Chapter 1 In the Abandoned Residence

In the dim, abandoned residence, Hao Ren and “Gun” held their breath, warily observing every movement around them. The dilapidated house was poorly lit; the dark walls and windows blocked by debris made the interior exceptionally eerie. Yet, the ray of sunlight pouring down from the roof did little to illuminate the room. Perhaps it was his imagination, but Hao Ren felt the sunlight was weakening, its glow limited to a small area. Outside the beam, a heavy shadow spread from the darkness, devouring every detail of the room.

After a few minutes of dormancy, the lingering chill gathered once more. Hao Ren widened his eyes, searching all around, but still couldn't see the attacker. The opponent seemed to be a completely invisible enemy, without form or sound, its presence only perceptible through an almost sixth sense. Hao Ren didn’t know why he was being targeted like this on Earth, but having been through numerous battles, he calmed down after confirming that his shield was still effective against this mysterious attacker. He then retrieved his silver-white spear from his personal space.

The plasma blade at the spear's tip hissed and spat sparks, illuminating a small area around it. Hao Ren immediately sensed that the blade's state was off. The light it emitted showed clear signs of compression. The weakening light wasn't his imagination; something in the room was indeed devouring light.

Gun carefully pulled her tail out from under her clothes. She thought a fight was likely, so she had to be fully prepared. She glared into the darkness, continuously making threatening sounds in her throat. The cat girl wasn't as strong as Hao Ren, but as a cat demon, Gun possessed an unexpectedly wide sensory range. Something in the room made her uneasy; she couldn't see it, but she was more certain of its location than Hao Ren.

"Big, big cat, that thing seems to be right under your feet," the cat girl said, her voice trembling slightly, "It's sticking to the ground."

Hao Ren immediately swung his spear in a circle around his feet. The plasma blade hissed, scorching a ring of dark red marks on the cement floor, but in the flickering light, he saw nothing, hit nothing. The chill didn't dissipate, but gathered once more.

The instant the sense of danger arose, Hao Ren twisted his body to the side. He clearly saw a series of small sparks erupt on his chest and abdomen. The rigid shield had once again been struck by an invisible attack, but this time, the sparks were accompanied by a strange, rippling pattern, a phenomenon unlike before.

Hao Ren felt a slight tingling sensation on his skin, which alarmed him. The attacker seemed to have learned the characteristics of the rigid shield from their previous failure. This time, “his” attack had a faint tendency to penetrate the shield!

Realizing that the enemy was something very strange, Hao Ren immediately reached for his pocket, only to find it empty. In his haste to leave, he had forgotten to bring the data terminal. He could only slowly retreat towards the door while calling out in his mind, "Terminal, come here, I need help."

Then he beckoned to Gun, "Get out first, there's something weird in this house!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he swung the spear wildly around him and jumped out of the abandoned house, followed by Gun, who ran out like a gust of wind.

Outside the abandoned house, the full sunlight shone down, the sudden brightness almost making Hao Ren uncomfortable. Bathed in the sunlight, he truly realized how bizarre the lighting had been inside. Though it was broad daylight, the house had been nearly pitch black. Even with a hole in the roof, the corners of the room had been as dark as ink. This unusual optical phenomenon definitely indicated something was wrong.

The bright sunlight outside made Hao Ren feel more secure, and the strange chill seemed to dissipate as well. He and Gun stood together, fully alert, watching the abandoned residence. He nudged the cat demon beside him, "Is that thing still in the house?"

Hao Ren noticed that Gun might be able to sense something special. At this moment, he didn't quite trust his own eyes, so he simply trusted the cat. The strange experience just now made him feel that the enemy was probably hiding in the house.

Gun squinted her eyes, looking inside, but now the situation inside the house seemed to have returned to normal. The strange darkness had receded, and under the sunlight streaming through the hole in the roof, the entire interior of the house was visible from the doorway.

