Why did this man know her so well?
Luo Xi furrowed her brow. Before the tribe member Sean had captured even set foot off the mountain, her older sister had still been the tribe's queen. It was only after a series of unexpected accidents that Luo Xi herself inherited the title. Even if the captive had been tortured into coughing up information, her identity should never have come up.
The only faction capable of unearthing who she really was would be the Academy, which she had already dealt with.
Yet if the Academy wanted her to abduct Sean as a bargaining chip for their negotiations with the Gold Ghosts, there was no reason for them to leak her details...
Catching the subtle shift in her expression, Sean knew that given her personality, the seeds of suspicion and betrayal had already been planted.
He offered a faint smile, refraining from driving a wedge between her and the Academy too directly. "The Gold Ghosts are one of the four great powers of Paradise City, after all. You underestimate us a bit too much, Miss Luo Xi."
"And yet here you are, in my hands?" Luo Xi tilted her head.
Sean blinked. "I admit, I didn't expect you to strike so decisively."
"So?"
"So, let's talk cooperation. The Academy's Airships might look impressive, but they're nowhere near enough to carry your people down from the mountain. I, however, have a way."
Luo Xi's brow tightened as thoughts raced through her mind. Finally, she let out a light laugh. "You're too weak... Besides, if you really have a way, can't I just make you talk? You lack the proper awareness of a captive."
"For instance—" Sean didn't look the least bit afraid. Puckering her vibrant red lips, the young woman blew a soft whistle. A bizarre, metallic-green bug crawled out from the metal sphere in her hand.
"For instance, this—a Rust Bug. It feeds on concentrated energy. Though, very few people know..." Luo Xi wore a playful smile as she held the metal sphere up to Sean's face. "...that it is especially fond of human blood. It burrows right into the chambers of the heart, feasting on your blood while discharging vibrational waste energy. That kind of agony..."
Before she could even finish, Luo Xi's eyes went wide.
She watched the man pucker his lips and give a sharp suck, slurping the Rust Bug straight into his mouth.
"Y-you..." Luo Xi stammered.
Sean chewed for a moment, then wore a look of sheer enjoyment. "You've been feeding it your own energy? Oh, you taste fantastic..."
"You!"
Sean burst out laughing. "It sounds terrifying, but Rust Bugs feed on energy and weigh next to nothing. On top of that, they don't have strong parasitic abilities—and their entire bodies are edible. Generally speaking, if you want to control someone, dropping one through the ear canal is your best bet. Just a little tip from a master of torture, free of charge."
Luo Xi was left speechless. She never would have dreamed that the terrifying things she had learned on her travels were something this man was already completely unfazed by.
"Miss Luo Xi, we can talk about cooperating," Sean said with steady composure.
Only by getting through to this woman and stirring her suspicions would there be room for negotiation.
What he had to consider right now wasn't just his survival, but his opportunity to grow stronger!
He understood all too well just how cruel this world—the one he had poured his blood and sweat into creating—really was...
Yet to Sean's dismay, he saw Luo Xi glare back at him with obvious displeasure.
His heart skipped a beat, a sense of dread washing over him.
Not good. This woman's nasty temper was starting to act up...
"Wait a—Agh!"
Sean's words cut off into a scream as a tremendous force hurled him straight into the air!
Luo Xi bent her knees slightly and leaped, "flying" right up alongside him.
With a reach of her hand, she seized Sean in midair, holding him suspended beside her.
Leaping, pushing off, borrowing momentum—Luo Xi was actually soaring through the sky like a bird.
Through the howling gale and pouring rain, he could faintly catch her voice: "Your people are here. We'll find a safe place, then we'll talk."
Staring down at the blurry buildings streaking past beneath them and feeling his own body dangling in the void, Sean let out a miserable shriek.
"Hold on tighter!"
At the bottom of a massive crater radiating thick, dark-purple fumes, a man and a woman sat inside a dilapidated building.
Deep within the Great Rift, which vented toxic gas year-round, the ground here was slathered in sticky purple residue. Luo Xi had clearly studied the terrain—the route she had taken was the one where the fumes were thinnest. Dirty as this place was, the toxicity was at its absolute minimum.
Clearing a slightly cleaner patch of ground in the center, Luo Xi broke up several wooden boards and built a fire.
Sean sat by the flames, stripping off his clothes without the slightest hesitation to dry them out. Although he was a genetically evolved rejector, his physical conditioning was thoroughly ordinary.
