Chapter 661: The Star Cyclone
The cyclone on the man’s forehead made Roland think of Nightingale’s descriptions of magic power—that swirling signature she had tried to put into words. But seeing it now, the analogy fell short. This was something closer to a galaxy: spiral arms revolving around a bright central nexus, the whole of it no larger than a palm and yet packed with depth, with detail, with something that pulsed just beneath the surface of visible things.
“Are you a martial fighter?” The man’s voice came out ragged and scorched, as if his throat had been cured the same way his face had.
“No.” Roland kept his posture easy, his attention total.
“Figured.” The burnt-face man turned his body without moving his head—that same grotesque rigidity—and something that might have been a smile pulled at the ruin of his mouth. “You taste sweeter.”
“If you were a girl,” Roland said, “I might find that flattering. Are you a man who was bitten by magic power—no. Force of Nature?”
“Force of Nature.” The man’s contempt was absolute. “They don’t know where this power comes from. They know nothing of its essence.”
“And you do?”
“I can’t name it. But I can feel it.” The blistered mouth opened further. “It doesn’t belong to this world. It’s a gift from the deities. I expected the hijacker to draw at least one or two martial fighters here—he surrendered too fast. But you came, and that’s fortunate…”
“Crack.”
Roland didn’t let him finish.
He’d learned that lesson young: the moment you hear a dangerous man announce his intentions is precisely when you don’t wait. He punched straight for the forehead—fast, a single committed line—and held back enough that he didn’t drive the blow through the back of the man’s skull. Even restrained, he felt the bones give.
The burnt-face man left the ground.
Something warm surged through Roland’s chest—not heat exactly, more like a current that recognized momentum and rushed to meet it. The man hit the alley wall and slid down. When he staggered upright, Roland was already crossing the distance.
This was his Dream World.
And his opponent, whatever it was, was not human. No person felt their cheekbone collapse without screaming, without instinct breaking them open. The man simply stood and reset, as if pain were a language he’d learned to ignore.
Roland stopped giving him space.
He worked like a man at a bag—no artistry, no combinations, just weight and timing and the knowledge that forward pressure was the only pressure that mattered. The warm current in his blood rose with each blow, not intoxicating him but sharpening him, lending a clarity that felt almost strange in its completeness. The man’s arms came up to guard; Roland broke through them. Muscle tore under his hands. Ribs flexed wrong. He kept going.
“Turn your head 180 degrees,” Roland said between blows. “What were you thinking? This isn’t a horror film.”
He was angry, he realized—genuinely, unreasonably angry that this thing had frightened him in his own dream.
“This… is… impossible…” The man’s voice had deteriorated into something barely articulate. “Why… why can’t I use it…”
Roland noticed the cyclone on the man’s forehead had slowed. Its color had deepened to a kind of dark red, and when he reached out, it met his fingers with something like resistance—not quite solid, but no longer purely light.
“Is this what you mean? This magic cyclone?”
“Don’t—don’t touch it—”
He grabbed it.
The warm current in his body ignited. He pulled, and the cyclone tore free.
The man went quiet all at once and dropped. Not a collapse—a cessation, like a clockwork running down.
In Roland’s palm, the cyclone changed. The dark red bled out and the whole thing brightened—white at the center, blue at the edges, more galaxy than ever. It spun faster for a moment, then left his hand entirely, accelerating upward in a beam that traced a silver line through the dark sky before vanishing.
The warmth inside him settled. A deep, spreading satisfaction that had no name settled in its place.
He looked at the body on the ground for a moment, then turned toward the mouth of the alley.
The apartment building rose above the street in the heavy dark, insects spiraling around the corridor lights in noisy clouds. Roland fumbled for his key.
Before the lock turned, he heard footsteps on the other side—quick and then stopped short, the way someone catches themselves at the last moment.
Zero opened the door with a frown she was working hard to maintain. Behind it, something less composed.
“Where have you been?”
They said it at the same time.
A pause.
“The cram school added classes,” she said. “We have a day off tomorrow.”
“I went looking for you.” Roland rubbed the back of his neck. “You didn’t come back on time.”
The little girl’s brow furrowed. “Looking for me?”
He stepped past her into the apartment. The table held three dishes and a soup, chopsticks still perfectly aligned beside untouched bowls. She had set it all out and then waited. That was why she’d been at the door the second she heard him on the landing.
“Sit down,” he said. “I’m starving.”
Zero settled across from him with the expression of someone who has decided not to make an issue of something but hasn’t quite let it go. “I’m not a child,” she said. “If you were worried I’d been fooled by a stranger—I can take care of myself. Next time, just wait here.”
Roland tried to imagine himself at her age—squandering allowances at the game arcade, chasing beetles in the mountains until dusk forced him home. He looked at the neat table, the three dishes she’d prepared, the chopsticks she hadn’t touched alone.
He was a little embarrassed by the comparison.
“You have a day off tomorrow?”
“Mm.” Still slightly cool, but the tension in her shoulders had eased.
“Come to the library with me. I’ll buy you something on the way.” He gestured vaguely with his chopsticks. “Clothes. A dress or two, shoes, pajamas—you need things that actually fit. And a cell phone. So we can reach each other when something like this happens again.”
Zero looked at him for a moment across the table.
”…What kind of phone?”
The frown was gone.
Chapter 661: The Star Cyclone
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
“Is this… magic power?”
The twirling cyclone on the man’s forehead immediately reminded Roland of Nightingale’s description about the form of magic power, but seeing it now for himself, he thought it was more like a galaxy. Several spiral arms were revolving around the nexus, the brightest point which was located in the center. Despite that it was only about a palm size, when he carefully looked at it, he could notice numerous details and felt some surging power in it.
