The setting sun slanted westward, casting a reddish afterglow through the branches and into the western restaurant. The five mbers of the White Raven Brigade sat on the sofas as a waiter served wine glasses on a dark plate.
Blood Progenitor poured a glass of whiskey. Lifting her gaze from the rim of her glass, she looked at Xia Pingzhou sitting opposite her.
She asked, "What is it... Do you know this Bernardo?"
Xia Pingzhou froze for a brief second as a gust of sea breeze blew in through the window, ruffling his black hair. Before coming here, he never would have imagined that the newest mber of the brigade would be such an incredible figure.
"I do not know him," he replied slowly.
The mont he heard the na "Bernardo Edward" from Blood Progenitor's lips just now, the thoughts in Ji Minghuan's mind completely exploded.
He thought, 'If I had chosen the first backup character profile, The Naless One, when creating Host Body Three, I would have had the chance to et Bernardo... Bernardo is the Cult Leader of the Black Death Cult. He stands in direct opposition to the Whalegarden and is the main culprit who infected the King with the Black Death.'
He knew the Leader had extensive connections, but he had no idea those connections included soone of this caliber.
Xia Pingzhou's thoughts shifted. 'Wait, no... Hacker said Bernardo reached out to the Leader on his own, asking to join the White Raven Brigade.'
According to Xize'er, Bernardo had seemingly used so thod to infect the King of the Whalegarden with the "Black Death." Judging from this, it was highly likely that Bernardo was collaborating with the First Prince and the Second Prince.
If Bernardo was truly working with the First Prince and Second Prince, he was most likely just feigning compliance. His real goal had to be the treasures of the Whalegarden or the Anecdote Fragnts hidden within the Royal Court Hall. Given the chance, he would definitely bite the hand that fed him.
Looking at it this way, Bernardo's reason for joining the brigade made perfect sense...
He wanted to use this to relay the intelligence about the King's severe illness to the Leader, presenting it as an opportunity—a chance to invade the Whalegarden and pillage it for all it was worth.
Then, he could infiltrate the belly of the legendary whale alongside the White Raven Brigade and make his move against the royal court.
'Bernardo is an evil Anecdote Envoy. Even if the First and Second Princes are working with him, they wouldn't reveal too much. Bernardo's intelligence probably stops at knowing the King has contracted the Black Death, his days are numbered, and the royal court is on the brink of massive upheaval.'
'Assuming Bernardo has already provided the preliminary intel to the Leader, the Leader will likely believe it to so extent and start considering whether to accept his proposal.'
'If I then have Black Cocoon approach the Leader to provide more in-depth intelligence, the Leader's acceptance of this information will skyrocket. He might very well give serious thought to launching an attack on the Whalegarden.'
Thinking up to this point, Xia Pingzhou asked out loud, "When can we et this newcor?"
Andrew stirred his red wine with a spoon, making the ice cubes clink gently against the glass. He said,
"Kid... ask Hacker. He usually handles this kind of stuff for the brigade."
"All right."
Xia Pingzhou responded casually, briefly evaluating Andrew's expression.
For so reason, Andrew looked incredibly dispirited today. The heavy dark circles under his eyes were a stark contrast to his usual image of a flamboyant, free-spirited cowboy.
Andrew paused. "I used to... co here to eat with Lan Duo Duo too."
He forced a self-deprecating smirk. "Back then, we even promised each other that if one of us died, the other would bring their ashes to Venice and scatter them into the sea. But in the end, she died without even leaving any ashes behind..."
Xia Pingzhou lowered his head to the straw and took a sip of whiskey.
He turned his head toward the window. Under the setting sun, boats carrying tourists weaved through the water channels, accompanied by the faint sound of a flute. Having nothing better to do, he synchronized his consciousness with Host Body One.
In another corner of the world, the Guyimai Block.
The ti difference between Venice and Lijing was seven hours. Lijing was ahead, aning while it was still dusk in Italy, the city in China was already shrouded in the dark veil of night.
Gu Wenyu suddenly opened his eyes. By the moonlight, he glanced at the clock on the wall; it was currently eleven at night.
Black Restraining Bands extended from his body, slipping toward the front and back rooms like two little snakes. The mont their tips pressed against the walls, his senses perated the barriers, and the scenes of the two adjacent rooms reflected in his pupils.
In a pitch-black room, Gu Qiye was sound asleep in bed;
In the other room, Su Zimai seed unable to handle the heat and had set up a pallet on the floor by the French windows.
