"..."
Wang Xi watched Zhu Yuhe with a scrutinizing gaze, paying close attention to her eyes and every facial detail. He then tried again, smiling tentatively:
"I also like riding. Ponies, slender mares, even the big foreign ones. I can handle them all."
"Whoa! You know how to ride horses?!"
Zhu Yuhe exclaimed.
A genuine look of envy and admiration appeared in her eyes.
"Those animals are really rare nowadays. I heard only the big corporations have the capital to keep them. What does your family do, handsome? You must be so loaded... Don't tell me you're a rich heir here to 'experience life'?"
At this point, Wang Xi was pretty much certain that Zhu Yuhe hadn't understood his crude innuendo.
They were on completely different planets.
Watching her get lost in her own world, as if she had already imagined a whole epic romance novel titled *The Corporate Heir Who Fell for Me, the Cleaner*, Wang Xi opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.
'This is just great. Instead of her opinion of me dropping, it's gone up...'
Just as he was about to say something to fix the situation, his brow suddenly furrowed.
In his peripheral vision, a candied human figure over ten meters away seemed to twitch.
At first, Wang Xi thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but when he turned to look, his expression changed.
It was a child encased in blue syrup, squatting on the ground with its head in its hands, its posture frozen.
But above its head, an information tag slowly appeared:
[Little Sugar Man (Light Red / One Star)]
Normally, the Kaos in Wang Xi's mind didn't mark every single target. When it did, it usually meant the target posed a threat.
Red symbolized hostility!
And the shade of the color, along with the Star Level, represented a more intuitive measure of the danger!
Just like Iris Knight Wendy from the Otherworld, who was a crimson Three Stars.
Wang Xi suddenly dove forward.
Zhu Yuhe was still lost in her fantasy when she felt a blur in front of her, and she was tackled to the ground by the handsome guy.
"Ah!" Inside her protective suit's helmet, the girl bit her lip, her face a picture of panic. "Isn't this moving a little too fast, handsome! I-I-I'm not ready!"
WHOOSH—
Before she could finish her sentence, a sharp sound of something cutting through the air burst next to her ear.
A fist-sized blue ball of sugar shot past like a small cannonball, leaving a blurry afterimage. It flew over the spot where they had just been and slammed into the ground beside them.
THWACK!!
White cracks appeared on the concrete, and countless specks of powdered sugar scattered everywhere.
"There's a monster!"
Wang Xi shouted urgently.
Only then did Zhu Yuhe snap out of her daze. She quickly lifted her head to look.
A small, thin blue figure was leaping nimbly, rushing toward them at high speed.
"Oh no! It's an 'After-Shock'!"
The girl exclaimed.
After-Shock—
A specialized term of the new era. Wang Xi searched the memories from his university days and quickly understood.
It referred to a low-probability event that could occur after a disaster had been cleared. It was a secondary disaster, primarily caused by unknown factors contained within the original one.
The danger and destructive power of an After-Shock were usually less than the disaster itself, but they were still extremely tricky and not something an ordinary person could handle.
"Run!"
Zhu Yuhe scrambled to her feet and said frantically.
"The Overlook Bureau has contingency plans for After-Shocks! The Defense Team is stationed nearby! Let's run first!"
The small blue figure was already closing in. Wang Xi had no time to reply and could only start running to escape the scene with Zhu Yuhe.
But the monster was extremely fast, catching up to them in just a few seconds.
Wang Xi turned his head, glancing out of the corner of his eye.
His pupils contracted violently.
He saw the candied child with the twisted face puffing up its cheeks, like a frog.
At that moment, Wang Xi's scalp tingled and his heart raced, as if he could already foresee the scene of him and Zhu Yuhe being killed, shot through the heart by sugar pellets.
PFFT!!
The Little Sugar Man's ballooned mouth trembled, and a blue afterimage shot out in a straight line!
Wang Xi could even see the shockwave expanding in an arc!
He activated *Iris Flower Swordsmanship·Parry*—
Almost instinctively, he pressed the transformation button on the Cupid's Chainsaw.
KLAK!
The saw blade retracted, and a crowbar shot out.
Wang Xi pulled out the crowbar and swung it with a backhand motion.
CLANG!!!
A deafening metallic clang rang out.
Wang Xi's entire body staggered, and he almost fell over.
The blue sugar ball's straight-line afterimage deflected ninety degrees in front of him, ricocheting in another direction.
Sprays of sugar glittered in the morning sun.
Zhu Yuhe's face was filled with astonishment, her mouth slightly agape.
'That handsome guy... he...'
'He blocked the monster's attack with just a crowbar?!'
"To hell with you—"
Wang Xi picked up the chainsaw again, pulled the cord, and swung.
The small blue figure was still in mid-air from its pounce when the high-speed spinning saw blade bit into its abdomen—
BZZZZZT!!
Sparks and sugar powder flew. With a strange cry, the Little Sugar Man was sawn in half at the waist. The two halves flew past either side of Wang Xi.
Thick blue syrup splattered all over them. Their protective suits immediately started smoking and sizzling.
"Handsome! You... you killed the monster!"
Zhu Yuhe wiped the syrup from her glass faceplate and said, stunned.
Wang Xi stood holding the constantly roaring chainsaw, not yet recovered from the thrilling shock of the moment. He flinched when he heard his female colleague's voice.
In his vision, the two halves of the Little Sugar Man's corpse were already motionless.
Kaos in his mind displayed a timely prompt:
[Target eliminated!]
[Capture the ability of "Little Sugar Man"?]
'...Yes.'
Wang Xi calmed his breathing and racing heart, responding silently in his mind.
