Don't Act Dumb

Chenggong, Yunnan Province, China
October 4rd
08:10

After a ride in a new car we managed to reach the other side of the city, in Anning, where a beautiful mansion was waiting for us, a huge glass and wood house could be seen behind a large high security fence, it was constantly monitored by several guards, from the entrance to patrolling the garden.

"Well, we've arrived."
"That's the house of Xu Hao, the mayor of Chenggong."
"We have evidence that he reached this position thanks to Xian Fang."
"It's easy to assume that he knows them directly."
"...."
"Look, we're in luck, he's the one smoking on the second floor balcony, that's our target," Li Wei informed me as he handed me the binoculars to see as well.

"Damn, why are people with money obsessed with houses made almost entirely of glass?"
"It's a nightmare to defend places like that in a firefight, I hate them."
"Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer my house to have walls."
"????"
"The girl on the first floor."

"This is Zhu Hua, Mr. Xu Hao's wife."
"They have been in a relationship for 2 years and got married 3 years ago."
"She graduated with honors from Yunnan University of Economics."

"'That girl will definitely be a big problem.'"

"Do you know Miss Zhu Hua?"

"No, I don't know her at all."
"But she's just like a friend of mine named Xian."
"Her sister tried to kill me in Africa, and then Xian tried to kill me when I asked about her."
"This Zhu Hua girl is identical to them, like a clone."
"She even wears the same clothes."
"If it weren't for the fact that I know that Xian is currently recovering at my house, I would have doubts right now."

"So you think Zhu Hua is an ally of Xian Fang?"

"Worse, I bet that girl isn't human like the other two."
"That girl is not Xu Hao's wife, she is a guard of Xian Fang, making sure she has the mayor by the balls."
"The title of wife is just an excuse to be around him all day and threaten to kill him."

"I understand, unfortunately, it's within Xian Fang's modus operandi that we know about."
"I will have Zhu Hua thoroughly investigated according to your suggestion."
"...."
"In our original plan, we closely monitored Mr. Xu Hao, but we couldn't find anything."
"Our idea was to infiltrate and spy, and take pictures of documents."
"But Mr. Xu Hao chooses his employees very well, or he probably only accepts people sent by Xian Fang."

"It won't work, too complicated."
"You can't outsmart someone who is much smarter than you and plans every move."
"If Xian Fang is like you say, she's a master of shadows and spies; you can't beat her by doing the same thing."
"....."
"Instead, we need to take her out of her comfort zone, bring her into our game, with our rules."

"And what game do you suggest, Miss Elise?"

"Chaos."
"She won't be able to predict our moves if we don't even know what we're doing."
"We'll improvise on the fly, she'll have to come up with a new plan to stop us, she'll be reacting instead of planning her next move," I replied.

"That's too risky."
"We could inadvertently reveal the existence of the Mystic Red Star."
"Our greatest strength is our anonymity, we can't let Xian Fang identify any of our members."

"That's not a problem, we just need to get a crazy bastard to show his face, the one who will become the bane of Xian Fang's existence."
"She already knows me well enough, it won't be a problem if I do it."
"....."
"I will enter through the front door, kidnap Xu Hao, beat the information out of him, and escape."
"Xian Fang will just react and try to prevent more information from leaking out, but she won't have any idea what we might know about her."

"Xu Hao is surrounded by a very high-level security system."
"His guards are former members of an army elite group, TianHui monitors everything that happens in this house, three security cameras per room."
"There's even a plan to take Xu Hao to a bomb-proof panic room and get him out in less than 60 seconds."

"Too easy."
"We just have to kidnap him in 15 seconds."

"15 seconds? Do you have a plan for that?"

"No, I already told you, no plan."
"Just go with the flow and don't overthink it."
"Give me your gun, I'll show you how to be a badass criminal in less than a minute."
"I'm going in, you guys figure out what to do for the getaway." I said as I opened the car door to get out.

"Wait, wait, at least take this radio!"
"It's shortwave, but it should be enough to talk to you in there."

