Chapter 58: Sea Without Light
The moment Kui Xin raised her gun, she had already pulled the trigger, her action faster than Thorn Rose!
She had to do it.
For a long time, Kui Xin had been patrolling the coast, taking extreme caution during every patrol. When encountering criminals without firearms, she would issue a verbal warning. Against armed criminals, she showed no mercy and would shoot immediately without warning.
This was her habit, as well as that of most security officers patrolling the port, but Kui Xin was particularly sensitive and quick to react.
If her patrol team encountered someone with a gun, she would be the first to shoot. So even though Kui Xin recognized that the person facing her was Thorn Rose and Silverface, she still had to fire— to maintain her undercover identity and to prevent her teammates from sensing anything unusual.
The gunshot rang out.
After Kui Xin fired, Thorn Rose quickly followed suit!
At that moment, a thin curtain of water appeared in front of Thorn Rose, blocking Kui Xin’s bullet as well as the one Thorn Rose fired.
Silverface broke into a cold sweat, his heart racing.
If he had been just a little slower, both shooters would have been hit!
Kui Xin was in combat gear, her skull resistant; as long as she wasn’t hit in a fatal area, she would be fine. Thorn Rose’s clothing had ballistic properties as well, but when Kui Xin fired, she aimed directly at her left eye. A direct hit would mean certain death.
Every time they patrolled, they were equipped with surveillance devices, and there was a camera located at the button of Kui Xin’s combat suit, which functioned as a patrol recorder. If Kui Xin intentionally held back, someone with ulterior motives might analyze her trajectory through the recorder and become suspicious.
Kui Xin had to maintain her usual standards and show no mercy.
Kui Xin was betting that Silverface could hold the water curtain in time. Even if she lost that bet, it didn’t matter—others’ lives were not as important as her own. As long as she could ensure her undercover identity remained undisclosed, anything she did was worth it.
Anyway, even if Thorn Rose died, the only one losing would be Mechanized Dawn, which had nothing to do with her. If this matter were reported to headquarters, Kui Haidong would definitely not blame her too much; he knew very well which was more valuable, a Thorn Rose or an undercover agent embedded in the Investigation Bureau.
“Fall back! The opponent is an Extraordinary Abilities user! We need support!” Xueyao Shu’s expression changed drastically at the sight of that water curtain.
Kui Xin paused her shooting as expected and withdrew a distance alongside her teammates.
“Tch, so close. Thanks, Silverface,” Thorn Rose said with a serious tone. “That woman’s marksmanship is quite exceptional.”
After her last injury, her broken right hand had been replaced with a mechanical one. The silver metal reflected faint light under the sun, carrying a chilling texture. Her metal hand could change shape, automatically reconfiguring from a distinctly fingered mechanical hand to a retractable, hook-like iron chain.
In addition to its chain form, the mechanical hand could also transform into a bayonet form and a dagger form. This prosthetic limb was expertly designed by the mechanical specialists of Mechanized Dawn, and losing her right hand had not diminished Thorn Rose’s combat capability—in fact, it had even improved somewhat.
Her Extraordinary Ability, “Flame Blade,” could achieve its maximum potential through this metal right hand.
“Thorn Rose, we need to hurry…” Silverface’s words were interrupted as Thorn Rose swung the iron chain glowing with red light toward Kui Xin’s arm.
In the next second, Xueyao Shu and Jiang Ming opened fire in quick succession, forcing Silverface to raise the water curtain again for defense.
In this situation… there was no way to avoid a fight.
He turned his brain around, thinking with the limited capacity he had—he couldn’t hurt Lady Fortune, so he would target her teammates. Yes!
Silverface’s pink eyes behind the mask fixed on Xueyao Shu and Jiang Ming, weighing whom to attack first.
Thorn Rose was a fierce combatant, originally a street rat before being recruited by Mechanized Dawn, a professional killer. After being recruited, her style of operation became somewhat low-key, but her temperament never changed; now she was spurred into competitiveness by Kui Xin.
The red-hot iron chain struck fiercely, and Kui Xin rolled to the ground, taking cover behind a streetlight post. With a loud clang, the iron chain struck the lamppost, burning the scraps of little ads that were stuck on it.
“Silverface, take down the water curtain! It’s interfering with my attack!” Thorn Rose shouted.
Silverface replied, “…No way, we’ll get hurt.”
The water curtain not only protected the two of them but also safeguarded Kui Xin. If anything happened to her, that would be a problem.
When the leader sent him to be by Kui Xin’s side, he was told that the importance of all organization members was secondary compared to her— even Red had hinted at this several times.
“Coward!” Thorn Rose glared fiercely at Silverface, knowing now was not the time for an argument; she refrained from continuing the dispute.
Feeling wronged, Silverface strained to control the water flow while still trying to find an opportunity to strike at Xueyao Shu and Jiang Ming. His main focus was defense, and his offensive water manipulation was not as precise, causing him to repeatedly miss as Xueyao Shu and Jiang Ming dodged.
Even so, both Xueyao Shu and Jiang Ming were already struggling, cold sweat pouring down their foreheads as they dodged left and right on the street, their three-person formation forced to scatter.
“Support is on the way!” Lan Lan said through the communication channel.
Thorn Rose held the iron chain in one hand and a large-caliber handgun in the other, the burning iron chain cracking loudly in the air as she attacked. Kui Xin focused on evading; her bullets would be blocked by Silverface’s water curtain, so she conserved her ammunition.
