Desperate Night

"Captain Yu, you've finished cultivating?" Chi Xiao squeezed out a smile, dropping his cards to greet him.

"Yes, for now. Someone's arrived outside, so I need to greet them." Yu Hong glanced at the cards on the table and then at the white dragon, Garfilica, huddled to one side.

"What about Ku Chan?"

"Ku Chan is still cultivating; you know what that kid is like," Chi Xiao said with a smile.

Yu Hong nodded and returned to the window, pulling open the shutter with a whoosh.

Outside was still the same dark, gloomy city ruins.

But unlike before, the boy Badaka had arrived early, waiting outside the window.

Compared to his last visit, Badaka's clothing and appearance were completely different.

He wore ornate short clothes and trousers embedded with colorful gems and crushed diamonds, a baseball cap decorated with golden lettering, and wrists and neck covered in elaborate colorful crystal gemstone chains.

Gone was the previous dirt and ragged, disheveled look.

"Respected Captain, thank you for your generous gift," Badaka said, stepping up to the window and bowing in gratitude.

"I've come to fulfill my promise."

He clapped his hands.

Immediately, four strong men hauled over a large box, panting.

The box was made of silver metal, with some incomprehensible symbols on the surface.

Bang.

The box was placed below the window of the safe house.

"This is the strongest material I could find in the Union—Red Vine metal, in the form of alloy blocks," Badaka explained.

He gazed at the tall man who called himself the Captain, unconsciously recalling the words of the research institute director who had sought him out the day before, helping him quickly find the strongest metal.

'No matter how we research and analyze it, this special ability seems to be naturally integrated into your body. It doesn't resemble any external implant, nor are there any foreign traces.'

The director paused.

"So I can confirm that the changes and enhancements you've undergone originate from your own ability. They were innate, not amplified by any external force."

"So, this power was actually my own, just activated by that person?" Badaka asked in surprise.

"That's right. You've already gained considerable prestige within the Union, defeating several emergency response forces, which has led many factions to investigate you. If the Captain is contacted again, and he can activate one of you, he might activate a second, a third. So, we need to find a way to prevent this possibility. Otherwise, if similar powers appear, your newly established group will instantly collapse," the director said seriously.

"What should I do?" Badaka asked, clenching his fists at the thought of other powers similar to his appearing.

Having enjoyed the advantages and convenience brought by his power these past few days, he didn't want to lose it.

His sister's leg was also receiving proper treatment. He absolutely couldn't let his newly established small group fall apart!

"It's simple. Just cut off this person's trade, make him disappear everything will be yours alone," the director's words, like the enticement of a demon, made Badaka's heart pound heavily.

Coming back to his senses, he watched the box slowly being lowered, pressing into the ground.

"I've done everything I could, this is all I could find," Badaka said in a deep voice.

"Not bad." Yu Hong looked at the box and nodded. He reached out and grabbed the box remotely.

Instantly, an invisible force lifted the box, floating it to the window.

With a whoosh, the window opened, and the box floated inside.

"Then, sir, if there's nothing else, I'll head back?" Badaka bowed again.

"You may." Yu Hong smiled. "But before you go, I have a question for you."

"...What?" Badaka paused, slowly taking a step back.

"I believe I gave you the power to change your destiny. Why would you do something like this?" Yu Hong asked.

The boy's face changed, but he forced a smile.

"What are you talking about? I don't understand."

"Never mind. People must always be responsible for their actions." Yu Hong opened the box, pushed aside the pile of red metal blocks, revealing a small silver box hidden underneath.

Badaka's face turned ashen, and he retreated rapidly.

He didn't know how Yu Hong had discovered the situation so easily, but now that everything was exposed, he couldn't hesitate.

He knew the power of that bomb very well. It used the most powerful special liquid explosive in existing technology. That small piece was enough to instantly destroy a skyscraper.

He had been injured in the arm by the aftershock of such a bomb when demonstrating his strength, and that was from ten meters away.

And now, that thing was in the other party's hand.

The second he retreated.

The liquid bomb in Yu Hong's hand instantly counted down to zero.

Although there were still twelve seconds left, they were all skipped, going straight to detonation.

The next moment.

The box rapidly turned red, and a blinding golden flame burst out from the inside, shattering the box's outer shell.

The flames continued to surge out, completely destroying the box in a fraction of a second, bursting out in all directions.

Boom!!!!

The golden flames exploded in Yu Hong's hand, but something strange happened.

The flames seemed to be forcibly imprisoned by an invisible force, exploding only within a small sphere.

From a distance, it looked like he was holding a golden fireball the size of a washbasin in his hand.

The fireball frantically surged outwards, trying to break through the invisible restraints, but to no avail.

