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Chapter 39
Come back, Bai Sheng.
“The superpower radiation has exceeded the upper limit and surpassed the maximum measurable value!”
“It’s impossible to perform a brain scan for the victim. The psychic attack is too strong!”
“The victim can’t breathe on their own… The blood oxygen level is alarming again! Hurry, hurry, hurry–“
…
Everyone was shouting; everyone was running. The emergency stretcher whizzed through the corridor, racing toward the operating room. Bai Sheng lay on it, eyes tightly closed, his entire body convulsing with intense spasms due to the powerful neural impulses.
He had completely lost consciousness, and only one hand was tightly gripping Shen Zhuo’s hand on the stretcher, as if unconsciously clutching a lifesaving straw, his veins bulging from the pain.
“Senior, senior!” Chen Miao rushed from the end of the corridor, chasing after the speeding stretcher, holding a satellite phone in his hand. “The International Supervision General Administration is calling for the third time. Director-General Nielsen is waiting online to speak with you—”
At this moment, the stretcher raced to the front of the operating room, and medical evolutionists who had been on standby rushed forward. They helped Shen Zhuo forcibly release his hand from Bai Sheng’s, which had been tightly gripped all the way, and the emergency stretcher swiftly entered the operating room like an arrow.
With a muffled bang, the radiation isolation door was closed heavily, and the red light indicating emergency treatment lit up.
Shen Zhuo stood in front of the operating room door, the red warning light reflecting in his dark eyes. The inspectors beside him, already terrified, rushed up and took off his right glove to see the entire back of his hand displaying a terrifying bruise, with his little finger dislocated from being squeezed along the way.
There was no pain on Shen Zhuo’s face, as he allowed them to treat his right hand while he took the satellite phone from Chen Miao’s hand with his left hand. Without any expression, he ignored Nielsen waiting on the line and simply hung up.
“Sen… Senior?”
“Where’s my confidential data platform?”
“Ah, here it is!” Chen Miao immediately pulled out a tablet from his bag and handed it over.
The top ten permanent supervisors all have data platforms issued by the International General Administration, and only with this computer could they connect to the General Administration’s confidential database, which contained the names, addresses, types of abilities, and methods of restraint for most evolutionists worldwide.
Even jurisdictional supervisors like Kingston don’t have login credentials; only the top ten permanent supervisors have access privileges.
“Senior, do you want to access the database to find a solution for Daydream’s decryption?” Chen Miao watched as Shen Zhuo quickly logged into the database, full of confusion. “But psychic abilities are untraceable. Unless the evolutionist is willing to confess, accurate records cannot be made. Senior Su Jiqiao never told anyone about his ability to daydream!”
With a light click, medical evolutionists helped Shen Zhuo reset his fingers, but before they could administer pain relief again, the Shenhai city supervisor waved them off, indicating it was not necessary. He then retrieved his hand and quickly searched for something on the tablet.
“Inspector…”
The evolutionist wanted to say that the massive bruising on his hand needed immediate attention, or it would be more painful and unbearable tomorrow. However, seeing Shen Zhuo’s icy calm and focused attention, he reluctantly held back his words, quietly stepped back a few paces, and went to help in the operating room.
“Su Jiqiao’s concealment won’t help.” Shen Zhuo swiftly eliminated one by one among the thousands of results in the General Administration’s database, saying coldly, “He’s only A-class, and Daydream is not Fatal Strike.”
Chen Miao was enlightened and immediately realized what his senior meant: “I see…”
Only S-class Fatal Strike was a unique ability, like Bai Sheng’s Law of Causality, Nielsen’s Tyrant, and Amatullah’s Wheel of the Almighty. These unique abilities were unparalleled; they were possessed only by themselves, and no one else in the world has the same power.
A unique ability was one of the key factors distinguishing the S-class from the strong A-class. In other words, Su Jiqiao’s “daydream” could not be a unique ability. There must be other evolutionists in the world with daydreams, perhaps of lower levels, perhaps B or C, perhaps with no significant offensive capabilities.
But that doesn’t matter because the decryption methods for the same ability are universal.
As long as any evolutionist with daydream ability has been recorded in the database, the decryption method can be directly applied to rescue Bai Sheng from the dream world.
Chen Miao exclaimed, “Found it, here!”
Shen Zhuo’s finger paused.
Amidst the dizzying search results, he accurately clicked on the criminal record of an evolutionist.
