Thank you to chamana_digital for the ko-fi~
The newspaper report, isn’t it about the neighborhood where she discovered Bai Jingru?
She had previously sympathized with the residents of the neighborhood, thinking about how unlucky they were to have a creepy man misusing the extraordinary powers’ device nearby. Unexpectedly, this incident had made it to the newspapers.
Indeed, in the information age, there is nothing that can be hidden from people.
She wasn’t surprised that the incident was exposed. Many times, the best way to conceal something is not to say anything at all, but to let everyone know a “truth,” a truth they believe to be true—just look at the current discussions on the internet about whether there is an illegal gas factory near the neighborhood, right?
Luckily, they came up with the idea and actually shifted the blame to a non-existent illegal factory, claiming that the possible emissions from this factory caused the residents to faint.
“I want to go take a look,” Zhao Xiaokui handed the newspaper to Shen Zhifei, saying, “I feel like there might be an issue in this neighborhood.”
Shen Zhifei glanced at the newspaper, met her gaze, and quickly understood what she meant.
“No, ” she immediately objected without hesitation, “It might be dangerous for you to go there.”
“But I feel like there’s definitely something I’m looking for there. Just let me go and take a look!”
Although not explicitly stated, the members of Zhang Hongyi’s team could still guess what Zhao Xiaokui was looking for—extraordinary powers.
They could understand this mindset very well. People who suddenly awaken extraordinary powers either become confident and assertive or feel anxious, thinking they don’t fit in with the crowd and urgently need to find others like them to seek a sense of belonging. Ordinary awakeners feel this way, let alone someone like Zhao Xiaokui, who woke up with amnesia.
“Do you know where she wants to go?” Zhang Hongyi asked Lin Bai.
Lin Bai opened the tablet and pulled up a map of S City from an app. On the map, there were varying shades of red and yellow dots, densely distributed among them.
This is the Night Walker’s city anomaly monitoring map.
Each red dot represents a place where an anomaly has occurred.
Yellow dots indicate the registered residences of extraordinary individuals officially.
“She might be heading to the neighborhood on Wangjiang Road,” Lin Bai enlarged the map and pulled up a scanned image from the newspaper, “There have been frequent incidents of people fainting and losing their memory in this neighborhood recently, and the investigation has not yielded results yet.”
“Let me go, let me go, I want to go now. Just let me go alone, I promise not to go inside, just observe from outside, okay? Pretty please!”
Listening to Zhao Xiaokui’s coquettish tone, Gou Rixin’s bones went soft. He chuckled happily, his eyes squinting into slits, and he said, “Zhao Xiaokui, you’re really good at being cute, huh?”
“…” Zhang Hongyi, already accustomed to Gou Rixin’s undisciplined style, was now an emotionless captain. “Hong Ying and Lin Bai, go there, um… bring Su Mingyue out. Previously, you and she went, right? With familiar faces around, Zhao Xiaokui should be more willing to let her guard down. See if you can get some information. If you think the timing is right, you can leak the existence of Night Walkers and inquire if Zhao Xiaokui has any interest in joining.”
Gou Rixin exclaimed, “Captain, I want to go too!”
Compared to Lin Bai and Hong Ying, who were non-combat personnel, although Gou Rixin had awakened in the olfactory aspect of extraordinary abilities, his actual strength was not bad. Considering that Zhao Xiaokui was a superhuman who could take down vampires with a single awakening, Zhang Hongyi thought for a moment and agreed to his proposal, saying, “Alright, let Gou Rixin go with you. Just be careful not to let him say anything he shouldn’t.”
Hong Ying softly added, “I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Lin Bai remained silent, casually glancing at Gou Rixin. A glint passed under the black-framed glasses, causing Gou Rixin, who was swept by his gaze, to shiver, feeling a chill all over.
“Wuwuwu…” Gou Rixin made a zipper-pulling motion over his mouth.
…
Although she said she wanted to be a carefree person, ever since she discovered the existence of extraordinary powers in this world, Zhao Xiaokui never thought she could return to the peaceful life of worrying only about exams and forgetting keys when going out.
Unless she stays away from the hustle and bustle and hides in deep mountains and old forests, as long as she lives among people, according to that damned theory of extraordinary concentration, sooner or later, she will be at risk of discovery.
In fact, being discovered is one thing, but the terrifying part is being used as cannon fodder. The former is merely entering the sight of other extraordinary, while the latter doesn’t even have a chance to make an appearance.
The world may seem calm and peaceful on the surface, but who knows if turbulent undercurrents are hidden beneath the tranquil sea?
Numerous biographies tell us a truth: among ten weaklings, perhaps all ten are mediocre, but as long as one pretends to be weak and eats the strong, it’s a dead end.
Moreover, Earth is far from being a weakling.
This planet, ruled by over seven billion people, hundreds of countries, and organizations, even though human civilization has developed for only about ten thousand years, is not comparable to the worlds with records of histories reaching hundreds of thousands or even billions of years, is relatively weak in the extraordinary world. However, in comparison to individual extraordinaries…
Zhao Xiaokui recalled the weapons in human history that she had recently looked up on the internet.
Farewell, sorry for the disturbance.
The evolution of extraordinary beings is at the level of life, not combat power.
Thinking that every individual in the extraordinary world is all about fighting monsters and leveling up, getting stronger with higher levels?
