Translator: ThatLazyPotato
Translation Checker: 7qqy
Editor: yuki_shuichi
The doll butler escorted Black Panther out of this quiet place in the middle of the snowstorm and also gave him a scarf. After bowing, he turned around and disappeared into the storm.
Black Panther looked back at the castle, but the biting cold wind that swept along clumps of snow obscured his view. The gloomy sky got darker, making the golden light emitting from every window of the castle appeared even warmer and brighter. Before he left, Odd Bones had invited him to stay the night and wait for the snowstorm to stop before going, but Black Panther refused with a cold expression.
That woman wasn’t a hospitable character at all, so she didn’t continue to insist after being rejected. She was unlike Crawler and Domino, whom he met at Shaojin Mansion; those two little rascals were cordial and clingy, dragging him into the house and inviting him to stay repeatedly.
Black Panther recalled, stubbornly insisting that he had agreed to stay only because he couldn’t reject the kind offer. But ever since the attack on Shaojin Mansion, he has kept an eye on the two little guys secretly. After knowing that they were living comfortably in the IOA, he didn’t have much contact with them.
The snowstorm didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon, and the temperature kept getting lower. Black Panther put on the scarf given to him by the doll butler, and his frozen body warmed up a bit.
While it wasn’t completely dark out yet, Black Panther quickly stepped on the thickening snow to find the direction of his helicopter. Luckily, he had a strong sense of direction, and his eyesight wasn’t bad, so he wouldn’t get lost in the snowstorm, at least.
The snow was getting increasingly thicker, and his feet would sink deep into the snow with every step he took—he had to pull out hard to take the next step. It should have been an hour’s journey, but he only walked for three hours. His shoulder injury was almost healed due to Puppet Master’s suturing, but there were still several serious bone and internal organ injuries in his body. Rimbaud’s attack was really ruthless. If he were any faster, Black Panther would probably be torn alive into fish food and swallowed.
Now, he could only go back to that person, and with the recovery of the controller, the injuries on his body could be healed quickly.
He wandered in the snow for a while, his brows furrowing even more. The leeward slope where he parked his helicopter was empty; the helicopter had disappeared without a trace.
The place was deserted, and the possibility of someone stealing it wasn’t big. Even if someone did steal it, flying a helicopter in such weather was asking for death if they didn’t have great piloting skills.
Black Panther looked around, and from the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a faint light on the back slope being refracted. It seemed that a certain area of air and the stones behind it seemed unnatural.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Black Panther’s eyes flashed a sharp, cold light, and an oppressive aura emanated from his body.
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“Experimental Subject 814, Ethereal Lionfish. I heard you were destroyed for being useless; it looks like you weren’t.” Black Panther shook his head. Unwilling to bother with the pranks of such a low-level experimental subject, he bypassed the omega, who was silently kneeling on the ground, and walked towards his helicopter.
But when he passed by Ethereal Lionfish, he froze for a moment, as if he didn’t feel any fluctuation in life. He looked back, and the body of the omega kneeling on the ground only had the colors black, white, and gray.
It looked like a 3D posthumous photo.
“…” Black Panther faintly felt uneasy and picked up his speed to the helicopter. Just as his right hand touched the handle, he felt a wave of murderous intent rushed toward him. He had been walking in the snow for too long. Although his senses were still sensitive as a feline experimental subject, his hands and feet had become sluggish due to the extreme cold. On top of that, he had narrowly escaped death at the hands of Rimbaud, so his reaction speed had slowed down due to the heavy injury.
A flash of a cold blade light passed by. Black Panther quickly retreated to avoid it, but the blade was too fast, and the thin, cold blade slashed at him. Black Panther only felt a numb and dull pain in his right hand—three of his fingers and half of his palm were cut off.
The half of the palm wearing the sapphire ring fell to his foot. The gushing blood immediately stained the white snow all over the ground red, and a wisp of warm steam emerged, which quickly solidified due to the extremely cold temperature.
Black Panther gnashed his teeth and endured the sharp pain in his right hand. He coldly looked in front of him, and only then did he clearly see the appearance of the being in front of him.
Experimental Subject 2316, Jack the Ripper. A praying mantis experimental subject with two completely sharp folding knives on both hands starting from the forearm.
It was just that he was also very different from his appearance in his memory. Black Panther had seen Jack the Ripper in the Crawler’s experimental subject database. He was a bright guy with green hair and bright red eyes, while the one in front of him was only gray.
“I remember you were killed by Eris at the Red Fox City cultivation base. Why are you still alive?” Black Panther’s cut-off right hand rapidly regenerated, starting from the bone, and gradually the tendons and flesh wrapped around it. Black Panther’s eyes glowed a golden light, and his pupils turned into an elongated, cold, thin line.
The praying mantis experimental subject looked at him with dead eyes. He was expressionless and didn’t answer.
Black Panther suddenly sensed movements behind him hidden in the storm. In the heavy snow, more than a dozen experimental subjects pushed off the layer of snow and silently crawled out. All of them were gray in color, indistinctly integrating with the heavy snow and making people question if they had lost the ability to recognize color.
Black Panther finally recognized the seriousness of the situation. He couldn’t care less about pointless fights, picking up the already frozen, stiff severed hand and dodging the praying mantis’ two blades. With a hand in his hand, he dragged his body, sat in the helicopter, and started it up quickly.
The propellers spun and made loud noises and turbulent airflow. The gray experimental subjects crawled out of the snow and gathered towards the helicopter. The number increased—from a dozen to a couple of dozen, and then to hundreds. Everyone’s eyes were filled with gray indifference, there wasn’t a single trace of anger.