Two years ago, a B-class psychic evolutionist in Northern Europe used “Daydream” to attack a human woman, and the victim quickly became on the verge of being brain dead. However, within the 24-hour golden treatment period, the victim’s husband, a C-class evolutionist, managed to save his wife and successfully counter-killed the assailant.
As Shen Zhuo scrolled down with his finger and was about to examine the detailed criminal record, the screen suddenly went black.
Then, the screen lit up again, but the webpage became blank, with a German pop-up message:
【Sorry, you do not have permission to view this content】
【Force Logout】
“No permission?” Chen Miao was utterly confused. “What’s going on?”
In the blink of an eye, Shen Zhuo realized something, his expression slightly uncomfortable. He reopened the login page, but instead of using his own information to log in, he skillfully manually entered Nielsen’s name and a string of passwords.
“Sen… Senior, you even have Director Nielsen’s login password?!” Chen Miao exclaimed in shock.
However, the next moment, the page turned red, with a prompt indicating the password was incorrect.
“…”
Shen Zhuo quickly closed the prompt, entering Yue Yang’s password and clicking login as if racing against time. Chen Miao, standing beside him, was stunned to the point of numbness: “How come even Yue-ge gave you his password? How many passwords do you have, Senior?!”
【Password incorrect】
【Retry】
The red crosshair reflected in Shen Zhuo’s eyes, and beneath his long lashes, his pupils were chillingly cold. He raised his head and sighed heavily.
“It’s Nielsen,” Shen Zhuo hoarsely said. “He just revoked my database access and immediately changed his and Yue Yang’s passwords. I only knew theirs.”
Chen Miao blurted out, “Why, just because you hung up on his call?”
But the next moment, as if his heart had been plunged into icy water, Chen Miao looked at Shen Zhuo’s chilling expression and suddenly realized, as if awakening from a dream:
“…Director General… He doesn’t want you to know how to save Bai-ge…”
But why?
Using such obvious, impatient, and foolish means to put another S-class in jeopardy was a fundamentally indefensible and extremely serious crime. Even Nielsen would face strong impeachment from within the evolutionist community.
Could it be that there was something hidden in the decryption method of Daydream that prompted Nielsen to resort to such extreme measures?
With a sudden whoosh, the radiation isolation door was pushed open.
A B-class medical evolutionist doctor stepped out quickly, looking very grim. “Inspector, Mr. Bai has been subjected to psychic attacks that exceed the maximum value we can measure. The superpower radiation is so severe that we cannot perform any treatment. His brain has already begun—”
“How long can he hold on?”
The doctor was taken aback, but then he saw Shen Zhuo’s pallid face, devoid of any color, and his beautiful and clear features frozen like ice and snow, which seemed to exude a faint chill even from his teeth.
“…For any psychic attack, there is a 24-hour golden treatment period.” The doctor swallowed dryly, his voice hoarse. “After 24 hours, irreversible and severe damage to the brain will occur, and there is even a possibility…”
“of impaired consciousness and intellect, and in the worst case, the patient will become vegetative.”
***
“Director Yue!” In front of the White Stone Building of the Central Supervision Office, the secretary hurriedly descended the steps, handing the satellite phone to Yue Yang and whispering, “Director General Nielsen is online.”
Nielsen?
Yue Yang felt a hint of doubt, stopping his steps in the open space in front of the building. He gestured for the driver and guards waiting by the car to wait a moment, then took the phone and switched to fluent German:
“Hello, Director General Nielsen?”
From the background noise on the call, Nielsen seemed to be sitting in a speeding car. It was unclear where he was rushing to, but his tone was very calm and swift: “I just had your supervisor password changed. The new password will be sent to the Central Supervisor Office within three days.”
“…” Yue Yang’s first reaction was absurdity. “May I ask what the reason is for this excessive behavior?”
Nielsen seemed to find it amusing and chuckled briefly, with a hint of unabashed teasing:
“—You did give the password to Supervisor Shen, didn’t you?”
Yue Yang choked slightly.
“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about admitting. Weakness of will is human nature,” Nielsen smiled. “In fact, I also once voluntarily told Supervisor Shen the password because, during that time, he seemed to be giving me his good graces for three or four days in a row… I felt like I was in a daze every day, almost believing it was real a couple of times. Speaking of which, the fact that the International Supervision General Administration is still in Basel and hasn’t moved to Shenhai probably owes a lot to Supervisor Shen’s noble sense of self-restraint.”
“…”
Yue Yang pinched the bridge of his nose helplessly. “Since you already knew, why did you suddenly change the password today?”
