Chapter 21: Seventh Squad - Part 1

“You were following me?”

Bai Yuxi frowned. “How did you find me?”

“Uh, you’ve only just awakened—you probably don’t know yet.” The young Black man explained, “Objects used by Awakened individuals become tainted with X-particles carrying their personal pheromones. Instruments can’t detect them, but the users themselves can sense the location of their objects. That short sword in your hand is Maya’s weapon of choice. It’s long since been saturated with her pheromone-laced X-particles. Even after you started using it and began slowly replacing Maya’s X-particles with your own, it’s a gradual process. So all we had to do was let Maya sense where her sword was, and we could track your general direction.”

Bai Yuxi was left speechless. Whether it was this so-called “pheromone,” or these “X-particles,” it was all completely beyond his realm of knowledge. Faced with things he couldn’t even begin to understand, no matter how careful or vigilant he was, there was simply no way to guard against everything.

After a moment’s silence, Bai Yuxi realized that, like it or not, he was already entangled in these mysterious events. Not only that, but he himself had undergone inexplicable changes and was in desperate need of answers about this enigmatic “Awakened World.” As for the blonde girl named Maya, though a stranger, she had at least fought alongside him. And since everything had started because he’d accidentally stumbled into their fight with those humanoid monsters, it seemed reasonable to approach these people—who at least seemed somewhat well-intentioned—in hopes of getting to the bottom of things.

The two stood in silence, each with their own thoughts. Bai Yuxi tacitly accepted the suggestion to wait for the others to arrive.

“By the way… man, didn’t you just awaken?” the Black youth couldn’t contain his curiosity. “How did you get all that gear so fast? Was it really you fighting up on Mount Jialuo? Did you take your equipment from the people you beat?”

The young man, whose name was Willy, was incapable of staying quiet for even ten seconds. Like an itch he couldn’t scratch, he couldn’t help but keep talking. “Were your opponents from that organization?”

“Don’t tell me you killed someone from the LDH Overlimit Management Division! That’d be a real mess…”

“Wait, hang on. Didn’t Loffy say the ones you fought were both Level 5 warriors? Did you awaken and immediately become strong enough to take out Level 5 Overlimit Warriors? Damn! Are you one of those legendary ‘Supernovas’? That can’t be, can it?”

“Also, did you ‘clean’ that equipment? If it’s still got their pheromones on it, you’ll end up wanted by the LDH. We small fries can’t afford to mess with those Overlimit squads…”

Willy was quite a character—a mouthful of local Jiang City dialect flavored his rapid-fire speech, making everything sound like rap. He called his companions “blonde girl” and “foreign devil,” as if he weren’t a foreigner himself.

“Hey, hey? Why aren’t you saying anything? Maya’s leg is injured, and the bald guy with chicken legs is carrying her. He’s got short legs, so it’ll be a while before they get here. Since we’re not doing anything, why don’t we chat to pass the time?”

“How did you know I’m a newly awakened rookie?” Bai Yuxi resisted the urge to answer this chatterbox with a beatbox performance, his mouth twitching as he finally interrupted the monologue.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Willy grinned, flashing a set of dazzlingly white teeth. “If you weren’t a rookie, you’d know how to suppress your biofield and pheromones. If you weren’t a rookie, you’d know that releasing your ‘bio-magnetic field’ interferes with electronics and draws you straight to unmonitored corners. We sensed a biofield reaction from the direction of Moshan Plum Garden, and thought it was an expert from some big organization. We didn’t dare come over at first. But then this ‘expert’ turned out to be too afraid to face a group of rookies like us with only Level 3 or 4 power.”

“We Firebird Squad are at least registered personnel under Mount Jialuo Base. When we saw you panicking and running off, of course we chased after you to see what was going on. But when we caught up, we realized you were acting like a complete rookie—didn’t even know the basics of the Awakened World!”

Willy spread his hands, still looking completely innocent. “You deliberately hid where there were no cameras, and Maya sensed her short sword moving this way. We may not know how you, a rookie, have such a strong biofield, but it was pretty clear you were the one we were looking for.”

Bai Yuxi could only sigh inwardly—clearly, his ignorance of the Awakened World had put him at a disadvantage.

“It’s really simple, I’ll teach you!” Willy offered cheerfully. “Actually, suppressing your biofield isn’t very useful against high-level Overlimit Warriors. With the difference in ‘hyper-activity level’ and ‘X-energy level,’ as soon as you get close, they can sense you easily. But for lower or equal-level Awakened, it’s good for hiding and can even interfere with detection radar.”

Willy was the type to act first and ask permission later. Without waiting for Bai Yuxi’s agreement, he released his own biofield. “I’ll do it once—just feel it and you’ll get it!”

A searing energy field burst from Willy’s body, surging toward Bai Yuxi. Frowning, Bai Yuxi, using this as a reference, not only sensed the other’s “bio-magnetic field,” but also became aware of his own, and noticed that when the two fields touched, it was as if two balloons were pressing against each other—there was a sense of pressure and threat.

His instincts made him resist, and the “balloon” enveloping his own body suddenly expanded, immediately “bouncing” Willy’s biofield away.

“Ow!” Willy staggered slightly, startled and a bit annoyed. “Hey, don’t push back! I’m not trying to hurt you!”