Chapter 4: Identity Reversal
Jiao Huang held a special status in the manga world.
It was a remote place, but it always attracted the attention of ability users.
The city lord of Jiao Huang was said to be a high-rank expert, very powerful, thus Jiao Huang was not controlled by the empire.
However, the city lord of Jiao Huang was elusive all day long and never governed the city, so Jiao Huang was very chaotic internally.
But even so, for low-rank ability users, Jiao Huang was actually a good place to go.
It was just that in Jiao Huang, there were various forces in existence.
There were organizations united solely by belief, small organizations that helped each other and huddled together for warmth, and also—
Existences like Qing Tong that made a living by selling ability users.
‘Tang’ was here.
[Deducting 100 popularity value, current account balance 582]
[Item 【Aura Concealment】 purchase successful, countdown 10:00]
[Item 【Aura Concealment】 countdown 09:59]
“Intrusion warning! Intrusion warning!”
The sound of the alarm, accompanied by red warning lights, painted this late night with a color of panic.
“Guard the main gate! Don’t let the intruder escape!” A tall man in a black robe waved his hand, the corner of his robe, imprinted with a golden fish pattern, billowed with the movement.
In front of him, a squad of guards wore similar black robes, but without the golden pattern.
They occupied several entrances in a somewhat chaotic manner.
Messy footsteps echoed in the dark night. They carried crimson-yellow lanterns, running within the compound walls.
After the lights shifted, in a corner outside the guards' line of sight, a dark figure swiftly passed through.
The four-story square building covered an area of about ten thousand square meters, but was only three stories high.
In the dark night, the building's bronze exterior seemed to melt into the night.
The first floor of the building had peripheral outer walls on all four sides, resembling the legs of a table or stool, while the middle was white.
The entire building looked like a giant square ding.
This was the place where ‘Tang’ was imprisoned, the main base of the ability user organization, Qing Tong.
At this time, the leader of Qing Tong was not present, and the protagonist who caused the commotion had not yet escaped.
The boss sold out the protagonist very decisively.
He clearly knew the protagonist's plan, but still gave the address.
Li Li moved along the perimeter of the ‘square ding’, weaving through the shadows, her face completely unconcealed.
Her steps were swift, her eyes filled with coldness.
[Deducting 100 popularity value, current account balance 482]
[Item 【Red Dot Map】 purchase successful, countdown 10:00]
A simple planar map appeared before her eyes, her blue dot at the very center of the map.
And around the blue dot, red dots were scattered all over the map like a school of crucian carp crossing a river.
“‘Cicada Group reporting’! Intruder found in West District, second floor!”
The guard's report reached her ears from several hundred meters away.
Footsteps surged into the spacious doorway.
Li Li stopped, her back against the wall, and quickly slipped in after the footsteps receded.
There were no lights inside the building.
The red dots carrying hand-held lanterns ran towards the stairs.
Li Li held her breath, completely concealing herself.
Item 【Aura Concealment】, relatively cheap because it wasn't an ability item, its only function was to hide the user's aura for the duration of its use.
But this wasn't invisibility; if spotted, she would still be discovered.
However, as long as she wasn't seen, she could swagger into the headquarters of the ability user organization.
She waited quietly for a while, then walked in the opposite direction of the crowd.
The discovered intruder was not her, but the protagonist who had broken in earlier in the night.
In the first half of the manga update, the protagonist entered the ability user organization ‘Qing Tong’ and destroyed the power supply of Qing Tong's headquarters.
He found ‘Tang’ during the chaos in Qing Tong.
Admittedly, both the boss and the Qing Tong organization treated ‘Tang’ as an object, but ‘Tang’ was actually just a seven or eight-year-old little girl.
The protagonist wanted to rescue her, but just as he attempted to leave with Tang, an alarm installed for Tang by the Qing Tong organization was triggered for some unknown reason.
Instantly, the backup power supply was activated.
Qing Tong began searching for the intruder, and the protagonist, along with Tang, was trapped inside Qing Tong's ‘square ding’.
A D-rank protagonist, Tang of unknown rank, and the Qing Tong organization with a B-rank leader and C-rank fighters.
No matter how you thought about it, it seemed overwhelmingly disadvantageous.
But a helper appearing at this time would more easily gain the favor of the protagonist and the readers.
Li Li knew that her popularity value was not enough to let her rest easy.
She had to ensure that she could still appear in the next update.
Otherwise, she would soon be forgotten.
So she had to grasp the information she could learn from the last update and participate in the protagonist's rescue.
