Chapter 20: Shadow Man
Chapter 20: Shadow Man
Luo Wendi looked astonished, and Bai Ge also could not help feeling surprised upon hearing it.
“The Danmu was stolen? How is that possible? Could the Chinese Academy of Sciences not protect a single flower?” Bai Ge thought to himself that the security here was so tight, so how could thieves break in?
Immediately after, Luo Wendi exclaimed in extreme surprise, “Ah! Look at that!”
Looking over, Bai Ge’s expression turned even stranger.
Because both he and Luo Wendi saw a Shadow Man running from a distance, who was about to pass in front of their building.
The reason they called it the Shadow Man.
Truly, there was no better name for it.
Bai Ge almost could not believe what he saw—it was a human-shaped shadow with only the eyes and teeth exposed in white, while the rest of its body was pure black, dashing swiftly through the night like a ghost.
If it were only that, it would not have been very strange.
But when the security personnel chasing behind the Shadow Man shone a flashlight on it, it remained pitch black all over, as if it naturally looked that way, which made it utterly bizarre.
Luo Wendi murmured in astonishment beside them, “Is it tight clothing?”
Bai Ge shook his head inwardly—whether someone wore tight clothing was actually visible.
The Shadow Man before them appeared bare-skinned, as if its skin itself was pure black.
It looked just like… the “Shadow-kun” in “Conan.”
In every episode before a criminal is revealed, that anime depicts them as shadow figures.
Except for the eyes and mouth, every other part of its body, even in broad daylight as bright as the Sun, would be pure black.
Simply put, this was just a presentation technique used to conceal the culprit from readers during crime narratives.
How could such a bizarre thing happen in reality?
In the past, Bai Ge would have pondered the criminal’s method deeply, striving for a reasonable explanation.
But now, the thought that suddenly popped into his mind was…
Absolute Trait!
He realized a terrifying situation.
The Shadow Man was caused by Energy that escaped from his Brain Hole.
He thought this because, up until now, Bai Ge still did not know why the mysterious escaped Energy did not blow up this Reality.
“I had wondered if the escaped Energy was being used to manifest anomalous traits… Thinking about it now, could the Shadow Man be the result of an Anomalous Trait?”
“No way…”
“Wouldn’t this become a Containment Anomaly?”
Bai Ge stared at the approaching Shadow Man, feeling astonished, when he heard the chasing security personnel shout loudly, “He stole the Danmu, stop him!”
Without time to think much, Bai Ge strode forward and stood in the way in front of the Shadow Man.
The eerie eyes of the Shadow Man glanced at Bai Ge; one hand held the Danmu, while the other hand waved at Bai Ge like swatting a fly.
The swing was fast and rapid, and Bai Ge could feel a great force coming at him.
Unhurried, he steadied his stance and quickly weaved his hands in a smooth motion, using skillful leverage to toss the Shadow Man to the ground.
The entire process was extremely fluid; the Shadow Man did not realize what happened until it was knocked down.
“Hmm?” the Shadow Man uttered a light sound of surprise.
An ordinary Human would be unable to get up for a long time after such a fall, but the Shadow Man seemed fine and flipped to its feet instantly.
Bai Ge exchanged blows with it and immediately noticed many abnormalities.
It was too quiet; apart from that one active “Hmm,” the Shadow Man did not make any sound.
When Bai Ge threw it to the ground, it had a considerable weight but did not produce any noise.
Even the dust on the ground remained intact, without leaving any trace.
Thinking carefully, earlier the Shadow Man had run from the flower field, which was muddy soil, yet it had not left any footprints.
“No sound… no traces… greater speed and strength than an ordinary Human.”
“Be careful!” Luo Wendi saw Bai Ge’s calm expression while facing the Shadow Man’s counterattack, thought he had not reacted, and urgently warned him.
But Bai Ge had specifically spent two months learning martial arts; when it came to combat skills alone, no one on Earth was more knowledgeable than him.
Dealing with such an attack required no thinking; he could react instantly by raising his hand.
To defeat him was possible, but only if one used sheer force to overcome ten skilled moves.
Clearly, the Shadow Man’s strength still fell short.
