Chapter 35

Louis, who was playfully fighting with Shelley, suddenly looked up and gazed into the distance.

Shelley looked up, puzzled: "Louis?"

"Shh." Louis picked Shelley up with one hand and covered her mouth with the other, then quietly retreated into the alleyway by the roadside.

Shelley blinked, realizing Louis's actions, pulled Louis's hand away from her mouth, and whispered, "Who is it?"

Louis cautiously peeked out and whispered, "I don't know, I just feel a little...who!"

The last sentence was shouted out.

Holding Shelley in his arms, Louis turned around and, in the midst of the chaos, raised his hand and spat out a stream of poison gas in the direction he had originally been behind, quickly retreating to create distance.

This time, the poison gas he sprayed was so thick it was almost solid and dark red.

Shelley remained obediently in Louis's arms as he backed away. After Louis stopped, Shelley quickly jumped down and stood in front of him.

At this critical moment, Shelley turned and glanced at Louis.

Robert said we can't swear.

“He’s right.” Louis took two steps back to the armed police officer who had been knocked down earlier, squatted down slightly, stood up again, and picked up an assault rifle: “Don’t follow my example.”

Just as they were speaking, the fog was cut open.

The incredibly thick fog, truly like a solid, was instantly torn apart by the shockwave generated by the blade. A crack appeared in the deep red fog, which was enough to completely obscure vision, revealing the figure behind it.

Two men dressed in what appeared to be military uniforms.

The man standing in front, holding a knife, was a black-haired youth. Despite his otherwise serious military uniform, his eyeshadow somehow gave him an air of unruliness.

Behind him was a man with squinty eyes who looked sinister at first glance.

Shelley muttered, "That squinty smile reminds me of Vladimir's..."

"You know what, this looks really familiar..."

Louis, who gave a casual reply, seemed to be focusing on their physical appearance rather than their identities.

They already knew about the hounds from the documents Romain Rolland had stolen, so they weren't too nervous at the moment.

What intrigued Louis even more was the "hound's" little bit of skill.

"Second-generation body modification technology... I thought this thing was already outdated and retired."

The body modification technology, which uses high-intensity surgery to modify the human body to achieve a significant enhancement of the body, is technically successful in its second generation. However, it has a side effect: if a stable surgery is not performed every month, the body will collapse.

Theoretically, the second-generation technology, which cannot support long-term remote operations and is extremely expensive, should have been abandoned long ago.

But... isn't this the concession area?

This kind of "novel technology" that's neither entirely new nor entirely useless is most likely to appear in such places.

Louis smiled sinisterly as he watched the two men walk through the smoke zone.

How does it feel to have body ulcers once a month?

This is a blatant provocation, and generally speaking, it is quite effective.

Louis originally intended to mock the other side, but one of them was a stubborn kid who couldn't understand, and the other was as black-hearted as if he had just drunk a bucket of ink.

“Thank you for your concern, Dr. Stevenson.” He smiled, his eyes narrowed, even more amiably than Louis’s. “The second-generation technology is quite good; at least we are already very satisfied—we were not so lucky to be able to use the third and fourth generations that were developed after you left.”

They were subtly implying that Louis was less skilled than others.

However, they missed their target on this side as well.

Louis chuckled: "Technical stuff is just Robert's personal hobby! I don't care!"

The two exchanged a glance (or rather, a look), and simultaneously chuckled.

Suehiro Tetsuba and Shelley simultaneously turned to look at the person behind them.

Are you two having a good time?

Louis & Tōno Seikiku: Quite interesting.

"Louis, please stop bringing up Robert's past experiences."

Shelley was speechless: "If it weren't for your meddling, Robert wouldn't have left the Joint Institute."

“Don’t listen to Roland’s nonsense.” Louis took two steps to the side, picked up another assault rifle, stood up and said, “Robert wasn’t very interested in that area to begin with, otherwise he wouldn’t have only achieved so little.”

In this standoff, with his eyes narrowed, Tōno Saikiku silently began to recall intelligence.

Robert Louis Stevenson, a former senior researcher at the Joint Institute, focused his research on the human brain and led his team to overcome technological bottlenecks and develop second-generation body modification technology.

He later fled after being charged with multiple murders and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Later came a bunch of other messy intelligence, such as another senior researcher, Jules Verne, escaping with his research findings on the Nautilus, and the institute being destroyed for unknown reasons.

After that, Stevenson was sighted again when the UN was present.

One of the four unconfirmed members of the UN, but it seems his identity has now been confirmed.

According to his own report, his superpower was that he could produce hallucinogenic gas, which was called "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"... However, it turned out that it was indeed hallucinogenic gas, but diluted.

The high concentration of the gas was a forced-death poison gas; there are currently no records of survivors.

In short, it's difficult.

Tōno Seikiku then looked at Mary Shelley, who was standing in front of Louis.

This is an unregistered person, whose name and origin are completely unknown. They are characterized by a huge trench coat that almost covers their entire body (the hem of which clearly drags on the ground), white hair with no pigmentation, red eyes, and terrifying superhuman strength.

But what puzzled Tōno Seikiku the most was Shelley's heartbeat.

Jumping every twenty minutes or so, is this a superpower or something else?

Her internal organs were functioning strangely, making Tōno Saikiku wonder if the little girl in front of her was even alive.

Amidst this uncertainty, the standoff ended.

Louis was the first to make a move.

Holding the guns in both hands, Louis, who was aware of the effects of the second-generation body modification, did not attempt to aim. Instead, he roughly selected a direction and began to suppress the enemy with firepower.

However, his shooting style was quite distinctive—he always aimed for the upper body of the person.

He could easily dodge high-flying bullets by crouching down; some even flew into the air. But he still didn't choose to aim at the torso, which had a larger surface area.

To make room.

At the same time, Shelley bent down slightly and rushed towards the two people opposite her.

Tiaoye Caiju smiled but made no move.

Suehiro Tetsusuke raised his sword.

Having clearly seen the trajectory of the bullet and Shelley charging towards him with his naked eye, Suehiro Tetsusuke's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Plum Blossom in the Snow!"