Ah Wei was down on his luck. He looked the part too.

Ash and dust had settled on his hair and face, leaving him dishevelled and peppered in grey. He even smelt bad.

The series of unfortunate events he had gone through begun when Zhao Yao somehow compelled his body to head to the cat toilet and start cleaning it up. Then, he was held hostage by Nessie and friends, before engaging in battle with them.

This left him exhausted. He felt and smelt like s**t, but he still hurried to the cat cafe, hoping to speak to Zhao Yao. The showdown had results in numerous injuries and casualties and he urgently needed the cafe’s miraculous healing powers to help his colleagues.

The moment Ah Wei stepped into the cafe, he was greeted by a wave of Celestial Beats. The feeling of warmth and comfort that wrapped around him made him sigh loudly in content.

Baiquan stepped forward when he noticed the new customer, “Hello, you’re back.”

“Is your boss here? Where’s Zhao Yao?” Ah Wei asked.

He noticed that Zhao Yao’s usual seat in the corner was empty.

“He’s gone out. Might I interest you in a cup of coffee while you wait?”

Ah Wei’s eyebrows furrowed with impatience, but he sat down anyway.

“Could he have gone to see Old Man Zhuang already? Didn’t he say he’ll go after the cafe closes?” he wondered to himself.

After waiting for 10 arduous minutes, a beautiful young woman took a seat opposite him.

Ah Wei knew her. She was the cafe’s cashier and also one of the most attractive people he had ever laid eyes on.

He also knew that she was one of Inspector Ho’s. She was assigned to the cafe to keep an eye on Zhao Yao and report any misdeeds and suspicious behavior.

Ah Wei tried to keep his expression cool and collected as he looked at her, “What’s up?”

“Um, excuse me,” Xiao Shi Yu started awkwardly, unconsciously clamping her nose with her fingers, “There’s an, erm, odor coming from you. Could I please trouble you to wait for our boss outside the cafe?”

“What?!” Ah Wei startled.

This was not on the long list of things he thought she had wanted to say to him.

He looked around wildly to meet the dirty looks that surrounding customers were throwing him.

He let out a short bark of embarrassed laughter before turning back to Shi Yu.

“Yes, of course. I’ll wait outside right now,” he said.

“I’m terribly sorry about this, sir. To make up for it, your coffee is on us,” she apologized.

“Ah, it’s alright. It’s not your fault, it’s mine, really. No worries,” Ah Wei said briskly as he got up.

He was so cooperative and cheery because it was Shi Yu who was inviting him out of the cafe. If Zhao Yao was the one who did that, he was not going to go down so easily. There would be fight, even if he was not confident of winning.

Shi Yu accompanied Ah Wei as he made his way out of the cafe in as dignified a manner as possible. As they crossed the threshold, he tensed up and came to a sudden halt.

There was a car parked right outside the cafe. Through the windshield, he could make out three familiar faces. He had grown to memorise every feature and quirk about these faces because they belonged to his abductors.

The only person he could not recognize was God of Death. He was now using a woman’s form after all.

“Ah, Zhao Yao is back! I’ll get him to come over,” Shi Yu said brightly.

The mention of Zhao Yao momentarily stunned Ah Wei. Too many things were happening at the same time. He could only watch in horror as Zhao Yao marched towards the car with purpose.

“That idiot is going to get himself killed!”

Even Colonel Yue Shan had to retreat when faced with these rogue apostles. There was no way that Zhao Yao would be able to beat them.

Ah Wei’s first response was to seize Shi Yu’s arm, stopping her from getting closer.

“Don’t go over! It’s dangerous,” he warned.

“What’s wrong?” Shi Yu asked, confused.

Ah Wei hastily pulled her to a corner, where they would be hidden behind a wall. He grabbed his phone and dialed a number.

“Those four are extremely dangerous apostles. They just attacked our base. Do not go any closer. I’m calling for backup,” he explained.

“Then, what about Zhao Yao…?” Shi Yu’s voice trailed off as she looked in her boss’ direction.

*

“That ragdoll cat is mine. Her name is Elizabeth,” Sun Meng explained, “Her power is to create realistic illusions by manipulating your sense of hearing and sight. All she has to do is look at you and you’ll be a goner. Unfortunately, she can only control one person at one time.”

