My Avatar Is Becoming the Final Boss-Chapter 85: Villain

Ji Minghuan piloted Unit Two and followed Origami Ayase to Shibaura Pier, where they boarded the "Water Bus" along the Tokyo Waterline. The trip to Harumi Pier would take about 25 minutes.
He stood on the open deck, arms crossed on the railing, staring absentmindedly at the sea.
The ship was moving farther away from the port area. In Ji Minghuan’s view, Tokyo Tower gradually shrank into a thin orange rod, while the glass façade of the Mori Tower at Roppongi Hills reflected a cold glint. Seagulls flew in on a chilly sea breeze from afar, lifting Ji Minghuan’s hair.
The seawater shimmered under the morning sun, and in the distance, the majestic outline of Mount Fuji could faintly be seen.
No one knew how much time had passed before the boat entered Tokyo Bay, approaching the Rainbow Bridge.
Ji Minghuan turned his head and looked toward the bridge’s pillars. A couple of seagulls were perched on the rust-stained maintenance ladder.
Suddenly, he recalled why Bloodline and White Greedy Wolf had joined the brigade, so he turned to Origami Ayase beside him and asked:
“Why did you join the brigade?”
“I’m not interested in answering… but if this is a little kitty asking its master, that’s another story,” Origami Ayase said coolly, her pupils reflecting the sea.
Ji Minghuan thought, Can you people give it a rest already? Then, expressionless, he said:
“Meow.”
Even his voice somehow sounded expressionless.
Origami Ayase was slightly stunned. She turned to look at Xia Pingzhou—she had only made a joke in passing, not expecting this emotionless newbie to actually pick up on it.
A faint smile unexpectedly blossomed on the pale, expressionless face of the girl.
If someone didn’t know she was a member of the White Crow Brigade—a wanted criminal guilty of countless atrocities—just seeing this smile, they’d think she was an ordinary Japanese girl.
“Number 12, are you… secretly flirty?” she wrote using paper, the letters fluttering mid-air.
Onlookers gasped. Local Japanese passengers exclaimed “Sugoi!” while an Italian man whistled and cheered “Bravo!” thinking the kimono girl was performing a magic trick;
Someone tried to film it with their phone but found the camera lens covered in a thin white layer. When they turned the phone around, they saw a thin sheet of paper stuck to the lens—it wouldn’t come off no matter how hard they tried.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Ji Minghuan asked in a low voice, his black hair tossed high by the sea breeze.
Origami Ayase thought for a moment: “Staying with my family was boring. It was like being a puppet—everything arranged, my whole life mapped out.”
“And then?”
The boat passed directly beneath the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo Bay. The bridge’s shadow blanketed the passengers' faces. The pale cheek of the girl was also covered in shadow as she said:
“The Captain came to me. He said… ‘Isn’t it more fun to be a villain than a puppet?’”
“And your answer?”
“I said yes. So Takekage joined the White Crow Brigade with me.”
The sound of waves drowned out their hushed conversation.
As they continued talking, the Water Bus arrived at Harumi Pier.
With the cries of seagulls around them, they disembarked and headed to a café near Tokyo Bay. The place was elegantly decorated—furnished with redwood chairs and tables, oil paintings hung on the walls, and a conspicuous business license framed up.
There weren’t many customers—just one or two tables. But the café only had four tables total, so any more would’ve been too much.
“This café used to be run by Takekage. After joining the brigade, he handed it over to a junior. Every time a brigade operation ends, he comes back here. It’s safe—gang members won’t show up.”
Origami Ayase introduced the place expressionlessly.
Ji Minghuan nodded, then glanced around at the customers. His expression subtly shifted.
Among them, he spotted a familiar figure and involuntarily raised an eyebrow, silently mouthing the name:
“Li Qingping?”
That’s right… the person sitting inside the café was none other than Li Qingping. Across from him sat a foreign youth.
This young man had long golden hair, deep blue eyes like the ocean, and wore a white casual shirt made of expensive-looking fabric.