The siblings' sleeping postures were vastly different. One slept quite properly, with his hands resting on his stomach. The other was lying on her side hugging a giant Rilakkuma plushie, her body slightly curled into a ball as the moonlight illuminated her sleeping face.
Seeing the siblings sleeping so soundly, Ji Minghuan could not help but yawn as he slowly retracted his Restraining Bands.
He dug out his mobile phone from beside his pillow and switched it to silent mode. He then opened a browser and logged into several Transgressor dark webs from his bookmarks. Officially speaking, most of these sites were illegal and banned from public access.
However, many people still tacitly monitored recent Transgressor activities through these platforms. The authorities generally did not penalize individuals rely for browsing the dark web. To draw a comparison, its status was treated much like a porn site.
He scrolled through the livestream section of the "Lijing Zone." Currently, the most popular broadcast was titled: "Transgressor Tun Yin is currently tracking down Superhuman Criminal 'Ghost Bell'."
The thumbnail for the stream was an adorably drawn, anthropomorphic cartoon hamster.
The hamster wore a cold expression and a silver uniform while holding a miniature model of the Tokyo Tower in its paws—it was none other than Black Cocoon's legendary masterpiece created in Japan, "Tun Yin Mouse and Tokyo Tower."
Ji Minghuan's eyes lit up slightly in the darkness. He never expected that after just a few days, this doodle would solidify into the public's stereotypical image of Tun Yin.
Even the illegal livestreams related to Tun Yin went out of their way to use this comical sketch as their cover photo.
'Tun Yin Mouse must absolutely love
for this,' he thought. 'I've given him a heaven-sent wave of traffic. It won't be long before I help him beco a top-tier celebrity in China, which will also share so of Big Brother's public pressure.'
Ji Minghuan praised himself internally. However, his attention had been wholly captivated by his artwork earlier. It was only now that he finally processed the title of the livestream. He froze on the spot and muttered in belated realization, "Wait, who is Tun Yin Mouse hunting down... G-G-Ghost Bell?"
His pupils rapidly shrank as his heart scread in panic. 'No! Tun Yin Mouse, if you die, who's going to provide
with entertainnt?! You have to hold out until Uncle Black Cocoon arrives to rescue you!'
Consequently, he used his Restraining Bands to pull a sealed box from the bottom of his closet and tore it open, simultaneously sending a ssage to Ghost Bell on his mobile phone.
[Black Cocoon: Well, actually Tun Yin is also a collaborator of mine. I hope you can spare his life, Mr. Ghost Bell.]
To his surprise, his dad actually replied. [Ghost Bell: Co collect your guy, or else I'm going to butcher him.]
Ji Minghuan breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself that it was a good thing his dad had not planned to strike just yet.
After the auction ended, he and Gu Zhuo'an had officially established a cooperative relationship.
After all, Black Cocoon had saved Blue Arc right in front of Ghost Bell. At the ti, Oda Takikage had already pressed his blade against Blue Arc's throat. If Black Cocoon had not appeared in the Auction House that day, Ghost Bell would have been blackmailed by the brigade using Blue Arc's life, and his best-case scenario would have been dying on the spot alongside Blue Arc.
Even though his dad, Ghost Bell, tended to act on impulse, he was not unreasonable enough to reject Black Cocoon's partnership offer after things had reached that point.
Using his Restraining Bands, Ji Minghuan took out the dark red mask and the black tailcoat trench coat that had not made an appearance in quite so ti. Too lazy to even take off his pajamas, he simply threw the trench coat directly over them.
He put on the mask, raising his hand to his ear to press the securing button.
In an instant, black Restraining Bands wrapped around his entire body, concealing his aura and entering stealth mode. He shot a band to the right, latching onto the windowsill, and his figure swung out with lightweight agility, vanishing into the moonlight beyond the window.
anwhile, at Hongyue Comrcial Street.
The crowds had long been evacuated. On the desolate, empty street, neon signs flickered on and off amidst the deafening roar of a bell.
Draped in a black cloak and wearing a Z-Shaped Breathing Mask, a solitary figure stood on the long street like a brooding raven.
anwhile, clad in a tallic silver uniform, Tun Yin stood atop a traffic light with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring down at Ghost Bell from his high vantage point.
"Stop struggling. You cannot escape..." Tun Yin declared coldly, sounding as if he were pronouncing the other man's death sentence.
If this were the old Tun Yin, Ghost Bell would have undoubtedly shaken him off ages ago.