Of course, that was not Elizabeth’s only weakness. On top of looking at the target, she had to rely on sound waves to manifest her power.

Sun Meng chose to kept that a secret. She fully intended to use Elizabeth’s power for herself, so it would be stupid to reveal its Achilles Heel.

“I doubt that would cause us too much trouble,” God of Death said confidently, “I’m sure there’s a limit to how far her power can reach. I’ll send a few of my minions to observe us and see past any illusion she might have cast.”

Having said this, he closed his eyes, as if he was carefully experiencing and relishing an emotion.

“Okay, a few of them are nearby now.”

“120 meters should be enough,” Sun Meng piped in, “As long as your minions stay 120 meters away from the cafe, I don’t think they’ll be affected. They can see what’s actually happening without interference.”

They may only be dealing with an ordinary apostle, but after the showdown they had just gone through, the team were being extra cautious. They understood that superpowers can take up even the most unimaginable and unexpected forms. Even the most veteran fighter can be defeated if they underestimated the enemy.

The car screeched to a halt by the cafe.

The four of them remained in the car to observe what was going on within the small shop.

“There! There she is, the fattest one on the top of the kitty tower,” Sun Meng pointed out.

Every gaze in the car zoomed into Elizabeth, but they were disrupted by sharp, rapid knocks on the car window. Four pairs of eyes landed on Zhao Yao instead.

“What’s going on?”

“What’s he doing here?

“Have the authorities found us?”

Amid the speculations, God of Death spoke up.

“Open the door,” he said calmly, “Let’s hear what he has to say. If something sounds odd, we’ll attack. If he’s here alone, well, even God can’t save him.”

So the window was unwinded and Zhao Yao has his chance to lash out at them.

“So you guys are the good-for-nothing supercat thieves, huh? I see you’ve set your sights on my cafe. Let me tell you, you’re going to regret it. Do you even know who I am?” he spat.

The four of them were completely unmoved by

his words. They stared back at him expressionlessly.

God of Death chuckled. He decided to patronize him, “Oh? So who are you? Pray tell.”

His composed, mocking tone unnerved Zhao Yao. The groove between his eyebrows grew deeper as he took a closer look at each passenger in the car.

It turned out he knew one of them and that spelled bad news.

“The injured woman is the fugitive Inspector Ho warned me about, isn’t she? I’m supposed to run and hide if I see her,” he thought.

“S**t, could this car be filled with her fellow fugitives?”

Zhao Yao felt his breath catch in his throat. His mind replayed Inspector Ho’s words. The five people in the car were no petty thieves. They were dangerous and had to be handled with absolute caution.

This was why he rolled out his freshly minted security protocol.

Step one, unleash Matcha’s timefreeze.

Step two, get as far away from the car as possible.

Step three, switch to Dust Ball’s power and disappear in front of their eyes.

He heaved a sigh of relief as he was sucked into the safety of the extradimensional belly.

Now that he had an arsenal of powers, he often wondered how he should use them when confronted with an unknown enemy.

What if he were to use timefreeze? What would happen if the opponent had defensive powers that could reverse its effects? What if the opponent could emit poison? What if the opponent could redirect the impact of his power to something else?

And what of Elizabeth’s illusions? What would happen if the opponent could direct the power to hit Zhao Yao instead? What if the opponent had the same skill? Worst, what if the opponent had some ultimate one-hit KO move?

In every one of these situations, it would be a mistake to jump straight into the offensive. There were too many possibilities and powers out there for there to be an attack that will always be successful. This was why Zhao Yao came up with the security protocol.

“Damn it, he recognized us,” God of Death said, picturing the look of illumination that had been on Zhao Yao’s face before he disappeared, “Where’s he gone to? It seems like he can teleport.”

The five of them climbed out of the car and onto the street.

“That fella, just wait till I get my hands on him…” Nessie grunted.

He had barely completed his sentence when Zhao Yao suddenly appeared before their eyes again.

This time, however, he had a cat in his arms.

It was Ares the Persian.

Zhao Yao looked at the apostles, his eyes glowing red.