Gao Neng choked back the last few squeaks. It wasn't that his reaction was slow, but that it was too fast. The moment he let out the first squeak, he understood what was happening.
A trap!
He'd been trapped?!
He, the straight-A student Gao Neng, had actually been trapped!
'What should I do in a situation like this?'
'Damage control! Right, I have to find a way to fix this!'
In his subconscious, a voice was constantly reminding him. 'In times like these, I have to stay calm. Traps can be broken... right, they can be broken, can't they?'
'So, should I just admit defeat and give Shen Ning'Er ten Alliance Coins? Or should I try to force a change in my voice and produce a squeak different from last night's?'
Just as he was thinking, he suddenly realized something was wrong.
Because the Shen Ning'Er in front of him was no longer acting crazy. Her gaze had become extremely sharp, and with a BOOM, her aura surged forth.
"Gao Neng, it really is you!"
"What 'it's me'? I... holy shit!" Gao Neng was jolted awake. This wasn't just one trap, this was a damn double trap!
'A combo-trap!'
In the instant he hesitated.
She'd suddenly oppressed him with her powerful aura, and then forcefully called him out by name!
Shen Ning'Er's decisiveness was absolutely unprecedented.
If Gao Neng really hadn't done it, he wouldn't have hesitated when Shen Ning'Er asked him to squeak like a mouse with her. But he did hesitate, because he really had done it.
It was a subconscious reaction, one that was hard to get right. What Shen Ning'Er was testing wasn't the mouse squeak at all, but whether Gao Neng would pause, whether he would hesitate.
With Gao Neng's hesitation, Shen Ning'Er was already seventy percent certain.
Then came the second, fatal blow.
In the instant Gao Neng's mind was racing, trying to figure out how to break the trap and do damage control, she decisively struck again, using a confident tone to forcefully pin the crime on him.
Gao Neng instantly panicked.
And with that panic...
'My guilt is pretty much confirmed, isn't it?!'
"You've already recognized me, haven't you? Why were you able to recognize me? What are you hiding, and who sent you?!" Having succeeded twice, Shen Ning'Er immediately launched her third assault.
"..." Cold sweat poured down Gao Neng's face. It wasn't because Shen Ning'Er's aura was too oppressive, but because... he seemed to have hesitated again?!
'So, doesn't that prove I really did recognize Shen Ning'Er?'
'Mom, the city's full of traps! I wanna go back to the country!'
'Wait!'
'I'm pretty much in the country already, aren't I?'
This time, Gao Neng didn't hesitate. With the hand speed he'd honed over eighteen years of single life, he snatched the fallen hammer from the ground and swung it down at Shen Ning'Er.
SMACK!
Shen Ning'Er shot out her hand and caught the hammer.
Then, Gao Neng witnessed a terrifying scene...
The very hammer that had once knocked out four ghosts was melting at a visible rate. In the blink of an eye, the hammerhead was gone, leaving only a bare handle.
"Assaulting a Major twice in a row... that's not a light crime, you know," Shen Ning'Er sneered, black iron energy flowing in her palm.
'I'll risk it all!'
'Take down Shen Ning'Er!'
Gao Neng really wanted to be like a true man and just take her down now that he was pushed into a corner. But reality told him that the Shen Ning'Er before him was an Energy Warrior, and an Energy Warrior who had mastered Energy Manifestation at that.
That meant Shen Ning'Er had broken through the human body's limits at least three times.
And him?
Even with his fully maxed-out hidden talents, until he became an Energy Warrior, he was just a little weakling who had only just broken through the first human body limit...
'Running is the only way!'
His strike having missed, Gao Neng turned and ran.
"Trying to run? Are you sure you can get away?" Shen Ning'Er's smile grew even brighter. With a flick of her hand, the flowing black iron energy shot out.
"Fall!"
With a soft cry.
Gao Neng went down.
Because he hadn't even taken three steps before he felt something tighten around his ankles.
THUD!
Gao Neng hit the ground. Fortunately, he was still agile enough that the moment his feet were bound, he immediately went into a push-up position to land on his hands first.
But even so, inertia carried him forward, sliding him nearly a meter.
'I have a great future ahead of me, I have to get away!' After falling, Gao Neng's first instinct was to get up and run again, but his feet were bound tightly by something, and he couldn't move them at all.
'Is this like one of those golden fillets?'
He felt for it...
Gao Neng's heart went cold.
It wasn't a golden fillet, but it wasn't far off.
It was an iron ring!
'So, Shen Ning'Er literally turned my hammer into an iron ring and put it on my feet? Energy Warriors are badass!'
"Hahaha, a crazy lady?"
"And a trash-picker. You two having fun?"
"Want a few 'uncles' to come play with you?"
Just as Gao Neng was wondering whether he should just play dead or put up one last futile struggle, several middle-aged men and youths, armed with machetes and iron bars, emerged from the darkness.
"Looks like this factory... is a little unusual, huh?" Shen Ning'Er blinked, her gaze sweeping over the men and youths surrounding them.
"Of course it's unusual. Little sis, you're from the North Suburban Mental Hospital next door, right? Then you should know whose turf this is."
"Wang Ju?" Shen Ning'Er said, seemingly lost in thought.
"Yo, little sis actually knows. Then there's nothing more to say. Stay and have some fun with us uncles," one of the men said with a wicked grin.
"I'm going first this time!"
"Leave her for me, leave her for me! This chick's got a great body!"
"Tsk tsk tsk, I'm drooling... Holy shit?!"
The youths were all scrambling to be first, but their expressions quickly changed.
Because a massive Iron Dragon was surging from Shen Ning'Er's hand. It was an Iron Dragon a full ten meters long, covered in thick Scale Armor that shimmered with a ghostly light.
"An Energy Warrior!"
"This crazy lady is an Energy Warrior?!"
"..."
The men and youths were stunned.
Gao Neng was also stunned.
Because he noticed this Iron Dragon seemed a little different. It was no longer pure black; a white light now flowed between its scales.
'It devoured the charcoal!'
'It's no longer pure iron, but has advanced to pig iron, and it's already starting to transform into refined steel. This is a damn steel dragon on the verge of becoming sentient!'
ROAR!
The Steel Giant Dragon let out a furious roar.
The entire factory trembled.
"DING! Host detected to be in imminent danger of being obliterated. Initiate new life-saving mission prematurely?" Just then, a mechanical voice suddenly sounded in Gao Neng's ear.
'There's a deal this good? A new mission can save my life... right? Initiate!' Gao Neng froze for a second, then grinned. For the first time, he felt this system was actually pretty reliable.
"BEEP. Prematurely initiating new mission: If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again!"
"Mission Objective: Take down Shen Ning'Er again within one hour. (A warrior can endure some things, but this is intolerable! How dare a defeated foe act so brazenly? If I can take you down once, I can take you down twice! The passion of youth needs no explanation. A man is just that dominant, just that capable!)"
"Please select a difficulty, Host!"
"!!!" This time, Gao Neng was truly dumbfounded. 'A life-saving mission... is to take down Shen Ning'Er? If I could fucking take down Shen Ning'Er, would I need you to save my life?'
'Wait!'
'The hints! Right, every mission has hints.'
"Please select a difficulty, Host. 1 minute remaining."
'Select your sister?! Hurry up and give me the hints! Give me both hints! I'd have to be a damn idiot to choose Nightmare, you moronic system...'
"DING! Host has successfully selected Nightmare difficulty!"
(Gao Neng: I'm about to die here, and you guys still aren't giving recommendation tickets?! That moron Xin Yi said that if you don't give recommendation tickets, I'll really die!)