Chapter 36: Are You Waiting for Me?
The stair collapse was just an accident, but thankfully, no one was hurt.
After the incident, her roommate looked at Li Li, who had cleanly saved someone, then at the senior who’d retreated several meters in panic. Finally, she said to Li Li, “Lili, badass!”
Li Li patted the stunned NPC’s back, smiled, and let it pass.
She was still a bit preoccupied, wondering if she’d imagined that moment.
The NPC she saved thanked her profusely, their ‘ghostly’ made-up face teary as they gripped Li Li’s hand.
“Thank you so much, big sister, thank you so much…”
Her roommate chuckled beside her. “Yes, yes, Lili is my dashing husband!”
Li Li couldn’t help but laugh. “Get outta here.”
Afterward, Li Li suggested checking the surveillance, but the footage showed nothing unusual.
It was as if it really had been an illusion.
Instead, the staff who reviewed the footage asked Li Li if she’d trained, wondering if she practiced martial arts or taekwondo.
Li Li brushed it off with a vague laugh, since she was a self-taught, wild-grown type.
The incident’s aftermath dragged on until midnight.
By the time it was nearly 12 a.m., she and her roommate were finally heading back to their dorm.
When the system pinged at midnight, they were still outside, braving the cold wind.
Her empty stomach, having skipped dinner, seemed to grumble.
As they walked, she chatted, “The 24-hour convenience store should still be open.”
Just as she finished speaking, the scene before her changed.
[Preparing for transmigration.]
[Channel opened. Wishing you to become a highly popular character, bringing new vitality to the manga.]
[Detected system update. Please select your landing location.]
Time froze, the system awaiting Li Li’s response.
“Convenience store—oh, no.” Li Li exhaled.
Though this was her first real-world crisis, the manga world was undoubtedly more dangerous.
She thought for a moment.
The last time she transmigrated back, she’d been standing at the Ability Guild’s entrance.
“I’ve bolstered my courage, and some things need settling,” she murmured.
She changed her landing spot. “Raven Alley.”
The alley beside the Ability Guild, the same place she’d chosen last time.
As the scene shifted abruptly, her ability, Illusory Reality, activated.
An illusory figure appeared.
On the steps before the Ability Guild, a bounty hunter in a black hooded coat walked outward with a stern expression, without pause.
No one noticed anything amiss, as if this person had simply exited the building and begun descending the stairs.
Reality and illusion seamlessly connected at midnight.
In the alley, there seemed to be only a shadowy figure.
In the dim night, the shadow morphed into a black crow, flying to the treetops, its blood-red eyes fixed on the bounty hunter passing below.
She was already growing impatient.
…
This day seemed like any other.
The bounty hunter Li Baige lived up to his nickname, Mr. Madman, frequenting the Ability Guild as usual.
Le Caille occasionally spotted him and greeted, “Mr. Madman, got any jobs lately?”
Ignored coldly, he didn’t mind, turning to a new client beside him. “Don’t let his looks fool you—he’s actually crazy strong…”
He praised at length, then got to the point, gesturing a number. “His intel costs this much.”
The new client laughed and cursed. “Who doesn’t know that guy? Can I afford to mess with him? Fat Le, you’re just trying to rip me off!”
The stoic bounty hunter circled the Bounty Hall.
At that moment, young master An Huyu bounded over, brimming with energy.
“Good morning, Baige!” He’d long forgotten the slight gloom from that night, focused on proving himself. “I’ve got a new idea!”
He chattered on, while his bodyguard behind him stayed vigilant, keeping a distance that was neither intrusive nor neglectful.
The youth being pestered maintained a cold expression, his lifeless face showing no change.
Outside the Ability Guild, springtime branches should’ve just begun to sprout, but in the manga world, where life cycles were mastered, the trees weren’t bare.
They served to beautify the city, lush and vibrant.
A black crow hid among them, tilting its head.
Meanwhile, inside the Ability Guild, the bounty hunter turned and headed toward the task registration counter.
