Chapter 38
Methods to Suppress the Law of Causality
—The HRG Project.
Bai Sheng was a little surprised, but Shen Zhuo was clearly not. He asked the first question he had since arriving:
“Why?”
A slight commotion suddenly stirred in the abandoned factory yard. The dream must have reached an extremely terrifying stage. With a few heavy thuds, several people fell to their knees in excessive terror, their bodies trembling uncontrollably as tears and snot streamed down their faces. They scrambled backward like defeated dogs.
The girl finally raised her foot as if granting a favor, nonchalantly kicking Zhang Zongxiao’s head aside.
The abuser was too weak to scream anymore. His twisted body convulsed on the ground in its death throes, blood pooling beneath him.
“Because I am very afraid of them,” Chu Yan said calmly, her voice very light.
“I am afraid of those humans. They have the ability to harm everything, from the Earth to the smallest ant, all-encompassing and all-powerful. My ability forces me to hear the painful roars of elephants under poachers’ guns, to feel the daily despair and cries of killer whales in oceanariums, yet I can only watch helplessly, powerless to do anything about what is happening around me.”
“Because my evolution does not come with any offensive abilities,” she said. “I can’t protect any life. I couldn’t even save a small, hungry, and frightened kitten that was dismembered alive by abusers, its bloody video filmed and sold for profit.”
“…”
Bai Sheng remembered the small cat paw he had seen on that pile of bizarre torture instruments. He wanted to offer some words of comfort, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak.
“I spent half a month searching everywhere and finally found a clue in the black market for evolution sources. They said a gene-resurrecting evolutionist named Rong Qi could grant low-level peers a second evolution. But when I found him, he told me it was risky. Not long ago, a D-class individual surnamed Liu had forcibly jumped to A-class and soon died from genetic tearing.”
“With no other choice, I could only think of one last path: the HRG Project. Fortunately, I was in this major when I was at the Central Research Institute. I had been discreetly asking my advisor about it and knew that it was once only a step away from success.”
Shen Zhuo met the girl’s gaze, his face showing no emotion.
Chu Yan extended a fair palm upward, looking up at him earnestly.
“I’m begging you. I just want the courage to face violence and the ability to protect other weak lives. In exchange, I can tell you Rong Qi’s hiding place right now. I am willing to help you eliminate him, no matter the cost.”
The large factory yard was completely silent, except for the twitching of the blood-covered figure of Zhang Zongxiao on the ground. The grating sound of his exposed bones scraping against the concrete was chilling.
After a long moment, Shen Zhuo spoke, his tone betraying no pleasure or anger. “And if I refuse?”
A few short seconds seemed to stretch into an eternity.
Chu Yan stared at him intently, then raised her hand and pointed to the group of abusers behind her.
“—Then you can witness it firsthand.”
“Killing is always simpler than protecting. If I cannot have the ability to protect, at least I can fight violence with violence, and demand blood for blood.”
The vast mountain forest suddenly fell still. The air was eeriously quiet, without a whisper of wind.
Just then, a man carrying a camera suddenly moved.
As if sleepwalking, he slowly lowered his head, stared at his own arm, and seemed to become suddenly ravenous. He opened his mouth several times as if to bite, but hesitated as if unable to make the final decision.
Then, several other people showed the same reaction. Chilling sounds of swallowing saliva came one after another from the crowd.
Many people make empty threats, but Chu Yan was clearly not one of them.
This “gentle and peaceful” sixteen-year-old girl’s evolution mark was not on her hand but over her heart, which in itself said a lot. Moreover, she had been tormented by her ability for so long that even an adult would have gone mad long ago, let alone a child.
Shen Zhuo stared at her without expression. After what felt like an entire century, he finally spoke:
“…The HRG Project does not exist for this purpose, Chu Yan.”
His voice was very gentle, calling out the girl’s full name like an elder, but there was no hint of softness in it. “You’ve misunderstood something about me. I don’t make deals with anyone. I won’t make an exception for you, and I certainly won’t allow you to stand here today and threaten me with human lives.”
Chu Yan’s pupils widened. “Do you still consider these people human in your heart?! Do you—”
“No, they are not important. But allowing a child like you to stain her hands with blood is our failure as adults.”
Shen Zhuo took out a miniature metal injection tube from his inner breast pocket. Inside the transparent tube was a few milliliters of a pale blue liquid. The metal cap was not stamped with S, A, B, C, or D, but with the letter X.
“Fortunately, I anticipated this situation.”
Chu Yan realized something. “This is…”
“Rong Qi’s serum.”
