Long-lost blue-white particles rose around Tang Coco like fireflies shaken from a frost branch. Her body lifted off the floor. The swarm wrapped her into a giant sphere.

At the same time, alarms howled at the official Abnormal headquarters in Huaguo, like iron bells struck in a storm.

“What’s going on?”

In the command room, the middle-aged lead asked, voice clipped like a drawn blade.

“Report. Super high-energy alert in Ninghai. Energy level has exceeded SS+.”

The operator at the console stared at the screen like it was a thundercloud.

“Ninghai!? Again? Didn’t we send people there recently?”

The middle-aged man frowned, lines deep as dried riverbeds.

“Yes. Minister Zhao took two squads to Ninghai two weeks ago.”

“Get me him, now.”

His tone went cold as winter water.

And not only here. The same warning bloomed across the world, like red poppies opening at once.

Across the ocean in America, at the Will family estate.

Knock, knock.

“Come in.”

The current head of the Will family—Avril’s grandfather—sat in his study, reading. His calm felt like an old pine in snow.

“Report. High-energy alert in Ninghai, Huaguo. Level: super-SS.”

His aide stepped in, voice steady, eyes tight.

“Ninghai…”

The old man weighed memories like stones in his palm, then said, “Bring her here.”

“Yes.”

The aide left. The old man looked down at the file on his desk, the one Avril brought back—an analysis on an SS-class Abnormal. The paper felt heavy as rain-soaked cloth.

On the Pacific, in the Shadow Division base, Hong Wei listened to a report in his office. His gaze was a whetted knife.

“Confirmed it’s Ninghai?”

Hong Wei’s brow knotted like twisted rope.

“Yes. The signal’s strong. Every Abnormal organization probably picked it up.”

The man’s reply landed like a drumbeat.

“Ninghai…”

Hong Wei breathed the name, then gave the order, voice like a snapped bowstring. “Send Black Crow. Infiltrate Ninghai. Gather intel first.”

“Yes!”

Back at Ye Yiyi’s villa, the cluster of particles sank like a falling lantern, then thinned. Tang Coco stood revealed inside. Her face hadn’t shifted this time. Her hair still gleamed milky-white, like moonlight on snow.

“Hoo…”

She let out a long breath, like mist leaving a lake. She opened her eyes. The usual pale blue had iced over with a colder hue.

“Lulu, launch Skyeye.”

Tang Coco’s tone was calm as glass.

“Understood.”

Marilyn answered with mechanical clarity. Blue light flashed in her eyes, like lightning behind clouds. In the villa’s rear shadow, blue particles bloomed. They fused into a two-meter-tall white Mech. Its surface was smooth as ceramic. A large mechanical box sat on its back like a folded wing. Blue particles rippled across its shell. The entire Mech shifted color and bled into the environment, like a chameleon in fog.

“Optical camo engaged. Trajectory calculated. Skyeye ascending.”

Marilyn finished. Nozzles unfolded from legs, back, and arms—ten in all. The white Mech shot up from the ground like an arrow loosed at dawn.

“Forty seconds to the outer atmosphere.”

Marilyn reported. Her voice ticked like a metronome.

“…”

Tang Coco closed her eyes. Silence moved through her like dark water.

The white Mech melted into the sky and punched past the atmosphere. It held position on its own power, a lone star at the edge of air.

“Skyeye in position. Switching to satellite mode.”

Marilyn’s words were clean as frost.

The mechanical box on the Mech’s back unfolded. It became four diamond wings, sharp as shard ice. The main body curled in. Limbs tucked. The head retracted. A giant camera extended from the chest like a cyclops eye.

“Satellite mode active.”

“Feed in the Dark Energy data from last time. Begin global sweep.”

Tang Coco’s voice was flat, like a blade without ornament.

“Roger. Executing. Estimated completion time: ten minutes.”

Marilyn answered. With nothing to do but wait, Tang Coco sat on the couch, like a warrior cooling on a stone. She asked, “Lulu, what’s the side effect?”

“Unknown. It could be severe. It could be trivial.”

Marilyn’s tone slipped back to normal, like rain softening stone.

“…”

Tang Coco’s face darkened, ink spreading on rice paper. Even Marilyn didn’t know.

“I don’t feel anything now…”

She glanced down at herself. Aside from the flood of Anomalous Energy roaring inside her like a spring river, she felt nothing.

“There will be side effects. Maybe it just hasn’t arrived yet.”

Marilyn’s words snapped the fragile daydream like a dried twig.

“Alright…”

Resignation crossed Tang Coco’s face like a passing cloud.

Ten minutes later, Marilyn said sharply, “Scan complete. Found 868 Dark Energy signals worldwide.”

“What!!”

Shock hit Tang Coco like a cold wave. She hadn’t expected so many Dark Energy users. According to red-haired Tang Coco, the arrivals to this world shouldn’t be that many. Did countless ordinary people get turned?

“Strongest signal is in the South Pacific. Nearest signal to the host is…”

Marilyn paused. The room held its breath.

“Thirty meters.”

“!!!”

Tang Coco’s pupils blew wide. Nerves went taut like bowstrings. She sprang up and lunged for Marilyn.

“Not good!”

“I Field!”

She shouted. Then the world ripped open.

Boom!

