The Unflappable Savior

Yuan Anqing had always known that his security clearance as the “Savior” wasn’t particularly high. In fact, it was lower than Zhuo’s; the chimera was the one under constant surveillance.

Yet, when someone held a knife to Zhuo’s throat in an attempt to threaten Yuan Anqing, he still felt a tremor of shock.

After establishing a tentative domestic routine with Zhuo, Yuan Anqing would take him out for some fresh air every three days. This frequency was just enough to prevent Zhuo from going stir-crazy, yet not so often as to exhaust Yuan Anqing’s limited social battery.

Today was one such outing. As they strolled through the park, Zhuo was incessantly analyzing the desires and emotions of elderly couples and young lovers passing by, brazenly mocking humanity’s incompetence.

Mid-sentence, his voice abruptly died.

Yuan Anqing turned his head, only to find a young boy in a school uniform pressing a knife against Zhuo’s neck.

“Young boy” wasn’t quite accurate. The assailant wore a high school uniform, stood around 172 centimeters tall, and had a face dotted with acne. Because Zhuo was over two meters tall, the boy had to raise the knife uncomfortably high above his head just to reach Zhuo’s throat. He glared at Yuan Anqing with wary, bloodshot eyes.

“Savior! I know your power is strange, but you’d better not do anything. Otherwise, this Watcher will lose his life!”

Watcher? Yuan Anqing glanced at Zhuo.

Zhuo appeared quite excited. His red eyes were widened slightly in anticipation.

During their last visit to the cinema, Zhuo had devoured a minor differentiated entity. However, the organization’s surveillance team was unaware of the specific process. They likely attributed the monster’s disappearance to the Savior possessing some mysterious, potent power.

Zhuo was a phenomenally dangerous individual indigenous to this world, yet his true nature had been kept a perfect secret. Yuan Anqing, on the other hand, had undoubtedly been thoroughly investigated the moment he arrived. But because his files contained no record of his actual powers, his enemies naturally attributed Zhuo’s handiwork to him.

After all, a Savior, by definition, was supposed to possess formidable combat prowess and the compassionate heart of a saint.

“You intend to use him to threaten me?” Yuan Anqing asked, looking at the seemingly normal teenager. “Do you honestly think you can defeat him?”

The boy was barely 1.7 meters tall and scrawny. As for Zhuo, even disregarding his monstrous abilities, his sheer size was intimidating. He was as robust as three of these boys combined. No one in their right mind would provoke him.

“Do you think I’m the only one here?” the boy bit out, his voice laced with a shaky challenge.

Yuan Anqing noticed the boy’s hand trembling. He surveyed their surroundings. The park area was deserted, with no pedestrians in sight. “Then how many people have you ambushed?”

“Is that for you to ask?!” The boy’s voice cracked sharply.

Yuan Anqing looked puzzled. “Can’t I ask?”

“Do you think I’ll answer you?!” The boy’s hand trembled even more violently, likely from the physical strain of holding the knife aloft for so long.

“I wouldn’t know. I’m not you,” Yuan Anqing replied, a hint of helplessness in his tone. He found the boy to be entirely too nervous for this line of work.

The kid’s demeanor was unlike that of a young prodigy or a seasoned assassin. His mental state was unstable, his stance fidgety, and his eyes darted around frantically. His fear seemed to surpass that of Yuan Anqing and Zhuo combined.

Yuan Anqing surmised that the boy was a sacrificial pawn, deployed simply to gauge the Savior’s destructive capabilities.

Exasperated by Yuan Anqing’s calm, the boy pressed the knife fully against Zhuo’s skin. “What is there left in this world that needs saving?!” he cried out dramatically.

“I don’t know.” Yuan Anqing glanced at Zhuo’s neck, confirming the skin was unbroken. “You should ask the people who summoned me here. They’re the ones in charge, aren’t they?”

The boy choked on his words. He remained silent for a long moment, finally managing to stammer, “You’re the Savior!”

“I just started recently,” Yuan Anqing clarified.

The boy was truly at a loss for how to respond. He skipped the philosophical debate entirely and reverted to threatening. “I warn you! Today, only one of you lives! Either the Watcher dies, or you die!”

“Then kill him,” Yuan Anqing countered immediately.

The boy: “…”

Zhuo pitifully raised his eyebrows. “Mr. Yuan~?”

“You kill him, and then I’ll deal with you,” Yuan Anqing stated calmly. “Frankly, my value as the Savior is far greater than that of my Watcher. If he dies, only his friends and family will mourn him. If I die, this world is finished.”

“A few sacrificing for the survival of the many—I think it’s a worthwhile trade.” Yuan Anqing pushed up his glasses. His impassive expression, combined with his detached delivery, made him appear like an unfeeling, hyper-rational elite.

“Mr. Yuan Anqing!” Zhuo’s voice sounded genuinely alarmed. “Are you abandoning me?!”

This damned drama queen.

Yuan Anqing couldn’t even be bothered to look at Zhuo. He kept his eyes on the boy. “But if you kill him, you’ll have to pay with your life. I won’t let you die comfortably. Scalded by boiling water, flayed spoon by spoon, or boiled alive—you can choose.”

The boy fell completely silent, horrified.

Yuan Anqing’s bluff was quite convincing. With his unchanging expression and monotone delivery, he genuinely seemed like a ruthless master with explosive combat power.

“Since you don’t wish him to die, then please, come with us.” A mature male voice finally emerged. A man slowly stepped out from behind a decorative rock in the nearby bushes, his hands clasped behind his back. “We’ll show you some things. If you come with us, we won’t kill him. How about it?”

