Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 41 Choice
Ai Liang slowly raised her hand.

The man with a thousand faces smiled even more brightly.

Then he was slapped and sent flying several meters away.

The Man with a Thousand Faces was absolutely right.

His words exposed Ai Liang's true colors and revealed the fear deep in Ai Liang's heart.

Five years of killing have gradually changed Ai Liang's personality, and the kind-hearted young man from his previous life is slowly fading away.

Ai Liang, who used to be moved to tears by a heartwarming story, has become cold-blooded and numb.

Five years ago, when he had just retired, even if he saw victims of criminal organizations and various tragedies in the news, he would at most sigh in his heart that life is unpredictable, and soon he would put it out of his mind.

After seeing and hearing so much, you eventually become numb to it.

If a change in personality only makes him uneasy, then the erosion of his bottom line is the source of his fear.

Only the most wicked are killed.

This is Ai Liang's bottom line, and now even this bottom line is beginning to waver.

When Ai Liang deduced that Xu Zhihai was the real culprit in Gao Jiajia's murder, her first reaction was to kill him and slit his throat.

The key point is that I didn't realize anything was wrong at the time.

If today he shifts his hunting targets from the most heinous criminals to ordinary murderers, then next time it will expand to those who commit serious crimes, and the time after that it will be all criminals.

Once a bottom line is crossed, it will be crossed a second and a third time. When will Ai Liang's bottom line completely disappear, turning her into someone who will kill anyone who makes her unhappy? Nobody can say for sure.

He is a superhuman, and when he takes action, he is absolutely secretive and unstoppable. No one can discover that he is the real culprit, and no one can stand up to punish him.

At that time, Ai Liang will truly become a demon walking among humans.

This future has always been the future that Ai Liang fears.

A subtle shift in his personality and a wavering bottom line frightened Ai Liang, and he gradually became a stranger to himself: the hermit.

When he debuted, he wore a mask called The Hermit. Now, the humanity that Ai Liang represents is gradually disappearing, and the mask that represents the Hermit is slowly replacing him.

If a person wears a mask for a long time, being one way when alone and another way in front of others, then he will eventually become confused about who his true self is.

Ultimately, Ai Liang is just a teenager who awakened superpowers later in life.

In his past life, his parents died early, and he worked hard to support himself and experienced the harsh realities of life. In this life, he has no worries about food and clothing but has never received any love or care from anyone. It is reasonable for him to have such contradictory feelings.

Anyone else would probably have become arrogant and turned to crime long ago, and wouldn't have been able to exercise self-control.

While superpowers can bring unparalleled strength, they cannot make a person's mind strong or their will invincible.

Fortunately, Ai Liang cleared away all his negative emotions not long ago, and now he can feel the warmth and coldness of human relationships and can start a new life like a normal person.

That's why his emotions were stirred up by the Thousand-Faced Man.

"That's quite a blunt way to refuse."

The Thousand-Faced Man rubbed his face as he got up from the ground without getting angry, as if he had only been scratched by his cat master.

"Speaking of which, where did that chilling killing intent you used to have go? The last time I saw you five years ago, you were as cold as ice. What happened to you now?"

This guy had been secretly monitoring me all along and could even sense changes in my emotions.

Ai Liang stared at him with a fierce look in her eyes, her expression growing increasingly hostile.

We absolutely cannot repeat the mistakes of ten years ago!

Ai Liang told herself that this was the first step in her new life, and she absolutely could not afford to make any mistakes.

He had been unsealing his abilities since he entered the room, but since it was his first time unsealing them, he wasn't very skilled at using them.

If it weren't for the fact that Ai Liang was worried about the shady organization behind the Thousand-Faced Man and that they would continue to harass her, she would have killed the Thousand-Faced Man long ago.

At this moment, Gao Bin, who was standing next to him, suddenly screamed.

"Don't be so impatient, let me finish what I have to say." The Thousand-Faced Man walked back to Gao Bin's side step by step. It was obvious that he had done something to Gao Bin. "Since you don't care about the benefits of joining us, let's discuss the disadvantages of your refusal."

“Well, let’s start with the rumors about you.” The Thousand-Faced Man put his hand on his chin as if he was thinking. “I originally planned to disguise myself as a hermit and then kill Yue Chongshan, a very influential figure, to force you out. But in the process, I discovered a better target.”

The man with a thousand faces placed his hand on Gao Bin's heart.

"Using his life to blackmail me? Do you think I care whether he lives or dies?"

