Ji Minghuan shifted his gaze from the text on the panel, once again scrutinizing the dejected man before him, his towering silhouette perfectly overlapping with the bloodthirsty and brooding Ghost Bell seen on television.
"You're not enough, send Rainbow Wings to find me..."
This was the crime declaration Ji Minghuan heard on the TV, with Ghost Bell wearing a Z-shaped mask, blood-red eye sockets glinting with cold hostility, the voice altered by machines, shadowy and hoarse, seemingly still echoing in his ears.
At this moment, many questions in Ji Minghuan's mind seemed to become clear.
Why hadn't Gu Wenyu's father returned home for a full two years?
Why had the super criminal "Ghost Bell" only harmed superpower users who abused their abilities and destroyed expensive artifacts for the past two years, but never targeted ordinary people?
And most importantly:
—Why was Ghost Bell so insistent on having the Mutants Association send a Rainbow Wing member to arrest him?
After realizing the identity beneath this tyrant's mask, all the reasons behind these questions became as clear as a water-soaked sheet of white paper:
The Gu Zhuo Case wanted to lure out the Rainbow Wing member who killed his wife, and then... tear him to pieces with his own hands.
A few years ago, protests against Rainbow Wings failed, the Gu Zhuo Case suffered humiliation, seemingly chose to compromise, taking hundreds of thousands in compensation from the authorities, but in truth, he never gave up this obsession, as if a fire burned in his belly, which would consume him if not expelled.
That's why he chose to become a superpower criminal, trying every means to attract Rainbow Wing's attention.
Ironically, Gu Qiye's approach took the completely opposite direction to Gu Zhuo Case's:
To find the Rainbow Wing member who mistakenly killed his mother, Gu Qiye chose the path of joining the Mutants Association, becoming a powerful Mutant, thereby being recommended into Rainbow Wings to openly find his enemy.
Thinking of this, the surprise in Ji Minghuan's eyes gradually faded away.
Holding his wrist, bruised by Gu Zhuo Case, he thought with interest: "Clearly father and son, yet they made diametrically opposite choices for the same goal, even standing on opposing sides by a twist of fate, wearing masks, like beasts trapped in an arena fighting each other... So there's a reason my first game character was inserted into this family, to let me savor this Greek tragedy-like family farce?"
"Oh damn... I've already started subconsciously playing the role of Black Cocoon, how has my mindset been assimilated to such a point?" he pondered again.
At this moment, Gu Qiye looked at the marks on Ji Minghuan's wrist, his face twitching slightly, an already expressionless face now colder.
Not wanting to lose his temper in front of his brother and sister, he took a deep breath, suppressing his anger, trying to speak as calmly as possible to Gu Zhuo Case:
"What are you doing?"
But the calmer the tone, the more it instilled fear in Su Zimai's ears: she had never heard Gu Qiye speak like this, her brother usually wore a smile, speaking as gently as possible, and even when angry, he would momentarily avoid others, never showing his anger.
Gu Zhuo Case sat silently on the chair, his expression pale.
For a moment, he couldn't find a reason for his actions, perhaps these two years of living on the edge, surrounded by danger, had made his nerves too sensitive, so when his son's hand touched his shoulder, he reacted so abruptly?
But what was that strange feeling just now... it was like a snake suddenly leaping from the jungle, crawling onto his shoulder, its ghostly green eyes shining in the dark, penetrating every corner of his mind.
"Dad... I just handed you the plates and chopsticks." Ji Minghuan took a breath, then said leisurely, "Why are your nerves so tense, did you spend these two years as an undercover officer... Haven't undercover cops in movies often been unable to go home for years?"
He thought to himself: But the power of a Quasi-Calamity superpower user is frightening, if he hadn't restrained himself in time, my wrist might have been torn off.
Seeing Gu Zhuo Case still hadn't responded, Ji Minghuan quietly opened the system panel, selected the [System Settings] option, and lowered the "Pain Sensitivity" from 50% to 1%.
This way, even if his limbs were broken, he would only feel a dull ache as if his thumb had been stepped on.
"I'm sorry, Wenyu, I..." Gu Zhuo Case looked at the plates and chopsticks in disarray on the table, hesitating to speak.
Gu Qiye silently moved to Ji Minghuan's side to check the injury on his wrist.
Ji Minghuan clicked his tongue, a bit flustered, afraid this good brother would see something amiss, so he didn't respond, saying "It's nothing" as he went to the living room to find a band-aid.
Gu Qiye was silent for a while, then turned to Gu Zhuo Case, speaking in a low voice: "Don't bring those bad habits home... Disappearing without a word for two years, returning like this, how do you expect us to trust you?"
He tensed his jaw, slowly lowering his voice, "I thought you had changed... but you're still the same as before, since Mom passed, you haven't changed, your mind is only filled with people who are gone, never considering how much your kids are hurt."