“Are you a martial fighter?” The man suddenly opened his mouth to ask in a hoarse voice.
“No, I’m not.” Roland was fully alerted.
“Yeah, I guess so.” The burnt-face man turned his body toward Roland without moving his head at all. “You taste sweeter.”
Roland looked for weakness in the man’s body while saying, “if you were a girl, I might be a bit interested in hearing these words. Are you a man bit by the magic power… no, Force of Nature?”
“Force of Nature?” The burnt-face man snorted contemptuously. “They’ve no idea where this power came from and knew nothing about its essence.”
“Don’t talk as if you know everything.” Roland retorted. thinking, “come on, this is my dream!”
The man opened his mouth which was full of bleeding blisters to say, “I can’t tell, but I can feel it. It doesn’t belong to this world. It’s a gift from the deities. I thought the hijacker could attract at least one or two martial fighters
to come here, but he surrendered too fast. Fortunately, my efforts finally paid off, as you came here…”
“Crack!”
Roland struck first to gain the initiative before the burnt-face man finished his sentence. This was a trick he had learned from his fighting experience in childhood. He could tell from the way the man acted and talked that he was a dangerous guy. Given that, it was not a wise choice to act after he finished talking.
He straightly punched the man on his forehead, as fast as a flash of lightning. As he found his strength had increased sharply, he did not punch with all his power. However, he still clearly felt the man’s bones cracking under his fist.
His strike sent the burnt-face man up into the air.
Meanwhile, the warm flow inside his body began to surge, dancing with joy for such a good start.
The man landed and rolled on the ground until hitting a wall. When he staggered to his feet, Roland came up to launch another attack without any hesitation.
He believed his own judgement, as this was his Dream World.
Moreover, his opponent was obviously not a human being.
When his face bones were broken, he seemed to feel no pain and did not beg for mercy at all. No human being suffering such a sharp pain could react this way.
Roland felt that his mind was clearer than ever before.
The violent warm flow filled his body, but did not make him woozy.
He knew that at this moment, he should beat up the underdog, which was another trick he learned from his childhood fighting.
This time, he hit the man with all his strength.
He punched with no skills as if he was hitting a sandbag, keeping the burntface man constantly moving to defend. Apparently, the man did not expect this at all and started flailing as Roland’s blows were raining down upon him. Roland soon started to feel that hitting the man was like hitting tofu, as his muscles were torn loose after his arms, sternum and ribs broke. If he were a normal man, he would be dead at this moment.
Roland scolded while giving the man a good thrashing, “You asshole! Turn your head 180 degrees. You thought you were making a horror movie?”
He was very upset by the fact that as the creator of this world, he had been scared by the burnt-face man when he had seen him in this alley.
“This… is… impossible… Why… I can’t use it…” The man’s voice changed completely and soon Roland could hardly hear anything he was saying.
“Use what?” Roland noticed that the cyclone on the man’s forehead was twirling slower. He tried to reach out his hand to touch it and found that it became somewhat tangible. “You mean this cyclone of magic power?”
“No, don’t touch it…”
Roland knew that he must do what his enemy did not want him to do. He held his head down and grabbed the cyclone. When the warm flow in his body began to boil, he tore it down.
Suddenly, the burnt-face man quieted down and collapsed to the ground, paralyzed and lifeless.
The cyclone turned from dark red to a bright color when it fell into Roland’s palm. Now it was white in the center and blue on the outside, more resembling a galaxy.
It began to twirl again and quickly left his palm, turning in to a beam of dazzling light. It shot up into the sky, leaving a trail like a silver wire and
disappeared after several seconds.
Meanwhile, the warm flow inside his body calmed down, giving him great satisfaction. He felt good from head to toe.
He had completely lost his mind.
He thought that this world might be more complicated than he imagined.
Looking at the dead burnt-face man on the ground, his mouth corner twisted and then he turned away heading for the exit of the alley.
It was dark when he returned to the towering tube-shaped apartment building. A swarm of flying insects attracted by the light in it were buzzing noisily in the corridor.
He fumbled to take out his key and inserted it into keyhole. Before he turned the key to open the door, he heard a burst of rapid footsteps behind it.
Zero opened the door with a frown, but he still saw some worry in her eyes.
“Where have you been?”
“Where have you been?”
They asked simultaneously.
“The cram school added classes today. We’ll get a day off tomorrow as some teachers will come to check.”
“I had gone to look for you.”
“Look for me?” the little girl asked doubtingly.
“Yeah, you didn’t come back on time.” Roland laughed while rubbing her head and then walked into the apartment.
Three dishes and some soup were already placed on the table, but all the bowls and chopsticks remained neat and clean. Obviously, Zero had been
waiting for him to come back.
That was why she had run to the door as soon as she had heard the sound at the door.
Roland sat at the table and said, “Let’s have dinner. I’m starving.”
Zero stared at him, asking, “Were you worried that I was cheated by some stranger? I’m not a kid anymore. Next time, you can just wait for me at home.”
Roland could not help but roll his eyes at this, thinking, “Nowadays, junior high school students are so mature? I remember myself at this age, I was terribly naughty. When I still had some allowance, I would go to the game hall and when I didn’t, I would go into the mountains to catch chafers. I would never come home until it was dark. How come this little girl behaves so well?”
He somehow felt a little embarrassed for himself at this thought.
“Oh, you’ve got a day off tomorrow?”
“Uhm, what?” Zero still seemed a bit annoyed but looked relaxed.
Roland said while eating, “Come to the library with me, I’ll buy something for you on the way.”
“Buy… What?”
“Well, I bought you some clothes last time, so this time, let’s buy some dresses, shoes and pajamas… you have to get something new to replace what you are wearing now.” He smiled. “I’ll buy you a cellphone. We need to stay in touch in case something like this happens again.”