Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 39 The Man with a Thousand Faces

"Yes, it's me," Xu Zhihai replied with a smile.

Gao Bin is now completely paralyzed and can only watch helplessly as Xu Zhihai prepares various surgical instruments on a trolley beside him.

He instantly understood what the other person was going to do.

"You want to strip me of my armor?"

While the Bio-Armor is called armor, it is essentially a part of the monster's body, and it's alive.

The Asian Alliance simply improved upon and innovated upon the information about fusion warriors transmitted by Theo, and used special technology to create something similar to a parasite from the monster's body.

This way, the fatal flaw of shortening human lifespan due to complete fusion with the monster can be avoided.

Every gain has its loss. After eliminating the fatal flaw, the monster's power also decreased significantly, making the Bio-Armor completely incomparable to the Fusion Warrior.

Fortunately, the armor can be mass-produced, which is quite useful for dealing with ordinary humans who accidentally acquire cursed items and then cause trouble.

Logically, each piece of armor is bound to its host and cannot be forcibly separated, but now that the armor has entered a dormant state, Gao Bin is unsure whether the protective measures are still effective.

Gao Bin felt a little anxious. He recalled the scene of his first meeting with Xu Zhihai and Shi Feng's evaluation of him: "He is a devil who likes to manipulate others."

Thinking of this, Gao Bin said, "I didn't expect you to be one of the masked ones. Was my target from the beginning?"

Gao Bin was gambling that Xu Zhihai would explain things to him like a villainous boss.

"No, no, Officer Gao, you are not my target."

Gao Bin's gamble was correct, but not entirely.

Although Xu Zhihai was willing to communicate with him, he showed no sign of stopping his work, turning his head to talk to him while wielding his knife.

Damn it! Don't be half-hearted when performing surgery!

Gao Bin watched in utter horror as Xu Zhihai ripped open his chest.

He dared not shout, for fear that his shout would startle Xu Zhihai, causing his hand to tremble, the knife to veer off course, and sever his carotid artery.

The core of the armor is near the heart.

However, Xu Zhihai's technique was superb; the scalpel in his hands danced as elegantly as a conductor's baton in a symphony orchestra.

After overcoming the initial period of panic, Gao Bin's turbulent emotions gradually calmed down.

"Not for me? What you're doing now doesn't make any sense."

After realizing that Xu Zhihai didn't intend to kill him, he grew bolder: "You turned yourself in that day on purpose, using the mask's scent to lure me in, didn't you!"

Although it's unclear why Xu Zhihai didn't just kill himself and take the armor after it was already dormant, that didn't stop him from using that to buy time.

"Arrogance and overconfidence can make people lose sight of themselves. Wang Zi, Xia Qinian, and you are all like that."

Xu Zhihai deftly took a dark, lumpy object from Gao Bin's chest and placed it on the tray. The object was throbbing rhythmically, looking extremely eerie.

"Wang Zi's blind self-confidence turned into anger the moment it was destroyed. The more proud he was, the angrier he became when he was betrayed. So he did as I wanted and killed Gao Jiajia."

Xu Zhihai began stitching up Gao Bin's wound. Due to the effects of the bio-armor, Gao Bin's body had already deviated from that of an ordinary person. What would take an ordinary person several hours to perform was completed in just a few minutes here.

"Xia Qinian thought I was just a weak scavenger, a weakling who had no ability of his own and could only rely on others to carry out his revenge."

“In his eyes, I didn’t have the guts to lie to him, a strong bounty hunter, so I said a couple of things that were half-true and half-false, and he found a way to take me to see the hermit.”

Xu Zhihai randomly picked up a box and put the black, unidentified substance inside.

"Officer Gao, do you know that you prefer to see and hear for yourself rather than listen to advice from others, and you believe that what you know for yourself is the truth?"

As the core detached from the body, the paralysis caused by the armor core gradually subsided, and intense pain spread from the chest to all parts of the body.

Gao Bin gritted his teeth, sweating profusely from the pain.

"So after you discovered that I had picked up the mask's scent through Wang Dafu, you didn't think much and immediately identified him as the real culprit who killed Wang Qiang. To be honest, Officer Gao, you're not suited to be a criminal investigator."

I was just looking to coast through life!
"You've been planning this for so many years just for a set of bio-armor? Hah, without the Asia Alliance's stabilizer, the bio-armor is completely useless!" Gao Bin said through gritted teeth.

This sentence was uttered one word at a time.

It's not because of hatred, it's purely because of pain.

“Officer Gao, it seems you didn’t listen to a word I said.” Xu Zhihai sighed and shook his head. “Didn’t I tell you? I’m not doing this for you, nor for a set of armor.”

"Then what exactly is your purpose?!"

