Dalvin appeared a hundred meters away in a small guard post for a nearby company that deals with shipping and logistics. His entire torso still ached, and he felt like screaming due to the waves of pain piercing him that he never felt before, but he managed to blink his bloodshot eyes and take stock of his surroundings.
In the end, he was left speechless to see that he had appeared in the middle of a squad of well-equipped men who looked to be part of SWAT. They too were left speechless to find that someone had literally appeared in their midst from nowhere, panting in pain and barely able to move.
There was a split second where Dalvin actually saw the authorities and thought he was safe. However, that split second of delusional thought immediately disappeared when they all turned their guns to him and seemed ready to fire first and ask questions later.
Having a gun pointed at him like this was a first for the reclusive Dalvin who had not caused any trouble in his life nor really gotten into any of that sort. However, his instincts to flee still kicked in, and he blinked away once more, leaving the members of this squad baffled and fearful.
"Witchcraft? Or some sort of military technology?" One squad member asked below his breath.
Another squad member grabbed his helmet and turned it to face him, revealing his bloodshot eyes underneath.
"Neither. We saw nothing, you understand? Whatever fucking force that guy is from or whatever he is part of, we do not want to be remotely involved in it!"
Seeing his team member's red eyes, the fellow trembled as he could almost see a vision of his entire family waylaid and slaughtered because he knew too much. As such, he hurriedly nodded and agreed that he had not seen a thing, the other members of the squad also agreeing with shaky voices.
They returned to their vigil, shaken but resolute.
As for Dalvin, he appeared even farther away, this time incidentally outside of the encirclement and on the pavement of an empty street. He forcibly pushed himself up off the ground and made sure the part of his jumpsuit he used to tie around his head was still secure, covering everything but his eyes.
He then frisked his body down for any sort of tracking bugs or tools. He even felt ridiculous doing this, but seeing that guy's high-tech equipment, he couldn't help but think of those fancy spy and action movies.
'And first of all, who the heck was that guy? Second of all, what the hell did he mean by "others like me"?' Dalvin asked himself internally as he winced.
He was not entirely sure he was not being tracked somehow, so he could only skip the idea of going to his apartment and decided to recuperate within one of the nearby offices. He found one nearby and jumped over its wall and entered the building with ease, not triggering any alarms since it was only a travel and tours agency.
Dalvin snuck in and first poured himself a few cups of water from the dispenser and then sighed as he lay on the sofa of the reception area where customers would wait for their turn. As he lay down, he was still somewhat alert but he did feel a bit tired.
However, Dalvin refused to sleep, not out of wariness, but due to a burning feeling of humiliation and anger in him. It was that feeling of being disgraced in public but being unable to find a suitable counter to attack your foe, but when you came home and entered the shower, a thousand and one ideas would pop up in your mind spontaneously.
The current Dalvin replayed the events of the fight and felt like he shouldn't have lost so badly. It wasn't like his foe was so much faster than him, in fact, his moves were a bit slow in Dalvin's perception.
The reason he failed to react and could only defend lay in his mindset. He was a normal bloke who mostly spent his time on the internet pursuing his interests and consuming products. As an artist, he hated fighting the most, because if something happened to his arms, there went his ability to draw.
He was a complete noob when it came to fighting, even in terms of the typical clumsy street fights normal people had. All his knowledge of fighting came from fictional material he had read, watched, or listened to.
Against a clearly trained elite like that guy, he was fish on the chopping block. Dalvin's logical ability easily deduced this and told him of this fact, but his emotional center was not having it.
He clenched his fists in anger and unwillingness, then winced because of the pain in his forearms, then felt even angrier because of that pain. It was a vicious cycle that left him feeling impotent and helpless, the two things that could cause any male species extreme distress.
Dalvin tossed and turned on the couch but could not find sleep amidst pain and turbulent thoughts. In the end, he got up and opened his storage pouch, glancing at the last pill in the xueqi bottle grimly.
'Last one… let's make it count.' He thought to himself as he popped it and walked towards what looked to be the sturdiest wall in the entire office and entered the horse stance.
After taking a deep breath, Dalvin felt the energy of the pill rush through his body and alleviate all the pains and aches he had. All that was left was a sea of energy and excitement that needed to be let free, so he began punching with his full force once more.
Dalvin immediately felt the difference from previous times. Because of his current emotional turmoil, he could not focus like before, but this only prompted him into further anger as he increased the force of his punches as if he was truly trying to break the wall before him.
Even when he thought he had been striking the wall in the prison and in the cement factory with his full force, a part of his consciousness always pulled back a bit of strength. It was simply from the instinct to prevent self-harm and it was difficult to consciously resist such a thing.
However, the current Dalvin was truly going all out, not due to fear of demise or desperation, but simply due to hatred. In his eyes, the wall had become the outlet of his anger towards the one who defeated him and because of that, all conscious limiters were taken back.
He felt his blood qi roar in his body much faster than it ever had before, and this caused a deep-seated feeling of satisfaction and confidence to surge through his entire body. He no longer felt weak and foolish, but rather strong and filled with endless potential!
This kind of feeling carried throughout his near 30 minutes of practice, causing him to finally shatter a hole through the wall he had been punching all this while when he made the final hit.
Looking at the result of his practice, Dalvin felt like his entire body was surging with potency. He cricked his neck and glanced at the hole but did not know anything about masonry to repair or cover it up.
He simply walked over to the dispenser and poured himself a few more cups of cold water before opening the system interface.