The blood of the Invisible Man spilled across the floor, red like that of any normal person, which means his body wasn’t entirely invisible, but rather it was his skin that bent light.
"Let’s all go at once!"
Ella’s pupils constricted as she raised the Remington shotgun and pulled the trigger.
The shot missed and flew out the open hangar doors, shredding some distant corn leaves.
It was only after the fact that Ella turned her head to look behind her; the speed of Li Cheng, with his Instant Thunder Skill activated, was so fast she could only barely catch his afterimage. He swung a hand-blade, hitting the throat of an Afro-haired black man.
The Afro-haired man was the Sound Wave Superpower User on the team. Now, with his thyroid cartilage shattered and his vocal tract damaged, the fierce sound wave he was cultivating fizzled out, causing blood to spurt from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears as he collapsed to the ground.
Without so much as a glance, Li Cheng levelled his left arm and activated the Death Curse Torrent skill inscribed in the Corridor of Bones, directing it at a porcupine-haired Caucasian youth on his left.
That individual was the Fire Superpower User of the team. As he brought his arms together, a jet of flame shooting from his chest was doused by the Death Curse Torrent’s black water.
Black water induces fear and hallucinations as a side effect. If one is sufficiently determined and brave, perhaps they could break free from the illusion.
But the porcupine-haired youth, being an outcast mutant who did not receive social approval and a gang member given to drugs and alcohol abuse...
...was completely ensnared by the hallucinations the moment the black water hit him. He curled up on the ground, weeping with snot and tears streaming down his face, "Daddy, don’t hit me anymore, I know I was wrong—"
Seeing things were going south, a pair of mutant twins turned their eyes rapidly, brewing their respective powers of hallucination and hypnosis.
Li Cheng fired a Gravity Energy Ball towards a corner behind the twins. The sudden change in gravity direction made them fall face upwards to the ground, knocking down shelves and getting thoroughly buried by assorted items, unable to stand up.
Their powers of hallucination and hypnosis only worked when making eye contact with others. Without sight of anyone, they were useless.
’What’s, going on...’
Ella’s thoughts plunged into chaos. That bespectacled man in front of her was releasing streams of black water, manipulating gravity – and the multitude of superpowers he exhibited wasn’t the most shocking part.
What truly stunned her was his seeming ability to see through all of her companions, preemptively dismantling their attacks neatly and efficiently before they could make a move.
It should be known that Ella and her crew were no small fry—although just a team of eleven people (ten, plus an Invisible Man), each was a superpowered individual with exceptional skills, either a Second Level or Third Level Superpower User.
Robbing banks, stealing cars, smuggling contraband... they had been on the run committing crimes across the United States for years without much failure, always managing to escape pursuit by Vanguard Company or the FBI.
"I’m going to crush you!"
A towering hulk of a man, standing over two meters tall with bulging muscles and a less-than-intelligent gaze, strode towards Gray Rain and Caroline, who was hiding behind him.
The giant was a Third Level superpowered individual with enhanced physical type; every time he buffed up his body, it greatly reduced his intelligence.
In some sense, the reason Ella’s team all wore black leather was because of him—to help him differentiate friend from foe.
The giant raised his arms high, swinging his fists down like hydraulic hammers towards Gray Rain.
Gray Rain didn’t move or dodge, watching the fists with interest as they descended.
After the strike, the anticipated scene of a skull shattering and brain splattering did not occur. Gray Rain stood unharmed, while it was the giant himself who trembled in his arms, his hands split open, tears running down his face from pain.
With an effortless grab of the giant’s wrists, Gray Rain swung him in a circle and slammed him to the ground. The concrete floor of the hangar was now marked by a human-shaped crater.
The giant was hit in a flurry, swearing indecently, "I’m pissed off! I’m really pissed off!"
Delighted to encounter someone of his own Legendary Endurance King caliber, Gray Rain was excited as he swung and pounded the giant, creating multiple craters in the concrete floor.
Ella yelled, the air around her hands warping violently with intense heat, "Or I’ll destroy this plane!"
The sound of a gun’s safety being released was heard as Li Cheng held a Glock Pistol, its barrel aimed at the porcupine-haired youth on the ground, consumed by his fear-induced hallucination.