A ball of white light that only he could see flew out from the monster's corpse and entered the space between his eyebrows.
["Little Sugar Man" Card has been added to the Independent Card Pool]
[Insufficient Energy. Unable to draw.]
Wang Xi paid this no mind, because he noticed that some of the candied humanoids in the surroundings, and even the frozen, colorful cats and dogs, had started to move!
These mutated candied monsters made no sound, no cries; they simply started moving quickly, attacking the two of them from all directions.
"Let's go!"
Wang Xi's expression changed. He retracted the chainsaw, grabbed Zhu Yuhe, and ran.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
Behind them, a high-frequency, dense sound of things cutting through the air erupted. Even without looking back, Wang Xi knew it was the sugar balls spat out by the sugar people. Like a hail of bullets, they came at them in a dense barrage.
Although he didn't know if the protective suits could withstand the hits, recalling the destructive power of the sugar ball hitting the concrete, he had no intention of betting his life on it.
Two bloated, yellow figures fled through the ruins of the residential complex. All around them, dense, multicolored trajectories zipped past with whooshing sounds.
Wang Xi held the crowbar in one hand, deliberately staying one step behind Zhu Yuhe.
His constantly active *Iris Flower Swordsmanship·Parry* was now fully engaged. The crowbar in his hand became a blurry afterimage, whining as it moved, as if forming a Round Shield.
DING DING DANG DANG!!
Sugar balls of various colors continuously struck the crowbar, where they were parried with precision, exploding into puffs of colored mist.
Wang Xi felt a sharp pain in the webbing of his thumb, his arm went numb, and half his body was about to lose all feeling.
Fortunately—
The two of them escaped the ruins of the complex and made it back to the main street.
Looking up, they saw the other colleagues from Cleaning Department, Team Two, huddled together, surrounded by swarming candied monsters.
They were also under attack!
Team Leader Lei Wen was shouting commands, holding a strange pistol shaped like a Mauser C96. The muzzle constantly shot out blinding green lasers with a PEW PEW sound.
With each flash of the laser, the attacking sugar people would tumble and fall mid-charge, either with a hole through their chest or their head exploded.
"Over here!"
Miss Gao Fen spotted the two of them and shouted.
Wang Xi quickly dragged Zhu Yuhe over to regroup with the others.
Only when they got closer did they see that within the defensive circle formed by the group standing back-to-back, two people were already lying unconscious on the ground in a pool of blood.
It was the twin brothers.
From the introductions in the van earlier, Wang Xi knew their names: the older brother was Du Chuan, and the younger was Du Bo.
Their bodies were covered in holes the size of ping-pong balls. Their protective suits were torn, and they were bleeding profusely. Their injuries looked severe.
"Are you two okay?"
Lei Wen asked, panting, as he replaced the Laser Pistol's magazine with a square, battery-like one.
Zhu Yuhe quickly glanced at the young man beside her, her hand still gripping his arm tightly, showing no intention of letting go.
"N-No, we're fine... Wang Xi is amazing. He saved my life."
The others gave Wang Xi a surprised look, but it wasn't the time to ask questions.
The monsters kept closing in. Luo Xiaoliang and Yu Zihan's faces were tense. They had already lifted their chainsaws and revved them, seeming to prepare for a fight to the death.
But just then, Lei Wen suddenly let out a sigh of relief, as if he'd just survived a catastrophe.
"The Defense Team is here!"
PEW PEW PEW PEW—
A dense volley of strange gunfire rang out. Streaks of red laser fire cut through the air, accurately hitting the swarm of monsters.
Wang Xi turned to look and saw a team of a hundred or so people running toward them in an orderly formation.
They wore matching blue-black uniforms and round helmets, with armored plates protecting their chests, shoulders, elbows, and knees. They were fully armed, carrying laser rifles.
On the chest of their uniforms was a large, white number "4".
"It's Defense Team 4!"
His male colleague, Yu Zihan, lowered his chainsaw and said in surprise.
"That's Mr. 'Thunder Hammer' Jiang Tianhao's team!"
"Who's that?"
Wang Xi asked.
Yu Zihan shot him a glance, his expression a little strange, as if surprised that Wang Xi didn't recognize the famous name.
"A Five-Star Professional Hero!"
he explained, his eyes filled with reverence.
"He single-handedly smashed the head of the Disaster Core Monster 'Golden-Nosed Snowman' with one hammer blow, thus eliminating a blue-level 'Regional Seal' disaster."
"But it looks like he didn't come this time."
As they spoke, the Defense Team had already passed them, forming a line like a reef to block the tide of candied monsters.
A massive man, even taller than Luo Xiaoliang, walked over. He looked to be at least 2.2 meters tall, with arms thicker than Wang Xi's thighs.
This man was also clad in blue-black armor and carried a thick Tower Shield the size of a security door.
"I'm Wei Ming, vice-captain of Defense Team 4. Are you the Cleaners from Cupid Housekeeping?"
The giant of a man asked in a deep voice.
Lei Wen nodded and answered respectfully:
"Yes, sir."
"Good work. Leave the After-Shock here to us. Evacuate the area immediately."
He glanced at the wounded on the ground and shook his head slightly.
"There are Defense Team medics at the nearby temporary base. Take them there."
"Thank you, sir!"
Lei Wen quickly thanked him, then called to the others to lift the two brothers, Du Chuan and Du Bo.
Wang Xi followed as they retreated, taking one last look back.
The shield-wielding giant had already strode out from the formation. With a few casual sweeps and smacks of his shield, he smashed the approaching group of monsters into sugar dregs...
'So strong!'