Chapter 57 - 2#

From the very beginning of this base’s establishment, they had been exhausting every possible means to protect the safety of ordinary civilians without abilities.

On one side, there were monsters everywhere that could kill several people with just one opening of their mouths or one lift of their feet. On the other side, there was a peaceful and harmonious safe district where people could drink, sing, watch movies, and pass the time every day. The two sides felt so disconnected that they didn’t seem to exist in the same dimension of the world.

It wasn’t until this moment that Chu Chenli gradually began to understand the excitement their boss had shown when he saw them.

If only they could remain this tranquil forever, until one day the effects of the calamity gradually faded, and the vast land began to regain its vitality…

Crash—

The sound of shattering glass snapped Chu Chenli back to attention.

He immediately looked toward the source of the noise and saw that a window downstairs in the tavern had been smashed. But when he glanced around at first, he didn’t see a single furtive figure.

At that very moment, the streets and alleys happened to be completely empty.

Unless the perpetrator possessed the ability of spatial movement or time freezing, there was no way they could have escaped the scene in such a short time.

Even with psychokinetic abilities like telekinesis, the ability user themselves wouldn’t be too far away, especially since they were a newly awakened ability user.

The most crucial point was that whether it was spatial movement, psychokinesis, or even time manipulation, the moment of activation would never be completely traceless. On the contrary, for a sensitive ability user, it would be as obvious as planting a target right on the spot.

But in that instant just now, Chu Chenli hadn’t sensed any abnormal aura at all.

Was it a ghost in broad daylight?

Or had his own perception degraded?

Chu Chenli couldn’t help but doubt himself for a moment.

But compared to him, the others seemed even slower to react. After the window was smashed, there was at least half a second of stillness before the few people sitting on the sofa playing cards finally responded, freezing mid-motion.

Then Xiaobai shot up from his seat, and voices began to stir from downstairs.

“Sorry, I’ll go check it out!” Xiaobai threw down his cards and hurriedly ran downstairs.

The others, who hadn’t sensed any killing intent, exchanged glances for a moment but decided to wait and see for now.

He Ziyue glanced at the cards Xiaobai had discarded and clicked her tongue. “His luck is way too good…”

He’d been left with just a pair of straights. If he had held off for just two more seconds before throwing all his cards out, he would have won.

This was already who knows how many consecutive wins for him. It wasn’t because he was particularly skilled—it was simply his luck in drawing cards.

He Ziyue felt that Mu Yanshen was probably jealous to the point of tears.

Mu Yanshen gave a stiff smile, ignoring her gleeful expression, casually tossed the messy stack of cards in his hand onto the table, stood up, and walked over to Chu Chenli’s side, following his gaze downstairs.

“Did you see something, Brother Li?”

“No,” Chu Chenli said. “And that’s the problem.”

“Didn’t see anything at all?” He Ziyue became interested upon hearing this. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, then simply pulled out a small tablet—actually a modified communicator.

Silently, April gathered the scattered cards on the table and tidied them up.

After tapping on the screen a few times, He Ziyue easily flipped to the latest awakened individual’s data and turned the display around without any hesitation.

“A real-life invisible man,” He Ziyue said with great interest. “He can completely conceal his form, aura, and even body temperature. The first time he was detected, all sensory instruments showed that no living being existed there. Dust and rainwater don’t adhere to him either. As long as you maintain a certain distance, it’s extremely hard to spot him even in a sandstorm…”

“The doctor would definitely be very interested in him.”

“It looks like we might get to see this mischievous rascal in the doctor’s lab someday.”

The clattering noises downstairs grew louder, but He Ziyue showed no concern at all, cheerfully discussing the pros and cons of this ability with her companions.

If the awakened individual had originally been a top-tier assassin, this ability would undoubtedly have become a game-changing bonus.

But if the awakened individual was just an ordinary person, it was somewhat underwhelming.

At least based on the current demonstration of the ability, this invisibility didn’t have an assimilating effect—meaning he could only hide his own body, but couldn’t make his clothes or anything in his hands invisible too.

Once any part that originally belonged to the body detached, it would immediately become visible.

If he got injured and bled, locating him would become fairly easy.

Typically, they wouldn’t resort to such crude methods.

Most importantly, his mind wasn’t covered by the invisibility either.

Perhaps due to the reverse reinforcement of the ability, this ability user’s thoughts were even clearer than those of an ordinary person.

