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The ping vibrated his wristwatch as they were heading home from the grocery store. Ye Xiu shifted his bags to one hand as he checked the ping, a location blinking on the screen’s mini-map.
“Some trouble in Kongzhilin, ” Su Muqiu’s familiar voice crackled to life in his ear, “new bugs emerging, swarm of fruitflies. Five’s already there, but could use some support from One. ”
“Sure,” Ye Xiu replied. Then, to his companion, “Can you bring these back? Especially before the frozen stuff melts, I still want ice cream later.”
Su Mucheng didn’t ask to come along, since they—well, she and her brother, with Ye Xiu watching amused from the sidelines—had had that conversation-slash-argument plenty of times before. “I want to help” “when you’re old enough” “what do you mean old enough, you’re only three years older than me” “yes and as your older brother I have infinite wisdom and jurisdiction, so I say, when you’re old enough,” and Su Mucheng had pouted with all the begrudging reluctance of a perfectly competent and intelligent teenaged girl, but she went along with it. Knowing full well that he wouldn’t actually make her wait three years to help out, especially not with her cajoling Ye Xiu to help her train on the side. And Ye Xiu had already seen Su Muqiu’s Eight in the works, and it really was an impressive piece of technology. She would like it.
So one day, Su Mucheng would also wield her own piece of Su Muqiu’s patented ZeroTech against the bugs that threatened daily life in the city, but for now she shouldered her grocery bags and took the rest from Ye Xiu’s hand. “Hurry back before I eat all the ice cream,” she said.
“Will do,” he said, ruffling her hair with his now-free hand, before taking off the other way down the street.
He ran at a fast yet steady pace. Su Muqiu had eyes on the situation, so he would tell Ye Xiu how much speed was of the essence; in the meantime, he used the exercise to build up mana. His One was a heavy-hitting hammer, but it was stronger the more mana he could force through each swing.
It wasn’t long before he heard the sounds of combat up ahead, or rather, the sounds of combat unique to Five’s wielder, which, on top of the sounds of dying bugs, involved a whole lot of shouting and yelling.
Bugs were a fact of life here, one that all citizens had long grown accustomed to. So at least people knew how to get cover and get away when, say, a swarm of fruitflies began to spawn. But that didn’t mean that bugs weren’t dangerous, and couldn’t cause a lot of damage if left to their own devices. Even these relatively benign fruitflies—basically looking like a flying assortment of large, holographic fruits—would eventually start to pulse red, and then explode, spawning two more.
Hence the work of debuggers like Ye Xiu, and the noisy Huang Shaotian here. Dead bugs, once truly and properly killed, would painlessly disintegrate, and life could carry on as usual.
Ye Xiu unfolded One from its holster without slowing down. Huang Shaotian saw him coming from a long ways away while slashing away with his sword, and he neatly leapt back at the last second as Ye Xiu swung, over his head and down, into the densest part of the swarm. It carved a brief but clean gap in its path, and when the hammer struck the ground, it sent a shockwave of mana that took out the ones that had dipped too low.
“Fuck, you always have a shit-ton of power with that thing,” Huang Shaotian groused. Five was a blur in his hand as it jabbed and sliced through any fruitflies that came close to him. “How the hell isn’t it draining your mana every time?”
“I’m just that good,” Ye Xiu replied, an easy grin on his face. Like a stopper uncorked, the mana was rushing through his veins now, bright, exhilarating, full of potential.
“Now that you’re here, it’s time for competition,” Huang Shaotian said, “kill as many as we can, as fast as we can.”
Ye Xiu laughed over the sound of squashed bugs. “Haven’t you lost enough times by now!”
Huang Shaotian just made a derisive noise, as his blade unerringly found its target of a fruitfly starting to blink red as it drifted close to Ye Xiu’s back. “I'll make you eat your words like these rotten fruit.”
It was life-or-death battle, make no mistake, but between them it became a game. Maybe that was part of what made them such effective debuggers. Chunks of dead fruitflies tumbled from the air around them, splatting against the ground and beginning to disintegrate in a haze of noisy pixels.
It went smoothly until it didn’t. Which was basically the norm for these things anyway, so Ye Xiu wasn’t too terribly surprised when the swarm of remaining fruitflies condensed into one giant mega-fruitfly, shaped like a strawberry. It reminded him of those old monster-of-the-week cartoons, which, thinking about it, basically described most bug incidents anyway.
“How many do you wanna say that counts for?” Huang Shaotian said beside him, with a sharp grin.
“Kill it first and find out,” Ye Xiu said, already leaping forward. The real danger of the mega-fruitfly was the amplified, coordinated explosion, and indeed it was all starting to blink a dangerous red. But it was also a lot easier for Ye Xiu to kill them all in one go when they were bunched together like this.
Which was exactly what he did, with one triumphant, mana-charged swing of One.
BOOM.
“So? How many?” As the particles settled, Ye Xiu leaned against his hammer and smirked at his companion.
“Oh fuck you fuck you fuck you.” But when it came to massive close-combat burst damage, Five couldn’t compare. The light sword wasn’t designed for that, nor was Huang Shaotian inclined to fight with such a style. So, that was the status quo between them.
Not that Huang Shaotian was going to let a little detail like that discourage him. “I’ll kick your ass next time in spar.”
“As you promise every time.”
Su Muqiu, who’d been mostly quiet during the actual fight, now spoke into their ears again. “Good job, friends. Also, there’s someone behind you.”
“Hah?”