I took Li Wei's gun from his hands and opened the car door, now all I had was a borrowed gun and a dream. Determined, I started walking toward the fence of the house, gradually picking up speed until I was running. As I approached the wall, I jumped and kicked it, using it as a ladder to jump even higher, overcoming the first obstacle. The next obstacle was the guards in the garden, who started yelling and pointing their guns at me, but I ignored them and focused on my goal. Mr. Xu Hao looked at me in fear as I ran relentlessly towards him. I heard a few shots, but none came close to me. My prey was on the second floor balcony; I had to find a way to get there quickly. There was a chair nearby, and I used it as a support to jump higher and reach the edge of the second floor. Then I quickly climbed up, grabbed the mayor, and pointed the gun at his head. One of the nearby guards tried to raise his gun as well, but I quickly approached him and kicked him in the chest, causing him to lose his balance, and then pushed him, causing him to fall off the balcony. Finally, I took Xu Hao into what appeared to be his office, one of the few places in the house that seemed to have walls instead of glass.

"Wow, 13 seconds, not bad, huh?"
"I think I just broke my record."
"Actually, I didn't think I'd be able to jump the wall with these wooden sandals."
"They're a bit loose, not the best footwear for running."
"But let's stop talking about me, let's focus on the real business."
"...."
"All right, line eyes, tell me where Xian Fang is, or I'll smash you headfirst into the ground like I did your friend."

"你到底是谁？你想要什么！？无论你要做什么，你都犯了一个可怕的错误！"
"难道你不认识我吗？我有强大的朋友！你这该死的婊子，不到一个小时你就会死！"

"I don't speak Chinese."
"Speak English, son of the Great Wall."
"Speak to me in a language I understand, or I'll kill you!"

The office door swung open abruptly, revealing Xian's clone standing before me, holding a ceremonial sword with details reminiscent of the poor girl's familiar dagger. She lunged at me with all her fury, thrusting her sword with desperate intent. She had no regard for her supposed husband standing beside me; clearly, her only concern was to finish me off. Unfortunately, I had no time to play foolish games with her, so I took advantage of Xian Fang's overplanning and took the easy way out.

"Tell me, where is Xian Fang? Who is Xian Fang?" I shouted at the girl.

And as if she had just set off a mine, the girl filled with animal fury, just like the poor girl who lived with me in the garage of my house, Zhu Hua's body began to deform horribly, revealing the same spider limbs I had expected. As she tried to get closer, the skin on her body began to reveal strange letters and patterns everywhere, and her horrible shape began to swell. Not having much time to act, I ran towards her and pushed her towards the balcony until she fell outside, landing in the nearby pool where the cruel magic finally activated.

An explosion was felt all around, a huge wave emptied the pool of all its water, revealing only the entrails of what had once been something alive.

"Psychic mage, my big fat ass."
"It was even pathetic to use that to defeat them like that."
"...."
"All right, don't think I'm going to forget why I'm here."
"Once again, idiot, how do I find Xian Fang, or you'll be the third person to jump off the balcony today!"

"不知道你在说什么！"
"我不认识任何冯娴芳！"
"你弄错了！我的保镖会杀了你！你离开这个房子就是个死人！"

"Damn it, I don't speak Chinese!
"I know you speak English! Don't mess with me!"

"愚蠢的小娼婦！你甚至不知道我在戲弄你！"
"該死的混蛋！"
"我無所謂你做什麼，你也無法贏過冼芳，該死的！"

Damn, this guy is messing with me even with a gun pointed at his head, either this guy really doesn't speak English or he doesn't care about his own life. Thinking of ideas, I remembered the walkie-talkie Li Wei gave me, so I turned it on, hoping he could hear the conversation on the other end.

"One last time, Mr. Xu Hao."
"You have ten seconds to tell me where Xian Fang is! How do I find her?"
"You have nine left!"

