Chapter 110: Individual Schemes

Beep.
A dim blue light flickered.
——Exo-suit activated.
"Locate that computer for me!" Yao Lun hissed with malice.
An invisible scanning wave pulsed from the exo-suit, instantly blanketing the entirety of Nanhang New City.
He walked over to a nearby sofa and sat down, unbothered by the fresh blood spattered across it.
His gaze remained locked on the exo-suit, which resembled a small speaker. The two circular attachments on its sides were actually interfaces for auxiliary devices. One side was connected to an energy shield generator, while the other held a tracking device.
"I’ve only ever revealed the energy shield to others, but it actually comes equipped with a tracker."
Yao Lun narrowed his triangular eyes. Though seated, he held his posture rigid. "I had already tagged Ji Cheng's wrist computer with this tracker once before. Now, all I need to do is lock onto that previously recorded signal."
...
The streets, choked with dried blood and cluttered with debris, had long since fallen silent; no screams echoed here, and there was not a soul in sight.
"Gurgle, gurgle."
From a three-meter-wide alleyway beside the street, a massive beast with solar panels covering its back emerged slowly.
A Sun-Turtle.
Though called a turtle, it looked more like a pig, save for the solar panels on its back that resembled a shell.
Its favorite pastime was basking in the sun; undisturbed, it could lie under the rays for an entire day.
But now, someone was blocking the sunlight from above.
A pair of exceptionally sharp eyes, dark as the night, stared down at it.
"Sorry, I’m disturbing your rest."
Hum.
The air emitted a faint but distinct vibration.
With a flick of his wrist, *Regret* descended and slashed.
An invisible blade of air manifested out of thin air. Though barely visible to the naked eye, the sharpness was enough to make one’s hair stand on end.
The sound ceased. A red line suddenly appeared across the Sun-Turtle’s body, and the flesh began to split apart along that line, inch by agonizing inch.
The concrete floor beneath it was also scored with a shallow, vertical groove.
Ji Cheng’s first strike had sliced through its seemingly impenetrable hide.
"Still got some fight left in you."
Seeing the creature not only refuse to collapse but instead lunge forward with its pig-like snout, Ji Cheng instinctively dodged to the side.
The tusks slammed into the wall, shattering a chunk of masonry.
"Here, have a banana." Ji Cheng pulled a tightly sealed test tube from his leg holster and, with a flick of his wrist, tossed it straight into the Sun-Turtle’s mouth.

*Pop!* The Sun-Turtle bit down, shattering the tube. It exploded in its mouth, and a milky white liquid sprayed out, sliding down its throat.
Ji Cheng held his dagger horizontally, pushed off the ground, and with a slight crouch followed by a sudden spring, he flipped behind the beast like a hawk. He slammed the hilt of his dagger against the solar panels on its back.
Clang.
The ruse worked; the Sun-Turtle gulped down all the milky liquid.
This Grade-Class mutated animal, known for its incredible vitality, wilted in an instant.
Slash, stab, side-swipe—the Kun-steel dagger darted in and out of the Sun-Turtle’s body like a viper, drawing great gouts of blood.
Meanwhile, the beast’s desperate counter-attacks—its hooves and tusks—always missed Ji Cheng by a hair’s breadth, whistling past his arms, waist, and nose, his fierce movements stirring only a few stray locks of hair.
There was no better training partner than a mutated animal: durable, dim-witted, and possessing devastating attack power.
Thus, whenever Ji Cheng encountered a formidable obstacle on his journey, he simply dispatched it.
It cost him little time, but by utilizing the stress-response method, he was steadily and solidly improving his own strength.
He was like a Grim Reaper drawing lots, deciding the fate of many mutated animals in a single moment.
Crash.
The Sun-Turtle’s grotesque maw remained wide open, its organs—spilled out like common refuse—littered the ground.
There was no more blood; Ji Cheng had already drained it dry. The hollowed-out body held its shape for a few seconds before crashing to the ground.
Outside the alley, a chorus of beast roars suddenly erupted.
"Damn it, time to go."
Whoosh.
Ji Cheng moved, darting dozens of meters in a flash.
An hour later.
Tap, tap, tap.
A cautious figure moved along the street with light, measured steps, careful not to disturb a single mutated animal. It was Ji Cheng, making haste.
"Ju!"
A soft growl escaped his throat, the word meaning 'Serenity.'
His sonic force field suppressed the surrounding vibrations, and his combat boots landed on the ground with almost zero noise.
"The Voice of Compulsion may be weak in raw power, but its utility is truly something..."
He suddenly slipped into a shadow, pressing his back against the wall. "Another group of mutated animals ahead. Looks like Face-Eaters. Better not to provoke them this time..."
On the sidewalk, near the storefronts and beneath a massive billboard, round shapes were writhing.
These monsters looked like bald balls of flesh. But once they consumed a few humans, they would—like a computer special effect—instantly use the granulation on their surface to sprout cheekbones, foreheads, eyes, noses, and lips, perfectly mimicking the terrified expressions of their victims’ final moments.
It was rumored that a camera was embedded inside that layer of flesh, but few dared to verify it.
Because these Face-Eaters were intensely aggressive.

