"Let’s just stay here. Once you’ve obtained the information I need, I’ll let you go," Zheng Yichen said to the woman by the riverbank as he took out his fishing rod. The woman, still sowhat questioning her life choices, responded with a dull ’oh’ upon hearing his words.
Then she stared blankly at the device in her hand.
Zheng Yichen cast his line into the river twice. The scenery here was quite pleasant, and the fish... After two unsuccessful attempts, Zheng Yichen stealthily rubbed normal bait onto the homade bait he had crafted with his blood.
The black-haired woman’s attention was drawn back by a loud splash. She watched incredulously as Zheng Yichen pulled up a nearly two-ter-long fish: "Why is there a titan fish here?"
Such fish have a considerable impact on the river’s ecological environnt, and more critically, this creature’s adaptability is extrely strong. It can survive in both saltwater and freshwater.
The one Zheng Yichen had caught was still a juvenile titan fish.
"So, can this thing be eaten?" Zheng Yichen asked while looking at the fierce fish.
"Uh, generally, it’s edible." The giant fish, struggling in the water, was dragged onto the shore. It continued to thrash, its tail leaving a noticeable dent in the ground. After Zheng Yichen shot it in the head with a gun, the fish finally cald down.
"You’re too violent," the woman said speechlessly as she watched Zheng Yichen swiftly finish off the fish. She had rely ntioned that the fish was edible, not expecting him to act so decisively.
"Anyway, leaving the fish here would just damage the ecosystem."
"So, you know about this stuff?"
"With sothing this big in the river, could there be any other predators?" Zheng Yichen put away his phone, which he had been using to snap multiple pictures of himself while fishing. Honestly, he felt young and had not yet been to the world of Hazy City; otherwise, if he rode back, he’d surely get lost and end up being flagged down by the traffic police multiple tis.
After checking the fish, he noted its scales were incredibly thick. When he poked them with a dagger, there was a clear clinking sound.
After skewing the fish on a thick stick, Zheng Yichen rubbed his hands together and swiftly plucked all the scales off. Holding one up to the light, he observed that besides being sturdy, the scales were sowhat translucent.
If layered, they could stop small caliber bullets without much issue, suitable for use in bulletproof vests. For a fish like this to have natural enemies in the water, those predators would need to have extrely sharp teeth.
If the creature had been any larger, even sharks would be inferior to it. This was Zheng Yichen’s conclusion after examining the fish’s mouth—its teeth were also very sharp.
"Does this fish have so many bones?"
After processing the fish, Zheng Yichen couldn’t help comnting. It reminded him of earth’s scavengers, all bone with very little at. Despite the fish’s large size, there wasn’t much at after it was cleaned.
It was practically all bone!
"This is only its juvenile size. Wait until it’s fully grown, and you’ll see how difficult it is to handle. What’s more, the at of this fish isn’t as tasty as one might expect," the woman said casually.
Zheng Yichen prepared a piece of the fish at and checked it carefully. The blood-hued inner force cultivated by a Blood Asura could be useful at a ti like this; a quick scan would reveal any parasites within the at. Once he confird there were none, he seasoned it and after tasting it, agreed with the woman by his side—it really wasn’t very tasty.
It was too chewy when raw.
"You..." Watching Zheng Yichen eat the raw, tasteless fish and then directly grill it over a high fla, the woman was sowhat speechless: "You really aren’t picky."
"As long as the at isn’t poisonous and fills you up, it’s good enough," Zheng Yichen replied as he grilled the at, sprinkling it with spices and mixing sauces on the side. The woman couldn’t help but swallow her saliva. Regardless of the taste of the titan fish, being called not tasty was only relative to other seafood.
It wasn’t so bad that it was inedible.
And the sauces Zheng Yichen concocted slled really good. She quickly overlooked the nonsensical aspects of his phone and sat opposite him, waiting for the fish to cook.
As the sunset appeared, the woman couldn’t help rubbing her stomach, having eaten a bit too much. She glanced at the huge fish skeleton hanging nearby. Aside from the inedible parts, the edible portions had been mostly devoured by the two of them. Regardless of how little at the titan fish had, as a juvenile, it was still a two-ter-long fish.
And they had eaten it clean?
"We’re really quite sothing."
Zheng Yichen glanced at the woman; she wasn’t very old, about twenty, and after getting familiar with him, she had beco much less vigilant.
"Let correct you, it’s who’s impressive, hurry up and get to work." After having his fill, Zheng Yichen began to urge her on.