“I thought you were smart, Yang,” Nielsen countered. “Don’t you know what just happened in the Shenhai jurisdiction?”
Something so big couldn’t possibly be kept secret, especially since the “Daydream” ability was forcibly borrowed from the central district by Rong Qi. Of course, Yue Yang received the news as soon as possible.
“…S-class evolutionist Mr. Bai was subjected to a psychic attack?”
“Yes, Supervisor Shen is searching everywhere for the decryption method of Daydream.” Nielsen paused, his tone becoming solemn and heavy. “I hope you will stick to your principles this time and not give him any clues.”
Yue Yang frowned. “Why?”
As soon as he finished speaking, his personal phone vibrated in his pocket, and he received an email from Nielsen’s personal mailbox.
It was a record of an ability crime downloaded from the confidential database.
Nielsen spoke slowly, “Because we cannot afford to lose Shen Zhuo.”
Yue Yang opened the email. It detailed the incident two years ago where a B-class evolutionist attacked an ordinary person with Daydream but was counter-killed by a C-class evolutionist. At first, he was puzzled, but as he quickly scanned to the end, his pupils dilated in an instant:
“Could it be…this…”
“Yes,” Nielsen said. “I admire the courage to sacrifice oneself for others, but to sum it up, it’s one life for another.”
The special car was still waiting in the open space, with guards and the driver standing at attention beside it. Yue Yang rarely showed hesitant emotions in front of his subordinates, but at this moment, he opened his mouth, and his voice seemed to float in mid-air:
“…Shen Zhuo… Even if he knows, he wouldn’t do it for anyone…”
“Is that so?” Nielsen said lightly, looking out the car window.
The military airport was dreary in the rainy weather, and the misted glass reflected his cloudy, blue-gray eyes.
“Shen Zhuo is aware of his own worth, but sometimes I feel he harbors a secret longing for death,” Nielsen squinted. “Not only did he open the inverted cross to protect civilians within 3000 meters last time, but there were also many details I noticed before… I don’t know where this secret longing comes from. Perhaps true genius is destined not to be understood by the likes of us.”
“But one thing is certain, Yang,” Nielsen said gravely and slowly. “We cannot afford to lose this human who holds the nuclear deterrent switch in his hand. The evolutionist community needs him to stand by our side, and sacrificing one or two S-class for this is acceptable.”
On the other end of the phone, there was silence, and Yue Yang’s deep and unsteady breathing could be heard.
“I hope you can understand the stance of the community.”
Nielsen didn’t say more and hung up the phone.
The car stopped abruptly on the damp road surface, and ground personnel ran up with umbrellas, respectfully opening the car door. Nielsen stepped out of the car and was about to walk against the wind toward the private jet parked not far away when another phone in his pocket rang.
It was from Shen Zhuo.
“…”
The Director General of the International Supervision General Administration stopped in his tracks, holding the phone, and a subtle expression appeared in his eyes.
He didn’t answer for several seconds and then chuckled hoarsely after a while, whether in mockery or self-deprecation, “Only in times like these would you call this number…”
“To stoop to such a low level to reach me, it’s actually a kind of disgrace, isn’t it?”
The ground crew dared not speak, holding umbrellas and bowing their heads.
Fortunately, Nielsen didn’t make his subordinates feel frightened anymore. He continued walking forward, pressing the answer button as the call connected. In that instant, his tone suddenly became vibrant, completely devoid of any abnormality, “Hello? Shen…”
“You know that the election for the Director-General of the General Administration is three months away, right?”
Nielsen’s voice abruptly stopped.
“It’s not what you think, Shen Zhuo.” After a moment, he spoke again, his voice as calm as usual: “S-class evolutionists are our valuable assets. If there’s any possibility, the International Supervision General Administration will never stand idly by without extending a helping hand.”
The background noise on the phone was clamorous, likely various medical machines sounding alarms. Shen Zhuo didn’t give him any chance to pretend, “What is the decryption method for Daydream?”
“…”
“I’m asking you, what is the decryption method for Daydream, Fritsch Nielsen!”
No one present had seen the legendary and stunningly beautiful Supervisor Shen, but his rebuke was too stern and too loud.
Everyone around Nielsen fell silent, bowing their heads, pretending not to notice the indescribable expression on the Director-General’s face.
“…The quickest way to solve the problem is always to directly kill the perpetrator.” After a long pause, Nielsen finally spoke again, slowly, “But at the moment, that seems impossible.”
