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Chapter 146 - 145: Clues

"If we become enemies with him... will we end up like this too?" Wang Baihu slowly approached, his face still a bit pale.

"Who knows. We haven’t confirmed that he’s definitely our enemy yet." Honglian replied, "There’s no sign of any fight around, meaning Lu Lixin was reduced to this state without any resistance."

"After all, it happened in an instant. She probably didn’t expect the opponent to be so ruthless." He murmured, "If this person really wants to contribute to the world, why not join the Dimensional Limit Mechanism?"

"...How would I know why?" Honglian glared at him, annoyed, "Maybe our publicity isn’t effective enough, maybe he’s got his own job, maybe..."

She suddenly closed her mouth at this point.

"You’re worried about that situation too, aren’t you?" Wang Baihu sighed, "First the White-clothed Immortal crossed the river, then the Botanical Garden invasion... counting the murder case at the abandoned club, the activities of Ability Users have been excessively frequent in the past half year. What if this person and the Masked Woman are in the same group, what should we do?"

"If the sky falls, Captain Xiao will handle it. What are you afraid of?"

"Of course I’m scared. The captain looks like an administration expert, sitting in the office making calls all day. It’s us on the front line!" Wang Baihu said anxiously.

Honglian saw her partner rambling on endlessly for the first time.

Though he used to ramble, it was rare for him to be so chatty while doing serious work.

He was truly frightened... Honglian realized, impacted by such an unpredictable power.

"Don’t worry, just be one step slower than me."

"What do you mean?" Wang Baihu asked, puzzled.

"Aren’t you afraid of charging on the front line? I’ll go first, you come second. Anyway, your exam scores are always worse than mine." Honglian said with a smirk.

Mocked by her like this, Wang Baihu was annoyed, "Tch, can’t you do all the work for me?"

"Sure, as long as you give me your salary."

"Just the salary? I can give you twice as much."

Honglian looked at him suspiciously, trying to determine whether this was genuine or sarcastic, and finally shook her head, "Forget it. You’re my only partner right now. Once Little Pigeon trains for two more years, you can be out."

"Are you guys arguing?" Zhang Yingzi walked over with a notebook.

"No." Wang Baihu denied, "This is our way of exchanging friendship."

Honglian immediately showed a disdainful expression.

"I got the footage from the police at that time, come over and take a look." Zhang Yingzi found a chair and sat down. The two stepped out of the caution zone, and walked behind her.

The video was extremely clear, from the angle, it was located at a corner of the stage.

"What is this person advocating? That Ability Users are superior?" Wang Baihu said with a solemn expression.

When they heard Lu Lixin shout ’Masked Tutor’, everyone’s heart sank.

"If the enemy is indeed an organized gang, then we’re in big trouble." He sighed.

"Indeed, but looking on the bright side, at least that person is not one of them." Honglian teased, "At least we don’t have to face a strategist with thorough knowledge of the mechanism, and a killer with terrifying power simultaneously."

"Look, he’s coming!" Zhang Yingzi pointed at the screen and reminded them.

They saw a man walk out from the audience, step by step, onto the stage. His face was heavily obscured, revealing no characteristics.

"Damn, he’s well-prepared." Wang Baihu complained.

"That’s good news." Zhang Yingzi was relieved.

"What’s good about it?"

"He doesn’t want to expose himself to the public, which means he’s cautious. Someone who is overly confident or arrogant about their abilities wouldn’t bother to do so. Psychologically, it’s a sign of a willingness to retreat."

"I agree." Honglian nodded, "The opposite example is Lu Lixin. If I were her, I’d keep up the host act instead of tearing off the disguise... that way, the camera wouldn’t capture her facial features."

As they spoke, the man suddenly dashed forward a short distance!

"Stop, what happened just now?" Wang Baihu asked in shock, "Did he teleport?"

It was understandable for him to be surprised, Honglian even thought the video had lost frames.

Zhang Yingzi rewound the video a few seconds, playing it slowly—this time the three saw clearly, Lu Lixin made an attacking move the moment the man stepped on stage, completely different from what they expected! They had thought the opponent initiated a surprise attack, catching those nine thugs off guard.

In the high-resolution footage, a gray shadow flew from Lu Lixin’s foot, circled to the man’s side to launch an attack, the whole process took about half a second!

"It’s the Strong Robbery Technique." Honglian recognized this ability.

Though its origins are unknown, Strong Robbery is a frequently appearing ability in various records—because it has a characteristic that once plundered by someone, the victim is likely to acquire the Strong Robbery Technique, somewhat like a virus of the ability world.

Avoiding this move isn’t difficult, the difficulty lies in dodging it effortlessly like him!

"How did he do it? By ability?" Zhang Yingzi asked, puzzled.

"No... seems purely through physical strength." Honglian judged after watching a few more times, "Look, at the moment of starting, there’s a push-off motion. If the stage were wooden, it’d probably leave a footprint."

Just having great power isn’t scary, like the mechanism once capture a thug using the Frenzy Ability, who can punch through steel doors, handcuffs are like noodles to him, but when his ability is activated, he can’t control his body well. Actions done subconsciously in normal times have to be done meticulously under frenzy, greatly reducing his combat ability.

Now this man serves his sentence honestly at mechanism headquarters, no longer the arrogant figure he once was.

The man in the video is different, his movements are so natural, as if he was born with such astonishing power, this precise control is the most crucial point.

Unexpectedly, this man doesn’t immediately counterattack, but passes Lu Lixin before stopping at the latter half of the stage. Then he turned to face the audience, and the next moment, Lu Lixin suddenly collapsed.

"My god." Wang Baihu rubbed his forehead and said painfully, "How can we defend against this, there are no signs, just a wave of the hand and the person turns to mush."

Not just this... Honglian thought, he can even apply this ability to multiple targets at once. The reason for bypassing Lu Lixin before acting is that from the back angle, he can see everyone.

In other words, his ability activates as long as he sees.

Activating within the field of view seems unavoidable, with almost no starting motion... even checking the Dimensional Limit Mechanism database, the danger level of this ability ranks in the top ten.

According to convention, the more incredible the ability, the harsher its limitations, hopefully his ability is not an exception.

After half an hour of on-site investigation, information gathered at the mechanism gradually became abundant.

First, the police retrieved many witnesses—although the TV station’s monitoring malfunctioned, most of the audience were regulars at the urban channel, several hundred were identified through ticket records and scalpers’ WeChat, and were called in for inquiry by phone.

Some recognized the man who took the stage after watching the footage—he wore extra sunglasses, but his hat and clothes hadn’t changed significantly, and he was remembered not for any distinctiveness, but because accompanying him was a very cute female companion, several audience members snapped photos of them.

The police were refreshed by this news, and pursued this direction, quickly locating one of the photographers.

The mechanism also acquired these crucial photos.

An extremely important piece of information emerged before them, the man’s female companion didn’t disguise at all! Her appearance, hair, and physical characteristics were fully displayed in the photos!