Chapter 269
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Chapter 269: Malicious Feeding
The awakening of powers is a unique experience for most superpowered individuals, yet it generally stems from a pivotal moment.
According to theories from research institutes, this moment could be triggered by intense emotional fluctuations or a deep-seated desire for something.
Such a profound impact shatters an invisible barrier within the human body, making everything that follows seem inevitable.
The drinking party last night indeed served its purpose. With everyone’s minds numbed by alcohol, Shi Jin casually posed the question and received varied responses from her teammates.
Their awakenings largely aligned with the theories from research institutes, but unlike her, none had encountered a talking cat.
This was entirely reasonable, so Shi Jin decided to share a selective truth, embellished with a touch of artistic flair.
She didn’t dwell too long, as it might arouse unnecessary suspicion in Nia.
Shi Jin cleared her throat and began,
“It was the day before the verdict, and I was too frightened to sleep.
“I had heard that criminals like me either work to death or face execution by firing squad.
“So my only hope was to gain faster reflexes, to dodge the bullets…”
Nia, walking ahead, clicked her tongue in amazement.
“Quite the imagination…”
Shi Jin continued,
“Later, in a half-asleep state, I felt something shift within me. The sensation grew stronger until it jolted me awake.
“That’s when I realized I had awakened my powers.”
“An intriguing experience,” Nia remarked, her tone still calm, giving no indication of whether she noticed Shi Jin’s omission.
The two reached the wall at the end of the Chemical Factory’s basement. A large door slowly opened in the concrete wall, and Nia strode inside, with Shi Jin following closely.
The thick concrete wall seemed to divide two entirely different worlds.
The area beyond the wall exuded a fantastical, almost surreal beauty.
Having grown up in Hope City, Shi Jin was accustomed to ordinary buildings, where bricks and concrete were the norm.
But what lay before her now surpassed her imagination. The hallway beyond the wall was constructed with materials she couldn’t identify, and both the walls and floor radiated an air of refinement.
The light strips stretched on, appearing even brighter than before.
For the first time in her life, Shi Jin found herself worrying about dirtying the pristine floor.
Nia, walking ahead, slowly removed her hood and gathered her long hair at the back of her head.
“This is the central spire—more precisely, a branch hallway of the spire.”
Even as a councilwoman with some operational authority, Nia couldn’t help but feel a deep reverence for the central spire.
This reverence stemmed not only from the incomprehensible technologies but also from its intricate design, as if every detail here was a perfect manifestation of humanity’s utopian dreams.
“From today onward, you are no longer a member of the direct superpowered group. Your file will be removed, and your past erased.
“Superpowered individual Shi Jin, you are now a special agent under Councilwoman Nia, and your duty is to follow all my commands. Do you understand?”
Shi Jin walked down the long, seemingly endless corridor, Nia’s words echoing in her ears, giving her an unreal feeling as if the world had turned upside down.
A talking cat, a tree that could run, a spire that resembled a paradise on earth… Everything was shattering her already fragile worldview.
An instinctual curiosity arose within Shi Jin; she wanted to know what would happen next and wished to participate firsthand.
She felt she was no longer just an employee following Fulan’s orders, but someone who genuinely wanted to continue this job.
“Okay, I understand.”
Her tone was resolute, and there was not a trace of confusion in her eyes.
“Very well, then here is your first task — find a person named Luke, regardless of his condition.”
—
“Fight! Fight!”
“Hahahahahaha!”
“Can you stop causing trouble? I’m still recording!”
On the northwest wall of Hope City, a few soldiers were shouting loudly.
This small team of soldiers was currently carrying out an unprecedented exploratory task, targeting several… seemingly talking extraordinary beasts.
Outside the city wall, there were five extraordinary beasts, four of which were fairly large, and one that was nearly invisible without binoculars.
They had turned against their kind during the recent beast tide, helping humans to kill many of their own, and had raised a flag indicating their desire to surrender.
This was the most perplexing part of the situation because the so-called flag of surrender was not a figure of speech, but a genuine act —
they actually raised banners to indicate they came to surrender, doing so boldly in front of thousands of city defense army soldiers and dozens of superpowered individuals.
Such an outrageous event quickly came to the attention of the council members.
After an emergency meeting, the lawmakers proposed a plan:
to gradually test the level of friendliness from the extraordinary beasts, allow for basic communication to extract information while establishing clear red lines, with immediate execution for any crossing of those lines.
This task was then assigned to this team.
Over the past few hours, they had been using Special Equipment to throw several nutritional pastes into the designated red line area, some pre-packaged and some not.
This was also a method of testing intelligence.
The behavior of these extraordinary beasts was indeed worth extensive recording.
First, after using weapons for a round of firing from the wall, they quickly understood the meaning of the red line.
When throwing food, the people on the wall consciously tossed some of the nutritional paste into the red line area, but not one of the extraordinary beasts chose to cross it.
They only collected the food that had crossed the line, even displaying behaviors similar to distribution.
This was enough to demonstrate that they had basic thinking ability, completely different from those extraordinary beasts that only knew how to tear humans apart.
Although basic communication had not yet been established, the people on the wall believed it was not far off.
As for the so-called fighting… that was because the observing soldiers found that two of the heads of the three wolves were biting each other.
“So, even though it has three heads, it should only have one… um, one set of digestive system, right?”
“Should be.”
“Then what’s the point of fighting? It’s all the same for whoever eats.”
The soldier responsible for recording looked up at his puzzled companion:
“I don’t think we have the ability or need to understand the thinking of extraordinary beasts.”
