8: Chapter 8 Harvesting in the Dark

Daredevil jumped down from the top of the container, moving as fast as a falling dark red meteor. As he landed, he swung his twin batons horizontally. The two nearest Irish Gang members didn't even have time to raise their guns before their wrists were broken.

"Damn it, it's that red-clad freak again."

An Irish Gang member fired at Daredevil. Bullets struck the container, sending sparks flying, but that red figure was no longer in his original position.

Daredevil wove through the hail of bullets, constantly changing his position by utilizing the narrow gaps between the containers. The dull thuds of his twin batons struck again and again, each sound accompanied by someone's wail.

The Russian Gang side was also bewildered.

"Is this someone the Irish hired for help?"

"Doesn't look like it. He's hitting the Irish too. Just worry about yourself first."

"Retreat into the warehouse, close the door."

Yan Zheng: ( ˵ ᵕ ꒳ ᵕ ˵ )

The battlefield was in complete chaos.

Three factions were entangled together: Daredevil was fighting the Irish Gang, the Irish Gang was fighting the Russian Gang, and the Russian Gang was fighting both sides.

The container maze was filled with the sound of running footsteps and intermittent gunfire. Some were shouting in Russian, others were cursing in English, occasionally interspersed with the crisp snapping sound of bones breaking.

Perfect chaos.

"Now." Yan Zheng's voice was as light as a puff of exhaled white breath.

The Skeleton Soldier stood up from the corner of the control room, its phosphorus fire burning faintly beneath the brim of its hat.

"Go down along the gantry crane's support structure, take the outermost shadow areas, and circle around from the south side." Yan Zheng's instructions were concise and clear. "If you see anyone who isn't moving, drag them into the shadows."

The Skeleton Soldier's figure vanished into the gap of the control room.

Yan Zheng continued to observe from his high vantage point.

On the periphery of the battlefield, in the container passage on the south side, three corpses were scattered in different locations, at least thirty or forty meters away from the main battlefield. No living person noticed them.

The Skeleton Soldier's movements were somewhat more agile than he had anticipated.

The skeleton, wearing old cotton-padded clothes, moved quickly along the shadowed side of the containers. Though its gait was stiff, it excelled in silence, and the howling of the December night wind blowing across the metal surfaces perfectly masked the slight sounds of bone collisions.

The first one.

The Skeleton Soldier crouched beside an Irish Gang member lying in a pool of blood, and Yan Zheng issued an instruction remotely.

"Hold it down."

The Skeleton Soldier's bony hand pressed onto the corpse's back.

Yan Zheng closed his eyes, and his Mental Power transmitted along that invisible thread.

[Ordinary human corpse (intact) detected. Collect?]

"Collect."

A dark green glimmer flashed, and the corpse turned into black mist and dissipated.

[Ordinary human bone material × 1, stored.]

Yan Zheng opened his eyes and directed the Skeleton Soldier to move toward the next target.

"The second one, twelve meters to the front left, at the corner of the container."

The Skeleton Soldier slid over silently; same process, same dark green glimmer.

[Ordinary human bone material × 1, muscle fiber material × 1, stored.]

"The third one."

Yan Zheng: ( ˇ ω ˇ )

It was as calm as pushing a shopping cart in a supermarket to pick out goods.

The melee in the main area of the battlefield was still ongoing. Daredevil's presence made the entire situation unpredictable. After being scattered by him, members of both gangs fled in all directions, and some collapsed in corners far away from the main battlefield while running.

These corners were Yan Zheng's hunting grounds.

Within fifteen minutes, the Skeleton Soldier had shuttled back and forth on the periphery of the battlefield six times.

[Ordinary human bone material × 6, muscle fiber material × 4, nerve tissue material × 2, all stored in the system warehouse.]

[Host's current Mental Power: 6/8.]

"Six bodies, enough." Yan Zheng raised his hand to press his temples; the consumption of Mental Power caused a dull ache to rise in the back of his head. "Quit while ahead, time to retreat."

Just as he was about to recall the Skeleton Soldier, the battlefield suddenly went quiet for a brief moment.

Then he saw Daredevil stop.

That dark red figure stood at the entrance of the passage between two containers, twin batons hanging by his sides, his masked head tilted slightly at an angle.