"Seems like it's not there, meow," the cat girl said, shaking her head in confusion. Then, she glanced at Hao Ren and suddenly her tail stood straight up in fright, "Big, big cat, it's behind you, awoo awoo awoo!"

Hao Ren was first startled by Gun, then he felt an extremely ominous aura coming from his side and rear. Almost reflexively, he leaped to the side and thrust his spear at the place where he had been standing. But to his shock, even his swift dodge hadn't shaken off the attack. The ominous aura seemed to be stuck to him, matching his speed and agility, and pursuing him closely. As he turned, he saw a series of sparks erupt on his arm, accompanied by a feeling of numbness like an electric shock!

Hao Ren turned in the air and regained his balance, quickly retreating a few steps after landing. He felt the ominous aura following him closely. Finally, just as the aura was about to act again, he saw what it was—

He saw his shadow on the ground suddenly twitch. A ripple-like pattern spread from the center of the shadow. Then, the dangerous "thing," invisible to the naked eye but perceptible to the sixth sense, shot out from the shadow towards his face!

That thing was dwelling in his shadow!

Hao Ren finally understood why this thing was so persistent and unavoidable. And seeing the moment the strange thing launched its attack, he could finally react in time. Considering that a person can't get rid of their shadow, he didn't dodge to the side this time, but twisted his body abruptly at the instant the chill almost touched his skin, narrowly avoiding the attack.

The "enemy" in the shadow seemed to realize that it had been exposed. It finally stopped concealing its aura. Hao Ren saw his shadow on the ground undulating violently like the surface of water. Streams of ominous hostility constantly emanated from within, spreading in all directions. Although his eyes couldn't see it, he felt countless blade-like things stabbing out from the shadow, most of the attacks aimed at his upper body.

At this moment, Hao Ren could only fight with his sixth sense. He kept retreating and narrowly dodging the invisible, intangible attacks, the rigid shield flashing with a series of sparks from time to time. An increasingly strong electric shock began to run across his skin.

Facts proved that even if a person's sixth sense was effective, it was impossible to completely evade such a sudden attack from one's own shadow.

Gun watched Hao Ren fight his shadow with a look of fear on her face. After a moment, she finally gritted her teeth, meowed, and rushed forward to help.

Seeing that the silly cat had bravely rushed to help him, Hao Ren was surprised but immediately stopped her, "Don't come over!"

The "shadow assassin's" power was strangely inexplicable. He couldn't deal with it himself, let alone expect an immature cat demon to. But Gun ignored Hao Ren's order. She just rushed up without hesitation and pressed her whole body onto Hao Ren's shadow, frantically scratching the ground with her claws, "Big, big cat, I caught it, I caught it!"

Of course, she couldn't catch a shadow. Anyone with a little common sense knew that, but Hao Ren couldn't expect the cat demon to consider so much. He was touched that the cat was so selfless at such a critical moment, but despite his gratitude, he still had to continue fighting his shadow. He retreated several steps in a row, separating his shadow from Gun's shadow (he was worried that the shadow assassin would use some mysterious method to jump into Gun's shadow), and then raised his spear and stabbed the ground repeatedly.

However, no material-level attack could harm a shadow. The plasma flames pierced the ground, creating molten holes, but the ripples inside the shadow were unaffected.

Just when Hao Ren didn't know what to do with this strange enemy, he finally heard the data terminal's voice in his mind, "Partner! This unit is here!"

The data terminal tore through the air and appeared in mid-air, immediately emitting a beam of blue light that shone on Hao Ren's shadow. Accompanied by a faint crackling sound, as if something was being burned and split apart, Hao Ren saw something being peeled out of his shadow by the blue light. He took two steps to the side and saw a chaotic mass of grayish-black mist left on the ground.

Sure enough, the data terminal's energy interference ability could deal with this thing—it was an energy body.

"You're two minutes late," Hao Ren said, breathing a sigh of relief, and complaining about his PDA.

"This unit had to escape from your demonic daughter first," the data terminal whistled humanistically, "and then I had to observe the situation and figure out who you were twisting and turning around to fight."