Zhou Lin

"Do you like tokusatsu films?"

Looking at the live footage transmitted back from the drone, Ross suddenly asked Brother Man a question.

Brother Man also understood what he meant: "If you are really interested, I do have a lot of resources you can lend me, but I feel that now is not the time to talk about this..."

"What?" Ross heard a hint of worry in Brother Man's tone, "Do you think... you think this monster can't even be dealt with by a 'hero'?"

"It doesn't matter how I feel about it, right?" Brother Man said in a deep voice, "Anyway, we'll see the results in a few dozen seconds."

This answer was like saying nothing, but Ross had already heard it - Brother Man felt a little guilty.

This is indeed the case.

According to the "hero's" past performance, the enemy would have been disabled if not dead.

However, at this moment, the actual situation on the battlefield is...

Qiongqi, who was pushed forward by the sudden attack, only made a half-turn in mid-air, stabilized his body with his own wings, and launched a counterattack.

In this battle, the "hero" has only two advantages: first, the damage caused by the sudden attack and the advantage it brings; second, the limb joints of humanoid creatures that are more flexible than Qiongqi.

Of these two points, the former has been consumed by him just now, and he did not take advantage of it too much, but the latter... it depends on how he performs in actual combat.

On the other hand, Qiongqi's advantage is quite large.

First of all, in a battle between beasts and humans, the biggest disadvantage is usually intelligence; but Qiongqi in the transformed state is undoubtedly intelligent, even smarter than most humans, and a "hero" who can only exist for one minute is not He is not the kind of human being who "can use tools to deal with wild beasts (such as digging traps and using firearms)"... Therefore, this disadvantage does not exist.

Secondly, when the weight is similar, due to differences in bone structure, muscle strength, blood vessel tension and many other physiological factors, the close combat ability of beasts is often many times higher than that of humans.

This is also a natural law, because the human body has evolved into what it is today mainly for the purpose of better using tools, while the bodies of beasts and predators have always been designed for prey.

Developed brains and flexible fingers allow humans to easily make and operate tools. Tools can help humans defeat species that are stronger than them, significantly reduce the risk of hunting and improve their efficiency, allowing humans to stand at the top of the food chain; they can also Help humans enslave other species, produce crops more efficiently, reduce labor effort, create an environment suitable for their lives, and derive more types and functions of tools...

As for predators, they only have sharp teeth and claws, brutal bite force, and incredible instantaneous explosive power... These things all serve the same thing - to make it easier for them to catch their bouncing dinner and kill the latter quickly. Overpowered and eaten alive.

By the way, no matter which version of the legend they are in, creatures like "Qiongqi" have one thing in common - they like to eat people.

If you believe in evolution, you should be able to deduce something from this.

To sum up, even though the "hero" is a combat entity that can physically crush people with ferocious abilities, when he meets Qiongqi who also has this strength, he is almost like an ordinary person who meets a tiger.

Of course, there are still differences. Ordinary people do not have hard skin and self-healing abilities like "heroes", and ordinary tigers are not as capable of fighting and flying as Qiongqi.

Let's look, on the battlefield...

Qiongqi spread his wings, and Kuanglan took off. It swooped down from mid-air, raised a claw and slapped the "hero" on the shoulder and neck.

Seeing this, the "hero" took half a step back with his left foot, turned sideways, and swung his right fist, intending to hit Qiongqi's ribs again.

But Qiongqi's flexibility in the air is obviously beyond the opponent's expectations. Even during this sprint, it can adjust its posture at any time, and even change its speed and forward trajectory... Therefore, the "hero"'s response is still in Qiongqi's expectation. Qi's eyes were full of futility. He twisted and turned sideways and moved seven or eight meters to the side. He stepped out of the "hero's" fist path, changed his angle, put away his sharp claws, took a look at the song, and took a bite. Biting the "hero"'s left arm.

The steel-like skin of the "Hero" was no different from ordinary human skin in front of Qiongqi's fangs. The staggered teeth tore open his flesh and embedded deeply into his bones; under the heavy pressure, his arm bones were broken. , the flesh falls like frost, and the blood falls like rain.