Yuan Anqing estimated the man’s height, then glanced at the rock he’d been hiding behind. “Are you walking so slowly because your legs went numb from squatting?”

The man’s dramatic entrance faltered. He let out an awkward scoff and nonchalantly quickened his pace to hide his limp. “Since you are the Savior, you surely won’t let your companion die, will you?”

Yuan Anqing looked at Zhuo. To the outsiders, Yuan Anqing appeared to be weighing whether it was necessary to put himself at risk for a subordinate. In reality, Yuan Anqing was waiting to see if Zhuo was prepared to counterattack. Yuan Anqing was at a severe disadvantage in raw power, and there were likely more people hidden nearby.

“Where to?” Yuan Anqing capitulated with a sigh.

“Oh? You’re quite confident, aren’t you? Aren’t you afraid we’ve set a trap, and you’ll die by our hands?” The man walked up to Yuan Anqing. He was about the same height as Yuan, but appeared much thinner, like a walking corpse.

Yuan Anqing did not reply.

Beside them, Zhuo’s flair for the theatrical erupted. He simultaneously shouted, “Savior, run! Don’t mind me!” while grabbing the high schooler’s arm and fiercely pummeling him.

With Zhuo’s massive physique and strength, one punch sent the young boy sprawling unconscious to the ground. Having dealt with the hostage-taker, Zhuo lunged at the thin man.

Finally, the rest of the ambushers hidden behind the rocks emerged—a total of twelve people. Zhuo, fighting with the desperation of a loyal bodyguard, single-handedly took down eight of them before finally being “firmly pinned” to the ground by the remaining four.

“Mr. Yuan Anqing! Run!” Zhuo continued to shout. He struggled valiantly, nearly breaking free from the four men holding him down. “Don’t mind me! Even if you don’t care about me, it doesn’t matter, just run!”

Ultimately, Yuan Anqing and Zhuo were handcuffed together and led into a waiting SUV. Zhuo was even injected with a tranquilizer for good measure.

Yuan Anqing watched the needle pierce Zhuo’s skin. Zhuo did not scream or go berserk. Given Zhuo’s abysmal pain tolerance, Yuan Anqing theorized that ordinary human needles simply couldn’t pierce his true scales, and therefore caused him no actual harm.

“Savior, stop looking at him. Since I promised not to kill him, he won’t die.” The thin man curled his lips into a disdainful smile.

Yuan Anqing watched as the man’s mouth lifted halfway, then froze, likely because the side of his face—where Zhuo had punched him—was too swollen to smile properly.

Only the thin man accompanied them in the back of the spacious SUV, with Zhuo crammed beside them. In the front, there was only the driver.

The driver’s gender was indiscernible. Their hair was long, gathered at the back of their head in a high ponytail. Their features were sharp, yet their facial lines were relatively soft.

“Savior,” the driver spoke. Their voice was perfectly gender-neutral—reminiscent of a boy’s voice before puberty, yet also like a deeper female voice. It was quite pleasant to hear.

They met Yuan Anqing’s gaze through the rearview mirror. In that instant, an orange-yellow mist, visible only to Yuan Anqing, filled the entire car.

This is a powerful differentiated entity?!

Yuan Anqing was somewhat surprised. He had thought Zhuo was the only monster capable of concealing his aura and maintaining absolute rationality.

As the mist filled the air, the driver’s appearance underwent a subtle shift. Their face became impossibly refined, and their ears elongated, the cartilage hardening into pointed, elven-like tips. Their hair turned stark white, and their eyes shifted to a deep, glowing purple.

The changes weren’t drastic or grotesque like Zhuo’s true form. It was as if their entire being had been enhanced with a cinematic soft-focus filter, making them devastatingly beautiful.

“What do you want now?” this beautiful entity asked Yuan Anqing. Their voice carried an added, ethereal resonance, exceptionally melodious and hypnotic.

Yuan Anqing answered truthfully, “I want you to watch the road while driving, not me.”

“No effect?!” The thin man was astonished. “You didn’t provoke his desires?”

Ah, Yuan Anqing understood. These people were trying to use this entity’s aura to seduce or manipulate him.

The abilities of this entity were vastly inferior to Zhuo’s. Comparing the two was like comparing a child on a tricycle to a heavy armored tank. It was no wonder Zhuo’s existence had been kept such a perfect secret. While there had been many Saviors, a chimera like Zhuo was truly unique.

The beautiful entity tried again, their voice dripping with sympathetic honey. “They bound you to this world against your will, making you lose everything you once had. Don’t you feel angry?”

“Not really. I didn’t have much to begin with,” Yuan Anqing replied honestly. He truly didn’t want to be the Savior, but at least he had gained some vacation time out of the deal.

The entity faltered. “…What about your parents? Don’t you care about them anymore?”

“I’m an orphan,” Yuan Anqing said.

“Foster parents?”

“None. No one liked me.” There were people who had liked Yuan Anqing temporarily, but no one had ever established a deep bond with him. A few had tried to adopt him, but eventually sent him back. “That topic is a bit offensive to me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the entity instinctively apologized, breaking character.

“It’s fine. Just be mindful next time,” Yuan Anqing said, forgiving them gracefully.

The entity: “Eh?” How did the conversation take such a polite turn?

“Also, don’t ask about friends; I don’t have any,” Yuan Anqing finished preemptively. He then pointed toward the windshield. “The speed limit ahead drops to eighty. You’re speeding. Please pay attention.”