Moonlight spilled down as the chubby young man crouched motionless in front of the ruins, still as an oversized rubber ball.
"Lately it's not just the borders that are restless, more and more Awakened are showing up across the Federation too. Might be because of the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions out in the radiation zones, stirring up even more radioactive material into the air." The girl watched the chubby young man's silhouette, lost in thought. "If he really is a Mutant Seed, looks like he still doesn't have a clue how to use his own ability. Then again, maybe he's just genuinely a weakling."
"In a lawless place like the refugee zone, once power gets out of balance, that's never a good sign. Once someone gets their hands on real power, the odds of them still choosing to be a decent person after that are slimmer than finding a talking toad." The man's expression turned serious. "Should we grab him, confirm it for ourselves?"
"Forget it, this guy looks like a total idiot. Business first, no need to complicate things." The girl glanced once more at the chubby young man crouched out on the open ground, trying to lure a rat, his face twisted like a man badly constipated, then turned away, uninterested, and walked into a nearby alley.
A few minutes later, the two of them pushed open the gate to Su Fei's courtyard and stepped inside.
"You're five minutes late." Su Fei raised an eyebrow slightly at the pair entering.
"Found someone outside who might be a Mutant Seed, kind of interesting, so we watched a bit longer than planned." The man explained, setting the pack he carried down on the kang. "This has the food and water we brought for you."
The girl sat down on a wooden crate nearby. "Something big happened outside the settlement today. A squad of soldiers from inside the stronghold went out to a refugee village. Their purpose was..."
"I already know about that." Su Fei cut her off, then changed the subject. "This person you think might be a Mutant Seed, what ability does he have?"
The man let out a short laugh. "Catching rats."
Su Fei: "..."
An hour later, the settlement had fallen completely still. Life offered little in the way of entertainment for refugees, and the grueling physical labor they performed every day in the settlement kept them in a state of near-constant exhaustion, leaving no room in their minds for anything beyond mere survival.
The settlement lay silent now. Walking through the streets, one could still catch the occasional snore drifting out of some rundown house, or a woman's cries. More often than not, marriage among refugees was less a bond of love and more a practical arrangement for getting through life together, and the act of conceiving a child mattered more, in many cases, than the outcome, since not every family could actually afford to raise one.
At the mouth of the alley leading to Ning Zhe's house, several figures stood in the shadows, red triangular cloths tied over their faces, each marked with the Black Banner's square emblem.
"Here we are. This is where we're getting things done." The young man who'd tracked down Ning Zhe's whereabouts pointed into the alley, speaking to the man beside him. "Go in from here, third courtyard, the house facing the gate directly, that's where the target is. Your job is to bring whoever's inside back with you."
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"Got it." The man nodded. "What's his name?"
"Does it matter?" The young man shot back, as though trying to put the newcomer in his place, or perhaps simply unwilling to let him know too much.
"Heh, still don't trust me, huh." The man let out a laugh.
"You joined the Black Banner to eat regular meals. We need men who can get things done. We're just using each other, each side getting what we need out of it. Don't bother talking about trust or distrust, it's fake, and frankly it's beneath us." The young man clapped the man on the arm. "The boss said, get this done right, and you're in."
"Let's go." At this, the man waved to the others beside him and led the way into the alley.
"How are we handling the capture? Should we plan this out?" One of the men behind him asked, gripping a bone knife.
"Capture, my ass. Kill them all." The man answered bluntly, adjusting the cords fastening his gear. His armor was made from boar hide brushed with pine resin, tough enough to turn aside a bone knife's thrust.
"Kill them? But our orders were to capture someone!" The man froze at this.
"Capturing's too much trouble, and too dangerous. Kill them, cut off the head, bring it back with us. Once we're back, I'll say the target resisted too hard to take alive." Having said this, the man had already reached the entrance to the communal courtyard. He drew a metal knife slowly from behind his back, cast from raw iron, its edge already rusted and jagged like a saw. It wasn't especially sharp, but the rust alone would be more than enough to infect a wound, and out here, infection meant death.
"Tramp, tramp!"
The dull sound of footsteps rose across the courtyard as the seven of them advanced together, heading straight for Ning Zhe's house.
Inside the house ahead, the sound of the chubby young man's snoring drifted steadily through the air. In the pitch-black common room, Lin Xun sat by the table, blending into the darkness itself.
Suddenly, Lin Xun's silhouette shifted. In one smooth, practiced motion, he snatched the longbow off the table and drew the string taut.
Ning Zhe's group wasn't the only band of hunters in the settlement, but out of all of them, Lin Xun alone favored the bow.
Without any formal training, mastering a bow took real talent, and Lin Xun happened to be exactly that kind of gifted man. His arm strength was exceptional, and his hearing and eyesight both surpassed the ordinary, as though he'd been born to be a hunter of men.
"Hsst, hsst!"
A second later, a faint sound slipped from Lin Xun's mouth, and Ning Zhe, deep in sleep inside the house, snapped his eyes open at once.
"Swish!"
At the very same moment, the door flap was ripped open.
"Fwip!"
An arrow tore through the darkness, burying itself square in the chest of the man stepping through the door. In the refugee zone, anyone who came calling unannounced in the dead of night was never a friend.
"Damn it! They're onto us!" The man struck by the arrow felt as though he'd been kicked square in the chest, staggering back out the door with a low groan, but before he could take another step, he felt his strength draining away fast, and by the time the searing pain in his chest finally hit, he'd already collapsed to the ground.
"Get clear!" The lead man, catching sight of his companion's body by the moonlight, barked a low warning to the others, then flung a bundle of oil-soaked hemp fiber, already lit with a match, through the doorway.
"Whoosh!"
The hemp burst into flame, lighting up the room's interior.
"Flap!"
The instant the light flared, Lin Xun kicked off the table, using the recoil to launch himself two meters through the air, darting swiftly into the room where the chubby young man slept.
"Thunk!"
Almost the same instant Lin Xun cleared out of the way, an iron nail the length of a palm shot through the empty space he'd just occupied, embedding itself in the wall.
"Get in there! Finish this fast!"
The man loaded another nail into his makeshift crossbow and waved the others forward.
Inside the other room, the chubby young man had been jolted awake by the noise outside and sat up on the kang in confusion. "Brother Xun, what's going on?"
"Don't ask! Don't worry about it either! Just protect yourself!" Lin Xun nocked another arrow, drawing it taut and aiming toward the doorway, his eyes tight with tension. In the moment he'd dodged, he'd caught sight of the crossbow in the lead man's hands, a weapon not only easy to carry but far more powerful than the bow in his own.