“Miss Meko, only by possessing a person can you leave that place.”
Kazama Yin pushed aside brambles with his scabbard as he walked at the front, turning his head to speak to the two behind him.
“I see.”
Hanyu Suoluo followed behind him, hesitated for a moment, then spoke. “There’s something I want to ask Miss Meko. I…”
“It’s about your uncle, right? I’ve already asked.” Kazama Yin stopped and turned to face them.
“Miss Meko became an Earthbound Spirit during the Millennium Incident, so she doesn’t know much. She only knows that…”
“Missy needed Uncle Hanyu, so Uncle Hanyu left before the others from DRG Japan.”
“Needed…?”
Hanyu Suoluo was full of question marks. Before his uncle left the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, he was just a small police officer with no superpowers.
Why would “Missy” need Uncle Hanyu? And who was this “Missy”?
“Miss Meko… why do you want to leave here?” Kagegaya Tsubaki, who was at the very back, asked curiously.
“Because…”
Hattori Yumeko’s voice was a bit hesitant, but she finally spoke. “I want to see what’s outside. What made DRG not return to Japan as originally planned.”
“My husband left Japan and never came back. I want to know… what really happened.”
Kazama Yin opened his mouth, about to say that DRG in Africa had split into many small organizations, but he didn’t know if he should say it.
“I can hear your thoughts.” Meko’s voice carried a hint of shyness. “Kazama, you actually like…”
“Aaaaaaah!”
Kazama Yin’s face suddenly turned red hot. He covered his head and started yelling, startling the other two.
“What the hell! You scared me!”
East Asian Peninsula. This place was no longer suitable for human habitation.
The land had been completely corrupted, unable to grow any plants, and naturally, no other animals lived there.
Only Aliens hatched by the Bug God roamed this land.
The entire sky was an abnormal purple. Half of a giant creature suspended in the sky was entangled by chains—this was the helpless measure taken back then.
Silence. Beneath the giant creature lay the ruins of the Seoul metropolitan area. What was once a prosperous city now only…
Fwish—
At the entrance of a collapsed gas station, an Alien’s head exploded. The silent Electromagnetic Rifle reaped the lives of these nauseating creatures.
“Still no signal received?”
Li Qiushi stood on a window sill, holding an Electromagnetic Rifle, constantly pulling the trigger at the approaching creatures, gritting his teeth.
“No!”
Behind him, a communications operator was fiddling with a heavy device.
“Damn it!”
Li Qiushi used the stock of his rifle to smash a mantis-like Alien that was closing in from a gap beside him.
When he aimed the muzzle at the creature, the trigger wouldn’t budge.
He decisively stomped the Mantis Alien to death and shouted, “No power!”
Whoosh—
A curved scythe shot out from the ruins of a nearby building, heading straight for Li Qiushi’s face. His expression changed drastically.
‘Damn! I can’t dodge…’
‘Am I going to die here?’
The scythe that was about to slice off his head reflected in his pupils. His eyelashes trembled.
‘Why…’
In that instant, a scene from before this mission flashed through his mind.
Three months ago, the Liaodong Peninsula Monitoring Station observed that the “Bug God” suspended above Seoul— whose massive Runaway Energy had caused all global energy detection to malfunction— was weakening.
Something must have happened in Seoul to cause this.
Thus, the Pacific Treaty organized an exploration team to venture into this land.
Because Espers, even Cicada Shell Hosts who could suppress their Runaway Energy, would attract high-danger-level Aliens to hunt them if they went to the peninsula.
They had special tracking methods.
So the exploration team consisted entirely of ordinary people—those with the lowest Runaway Energy.
Li Qiushi was a retired veteran who had participated in the Asian War, but to be honest, he had never actually been on the front lines.
Because after the war, he worked at a monitoring station. His Runaway Energy was absurdly low, and with his military experience, he was chosen for this expedition.
He remembered that when he was in the military, after testing his Runaway Energy, the testers were stunned.
The detection device only displayed six decimal places, and his result was 0.000000.
That depressed him for a long time—he was destined to never have superpowers.
He never thought he would still have a use, so he gladly agreed to join this expedition.
But… they hadn’t even gotten close to the Bug God before encountering high-danger-level Aliens.
They were almost wiped out.
The survivors hid in the ruins until their food gradually ran out. Then Li Qiushi led the others to take a gamble.
They needed to find a place with less interference to send a distress signal.
Ah…
If only he hadn’t thought his blood was still warm, hadn’t thought he could still do something meaningful… would he have been able to live safely?
Blood gushed out.
But… it didn’t hurt much…
Wait… that wasn’t his blood.
Li Qiushi’s eyes widened. The blood flying past his face, right in front of him, turned into a ribbon of fabric, blocking that scythe.
At the same time, the Aliens gathering around were all linked by that blood-red ribbon.
“What is this…”
Swoosh—
The ribbon was suddenly pulled away. In an instant, the heads of all the Aliens near the gas station were cut off by the ribbon’s swift movement.