But that didn’t rule out the possibility that it was because Xiaobai’s own ability had strengthened—this supplementary information came from his observations.

In short, for well-trained capture personnel, this wasn’t a particularly dangerous individual. With Xiaobai around, they could handle it more easily.

As expected, in less than a quarter of an hour, the commotion downstairs gradually subsided, leaving only the irritable roar of a teenager, roughly demanding that his captors let him go, saying things like he didn’t want to go to the Central Base.

Unfortunately, this threat carried no weight. Soon, the teenager was dragged out of the tavern with his mouth covered.

The people upstairs looked down through the window. They couldn’t see the front entrance clearly, but quite a few bystanders had already gathered on the street. No one interfered with the capture operation, though many couldn’t help but point and laugh at the teenager now visible in his birthday suit.

This wasn’t because they thought the boy’s state was indecent, but because many shop owners had already been harassed by him using his ability.

He had stolen things, scared customers, and even pushed a child into a river—if not for timely rescue, the child might have died.

After the Central Base discovered his existence, they had immediately issued a warning notice to the district residents.

Even with heightened vigilance, they had only managed to reduce the chances of residents having heart attacks from fright. The number of shop owners being harassed only increased with each passing day.

Among the onlookers now, at least half wished he would be locked up in prison and never released.

If not for the presence of Central Base personnel, stones and rotten eggs would have already been thrown at his face.

Only the tavern owner thought to grab a long, thick coat from inside and drape it over him.

The teenager was quickly taken away.

Xiaobai returned upstairs, greeted Chu Chenli and the others, and then followed along to report back.

But before leaving, Xiaobai reminded the owner that the teenager had accomplices and told him to stay alert.

He Ziyue had been watching from upstairs until they disappeared into the alley before saying, “Good thing it’s not winter now.”

Standing nearby, April glanced at her in confusion.

He Ziyue continued, “When it’s not too cold, if you run into an aberrant in the wild, you can take off your clothes to save your life.”

But if it were winter, he might freeze to death before that even happened.

He Ziyue added, “Do you think he’s so afraid of being taken to the Central Base because he feels his only use is being pushed out as bait?”

Mu Yanshen replied, “More than that, the way he’s been so blatantly causing trouble everywhere is even stranger.”

He Ziyue said, “Is it? I can kind of understand it. When you first get a special ability, you’re bound to be excited. Who didn’t fantasize as a kid about having cool powers someday?”

She glanced at Mu Yanshen and then withdrew the remark. “Oh, sorry, I forgot—you probably never did.”

Mu Yanshen said, “I never fantasize about boring things.”

He Ziyue mimicked his habit of raising an eyebrow, then glanced at Chu Chenli. “And you, Ali—Ali?!”

The last shout nearly matched a scream.

Chu Chenli had stepped onto the windowsill and jumped down, leaving only the words “I’ll be back soon” floating in from outside.

By the time He Ziyue rushed over to look, he had already disappeared into the small alley below.

Mu Yanshen was also startled by Chu Chenli’s sudden move, but he quickly recovered, forcing himself to stop the urge to follow.

“He must have seen someone…”

…

Slipping out from the crowd of onlookers was a teenage boy with a terrified expression.

As he tried to tread lightly through the alleys, he nervously glanced behind him, afraid someone might be following him.

Though it was just a nervous instinct, it happened to be correct.

Chu Chenli followed him at a moderate distance.

The boy didn’t notice him, but after several turns, he found himself cornered in an alley.

A few strong, robust young men stood there, their faces arrogant, cracking their knuckles and clearly eager to land a punch on the boy.

The boy instinctively stepped back, only to hit the wall, with both escape routes blocked.

Chu Chenli finally got a clear look at his full face, and suddenly, a fragment from a distant dream clicked into place—

The boy, his features twisted in terror, lay in a dark alley corner, his abdomen torn open, eyes wide with fright, utterly lifeless.

Author’s note:

*The invisibility ability concept is inspired by the novel The Invisible Man.

While designing the ability, I suddenly remembered this childhood nightmare. Recently, I happened to reread this novel, and seeing it from a new perspective as an adult was quite interesting. It struck me to incorporate it into a superpower setting.

I might briefly reference some content from the book later, but not much. This ability itself won’t affect the plot of this story—everyone, feel free to just enjoy it.