Chapter 11: Bodyguard

"It sure is cold in here!" Hook was immediately struck by a sense of discomfort as soon as they arrived in Kim's psychic world. "There's cold mist everywhere, and visibility is terrible as well!"

"How are you afraid of the cold when you're a robot?"

Nie Yiyi took a glance at Hook. She was also very surprised by the appearance of his psychic form.

"I only look like a robot, I'm not actually a robot."

"Alright, quit bickering! Let's get to work. Hook, track down the location of the subject."

"I'm on it!"

Hook replied as he pulled a handful of incense out of a pocket, then tossed it up into the air. The powdered incense formed the appearance of Kim in mid-air, then scattered with the wind. At the same time, Hook inhaled sharply through his nose before quickly pulling out his telescope and looking in a certain direction.

"Follow me."

Hook activated his steam engine and rushed toward a certain direction with plumes of steam billowing out behind him.

Adam and Nie Yiyi immediately followed him, and as they were galloping along, Adam took this opportunity to inspect the surrounding environment.

Just like last time, the setting was still a school. Kim's psychic world clearly wasn't very large, and the school seemed to be a very important place to her.

However, the three of them quickly left the school and arrived on the street outside.

All of the passersby on the streets wore cold and aloof expressions, engaging in their daily activities like puppets on strings.

"As Kim was suffering from a panic attack, not a single bystander stepped in to help her," Nie Yiyi concluded as she swept her gaze through the surrounding area. "On top of that, judging from the expressions of these bystanders, it's quite possible that her PTSD has previously flared up on this very street."

"There she is!"

As soon as Nie Yiyi's voice trailed off, Kim appeared in everyone's field of view.

She was walking along the street in an indifferent manner with an electronic pet dog at her feet, and the pet dog had a bag on its back.

"Kim! Over here!"

"It's you!"

Due to the fact that Adam had helped Kim on a previous occasion, she clearly felt a sense of familiarity and affection toward him. It was an indescribable feeling, like encountering an acquaintance in a dream.

"Where are you going?"

Adam squatted down and carefully observed Kim. On this occasion, her face was even paler than last time, and her body was even more frail. It was clear that the run-in with the anomaly last time had put her through a lot of trauma.

"I'm... I'm going home from school," Kim replied.

All of a sudden, a man rushed toward them from behind her before pushing Adam back. "Who are you?"

"Who are?you?"

Adam had identified the man to be the same person who had led him and Red Spider into the hall of the mansion the previous night.

"Who is that?"

Red Spider also raised the same question in the real world as she pointed at the projection.

"That's my daughter's bodyguard. You know how it is, it's not safe out there. His job is to accompany my daughter to and from school and ensure her safety outside of that as well."

"Why doesn't she just take the school bus? Is this man reliable?"

"What do you mean by that?" Deranged Pig was initially rather taken aback by this question, but he quickly understood what Red Spider was implying. "How could I have possibly assigned him the job of protecting my daughter if I didn't trust him?"

"That's true. However, given my past experience with cases like this, there's a very good chance that he's the perpetrator."

……

Red Spider wasn't the only one skeptical about the bodyguard. In the psychic world, Adam and the others were also watching the man with suspicious expressions.

"I'm Kim's friend. Did you just say that you're Kim's bodyguard?"

"Who I am is not important. I don't recognize you, so you better stay away from her."

"What if I don't?" Adam was occupying the man's attention while surreptitiously making a face at Hook. "What are you waiting for? What happened to your desire to get to the bottom of things? Hurry up and inspect him!"

"I'm already on it! I can already smell that there's something off about him!" Hook chuckled as he inhaled vigorously through his nose, then pulled out his magnifying glass before aiming it at the self-proclaimed bodyguard.

Through the magnifying glass, he could see two lines, one of which was red and symbolized friendship, while the other was black and represented ill intent. Both the red and black lines were connected to Kim, and there were also some other lines that were connected to the sky above.

"I can see that he harbors ill will toward Kim!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's take him down!"

Nie Yiyi immediately sprang into action, crouching down like a leopard before pouncing toward the bodyguard. However, after landing on him, she discovered that he was too strong for her to pin down. Thus, she switched her strategy, twisting around like a snake to lock him in a stranglehold.

"Take this!"

Right as Nie Yiyi placed the bodyguard in the stranglehold, Hook put down his magnifying glass and threw a punch right into his face.

Meanwhile, Adam took advantage of the opportunity to scoop Kim up in his arms before carrying her to a safe place.

"Wait here and don't move. I promise that I'll fix everything for you this time."

After offering Kim some words of reassurance, Adam quickly re-entered the fray.

At this point, the bodyguard had already broken free from Nie Yiyi's stranglehold.

He was a cyborg, and perhaps it was due to the fact that Kim had seen him in action in real life, thereby leaving a psychological impression on her, but even in her psychic world, the bodyguard was still quite formidable.

The bodyguard's left arm had transformed into a kopis-like weapon for close-quarters combat, while his right arm was an electric stun gun. Those weapons, coupled with the jet blasters on his back, made him an opponent with exceptional speed, maneuverability, and offensive prowess.

After revealing his cyborg form, the bodyguard forced back Nie Yiyi with his left arm before shooting countless fine lines out of his right arm. After connecting to Hook's body, electricity was sent running along the fine lines, and Hook was promptly electrocuted to the ground.

"Why are you so weak?"

Nie Yiyi revealed her dual blades as she cast a disdainful glance toward her useless ally.

Hook was also feeling quite embarrassed, and his facial muscles were spasming as he came to his own defense.

"I'm weak to electricity, so his weapon is especially effective against me! Besides, I'm just an underpaid scout, while you're the main fighter of our group! How about you stop making fun of me and do your job?"

"I guess that makes sense." At the mention of payment, Nie Yiyi immediately accepted Hook's explanation, and she brandished her blades before charging toward the enemy. "I'm not getting paid extra for nothing! Take a good look!"

In the face of the oncoming Nie Yiyi, the bodyguard's first reaction was naturally to fire his stun gun again in retaliation. However, on this occasion, all of the fine lines that were shot out of the stun gun were evaded by Nie Yiyi in an incredible display of agility.

In terms of speed and agility, Nie Yiyi had Hook completely outclassed.

Seeing as his stun gun had failed, the bodyguard switched to his kopis instead, and the first round of melee combat between the two commenced.

Clang!

Their blades clashed with a crisp clang, and even though the bodyguard's strength was enhanced by his mechanical body parts, he still wasn't a match for Nie Yiyi in the psychic world.

In just a single exchange, Nie Yiyi was able to knock his blade aside with brute force.

In the face of Nie Yiyi's superior power, the bodyguard immediately used the force of her attack to retreat, then activated the jet blasters on his back to try and take to the sky and search for another opportunity to retaliate from there.

However, Nie Yiyi was able to spring up from the ground onto the roof of a car before launching herself into the sky from there like an agile predator. Her blades then came crashing down in a flash, and the bodyguard was sent tumbling down from the sky by her attack.

Immediately thereafter, Nie Yiyi stabilized herself while still in mid-air, and cyberglyphs appeared over her body as energy gathered on her blades before being slashed toward the ground from afar.

A massive blade of wind took shape in the sky, then vanished out of sight in the blink of an eye. In the next instant, a massive plume of dust erupted into the air, and a huge trench had appeared on the street with the bodyguard lying directly at its center, having also been sliced in half.