Black Panther coldly glanced at them, put his index finger to his lips, and made a gesture of silence.
In a flash, the experimental subjects surrounding the helicopter, starting from the ones closest to him, clasped their hands one by one and kneeled under the pressure of an invisible force. The entire encirclement, starting from the inner to the outer, gradually kneeled down and put their hands together, as if a strange worship ceremony were happening.
Devil Envoy’s J1 ability, Fallen and Converted, belonged to the silencing-type ability. It was an action-specific ban, so that the target could only remain in a worship pose and could not move.
The helicopter took off in the snowstorm, blowing side to side by the hunting wind, and slowly flew in the air.
While a black hole formed in the center of those experimental subjects controlled by Fallen and Converted, from the vortex slowly rose a huge phantom, the phantom was draped in a solid black cloak, and their face was a cloud of black mist. Slender hands made of black smoke of nothingness held a cane made of absolute blackness and stood in front of them. The cane had no decoration; only the position of the armrest was a smooth arc hook.
The demon phantom held the cane firmly on the ground, and the black hole below their feet rapidly expanded, extending to under the feet of the controlled experimental subjects who couldn’t move. Their gray bodies were slowly dyed black and absorbed into the black hole under the demon phantom’s feet.
Demon Envoy’s M2 ability, Judgement of Doom: A mirage-type ability. The guilty party would be sent to the world of nothingness, while the innocent party would be sent to the world of bliss (it’s essentially the effect of different wavelengths of radiation on the brain’s nerves.)
Black Panther piloted the helicopter and traversed the snowstorm. After leaving the mountain, the sky cleared up, and the dim light became a bit brighter.
He picked up the severed hand thrown into the glove compartment beside him. The frozen, severed hand had now thawed, falling limply. Black Panther took off the sapphire ring from the index finger of the severed hand, then casually threw the hand out of the helicopter.
He clutched the ring in his hand, and his knuckles turned white due to using excess force. He was annoyed and wanted to throw it out of the helicopter, but reluctantly decided to put it back on his regrown right hand’s index finger.
After putting the ring back on, the fluorescent green scorpion tail mark peeking out from the back of his trench coat dimmed, but it didn’t look like there was much of a difference.
The mark of the scorpion tail design was deeply etched on his spine from top to bottom, and it would glow a fluorescent green. This fluorescent light might seem weak, but it could shine through any heavy clothing material. Moreover, the sapphire ring could suppress the mark’s fluorescent color, which meant that between the ring and the mark, one of them must be shown on his body.
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In the IOA’s Medical Association’s ward, Bai Chunian was still looking at his laptop. Almost all the agents in his department were on a mission, while some who had just become official agents still made him worry.
“I’ve returned.” Rimbaud pushed open the door and walked to the sofa somewhat tiredly. He unbuckled the gun belt on his leg, then took off his pants belt and took off the dirty combat uniform. There was only a camouflage tank top and shorts left. He lifted up the hem of his tank and stood by the window to enjoy the cool breeze.
The wind blew the scent of Himalayan musk rose in his sweat to the bedside. Bai Chunian raised his head. “Don’t stand there, you’ll get a cold.”
Rimbaud tilted his head. “I’ve lived for more than 270 years, and I have never caught a cold.”
“Still, you should do it less.” Bai Chunian picked up the lunchbox at the head of the bed. “Come, come here. I left you shrimp dumplings. Han-ge packed them from the cafeteria.”
Rimbaud laid on the hospital bed, his body pressing on Bai Chunian’s legs, and held the bed with both hands, slightly opening his lips.
Bai Chunian gave him one. “What’s going on? Usually, your mouth opens really wide, all the way to the base of your ears. And the teeth inside are like a grinder, even a basin could go in it. What’s wrong with you today?”
“…” Rimbaud chewed on the dumpling in small bites, muttering softly, “The robber ran away with the gem. I chased after him, but before I could make my move, he fainted from fright when I opened my mouth. Randi, am I that scary?”
Bai Chunian tried his best to hold in his smile. “You’re super cute, and eating that way is efficient.”
“It’s fine as long as you don’t think so.” Rimbaud cheered up, opened his animalistic mouth full of canines, and ate the remaining dumplings in the box, along the electric kettle on the head of the bed.
“Oh yeah, have you handed over the remaining gems you took back to the police yet?”
“I have. I also went home and got a ruby similar for them.” Rimbaud turned over and leaned on Bai Chunian’s shoulder. “The ruby I chose was also very big, bigger than the original one. The curator was originally thanking me, but it turned out the original owner of the gem didn’t appreciate it. He didn’t want the new one, but the original one. He said that one was heart-shaped and had a special meaning.”
“Oh? Then what did the police say?”
“They all looked at me. I had no choice but to chew the ruby into a heart shape and give it to him.” Rimbaud wrapped an arm around Bai Chunian’s neck, his cheek was very close, and he lazily picked at his fingernails. “I think the shape was already quite similar, but the original owner still didn’t look all that happy.”
“You chewed it in front of him? Who would be happy about that? How’d it go afterwards?”
“So I cried a few pearls for him on the spot. Didn’t you say they’re quite expensive? He was a lot happier after he got them. But at the time, I couldn’t cry, so it took a long time to squeeze them out.”
“Ay.” Bai Chunian cupped Rimbaud’s face and lightly pecked him. “You didn’t need to do this. It’s already good enough that you got back more than half of them. You are a king, you shouldn’t lower yourself like that, got it?”
Rimbaud raised his eyelashes. “I didn’t want to make him happy, I wanted to make you happy, baby.”
Thank You for the new chapter (♡ ὅ ◡ ὅ )ʃ♡