The King of Black Fog

"Boom!"

The mother mosquito smashed into the wall, the strong impact causing a considerable amount of dust to fall from the ceiling of the 22nd floor and disperse in circles.

Zheng Qing aimed in an instant, while the other soldiers followed suit, unleashing an endless barrage of bullets at the mother mosquito, preventing her from landing for a time.

"Cat Head! Bullets are useless! Use hand grenades!" Amidst the feast of gunfire, the squad leader shouted to Zheng Qing.

"No!" Zheng Qing reloaded and continued firing.

Using a hand grenade would surely bring down the 23rd and 24th floors, and there were still civilians on the 22nd floor with unknown fates. Any more surprises could bring the entire Building A crashing down.

The squad leader, having no other choice, gritted his teeth and continued to vent his rage at the mother mosquito, the barrel of his gun glowing red with heat.

"Stop it!" Li Changzhou shouted. "You can't kill her like this, let me go!"

Nobody listened to him.

Zheng Qing looked at Li Changzhou twice, struggled for a moment, raised her left hand, and ordered:

"Cease fire!"

The thunderous sounds of gunfire instantly turned into a gentle drizzle, dwindling to just a few lingering shots, which soon ceased altogether.

On the 22nd floor, only the calls of Li Qianxia, the chubby boss fighting hand in hand with four blood mosquitoes, remained, eerily quiet.

The mother mosquito landed and thrust her long spear into a corpse at her feet, the gushing blood sucked away, and the pits and dents on her body swelled up again.

"Are you confident?" Zheng Qing asked Li Changzhou in a low voice.

"The reward, plus its Identity Card." Li Changzhou pointed at the mother mosquito as though choosing a prime cut of pork at a market.

"No," Zheng Qing immediately refused. "This is a Doomsday, with a white Identity Card. The state must reclaim it. A hundred thousand, and your information level goes up one tier."

"Plus the courtyard house on Yanhe Road."

"...Do you know how much that courtyard house costs? Tens of millions!"

Li Changzhou turned his head, surprised, and said to Yang Qinglan, "Your family is that rich?"

"Be careful!" someone exclaimed.

Li Changzhou twisted his waist, dodging the mother mosquito's sneak attack, and lashed out with his right leg.

Amidst the fierce sound of the wind, the mother mosquito was kicked away like a cannonball.

Li Changzhou swung his arm like a leopard pouncing forward, quickly closed in again, and dove into a flurry of Great Strength Bull Fist.

Then he grabbed the mother mosquito's slender legs and, like a whip, violently smashed her left and right.

He smashed her on the ground, against pillars, and onto the other blood mosquito warriors.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

It felt like the 22nd floor was shaking, or perhaps the entire Building A was shaking.

An extreme scene of brutality and wilderness.

"Huff." Five minutes later, Li Changzhou stopped, breathing a bit heavily with exhaustion.

He tossed aside the mosquito legs he had torn off, dusted his hands, and approached Yang Qinglan: "It's over."

Everyone was still in shock.

The chubby boss, his mouth agape, asked Li Qianxia in a daze, "How many times... have you played the game?"

"Five times." Li Qianxia held up five fingers, flaunting them as if showing off a nice hand, and shook them slightly.

Five was the number of times she and Yang Qinglan had participated, while Li Changzhou had played three times. For secrecy, they agreed on claiming five externally.

"Five times?!" The chubby boss was both astonished and reassured.

It wasn't that he was weak, but that these people were abnormal. The game had not been going on for that long, and they had already participated five times!

Running a fitness club and being in business himself, he knew the importance of seizing the initiative. He thought that having taken part three times, if not miles ahead, he was at least among the top tier and was quite proud of it.

To his surprise, he encountered three fierce men and women who had participated five times during a national operation.

Do young people nowadays not fear death? Do they really treat this as just a game?

Just when everyone thought it was over and the rescue team leader began to save people, the mother mosquito, legless and motionless on the ground, vibrated her wings and lunged at Li Changzhou.

Li Qianxia's mouth opened to shout a warning, her words caught in her throat;

Yang Qinglan's eyes tinted with a touch of sky blue, ready to release "Attract And Repel".

But the mother mosquito had already reached behind Li Changzhou.

As though he had eyes in the back of his head, Li Changzhou twisted his waist and punched out.

"Bang!"

The 22nd floor trembled.

The female mosquito smashed into the wall, and from the point of impact made by the fist, circles of spiral cracks spread across its body.

