Whoosh whoosh whoosh ~~
The autumn night in BlackRock City was bitter.
Icy wind whipped the streets, forcing pedestrians to clutch their coats and vanish into the dark.
In a dim alley behind a portside tavern, a woman in a tight black leather coat materialized amidst the dust.
It was Selene.
She stood on damp concrete, her eyes lifting toward a flickering neon sign.
Her tone was cold:
"So this is the so-called port district—gang turf."
A coarse laugh echoed behind her.
"Hey, girl, playing dress-up? Wanna have some fun?"
Hmm?
Selene's brows twitched. She turned her head.
Ten meters away stood a burly man with grimy dreadlocks—Emberlight complexion—pointing a revolver at her.
Near the entrance, a short, pudgy man in a baseball cap watched silently, a cigarette dangling from his lips.
Selene chuckled.
"So this is what people call 'compatriots'..."
The smile vanished. Instantly, her presence shifted.
A wave of murderous intent burst from her—sharp and suffocating.
BOOM!
"Ugh..."
The man with braids went rigid before collapsing like a puppet with cut strings.
The short man fared no better. His eyes rolled back as he slumped over unconscious.
Selene walked forward, calm and graceful. With one smooth motion, her boot stomped the revolver's handle, sending it into the air. She caught it effortlessly.
The man with dreadlocks stared up in shock, muttering:
"Y-You... we're the same—compatriots, right?! Please, don't kill me!"
"Compatriots?"
Selene sneered, crouching down. She used the muzzle to lift his sleeve, spotting a ghost-skull tattoo. Shifting the barrel to his forehead, she said:
"I ask. You answer. Slow down, and your brains hit the wall. Got it?"
The man nodded violently.
"Yes! Yes! No problem!"
Suddenly, the pudgy man at the alley's end bolted, trying to run.
Selene's eyes narrowed. Two scorching red beams shot from her eyes—
BANG!
The man's head exploded mid-stride.
His headless corpse crumpled to the pavement.
The dreadlocked man was overtaken by terror.
"Y-You… are you an alien?! Or a superpower user?!"
Selene tapped the muzzle against his skull—BANG, BANG, BANG. Her voice remained steady:
"Which gun shop around here belongs to your Fu'an Gang?"
The man stammered:
"J-Just head to the end of this street... a place called Ihang."
Selene nodded.
Then she pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The man spasmed and collapsed into a spreading pool of blood.
...
Minutes later.
On the empty street, Selene walked with purpose toward a glowing storefront.
"Ihang, this is the place."
DING-A-LING.
The bell rang as she stepped in.
Inside, a bulky man was swiping through his phone. Without looking up, he called out:
"Hey, we're closing. Come back tomorrow."
Selene said nothing.
She examined the rows of firearms lining the walls.
The man finally looked up. Seeing her, he broke into a smirk:
"What's a little lady like you doing here? Shopping for a nightclub gig?"
"Ah..."
Selene's eyes drifted to the ghost-head tattoo on his hand.
She pointed at a pistol in the case:
"Let me see that one."
"Hmm?"
The boss handed it over.
Selene took the pistol, gave it a quick spin, and dry-fired at the wall.
CLICK ~ CLICK ~ CLICK ~
The man chuckled.
"Not bad. You've got skill."
She didn't reply.
She gestured to the Uzi submachine gun mounted behind him.
Her voice was firm:
"Let me try that big one."
The shop owner's expression tensed.
He handed it to her while subtly pressing a hidden button beneath the counter.
CLICK...
Selene accepted the Uzi, spun in place, and dry-fired again.
CLACK CLACK CLACK.
Then she lowered the weapon and tilted her head:
"Where's Wu Fu?"
The boss snapped:
"Hey, what the hell are you talking about?!"
Selene's brow twitched. She swung the submachine gun one-handed—
BANG!
The stock cracked against his skull.
The man slammed into the wall and slid down unconscious.
THUD.
She tossed the gun aside.
Raising her wrist, a flash of blue light blinked—an alloy-fiber rope launched out.
WHOOSH—
It looped around a ceiling beam.
Selene hoisted the boss into the air, stringing him upside down like a slaughtered hog.
BANG!
She grabbed a cleaver and stepped forward, her tone cold:
"Interrogation Class One: Pain is man's most honest friend. It opens locked memories."
...
Five minutes later.
BANG!!