In this post-apocalyptic wasteland world, there were two mainstream combat factions: the mechanical-prosthetic augmented, known as Weak Flesh; and the genetically mutated evolvers who wielded supernatural abilities, known as Rejection.
As a pure rejector whose ability was not combat-oriented, Sean was currently no different from an ordinary human.
Across from him, Luo Xi—someone who could easily be called a top-tier rejector—was staring at him without blinking an eye.
Wringing the water out of his clothes, Sean draped them casually to dry and looked at Luo Xi.
"Even putting aside whether the Academy will actually hand you an intact Airship after your deal, you wouldn't be able to lead your people down the mountain even if you got your hands on the highest-end technology the Academy currently possesses."
Hugging her knees, Luo Xi scrutinized Sean, her tone ice-cold. "And I'm supposed to rely on your empty words? Besides, I've already killed your companion. Compared to the Gold Ghosts, working with the Academy looks like the better option no matter how you slice it."
Sean corrected her, "I'm not asking you to cooperate with the Gold Ghosts. I'm asking you to cooperate with me."
"Your reputation..." Luo Xi sneered, a chill glinting in her eyes. "Rape, pillage, committing every evil imaginable—you Gold Ghosts are notorious underground emperors. And one of my people is still in your hands."
Sean chuckled mockingly. "She snuck into the Core Zone of the Gold Ghosts in the dead of night. She got what she deserved."
"Nonsense!" Luo Xi's gaze turned frosty. "Another of my tribe members vanished before she did, and the tracks showed she disappeared inside Gold Ghost territory. She was only there to scout for information. You love abducting beautiful women—that's hardly news anymore, is it?"
"Watch your words," Sean said without a trace of panic—after all, he had crafted this persona himself. "I like beauties, sure, but I never kidnap people. Slaves, willing visitors, and enemies—that's it."
"Rumors are cheap; seeing is believing. Ask yourself: have I truly done all that many wicked things? Lust is simply human nature. Torture? Would you have me show mercy to my enemies? As for the spectacles... is there a crime in having a little fun?"
"Let me tell you something else: the woman in my dungeon has already turned. She betrayed your people, and her buyer was none other than the Academy. That tribe member who went missing... is lying on an Academy autopsy table right now. Her eyeballs probably haven't even been out of her skull for long."
"Did you really think the Academy was helping you? Helping your Iris Hive Tribe?"
To strip away some of Luo Xi's defenses, Sean dumped the explosive truths on her all at once.
Luo Xi's deep-red pupils contracted violently. Other news, true or false, fell within her tolerance, but the betrayal of her own people was something she could never accept.
Her energy began to surge once more. The ruined building actually began to shudder, and Sean felt as if an ancient behemoth were awakening right before his eyes!
This was Luo Xi's absolute breaking point. Her usually detached face frosted over, and her Energy Warblade pointed at Sean once more. "My people would never betray their own."
The pressure radiating off this woman was suffocating... Why on earth had he designed her to be so overpowered back then?
Knocked flat by the wave of energy, Sean dusted off his hands and scrambled back upright. He scoffed, "This is Paradise City. Betrayal? That's a hell of a lot easier than trying to survive."
"Oh, right—isn't your Iris Hive Tribe known for having the sharpest perception around? I heard it's an energy manifestation caused by your mutation. You can even focus your perception, accelerate your hormone secretion, and tell whether someone is lying or telling the truth just by kissing them, right? Ha, why don't you give it a try?"
He tossed the remark out casually, only to find Luo Xi staring fixedly at him with a cold face, her ruby-like eyes narrowing slightly.
After a long silence, she shot to her feet.
The white-haired, crimson-eyed girl walked straight toward him past the firelight with unwavering resolve, accidentally kicking the embers apart as she moved.
"Repeat everything you just said." Her voice was calm and indifferent, though the red in her eyes grew even deeper.
No way... Although given her single-minded obsession with saving her people, it really was possible...
Sean felt an inexplicable prickle of tension, yet he gave a steady nod.
Repeating everything he had just told her word for word, he added once more, "Not a single word I said was a lie."
Of course it wasn't. As one of the original creators, how could he not know the early-stage plot inside and out? He had no reason whatsoever to deceive her.
The Energy Warblade pressed against his throat again.
And then, in the glow of the firelight, Sean watched Luo Xi lower her head.