Fortunately... the "hero" will not feel pain or fear because of being hurt, because he is Brother Man's ideal "patron saint". No matter what the situation, the "hero" will not back down, he will fight hard In the end, until the enemy or himself is eliminated.

call--

The next second, the "hero's" right hand turned into a fist and came out of the wind, directly striking Qiongqi's left eye.

This move puts Qiongqi in a dilemma... It does not have enough time to completely bite off the "hero's" left arm, nor does it have enough time to pull out the teeth embedded in the opponent's arm. In other words... the "hero's" An arm became a piece of bait that got stuck in Qiongqi's teeth, restricting his entire head.

This is one of the "advantages of humanoid creatures" mentioned before. Flexible arm joints and five fingers allow humans to have more choices in attack postures, angles, techniques, etc. during fighting, especially here In this kind of "fight back", animals are often completely suppressed after part of the body is bitten, but humans will not.

After a breath, this eye-piercing blow hit Qiongqi's left eyeball with precision.

Stimulated by the pain, Qiongqi also burst out with a force of evil and bit off the "hero's" left arm.

This round of attack and defense ended with one side missing an eye and the other losing an arm...

An injury like this that can cause permanent disability must be very serious for ordinary people, but for Qiongqi and "Hero", this is just a temporary injury; Qiongqi's eyes only take a while to grow back , and the "Hero's" arm will also heal the next time he is summoned.

Of course, in the eyes of the few onlookers, the scene just now was definitely considered a fierce battle.

In people's common impression, huge creatures move very slowly, but the movements of the two in front of them are so fast that people can't follow them; just a rush, a flash, a bite, a poke, a... Break...all happened in just three seconds.

The wind pressure brought out by the two fighting was like a strong typhoon in a local area, knocking the surrounding ground, buildings, trees, vehicles... They were all in pieces. They clearly did not deliberately damage the environment. It was a mess within a hundred meters.

At this moment, the FCPS armed forces agents who were still some distance away from them had wisely started to retreat to the rear. After all, no one wanted to become a "fish in the pond" and die in an unknown situation.

…………

At the same time, one kilometer away from the incident scene, there was a building on the rooftop.

"It still doesn't work..." Uncle Xue looked at the battle in the distance and said to himself, "Look at this posture... If we continue to fight, the giant will lose." He sighed, "Oh... I'll just have to try something next time. Let Ross call in stronger experts from other counties, or... should I just change the layout?"

"I think you should save it." Suddenly, a voice sounded from behind him and answered his words.

This turn of events surprised Uncle Xue, because he had watched from this position several times before when "battles took place", but in those timelines, no one had ever discovered him, let alone The person approached him so quietly and quietly.

Upon hearing this, Uncle Xue turned around cautiously and looked back.

As a result, he saw a face that he had not seen for a long time.

It was a man with a decadent temperament, who looked to be in his twenties or thirties, with messy hair. He was wearing a black casual suit, a black shirt underneath, an open collar, and no tie. Overall... he looked slovenly. appearance.

"Is it you?" Uncle Xue's eyes immediately became solemn, and his body tensed instinctively, as if he saw something terrible that could swallow him up at any time.

A few years ago (this refers to real time, if Uncle Xue's retrospective subjective experience is included, he has already spent more than ten years), when Uncle Xue saw this man for the first time, he had the same reaction, just like... … Something deep in his soul reminded him to stay away from this person.

"It's not just me." The man in black said as he walked to the guardrail. He leaned his waist there and lazily continued, "The reason why I told you the 'price' of your ability is because I told you to use it less, but now it seems... you seem to have turned a deaf ear to my reminder?"

Uncle Xue looked at him for a few seconds and replied: "I didn't question whether your words were true or false, but...even though I know that going back in time will consume my life, there are some things...I still have to do."

"Ha!" The man in black laughed, "Hahahahahaha..."

He laughed, laughed wildly, laughed wildly.

"Why are you laughing?" After waiting for a while, Uncle Xue asked.

The other party calmed down his smile slightly and replied: "Ha... In this world, there is only one person who can say, 'There are things I have to do', but that person is not you..." He paused, "You, and this Most of the people in the world, all the things you do... things that you think you have to do at all costs, are actually meaningless.

“You do it or you don’t do it, things happen or they don’t happen, whether one person dies or 10,000 people die in this city today... it will not have any impact on the world.