“Besides that, if the dreamer can retain their clear self-consciousness, they can also use their abilities to destroy and dissolve the dream from within, thus escaping unharmed. But there’s a paradox here.”
Nielsen paused before continuing, “If the perpetrator is powerful enough, they can establish a ‘forget everything’ world rule for the dreamer. Then Mr. Bai won’t be able to try to use his abilities without remembering his identity, and naturally he won’t be able to escape.”
There was silence on the other end of the call, with only the monotonous sound of the life monitor ticking.
“No.” After a while, Shen Zhuo’s cold voice came from the phone, saying, “There must be a third way.”
Nielsen remained silent.
“That record of ability crimes in the database—how did the victim’s spouse rescue her from the dream world? What are you hiding?”
Nielsen paused on the gangway, standing in front of the open door of the private jet, his pupils reflecting the distant, leaden expanse of the sky. He let out a long and silent sigh, as if carrying the vast desolation of the Nordic plains covered in ice and snow.
“I won’t tell you, Shen Zhuo,” he said softly.
“You, who never spares a glance for the love of the humble, I don’t want to see the foolishness of recklessness appear in you…”
“Please believe that I only want to protect you.”
In the hospital room, Shen Zhuo’s gaze was icy, and he silently ended the call.
Nielsen maintained that posture for a long time before slowly putting down the phone and taking a deep breath. Straightening his back amidst the avoiding gazes of those around him, he stepped into the cabin without looking back.
“Confirm the flight route one last time, heading to Shenhai,” he ordered the crew without turning around, his voice as cold as the wind, striding purposefully toward the cabin.
***
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
Time passed by minutes and seconds, and the three hands of the wall clock in the hospital room met at midnight, continuing their march without mercy.
Although the room was temperature-controlled, the vast expanse of night outside seemed to infiltrate through every crack in the window and every crevice in the wall, permeating with despair and casting a bone-chilling coldness that seemed to seep into the spine.
Gently, Shen Zhuo placed his phone aside.
On the hospital bed, Bai Sheng no longer convulsed. He lay with his eyes closed and his teeth clenched. In the dim light, he could see that the muscles all over his body were in an abnormal state of stiffness. Dozens of electromagnetic lines extended from his head and body, connecting to various life-monitoring devices around him.
Not far from the bed, a screen displayed real-time imaging of his brain scan, with one area of the skull glowing purple-red.
That meant he was experiencing extreme pain, fear, and struggle.
Shen Zhuo stood by the bedside, took one hand out of his trouser pocket, and reached out to grasp Bai Sheng’s bone-defined, cold, and damp left hand.
What did you dream of? He wondered.
Was it the relentless inferno burning on the other side of your soul for nineteen years, never ceasing until now?
“Sorry…” came the strained voice of a young girl from the corner of the room.
Chu Yan stood in the shadows, looking down at the floor tiles at her feet, her eyes bloodshot from exhaustion. Shen Zhuo neither looked at her nor answered, only gazing at Bai Sheng’s unconscious face. After a moment, he spoke in a low voice, “It’s not your fault.”
“I didn’t expect… the ability to be remotely controlled by Rong Qi…”
Shen Zhuo said, “You’re just a child; it’s normal not to expect it. The blame is on me for not being cautious.”
No one spoke in the room. Yang Xiaodao silently stood by the door, and Chu Yan lowered his head in the corner. After a while, Shen Zhuo shook his head slowly.
“Rong Qi knew from the beginning. Even if he used a super-S-class daydream to attack Bai Sheng directly, he wouldn’t have hit him at all. He could only pretend to attack me, hitting Bai Sheng’s only weakness accurately… If I had seen through his plan earlier, none of this would have happened.”
He sighed, murmuring, “Just that half a second.”
Chu Yan raised his head with a glimmer of hope, “I can sense Rong Qi’s approximate location through the touch of mosquitoes and ants. Bai Sheng has 13 hours left in his golden treatment period. If I take you to find him now and kill him directly—”
“Not possible,” Shen Zhuo said lightly. “One of the very few people in the world who can definitely kill Rong Qi is lying here.”
Bai Sheng’s silhouette on the hospital bed remained motionless, eyes tightly shut, breathing shallow.
Shen Zhuo closed his eyes, then opened them again, returning to his calm demeanor in a short moment. “Yang Xiaodao.”
The boy standing in front of the ward suddenly raised his head, like a nervous little beast stretched to its limit, tightly clenched his fists, and his arm muscles bulged.