The blast came from the front of Ye Yiyi’s villa. The surge smashed five nearby villas into rubble, like sand castles under a black tide. It was a weekday morning; the district lay mostly empty. Luck hung by a single thread.

Boom!

The echoes faded. In the wreckage, Tang Coco had her I Field spread, blue as winter flame, shielding Marilyn within. Smoke boiled. Fire licked broken beams. Tang Coco turned. She stared into the thick smoke like a hunter watching brush.

A figure walked out. Male. Over two meters tall, a shadow carved from rock. The skin over his chest was cracked like dry earth. Black energy flowed within like ink. Thick arms gripped two large-caliber hand cannons. Tubes ran from the cannons into his body like leeches. His black eyes fixed on Tang Coco, cold as wet coal.

“Ha. Comfort makes you careless, huh? I actually failed to develop you…”

Tang Coco’s voice held a bitter smile, like frost under the sun. Then to Marilyn: “Marilyn, deploy the energy field.”

“Yes.”

A pale-blue field blossomed and sealed the blast zone, a glass bowl over a volcano.

“I haven’t… killed anyone in a long time.”

Her pale blue eyes bled into crimson, like dawn bleeding into war. Dark-violet Armor bloomed over her body, petal by petal. A mechanical longsword filled her hand like a silver fang. She charged. The man roared back, a beast unchained.

“Roar!!”

He raised his right-hand cannon. Black energy welled at the muzzle like tar. He fired. Tang Coco slipped aside in a whip-quick sway. The bolt scraped past her cheek like a hawk’s wing. It hit the field and vanished like a spark in rain.

She closed and raised her blade one-handed. The stroke sliced up like a rising moon and took his right arm clean.

“Roar!”

He bellowed, rage shaking dust. He swung his left cannon down like a falling pillar. The vents on Tang Coco’s Armor spat blue particles. She flashed behind him like a snowflake on wind and cut again. His left arm thumped to the ground.

She kicked the back of his knee. She aimed for the hinge like a chisel. The weak point held, stone under sandal.

“Tsk.”

She clicked her tongue. Then she dropped low and spun, a two-beat cyclone. Leg thrusters flared. The second kick crushed through. He finally buckled and fell to his knees, a felled pine.

“If you’re this easy… you were just sold here to die.”

Tang Coco stood before him, voice flat as iron.

“Roar… roar…”

His chest’s black energy churned, a storm inside cracked glass.

“This trick again?”

She saw it. A self-detonation brewing like lightning in a jar. She raised her left arm. Armor panels unfolded. They locked into a mechanized hand-cannon. She aimed at his chest. A blue lance speared through the black. He dropped like a puppet with cut strings.

“…”

She stared at the corpse, thoughts moving like dark fish in deep water.

“Alert. Dark Energy will impact Skyeye in four seconds!”

Marilyn’s voice cut in, sharp as ice.

“Emergency evade!”

Tang Coco barked.

The white Mech spat particles and skated left, quick as a swallow. Still late. A black energy beam clipped a wing and blew it apart like brittle glass.

“Marilyn, log every Dark signal’s location. Cancel Skyeye’s satellite mode. Clear the atmosphere. Stand by in near space.”

Tang Coco’s orders fell like stones.

“Understood…”

Marilyn focused, pulling the Mech away from the air’s edge.

“So… we’ve been detected.”

Tang Coco looked over the ruins, smoke coiling like dragons. She shook her head, helpless as a lone lamp in wind. She released the Armor, fished out her phone, and dialed.

“Hello?”

Tang Coco spoke first.

“Coco! What happened? Was that you?”

Ningxin’s voice on the other end was a river in flood.

“Uh… calm down, okay?”

Tang Coco sighed, a hand to her brow.

“How am I supposed to calm down after this!?”

“Uh…”

“Send people to Yiyi’s villa district. You’ll need a cleanup. I’ll have Marilyn make the fire look worse, keep civilians away. Hurry, yeah?”

Tang Coco pinched her ear, the noise like bees.

“Ah?”

Ningxin froze, then snapped to. “I’m coming right now!”

Tang Coco hung up and dialed another number.

“Xin’er…”

Her voice softened like late sun on water.

“Coco, are you okay?”

Gu Xin sounded worried, her words like a hand gripping tight.

“I’m fine. How’s Mu Yan?”

“She’s really worried about you… Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine~ Tell her not to worry.”

Tang Coco laughed, light as windbells.

“Coco… I know I can’t stop you now. But if you need anything, you tell us. You’re not who you used to be. You’re a girl, after all… Don’t push yourself on some things.”

Gu Xin’s voice was earnest, warm as a blanket.

“Alright~ Got it~”

Tang Coco sounded helpless and fond.

“By the way, Xin’er, call Yiyi. Tell her to go straight to Xiaoxiao after school. Her home… kinda isn’t livable anymore.”

Tang Coco’s tone turned sheepish, like a cat caught stealing fish.

“Huh!? What happened? What actually happened!?”

Gu Xin’s worry spiked like a struck chord.

“Relax, relax~ Ask Ningxin for the details.”

Tang Coco kept it light, a feather on a blade.

“And you? Why not tell Yiyi yourself?”

Gu Xin pressed, voice tight.

“I… have people to find.”

Tang Coco said it quietly. Her eyes cooled, ice forming over still water.