Chapter 5

Amid various questions, UN Secretary-General Shaheed turned his gaze toward the Chinese delegation.

Director Zhou and Deputy Director Zheng remained calm, ignoring all the murmurs.

Yang Yi, the focus of the discussion, showed no expression; anyone familiar with microexpressions would realize she was mentally elsewhere.

South Korea, eager to act, immediately rose a representative—Park Jeong-ting—whose voice rang out sternly: “I assert that the current concentration of dark matter energy in the world cannot possibly produce an A-rank Awakened! The UN must supervise and screen—no one must be allowed to confuse the public in any form!”

Yang Yi turned to look at Director Zhou, who gave a slight shake of his head, signaling her to ignore it.

Feng Liancheng muttered: “A clown.”

Since the director wasn’t taking it seriously, Yang Yi glanced at them once, then fell silent—as if they weren’t talking about her at all.

The Secretary-General turned to the Akar delegation; their representative acted as if nothing had happened, eyes lowered to his documents.

Only Daniel Davies, the Akar Awakened, regarded Yang Yi with solemn eyes. Beside him, Helen Baker—a stunning woman with black hair, pale skin, and blue eyes—followed Daniel’s gaze to Yang Yi and smiled with deep meaning.

Yang Yi felt the weight of that gaze. She had wanted to sink further into her chair, but remembering her official role, she straightened her back instead.

The hall spanned thousands of square meters, filled with over a thousand dignitaries—some with hidden agendas, some indifferent, some watching coldly, some waiting for a spectacle.

Akar remained silent; China stood unmoved. The Secretary-General had no choice but to restore order himself.

“Please maintain silence!” the Secretary-General tapped the table. “All Awakened ranks announced today were submitted by individual nations, followed by professional evaluations conducted by the International Awakened Alliance’s Detection Division.”

With these words, the murmurs in the hall gradually subsided.

The meeting resumed. Suddenly, the large screen above flickered, then displayed a man—tall, slender, with neatly combed brown-gray hair, downturned eyes, and a gentle, trustworthy demeanor. He wore a blue-and-black striped suit, complete with vest, tie, and tie clip—elegant, refined—and sat sideways on a vintage sofa, looking down at the crowd below the screen.

“Technicians! Technicians! Cut the signal! It’s a hacker intrusion!” the Secretary-General shouted. Only then did everyone realize what was happening.

The man on screen remained unfazed by his intrusion, introducing himself politely: “Good day, everyone. I am Wade Davies. I apologize for this abrupt entry—I hope you’ll understand.”

The hall erupted in chaos.

“Who is he? How did he hijack the signal?”

“Did he take over the UN’s broadcast?! What does he want?!”

“Is this man insane? This is the United Nations!”

“...”

People exchanged glances, whispering among themselves.

Meanwhile, internet users worldwide suddenly found a live-stream window popping up on their phones or computers: “First International Awakened Alliance Meeting”—the footage showing the UN conference hall.

International Awakened Alliance? Was this a joke? Awakened? Wasn’t that just an internet rumor?

Countless curious netizens around the globe clicked into the stream—and saw the familiar faces they’d seen on the news.

But something felt terribly wrong...

Inside the hall, the Secretary-General shouted for security. Armed personnel entered—but ignored his orders, instead taking up positions at every exit, watching the crowd with predatory eyes.

The attendees grew uneasy, but with Awakened from various nations present, the situation remained somewhat under control.

Unmoved by the commotion, Wade Davies calmly adjusted his tie, turned to the camera, and spoke with sincere tone:

“I know you’re confused. You want to know my purpose. My reckless intrusion is directly tied to your meeting’s theme. Let me ask you: Have you ever wondered why alien creatures have appeared? Why have ordinary people suddenly awakened superpowers?”

The hall fell silent for an instant—then erupted into louder noise:

“Alien creatures and Awakened? Obviously caused by the dark matter surge!”

“But this never happened in thousands of years—why now?”

“In the cosmic dimension, what difference does it make between thousands of years and a few days, hours, or minutes?”

“My phone has no signal!”

“Mine too—he’s blocking all external signals!”

“What the hell is he doing?!”

“...”

Wade ignored the chaos, speaking calmly: “Everyone knows alien creatures and human Awakened appeared nearly simultaneously. Our scientists call it a ‘dark matter surge’ chain reaction; some believe it’s the opening of an interdimensional portal. But in my view—”

Wade stood straight, took a deep breath, his expression solemn and reverent:

“This is divine punishment. God’s retribution upon humanity. The end is coming. Alien creatures will gradually invade Earth from another realm. Earth will become their paradise. Only those favored by God will survive!”

“This is absurd!” a German official rose, shouting: “Why should we listen to some lowlife cultist preaching here? Security! Technicians! Why isn’t his signal cut?! Can’t anyone—”

“Bang—” Before he finished, a bullet exploded across his forehead, spraying red and white. His eyes filled with confusion as he slowly collapsed.

The security guard lowered his pistol without expression, returning to his post beside the door.

“Well done, my child!” Wade nodded approvingly, then smiled gently at the rest of the hall. “When I was a psychiatrist, I never interrupted my patients. Nor do I tolerate interruptions when I speak—it’s terribly rude...” He looked down slightly at the crowd. “Anyone else wish to speak?”