The door exploded open. Five thugs burst inside with pistols and bats.
They froze.
Selene stood there, aiming a shotgun straight at them.
The shopkeeper in the corner was soaked in blood, wrapped in duct tape and rigged with hand grenades.
A thin wire looped around Selene's finger.
They collectively cursed.
Knives, pistols, and bats hit the floor. Hands raised.
Selene smiled faintly.
"Good. You—you drove here, didn't you?"
...
VROOM VROOM VROOM ~
A black Jeep roared into the night.
Selene was planning.
"Step one: Find the firearms trafficking manager—Hua Mianbao Galu Biao.
Through him, I find Rod—the leader of the snake-men on the boat.
He's the only one who knows where Lucian is."
Her phoenix eyes narrowed.
"Until I confirm Lucian's location… everything stays at the gang level. Once I'm sure, I strike."
The Jeep turned toward a rundown road.
A crooked sign came into view—"Free Old Man", a seedy bar.
Selene parked, racked the shotgun, and slammed the door.
CRACK!!
She kicked open the front door.
Inside, bodies wriggled to chaotic music. Death metal collided with synth-hop, laced with the stink of alcohol and chemicals.
She raised the shotgun.
BANG!!
The shot tore through the speakers.
The music stopped.
Selene stepped forward:
"Bar's closing early. Everybody—get the fuck out."
...
Moments later.
Selene walked back out. The Jeep peeled off.
Her quiet storm of slaughter began.
Within the hour, she found Wu Fu in a chamber beneath an underground casino.
She extracted the truth.
...
In the basement—
Wu Fu sat tied to a steel chair. Blood pooled beneath him.
"He… he brought twenty people. They're on that gambling ship... by the coast..."
His voice was a rasp.
"They're leaving… tomorrow, noon…"
He howled:
"You fucking witch! Just kill me already!"
Selene watched him like a cat might watch a dying rat.
"There's a chip on your cerebral cortex. If you die—Lucian gets pinged."
Wu Fu trembled into silence.
...
The night draped the coast in absolute darkness.
Aboard the luxury gambling ship, Lucian stood near the window, frowning into the gloom.
Something felt… wrong.
"A hallucination?" he murmured.
Footsteps approached.
A young man arrived, grinning.
"Lucian, you still brooding?"
"It's nothing, Higch. Everything good on Wu Fu's end?"
Higch chuckled.
"What could go wrong? With this many brothers here, who's dumb enough to pull something?!"
Lucian let out a short laugh.
"Yeah… maybe I'm just paranoid."
Instantly, Lucian's expression shifted.
He grabbed Higch and blinked dozens of meters away.
BANG!
The banquet hall wall exploded into dust. Shockwaves rippled through the hall.
The smoke cleared.
From the crater, a girl in a black leather coat slowly rose.
Still in her grasp was Wu Fu—now frozen solid, a mutilated torso barely clinging to life.
It was Selene.
She flung the body aside like trash.
Her eyes locked onto a figure behind the crowd.
She smiled.
"Lucian. Been a while."
Lucian stepped forward, expression blank.
"Do I know you?"
He silently activated his psychic techniques:
Hypnosis.
Illusion-Casting.
Sensory Deprivation.
None of them worked.
Selene pressed a finger to her lips:
"Shh—no rush. I'll kill your subordinates first."
"Arrogant bitch!"
The superpower users roared.
They unleashed their abilities:
"Poison Flame!"
A stream of blue-black fire erupted.
"Demon Flora!"
Vines pulsed green as bark claws lashed out.
"Radioactive Death!"
An explosion of searing white light shot forward.
"Super High-Pressure Blast!"
An electric beam screeched through the air.
Dozens of attackers opened fire.
Lucian and Higch vanished, reappearing outside the hall to watch.
Inside, the attacks converged on Selene—and passed right through her.
[Sentience Realm Interference Device · Isolate]
HUM—
Her body shimmered, becoming untouchable.
All attacks sliced past her harmlessly.
Then—
[Hell Breath · Activate]
She reappeared in full clarity.
Her entire frame lit up with blue radiance.
Two belts of Dragon's Breath cannons materialized, pulsating with plasma.
The barrels glowed.
BOOM BOOM—
A hundred-meter radius was swallowed by roaring fire.
The blaze incinerated the superpower users as they screamed.
Selene tilted her head. A silver gash appeared on her face, then vanished instantly.
