Chapter 234: This Cillin Guy is a Master of Secrets [Part 2]
“Dammit, you bastard!”
Puno’s body abruptly grew larger. He was now twice as big as he was before. Inov and Bie Yao looked different too. They were seriously prepared to fight Cillin to the death.
Reqiuem and Goryeo flew down on a fan-shaped hoverboard and landed on the bar’s rooftop. Goryeo was now wielding two guns that looked similar to the short-barreled gun he fired earlier.
“Wait!” Requiem stopped them from moving. “Zanny’s fine.”
Cillin withdrew his blade and frowned as he stared at Zanny. Just like before, not a drop of blood could be seen on the blade. When it came to those things, Cillin was far more sensitive than anyone else in the area. In fact, not even the victim himself, Zanny, had noticed it before him.
“But he attacked Zanny with his blade! That is unforgivable!”
Neither Puno nor Bie Yao showed any intentions of backing off.
“Stop!” Zanny yelled.
It was only then Puno and Bie Yao stopped taking an offensive stance. They both stared at Zanny in puzzlement.
Zanny took in a somewhat difficult breath before exhaling slowly. It took him a great deal of effort before he finally extracted himself from the momentary shock that gripped him. When Inov attempted to hand over some medicine to him, he waved it away to show that it was unnecessary.
Bel had already covered up his face when the grand battle looked like it was about to start at any moment, but he couldn’t help but peek at the scene from the gap between his fingers. At first he was complaining on the inside that the hiding bodyguards hadn’t come out to help them, but when he saw that the situation hadn’t devolved in the way he thought he would, he began removing his hand and stared at the scene openly.
Zanny raised his hand and popped five sharp nails that were even longer than his fingers before the puzzled crowd. Then, he pushed them into the wound Cillin had dealt with his blade.
When Zanny pushed his long nails entirely into his stomach, Bel and Gen Xingming unconsciously rubbed their own tummies and shivered. That had to hurt a lot!
When Zanny pulled out his fingernails again, everyone could see that he was holding a black object about the size of a quail egg.
A bug?
When Zanny saw the thing he was holding with his fingernails, he crushed it without a second thought. Then, he raised his head and let loose an inhuman howl.
As he howled, his rather brawny body swiftly turned thin. However, his arms elongated as a result.
Pu! Pu!
Another two pairs of wings appeared behind Zanny’s back, and they were even longer than the ones that first pair of wings. A pair of sharp, long fangs had also grown out of Zanny’s mouth during the transformation. Under the dim star light, he looked just like the sinister devils of fairy tales.
Cillin could feel that Zanny had become lighter – no, his bones had become lighter. His bones had become hollow, and it enabled him to move even faster in mid air.
This version of Zanny was probably the real him. Compared to the him now, the earlier him who fought Dwei was like an adult playing with a child.
Zanny let loose yet another howl after he took on this form. Although he didn’t undergo a massive transformation like just now, there were some small but obvious bulges moving across Zanny’s body. However, these little bulges had suddenly moved to Zanny’s wings as if they were threatened by something.
When the little bulges had been transferred completely to his wings, Zanny let out a third howl and flapped his wings abruptly. The bulging part of his skin broke apart, and a couple of small objects that looked just like the black bug from before fell onto the ground.
Palapala.
“Bugs?! Could it be…” Bie Yao exclaimed. He poked one of the bugs with his small knife and examined it carefully.
Zanny had almost killed the tiny bugs before he shook them off his wings, so they were all dead in just a short time.
After every bug in his body had been shaken off, Zanny turned back to his original appearance and withdrew all of his wings.
Zanny swore while panting, “God dammit, what a blunder!” Why do I keep making these blunders!
Zanny must have caught this during their previous mission. Everyone involved hurriedly inspected their own body after seeing Zanny’s appearance. Although they found no such thing inside their own body, some of them were still worried and scared.
Inov took out a bag and collected the bugs for evaluation later.
“Parasites?” Requiem looked at the dead bugs before turning to look at Cillin.
