It had been half an hour since Ares first met Sato.
"This is easier than expected," Ares muttered as he lifted Sato up effortlessly with a snap of his fingers before slamming him against the ground once more. Sato was lying motionlessly on the cold, hard concrete as another golden exclamation mark appeared above his black and blue face.
"Do you need my help?"
"Stop … stop hitting me. I beg you. I"ll let you help me. I"ll let you help me with everything!"
A smile danced on Ares"s lips as he readily accepted all the missions. He continued by saying, "I already told you that this was easy. Humans work in the exact same way as a computer. All you need to do is smash and slap against their thick skull and you"ll receive the mission!"
Ares"s complacent words left Dust Ball rather bitter and jealous as she whispered, "If you continue like this, I won"t be able to complete any missions at all. That means I"ll have zero experience points."
"So is it my fault that you are so incompetent that you cannot complete any missions?"
Those words were as good as daggers and arrows raining down on Dust Ball. This was war. With rage sweeping through her body, Dust Ball shot her paw in the air before landing a barrage of slaps against Ares"s back.
"How dare you lay your paws on me?" Ares smile had long disappeared into a snarl as he retaliated with a series of punches on Dust Ball"s head.
Meow!
Meow!
Both cats were on the verge of tearing each other to shreds.
Zhao Yao finally raised his head when he realized that things were about to go south. He simply stepped forward and instantly obstructed them from continuing their fight, "Alright, alright, stop it. Anyway, we won"t be able to squeeze any more missions out of this guy, so let"s just move on to our next target. Remember to complete the mission together. If I find out that any of you are acting alone, I"ll ban you from all future missions!"
Dust Ball and Ares were picked because of the complementary nature of their powers. There were bound to be vulnerabilities if any of them acted alone. It would be disastrous if their weaknesses were exposed and they got caught.
"But he"s the one who threw out the first punch!"
"Bullsh*t! He"s the one who punched me first!"
Faced with this incessant squabbling, Zhao Yao could only slam his face against the concrete wall in despair. Suddenly, Zhao Yao"s eyebrows locked together as his killer aura poured out of his body. This was enough to stop their childish fights. Both cats were trembling in fear as they nodded meekly and complied.
"Stop arguing and move on. We will proceed to our next objective."
Roly Poly, which was perched on Zhao Yao"s shoulder, noticed Ares and Dust Ball"s sudden change in att.i.tude and whispered to himself, "Don"t tell me that Zhao Yao had actually killed a cat before. Just now, the killer aura he produced was so intense that I almost peed on myself."
With those agonizing figures finally gone, Sato struggled to raise his head up as anger and fury continued to pour out of him. His bloodshot eyes stared at where Ares and Dust Ball stood as he continued to tremble with rage.
A bulging vein popped across his forehead as he exclaimed, "An eye for an eye! I will find you and destroy all of you!"
Initially, the familiar voice misled him to think that Zhao Yao was back to haunt him. However, he finally understood that Zhao Yao was simply a spectator after getting tortured in Ares"s paws for more than half an hour. The humiliation suffered from this ordeal was far worse than before.
Currently, Zhao Yao sat on the third spot for his most wanted list. Replacing him on the first and second spot were Ares and Dust Ball respectively.
After a few minutes of rest, Sato finally managed to get back on his feet and continued his search for his companions.
Inside a small sedan parked at the corner of a nearby street, a fatso commented, "It seems like this guy had been abused by two stray cats."
The teenage girl who had her hair tied up in a ponytail commented, "What a useless fool. He couldn"t even defend himself against stray cats."
Sweat continued to trickle down the fatso"s back as he replied, "After all, they are still supercats."
This pair of inconspicuous individuals was Lin Chen"s subordinates. The fat one was Xiao Cong while the girl was Ice. Their mission was to stalk Sato for the entire day.
Since Sato technically belonged to an overseas criminal organization, both of them had no intentions to stop these stray cats from torturing him. In their eyes, Sato couldn"t possibly die in those cats" paws.
"Follow him."
