novelraw Chapter 236-2: Duel of the White Gloves, The Mask of Diabolos (2)
Chapter 236-2: Duel of the White Gloves, The Mask of Diabolos (2)
Of course, such a powerful assassin Shell also had its hidden flaws, namely, a frail constitution and extreme sensitivity, with low resistance to certain elemental or special damage.
But that didn’t matter. The Blade Ranger was always a glass-cannon assassin Shell by design.
It was all about staking everything on a single strike: either you died, or I did!
“If I loot one of the weapons, am I supposed to give it back?”
After all, he would soon be the captain of Wen City’s Thunder Tribulation Squad, it wouldn’t look good to be stealing weapons from his own subordinates.
Besides, judging by Lin Xun’s strength, he would definitely become his right-hand man in the future, or rather, his number-one flunky, no, his most reliable lieutenant.
Lu Yiming resolved that if he did end up looting a staff, he’d return it to Lin Xun to win his goodwill.
Otherwise, it would chill everyone’s hearts and make leading the squad difficult.
He was just about to activate his stealth skill when he felt a strange gaze settling on him.
That gaze came from the shadowed face beneath the other’s hood…Lu Yiming suddenly felt an indescribable, uncanny sensation climbing from the soles of his feet up to the top of his skull.
All the pores on his body opened at once, and an unprecedented wave of bliss washed through his insides like warm currents.
He couldn’t stop himself, his eyes rolled back in ecstasy, his body shuddering like a sieve.
Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a massive pure-white spear of light streaking toward him…
When Lu Yiming came back to his senses, the surroundings had returned to the second floor of the Intelligence Division.
He actually felt a little regret, why had that bliss been so brief? Why couldn’t it have lasted longer?
He looked around in confusion, only to see a crowd of women pointing and whispering about him.
Words like ‘pervert’ and ‘disgusting’ floated over from all sides.
Lu Yiming turned to Lin Xun, who was idly toying with a demon-faced mask, seemingly very interested in it.
Wait, why did that mask look so familiar?
Still wrapped in the lingering afterglow of that indescribable pleasure, Lu Yiming was in a bit of a daze.
Suddenly, he snapped back to awareness, his face changing dramatically.
That mask, it was his own equipment! And just now, in the Intelligence Division, what exactly had he been doing…?
“What! I lost the duel?!”
At last, Lu Yiming remembered everything. Under the contemptuous, disdainful stares of the female Apostles, he felt utterly mortified.
Then he saw Ye Xiaoqi smirking wickedly, holding up her phone. She turned the screen toward him and tapped to play a recording…
From the phone’s speaker came the sound of a soft, whimpering moan.
He looked closer.
In the video, the boy with flushed cheeks, rolled-back eyes, and a voice full of shameful gasps, wasn’t that himself?!
Lu Yiming felt as though lightning had struck him, his face turning paper-white. “This has to be an AI-generated video. This isn’t me… How could this possibly be me…”
He clapped his hands over his face and fled from the Intelligence Division building at top speed, never looking back.
The colleagues all crowded around Lin Xun, bombarding him with questions about what kind of technique he’d used, not only defeating Lu Yiming, but reducing the once-proud child prodigy to total public humiliation.
Lin Xun tucked away the equipment called the Mask of Diabolos.
He spread his hands, indicating that he had no idea himself.
The control power of Pleasure-Hazed Sight really was astonishing, but Lin Xun had never used it on another human in reality before.
That this time’s effect was so… overwhelming, he truly hadn’t expected.
“It shouldn’t be like this, rolling his eyes is normal, but what the hell was with the moaning?”
If this skill did that to every ordinary Apostle, how was he ever going to use Pleasure-Hazed Sight again?
Just imagine, the Apostle Security Council and New World locked in combat, weapons drawn, and suddenly the enemy Apostles started moaning, what a bizarre sight.
Lin Xun decided he’d have to find another Apostle to test Pleasure-Hazed Sight on, to avoid any awkward incidents in real combat.
He asked around for Ye Xiaoqi, only to hear that the black-stocking lady had gone out on business and wasn’t in the building.
