"Is she the rich boy"s new arm candy?"
"Maybe his family owns the zoo?"
"Idiot, they can"t possibly own the freaking zoo."
"Jia Jia, you promised to eat sanitary pads in this live stream."
Jia Jia laughed awkwardly as that last line sprung onto her screen. She ignored it, choosing to continue with her commentary.
"We"re not just here to look at nocturnal animals tonight. I"m sure you"ve all watched the video of the tigers from this zoo partying. You"ve heard the rumors that some of the creatures here have developed a mind of their own. We"re here to find out what"s really going on after hours."
As the vehicle advanced into the carnivore zone, there was no animal in sight. It felt as if they were all hiding.
"Where are they?" the middle-aged guide furrowed his brows, whipping out his phone from his pocket, "Mr. Xiao, I"ll call the control center to find out where the animals have gone."
Xiao Ming nodded coolly in response.
He felt safe in the confines of the four-wheel drive. The fact that the animals were missing was unsettling, but it was not as frightening as his previous excursions with Jia Jia, who was thrilled by this turn of events.
She was eager to capture supernatural and strange phenomenon in her live stream.
Out of nowhere, a cacophonous boom erupted.
"What"s that?" Xiao Ming asked.
"Thunder?" Jia Jia responded uncertainly.
She barely finished her sentence when another deafening explosion filled the air. This was followed by another, then one more, and one more still. Each whip of sound was sharper, louder and closer than the one before.
The pa.s.sengers in the four-wheel drive inadvertently kept their eyes glued to the direction they were coming from. The tension in the air was palpable.
A single, pained wail sliced through the noise. It was a sound of agony, the final words of a dying animal.
"What the h.e.l.l is going on?" the guide was beginning to panic, "Stop the car right now."
"Do not stop!" Xiao Ming commanded.
His voice carried confidence, but there was fear in his eyes. He was unnerved, but he instructed the driver to keep going.
"Pardon me, Mr. Xiao, but it is too dangerous to go any closer when we"re not sure what"s ahead," the man reasoned.
"We"re going," Xiao Ming insisted.
"How about this? I"ll call security and ask them to dispatch a few officers here. We"ll go together."
Xiao Ming scrunched his eyebrows together, considering this offer. He knew that this man would never risk his own safety to move forward now. If he were to be perfectly honest, he was hesitant to do so himself.
His thoughts were interrupted by Jia Jia, who had spotted movement in the empty carnivore zone.
"Guys, you need to see this!" she exclaimed.
The men"s gaze followed her finger to meet glowing green eyes emerging from the darkness. They belonged to lions, tigers, leopards, and even bears, barely illuminated, snarling and charging in the same direction.
There was a manic energy in the air as they rampaged through the area.
They were fast, but their target was faster still. He took the form of a man, but he was so dark that it was impossible to tell what he looked like. He was a black phantom that melted into the shadows of the night.
Every step he took propelled him ten meters forward. As he leaped into the air, he could change directions with a loud bang. He would then throw out a punch or a kick that sent the animals closest to him flying.
He was not just trying to get away from the beasts. He was fighting back.
You might have guessed by now that this phantom was no phantom at all. He was the man who had severely wounded the circle of tigers.
After he had yanked off his tank top, the animals started ripping his shorts with their claws when they pounced. He then jerked the shredded fabric of in frustration, leaving him b.u.t.t naked. His ebony skin blended seamlessly into the night. From afar, the pa.s.sengers in the car could only make out his silhouette.
"What is that?!" the guide cried in shock.
He lifted the walkie-talkie to his lips, "Send security to us now! Quickly!"
Instead of fear, Xiao Ming was reacting to the scene unfolding before them with quiet interest.
"Another superhuman?" he mused, "But he"s not like the one from before. There"s something sinister about him."
Jia Jia"s emotions were all the way on the other end of the spectrum. She was bursting with excitement as she angled her camera to the man in black.
"Guys, you won"t believe this. A mysterious man in black has trespa.s.sed the zoo and is now raging a fierce battle with beasts," she said.
"There"s no way you can catch something like this on any other live stream, so please show your appreciation and sponsor me."
Even now, she remembered to remind her viewers about that.
At that point, the man had managed to fight off two more tigers, three leopards, and a black bear. He rubbed his nether regions, cursing the animals for ruining his shorts. Everything down there was now out in the open and unprotected. It hurt. A lot.
When he spotted the four-wheel drive in the distance, he put the pain aside and sped towards the opposite direction.
He did not particularly enjoy being spotted in the nude.
Luckily for him, he was very well camouflaged by the darkness.
The guide was watching him intently with a pair of binoculars, but he could not make out that he was naked.
"He"s covered in black clothing from head to toe! He"s wearing a face mask so I can"t even tell if he"s a man or a woman!" he shouted.
"Stop looking and do something! We"ve got to go after him!" Xiao Ming said impatiently.
The guide was not at all eager to close the distance between them and the man in black. He pretended not to hear Xiao Ming"s command and continued to look into his binoculars instead. That was when he spotted several headlights in the distance. Backup was finally here.
Relieved, he spoke into the walkie-talkie again.
"Attention, all units, we cannot let the man in black or the animals get away. Go after them and subdue them now!"
The team responded by revving their engines, then powering forward.
This caught the man"s attention. A look of annoyance crossed his face as he turned around and spotted six vehicles hot on his trail.
He was not keen on exchanging blows with the zoo"s security team. He knew he would emerge triumphant, but he wanted to be discreet.
"I don"t have time to play with those idiots anyway," he thought, "I"ve almost got you."
With a glint in his eye, he brought his hands together to create one thunderous clap. The air waves emitting from his palms were forced against each other, sparking a surge of friction and energy that exploded with an earth-shattering boom.
The sound knocked every thought out of the animals" minds. They came to a gradual halt, disoriented about where they were and confused about what they were doing.
At that moment, a spinning vortex of air wormed out of the man"s ears. It rocketed in one direction and came to an abrupt stop before what looked like a cheetah cub.
It had long, lithe limbs and black spots on yellow fur. Its ears were erect as if it was on high alert. Like the rest of the animals, it was momentarily dazed by the explosion.
It was, however, not a cheetah. It was a serval, a type of African wildcat. Its fur color was lighter, its body more limber, and ears larger than a cheetah"s.
The black man scooped the wildcat in one hand, his face breaking into a grin.
He had felt the presence of this supercat the moment he fought off the small circle of tigers. It was well hidden then.
But as the cat instructed more animals to start going after him, it had to stick a little closer to its army. Eventually, the man could spot him in the back if the pack.
He took a look at the cat, who was still too dizzy to retaliate or respond.
"Your power must be animal mind-control. That"d come in very handy," he smiled.
"The boss will like you."
With the zoo"s security team closing on them, the man knew he had to go. With a derisive snort, he propelled himself into the darkness, the serval cat securely in his grip.