A rainy night.
An alley.
Intermittent static crackled amidst the sound of rain.
"Calling Ally! Calling Ally! Can you hear me? Just five more minutes, we're almost there!"
Several corpses lay strewn on the ground.
A furry, humanoid creature was squatting before the bodies, tearing out hearts and lungs.
The crashing sound of heavy rain, the gurgle of water flowing into the sewer, the chewing sounds of the humanoid creature, and the hissing static all combined to create a rather eerie atmosphere.
In the corner of the wall.
A graceful figure leaned her back against the wall, slowly rising to her feet.
Silver short hair.
Her features were exquisitely beautiful, her stunning face a blend of all the best qualities of East and West. She was tall, dressed in tight leather, outlining her alluring and proud figure.
A blue longsword with peculiar patterns propped her up from the ground.
The woman took a slight breath, gripping the blue longsword, which glowed with a faint light.
The humanoid creature's claw reached out to one of the people lying on the ground. That person was still breathing, weakly and fearfully pleading, "Captain Ally! Save me! Save me!"
The woman gritted her teeth, took a breath, endured the intense pain, and raised her sword, slashing towards the humanoid creature.
The humanoid creature threw a punch without even turning its head.
The woman's delicate body flew backward, splashing into the accumulated water.
A strange watch on her wrist beeped, and the three red dots displayed on it suddenly turned into four small dots.
The woman's cherry lips moved, struggling a few times, but ultimately, she was powerless, collapsing to the ground, her eyes filled with despair. She pressed her earpiece, her lips trembling as she said.
"Level Four! A Level Four Abnormality!"
A gasp came from the other end of the earpiece, "What? Level Four? Ally! We're already on our way! Just hold on a little longer! We'll be there soon!"
Ally took off her earpiece and lay on the ground, her gaze vacant, her ice-blue eyes staring at the dark dome. She murmured, "It's too late!"
In her peripheral vision, someone had appeared beside her at some point.
Ally's heart tightened, and she instinctively reached for her sword.
The newcomer held an umbrella.
The raindrops hitting the umbrella made a dense, crunching sound.
Ally saw that the newcomer seemed to be wearing the uniform of the nearby Second Middle School.
She quickly grabbed the newcomer's pant leg, speaking weakly and anxiously, "Don't watch the show! Hurry and leave!"
The humanoid creature, still gnawing on a heart, liver, and lungs, slowly stopped its movements. It turned its head, a pair of chilling vertical pupils fixated on the newcomer.
A blood-stained scarlet tongue emerged from its mouth, licking its lips. The humanoid creature wiped its mouth and stood up, its gaze greedily fixed on the newcomer, as if it had spotted a delicious after-dinner dessert.
Suddenly, it pushed off the ground.
Mud splattered.
The humanoid creature charged towards the person holding the umbrella.
Fang Xin stood still, unmoving as a mountain.
Ally thought Fang Xin had been scared stiff. She struggled to find her sword, but in the end, she only scooped up a handful of stagnant water.
"Hurry and leave!" Ally shouted with her last ounce of strength.
The humanoid creature was already upon them.
Its sharp claws swept towards Fang Xin's chest.
The umbrella slowly lifted. From beneath the brim, behind the wispy bangs, those dark eyes instantly turned scarlet.
Fang Xin raised one hand.
Scarlet, bloodthirsty runes conspicuously emerged on the skin of his finger joints.
Fang Xin's palm moved with a blur, seizing the humanoid creature's neck with lightning speed.
Everything happened so fast that the humanoid creature still maintained its previous posture.
The rain curtain also seemed to freeze at that instant.
Fang Xin's knees bent slightly, gathering strength.
Suddenly, he burst forward!
Boom!
The humanoid creature was embedded in the wall.
Plaster peeled off, and bricks were smashed out on the other side, forming a concave, hemispherical dent.
