About half an hour later, Tang Coco reached the beach, killed the engine, and followed the shoreline, the wind salty as torn silk on her cheeks.
It should be here, she thought, a knot of confusion tightening like a cold tide in her chest—how did I jump from that island to this place in one breath?
She scanned the area, slow and wary, her gaze skimming a lonely stretch of coast where the surf had planed the shore flat, shells scattered like pale coins in sand.
A larger rock caught her eye; its face bore a pattern like shattered glass, frost-spiderwebbed across stone.
She touched it; the lines weren’t natural—this place had truly cracked, as if some force had smashed it like a hammer striking ice.
What kind of power leaves scars like this? The question stung like sea-spray in her mind.
She snapped a few photos, then headed deeper, footsteps clicking like pebbles in a jar.
A black van rolled up to the coast, and four large men climbed out, their faces foreign, their clothes the color of crows.
They moved the way shadows move, straight toward her.
Cliffs shouldered in close now, a high rock wall at her side like the spine of a beast; the road above clung halfway up the slope, while the foot of the mountain stayed jagged as broken teeth.
A tremor ticked in her pocket.
She fished out her father’s watch, the one she never let out of reach, a cold coin of memory she carried as a clue.
The hands were spinning, wild as a compass gone mad.
So it really ties to this place... Fear bloomed first, then certainty, sharp and bright.
She strapped the watch on her wrist and moved forward, each step careful as if testing thin ice.
Ten-odd minutes later, a sound broke behind her like a twig snapping.
She turned and saw the four men in black walking in, their shoes whispering like knives on stone.
Why would anyone come out here? Just passing by? No way, not in a place like this.
The tallest one checked his phone, eyes narrowing as if pinning a moth, then flicked his hand.
The other three surged at her like dogs slipped off a chain.
Blank confusion hit first, then the warning thud of danger; she didn’t know who they were, but the smell of trouble was iron in her mouth.
She moved.
Under pressure, her body sharpened a notch; she slipped past one strike like a fish breaking a wave.
She couldn’t slip the next.
A fist came in, heavy as a mallet.
She met it with open palms, bone to bone, but the force shoved her back in a skid of sand.
Before she could plant her feet, the third man closed and drove a punch into her lower belly.
“Urk—”
White heat burned her vision; she slammed into the rock wall and crumpled to the ground, curling like a leaf in the wind.
This body couldn’t even handle a campus martial arts girl, let alone trained foreigners; the thought tasted of regret, bitter as brine.
Too late now.
After a few breaths, she forced herself upright, each motion a rasp.
The three didn’t rush her again; the tall one walked over, calm as a crow on a gallows.
“Ha,” he said in clumsy Huaguo speech, the words grinding like gravel, “Abnormals from Huaguo are weak.
HQ worried you, an SS-class Abnormal, might cause trouble.
Taking you out is easy.”
Particles gathered above his palm, winking into existence like fireflies, then flocked tighter until a handgun sat there, dark as night water.
Abnormal!
Shock slammed through her; their earlier scuffle had been play-acting.
If he wanted her dead, it would be a flick of the wrist.
Cold sweat crawled down her spine; dread pooled heavy as lead.
He raised the gun and aimed at her, held it for a heartbeat, then pulled the trigger.
Bang!
At the same time, in the Ninghai City Guild group chat, Ningxin was in her office, wading through paperwork like reeds in a river, when Assistant Xiao Qiao burst in.
“Ning-jie, Anomalous Energy spike in the west—an energy type we’ve never seen.”
“What? The west?”
“Yes, just detected.”
Ningxin’s brows tightened; Abnormals weren’t supposed to use Anomaly Power in the open, not with civilians around.
“Notify Team A. Move to the site now.”
She gave the order, then a wrongness throbbed in her chest like a drumbeat.
She pulled out her phone and called Tang Coco.
No answer.
The silence felt cold as a wet stone.
She dialed Ye Yiyi.
“Yiyi?”
“Ning-jie? What’s up? I’m in class.”
“Is Coco in class too?”
“Uh, no.
Something happened, so she skipped this period and went to wait in the car.”
“Oh?
The car?
Check if it’s still there.”
Ye Yiyi didn’t understand, worry pricking like pins, but while the teacher wrote on the board, she snuck a glance out the window.
The parking spot was empty; her car had vanished like a pulled tide.
“Huh?
My car’s gone?”
“Damn.”
“Tell Team A to go full speed.
I’m heading out too.”
The last few days, the sudden appearance of foreign Abnormals—every sign pointed toward Tang Coco.
Ye Yiyi heard the single curse, then the line went dead; her unease rose like storm wind.
“Coco, where did you go?”
She clenched her hand until the knuckles went white.
