Chapter 44: Beco Stronger
Youyou, inside the nutrient tank, could hear Tang’s voice.
He opened his mouth, and though no sound ca out, his lip movents were very clear.
“Is Momo okay?”
The black-haired little girl carefully studied the face of the boy in the nutrient tank but didn’t answer his question.
Instead, she spoke on her own: “Actually, I’ve long found it strange. In all the tis I saw you two, when Momo and that ‘Youyou’ were together, it was always ‘Youyou’ doing the talking, while Momo seed to unconditionally support ‘Youyou’s’ ideas. Even though Momo had her eyes closed, with no way to see her surroundings, when ‘Youyou’ was there, she ‘saw’ the white doves in the plaza.”
Youyou in the nutrient tank couldn’t understand what she was saying, and Tang wasn’t speaking for him to hear.
After finishing her words, Tang turned her gaze to a patch of shadow behind the nutrient tank.
Blending into the tank’s shadow was a frail, insignificant figure.
“Now you can tell
why, can’t you? Why did you deceive us?” Tang’s erald-green eyes were stern, yet earnest, as she looked at the shadow. “Momo.”
The shadow trembled slightly.
Then it expanded, and a gray-haired girl, supporting herself with her hands on the ground and leaning against the nutrient tank, slowly stood up.
Her eyes were closed, and when she turned around, her face carried a pleading expression.
“I’m sorry, Tang, I’m sorry.” Her voice trembled. “I didn’t an to deceive you all. I was just… so afraid of being alone. I just wanted Youyou to stay with .”
“Ability [Puppet], the ‘Youyou’ who was with us those days was your ability.” Tang stated.
The black-haired girl with long, straight hair had clear, untainted erald-green pupils, gazing at the gray-haired girl who had deceived her.
Tang hated deception, but she had already learned what it ant to be helpless.
Lies weren’t always black-and-white; many things in this world didn’t need to be strictly judged as right or wrong.
Tang only cared about whether Momo’s feelings when she was with them were genuine.
“Yes.” Momo admitted, her hands brushing over her swollen eyelids, as if caressing the eyeballs beneath them.
“Yue Shan gave
Youyou’s eyes, and my ability could use those eyes to create a fake Youyou. But [Puppet] is a tool; it has no extra sense of self and can’t use pupil techniques, so I made him say his ability was [Enhancent].”
Mimicry-type ability [Puppet], capable of controlling living beings and using living limbs to extend into a person.
That person was controlled by Momo, their senses were Momo’s senses, their words were what Momo wanted to say, and what they saw was what Momo saw.
Those were Momo’s eyes.
“I didn’t want to deceive you.” She said again, tears welling at the corners of her closed eyes. “I didn’t want to hurt you either. I thought if you ca, that person would co too. He’s very powerful and could definitely save Youyou!”
“You didn’t genuinely want our help.” Tang took a step back.
She only heard exploitation in Momo’s words and felt it was unfair to Yiming.
As for that person, she had no idea who or what might be behind her and Yiming.
If there really was soone who could help them, they wouldn’t have been so helpless back then.
Youyou in the nutrient tank silently mouthed ‘I’m sorry,’ and Momo, standing beside the tank, noticed Tang’s rejection.
She stepped forward, wanting to explain her actions, but in the end, she only said: “I don’t have much ti left.”
And at that mont.
“She really doesn’t have much ti left.”
A man’s voice suddenly interrupted their conversation, and at the sound, Momo’s entire body shuddered.
Tang looked over warily: “Uncle Yue…?”
Behind them, a blond, blue-green eyed researcher in a white coat, with a smile on his face, leaned against the nutrient tank, looking at them.
When the researcher raised his eyes, a fleeting glint of crimson seed to flash through his blue-green irises.
…
The ability Illusory Reality activated, and a phantom appeared there, but Li Li herself was distracted.
She shifted her gaze from the docunts in her hand, casually looking toward the glass.
After relentless rounds of battles, Yiming finally showed signs of fatigue when facing C-rank ability users.
His breathing was rapid, his brown hair soaked with sweat, sticking to his forehead and cheeks.
A thin mist clouded his deep blue pupils.
Under the overwhelming pressure of the C-rank blue-robed man’s ability, Yiming’s hands braced against the ground, forced to kneel on the chanical floor.
As the C-rank ability user applied more pressure, a clear sound of dislocation ca from Yiming’s elbow, and he collapsed fully onto the ground.
Sweat dripped from his jaw, winding its way to the floor.
He had defeated D-rank blue-robed n, but he was too exhausted.
Facing an enemy a rank higher than him, he couldn’t hold on.
He’s reached his limit, Li Li thought, tossing the docunts to the ground.
At the sa ti, the blue-robed man inside the glass received a signal and obediently stepped back.
The docunts scattered in the air, arranged in the precise order Li Li had intended.
The topmost sheet floated to the ground, prominently displaying Momo’s research plan and the solutions Li Li had just scribbled with her fountain pen.
This was prepared for the manga, not for Yiming to see.
Yiming couldn’t see it anyway.
She stood up and walked to the glass, her voice cold as she said: “Is this all you’ve got?”
On the other side of the glass, Yiming seed desperate to respond, but though he opened his mouth, no sound ca from his throat.
Li Li noticed his fingertips trembling, the shaking extending to his arm muscles and calves.
He was exhausted.
Was this the end? Li Li pondered.
It wasn’t entirely unacceptable.
After all, Yiming had held on for a long ti; it was just that his ability hadn’t stirred yet.
But on second thought, this was a perfect opportunity.
