Chapter 37
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Chapter 37: Don’t Make a Move Without Strength
El tore away the caution tape and seal at the entrance of Bard’s home and rushed inside.
It was the late hours of the night, and there were no officers stationed in Bard’s house.
El quickly made his way to the operating room of the black market doctor, Bard.
This was a relatively spacious room, with an operating table in the center and a mess of medication cabinets placed haphazardly around.
Realizing he had reached a dead end, El turned and leaned against the window of the operating room, watching as the figure in black approached him closer and closer.
The person was nearly six feet tall, dressed in a solid black coat, and wore a black mask that obscured his face.
The figure had retraced his steps and noticed that half a vial was missing, likely dropped accidentally while on the move.
Initially, he hadn’t thought much of it, but who would have expected that the surrounded public security captain had not perished under the chase of dozens?
"A bunch of useless fools!"
After learning this, the figure in black tossed and turned in bed for half the night, eventually putting on his coat and mask and starting work again.
There was no choice; this public security captain, transferred from the inner city, indeed had extraordinary observational skills, and once Dr. Bard’s autopsy report came out, she would surely return to investigate.
Unexpectedly, after only five minutes of searching, the figure detected the sneaky little brat.
Seeing that El had nowhere to run, he stepped closer, cornering the silver-haired boy against the wall.
Medical instruments clattered down from the cabinets, making an irritating noise.
Grabbing El by the collar, the gaunt youth was lifted directly off the ground.
"Hand over the vial!"
El gritted his teeth and remained silent.
He possessed great power, but it was not easily applicable in an ambush situation.
The heart model was indeed in his bag; if only he could get to it…
"Hand it over!"
The figure in black applied more pressure, causing El to feel weak. The backpack on his shoulder slid down, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.
“Give it to me!”
El struggled to breathe, his face turning red as he stammered a response to the figure in black:
"What… vial…? I… can read, very little."
The figure in black, furious, laughed in anger, releasing El, who collapsed to the ground, and leaned down to search the boy’s pockets.
Soon, he struck gold.
Bathed in the bright moonlight filtering through the window, the figure happily pocketed the half-broken vial.
This was exactly what he wanted.
Looking at the near-lifeless El in front of him, the figure in black grinned:
"Now, for your last lesson before you die."
He pulled out a syringe and two vials from his pocket, crushing them in front of El and drawing the liquid into the syringe.
The figure in black held the syringe at the most effective angle and said with a hint of pleasure,
"This is how you use this thing."
Without needing to say much more, El knew that the syringe contained nothing good.
A wave of fear washed over him.
Perhaps he was still too young and too impulsive.
He only wanted revenge, to make some bad people pay. Was there anything wrong with that?
At the brink of death, El did not think of his father, who had abandoned his family and thrown him into dire circumstances, but instead recalled the many meals he had scavenged at the mental health clinic over the past two months and his increasingly skilled noodle-making abilities.
"Ah, what a pity it can only go this far…"
El’s unsteady right hand brushed against something cold.
It seemed to be…
a sealed syringe.
A final gift from Dr. Bard.
El gripped the syringe tightly with all his strength, carefully opening the seal and removing the needle cover.
He aimed to make the two syringes as similar as possible, always planning to activate his power to exchange the items in both their hands.
But he knew he had only one chance, so he must wait for the right moment to strike.
When was the right moment?
Feeling the syringe puncture the side of his neck and even start injecting, El realized this was the only opportunity.
【Approximate Exchange】!
His power activated successfully, the syringe with half the liquid switched to El’s hand, while the brand-new syringe was inserted into his neck.
The figure in black felt his hand grow weak, and when he glanced over, he found that the syringe was empty and not the same as his.
In an instant, his brain started racing. What was happening?
Was it superpowers?
Superpowers?
An exchange?
The heart?
"You are the ‘Heart Snatcher’!"
The figure in black’s shout echoed clearly in the dark night. Before he could react further, he suddenly felt a familiar sharp pain in his neck.
El smiled as he raised his right hand and drove a needle into the man’s neck, forcing the remaining half vial of liquid inside.
"Wha—?"
The figure in black was completely stunned. He reached up to feel his neck and quickly pulled out the syringe.
Confirming that it was the one he had just used, he swiftly pulled out a more advanced glass vial from another pocket.
This was a drug sealed in a glass tube, and unlike the previous vial, this one had a retractable needle built in.
This was a premium product only available in the inner city, and the cautious figure in black had stored an antidote to prevent situations like this from arising.
He touched the sensor area at the end of the glass tube with his right hand, and the needle smoothly extended.
He raised his right hand and plunged it into the other side of his neck, waiting for the pressurized air inside to push the liquid into his body.
But at that moment, he felt a difference in the sensations in his hand once again.
The figure in black quickly pulled out the antidote, only to see he was holding the syringe that the gray-haired brat had just exchanged.
"What? Where’s my antidote…?"
The man felt a rush of heat flood his brain; as his instincts triggered his soul-searching question, El had already securely plunged the advanced syringe filled with antidote into his own neck.
"Whirr~"
The subtle sound of compressed air pushing the piston and liquid echoed as El pulled the empty syringe away from his neck.
He provocatively turned his neck and smiled, waving the advanced syringe in front of the figure in black.
From the moment the figure in black first injected to the final loss of the antidote, the whole process lasted less than ten seconds.
But in those few seconds, the balance of victory had tilted.
The figure in black already felt a wave of weakness washing over him, and his breathing reached a point where he had to consciously exert himself just to maintain it.
No one understood better than him what was in those two vials:
muscle relaxants and blood flow stimulants.
The only antidote had already entered that kid’s body. Watching El’s expression shift from slight discomfort to relief, the figure in black shot up from the ground.
His body swayed as he pointed a trembling finger at El’s forehead, uttering his desperate last words:
"You brat, I cnm!"