If Ji Minghuan’s guess was right, this blonde youth must be the Second Prince from the Whale’s Garden—Li Qingping’s current charge. If anything happened to the Second Prince during the auction, his good buddy might have to crawl back home.
Right now, Li Qingping looked a bit distracted.
He hadn’t touched his coffee and was looking down, focused on sending a message from his phone. He hesitated for a while, editing and rewriting in the chat box, before finally hitting send.
You really know how to pick a spot… if you want your bro dead just say so, okay?
Ji Minghuan thought to himself and synced his consciousness with Unit One, “Black Cocoon.”
As soon as his eyes opened, a “ding” sounded—he checked the phone by his pillow and, sure enough, it was a WeChat message from Li Qingping. The guy had been struggling at the café, thinking about how to message Gu Wenyu.
[Li Qingping: You up? Didn't you say yesterday you wanted to meet my foreign friend? Wanna come to the café?]
“This coffee might just kill someone…” Ji Minghuan couldn’t help sighing.
Truth be told, he only planned to meet Li Qingping because he had nothing better to do—and he was curious about what this “Second Prince” looked like.
That way, he wouldn’t mistake him during the auction—if Li Qingping needed someone to keep an eye on the prince so he could act boldly, Ji Minghuan would jump out and help tie the guy up, giving Red Dragon a chance to shine.
Since the goal was accomplished, there was no reason to drag Gu Wenyu into the mess—better to keep Unit One safe.
No way he’d use “Binding Restraint Detection” to measure the brigade members’ stats, right?
The moment he did that, Black Cocoon’s hand would probably get snapped by Origami Ayase, or worse, he’d be dragged into a shadow and executed by Oda Takekage.
After some thought, he decided to bail on Li Qingping openly and honestly.
[Gu Wenyu: Suddenly got sleepy. Goodnight.]
[Li Qingping: Saying goodnight in the morning? D*mn, ditching your bro again. Classic.]
[Gu Wenyu: Don’t you have your foreign buddy? Went to Japan and didn’t even tell me—now you wanna play the brother card, huh?]
[Li Qingping: Like you told me anything.]
[Gu Wenyu: Touché.]
“Have a seat. Order whatever you want,” Origami Ayase’s voice pulled Ji Minghuan’s attention back to Unit Two. “It’s free.”
As she spoke, she shot a glance at Oda Takekage, who was pretending to be the café owner behind the counter.
Following her gaze, Ji Minghuan, through Xia Pingzhou, turned his eyes over.
Oda Takekage had already changed out of his ninja gear and was now wearing casual clothes. Even while sitting on a low stool, his massive two-meter frame made him stand out—so Ji Minghuan instantly recognized him.
His chiseled face showed no expression. He blinked at Ji Minghuan, then looked back down to his newspaper.
Ji Minghuan was secretly shocked—Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge were several kilometers apart, yet Oda Takekage beat the Water Bus there and even changed clothes in the meantime. Clearly, no one in the brigade was normal.
So this is what a ninja is, huh?
He gained a new appreciation for the No. 4 member and silently reminded himself: Before the auction starts, tell Su Zimai to watch out for Oda Takekage. Otherwise, she might get dragged into a shadow without even knowing how she died…
At the table next to Ji Minghuan, Li Qingping and the Second Prince were chatting casually.
“Where’s your friend?” the blonde youth asked, sipping his coffee.
“He ditched me.”
Li Qingping replied expressionlessly.
He didn’t seem to show much friendliness toward anyone from the Whale’s Garden—not even the prince. Ji Minghuan remembered him acting the same way toward the gatekeeper last time. Maybe he was high-ranking over there and liked to act all aloof.
“What a bad guy,” the Second Prince said wistfully.
“Yeah, bad guy,” Li Qingping echoed with a sigh.
Sure, sure. Smiles in person, cold stab in the back. Gotta love that brotherhood.
Thinking that, Ji Minghuan took a sip of his sugar-sweetened coffee and stopped glancing sideways at the pair.