Chapter 64: Professor Ripple

Work. Get off work. Three straight days of peaceful routine.

Liu A'dou had pretty much thrown the whole "saving the world" thing to the back of his mind. Every evening, he shamelessly joined Ada Wong for dinner. As far as he was concerned, he was just a transmigrator. If Gotham City got destroyed, that was Batman's problem. He was just here to enjoy life.

And anyway, if Bane had already taken the virus out of Gotham City, then he probably handed it over to the power behind him. Whether they planned to modify it or mass-produce it—none of that was something Liu A'dou could control. This was a world with superheroes and even literal gods. It wasn't his job to worry.

If the virus ever broke out? A superhero would show up to handle it. Worst case, Liu A'dou would narrate the situation as background commentary.

So yeah—he ate well, slept great, and had absolutely no stress.

"You really have a lot of confidence in the superheroes of this world, don't you?" Ada watched Liu A'dou munch chips without a care and couldn't help but envy his calm.

"Of course. No matter what goes wrong, superheroes always save the day. All we need to do is not make their job harder. That virus you brought with you isn't so advanced that even aliens can't deal with it, right? So don't stress. Want me to take you out for a fun day, Ada-jie? Gotham may be dark, but there's still a lot to see. We can go shopping."

"No need. I'm fine staying in," Ada replied. Even though Liu A'dou had arranged an identity for her, she didn't like going out.

"Fair enough. Honestly, watching stuff online isn't bad either." Liu A'dou grabbed another handful of fries and shoved it into his mouth.

Ada stared at him, speechless. This boy was even more of a handful than a real little brother. But maybe she was the one who needed to look at things differently. This world's crises belonged to this world's people. It wasn't her job to solve them.

"Tell me more about Pandora," Ada said. She still wanted to know who had saved her.

"She's a good person. Sent me to this world. I didn't spend much time with her, but she really is good. That's all I know."

Not the answer she was hoping for, but Liu A'dou honestly didn't know much more. Speaking of Pandora, he had recently gathered enough courage to re-enter the Magic Box and gained new knowledge—but none of it was remotely useful.

The truth was, humans are accumulation-based creatures. Evolution takes time. Civilization takes time. Culture, medicine, science—it all takes years of building. Some people look down on human history, but it's that slow, steady process that brought them this far.

Pandora had drawn knowledge from other worlds, sure—but once it entered the Magic Box, it became disorganized. Liu A'dou's last two trips into the box had yielded advanced theories he couldn't understand at all. It was like trying to build a skyscraper with no foundation.

So he was kind of done with the Magic Box. There was no search engine, no instructions, no filtering. Total chaos.

The first time, he'd just gotten lucky with a cultivation manual. But the last two times had dumped incomprehensible scientific data on him. Worse still, the Magic Box gave out knowledge randomly. Which meant he had to keep going back in to increase his chances.

Frustrating. Painful. But he endured it.

Ada couldn't take any more of his childish shows and walked away from the TV to start working out.

Liu A'dou had set up a small workout corner in the warehouse—a treadmill, barbell, pull-up bar, and punching bag. Ada had gotten used to exercising there often.

Liu A'dou's gaze slowly shifted to the beauty sweating it out. Ada's figure was fit and lean. It wasn't obvious when she was still, but once she started moving, her muscle tone showed through.

"Ada-jie, let's spar. It's boring to train alone," Liu A'dou said, getting to his feet.

Ada looked over at him, nodded, and said, "Sure. Let me see what the great Kaitou Kid is really made of."

They stood facing each other in the open space. From this angle, their height was almost the same.

"Alright, I'm coming!" Liu A'dou shouted, charging straight at her.

Ada's movements were lightning fast. Liu A'dou went in with a punch, so she countered with her legs. One high kick—her foot shot straight at the right side of his face.

A'dou quickly shifted to the side with quick, broken steps, dodging the kick. But then he heard a swoosh near his ear—Ada had switched from an upward strike to a sweeping kick.

Her sweep came fast. From that brief exchange, Ada had already gauged his speed. She wasn't holding back at all.

Liu A'dou couldn't react in time. The attack was already flying toward him.

No time to dodge. He had to block with his forearm.

Truth was, Ada was more comfortable with guns than hand-to-hand combat, so unarmed fighting wasn't her strong suit.

They quickly separated and began reassessing each other's strength.

Liu A'dou thought to himself—Ada-jie was fast. But judging from the blow he blocked, she didn't pack much power. She was still a woman, after all.

Meanwhile, Ada was sizing him up too. Quick reflexes. Strong. Young, but clearly experienced. If it were a real fight to the death, she figured she'd have an eighty percent chance of killing him. But in a spar like this, it was probably a fifty-fifty split.

They moved again.

Ada made the first move this time. Another leg attack—three rapid kicks aimed at his stomach, chest, and head.

Liu A'dou countered with three kicks of his own.

Their shins clashed in midair three times, before both pulled back again.

They reset and launched into a new round—this time, fists.

Within just a few seconds, each of them had thrown over ten punches. Their speed was intense. The sounds of bones stretching and air tearing filled the space in rapid bursts.

Fists and afterimages tangled together like two of the world's fastest dancers, both attacking and dodging at once. Since this was only a spar, they switched up techniques frequently, using different fighting styles to test each other's skills.

As their stances shifted, their punches ran their course. Then it was on to grappling—each grabbed for the other's wrist, trying to lock them down.

Move for move. Grab for grab. It was a lively match.

Grappling gave way to kicking again. Their flowing leg strikes weaved through the air like spider silk, forming a web. Anything that entered the range of their kicks would've been shredded instantly.

Finally, both of them stopped, panting heavily.

"Ada-jie, you're seriously fast," Liu A'dou said between breaths.

"You didn't even go all out, and you're praising me?" Ada wasn't buying it. "That strange power you used last time—you didn't use it at all."

"You mean Ripple," Liu A'dou said. "I can teach you."

He began to explain the Ripple breathing technique to her. Two heads were better than one. Though Liu A'dou had already mastered Ripple and recalled many of the uses described in the original Ripple-related works, he knew the skill still had untapped potential.

Researching it alone could take forever. But if more people practiced it together, maybe they'd stumble across new discoveries.

Ada was smart. After just one explanation and a few tries, she could already use Ripple energy—though her breathing rhythm wasn't quite stable yet. Too fast, and it caused confusion. Too slow, and the energy didn't flow right.

"Keep trying and you'll get it," Liu A'dou said. Having someone to teach really made a difference. Compared to how long it had taken him to figure out Ripple breathing on his own, Ada was picking it up a lot faster.

Ada watched him curiously as Liu A'dou filled a glass of water, then suddenly flipped it upside down.

"What the...?" Even with the glass fully inverted, not a single drop fell. The water looked like it was frozen in place—as if something was holding it inside the cup.

Liu A'dou tossed the cup to Ada. The moment she caught it, all the water splashed out onto the ground. The cup in her hands was completely empty.

"What just happened?"

"That's the power of Ripple, Ada-jie. From now on, train until the water doesn't fall when you turn the glass over. Then you'll have mastered it."

"Incredible," Ada said, staring at the empty glass. "Just changing how I breathe can give me power like this?"

"Breathing isn't simple," Liu A'dou explained. "When you breathe, oxygen enters your lungs. From there, it flows into your bloodstream. Your blood carries energy to your cells, and those cells make up your body. That's why breathing is deeply connected to the body. Ripple uses controlled breathing to generate energy in the blood that moves like water ripples and spreads through the entire body."

Ada Wong muttered that it was exactly the kind of thing that sat between science and mysticism—a power that belonged to this world.