It was a Saturday. Cold Night Feather was sitting on the living room sofa, holding a cup of black tea as she read through the Heavenly Mandate files she’d wrung out of Wang Jun.
It had been five days since the last incident. Li Ming still hadn’t woken up. Cold Night Feather had checked him a few times, then told Bai Xin that Li Ming had been corroded by dark energy. Even though that dark energy was now completely purged, it would still take a while before he woke up. So Cold Night Feather slapped an energy orb on him to keep him alive so the guy wouldn’t starve to death, then just stopped worrying about it. Only Bai Xin went to see him every day. Thankfully he didn’t need to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom like this, or Li Ming probably would’ve gotten “fixed” by Cold Night Feather out of sheer annoyance.
“This organization really is like a full-on insane asylum.” She took a sip of her utterly ordinary black tea and sighed. By the way, every time Bai Xin watched Cold Night Feather drink tea, she always felt like she herself was a little maid, while Cold Night Feather was some princess having afternoon tea in a royal garden. This girl could drink a few-yuan tea bag brew like it was a royal exclusive blend.
The root cause was simple: Cold Night Feather felt that now, no matter how you looked at it, she counted as a beautiful girl. Even if she still had the heart of a rough guy, appearance was extremely important. Because of that, every move she made now carried traces of the noble etiquette and posture XiaoYunYao had once forced her to learn. Add in the powerful aura of confidence that came with sheer strength, and anyone who didn’t know better might honestly think they’d run into an empress.
Back to the files in Cold Night Feather’s hands. She’d gotten them from Wang Jun. After all, she was now in a cooperative relationship with the military; if she could help them solve problems, they’d be more than happy. Very quickly, a detailed dossier on the organization “Heavenly Mandate” landed in Cold Night Feather’s hands.
They called it “detailed,” but because Heavenly Mandate had always lurked in the shadows and only in recent years started stepping out to do big things, the files weren’t actually that detailed at all. The more Cold Night Feather read, the deeper her frown grew.
Heavenly Mandate had first appeared five years ago. Back then, the Unyielding Fortress was facing an unprecedented large-scale Sin Beast assault. During that battle, the commanding officer was assassinated by a black-robed figure who emerged from the shadows. Several other high-ranking officers were killed as well. At first, people thought the attacker was a humanoid monster, but before it died, it rasped out with a hoarse voice:
“Long live Our Lord! Heavenly Mandate is eternal!”
That was the first time the name “Heavenly Mandate” entered the public eye. Because they lost their commander, humanity took devastating losses in that battle, and one of the three great Fortresses almost fell. If Ji Xing, an S‑S‑rank ability user, hadn’t rushed over with several other ability users from around the world—each at least S‑rank—the Unyielding Fortress would’ve gone down. The Thunder General, who seemed to have crossed paths with Cold Night Feather once, had also taken part in that brutal fight.
Heavenly Mandate had caused humans heavy losses. The military certainly wasn’t going to let them go, so they sent out hounds all over the world to hunt the organization. But they found nothing. After pulling that stunt, Heavenly Mandate went quiet, rarely appearing in the public eye. They only showed up occasionally to surround and capture Realm Beasts.
The last big thing Heavenly Mandate did was three years ago, when they tried to capture a Thunder Realm Beast. Rumor said that for that battle, Heavenly Mandate deployed at least one S+‑rank ability user, three S‑rank ability users, plus several A‑rank and a large number of B‑rank members. The world was shaken—just this one strike force was enough to prove Heavenly Mandate’s terrifying power.
But the result of that battle, supposedly, was that they happened to run into stormy weather. The Thunder Realm Beast used that chance to escape with serious injuries. After that, Heavenly Mandate went quiet again. This attempt to capture White Feather counted as a relatively big operation, yet strangely, they’d only sent two B++‑rank people instead of an elite unit.
No one knew what Heavenly Mandate wanted or what they were trying to do. They were hostile to humans and just as hostile to Sin Beasts. Rumor had it they often hunted Sin Beasts as well. The general verdict on Heavenly Mandate was the same everywhere: a nest of lunatics. For the sake of their so-called Lord, they feared nothing, not even death. They never cared about the process—only the result.
Cold Night Feather rubbed her temples, head aching. Being targeted by such a troublesome organization was not good news. Who knew what a bunch of crazies might do?
Her strength was formidable, but against that group with deep foundations and a pile of bizarre tools, she didn’t feel secure at all. Just look at all the gadgets they’d brought that were perfectly tailored to restrain White Feather.
She drained her cup in one go, still frowning, opened her computer… and started gaming.
For someone living on a continent that worshiped force and didn’t have many entertainment options, and who was herself a reclusive battle maniac, a computer was better than any divine artifact. Could a divine artifact run games? Could it play anime and movies? Divine artifacts were trash in comparison. If those boys and girls who were sick of staring at their screens every day heard her say that, they’d probably cry. If you’ve got the guts, hand them a divine artifact instead.
As for how Cold Night Feather learned to use a computer… with a sound mind, two working hands and feet, plus insane comprehension, it really wasn’t that hard.
So going from not even knowing how to turn it on to becoming a full-blown internet-addicted girl hadn’t taken her very long.
Right now, Cold Night Feather was playing a game called Overwatch—well, Over-butt, as people jokingly called it. She was using a mechanical ninja named Genji. After nimbly dodging the enemy Soldier: 76’s spray of bullets and taking him out in style, Cold Night Feather frowned and turned on her mic, because her other teammates were in the middle of a full-blown blame war.
“Fuck your dad! If you can’t play DPS, why’d you pick a DPS slot?” The player on Lucio, a DJ‑type support who could heal and speed up teammates with music—everyone just called him “DJ”—snapped over voice chat.
“Cut it out, I’ve got gold elims and gold damage on Rein!” another guy said in a thick Northeast accent. He was playing Reinhardt, a heavily armored knight in his sixties who could raise a barrier field to block damage for his team and charge and hammer when needed.
Before the player on Reaper—the one who’d actually picked the DPS role—could say anything, Cold Night Feather cut in.
“Hey, stop tearing into each other. I’ve got four golds. Just cap the damn point.”
The moment they heard it was a girl, and with a voice that sounded amazing, the whole group forgot about flaming each other and started howling like wolves.
“Whoa, Genji’s a girl? You sound so good!”
“Damn, add me on Battle.net and please carry me!”
“Hey, wanna queue together, girl?”
…
In short, a girl’s presence had ridiculous power. Once they stopped flaming and actually played properly, they somehow pulled off a comeback. As Cold Night Feather watched her own Play of the Game—Dragonblade out, cutting down enemies left and right—Bai Xin’s shout came from Li Ming’s room.
“Li Ming-ge woke up, Night Feather!”
Cold Night Feather let out a sigh, said “Something came up, I’m out,” into the mic, quit the game, and headed upstairs.
“That guy finally woke up,” she muttered, a vein practically popping on her forehead.
