Xiao Di naturally saw it too: "I think... it looks like it's trying to ram us to death..."
Jill Young glared at the plane, her eyes full of menace: "I think I should charge in there, butcher those bastards, and rescue Derek Cheng."
Xiao Di shouted in disbelief: "I think you're trying to get yourself killed! Do you know how fast that plane is?"
Jill Young grinned at her: "I think you should brace yourself a little. Try not to freak out."
"Brace for what?" A bad feeling crept in—Xiao Di's face turned ugly, and somehow she just knew: "I think—you should give me the parachute..."
"I think it's too late!" The plane barreled down, and the two with parachutes were just sitting ducks. Jill Young flexed her arms and hurled Xiao Di far away. "You bastard—!" Xiao Di fell screaming and cursing into the cloud sea below. Meanwhile, Jill Young unbuckled herself, grabbed the parachute pack with one hand, and pulled out a big gun with the other.
Aiming at the oncoming plane's windshield, Jill Young fired off her last few bullets. Crack! The glass shattered into fragments. At the same time, she stowed the gun and grabbed the chute pack, swinging herself hard. Like a gymnast finishing a routine, Jill Young soared through the air in a long, precise arc—"Wada!"—and dropkicked straight into the speeding plane.
In that instant, the whole concept of up, down, left, and right blurred.
Jill Young felt she wasn't flying horizontally, but falling at high speed down a vertical shaft. The plane wasn't messing around—even though the big guy had spun in mid-air and slowed down just to hit them, it was still faster than the fastest bullet train. Not even Five Senses Resonance could help Jill see clearly, and not even her reflexes could keep up.
But Jill Young charged in anyway, risking getting splattered into ground beef.
On one hand, there was no choice. Jill Young and Xiao Di were stuck in the air with nowhere to dodge—the only way to avoid getting smashed was to ditch the parachute. But if they tossed their only parachute, they'd just end up splattered anyway. Either way, it was a dead end. The only way out was to storm the plane and hope for a miracle.
On the other hand, Jill Young just knew she could pull it off. The confidence came out of nowhere, but she believed it, no questions asked. It was like some voice she absolutely trusted was whispering in her heart: "Relax, leave it to me." Then, the instant she crashed through the plane window, a mysterious power surged from some unknowable dimension. A clear stream flowed from her right side, swirling and rushing up into her brain.
The whole world sharpened like never before.
This was the realm of Five Senses Resonance!
In that brief instant, with the help of the mysterious power, Jill Young was back in the realm of Five Senses Resonance!
To be precise, it was "Three Senses Resonance," since Jill Young didn't have super taste or super smell right then. But whatever—her sight, hearing, and touch were working wonders together. Mr. Tang once explained: Five Senses Resonance is like seeing with your ears and listening with your eyes. Sounds wild, right? When Jack Young first got the hang of it, he understood: it's all about syncing and reallocating your sensory powers.
Here's a not-so-perfect analogy: if the five senses were like five stats, boosting perception is like adding stat points—think strength, agility, etc. But with Five Senses Resonance, you can redistribute those points. For a short time, you can massively boost one sense by dialing down the others.
To Jack Young, Five Senses Resonance is less a mystical state and more of a skill. With it, you can reshuffle your sensory powers for a bit. During the rooftop fight, Jack cranked up his vision to go berserk on the Old Veteran. At the helipad, for that final punch, he maxed out his sense of touch, letting him drain the Old Veteran's life force with Dragon-Elephant Extraction.
Now, Jill Young obviously couldn't keep it up as long as Jack Young did. This sudden burst of resonance was probably a one-off, no telling when it'd show up again. Even this time, it would only last a few seconds.
But a few seconds was all she needed.
Resonance: Level 2 super-vision, boost!
A ghostly glow seemed to spill from Jill Young's eyes. Blurry shapes and colors snapped into crisp scenery. The two pilots were already lying on the floor, full of holes, and Jill had burst into the cabin at just the right spot—directly facing the control room door.
Bang! She kicked the door with all her might, the insane speed packing a brutal punch. But Jill's legs and bones pulled off a miracle, absorbing the impact before it could hurt her—Resonance: Level 2 super-touch, boost!
Crack! The flimsy door couldn't stop Jill Young and went flying off its hinges. Splinters everywhere, Jill broke through and dove into the hall. The hall was empty—no Syndicate, no fox spirits, and Derek Cheng was nowhere to be seen. But if she couldn't see, she could try something else—Resonance: Level 2 super-hearing, boost!
A flood of sound poured into her ears. Even in the blink of an eye, in the chaos of battle and the roar of the plane's engines, Jill still picked out some useful intel—someone was at the door.
