Heroes Return

"You read Dream of the Red Chamber to the children as bedtime stories?" Lin Jie asked Lin Wan.

"Are you questioning my early education?" Lin Wan said. "I'm educating her mind in advance so that she won't be deceived by you as often as I was when I was a child."

“...But no one tells such young children about Dream of the Red Chamber.” Lin Jie said.

"What's wrong with Dream of the Red Chamber? It's a classic. Do you know how much Cao Xueqin sacrificed to write it?" Lin Wan said with dissatisfaction. "It's because there are too many people like you that our traditional cultural heritage is on the verge of extinction."

"Tch, I don't know anything about Cao Xueqin, but I do know about his classmates," Lin Jie said.

"You're just bragging."

"Little sister, would you like to know the story of Cao Xueqin's classmate?" Lin Jie said to the little girl who was staring at them with wide eyes.

"I want to hear it, Brother Lin," the little girl said.

"You'd better not believe what he says," Lin Wan said from the side.

"But I really want to hear it," the little girl said.

"Then let me tell you the story," Lin Jie cleared his throat and said, "A long, long time ago, Cao Xueqin had a classmate whose academic performance was just as good as Cao Xueqin's. But one day, Cao Xueqin wrote a book called Dream of the Red Chamber, which made him an instant famous writer. His classmate also read Dream of the Red Chamber, and he was certain that it would become a work that would go down in history."

How could he, someone who also excelled academically, be content to be surpassed by Cao Xueqin? So he decided to write a masterpiece that would surpass Dream of the Red Chamber.

From then on, he conceived his book every day. Day after day, year after year, he researched the content and historical context of the book he wanted to write. In this way, he conceived it for a full twenty years.

"And then? Did he write a book even better than Dream of the Red Chamber?" the little girl asked curiously.

“No, after twenty years of contemplation, he went bald and became stronger. So he abandoned his literary pursuits for martial arts and eventually became an invincible general,” Lin Jie said.

"Tch, you're talking nonsense again." Lin Wan gave Lin Jie a displeased look.

"Brother Lin, what is a classmate?" the little girl asked curiously.

“Classmates are people who study together at the same school,” Lin Jie said.

"What is a school?" the little girl asked.

"A school? That's a place where children learn knowledge," Lin Jie replied.

Do you have many friends who are the same age as me?

"Okay." Lin Jie nodded.

"Can I go to school?" the little girl asked, her big, watery eyes wide open.

"Sure, you go to sleep. After we defeat the bad guys, your brother will send you to school, okay?" Lin Jie said, patting the little girl's head.

"Really? You promise?" the little girl asked.

"I promise," Lin Jie said with a smile.

……

At midnight, a tall man arrived outside Lin Jie's apartment.

"Is this the place? All they asked me to do was take the child back. Whether he lives or dies is fine, right?" the man muttered to himself.

"What were you whispering about downstairs at my house?" Lin Jie suddenly appeared next to the tall man.

"Are you Lin Jie?" the tall man asked. "I didn't expect you to leave here without anyone. It seems you are very confident in your strength."

"Oh? You know about me?" Lin Jie asked curiously.

“Of course, you must fully understand your enemy before you can deal with them,” the man said. “Although you are only rated E, you have twice defeated B-rank physical enhancement heroes with a single blow, which means you now possess strength exceeding that of a B-rank hero, but…”

Before the man could finish speaking, a spiked club came crashing down on his head. He managed to block the attack with his hands, but the immense force pinned him firmly to the ground.

"Tch, if you're going to fight, just say you're going to fight. Why all the nonsense?" Lin Jie said, yawning as he spoke.

"But you've run into me today." The tall man then crawled out of the ground, his body swelling until he reached over five meters tall: "I also possess strength exceeding B-rank..."

Before he could finish speaking, Lin Jie brought his staff down again, pinning the five-meter-tall giant into the ground.

“I’ve already said it, stop with the nonsense,” Lin Jie said.

But the man crawled out of the ground again.

"I admit, you possess immense power, but do you think you can defeat me so easily?" The gigantic man said, as hard scales appeared on his body. "Being able to force me to use my second form is already enough to make you proud. Now, I'll show you..."

He was interrupted once more, and the stick fell swiftly. The man in his second form was pinned to the ground for the third time.

Lin Jie glanced at the giant who was about to climb out again and raised an eyebrow: "It can still climb up?"

After saying that, he raised the spiked club in his hand once again.

"Wait a minute!!!" the giant hurriedly called out to Lin Jie.

"What are you doing?" Lin Jie asked.

"You're shameless! That's not how a man behaves! You attacked before you even finished speaking, what kind of skill is that!" the giant said as he crawled out.

"Oh, then you go ahead."

"Today I'm going to show you the difference in strength." As the giant spoke, his muscles swelled up, and a scorching heat emanated from beneath the scales on his body.

"Are you done talking?" Lin Jie asked.

"I'm done speaking..." Before the words were even finished, the giant was knocked back into the ground by another blow.

"This is impossible!! Even in my strongest form, I couldn't even put up a fight against you!!" The giant, who had been watching Lin Jie's movements the whole time, was still sent into the ground by Lin Jie. "Who exactly are you? This kind of strength should definitely have reached A-rank! Why are you just hanging around at the E-rank hero level!"

……

Chapter 16

"Can't you come up with something besides empty talk?" Lin Jie yawned. "You know, I have things to do tomorrow during the day."

