My Avatar Is Becoming the Final Boss-Chapter 12: Private Meeting

After Cocoon Man left, the pressure over all of Lijing Square seemed to ease significantly.
Blue Arc turned to Green Wing and said, “I suggest you surrender. The five accomplices you had hiding on the rooftops have already been taken down by my teammates. The detonators they were holding are useless now. The area is crawling with Reality-altering Espers from the Association. You’re not getting away.”
“But the hostages… I still have the hostages,” Green Wing said, stepping back a few paces toward them.
“Take a closer look,” Blue Arc replied calmly.
At those words, Green Wing flinched and jerked his head around—only to find that the five hostages had completely vanished.
The surrounding onlookers had been quietly evacuated without his notice, replaced by a group of eccentrically dressed figures approaching from all directions.
“D*mn it…”
Green Wing was about to say something, but he realized Blue Arc wasn’t even paying attention to him.
From beginning to end, the eyes behind the helmet had remained locked in the direction where Cocoon Man had disappeared.
The next second, Blue Arc’s figure dissolved into a streak of deep-blue lightning and vanished.
The LED screens dimmed for one second and only resumed broadcasting once the arcs of static lingering in the air had dispersed.
……
……
One minute later, down a secluded alley near Lijing Square.
“I knew you’d follow me, Mr. Blue Arc.”
The black cocoon hung upside down beneath a streetlamp. The yellowish light flickered dimly as the cocoon opened, revealing a tall, slender silhouette: Ji Minghuan, mask still on, head lowered as he flipped through an old newspaper.
His expression was focused. His right hand held a ballpoint pen, idly twirling it as he read, giving him the look of a meticulous scholar.
“What are you exactly?” Blue Arc asked.
“I don’t have a codename yet, nor a real name. But I believe I’ll get one soon… that’s the charm of being a public figure.
If people like you—or fear you—sooner or later, they’ll give you all kinds of lovely nicknames.”
Cocoon Man muttered to himself, turning to the next page of the newspaper.
The paper was clearly years old, its headline ing on a tragic incident five years prior:
A woman named Su Ying had been accidentally killed by a Reality-altering Esper from the Association.
Her devastated husband had filed multiple lawsuits against the government, but to no avail—not even able to learn the identity of the Esper, because the person came from Rainbow Wing, and their identity was classified.
Only then did Blue Arc notice the image in the article. Beneath the helmet, his expression visibly tensed.
“Mr. Gu Qiye, you were only thirteen when that happened, right?
It happened right in front of your eyes—your mother went boom,” Cocoon Man exaggerated the sound effect, then spread his hands.
“Blown into a pile of meat paste.
Tragic, really. A childhood without a mother’s love is incomplete.
I sympathize with your experience more than anyone.”
Of course… my childhood lacked a mother’s love too, Ji Minghuan chuckled to himself behind the mask.
Blue Arc remained silent, never once asking how this bizarre man knew all these things.
Seeing his silence, Cocoon Man continued,
“From that day on, you’ve resented those who abuse their power in the name of justice—those so-called Reality-altering Espers.”
He paused.
“And that resentment is precisely why you became a Reality-altering Esper.
You wanted to gain enough recognition inside the Association,
to be handpicked by the top brass through unmatched performance,
and gain access to the UN organization Rainbow Wing—
so you could find the Esper who crushed your mother like an ant… and get your revenge.”
“Utter nonsense.”
Blue Arc took a deep breath. The fire in his eyes was nearly ready to explode.
“Is it really nonsense?” Cocoon Man sneered.
“You know deep down it’s not.”
“And then?” Blue Arc asked.
“And then I appeared.”
Cocoon Man folded up the newspaper and casually tossed it into a trash bin at the corner of the alley.
Through the mask, his eyes lifted to look at Blue Arc—upside down from his hanging position.
“I’m here to help you, Mr. Blue Arc. Let’s work together.
I’ll help you get into Rainbow Wing.
I’ll help you find the Esper who killed your mother—
and together, we’ll stage a spectacular revenge.”
As he spoke, he raised a single finger, encased in a black glove.
“And you only need to do one thing for me… one trivial little task.”
“What task?”
Cocoon Man thought for a second, then shook his head.
“For now, it’s better I keep that to myself.
Otherwise, you might attract some very fatal consequences…”
He sighed.
“In any case, I’ll be active in this city for the foreseeable future.
Which means… we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.
Let’s get along.”
“How do you know who I am?”
Finally, Gu Qiye—behind the mask of Blue Arc—asked the one question that mattered most.
“It’s simple…” Cocoon Man said lightly.
“I can see through every mask people wear.”
“Ridiculous.”
“Aren’t you curious? What’s your father really been doing these past two years?
Was it really just a fight?
Did he really leave just because he didn’t want to see you again?
Or maybe…
he had his own reasons.
Maybe he left to keep you and your younger siblings out of harm’s way.”
Blue Arc stiffened. “My father?”
“That’s right—Gu Zhuo’an.
Is he also hiding a secret, just like you?
Do you really believe he’s that weak-willed? That he’d abandon his children and hide for two whole years?”
Cocoon Man’s voice turned eerie.
“Or is there a deeper reason—just like you joined the Association for your mother’s truth?”
He paused again.
“If you want answers… then work with me.
I never mistreat my partners.”
Blue Arc rasped, “What are you…”
Cocoon Man cut him off,
“Oh… even though you’re wearing a helmet, I can’t see your face,
but I can picture it.
You probably love me already…”
He glanced aside.
“Mm, let’s make our graves next to each other someday. That way, I can sneak your offerings.”
“Shut up. What the h*ll are you…”
“No, no, no. Stop asking who I am. Stop asking how I know your secrets.
It doesn’t matter.”
Cocoon Man’s tone was teasing.
“What you should be worrying about right now… is yourself. Isn’t that more pressing?”
As he spoke, his body was slowly hoisted upward by the Binding Restraints, until he was sitting atop the streetlamp.
“Farewell, Blue Arc.
With wounds like that on your waist and neck, you really shouldn’t chase me anymore…
If you keep going, you might not make it.
Otherwise, wouldn’t you have already attacked me?”
“Sometimes, asking for help isn’t such a shameful thing.
Be smart.”
As his voice faded, multiple Binding Restraints extended behind him, swaying lightly under the dim lamp like waving hands.
Before Blue Arc could respond, Cocoon Man tipped backward and fell—
vanishing from the top of the streetlamp,
into the endless darkness below.