Hell's Handbook

Chapter 198: The Island Base

The weather at sea wasn’t too bad, so the three of them landed without much problem. Just before they hit the surface of the sea, something from inside the backpack they carried protruded out from the bag. Green flames shot out from the bottom and pushed them upwards.

They stopped falling for a second and the part that protruded earlier came out and formed a surfboard of sorts under their feet.

“This is a pretty interesting item,” remarked Su Jin. This item could balance itself even as it travelled at high speed across the waves. The sea breeze against their faces and it felt so nice.

“This is the latest technology our labs have come up with. I snatched these away before the labs completed their experimentation because I felt that they would be useful to our trip,” said Situ Jin smugly.

“Wait, they haven’t been tested yet?!” Su Jin’s face paled immediately as he felt himself sink into the water. Kano Mai and Situ Jin also suddenly began to sink.

They were in the ocean, for crying out loud. If they didn’t have any powers or items that could keep their heads above water, then they’d still die even if they were owners. Su Jin quickly unleashed his psychokinesis to form three bubbles around them. They were floating in the water, but the water couldn’t touch them at all, as though an invisible force was protecting them.

“Situ, can you wait until the equipment has been tested to be safe for use before bringing them along?” said Su Jin in an exasperated voice. Thankfully, psychokinesis was an excellent type of Spirit Power that could be used in many situations. The three bubbles he had created were also able to carry them in whichever direction Su Jin wanted them to go.

Situ Jin was a little embarrassed now. It was true that he had been a little too rash this time. If the three of them ended up drowning here, that would be such a tragedy.

Thankfully, everything turned out fine. Su Jin’s psychokinetic bubbles not only moved them along rapidly, but also allowed them to travel beneath the surface of the water to avoid detection. An hour later, they found themselves near a secluded part of the island, so they got onto the island safely and without a single drop of water on themselves.

“What’s the plan?” Su Jin asked Situ Jin.

“Surround them, take them down and interrogate them,” Situ Jin explained very briefly.

Su Jin felt as though he had walked into yet another trap. “Situ, do you know what the words ‘make a plan’ even mean?”

“I don’t really do a lot of planning, actually. The Department of Supernatural Affairs doesn’t have to be too careful either, since everything can be covered up. If we really need to make plans, Bo Ya would help me, but I can’t let anybody else in the department know about this mission, so…” Situ Jin’s voice trailed off awkwardly.

Su Jin slapped his forehead. Come to think of it, Situ Jin and his team had also barged into his house back then without much of a plan. They were armed with a few tricks, but those weren’t enough to deal with him at all and he overcame them in no time.

“We need to at least find out how many people there are on the island.” Su Jin glanced at the island. It wasn’t very large, and he could see a small building in the middle. It was probably big enough to only house no more than 20 people.

He sent his psychokinesis out in hope of finding out exactly how many people there were on the island, but when his psychokinesis hit the area around the building, it seemed to run into a wall and his psychokinesis couldn’t advance any further.

“Jin, what’s wrong?” asked Kano Mai when she noticed the strange look on Su Jin’s face.

Su Jin shook his head. “I can’t do this. There’s something on the island that can keep psychokinesis out.”

“Leave this to me then.” Situ Jin seemed to have suddenly found a good place to use his powers. He hid himself in some shadows, then revealed half his body and said, “Both of you, follow me. It’s not safe to fight these people single handedly.”

“Got it.” There was something that kept his psychokinesis out, but it only kept it from coming in and did not stop him from using it.

Situ Jin disappeared into the shadows, while Su Jin left a wisp of psychokinesis on him so that he could track Situ Jin. Otherwise, it would be too difficult to find Situ Jin among the shadows.

The outer area of the island had no security of any sort, perhaps because they didn’t think anybody would be bold enough to attack this place. So, the three of them came very close to the middle in no time

“If there are so few people on the island, it’s not really possible to maintain that sort of security either,” thought Su Jin. At the same time, if they knew they had very few people on the island at any one time, they would definitely find a way to secure the island.

It was logical for them to not bother themselves with the outer area, but they weren’t so dumb as to leave the middle unguarded as well.

Situ Jin soon emerged from the shadows and said to Su Jin, “There are… a lot of wild animals in the way ahead.”

Su Jin noticed a strange look on Situ Jin’s face and asked, “There’s something wrong with those animals?”

“Something very wrong. They aren’t ordinary animals at all: they’re a bunch of animals that should have gone extinct a long time ago, like dinosaurs and saber-toothed tigers. They’re all apex predators,” said Situ Jin.