Ai Liang stopped what she was doing and stood still again.

"No, you will care. After you hear what I have to say, you will definitely care," the Thousand-Faced Man said with a strange laugh and unwavering certainty.

"Yue Chongshan is just an ordinary person after all. His influence is far less than that of Officer Gao, a member of the Asian Union Countermeasures Bureau."

"Just think of this countermeasures bureau as a secret department in a movie, there's no difference."

“You contacted the authorities anonymously to hide your true identity, right? But now…” The Thousand-Faced Man pinched Gao Bin’s face, forcibly turning his head towards Ai Liang.

"Now, whether it's your status as an Apostle or my invitation to join the Apostle Council, Officer Gao has witnessed it all. As a throat-slitting maniac who has killed so many people, do you think they will accept you or lock you up in a dark and hopeless laboratory?"

Ai Liang's expression began to turn ugly.

At this moment, the reason why the Thousand-Faced Man kept Gao Bin alive finally came to light.

"Don't worry, I won't kill Officer Gao. On the contrary, I will try my best to keep him alive. This way, information about you can be accurately conveyed to the Countermeasures Bureau, since they won't believe what I say."

The man with a thousand faces continued with a smile, "However, I can hand him over to you. As long as you kill him, I will help you pretend that I did it, so you can continue to hide yourself. Consider this a favor you owe me."

"So, are you going to kill Officer Gao or let him go? Whatever you choose, I'll support you."

The Thousand-Faced Man drove Ai Liang to the brink of despair.

Gao Bin now understood that the reason he had survived was because the Thousand-Faced Man wanted him to be used as a bargaining chip to coerce the Hermit.

He tried to purse his lips, but couldn't utter a single word.

As the Thousand-Faced Man said, Apostles are rare beings in the world, and the Countermeasures Bureau will inevitably list the Hermit as a key target for capture.

Moreover, as a throat-slitting maniac in Nevada's underworld, the Bureau of Countermeasures has no reason to allow such a dangerous element to roam the society.

This is a conspiracy.

No matter which path the hermit chooses, neither will end well. One will end up in the hands of the Thousand-Faced Man, and the other will become a key target of the Countermeasures Bureau. The outcome is not much different.

Having figured this out, Gao Bin could only close his eyes in despair.

"Time is running out. The special forces will be here soon to clean up the mess. Then you won't even have a chance to choose. Ugh."

Suddenly, the man with a thousand faces clutched his neck, and blood gushed out from between his fingers.

He turned around unsteadily, and the scalpel cut open another wound.

The one holding the scalpel was Gao Bin; he was holding the gurney with his left hand and the still-dripping scalpel with his right.

"How could this be... You clearly..." the Thousand-Faced Man murmured softly.

Blood was gushing from his arteries as if it were free, and then he suddenly noticed Gao Bin's face.

The face was blank and expressionless.

"So that's how it is, hahaha. I always thought your ability was stealth. Strange abilities really are all kinds of things. Go to the first room on the second floor, the filing cabinet. There's a small gift for you inside."

The Thousand-Faced Man seemed to have more to say, but with his throat slit, he could only leave out crucial information intermittently before completely losing all signs of life and dying.

However, Ai Liang knew that the Thousand-Faced Man himself was definitely not dead; it was Xu Zhihai who had died. From the conversation, it could be inferred that Xu Zhihai was just one of his bodies.

"I don't like forced choices; I will create a satisfactory option myself."

Ai Liang directly used mental manipulation to control Gao Bin's consciousness, using telekinesis to assist his actions.

Then, an adrenaline-fueled scene was implanted in his brain, depicting him turning the tables on Xu Zhihai, and all his memories of talking to the Thousand-Faced Man were erased.

This was the first time Ai Liang had actively controlled and modified someone else's mind and memories.

He didn't know if doing this would be like opening Pandora's box, accelerating his own downfall, but he had to do it now.

He was already being targeted by the Apostles, and if he were to leave the Countermeasures Bureau where Gao Bin was located, his future life would likely become a mess.

The farce is over.

The warehouse contained the six dead Xu Zhihai, the half-dead Gao Bin and the masked man, and Wang Dafu, whom Ai Liang had knocked unconscious as soon as he entered.

Ai Liang looked around the warehouse, preparing to go upstairs to see what the Thousand-Faced Man had mentioned about the little gift.

If there's any information about the hermit inside, it would be terrible if the special operations team took it all away.

(End of this chapter)