Chapter 69: The Uncles 

The tall fire Esper stared in shock at the scene before him.

Although his flames couldn’t match the monsters among S-class fire Espers, they were still hot enough to melt part of a military alloy when he put his full power into a single strike.

Even a fire Esper of the same rank shouldn’t have walked away unscathed after taking that hit.

But the black-haired girl in front of him took the attack without a scratch.

“Monster!”

What he didn’t know was that during her previous fights, Ling Ling had already adapted to part of Surtr’s flames. Her “Scorch” ability itself was one of the highest-level fire ability variants.

Once she got used to it,

lower-level fire abilities felt like warm water to her.

She didn’t pause as she burst out of the flames.

Instead, she charged straight at the stunned fire Esper, ignoring the hail of bullets.

Then her fist, wrapped in a layer of earth and stone armor, smashed heavily into his abdomen.

Ling Ling would have liked to punch his temple, but given the height difference, she could only aim for his stomach.

The impact sent the tall fire Esper doubling over like a bow.

He spat blood and crashed hard into the nearby wall.

That blow didn’t finish him off either, but it probably broke two or three of his ribs.

In less than a minute since she’d landed, Ling Ling had already given three A-rank Espers a serious beating.

The wind and fire Espers who were still conscious cursed under their breath at this mysterious black-haired girl.

They’d spent years in the mercenary world and had beaten plenty of same-rank opponents.

They’d even briefly fought against S-class Espers.

But they’d never seen a monster like this—her physical strength was incredible, and her reactions were lightning fast.

The most terrifying part was that she seemed to be able to use multiple abilities.

Running into someone like this today—were they lucky or unlucky?

But while the two were still confused, the bald giant who had lost consciousness earlier woke up.

Seeing the girl’s appearance, he couldn’t help but recall an urban legend that had spread widely in the Seventh District Underworld.

But what puzzled him was that the legend said “Bai Ye” was a girl with white hair and red eyes.

The girl in front of him also had red eyes, but her hair was black.

As if sensing something from the bald man’s gaze,

Ling Ling dispelled her “Mimicry” disguise while dodging bullets.

A head of white hair was revealed to everyone.

When they saw that iconic white hair, the other two also recognized Ling Ling’s identity.

It was Bai Ye!

But Ling Ling didn’t bother with the three of them anymore.

Since these main combatants were temporarily incapacitated, she needed to deal with these annoying mosquitoes.

She moved quickly, dodging bullets while slowly concentrating to lock onto the positions of the shooting mercenaries.

Then she shed her earth-stone armor.

This was a flaw in her copying ability—though the copied abilities were permanent, she could only use one copied ability at a time.

If she wanted to switch to another, she had to first deactivate the current one.

But by now, she had a rough grasp of the firing pattern of the mercenaries.

Even without the armor, she wouldn’t be hit easily.

Confirming the positions of the dozen or so B-rank Espers,

she ran while firing ice spikes in their direction.

The ice spikes flew extremely fast.

The average B-rank mercenaries couldn’t react in time.

One by one, they were knocked out by the ice spikes slamming into their faces.

With those small fries out of the way, the white-haired battle freak could finally cut loose.

Ling Ling usually hated trouble, but she wasn’t someone who shied away from fighting. In fact, like Lin Jiu, she thoroughly enjoyed the thrill of battle.

She liked to pour all her daily frustrations and annoyances into her fists and let them out.

She enjoyed playing the role of “Bai Ye”—partly to clear obstacles and maintain her daily life, and partly because she loved the joy of beating up small fry.

Of course, when the fight wasn’t too tense, she also liked to spare some energy for trash talk.

After dealing with the armed mercenaries, she walked back to the three A-rank Espers and said in a flat voice,

“What a bunch of small fry, old men.”

Hearing the white-haired girl’s taunt, the three felt their blood pressure spike.

They were A-rank Espers, above the masses, having dominated the mercenary world for years. How could they tolerate such verbal humiliation?

The bald man gritted his teeth, his eyes blazing as they locked onto Ling Ling.

“Don’t get too cocky, little girl!”

Then they moved in perfect coordination, attacking Ling Ling together.

First, the tall, thin man activated his ability, slashing out a huge net of wind blades, while the tall man launched a massive fireball he’d been charging.

The bald man activated his perception-type ability, sending an invisible mental lock toward Ling Ling.

This was his ability, “Weakness Lock”—when activated, he could share his perception with his designated teammates, quickly detecting the enemy’s defenses and weak points.

This was the trump card that had kept the three of them alive in the underground mercenary world for so many years.

“Her weakness is her left shoulder!”

Hearing the bald man’s message, the other two redirected the fireball and wind blades to cover her right side.

The dense attack was hard for Ling Ling to dodge. She had taken wind blade attacks before, but she hadn’t activated her ability to adapt to them.

And this massive wind blade wrapped in flames would actually deal some damage to her.

Just as the attack was about to hit, she bent her body backward in an almost impossible posture, sliding along the ground.

The net of wind blades grazed the tip of her nose, cutting off a few white strands.

If her chest had been any bigger, she might not have dodged that attack.

The momentum of the slide carried her forward. She pushed off the ground with both hands, sprang up, and stood.

Then, while the three were preparing their next wave, she activated the “Body Acceleration” she had copied earlier and rushed right up to them at incredible speed.

Switching her ability to “Scorch,” she wrapped flames around her fist.

Then each of them took a punch to the gut.

Just like that, all three lost their combat ability.

After taking them all down, she clapped her hands and said,

“So weak.”

She looked around at the mercenaries lying in a heap.

Then she walked into the observation platform and grabbed a female researcher who was cowering in the corner.

The other researchers, seeing this, didn’t dare say a word.

“D-don’t kill me…”

“I’m just in charge of monitoring data.”

The researcher’s voice trembled violently, her glasses crooked on her nose, her hands raised in surrender.

Ling Ling stared at her with cold eyes.

“What’s that mech?”