Everyone began to inch away from Xiao Ming as his words rang in their heads with the sole exception of Black Panther. He nodded his head and introduced himself, "Hi, I"m Black Panther, Xiao Ming"s acquaintance. However, I was thrown here for a different reason: voluntarily causing hurt."
William could not help suppress his laughter when he noticed Black Panther"s hideous face, "Causing hurt? You are capable of that? How many did you hurt?"
"A hundred odd?" Black Panther replied with a depressing sigh, "All of them were my best buddies. I didn"t want to but I was drunk."
William began to eye this man from head to toe. How could a village b.u.mpkin like him possibly hurt 100 people?
Xiao Ming then directed his gaze towards William and asked, "My foreign friend, how may I address you?"
"Just call me William," William replied in his usual cool tone.
Xiao Ming continued with another question, "Then how did you end up here?"
William heaved a long sigh before his eyes drifted skywards, "I have also been asking myself the same question."
"You don"t know?"
William let out a soft chuckle when he noticed the two puzzled expressions staring at him, "You guys will never understand. True power does not lie in the hands of the apostles wielding the swords or guns. In a battle against them, you"ll at least understand how you lose.
However, I don"t even know how I lost to the apostle I fought against. Anyway, I found myself here the moment I woke up. My wife gave me a call asking for a divorce. She told me that all my life savings were gone and I owed someone another USD 1,500,000."
William scowled at the recount of his experience, "True terror is when you don"t even know what hit you. But when you wake up, you realize everything is gone, be it your wife, money, house. You wake up with a mountain of debt."
Xiao Ming knew the pain he was experiencing and consoled him, "I can understand what you"re going through."
With that said, William once again buried his head in his palms. It was like his body was blanketed in a cloak of grey.
"Hmmm?" Zhao Yao stroked his chin thoughtfully and remarked, "That sounds like a scary apostle."
However, Black Panther started to shake his head furiously and reasoned, "That"s nothing. I bet you were drunk. Let me tell you, the scariest apostle is none other than Master Brainless."
Zhao Yao could not help but interrupt, "Hey, are you talking about the Headless Horseman?"
Black Panther shot this seemingly ordinary man a look of disdain before continuing, "What do you know? Headless Horseman is a t.i.tle given to him by the public but the police told me that his true ident.i.ty is Mr. Brainless."
One by one, the veins in Zhao Yao"s forehead began to pop up, "Is that so? Do you happen to remember anything else which the police mentioned?"
"How am I supposed to remember all that? Anyway, stop interrupting me. Hmm, what was I about to say? Oh yes, the scariest apostle is definitely Master Headless. You have no idea just how strong he is. His ability has fully surpa.s.sed the combat powers of the human race. One punch of his could tear a 10 story building into half. He doesn"t even have to return the millions of dollars he owes. If only I have half his power, then I wouldn"t have to return any of my debt."
Zhao Yao answered, "… does that even const.i.tute as a compliment?"
While Black Panther was immersed in his outlandish storytelling, the previously stationary Nessie started to let out a sinister laugh, "All of you are still too young, too naïve. You have no idea what true terror actually is. Bankruptcy? Divorce? Hahaha, a punch that can tear a building in half? Hahahaha."
Black Panther immediately refuted when he heard Nessie"s disdainful laughs, "Hey, then tell me what is the strongest power!"
"All the powers you"ve mentioned are remarkable in their own rights. However, it is nothing compared to the monster that I fought." Nessie shook his head before continuing, "That fine day, I was involved in a mission to attack a cat café.
Initially, everything went as planned. Even though the owners had plenty of cats which complemented one another perfectly, we still managed to trounce them with my precise leaders.h.i.+p. They couldn"t even retaliate! This is because of my power to turn my body into water, making me invincible amongst the ordinary apostles."
"However at this moment, he began his escape!" A frown crept up Nessie"s face as he described the incident on that fateful day, "We were chasing him like he was our prey but then he ran to a toilet."
"Hmph?" A line began to etch across Zhao Yao"s forehead, "That doesn"t sound right."
Meanwhile, Nessie continued, "By the time we caught up to him, we realize he was already gone. All that was left was an English Shorthair. Then …" Fear crossed Nessie"s watery eyes, "h.e.l.l descended."
Black Panther clarified, "What does that mean? Tell me! What happened?"
"That English Shorthair completely ignored the fact that I had turned into water. With my power completely activated, every single molecule of my being had turned into water. Yet, he still managed to leave behind a scar that will never recover."
Nessie could only continue after drawing in a deep breath, "Do you understand what that means? It ignores all sorts of defense. It defies the principles of physics! No matter how you guard against it, evade, heal, the scar will always be attached to you. It never recovers!"
Black Panther"s heart nearly stopped when he heard this bone-chilling recount. Xiao Ming too was appalled, "Such a devastating power exists?"
"Of course it does."
"Where is your scar?"
"It"s …"Suddenly, Nessie"s expression began to contort as he exclaimed, "It"s about to explode! That fella residing inside my body is about to explode once again! Quick! Get the wardens in right now! Before it"s too late!"
Immediately, the sounds of firecrackers exploded in the cell. Jets of crimson blood shot straight out of Nessie"s b.u.t.t, towards the surrounding walls. It was like a fountain spraying in all direction, painting the cell red.
Nessie could finally breathe a sigh of relief as the spraying concluded, "It"s okay, I"ve managed to restrain it."
Zhao Yao couldn"t help but refute him, "Isn"t that just hemorrhoids? You should go for a surgery instead of fabricating lies about others" power."
Nessie stared at Zhao Yao in shock and yelled, "You understand his power? Yes! This guy has the devastating power of inserting hemorrhoids in others" bodies!"
Black Panther, Xiao Ming, and William"s body shuddered simultaneously when the word "hemorrhoid" rang in their heads. They mumbled, "What a scary power."
However, Zhao Yao was raging with anger, "This power doesn"t even exist! I"m telling you that you contracted hemorrhoids on your own and you should go for a surgery! Do you think this is menstruation! Stop telling lies about some supernatural superpower!"
Zhao Yao clearly remembered what happened that day. He was chasing Nessie all the way back to his café when he was struck with Mango"s ability. His hemorrhoids must have started from there, possibly due to less than ideal sanitary conditions.
Nessie"s brows locked together as he refuted with a roar, "Do you think I"m lying to you?" Zhao Yao"s nonchalant gaze was like a match tossed into his flames of raging fury. Immediately, he was possessed with unprecedented angst as he marched towards Zhao Yao. Blood began to flood the entire cell.
With blood spurting out of his b.u.t.t, Nessie shouted, "I didn"t have hemorrhoids before! That cat gave it to me!"
However, the current Nessie did not have his power. Coupled with the loss of blood, Zhao Yao was able to take him down with a series of punches. Nessie trembled as he crawled towards Zhao Yao before sinking his teeth on his ankle.
Seeing how crazy he had become, Zhao Yao had no choice but to knock him unconscious.
"This guy"s transformation seems a little off. Has he gone crazy from the hemorrhoids?"