Chapter 2
"What? Sangria defected?" The glass teacup was smashed to the ground. The middle-aged man wearing round-frame glasses stared angrily at the person in front of him. It was Xisen, the "shadow" of the Interhead Group.
"Who did she leave with? Which chaebol? Or a heretical church? Hurry up and issue a wanted order to bring her back!"
He is Charles, the head of the development department of Interhead Group, and also Sangria's direct superior. However, this female researcher is very valuable, and her existence makes him feel that his authority is challenged, so he has a deep resentment.
Xi Sen spread his hands, his expression indifferent: "I don't know. Du Lang is very tight-lipped. You know how many people have interrogated him before, but he never opened his mouth."
"What did you do to let her escape?" Charles was extremely annoyed. "You couldn't even keep a weak researcher under control? Qiqi has been watching over her for so many years and nothing happened. How come she's gone as soon as you showed up?"
Xi Sen said nothing, but just folded his arms and looked Charles up and down coldly, as if he was looking at a talking corpse.
Charles shuddered, but he still said stubbornly, "Xisen, if the boss finds out about this, neither of us will survive. We should hurry up and get her back. Even if we can't capture her alive, we must not let anyone else get her."
"The boss is the boss, who are you?" Xi Sen scoffed. "The boss wants a living person. Sangria erased almost all the research data before she left. If we can't recover it, the boss's big project will have to wait until the next talented researcher appears before it can start."
Xisen's words were ambiguous. On the surface, he said that the boss wanted Sangria alive, but his implication was that Charles was a nobody who dared to boss him around.
Charles immediately understood the implication, but he was both afraid and annoyed with Xi Sen. Now he was forced to cooperate, feeling very aggrieved. "...Could she have been secretly protected by another organization?"
Xi Sen crossed his legs impatiently. "Maybe. But this woman is always hard to guess. Maybe she took advantage of me and then kicked me out, and then she hid herself away."
On the other side, Sun Town.
"How come you're injured again!" The blonde girl Irene's exclamation broke the silence in the room.
"It's that damned shooting instructor, Hei Weier. He went too far." The childish male voice revealed dissatisfaction, and then there was another howl, "Ahhh... It hurts! Be gentler."
"Don't move! I can't bandage it!" the girl scolded, with a hint of helplessness in her voice. "Also, stop saying bad things about the teacher. My family relies on the school's subsidies to survive!"
"If you hadn't awakened your extraordinary abilities and received subsidies, we would have starved to death long ago."
"Don't I know? I just complained a few times at home."
…
These sounds were both distant and near, seemingly unreal. Sangria opened her eyes in a daze. She first saw the snow-white ceiling, then the storage cabinet across from her, cluttered with miscellaneous items. The aroma of nutritional supplements wafted through the air.
She instantly recalled the scene before she fell.
Sangria endured the pain and propped herself up with her uninjured hand, only to find that she was actually sleeping on the sofa in a narrow and cramped living room. It was obvious that this family was not rich, and was even a little poor.
"Hey? Why are you up?" The girl came over in her slippers and held Sangria down. "Hurry and lie down. You're so badly injured!"
Sangria was a little stunned and said hoarsely: "You are..."
The boy and girl in front of her looked at each other and introduced themselves to her. They looked very similar, a brother and sister, the sister was called Irene, and the brother was called Ace, and they were residents of the small town.
"I saw you as soon as I opened the door in the morning, lying in our backyard. It rained so hard yesterday and you were badly injured. Fortunately, I have first-class bandaging skills. I practiced it on my younger brother. Look, not bad, right?" Irene was very proud and satisfied with her work.
Her younger brother Ace, standing next to her, pouted and didn't even look at Sangria on the sofa. He seemed to be sulking.
Sangria looked down and saw a huge bow and a mess of gauze. She was silent for a moment, then looked up and said politely, "Thank you, but do you have any extra wound medicine or gauze?"
After a moment, the brother and sister opened their mouths slightly, looked at Sangria's skillful technique in shock, and started chatting with her.
Ace seemed to be interested and came over: "Your technique is quite professional. Are you a doctor? Can you treat my wound?"
Sangria raised her eyelids slightly and remained silent, but her hands had already begun to remove the gauze on Ace's body, changing the dressing quietly and neatly.
Irene praised her twice more before asking, "What's your name, little sister?"