"Your name’s Ella, right?"
Li Cheng arched an eyebrow, looking at her. First, he activated the Special Effect of his title skill, Life-Sacrificing Gambler, which forcefully increased the probability of an event occurring, then he used the Information Integration Glasses to initiate Special Effect Two, See Through, successfully extracting the most crucial information.
"Fourth Level special superpower user who can cause objects he touches to explode, and can also make parts of his body, such as fingernails, hair, dead skin, explode after being burned. The explosive power far exceeds any mainstream explosive."
Li Cheng smiled and said, "Do you know a person named Dida?"
"What Dida? I don’t know."
Ella grew more wary and even fearful, feigning composure, "We admit defeat, this plane is yours, we will leave this place, and we will not report the location to the Vanguard Company."
"Not enough, with the delay caused by you guys, the people from the Vanguard Company are already close on our heels."
Li Cheng looked southward and casually released a paper crane.
The paper crane took flight out of the hangar, soaring high above and spotting three black SUVs racing through the cornfield.
Li Cheng calmly asked, "You’re right-handed, aren’t you?"
Before Ella could react, Li Cheng, who had activated his Instant Thunder Skill, had already rushed to her side and precisely cut off three of her left-hand fingers with a rusty machete.
Catching the fingers, Li Cheng executed Demon Exchange with the paper crane, switching places and appearing midair.
He took out the Nuclear Energy Lighter, burned the bleeding fingers, and violently hurled them towards the SUVs below.
The members of the Vanguard Company inside the vehicles only heard three dull thuds from above the roof. Before they could react, the fingers detonated with a roar, flipping all three vehicles.
The superpower users hastily drafted inside were swallowed by the explosion and flames before they could even use their abilities.
The loud explosion echoed over the farmland, Li Cheng landed smoothly, and his silenced Glock pistol accurately fired upon the survivors crawling out of the vehicles, executing headshots one by one.
From the dropped military-grade walkie-talkie inside the car, which was still functioning, came a voice somewhat familiar to Li Cheng, "Alpha Team, report your status!"
"There’s no Alpha Team here anymore."
Li Cheng cracked a smile and said, "Long time no see, Cervantes of the Wild Laughter Troupe."
There was a pause of silence from the walkie-talkie, then Cervantes’ voice finally came through, "Landeng from the Prometheus Company? Listen, I didn’t mean to seduce your wife, husband, daughter, son."
"It’s not!" Li Cheng’s eye twitched, thinking this guy’s love life was rather rich.
"Oh, then you must be Dawson from the Thousand Throats Beast."
Cervantes suddenly enlightened, "The one who stole your Fire Dragon Egg and replaced it with a Dragon Fruit wasn’t me, it was our guild’s JOKER. It was him, don’t look for me."
Li Cheng’s eye twitched again, "It’s not that!"
"I get it, you are Zak from European Heavy Industry," Follow current novᴇls on novel·fıre·net
Cervantes opened like a floodgate, inhaling deeply and saying, "I know it’s vile to have sold you river water as an Erectile Magic Potion that got you pregnant, but aren’t you fine now?
And you even had five plump daughters safely before the wedding, father and daughters safe and sound, how great."
Li Cheng stared with an expression of speechlessness, if Gray Rain were here, she would have schadenfreude to taunt Li Cheng for being rendered speechless by someone.
"No, just how many bad things have you done, how many people have you angered?"
"Uh... let me think."
Cervantes actually began to recall, "Maybe just a few dozen guilds, hundreds of old grudges. We have KPI performance assessments in our Wild Laughter Troupe, go without action for a while and you’ll have to bite the lighter."
Li Cheng speechlessly put down the walkie-talkie, Cervantes hurriedly said, "Dude, I don’t know who you are, but you should have figured out the nature of this deathmatch mission by now.
I have an entire Vanguard Company at my back, and most of the United States superpower users at my command, you can’t possibly win.
Might as well sit down and have a good talk, at least I can allow you to leave the mission without any losses."
No use talking more, Li Cheng shot the walkie-talkie to pieces, plugged in his Skill Mobile USB, and released [Demon Exchange] again, returning to the hangar.