# Episode Five [Save Me!]
"Thud."
The familiar clatter of the keyboard continued, along with the news broadcast playing like background music. Then a horrifying news bulletin interrupted...
“Early this morning, the bodies of two men were discovered in Daquan Forest Park in TP City. Their deaths were gruesome. Both had been executed with a single slash to the throat and were found kneeling. After investigation, the victims were identified as the father and son rescued several days ago by the mysterious hero Punk Wing Chun.”
After hearing the report, Xiao Ming shut off the television—completely unlike his usual self. His expression twisted as his eyes widened. He grabbed his head, stopped working, and stood there blankly for nearly a minute.
The victims in the news were actually the father and son he and An'an had rescued last time. The truth struck him hard. He had thought that resolving their immediate crisis meant they would be safe. Now, an overwhelming sense of helplessness swept over him, and he blamed himself for his naive inexperience with the world. With tears welling in his eyes, he swore to seek justice for the dead father and son.
In the mansion that looked like a castle, the night was so quiet that even the starlight seemed heavy. Xiao Ming's room, once filled with the passionate clatter of his keyboard and news broadcasts playing like background music, now held nothing but dead silence.
He sat in his wheelchair, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at the father and son's family photo on the forty-five-inch screen. “I'm sorry...”
Xiao Ming murmured in a slightly hoarse voice, so faint that even he could barely hear it.
From that day on, Xiao Ming seemed like a different person. The feverish enthusiasm unique to an inventor was gone, and nothing excited him anymore.
He poured all his energy into searching for clues. Through drones searching day and night and by hacking into the police database, Xiao Ming finally tracked down a cargo ship at the port in DS District.
That cargo ship was the secret base Dream-Building Construction Company used to smuggle and sell human organs. The father and son had accidentally uncovered the secret while settling the company's accounts, so they had been silenced.
“It was you...” Xiao Ming gripped the arms of his wheelchair with both hands. His bloodshot eyes burned with determination. “I won't let you hurt anyone else!”
With that, he immediately activated the drone communications system and sent An'an an emergency signal.
An'an's room was already deep in sleep. The tablet Xiao Ming had once smashed and then repaired was flashing an eye-searing green light. As An'an rolled over, he happened to press the answer button.
“An'an, this is bad! That father and son... they've been killed...” Xiao Ming's voice was filled with urgency and grief.
An'an sat up groggily and rubbed his eyes. When he saw the news footage flickering across the shattered screen, his drowsiness vanished instantly.
“You mean... those uncle and big brother... what happened to them...?” An'an's voice trembled slightly. He stammered through the words slowly.
“They... they were killed by bad guys! We have to stop them. They're at the port... selling people... I don't have time to explain everything. Get moving!” Xiao Ming said urgently.
An'an's eyes shifted from confusion to determination. He picked up his “automatic-positioning roller skates” and awkwardly put them on.
“We... we're going to save people... right?”
"Night Raid on the Port"
At the port in DS District, a massive cargo ship sat quietly on the surface of the sea. Stacks of shipping containers surrounded it, forming steel mazes. The air was thick with the salty smell of seawater and the irritating stench of diesel, occasionally mixed with low voices and the moaning of the sea wind.
Xiao Ming piloted a flying craft assembled from drones, carrying An'an to the port at top speed...
He had already uploaded a map of the port, the guards' patrol routes, and other information to An'an's tablet. Among the swarm of drones, he had also arranged several “scout drones” and “interference drones.”
“An'an, follow the route I'm giving you. We need to avoid all the guards. There are two guards on the cargo ship, so we'll sneak in from the rear first...” Xiao Ming directed him nervously over the comms.
Just then, Xiao Ming was suddenly distracted by an appointment document labeled confidential that popped up from NTP City Hall. He lost focus for a moment and failed to keep an eye on An'an.
Wearing his wrestling mask, An'an followed the route Xiao Ming had preset for his remote-controlled roller skates. He moved along without a hitch, and, getting excited, An'an began humming happily, as if he thought this was a game about rescuing people.
“Don't be afraid... we've arrived!”
However, things did not go as smoothly as Xiao Ming had imagined...
Just as they were about to enter the cargo ship, one of the guards spotted An'an because he was singing without a care in the world.
