Chapter 5: She Hadn’t Even Started Acting Yet
Originally, Li Li planned to save someone to gain Yiming’s favor, hoping to join the protagonist’s group and snag some screen time. But as a victim…
It seemed even better.
She could already imagine herself constantly stealing Yiming’s spotlight in the future.
“Don’t let them get away!”
Headlights pointed the way for the enemies, and those outside rushed toward their position.
Black-robed figures at the gate formed a horizontal line, drawing guns from beneath their robes. They were surrounded by dark gun barrels.
“Where can you even run to?” Li Li’s gaze swept over the blocked exit.
Her tone betrayed no emotion, sounding more like a challenge in this situation.
But that made it reasonable.
After all, according to the script Yiming had given her, she was supposed to be someone trying to escape the Qing Tong organization on her own, only to be pulled from her hiding spot by Yiming and discovered by Qing Tong.
She had every reason to question why Yiming had meddled.
Yet a smile played on her lips.
If Yiming looked back, he might mistakenly think she was with Qing Tong, which would explain her relaxed demeanor.
But he didn’t.
“I don’t know,” Yiming said, looking ahead, utterly honest and brimming with confidence. “But I’m an ability user, at least. Guns can’t stop me.”
Li Li, of course, knew he was an ability user.
She even knew what Yiming’s ability was and what it could do.
The manga was written from the protagonist’s perspective with an omniscient narrator, so she knew far more than Yiming himself did.
This knowledge was her leverage for meddling in the main storyline.
“Ability user… ha,” she said ambiguously.
Li Li didn’t have any strong opinions about ability users, but she thought of Yiming’s ability.
She glanced at the hand Yiming was using to pull her along, then slowly raised her eyes.
Incandescent light poured down from above, illuminating half of Yiming’s body and his brown hair.
The next second, in the bright light, countless fine strands of brown hair detached from his head, floating in the air.
Then the soft, short hair lengthened, transforming into cold, gleaming blades.
Yiming’s ability: Metal Heart.
He could turn any part of his body into metal, including his limbs and hair.
Yiming didn’t stop moving.
The metal blades formed from his hair spun around him in a circle, their arcs like the rails of a train, the whistling sound of the blades cutting through the air like a train’s horn.
They sliced through gun barrels, disarming the enemies’ weapons, ending everything in an instant!
“He’s an ability user!” the enemies shouted in panic.
The spinning blades formed three rotating halos around Yiming, as if they could effortlessly sever the enemies’ heads the next moment, just as they had done before.
Li Li had seen this attack many times in the manga, but witnessing it live was a first.
No special effects, no black-and-white lines to heighten the atmosphere like in the manga.
The cold glint of the blades shone with a metallic sheen under the lights, casting an illusory veil over everything.
The red glow of warning lights flickered in the night, accompanied by chaotic footsteps and exclamations, pulling her back into this surreal world.
“Not bad,” she said with a hint of a smile. “Just a bit like a corgi shedding.”
Li Li was making a joke.
Readers called this hair-sacrificing move of the protagonist “Corgi Shedding.”
Corgis have double coats and shed almost daily.
Yiming, nicknamed Little Corgi, would “shed” his hair himself, and the falling brown strands looked strikingly similar.
The resemblance was so uncanny that every time Yiming used this move, trolls on the forums would post bets on when Little Corgi would end up with a bald, Mediterranean-style parting like a real corgi.
Yiming, hearing this jab for the first time, nearly tripped.
Finally turning back as he ran, the youth widened his blue eyes, his face full of aggrieved accusation. “Shedding’s one thing, but how am I anything like a corgi?!”
As they spoke, the spinning blades tore through the encirclement, carving out an escape route.
The exit seemed almost within reach.
“I prefer huskies!”
Yiming kept talking, running without pause, determined to lead the child in his arms and the newly met Li Li out of enemy territory.
The enemies’ guns had been dismantled, and the blades scattered their formation.
Chaotic footsteps echoed behind, but no one dared step into the protective circle Yiming had created with his blades.
No, there was someone.
The leader of the black-robed figures, with gold patterns embroidered on his robe’s hem, stepped forward.
He extended a hand, and vines sprouted from the ground at his feet, but they grew only within a half-body radius.
An E-rank ability user, utterly powerless against the D-rank Yiming.
Everything seemed to point to his victory.
Until the walkie-talkie buzzed.
“Husky or corgi, doesn’t matter. I prefer German shepherds. So…”
The voice spoke unhurriedly.
“From now on, stop everything you’re doing.”
In that instant, an invisible ripple spread outward in a circle through the air, and a sharp sound echoed in the night sky.
The men in black robes stopped, because it was their leader’s command.
And Yiming also stopped—because it was an ability.
An ability belonging to the leader of the Qing Tong organization.
The leader of the Qing Tong organization, that B-rank ability user, had finally made his move.
...
Li Li remembered the plot before Yiming broke into the Qing Tong organization.
What he obtained from the information broker was not just Tang's place of confinement, but also news about the leader of the Qing Tong organization.
In the manga, the boss seemed to think highly of Yiming, and casually mentioned the leader of the Qing Tong organization to him as if gossiping, the kind that didn't require an extra fee.
“That’s a very troublesome ability user.”
