Chen Qi was preparing to meet a lady for an appointment when he received a call from Taruno.
He'd originally thought that after breaking up with that group of girlfriends, trouble would stop finding its way to him.
But Chen Qi had clearly underestimated Ireland. Just this morning, a beautiful lady gave him a call.
Chen Qi's head throbbed as he looked at the note on his caller ID: "Target 013."
But after a brief, tentative conversation, Chen Qi ultimately agreed to meet her.
Ireland's "deal" with this lady had successfully piqued his interest.
······
'Someone's watching me?'
Just as he stepped out of the Chris Building, Chen Qi's uncanny intuition sent him a warning.
After his life level reached 4, Chen Qi had run some tests.
Aside from his strength and speed being a great deal higher than an ordinary person's, the most significant change was that intuition.
Chen Qi had named it Danger Perception. It seemed to stem from his body integrating information from his five senses, often providing a direct warning before his brain could even make a judgment.
At this moment, Chen Qi felt a sharp, piercing sensation between his eyebrows.
'It's a sniper rifle!'
Taruno's report that Hu Wanhai had possibly hired an assassin couldn't have been more timely. Chen Qi understood in an instant.
Body Control.
The instant the crisis struck, Chen Qi activated the Superpower bestowed upon him by Red Heart Seven.
A purple light blossomed on the back of his left hand as ten Puppet Threads, invisible to mortals, emerged from his fingertips.
The moment the Puppet Threads appeared, they instantly pierced into Chen Qi's body.
In the next instant, the warning from his Danger Perception peaked. An armor-piercing round left the barrel of a rifle at three times the speed of sound, hurtling toward Chen Qi's head.
······
0.1 seconds. That was all the time the assassin, Black Eagle, had left for Chen Qi.
He didn't think the target could react in time. Forget an ordinary person; even a battle-hardened veteran wouldn't be able to dodge it.
The limit of human physiological reaction time is 100 milliseconds—or 0.1 seconds.
This limit is determined by the transmission speed of human nerve signals. Unless, of course, the target wasn't human.
And yet, something unbelievable happened right before Black Eagle's eyes.
The bullet passed through the target's body and destroyed the vehicle behind him.
But the target was completely unharmed, not blown to pieces as he should have been.
Black Eagle was confident he hadn't missed. There was only one explanation: the target had somehow miraculously dodged the bullet.
'Withdraw!'
Black Eagle only ever fired a single shot on an assassination attempt. Success or failure, he would immediately retreat.
That was why he had survived for so long in the world of assassins.
He'd already decided, however, that he would contact his client before making another move.
'The intel was wrong. The target isn't a normal person. The price has to go up.'
······
'So this is why Ireland was so fascinated with Body Control, huh?'
The Puppet Threads were now linked to Chen Qi's neural network. The body executed any decision from the brain instantly, with almost no perceptible delay.
According to Ireland's experimental data, a human's reaction speed in this state could reach 10 milliseconds, exactly ten times faster than a normal human's.
This was also why Chen Qi was able to dodge the bullet. In fact, he moved so fast that he surpassed the human threshold for visual persistence (0.1–0.14 seconds), making it impossible for Black Eagle to even perceive that he had moved.
Ireland had named this state Divine Speed, and it was but a trivial demonstration of the Body Control Superpower.
In the next instant, two Puppet Threads slipped into Chen Qi's eyes.
Chen Qi's pupils rapidly contracted and dilated. As they adjusted, his eyes transformed into a pair of high-definition telescopes, able to see an ant clearly from over a hundred meters away.
Following the bullet's trajectory, Chen Qi immediately locked onto the assassin's position.
It was a 30-story, high-end office building, more than 150 meters away.
And the assassin was right there, on the building's rooftop.
······
'Did that guy actually see me? How is that possible?'
As Black Eagle finished packing up his rifle and prepared to leave, he noticed the target looking in his direction.
He was confident the target couldn't have found him, but he still loaded his pistol and gripped it tightly before heading downstairs.
DING!
Three seconds later, Black Eagle was in front of the elevator. He had rigged it beforehand to ensure a quick escape.
He entered the elevator and it descended without stopping.
"Assassination failed. Target is definitely not an ordinary person. I need more detailed intelligence."
"And I'll need more money!"
Black Eagle used the brief moment of downtime to send a message to his client.
However, there was no immediate reply. What Black Eagle didn't know was that Hu Wanhai's body wasn't even cold yet.
When the elevator reached the 3rd floor, Black Eagle stepped out and into the stairwell.
He would never ride an elevator all the way down to the first floor. If he were to be ambushed, the cramped space would offer no cover and no escape.
Black Eagle tucked his pistol up his sleeve and carried an oversized black briefcase, perfectly disguised as an ordinary office worker.
He didn't sense any danger on his way down. It seemed he had been worrying for nothing.
The next instant, however, he was horrified to discover that his limbs had "developed a mind of their own" and were no longer under his control.
······
Down in a corner of the first-floor lobby, separated from his target by a thick concrete floor, Chen Qi pulled back the foot he had just placed on the stairs.
There was no need to go any higher. His Puppet Threads had already passed through the reinforced concrete and found their target.
Chen Qi's own senses were linked to the Puppet Threads. Even from just a hurried glance over a hundred meters away, he had memorized the assassin's face.
He could even count the wrinkles on the man's face.
'As expected of an elite assassin. It only took me ten seconds to get here using the Puppet Threads to control my thigh muscles... and this guy was already about to get away!'
To maintain his image as a company chairman, Chen Qi hadn't sprinted here, but had merely power-walked.
He never expected the assassin to be so professional. He just had some bad luck.
'What's happening?'
With his limbs out of his control, Black Eagle's face was a mask of terror.
But no matter how hard he struggled, his feet were nailed to the floor, welded in place.
What he found even more unacceptable was his own left hand slowly raising his pistol to his temple.
'No, don't! I don't want to die!'
He wanted to beg for mercy, but his vocal cords had already ceased to function. He couldn't make a sound.
Now, he was nothing more than a Puppet on a string.
······
'Time to end this.'
Chen Qi would naturally show no mercy to someone who had tried to kill him.
That was the one thing he had learned in the slums.
BANG!
In endless terror and despair, Black Eagle slowly pulled the trigger.
The police would have another suicide case to deal with today.
In the first-floor lobby, Chen Qi let out a long sigh, turned, and walked away.
If he didn't hurry, he was going to be late for his appointment.