I adopted a child demon from the Gap, and I'm a special agent for the Bureau of Supernatural Ab

Li Cheng spoke to Marisa without any politeness.

"Ugh, this..."

Seemingly realizing that her actions had not been carefully considered, Marisa's face showed a troubled expression, but soon she raised her head somewhat embarrassedly and said softly, "That's true, but I can't get out now."

The teleportation in the Gray Fog World is one-way. Now that she has entered it, Marisa has no way to leave on her own unless she destroys the creatures that serve as the pillars of space, as she did the previous two times.

Does that mean there's no going back?

Li Cheng started to feel a headache coming on.

"Well, Uncle doesn't need to worry about me anyway," Marisa waved her hand with a grin, pretending to be nonchalant. "Don't let my slight weakness fool you, I'm still pretty good at escaping. If you're worried that I'll hold you back, Uncle can let me go on my own. And who knows, I might even perform better on my own."

“…Your words only make people more worried,” Li Cheng sighed, rubbing his forehead helplessly. “Fine, come with me. I’ll take you to find Zi. With her abilities, she should be able to send you back to Gensokyo.”

I always have this feeling of becoming an old father like Morichika. Well, in terms of age and experience, I am indeed qualified to call this child's elder.

Compared to the last time, this gray fog space has become even more dilapidated. Before, at least one could see complete city ruins, but now, Li Cheng could only see debris floating in the sky. All the ruins seemed to have completely collapsed and turned into scattered fragments.

With a light leap, Li Cheng easily jumped fifty or sixty meters high without much effort, a height far surpassing the strangely fluctuating gravity of the gray fog space in the past. At this moment, Li Cheng discovered that the gravity in this space had become extremely weak, almost completely disappearing.

Because space itself is on the verge of collapse, are fundamental rules like gravity beginning to weaken and break down?

Li Cheng didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, but at least now he could move normally without the help of the gap, which was somewhat convenient.

"Wow, this looks spectacular!"

Marisa, riding her broomstick and flying alongside, stared blankly at the ruins and wreckage that filled her vision, her voice filled with amazement. For her, who had always lived in the peaceful land of Gensokyo, such a vast and spectacular scene was perhaps something she had never encountered before, so it was understandable that she was shocked.

"Don't just keep sighing, be careful, who knows where monsters might be hiding waiting for us."

Li Cheng, standing to the side, leaped up from a floating pebble and warned Marisa, who was somewhat distracted.

"Don't worry, uncle, don't fret. Don't let my youth fool you; I've been through life-or-death battles before. I definitely won't be ambushed—"

Before Marisa could finish speaking, Li Cheng patted her shoulder and gently pushed her, causing her to lean back. Almost simultaneously, a bullet flew silently past, nearly grazing Marisa's chest, and embedded itself in the half-truck floating in the air on the other side, blasting a half-meter-wide hole in the front and twisting the entire vehicle into a jumbled mess.

Could bullets with such power be heavy sniper bullets enhanced by magic?

Cold sweat had already seeped from Li Cheng's forehead.

He had seen these bullets and their accompanying firearms with Kiritsugu Emiya before. They were expensive weapons designed for maximum penetration and destructive power, possessing incredible speed, sniping range, and terrifying destructive power capable of easily shattering the body of an A-rank warrior and penetrating the defensive shell of high-grade military equipment as easily as piercing tofu.

Given Marisa's physical strength, if she had been hit by that attack... well, should we say that it's lucky she's a little girl and not very developed, which is why she survived?

Li Cheng turned to look in the direction the bullets had come from. The area was obscured by countless pebbles and debris, and no one could be seen. But there was no doubt that someone was there sniping at them.

"Marisa, quickly hide!"

Li Cheng roared, releasing Marisa and reaching out to open a gap to head directly towards the sniper's position. But a sudden surge of danger made him stop. The next moment, a massive figure leaped out from behind him, closing in with a speed Li Cheng couldn't react to, and delivered a powerful punch to his back. Li Cheng only managed a muffled groan before being sent flying, crashing through countless pieces of debris before finally slamming into a dilapidated building lying sideways.

"Command...kill...kill...all of them...hehehe..."

With a slightly neurotic laugh, a fat figure over two meters tall, bloated and wrapped in bandages with only two bloodshot eyes visible, its body seemingly oozing yellow pus, rushed towards Li Cheng while whispering in a low voice, its pupils filled with murderous intent.

"Uncle!"

