Chapter 217

On the training ring, Wu Chang was sparring with Zhao Yan.

Although Wu Chang's raw stats had long surpassed Zhao Yan's, in terms of combat technique, he still lagged behind Zhao Yan, a specialist in hand-to-hand fighting.

He restrained his strength to slightly below Zhao Yan's level; without using the Mamba Iron Elbow, he was essentially being brutalized on the ring.

For instance, right now, Wu Chang raised his arms to block Zhao Yan's three-punch combo—left, right, left—but as he stepped forward to counter with a punch, Zhao Yan, whose attack had already expired, didn't retreat; instead, he closed the distance toward Wu Chang's fist.

Zhao Yan immediately spun and brought down his elbow; Wu Chang, with only 33 Agility, couldn't dodge in time—he felt like he was smashing his face into Zhao Yan's elbow.

If this were a real combat match and Wu Chang didn't have a permanent energy shield, that elbow strike alone would have ended the fight.

Heaven's wheel turns: Wu Chang, who had just elbow-striken Mercury, was about to experience being elbowed himself.

But this wasn't a real match; Zhao Yan had exceptional control over his body, and his elbow stopped precisely one centimeter from Wu Chang's face before slowly retracting.

Zhao Yan stepped back, slapped Wu Chang's arm—still extended from the missed punch—and said:

"You're in good form today. Not like the past two days, distracted like you just got dumped."

Wu Chang pulled his arm back and smirked.

"I just didn't sleep well the past two days. Couldn't focus."

The events in Shelter #88? He could handle them with his True Self alone. His main body had been hanging around the Bureau's boxing club during standby hours, just to establish an alibi.

But his mind was entirely on his True Self, so his main body looked distracted, as if his soul had been drained.

Zhao Yan shook his head slightly and advised in the tone of someone who'd been there:

"I know that flashy show you young folks watch—'Thunder Thunder'—and how the Holy Grail War's all the rage lately. But learn moderation. Players' physical stats are stronger than ordinary people's, but they're not made of iron. Overindulgence still drains you."

Wu Chang suspected Zhao Yan was projecting his own habits, but he was busy and didn't feel like explaining.

He took off his gloves and said, "I won't train this afternoon. I'm going out on patrol to clear my head."

Zhao Yan asked, "Things have been unstable lately. Want me to patrol with you?"

Wu Chang waved him off. "If it were Spirit Fox or Hamster saying that, I might consider it. Not you."

As he spoke, he saw Spirit Fox walking in, holding a stack of files.

"I thought I heard someone calling me. What's up?"

Wu Chang had just been speaking offhand, never expecting Spirit Fox to actually appear. Between the pressure from Ai Lin and He Yun, he was already stretched thin—he didn't want any more complications.

He was about to say nothing, when Zhao Yan cut in:

"Spirit Fox said she's going on patrol this afternoon. She thinks you're reliable and wants you to join her."

Spirit Fox smiled. "Sure, I'm free this afternoon."

Wu Chang frowned at Zhao Yan, but Zhao Yan clapped him on the shoulder and whispered:

"Spirit Fox's a good girl. Every new assistant in the Bureau has a crush on her. I've set the stage for you. Now it's up to you to perform."

Watching Zhao Yan walk away, acting like a hero who did good deeds without seeking praise, Wu Chang couldn't help but grunt.

So I'm supposed to thank you now, huh?

Spirit Fox sprinted to hand the files to a colleague in the archives, then sprinted back to the ring area and asked:

"Should we grab lunch first?"

Wu Chang never knew how to refuse. With things already set, he invited Spirit Fox to lunch nearby.

After lunch, they began their patrol.

To facilitate patrols, the Bureau provided each member with civilian identities and assigned patrol vehicles.

Wu Chang naturally slid into the driver's seat; Spirit Fox took the passenger side. Wu Chang floored the accelerator and headed toward the area with the most recent incidents.

Wu Chang drove fast—always at the city's speed limit—but smoothly, so smoothly there was no vibration at all. When approaching traffic lights or needing to stop suddenly, the transition from high speed to full stop was fluid and seamless, with zero jolt.

Spirit Fox exclaimed, "I had no idea you were such a good driver."

Wu Chang replied casually, "I practiced driving in an E-rank instance. When it comes to driving, that tofu-delivery kid at dawn isn't as steady as me."

He knew Spirit Fox couldn't tell truth from lies, so he spun a bald-faced lie with perfect confidence and demeanor.

Of course, what he told her was false. The key to driving so smoothly, nearly achieving unity with the vehicle, came from the reward granted by Zhuo Jie's Blood Testament.

