Embers Ad Infinitum

The figure stood between the doors of No. 188 and No. 190, nearly ten meters away from Shang Jianyao.

He was wearing a dark peaked cap, a blue jacket, black trousers, and a pair of slightly outdated leather shoes.

At this time, the man was standing with his back against the wall, his hat lowered, almost covering his eyes.

The shadow produced by the brim of the hat spread down, covering the entire face, so that Shang Jianyao could only clearly see the thin silver-black metal tube in the other person's mouth.

This thin metal tube is only one finger long, like some kind of substitute for a simple cigarette.

Shang Jianyao's heart moved, and he gave up trying to get the keys. He bent his knees slightly, exerted force on his waist and abdomen, and instantly entered a state of readiness.

At this moment, his eyes suddenly went dark.

It wasn't that he fainted, but that all the light around him seemed to be sucked away by something.

Not only that, he couldn't hear any sound in his ears.

Shang Jianyao's current state is as if he has returned to the "Sea of ​​Origin" and the first "island" he encountered.

Complete darkness, complete silence, no companions except myself.

The familiar fear burst out from the bottom of his heart again, making him tremble slightly.

Yue Qifan, who was standing against the wall, immediately stood up straight and turned around.

He quickly raised his head and pointed the thin silver-black metal tube in his mouth at Shang Jianyao.

This is a blow dart.

Different from the simple blow darts made by the surface wilderness wanderers from trees, this one has a relatively complex mechanical structure, driven by springs and mechanisms. Therefore, it is only one or two meters long, has high concealment, and does not require actual blowing. , press your tongue hard against the button to launch.

In a sense, this cannot actually be called a blowgun, because it can also be used with fingers.

Its real name is "Dark Arrow".

The reason why Yue Qifan used the most inconvenient mouth and tongue was because the Holy Master told him that the target had the ability of an awakener that made it impossible to move his hands.

If that's the case, then he doesn't use his hands.

At the same time, he also knows the characteristics of the target’s other two awakened people’s abilities:

One is similar to "hypnosis", but it requires dialogue, and the range of effect is very small. One can make people do some irrational behaviors, and the distance at which the effect takes effect is between four and eight meters.

Based on this information, Yue Qifan strictly controlled the distance between the two parties.

He is currently close to ten meters away from Shang Jianyao's room, putting himself outside the effective range of the two awakened person abilities of "conversation hypnosis" and "irrational behavior", and the one that "affects the movement of both hands" relies on "blow dart" ” to avoid this - every room here is two meters wide, making it easy to calculate distances.

The reason why he didn't choose a place farther away was because among his three awakened abilities, "Dream Journey", which had the largest coverage, could affect humans no more than eleven meters away.

Yue Qifan’s plan is:

At the most appropriate distance, use "Dream Journey", which is the ability to stimulate certain memories of the other party and produce certain real hallucinations, to put Shang Jianyao into one of the states of fear, confusion, dementia, etc., thereby temporarily controlling him.

Then, blow out the small arrow, anesthetize the opponent, drag him into room 196, and methodically use the awakened person ability of "fragmentary memory erasure" to read through the memory and erase all clues.

This was the best plan that Yue Qifan put together based on his own abilities and the items on hand. After all, the incident happened in a hurry, and the Holy Master's order came too quickly and suddenly, leaving him no time to make additional preparations.

As for why he always keeps "blow darts", it is because he relies on this to restrain himself to a certain extent.

In fact, Yue Qifan felt a little strange. In his opinion, it would be better to leave this matter to Xiong Ming. A "cardiac arrest" is simply an excellent ability to kill people, silence them and destroy clues.

Perhaps the Saint Masters didn’t want to cause more deaths and were afraid of attracting special attention from the company’s top management, so they used me, an awakener who can erase memories... Yue Qifan’s thoughts flashed, predicting what Shang Jianyao might do after he awakens in time. Dodge direction and put his tongue against the mechanism at the bottom of the "Blow Dart".

At this moment, Shang Jianyao, whose body was slightly stooped and trembling slightly, suddenly laughed:

"What a weak ability."

At this moment, Yue Qifan was a little stunned when he heard:

"Why is he talking?

"At this time, even if you are not affected enough by the 'Dream Journey' and come back to your senses in time, you should dodge to the side or roll on the spot to avoid the next attack...

“Why would he waste such precious time talking?

“This is not the reaction a normal person should have at all.

"Damn it, why is he talking!"

Yue Qifan's tongue had just touched the "Blow Dart" switch, but before he could exert any force, he lost his follow-up action.

He opened his mouth with sweat on his forehead and responded uncontrollably:

"How can you call it weak?"

With a clanging sound, the thin silver-black metal tube fell to the ground and jumped a few times.

But Yue Qifan's words did not stop because of this:

“It triggers certain memories in you and immerses you in a scene from the past.

"If it is designed properly and the links are closely linked, you can even be unable to distinguish between reality and fiction."

Shang Jianyao was startled after hearing this:

"Why are you responding to my taunt?

"I just had a twitch in my head."

Before Yue Qifan could speak, he suddenly understood and laughed:

“The price you pay is that no matter what someone says, you have to respond?”

"Do you think it's that simple?" Yue Qifan said tit for tat.

There was a dense layer of sweat on his forehead.

The price he paid was "self-discipline."

But in fact, the price was not so serious. Yue Qifan just lacked self-discipline in one aspect.

That aspect is called "argument."

As long as someone brings up the topic, he can't help but argue and debate.

Sometimes, even if he agrees with the other party's point of view, he will uncontrollably grab one or two small details and argue forcefully.

He didn't think there was any problem with this at first, otherwise he wouldn't have paid the price for "self-discipline" at the beginning. But as time went by, he found that the price was very dangerous.