Although the Shadow Man’s strength was great, it remained within the Human range, about higher than a top heavyweight boxer.
“Hiss!” Luo Wendi watched absorbed from the side.
They saw Bai Ge repeatedly toss the Shadow Man to the ground; this visual disarray made the Shadow Man appear less frightening.
No matter what it attempted, Bai Ge could deflect its attacks and counter it.
It was purely a dominance of skill; the Shadow Man could not even stand up, being continuously thrown down or restrained by Bai Ge.
If it were not for the Shadow Man’s body ignoring joint-locking techniques, it would likely have been immobilized long ago.
“Are you a Mosi person?” the Shadow Man asked anxiously after being thrown over twenty times consecutively.
“Are you a local?” Bai Ge did not answer, but retorted.
Because he heard that this Shadow Man actually had a local accent.
The Shadow man grinned widely, its snow-white teeth gleaming fiercely, as more and more people gathered around.
Its gaze instantly turned vicious.
They saw the Shadow Man put its hand into its mouth and surprisingly pull out a small knife from its throat, stabbing it straight at Bai Ge’s face.
The whole process was silent, making it truly hard to defend against.
In the darkness, the knife flashed like silver, heading straight for Bai Ge’s eyes.
Luo Wendi watched breathlessly; in a flurry of motion, the Shadow Man was again thrown to the ground by Bai Ge.
And the knife that was aimed at Bai Ge’s face had mysteriously disappeared.
Bai Ge pinned the Shadow Man to the ground, twisting its single arm behind its back to a point where it could not exert force.
However, the Shadow Man seemed unconcerned and instead asked in surprise, “Where is my knife?”
Saying this, it smoothly slipped away and tried to flee.
“Here!” Bai Ge smoothed his hair and produced a small knife, decisively slicing it across the Shadow Man’s arm.
Yet the blade passing through left no wound—not even broken skin—it was unclear if the Shadow Man had skin….
Earlier, this knife had missed narrowly, passing by Bai Ge’s temple.
Feeling the blade graze his hair at that critical moment, Bai Ge, with a single thought, stored it into his Brain Hole; now, he retrieved it from behind his head, making it his weapon.
The process was too fast, and with the darkness obscuring vision, everyone thought Bai Ge had snatched it away using some swift, unknown method.
Bai Ge’s actions seemed fairly reasonable.
But the Shadow Man’s body was far too strange.
Was the damage from the blade nullified?
Even the knife could not injure it!
The Shadow Man ignored Bai Ge’s knife and finally realized he could no longer tangle with him.
“You’re impressive, but ultimately just an ordinary person. You can’t stop me.”
The Shadow Man grinned, showing his snow-white, gleaming teeth, and pulled an infusion bottle and a lighter from his mouth.
His mouth could open very wide; it was easy to shove half an arm inside.
At first glance, it appeared to be an infusion bottle, but it had a rubber stopper and a very short fuse, and it was filled with…
“A homemade bomb?” Bai Ge immediately backed away because the Shadow Man had already ignited the bomb.
The bomb exploded instantly in the Shadow Man’s hand, scattering many iron nails.
An ordinary person could never use explosives like this, as it was equivalent to suicide.
But the Shadow Man was different; he completely ignored the force of the bomb and instead laughed heartily.
“I am immortal!”
After speaking, he suddenly paused in amazement.
Because he saw Bai Ge lower his hands, which were shielding his vital parts, and look on with indifference.
During the explosion, he had created some distance and blocked the iron nails with his arms.
“Bai Ge…” Luo Wendi stared at Bai Ge in shock.
At that moment, three nails were embedded in Bai Ge’s arms, but they were not bleeding because the intense heat had burned and sealed the wounded flesh.
An ordinary person with such injuries would probably have cried out in pain by now.
But for injuries like these, Bai Ge didn’t even blink an eye, and his breathing rhythm remained undisturbed.
The Calm Command kept him composed under any external stimulus.
“Hmph, what’s the point of toughing it out?” the Shadow Man sneered.
By then, the guards had caught up from all directions; there were at least twenty of them.
“My god, is this human?”
“What the hell is this thing?”
“Where is Danmu?”
The guards looked at the Shadow Man with hesitation.
