Chapter 82
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Chapter 82: Exploration Plan
In the inner city, at the training grounds of the superhero team,
Wang Xiao, despite his loss of sight, relied on his acute hearing to deftly evade a three-round burst from a rifle.
Bullets whistled past his ears, embedding themselves into the concrete wall behind him.
This had become his primary focus in training recently.
Though his regenerative ability was formidable, it was not something he could depend on entirely.
As the most dependable force within the military headquarters, the higher-ups spared no effort in nurturing superpowered individuals above level C.
Each superpowered individual had a dedicated team crafting their training regimen.
Since Wang Xiao had not concealed his leveling up, he was recently subjected to a more stringent training plan.
Over the past two weeks, his training had centered on utilizing his heightened senses to better evade external assaults.
The team responsible for his training plan had strongly criticized Wang Xiao’s tactic of using his arm for fishing after reviewing his profile.
Unless it was to protect a teammate or execute a crucial mission, Wang Xiao faced criticism for any unnecessary depletion of his abilities.
Now, he could dodge close-range shots while focusing his five senses, leading to his training plan being integrated with that of his teammate, Obscure.
Obscure would randomly deprive him of sight or hearing for five seconds, while a mechanical arm-controlled automatic rifle fired continuously.
After dodging another shot and completing a round of training, Wang Xiao raised his hand to signal the end of the session.
Instantly, his vision was restored.
Grabbing a bottle of electrolyte water, Wang Xiao joined Obscure in the break area.
“Has the frequency of the beast tide increased recently?”
Obscure wiped his sweat and pondered for a few moments before replying,
“It seems so. I heard Team 12 has been deployed twice in three days, and one teammate hasn’t returned.”
Wang Xiao nodded silently.
After officially joining the superhero team, he realized that life here wasn’t as idyllic as he had imagined.
While the treatment for superpowered individuals was indeed exceptional, it came with the expectation of significant contributions.
Being on call twenty-four hours a day was merely the basic requirement, and even superpowered individuals faced a certain risk of death during the beast tide.
Team 25 had lost two teammates long ago, and it was only when Fresnel and Wang Xiao stepped in as the main attackers and shields that the team regained its vitality.
As they chatted casually, Obscure suddenly steered the conversation in an unexpected direction:
“Do you know about the Exploration Plan?”
Wang Xiao shook his head, a gesture he had repeated many times lately, and waited for Obscure to elaborate.
As a newcomer, he was not well-versed in such internally familiar information.
The official training focused solely on ability development and loyalty enhancement, and Fresnel, though sociable, often strayed from the main point in conversation.
Consequently, much of Wang Xiao’s knowledge came from Obscure, who appeared to be nearing forty.
He was the oldest member of Team 25, and though he seemed reserved, once comfortable, he loved recounting tales from long ago.
Seeing Wang Xiao with a listening expression, Obscure leaned back slightly and gazed at the ceiling of the underground training facility, recounting his experiences when he was first selected for the direct superpowered group.
The Exploration Plan was a joint operation between the military and research institutes fifteen years ago.
Anyone who has truly stood on the walls of Hope City knows what kind of world lies beyond.
Aside from the superficially peaceful and expansive Eastern Sea, which hides lurking dangers, the visibility in the other three directions is extremely limited.
A gray haze always blurs the boundary between the horizon and the sky several kilometers away, and technological creations cannot enter those areas.
“Do you know about artificial satellites?”
Obscure asked Wang Xiao.
Wang Xiao shook his head.
"That’s a concept we often mentioned when we were young. You can think of it as launching an enormous camera into the sky so we can see what lies outside of Hope City."
Wang Xiao nodded thoughtfully, realizing he had never heard this term before, and asked,
“What happened next?”
Obscure sighed,
“That was probably around Year 30 of the New Era. At that time, Hope City had just been established for a little over a decade, and people were very eager to explore.
"Everyone was optimistic about that plan. To create something called a rocket, nearly everyone endured a year of hardship, and eventually, a few were made.
“Later on, I heard that those things completely lost contact when they flew up to about ten kilometers.
"Some didn’t know where they flew to, some fell straight down, and some exploded. In short, the plan was a total failure.”
At this point, Obscure sighed again,
“When science and technology fail, we can only rely on living people to explore, but no matter how powerful the superpowered individuals sent out were, they always disappeared on the horizon.
“Eventually, that plan came to an end, and no one ever mentioned it again, so it’s completely normal that you haven’t heard of it.”
By this point, Wang Xiao’s mouth had dropped open in an exaggerated manner.
In his limited life, he had never heard of such things.
As a twenty-year-old young man, he always thought that life within Hope City encompassed all of humanity, never considering the longing of those born before the disaster for the outside world.
But once the constraints of thought were lifted, they could never be put back in the cage. Wang Xiao suddenly felt that exploring the outside world was not a bad idea; this planet originally belonged to humanity, and what was wrong with reclaiming what rightfully belonged to them?
With this thought, a surge of passion suddenly rose in Wang Xiao’s heart. If the Exploration Plan could be restarted in his lifetime, he would definitely sign up to join the team and glimpse the scenery beyond the wall.
Obscure was very pleased with Wang Xiao’s reaction and continued to ramble on about old stories that nobody mentioned anymore.
Wang Xiao himself had already drifted into daydreams, starting to envision his own adventure.
—
The next day at noon, Lin Qingliu, who had just opened for business, saw his kitten at the door.
Fulan skillfully walked in, carefully scratching her paws on the edge of the doormat like a human.
After closing the door, Lin Qingliu took his dusty kitten into the restroom to give her a bath.
With the wisdom and physical enhancement from divine enlightenment, Fulan was no longer the traditional cat that easily caught colds and fell sick.
She turned on the faucet and began to rinse her fur while summarizing her exploration discoveries for Lin Qingliu.