She couldn't relax yet.
However, she could choose a more stable way to participate.
Li Li's heart pounded as if it would fly out of her chest.
She pressed her hand to her heart; the fear of being discovered at any moment and the danger of death made her extremely nervous.
She was looking for the main control room.
Foolishly looking for the protagonist and then getting besieged with him, she would definitely not do such a thing.
There was a main control room in the center of the first floor of the Qing Tong organization.
Her purpose was very clear: she wanted to disrupt Qing Tong's command and dispatch, turning Qing Tong into a scattered mess.
The leader of the Qing Tong organization was a B-rank ability user.
If he was present, Li Li would definitely not dare to barge into the main base, but he was not here tonight.
Then she would slip out directly, and after the protagonist escaped on his own, she would feign that she ‘created chaos to help the protagonist escape’ as an excuse to trick the protagonist.
This way, the risk she undertook would be the lowest.
Li Li stared at the red dot map; three red dots were closing in on her.
She quickly crossed the corridor and hid behind a cylindrical cover.
The next second, another group of people came from the left, appearing at the crossroads.
The light from their hand-held lanterns illuminated the wall and the front of the cover, elongating the black shadows.
Footsteps were approaching, and at the same time, Li Li held her breath.
She was waiting for this group to walk straight ahead and leave from her right side.
The warm orange light illuminated the dust floating in the air, suddenly a hand blocked a patch of light.
Someone stood next to the person holding the lantern.
They were turning, heading in Li Li's direction!
Damn it, she'll be discovered! Li Li’s breath caught.
The light eroded the darkness, forcing back the shadows to reveal the human figure behind the cylinder.
[Item 【Aura Concealment】 temporarily ineffective]
Black robe corner, smooth short hair and—
[Item 【Spell Electroshock (3min)】 purchase successful]
That smile that showed no intention of retreating.
The ‘zira’ sound of electric current instantly rang out, paralyzing all three enemies before they could even utter an ‘ah’.
“Thump thump thump.”
Heavy thuds sounded as human bodies fell to the ground.
“‘Cicada Group’! What happened!”
The walkie-talkie was still stubbornly functioning; the person in charge of command and dispatch seemed to have heard the abnormality here.
A hand picked it up from the ground.
“It’s nothing, just swatting mosquitoes.”
A low, hoarse male voice came from her throat.
Li Li stepped over the fallen enemies, the corner of her black trench coat falling naturally, then rising again with her movement.
Li Li decisively exchanged for an ability item.
The remaining hundred-odd popularity points were not enough for her to exchange a second time.
This was a one-time opportunity, and she had to make good use of it.
Casually stuffing the walkie-talkie into her pocket, Li Li let out an inconspicuous long sigh.
Charging in recklessly was indeed stimulating.
Time passed by, minute by minute, second by second.
The mere three-minute duration of the item was rapidly shrinking.
She had to be faster.
Li Li gave up on stealth; she raced against time towards the main control room.
The youth in the black trench coat walked quickly down the corridor, the hem of his coat like a fluttering tail fin, trembling with the wind.
“Hey, who are you—”
“Zzzra!”
The light of the electric current flashed and disappeared.
Then, the Martin boots stepped over the black-robed person who had fainted and fallen, without stopping at all.
[Item 【Spell Electroshock (3min)】 Countdown 00:05]
Finally, Li Li arrived behind an iron door. She shifted her gaze from the red dot map and reached out her hand.
[Countdown 00:03]
She pushed open the door of the main control room.
Before everyone inside could react, the light of the electric current flashed instantaneously.
[Countdown 00:01]
The sounds of falling to the ground echoed unevenly.
All the red dots on the red dot map were unconscious.
[Item 【Spell Electroshock (3min)】 Countdown 00:00]
Li Li finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She walked forward, casually raising her hand to rub her face, which had been contorted into a fake smile, to relax her facial muscles.
“Almost didn't make it, scared me to death,” she muttered.
Li Li leaned her hands on the console, her gaze sweeping across it.
Qing Tong organization's backup power only supported the main control room to issue orders; other functions were unusable.
The black-robed person who had just been commanding and dispatching was already lying on the ground.
Li Li had suddenly appeared and attacked directly; he hadn't reacted.
If the leader of Qing Tong organization had been here, it definitely wouldn't have been so simple.
The leader of Qing Tong organization was a B-rank ability user, one rank higher than the boss. If he had been present, Li Li certainly wouldn't have succeeded so easily.
However, the protagonist had specifically chosen a time when the leader of Qing Tong organization was absent; this was also part of the plan.