Bai Ge said calmly, “Danmu should be inside his body.”
“Inside his body?” The men were confused.
But the Shadow Man looked surprised and replied, “You know that too? Yes, I’ve eaten it.”
“Are you human or a ghost?” Everyone wasn’t shocked by the fact that he ate Danmu; instead, they were amazed that the Shadow Man could speak human language.
The Shadow Man only smiled, finding it too troublesome to answer.
Instead, he fixed Bai Ge with a deep gaze and said, “You’re very skilled. I thought I was invincible, but you’ve shown me my flaws and the importance of technique… Fine, I’ll remember you… I’m leaving!”
After that, he turned and charged straight towards the crowd.
He ignored the guards surrounding him and ran wildly in one direction.
A guard who stood in his path paled with fear; just seeing the enemy’s appearance drained him of any courage.
With a soundless impact, the guard was thrown into the air, vomiting blood wildly, and landed on the ground unconscious.
The Shadow Man was about to leave so arrogantly.
However, the next moment.
Bai Ge seized the moment while everyone’s attention was on the Shadow Man, and quickly pulled a rope from the back of his head.
The rope had a slipknot tied on it, forming a loop.
He casually flung it, and the direction seemed wildly off target!
But in mid-air, the loop twisted around, tracing a bizarre arc, heading straight for the Shadow Man.
The Shadow Man noticed the rope coming and immediately changed direction to evade.
But the loop was even more outrageous; it altered its landing point again mid-air.
This time, it made an impossible acute-angle turn.
“Huh?” The onlookers were baffled.
Even the Shadow Man was startled; seeing he couldn’t dodge, he simply reached out to grab the rope.
Yet, right then, the rope changed course for the third time.
With a strange bounce, the loop bypassed the Shadow Man’s hand and slipped directly around his neck.
The loop tightened instantly, but that wasn’t all.
Bai Ge rushed forward, kicked the Shadow Man to the ground, and made the rope flick rapidly.
The rope moved as flexibly as his own arm in his hands; within just a few seconds, the Shadow Man was tightly bound.
To others, it seemed like consummate skill.
“This is impossible!”
The Shadow Man shouted, but was pressed down by Bai Ge’s foot.
By now, his arms and legs were secured in a bundle bind.
“Come help! He can break free from this rope!”
Bai Ge urged anxiously, seeing the others frozen in shock.
This was only an ordinary Earth rope stored in his Brain Hole, and the Shadow Man’s strength was immense, far exceeding what the rope could withstand.
But if more than a dozen people rushed in together, the Shadow Man would be overwhelmed.
“The police are almost here; let’s lock him in the break room first.”
“He has incredible strength… I still don’t find this real…”
A group of guards rushed to pin him down, looking oddly at the scene.
Just seeing the Shadow Man, they found him incredibly bizarre; touching him, it felt like he was naked and born that way.
In Reality, seeing a hairless, skinny person with every inch of skin pitch-black provoked a weird feeling—especially with those snow-white teeth and large eyes, giving him a ghostly appearance.
Watching the guards drag the Shadow Man indoors,
Luo Wendi suddenly walked over to Bai Ge and looked at him seriously. “Your skills are the best I’ve ever seen! That monster was helpless against you!”
“How did you do that with the rope? It’s so eerie.”
Three unexpected changes of direction made the rope seem alive.
Bai Ge had actually secretly added an unusual property to the rope in his Brain Hole.
It forcefully bound the target for thirty seconds.
As long as the target didn’t destroy the rope immediately, the binding process was unstoppable, no matter how they dodged or struggled.
The entire process was automatic; Bai Ge simply pretended to maneuver the rope and went along with it.
But to onlookers, it showcased Bai Ge’s mastery with the rope.
Bai Ge said, “It’s a rope control technique, an art passed down by our ancestors, roughly… almost lost to history.”
Sheer nonsense!
But Luo Wendi believed it—what else could he do? For an ordinary person, it was the most reasonable explanation.
Compared to many ancient magic tricks, this rope skill didn’t seem too outlandish.
“Oh, so it’s a rope control technique… you even know that?” Luo Wendi feigned understanding.
Bai Ge grinned. “I’m knowledgeable about a little bit of everything…”