After all, not always is the right time to have a conversation or argue.

In an emergency, one or two seconds may determine life or death. If you focus on debating, you will feel like you are not dying fast enough. Moreover, it will also make Yue Qifan's popularity very bad.

To this end, he ordered this thin metal tube through the religious order.

As long as he holds it in his mouth and constantly reminds himself, Yue Qifan can control himself to a certain extent.

And when covert operations are needed, this "blow dart" can be used as a weapon.

Of course, the price cannot be completely avoided. Yue Qifan can only guarantee that as long as others do not talk about topics related to him, he can reluctantly keep his mouth shut.

The operation he designed undoubtedly did not give the target a chance to speak.

He also believes that no human being can avoid or fight back when faced with danger, but speak first.

Who knew that he would meet such a strange person today.

And this weirdo was still taunting him.

How can I bear this?

At this time, Shang Jianyao, who faced Yue Qifan's rhetorical questions, made his second round of responses.

"Is it the price you pay for being tough?" As Shang Jianyao spoke, his ankles, knees, and back exerted force at the same time, and he pounced on Yue Qifan like a beast.

He wants to close the distance between the two parties.

Suddenly, Shang Jianyao felt that his body had lost balance in an instant.

For him, similar movements are a piece of cake, and he will not make a mistake a hundred times.

Who would have thought that today I would lose my balance in mid-air for no apparent reason.

boom!

Shang Jianyao fell to the ground.

"The truth does not need words." Yue Qifan took out another tube of "hidden arrows" from his pocket.

He prepared more than one weapon!

While speaking, Yue Qifan pressed the button with a smile.

His third Awakener ability is:

"Balance disorder"!

The effective range is six meters.

Shang Jianyao pounced on him like this, which was exactly what he wanted.

Of course, he did not expect such a development at first, because at this distance, the target's awakener ability can also be used.

Fortunately, this change is very beneficial to him.

With a whoosh, a small metal arrow shot out and headed straight for Shang Jianyao on the ground.

Shang Jianyao only had time to change his position slightly, avoiding the vital part of his head.

puff!

The small metal arrow was inserted from his left shoulder to his chest.

Shang Jianyao immediately stood up like a carp, showing no signs of being paralyzed.

Facing Yue Qifan's surprised gaze, he pulled out the small arrow, threw it to the ground, and said with a smile:

"I've been wearing body armor all this time!"

Although the deaths of Wang Yafei and Shen Du were obviously not gunshots, for the sake of safety, Jiang Baimian approved a bulletproof vest for each team member after Shang Jianyao officially intervened in the matter.

——Inside "Pangu Biology", firearms and bullets are strictly controlled. Live ammunition training organized by Jiang Baimian must be reported in advance and cumbersome procedures must be followed. However, items such as body armor, which are not lethal, are not only easy to apply for, but also require only the team. If there are enough equipment, the team leader can have the final say.

"Coward." Yue Qifan argued forcefully.

As he spoke, he turned around suddenly and was about to run away.

In this situation, he felt that he had no chance of winning.

As for how to end it later, leave it to the Saint Master to worry about!

However, as soon as Yue Qifan turned around, a strong emotion emerged in his heart:

How can you run away?

How could you just give up?

How could you leave in such disgrace?

While his thoughts were wandering, he turned back and rushed towards Shang Jianyao.

His dark brown eyes seemed to turn pure black.

Almost at the same time, Shang Jianyao felt invisible things expanding in his mind.

They are like stars rising into the sky, densely covering all surrounding areas.

And in each "star", there is a period of life that Shang Jianyao has experienced.

At this time, a ray of light penetrated from the outside, carrying a "star" across the sky and falling into the illusory "Sea of ​​Origin".

Shang Jianyao's brows suddenly frowned, as if he was confused about what he was doing now.

Yue Qifan also woke up, his pupils suddenly dilated:

"Damn it, why didn't I run away?

"In turn, he used the ability of 'fragmentary memory erasure' to attack...

"Is this the ability of the awakened person that makes people behave irrationally?"

Yue Qifan instantly understood what had just happened, and his heart jumped wildly.

His ability of "fragmentary memory erasure" is not a combat ability at all, because it must be read through the memory in advance and the fragments that need to be erased, no longer than three minutes, must be marked before it can take effect accurately.

This takes a lot of time, and the distance between the two parties must be within three meters.

Just now, he just relied on instinct to erase a memory at will, without knowing what effect it would have.

It is difficult for this to cause substantial damage to the target, after all, a three-minute memory fragment can represent too little.

Shang Jianyao frowned and looked at Yue Qifan, whose peaked cap was lowered, without speaking or making any movement.

"..." Yue Qifan's heart moved, "Didn't he erase the memory of our fight just now? He can't remember that we are enemies, and he doesn't even know that I attacked him..."

Thinking of this, Yue Qifan felt happy and straightened his back.

He hummed a song pretending to be relaxed, bent down and picked up the thin metal pipe and a small arrow on the ground.

After doing this, he lowered his peaked cap to prevent Shang Jianyao from seeing his appearance clearly.

One step, two steps, three steps, Yue Qifan hummed a song and walked slowly away.

"Hey." At this moment, Shang Jianyao suddenly turned around and shouted.

Yue Qifan's pupils became enlarged, cold sweat broke out on his back, and he ran wildly without thinking.

Seeing his back disappearing around the corner of the "street", Shang Jianyao said "uh" and said to himself:

"He can't accept being judged on his singing ability?"

…………

No. 12, Area C, Floor 349.

Jiang Baimian logged into his account and wrote an email carefully.

After confirming the object to be sent, she moved the mouse and clicked the left button.

PS: Double last day, please vote for the third update~