Completing Zhuo Jie's Blood Testament granted him 1 Stamina, 1 Willpower, 2 Inspiration, and one skill.

"Skill Name: Master-Level Mechanical Driving"

"Skill Level: B"

"Skill Description: You rapidly master any mechanical vehicle or weapon. You adapt your operation to its unique traits, unlocking its true potential. Your mechanical vehicles and weapons gain +20% to speed, stability, agility, endurance, and damage."

"Skill Note: Your control over mechanical vehicles and weapons borders on art. The door to Grandmaster status lies just ahead. One more step, and you will enter the realm of Human-Machine Unity."

The skill granted by Zhuo Jie's Blood Testament functioned similarly to the Pirate Captain ability from the Great White Shark—it specialized in vehicle control.

But the Pirate Captain only worked on ships, while his Mechanical Driving only activated on sophisticated, technologically advanced vehicles.

He tested the skill's lower limit: to activate Master-Level Mechanical Driving, the minimum requirement was an electric bicycle. Shared bikes without external power sources wouldn't work.

Along the way, they talked about recent events.

Though in Wu Chang's eyes, the four organizations all acted suspiciously, like they weren't good guys, they were still professionals at training official members.

After becoming an official member, Spirit Fox received professional training and, by choosing to sync her attribute panel data, gained a personalized plan from the Bureau's AI.

With compensation from the Quiet Town incident, she rapidly strengthened herself, reaping rich rewards in the past two instances, and climbed to Level 13, securing her place among Bureau official members and earning praise from Meng Yawen and Zhao Yan.

As Spirit Fox recounted her progress, she kept watching Wu Chang expectantly, as if waiting for his approval.

After the Corruption instance, Wu Chang became an Explorer due to his great contributions; she could only narrow the gap between them this way.

Wu Chang was never stingy with praise. Sensing her hope, he lavished her with compliments so thick she felt it was excessive.

While praising Spirit Fox, Wu Chang was also thinking: counting Quiet Town, three instances from under Level 10 to Level 13 was already exceptional among ordinary players.

How many levels had he reached in his recent instance?

He glanced at his attribute panel: Level 24.

That speed… was maybe a bit too fast.

After talking about themselves, the two naturally shifted to recent events.

Since the appearance of Corruption Dungeons, Haisheng City's security has continuously declined. After dismantling the Night Song Club and publicly destroying the Revelation's base, Haisheng City's security briefly improved—but recently, it has dropped again. This time, however, it's not just Haisheng City's problem; the security of all of Xia Country, even the entire Blue Star, is deteriorating.

Since the Four Organizations were attacked and the Pillars of the Present were exposed, perhaps due to numerous entrances to the Pillars of the Present appearing across the Blue Star, causing massive influxes of energy from the Intermediate Layer, extraordinary individuals have been appearing frequently on the Blue Star lately.

These extraordinary individuals are not players; they have awakened unique abilities triggered by some kind of stimulus.

In fact, such wild extraordinary individuals have occasionally appeared for a long time, but back then, their numbers were few, and the Four Organizations could still suppress the information.

This time is different: the frequent and massive emergence of extraordinary individuals means that no matter how hard the Four Organizations try to suppress the news, some information always leaks out.

Perhaps realizing they could no longer maintain the suppression, the Four Organizations directly gave up, partially lifting restrictions on extraordinary ability information.

Not only do many news reports now mention extraordinary individuals, but some bold ones have even opened accounts and become internet celebrities.

At first, people thought it was just a new AI gimmick, but as these extraordinary influencers demonstrated their abilities live, and the authorities remained silent, people began to realize that extraordinary energy truly existed.

In this age of information explosion, a single news story can spread worldwide in a day; consecutive days of trending topics have already made most of the world accept this reality.

They are stepping into an extraordinary future.

Ordinary people feel only anticipation, hoping that tomorrow, upon waking, they too might awaken abilities and become extraordinary individuals.

!

But in Wu Chang's eyes, this situation is not a good thing.

The Four Organizations' previous suppression of extraordinary existence was not meant to monopolize extraordinary information—it was genuinely for the Blue Star's safety.

The First Law of Esotericism still holds true on the Blue Star.

As people accept the existence of the extraordinary, extraordinary events grow frequent, and extraordinary abilities become widespread.

This is evident not only in the increasing number of extraordinary individuals on the Blue Star, but also in how the Blue Star's changes are affecting the Abyss Game.

