Chapter 58: Chang Bao the Mimic

After the Yan family's dinner, it was nearly 9:00 PM.

Wusheng, dead drunk and completely unresponsive, was escorted back to Building 19 of Courtyard No. 3 by Yan Ning and a team of guards.

"Deputy Captain, I really didn't expect this young man Wusheng to have such a massive background," the new guard, who had replaced the deceased Zou Zhiping, said while wiping away his sweat.

"Indeed, we must take good care of him. We cannot let our guard down regarding the surveillance at all," Yan Ning said. "Even without the business of that villain Mei Yulang, based solely on his status alone, do you have any idea how successful he will become in the future?"

"Yes, yes, we will definitely tend to him with the utmost care," the guard replied.

......

At midnight, a heavy rain began to fall.

Outside the walls of Courtyard No. 3 in Yan Garden, within the parking zone and beneath the curtain of rain, sat a pale blue off-road vehicle. Its model was rugged and tough, though the owner had evidently not cared for it well; the entire body was battered and covered in dents, with chipped paint left unrepaired in numerous places.

Chang Bao sat in the driver's seat, resting his eyes with a calm mind. The car radio was turned down to a barely audible volume, and his leg tapped lightly to the rhythm of the music playing.

Every few minutes, he would open his eyes and cast his gaze toward the south gate of Courtyard No. 3, which stood a hundred meters away.

At the south gate, two guards from the Yan family's 3rd Guard Detachment stood on duty at all times.

They had just changed shifts at the stroke of midnight.

Chang Bao was a Level 2 battle-pet-class rogue superhuman in Fuling City. He usually operated alone, unattached to any major faction, making a living by working as a bodyguard or mercenary. In truth, the scope of his profession went far beyond mere mercenaries and bodyguards; essentially, he would do whatever paid as long as it was within his capabilities.

The battle-pet class could be further divided into two categories: the beast-pet type and the beast-transformation type. Beast-pet-class superhumans mostly fought alongside tamed exotic beasts, while beast-transformation-class superhumans enhanced their own combat prowess by channeling the innate abilities of their beast companions. Within the beast-transformation class, there were several branches, and Chang Bao belonged to one specific branch: the mimetic practitioners.

The mimetic branch, as the name implied, was a cultivation system focused on mimicking certain characteristics of exotic beasts to achieve specific effects.

Chang Bao's cultivation level was not high; a Level 2 battle-pet-class superhuman was utterly insignificant in the superhuman world of Fuling City. The only reason he managed to live quite comfortably was that he had mastered a unique, one-of-a-kind supernatural skill, which he had obtained from a mutated lithops plant he had accidentally killed.

Lithops plants were remarkably wondrous, typically growing among clusters of stones with only a few fleshy leaves resting against the ground. Both in color and shape, their leaves bore an uncanny resemblance to pebbles, allowing them to fool the eyes of herbivores and escape being eaten.

Chang Bao had encountered this mutated lithops by a stream while exploring deep mountains. Battle-pet-class superhumans possessed a sensitivity to exotic beasts and plants far surpassing that of other superhumans; therefore, even though the plant had mimicked its surrounding environment to appear as much like a massive pebble as possible, it ultimately failed to elude his eyes. After a fierce battle, Chang Bao killed it and obtained an exotic crystal containing a supernatural skill. By absorbing the energy within the crystal, he acquired this mimetic supernatural skill.

Chang Bao diligently cultivated this mimetic skill, the core characteristic of which was to alter the supernatural energy on the surface of his body according to changes in the surrounding environment, making himself blend seamlessly with the textures and colors of his surroundings to deceive prying eyes. While utilizing mimesis, his supernatural energy aura could also be concealed perfectly according to his will.

The human eye was able to perceive objects because the light refracted by those objects was captured by the retinal nerves. If the light an object would otherwise reflect was absorbed, weakened, scattered, distorted, or altered, it became exceedingly difficult for the retinal nerves to capture its true state. Thus, when activating this supernatural skill, Chang Bao's physical body existed, yet anyone looking at him would feel as though they were simply gazing at ordinary scenery indistinguishable from the rest of the surroundings.

