Han Yufei's attack pierced directly toward the injured man's chest.
Puchi!
Blood splashed across the ground.
The man's eyes widened completely.
He looked down slowly at the hole in his chest where his heart had been pierced.
Several seconds later—
his body collapsed heavily beside the lake.
Silence filled the area instantly.
Only the sound of flowing water remained.
Han Yufei stood there silently.
Then she slowly looked toward me.
Her expression became complicated.
Now both of us understood clearly what had happened.
We had killed another human.
Han Yufei opened her mouth as if wanting to say something.
But I interrupted her first.
"We're both involved in this matter."
Han Yufei became silent again after hearing those words.
Then I walked toward the corpse carefully.
The injured man was already dead completely.
I searched his body quietly.
Inside his clothes, I found:
several credit cards
a communicator
and a small memory chip
The moment I saw the memory chip—
a thought suddenly appeared inside my mind.
Han Sen.
In the original story, Han Sen also obtained the Jade Skin Geno Art after killing someone.
I calmly threw the credit cards and communicator into the lake.
Those things were too dangerous to keep.
But the memory chip—
I quietly kept it instead.
After cleaning the battlefield carefully, Han Yufei and I returned to Steel Armor Shelter.
Before separating, we exchanged contact numbers silently.
Neither of us mentioned the dead man again.
After teleporting back to the Alliance, I immediately contacted Han Yufei.
Several hours later—
both of us met privately inside a rented room.
I finally inserted the memory chip into a holographic projector.
Buzz—
A hologram instantly appeared in front of us.
Inside the recording—
a man was practicing a Geno Art.
His skin slowly transformed into jade-like crystal while circulating geno energy through his body.
At the same time—
a title appeared.
[Jade Skin]
Han Yufei's eyes widened slightly.
"This Geno Art…"
"It's much better than the Geno Arts sold on the market."
Her voice contained clear shock.
I also acted surprised beside her.
I didn't want Han Yufei misunderstanding anything.
Inside my mind, however—
I already knew how valuable Jade Skin truly was.
After that—
Han Yufei and I carefully memorized the entire Geno Art word by word.
Neither of us dared skip even a single line.
Several hours later—
after confirming we remembered everything completely—
I destroyed the memory chip immediately.
Crack.
The chip broke into pieces.
Han Yufei looked toward me silently.
I also looked at her.
Without speaking much—
both of us reached the same conclusion naturally.
This matter could not be revealed to anyone.
Ever.
Afterward—
we separated quietly and returned to our own homes.
That night—
I spent time with my parents and younger sister as if nothing had happened.
But deep inside my mind—
I understood clearly.
From this moment onward—
my future had already diverged further away from the original timeline.
_End of Chapter 18_