12 AZI Volume 1 Chapter 11
Accompanied by the sound of a roaring engine, Long Hua heads for the Mirrored Moon Café, but while on the road—
[Incoming call.]
"Hm? Answer it."
His wireless communications device goes off.
"Who is it?"
[Owner. You on the road?]
"Heading to the café."
[Got an emergency for you to deal with.]
"Already?"
Leaning the bike over to the right, Long Hua comes to a stop in the breakdown lane.
"Well, I'm all ears."
[Members of Ox team 03 were put in charge of stealing a key ingredient for IB-09. One of them got sniped from a distance half an hour ago. They're currently surrounded by the military squad that they stole the ingredient from.]
"IB-09," a healing elixir developed by NPI that is currently on its ninth generation. Said elixir is rumored to cure all the body's health issues, and has very limited supplies, making it something that only the super-rich can afford.
"Ox…"
Members of NPI are divided into one of 12 factions that are based off the 12 eastern zodiacs.
Rabbit, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, and pig are mostly made up of noncombatants and retired combatants.
Rat, dragon, tiger, ox, dog, and snake, these six factions are made up of all combat ready agents.
Rat teams are all made up of agents who have served the organization for 15 years, while dog teams are all made up of newly recruited agents.
Ox teams are above dog teams because they are made up of agents that have served for 5 years.
"You're not telling me to save them, are you?"
[Retrieve the ingredient. That's all.]
"Sounds about right."
Within NPI, Long Hua is a part of the snake faction. There are only a total of 12 members in this faction with Long Hua given the code name Serpent 09.
"Where are they right now?"
[Seventh ward. I've sent you the coordinates.]
"Where do I take the ingredient after?"
[Back to the café.]
"You're asking for quite a long-distance delivery…"
Leaning back on the seat of his bike, Long Hua calculates the distance in his head.
"It'd take me around… Maybe one and a half hours of breaking every traffic law in the book to get to the café after retrieving the ingredient? And that's assuming that I'd won't be chased."
[Gotta make you work for that bike. Originally, we wanted to ship the ingredient to another city, but it's difficult to do that right now.]
"This is a job that requires more than this bike as payment. Throw me a bonus."
[Well, what do you want?]
"Cherry blossom wine."
He didn't know why, but this was the first thing that came to his mind.
[Done.]
As the Owner closes the call, Long Hua fishes out two objects from his pocket.
The first is a honeycomb patterned piece of fabric and the second is a piece of the shoe worn by one of the five assassins that tried to kill him after drawing his ballot.
(Can finally put these things to use.)
Shoving these items away, he grabs onto the bike's handlebars and draws in a deep breath of air.
"Load the map."
Within his helmet, the coordinates that the Owner had sent are displayed on his visor.
(Quite a distance…)
*Vrrrrr!* releasing the clutch of the bike, Long Hua rolls harshly on the throttle causing the front wheel of the bike to lift into the air, while his rear tire leaves a long skid mark across the road.
Traversing down the opposite lane that he had been riding in prior to the call, Long Hua heads for the seventh ward, while filtering through the traffic at an increasing speed.
"…"
Glancing to the right that is a downwards hill, an idea appears in Long Hua's head as he leans the bike towards that direction.
Feeling every bump through the bike's suspension, Long Hua rides down the hill and emerges onto another road.
Towards the red traffic light that is up ahead, he doesn't show a hint of stopping as he charges through without a care, triggering numerous cars to honk.
"…"
Spotting an alleyway that could be used as another shortcut, Long Hua readily leans his bike towards it and enters.
Perfectly out of sight within the alleyway, Long Hua mutters—
"Tai Xuan."
Following these two words, a halo appears in the far distance and is pierced through in the next instance.
Emerging out of the halo, Long Hua's attire is replaced with a honeycomb patterned set of black robes with wide sleeves that cover his hands. Coupled with the robes, are dark pants and tall black boots.
His helmet that had much of it covered by the robes' hood had gained a scale like pattern—and in front of the section where his mouth would be, is the shape of a serpent's maw that is decorated with its upper and lower fangs.
Simultaneously, the bike that is maintaining its speed has been thoroughly transformed with a full set of fairings encasing its body.
The entire bike that was originally two meters in length had been stretched by a small margin, while its undertail exhaust is now an underbelly exhaust with four pipes.
As for the handlebars, they are changed into clip-ons causing the riding ergonomics of the machine to become far more aggressive.
Attached to the front wheels of the bike are two wing shaped devices that are attached to its brake system.
If the bike is just a casual commute tool prior to entering the halo, then at this time it is a machine designed purely for apex performance.
(Hmm so this is what it'd look like after it's been modified by Tai Xuan? Seems like voice command is a thing.)
Till this day, Long Hua still has no clue as to what Tai Xuan really is, but for as long as he can remember, this odd power has been a part of him, and regardless of how much he uses it, there doesn't seem to be a limit on how many times he can use it.
Its main ability seems to be to transform whatever object that he touches into a more advanced form of it—along with restoring the same object back into its optimal state.
Other than that, it is also capable of transforming an object into something of similar functionalities, so long as Long Hua has an image in mind.
*Vrrrr!* as flames spew out of the bike's four exhaust pipes, Long Hua emerges out of the alleyway and continues to ride towards his destination in a reckless manner.