“Who's over there?!” the guard shouted warily.
The guard's shout snapped Xiao Ming back to his senses. An'an instinctively tried to hide, but Xiao Ming saw that the ship was beginning to leave the port. His panicked voice came over the comms.
“Don't worry about him! Go straight through! The ship's about to leave!”
An'an followed Xiao Ming's orders, speeding up as he stomped his big feet toward the inside of the cargo ship.
To cover An'an, Xiao Ming immediately activated the drones' interference sound waves. He tried to knock the guards unconscious, but the move backfired and attracted the attention of even more guards.
“Everyone, listen up! We have an intruder! At the rear of the cargo ship!”
In an instant, alarms rang throughout the port. Several guards carrying guns, clubs, and bladed weapons emerged from every corner and gradually closed in on An'an.
“An'an! Don't force your way through! Hide somewhere before they get too close. I'll think of something!” Xiao Ming shouted anxiously over the comms.
An'an hurried toward a hiding place...
But as he fled, the corner of his eye caught sight of the terrified people locked inside the containers. They needed to be saved.
“I... I can't...” An'an's eyes grew damp. “I can't... let them... be... be bullied by... bad guys...”
Ignoring Xiao Ming's order, he stopped. He clenched both fists and raised his Punk Wing Chun stance.
“This is Punk Wing Chun!” An'an shouted, baring his teeth and jutting out his lips.
"Helplessness and Fear"
An'an's fists fell like raindrops as he threw himself at the guards...
He kicked, punched, headbutted, and even rammed them with his butt. His moves had no discernible pattern, but every strike was filled with courage and conviction. He successfully knocked down dozens of men. Yet against enemies armed with knives and trained in fighting techniques, his attack pattern was far too simple. They had already seen through him.
One guard took advantage of An'an's opening, raised the knife in his hand, and viciously drove it into An'an's shoulder.
“Ah!”
A scream tore through the unsettled night. Blood instantly dyed An'an's cotton jacket red. The intense pain gradually brought his movements to a halt, and the determination on his face slowly gave way to pain and terror.
“An'an! An'an, are you okay?” Xiao Ming called out anxiously and helplessly over the comms.
An'an's body froze in place. His left hand pressed against the blood gushing from his shoulder, made even more horrifying beneath the moonlight.
“It hurts... hurts... it hurts...” An'an's lips trembled. He couldn't form a complete sentence.
Seeing An'an wounded, the guards wore mocking smiles. They advanced step by step, like cats playing with a mouse.
An'an's heart pounded wildly, and his breathing came fast. One hand continued pressing his bleeding shoulder while the fist he had kept raised in his attack stance slowly loosened under the pain...
The bad guys before him were so cold, ruthless, and vicious—completely different from the reckless thugs and bullies who had picked on old people in the past.
Back then, even after getting hit over the head with a glass bottle until his mind went blank, or being cut by a knife, he had never been afraid. Where had all those fun, amazing moves gone? They were gone! He couldn't remember any of them!
This time, he really couldn't win...
An'an dragged his aching, exhausted body backward one step at a time until his back hit a cold metal wall...
His legs stood rigid as if filled with lead, yet his whole body wouldn't stop trembling. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind.
Am I... going to die?
Fear swallowed An'an completely, like a rising tide.
He shut his eyes in an attempt to escape. In his mind appeared the image of the big brother who had once shone onstage when An'an was still a little boy. He had told him, “You need a hero's heart, and you also need to learn the ability to save people.”
But right now, An'an was nothing more than a little boy whose ability to fight back had been stolen by fear and pain.
“Am I... not a hero...?” he whispered dazedly, his voice mercilessly swallowed by the sea wind.
The bad guys drew closer. Gun barrels and blades flashed coldly under the dim yellow lights. Every footstep sounded like a countdown.
An'an began to feel his head grow heavy and scattered. For the first time, he truly felt the shadow of death creeping over him.
Images flashed through his mind:
Auntie Lily smiling gently as she waited for him to come home. The father and son, tears of gratitude in their eyes, gripping his hands tightly and saying, “Thank you for saving our lives.”
And the light radiating from that big brother onstage.
But the clearer those images became, the more frightened An'an felt.
