In the dead-silent Lijing Square, everyone stared blankly at the object hanging upside down beneath the billboard—it had appeared so abruptly, like an alien egg sac suddenly dropping out of a horror movie, suspended in the sky.
Just a second ago, all attention was on Blue Arc and Green Wing;
The next, an unknown entity descended and hung motionless beneath the billboard—oh, and it casually tied up all five criminals too.
At this mont, the massive LED screens in every direction reflected this eerie scene.
Under everyone’s gaze, the pitch-black "cocoon" slowly opened, revealing a humanoid figure: dressed in a black tailcoat, wearing a sharply angular mask, holding a gray book in his hands. His entire body was surrounded by jet-black Binding Restraints, rippling like black waves in the air, slowly orbiting him.
Blue Arc could never have imagined that the figure behind the mask of this “Cocoon Man”... was actually Ji Minghuan, who had once left his old life behind. More accurately, it was a Ga character Ji Minghuan created using his Reality-altering Esper abilities—the younger brother of Blue Arc, “Gu Wenyu.”
As the giant cocoon unraveled, the Binding Restraints that had ford it now drifted like tentacles across the sky behind him. The sight was especially bizarre—he looked as if his body were suspended in reverse, lying inside a black curtain that opened and closed, quietly flipping through the pages of The Stranger.
Just then, a belated scream erupted from the watching crowd.
“Oh, such enthusiasm in your screams…” Cocoon Man dangled beneath the billboard, one Binding Restraint linked to his back, the other end anchored to the billboard top.
While flipping through his book, he teased mockingly,
“Now I know just how much you all adore .”
“I’ll say it again, get that man out of here, or I’ll detonate the bombs strapped to the hostages!” Green Wing roared in fury, pointing at the thing hanging midair.
“I said… he’s not one of ours,” Blue Arc reiterated.
“Then who the h*ll is he!” Green Wing’s forehead bulged with veins as he shouted up at Cocoon Man,
“I don’t care who you are—leave imdiately, or I’ll blow everything sky high! Not just the hostages—half of Lijing Square will be turned to ash!”
But his threats were t with dead silence.
Behind the mask, Cocoon Man stared at him without moving.
He shut the book calmly and said,
“Easy there, Mr. Green Wing. But if you’ve really got the guts to blow everything up, then go ahead…
Though I doubt you’re that dumb. Even if your brain’s mostly mush, you should realize—once the hostages are dead, you lose your bargaining chips. And then which side will really be at a disadvantage, hmm?”
“You…”
Green Wing was stunned. Cocoon Man’s words hit a nerve—he could use the hostages to threaten soone like Blue Arc.
But this masked freak clearly wasn’t the heroic type—he didn’t give a damn about the hostages. So Green Wing’s leverage ant nothing.
Blue Arc lowered his voice, asking his teammates through the headset,
“Do we know who this is?”
“No,” a woman’s voice replied after a beat. “We’ve never seen him before.”
“I’m warning you—let my n go!” Green Wing spread his wings, ready to strike. “Or I’ll kill you!”
“Let them go?” Cocoon Man paused. “Alright, as you wish.”
As the words fell, the Binding Restraints coiled around the five criminals abruptly tightened—snapping their necks.
Five heads slipped cleanly from their bodies, landing with a crisp “thud” on the ground. Blood burst from the severed necks like geysers.
Below the fountain of red ford by five headless corpses, the five hostages knelt, stunned.
They couldn’t make a sound with rags stuffed in their mouths, but their faces were now drenched in blood, and a pool of it spread beneath them.
Green Wing was dumbstruck, face dark as night.
“I did what you asked, didn’t I, Mr. Green Wing… though I only let go of their ‘heads’. Why do you look so displeased?”
Cocoon Man casually flipped a page in his book while using Binding Restraints to lift the severed heads, placing one in front of each hostage.
Next, he untied the ropes on the hostages’ hands using the Binding Restraints, then wrapped the dropped guns from the criminals and handed them to the hostages.
One gun per person—perfectly fair.
The hostages stared at the heads in front of them, then dazedly at the guns held out to them.
Before they could react, Cocoon Man casually remarked while flipping a page,
“They just had guns to your heads. Don’t you feel any resentnt?
Now it’s your turn. Hmm…”
He turned another page, gaze fixed on the text, a slight smirk beneath the mask.
“What goes around cos around. Fair’s fair.”
In the next mont, one of the hostages— a teenager in a school uniform—let out a delayed scream.
Blue Arc frowned, but didn’t move.