It wasn’t really impossible for Handbook owners to revive some of these supposedly extinct animals. Modern science had managed to accomplish a bit of this as well.

“Just keep going and ignore us,” said Su Jin.

Situ Jin disappeared into the shadows again. Su Jin and Kano Mai continued walking and it didn’t take them long to see a large group of wild animals roaming around. They were all apex predators, but they were now living harmoniously with one another.

An ordinary biologist would have exclaimed in shock and amazement at this, but Su Jin and Kano Mai remained unfazed by this scene. They had seen crazier things, after all.

“I’ll handle this. You can save your strength for later,” said Kano Mai. She walked toward the animals and all of them immediately turned to look warily at her.

But before they could launch an attack, all of them began to look lethargic. Those nearer to Kano Mai just collapsed and fell asleep on the spot.

Su Jin walked over to Kano Mai and said, “Mai, you’re getting really good at controlling your slothful powers. Even I would fall prey to this power of yours.”

“It’s nowhere near your psychokinesis. Besides, you understood the relative principle of the seven sins, so you’re immune to their powers,” said Kano Mai with a pout.

Su Jin scratched his head awkwardly and laughed. “Mai, you’re really good. At least with regard to these animals, I don’t think I’d have done a better job than you.”

“How could that be? If you had to handle these animals, you could just use your psychokinesis to kill them on the spot, no?” Kano Mai didn’t believe him.

He said gravely, “No. There’s a special device on these animals, so never mind killing them: if my psychokinesis just touches them, everyone on this island will know. Only a power that already exists within the natural desires of a living creature would be able to go undetected. That’s why I said that you’d do a better job.”

“If that’s the case, does that mean that the people here targeted you right from the start because they knew you would be coming to take revenge?” said Kano Mai in shock.

Su Jin shook his head and chuckled. “I don’t think so. I think they’re actually defending themselves against a different owner with psychokinetic powers.”

“A different owner with psychokinetic powers? You mean… Xu Ran?” She quickly thought of who it could possibly be.

Su Jin nodded. “That’s right. This organization seems particularly wary of Xu Ran, so I think Xu Ran and Shen Wu have fought before, and Shen Wu lost.”

The two of them sauntered right through the wild animals and came to the centermost part of the island. They went up a high place and looked down, and could see the building where the robbers stayed.

Situ Jin reappeared shortly after that. “There are 23 people in total, but I don’t know how many of them are veterans. Also, the two men who tried to attack your family members are here too.”

“Very good,” said Su Jin with a nod. He wasn’t going to let off anyone who dared to lay a finger on his family members.

“What do we do? Kill our way in?” Situ Jin asked excitedly.

Su Jin summoned a chess piece from his Handbook. “I’m sending this thing in first. It can help us to check out the actual situation inside.”

Kano Mai and Situ Jin narrowed their eyes. They knew what this thing was. Chu Yi had barely beaten this thing in a fight on the Train of the Supernatural. Just this one thing was as capable as Chu Yi was.

Su Jin flung the piece forward and it instantly turned into a pigheaded warrior that stood at two meters tall. It held a long knife in each hand and stood respectfully in front of Su Jin.

“Go in and have fun slaughtering them!” Su Jin gave the command and the warrior dashed toward the building without hesitation.

When it was still 20 meters away from the building or so, the pigheaded warrior swung its knives at the building and two visible forces struck the building with a roar.

Boom! Boom! A faint glow appeared around the building. It looked like a protective layer of sorts.

But that didn’t faze the pigheaded warrior. It had received the command to break into the building and slaughter the people inside, so it was going to do just that. The knives in its hand were like an energy producing factory as it launched attack after attack.

The protective layer was pretty solid, but it wasn’t able to hold up against this continuous attack from the warrior. It cracked and shattered after a short time, but that was enough for the owners inside to realize there was trouble outside. They came streaming out of the building to see who would dare to make trouble here, but were stunned when they saw the pigheaded warrior.

The one leading the group was the man with red eyes. He looked at the warrior and said, “This is a puppet. Its owner is hiding somewhere.”

Su Jin smiled faintly. This was an owner qualified to take charge of a base in a foreign universe, since he was still so calm in the face of such a strong adversary. But what Su Jin really wanted to know was how powerful the other robbers were.

The warrior started attacking the owners immediately after the protective layer shattered. It was a strong fighter and wasn’t afraid to die. It swung its knives several times and two owners were killed almost immediately.

“Damn it! How could there be such a powerful puppet in existence! It’s almost as powerful as the Cerberus I gave to Mr. Alex the last time!” exclaimed the man with red eyes. The warrior had already slashed its way to him.