The girl’s face changed dramatically in an instant. Bai Sheng also looked at Shen Zhuo in surprise, a flash of memory from that day replaying in his mind—
In the sub-level of the Supervision Department, the supposedly dead Shen Zhuo’s eyes snapped open. His left hand shot out like lightning, plunging into Rong Qi’s chest. Amidst the disbelieving screams of everyone present, he tore out the heart and mercilessly crushed it into a bloody pulp.
The next moment, outside the evacuated Supervision Department building, Bai Sheng was tightly supporting the injured Shen Zhuo. In the chaos, he saw a supervisor in a white lab coat rush forward and use a special refrigerated tube to collect the blood dripping from Shen Zhuo’s left hand.
…
Bai Sheng grabbed Shen Zhuo’s arm and asked in a low voice, “Will there be a backlash?”
“No. This stuff is diluted several hundred times. It only lasts for ten seconds.” Shen Zhuo flicked open the cap with his thumb and plunged the needle into the side of his own neck, cleanly injecting all the serum into his vein. “Stay away.”
A powerful force erupted from under Shen Zhuo’s feet. At almost the same time, Chu Yan took a hasty step back, but it was too late.
The gene jammer synthesized from Rong Qi’s serum was fully injected into Shen Zhuo’s body, completing a temporary evolution in just a few seconds. Shen Zhuo raised a hand from a distance, and an unimaginably terrifying suction force made Chu Yan stumble forward. Then, countless specks of faint blue light broke free from her heart, streaking through the air like meteors.
—Swoosh!
The “Daydream” ability coalesced into a brilliant sphere of light in Shen Zhuo’s palm, exactly like when Rong Qi had forcibly borrowed Su Jiqiao’s ability in the hospital room that night!
The situation was reversed in an instant. The people controlled by the ability froze their actions simultaneously. A few who were in the middle of biting their own arms now had their teeth locked into their flesh, blood quickly pooling at their feet.
Ten seconds were up. The evolution ended.
The roar of propellers grew closer, and the helicopter landed on the roof in a gust of wind.
Supervisors quickly rushed into the scene, surrounding the abandoned factory yard and beginning to carry away the dozens of dazed people on stretchers. Luo Zhen threw something over. “Supervisor!”
Shen Zhuo caught it. It was a matchbox-sized metal device. When opened, a wisp of cold air emerged. It was exquisitely made, likely an energy storage unit modeled after an ability ecosystem box.
“This girl has information on Rong Qi.” Shen Zhuo placed the faint blue orb of light into the container and gestured with his chin towards Chu Yan. “Take her back to the Supervision Department, arrange a room for her. I’ll question her myself later.”
“Yes, sir!”
Bai Sheng grabbed Shen Zhuo by the shoulders and looked him up and down, from the tips of his hair to his heels, somewhat in disbelief. “Are you really okay?”
“Don’t move around.” Shen Zhuo brushed away Bai Sheng’s hand, which was trying to sneakily rub against his lower back. “We didn’t collect much of Rong’s serum to begin with. The dose was diluted at a 1/600 ratio, not enough to cause side effects.”
Only then did Bai Sheng relent, resentfully pulling his hand back. “…You really have planned for everything, a true model of energy conservation. You don’t waste a single drop of blood, do you, Supervisor Shen?”
“You flatter me. We who have official positions are just this meticulous with our calculations.” Shen Zhuo gave him a slight smile. “If you ever cut your hand peeling an apple in the future, remember to call me. I’ll have someone come over and collect 200 CC first.”
Bai Sheng: “…”
Shen Zhuo handed the storage device to a supervisor and ordered, “Take this back to the lab and put it in an ability ecosystem box. There’s a high probability that ‘Daydream’ will automatically disappear and return to Su Jiqiao. Arrange for someone to keep a 24-hour watch on it.”
“Yes, sir!” The supervisor nodded and took the small metal box.
At the same moment, a thousand miles away.
Above the great mountains, the sky was vast. a lone bird streaked across the sky, reflected in Rong Qi’s dark eyes.
“Sharing senses with animals… so that’s how she knew my location?”
He seemed to find it quite interesting, shaking his head with a smile that held the helplessness and indulgence an adult has for a clever child. “But it doesn’t matter. At least we’ve reached this step according to plan.”
This was a massive hall in a lakeside villa. Noda Yoko and dozens of Evolutionists stood in a solemn circle, their gazes from all directions focused on Rong Qi’s outstretched palm. A small orb of blue light danced lightly on it.
—Daydream.
Rong Qi opened his palm. The orb of light hovered in mid-air, then suddenly expanded outward.
“I was the one who actually borrowed the ability. Why would you think I’d forget to retain control?”
In the factory yard, the metal box in the supervisor’s hand suddenly burst with light as the energy orb inside expanded rapidly.