At that time, the boss lay leisurely on his recliner, eyes closed, and said slowly, “B-rank, concept-type ability.”
There were four major types of abilities: mimicry-type, spell-type, domain-type, and concept-type.
The most common were mimicry-type and spell-type.
Mimicry-type was based on the transformation of living forms, such as strengthening the physical body or mimicking animals and plants.
Yiming's Metal Heart was mimicry.
Spell-type could use or create inanimate natural or unnatural energies.
The 【Spell Electroshock】 Li Li had exchanged for earlier was spell-type.
These two major types accounted for more than ninety percent of all ability users.
The remaining nine percent were domain-type like the boss, and anything related to space was classified as domain-type.
The final one percent was concept-type. They were the most mysterious and also the most difficult to guard against.
The most well-informed information broker in Jiao Huang said: “I don’t know what his ability is exactly, but I know his former title.”
He seemed to recall the past, drawing out his words with a hint of a sigh.
“Controller, Qing Yu Chen.”
A nightmare among ability users.
When he had just reached C-rank, he could single-handedly destroy local organizations, turning enemies into mindless hounds.
He was a renowned ability user ten years ago.
...
When Yiming mistook her for a victim, Li Li had already figured out what to do next.
If Yiming escaped, she would escape with him.
If Yiming didn't, then she would get caught with him.
Anyway, no matter what, she could leech off the screen time in the next chapter of the manga.
But the one thing she hadn't considered was this current situation.
Everything seemed to have pressed the pause button.
The black-robed men who had stopped and stood quietly in place.
Yiming, who had retracted his steps, his face showing astonishment, standing with his legs together.
And Tang, whom Yiming still held, silent.
In that instant, Li Li thought of many things.
She knew that the Qing Tong organization leader's ability might be related to control, and she also knew that there was a high probability Yiming would fail again.
In the manga 《Extreme Black and White》, the protagonist Yiming was not undefeated.
On the contrary, he often got into trouble and found it difficult to extricate himself.
After all, it was a shonen manga.
Yiming grew through failure and eventually overcame difficulties.
Li Li knew this trope; she even believed that Yiming's failure tonight was something the manga had predetermined would happen.
But the one thing she hadn't expected was that, with the protagonist being controlled, she was actually not under control.
She hadn't bought any items either!
“Huh?” The leader of the Qing Tong organization let out a rising questioning sound.
He had discovered the person who had escaped control. “Two traces of intrusion. You’ve been to the main control room.”
“Then you should also be an ability user.” The rising tone gradually lowered.
Li Li stood in place, her brain working rapidly.
Whatever the reason, it was a fact that she was not under control at this moment, but she couldn't possibly break through the encirclement with a controlled Yiming.
Run by herself? Then this trip would have been for nothing.
Her thoughts concluded in an instant. Li Li knew she had only one choice.
She pulled her wrist from the motionless Yiming's grasp, turned around, and lightly patted the corner of her trench coat.
“Oh dear, I’ve been discovered.” She pulled out the walkie-talkie and spoke to the person in the main control room, despite the long distance and walls.
She suppressed her trembling hands and put on an air of leisure.
Li Li was thinking.
Her understanding of the Qing Tong organization leader, Qing Yu Chen, was limited to those few words from the boss.
She didn't know what kind of person Qing Yu Chen truly was.
Perhaps from his attitude of only making a move when Yiming was about to escape the encirclement, it could be seen that he was very confident in his own ability, and felt a sense of cat-and-mouse pleasure.
Although Qing Tong was his organization, when he talked about his subordinates, he unreservedly called them ‘wastes’.
Arrogant, he was very arrogant. The capital that made him arrogant was probably his ability.
Then Li Li, who had escaped his ability's control, had a complete opportunity to disguise herself just like she did with the boss!
Li Li gripped the walkie-talkie, once again masking her expression.
But before she could say anything, she heard the leader of the Qing Tong organization say: “If you wish, I can pretend I know nothing.”
Li Li detected a trace of fear.
Fear.
Li Li, who was just about to speak, suddenly choked.
She hadn't even started acting, had she?
...
He was an ability user, there was absolutely no mistake about this.
The leader of the Qing Tong organization, Qing Yu Chen, slowly stood up from the swivel chair, straightening his spine.
He wore a light green changpao magua, his overly long black hair loosely tied into a long braid at his back.
The legs of his square, rimless glasses were wrapped with gold chains, glinting with a metallic luster in the dim light.
But at this moment, those light purple pupils were filled with a gravity completely different from before.
His subordinates lay scattered in the main control room.
He had just controlled the low-rank ability user lying under the central chair and obtained the scene the ability user had witnessed.
It was an ability, definitely an ability, Qing Yu Chen thought.
Ability user Qing Yu Chen, concept-type ability ‘Mental Control’.
Within three hundred meters, he could place a mental mark. Once marked, he could control them from a thousand li away.
Low-rank abilities, aside from range and power, generally had many complicated conditions for use, and mid-rank abilities did too.
And his restrictive condition was that he could not control ability users of a higher rank than himself, or ordinary people without abilities.
This was also why he was known as the ‘ability user Controller’.
And he now knew that the second intruder possessed an ability, so the second possibility was eliminated.
Then only one possibility remained—
That intruder was at least A-rank!
That was someone stronger than him, someone not to be provoked.