Suddenly, Ji Minghuan heard a cold system prompt ring in his ears:
【Warning: Role Anchor Deviation: 0% → 30% (When deviation exceeds 70%, the character may enter a berserk state)】
【Scenario Tip: The character you're playing is classified as a “Gray Character.” Your thods should be more “asured,” or you’ll fail to gain the trust of “Hero” figures.】
“Oh no… dear lord, how could I twist off their heads like that? Now my story can’t be adapted into a kid-friendly ani. Everyone needs a less R-rated role model.”
Cocoon Man sighed, lifting a hand to his forehead.
“But hey, better late than never. Every villain deserves a shot at redemption, right?”
With that, he used Binding Restraints to lift the heads from the blood pool one by one and reattached them to the headless bodies, wrapping the necks in the black bands and tying a knot—
making it look as if the heads had never left the bodies.
“Perfect… good as new.”
Cocoon Man nodded with self-satisfaction.
The square remained silent. The fear in everyone’s eyes deepened.
【Warning: Role Anchor Deviation: 30% → 40% (When deviation exceeds 70%, the character may enter a berserk state)】
“Whatever… a few blemishes in life are inevitable. Just tiny flaws.”
Cocoon Man shook his head while flipping pages, speaking as if nothing had happened.
“You know, just like how the most popular boys’ manga are always the action ones, and in animated films, it’s always Studio Ghibli.
So it’d be terrible if any not-suitable-for-kids content showed up.
After all, I still hope my biopic makes it into school textbooks soday.”
He turned his eyes to the school-uniford boy and raised his right index finger, pointing at one of the hanging criminals.
“Kid, all of that just now was… so kind of holographic projection effect. Their heads are still right where they belong.
See?”
Before he finished, the Binding Restraint loosened slightly—
and a severed head dropped from midair, landing with a splat in the blood pool.
Bright red liquid splashed onto the boy’s shoes, staining them.
Another piercing scream burst from the hostages, snapping the rest out of their stunned state and into terrified screams.
They couldn’t tell whether they’d been rescued—
or fallen into the hands of soone even more twisted and unpredictable.
【Warning: Role Anchor Deviation: 40% → 42% (When deviation exceeds 70%, the character may enter a berserk state)】
“Total accident…”
Cocoon Man raised an eyebrow, one hand covering his ears to muffle their shrieks, the other closing his book.
“You… what are you?”
In the hush, Blue Arc stared at him and asked slowly, word by word.
“Honestly, I’d like to know that too… Objectively, I’m not a Hero, but I wouldn’t say I’m a Villain either.
Hmm, so what does that make ?”
Dangling from a lamppost, Cocoon Man muttered to himself while lifting his right hand.
A Binding Restraint shot out, grabbed the fallen head, and pulled it back to his palm.
Nearby, a row of police cars sat flashing red and blue.
The alternating lights flickered across his mask like a ghost’s visage.
Along his right hand, the Binding Restraint surged like a tide, neatly wrapping the head layer by layer until it looked like a black “ball”—
probably felt pretty solid to the touch.
Under the eyes of thousands, Ji Minghuan, hidden behind his mask, lowered his gaze.
He casually bounced the black ball in his hand and said:
“I’m just a… ‘Gray Character.’ I don’t want to be a Hero, nor do I consider myself a Villain.
Strictly speaking, I don’t want to be defined.
Whatever the case, trust , Blue Arc—
we’re going to be great friends soday.”
Blue Arc said quietly,
“You killed those criminals.”
Cocoon Man countered,
“Would you be happier if it were the hostages who died?”
“Killing is killing. You have to face justice.”
Cocoon Man shook his head with a sigh.
“How dull. I don’t think that’s how you really feel. You’re just saying what the caras expect…
Let’s have a real chat, Blue Arc.
Tell
what you really think.”
With that, he tightened his fingers slightly around the “ball” and tossed it toward Blue Arc.
Blue Arc caught it.
The Binding Restraint receded, unraveling back into Cocoon Man’s body—
and the ball returned to its true form: a grotesque, bloodied human head.
Blood dripped down, staining Blue Arc’s tal gloves.
“So then, Mr. Blue Arc…
Whether or not you want to et is entirely up to you.”
With that, Cocoon Man flipped open The Stranger and gave Blue Arc a little wave using a Binding Restraint, as if saying goodbye.
The next mont, his figure was lifted upward by the restraints—
weightless, drifting through neon light like a paper figure blown by the wind.
In just a few seconds, he vanished into the thick night, swallowed by broken neon and darkness.
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