"我不在乎！开枪吧！你没胆子！无论如何你都需要我！你永远找不到她，就算是我也不知道方先住在哪！这个该死的女人是个极度偏执的人，总是用中间人，从不亲自出面。"
"我从未亲眼见过她！我唯一与她有过联系的是当那个怪物女孩带来那件奇怪的神器，让我把它放在鱼缸里的时候！

"Elise, be careful, there might be one!"......... 

*Pum*

*Pum*

"停！停下！"
"释放徐浩市长，投降！"

"警察已经在路上了，这对你来说已经是一败涂地！"

The office door suddenly swung open and three guards burst into the room, armed and pointing their weapons at me. I responded by taking the mayor hostage and threatening to shoot him if they didn't stop immediately. But instead of backing down, they continued to threaten to shoot me. Xu Hao looked completely nervous; he had no idea what might happen next, and neither did I. I had to act quickly, or these guards would have a chance if I didn't do something soon. So, tired of standing idle, I decided to become even more aggressive and fired at the guards to keep them at bay.

*click**click*

*click*

*click**click*

The gun was empty!

"Fuck!"

In desperation, I immediately threw the stupid useless gun at one of them and pushed the mayor to distract them. Immediately after that, I lunged at them, trying to grab someone's gun by force. I struggled with the one on the far right of the three; he was clinging to the gun as best he could to deny me any chance. Seeing that he wouldn't give it up easily, I pulled out one of my knives and buried it in his neck; only then did he let go of the weapon. As soon as I grabbed it, I fired at the other two who were trying to drag Xu Hao out of the room.

Once the brave guards were dead, I took my hostage back and placed his hand on the desk, then stabbed the knife into his hand and nailed it to the desk.

"All right, you bastard."
"One last time, I'm tired of this, where the hell is Xian Fang?"

"Damn bitch."
"No matter what you do to me, Xian Fang is worse. If you think you're a monster, it's because you have no idea what she's capable of."
"For starters, the place where she lives is protected in a strange way."
"Ancient magic, I suppose."
"No one knows where she is! Screw you!"
"Even if you survive today, she'll send her monsters after you and your family!"
"You're already dead! Dead!" Xu Hao finally spoke in English.

In the short distance, I hear police sirens approaching the villa, time is running out.

"Elise, you should stop, the police are coming, you should leave now!"
"If you stay longer, you risk Xu Hao telling everything that happened to Xian Fang," Li Wei said over the radio.

It didn't matter to me because it wasn't a problem at all; in fact, I preferred it that way. The mayor wasn't a problem either; he was already a dead man walking. Xian Fang wouldn't risk having any loose ends, and now Xu Hao was one big loose end. Although his loss could affect her, it was easier to silence him forever and deal with any problems later than to give the enemy more advantages or information. I was sure that the man next to me would be shot in the head by a sniper or the police as soon as he stepped near a window or went outside.

The real problem remained finding the damned immortal mage. It's clear that magic is involved somehow, but what I have no idea about is what or how to deal with it. Is she hiding in her own dimension or something? No, if that were the case, why go to so much trouble to hide information? Maybe a sealed place like that indigenous village encased in a stone sphere in Costa Rica? Maybe. Damn, maybe I should have come with Tamamo and let her help me, but the risk of Xian Fang taking advantage of that is also high.

*Whoosh*

But while I was pondering for a moment, Avalon appeared to my right without warning.

The problem was that I had not summoned my sword.

*Clank*

Avalon had acted on her own, something that rarely happened, but when it did, it could only mean one thing: Avalon detected a magical attack had been silently cast and was about to strike me without warning, a treacherous attack like few others.

Seeing that the immediate danger had passed, I glanced at the other side of the sword to see what had happened, and I did. On the other side of the Avalon, a tentacle with a sharp point struck the metal. It looked like a giant needle striking against it, but that was nothing compared to its true origin. The tentacle was transparent, liquid, strange; it came from the water in the large fish tank next to the room, not something in the tank, but the water itself. Intrigued by what I saw, I paid closer attention to the fish tank and saw a strange mask inside. It seemed to be made of stone or jade, and it began to loosen in the water of the tank, the same water that began to agitate and move for no apparent reason until it shattered the glass holding it, spilling its contents onto the ground. Only then did I understand what the hell this thing was.