Due to the Blue Star's influence, the corruption speed of dungeon dimensions within the Abyss Game has accelerated dramatically; many dungeons are rapidly approaching uncontrolled states, and the number of Breakers cannot keep pace with the rate of dungeon corruption.

Before a dungeon becomes uncontrolled, it forms anomalies in the real area it intends to corrupt.

Just as the Moonlight Sanatorium neared uncontrolled status, Haisheng City experienced three straight days of blizzards at the end of March.

In the past, people would have dismissed such events as abnormal weather—but now, knowing the extraordinary exists, when anomalies occur, people discuss whether something terrible is about to happen.

Public observation of extraordinary anomalies feeds back and stimulates dungeon corruption, causing many dungeons to become uncontrolled directly—even when their entrances are sealed and no players enter—by eroding reality through human observation.

This is precisely why, after Wu Chang entered the Moonlight Sanatorium, Director Gao ordered the evacuation.

If local residents had been told to evacuate before Breakers entered the dungeon, their panic and curiosity might have triggered the dungeon's uncontrolled state outright.

According to the Four Organizations' statistics, the number of Corruption Dungeons appearing in the past week has already exceeded the total for all of last year.

The surge of Corruption Dungeons and the explosive emergence of extraordinary individuals have caused Haisheng City's security to plummet rapidly.

Linghu showed unease about the future, gazing out the front window, she said slowly:

"My intuition tells me that the spread of extraordinary abilities may not be good for the Blue Star. But as a player of the Abyss Game, I benefit from extraordinary abilities—I seem to have no right to say such things."

Wu Chang shrugged and comforted her:

"Don't overthink it. No matter what happens tomorrow, it's not up to you or me to decide. Back in Serenity Town, I already told you: when the sky falls, the tall ones hold it up—we just need to survive."

Linghu looked at Wu Chang and said pointedly:

"In Serenity Town, you helped me stabilize my sanity and gave me the courage to hold onto myself in dangerous environments. If things become dangerous in the future, can I still rely on you?"

Wu Chang's heart skipped a beat—he already had enough troubles; now Linghu was adding to them.

Was Fang Hui's bad luck with romantic entanglements contagious?

He could only pretend not to understand and said: "We're colleagues. If you're in trouble, I'll help."

Seeing that Linghu wasn't going to drop it, Wu Chang accelerated the car to reach their destination faster.

Under his driving, the two soon arrived at Donghu District in Haisheng City.

Donghu District is Haisheng City's new urban area and the region that has developed fastest over the past decade or two.

It hosts many high-tech industries and internet companies; per capita income exceeds all other districts. Higher income means better infrastructure and newer, improved public facilities, naturally attracting more high-income residents.

Seventy percent of Haisheng City's wealthy live in Donghu District.

In the past, a concentration of wealth meant better medical and educational resources—a good thing. But now, so many wealthy people clustered together have become, in some eyes, natural targets.

Donghu District Police Station has received numerous reports of home burglaries, mostly from villa districts. The cases are similar: doors and windows broken, unknown intruders entering, stealing all valuable items.

After reporting, the police reviewed surveillance footage—from the victims' homes, the residential compounds, and surrounding streets—but captured no image of the thief.

The thief was like a transparent man. This situation left Donghu District Police helpless.

The report reached the Administration; its members visited the scene, took two glances, and confirmed the criminal possessed extraordinary abilities.

Whether the perpetrator is a player still requires further confirmation.

Besides the home burglaries, Donghu District Police have also received many unexplainable reports, including disappearances and murders.

Aside from the Abyss Game, what Donghu District is currently facing is the most direct impact of extraordinary ability proliferation.

The abuse of extraordinary abilities.

When one holds a sharp tool, murderous intent arises.

Suddenly possessing power beyond ordinary humans makes it hard to resist the urge to use it.

Before extraordinary proliferation, as the economy declined and social wealth gaps widened, public hostility had been growing daily.

With extraordinary abilities now present, those already steeped in hostility easily slide down the path of evil.

Fast ways to make money are all written in the criminal code. Previously, fear of arrest made many with ill intentions restrain themselves.

But now, with extraordinary abilities, those who once had criminal intent but lacked the courage easily become lawless outlaws, treating the criminal code as a part-time job guide.

The Administration's current primary task is handling these newly awakened wild extraordinary individuals.

Wu Chang and Linghu patrolled Donghu District; as they passed a bank, Wu Chang sensed something. He pulled over to the roadside and walked slowly into the bank.

The instant he stepped inside, his vision went black; then a metal tube pressed against the back of his head, and a dull voice came from behind him:

"If you don't want to die, put your hands on your head and squat down."

(End of chapter)