"For what reason?" Xu Zhihai turned to look at the doorway. "Of course, it's to invite our hermit."

Following Xu Zhihai's gaze, Gao Bin saw a young man dressed in casual clothes walking towards them.

"So, you're the one who spread the rumor that the Hermit is going to attack Yue Chongshan?" Ai Liang stopped five meters away from Xu Zhihai and stared at him coldly. "You were also the one who invited me to join the Apostles' Society?"

Gao Bin was visibly stunned upon hearing this. He was about to shout when the pain in his chest forced him to swallow his words back.

Invite the Hermit to join the Apostles?

Could he be an apostle?

"Yes, it's me." Xu Zhihai readily admitted.

"However, the person who made the call wasn't me, it was that guy."

Xu Zhihai pointed to the masked man writhing on the ground: "Sigh, this subordinate is completely ignorant of manners. He's been blinded by the power I gave him, and he's utterly useless."

Having observed for so long, Ai Liang naturally realized that the masked man was the idiot who called her with the accent of a third-rate villain's lackey.

"You're forcing me to show myself because I won't join you?" Ai Liang's eyes were filled with hostility.

If Xu Zhihai doesn't give a satisfactory explanation, Ai Liang wouldn't mind making him understand why no one dared to spread rumors about the Hermit's target even after five years of silence.

"I'm very sorry, I had no choice but to force you out in this way." Xu Zhihai placed his blood-stained hand on his side and bowed in apology.

"Actually, I wanted to invite you to join our family ten years ago, but seeing how much fun you were having in the black zone, I was too embarrassed to disturb your enjoyment. I originally planned to invite you to join us after you got tired of killing, and take you to see another side of this world, but you suddenly disappeared, and that disappearance lasted for five whole years."

Xu Zhihai helplessly spread his palms: "The strange creature you control should be the stealth type, right? No matter how I searched for you for the past five years, I couldn't find any trace of you. I finally waited for you to show up, but I was worried that you would disappear again like last time, so I resorted to this tactic."

"Ten years ago?" Ai Liang questioned, "Ten years ago you were only graduating from elementary school. Don't you think that's ridiculous?"

When she said this, Ai Liang put aside the fact that she debuted at the age of five.

He has lived two lives, so that doesn't count.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, this body isn't actually mine," Xu Zhihai said with a smile.

Lying in bed, Gao Bin's mood was like a rollercoaster, with one wave of emotions following another.

I just heard that the Hermit might be an Apostle, and now there's something even more explosive.

A person with a thousand faces who possesses other people's bodies?!

Gao Bin was utterly horrified.

Why would a lowly henchman from the countermeasures department encounter such a world-class boss?!

Damn it! Is this God's punishment for my slacking off?

The Thousand-Faced Man personally extended the invitation. Does this mean that the Hermit is an apostle chosen from among millions?
As layer upon layer of information was revealed, Gao Bin's mind raced.

We absolutely have to find a way to get the message out.

Xu Zhihai paid no attention to Gao Bin on the bed; his eyes were only on Ai Liang at that moment.

"I discovered by chance three years ago that Xu Zhihai has an over-adaptive physique, which allows him to perfectly control cursed objects or become a fusion warrior, so I made a deal with him."

Before Xu Zhihai could finish speaking, Ai Liang had already guessed the contents of the deal.

"This child's mother has passed away, and his only relative was killed in a hit-and-run accident for no reason. Heartbroken, he offered his own body as a bargaining chip, asking me to take revenge on the driver who caused the accident and the traffic police officer who abused his power."

"After all, I'm not the kind of devil who takes the money and doesn't do the job or sets up contract traps. I only devoured his personality after Xu Zhihai saw the heartbroken Gao Fuye and the tragically dead Wang Qiang with his own eyes and his wish was fulfilled."

"As for who I am."

He paused for a moment, then picked up an injection.

Gao Bin, who was eavesdropping nearby and trying to keep a low profile, felt a sense of foreboding.

"Don't worry, this medicine will only temporarily cause you to lose your hearing."

After saying that, he injected the medicine into Gao Bin's body.

When Gao Bin saw the Thousand-Faced Man about to inject him with drugs, he thought he was going to kill him, but it turned out to be another false alarm.

Gao Bin couldn't understand why they had to go to such lengths if they didn't want to expose crucial information; they could have simply knocked him unconscious or killed him.

Or does the Thousand-Faced Man need to achieve a certain goal?
Gao Bin, who had temporarily lost his hearing, pondered.

After administering the potion, the Thousand-Faced Man continued, "All the major political systems call me the Thousand-Faced Man, but as an apostle myself, I'll tell you my real name."

“Gaia,” the man with a thousand faces announced a name. “Gaia Morgan, that’s my name.”

(End of this chapter)