With his boss gone, who was he supposed to clock in for? Putting on a show for nobody was pointless.
Lin Xun curled his lip, might as well go home to write and grind the game.
He waved goodbye to his colleagues and set off for home.
—
Ye Xiaoqi slipped alone into the break room and took out her phone to make a call.
A moment later, the line connected, and Li Xingyue’s voice came through.
“Xiaoqi, did you finish your match with Lu Yiming?”
Ye Xiaoqi said, “We finished…”
Li Xingyue said, “So, what do you think? This special envoy’s strength isn’t bad, right? Hmm, let me guess, he should already have left the Intelligence Division building by now and be on his way over to the Armed Division.”
Her number-one fighter, Lin Xun, was set to compete for the position of the Twelfth Disciple, this was of utmost importance.
Li Xingyue had arranged for him to focus fully on clearing the game to increase his strength as quickly as possible.
Recently, with fewer engagements against New World, she’d keenly felt the lack of this key general. With no other choice, she had requested headquarters to send Special Apostle Lu Yiming to help with combat.
Although this little prodigy was extremely powerful, he was still inexperienced and full of youthful arrogance that needed tempering.
Li Xingyue had even borrowed a few high-grade pieces of equipment from her uncle.
Sending him to the Armed Division to fully arm Wang Zong was precisely to help grind down Lu Yiming’s proud nature.
“Uh…” Ye Xiaoqi didn’t quite know what expression to make. That special envoy might be on his way to the airport by now, getting ready to return to Yun Capital.
If it were her, she’d definitely have no face left to stay in Wen City. “Team Leader, your plan may have had…a slight little mishap.”
“Hm? What happened? What kind of mishap? Don’t tell me Lu Yiming lost to you?”
“That’s not it. He didn’t lose to me. Uh… Lin Xun came to the office today.”
“….” On the other end of the line, there was a long silence.
Ye Xiaoqi ventured cautiously, “Team Leader?”
“…Are you saying Lin Xun came to the office and defeated Lu Yiming in a duel?”
“That’s right.”
“Damn you, Lin Xun. I told you to focus on training, and instead you went to the office to slack off?”
A question mark popped up over Ye Xiaoqi’s little forehead. Staying home apparently counted as ‘training,’ while coming in to work was ‘slacking off?’ Team Leader Li, are you sure you haven’t got that backward?
She came in to clock in six days out of every seven…
Even favoritism shouldn’t be this blatant. Honestly, did you even reflect on whether you were being too partial?
Li Xingyue sighed. “Well, even though there was a bit of an unexpected development, in the end, it turned out for the best. Lin Xun defeating Lu Yiming will help rein in some of that arrogance.”
Ye Xiaoqi hesitated. “Uh…Team Leader Li, let’s just say…is there any possibility that even the end result didn’t go quite as planned?”
Li Xingyue, “???”
Ye Xiaoqi gritted her teeth and sent the recorded video to Team Leader Li, then explained what had happened in detail.
She used vivid gestures and descriptions to thoroughly illustrate how the little prodigy had ended up socially annihilated and fleeing the Intelligence Division in shame.
On the other end of the call, Li Xingyue stared blankly at the video playing on her phone.
Under the watching eyes of all the Intelligence Division Apostles, that boy’s soft, humiliating gasps made her feel a secondhand embarrassment so intense her toes wanted to dig through the floor.
Some people were alive, but it was no different from being dead.
Li Xingyue hung up with a long sigh. It looked like she’d have to request another Apostle from Yun Capital after all.
All that effort borrowing equipment from her uncle, completely wasted.
She was about to call Vice-Chairman Li when her phone suddenly rang.
The caller ID showed Lu Yiming.
“Is he calling to resign?”
Faced with such an unthinkable situation, Li Xingyue couldn’t even bring herself to try to persuade him to stay.
She picked up.
From the receiver came the little prodigy’s stammering voice: “Um… Team Leader Li, could you…maybe give me Lin Xun’s contact information?”
Li Xingyue’s eyes went wide. She couldn’t tell if it was just her imagination, but she actually thought she heard a trace of…shyness in his voice?
Li Xingyue, “???”