But recently, his supernatural ability had undergone an explosive enhancent—a phenonon Superhumans commonly referred to as "Anomaly Evolution." Typically, this evolution only occurred after years of relentless ability training, right when one hit a critical bottleneck.
However, Anomaly Evolution could also be triggered by another scenario: when a Superhuman plunged into Extre Emotions, such as the sudden slaughter of their entire family or a desperate will to live while on the brink of death.
Or perhaps... when they were humiliated to the absolute limit.
Clearly, Tun Yin had experienced this final form of evolution. Every single night, he had punched through one hundred sandbags plastered with Black Cocoon's picture. Amidst his furious, impotent roars over and over again, his supernatural ability had finally welcod an Anomaly Evolution.
After the Anomaly Evolution, Tun Yin's physical attributes received a comprehensive boost, and the abilities generated after he consud tal were significantly amplified.
Not only that, but after swallowing tal, he could temporarily lock onto the location of any matching tallic source.
The Transgressor Association had provided him with the raw materials used to make Ghost Bell's Battle Suit. Thus, for an hour after ingesting the materials, as long as Ghost Bell was within a one-kiloter radius, Tun Yin could pinpoint his exact location.
This ti, he had co thoroughly prepared. He wanted to test exactly how strong he had beco after his evolution.
"Get lost..." Ghost Bell lowered his face, his scarlet pupils staring straight at Tun Yin. "You are not my match. Do not ask for trouble."
He was obviously holding back solely because Tun Yin was his son's partner. That was the only reason he had stalled for so long without launching an attack.
At first, Ghost Bell thought he could easily lose the kid. He had not expected that every ti he managed to shake him off, Tun Yin would accurately sniff out his location shortly after, tracking him like a rabid dog relying on a hypersensitive sense of sll.
Eventually, Ghost Bell had no choice but to halt his steps and face Tun Yin on this empty avenue.
Tun Yin maintained his crossed-arms posture, the tal of his uniform gleaming with a frosty hue under the moonlight.
"Do you still think I am the sa person I was?"
However, right at the mont he prepared to strike, Tun Yin suddenly witnessed an incomprehensible scene:
Beneath a billboard midway between him and Ghost Bell, a massive, pitch-black insect cocoon materialized out of nowhere.
The giant cocoon hung silently upside down in the middle of the long street, the neon lights casting an eerie glow over its surface.
Ghost Bell narrowed his eyes as he looked up. Staring unblinkingly at the insect cocoon, he muttered softly, "Still so full of theatrics."
Tun Yin, on the other hand, was utterly paralyzed in shock.
The next second, his tense, solemn facade instantly shattered. His inner emotions surged forth like floodwaters bursting through a collapsed dam.
Tun Yin flung his arms wide open, leaning forward like a ferocious beast as his fingers clenched fiercely.
Trembling from head to toe, he roared in an unbridled fury, enunciating every single syllable:
"BLACK—!!! COCOON—!!!"
"Oh... Isn't this our gluttonous friend who loves eating batteries, Tokyo Towers, and gnawing on gold nuggets—Mr. 'Tun Yin'?"
First, an eerie, lingering voice echoed from within the massive cocoon. Following that, the cocoon slowly split open, and a young man wearing a pitch-black tailcoat and a dark red mask stepped out from within.
He hung upside down from the glowing billboard, holding a psychology book in his hands. The title of the book was "Never Try to Reason with a Stupid Cow".
"I know you really like , but there is no need to be so overly passionate. It is not very friendly to my ears." Black Cocoon shook his head. "Do you understand? Even the best of friends must maintain a certain sense of boundaries. Otherwise, it becos too easy to... turn against each other."
In an instant, countless bloodshot veins webbed across Tun Yin's eyes, turning them a terrifying shade of red. Even his breathing grew a hundred tis heavier.
However, Black Cocoon ignored him entirely. Instead, he lifted his gaze to Ghost Bell, extending a single Restraining Band to wave goodbye.
"Go, go, go, Mr. Ghost Bell. I suggest you leave imdiately. This stupid cow definitely likes
way more than you."
Ghost Bell retracted his gaze from Black Cocoon, letting out a cold scoff before turning away, dragging his black cloak behind him like the tail feathers of a raven.
Watching Ghost Bell depart, Black Cocoon breathed a sigh of relief. He then slowly lowered his eyes toward Tun Yin, who was still standing atop the traffic light, and said ominously:
"It seems that during my trip to Japan, you have missed
so much you could barely stand it?"
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