Chapter 266
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Chapter 266: Master of Bone Setting
The pain from shattered bones is unbearable for most people. Not everyone, like Wang Xiao, has developed a strange habit of getting used to losing limbs.
The man’s groans echoed softly within a small area as he tried to contain his cries.
However, the short man’s sneeze still inevitably triggered the alarm.
“Who’s there?!”
Suddenly, shouts from the guards echoed from a distance, followed by two beams of light shining in their direction.
The factory was filled with the chaotic sounds of footsteps, bouncing bullets, and the noise of dragging heavy objects.
When the two guards finally pointed their guns and flashlights at the targets, they found the tall and short men standing in an unremarkable open space.
In the next second, the two men quickly sank down, disappearing from their sight.
The young guard fired a few shots at the ground and then started rubbing his eyes.
The older guard seemed unfazed, calmly holstering his gun and stepping aside, lost in thought.
“Captain, was that… superpowers?”
“What do you think?”
“Such an impressive ability…”
The young guard was still reminiscing about the recent experience.
“You mean, how many superpowered individuals are there in Hope City?”
“How would I know? I remember hearing some important people mention during a security mission that the probability of humans awakening superpowers is about two to three per thousand.”
“Sigh, why isn’t it me?”
“Keep an open mind; it’s not easy being a superpowered individual.”
The older guard felt he should be holding something instructive while educating the younger one, but due to resource control, he could only explain dryly:
“The awakening of superpowers is random. Some abilities aren’t even practical.
“Those suited for combat are usually reassigned, while the rest are allocated to factories, so for many superpowered individuals, their abilities just allow them to earn a bit more.
“Our current job isn’t bad; we have food and provisions. In situations like this, just firing a couple of shots is sufficient.”
The young man reflected on the Captain’s words, his expression brightening slightly:
“Captain, do you mean that since it was a superpowered individual committing the crime, our mistake today isn’t that serious?”
“Sigh.”
The Captain lowered his head and sighed:
“Pay will be deducted, a report must be written, and if we can’t protect it, there will be an investigation. But at least we’re alive.”
Hearing about a pile of hassles waiting for him, the young guard’s face fell.
Noticing the obvious change in the younger man, the Captain said lightly:
“Better than being dead; otherwise, you’d be honest after a couple of shots.”
“……”
In the sewer, El looked at the grimacing Li Rui and asked,
“How is it? The smell inside the factory is a bit pungent; that’s my fault, sorry.”
At that moment, One-Armed Blade was sitting on the iron box they had just stolen, meticulously realigning his bones in the darkness.
The pain from this process was even more intense than the blow he had endured, but the mere thought of the alternative—where a certain doctor would resort to angle grinder therapy—spurred Li Rui to persevere.
The most terrifying thing in the world is not torture, but a treatment masquerading as torture, where one feels worse than death yet understands it’s a necessary step, inflicting an even deeper psychological blow.
Li Rui wasn’t sure if El had grasped this, but he certainly had. Since that epiphany, he had never asked El for treatment again.
The entire process took several minutes, with Li Rui correcting a few already healed but misshapen areas on his own.
He stood up, grimacing, signaling that he had finished the treatment.
El didn’t say much and began leading Li Rui through the sewer.
Over the past few decades, with the help of superpowered individuals skilled in digging and manipulating dirt and stones, Hope City had expanded and constructed a functional sewer system.
The only catch was that this was a privilege of the inner city.
For most people, including peace officers and the Internal Affairs Clean-up Team, the sewers and the deeper underground farms and ranches were places they might never set foot in during their lifetimes.
El had used his ability, Dimensional Shift, to roughly map out the sewer system of the inner city, and in the past few weeks, he and his partner had embarked on a spree of thefts.
While sketching the sewer layout, El realized he couldn’t approach the very center of the inner city.
There seemed to be an invisible yet powerful repulsion between him and that area, preventing him from getting close even in his dimensional state.
Thus, in his hand-drawn plans, the innermost part of the inner city remained blank, devoid of any markings.
Contrary to Li Rui’s expectations, the sewer wasn’t as foul-smelling as he had imagined.
Perhaps due to thoughtful planning, while there was sewage and unpleasant odors, it didn’t pile up like a mountain or flow incessantly…
Amid the sound of dripping water, Li Rui asked his boss,
“Boss, the things we’ve been stealing lately are getting stranger… I could barely understand the instructions before, and now…”
El, who was equally clueless, replied with a mix of exasperation and resignation,
“That’s precisely why we’re needed. Why do you care so much?”
Li Rui pondered for a moment and decided to remain silent. After his previous experience of luring the young, overweight man, he had come to suspect that his boss might have another superior.
Now, their actions were likely being directed by that individual.
But he chose to play dumb.
El was at least someone he could communicate with, but the one who had severed the fat man’s arm in an instant, shrouded in chaos, was hard to classify as human. It was even more difficult to bypass his boss to interact with that entity.
Attempting to lighten the mood, Li Rui tentatively asked,
“Boss, how many more of these tasks do we have? As you know, we used to be assassins, and I’m still adjusting to this change. After all, you’re the famous ‘Heart Snatcher’…”
In the darkness, a pair of puzzled eyes turned to Li Rui,
“Is that so? If I recall correctly, aren’t you the Heart Snatcher?”
Li Rui felt as though he had been struck hard, his mind suddenly crystal clear.
He remembered that it was he who bore the Wanted Notice, he who was both revered and reviled in the rumors, loved and hated by the peace officers, with no connection to the young man before him.
“Since you miss those days so much, I think it’s time to introduce something new.”
“What?”
“Hmph, did you know that while exploring the sewer, I discovered some… outposts?”
