planned to buy one.
However, when she inquired about the material and whether they could assist in sharpening, every customer service representative replied that they could not help with sharpening.
This was quite tricky.
Moreover, the most challenging issue was that weapons couldn’t pass through security checks.
Kui Xin initially thought about having the knives shipped to the nearby city, then taking the high-speed train to the designated parcel station to collect them, thus perfectly avoiding security checks.
However, every customer service representative insisted they couldn’t sharpen the knives, leaving Kui Xin distressed.
She had no choice but to shift her focus to kitchen knives, which were also very sharp when of good quality, and they would arrive already sharpened, meeting strength and toughness requirements.
She browsed through options and selected a seller in her province. They had a good reputation for their Damascus kitchen knives, and the price was within an acceptable range.
Before payment, she asked customer service, “Is it easy to dull the blade?”
Customer service replied, “Our knives have guaranteed material quality, and they don’t dull easily!”
Kui Xin: “How about cutting meat?”
Customer service: “Incredibly smooth, dear!”
Kui Xin: “What about chopping bones?”
Customer service: “We recommend not chopping large bone pieces as the knives need maintenance, but the bone-cleaving effect along the seams is excellent! Everyone who has used them says so!”
Kui Xin: “How well does the blade connect to the handle? Will the handle come off?”
Customer service: “No customers have reported that issue; our craftsmanship is top-notch in the industry, so you can purchase with confidence!”
Kui Xin: “Is the shipping speed fast?”
Customer service: “Within the province, delivery will take two to three days, and nearby locations need only one day.”
Satisfied, Kui Xin proceeded with the payment, though it pained her to part with the money.
For two consecutive days, she jogged along the riverbank at dawn to keep her muscles active.
The riverbank was filled with early-rising older folks, who marveled at her determination: “It’s rare to see a young person exercising so early!”
Kui Xin: Sigh, if it weren’t for the pressure of survival, who would want to wake up early?
She huffed and puffed her way through five kilometers and completed basic joint activities and stretches to help her body adapt to high-intensity workouts.
After exercising, Kui Xin sat beside the fitness equipment to massage her muscles, while the older individuals nearby listened to the local radio’s morning news.
The morning news was just reporting on the whereabouts of a suspect in a murder case involving cult members.
“… It is reported that the suspect has escaped to Tonglin City…” Kui Xin froze at the mention of Tonglin City.
Tonglin City was her home; what a coincidence!
In that moment, Kui Xin felt no surprise or panic. On the contrary, she was filled with joy, experiencing a sensation akin to a hunter sharpening their knives as the prey delivered itself right to her doorstep.
An older gentleman in a sweat shirt pondered aloud, “Why hasn’t this person been caught yet? The surveillance has captured his image.”
“Who knows? Well, we’ll all need to stay indoors these days; the murderer is now here with us,” a lady fanning herself remarked.
Kui Xin stopped listening to the broadcast and took out her mobile phone to search for news.
Indeed, the latest report confirmed that the suspect had fled to Tonglin City, with surveillance from the suburbs capturing his movements. The footage was publicly released, showing the suspect wearing a cap and dressed quite normally, moving in an unremarkable manner—nobody would guess he was a deranged psychopath.
He even stopped at a roadside convenience store to buy a bottle of water and some food, eating as he walked with a calm demeanor, showing no signs of panic.
The store owner seemed unaware of his identity, but based on his facial characteristics, he was definitely the suspect in the cult murder case.
Kui Xin’s expression became serious.
The suspect was far too calm; he was not an ordinary prey. He knew he had killed people, yet felt no panic. He understood the pursuit and the hunt upon him but showed no fear. Even more oddly, he had murdered his own family, yet he behaved as if nothing had happened—almost uncomfortably normal.
The more normal he appeared, the more Kui Xin felt he was a terrifying lunatic.
Why had the suspect come to Tonglin City?
No… he wasn’t fleeing. He lacked any semblance of a runaway. Instead, it felt like he had come to Tonglin City on purpose… as if he were drawn here for a specific reason.
Kui Xin was startled by her sudden guess, her expression turning solemn.
She exhaled, opened the shopping app, and told the knife seller, “Can I change the shipping address to a different city?”
Customer service replied immediately, “Sure, dear, I’ll contact the delivery service right away.”
Initially, Kui Xin had set the knife’s shipping address to the nearby city, choosing a convenient parcel station for pickup, where she could collect the knives as soon as she arrived.
But plans often change… though this was a favorable change.
Investigating a murder across cities was far more challenging than in her own. Tonglin City was her territory, the place she knew best, and the fact that the suspect had come here would make her operations much easier.
Tonglin City was a large urban area with a significant population, making it as challenging as searching for a needle in a haystack to find the criminal among so many people.
On her way home, a chaotic and twisted intuition suddenly arose within Kui Xin.
—She felt the suspect in the cult murder case was coming for her.
With so many cities available for him to escape to, why had he chosen the city she was in?
Kui Xin shivered.
“You have enhanced your inherent talent.”
“Your inherent talent [Hazard Avoidance] has upgraded to [Absolute Prediction].”
“[Absolute Prediction]: Under the prompt of instinct, you have repeatedly anticipated the trends of fate, a warning from the future, the sixth sense developed to its peak. What you can anticipate and avoid is not just danger, but also elusive and impenetrable fate.”
……
Fang Zhi awoke in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Tonglin City, his expression glum. He kicked a brick lying before him while pacing nervously, biting his fingers, “How many times has she killed me now?”
The third time or the fourth? He couldn’t quite remember; multiple deaths had left his memory a bit blurry, a side effect of repeatedly retracing time.
Fang Zhi sat cross-legged, carefully recalling. He glanced at his phone to confirm the time, deducing that this was his fourth death.
Each death had left a profound impression on him.
Fang Zhi’s Extraordinary Ability was Death Rebirth. Each time he died, his time would roll back a few days, and with the increasing number of deaths, the time span for each retrace shortened. For instance, when he died for the first time, time went back three days; the second time was two days; and the third time was one day.
His first death occurred on a Monday when she kicked him directly off a tall building, resulting in him being smashed to pieces.
The second time was on a Sunday. He confidently believed that he was killed last time due to carelessness, thinking that if he reacted quickly enough, he could avoid her Extraordinary Ability of Shadow Transition.
But reality slapped Fang Zhi hard in the face; that woman severed his spine, rendering him immobile, and dragged him to the window to throw him off again.
The third death happened on a Saturday. Knowing that the woman was hunting for him, Fang Zhi deliberately waited along her investigative path, wanting to ambush her. But she evaded his lethal attack as if equipped with radar, effortlessly taking him down.
Fang Zhi strongly suspected that the woman had a peculiar sadistic streak; she never killed him directly but insisted on throwing him from high places—in a row! Yet, during the third incident, he wasn’t kicked off but instead had his spine severed and was kicked into a pond, where he gradually sank to the bottom and drowned.
Fang Zhi had no choice but to appeal to his omniscient God, pleading for divine revelation. To receive enough insight, he ended up killing several people as sacrifices to the deity.
The God answered him.
The God revealed the general location of that woman.
Overjoyed, Fang Zhi rushed to Tonglin City, aiming to take the initiative.
Yet he died once more.
Still that woman, still drowning.
This time, he didn’t roll back to one day prior but awakened on the same day.
If he didn’t change anything, he would still be pursued and killed by that female hunter.
His next death was set for tonight!
