Chapter 7.2
Killing Life
As the deputy leader of the North City Human Special Security Team, Ming Wu had always lived in an environment where survival required force. The women he had come into contact with up until now, had always been either female warriors who were tougher than men or noble girls who were protected – so delicate and soft that they were distracting.
Never had he come across one that was as strange as this antique girl. Not to mention that the antique girl had picked a heavy machine gun on her first day and then failed to even lift it for half the day. When she picked up the laser sword, she was so excited to try and see if it could kill that she ended up cutting off half of her long hair.
She also knew very little about close combat. He could have knocked her down with just one finger – no, half a finger.
But she was quick to get it together – she chose the wrong gun because Ming Wu misled her by lifting it with two fingers; she happened to want a haircut so the laser sword wasn’t an accident; and as for close combat, she was at least agile, right?
That’s true. She does have quick reflexes and is quick to learn anything.
The best part was that she could shoot as accurately as he could. And no matter how bad she was under his tutelage, she continued to have a passion and confidence that he couldn’t understand – as if she was sure she would be a master in a year’s time. Ming Wu had grown accustomed to seeing her sunny smile every morning, before easily knocking her down again and again until she was screaming in pain every night.
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The road leading to the police station was wide but damp, with few pedestrians. She followed at a distance of several hundred meters, and Ming Wu could easily pick out her footsteps. After a month of training, she at least looked like a warrior. She now wore a smart leather warrior’s outfit, black boots, red sunglasses, and a light vest tinged with the odor of blood.
However, while all this equipment kept the average person at bay, when it came down to the real deal, she was still no match for it.
As he walked under the bureau’s diamond-shaped, crystal building, Ming Wu stopped and turned with his hands in the air to see the tiny figure ducking smartly around the corner. He stared silently in her direction, and after a moment, she came walking sarcastically up to him.
“Most of the people who follow me…will die.” His dark brows cut a stark outline against his snow-white face as he frowned impatiently.
She gave a salute and straightened her petite frame, “I wasn’t following! I was blatantly following!”
“……”
Ming Wu’s face was expressionless, “Come with me.”
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The leader of the Super Vigilantes – and Ming Wu’s superior – was a tall, liquid-metal, humanoid robot. Miao’s eyes went wide as she got close to a robot for the first time. “Captain, I’m out.” Ming Wu tossed to him an elaborate badge, tattooed with a crossed orchid, representing the Vigilantes.
“Reason?” The captain’s eyes were crimson silicon wafers, and as bright as crystal glass.
Ming Wu surprisingly smiled. It was the first time Miao had ever seen him smile, and for a moment she looked dumbfounded.
The next second, she was violently thrown by Ming Wu in front of the captain.
“I was supposed to die in the battle a month ago, and the number of half-beasts I sniped far exceeded my own value. It was she who saved me, and following the principle of the equivalence of life, my life no longer belongs to the Vigilantes.”
They walked back out of the high building of the Guard and Miao couldn’t help feeling a mixture of pity and happiness for Ming Wu.
She remembered the first day she had met him, the way he had fought with blood and determination, and the way he had taught her, coldly but carefully, over the past few weeks. Now he, the fighting machine, was finally free.
“Hey, what’s your goal in life?” She asked suddenly, keeping pace with him.
“Life goal?” His dark, crystalline eyes were blank. “My goal used to be to live a fast life. I still do. But first I have to become a high master. If you have a goal in life for the future, remember to tell me and I’ll help you achieve it,” Ming Wu said, looking at her.
Miao Miao looked up at his handsome, calm figure as he walked in the sunlight and couldn’t help but say, “Aye, you looked super handsome when you smiled back there.”
He immediately frowned and walked away with a cold face.
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After his retirement from the force, more and more people came to see Ming Wu, hoping to hire him. It turned out that many of the city’s masters, like Ming Wu, were hired on assassination assignments and earned a lot of money. Ming Wu was not interested and turned them all away.
Every day, apart from spending a lot of time teaching Xu Miao Miao, he usually sat alone on a suspended bench on the balcony, staring into the grey sky in silence. His youthful face would look as tranquil as if he were in his twilight years.
Xu Miao achieved two major achievements during these days. First, Ming Wu finally told her that she had become an entry-level master with advanced weapons and could take on ordinary half-beasts. Second, under her “counter-virtuosity”, Ming Wu began to sometimes smile. Every evening she would devise a different way of interrupting his daze, and he would be forced to smile, before chasing her away.
However, Miao’s first real battle did not end as she had expected.
Her first mission was to hunt down two junior half-beasts that had escaped from prison. That night, Ming Wu took a heavily armed and nervous Xu Miao to the abandoned factory where the half-beasts were hiding. At first, she was so nervous that every shadow in the night caused her to break into a cold sweat. Ten minutes later, the rookie saw a large figure behind a dilapidated production line.
“Shoot it point-blank in the head and in the heart,” Ming Wu whispered in her ear.
“I…am not sure I can.”
Ming Wu nodded, “I’ll shoot the head, you shoot the heart.”
Two, low, muffled shots later, Miao watched dumbfounded as the half-beast collapsed with a thud. It turned out that she could still accomplish a task by following someone’s example.
When they shot the second one in the same way, instead of the thrill of playing a game and fighting a boss, Miao felt inexplicably uneasy.
That night, she couldn’t sleep. She tossed and turned in bed, her mind filled with the desperate, sad eyes of the half-beast before it died. She felt like she couldn’t breathe, so she rushed into Ming Wu’s room, clutching her pillow. It was three o’clock in the morning and he was sitting on his bed in his black pajamas, his eyes clear and sleepless.
Miao’s mind was still reeling from the mission, and her tone was impetuous as she asked, “Hey! What was your mood like the first time you killed a half-beast?”
He gave her a faint look, “I didn’t feel anything.” Then after a pause, he added, “The first time I killed people were two escaped felons.”
Miao felt instantly petrified.
Ming Wu must be bragging to cover it up, how could he not feel anything the first time he killed someone? He, the lone killer, is just reluctant to let anyone peek into his former vulnerability, right?
She looked down at her bare feet, “Can I sleep in the room with you tonight?”
She did not want to be alone. He looked at her, nodded, then got out of bed.
“No…I’ll just sleep on the floor.” She said hastily.
He ignored her and sat down on the bench in the room with an indifferent look, “I don’t need a bed.”
As Miao lay on the bed, she looked over at his tightly closed eyes and straight back. His black hair and black clothes set off his handsome features incredibly. He was kind of gentle with her, wasn’t he? After all, he was such a cold guy, yet he would smile at her and was teaching her kung fu. And now he had given up his bed for her and was sitting by himself all night.
Miao suddenly felt reassured by the idea that killing was for the sake of living, and he was teaching her to kill so that she could live.
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