Chapter 158
by Need_More_SleepChapter 158: Arrangements of Fate
“They’re not actually working together?”
“According to the interrogation report from Salamander about the Clown Girl, this boy Zhang Zikun really is a new recruit, and he provides significant assistance to the Red Prince’s abilities,” the communications officer quickly pulled up the report. “However, he hasn’t committed any serious crimes yet—at most, just the N1202 transaction.”
“Don’t mind him, keep firing! If that kid is useful to him, would he actually pull the trigger?”
“Don’t forget, that kid is still a criminal too!”
Despite the words, the situation remained deadlocked. Rutherford dragged Zhang Zikun across the ice, step by step, toward the shore.
“How stupid. You’ve already used rocket launchers, yet you’re hesitating over a juvenile delinquent.” On the bridge, the Devil—who hadn’t fired a single shot until now—tossed aside his tranquilizer gun, hung up the comm, and began setting up a sniper rifle from his briefcase.
Because the Red Prince’s ability could directly set the rule: “Any attack targeting me has a 50% chance of hitting an ally. If it doesn’t hit an ally, there’s a 50% chance it hits me. If neither happens, there’s a 50% chance it misses entirely.”
Faced with such a broken ability, the police—lacking countermeasures—could only rely on sheer volume, like a pachinko machine: as long as you bought enough balls, a few were bound to reach the target.
To prevent another tragedy of friendly fire killing their own, snipers had been strictly prohibited in this operation.
“So, just because he’s a minor, you want to spare an accomplice endangering society? Ridiculous.” Adjusting for wind, he took his time positioning himself.
Even though he’d cut comms, he kept talking to the air.
“If he’s made his choice, he should be prepared for the consequences. No one in this world will forgive him unconditionally.”
This shot wasn’t aimed at Rutherford.
He locked onto Zhang Zikun’s heart and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The bullet struck its target without fail—blood splattering across Rutherford’s face in an instant.
“What happened? Who fired?!” The comms erupted into chaos. “Who did this?! We said no live rounds!”
“Wow. Thanks for showing me something interesting.” Rutherford sighed, stomped through the ice, and tossed Zhang Zikun—now with a hole in his chest—into the water.
He hadn’t really expected this ploy to work—he just wanted to see how the police would react.
A shame. He’d liked this little assistant. Who knew if he’d find another like him?
Rutherford spread his leather jacket beneath his feet to increase surface area and glided away.
The enforcers, snapping out of it, resumed their assault.
“Two of you, retrieve that kid!”
“He took a bullet to the heart. Don’t waste your effort.” The Devil reconnected to comms.
“Was that you?!”
“Apprehend the Red Prince at all costs—that’s the standing order from above,” the Devil replied flatly. “If I hadn’t fired, would you have kept yielding to his demands because he used one of ours as a hostage? If he demanded children to slaughter next, would you have complied?”
“Of course not.” No one bothered with hollow accusations now. “But everyone has moments of poor judgment. Before he crosses the line, shouldn’t we give him a chance? Isn’t that the point of juvenile protection?”
The Devil chuckled coldly.
As the Red Prince advanced through gunfire toward the shore, a three-meter-tall muscle behemoth dropped from above—not aiming directly at him.
The impact shattered the ice in all directions, fracturing it into pieces.
Yet even this couldn’t stop the avatar of “Absolute Luck.” Despite not being a physical enhancement ability user, Rutherford didn’t even glance at his footing as he stepped onto the floating ice fragments, continuing his escape.
The Humpback Whale who had fallen into the water suddenly changed expression: “All non-virus ability users, stay away from the water! It’s poisoned!”
Having said this, he himself dove straight in, relying on his powerful physique to resist the toxins as he swiftly swam toward the two rescuers who had gone to save Zhang Zikun and unexpectedly been poisoned.
……
……
After reaching shore, Rutherford quickly disappeared into the forest.
This was a hunting ground frequented by the wealthy—so vast that one could film a wilderness survival series here, or even get lost and die. Every year, many also chose it as a dumping ground for murder victims.
It was much quieter behind him now, with no pursuers in sight. Perhaps one of his layered abilities had taken effect.
The last color Zhang Zikun had shown him was the modified deep red… This wasn’t over yet.
He dug a bullet out from his chest. Thanks to Zhang Zikun and his bulletproof vest—combined with his own robust physique—he had only suffered blunt trauma to his muscles.
Next came the probabilities: a 50% chance the enforcers could spare personnel to pursue him, if they did pursue, a 50% chance they wouldn’t find him, and if they did find him…
A crushing force suddenly weighed down on him. Already weakened by poison and strenuous activity, Rutherford dropped to his knees, coughing up blood.
The pressure intensified rapidly, pressing his entire body into the damp earth as his organs strained under the compression.
“You didn’t even consider whether someone might be lying in ambush here, did you?” Yiwen—who had actually gotten lost chasing the fake head—said this purely to save face.
Where even was this? She had no idea. What was up with the comms officer? Sent her after a head and she wound up ambushing the Red Prince? Where was the head? Not a trace of it.
This wasn’t her job, but now that she’d stumbled into it, she couldn’t just walk away.
The comms officer was equally baffled, never expecting such a coincidence.
Yiwen studied Rutherford with frustration. “Is your constitution just that good, or is the soil here too soft? This much pressure still hasn’t crushed you to death.”
Rutherford tried pushing himself up—with difficulty—while secretly activating his ability on Yiwen.
“You’re White Whale, right? I’ve heard of you.”
“White Whale, don’t give him a chance to struggle. Terminate him immediately,” the comms officer ordered.
