Chapter 486: 484 future four

“Yu… Captain, have you finished your cultivation?” Chi Xiao forced a smile, put down his cards, and came up to ask.

“Hmm, it’s come to a pause, and just in time, there’s someone outside. I should go and entertain them.” Yu Hong glanced at the cards on the table for three people. He then looked at Gabriela, who was curled up to one side with White Dragon.

“Where’s Ku Chan?”

“Ku Chan is still cultivating, you know how that kid is.” Chi Xiao chuckled.

Yu Hong nodded and went back to the window, pulling open the window blinds with a swish.

Outside was still a dark, gloomy city ruin.

But unlike before, the boy Badaka had arrived early, waiting outside the window.

Different from his last visit, Badaka’s outfit was completely different now.

He wore luxurious shorts and long pants inlaid with colorful gems and diamond fragments. A baseball cap adorned with golden inscriptions sat on his head, and his wrists and neck were adorned with lavish colored crystal gemstone chains.

Gone was the filth and tattered mess from before.

“Honorable Captain, thank you for your generous gift.” The boy Badaka walked up to the window and first bowed, expressing his gratitude.

“I have come to fulfill the previous promise.”

He clapped his hands.

Immediately, four burly men came carrying a big box with great effort.

The box was made of silver metal casing, with some incomprehensible markings on its surface.

Bang.

The box was placed below the safe house window.

“This is the highest-strength material I could find from the coalition–Red Vine Metal, placed here in the form of some alloy blocks.” explained Badaka.

He watched the tall man who claimed to be the Captain. Involuntarily, he recalled the words of the institute director who had approached him two days before, helping him swiftly find the strongest metal.

‘No matter how we research and analyze, this special ability seems more like a natural fusion within your body, not like any implantation or external trace,’ said the director thoughtfully.

“So I can be certain, the transformation on you is reinforced by your own abilities; they are innate, not amplified by any external force.”

“In other words, this power is essentially my own; it’s just that someone triggered it?” Badaka was astonished.

“That’s right. Now you have quite a reputation within the coalition, defeating several emergency response teams, leading many factions to start investigating you. At a time like this, if someone makes contact with the Captain, someone who can trigger one of you might trigger a second or third. Therefore, we must find a way to eliminate this possibility. Otherwise, if more similar powers emerge, your newly built group could collapse instantly,” the director said earnestly.

“So… what should I do?” Badaka clenched his fist upon hearing that there might be others with powers like his.

He’d enjoyed the advantages and conveniences that power had brought these days and wasn’t willing to lose them.

His sister’s leg had also received formal treatment, and the small group he had just established must not fall apart halfway!

“It’s simple: just sever this person’s transactions, make him disappear… and everything will be yours alone…” The director’s words, like a devil’s temptation, made Badaka’s heart skip a beat.

Coming to his senses, he looked at the box being slowly put down, pressed against the ground.

“This is all I could find,” Badaka said in a deep voice.

“Not bad,” said Yu Hong, looking at the box, nodding. He reached out, and with a remote motion, lifted the box into the air, floating it to the window.

In a swish, the window opened, and the box floated inside.

“So, sir, if there’s nothing else, I will take my leave,” Badaka bowed again, speaking up.

“You may.” Yu Hong smiled. “But before you go back, I have a question for you.”

“…What?” Badaka hesitated and slowly took a step back.

“I believe I gave you the power to change your fate. So why did you do such a thing?” Yu Hong asked.

The boy’s face changed, but he forced a smile.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

“Forget it. Everyone must be accountable for their actions.” Yu Hong opened the box, moved aside a pile of red metal blocks, revealing a hidden silver box underneath.

A timer was strapped to the box–it was a time bomb, the timer already counting down to thirteen.

In the next second, it would be twelve.

“Look, a time bomb.” Yu Hong picked it up and examined it.

The bomb was almost as large as one of his hands, fitting snugly in his palm.

Badaka’s face turned ashen, and he quickly backed away.

He didn’t understand how Yu Hong could discover the situation so easily, but now that everything was exposed, he couldn’t afford to hesitate.

He knew the bomb’s power well; it was a special liquid bomb, the most potent existing technology, capable of instantly blowing up a skyscraper with just that little piece.

When demonstrating his power before, his arm had been injured by this kind of bomb’s blast. And that was just a shockwave from ten meters away.

Yet now, the item was in the opponent’s hand.

Just as he retreated the next second.

The liquid bomb in Yu Hong’s hand instantly jumped to zero on the countdown.

Despite having twelve seconds left, it all suddenly fast-forwarded to detonation in that moment.

In the next instant.

The box rapidly turned red, a blinding golden flame burst out from within, shattering the box’s casing.

The flame continued to gush out, demolishing the box completely within a thousandth of a second. It exploded outward in all directions.

Boom!!!!

The golden flame erupted in Yu Hong’s hand, but something strange happened.