Sangria suddenly remembered that she had already adjusted her face with the "Face-changing Mask" and could no longer use her real name. She had to create a new identity for herself.
She didn't say anything, but Ace next to her spoke like a firecracker: "Hey, you're not some unidentified dangerous guy, are you? I told you not to bring strangers back!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he was slapped on the top of his head.
"What nonsense are you talking about! I just treated your wound, can you please be polite?"
Irene said gently, "This is a slum, and there are many people here who don't know their origins. Don't worry, we've had our share of hardship, and we don't mean any harm. It's not easy for ordinary people like us to survive in this world, so don't worry."
Sangria understood that Irene had remained silent because she was wary of them. Her words also brought a long-lost warmth to Sangria. She slowly said, "My name is Ango. I used to be... a doctor."
Ango is now in a small town, which is a little distance away from Morino City, the "City of Intoxication" controlled by the group, but not too far.
When she heard the news, she weighed the pros and cons - she was seriously injured, and the most dangerous place might be the safest place. Perhaps around Morino City, she could temporarily hide her identity and observe the changes in the outside world. Therefore, she decided to stay put for the time being.
The siblings who took her in lost both their parents when they were young and lived in poverty. The sister worked multiple odd jobs to barely make ends meet. Fortunately, the brother had awakened his extraordinary ability and enrolled in the town's extraordinary ability school, receiving a subsidy, which made their lives much better.
In this world, the chaebol controlled 80% of the world's Beyonders, dividing up the vast majority of wealth and resources. The lower classes suffered terribly, with many unable to afford expensive tuition and medical expenses. Their only chance was to acquire Beyonders—since students attending Beyonder schools not only received tuition waivers but also living allowances, effectively adding another worker to the family. Many families continued to have children in the hope of such a bonanza, but only a few were so lucky.
Ango was fully aware of their plight. She remembered her own family's difficult circumstances as a child, and her parents had always hoped she would awaken her abilities, thereby escaping poverty and humiliation. Unfortunately, she never succeeded, so her parents boarded a freighter and journeyed to the other side of the continent, hoping to find some special method, to pray for divine mercy and change her life.
It was during this trip that they encountered a shipwreck.
Therefore, Ango has always been obsessed with understanding the secrets of acquiring extraordinary abilities, embarking on a research path, hoping to enable ordinary people to gain power through technology. However, now that she has left the Interheard Group, her research resources are limited, and she is afraid that she will no longer be able to realize her dream.
Thanks to Irene's kindness, there was one more person in the family, and their lives became even more difficult.
To ease her sister's burden, Ango checked her bank account, but the funds in the account had long been frozen, leaving her penniless. If she wanted to make money, she might need to find a job and a bank account under a new identity.
Thinking of this, Ango began to actively ask Irene if she could recommend some odd jobs to her, preferably jobs that paid cash daily, but Irene felt that Ango had a better place to go.
"I heard from Ace that their school's academic performance has always been at the bottom, staff salaries are at the bottom, and the student injury rate is high. The school doctor position is always vacant. Since you're a doctor, why don't you give it a try?"
"That's a great idea. Why don't you become the school doctor?" Ace agreed. "Not only will you get paid, but I won't have to go home injured. Sometimes we have to go to the hospital and pay exorbitant medical bills for treatment."
For Ango, being a school doctor is indeed a way out, but now she has to get a new legal identity.
This is not difficult.
"Dulang, I need an identity." Ango activated the encrypted communication method of his optical computer watch and said bluntly, "Exchange it with the unlocking method of the Yi Yan mask."
"...You are still alive!" Du Lang on the other side of the computer almost jumped up.
When they were planning their escape, they had already agreed to communicate using the encrypted channel Ango had developed. Regular online communication was too risky and could easily be traced by the company, just as she had been able to track down Dulang's identity through anonymous emails. However, after they went missing, Dulang kept sending her messages, but she didn't respond.
"You actually replied..." Du Lang was shocked.
Sangria never replied, and he guessed she probably didn't want to have any further contact with him. Talent like her was bound to be sought after by various organizations. Since she was so cautious, she must have known that using the identity he provided would reveal her location to him.
