A lonely smile appeared on Smith's face under his sunglasses.
"Interesting."
As he spoke, he placed his hand on the black-suited SP, whose hand had turned to wood.
A faint blue light flickered around Smith, followed by a heart-wrenching scream.
The briefcase full of money had only one thing left: an ice sculpture that looked like a work of art, frozen in ice.
The leader's cigarette nearly dropped from his mouth.
He actually dared to make a move? How could he dare?!
The SP who had turned into wood was still writhing and crying out in pain on the wooden floor.
"Ah... my hand... boss..."
"Hey! Get some guts, will you?"
Just as the leader was about to scold his subordinate for making such a disgraceful scene, another scream echoed. Another SP had fallen victim to Smith's attack.
Smith picked up the coffee on the table and casually spilled it.
The bitter, black coffee instantly turned into sharp blades as it touched the transformed SP, piercing the victim and pinning them to the wall.
The black-suited SPs outside the door noticed the disturbance and immediately fired several shots at Smith, while one of them transformed their hands into roaring drills and charged forward.
But neither the bullets nor the black-suited SP succeeded. They were stopped before they could advance.
In the blink of an eye, an invisible wall cut through the real wall of the tavern, blocking their path.
The bullets and the massive energy of the drill were completely neutralized. The bullets' gunpowder seemed to have lost its effect, and the black-suited SP had turned into a lifeless puppet, unable to adapt.
Smith appeared unconcerned by the danger behind him, instead complaining.
"This is supposed to be work, you can't even put in some effort?"
It was clear that he was complaining about something.
Then, something strange quietly happened.
Even though they were in a tavern on land, two black-clad bodyguards suddenly found themselves unable to breathe, as if they had been thrown into water. As they gradually lost oxygen, they looked at each other in fear, trying to say something, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't make a sound.
Along with the disappearing air, their voices vanished as well.
The invisible wall seemed to have expanded within just a few seconds.
The only person left in charge of the tavern, driven by survival instinct, chose to flee from his hideout.
He didn't even have time to put out the cigarette on the ground, and the flame started to spread, consuming the luxurious carpet inside the tavern.
Smith remained in his usual calm posture, letting the coat-wearing man stumble as he ran out of his line of sight.
As he fled, the man couldn't help but look back at the noise.
"I was careless... Was this a trap?"
The tavern was located right next to a bridge, one the man had crossed countless times.
After he looked back one last time and confirmed that there was no movement from Smith, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, sensing danger. He saw a woman in a mink coat and a white child walking toward him across the familiar bridge.
In the dim orange glow of the bridge lamps, the two of them appeared even more intimidating after the earlier black-on-black incident.
The coat-wearing man smiled bitterly and mocked himself.
"Dammit, here we go."
With that, he put all his strength into his legs, and the bridge beneath him cracked under the force of his steps. He charged toward the pair like a wild bull.
In just a few steps, he closed the distance by about ten meters. It was hard to imagine such explosive power coming from a large man.
He then took a typical Muay Thai elbow strike stance. At this point, the pair was only about half a meter away from him, and normally, this would be out of range for an elbow strike.
But the man chose to strike early.
If it had been anyone else, their head would have been separated from their body by now.
With a loud "shing," the man's right elbow extended suddenly, transforming into a curved blade about 40 cm long. The blade sliced through the air, making a sharp sound.
The black woman seemed stunned, frozen in place with no reaction.
As the man considered if he had been too sensitive and might have killed someone innocent, he suddenly realized something.
The wind was too loud.
It was much louder than the sound of his own blade slicing through the air during training.
—Could it be?
The man felt like he had just collided with a level ten typhoon, unable to even keep his eyes open as the powerful wind force pushed him back, forcing him to roll several times before he finally stopped.
But it wasn't over; the wind kept pushing him back and forth like a leaf in the wind.
The pain wasn't over. The man was a close-range Quirk user with an altered body.
He was a second-tier manager for the largest enemy intelligence exchange, so he wasn't just anyone.
What he was most proud of was his physical strength. His Quirk not only allowed him to extend blade-like structures from his body when needed but also enhanced his physical abilities, making his body as strong as steel.
But now, all of his defensive and offensive strength was useless.
Smith earlier had been the type that could break his defenses, and the woman in front of him was clearly another type that could counter him.
The force of the wind was strong, but it couldn't harm his core.
However, he still couldn't break free from the wind's grip.
As the wind blurred his consciousness, he saw the black woman across from him making a throat-slitting gesture.
He instinctively looked up to the sky, where he saw a massive vortex of a storm raging.
The storm then turned into a continuous flood of wind, pouring down like water from a high-rise building.
Finally, the river beneath the bridge rippled from the impact of the wind.
The man was not dead, just severely injured.
A look of fear appeared on his once-fat face.
He dared not look back, terrified of seeing the nightmare that was Smith, so he chose to look down instead.
To his surprise, this was the beginning of another nightmare. He hadn't realized that his feet were already wrapped in ice, completely losing all feeling.
At the final moment of his life, he shouted in panic and confusion.
"You've already killed my subordinates, just consider it an apology to Mr. Smith from me!"
"But I'm one of the few secondary managers in the Information Exchange Association! If you kill me like this, it'll cause trouble even for you, right?!"
"Mr. Smith, please spare my life!"
In the end, he didn't get any response from the businessman, Smith.
---
=====
You can read 20 advanced chapters at my patreon.com/YeyeQiu