Chapter 179

Chapter 179: The Perfect Organism (Two-In-One)

“Multitool?” The governor, who had just finished dinner, stared in surprise at the red-haired woman who wore no facial disguise.  

He had assumed it was Tian Xing Dao—someone with a personal grudge against him.  

Not that he had switched from the fastest aerial route to ground travel out of fear. With so many LV4 bodyguards around him, no ragtag group of criminals stood a chance. The detour was just a spontaneous decision to observe Sunshine City’s development firsthand—the 24-hour drive was simply to avoid keeping his hosts waiting while he surveyed the area.  

“Humpback Whale provided the intel, but we can’t confirm its accuracy. It’s just speculation.” The redhead adjusted her glasses. “Multitool can alter his appearance and has exceptional acting skills. Theoretically, any ordinary person you meet could be him.”  

Once, Wei Shi had spent an entire day impersonating a sadistic maid at the home of a high-ranking official. Neither the official nor his twin sister noticed anything amiss.  

Some of that came from prior research, but most of it was raw acting talent—habits, personality, preferences, speech patterns—details even some professional actors couldn’t replicate flawlessly.  

Who’d suspect that a smirking, dark-humored maid was actually a grumpy middle-aged man in disguise?  

To prove her identity, the redhead placed a hand on a glass of water, forming a layer of ice crystals across its surface.  

Then she turned to the petite figure beside her—a person wearing a thick cotton mask despite the summer heat, their breath fogging up their frameless glasses with every exhale.  

She pulled a die from her pocket, cupped it between her hands like a dice shaker, and gave it two light shakes.  

“What’s the number?”  

“Three,” the figure answered without hesitation.  

She checked, then shook it again. “Now?”  

“One.”  

A third shake. “And now?”  

“It didn’t move.”  

“Good.”  

Only a precognitive instinct ability user could detect impersonators—but this particular precog had excused himself twice today for solo bathroom trips. There was a chance he had been replaced too.  

Thanks to abilities like his, lottery tickets now required ID—precogs were banned from purchasing them.  

“I recommend leaving immediately. Ever since we picked up that stranded girl, I’ve had a bad feeling.” That said, the premonition wasn’t about Yiwen—which was why they hadn’t refused her request for help.  

“Latest intel suggests the Black-Clothed One is likely one of Multitool’s subordinates, and…” The redhead paused, thinking for two seconds. “The kidnapped boy, Mi Xiaoliu, is probably that same Black-Clothed One.”  

When she’d informed Sunshine City HQ that Mi Xiaoliu was likely female, Officer Chen—who’d been on the call—had immediately drawn that conclusion. And now, with Mi Xiaoliu coincidentally appearing here, it was hard not to suspect she was involved in the assassination plot.  

Things had just gotten more complicated. Old Chen also mentioned that Mi Xiaoliu was someone Lady Lasvedo had taken an interest in.  

“Local police have been alerted to track Xiaoliu, but so far, nothing. Worse, the girl we rescued isn’t at the hotel anymore—no one knows where she went…”  

Even if she spent three days thinking about it, she couldn’t unravel how these people were connected so intricately.  

“I’ll have someone investigate them immediately.” A pudgy young man with narrow eyes—the governor’s nephew, Liu Longfei—pulled out his phone.  

As the young deputy director of the intelligence bureau, he was here mainly to gain experience—a career boost. Otherwise, someone from his department wouldn’t normally tag along on a governor’s tour.  

“Let’s get in the car first.” The precog sounded urgent.  

His tone was a bit sharp, earning him a glare from Liu Longfei.  

“Get in.” The governor patted his shoulder.  

As they returned to their vehicles, a young beggar approached, asking for travel money—claiming his luggage and phone had been stolen while working out of town.  

The precog assessed him: No threat. Doesn’t seem to be lying.  

But this time, the governor ignored him.  

The redhead resumed her seat in the passenger side, while the uniformed man returned to the driver’s seat.  

“I thought you’d help him, like you did that girl earlier. Trying to minimize stops?”  

“Yes. The longer we stay, the riskier it gets.” The governor nodded.  

The precog in the back seat glanced at him through fogged glasses. His instincts said the governor wasn’t being entirely truthful—but it wasn’t worth pressing over such a trivial topic.  

The truth was simpler: The governor just didn’t feel like it.  

Maybe the beggar wasn’t as pitiful as Yiwen had been. Maybe, in a populated town, he could ask others for help. Or maybe he just wasn’t as likable…  

Small reasons—ones even the governor couldn’t be bothered to examine.

The adult world was never so simple—helping one person didn’t mean he’d help every unfortunate soul he encountered.  

The motorcade resumed its journey. The drivers took turns resting, but as the night deepened, staying awake became difficult for everyone—except the governor’s driver, who remained unchanged, as if he didn’t need sleep.  