WHOOSH—
Energy blades materialized. Higch's voice trembled:
"My blades slice matter harder than diamond... yet they couldn't pierce your skull?!"
He flickered out of sight again.
Selene spoke in an icy voice:
"Lucian... psychic transmission, is it?"
[Sentience Realm Interference Device · Silence]
HUM—
An invisible field blanketed the area.
Lucian and Higch were ejected by an unseen force, crashing onto the deck.
Higch tried to rise, energy blades forming—
Selene was faster.
She covered a hundred meters in an instant.
She swung her leg.
CRACK—
Higch's head snapped back and sailed into the distant sea.
SPLASH ~
His headless corpse crumpled.
BANG!
Lucian was on his knees.
He glared upward, bombarding her with psychic attacks.
None of them landed.
"No use struggling."
Selene leaned into a sofa with a faint smile.
"Your powers don't work on me."
Lucian sneered, teeth clenched:
"Here for revenge? Tell me—whose grieving sister are you?"
Selene's voice was frigid.
"Whose friend or family? Hmm… that doesn't matter anymore."
Lucian gasped.
"Isn't there any room for compromise?!"
"Room..."
Selene chuckled.
Slowly, she leaned forward from the sofa, her frosty eyes boring into Lucian's.
"Do you know what I feel seeing you like this?
Kneeling. Pleading.
Like a mutt begging not to die, groveling at my feet.
My heart is absolutely brimming with joy."
"You damned bitch!"
Lucian exploded with rage, his pretense shattered. He lunged upward, brute force surging as he hurled himself at her.
But Selene simply lifted one leg and kicked him squarely back down.
Just like at the gun shop, she raised her wrist, blue light shimmered, and a metal cable flicked out.
In one smooth motion, she hung the thrashing, screaming Lucian upside-down, head-first.
"You stinking bitch!"
"Do you even know who you're messing with?!"
"Let me go right now!"
"You're dead! Do you hear me?! You're fucking dead!"
"You slut! You hear me?!"
Selene stood to the side, her expression placid.
Then, she raised her right hand.
Her pale fingers slowly spread.
BANG!
In an instant, her fingertips extended, transforming into five gleaming, razor-edged silver blades.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!
With a light kick, she nudged a grimy old iron basin from the wall directly beneath his head.
Lucian twitched as he caught the faint stench of expired dog food rising from within.
Panic set in.
"What, what the hell do you want?! What are you trying to do?!"
Selene approached, crouched beside him, and spoke in a tone thick with memory:
"Before I became a special agent, I hadn't even killed a chicken. But in our first interrogation class, we were ordered to kill someone on the spot. The materials we used were criminals or foreign spies."
"Special agent? Interrogation?"
Lucian broke into a cold sweat, something surfacing in the back of his mind.
"I was so scared, I cried during that session. My brother stepped in, saved me, kept me alive."
Selene smiled suddenly, a stunning, distant smile.
But her eyes were void of tears.
A mechanical lifeform has no tears to shed.
"I remember... I remember!"
Lucian trembled as realization crashed over him.
"You're!"
SWISH!
An arm fell off.
Lucian writhed in agony, unable to form words, only wheezing, veins bulging, his face a map of pain.
Before he could catch a breath.
SWISH! The other arm followed.
"AHHHHHH!!!"
"How are you alive?! You were dead, you were dead!!"
Selene's voice dropped to a chilling murmur:
"My brother lost both arms before he died. He was frozen, then burned alive. He died in pieces, unrecognizable."
"So no, I won't be excessive."
"I'll just let you experience exactly what he went through."
...
Time crawled until dawn.
Selene stepped out from the banquet hall.
She didn't spare even a glance at the dying PsyBro survivors writhing across the deck.
With a casual stomp of her boot, she shattered a wide section of the deck beneath her, BOOM, and rocketed skyward.
Hundreds of meters into the air, she pushed off with her slender legs once more.
BANG!!!
Air ruptured around her like thunder.
Her figure blurred as she shot toward the faint coastline far in the distance.
...
A moment later.
A secluded stretch of the harbor.
WHOOSH!
Selene descended from the heavens like a bolt of lightning, landing with a heavy thud on the dock.
She turned slightly, casting one final glance back at the distant yacht, her voice soft and laden with feeling:
"Vengeance... complete. Time to return."
But then, a chill.
