WEF - Chapter 16
Chapter 16: "Turn Around."
Ning Dali carried the unconscious Zhuang Yuezhen and Wang You into a room, shoved them both inside, and locked the door from the inside.
She searched the unfamiliar house carefully and confirmed that there were no hidden cameras.
Even after the search, she was not reassured. Ning Dali simply pulled the house's main breaker.
With a soft click, every light in the house went out. The beeping of the various appliances gradually weakened, vanishing completely after a few seconds.
She made her way back to the kitchen in the dark, opened the cabinet, dragged out the gas cylinder inside, and hoisted the gas stove.
The stove was not fitted flush with the cabinet. Ning Dali lifted it from underneath and pulled the whole unit out.
Carrying her gear, she went outside to cook.
She went through all that trouble because she did not want to leave grease smoke in the kitchen.
There was no range hood in the kitchen, and she had run her hand over the cabinets. They were dry to the touch, without the sticky film of grease.
The people here did not use oil when they cooked. If Ning Dali seared a steak right in the kitchen, she would spend a long time cleaning up and might not even get it spotless.
All things considered, it was better to cook outside.
A short distance away, she set up a makeshift kitchen under the open sky.
There was no one around. She pulled open the zipper of her hiking backpack and took out a steak that had begun to thaw, along with her remaining frying pan.
She lit the fire, set the pan over it, and began frying the steak.
The pan sizzled. Ning Dali tossed it to flip the steak while keeping a wary eye out for any passerby who might suddenly appear.
Luckily, just as Wang You had said, this place was remote, and almost no one passed through.
Ning Dali ate two thick-cut steaks and saw no unusual movement around her.
As she ate the third, her clothes suddenly tightened.
Before she could react, her head had already jerked upward of its own accord, and her upper body tilted back.
With a sound of fabric tearing, her body swelled inch by inch.
Everything before her eyes abruptly receded, and the frying pan in her hand seemed to shrink to a miniature...
Ning Dali gaped in shock, swallowed the beef in her mouth, and turned toward the nearby roof with a slightly dazed look. Almost at once, she had grown to nearly the roof's height.
The second skill of [Strongman], "I eat beef three meals a day," finally activated after she finished three steaks.
The skill brought more than a huge physical change. Ning Dali steadied herself, sensed the change within herself, and flexed her arms experimentally.
True to the skill's description, her agility and strength had both doubled, though the way they doubled was rather unusual.
With a hint of delight, Ning Dali felt out the change and said, "The force of an attack hasn't changed, but the number of attacks has..."
She could now land four hand strikes and two kicks.
The two strikes Ying had landed back then had not been at full strength, but they were more than enough against Ning Dali now. The only drawback was that there had been too few attacks.
That problem had now been solved.
After three more steaks, she could activate the skill again and double her already doubled strength.
Ning Dali rubbed her stomach.
After her body had grown enormous, her appetite had grown with it, and three steaks barely made a dent.
She contentedly gripped the frying pan and kept cooking.
Everything at Fertile Base was completely different from Ning Dali's outdoor cookout.
Fertile Base had plunged into a turmoil it had not seen in a long time.
On receiving the message, Zhao Jin sprang to her feet. "What did you say? Ke Jian is the one who was hurt? Ning Dali laid her out with one slap and ended the fight in half a minute?"
Someone at the other end stammered, "Y-yes, it's Ke Jian. She seems to be dying. Ms. Dali told me to call, call a doctor."
"Understood." As she spoke, Zhao Jin waved to the doctor beside her, signaling her to leave immediately.
The doctor, who had long been on standby in case Ning Dali needed lifesaving treatment, raised an eyebrow, stood, and headed outside.
After three steps, she suddenly turned back to look at Zhao Jin and asked uneasily, "Should I have a security team assigned to go with me?"
She had heard the call too. An offhand, feather-light slap had knocked a Three-Character Ability User flat. The Strongman's combat power was frankly alarming, and there was no telling whether she would act reasonably or beat up a doctor.
"Of course. I'll send someone from Team Three with you," Zhao Jin said quickly. She paused, her expression going blank, and added, "I'm going too."
The doctor folded her arms and rubbed the goosebumps on them. "You're going too? Why does this sound so much more complicated than it should?"
Zhao Jin did not answer directly. After considering for a moment, she asked, "Do you need me to ask the Base Lord to put an extra [Shield] on you? For double protection?"
"Huh? Have the Base Lord put a [Shield] on you? Are you joking..." The doctor's voice cut off. As she met Zhao Jin's eyes, she found an entirely serious expression there.
The doctor's eyes widened. "No way. You're taking this so seriously that I'm genuinely scared. Our base doesn't have a grudge with the Strongman, does it?"
"No." Zhao Jin shrugged. "The main issue is that no one knows where Ning Dali has gone, or whether she will ever come back."
If Ning Dali did not come back, that would be easy to handle. Nothing else would happen.