At this point, everyone had figured out that Cillin’s earlier gut stab was actually aimed at a parasite. However, how did Cillin know that these things were crawling inside Zanny’s body? And how was he able to figure out its exact position so accurately?
“How did you know that Zanny is infected by parasites?” Requiem asked.
Cillin looked at them and said, “Do you guys always speak in such a snobby and condescending tone?”
He would have to be a saint to feel nothing after being attacked for no reason.
Requiem paused for a moment and softened her tone. “Sorry, but not for what we did to you earlier. We are just following orders. Still, we must thank you for helping Zanny.”
“Hey, er, Cillin, is it? Thanks!” Zanny had exhausted too much strength earlier, so he was sitting on the floor right now.
“You’re welcome. You would’ve been able to endure it even if I didn’t help you.”
He could, but would look far worse than he was right now. Everyone knew this.
Bie Yao was about to say something else when Requiem stopped him. Then, she passed over a card to Cillin. “This is something our superior Mrs. Griffin told us to give you. You may use it however you like; we won’t interfere with your decision.”
Cillin accepted the card and gave it a look. He didn’t understand what was written on the card, however.
By now Bel and Gen Xingming had grown enough courage to walk over and take a look themselves.
“Holy shit, this is going too far! I’ve never seen a recruitment method like this!” Bel’s stupidity had taken over his brain once more as he pointed at Requiem and her group while exclaiming.
“A recommendation card to AF1 huh…” Gen Xingming looked over the card left ad right before patting Cillin’s shoulders. “You’re in luck, brother. Someone recommended you to join AF1.”
Cillin finally understood what the card was used for. This card was his ticket to AF1 if he brought it to the school during their next recruitment period.
Gen Xingming continued, “You don’t know yet, do you? AF1 is a place where you can only join under recommendation.”
“That bastard Tousen!!” Bel abruptly interrupted Gen Xingming with a roar. “That bastard Tousen must be the leak! That human garbage!! I knew that he cannot be trusted!”
“Alright, we’re going to leave now. You may ask Mrs. Griffin directly if you have any questions about the incident today,” Requiem said. They had already done what Griffin requested them to do, and they couldn’t stay here for too long before they still had another mission to do. Plus, they needed to investigate the parasites and seal up that place temporarily.
The moment Requiem said that they were leaving, the rest of the members suddenly thought something was amiss. It was almost as if one of their members were still missing…
The question just entered their minds when a noise suddenly rang from the edge of the walls. They saw a pair of cat paws grabbing onto the edge before the gray cat’s head suddenly popped up. It seemed to be holding something in its mouth.
The gray cat looked spirited and unharmed. It was only after it jumped back onto the ground that they noticed that it was holding the black panther’s tail. That was how the gray cat had dragged the black panther all the way back up to the rooftop, and it looked like it took it no effort at all.
Their surroundings started to brighten up again; the lamps and the holograms brightening up this place once more. However, this place was likely not going to be as lively as before. After all, the planetary government had already evacuated all those who were hypnotised by Requiem.
As for the black panther, it looked healthy but very dispirited for some reason. No one knew what kind of trauma it suffered except that there were swells all over its body and that it was lying powerlessly on the ground. When it raised half an eyelid to look at Requiem and the others, it covered its head with its paws. It wanted nothing more but a hole to hide in right now.
Embarrassing, it was too embarrassing. It couldn’t believe that it actually lost to an ugly cat!
After the gray cat had leaped back to the rooftop, it surveyed the crowd before tossing the gray cat on the ground. Then, it walked proudly before Dwei like there was no one around it. “Do you have any more wine? I’m thirsty!”
Bel felt like worshipping the cat for a bit. It was just too amazing! Not only did it wreck the black panther, it was also an incredible drinker. Not only was it an incredible drinker, it also ignored the people from Wings completely!
Like master, like pet!
Dwei cast a glance at everyone on the rooftop before taking a step backwards and another. When she saw that no one was reacting to her movements, she immediately left the scene to grab more wine for the gray cat.
