Chapter 560: The Chosen One

"Brother, Brother! Are those 【Ability Users】 the same as the people with superpowers in anime?!"

The four-year-old girl, already able to understand some news, stood at the entrance of a small street shop selling ice cream, looking at the large screen on a shopping mall in the distance—usually used for movie advertisements—which was scrolling a special broadcast from the Dongxia authorities across the entire display.

A young man wearing a white striped shirt shielded his eyes from the sun with his hand, watching the announcement on the large screen carefully.

【Dongxia issues a notice to all Ability Users: in order to maintain social order and stability and protect the safety of all the people, Dongxia will adopt a stricter management system for Ability Users. Ability Users with high-risk abilities are requested to voluntarily report their personal information within 7 working days...】

Below it were the phone numbers for several special departments.

This announcement played on a continuous loop, giving off a rather serious impression.

Outside this shopping mall, where many middle-aged women usually danced to square dance music, the atmosphere was not as relaxed as it used to be.

A gust of wind blew, causing the young man's shirt to flap loudly; they were not far from Binhai, and the sea breeze was strong.

A feeling that a storm was coming made the young man frown.

He was born with a relatively keen sense of perception; just like at this moment, he clearly felt as if a torrential tide was sweeping across the entire world.

Unlike those on the internet who were incredibly curious about the 【Ability User】 community and even fantasized about becoming Ability Users themselves, Li Dongjin preferred a peaceful daily life.

Ordinary schooling, an ordinary job to earn money, and then finding an ordinary wife to finish out his mediocre and peaceful life.

That was his ideal.

"You have quite a lot of talent."

A voice rang out. Li Dongjin was startled. He turned his head and saw a woman with long, flowing golden hair standing beside him.

She wore a white T-shirt, had a curvaceous figure, and her skin was flawless.

An Ability User!

This realization hit Li Dongjin instantly. He had no means of identifying Ability Users and had never been in close contact with one before, but with just this one glance, he clearly felt that there was an absolutely different "scent" about her compared to ordinary humans.

The woman raised her right hand. Li Dongjin immediately crouched down, his whole body tense. He reached out to grab his younger sister, but he grabbed nothing but air.

His heart sank. He turned his head back, only to find that his sister, who had been tugging on his shirt hem just a moment ago, had vanished.

Not only that, he looked into the shop and it was empty. He turned around; inside and outside the mall, there was no one. In this world, it seemed as if only he and the blonde woman before him remained.

"What did you do?!"

Li Dongjin was somewhat nervous, but he was not panicked enough to lose his reason.

The blonde woman revealed the back of her right hand, where a complex pattern shimmering with a silvery-white luster appeared. Within that pattern, it seemed as if countless symbols were interlocking and entangling, constantly in motion, achieving a kind of balance.

Li Dongjin was momentarily captivated by the pattern, his eyes fixed intently on those symbols.

The corners of the woman's mouth curled up.

"As expected, you are the chosen one. Li Dongjin, are you interested in becoming an... Ability User?"

The woman paused when she said the words "Ability User," as if those were not the words she had originally intended to say. Li Dongjin discovered that even in this bizarre state, he remained remarkably calm, his analytical ability even sharper than usual.

He looked at the pattern, and it felt as if something in his heart began to stir.

He lowered his head, remained silent for a long while, and then took two steps back.

"No, I don't want to be an Ability User."

The smile at the corners of the woman's mouth slowly faded, and she lowered her right hand.

She could tell that this young man named Li Dongjin had no regrets whatsoever after making his decision.

"Heh, so that is your decision. I hope that when the disaster comes in the future, you will not regret it."

As the woman's voice faded, the sweltering air and the noise of the surroundings appeared instantly, rushing into his ears with a roar.

"Brother!"

The little girl gripped the hem of his clothes tightly, her two faint eyebrows almost standing on end. She held an ice cream in her hand, and behind her, the shop owner looked at him with a helpless expression.

Li Dongjin immediately paid the money and picked up his sister with an apologetic smile. He turned to look around, but it seemed as if that woman had never appeared at all.