There were also faint spiral patterns etched into the wall behind the mosquito.

A white identity card popped out from the head and then fell to the ground.

"Finally succeeded once," Li Changzhou sighed, half satisfied, half regretful.

For a full five minutes, he had managed to use the Bull Horn Spiral Force only once, with a lower chance than the Six Meridian Divine Sword.

How could he not know whether the female mosquito was dead or not? He even deliberately blocked Yang Qinglan's view; he just wanted to see if a sneak attack could force him to use the Bull Horn Spiral Force.

The ambulance siren wailed, the lights swirling and flashing, as rain poured down.

Ming City Technology Plaza's first-floor lobby.

"Brother Li, you must visit Lou's Gym when you're free!"

The chubby owner spoke with an enthusiasm as if he wished to hold onto Li Changzhou's hand:

"I have professional equipment and professional combat athletes there. After this mission, the country has even allowed me to set up a shooting range. Many players come there to spar and practice; it's a place for mutual learning and exchange!"

Li Changzhou, who initially didn't take it seriously, became interested.

He immediately exchanged contact information, arranging a definite visit.

The chubby owner didn't stay long and left in his own car. The female celebrity was comforting some people who were scared out of their wits, trying to prevent them from developing a trauma.

Tang Yijun had been lying on the wall, drenched from head to toe, and was escorted away by rescue personnel early on.

"These post-2000s kids… We, the '90s generation, are really more dependable," Li Changzhou remarked.

Zheng Qing glanced at him, thinking 'Dependable indeed.' 'Join the officials then, or don't take money for your work. Have the nerve to criticize the post-2000s, shameless.'

Li Changzhou completely ignored her look.

It was not Miss Yang's gaze, after all. Hers was the gaze at the center of the universe, with gamma rays capable of penetrating any life form.

The three of them said goodbye to Zheng Qing and declined the offer of a police car ride, opting to take a cab home instead.

Back on Yanhe Road, after a shower and changing into clean, refreshing clothes, Li Changzhou and Li Qianxia shared an umbrella, stepping on the cobblestone path to go to Yang Qinglan's Qing Lan Bookstore together.

"Bro, what exactly was that zombie?" Li Qianxia asked curiously.

"Who cares what it was? Before my Great Strength Bull Fist, they're all taken down with one punch."

"By the way, your Great Strength Bull Fist - the name's so tacky."

"Return to Simplicity? Indeed, it's completely unornamented and straightforward," Li Changzhou nodded.

"I'm talking about it being 'tacky'!" Li Qianxia pulled the umbrella toward herself a bit.

"I don't blame you for being uncultured," Li Changzhou pulled it back.

"I'm uncultured?!" Li Qianxia exploded, "If it wasn't for my tutoring you in math, would you have been able to get into Ming University?! Ingrate, biting the hand that feeds you, breaking the bridge after crossing, heartless, fickle!"

From the idioms she used, one could tell it was the brother who had tutored the sister.

Li Qianxia's favorite thing to do was to claim her brother's achievements as her own, like how she insisted she helped Li Changzhou unwrap the umbilical cord that was wrapped around his neck in the womb, when in reality it was he who had done so for her.

Inside Qing Lan Bookstore, there were three groups of customers, sipping tea, enjoying some desserts, but only one was reading a book, "The Glory of Ancient Greek Civilization."

The two waitresses in the store had been hired by Yang Qinglan; they looked like they had just graduated from college.

Both wore the store's aprons—embroidered with a pattern of Qing Wind—and their attire was plain and simple, likely per Miss Yang's requirement.

The ambiance of the store felt comforting; a place where one can go without makeup and quietly read books.

"Qing Lan!" Li Qianxia entered the store first and walked towards Yang Qinglan, who sat alone in a corner.

Li Changzhou closed the umbrella, shook off the rainwater, placed it in the umbrella stand outside the bookstore, and then walked over.

Yang Qinglan, too, had taken a bath and changed into a light blue chiffon dress, her slender waist accentuated by a white belt, her black hair casually pinned up, revealing a long, pale neck.

"Miss Yang," he greeted her as he sat down.

Yang Qinglan nodded without speaking and continued to write the summary of the action with a pen, occasionally sipping her milk tea.

Her pale, straight legs were crossed, her tender feet in sandals swinging back and forth.

It was a relaxed and comfortable scene.

Li Changzhou felt a twinge of itchiness.