The humanoid creature choked on blood and internal organ fragments, sliding down the wall to the ground, its head submerged in the muddy water, no longer moving.
The stagnant heavy rain resumed.
Fang Xin raised his hand and grabbed at the air.
A barely perceptible blood-red glow flew from the humanoid creature at an imperceptible speed, merging into the scarlet runes on Fang Xin's finger joints. The runes flickered for an instant before vanishing, and his slender fingers seemed to be just an ordinary hand.
His scarlet eyes also returned to their black hue.
Fang Xin turned his head.
Ally, lying on her side in the rainwater, had an unprecedented look of astonishment on her delicate face.
Her ice-blue eyes reflected the image of Fang Xin, who was wearing a mask.
Fang Xin glanced indifferently, as if looking at a mere skeleton, not asking any questions, and walked straight into the distance.
Ally's eyes still held lingering shock, and she said weakly, "I'm severely injured. Can you drag me over there to get out of the rain!"
Fang Xin stopped, tilting his head slightly, "You're asking me for a favor, yet you're not even willing to say 'you' (polite form)."
Ally was slightly stunned, "Excuse me, could you please drag me over there!"
Fang Xin walked closer. Ally raised her arm, preparing to be carried in a princess carry.
Unexpectedly, Fang Xin had been practical since childhood.
Ally said to drag her over there.
So Fang Xin grabbed Ally by the back of her collar and dragged her to the entrance of a shop at the alley's mouth to shelter from the rain.
Her bottom felt a slight pain from the steps, and Ally's cherry lips pouted slightly, but she didn't complain. Instead, she genuinely said, "Thank you."
Fang Xin turned to leave, but Ally quickly said, "My name is Ally. May I ask, what is your... your name?"
"Qin Junhao!"
"Is that your real name?"
Fang Xin hummed in affirmation, "I don't change my name when I'm on the road, nor my surname when I'm seated. Qin Junhao!"
Ally still wanted to ask something, but Fang Xin had already vanished into the vast rainy night.
Not long after.
Several cars converged towards the area.
A man wearing a fedora and a trench coat was the first to jump out of a car.
His expression was anxious when he saw the scattered bodies on the ground.
The man raised his wrist, looking at the distance and direction displayed on his watch between him and Ally, and quickly rushed over.
Upon reaching her, he quickly checked her injuries, pulled out a syringe, and injected Ally with a dose. Ally's pale face finally showed a hint of color.
"Where is that Level Four mutant?"
"Captain Xiao! Look over here!" A team member shone a light on a spot.
Captain Xiao was utterly astonished when he saw it clearly, "Ally, who did this? To be able to kill a mutant who just broke through to Level Four, in a small place like Lan City, they must not be an unknown figure!"
"It was a high school student!"
"A high... high school student?" Captain Xiao was stunned, "Are you sure?"
"I saw him wearing a uniform from Second Middle School."
"My goodness, if this is true, he must have an SSS-level talent! And he's even a top-tier existence among SSS-level talents!"
Captain Xiao quickly asked, "Did you ask him his name?"
"I did. He said his name is Qin Junhao!"
Captain Xiao's eyes lit up, his expression excited, "My goodness, my goodness! I'll have someone check if there's such a person at Second Middle School right away. If all this is true, then we've hit the jackpot! We've found a treasure!"
Such a genius is a terrifying existence, top-tier across the entire district and even the country. Coincidentally, the first round of talent testing for this year is starting in the next two days. I must go and see it myself. We can't let other units snatch away such a great genius! Especially those annoying guys from the Ninth Division, they always poach our geniuses!
Qin Junhao, I've remembered him!"
Ally's ice-blue eyes stared into the vast rainy night, rubbing her still slightly sore bottom. She had indeed remembered him.
Fang Xin shook the raindrops off his umbrella.
Just as he opened the door, a sound came from inside the room.
PS: Plot-driven, satisfying novel.
The opening setup is a bit long.
Just read ten chapters and you'll be flying high.