That night, Matthew put on a dark green Air Force jacket and left ho, heading toward the remote southwestern edge of town, near the mountain region.
The area was thick with trees and dense vegetation, with a river flowing nearby.
Few people ever ca to this isolated place. After walking for quite so ti, he arrived at a small deserted dock.
There was an old wooden cabin by the dock, weathered enough that it had clearly been standing there for many years.
Not long after Matthew entered the cabin, several cars pulled up in the distance.
More than a dozen n stepped out, all carrying themselves with the sharp, hardened air of professionals. The man in the lead gave the others a look, and without a word, everyone drew their guns and entered the cabin with weapons raised.
What none of them expected was that inside the empty wooden cabin, Matthew was simply standing there, as though their arrival was not surprising to him in the slightest.
He stood at around 180 centiters tall.
They all had to admit the kid looked good—handso, well-built—but that was all.
The n quickly surrounded him.
The leader had so kind of tattoo on his neck, a face covered in rough stubble, and fierce eyes locked onto Matthew as he raised his pistol and aid it directly at his forehead.
"Boy, hand over whatever that old man was hiding."
"Was it you who killed Daniel?"
Matthew's voice was calm.
Or rather, beneath that calmness, there was a monstrous rage waiting to erupt.
The man frowned impatiently.
"You talk too much, brat."
As he spoke, he prepared to pull the trigger, intending to cripple Matthew by shooting his hands first.
Seeing this, Matthew let out a quiet breath.
"So not everyone is stupid after all."
Buzz—!
The mont the words fell, dazzling golden light erupted.
His body transford into a brilliant golden flash and shot toward the man on his left.
At that instant, ti itself seed to slow dozens of tis over in Matthew's eyes.
He appeared in front of the target in an instant and kicked, snapping the man's neck cleanly.
Then, in the very next mont, that golden figure turned into a beam of light weaving through the crowd.
Almost instantly, accompanied by explosive crashes and screams, bodies were sent flying.
So were kicked straight through the walls of the cabin and hurled into the distant lake.
Others were smashed into trees and died on the spot.
Only a handful were left alive, spared intentionally.
Then, countless particles of light gathered once more, reforming into a human figure standing exactly where he had been before.
The leader's pupils widened.
The fierce confidence he had carried monts ago froze completely.
His gun was still pointed at Matthew's forehead, but his hand had already begun trembling uncontrollably.
What… what had just happened?
In less than a second, the dozen n he had brought were either dead or severely injured, all in a way far beyond anything he could comprehend.
The not-so-large wooden cabin had been blasted full of holes, cold wind rushing in through the shattered walls, making him shiver involuntarily.
"Y-you… you're a mutant?"
His voice shook violently, his face filled with horror.
This kind of power—sothing beyond human understanding, sothing unnatural—could only belong to mutants.
Matthew did not answer directly.
Facing the gun aid at his forehead, his expression remained cold and sharp.
"Who is the person behind you? What are you looking for? Why did Daniel die?"
"I… I can't…"
The man's lips trembled as fear and hesitation warred inside him.
But in the next second, he suddenly pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Flas burst from the muzzle as bullets shot straight toward Matthew's forehead.
And then—
sothing even more horrifying, sothing that made the man's blood run cold, happened.
The bullets actually passed straight through Matthew's forehead.
A circle of golden ripples spread across his brow, and the bullets pierced through as if they had struck an invisible wall of light, passing harmlessly through him before slamming into the wooden wall behind him.
"That's impossible… that's impossible…"
The man's eyes widened, terror spilling uncontrollably from them as he staggered backward, his body trembling.
Matthew, however, kept walking forward, closing the distance step by step toward the man whose courage had already completely collapsed.
Fear and despair flooded his heart, twisting into madness.
He kept shouting that it was impossible, his finger frantically pulling the trigger again and again.
Yet Matthew faced the gun calmly, his pace unhurried, allowing the bullets to pass straight through his forehead as if it ant nothing.
This scene, so utterly against all common sense, completely shattered the man's mind.
Especially when he finally emptied the entire magazine and realized he had no bullets left, true despair overtook him.
He stumbled backward until his legs gave out and he collapsed onto the floor. The pistol slipped from his hand and clattered uselessly beside him.
"Monster… you're a monster!!"
The man looked up at Matthew in absolute despair.
That handso face now looked like the face of a devil to him, carrying a cruel, evil smile.
Buzz—!
Matthew stopped at the man's feet, his tall figure standing over him like a shadow of judgnt.
He slowly raised one finger and pointed it at the man's head.
At his fingertip, a golden cross-shaped light blood, radiating terrifying energy that seed ready to burst forth at any mont.
"One last chance. Don't think about lying. You're not the only one here still alive."
His voice was as cold as winter wind, cutting straight through the man's ears and sending a chill deep into his bones.
Looking into Matthew's indifferent eyes, he knew this boy was not bluffing.
"I—I'll talk. The person behind is Kleiner, a director of Kleiner Industries. On the surface, they run legitimate business, but in secret they're involved in smuggling, drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms dealing… all of it."
"About a month and a half ago, Chief Daniel discovered a transport operation involving human trafficking. Following that lead, he traced it back to Kleiner Industries. He started investigating in secret and found a lot of evidence and clues. Even though Chief Daniel was working quietly, sohow Kleiner still found out."
"A month ago, they set a trap, and Chief Daniel just…"
The man's voice trembled as he spilled everything he knew in one breath.
When he reached the end, he hesitated slightly.
He carefully glanced at Matthew, only to find that his expression remained completely unchanged.
Suppressing the fear rising inside him, he swallowed hard and continued.
"Even after Chief Daniel died, we never found the file containing everything he had investigated and organized. We've been looking for it ever since. As Daniel's adopted son, you were the most likely person to know where it was."
"We searched your house before, but we couldn't find the file. So Kleiner had us monitor you, hoping we could use you to locate it."
Matthew fell silent for several seconds.
Under the man's nervous gaze, the golden cross-shaped light at his fingertip gradually dimd, and he lowered his hand.
"Why didn't you just take ? Why monitor instead?"
"Because there's pressure from inside the police departnt. Even though Kleiner Industries has people inside the police, not everyone has been bought. Chief Daniel had worked in this town for more than ten years—he had a lot of influence. His death already made many people inside suspicious. If you were suddenly taken, or even killed, no matter how powerful they are, they might not be able to cover it up."
"Who inside the police departnt has been bought?"
"I don't know. That's confidential. He never told ."
The man shook his head quickly.
"Where does Kleiner live?"
Matthew didn't dwell on the issue and instead asked for Kleiner's residence.
"At Kleiner Manor."
Matthew gave a small nod.
Then, without warning, he said, "When Daniel was ambushed… you were there too, weren't you?"
The man's eyes flew wide open, and he blurted out in panic—
"N-no…"
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