Which shonen manga protagonist didn’t pull off a coback when on the brink? Yiming wasn’t quite at that critical point yet.
Miss this chance, and there wouldn’t be another.
If An Heyu was right, the noble Qu clan would co to Four-Way City later, and things would surely get more chaotic.
The people Yue Qing had recruited were definitely high-rank.
Even with An Heyu’s help, facing at least two high-rank opponents, she might not have ti to look after Yiming.
So Yiming had to reach mid-rank before then, able to protect himself.
Her thoughts raced, but in reality, only a second had passed.
Li Li lowered her eyes to Yiming, who was sprawled on the ground, his gaze unfocused and dazed.
“Is it because there isn’t enough bait…?” she said.
Then, she leisurely stroked the white gloves on her hands, as if toying with her fingers, her tone casual: “Well, let
tell you sothing ‘interesting.’”
She dragged out her words, enunciating each one clearly so Yiming, in his current state, could understand her.
“Abilities take root in the human body and soul. Yue Shan used limb transplants to transfer an ability to another person without loss, like tearing half a soul and forcing it into soone else, making the ability think that’s its master. But in doing so, the person who loses half their soul can’t live long.”
Behind the glass, the blond, blue-green eyed researcher idly played with her fingers, her tone unhurried yet carrying an inexplicable chill.
“And the person with a foreign soul cramd into their body won’t live long either,” she said.
“Only when the ability’s original owner dies, and one of the souls dissipates, can the other live a few years longer.”
Under her gold-rimd glasses, her lips curved slightly, but her face held no trace of a smile.
Instead, it was cold as ice, tinged with disgust.
“Guess which one of those two dies first?”
Yiming’s fingers twitched violently, as if spasming.
The fog in his eyes cleared, his gaze sharpening.
Li Li continued: “But, unfortunately, if you stop here, they’ll lose the person who could help them. In the end, they’ll both die—first or second, it doesn’t matter.”
“The weak can do nothing but beg for help, and even if they send out a cry for aid, they can’t be saved.” A flicker of crimson glinted in Li Li’s blue-green eyes as she looked down, seemingly at her fingertips, or perhaps into so distant, unknown past. “Weakness is the original sin.”
Yet her tone remained light.
“But since you’re sowhat interesting, I’ll give you a chance.” She went on, her gaze shifting from her fingertips to Yiming inside the glass, who was trembling as he propped up his upper body, glaring at her with fury.
“Either stop here, or keep going and make the world’s rules bend for you and I’ll save them.”
She raised her voice, her lips curling upward. “Tell
your answer, low-rank.”
Yiming’s response was a furious roar bursting from his throat: “Bastard!”
In an instant, his arms turned to steel again.
Veins bulged on his trembling limbs as he clenched his teeth, standing up amid his roar!
His feet struck the chanical floor, and the mont they connected, the tal rang out.
The ground began to shake, a rumbling sound rising.
The blue-robed figures inside the box stumbled, leaning against the walls in the tremor.
The range expanded, the vibrations growing stronger, sand and stones falling as dust rose.
Until half the underground ‘cube’ was enveloped by tal Heart!
A low-rank ability had stepped onto the ladder to mid-rank!
Surging air currents whipped through the room, shrieking sharply.
Amid the deafening noise, the brown-haired boy who caused it all widened his eyes, bloodshot veins creeping toward his pupils.
He raised his hand, and in the next mont, he leaped into the air.
His tightly clenched steel fist carried a sharp gust as it smashed toward the glass!
“Crack!”
White cracks spread, growing larger in the boy’s roar.
Behind the fractures, the blond, blue-green eyed researcher’s smile remained, unmoved.
As the white cracks obscured their view, amid the shattering sound of the glass, they locked eyes through the barrier.
Finally,
The glass shattered completely.
Fragnts of transparent glass flew, their tiny crystalline surfaces seeming to reflect sothing.
The blond, blue-green eyed researcher unhurriedly pushed her gold-rimd glasses.
A scalpel suddenly appeared in her other hand, its tip tracing arcs in the air before stopping at her slender fingertips.
The steel fist ca with a fierce gust, the massive airflow making the corners of her white coat flutter.
The scalpel’s tip t the clenched fist.
“Ding!”
Point t surface, force clashed with force, stirring a gust.
“Ah, I don’t like using this,” Li Li suddenly said.
The scalpel vanished, and the smile on her lips grew wider.
The hand that had adjusted her glasses swung upward, striking Yiming’s abdon directly!
The brown-haired boy flew backward, but he adjusted his stance midair, his feet landing on the tal ceiling.
One hand gripped the ceiling as his eyes locked onto Li Li, who was leisurely smoothing the wrinkles in her gloves.
“Aaaah!” He roared, his legs surging with strength as tal spread across nearly his entire body.
Like a cannonball, he shot toward the person he despised.
He hates , Li Li thought.
The next second, her eyes flickered, but the smile on her lips never wavered.
She raised her hand, her wrist tracing an arc in the air, and snapped her fingers.
But I want him to hate !
The ‘cube’ was enveloped in illusion.
Without any high-rank interference, she perfectly replicated Yue Shan’s ability!
tal walls rose again, the ‘cube’ began to rotate, and after a deafening rumble, Yiming broke through the wall, only to see a dense array of gleaming spikes behind it.
The blond, blue-green eyed figure had vanished.
This was the first hurdle Yue Shan had set for Heige back then, and now Li Li gifted it to Yiming.
“Beco stronger.”
Beyond the wall, she gazed in Yiming’s direction and softly said, “Little Corgi.”
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