No more surprises could be allowed.
“I know.”
Though she hadn’t witnessed her colleagues’ earlier misfires and incompetent marksmanship, the comms officer and the Ninja had described the horrors of six years ago. A chance to capture the Red Prince was once-in-a-lifetime.
Maybe sheer luck had brought her here. Which meant—crap. By the law of equivalent exchange, her gacha luck would be ruined for months.
Oh well. She’d let Mi Xiaoliu do all her pulls for the next month. Once her luck returned, she’d pull for herself again.
Yiwen had killed criminals before—not with a gun, but with the most basic projectiles.
Under her ability’s enhancement, even an ordinary tennis ball could pierce straight through a muscular man’s body. This was also why she didn’t carry a firearm, any random object she threw hit harder than a bullet.
At six meters, she didn’t even need a projectile to kill.
The most reliable attack—one that couldn’t be dodged—was her ability itself.
The soft soil and Rutherford’s trained body meant ordinary pressure might not finish him.
First, Yiwen used her ability to deflect all forces acting on herself, ensuring nothing could suddenly knock her away.
Back during ability testing, when the examiner had absurdly asked if she could manipulate atoms, an idea had occurred to her. It was also why she never reflected all forces acting on her body.
Moreover, because it was too brutal, she’d never tested it on other criminals—not even the “despicable” Black-Clothed One.
But for scum who enjoyed killing children…
Rutherford sensed something amiss. “Wait—I know about your father’s whereab—a”
Blood reversed its flow.
At the word “father,” Yiwen hesitated slightly—but her ability didn’t stop.
If anything, she accelerated it, eliminating any chance of mishaps.
“Go to hell and tally your sins.” Yiwen watched as blood erupted from his facial orifices, her eyes glowing an eerie red.
Everyone participating in this operation had prepared to sacrifice. She couldn’t afford to falter over personal matters and risk catastrophe.
Ten seconds. Twenty. He seemed dead already, yet Yiwen didn’t relent, relentlessly ravaging his vascular system.
Only after two full minutes did she finally cease this posthumous brutality.
“That’s it?” The comms officer was dumbfounded.
This was a demon who should’ve gone down in history.
But no matter how infamous or significant, no one could dictate their death. Reality wasn’t a manga—no dramatic or poignant finales guaranteed.
Yiwen approached, flipping the prone Red Prince onto his back—then frowned.
He was… smiling?
In his final moments, he’d smiled? Why?
Self-mockery?
The smile was too twisted for Yiwen to decipher its meaning.
Had the Red Prince been able to speak at that moment, he would have told her in his usual tone: “Predestined fate cannot be defied. Since my fate was colored red, true death cannot come.”
Still unconvinced, Yiwen drew the dagger she always carried but never used from her waist, plunging it several times into his heart before stabbing his throat five or six more times.
This deranged overkill made the communications officer seriously question her mental state.
Only after mutilating him into something that would haunt her nightmares did Yiwen finally stand up.
But then her vision swam, as if she’d gone a full day of military training without water before suddenly standing up from a crouch.
Sensing something was wrong, Yiwen clutched her head and looked for support – just as a child-sized fake head came floating down the stream.
“Goddammit! I searched everywhere for you, and now you show up on your own?”
This small stream had been dug by wilderness survival streamers, fed by river water that occasionally carried floating debris or even fish into it.
While brutalizing the Red Prince’s corpse, Yiwen had accidentally stepped into the shallow stream with one foot. Her boots weren’t waterproof, and the virus immediately infected her through her exposed skin.
So many coincidences – this was likely the Red Prince’s final death throes.
At least she’d killed him. Between the violently reversed blood flow and those brutal stab wounds, not even a god could bring him back now.
As she lost consciousness, she vaguely saw an owl watching her from a tree branch – just another ordinary sight in these woods.
Simultaneously, the camera and earpiece on her chest shattered to pieces.
“Damn, with such powerful abilities, he died so simply,” remarked a buzzcut man in a plain T-shirt who arrived on the scene. He picked Yiwen up and propped her against a tree.
“His soul hasn’t dispersed yet,” said an androgynous electronic voice over the phone.
“Still intact after all this time? Did you bug-save him or something?” The man kicked the Red Prince’s corpse in annoyance.
“Revive him,” the voice commanded.
“Come on, don’t joke around. You know how much I hate him,” the man spat on Rutherford’s body. “Do you understand what violently reversed blood flow means? Let me send you a photo of his corpse – stabbed to within an inch of dismemberment. That girl went harder than I would have.”
“Revive him atom by atom. His ability is still useful. If necessary, I’ll let you kill him for fun later,” the voice placated before turning stern. “I’ll overlook you leaking organization intel to Little Demon King this time. Don’t let it happen again.”
“Fine, fine. Hope he doesn’t hold a grudge, or I might just embed him in the moon,” the man muttered as he picked up Rutherford. “Sorry, Mute. Sorry, Old Oka.”
Like a miracle, Rutherford’s wounds began healing inexplicably.
It seemed his fifty-fifty fate odds were still in his favor.
The buzzcut man removed Rutherford’s belt and tossed it aside – it was lined with memory cards.
Then he lifted Rutherford off the ground and reached toward Yiwen.
An invisible force erupted from Yiwen, flattening the entire forest like a divine judgment to cover Rutherford’s disappearance.
Only Yiwen and the tree she leaned against remained standing – alone an anomaly in the now-barren landscape.
[Translator’s Note: See the index page for this Novel if you want to see the Amazon Link for the eBooks.]
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