“Send Chu Yan back to the supervision office, and then you stay there all night.” Shen Zhuo’s tone was stable and calm, with a kind of suppressing force: “I need you to be extremely calm and restrained. Yang Xiaodao will assist the armed officers in guarding the supervision office, and Chu Yan will pay attention to any abnormal signs. Rong Qi won’t easily step into Shenhai before the golden treatment period ends, but after 13 hours, it’s uncertain. You must be prepared to face the most powerful enemy in your life.”
“… “
After a hurried and hoarse gasp, Yang Xiaodao finally squeezed out a few words: “I understand.”
“When the adults fall, you will be the adults.” Shen Zhuo reached out and gestured outward, saying briefly, “Go.”
Yang Xiaodao almost forced himself to look away. He pushed open the door, and the two children walked out of the ward, standing under the dim light of the corridor.
But just as he was about to close the door, Yang Xiaodao suddenly stopped, stood still, and looked at the dim ward. His lips trembled slightly for a moment before he hoarsely asked:
“… Supervisor Shen, you will find a way to save my dad, right?”
Shen Zhuo didn’t move; he didn’t even lift his head. The light from the gap in the door extended along the ground, reflecting half of his profile, clear, pale, and upright, his beautiful profile staring motionlessly at Bai Sheng.
“It’s not ‘will’,” he said calmly, “I definitely can.”
The boy seemed to have finally found his backbone. He gradually loosened the grip that had blurred his flesh and blood, lowered his head, and gently closed the door.
***
Click.
The room fell quiet once more, with only the faint yellow glow of the bedside lamp illuminating the darkness outside the window, vast and endless like the sea in the night.
The screen of the mobile phone on the bedside table kept lighting up with a barrage of messages. The dragnet spread by Shen Zhuo was probing into the clues of the ability case in Northern Europe two years ago, and the fastest intelligence tentacles had reached Norway, yet there was still no sign of any breakthrough.
While the world outside was in turmoil, this small ward at the center of the storm remained dim and tranquil, as if only the two of them existed, facing each other with their fingers intertwined.
“…”
Shen Zhuo reached out his right hand and gently wiped away the traces of cold sweat from Bai Sheng’s forehead.
Such an arrogant, frivolous, and unserious person could also have such quiet moments, as if he would never wake up again.
Suddenly, for no reason, Shen Zhuo remembered that this special care ward at the Evolutionist Specialist Hospital in Shenhai was where he had been lying after being hit by backlash from injecting an S-class evolution drug, and Bai Sheng had been guarding him by his bedside until he woke up. He had lain on this bed, while Bai Sheng sat in the armchair by the wall, lazily powerful and careless, surveying every corner of the vast city below as if he were a lion above all the demons.
And before that, when he was almost ambushed on the overpass, nearly kidnapped by Liu Sanji, and had to take an A-class evolution drug, it was also this person named Bai Sheng who suddenly appeared like a godsend, successfully repelling the people under Rong Qi’s command, and then carrying him back to his own home. For the next three days, he was closely guarded and carefully cared for by someone who was full of nonsense but behaved extremely cautiously, leaving no opportunity for Rong Qi to exploit.
Of course, at the same time, he also made various vlogs from different angles for three days.
“Yawn—everyone, look, today is another beautiful sunny day. Shen Supervisor finally fell asleep after having excitedly disturbed me eighteen times last night. Let’s appreciate his nuclear bomb-level high-definition beauty up close… Ah! He woke up again! Why did he wake up again?!”
There was a burst of chaotic noise, and Shen Zhuo, still intoxicated by toxins, spasmed and sat up. The camera was knocked over onto the bed, capturing Bai Sheng’s hurried off-screen commentary: “Hello everyone! This is the nineteenth time Supervisor Shen has woken up in the past 10 hours. Really, every time I approach him, he’s super happy and excited; he really likes me…”
In the void, it seemed as if Bai Sheng’s cheerful voice could be heard, forever carrying a familiar yet unserious smile.
So frivolous, so playful, so different from his real and firm side.
Shen Zhuo closed his eyes.
“…I’ve always wanted to follow you, ever since I saw you in the newspaper for the first time…”
“When the storm hits the dam and the crowd surges back, and only he wields his sword and goes against the tides, I am willing to be his shield in front…”
“Can you do it, Supervisor Shen?”
——The space was cramped and tight, and the body temperature was hot and close. On the door panel of the ward, everything was so chaotic and upside down. The irresistible, hot and gentle breath that came rushing in. In an instant, lips touched and tangled, and canine teeth pricked out a hint of faint blood on the corner of the lip.
