Ceasefire

“I’ll pass,” Cheng Ya refused with a dismissive wave of her hand. “You’ve already reached your limit. If we keep fighting like this, you’ll die. You should cherish your life more; if you’re dead, you won’t be able to feel pain anymore.”

“Besides, you don’t actually think you can win, do you? You’re significantly stronger now, but your mana consumption has spiked accordingly. At this rate, how long can you last? Ten minutes? Twenty? Thirty minutes at the absolute most.”

“Do you really think you can defeat me in that tiny window of time? Defeat me—a person whose greatest strengths are endurance and regeneration?”

“Don’t worry, though. We’ll meet again. Next time, if you want to fight, I’ll be happy to accompany you anytime.”

With that, under Ran Jiuyi’s resentful gaze, Cheng Ya beat her wings and took to the sky.

Ran Jiuyi didn’t try to stop her. She admitted Cheng Ya was right—based on her remaining mana, she could fight for thirty minutes at most. In such a short time, she had zero confidence in her ability to take Cheng Ya down.

No matter how unwilling she was, she had to accept the truth: she had lost this battle.

Five days later, in Meng Shan’s home, Ran Jiuyi opened her eyes.

“You’re awake? How are you feeling?”

Meng Shan’s voice reached her ears. Ran Jiuyi replied feebly, “Not great. Everything below my neck feels powerless. How many days have I been out?”

“Five days. Given that you barely have any bones or flesh left on you, it’s a miracle you’re even alive and talking.”

Looking at Ran Jiuyi—who currently consisted of nothing but a head and a partial torso—Meng Shan picked up a bowl of soup from the table. “Want some? You’ve been unconscious for five days without a bite to eat. You must be starving.”

“Of course I do. Give me a hand, I can’t get up. My spine and limbs haven’t had time to repair themselves yet.”

“That’s not ‘repairing,’ that’s ‘regrowing.’ Just stay lying down; I’ll feed you.” Meng Shan took a small sip to check the temperature. Once satisfied, he brought the spoon to her lips. “I have to ask, though… can you actually swallow?”

Meng Shan still remembered the scene from five days ago. Shortly after the battle between Ran Jiuyi and Cheng Ya ended, a creature composed entirely of obsidian-like needles had sought him out. If the monster hadn’t called out his name, letting him know it was Ran Jiuyi, he would have emptied his magazines into the thing that looked like it crawled out of a horror movie.

Following Ran Jiuyi’s instructions, Meng Shan had used his car to rush her back home at top speed. Once they were in a safe environment, Ran Jiuyi deactivated her Ascension state and fell into a deep sleep to focus on regenerating.

It was only then that Meng Shan discovered, to his horror, that after the fight with Cheng Ya, Ran Jiuyi’s remaining organic tissue wouldn’t even fill a small bowl. Honestly, if those fragments hadn’t started wriggling together and hyper-proliferating, he would have assumed she was dead.

Fortunately, her recovery speed was faster than expected. In just five days, she had regrown a head and a spine from a pile of “heroic fragments.”

“Should be fine. My internal organs are mostly back. Just feed me. Worst case, a hole opens in my stomach and I leak soup all over the bed.”

“Easy for you to say; I’m the one who has to clean it up. If you’re going to leak, I might as well not feed you and save myself a bowl of soup.”

Despite his grumbling, Meng Shan brought the spoon to her lips and patiently waited for her to finish. Spoon by spoon, he spent nearly half an hour with dogged patience until she had finished the entire bowl.

Helping her wipe the stray broth from her lips, Meng Shan asked with concern, “How is it? Any discomfort?”

“It’s okay. At least it doesn’t hurt right now. What kind of soup is this? Tastes pretty good.”

“Simple chicken soup, but I put a lot of heart into it. Also, you should have asked that before drinking. Otherwise, you wouldn’t even know if I’d poisoned you.”

Just heart? Ran Jiuyi glanced at the empty bowl. She’d had chicken soup before, and this flavor wasn’t something achieved just by “putting heart into it.”

“Would you poison me?” she asked.

“No,” Meng Shan replied bluntly.

“Then I have nothing to worry about.”

“Want more? I made plenty.”

“No thanks. If I drink another bowl or two, you won’t get anything else done today.”

“…” “…”

After a moment of silence, Ran Jiuyi broke the ice. “Aren’t you going to ask why I ended up like that?”

Meng Shan countered, “If I ask, will you answer?”

Ran Jiuyi paused. “…I’ll be selective.”

“Then go ahead. Try to be as thorough as possible.”

Ran Jiuyi gathered her thoughts. “A few days ago, I was targeted by a perverted, masochistic mad scientist. She tried to force me to sell my body, I refused, we fought, and I ended up like this.”