A sudden, inexplicable intent to kill, locking tightly onto her presence.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
The space tens of meters to her left suddenly boiled like water poured over scorching metal.
And then.
SWISH!
A ripple of shattered, glass-like phantom rings spiraled outward as a humanoid silhouette emerged from thin air, narrow at the waist, broad at the shoulders.
A tall, burly man.
Slicked-back hair.
A lazy grin on his face.
"Ah."
The man yawned, brushing his oily hair back.
"I tried to rush here, but alas... didn't make it in time."
He looked Selene up and down, then smiled casually:
"Well, survival of the fittest, right? Nature's oldest rule. You were stronger than Lucian, so he died. That's all there is to it.
And if I'm stronger than you, well, your death is equally natural."
He chuckled, stretching slightly.
"Name's Daoheng. President of the PsyBro Syndicate."
The moment his words ended, he stomped, CRACK!, shattering the concrete beneath his feet and launching himself forward like a bullet, roaring.
His fist came crashing toward Selene's face with a howl of air.
BANG!
The ground quaked violently. A shockwave exploded outward.
Daoheng's smirk froze.
His mighty punch, brimming with confidence and power, had been effortlessly caught.
By one hand.
Selene stood perfectly still. She hadn't even shifted her footing.
Not a single step.
"Eighteen hundred tons of force."
She tilted her head slightly, voice cold.
"Too weak."
She tightened her grip.
But then... Huh?
No matter how much force she applied, her fingers couldn't seem to grip his fist.
It was like the pressure just slid off his body entirely, refusing to make contact with anything solid.
"Hmph."
Daoheng smiled without effort.
"Raw strength? Not my specialty.
Space... now that's where I shine."
His figure flickered. Instantly, he slipped free of her grasp.
He spread his five fingers and gently pressed them against Selene's forehead, just enough to nudge her backward.
And as he moved.
The entire harbor scene began to warp.
Light and shadow bled together, layer after layer of warped, spiraling mirage.
SWISH!
In just one second, the world around them vanished like a dream dissolving.
Now they hovered above a seething red hell, an ocean of superheated molten rock.
BANG!
Daoheng flung her downward.
Selene's body slammed into a massive translucent crystal jutting from the magma field.
CRACK CRACK CRACK!
The giant gem cracked and shattered, hurling her down into the gurgling, blistering depths of molten lava.
Daoheng leapt backward, floating effortlessly onto a different crystalline platform over a hundred meters away.
Hands in his pockets, he exhaled slowly.
"This is the subcrustal layer," he said with a grin.
"High heat. High pressure. Lethal sulfur vapors."
He lowered his eyelids and sat lazily, as if lounging at a spa.
"Took me 1,247 human trials to fully adapt to it.
Though really, I can adapt to any environment."
WHOOSH!
Selene burst from the magma like a missile.
Her back flared open, rockets ignited, plumes of blue fire and scorching current surged behind her.
She soared through the heat haze and stopped just ten meters from Daoheng.
With a flick of her hand, she patted the molten slag off her body like it was dust on a coat.
Raising her eyes, she stared at the man, vast streams of data flickering through her pupils.
"An adaptability beyond logic... not just to environments, but also to attacks."
Her voice remained calm.
"Was this trait awakened in some kind of laboratory?"
"Bingo."
Daoheng narrowed his eyes, smirking.
"Got it around age thirteen."
His gaze sharpened.
"A cyborg, huh? Good. The more anomalies out there, the better. Eventually, they'll squeeze humanity out of existence."
As he spoke, he casually waved his hand.
SWISH!
A semi-transparent phantom blade, wide as a steel door, materialized from thin air and tore through the space between them.
The strike was blindingly fast. Selene's cybernetic brain barely reacted in time.
She dodged, just barely. Still—
SWISH!
The blade grazed her, slicing a half-inch of flesh clean off her arm and shoulder.
Even the deeply embedded Carbyne spiritual bone was scored with harsh, metallic scratches.
That phantom blade didn't slow down. It shot into the distant sky, disappearing into the endless vapor above the magma sea.
Daoheng chuckled.
"What kind of alloy are you made from to still be standing?"
He straightened up in disbelief, his voice dropping to a low, heavy tone:
"My Dimensional Slash is essentially a spatial rift. And space is the most unyielding structure in the universe. No material should resist it. Yet you withstood it. Unbelievable."