All the flames were held by Yu Hong's single hand, forcibly compressed, becoming smaller and smaller, rapidly shrinking from the size of a washbasin to the size of a human head.

Then.

Yu Hong squeezed his hand.

Puff.

The fireball instantly dimmed, collapsed, extinguished, and disappeared.

"Pathetic," Chi Xiao said, shaking his head as he watched from behind. This scene reminded him of the Immortal General holding a nuclear bomb.

"Humans always repeat the same tragedies," Feisina said, uttering a classic line.

"We helped him, why did he do this?" Yi Yi couldn't understand.

"Because of greed," Feisina taught. "Once you have something, you don't want to lose it. Humans are such greedy creatures."

Yi Yi nodded, seemingly understanding, and looked at Badaka, who was constantly retreating, through the window.

"Impossible!! How could this happen!?? I didn't plant it, someone must be framing me!" Badaka cried out in despair, his face pale as he retreated.

"You're right, someone did remind me," Yu Hong nodded. "As soon as I opened the box, someone drew a simple picture inside, reminding me that there was a bomb hidden at the bottom."

He smiled. "Isn't it interesting? Someone secretly thought of a way to warn me of the danger in the things you sent."

It was obvious that this child had been set up.

But that had nothing to do with Yu Hong anymore.

"Since you did it, pay the price."

With a thought, the spiritual light implanted in Badaka's body was rapidly extracted.

In just two seconds.

A large amount of white light permeated and rose from Badaka's body.

He seemed to be suffering from some unspeakable, immense pain, and began to scream in place.

After a moment, the body of this originally ordinary boy rapidly began to dehydrate and wither, completely turning into a black, mummified corpse in just a few seconds, collapsing on the ground.

The white light that flew out of his body rapidly returned to Yu Hong and disappeared.

Looking at Badaka's corpse, Yu Hong shook his head and was about to close the window.

He immediately saw another team of people rushing towards here.

"Please wait! I'm Dries, the one who secretly warned you about the bomb!"

Running in the front was a middle-aged blond man with a small mustache.

He was wearing a somewhat old black robe, followed by some armed soldiers who seemed to be bodyguards.

Yu Hong ignored them.

"Deliberately bewitching a child, making me disappointed in him, and then jumping out yourself to play the good guy, taking the child's previous position. Do you think such a plan is clever?"

Hearing this, the middle-aged man's face changed slightly.

"You misunderstand me! I wasn't aware of any of this. I just saw Badaka secretly putting a bomb inside."

"A boring trick." Yu Hong was too lazy to look any further.

At this moment, a sharp cry suddenly rang out from outside.

In the darkness behind, a young and beautiful woman in a hospital gown suddenly rushed out.

The woman's hair was disheveled, and she ran to Badaka's corpse and knelt down.

Her hands trembled as she picked up the mummified corpse.

"No don't!"

"Your brother deserved it! He received a gift from Captain, but instead designed to use a bomb to murder Captain! He repaid kindness with enmity, dying here is a mercy to him!!" Dries seized the opportunity to loudly reprimand.

"Why..." The woman lowered her head, tears falling like broken threads on the corpse's face.

"Why can't you forgive him once... Give him another chance!! He doesn't understand anything."

"He's just a child... We just wanted to live a better life, is that wrong!! Is that wrong!!?"

She raised her head, revealing a distorted face full of tears.

"No hope," Chi Xiao said, shaking his head and walking away with his hands behind his back after seeing this.

Yu Hong looked at the woman, guessing that she was Badaka's sister, and didn't say anything more.

He picked up a piece of red metal from the box.

He squeezed it hard.

It was indeed very hard. With his current physical strength, he couldn't even crush it.

"Let's go, there's no need to stay in this place anymore."

He ignored Dries, who was talking outside the window, and the crying woman.

With a whoosh, he pulled down the shutter. He controlled the Black Black Spirit, setting off again in his heart.

"Why?" Yi Yi couldn't help but ask, "Why do they question others for not forgiving them when they have clearly done bad things?"

"Because of selfishness," Feisina answered. "This world is not such that if you are kind to people, they will definitely repay you with kindness."

"Let's go." Yu Hong returned to the main control room, looking at the colorful lines constantly emerging outside the circular window.

The entire safe house slowly merged into the wind disaster torrent, heading deeper.

At the same time, large gray faces the size of houses suddenly brushed past the safe house like meteors, flying towards the world they had just left.

Yu Hong sighed as he watched this scene, then turned and sat down cross-legged, waiting for the safe house's strengthening time to end.

This attempt proved that his previous idea didn't work.

Those who have not mastered power are too easily lost when they suddenly gain too much.