Thorn Rose took advantage of brief openings, always aiming to strike when the water curtain created gaps.
Silverface, terrified, adjusted the direction and angle of the water curtain, finding ways to prevent the two from clashing.
Finally, during a moment when the water curtain was incomplete, Thorn Rose seized her chance to fire a few rounds, one of which narrowly hit Kui Xin’s bulletproof vest. The impact sent a sharp pain through the area where she was struck.
Kui Xin showed no mercy. With a cold expression, she took advantage of the opportunity to crouch down and shoot through the gap in the water curtain—three shots in one second! All three bullets hit the unprotected area of Thorn Rose’s calf, blood bursting forth as her face turned pale instantly.
At the end of the street, the roar of a police motorbike approached; Lan Lan and Liu Kangyun were arriving!
At that moment, Silverface spotted a flaw, wrapping water around Jiang Ming’s leg and twisting it violently.
A sequence of sickening crunches echoed like popping beans, and Jiang Ming screamed in agony as the bones in his lower leg shattered.
“We need to retreat.” Silverface conjured a water rope to bind Thorn Rose, leaping with her onto a building.
Before leaving, Thorn Rose shot Kui Xin a cold glance, silently mouthing, “I’ll remember you.”
“Jiang Ming!” Kui Xin and Xueyao Shu rushed towards Jiang Ming.
“No, we must call for a rescue vehicle from headquarters,” Xueyao Shu said calmly.
Augus: “I’ve already had the coastal security office send a police car for support, and I also notified headquarters to dispatch a rescue vehicle. The police car should arrive in about ten minutes; the rescue vehicle will take longer due to distance. Taking the police car to meet up with the rescue vehicle will save time. Emergency bleeding control should be applied to security officer Jiang Ming’s leg; based on the current blood loss, he will go into shock and possibly die within five minutes.”
Kui Xin quickly retrieved a vial of medicine from her equipment pouch and injected it into Jiang Ming.
“This will only provide pain relief; it will take effect soon,” she said, glancing at Jiang Ming’s lower leg.
His calf was twisted completely, bones visibly protruding, a total shattering fracture, and he would most likely require amputation and a mechanical prosthetic.
Kui Xin pulled out a strap, reaching underneath Jiang Ming’s leg to tightly bind the top section of his knee to stop the blood flow.
Jiang Ming’s face was as white as a ghost; he forced a laugh, saying, “Looks like I really am getting a mechanical prosthetic… What should I do? Suddenly, I feel a bit reluctant to part with my original leg.”
“It’s fine; the modified version is better than the original,” Kui Xin reassured him. “Look at that woman; her mechanical hand is cool and can transform. You can get something similar… like rollerblade legs?”
Jiang Ming groaned, “Then wouldn’t I have to replace my other leg too… It’s not worth it…”
The roar of the motorbike drew closer as Lan Lan drifted to a stop, removing her helmet and calling, “Old Jiang!”
Liu Kangyun followed closely behind, parking less dramatically and showing no intention of getting out. Liu Kangyun, seeing Jiang Ming injured, kept his expression tense, but aside from the injured teammate, there was another matter that needed urgent attention.
He asked, “Where are the enemies?”
“They probably think we have a lot of support, so they ran,” Xueyao Shu said heavily, helping Jiang Ming up. “Don’t chase them; we can’t defeat them. Both of those individuals are Extraordinary Abilities users of considerable rank, and their control over their abilities is not comparable to novice Awakened Ones… Report to headquarters; we need a special task force to handle this.”
Only then did Liu Kangyun exit the vehicle, scanning the surroundings cautiously to prevent ambush.
“…Awakened,” Lan Lan murmured. “How few Awakened do we even have in the Investigation Bureau? We actually encountered two while patrolling the streets.”
“I think something is off,” Kui Xin said, looking at her blood-stained hands—this was Jiang Ming’s blood.
She was deliberately steering her teammates’ thoughts.
“Since the port explosion incident last month, things have been strange around here,” Kui Xin said. “First, Xenomorphs began appearing frequently, and now we have Extraordinary Abilities users on the streets of the Harbor Zone… Could all of this be connected? I hope I’m not overthinking it.”
“There are indeed inconsistencies,” Xueyao Shu said, concern evident in his eyes.
The members of the Seventh Squad exchanged glances, seeing a hint of gloom in each other’s expressions.
An invisible shadow loomed over Hei Hai City, and they had long sensed it, as the increasingly frequent personnel transfers in the Investigation Bureau indicated rising tensions. Everything prior could have been coincidence, but today’s encounter with Extraordinary Abilities users could not simply be a coincidence.
Two Extraordinary Abilities users acting together likely indicated they belonged to a certain faction. What were their intentions here? What did they want? These two were certainly not just out for a stroll. There was a force lurking in the shadows operating in the Harbor Zone, while the security officers executing their tasks remained completely oblivious to this force.
A hovering police car descended from the sky as Kui Xin and Xueyao Shu supported Jiang Ming, while Lan Lan and Liu Kangyun took hold of his legs, carefully placing him into the back seat of the police car.
Jiang Ming muttered, “Last time, it was Kui Xin in the back seat… This time it’s me.”
Author’s Note: Silverface: I’m not a coward!