Marisa tried to support Li Cheng, who had been knocked away, but immediately felt a strong killing intent converging on her. Clearly, the enemy who had previously sniped her was preparing for a second attack. Gritting her teeth, Marisa could only quickly dart around the floating ruins to avoid being targeted by her opponent.

Uncle, is he alright...?

Meanwhile, amidst the ruins of a completely horizontal building floating in mid-air, Li Cheng dusted himself off and slowly stood up. In front of him, a fat figure chuckled as it crashed through a wall and lunged at him.

“Kill...kill you...hehehehe…”

The figure, as bouncy as a ball, chuckled as it hurtled towards him. Li Cheng merely spat out a piece of pebble he'd accidentally swallowed when he was knocked away, coldly looked up, and took a sudden step forward.

"Boom-"

With a dull thud, the building exploded from the inside, and the bandaged fat man rolled out like a real ball, followed closely by Li Cheng, who leaped out from the burst of dust.

"With this kind of strength, you have the audacity to ambush me? I thought you were really that strong."

Stepping on a pebble, Li Cheng leaped forward. The fat man let out a strange cry, seemingly wanting to retaliate, but Li Cheng caught up with him at lightning speed. Before he could have a chance to counterattack, Li Cheng kicked him out, sending him flying straight into the sky, almost to a height invisible to the naked eye. But Li Cheng immediately passed through the gap, caught up with the flying fat man, and kicked him back down.

For a time, the fat man's miserable screams echoed continuously throughout the area.

"You've grown to this level of strength? That's astonishing, Cheng."

In a secluded ruin, a figure peered through a broken window at Li Cheng, who was chasing and beating the fat man who had ambushed him, and remarked with a touch of melancholy. Then, the man's gaze cooled, and he picked up a walkie-talkie from a nearby table.

"Send more people over. The enemy is much stronger than expected. One test subject alone probably won't be enough to deal with him."

[…I understand. What about the other one?]

After a moment of silence, a heavily distorted electronic voice came through the walkie-talkie.

"Leave it to me."

After ending the communication, the figure picked up the sniper rifle, his cold eyes looking through the scope at the figures darting back and forth among the ruins in the distance.

…………

Thank you to reader Canglanshanren for the monthly pass.

Thank you to readers Sin Demon King EX, Fallen Maple Leaf, Sakura-chan Over, Sin Demon King EX, Terrifying Rabbit, Kaze-Naga Suiyou-fly, Big Rabbit, and Hanyu Ringo for their recommendation votes.

Section 313, Chapter 23: Anomalies and Similarities

Li Cheng nimbly leaped onto a floating building, and with the extremely weakened gravity field, he effortlessly ran up the walls. In front of him, a fat, deformed man covered in lumps oozing yellow pus screamed and scrambled toward him.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!!"

The obese man, now completely enraged, lunged at him, but Li Cheng paused briefly, feinted, and brushed past him. At that moment, the fat man was still completely bewildered; he even wore a puzzled expression, seemingly unable to understand why Li Cheng had suddenly vanished from his sight.

"too slow."

As Li Cheng casually uttered his words, a punch nearly pierced the fat man's chest. Using penetrating force techniques from ancient martial arts, Li Cheng shattered the fat man's heart, bypassing the thick layer of fat. He then kicked the fat man away, preventing the blood from staining him, and immediately opened a gap, arriving beside Marisa, who was still dodging sniper fire.

"Hey, girl, are you alright?"

"Oh my, just like that gap monster, they suddenly appear out of nowhere. Is this what they call a couple looking alike? da☆ze?"

"Stop talking nonsense, this isn't over yet."

Li Cheng tapped Marisa's forehead rather impolitely, showing that he was now treating her as a junior, and his words and attitude changed accordingly.

"Ouch, that hurts! Uncle, how could you be so cruel to a patient?" Marisa complained, clutching her forehead, which was red from Li Cheng's tap, before quickly dodging another shot. "Eek, that guy really is always looking for an opportunity, da☆ze~"

They deliberately chose to fire while the two were talking, and kept aiming at Marisa the whole time. The attacker was clearly a seasoned sniper who had already noticed Marisa's weakened state.

"More people are on their way."

Li Cheng closed his eyes, sensing his surroundings, and quickly discovered a large number of people quietly approaching. Judging from their auras, most of them seemed to be at the B-level or close to the A-level, and all of them exuded a rotten smell, somewhat similar to the monstrous fat man he had just killed.