“A perverted, masochistic mad scientist? Why so many adjectives?”

“Because that’s exactly what she is. Her name is Cheng Ya, by the way.”

Meng Shan recalled the naked woman he had seen. Truly, one couldn’t judge a book by its cover; such a beautiful woman turned out to be a freak.

“Why did she come after you? Is there something about you that attracts her?”

“My physical body.”

“…I’m being serious. Don’t play around.”

“I am being serious. She’s obsessed with my flesh. She said I could make her abilities evolve or something. Why do you think my spine was gone? That crazy woman ripped it out!”

“Then explain it clearly. Stop saying things that invite misunderstanding,” Meng Shan complained. “So you… wait, I mean, Bian… couldn’t you beat her?”

“Let’s just be direct. There’s no point in using the alias now.”

“Fine. You couldn’t beat Cheng Ya?”

Ran Jiuyi tried to shake her head, but couldn’t move it. “No. Not even close. Her ability is a hard counter to mine; our compatibility is terrible. Even ignoring that, she simply outclasses me in terms of power.”

“I only survived because she had no intention of killing me. If she had wanted to keep fighting, I’d be dead.”

Meng Shan was somewhat speechless. “…You’re remarkably blunt about it. Didn’t you say there were only about a dozen people in the world who could beat you that badly?”

“What can I say? The matchmaking system is at work. It matched me against a top-tier ‘Challenger’ from that tiny pool of people. If you play games, you know the feeling—after a long win streak, the system matches you against gods.”

“Can you blame me? No. It’s my fault for having such a long win streak.”

Her self-deprecating吐槽 was so sharp that Meng Shan didn’t know how to respond for a moment. “You have a great attitude.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

Meng Shan sighed. “Just be careful. But you have a point—the stronger you get, the more important the matters you handle, and the more likely you are to encounter other powerhouses. It’s inevitable that some of them will be ridiculously strong.”

Ran Jiuyi grumbled, “True, but the frequency of meeting these freakish powerhouses lately is a bit much. Two in less than three months? What is this? System-enforced win rate balancing?”

“Maybe it is.” Meng Shan shrugged. “Cheng Ya, right? I’ll contact my acquaintances and see if I can dig anything up.”

“Don’t investigate her.” Ran Jiuyi’s tone suddenly turned grave. “Listen to me. Do not investigate her.”

Meng Shan’s tone sharpened as well. “Why? Give me a reason that convinces me, or I’m doing it anyway.”

“She’s too strong. If she fought for real, you and those three Magical Girls together wouldn’t last a single round. Besides, she’s only interested in me; there’s no need for you to get involved.”

“Moreover, I know most of the world’s top-tier powerhouses, and I’ve at least heard of the rest. But Cheng Ya? I’ve never even heard the name. It’s like she appeared out of thin air. It’s absolutely abnormal.”

“That reason isn’t enough.” Meng Shan shook his head. “You’re strong too, but that didn’t stop me from looking into you. From the moment you became my assistant, I was already involved. So, tell me something useful.”

“…Cheng Ya isn’t like me. She’s way more of a freak. Fine. Have you heard of an organization called ‘The Laboratory’?”

“I have. When I was in the military, I heard a lot of our high-end gear was supplied by them. Word is their influence is massive—stronger than most major nations.”

Meng Shan paused. “…Is Cheng Ya part of The Laboratory?”

“Yes. From what she said, I suspect she’s one of their high-ranking executives.” Ran Jiuyi recalled their conversation. “Setting aside her strength—which you saw—there’s also the Werewolf Ken that the police reported. She’s the one who created him.”

In this country, most matters involving superhumans were handled by Magical Girls, and Ken’s presence in the city was no exception.

“Is Ken that strong?” Meng Shan asked.

“Way weaker than me. He just runs fast and has good luck. But for him to lead me on a chase across three cities, he had to have some tricks up his sleeve.”

“Top-tier global strength plus incredible scientific capability… You’re right. I shouldn’t investigate her. Even if I did, there’s nothing I could do.”

Meng Shan then shifted his tone. “But that’s only if I were alone. Right now, aren’t you lying right here?”

“…You do realize I’m lying here, right?” Ran Jiuyi’s voice was full of helplessness. “Fine. Investigate if you want, but be careful. Don’t lose your life. If anything happens, tell me immediately.”

At this, Ran Jiuyi brought up another matter. “Didn’t I drive your car out yesterday? How did you use your car to find me?”

Meng Shan answered straightforwardly, “I installed a little long-distance remote control gadget on the car. And I also installed the same tracking software I put on the three kids’ phones and headsets.”

“…Should I have guessed that already? You really are a ‘dirty’ player, aren’t you?”