HISS HISS HISS ~
Selene quietly rubbed her arm where sparks continued to flare. Her voice remained clinical:
"Your spatial teleportation ability... was that also awakened in a lab?"
Streams of shimmering silver-gray fluid began seeping from her wounds, flowing like liquid metal to restore her body with mechanical precision.
"Teleportation? Ah—"
Daoheng let out a scoffing laugh.
"No. It's not teleportation, it's destruction.
[Void-Step Invisibility] allows me to rip open space, to tear reality and walk anywhere I please."
He grinned darkly.
"Dimensional Slash is just a spinoff. Even I wouldn't dare take a full hit from it.
But you did. So... what about ten more?!"
His hands blurred as he violently flung forward ten blazing Dimensional Slashes, all shrieking toward Selene.
[Sentience Realm Interference Device · Isolate]
[Sentience Realm Interference Device · Silence]
HUM—
Selene's body instantly shimmered, her form phasing between states like light slipping through a veil.
The incoming slashes dimmed slightly, just for a second. Then—
BOOM!!
They detonated upon her, blasting her downward into the magma sea.
The impact was cataclysmic, boring a hole through tens of thousands of tons of molten rock and dragging her hundreds of meters beneath the surface.
GURGLE GURGLE GURGLE—
Inside the suffocating inferno, Selene's body was a ruin, gashed to the bone with electricity snapping across torn fibers.
But her mind was already processing. The Sentience Realm organ only interfered with powers sourced from the Sentience Realm. The temporary weakening in Daoheng's attacks confirmed it.
His powers were tied to that realm.
Then, a voice echoed in her neural interface:
"If I'm not mistaken, this so-called Void-Step Invisibility relies on architectural-level spatial modeling. Fascinating, but nothing more.
Dimensional Slash is simply an impure destructive field, an atomic interaction vector laced with energy from the Sentience Realm."
"Your Highness?!"
HUM—
Selene's eyes flashed with a brilliant crimson pulse.
Above, Daoheng squinted downward.
"She should be dust by now..."
He tried to lock onto her life signs, but the thick magma distorted everything.
Then—
BOOM!!
A red blur burst upward from the lava—
Her fist collided with Daoheng's chin like a meteor strike.
The entire magma sea trembled within a hundred-meter radius. But once again, the blow deflected unnaturally, dispersed into the surrounding air.
BANG!
Daoheng retaliated with another Dimensional Slash, hurling Selene backward across the sky.
He rubbed his chin with a grimace.
"You still won't die? How the hell did you survive a spatial rift?!"
Selene hovered back into view, her expression composed.
"No point pretending anymore."
She tilted her head slightly, smiling:
"That wasn't a spatial rift at all."
"What did you say?!"
"The so-called Void-Step Invisibility doesn't shatter space. You merely fragment and re-route it, forming temporary layered channels."
"Lies!"
Daoheng snarled. He began conjuring dozens of Dimensional Slashes, all fusing into a swirling black orb:
A Dimensional Sphere.
Its core twisted with flickering singularities, an unstable rupture in reality. Daoheng's face twitched under the strain.
But before he could stabilize it—
Selene moved.
Instead of retreating, she surged forward. Her palms glowed with supercritical electromagnetic fields, hot as suns.
She grabbed the Dimensional Sphere directly and smiled coldly:
"Your so-called 'rift' is just a high-energy disruption of atomic interaction. It severs macroscopic matter. So all I need is a matching-level field to cancel it."
HUM—
The Dimensional Sphere pulsed violently, destabilizing under her interference.
Daoheng's face twisted in horror.
"Damn it—it's gonna blow!! Let go of me, now!!"
Selene's voice was quiet.
"I won't. You said you couldn't block Dimensional Slashes, right? So why don't you try one?"
"You lunatic—!"
Daoheng screamed, eyes bloodshot.
"AAAAAARRRGHHHH!!"
BOOM!!!!!
The Dimensional Sphere exploded.
Both figures were engulfed in an expanding shockwave of annihilation. Crystalline platforms vanished and the magma sea split open.
A crater several hundred meters wide gouged itself into the molten plain.
The chasm filled slowly with magma, but only one figure remained.
Selene stood at the center, bathed in radiant golden light, her body intact and her face calm.
Daoheng? Nothing but ash in the wind.
HUM—
The Real Number Channel opened behind her, a luminous rift in the fabric of space.
It enveloped Selene, and she vanished without a trace.