A shadowy figure emerged from a corner.
Ah'Ming's eyes widened.
"Haha! Long time no see" He grinned.
The shadowy figure limped forwards, its far-too-long arms dragging across the floor. "Ha..ha... saw.... customer. four... oh... three... cycles."
Ah'Ming continued smiling.
"Alright, more blood?"
He held up his arm, and ripped the wrist open. The shadow courier had to lunge, jar open, to catch the droplets. It looked at him, watching as the blood dripped down.
|System thinks Broadcaster looks like a bully.
Ah'Ming blinked. He then looked down. Oh. Whoops.
Once the jar was full, Haha twisted the cap shut, and put it back into his (their?) magical chest cavity. Ah'Ming also pried off a chunk of scale, and gave it to him (them?) as well.
"So, can you point me in the direction of what I located?" He asked?
Haha raised a clawed and shadowy hand and pointed in a random direction.
"Thanks!"
Ah'Ming ran over, and punched through the wall. Debris went falling over the side, while dust billowed into the air. Haha coughed.
Screams emerged from below.
"Whoops!" He grinned.
He then went back a couple steps, and took a running started.
He
l
e
a
p
e
d.
He landed on the next building over. Hmm...
"Hey system, how far are we?"
|System is not meant to aid the broadcaster in quests.
"You aren't? Isn't that the whole point of the system though? To like, aid the broadcaster? Plus, I already know the general location. I just don't want to get lost." Ah'Ming complained. Not really complained, but he did whine.
|...
|218 meters that way ->
"Thanks!"
He sprinted and leaped across the tops of some buildings, feeling the wind whip past his hair.
Somewhere, far below, a city clock clicked toward just about four a.m., its sound swallowed by the wind and the distance.
A gap yawned wide between two towers, but Ah'Ming didn't slow.
Not
One
Bit.
He pushed off, body folding and unfolding in a smooth arc like a professional gymnast, the rest of the (from here) tiny resort falling away beneath him. For a heartbeat he hung weightless in the air, suspended over streets and roads that were threaded with little orange lamps and even littler people.
Then his sharp black talons slapped against a concrete edge, fingers biting into the ledge as his feet swung through.
He rolled, came up running, laughter caught somewhere between his ribs and his throat.
Parkour was fun. Almost as fun as free falling, which in turn was almost as fun as fighting. The feeling of being able to hear your own heartbeat in your ears was great!
"Hey system," Ah'Ming sang, "how far are we?"
|4 meters, directly under you.
Ah.
Ah'Ming stood on the top of a roof, the plaster starting to crumble already. He lifted up a foot, then stomped really hard. He over-estimated his strength, though, and went straight through the roof. He crashed into the desk, and kept going.
When he finally managed to crawl out of the little mess that he made, he noticed fragments of wood and metal scattered around the room. Oops.
"Hey system?" He said, with an awkward chuckle.
The system was in despair in the corner. After all of the effort to stop Ah'Ming from stealing the walls and looting the rooms, and then he goes and trashes an investigative plot line.
Pixel tears started clouding Ah'Ming's vision.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He started fussing over the system, getting up... and his foot kicking against something. He looked down, and saw a foot stepping on a golden book. In the shards of a padlocked safe.
Under two layers of chains.
Hidden under the floorboards.
...
"Okay, I see why my destruction is a problem."
The system glared resentfully.
|System hopes you get a demotion.
"that's a bit harsh-"
|System hopes your bones get rearranged into a mosaic.
"Ooh! Like the mosaics I took before!"
|SYSTEM HOPES YOU CHOKE ON A BIG FAT-----
Ah'Ming clutched his hands over his ears, squatting, with foot still on the magic book. He sniffed.
"I'm too young for this stuff QAQ" He yelled.
The system glared at him.
It didn't say anything.
Ah'Ming, all aggrieved and wronged, picked up the book. His stomach twisted and bottomed out, twisting itself into knots.
He was then teleported back to in front of the buddha statue thing. Damn. Ah'Ming really, really hated teleporting.
The statue, once again impervious to any sense of discomfort at all, smiled and opened his mouth. "Welcome back, noble hero. Now that you have brought us the Yíshì bǎikē quánshū, we can fix the barrier and uphold the safety of the village. Quick now, before the sun rises."
Wow, this statue was really full of, uh. Feaces.
Ah'Ming, with a sardonic grin on his face, handed the book over for fun.
"Please, now, noble hero, please help us repair the ritual." The statue beseeched.
He stifled a cough. "No. I really don't want to, sorry :(."
The statue got angry. Even a blind person would have been able to tell, since the temperature dropped, and the air was filled with some static. His voice was low and sharp. "Are you turning back on the village?"
Ah'Ming blinked. Wow, this guy was still on his charade?
"Nah, man. I know what you are."
Gae.
The statue bleeded out, turning an ugly shade of yellow. "So, you have chosen death." lightning crackled ominously. The courtyard started to turn monochrome, only in the shades of red and grey.
"I know what you are. You're evil. You're the evil mirror version of the original yellow robed man." Ah'Ming said.
The statue laughed once more. "I am not his mirrored version. I am Him, but He cut me out. He split his soul and trapped us here. But you fool! For you have given us our ticket to freedom!"
The statue lifted up the book over his head... and paused. At the very visible, very prominent foot mark.
...
Yeah.
It was... really obvious.
The book was a bright gold and yellow, but it had a dark black footprint on it. No way his foot was that dirty, right? While the statue was distracted, Ah'Ming snuck a quick look at the bottom of his shoe.
Damn.
It really was that bad.
It must have been the suspicious gunk from those warehouse mannequins! The ones that bleeded black!
Okay, this was kind of embarrassing. Just a little bit.
The statue, bless its soul, ignored the footprint and went back to monologuing. Ah'Ming decided to ignore him, and go and attack.
#Tune on in tmr to read the attack scene lol