Ango had her own thoughts on this. She hadn't contacted Dulang because she didn't trust him or the people behind him, and she feared she'd be used again. But acquiring an identity was more important right now. She would try to avoid using it, but she couldn't live without one. Besides, she had the Face-Changer Mask, so if the enemy came knocking, she could always retreat.
"Stop talking nonsense, don't you want to learn?"
Ango's proposal made Dulang very excited. His body was locked by Sangria in advance and the parameters were set. It could only show one face and could not be changed. In other words, he could only use this one face. However, Sangria had all the information about this face.
"I understand. I'll wait for you."
Du Lang agreed without hesitation, as this matter would be beneficial to him rather than harmful.
However, Ango was obviously worrying too much. When she applied for the school doctor position, the principal did not even check her identity.
The reason was simple. The school was in a dilapidated state, overgrown with weeds, and the sign at the gate was already crumbling. When she walked into the school, Principal Meng was working hard to repair the gate with nails and a hammer.
"Oh? You're applying for the position of school doctor?" Principal Meng looked An Ge up and down, his eyes suspicious. "Do you know anything about our school?"
Ango hesitated, looked around, and then asked frankly, "Is it about to go bankrupt?"
…
Principal Meng nearly choked and coughed awkwardly, "Well... there's no need to be so blunt. Bah, we're just short of funds, and the salary we can offer is very limited."
Ango didn't care, because he just wanted to repay the debt he owed to Irene and her brother.
"It's enough to meet basic living needs."
"Okay." The principal dusted off his hands and pointed to the students training on the playground. "Go find the two injured students and see if you can solve their problems. If you can, come back to work tomorrow."
This was naturally easy for Ango. Having lived in danger since childhood, simple trauma treatment was a required course. Furthermore, she excelled at repairing and developing Extraordinary Abilities, making assisting students in their recovery a breeze. She passed the principal's test in no time and landed the job.
Irene and Ace were also very happy, especially Irene. She was kind and warm-hearted, and treated Ango as a weak and introverted little sister, hoping that she would get better and better. The salary Ango brought home also made the financial situation of this poor family a little better.
Ace was originally very wary of Ango, but seeing that she always kept silent and didn't seem dangerous, and now that she could bring money, his attitude towards her improved slightly.
Everything went so smoothly that Ango even had an illusion that maybe she could really stay here for a long time, living a peaceful life as an ordinary person, doing ordinary things.
Of course, this is just an illusion.
Soon, Ango saw his "reward order" in newspapers and on the streets of the town.
"The living gods have been plotted against. Can man-made extraordinary abilities return to the human world?"
"Shock! Genius researcher 'Sangria' is missing. Interhead Company is offering a ten million yuan reward. May anyone find the light of humanity!"
"Sangria has been kidnapped by a dangerous organization, and important research results have been stolen. Interhead is offering a huge reward to find her!"
"Gold medal killers 'Nightmare' and 'Shadow' are dispatched. Regardless of life or death, they will bring Sangria back."
…
Flyers scattered across the sky like snowflakes, each one bearing Sangria's face. Ango watched calmly, unperturbed. What was to come would come eventually; she had anticipated it.
She deleted most of her research results before leaving. The Interhead Group must be in a state of panic. Even if they want to train new researchers, it will take a lot of time to advance the plan without the existing results as a basis. Of course, they will find her at all costs.
So she had to take □□ away. She thought she wouldn't be discovered so quickly. As long as she kept her identity secret and didn't attract attention, it would be fine.
Ango walked around the campus calmly, thinking about what to do after paying off his debts.
This morning seemed quite ordinary, just like every day in the past few months, calm and peaceful, as if she had moved away from her past life full of deception, conspiracy and confrontation.
But just as she was about to enter the office building, she suddenly discovered that the campus was exceptionally quiet, so quiet that it was a little unusual. This quietness gave Angodi an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
The next second, the familiar sound of bullets whizzed past my ears, shattering the glass window of the health room on the first floor, and fragments scattered all over the floor.
Ango's body stiffened, her heartbeat quickened, and her pupils dilated. She slowly turned her head and saw a rough man dressed in the style of a homeless man, holding a gun and aiming at the target.
The man's greedy and bloodthirsty eyes made Ango freeze in his tracks.
Shooting teacher Hei Weier moved his shoulders and neck provocatively and said lightly, "Oh, it turns out it's just the school doctor... Your back looks a bit like Sangria on the wanted list."
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