“Nothing_you_do_matters, your_existence_is_a_lie.

“Even if you really succeeded in reducing hundreds or thousands of casualties today, are you really doing a good thing?

"Who is this 'good' for? To those who survive? To the federal government? To humanity as a group? To this planet? Or to this universe?

“In the final analysis...the only person who can subjectively seek the so-called ‘meaning’ in this matter is you.

"Even those people you saved will not notice anything, because they in this timeline have no idea that they will die without your intervention. Even if they know what you have done one day... they will do the same I don’t understand the purpose of this difference between life and death.

"It is you who 'want to save people', so 'someone is saved', and the result of 'someone is saved' makes you...an individual in this sin-filled race...feel the guilt that the change of cause and effect has borne on you. ' influence, and superficially interpret it as a kind of - 'meaning'."

He finished what he said in one breath, and Uncle Xue listened to it, but unfortunately... he didn't understand it very well.

"Uh..." After thinking for a few seconds, Uncle Xue pondered, "Then what you mean is... that you don't want me to go back in time and let the monster destroy it?"

The man shrugged. It seemed that Uncle Xue's reaction was not beyond his expectation, because he did not expect Uncle Xue to understand his intention from the beginning: "Don't worry, the monster will leave soon."

Just as he said this, Qiongqi in the distance actually fluttered his wings, soared into the sky, and flew away from the battlefield...

Seeing this scene, Uncle Xue was also speechless.

"You are somewhat capable, but you have no idea what you are doing." After a moment, the man in black spoke again, took out a black card from his suit pocket, and handed it to Uncle Xue.

Uncle Xue hesitated for a moment, then took the card.

This card is about the same size as a business card and is very well made. It has a white reverse cross printed on the front and only one number - "7" on the back.

"This is..." Uncle Xue looked at the other party in confusion and asked tentatively.

"This is a voucher for a daycare, where you can play with some kids who are similar to you." The man's tone sounded like a joke, but he didn't seem to be lying.

After saying this, he left the railing and stretched, as if ready to leave.

"You're not going to tell me who you are this time?" Uncle Xue asked again towards the other person's retreating back.

"Well..." The man thought for a moment and responded casually, "Just call me...'Boss Tian'." He turned around and glanced at Uncle Xue again, "Put that card away. We'll see you soon." We’ll meet again.”

Uncle Xue can understand the title "Boss" because the first time he met "Boss Tian" a few years ago was in a bookstore.

At that time, Uncle Xue's power had just been awakened, and the time he could look back was still very short, and he didn't understand many things related to the power.

So, he tried to search for relevant information on the Internet, but found that there was too much useless interference information, and it was difficult to distinguish true from false. Later, he went to the federal public library, but found that searching for the keyword "superpower" only resulted in You can find novels, but not anything about research (due to government control, it is impossible to publish such books through formal channels).

It was during that period that one evening, Uncle Xue was walking on a small street that he didn't often go to, and accidentally saw a bookstore... He had a sudden inspiration and thought of this kind of small shop that even collects used books. Maybe I can find some useful "crooked books" and then go in.

As a result, he got acquainted with this "Sky Boss".

That day, after being fed a lot of information by Tianbo Yunshan, Uncle Xue returned to his residence to think about it for a night; the next day, when he came to the street again, he found that the bookstore was missing...

Even though Uncle Xue went to the surrounding businesses and residents to inquire about it, and even went to the city management department to inquire about the address, he couldn't find any clues.

This "urban legend"-like experience became a knot in Uncle Xue's heart. His final conclusion was - "There is a 30% chance that I was drunk or ate something unclean, which caused the hallucination. And There is a 70% chance that I will meet a very powerful person."

Today, on Uncle Xue's Nth Friday the 13th, he finally met "Boss Sky" again.

Although he had many questions to ask the other person, he could feel that... in front of this person, even if he used time retrieval, he could not get even one more word out of the other person's mouth.

Therefore, Uncle Xue did not try to persuade Boss Tian to stay, but just watched him leave silently, and... as Boss Tian said, he did not go back in time.

This day's cycle ends here.

But a new mystery has sprouted in Uncle Xue's heart.

Under the afternoon sun, he looked down at the black card in his hand, expecting...this would be the key to all answers and the end.