Night City’s West Coast was a completely different world from the city center.
After a forty-minute drive, the neon lights outside the window grew sparse and the high-rises shrank, eventually giving way to a gray-black wasteland of ruins. In the distance, the sea was a murky dark green. Thick clouds hung low in the sky, and the air was thick with the stench of mixed rust and rot.
As the silhouette of the pier emerged ahead, it was accompanied by the flash of fire, the roar of gunfire, and something... massive.
Yin Zhen parked the car outside the police cordon and stepped out alongside Adeline.
A fierce battle raged along the coastline, the roar of artillery fire deafening. Soldiers of the Guard Team wielded kinetic energy cannons, weaving through the ruins alongside massive heavy Mechas. Several figures in different uniforms were scattered across shipping containers and tower cranes. They hadn’t made a move yet; these were all Extraordinary Ability Users at the Squad Leader Level.
Yin Zhen’s breath hitched for a second when she got a clear view of the sea.
Dozens of monsters were crawling ashore. They were grotesque fish-human hybrids, hulking in size, covered in slimy moisture and repulsive pustules. There was also an even more gigantic Mutant. Just the part exposed above the water was three stories high, with more than half of a destroyed offshore drilling rig embedded in its back. Its continuously writhing tentacles churned up massive waves. Their skin emitted an eerie fluorescence, spraying black liquid whenever struck by gunfire, yet their movements remained entirely unaffected.
"These are... Mutants?" Yin Zhen muttered.
Over the past dozen or so years, as the Saint Group made major breakthroughs in biotechnology, they had continuously discharged genetic waste into the sea, causing deep-sea creatures to mutate into Mutants. Wave after wave, these Mutants attacked the cities inhabited by the Blood Clan, feeding on their flesh and blood. They had become the natural predators that the Blood Clan created for themselves. Once parasitized or contaminated by a Mutant, a Blood Clan member’s body would also slowly mutate. Mild cases could be saved, but severe ones could only wait for death.
"These Mutants are as disgusting as ever," Adeline remarked.
"What kind of twisted freaks are these?" Yin Zhen thought. "My sanity is hitting rock bottom. If I had known, I wouldn’t have come!"
Yin Zhen glanced at Adeline from behind. There was not a ripple of emotion on Adeline’s face, as if she had seen this countless times and was completely used to it. But Yin Zhen remembered the forum posts stating that Adeline had been in a deep slumber, only waking up half a year ago.
She wondered when Adeline had ever seen Mutants. Or perhaps... she was just acting?
Yin Zhen withdrew her gaze and kept quiet, showing due respect to her boss.
The two crossed the police cordon and entered the temporary command center at the pier. Set up in a relatively intact building, the command center had walls covered in holographic screens, where several people in officer uniforms were frantically coordinating the battle.
"Madam Inspector General." A middle-aged officer hurried over and bowed in greeting. "Why have you come in person?"
Adeline waved her hand dismissively. "Just having a look around. How is the progress?"
"Fairly smooth. We expect to drive the β-type Biomass Aggregation back into the deep sea within a week and completely wipe out the remaining symbiotic Mutants..."
The officer began his report, speaking rapidly and in great detail. Adeline listened, occasionally nodding or asking a question. Ten minutes later, she stood up from the conference table.
"Thank you for your hard work. Keep it up. I’ll be heading back now."
The officer froze for a moment before hastily bowing to see her off. Yin Zhen followed her out of the command center.
"That’s it?" Yin Zhen thought. "Adeline has spoken less than ten sentences this entire time. She hasn’t made any specific demands, and even comforted the anxious officers, telling them to take their time and relax. Is she really here to supervise the battle? Or just to slack off?"
Yin Zhen recalled what Adeline had told her not long ago: "I am also a person with ambition." She couldn’t see it at all.
Yin Zhen followed behind Adeline. They hadn’t gone far from the command center when she suddenly stiffened.
Cannon Fodder’s Intuition!