【March Conglomerate's new chairwoman, Ms. Li Qingzi, declares that the paradise city belonging to Ability Users has finished reconstruction. All Ability Users are welcome to visit, and any Ability User who enters the Paradise will be under the protection of Lord Tao Baibai.】

Li Dongjin heard a new advertisement. He looked up, and a rather cold and glamorous woman appeared on the large screen. She was Korean, and the footage was from a press conference with subtitles below. Having experienced the bizarre scene just moments ago, Li Dongjin did not want to get involved with such things again. He hugged his sister and walked back, but the little girl was very curious, pointing at the screen and asking questions incessantly.

"Brother, who is Tao Baibai?"

"Brother, is that Paradise an amusement park..."

The giant Ferris wheel in front of the mall turned slowly. The glamorous woman stood above it, her face constantly shifting, finally settling into the image of a withered, thin old man.

He watched indifferently as Li Dongjin hugged his sister and walked into the crowded throng. Just like fate, he had abandoned that glorious and spectacular path, choosing instead to embrace the ordinary...

"Tsk, finding a suitable candidate is truly not easy. No wonder that guy Aizen chose to create one himself..."

He looked at the paradise city advertised on the large screen, knowing that Tao Baibai had truly become a force to be reckoned with.

Plus that woman in the West District, who was very likely the person chosen by Cao Qi.

He had already fallen far behind.

The old man rubbed the 【Card】 in his hand, whose face was unclear, and in his eyes, it seemed as if countless streams of information were flowing.

Soon, he locked onto a new target, and his figure slowly vanished.

——

Within the borders of Myanmar, outside the ruins of the former 【Paradise】, a three-meter-high gray-black earthen wall blocked everyone's view, making it impossible to see what was happening inside.

Lin Qinfu paced outside the wall. The terrifying commotion from a few days ago had made his liver and gallbladder split with fear, and he felt fortunate that he and his group had been sent away by Bai Laoda in advance.

Seeing a perfectly fine city turn into complete ruins in less than half a day—that kind of absurdity and terror was beyond words.

By now, he was completely certain that Bai Laoda was a legendary 【Ability User】, and that the young lady of the March Conglomerate had taken a fancy to him precisely because she wanted to intervene in the business of Ability Users.

Through the internet, he also noticed the major moves of the March Conglomerate, and he felt as if he completely understood the meaning behind all the previous events.

But at this moment, Lin Qinfu still did not understand: 【Paradise】 had been destroyed, so why did Bai Laoda wall off the ruins?

Furthermore, who exactly built this wall?

One had to know that although 【Paradise】 was not considered large, it was still nearly 1,500 square kilometers. To completely seal it off with a three-meter-high wall was no small engineering feat.

Yet this wall had appeared all of a sudden...

Boom!

Boom!

The massive commotion kept ringing out from within the walls; Lin Qinfu was incredibly curious, yet he dared not climb the wall to look.

He even ordered the militiamen they had recruited to stand guard everywhere with guns, and anyone who dared to climb the wall was to be shot dead without exception.

The ground shook continuously, and suddenly, someone cried out in alarm.

Lin Qinfu turned his head and saw that the people he had brought were all looking up at the inside of the wall, their faces filled with terror, their mouths opening and closing, yet they could not utter a single word.

He also turned his head, and the next moment, Lin Qinfu was likewise struck with horror.

An incredibly massive Tower was rising from a spot far within the perimeter walls.

Being visible to them, its height had likely already exceeded ten meters, and it was still rising continuously.

Just like the giant vine from legends, it kept growing: thirty meters, fifty meters, one hundred meters...

That massive Tower looked to be made of cold, hard black rock on all sides; it could not be called exquisite, but it had a grim and terrifying feel.

The massive commotion lasted for a full half-day; Lin Qinfu had become numb by the end, and he now understood completely how that high wall had been erected.

It was likely just like that tower and the other buildings, "raised" out of thin air like this!

Is that what an Ability User is...

Lin Qinfu felt his worldview being torn apart; it was completely different from the sporadic displays he had seen on the internet before, and this great power that transcended modern technology made him feel somewhat panicked.

There was also a strong sense of loss.

With such an Ability User around, he and his people were likely of no use to Bai Laoda anymore...

Bang!

The high wall shook with a boom, and the next moment it collapsed directly; in the sunset, the long-haired Bai Cangshu stood by the collapsed outer wall, and seeing the group of "old subordinates" waiting there, he spread his arms and smiled.

"Welcome to your new home, my... 【Paradise】!"

Behind him, a brand-new city had already appeared, with the black Tower at the center as its core, and various districts laid out around it.

(End of chapter)