“Can I... really... not save people...?” Tears and sweat mixed together, completely blurring his vision. An'an's breathing grew more and more difficult. The harder he tried to be strong, the more completely all his courage and conviction crumbled after that single stab.
At last, An'an threw back his head and screamed in despair:
“Big brother... save me!!!”
At the exact moment he shouted those words, a drone was struck by a bullet and emitted a piercing electrical screech. The communications link was cut off...
The screen filled with static...
All that remained in Xiao Ming's headset was An'an's heart-wrenching cry, followed by several dozen seconds of endless silence.
“An'an... An'an!!!”
It felt as if an invisible hand had seized Xiao Ming's heart and squeezed it tight...
He stared at the static on the screen. An'an's location signal could no longer be detected. He knew the situation had spiraled out of control.
"Found You"
In an old apartment building in SX District, A-Wan was already deep asleep. His breathing was steady and heavy. His wife and sleeping child lay beside him, and the air was filled with the warmth and peace of home.
Then a continuous buzzing vibration shattered the silence...
A-Wan opened his eyes groggily and groped for his phone. A text from an unknown number kept coming through, accompanied by another series of increasingly urgent vibrations.
A-Wan frowned, wondering who could be so awful as to disturb a world-weary corporate slave who needed his sleep!
But when he unlocked his phone, he saw an aerial image taken by a drone. In it, a young figure wearing a wrestling mask was locked in a bloody battle with several armed men. Before A-Wan's brain could process what he was seeing, another new message appeared.
“Hello, Punk Wing Chun. Please hurry to the port in DS District. Do you remember the little boy with Down syndrome who promised to become a hero after your performance ten years ago? He needs you now!”
A-Wan bolted upright. Still confused, he went to the bathroom, afraid of waking his wife and child. His hand even trembled slightly as he immediately dialed the number shown in the text. But all he heard on the other end was, “We're sorry, the number you dialed is not in service.”
Almost at the same time, a new call came in.
“Hello, Mr. Punk Wing Chun, this is Xiao Ming. An'an needs you. The situation is urgent, and there's no time to explain. Please believe me, this isn't a prank. An'an really needs you.”
A-Wan's head buzzed as he froze...
Who was this “Xiao Ming”? How did he know A-Wan was Punk Wing Chun? How did he know what had happened ten years ago?
Still, ten years ago, after his performance, a boy with Down syndrome really had promised him that he would invent a martial art, name it Punk Wing Chun, and use it to save the world.
A-Wan had always assumed it was just something a child had said on a whim. He never imagined that the boy would actually follow through because of a few words of encouragement he'd tossed out.
And now... that boy seemed to be in trouble and truly needed his help.
The sheer amount of information overloaded A-Wan's brain. After wrestling with it for a moment and sorting out some of the cause and effect...
He quickly changed clothes, shoved his phone into his pocket, grabbed his car keys, and rushed out of the house.
In the rearview mirror, he saw himself wearing a helmet, panting from the previous battle, yet now noticeably slimmer after getting in shape...
He knew that today, he couldn't just be a corporate slave who “happened to” save people on his way home from work. He had to go as a big brother—to help his little brother solve his problems and take responsibility for the bullshit promise he'd made ten years ago.
“An'an, I'm coming!!!”
A-Wan hopped onto his motorcycle, twisted the throttle all the way, and raced toward the port in DS District. But the city traffic and red lights made him frantic. Every second of delay felt like torture.
Just then, a faint buzzing like a fly came from above his head. It grew louder and louder until it formed a powerful current of air that forced him to stop.
He looked up. More than a thousand miniature drones rapidly gathered in the night sky. Like the Transformers, they assembled within seconds into a strangely shaped flying craft.
A tablet slowly slid down from the craft. Xiao Ming's anxious face appeared on its screen.
“Mr. Punk Wing Chun, a motorcycle is way too slow! Get on. I'll get you there as fast as possible!”
A-Wan's eyes widened. He couldn't understand what was happening before him, but his instincts told him that this Xiao Ming was trustworthy.
Without a moment's hesitation, he rode his motorcycle onto the strange flying craft.
Amid the roar of its engines, the craft lifted off the ground, tore through the night sky, and sped straight toward DS District to save An'an.