Ye Xiu had sensed the non-threatening presence himself, so it was with a touch less surprise than his partner that he turned around to see the young man poking his head out from an alleyway. He looked a little younger than Ye Xiu, maybe around Huang Shaotian’s age, though his thin, perhaps frail physique made him seem even smaller.
Huang Shaotian slung his blade over his shoulders, probably an attempt to look older and more intimidating. “And who are you?”
“Yu Wenzhou.” He didn’t hesitate to give his name, bowing a little. In his hands he was gripping a dark-covered notebook. “You’re a debugging team? You…”
His eyes swept over them, evidently looking for some kind of identifying logo or insignia. Despite his youth and the hundreds of dead bugs around them, he didn’t seem the least bit intimidated. The quiet was not shyness, but a steady calm.
Huang Shaotian, ever sharp-eyed, noticed the gaze and cupped a hand to his chin. “Yeah, we still really gotta come up with a cool name for ourselves. Seriously, where’s the branding at—”
Su Muqiu interrupted, “Excuse you, I gave you all plenty of great name suggestions—”
“Says the guy who literally just numbered his life’s work.”
“Numbers are cool codenames, okay!”
“But you weren’t only watching just now, were you?” Ye Xiu turned the focus back to the stranger. Call it intuition, mana-sense, whatever, he knew that the person standing before them was no ordinary passerby. Those were all still holed up in the nearest buildings. “What were you doing?”
Yu Wenzhou tilted his chin up, with just the barest hint of defiance. “Helping.”
“What, from your hidey-place?” Huang Shaotian scowled. “Kid, this isn’t a game, don’t go sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. This is above your level.”
“Hmm, yeah. ” Su Muqiu mused, but before Huang Shaotian could feel vindicated by the agreement, he continued, “Statistical anomaly in that fight just now, they grouped together much sooner than normal, no stragglers, civilians ignored. Battle ended significantly faster than expected. ” He hummed. “Interesting. Want to talk to him? ”
So it was unlikely to be a coincidence. This could mean any of several things—intelligence, patience, awareness, some unknown technical ability. Or he could just as easily be an enemy, drawing the bugs himself to bait their trust. Either way, it was worth investigating further. And in the best case, well, they still needed to find a user for the tricky ZeroTech Two…
The roar of an approaching engine interrupted his thoughts. A motorcycle swerved into view around the street corner and came to a clean stop before them. The rider lifted off his helmet and shook his hair, revealing a familiar face.
With the point of his blade, Huang Shaotian flicked a still-disintegrating fruitfly at him. “Oi, you’re late, Big-Eye! Where were you, shining your tires?”
Wang Jiexi didn’t bother to dodge, as it whiffed harmlessly just by his head. “Sorry,” he said, “there was traffic. But it looked like you had it under control.”
“Traffic? What traffic? I thought Four can fly, you fuckin—”
“Good to see you,” Ye Xiu interrupted the chatterbox with practiced ease. “Race went smoothly?”
“Of course. And on your end?” Wang Jiexi said, nodding at the few lingering remnants of fruit splattered about. It would probably take another hour before they all drained away.
“Naturally.”
Ye Xiu was well aware that Wang Jiexi hadn’t had to come over at all; the ever-practical Su Muqiu wouldn’t have asked him for this when two were sufficient. Which meant that Wang Jiexi had seen the alert and checked up on them anyway. He could respect that.
He was also definitely going to take advantage of it. “So how many people can Four fit, anyway?” Ye Xiu said, nodding at the motorcycle.
Wang Jiexi gave him a narrow-eyed look. For all of the unique gadgetry Su Muqiu had built into Four, it was, ultimately, still a motorcycle.
“Oh, hm, that’s a thought, I should build a sidecar or something. Could be useful… ”
Before Wang Jiexi could make some irritated reply, Ye Xiu gave an easy smile and nodded toward the young stranger. “You take this guy onsite, Muqiu wants to take a look at him. Shaotian and I will catch up.”
“What?” Huang Shaotian blurted out. His head jerked back and forth. “This guy? He’s just… some guy, he hasn’t even done anything, he’s weak even for a civilian, just look at him! You can’t be serious.” Yu Wenzhou, for his part, remained totally impassive, though he hadn’t moved to approach from where he stood.
“Five, watch yourself.”
At Ye Xiu’s firm warning, Huang Shaotian shut up, though he didn’t look happy about it. He sheathed his sword and crossed his arms.
“Come on, now,” Ye Xiu said to Yu Wenzhou, gesturing toward Wang Jiexi. “He doesn’t bite, unless you’re Huang Shaotian.”
Yu Wenzhou raised an eyebrow. “Do I have a choice in this matter?”
Ye Xiu smiled. “It seemed to me like you’d already made your choice.”
“True enough.” Yu Wenzhou walked over to Wang Jiexi, who introduced himself quietly—huh, Ye Xiu had forgotten to do that, oh well—and helped him climb onto the back of the motorcycle. A moment later, they had driven off down the still-empty streets.
Huang Shaotian let out a gusty sigh. “Well, hope you guys know what you’re doing.”
“Of course. Infinite wisdom, or something like that.” For all their outward nonchalance, he and Su Muqiu were being careful about this. The fourteen pieces of ZeroTech would find their way to their true and proper users, no matter how long it took.
Ye Xiu stretched and holstered One. “Race you back?”
Huang Shaotian scoffed, but in the next moment he was already gone. Ye Xiu laughed then, bright and carefree, and took off after him.