Ding!
The elevator doors slid open, revealing the training room where Bruce stood behind a steel desk, unpacking several unusual containers from a black case.
Each container resembled a flask, with a black cover and base surrounding a transparent glass body. Beneath the glass, a glowing blue liquid illuminated the interior, casting a faint azure hue across the desk.
Bruce handled the flasks carefully, arranging them in a neat row while occasionally checking the markings on their covers. He appeared so absorbed in his work that he did not immediately notice Lucius stepping out of the elevator.
When Lucius approached the desk, Bruce glanced over his shoulder and greeted him with a warm smile.
"What do we have here... Our little celebrity is in the building." His teasing tone made it obvious that he had already seen the video circulating across Stakeout.
Lucius rolled his eyes, having grown thoroughly tired of hearing about the incident before he had even finished breakfast. "I thought you would be mad," he admitted, stopping a few feet from the desk.
Bruce turned around to face him, wearing a genuinely confused expression. "Mad about what?" he asked.
Lucius stared at him for a moment, struggling to understand whether the older man was being serious. "Well, Silver is in the clip," he finally explained, as though that alone should have made the situation obvious.
Bruce suddenly burst into laughter, shaking his head as he leaned against the desk. "Why would I be pissed? My little brother didn’t get hurt, you were respectful before and after the confrontation, and who doesn’t want to see a Briggs get smacked around?" He chuckled again, seemingly delighted by the thought, before returning his attention to the flasks on the desk.
Lucius remained motionless, completely dumbfounded by the response. He had spent the morning anticipating some form of reprimand, expecting Bruce to prioritize his family connections over the circumstances surrounding the fight. Instead, the man seemed almost pleased with how things had unfolded.
Lucius couldn’t help feeling a little ashamed of himself for assuming Bruce would allow personal relationships to interfere with his judgment. He had spent so long dealing with people who abused their positions that he had begun expecting the worst from everyone, regardless of how they treated him.
"You hate the Briggs family?" Lucius asked, changing the subject as he tried to recover from his surprise.
"Hate is a strong word. I’d rather call it dislike. They’re extremely cocky, very violent, and they act like nobility among nobility. The Ainsworth, Hall, and Gates families generally don’t like them much." He said this without any apparent embarrassment, as though openly admitting his family’s dislike of another powerful household was perfectly normal.
Lucius blinked, his confusion deepening. He had assumed the Big Four families occupied roughly equal positions within American society, with each possessing comparable influence and authority. If anything, he had expected their relationships to resemble a carefully maintained alliance in which none of them could afford to openly antagonize the others.
"But why? I thought all members of the Big Four should be equal in standing," he asked.
Bruce studied him for a moment before lifting his hand. He extended his index finger and flicked it toward a point a few inches to the left of Lucius’s head. Having already experienced Master Zhang’s painful lessons, he had developed a habit of reacting whenever someone made a sudden movement near him.
The moment Bruce’s finger moved, Lucius instinctively tilted his head to the left to avoid the anticipated strike, completely unaware that he had just moved directly into the path of the real attack.
Pa!
Bruce flicked him squarely on the forehead.
Lucius immediately covered his forehead with both hands, wincing as the sharp sting spread across his skin. He stared at Bruce with an expression of disbelief, wondering how a man could make such a small movement hurt so much.
"How many times do I need to drill this into your skull? Equality does not exist," Bruce said, shaking his head at Lucius’s reaction.
He returned to the desk and picked up one of the glowing flasks before continuing his explanation. "While we provide the nation with its technology, we still live in the Age of Guardians. Wilder Briggs, the family patriarch, remains the undisputed strongest Guardian in America and is known as America’s God of War. That makes the Briggs family the poster boys of the nation."
Lucius slowly lowered his hands, rubbing his forehead as he processed the explanation. The distinction was clearer now.
Lucius’s eyes suddenly widened as a familiar title caught his attention. "I read a book that said even the American God of War couldn’t defeat a Deviant called the Beast Emperor... Is that true?" he asked, his curiosity overcoming his lingering irritation. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Buzz!
Bruce’s expression changed immediately. The easy smile disappeared from his face, replaced by a rare frown that made him look considerably older. For a moment, he seemed reluctant to answer, his eyes drifting toward the glowing flask in his hand as though the question had reminded him of something he would rather forget. He remained silent long enough for Lucius to realize that he had stumbled upon a subject far more serious than he had anticipated.
Eventually, Bruce released a heavy sigh and placed the flask back on the desk.
"Deviants are monsters among monsters... Beasts with no end to their power." He paused, his gaze settling on Lucius. "For you to understand this, I must tell you about the very first Deviant in the history of mankind. This is a topic you won’t learn about anywhere else because there is a systematic attempt to erase this man from history."
Lucius’s expression grew serious. Without hesitation, he lowered himself onto the floor in front of the desk, crossing his legs as he settled into a comfortable position. If Bruce was willing to share something that had been deliberately removed from history, Lucius had no intention of wasting the opportunity.
"Are you talking about Bi Si?" he asked, looking up at the older man attentively. "Lady Kim spoke about him as the first Deviant, but she never went into details."
Bruce chuckled softly at the mention of Lady Kim before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pack of cigarettes. He extracted a stick, placed it between his lips, and retrieved a unique lighter from his other pocket. The device produced a narrow, high pressure blue flame when he activated it, allowing him to light the cigarette with a small flick of his thumb.
After taking a long drag, Bruce exhaled streams of smoke through his nose and lips, his expression becoming increasingly thoughtful as he considered where to begin.
"That’s because, before Bi Si became the first Deviant, he was also the first Guardian," Bruce finally revealed.
Buzz!
Lucius’s eyes widened in shock. For several seconds, he could do nothing but stare at Bruce, trying to reconcile the two titles. The first Guardian was supposed to represent humanity’s salvation, the beginning of the power that had allowed mankind to survive the horrors of the new world. Yet that same man had eventually become the first Deviant, one of the very monsters humanity now feared.
Who would have thought the first Guardian would also become the first Deviant?