Not long after the governor had dozed off, the precognitive ability user beside him suddenly grabbed the walkie-talkie:  

“They’re coming. An attack within ten minutes. No more than ten people, all ability users.”  

“We’ve already contacted the local Superhuman Police for backup—”  

“Don’t bother. They’re tied up.” The precog cut him off.  

Wei Shi had sent most of his hired mercenaries to cause chaos near the police station—over a hundred heavily armed men, not there to kill but to keep the feds too busy to intervene.  

The usually secure citizens of Sunshine City were getting a taste of what life was like in Fanzui City—though they definitely weren’t handling it as calmly as Fanzui residents would.  

Guess Sunshine City folks just have weak nerves. Most of them have never even seen a corpse.  

“There’s a sniper targeting the fuel tanks!” the precog warned again. “And RPGs. The back half of the bridge ahead has been rigged with explosives by an ability user.”  

“Drive straight through. Ignore all attacks.” The driver, dressed in a Superhuman Police uniform, commanded over the walkie-talkie.  

Every driver obeyed without hesitation.  

First came the sniper round—accelerated twice mid-flight to increase kinetic energy before striking the fuel tank with pinpoint accuracy.  

Then speedboats closed in from below the bridge, their crews firing RPGs at the motorcade. The once-bustling bridge instantly turned into a death trap.  

These freelance mercenaries from outside the Federation will do anything for the right price.  

Yet despite the barrage, the vehicles remained unscathed.  

Then the bridge detonated.  

Amid the flames, the cars didn’t even budge. As the bridge collapsed, they drove forward as if on an invisible road.  

“So noisy.” The governor rubbed his eyes. “Are we there yet?”  

“No. You can sleep for another two hours.” The driver replied calmly.  

Meanwhile, any mercenary who got too close—whether visible or not—suddenly experienced a rapid drop in body temperature. Then, the sunroof of the rear car opened, and a sniper leaned out.  

Sniping from a moving vehicle? You’ve got to be kidding!  

The enemy sniper barely dodged the shot by boosting his own speed, then ducked behind cover to report:  

“First strike team wiped out. Boss, should we pull some men from Group B? No way that qigong-user can tank sustained bombardment.”  

“No. Send the rest to keep the feds busy. You go too.” Wei Shi’s voice came through, slightly garbled.  

“Got it.” The sniper exhaled in relief.  

This mission is insane.  

Just as everyone in the cars relaxed, the precog suddenly shuddered:  

“There’s something underwater—no, not a person. Something dangerous. It’s coming!”  

—  

“Mr. Humpback Whale, slow down~ Change positions~ I can’t take it!”  

Humpback Whale was too intense. Enoch had never experienced anything this exhilarating in his life—he was already rolling his eyes.  

Rules were rigid, but people were flexible. After some persuasion, the police captain—mostly out of deference to Officer Chen—relented and told Humpback Whale the governor’s direction.  

But even at Humpback Whale’s speed, they wouldn’t arrive until early morning. So the captain assigned Enoch to accompany him—partly as a monitor.  

Enoch was a viral-type ability user, but his specialization was singular: stimulants.  

Why was his codename Black Spider while he wore a Venom-themed suit? Because he wanted to.  

He could convert his exhaled breath into performance-enhancing drugs, drastically boosting physical strength, recovery, speed, reflexes, and even cognitive function.  

Take himself, for example—normally an out-of-shape teen, but under his own ability’s effects, he could temporarily match someone like Hayato Shigenobu, albeit still “frail” by comparison.  

But that alone wasn’t why he’d been granted an exception for recruitment. What impressed the higher-ups was his ability’s sustainability.  

Most stamina-boosting abilities came at the cost of severe physical strain, allowing only short bursts. Enoch, however, could keep an average adult at peak performance for an entire day—even enabling feats like punching through solid walls though the bones would shatter too.  

The risk of sudden death was minimal, and the only side effect was sleeping for nearly 24 hours afterward.  

Most conveniently, he could even stabilize critically injured individuals long enough for proper treatment.  

That was for normal adults. If the subject was already weak, the enhancement had limits. But applied to an LV4 like Humpback Whale?  

Terrifying.  

Being carried at high speed over Humpback Whale’s shoulder was an experience Enoch couldn’t quantify. The scenery blurred past, and speaking was only possible thanks to his reinforced suit.  

It felt like his body was moving while his soul lagged behind, his stomach jolting violently with each stride of Humpback Whale’s massive frame.  

The howling wind made it hard to hear even with his mask, but Humpback Whale’s voice rumbled through:  

“Doesn’t feel faster than my usual pace, but I’m not tired. Kid, you’re good. Ever thought about transferring to Fanzui City? Partner with me—no approval needed, instant promotion and raise.”  