The creature rose from the ground, first as a strange mass of water, but gradually taking on a humanoid and monstrous form at the same time. The ancient mask was placed on top, forming what was undoubtedly its head, suggesting that it must be a water creature, a slime just like me, though much uglier and more brutal, but with enough to undoubtedly cause damage.

"Hey! There can only be one slime here, and that's me!"
"Don't copy me and get lost!"
"Go figure out how to be a different monster and then come back!"

"ROOOAAARRR!"

"I don't care! That's your problem!"

While I focused on the new strange enemy in front of me, the mayor took advantage of the distraction to free his hand and run to the balcony to seek help from the arriving police.

*Bang!*

But just as I had imagined, an explosion, the mayor's head instantly burst like a fruit, his now inert body fell from the balcony to the first floor. The police didn't hesitate to shoot him. But I had more immediate problems to deal with, like the ugly slime in front of me.

Unfortunately for my new enemy, I had lived as a slime for some time, so I knew a thing or two about it. The mask might have been meant as a distraction, something that clearly said "hit me, I'm the weak spot", but it was useless, because I didn't need any of that. But what was much more effective was undoubtedly electricity; I had experienced it myself yesterday with those damned stun guns. The secret was to improvise something similar.

"ROOOAAARRR!"

The water monster launched a powerful attack directly towards me, which was easy to dodge. However, the desk behind me split in two from the impact, sending a pile of documents flying. Still, I kept my focus on the monster. It was slow but powerful, and its attacks had a lot of momentum. There was no strategy or idea behind its attacks; it was like moving its hands without a plan. This thing wasn't really a threat. Taking advantage of the Water Golem's next attack, I started looking for something with electricity. I noticed an outlet on one of the nearby walls. For a moment, I considered punching the wall and pulling out the wires myself, but then I remembered that I was also made of water, so that wasn't the best idea right now. But even though I had to find an alternative, the problem was solved by itself when the slime monster launched another blow at me, and its force was such that it pierced the wall completely, touching the cables and literally electrocuting itself to death, I think. Its body lost all shape and exploded, spilling all its water and leaving only the strange mask behind.

I approached to get a better look at the mask. It had to be related to Xian Fang in some way; the magical creature protecting her was clearly his mark. But I couldn't think of anything else to do but break it. So I picked up Avalon from the ground and threw its heavy blade at the mask, splitting it in two. Almost simultaneously, a strange dark beam flew out of it and tried to sneak between my feet, but my sandals deflected it and it simply vanished. Something had happened, though I didn't know exactly what. Anyway, the police continued to cordon off the house and tried to take more ground. It was only a matter of time before Inspector Chang showed up. I took the remains of the mask and started walking through the house, trying to climb up to the roof, where my plan of escape would be to parkour to a relatively safe place to hide, disappear, and relocate without being seen, at least something like a subway station.

When I reached the roof, I could see several police cars already blocking the house. Just behind them, I spotted Li Wei's car, but of course I couldn't use it to escape. Instead, I notice that there are several cars in the neighboring house, one of them a large utility vehicle, a bit old but not too much, a perfect vehicle to escape in a chase. So I run towards it. As I'm on my way, I hear the police loudspeaker, the sound of a gunshot echoes, a sharp pain appears in one of my feet, I've been hit, but I couldn't stop, I had to keep going. I jump onto the roof of the other house, luckily it was steep enough to use as a slide and jump from the roof to the ground. I hotwire the ignition and back up as fast as I can, the car hits the gate and smashes it, but with no time to lose I turn the car around and start speeding towards the main road, starting another chase.

This time I luckily remember where the secret base of the Mystic Red Star was, so after leaving the car in a subway tunnel, I can go there to escape for good, which happened in a simple chase of only half an hour.