Chapter 9: The Human Guide (Part 3)
Inside the hospital room.
The guide wearing a mental-power disruptor around his neck was teasing the serious-faced Felix.
“Little white tiger, let me go, and you’ll get the answers you want.”
“Do you think a cripple like you is qualified to negotiate with me?”
Felix pulled over a chair and sat down opposite the hospital bed.
“Hehe. Looks like your owner didn’t teach you basic manners. But I suppose that’s only natural. After all, he abandoned you.”
“What do you mean?”
Felix clenched his fist, his half-beastified nails piercing into his palm.
The guide lying on the bed let out a malicious laugh and tried to use his mental power, only to be jolted by the disruptor around his neck.
Even so, he did not forget to provoke him.
“After forming a mental contract, beastmen can never wash away the bonding brand for the rest of their lives. But humans are different. Human guides possess the ability to remove any mental restriction. We can wash away our own brands, form contracts with countless beastmen, and then make countless beastmen serve us. Isn’t that interesting?”
Felix no longer wanted to entangle himself with him. He stood up and was about to leave, but the bonding brand behind his ear and on the side of his neck suddenly lit up.
“Felix, help me unlock the disruptor.”
A familiar voice appeared inside the hospital room.
Felix whipped his head around. The guide before him was lying motionless on the hospital bed, as if he were dead, yet the irresistible command still echoed through the room.
Felix covered the burning, stinging brand behind his ear. Uncontrollably, he walked toward the hospital bed and entered the unlock command on the disruptor.
A translucent centipede-like thing drilled into the guide’s brain. The guide, who had originally been completely still, instantly opened his eyes and gave Felix a satisfied smile.
“Thank you, little white tiger.”
Immediately afterward, a barrage of artillery tore through the defenses of the starship’s medical level.
The starship that had been invisibly parked above Hundred Birds City gradually revealed its true form. A hole was blasted through the hard outer defensive wall, leading directly to the starship’s medical level.
Red warning lights flashed across every level of the starship.
Outside the hospital room, Lin Chuan and Jin Chi’an, who had received the notification, immediately set off for the scene. Just as they were about to leave, Jin Chi’an’s gaze unconsciously drifted toward the still-closed hospital room door.
A bad feeling grew from the bottom of his heart, but he immediately dismissed it. Then he went with Lin Chuan toward the incident site.
Sunlight from outside seeped through the massive breach. Several bird beastmen flew outside the opening, the weapons in their hands aimed directly at the starship. In an orderly manner, they charged through the breach into the medical level and clashed head-on with the Allied Forces soldiers who had arrived at the battlefield.
As Jin Chi’an rushed toward the combat zone, he spread out his mental net to perceive the situation on the front line. The mental-power fluctuations of dozens of bird beastmen entered his mind.
Only then did Jin Chi’an belatedly realize something. He pulled up the initial investigation report sent by Hundred Birds City on his optical computer. At this moment, the words “several border garrison soldiers missing” on the report were especially conspicuous.
Jin Chi’an asked in confusion, “Mental hypnosis? Could there be another guide among the enemy forces capable of mass hypnosis?”
The ability of mental hypnosis was limited to those whose mental bodies were fantasy-type, or certain outstanding S-rank guides. But there were only a handful of such people. The empire had only four registered individuals besides Jin Chi’an, and all of them had been incorporated into the imperial military. The probability of one appearing here was practically zero.
As Jin Chi’an was thinking, an electromagnetic railgun pierced through the mecha troops fighting at the front. The soldiers who had arrived early were almost routed.
Seeing the bird beastman ahead carrying a heavy weapon, Jin Chi’an clenched his jaw and was about to activate mental-power interference, but the other party seemed to sense his mental-power fluctuations and aimed the heavy weapon in their direction.
Jin Chi’an instantly snapped back to himself. He slammed into Lin Chuan beside him, dodging the railgun’s attack.
A single railgun shot was enough to pierce through the barrier defense and outer shell of an ordinary mechanical mecha, let alone the two of them, who were currently unarmed. Just being nearby, they were left dizzy and disoriented by the shockwave it created.
“Damn, even this can get us focused down?” Lin Chuan complained, clutching his arm, which had been bruised from the impact.
“Lin Chuan, put away your mental power. They can sense the fluctuations of guide mental power.”
“Sense mental power? Aren’t they beastmen?”
“They can no longer be considered ordinary beastmen. I just sensed their mental power leaking outward. Most likely, they can now manipulate mental abilities.”
Jin Chi’an’s brows furrowed tightly. His hand gripped the energy gun at his waist.
Just then, a bird beastman knocked back the Allied Forces soldiers resisting at the front and walked toward them.
A tiger’s roar pierced through the medical level. Immediately afterward, with lightning speed, extended claws tore through the half-beastified wings of that bird beastman and, in passing, crushed the electromagnetic railgun in the other party’s hand.
“Felix?”
Jin Chi’an looked at the familiar white tiger in front of him and let go of the worry gripping his heart. Without any hesitation, he entrusted the defense before him to Felix.
As for himself, he activated his mental tendrils to attack the enemy soldiers’ consciousness clouds. Although the beastmen’s hard mental barriers still existed, compared to that long-tailed leaf monkey from before, the bird beastmen’s mental barriers seemed especially fragile.