The woman rolled her eyes and took out the equipnt she carried with her, and started to work. Zheng Yichen noticed that from the beginning to the end she always consciously or unconsciously protected the box she carried.
Truthfully, he was already wary of such secretive boxes; it was after unlocking sothing similar that he had beco a Proxy Agent, unable to even beco a Dusk rcenary if he wanted to.
The woman, engrossed in work, operated swiftly on the screen that projected from the device. Zheng Yichen leaned over for a look but soon lost interest; watching that thing was less appealing to him than reading a novel.
He found an open space and focused on practicing his martial arts. The energy level of this world was high, and although the intensity level was not enough, which ant that the cultivation of the Blood Asura couldn’t completely enhance his physique, it was still good for increasing his inner strength. As for improving his physique, he would wait until he found a more suitable world in the future.
The cultivation of martial arts like the Blood Asura had significant environntal requirents, needing not only a high energy level but also a considerable intensity level.
"..." The woman quietly watched Zheng Yichen practice his art, noticing the faint ’blood mist’ that erged from his body. Her gaze fell on the projection screen in front of her, and she casually pulled up an extra small projection window, searching for the information she wanted.
The Compendium of Modern Special Abilities; Special Ability Users in this world weren’t rare. So people were born with abilities, while others acquired special skills through later developnt.
Abilities like controlling fire or water were quite common, and within the sa category of abilities, there were many subdivisions. For example, so fire controllers could only produce flas in the form of explosions, while others could generate stable flas but lacked sufficient explosive power.
The special ability that Zheng Yichen demonstrated was sothing she had never seen before; it wasn’t the exceedingly rare lightning or another kind of force. The blood-hued mist gave off an uneasy feeling, sowhat sinister.
She didn’t find a similar ability in the recorded information. There were related ones, though; so Special Ability Users could influence blood. Was Zheng Yichen’s ability a type related to blood?
"What’s wrong?" In the evening, Zheng Yichen noticed that the woman had oddly distanced herself from him, which puzzled him. He hadn’t done anything to her, had he?
"Your... Your special ability has to do with blood, right?" After hesitating for a mont, the woman asked. Zheng Yichen hadn’t concealed his practice, and she saw directly, so she figured it was okay to ask.
"That’s not a special ability; it’s martial arts, and it has a bit to do with blood." Zheng Yichen lifted his finger, and a wisp of blood-hued inner force erged in the form of a blood mist. Then, the wisp of blood mist solidified, forming a small blood blade that he flicked out, leaving a not-so-shallow mark on the ground.
"Martial arts? Like those, ha-ha-ha-hi-ya kind?" The woman expressed interest, gesturing with her hands. Zheng Yichen nodded, understanding from her reaction that this world had martial arts novels and even related movies.
"It’s slightly different." In the world of the Battle Maniac Asura, martial arts techniques were important, but the display of martial arts in that world was too powerful, with spells and such—calling it close to Immortality Cultivation wasn’t too far off.
"So what kind of magic power is it that you’re practicing?"
"..." You’ve read quite a few novels, huh, girl; quite knowledgeable: "You could say that. Are you scared now?"
The woman hesitated, then shook her head: "I think it depends on the person. I’ve witnessed so tragedies brought by Special Ability Users related to blood."
She explained the reason for her unease around Zheng Yichen and pulled up so photos from the projection screen, which showed so corpses with grueso deaths; their blood had seeped from their pores, and their bodies appeared very swollen.
So had solidified blood spikes protruding from their bodies.
"So that’s your excuse for slacking off at work?"
"Huh?" The woman looked at Zheng Yichen with astonishnt, then pouted and continued to dig into the backgrounds of those problematic individuals: "If all goes well, you’ll get the information you want by tomorrow."
The next day, the woman with light dark circles under her eyes had an inexplicable aning in her glance towards Zheng Yichen—not the distance of yesterday. She’d been busy all night and at last, she managed to dig out the information on those people.
Although it wasn’t complete, it was enough to suffice for Zheng Yichen. It was supposed to be that way, but this ti, the information unearthed contained sothing quite serious.
She had prepared herself ntally in advance; in this world, there were only a few places she should not access casually. Having ruled out the impossible locations and bracing herself for the rest... well, she felt it would have been better if it had been the impossible ones instead!
What places were not involved, so how co it just had to involve the Eye of Ti and Space research facility? This place was known as a no-hack zone, and she knew many peers who had co under scrutiny for touching upon it; not to ntion, the numbers who ended up ’committing suicide’ from shots to the back were far from few...
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