Wayne immediately grabbed Blaine in a bear hug. The rush of surviving a near-death encounter left him bawling with snot dripping everywhere.
"Bro! You're insane! Too damn strong! I can't believe this, am I dreaming?!"
Blaine couldn't stand the display coming from the huge, burly Wayne and shoved him aside.
"I'll get even stronger in the future. And I've also got a way to make you stronger."
"Holy shit! Bro, if you can really make me stronger, then you're my biological dad! Daddy!"
Wayne was over the moon. Blaine's monstrous strength was too outrageous.
Ever since the resurgence of demonic beasts and the years-long war between them and humanity, no one had ever heard of a normal human killing a B-rank demon with just physical power.
Not even those superpowered elites in the Human Alliance were this absurd!
"This black blade… this is your awakened ability, right? Damn, it's so cool!"
Wayne ran a hand over the weapon's pitch-black surface, looking jealous.
"But why does it look so familiar? What kind of ability is this? It feels weird."
Blaine frowned and casually made something up.
"My awakened ability is called Anime Manifestation. This blade is Hawk-Eye's Black Sword , the strongest blade in the One Piece world."
"Anime Manifestation? That's a weird ability name. So you can only manifest weapons from anime? Can you manifest people?"
Wayne blurted it out without thinking, but Blaine took the question seriously.
"With my current strength? Not yet. But maybe someday."
He suddenly remembered the scene from One Punch Man where King faced Elder Centipede and shouted into the loudspeaker,
"Saitama-san!"
Maybe once his permissions increased, he could even summon Saitama. Just imagining that made the corner of his mouth curve upward.
"Alright, shift's over. Let's go home."
Blaine hurried him along. He wanted to get back and study the Cross-Anime Projection app properly. There had been too much information earlier, and with demons roaming outside, he hadn't had time to look through it all.
"Bro, after a fight like that, you need to rest for a few days. Leave the reporting to me."
Wayne slapped Blaine on the shoulder, solemn and confident.
He could already picture those old higher-ups losing their minds when he reported what happened. The thought alone was hilarious.
"Who knows, they might even invite us for tea, hahaha!"
One thing was certain, though, the two of them wouldn't have to do patrol duty anymore. And if Blaine could help him break free from being a powerless ordinary human, his future would become bright.
He trusted Blaine completely. His bro had never let him down.
Blaine didn't say much. Wayne had always handled patrol-team matters. The two had been brothers since childhood.
Now that he had a cheat ability, he definitely wouldn't let Wayne suffer.
Back at his dark, damp rental room, Blaine no longer dared to check the Cross-Anime Projection info on his phone.
A computer processor felt safer.
When he opened the official site, an endless barrage of notifications hit him in the face.
[Beep beep beep…]
Atomic Samurai: "I want to see that sword too. Author, give me a chance?"
Zoro: "Demonic Blade Thousand Edge… what a great name. Looks stronger than my three swords combined."
…
Even Wu Liuqi (Scissor Seven) had left him a message. Curious, Blaine clicked it. Earlier the situation had been too urgent, he didn't know whether Wu Liuqi had escaped.
But then again, he's the protagonist of his own anime. Protagonist halo. Shouldn't die that easily.
"Thanks to you, Little Chicken Island has turned into complete chaos! I'm this close to paying someone to assassinate you myself!"
Blaine froze. Why was Wu Liuqi suddenly so mad?
Wait,
He finally remembered the original anime plot:
The Prince of Stan planned to occupy the island. A severely injured Da Chun entrusted Wu Liuqi with assassinating the invaders. Chicken Dabao tried to stop him from courting death, and only after Wu Liuqi insisted did Chicken Dabao reveal he had been picked up from the seaside.
The Demonic Blade Thousand Edge should've been in Dabao's safekeeping. So why was it in Plum Thirteen's hands instead?
This wasn't right.
The storyline had clearly gone off-track.
Could it be… his video had altered the entire world of Scissor Seven?
"Wu Liuqi, are you okay? Did you escape safely?"
If anything unexpected had happened, there was no way the authorities wouldn't track him down as the video's uploader.
A few minutes later, Wu Liuqi replied.
"I'm safe, but the whole island is in danger. Chicken Dabao is missing. Chicken Xiaofei is gone too."
He even sent a video.
Still in his little clown-dog disguise, Wu Liuqi held the phone with one hand and walked around the barber shop.
The place was a wreck, broken furniture everywhere, like someone had ransacked it.
"The shop's trashed. The whole island is crawling with Shadow Assassins, they're out to kill me!"
Blaine felt a pang of guilt. He hadn't expected his video to cause a butterfly effect this severe.
With the strongest Shadow Assassin of Xuanwu Country exposed, the entire island had descended into crisis.
Thinking it through, Chicken Dabao and Xiaofei missing, the shop destroyed, and Plum Thirteen personally delivering the Demonic Blade,
It all pointed to the same culprit:
Qing Feng, Plum Thirteen's master.
He had always coveted the Demonic Blade Thousand Edge.
Before Wu Liuqi lost his memories, Qing Feng had even tried to coax him into retrieving the blade from the thousand-year evil spirit guarding it.
His own sword was also likely a national treasure forged by the Divine Forge Nation.
Of course, this was still just Blaine's guess.
But the anime plot was already a complete mess.
The Prince of Stan hadn't even appeared yet, and the island was already under full invasion from the Assassin League.
Wu Liuqi sent another message:
"Wow, Chief Jiang and Da Chun are amazing, so strong! I just want to protect Little Chicken Island with everyone. As for my past and going to Xuanwu Country… that can wait."
Without the Demonic Blade, Wu Liuqi's strength would be limited.
Blaine wanted to return the blade to help him survive the crisis.
But it was already bound to Hawk-Eye through a completed contract, he couldn't break it.
Besides, even if Wu Liuqi had the blade, Qing Feng was lurking in the shadows. Once Wu Liuqi activated the blade under life-threatening pressure, Qing Feng would appear, steal it, and kill him.
Blaine suddenly slapped his thigh.
"Right! 'Ultimate Hairstyle Encyclopedia'! I forgot all about that!"