The sudden violence stunned even the German Awakened. Only after their representative fell did one German Awakened angrily extend his hand toward the gunman—only for a pathetic little flame to flicker from his fingertip.

“My power! Why is it so weak?!” the pyrokinetic stared in shock, muttering to himself: “Why? Why is this happening?”

Some Awakened had already sensed something was wrong and activated their abilities.

“Impossible! My electrokinesis was B-rank—now I can barely spark a tiny current...”

“I... I can’t transform anymore...”

“FXXK! My gravity control!”

“Can powers just disappear?!”

“He’s blocking the dark matter energy here!”

“People outside must have noticed—someone will come to rescue us...”

“...”

The hall buzzed with panic as Awakened realized their once-reliable abilities had weakened to absurd levels—they were now barely better than ordinary people. In this dire moment, they could do nothing.

Yang Yi extended her right hand. A black pen slowly rose into the air, wobbled for a moment, then steadied. She frowned.

Chen Yushu manipulated a small silver ring on his finger; it struggled to hover, then clattered onto the table with a “ding.” A sharp pain throbbed in his temple.

Feng Liancheng frantically typed on his laptop, streams of unreadable characters cascading across the screen. Yang Yi had never guessed he was a computer expert—movie hackers were always quiet nerds hiding behind screens, but Feng Liancheng was a socialite; in just two days, he’d become closer to her than anyone else.

Catching her movement with his peripheral vision, he whispered: “How’s your telekinesis?”

“Heavily affected,” Yang Yi replied honestly. “I feel the dark matter energy around us dropping rapidly—current concentration is less than one-tenth of normal...”

“I’m trying to break through Wade Davies’ signal blockade—he’s got a skilled hacker behind him. Don’t talk to me now,” Feng said, sweat beading on his forehead, fingers flying.

Deputy Director Zheng calmly tapped an icon on his phone. The device instantly switched operating systems, entered a password, then performed a few more actions. He turned to Director Zhou with grave expression: “Full-band signal jamming. Signal boosters are useless. Except for the screen’s frequency, we can’t connect to the outside.”

————

Meanwhile, governments worldwide watching the live stream realized something was wrong and frantically called Akar. The Akar President’s office phones rang nonstop.

The White House office was in chaos.

Director of Intelligence: “We’ve identified the man on screen—Wade Davies, a well-known psychiatrist who vanished a year and a half ago. Police suspected he was murdered.”

“Our investigation shows he awakened hypnotic and telepathic abilities around that time. He was secretly kidnapped by Regenno Biotech and subjected to human experiments. That lab exploded six months ago—the scene was tampered with. Only instrument fragments were found. Nothing valuable remained.”

In the Oval Office, the President sat behind his desk and asked: “Why is he appearing on the UN screen? What’s his goal?”

“We... haven’t uncovered any related information yet,” the Director said, embarrassed.

The President ignored him, turning back to the livestream. The Awakened were now realizing they couldn’t use their powers—the hall was descending into chaos.

The President’s eyes lit up instantly, forgetting his earlier irritation: “Whatever this thing is that suppresses Awakened powers—we must obtain it by any means necessary!”

“Yes, Mr. President!”

“Hurry! Send the nearest armed forces to the building immediately!”

“Where are the technicians? Cut his global broadcast now!”

————

Some tried to flee the hall. The guards shot them without hesitation, killing several who moved rashly. With these examples, the hall finally fell silent again.

Wade shook his head regretfully: “It didn’t have to come to this. Human nature—ignorant, arrogant, foolish, conceited. Perhaps this is one reason God has grown weary of humanity.”

He sighed, pressed a few buttons on the remote, and the large screen split into several smaller windows—like surveillance feeds. Wade’s deep voice narrated: “All Awakened, my comrades! Open your eyes! Look at how these ordinary humans and their governments treat us!”

Each surveillance image struck the Awakened like a blow.

In a lab, a human body lay on an operating table, skin sliced open. Closer inspection revealed metallic sheen on the limbs—clearly an Awakened with bodily enhancement abilities.

A little girl, covered in electrodes, wore a metal helmet. Her large eyes were bloodshot with pain. White-coated researchers stood beside her, recording coldly.

A man encased in ice was shoved into a furnace. Amid his screams and pleas, thick steam rose from his body; his flesh turned red, then blackened under the flames. When he was nearly dead, the researchers turned off the furnace and dragged out his unrecognizable remains.

One after another, horrific human experiments on Awakened played out on screen. The different skin tones, accents, and environments of the researchers made it clear: this wasn’t the act of one nation or one organization—it was a global crime.

“This is how the so-called noble nations and institutions treat us,” Wade’s voice echoed with the screams on screen. “Countless Awakened still suffer in laboratories. Once, I was one of them.”

Countless viewers worldwide watched these brutal scenes. Hidden Awakened felt relief they hadn’t been exposed; those already revealed trembled with fear.

More suspicion and hatred took root in people’s hearts.

Wade suddenly lifted his head, his gentle gaze turning fierce, his voice thunderous: “All Awakened across the globe! Comrades! We are the ones favored by God! We are His chosen! We are the New Humanity! Ordinary people—the Old Humanity—see us as monsters. They envy us! They harm us! They seek to steal the power God has granted us!”

“All Awakened! Unite! Fight back against those who hurt us! We must awaken not just our bodies—but our spirits! Our genes surpass those of ordinary humans. We are the New Humanity. We are the future of the world!”