The flames seemed forcibly confined by an invisible force, only exploding within a small round sphere.

From a distance, it looked like he was holding a washbasin-sized golden fireball in his hand.

The fireball frantically surged outward, seeking to break the invisible constraint, but it was futile.

All the flames were held by Yu Hong’s single hand, forcibly compressed, growing smaller and smaller, from the size of a washbasin to the size of a human head.

Then.

Yu Hong squeezed with his hand.

Poof.

The fireball dimmed, dissipating, extinguished, vanished.

“Pathetic.” Chi Xiao watched this scene from behind, shaking his head and sighing. The scene reminded him of the Immortal General holding a nuclear bomb with his hand.

“Humans always repeat the same tragedies.” Fisina said a classic line.

“We clearly helped him, so why would he do this?” Yiyi couldn’t understand.

“Because of greed,” taught Fisina, “once possessed, one never wants to lose again. Humans are such greedy creatures.”

Yiyi nodded, half-understanding, looking through the window at Badaka retreating.

“Impossible!!… How could it be like this!? That wasn’t mine, someone must be framing me!” Badaka shouted, his face ashen as he backed away.

“You’re right, someone did remind me.” Yu Hong nodded, “As soon as I opened the box, someone had drawn a stick figure, reminding me of the bomb hidden below.”

He chuckled. “Isn’t it interesting? In something you sent, someone quietly thought of a way to warn me of danger.”

Needless to say, the child had been set up by someone.

But that had nothing to do with Yu Hong anymore.

“Since you’ve done it, pay the price.”

With a thought, the Spirit Light implanted in Badaka began to withdraw rapidly.

In just two seconds.

A large amount of white light seeped out from Badaka’s body.

He seemed to undergo an indescribable, great pain, screaming miserably in place.

A moment later, this once ordinary boy’s body quickly began to dehydrate, wither, and within mere seconds, turned into a black mummified corpse on the ground.

The white light flying out of him swiftly returned to Yu Hong, vanishing.

Looking at Badaka’s corpse, Yu Hong shook his head, intending to close the window.

Soon, he saw another group quickly approaching.

“Please wait! I was the one who discreetly notified you of the bomb, Deris!”

The one running in front was a blond, middle-aged man with a small mustache.

He wore a somewhat old black robe, with a few gun-wielding soldiers behind who seemed like bodyguards.

Yu Hong ignored him.

“Deliberately misleading a child to make me disappointed, then appearing as a good person to take the child’s place. Do you think this scheme is clever?”

As soon as he said this, the middle-aged man’s face changed slightly.

“You misunderstand me! I knew nothing about this. I just saw Badaka quietly placing the bomb…”

“Boring tricks.” Yu Hong didn’t bother to watch more.

Just then, a sharp cry suddenly came from outside.

From the darkness behind came a young, beautiful woman in a hospital gown, rushing forward.

The woman’s long hair was disheveled, as she ran to Badaka’s corpse, kneeling down.

Her hands trembled as she cradled the mummified corpse.

“No… don’t…!”

“Your brother got what he deserved! He received the Captain’s gift but then plotted to kill the Captain with a bomb! An eye for an eye, dying here shows mercy to him!!” Deris seized the chance to reprimand loudly.

“Why…” The woman lowered her head, tears cascading down onto the face of the mummified corpse.

“Why couldn’t you forgive him once… give him another chance!! He knows nothing…”

“He’s just a child… We only wanted a better life, is that wrong!! Is that wrong!!?”

She lifted her head, revealing a tear-stricken, contorted face.

“No hope left.” Chi Xiao, seeing all this from behind, shook his head and walked away with his hands folded behind his back.

Yu Hong glanced at the woman, guessing she was Badaka’s sister, and said no more.

He picked up a piece of red metal from the box.

He squeezed it hard.

Indeed, its hardness was high, and even with his current physical strength, he couldn’t crush it.

“Let’s go. There’s no need to stay here any longer.”

He no longer paid attention to the sobbing woman and Deris speaking outside the window.

With a swish, he pulled up the blinds, instructing the Black Spirit to set sail once more.

“Why?” Yiyi couldn’t help but ask aloud, “Why do they question others for not forgiving them when they do bad things?”

“Because of selfishness,” answered Fisina. “In this world, it’s not like when you’re kind to people, they will surely repay you with kindness.”

“Let’s go.” Yu Hong returned to the Main Control Room, looking at the colored lines constantly emerging outside the circular window.

The entire safe house slowly surged into the Wind Disaster flow, heading deeper within.

At the same time, large gray human faces the size of houses suddenly brushed past the safe house like meteors, flying towards the world they had just left.

Watching this scene, Yu Hong sighed, turned around, and sat cross-legged, waiting for the safe house’s reinforcement time to end.

This attempt proved his previous idea wasn’t feasible.

Those who have not mastered power, when suddenly gaining too much, are too easily lost in themselves.