After hours of relentless search, Sato finally found Onitsuka resting in a tavern along a random street in Jiangmen.
Shock and terror overtook Onitsuka"s face as he stared at Sato"s bruised face. He immediately asked, "Sato? Where have you been all this while?"
"I was captured by the Chinese government apostles and was only released recently." Sato was already on the verge of tears at this moment as he continued, "Let"s not talk about this. Do we still have any supercats with us?"
After half an hour, Onitsuka brought Sato over to meet Lord Is.h.i.+da.
His forehead furrowed together when he heard news of his release as he roared at the top of his voice, "R*tards, this is a trap! They purposely released you so that you can lead them to me!"
Actually, Onitsuka and Sato weren"t stupid. They were just slow. They finally reacted to the situation when Is.h.i.+da"s furious voice rang in their heads.
"What are we supposed to do then?"
"It"s okay, just calm down. This is just a desperation move by the Chinese. From now onwards, continue with what you are supposed to do. Act like everything"s normal." Is.h.i.+da ordered.
As for Zhao Yao and Hanako, he had already planned to take care of things on his own. With his unique powers, he was confident of taking down Zhao Yao without a single person learning the truth.
However, he didn"t manage to find Zhao Yao"s sister after camping at her campus for the entire day. From the looks of it, he had to pay the school a few more visits.
However, Sato was still boiling from anger because of the humiliation suffered. He then looked towards Is.h.i.+da and reported, "Boss! I"ve discovered two supercats on my way here! They possess the power of s.p.a.ce manipulation. We should capture them!"
He wanted Is.h.i.+da to exact revenge on his behalf so badly. However, he obviously couldn"t tell him the truth. Hence, he intended to lure Is.h.i.+da with the pretext of the cats" amazing powers. In the world of supercats, s.p.a.ce-related powers continued to be a highly sought-after ability.
"Oh, s.p.a.ce manipulation?" Those words had caught Is.h.i.+da"s attention as his eyes gleamed with excitement, "Tell me more about it."
Hence, Sato began to recount the previous incident, carefully censoring the parts where he was trounced by two cats. Is.h.i.+da nodded along to Sato"s words as he commented, "To be able to extract matters out of thin air is truly a useful skill to have. The other power is just another form of psychokinesis. It is not as rare as the first power."
Sato"s eyes beamed with excitement as he exclaimed, "Does this mean that we are going to capture these cats?"
"Yes." Is.h.i.+da nodded before shaking his head, "No, I have some missions to attend to. I"ll just leave these cats to the both of you."
"Us?" Is.h.i.+da"s response plunged Sato in despair, "But I have zero superpower."
"Aren"t you an apostle? What"s stopping you from getting a new superpower?" Is.h.i.+da responded with a sly grin.
Suddenly, Sato noticed a cat"s paw appearing out of a shadow as it tapped against his feet.
"Even Master Kagemaru is here?" Sato immediately sealed his mouth shut halfway into his sentence. He could feel a surge of warm energy flooding into his body. This could only mean one thing. Master Kagemaru was transferring his power over to him.
Ten seconds later, Sato felt the unique sensation slowly dissipate from his body. He opened his eyes and found himself five meters away from his original position. He had sprung from the position of one shadow to another.
Shadow Jump allowed the users to use the shadows as portals for them to traverse across freely. This was the exact power Sato used against Zhao Yao previously. However, he was endowed with the power back in j.a.pan before he flew over to Jiangmen the last time around.
This time, it was different. The j.a.panese even sent Master Kagemaru over.
Lord Is.h.i.+da nodded his head to Sato"s queries. Master Kagemaru"s power was truly formidable. It allowed the users to turn into shadows and wield them as weapons. You could even use them as gateways to travel around. However, not all apostles were strong enough to wield all its power.
The apostle"s compatibility and innate strength were key factors determining how much power they could borrow from Master Kagemaru.
Sato was only capable of using Flash Jump. On the other hand, Onitsuka could only use the shadows as weapons.
However, just these two abilities were good enough. They were far stronger than your ordinary superpowers.