Without hesitation, Humpback Whale shifted positions, cradling Enoch like a baby.  

Mortifying? Yes. But far more comfortable than being a human sack of potatoes.  

“Uh… isn’t that a bit inappropriate?”  

Enoch already had a partner—another physical enhancement-type. But because his buffs lasted so long, he’d just boost his partner during critical missions before splitting up, since he couldn’t keep up with their speed anyway.  

After that, his job mostly involved rushing to emergency scenes to assist with wounded—essentially just a glorified tool.  

That’s why, even when he’d recognized the Black-Clothed One at a glance last time, he hadn’t dared to act. Because he’d lose.  

Besides, hitting a girl wasn’t right anyway—especially one that pretty. She was as beautiful as Jingyin… Bah! My heart belongs to Jingyin alone!  

“Sorry, Mr. Humpback Whale, I can’t accept it. The girl I like just went missing in this city—I have to find her.” Enoch declined politely, his mood growing heavier.  

Has Jingyin been kidnapped? Was she hurt?  

Every second she was gone felt like a knife twisting in his chest.  

“Oh? Fine. We’ll talk after you find her.”  

“Mr. Humpback Whale, this might be rude, but… you still want to help Multitool, don’t you? With a precognitive ability user around, I don’t see how he could kill the governor, no matter what tricks he uses.”  

Even his signature shapeshifting would be useless.  

“Why does everyone think that? That kid doesn’t need to play dirty.”  

“Huh?” Enoch was lost.  

“About three years ago, I ran into a criminal in Fanzui City. His ability was bizarre—like nothing I’d ever seen. I lost to him, but he spared me.” Humpback Whale grinned savagely. “Back then, I couldn’t figure it out. Now I know—it had to be Wei Shi.”  

“Two months ago, I lost to him again. Mostly because I thought I was fighting the Black-Clothed One, so I was too focused on guarding against spatial abilities. That time, I got outmaneuvered because I was careless. But three years ago? He beat me head-on with pure ability.”  

“Then, a month ago, Little Demon King uncovered an Easter branch in Fanzui City… You probably don’t know Easter—it’s a shady human experimentation group. They blew up their base to destroy evidence, but thanks to Little Demon King’s ability, we salvaged some minor research files. About ability evolution.”  

Superhuman abilities could evolve as their power grew—even undergoing qualitative leaps.  

Take New Moon, once hailed as the strongest physical ability user. His power was the same as Yiwen’s—manipulating “force”—but he’d advanced to controlling atoms.  

The entire Federation’s researchers were stunned. Beyond how he did it, they wondered: How does Riels perceive atoms? He can’t see them, yet he heals wounds at the atomic level.  

Easter’s assessment? His ability had evolved. He didn’t just control force—he could sense the motion of all things.  

Logically, it still fell under “force,” but some Easter researchers argued it was a second ability—a fusion enabling his evolution.  

Sounds ridiculous, since everyone knows post-adolescents rarely awaken new abilities—like how people stop growing taller.  

Then there was Humpback Whale’s other question. Why would Wei Shi, already LV4, gamble his life on a mediocre ability drug?  

At first, he’d assumed it was because Wei Shi’s cover being blown got his family killed, leaving him too traumatized to live as himself.  

Maybe that was part of it. But remembering the man who spared him three years ago, Humpback Whale had a new theory.  

What if Wei Shi took the drug to merge a new ability with his original one—forcing an artificial evolution? Unlike Riels’ natural awakening, he’d used external means.  

“Kid, ever heard of the Perfect Organism?”  

Enoch: “…Kars-sama?”  

—  

Meanwhile, the moment the precog warned them, the redhead rapidly heated the water’s surface.  

Too late.  

A shadow—invisible without light—rippled beneath the water. Then the surface began churning violently—not from boiling.  

A monstrous shape, defying physics, erupted from the depths. Twenty meters long, radiating suffocating pressure, its gaping maw descended upon the invisible bridge’s motorcade.  

It resembled Livyatan melvillei, the prehistoric apex predator—but this wasn’t the ocean, and no whale could leap like this.  

The qigong user frowned. “You take the wheel.”  

“Wai—”  

Before the redhead could protest, he leapt from the car, bounding midair toward the beast. Invisible energy wreathed his fists as he drove a punch straight into its vulnerable eye.  

His fist met resistance—like striking solid metal. A blow that could pierce reinforced steel halted on impact.  

But qigong’s true power wasn’t brute force—it ravaged targets from within.  

The whale flinched—then unleashed a surge of high-voltage electricity.  

Even shielded by qi, the qigong user stiffened like a fool who’d grabbed a live wire.  

The man—and the qi-shielded car—plummeted from the air bridge.

[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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