“Hey, wait for me!” An Huyu hurried after.
This day seemed no different from usual.
On the second day, the crow still perched quietly on the branch, observing.
The young master prattled to the silent bounty hunter about insider info, continuing to draft his utterly impractical ‘Heige Capture Plan.’
On the third day, things shifted.
“Big brother’s always busy. No idea what he’s up to. Today, he’s even kicking me out and won’t let me go home,” An Huyu said, clearly sulking. “When he scolded me today, I shot back, asking what he’s so busy with. He said he’s hosting a guest. As if I don’t know— what guest in Four-Way City is worth hosting at our house? Bet he’s lovesick and trying to impress some noble lady!”
The bounty hunter gave the pouting young master a fleeting, almost imperceptible glance, then reverted to his usual demeanor.
When night fell, An Huyu was half-pushed, half-dragged by his bodyguard to another residence.
In the darkness, the bounty hunter took a detour into the alley.
Leaning against the wall with arms crossed, he gazed toward the Ability Guild.
The person he’d seen that day emerged from the Ability Guild again.
Black hair, black eyes, expressionless, with a choker around his neck as dark as his hair.
The crow in the tree watched silently. The bounty hunter below suddenly curled his lips.
“Snap.”
The sound of a finger snap was faint.
After it, the figure under the tree seemed to change.
A silver half-mask covered the right side of his face, clad in a black trench coat, leaning against the wall with a half-smile.
The time was 11 p.m.
…
The man walking the streets under another’s appearance had a title, given by the lofty nobles as if labeling a tool.
‘Hundred Faces,’ a mimicry-type, able to freely alter his appearance.
Even he couldn’t recall his true face.
He posed as a bounty hunter on the surface, but was a noble’s tool behind the scenes, handling all manner of dirty and grueling tasks.
His most glorious moment was serving as a noble’s body double for an outing.
The most glorious thing was nothing more than wearing a face that didn’t belong to me.
This time, he received a request from the Yue clan’s nobles and came here to impersonate a stranger.
But he often did this, and the portraits provided by the nobles were clear enough that his disguise was almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
This was something the An clan’s nobles, who provided the portrait, had praised.
During these few days in Four-Way City, he followed the nobles’ schedule.
When that domain-type noble was free, he had to show up; when the noble was busy, he went off to do other things.
He didn’t know who he was impersonating, nor did he need to know.
What he did know was that he had already entered the ability range of those high-rank ability users.
Even if no one was tailing him, as soon as the target appeared, the noble backing him would strike, capturing or killing that person.
In short, it had nothing to do with him. After all, this was how he always operated.
Impersonating someone to lure out someone else, or impersonating someone to replace them.
He felt numb, but he didn’t have the right to say he was tired.
The person he was impersonating this time actually felt quite easy to handle.
He didn’t need to make any expressions—just keep his head down and follow the route specified by the noble.
Vaguely hanging overhead, even the dark clouds seemed to be asleep.
In the quiet night, he walked along the roadside, not needing to put on any fake expressions.
He thought this time would be like all the others: lure someone out, watch them fall into the noble’s trap, and become the noble’s plaything.
Then he would move on to the next task, as usual.
Then he saw a shadow.
On a streetlamp not far away, a black raven tilted its head, its dark crimson pupils like the coldest of gems.
Under the streetlamp, a black-haired youth suddenly appeared, lifting his chin.
The eyes beneath the mask seemed to pierce through the layer of false skin, seeing the numb, broken soul within.
He looked down at him, and when he chuckled, his voice carried a hoarse, magnetic quality.
“Truly interesting,” he said.
The fish had taken the bait, ‘Hundred Faces’ thought.
An orange halo began to spread from the distance, instantly enveloping their location and even farther beyond.
This domain covered the entire Four-Way City.
“What’s interesting?” ‘Hundred Faces’ began his performance, thinking over the clues provided by the noble, trying to mimic the personality of the person he was impersonating. “The interesting part about coming back from the dead?”
