Today was the day of the deal.
The underground prison echoed with the jangling of keys as the gang members moved from cell to cell. One by one, the heavy iron doors swung open, and the "merchandise" was dragged out into the hallway.
Despair hung heavy in the air. Some prisoners wailed in agony, some knelt to beg for mercy, and others screamed useless threats. The gangsters remained unmoved. Those who cooperated were shoved along; those who resisted were met with the brutal crack of an electric baton.
Soon, the thugs reached Su Mu's cell. Jim was among them.
Seeing Su Mu staring at him, Jim let out a jagged laugh and ran his thumb across his throat in a slow, provocative gesture. He expected to see Su Mu crumble, but instead, the youth offered him a bright, serene smile. It was a look of genuine pity, and it made Jim's blood boil.
"Out, you yellow-skinned monkey! Today is your lucky day!" Jim barked.
Su Mu stood up calmly. "You're right. Today is indeed a very good day."
Jim's face darkened at the backtalk. He stepped into the cell and leaned in close, whispering with venomous intent: "You don't know yet, do you? I personally told Dr. John to skip the anesthesia for your surgery. You're going to die feeling every single cut of the scalpel."
Su Mu's smile didn't waver. "Is that so? I'm afraid you won't live long enough to see it."
Provoked beyond reason, Jim didn't care about the boss's orders anymore. He pulled back his fist, aiming a heavy blow directly at Su Mu's cheek. He had hated that handsome, calm face from the moment he saw it. He wanted to shatter that composure along with Su Mu's jaw.
The other gang members watched with bored amusement, waiting for the sound of breaking bone and the inevitable scream.
But the scream never came.
Jim's fist stopped abruptly an inch from Su Mu's face. It didn't hit a wall; it simply... stopped. No matter how much Jim grunted or strained, his fist could not bridge that final, tiny gap.
"Jim, stop playing around!" one of the thugs called out. "The boss is waiting. If you delay the deal, he'll have your hide!"
"Yeah, quit joking and just break the kid's face already!"
"I'm... I'm not joking!" Jim gasped, his voice trembling with sudden terror.
He looked into Su Mu's eyes. Over the course of a single night, the boy's pupils had turned into a deep, crystalline blue, and his hair had transitioned from black to a pure, snowy white. The smile on Su Mu's face was no longer "sunny"—it was the cruel, playful grin of a predator watching an insect struggle in a web.
The thugs behind Jim finally realized something was wrong. They could see the veins bulging in Jim's arm and his muscles locked in a violent tremor. Near Su Mu's skin, the air itself seemed to ripple and distort, refracting the dim light like a heat haze.
A Mutant! The thought struck them like a physical blow. Fear, cold and sudden, gripped their hearts.
Su Mu looked at Jim's shaking fist and spoke in an encouraging whisper. "Come on. Just a little further. You can touch me if you try a little harder, right?"
But as the words left his lips, his expression went cold. Sensing the unknown danger, Jim tried to pull back and run.
Su Mu wasn't about to let his "gift" go unopened.
With his body reinforced by stored energy, Su Mu moved at a speed the human eye couldn't track. He reached out, grabbed Jim by the top of his head, and slammed him face-first into the concrete floor.
BANG!
The sound of the skull meeting concrete was sickening. Jim didn't even have time to cry out before he lost consciousness.
Su Mu didn't stop there. He stepped onto Jim's limbs, one by one. Under the weight of his reinforced strength, flesh and bone were pulverized. The wet crunch of the "crushing" echoed through the silent corridor.
The sheer agony brought Jim back to consciousness. He let out a blood-curdling shriek, his body thrashing as he realized his arms and legs had been turned into a pulpy mess.
Su Mu ignored the screaming man. He turned his gaze toward the other gang members, his eyes glowing with an eerie blue light.
"He... he's just one kid!" one thug screamed, snapping out of his shock. "His power must have a limit! SHOOT HIM! KILL HIM NOW!"
The hallway erupted in gunfire. Assault rifles spat lead, filling the narrow space with smoke and noise.
But then, the world seemed to slow down. Dozens of bullets hung suspended in the air around Su Mu. They swirled and drifted in a chaotic dance, unable to penetrate the invisible barrier of Infinity.
"How is this possible?!" "What kind of monster is he?!"
The thugs' composure shattered. They dumped their magazines, spraying bullets frantically, but Su Mu just stood there. He even casually adjusted his position to block any stray bullets from hitting the dying Jim—he wanted the man to suffer every second of his agony, not die from a stray round.
Finally, Su Mu clasped his hands together in a specific, ritualistic gesture. A terrifying pressure began to build in the center of the room.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."
Energy spiraled inward, creating a vibrant, azure vortex in front of Su Mu's palms. The surrounding bullets, the loose debris, and even the metal bars of the cells were sucked toward the center of the singularity like a miniature black hole.
When the charge reached its peak—
BOOM!!!
The azure singularity erupted forward. It wasn't a blast; it was a vacuum of absolute destruction. Steel, concrete, and human flesh were pulled into the spiraling blue light and erased.
When the light faded, the hallway was silent. The gang members who had been standing there were gone. Not a drop of blood, not a scrap of clothing remained. Only a clean, gouged path through the concrete showed where the "Blue" had passed.
Su Mu stood in the wreckage, his white hair fluttering in the draft. The hunt had only just begun.