After receiving his answer, Nene seemed quite satisfied and left. Watching her swaying ponytail disappear into the night, he shook his head and gave a wry smile.
However, things were not over yet. It looked like he still had another guest to entertain tonight.
"The one over there, do you have something you wish to say to me?"
Asahi cleared his throat, maintaining his nonchalant attitude, not bothering to turn around. Hearing his words, from the darkness beyond the reach of the light, a soft chuckle rang out.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
A pair of hands wearing white gloves emerged from the darkness, slowly clapping in a steady rhythm, as if in applause, yet also in mockery.
A figure slowly revealed itself, appearing to be a man. He was slightly pale and thin, wearing a bright red tailcoat that split open near his ankles, with a similarly colored inner vest layered over a white shirt underneath.
Most distinctly, he did not reveal his face, having concealed it with a stark white mask. The mouth was a large crescent shape, giving the impression of a smile stretched wide to the ears, and the eyes were two smaller, inverted crescent shapes, looking as if they were squinting. Along with the hat he wore, the man only revealed a bit of grey hair near his temples.
A bizarre design, illogical for the current circumstances, yet strangely fitting, seemingly melding with the darkness, striking fear into observers.
However, Asahi was not among them.
Asahi finally turned around, his voice still magnetic and steady, without a hint of fluctuation.
"A clown?"
"I would take that as an insult, but I shall let it pass. This is an invitation: an invitation for you to join my faction."
"Your faction?"
Asahi frowned.
"That's right, the faction of those who will destroy this damned world, destroy all these damned people. Cleanse this world for superior beings like us!"
The man became increasingly agitated as he spoke, finally falling silent at the end.
He sounded like a madman, one who had reached the extreme of insanity.
"Tch."
Asahi clicked his tongue. From behind the mask, the man's pupils suddenly contracted into tiny dots, and blood vessels visibly bulged. In this instant, the seemingly unremarkable Asahi before him abruptly changed—not in physical form, but in aura.
"Danger!"
The man silently warned himself. He cupped his hands and raised them forward. Meanwhile, Asahi vanished from his original position.
Bang!!!
About twenty centimeters from the man's hands, an invisible shield materialized. Accompanying it was a piercing sound as Asahi's fist collided with it.
"Oh, you blocked it?"
Asahi was slightly surprised. The masked man was sweating profusely. He chanted something, and a massive pressure erupted from the invisible barrier, causing the surface of the structure they were standing on to visibly crack. However, when the shockwave reached Asahi, it was like wind hitting a wall; he remained standing firmly in place.
The man, meanwhile, took advantage of the shockwave to escape. Before leaving, he did not forget to leave a final remark.
"I am Kagetane Hiruko."
"We shall meet again, Silver King (Ngân Vương). As long as you still intend to destroy the world..."
Silver King?
Asahi wondered, but didn't pay too much attention to why that strange man called him that. He was focused on something else.
"Someone found me on the very first day, and even invited me to join the villain faction. Honestly..."
...
Kagetane Hiruko did indeed escape.
His fighting power was formidable, but his ability to flee was even stronger. Kagetane was no fool; in a battle against an opponent who not only possessed overwhelming strength but against whom he hadn't prepared a proper strategy, running was the best policy.
He entered an abandoned building and sat down heavily. Only after confirming he had run a great distance and that Asahi was not pursuing him did he dare to stop.
Regarding the brief exchange just now, Asahi was only slightly surprised, while Kagetane was drenched in cold sweat. The reason was that the seemingly ordinary shield could actually withstand attacks from a Level 4 Gastrea, which was basically the highest level of force one could access, apart from a Level 5 Zodiac Gastrea. Yet, with a single punch that looked "calm and casual," it had almost been shattered.
The moment he felt the shield was about to break, he knew he had to run.
"Luckily, I didn't bring the girl with me this time, or there would have been big trouble."
Kagetane thought to himself.
The most dangerous aspect here was that Asahi was so strong that even the extent of his power was concealed until he struck. A cunning and experienced warrior like him could not see through it.
After calming down, he began to ponder Asahi's origins.
He appeared suddenly, like a meteor that abruptly fell to the earth. Because of this, Kagetane had absolutely no prior plan, as everything was completely random.
"Could this individual also have been a subject of the New Human Creation Project?"
Kagetane wondered. He was not one of those naive Cursed Children to simply dismiss him as a Quasi-Human.
The New Human Creation Project.
During the period when the Gastrea War was still raging, the Gastrea had almost reached the top of the food chain and pushed humanity toward extinction. It was then that scientists tore away the protective veil of "humanity" and began experimenting on people—that was how this project was born.
And the "Mechanized Warriors" were the results of this project.
Fundamentally, they were still human, but some or many parts of their bodies had been replaced by mechanical parts made from Varanium—the special metal capable of suppressing Gastrea regeneration. Suppressing the Gastrea, possessing pure strength far surpassing all normal humans—that was precisely the project's goal: the New Human.
However, after the abilities of the Cursed Children were discovered, this project was shelved under the guise of "humanity." But Kagetane never believed this was true; he merely sneered. The project stopped because the fat-bellied leaders sitting up high didn't want a group of super-soldiers who could overthrow them at any moment.
Compared to the Mechanized Warriors, the Cursed Children were far more numerous, cost much less, and, being young and mentally immature, were much easier to exploit and control.
The label of humanity was masked by something even more inhumane. How ironic.
He never believed in such nonsense, just like the way he addressed Asahi as the Silver King. He did not believe that someone would go to the trouble of collecting Cursed Children in such large numbers simply to feed them. He was more inclined to believe this was a move for him to establish a power base.
Gathering people, setting up a base of operations—didn't this resemble a king, a warlord?
But that was where his thoughts stopped. Kagetane contemplated for a while but couldn't recall ever encountering a similar prototype.