"Damn it, how dare you look down on me." The giant was completely enraged by Lin Jie's contemptuous attitude. He took out a specially made syringe from his body: "It was originally left by the company as the last life-saving weapon for us B-levels, but since you have the strength and speed of an A-level, I have no choice but to use this to fight you."

The giant then pressed the syringe against his own neck: "You'll regret your contempt..."

"You talk too much nonsense," Lin Jie said, sending him back to the ground once again.

"Hehehe." A huge shadow rose from the void. This time, bright red markings appeared on his body, each marking radiating an eerie and powerful force.

"Is this near-S-rank power? It feels amazing." At this moment, the giant's body had completely transformed into a gigantic humanoid monster.

"Boring." Lin Jie jumped up, picked up his spiked club, and smashed it down on the guy in front of him.

"Hahaha, it's useless! In my eyes, you're as slow as a snail right now!" The monster laughed and stretched out his thick arm to grab Lin Jie, who was airborne.

Then...then the monster's entire arm disappeared.

"What!" The monster stared at Lin Jie in astonishment. He had clearly anticipated Lin Jie's movements and was confident that his grab would catch Lin Jie. Yet, his entire arm was shattered by a powerful force. His external defenses were so strong that even the latest armor-piercing bullets couldn't cause any damage.

"Who exactly are you?" The monster looked at Lin Jie, its eyes filled with wariness. "But don't think you can defeat me like this. I'm immortal now."

After he finished speaking, the spot where the monster's arm had been severed began to wriggle, and then an arm grew back at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"You think you're Piccolo the Great Demon King?!" Lin Jie said, gripping his spiked club tightly. The next moment, he appeared beside the monster, swinging his club horizontally. The monster's legs were broken by Lin Jie's attack, and just as it was about to fall, Lin Jie swung his club repeatedly. The monster's entire body was sliced ​​into a giant human stump.

"I told you, it's no use!" As he spoke, the wounds on the monster's body began to wriggle again.

"I'll break it as many times as it grows." Lin Jie looked at him with a strange smile.

Ten minutes later, Lin Jie looked at the monster lying in front of him. It had shrunk to the size of a normal person and was still twitching.

"It looks like your medicine is about to expire. As expected, berserk potions and similar substances all have side effects."

"..." The big man stared at Lin Jie silently, his body twitching violently a few times before calming down.

"Drugs give you a momentary thrill, but you'll end up in the crematorium," Lin Jie sighed. "I'll hand you over to the heroes to rest when it gets light."

"Hehehe..." The big man sneered, "You think you've won by defeating me? You've provoked the worst enemy in the world, hahaha."

"Tch, the roar of a loser," Lin Jie said dismissively.

"I admit that the organization misjudged your strength this time, which is why they sent someone like me with only B-level strength to find you. But the person who comes next will be someone you can't defeat no matter what," the big man said arrogantly. "You should know that our Evolution Company is a huge organization that even a true S-level can't afford to offend."

"So what? Let them come," Lin Jie said.

"Hmph, you can be smug for a while. When we organize the next operation, that little girl you were protecting will end up in our hands too. Your teammates should all be dead by then. Oh, right, don't you have a younger sister? I'll take good care of her after we, the Evolution Company, deal with you," the burly man said.

"Is that so? I admit I didn't protect the people I wanted to protect in the past." Lin Jie's expression changed at this moment: "But it won't happen a second time."

A powerful aura emanated from Lin Jie.

"Your words have successfully aroused my murderous intent." At this moment, Lin Jie, with his back to the moon, suddenly had a strange red light emerge in his black pupils.

"Wait! You can't kill me, that's not something you superheroes would do, is it?" The man was also intimidated by Lin Jie's aura. "And do you know who's behind us? It's the president of your H City Hero Association! As the manager of H City's superheroes, he will never forgive your behavior."

"Hero? I stopped being one a long time ago." Lin Jie said calmly. After he finished speaking, a jet-black longsword appeared out of thin air in Lin Jie's hand. The blade of the longsword was now emitting an eerie red light: "Besides, you have no idea who you have offended."

"That sword!" The man stared in shock at the sword in Lin Jie's hand, then at the red light in Lin Jie's eyes: "It's the Sword of Judgment! You are..."

An indescribable fear rose in the man's heart. Almost everyone in the world recognized that sword; that sword and those red eyes had once been the nightmare of every sinner in the world. The man never dreamed that he would encounter that legend who had disappeared for five whole years here.

Unfortunately, the man's shock ended there.

……

Lin Jie opened his bedroom door and found Lin Wan walking out of her room in her pajamas, holding a little girl who was sleeping soundly in her arms.

"Why is it so noisy outside?" Lin Wan asked groggily.

"It's nothing. The superheroes are fighting monsters outside. I just finished watching the show, and they're done already," Lin Jie replied casually.

"Oh," Lin Wan nodded. "Who won?"

“Superhero,” Lin Jie said.

"Oh, then I'm going back to sleep," Lin Wan said. "You should go to sleep too."

"Okay, goodnight." Lin Jie said to his sister, "Also, that's not a pillow you're holding."

"Huh? When?"

……

After watching his younger sister return to her room, Lin Jie took out his phone: "Hello?... Xiao Zhan? This is Lin Jie. How are things over there? You were attacked too... What! Your attacker was a busty woman! And she was wearing a tight-fitting outfit!!! No way, I have to protest! Why was it a burly man who attacked me?! I've already taken care of things over there..."

At this moment, the place where Lin Jie and the big man had just fought was completely gone, and all that remained of the place where the big man had been lying was a human-shaped crater.

……

The next morning, at Lin Jie's dining table.