Chapter 006: Second Senior Brother? (Please Add to Favorites!)

“Get out of the way! All of you, get the hell out of my way!”

On the highway, a short, slender man ran as he bellowed, furiously shoving aside the startled pedestrians blocking his path.

He was fast—within the blink of an eye, he was already a hundred meters away.

But his two pursuers weren’t slow either! They stayed right on his heels, never allowing the distance to widen beyond ten meters.

Just as the slender man attempted to turn a corner, one of the burly pursuers suddenly unclipped a length of black cord from his belt and flicked it with a practiced snap.

A crackling sound erupted—the black cord sparked with arcs of silver electricity, which danced and leapt wildly through the air.

With a sharp whistle, the burly man hurled the cord across the gap, sending it snaking out over a dozen meters to coil around the fleeing man.

A wretched scream burst forth. The electric arc tangled around him, slamming him to the ground. His skin turned blue from the current, his hair ignited and burned away, leaving his scalp shining bald and raw.

“Ha, what misery,” Tang Mubai remarked from afar, clicking his tongue in sympathy.

This electrified rope was leagues better than any stun baton.

Of course, professional martial artists weren’t so easily apprehended. If you wanted to capture one alive, not kill him, an “electric cord” was the most efficient tool.

Naturally, mastering the precise throw of such a weapon took time and effort, something Tang Mubai had little interest in. He observed the scene from a distance a moment longer, then turned away and pedaled off.

But just then—

A wild, furious, savage roar shattered the air.

The sound made Tang Mubai shudder instinctively—a beast’s howl!

No ordinary man could make a sound like that.

Startled, Tang Mubai whipped his head around to pinpoint the source.

He saw the slender man, now pinned to the ground by the two Security Bureau agents, writhing and bellowing in rage.

With each thunderous roar, his muscles swelled, his arms and legs lengthened rapidly, his features twisted grotesquely, his face jutting outward.

His mouth gaped wider and wider, two sharp tusks protruding from his lips and hanging menacingly in the air.

His nose grew rounder and longer, the two nostrils flaring with each breath, exhaling clouds of vapor.

His ears ballooned and spread wide, flapping conspicuously.

His eyes, though, didn’t change much—except they burned a blood-red, filled with savage, bloodthirsty light.

Whatever the others felt, Tang Mubai could only blurt out, purely by instinct:

“Second Brother?”

Indeed, after this transformation, the slender man looked uncannily like the Second Brother from Journey to the West—like Bajie, like Pigsy!

The only difference was that the Second Brother was all fat and belly—as if nine months pregnant—while this man was all muscle.

Pectorals, abdominals, glutes, back, arms, thighs…

Every muscle was like that of a bodybuilding champion, but unlike the showy bulk of a bodybuilder, these were packed with explosive power.

In less than thirty seconds, the slender man had transformed into a hulking brute.

The contrast was stunning.

“Roar!”

Fully transformed, the muscular pig-headed man tore apart the electric cord binding him, hurling the two Security Bureau agents aside.

With a single leap, he sprang to his feet—towering over two meters tall, his pig’s face contorted in a ferocious snarl—then charged the two agents as they drew their pistols, knocking them flying before they could even fire.

The pedestrians who had watched in terror from the roadside now screamed and scattered in panic.

“Help! Someone help us!”

“It’s a beastman! There’s a beastman!”

“Damn it! How did a beastman get in here? What’s the military doing, letting one sneak into the city?!”

Chaos consumed the highway.

Tang Mubai, shaken by the cacophony, snapped back to his senses.

“That’s right, a beastman—not the Second Brother!”

Beastmen—one branch of non-human life.

They were numerous and came in dozens, even hundreds, of forms.

Dog-headed men, bull-headed men, goat-headed men, leopard-headed men, pig-headed men, lion-headed men…

These creatures, with human bodies but animal heads, each possessed strength to rival a professional martial artist.

Their most frightening aspect: in everyday life, they were virtually indistinguishable from humans. Only in their “beast state” did their monstrous heads and terrifying power emerge.

Just like the slender man—no, now clearly a pig-headed beastman.

The pig-headed beastman’s strength was overwhelming—the two Security Bureau agents stood no chance, battered and bloodied in seconds.

Tang Mubai’s body trembled; his hands gripped the handlebars of his bicycle so tightly his knuckles blanched.

As he prepared to flee with the others—

Bang!

A thunderous gunshot rang out.

With a wet thud, a gaping hole exploded in the pig-headed beastman’s chest, blood and flesh spraying.

The beastman, struck hard, didn’t fall immediately. Instead, he raised his head and roared furiously toward the main road into the city.

The next moment—

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Heavy footsteps echoed.

The beastman spun around and fled—straight in Tang Mubai’s direction!

“Oh, hell—!” Tang Mubai’s scalp prickled, his muscles tensed.

Almost automatically, he seized his handlebars, spun the bike, and rode for his life.

Bang!

Another gunshot, followed by the beastman’s anguished howl.

Tang Mubai, fleeing at full speed, heard a heavy crash behind him—a body hitting the ground with force.

No doubt about it: the pig-headed beastman had been brought down.

But Tang Mubai didn’t dare stop—he kept pedaling madly, putting as much distance as possible between himself and the carnage.

Only when three more gunshots echoed behind him, and the beastman’s howls finally ceased, did Tang Mubai stop, panting for breath.

“Should be safe now…” He wiped sweat from his brow and exhaled heavily.

After resting a moment, he turned his bike around and headed back.

He’d barely gotten close when—

[Detected residual life force. Would you like to harvest it?]

“Yes!”

[Life force +165]

“Just as I thought!”

From a distance, Tang Mubai saw a crowd gathering at the roadside, elation surging in his heart.

The physique of a beastman was generally twice as strong as a human’s!

And they matured in half the time—a human became an adult at eighteen, but a beastman was fully grown and able to reproduce by age nine.

Fast to mature, fast to breed, and overwhelmingly powerful.

That was why beastmen were one of humanity’s greatest enemies.

But…

For Tang Mubai, the incredible vitality of a beastman seemed to be very good news indeed.

Ahem…