A guy in a suit was right at the hall entrance. He couldn't react in time, but he was already aiming a gun at her, so all he had to do was pull the trigger. Bang! The door was wrecked. Jill Young shot through, dodged the bullet like she'd seen it coming, and grabbed the uniformed guy, dragging him toward the back of the plane.
Bang bang bang—Jill smashed through three doors in a row, using the uniformed guy as a footpad, soaking up most of the impact. Crash! She busted through the fourth door and flew into the cargo hold. Not far from the cargo door, Jill spotted a familiar figure—the muscle bro called Cake Dog.
The muscle bro still had blood on him—was it Derek Cheng's?
Jill Young's temper flared and she lashed out with a full-force kick: "Come get some!" Everything's relative—however fast the plane was, Jill was just as fast compared to everyone inside. Even after smashing through all those doors, Cake Dog couldn't react. He just felt a blast of wind, didn't even have time to block, and Jill's kick nailed him right in the throat.
Crack! Cake Dog's eyes bulged, blood spurted from his mouth, and he slammed into the plane wall, his fate unknown. Meanwhile, Jill Young shot through the cabin like a flash, stirring up a storm of carnage. In a heartbeat, she'd blasted through the plane, still clutching the uniformed guy.
With her left hand, she ripped the parachute off the guy's back; with her right, she snatched his submachine gun. One kick sent him flying, and Jill Young dove after him, all limbs outstretched. She hadn't found Derek Cheng yet, so she had to hurry and save Xiao Di. It hadn't taken long to cut through the plane, but Xiao Di was already a speck in the distance. Judging by the faint screams on the wind, Xiao Di was way down below.
Her big gun was out of bullets, so no more speed boosts. But Jill Young's eyes lit up—she spotted the cars and cargo crates tumbling out of the plane. The crates were dropping like WWII bombs, but right now, they made perfect stepping stones. With a sweep of her arms, Jill caught the wind and swung over to one crate. She crouched, planted her feet, and sprang to the next one below.
Just like that, Jill Young bounced from crate to crate in midair, rocketing toward the ground like a bolt of lightning.
Below, Xiao Di was falling face-up, limbs stretched out to slow herself down. But she was too slim, and her clothes were tight, so it didn't help much. "If I survive today, I'm getting new clothes!"
Whoosh—Xiao Di plunged into the cloud layer. The air currents went wild, everything turned blinding white and chaotic. Her clothes whipped and flapped, like the wind was about to tear them off. "Where's that bastard? Am I really done for?"
No sooner had she spoken than—boom! Xiao Di looked up to see a car exploding above, scattering fiery sparks everywhere. In the fireworks, Jill Young blasted through, diving straight at her.
Jill Young reached out, Xiao Di reached out too, and high in the sky, their hands locked tight.
Jill Young scooped Xiao Di up in a princess carry, but didn't pop the parachute right away. They were still plummeting, but Xiao Di's heart was back in her chest. She stared at Jill Young for ages, totally at a loss for what face to make. After a long pause, she finally blurted, "You know what—you really are a bastard!"
"I know," Jill Young admitted, then—smack!—gave Xiao Di a slap on the butt. "So what? You're mine now. No badmouthing me from now on."
Xiao Di ground her teeth, but didn't dare let go of Jill Young's hand. Suddenly—whoosh!—they broke through the clouds together.
"Is this Steelbull City?" Down below, a sea of dazzling lights stretched to the horizon. Even from way up high, you could spot skyscrapers, rivers of traffic, and wide, winding waterways. If Steelbullet City was a fart, then Steelbull City was a storm. Ever since arriving in this world, this place kept coming up: City of Sin, Heart of the World, the big stage for big shots.
Not one of Steelbull City's tens of millions of residents knew that, on this night, high above the clouds, Jill Young descended like a goddess with her girl in her arms. Puffing up her chest, the platinum-blonde shouted at the top of her lungs: "Steelbull City, here I come!"
ps: End of Part One of Book Three! This whole third arc is just getting started. I've been grinding out chapters like crazy these past few days—really killing myself here—but honestly, things aren't looking great. So, to avoid getting murdered by angry readers, this chapter is a 3K mega-chapter, gotta build up my karma early! The real story kicks off below. By the way, I recommend you check out 'Saints Row 3'—awesome game, and I borrowed a lot from it for this arc. (Wait, did I say 'borrowed'? That's forbidden...) But hey, even if I borrowed stuff, I mixed in plenty of my own flavor. Half borrowed, half original, all woven together—I'm aiming to create an even bigger, richer, and more layered gangster world.