Seeing that Dwei had gone off to grab the wines, the gray cat ran lithely towards Cillin before climbing up to his shoulder in familiar fashion. “What are you holding?”
“It’s the invitation card to AF1.” Cillin lifted the card so that the gray cat could have a clear look.
“AF1? Is it that First something Affiliated Higher Education Institution of the Royal Academy of Sciences Bel mentioned?”
“Yes.”
The gray cat looked at the card once before staring at the people feeding the black panther some medicine. “Is it the same school as the one that panther is studying?”
“Indeed.”
“We are not going to that place.” The gray cat swayed its tail without any hesitation. “They’re too weak! It’ll be a complete waste of time!”
Everyone: “…”
This cat was way over its head.
The gray cat lifted a paw and pushed the card away. Then, it yawned as if it couldn’t be bothered to spare another word with the masses.
Zanny couldn’t hold himself from saying, “That’s not true. We didn’t go all out, you know.”
The black panther raised its paws and covered both its ears. It did, but it was defeated and manhandled before it managed to do anything.
Requiem stopped Zanny after seeing the way the black panther was acting, “Let’s go. We still have a mission to do.”
Puno followed behind Requiem and the others for a few steps before he ran back to Cillin and asked, “Am I really not infected by those things?”
Before Cillin could say anything, the gray cat answered with closed eyes, “Do you mean the bugs? Nope.”
Puno cast a glance at the gray cat before looking back at Cillin. It was only when Cillin nodded that he happily ran back to Requiem and the others.
After Requiem and her group had left, the gray cat urged Cillin to find someplace to eat.
“Hey, wait for me!” Bel caught up to them while swearing through his communicator. “Why haven’t you guys said about this earlier? And what’s the point of telling me this right now? I’m not going back and I’m not listening to you people!”
He then broke off the connection before calling out to Gen Xingming still standing at the same spot. “We’re going!”
“I know!” Gen Xingming answered. He couldn’t help but look at Cillin’s back with a bit of puzzlement, however. When Cillin blocked the bullet with his blade, a sense of great familiarity had suddenly assaulted him. The feeling had come to him again when Cillin was putting away his blade. It was very strange.
Cillin was like a mystery. If he assumed that he was an average man with an average background, then how did he come by a subspace container? Although subspace technology had advanced rapidly in the empire, almost all people who possessed subspace containers were nobles or rich merchants. If he was poor, then how could he possibly own a subspace container? Also, his blade… was no ordinary blade either.
Could he be the bastard of some unknown family?
The more Gen Xingming thought about, the more convinced he became.
On the other side, Requiem and the others began analysing Cillin after they got onto their spaceplane and left the planet.
“There is no doubt that this Cillin kid is much stronger than his peers. In fact, I doubt the current students of AF1 and AF2 can beat him in a head on fight,” Bie Yao said.
“But why did no one discover such a person before this?” Mrs. Griffin had a whole team dedicated to finding talented people like Cillin.
Zanny crossed his legs and asked, “Say, who do you think will win if White Night were to fight against Cillin?”
“Of course White Night will win! You know how strong White Night is!” Inov said without hesitation.
Zanny wagged his fingers. “It’s bad to worship someone blindly. You gotta analyse things objectively, you know.”
Goryeo didn’t say anything. He didn’t know who would come out victorious either.
Bie Yao turned the question to Requiem when he saw the duo arguing with each other. “What do you think, Requiem? You should know your own brother much better than we do.”
White Night was Requiem’s older brother. They were sent together to AF1 after they were discovered.
Requiem shook her head and said, “This Cillin guy is a master of secrets.”
No one said anything for a time.
Puno scratched his head, unsure as to what to say. He then kicked the black panther who was playing dead beside him to change the subject, “Hey panther, is that cat really that strong?”
Panther answered with a tormented look on his face, “I don’t think that’s a cat at all; I wasn’t able to cut through its skin in the slightest! Also…” Panther breathed heavily for a few seconds. “Is that really the strength of a cat?! It’s even stronger than King Kong!”
King Kong was a giant – no wait, tiny, because it was still an infant – ape about ten meters tall at AF1.