Although he wasn't afraid of enemies of this caliber with his current strength, Marisa was in poor condition, and there was a sniper watching from the side. Tsk, it seemed that he had no choice but to retreat first.

"Marisa, come here."

Using a large boulder as cover, Li Cheng beckoned to Marisa, signaling her to come over. Then, he opened a portal, carrying Marisa directly to a location dozens of kilometers away, quickly shaking off their pursuers.

"Report, we've lost them. The other side seems to possess some kind of long-distance spatial teleportation skill, far exceeding our maximum speed. The only thing we can confirm right now is that they are fleeing in the northwest direction."

Standing atop a partially collapsed building, the man put down his massive gun, lit a cigarette, and reported into the walkie-talkie.

[Teleportation skill? Can you specify what kind of teleportation skill it is?]

The voice on the walkie-talkie sounded somewhat confused.

"I'm sorry, the other party deliberately chose a blind spot in the sniper's line of sight to teleport, so I had no way of observing the details of how he used that ability."

The man spoke calmly, looking ahead at the massive boulder amidst the countless ruins and debris. Above that boulder lay the remains of a building, and through the glass walls of the building, the man could clearly see what was happening behind the boulder.

Click—Bang!

He raised his gun, loaded it, and fired. The man shattered the glass wall with a single shot, then lowered the gun and left without looking back.

……

Meanwhile, on the other side, Li Cheng opened a gap and jumped out. Marisa, riding a broom, flew out with a "whoosh" and looked around the ruins with some curiosity.

"Speaking of which, uncle, are those eyes in that gap some kind of decoration? I've always been curious about that."

"Unfortunately, I don't know about this either. After all, my abilities come directly from Zi, and only she probably knows what those eyes are."

In reality, it was just a decoration that Zi created to make the gap look more powerful, cooler, and more terrifying. Li Cheng, who had seen all of Zi's memories, was quite clear about this matter. In the first hundred years of her demon life, when she was just beginning to familiarize herself with her abilities, Zi actually went through a rather chuunibyou (delusional) period. The countless eyes that appeared every time she opened the gap were actually the remnants of that period of recklessness.

However, this kind of thing is a little secret between him and Zi, and he has no intention of sharing it with anyone.

After all, aside from the pleasure of keeping his lover's secret to himself, if he were to actually reveal such a thing, Zi would certainly not be lenient with his little secret. If people he knew knew about the stupid things he had done in the past, it wouldn't be a good experience.

As Li Cheng passed through a vast expanse of chaotic ruins, he suddenly felt as if he were traversing a planetary ring. The countless ruins and debris floating in the air did indeed resemble a planetary ring.

However, human exploration of outer space has stagnated for many years. The only two projects still in operation are the lunar terraforming program and the Mars exploration program. The former is about the distribution of interests among major powers after the war with the Lunarians, while the latter is now basically stillborn.

It seems my thoughts have wandered a little too far.

"Uncle, who do you think those people who attacked us could be?"

Marisa, flying beside Li Cheng, looked at the direction they had come from and had a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Who knows? In any case, it's impossible that we're survivors from this space. It's more likely that someone from the outside came into this place, and hopefully they didn't record our faces."

Zi had told Li Cheng long ago that only beings at the level of Transcendent or even stronger could survive in this space. The fat guy he had defeated earlier was at most an A-level, and was a complete idiot who relied on brute force and knew nothing about combat techniques. Not to mention the group of enemies around B-level later on.

The most likely possibility Li Cheng could think of was that someone from another force had entered this space and intended to do something. It was certain that the organization was not benevolent; otherwise, they wouldn't have targeted Li Cheng and Marisa, who were complete strangers to them.

But Li Cheng, who fled in haste, had no way of knowing more about the events that followed.

Tsk, we were being overly cautious. There was actually a good opportunity to capture a prisoner for interrogation.

Li Cheng felt a pang of regret.

"Wow, uncle, uncle, what's that round thing?"

Unlike Li Cheng, who was still struggling with his decision, Marisa had already shifted her attention and asked curiously about a huge circular object floating in the air not far away.

"Oh, that's a Ferris wheel. It's a popular amusement ride for couples, but it's completely broken now and probably can't be repaired."

"Yeah, just like many seemingly loving couples eventually break up, can things that couples cherish eventually break down too?"

"...What the hell are you talking about?"

Li Cheng found Marisa's rambling remarks hard to understand.