Chapter 26: Chapter 25: The Ruthless Mouse Killer
[Subtitle: "Instant Kill Upon Exposure!" "Am I Still Human?"]
...
The world underground was bustling with activity.
The decrepit sewage pipe system was teeming with rats.
Yet all of this remained unknown to humanity.
People walked aboveground, oblivious to the liveliness beneath them.
Only Chen Yun,
Standing near the drain with an umbrella, quietly "watched" this hidden world as it revealed its wonders before his eyes.
For some reason,
As he "watched" the numerous rats each engaged in their own tasks underground, he unexpectedly felt a sense of guilty pleasure.
Especially when passersby with umbrellas looked at him curiously as they passed by, wondering what he was staring at.
That sense of guilty pleasure only grew stronger.
Because
No one knew what he could see at that moment.
People passing by the back door of the Vegetable Market hurried on, finding it odd to stand by the drain on a rainy day, daydreaming.
Little did they know,
At this moment, Chen Yun was filled with a sense of lucid sobriety while everyone else seemed oblivious.
The two worlds, which seemed rarely to intersect,
Were at this moment thoroughly transparent to him, positioned in between them.
Right then, Chen Yun also felt a fleeting sense of detachment.
The sound of the rain pattered around him.
Yet his mood inexplicably calmed.
He remembered his adolescent years.
When his teenage fantasies had let him believe he was the unique individual stationed at the intersection of two worlds, the most special being among humans.
Now,
All of that had become reality.
He truly had become someone special.
Even though he was no longer that teenager.
Though he didn't know if he was the only special being,
He still felt somewhat sentimental.
He ruminated under the sounds of the rain for a long time.
With the perception ability in Transparent World fully activated, Chen Yun suddenly realized that the rat he had been following didn't linger in the underground for long.
Instead, it quickly scurried through several sewage pipes
And headed straight for the interior of the market.
Seeing this,
Chen Yun followed from above ground, locking onto its whereabouts from afar through the barrier of the surface.
With long-term training of his sense of smell, and a natural proficiency in the abilities of Transparent World,
The complex smells and noisy sounds of the Vegetable Market didn't affect him.
Or it might be better said that any impact was now nearly nullified.
Before long,
Chen Yun, walking a straight line on the surface, noticed the rat zigzag through various turns to reach a seafood shop's drainage area within the market.
He watched it sneak out undetected, snatch a piece of fish offal, and then dart back into the sewers.
Chen Yun again followed it all the way back.
Observing the rat navigate the underground water pipes with ease, one couldn't help but be impressed by its proficiency.
Based on the same route it took coming here,
Chen Yun deduced
That the rat was likely to exit through its point of entry into the sewer,
Which was the open drain at the entrance of the Vegetable Market.
Thinking this, he arrived at the relatively deserted market entrance first to wait.
Looking at the few pebbles on the ground,
He bent down with interest and picked one up.
At this moment,
A bold idea suddenly crossed his mind.
Since awakening, besides the tremendous changes in hearing and vision,
He had also become aware of a significant change in his own body.
That change was an exceptional control power.
Every movement he made after waking from his second slumber
Made him feel as though his body's coordination ability had reached a pinnacle.
This was one of the reasons why one saw little to no panic on his face after his second awakening.
The strong control power had instinctively given him a foundation of confidence and self-assurance.
The sensation was indescribable.
However,
Chen Yun realized his sense of ultimate coordination.
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Anyway, every step I took felt more reasonable than the posture I used to have.
And I instinctively kept tweaking my walking posture to increase speed, reduce wind resistance, and lower energy consumption.
Every movement of my hands and feet felt smoother, more silken than before.
My whole body was like a seamless whole.
This sense of coordination and fluidity is hard to describe to outsiders; what exactly does it feel like?
But Chen Yun's intuition told him.
Now, he.
With his Coordination Ability, he could do many things he definitely couldn't do before.
Things like doing splits and fighting with both hands independently were just child's play.
To him, they were nothing at all, not even close to utilizing one ten-thousandth of his immense Coordination Ability.
While pondering,
It wasn't long before,
I saw a rat with fish innards in its mouth quietly poking its head out of the drainage hole, sniffing around for danger,
Before it could make its next move,
A piece of shattered stone whistled through the air, striking it right on the back of the head at great speed.
The speed was so fast that the rat couldn't react in time.
The rat, hit by the attack, let the fish guts fall from its mouth and flew off; its body staggered forward and then fell to the ground.
Apart from twitching limbs,
It lay still.
The stone I had thrown sent the rat directly to meet Jesus.
The energy contained within it
Was definitely far more than 1.8 joules.
If it hit a human, it wouldn't just leave bruises, but at the very least, a purple and blue mark.
And if it struck a vital spot, it could even be deadly.
Clearly,
The bold idea Chen Yun had was to throw a stone to hit the rat.
Previously, his intuition told him,
He could do it.
Besides, there were only a few scattered cameras around, not enough to capture this area,
So he didn't need to worry that using his abilities would expose him.
He could boldly experiment with his powers.
And in fact,
He truly did it.
The ultimate Coordination Ability made Chen Yun feel as if the stone in his hand was an extension of his arm,
It felt as though he could mold it at will.
Coupled with the Transparent World's ultimate Perception Ability,
Also, his strength had clearly increased a lot since his second awakening.
The moment the rat poked its head out, it was instantly killed without a chance to resist.
This powerful and precise throw ability,
Was a potent manifestation of his body's Coordination Ability in harmony with the Transparent World.
Now, he,
Had the perspective from the Transparent World, the auto-targeting brought on by ultimate Coordination Ability, and the one-shot kills boosted by increased strength.
This was the pinnacle of speed, accuracy, and ruthlessness!
It was the essence of Hidden Weapon technique!
Facing him, the rat had only one outcome:
The moment it showed its head, it was instantly killed!
Looking at the dead rat,
Chen Yun felt not even the slightest bit of pity; instead, his thoughts inadvertently drifted.
Having acquired such a formidable Hidden Weapon technique, his first reaction wasn't about anything else,
But rather, he recalled his happy and interesting childhood.
With the skill he had now, if he could have used it back when he played marbles as a kid,
It would've been a dimensionally crushing blow.
Most likely, no child within several kilometers would dare play seriously with him again, and any who did would probably end up crying.
Then, he would happily go boast to his mother.
Thinking this,
Chen Yun let out a soft chuckle, casually picked up a piece of stone, and flicked the rat's body back into the sewer.
Then, he returned home, his abilities and fame deeply concealed under his umbrella.
No matter how much he changed,
At least while his family and friends were still around,
He wanted to live as a person.
That's what he was thinking,
As he arrived at the entrance of the apartment building and closed his umbrella, he noticed,
The persistent rain brought by the Jingzhe period had cleared, and now the sky was breaking with a sliver of light.
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