It happened in just two or three seconds. Only Shen Zhuo was the first to realize what was happening. He decisively slapped the metal box out of the supervisor’s hand. “Get back!”
The metal box flew in an arc, and then in mid-air—
Bang!
Shards exploded in the air. The force of the impact sent everyone stumbling to the ground. The unprepared supervisor cried out, “Wh-what’s happening?”
Even without an instrument to measure it, the needle-like radiation made their skin feel the approaching heat. Chu Yan, supported by a female supervisor, turned her head in astonishment. “It’s not me! I can’t control it! Could it be—”
Before she could finish, a terrible premonition arose in Shen Zhuo’s heart. The surging light of the ability was clearly reflected in his pupils.
“Philosophy major Evolutionists are immune to mental attacks below A-class,” Rong Qi murmured. “What about Super S-class?”
In that instant, Daydream streaked across the sky like a meteor, completely ignoring Bai Sheng and lunging straight for Shen Zhuo.
—If he had even half a second more, Shen Zhuo would have realized something was wrong, but in that critical moment, it was too late.
Bai Sheng grabbed Shen Zhuo and pushed him away with sudden force. It was the pure, overwhelming instinct of a protector in a moment of crisis. A half-step too late, Bai Sheng was hit squarely by the ability, and millions of fragments of light burst forth!
The deadly, faint blue light enveloped his entire body, then completely disappeared into him.
That moment became blank, quiet, and long. A rare expression appeared on Shen Zhuo’s face. He turned and reached out to Bai Sheng. In both their pupils, the other’s astonished face was clearly reflected.
Thud.
The S-class crumpled to his knees and pitched forward, caught by Shen Zhuo.
“Bai Sheng?!”
“Super S-class mental attack, Daydream.” Rong Qi stood by the window, watching the crimson halo in mid-air that had turned that color after devouring its dreamer, as if gazing at a docile little pet in his palm. “The only way to break it is for the dreamer to use S-class or higher destructive power to break down the dream from within within 24 hours…”
“Exceeding the time limit will lead to brain damage and permanent insanity.”
A causality weapon cannot be broken, countered, or stripped away. But there is an important prerequisite for activating a philosophy-type ability: the user must possess self-awareness and the capacity for critical thought.
If it were a natural ability like water, fire, or lightning, it could still be activated even if the evolutionist became mentally unstable; they would just become an extremely dangerous, violent lunatic. But philosophy abilities are completely different. If the Evolutionists themselves become mentally impaired and unable to think, then the prerequisite for philosophy-type evolution is lost. Even if causality remains powerful enough to overwhelm the universe, it would just become an ultimate weapon locked deep within Bai Sheng’s brain, never to be activated.
“But it still needs 24 hours,” Noda Yoko said with some concern. “That Bai Sheng is S-class. What if he activates causality within the dream…”
Rong Qi smiled, the ability’s light making his eyes glow like blood.
“First law of the dream-maker: the dreamer will endlessly repeat the most painful experience of their life until their brain nerves are completely dead.”
“Second law of the dream-maker,” he paused, then said word by word in a low voice, “the dreamer will completely forget that they have ever evolved and possessed an ability.”
A massive fire erupted with a roar. Bai Sheng opened his eyes, his face flushed by the oncoming heatwave, stunned by the scene before him.
A car had crashed into a bridge pillar, its body almost completely deformed. It was engulfed in raging flames and black smoke, but faint, miserable cries for help could still be heard from inside:
“Help… Help…”
“Someone, please, help us! Help us—”
In an instant, he recognized the familiar voices.
They were his parents, desperately calling for help as they lay dying!
From beyond the thick black smoke, countless demonic shadows emerged. They twisted and swayed, not human in form, but they let out strange, shrill laughter. “Hahahaha—” “No one will save you, go to hell!” “Go to hell!!” “Burn alive!!—”
Bai Sheng hunched over, covering his ears with all his might, but it was useless.
His body had reverted to that of an eight-year-old child. His soul struggled and screamed, writhing in agony. But the louder the heart-wrenching pleas and the shrill laughter became, the more confused and muddled his mind grew.
Who am I? Where am I?
Why are you all laughing? Why aren’t you saving them?
The crackling flames couldn’t drown out the piercing wails that came from all directions like demons, stabbing countless searing hot needles into his eardrums. “Help us, we’re still alive!”
“We are your mom and dad!”
“Bai Sheng—Bai Sheng—!”
Dad, Mom.
The last shred of his consciousness vanished. Eight-year-old Bai Sheng staggered to his feet, his thin chest heaving violently, his expression as pale and rigid as death. Then, he recklessly threw himself into the towering inferno—