The purple flames that burned after the Aliens died suddenly raised the temperature around them.
‘Instant? An Esper? Here?’
‘The stronger the Esper here, the more powerful the Aliens that appear to hunt and devour them, and it never stops.’
‘This land doesn’t welcome Espers.’
‘What exactly…’
Tap—
Li Qiushi suddenly turned his head and looked at the figure that had lightly landed on the half-wall of the gas station.
Boots lightly landed on the broken edge of the wall, letting the hem of her battle skirt fall.
A cape-like shawl, resembling a nun’s habit, fluttered in the wind along with her scattered, ashen gray hair.
Half of her seductive face was hidden by her collar. Above it, cold blood-red pupils, enough to chill one to the bone, stared fixedly at Li Qiushi.
Though she had a small stature, her imposing presence, as steady as Mount Tai, still made Li Qiushi’s throat tighten.
“Human?”
Her voice was as cold as he had imagined. The language she spoke was Japanese.
‘Is this girl an Esper? Why is she in a place like this?!’
The girl’s gaze swept past the national flag attached to his left shoulder. Li Qiushi noticed that her eyes seemed to soften a little.
“It’s very dangerous here. Why are you here?” The girl spoke again. This time, her language was Mandarin.
“We’re members of the Pacific Treaty Exploration Team. We came to investigate the weakening of the Bug God’s Runaway Energy. You… you’re an Esper, right? Why…”
The communications operator behind him stared at the girl in surprise.
The girl didn’t answer his question. Instead, she looked sideways at the corpse with its head bitten off in front of the gas station— another member of the exploration team, who had come out with Li Qiushi to send the signal.
She raised her hand. From her pure white glove, a gentle ray of light emanated and wrapped around the corpse.
Under Li Qiushi’s shocked gaze, the corpse’s head gradually regenerated in a nearly grotesque way, even growing hair.
“Ah…” The team member suddenly woke up, holding his head as he sat up, breathing heavily. “I… I’m alive?”
“This…” Li Qiushi was speechless for a long time.
‘This girl is a good person.’
“Thank you so much! You—”
The girl suddenly raised her index finger to her lips, interrupting Li Qiushi’s thanks, and looked to the other side.
Fwish—Boom!
On the nearby open ground, a sudden appearance… no, it was an arrival at extreme speed from afar, looking as if she had appeared out of nowhere—a woman with long black hair and a pale face.
She wore a similar black outfit, but without the shawl. Now she knelt on the ground, the hem of her battle skirt splayed out, her head lowered.
‘Another… powerful Esper?’
“Family Head, I’m so sorry!”
The woman’s water-blue eyes were full of fear. “I encountered… a rather powerful Alien on the way. I was a little late.”
She bowed her head sharply, her voice trembling. “The supplies you requested have been delivered. Also… also… Lord Morita sent an additional letter.”
The girl’s blood-red pupils only rested on the woman for a moment. Then she pointed at the building behind the woman, her voice flat.
“You brought something with you, you idiot.”
The woman’s head snapped up. Then she only felt her ear grow hot, and blood sprayed from her pale skin.
Behind her, everything—whether it was the unstable remains of skyscrapers, the concrete skeletons with exposed rebar, or the twisted metal frames—was cut in an instant.
Time seemed to freeze for a second. The upper structures that had been cut, having lost the support of the lower parts, began to groan under the pull of gravity.
Huge cracks like black lightning spread wildly along the vulnerable structures beyond the cut.
Boom—
Then came an apocalyptic scene of collapsing mountains and splitting earth.
The massive buildings above the cut line toppled like knocked-over blocks.
A waterfall of glass and building debris, carrying years of accumulated dust, crashed to the ground with overwhelming force.
Dust that blotted out the sky rose, instantly swallowing that area.
Li Qiushi was thrown off balance by the violent shaking under his feet and fell to the ground. Dust slammed into him, nearly suffocating him.
‘So… so strong…’
A flash of a silver-haired girl crossed Li Qiushi’s mind—no, even she wasn’t this strong.
After a long while, the chaotic collapse subsided a bit. Li Qiushi finally stood up again and looked at the girl’s back.
“Sorry… sorry… sorry…” The black-haired woman seemed to forget the injury to her ear, constantly kowtowing, tears streaming from her water-blue eyes.
But Li Qiushi could feel that with each apology, the girl seemed… more and more angry.
“Mizuki.”
The girl finally spoke again, her tone still calm. “Don’t you know what I hate?”
The woman named Mizuki’s body trembled violently. Then…
Slap—
Li Qiushi’s heart tightened instantly as he stared blankly at the puddle of blood on the ground.
“Learn your lesson next time.”
The girl didn’t seem to be talking to anyone in particular.
‘She killed that woman who was clearly her subordinate!’
Li Qiushi clenched his fist. “You… who exactly… are you?”
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