Not toward any gang member.

It was toward the south side.

Toward the direction where the Skeleton Soldier was.

Yan Zheng: ( ° ᷄ д ° ᷅ )

His breathing instantly became as shallow as possible.

Daredevil's head was tilted, as if he were "listening" to something.

Yan Zheng recalled Old Jack's words: that guy in red seems to be able to "see" everything.

Super hearing.

Heartbeats, breathing, the sound of bones rubbing, even the faint sound of blood flowing through veins—to Matt Murdock, all of it was perceivable information.

The Skeleton Soldier had no heartbeat, no breathing, no blood.

But it had the sound of bone collisions during movement, and the faint airflow fluctuations when the phosphorus fire burned.

In those few seconds of silence, these abnormal sounds, so subtle that no ordinary person could ever detect them, fell into a pair of extraordinary ears.

"Stop." Yan Zheng issued the command in his mind.

All of the Skeleton Soldier's movements froze immediately, the entire skeleton turning into a perfect sculpture.

Daredevil maintained that tilted-head posture for a full three seconds.

Yan Zheng could see the jawline under his mask tighten, as if he were distinguishing some extremely faint sound source.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

An injured Russian Gang member stumbled out from the direction of the warehouse, holding a gun and firing a shot at Daredevil's back.

The bullet flew past Daredevil's shoulder; as he dodged sideways, he swung his baton back, striking the man's wrist precisely.

The gun slipped from his hand.

Daredevil's attention was pulled back to the main battlefield.

Yan Zheng felt the sweat on his back rapidly turn cold in the minus-four-degree freezing wind.

"Go."

The moment the Skeleton Soldier received the instruction, it turned around and retreated toward the gantry crane at the fastest but quietest gait possible.

Yan Zheng himself didn't linger either; he bent over and vaulted out from the other gap in the control room, heading all the way down along the rusted metal ladder.

He controlled the sound of his feet landing to be extremely light.

The Skeleton Soldier met him at the bottom of the gantry crane, and the two figures retreated eastward along the outermost wire fence of the pier, their footsteps fast and silent.

Three minutes later, they had left the gunshots and shouting of the pier behind them.

Yan Zheng: ( ㅎ _ ㅎ )

Five minutes later, they passed through the wall of the last abandoned factory and returned to a neighborhood with streetlights.

Yan Zheng stopped at an empty bus stop, supporting himself with one hand on the metal pillar of the station, and took two deep breaths.

Not because he was tired, but because of lingering fear.

"A super-sensory being." He said in a low voice, the exhaled white breath churning under the streetlights. "His radar perception is even sharper than I anticipated."

"If that Russian hadn't fired that shot just now, he likely would have searched directly toward the Skeleton Soldier's position."

"At that point, a humanoid object with no vital signs moving on the periphery of the battlefield—that image, once it fell into Daredevil's perception, would be enough for him to list me as his highest priority investigation target."

Yan Zheng adjusted his non-existent glasses on the bridge of his nose; this habitual action allowed his breathing to gradually calm down.

"However, six bodies."

He glanced at the inventory data on his system panel, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

"Adding the Mexican from before, that's a total of seven sets of bone material."

"Enough to piece together a squad."

Yan Zheng recalled the Skeleton Soldier, and the dark green black mist shrank into the shadow under his feet and disappeared.

He pulled his hood back up and walked toward the Antique Shop, his pace not fast, his back figure blending into the thin night of Hells Kitchen.

"But the more important question is, Daredevil also seems very interested in that shipment from HYDRA."

"A super-sensory street vigilante, plus HYDRA's biochemical supplies, plus the mess left behind by the two gangs' shootout."

"Hells Kitchen is likely to be very lively for the coming period."

Yan Zheng: ( ˘ ꒳ ˘ )

In the cold wind, he looked back at the direction of the pier one last time; in the distance, he could still vaguely hear sporadic gunshots and police sirens.

"But one thing is for sure."

He turned back around, not stopping his pace.

"Next time I go to an occasion like that, I'll have to find a way to soundproof the Skeleton Soldier's joints."

"After all, Mr. Matt Murdock's ears are much more troublesome than any surveillance camera."