But if she returned...
Ke Jian was already down and could be set aside for the moment. That left Iron Face, the other Three-Character Ability User, a fiercely competitive woman with a one-track mind.
Ning Dali had already revealed the sheer power of her combat ability. If Iron Face learned that she had returned, she would insist on fighting Ning Dali to see who was stronger.
Zhao Jin looked at the doctor, who had no offensive or defensive power and might die from a casual blow, and said gravely, "If the eyewitness's account is true... if one slap from Ning Dali can put another Three-Character Ability User out of commission, there are only two explanations."
"Either Ning Dali has a Two-Character Ability and vastly overpowered Ke Jian, or [Strongman] is the most dangerous and unpredictable Concept-Type Ability there is."
The doctor gulped, her eyes going blank, then picked up where Zhao Jin had left off. "If Ning Dali has a Two-Character Ability, she might activate an area attack. The shockwaves could sweep me up and kill me by accident."
The greatest difference between a Two-Character Ability and a Three-Character Ability lay precisely there.
A non-concept-type Three-Character Ability could only target a single individual, whereas a Two-Character Ability could take effect within a certain range.
Whether it was group control or an area attack, either could kill the fragile doctor.
"Exactly. That is why I applied for a [Shield] to protect you as insurance." Zhao Jin gave a solemn nod.
The base's security team was soon ready. Zhao Jin and the doctor set out together, hurrying toward the small market.
On leaving the base gate, they could see at once that the market was sparsely populated.
Everyone who had been exchanging supplies and buying and selling goods was gone. Even on a few stalls, the merchandise had not been packed away and lay scattered here and there.
In the center of the market, Zhao Jin saw three people. One lay on the ground, and two stood.
The one on the ground was Ke Jian, whom Ning Dali had knocked down. One of the two standing figures was the witness Ning Dali had let go. The other radiated an iron-gray metallic sheen and was Iron Face, a Three-Character Ability User whose power was defensive.
Iron Face stood there with a livid expression.
Even when she saw that Zhao Jin had personally brought a doctor and a security team, Iron Face did not look pleased. In a metallic voice, she asked, "Where has that powerful Strongman gone?"
"Has she joined your Fertile Base?"
"No." Zhao Jin shook her head. "We do not know where she is either."
"I don't believe that. Give her a call." Iron Face tilted her head, her voice loud as thunder. "She has a Three-Character Ability. You must have pestered her for her contact details."
"I didn't," Zhao Jin said, just as loudly.
She had never pestered Ning Dali for her number because Fertile Base had already found it through other means.
Iron Face and Zhao Jin glared at each other. Meanwhile, the members of Team Three crept forward and seized the opportunity to drag the barely breathing Ke Jian away.
The moment the doctor saw Ke Jian, her professional instincts took over. She laid a hand on Ke Jian's shoulder and used her Ability to sense the damage inside her body, then said, "Oh, this way of being hurt looks familiar."
"Mm?" Iron Face and Zhao Jin both turned sharply at the word "familiar."
Wearing a [Shield], the doctor frowned and murmured, "This injury feels familiar to me. Give me a little time, and I'll remember what it is."
Could Ning Dali have come to Fertile Base before and beaten people? Had she made enemies here? Had she awakened [Strongman], changing her appearance so much that no one recognized her? A host of conspiracy theories flashed through Zhao Jin's mind. She even connected them to the name Ning Dali.
Strongman, Ning Dali. It was obvious that Ning Dali was a fake name chosen to match her new Ability.
Zhao Jin stared at Ke Jian, caught up in a storm of speculation.
With no one around to quarrel with, Iron Face watched her good friend Ke Jian fade, envy flickering in her eyes.
What a powerful opponent! What a fine opportunity! Why hadn't she gotten the chance to fight her!
Second after second passed. Ke Jian had already been loaded into the ambulance, but the doctor still had not found an answer.
"I must have been staying up too late lately," the doctor said, shaking her head.
"Is the Strongman not coming back?" Iron Face asked coldly.
No one answered.
Zhao Jin was lost in her own thoughts, muttering, "What is her purpose, exactly..."
No one noticed that a white Rolls-Royce was approaching not far away.
Inside the car, Ning Dali had showered to wash away the smell of steak and changed into fresh clothes. She flexed her wrist and let out a burp.
Looking at the iron-clad woman with keen interest, she asked, "So that's the Iron Face you mentioned? A Three-Character Ability User with a defensive ability?"
"Yes." Wang You nodded with a large lump on top of her head. "They say her ability isn't purely defensive."
"She not only has extremely strong defense but can also reflect the damage she takes."
She could reflect it?
Ning Dali had just boosted her combat power and was preparing to go all out, but now her smile stiffened.
She glanced at the shield on her body, which she had finally managed to make a little brighter, and after two seconds of silence said, her heart aching, "Turn around."
"Too late," Wang You said in alarm. "Iron Face is already charging toward us."
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