That familiar sensation shot up from the base of her spine, and a vision exploded before her eyes: In three seconds, a massive tentacle would burst from the ground, sending black slime splattering like rain. She and Adeline would be sent flying. In mid-air, the tentacle would whip toward her, coiling around her body and crushing her like a popping tomato... BANG!
[Gray Card Event Triggered: Professional Meat Shield]
[Novel Law: Beside every important supporting character, there is always a cannon fodder ready to take a hit for them.]
[Event Requirement: Block this incoming attack for Adeline.]
[Failure Penalty: None (Punishing a dead person is immoral).]
[Please fulfill your mission and begin your performance.]
"F*ck your performance!" Yin Zhen thought.
Yin Zhen’s body moved faster than her conscious thought. She grabbed Adeline’s arm and hurled her to the side with all her might. Almost at the exact same moment, the ground beneath their feet exploded!
A colossal tentacle erupted from the earth, sending concrete fragments flying in all directions. Black slime splattered across the ruins, sizzling with white smoke as it corroded the ground into charred, blackened craters.
The tentacle swept sideways. Yin Zhen had no time to run and was sent flying, slammed as hard as if she had been hit by a speeding heavy truck.
[One-Time Item: Debt of Gratitude (Activated)]
The Item blocked the fatal strike for her. Adeline was busy dodging and didn’t see Yin Zhen’s maneuver. While still airborne, Yin Zhen executed her Transformation into a Raven, desperately flapping her wings to fly higher.
The tentacle sprang up suddenly, whipping through the air in pursuit of her. Yin Zhen flapped her wings frantically. The tip of the tentacle grazed her tail feathers, scraping a few off that drifted down in a twirl.
After chasing her for over thirty meters, the tentacle finally stopped. Hovering in mid-air like a giant venomous snake, covered in suckers and pustules, it whipped back toward Adeline, who had just steadied herself. Its original target had always been this "delicious" member of the Blood Clan.
Adeline’s expression hardened. She spread her fingers toward the ground, preparing to counterattack.
Chaos erupted back at the command center.
"Bloodthorn Squad, protect the Inspector General!"
Three figures dashed out from the ruins, their speed so fast that Yin Zhen’s Raven eyes could barely keep up. The woman leading the charge wore a black Combat Uniform, her silvery-white hair braided and draped over her chest. She held no Weapon, her hands balled into fists that burned with a blood-red flame.
[Extraordinary Ability: B-level Blood Flame]
[Effect: Burns one’s own blood to add high temperatures to physical attacks, capable of melting ordinary alloys. The maximum burst limit of a single punch can reach 3 tons of impact force.]
The silver-haired woman smashed her fist into the tentacle. Miraculously, the massive appendage was forcefully knocked back two meters. Black slime spurted out, and foul-smelling white smoke billowed from the wound.
Behind her, two men—one tall, one short—sprinted forward. One of them was bald with dark skin, standing at least two meters and thirty centimeters tall like a moving iron tower. He let out a loud roar, and in an instant, his skin was coated in a metallic sheen. Fearless of the black corrosive liquid, he charged forward and wrapped his arms around the tentacle.
"RAAAARGH!"
The bald man’s veins bulged and his muscles swelled. Incredibly, he dragged another entire section of the tentacle forcefully out of the ground!
[Extraordinary Ability: Iron Bone·B-level]
[Effect: Turns the body metallic, with durability increasing alongside anger levels.]
The other man, tall and thin, stood calmly to the side with one hand in his pocket. Blood-colored strands of energy shot from the fingertips of his raised hand, tangling around the tentacle like a spider’s web. The tentacle struggled violently, but the threads only wrapped tighter, cutting into its flesh and squeezing out trails of blood.
[Extraordinary Ability: A-level Blood Silk]
[Effect: Mixes the blood within the body with mental energy to form visible deep-red threads, covering a radius of 200 meters. A single thread can slice through ordinary alloys and withstand a tension of 500kg. It can also act as an energy-conducting medium to connect with others, interfering with and perceiving a target’s mental fluctuations.]