The only difference was that a beastman’s mental-power fluctuations would usually be contained inside the mental barrier. But this time, before Jin Chi’an had even entered the other party’s consciousness cloud, he could already sense intense mental-power fluctuations.
His mental tendril transformed into a blade and hacked a crack into the other party’s mental barrier.
The moment he entered the other party’s consciousness cloud, a small, translucent, many-legged, elongated insect attacked his mental tendril.
Seeing this, Jin Chi’an immediately counterattacked. The moment the two touched, a strange suction seemed to try to suck away his consciousness. Feeling the dizziness in his head, Jin Chi’an immediately injected himself with a mental-power enhancer. He then unfolded countless branches and tore the long insect’s body into pieces.
That bird beastman’s gaze instantly became dull, and his movements turned sluggish.
Seeing signs that the long insect was recovering, Jin Chi’an immediately activated his tendrils and dragged its fragmented body out of the beastman’s consciousness cloud.
The moment it came into contact with the outside world, the bird beastman’s eyes became hollow, and he collapsed backward powerlessly.
Seeing this, a soldier on the front line was about to step forward and fire another shot, but Jin Chi’an immediately stopped him.
“Wait. Take him alive.”
As soon as he finished speaking, an extremely powerful wave of mental power crossed the entire medical level and arrived at the combat zone where everyone was.
At that moment, the bird beastmen fighting the Allied Forces seemed to receive an order. They covered one another and prepared to leave the starship through the breach.
Although it was only an instant of mental signal transmission, Jin Chi’an still recognized the source of that energy. It was the black-robed guide he had briefly fought the day before.
Jin Chi’an reacted instantly and ran toward the direction from which the mental power had been launched.
When he reached the rear of the medical level, the guide had already wrapped himself in a brand-new black robe and was standing in front of the open hatch, as if waiting for his arrival.
Seeing him rush over, the black-robed guide let out a soft laugh and said self-mockingly, “Sure enough, the older one gets, the worse one’s memory becomes. If I hadn’t looked at his memories, I would have almost forgotten about you, Jin Chi’an.”
Jin Chi’an did not want to waste words with him. He quickly activated his mental tendrils to attack, but every strike was blocked by a powerful mental force spilling outward.
“Oh my, little friend, don’t start fighting at the slightest disagreement,” the black-robed guide said helplessly.
Jin Chi’an sensed that unusually powerful mental force. The guide before him was completely different from the one yesterday.
“Who are you?”
“You may call me Oshta.”
After saying that, Oshta turned around, removed the hood covering his head, brushed aside his long silver-white hair, and revealed the fair skin at the back of his neck.
Immediately afterward, countless branded totems appeared before Jin Chi’an’s eyes. Familiar memories crashed into his mind.
Oshta, having succeeded, gave him a meaningful smile. Right after that, one of the totems lit up red.
“See you next time, little Maine Coon.”
Oshta jumped down from the hatch. A crested eagle let out a long cry and caught the falling Oshta.
Jin Chi’an hurried to the edge of the hatch and raised his energy gun, about to shoot him.
Unexpectedly, a pair of beastified tiger claws appeared from his side and crushed the energy gun gathering power with bare hands.
Jin Chi’an turned his head in disbelief and looked at Felix beside him. Only then did he realize what had happened.
“Felix? You’re the one who let him go?”
Felix did not respond. His face remained dark the entire time, and his gaze was fixed directly on Jin Chi’an as Jin Chi’an questioned him.
“Felix, are you insane? Do you know what crime you’ll be sentenced for in the alliance between the two races if you let a zerg enemy go?”
Jin Chi’an clenched his fists. He could not quite read Felix’s expression at this moment.
In the end, under the other party’s silent response, he exploded and punched Felix’s refined, cold face.
“Get lost. Don’t let me see you for a while.”
Jin Chi’an turned to leave, but a tiger paw landed on his left arm.
Jin Chi’an looked back and saw Felix, who had beastified into a white tiger. Annoyed, he raised his hand and flung away that fluffy paw, then left without looking back.
“Roar.”
Felix let out a weak roar, as if trying to make Jin Chi’an stay.
But things did not develop the way he had expected. Jin Chi’an seemed to have made up his mind and walked away without turning back.
Felix watched his retreating back. His tail, which had originally been swaying slightly, instantly drooped. After a faint tremble, his ears also flattened back into airplane ears.
Inside his mind echoed the words Oshta had used to sow discord in the hospital room.
“Little white tiger, don’t you wonder? Why does he carry that person’s scent, yet you cannot sense the other party’s branded totem?”
Felix narrowed his eyes slightly and looked warily at Oshta, who had just mentally controlled him.
“What are you trying to say?”
Oshta smiled smugly. He removed the hospital gown from his upper body, turned around, and revealed a back covered in branded totems.
A brand identical to the one behind Felix’s ear immediately glowed red, drawing Felix closer.
Felix endured the sharp pain behind his ear and stood rooted in place. His pupils, however, had already turned beastlike, and his extended claws dug bloody marks into his palms.
Seeing him like this, Oshta put his clothes back on, lifted his head, and moved close to Felix.
With a smile in his eyes, he transformed his voice into Jin Chi’an’s and said with a soft laugh,
“Little white tiger, this is a transaction between adults.”