That’s a joke.
No denying that for most people, as their life level evolves, their combat power will also continuously improve, but until they break through a certain limit, their individual strength, no matter how much it increases, will still be within a certain range.
The pinnacle of this range in the extraordinary world is the sixth rank.
Below the seventh rank, all are considered ants.
Perhaps the sixth rank could be considered a big ant among ants, but an ant is still an ant.
And the weapons created by humans can exert a force far beyond the sixth rank’s tolerance.
As for why I’m not mentioning higher ranks…
The seventh rank, they can teleport, okay!
Can’t win, can’t you escape?!
In the extraordinary world, the seventh rank is a whole new level.
There isn’t much information about this level, even in the rich library of the mermaid clan, Zhao Xiaokui can’t find much about the seventh rank. Most of it is just a few sentences in travelogues, like hearing about how XX boss is formidable and powerful, or how the fight between XX boss and XX boss turned the world upside down.
The only thing she knows is that the seventh rank can maintain a constant state – nothingness.
It is with this state that the seventh rank can instantly traverse through time and space.
The knowledge Zhao Xiaokui currently possesses is not enough for her to understand what nothingness is.
She flipped through all the books, and the only relevant description she found was a sentence: unknowable, unhearable, untouchable.
A strong philosophical flavor permeated.
Below the sixth rank, it’s quite common to cross levels and challenge opponents.
With good enough weapons and powerful means, killing a sixth rank with a first rank is not an exaggerated rumor.
But if the life level of a creature reaches the seventh rank…
They squat there to fight you, you exhaust yourself, and they might not even have a scratch on them.
Without the means of the seventh rank, you can’t even attack the so-called state of nothingness.
Below the seventh rank, even if you fall to Earth, even if ordinary bombs can’t kill you, when the atomic bomb detonates, you probably won’t be able to escape.
But above the seventh rank… everyone might as well go to bed, hoping that the big shots are just passing by.
How powerful the seventh rank is, Zhao Xiaokui also can’t explain.
The strongest she has had the fortune to encounter is the high priest of the mermaid clan, who is only at the sixth rank but still gives her a feeling as if facing towering mountains and boundless seas, unattainable and unfathomable.
Zhao Xiaokui thinks that if she had the strength of the high priest, she would probably approach the official authorities, clarify her identity, try to achieve some mutually beneficial cooperation, and then live a lazy life as a salted fish.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t have… As a mere first-tier fish, when facing the authorities, she can only try to cover herself with her little vest, making herself appear pure and harmless.
Zhao Xiaokui knows how many problems she has acquired in the mermaid world—
Distrustful, sensitive, vigilant.
Under the constant threat of death, some traits have been etched into her bones, becoming an almost instinctive presence.
However, these shouldn’t be the things for a girl living in peacetime, whose most outrageous behavior is late-night speeding.
Zhao Xiaokui originally thought that after living in human society for a while, the hostility would dissipate, vigilance and suspicion would be concealed, and then she could start interacting with the authorities.
However, things were unpredictable, and the meeting with the authorities came faster than she expected.
Zhao Xiaokui’s hand rested on the doorknob in the office, preparing to leave, when Shen Zhifei suddenly called her from behind. She turned around in surprise.
Shen Zhifei walked out from behind the desk, tidied her dress and hat for her, gazing at her with a gentle look, “Be safe.”
Zhao Xiaokui curved her lips, didn’t say anything, but gave her a reassuring wink.
She opened the door and walked out with large strides.
Her black skirt swayed lightly, and her footsteps under her feet were as lively as dancing to the rhythm of some music. Passing through the various work areas, she pushed her hat down when passing by people who looked from the side, revealing only a delicate and small chin and slightly upturned lips.
…
At the same time Zhao Xiaokui set out, Lin Bai and the others also got into the car.
The distance between the Nightwalker headquarters and the Shen Entertainment building to the Wangjiang Road community is not much, but the Nightwalker’s car drives faster than the Shen Group’s driver, and the route planning is more reasonable. Therefore, when Zhao Xiaokui stopped near the Wangjiang Road community, Lin Bai and the others had already contacted the police stationed near Wangjiang Road and successfully infiltrated the personnel investigating and sampling.
It’s hard to imagine that S City, which is known as an international metropolis, still has such a place.
The entire community and residential buildings near Wangjiang Road seem like buildings from the last century in movies. The gaps between buildings are narrow, only allowing one car to pass through. On both sides of the road, there are also various items, either chairs and stools from the East family or cabbage and dried tofu by the West family. If you want to drive through this place, it is truly difficult.
Therefore, the vehicles shuttling inside are mostly various motorcycles, electric scooters, and rusty bicycles that seem to have been rusting for a hundred years.
Zhao Xiaokui noticed several brightly colored shared bikes parked in the corner. Amid the drab surroundings, apart from the colorful clothes on the balconies, there were not many bright colors. However, all the locks of these shared bikes had been intentionally damaged, and private locks were put on the tires. Obviously, they had been converted from shared to private use.
She asked the driver to drop her off on Wangjiang Road, picked a path leading to the entrance of the entire community, hesitated for a moment, and then with a slight frown, stepped into the sewage-filled road with garbage scattered everywhere.
“The target has arrived.”