"I should be able to reach the Emerald District before old Yao." Ji Cheng waited for the Face-Eaters to move on, silently calculating the time.
When he parted ways with the other council members, he had deliberately circled toward the Grey Zone in the north before hiding his tracks and heading southeast toward the Emerald District.
He had two objectives: first, to avoid being caught by Yao Lun, and second, to mislead him into wasting time in the north. By the time Yao Lun realized he had lost the trail and turned back to retrieve his ship, Ji Cheng would have already reached the Emerald District.
...
Silver District, a residential building.
Yao Lun sat on the sofa, his eyes burning with murderous intent, his patience nearly exhausted.
"I don't believe you'll keep it off forever."
Using the tracker attached to his exo-suit, he had scanned Nanhang New City over and over like a fine-mesh filter, but he simply could not detect the signal from Ji Cheng’s wrist computer.
"Could he really have gone straight back to the Grey Zone guard station?"
Yao Lun opened his computer, pulled up a map of the vicinity, and began to study it carefully.
"Impossible. Absolutely impossible."
"He’s already realized I’m out to kill him; he certainly wouldn't run to such a high-profile location. Even if he did get there, with others around, it would still be easy for me to finish him off."
He stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window of the living room, and stared at the ruined city outside, his face dark and somber.
"Ji Cheng most likely ran in another direction. Running to the guard station is just a slow death... but then again, who knows. I'll wait a bit longer. If I still can't find the signal, I'll head back to the hangar, take out the 'Hunter,' and go find him at the station."
In Yao Lun’s mind, Ji Cheng was nothing but a coward who would only ever run.
——Signal found. Coordinates locked.
The exo-suit suddenly erupted with a ring of dim blue light, and a notification tone echoed through the room.
"Excellent. You’re a dead man, Ji Cheng."
Yao Lun’s triangular eyes gleamed with excitement. He scrambled back to the sofa and recorded the coordinates on his own wrist computer.
He didn't know how to recharge the exo-suit, so he used it as sparingly as possible to avoid draining its energy and turning it into scrap metal.
After recording the coordinates, he quickly shut it down and began calculating Ji Cheng’s actual position.
"East... over thirty kilometers... Kaige Road. He’s actually heading toward the Emerald District."
The coordinates provided by the exo-suit were in the universal space-coordinate format. Converting them to planetary latitude and longitude was not difficult; within minutes, Yao Lun had calculated Ji Cheng’s precise location on his computer.
"How is he moving so fast?"
"No matter. I'll go see for myself." He raised his wrist and spoke to his wrist computer, "Navigate to Kaige Road, Silver District."
Thump.
Yao Lun leaped directly from the residential building and sped toward the east, though he dared not push his speed to the limit to avoid drawing a swarm of mutated animals.