"What the fuck!"
Xin Linhua skids to a halt. Literally. His heels dig into the sandy beach, his sprinting brake into a stop. His eyes widen.
He ran to save the youth, but he didn’t think he’d be the one to get attacked instead.
"Hey! Snap the hell out of it!" Xin Linhua yells.
The youth make no further movement. Xin Linhua grits his teeth. What kind of examination is this!?
The black tentacles are before him now, just inches away.
At the last minute, he dodges to the side but loses his footing. He crashes violently into the sand, face first.
"Fucking great." He spit out a mouthful of sand with resentment.
The tentacles stop, curving and making a beeline for him. He starts crawling back, weaving and dodging.
Wherever the tentacles touches, black smoke rises from there and a soft sizzling sound follows.
Xin Linhua’s eyelids twitches. He has died once, he’s not very enthusiastic about a second death. So he runs, dodge, evade, weaves like his newly acquired life depends on it. Though, it does.
He has no way to stop the black tentacles, so he runs towards the source. The blindfolded youth.
Having noticed Xin Linhua’s new tactics, the tentacles switch from offense to death kill mode. They attack more ruthlessly now, determined to keep him away from their host. This just confirms Xin Linhua’s suspicion...
The youth with the white blindfold is the catalyst to everything.
So, despite being hit twice in the forearm, black blood oozing out of his injuries along with black smoke, he arrives at the youth’s side.
"This better not be a trap!" He grabs the youth by the shoulder in a strong grip, spinning him around.
From within the ocean, at the very center, a strong white light suddenly erupts. It pierces through the cloud, almost blinding.
Xin Linhua notices the phenomenon, but his full focus is on the youth. He drags him forward, reaching for the blindfold with gritted teeth.
Is he really just gonna stand still and watching the entire thing unfold? Or is he in a trance of some sort? Xin Linhua wants to know.
Just as his hand touches the light fabric, a strong grip wraps around his wrist.
"What do you think you’re doing?" The youth asks in a small voice.
"What the fuck!" Xin Linhua wants to flip a table "You were watching me get my ass handed over to me!? Those black tentacles or whatever, they’re your doing aren’t they!?"
Xin Linhua turns, but there’s nothing behind him. No tentacles, no aggressive black shadows or any of some sort. Just sand, and sand and more sand. He clenches his fist.
"Freaking father of heavens!" He cusses.
The youth let go of his arm, straightening up a bit. He grabs Xin Linhua’s other arm instead.
"You’re bleeding."
"And whose fault is it!?" Xin Linhua yanks his arm away "I have no idea what’s going on. Why are you here? How did you even get here? You almost had me killed! And why the fuck is the ocean glowing!?"
The youth turns to the white light. He tilts his head to the side.
"You passed." He says.
"Passed what? Passed away? Sure feels like it!"
"No. You passed the examination. You can now return."
"Wait, really!?" Xin Linhua’s eyes light up "Great! Send me back. Right this moment! I don’t want to stay here any longer!"
The youth turns to Xin Linhua. He studies him for a second or two before raising his hand. He pause.
"All the best."
That’s the last thing Xin Linhua hears before everything goes dark. He blinks rapidly. Then a soft light. He shuts his eyes.
The familiar metallic walls, glass door, soft whirring and beeping sound, and soft white light that glows inside the pod. He’s back!
"Fuck!" He coughs dryly "I must have been there for hours!"
The door opens and he staggers out. The first thing he does is to ignore everyone else and start checking his body.
No wound, no blood, no scratches from rolling around in sand. Just him and his annoyingly soft skin. He raises his hands in victory. He’s alive! He’s–
"Xin Linhua." Director Chen’s voice drags him back to reality.
"Director Chen." Xin Linhua composes himself.
"What did you see?" The man asks.
"Uhn?"
"What did you see in there?" The man asks again.
"Uhm...sand? And the ocean? Some big ass white light that almost rendered me blind...and him."
Xin Linhua raises his hand, pointing in a certain direction.
Everyone present follows his line of sight. Their scalps prickles.
The defect.
"You saw him?" Director Chen adjusts his glasses "Are you sure?"
"Hell yeah!" Xin Linhua answers almost immediately "He almost got me killed with the tentacles and shit. Besides, I don’t forget such a face, it’s impossible. I mean, look at him. Also, I’m sure he’s the only one who wears a white blindfold in the institute."
Director Chen frowns. The other Sentinels and guides frown as well. The whole place goes quiet.
"What is it?"
"Xin Linhua." Director Chen starts slowly "If he’s the one you saw, did you happen to touch him?"
"Oh, yeah. I had to snap him out of it before I became tentacle snack."
The director goes quiet again. His brows are knit together and he seems to be considering something.
"Well, does that mean I pass the exam?"
"Yes." The director nods.
"Yes!" Xin Linhua cheers quietly.
One of the men who had brought the machine in before walks to the director and passes him a file. The man flips it open.
NAME: XIN LINHUA
POWER RANK: F-CLASS
MENTAL STABILITY: AVERAGE
CONTROL RATE: 98%
GROWTH POTENTIAL: UNKNOWN
SPECIAL CLASSIFICATION: LOW
CLASSIFICATION: GUIDE
ABILITY DETECTED: UNKNOWN
SECONDARY ABILITY: UNKNOWN
WARNING:- SUBJECT MAY LIKELY EVOLVE OR REMAIN THE SAME. INSTITUTE IS ADVISED TO KEEP WATCH.
Director Chen exhales. He shakes his head once, then closes the chart.
"I refuse." A calm, cold, and venomous tone.
The director turns to the source with a frown and a displeased look.
"You refuse? The test shows that Xin Linhua is a compatible guide for you. You can’t–"
"Do you want another one dead?"
The question stuns everyone into silence, including the director.
Xin Linhua turns to the youth, displeasure written all over his stance.
"What crawled up your ass?" He clicks his tongue "According to my memory, limited as it is, sentinels can’t just refuse a guide. Besides, I wasn’t assigned, the futuristic looking machine did the calculations, don’t argue with science. And what do you mean another one– you’ve killed someone before? You? With those delicate hands? Can you even kill a fly?"
If there’s an award for grave digging and death seeking, if Xin Linhua comes as top two, no one dares to bag the first place!
They know he’s a recluse, he doesn’t concern himself with anyone unless it’s Rong Yufei, but he seriously didn’t know!?
At first, when the youth was brought back to the institute, everyone tried to get close to him, even sentinels were attracted to his face.
Guides tried to guide him, but he refused. Some tried to use force...he killed them.
Ever since then, every single guide who tried to guide him was killed by him. They go in with a smile and get carried out by him in cold blood. No one dared.
Everyone avoided him like the plague, the institute didn’t do anything for some reason. All they know about him is that he’s a cold blooded killer with no name and unknown abilities. A Triple S rank Sentinel.
The institute gave him a name– Phantom.