Just then, a dedicated line connection suddenly came through on the console.
“This is ‘Can Zu’.” A middle-aged man's voice said, “The merchandise is restless, ‘Hu Zu’ is needed here to maintain order.”
Almost without thinking, Li Li knew what the merchandise was.
It was mentioned early in the manga that the ability user organization Qing Tong would sell ability users as ‘merchandise’.
Tang belonged to high-grade merchandise, and a buyer had been arranged for her long ago.
The ability user society in 《Extreme Black and White》 was a man-eating society.
Existences like the Qing Tong organization were not uncommon.
In this society, ability was supreme.
Laws existed but could only restrain ordinary people.
Someone had once wanted to put shackles on ability users, but ultimately died at the hands of stronger obstructors.
This was all because of the special nature of abilities.
There were two ways to acquire abilities: natural awakening and bloodline inheritance.
Among them, natural awakening often occurred between life and death or when there was a major stimulus.
And the ways to upgrade abilities also included these two, and on top of that, there was an additional method: same-type plundering.
For some ability users, rather than hoping to awaken abilities between life and death, it was better to plunder others'.
This was also the reason why low-rank ability users had a hard life.
After all, the manga needed enough conflict; Li Li understood this quite well.
The item 【Red Dot Map】 issued a warning: a red dot was approaching the main control room. Li Li composed herself and turned to leave.
The item had three minutes left before it expired.
Li Li avoided the red dots just as she had when she came.
The protagonist had attracted most of the forces; this trip, though thrilling for Li Li, was not strenuous.
Soon, she passed through the main gate and once again lurked in the shadows along the wall.
“Zzzra”
“Cocoon out of control! Cocoon out of control!”
Li Li hadn't thrown away the walkie-talkie she had picked up earlier; now it could let her eavesdrop for a while.
The protagonist had chosen his time. Tonight, the leader of Qing Tong organization happened to be absent.
The entire organization, having lost its leader, was like a heap of loose sand, flustered and disorganized.
Li Li glanced at the red dot map.
The red dot that had just rushed to the main control room had already arrived at the location.
Just as she was preparing to leave in one go, a voice suddenly came from the walkie-talkie.
“Zzz... Good evening, wastes. Can you hear me?”
Completely different from the others' panic, it was steady, even carrying unconcealed arrogance.
“I’ve always wondered why my organization is full of wastes.”
This person spoke as if chatting idly, not nervous at all: “Just two ability users have thrown Qing Tong into such disarray?”
The tone and the meaning of the words clearly indicated this person's identity.
The leader of Qing Tong organization had returned—that troublesome B-rank ability user.
According to the protagonist's plan, he shouldn't have returned so early!
What to do? Leave now or wait for the protagonist to appear and take a gamble?
She glanced at her item's countdown; she had about a minute left and on the map, the green dot belonging to the protagonist was also approaching the main gate.
Li Li took a deep breath: If she left now, she couldn't be sure if the protagonist could escape.
If the protagonist didn't escape, then she didn't know when the next opportunity to leech off the protagonist's screen time would be.
She absolutely had to appear in the next update!
Suddenly, the red dot map display began to change.
The green dot increased speed; the protagonist broke through the encirclement blocking him and rushed out the main gate.
Li Li stood in the shadows, she turned her head—
The brown-haired youth she had seen on the title page during the day turned sideways, protecting a seven or eight-year-old little girl.
As he rushed out the main gate, he happened to turn his head.
[Item 【Aura Concealment】 Countdown 00:00]
Those blue eyes met Li Li’s dark pupils.
The paper character's face from the manga transformed into a real three-dimensional image: short brown hair, beautiful eyes like the blue sky, a face still with baby fat, and a resolute expression.
He was like someone who had broken free from the black-and-white pages of a manga, appearing before her eyes.
In that instant, a name surfaced in Li Li’s mind, an unmistakable name—the manga’s protagonist, Yiming.
In that brief moment, the youth in a faded denim jacket paused, his expression shifting as if he had made some kind of resolution.
Li Li didn’t know what the protagonist was thinking.
His gaze flicked over her neck, then he grabbed her wrist.
“Follow me!” he said rapidly. “I’ll help you escape!”
The little girl in his arms looked up blankly, revealing a black choker around her neck, nearly identical to Li Li’s.
Li Li thought of the choker she wore to look cool and instantly understood.
Yiming had mistaken her for a “product” escaping in the chaos.
She had intended to be the rescuer, but now she was the one being rescued?