Relying on this skill, he had successfully escaped dangerous situations under adverse conditions on numerous occasions and stolen quite a few valuable items.

Recalling the events of the past few days, Chang Bao felt deeply unsettled.

A while ago, a mysterious employer had sought him out and informed him about the will left by the elder master of the Yan family. That person was extremely interested in two specific items mentioned in the will and was willing to offer one million Donghua dollars for him to retrieve them. The employer had paid a deposit of two hundred thousand, left a telephone number, and agreed to settle the remaining balance upon delivery.

The employer had not revealed his identity, but Chang Bao did not care. For someone in his line of work, as long as the money was in hand, it was enough; after all, these were all illicit dealings, and there was no need to probe for the root cause.

Consequently, Chang Bao took the money and sought out three like-minded friends, laying out the situation and preparing to complete the commission together. They divided the labor and headed to Wang'ao Fishing Village to keep watch on Wusheng, the recipient of the bequeathed items. After gaining a basic understanding of Wusheng's daily routine, they made their move.

Taking advantage of the time Wusheng spent out fishing, Chang Bao slipped into his shack-like residence to search for the *True Water Manual* and the crystal ball. He was adept at using his mimetic skill; even if villagers came running at the sound of a disturbance and noticed something amiss, they would not be able to pierce through his disguise. Finding the items would be ideal. If they could not be found, he would use his cell phone to contact his three friends.

His three friends would board the boat posing as passengers, pressuring Wusheng aboard about where the items were, their origin, and his relationship with the elder master of the Yan family. Once the items were secured, they would silence him, kill Wusheng, and throw his body into the sea.

To his dismay, things did not go according to plan. Chang Bao failed to find the two items in Wusheng's home, and his three friends failed to complete their mission, vanishing without a trace. Instead, he later saw photographs of their skeletal remains—chewed half-raw by marine fish—posted in an obituary notice by the "Heaven" organization.

Chang Bao had no idea how they had died, but he was terrified to the extreme. He promptly called his employer to state that he could not go through with the job and offered to return the deposit. To his surprise, the employer's demeanor changed instantly, threatening to have him killed if he backed out. The employer then provided Wusheng's current address at Building 19, Courtyard No. 3, Yan Garden, adding that Wusheng was soon to attend the Yan Garden Academy, and instructed Chang Bao to sneak in and steal the two items while he was at school. The employer also warned that both the interior and exterior of Building 19 were monitored by surveillance cameras, urging him to exercise extreme caution.

Moreover, the employer doubled the reward, raising the total sum—combining the deposit and the final payment—to two million!

Chang Bao was not particularly afraid of surveillance. He knew that the very reason his employer had sought him out was because his mimetic capability allowed him to bypass surveillance systems.

If the kid was not home, and he merely had to search for items without getting into a physical confrontation with anyone, he would feel much more at ease.

Enticed by the heavy bounty, he finally agreed. Thus, he began preparing to work alone. Before officially entering Wusheng's residence, he needed to lay the groundwork. First and foremost was observing the guard patrols and shift changes at Courtyard No. 3.

By today, he had been keeping watch here for a full week.

Having learned from past mistakes, his rule for himself this time was to ensure everything was foolproof before making a move.

During this period, through various connections, he had secured a temporary identity as a delivery worker for a bottled water company. A water delivery worker could enter households door-to-door. With the outer perimeter already thoroughly surveyed, starting tomorrow, he would begin moving and operating within Courtyard No. 3 under this new identity.

"Old Liao, you three useless pieces of trash..." he muttered silently to himself inside the car. "A Level 2 kid, and the three of you couldn't even handle him. It just means you lacked the fortune... Once I finish this job, I'm leaving Fuling City immediately and heading south to Sanhua Island to enjoy myself..."

"Go ahead and be consumed by envy, jealousy, and hatred down in the underworld!"