He needed to stall for time, and only after the noble confirmed that the person in front of him was real could he make his escape.
At that, the man in front of him let out a laugh.
“Yes, the interesting part about coming back from the dead,” he said in a tone of admiration, his voice drowning out the sound of the raven flapping its wings and flying off in the distance.
“And I will still ‘kill’ you.” He emphasized the word ‘kill,’ his exposed right eye narrowing slightly, his expression free of any anxiety or negative emotions, as if he were not the cicada being hunted but the oriole waiting behind it.
At the same time.
“There are two life fluctuations nearby. It’s real.”
The floor-to-ceiling window was wide open, and the chandelier inside the room emitted a warm golden glow, making the house appear resplendent.
A red-haired youth sat with one leg crossed, seated upright in a chair without leaning against the backrest.
Next to his hand was a round tea table, on which sat an open landline phone.
Behind the table was an empty stool, as if waiting for someone to take a seat.
He closed his eyes, and the golden halo around him fluctuated, like little elves circling him.
An Heyu, S-rank domain-type ability user, ability: Necromantic Prelude.
In his domain, he could control the undead, and he could also distinguish whether what they had caught was an illusion or real by detecting the presence of life energy.
From the landline phone on the tea table next to An Heyu, Yue Qing’s voice came through: “Since you can sense life energy, it must be the real thing. Heige, oh Heige, isn’t it especially thrilling to see someone you killed come back to life? And to dare show up directly in the nobles’ territory.”
By the end, it was Yue Qing’s personal emotions spilling out: “Interesting? Let him find it interesting until he dies!”
“Hanging up,” An Heyu said coldly, ending the call.
Only then did he let out a heavy breath, slowly leaning back in the chair.
The house was lit, but there were no servants—only An Heyu.
He rubbed his brow with some fatigue and let out a soft sigh.
What he didn’t mention was that he had already locked onto a target he suspected to be Heige.
He had indeed gone to Jiao Huang after receiving the deal from the Yue clan, but the soul energy had dissipated too quickly, and too much time had passed to glean anything useful.
Yue Qing had forbidden him from directly probing Yue Lan’s soul memory, as it would tear Yue Lan’s soul apart and cause it to dissipate completely.
So he had probed the memory of someone nearby instead.
Fragmented and scattered, all he could see were a few images.
Meeting a black-haired youth, being killed by him, and at that moment, the soul still remembered that person’s name: Li.
Then there was the memory captured by the soul energy after it left the body.
A man calling himself Heige said he had killed Li.
An Heyu didn’t think that the Li who could kill the soul named Qing Yu Chen was a weakling, and the stranger who appeared afterward was extremely abrupt.
Moreover, based on those memories, that person’s ability was illusion-based.
Even with his suspicions, An Heyu remained cautious.
He didn’t reveal everything he had seen and instead began his own investigation.
He had met the suspected target.
After all, that name was far too blatant.
A-rank, not someone An Heyu should fear.
He had seen too many A-rank ability users, including high-rank ones, in the imperial capital, Floating City.
In An Heyu’s view, the only thing about this ability user worth his attention was that he was the one mentioned in the prophet’s prophecy.
So An Heyu allowed his younger brother to approach him and carefully released probing information.
But…
“It seems I was wrong. I’ll need to be more cautious in the future,” he reflected on his actions.
“Fortunately, I accidentally got it right about Heige and Li’s relationship. It really was just Heige killing Li, not them being…”
He suddenly closed his mouth and turned to look out the window.
From the city, a wave of ice spread out, and the cold wind made the trees outside rustle loudly.
Yet, in this chilling frost, there seemed to be nothing unusual.
But then—
“Good evening. Were you waiting for me?”
The moment the voice sounded, he sensed life energy, and the black-haired man now sitting in the empty seat looked exactly like the one thousands of miles away.
Smiling, he gazed at him with keen interest.
“I prefer milk tea. Pour me a cup?”