Chapter Thirty-Three: Momentous Affairs

Dawn was breaking, and the small island that had endured a night of slaughter had finally fallen silent, though no one could say exactly when the hush descended.

Ji Cheng leaned against a half-collapsed low wall, four corpses lying before him. His expression was drained; even the first rays of morning sun brushing his face seemed to pass unnoticed.

“That was the son of a councilor, wasn’t it? Why couldn’t I restrain myself?” Ji Cheng sighed, one breath after another.

“The original owner of this body had a taste for killing that must’ve kept the King of Hell’s ledger busy.”

On Baishan Star, ability users were divided into three tiers according to the gene prototype they’d been injected with. Those who’d received a first-tier gene prototype and unlocked their gene lock were called first-tier ability users—the most common type, corresponding to the class-level of aberrant beasts.

Those injected with second- or even third-tier gene prototypes were, in turn, second- or third-tier ability users.

Since most city-states adopted a parliamentary system, it was customary that someone who reached the second tier and made certain contributions could qualify for the parliament and become a councilor. Thus, second-tier ability users were often called “councilor-level.”

“This young master Yao—if his father is a councilor, he’s without question a genuine second-tier ability user.” Ji Cheng wore the look of someone who’d just signed his own death warrant.

In the world of ability users, each tier was separated by an unbridgeable gulf. Ten first-tier users could not defeat a single councilor-level opponent; perhaps twenty could win, but they’d never be able to keep him—if he wanted to leave, he would.

For someone like Ji Cheng, an ordinary man, a councilor was an existence so powerful it bordered on the divine. There were basically only two ways to deal with someone like that.

One: rely on advanced personal mechanized weaponry—mechs, exosuits, or something similar—but in godforsaken Baishan Star, such things were out of the question.

Two: saturate the area with heavy firepower—artillery, machine guns, missiles—blast the entire patch of ground to pieces so there was nowhere to hide.

But speaking of heavy firepower—if someone’s already a city councilor, wouldn’t he have more firepower and more men than you?

So, at this point, the only option seemed to be denying everything to the bitter end.

“If Councilor Yao finds out I killed his son, I’ll probably die a horrible death.”

Muttering to himself, Ji Cheng noticed, despite himself, a spark of excitement flickering to life.

He sighed.

He stood, preparing to deal with the four bodies.

“I need to disguise the wounds. With the methods of a councilor, he could analyze the traces on the corpses, reconstruct the fight, maybe even track the killer straight to me.”

He wasn’t entirely sure about Councilor Yao’s standing in Nanhong New City, but judging from Zhou Ze, it was clear enough.

Even Zeng Hang, head of the city defense command—someone Su Yi considered a figure of towering authority—became as timid as a mouse before Zhou Ze. Councilor Yao, being of the same tier, could hardly be less formidable.

For someone of that rank, calling in a team of forensic experts would be nothing.

“If I don’t disguise and mislead the evidence, the chance of being caught is a hundred percent.”

Ji Cheng donned his gloves and activated his biochemical mask, beginning to alter the wounds on the bodies.

“First, I need to erase all traces of sharp weapon injuries.” He grabbed a handful of sandy earth and rubbed it forcefully into the wound on the ugly woman’s neck until the flesh became a bloody, unrecognizable mess.

He turned to treat Yao Zhenyuan’s wounds.

He’d considered destroying the bodies entirely, but that would only signal to Councilor Yao that his son had been killed by another contestant, practically inviting him to hunt down the perpetrator.

So Ji Cheng decided to make it look as if they’d been killed by aberrant beasts.

“Or I could stage it as infighting,” he mused, then shook his head. Too difficult—human attacks were targeted and characteristic: someone trained with a sword rarely slashed, and a short person wouldn’t aim for the throat, and so on.

After tending to those two, he left the gaping wound on the silent elder’s corpse untouched—it was too large to conceal, and he had other plans for that body.

“Dead weight, indeed. The dead really do get heavy.” Ji Cheng activated his wrist computer, displayed his previously drawn route map, and began dragging the four bodies toward the river.

After death, the human body stiffens within an hour or two, becomes fully rigid in about half a day, then softens after a day. However, if kept in soil or water, or in low temperature and dry conditions, this process slows; high heat and humidity speed it up.

Following the river for over forty minutes, Ji Cheng returned to the spot where he’d killed the three-eyed iron ghoul. Now, a mass of metal bottle caps clung tightly to the creature’s remains.

“Just as I thought—the bottle-cap spiders have come to feed.”

He pulled a length of rope from the river and hauled the four corpses ashore.

This spot was along the bottle-cap spiders’ web route—they were bound to pass by. As soon as they caught the scent of the iron ghoul’s decaying flesh, they’d halt their march for this rare feast.

With a thud, Ji Cheng hurled the elder’s corpse into the pile of spiders. The fresh meal quickly attracted a swarm, the sound of their munching echoing along the riverbank.

After a while, Ji Cheng dragged the remaining three bodies toward the spiders as well.

...

Two hours later, while Ji Cheng was resting amid the ruins of a building, he suddenly heard a beep.

—Ability User Selection is complete. All participants remain where you are and activate the locator function on your communicator.

“The communicator has a locator function?” Ji Cheng broke out in a cold sweat. “Good thing I hadn’t turned it on before.”

He fumbled behind his ear, found a switch, pressed it, then looked calmly out of the ruins, waiting for his escort.

He didn’t know how long he waited before the wind rose, and a helicopter descended from the sky.

...

Nanhong New City, airport.

The staff bustled about, their faces tense, glancing skyward from time to time. After all, this concerned the new ability users—who wouldn’t hope for more to join their city-state?

Most of Nanhong New City’s ability users had gathered, along with team leaders from other city-states. Clearly, everyone was invested in the outcome.

Zhou Ze stood with hands clasped behind his back, his demeanor calm, eight people at his side, Lu Shangbai among them.

Huang Long stood facing him, his short, stout figure backed by another eight, with Xu Mingxiong prominent among them.

Councilor Yao stood furthest away, his eyes cold and murderous, face grim, only six people behind him.

“Who killed my son?” he growled, glaring southward—toward the Tunan Sea.

The six ability users at his back all kept their heads bowed, silent.

Just hours ago, after a certain indicator light went dark, Councilor Yao had flown into a rage, smashing equipment and severely injuring several soldiers.

They all knew—Councilor Yao’s only son was dead, lost in the ability user selection.

By the rules, this wasn’t a big deal; after all, the dead were just gene prototype injectees, and dying during the selection was within the rules and the law. Even if the killer confessed, no one could do anything; it was all perfectly legal.

But the extreme rarity of second-tier gene prototype users meant that their status far outstripped that of first-tiers.

Therefore—

A councilor-level figure could, in some sense, rise above rules and laws. When such a powerful man lost his only child, it became a major event.

An earth-shattering event.