“…You rascal,” Shen Zhuo murmured softly.
That rascal lay on the snow-white hospital bed, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, his eyelashes trembling constantly, his body repeatedly tensing and struggling, one hand tightly gripping Shen Zhuo’s left hand as if drowning.
He suffered in the fire of hallucinations, but instinct would make him desperately seek help from the only person.
“Come back, Bai Sheng, don’t plunge into that fire,” Shen Zhuo’s five fingers inserted into Bai Sheng’s disheveled hair, forcefully pulling his head towards him, leaning down to his ear, and whispering each word softly: “Your parents are already dead, they want you to live well, don’t go and save them, okay?”
The lips of the person in a coma moved, but struggled to make no sound.
“You are already strong enough to defeat that fire; let it extinguish, okay?”
——Come back, Bai Sheng.
Come back.
His limbs were scorched by the flames, and his flesh was charred and bloody, but the child who repeatedly rushed toward the fire could not stop. Laughter from all directions drives him insane, while cries for help from within the flames tempt him forward. However, every time he reached out for his parents’ help amidst the burning pain, they would slip away in the final moment.
He no longer knew what he was holding on to; only endless anger and pain burned in his chest. Charred flesh continued to fall from his body until his pale bones were exposed, yet he still staggered and ran toward the fire.
——Have you forgotten how strong you’ve become, Bai Sheng?
Wake up and return to reality, okay?
The young Bai Sheng opened his eyes wide, feeling a force in the void tightly holding his hand, gentle, firm, and unquestionable, stopping him from rushing toward the flames countless times.
Who are you? He thought in confusion.
Immediately after, a familiar sensation greeted him, as if it were a powerful embrace.
——In this moment, all the malicious laughter outside the fire was completely overwhelmed, countless sinister shadows twisting and disappearing; the world gradually quieted down in that gentle embrace, turning into a long, silent blank of blood and fire.
“Don’t go any further.” He heard a calm and familiar voice ringing in his ears in the midst of the severe pain.
“Wake up; I’m still waiting for you.”
***
The evening glow slanted through the stained glass windows, casting a colossal cross that towered above. In the spacious center of the church, a magnificent marble round table rose from the ground, adorned with gilded motifs of herons and apples shining brightly in the sunset.
With a muffled bang, the doors were pushed open.
A young evolutionist hurried into the church. From his age and attire, he appeared to be a student. He briskly crossed rows of empty benches and approached the pulpit, bowing respectfully.
“Bishop.”
The Bishop of the much-discussed “Round Table Conference” was actually an elderly British physics professor with snowy white hair, wearing a pair of old-fashioned round glasses, who looked to be nearly eighty years old. Illness lingered on his aging face, and his wrinkled hands were tinged with a shade of blue-black.
He turned his head at the sound, but before he could speak, another voice beside him spoke first:
“Have you found out?”
The person who spoke was another elder, his hair neatly combed back in silver-gray, looking a few years younger and much healthier, but his thin face held a stern demeanor.
“Yes, Mr. Pardes,” the evolutionist student turned to the speaking elder and bowed, politely replying, “The information from the supervision offices across Europe has been completely disseminated. Shenhai is desperately seeking a way to break the psychic ability ‘daydream’. That S-class individual named Bai Sheng may have already been in a critical condition.”
The elderly Bishop of the Round Table nodded pensively, then spoke slowly after a moment’s silence: “That child is struggling on the verge of life and death. We should go and save him.”
“Why?” Mr. Pardes, with his stern countenance, furrowed his brow and expressed opposition without hesitation: “That Bai Sheng has never truly joined us, and he has always been opposed to the commands of the Round Table Conference. What’s the point of saving him?”
“We’ve never commanded him anything, my brother.” The Bishop gently countered.
“Is that so? Before returning to Shenhai, he assured us that he would make every effort to approach Shen Zhuo, investigate the true cause of the death of the S-class Fu Chen, and investigate the truth behind Shen Zhuo’s inhumane experiments—yet so far, the intelligence we’ve received is scarce. He hasn’t taken the Round Table Conference seriously!”
Faced with his own brother’s intense attitude, the Bishop sighed deeply with a hint of resignation in his demeanor.
“Pardes,” he said slowly, “you can’t ‘command’ an S-class to do anything for you because the young alpha has his own judgment. If he feels that the situation regarding Shen Zhuo is not necessary to inform us, then he doesn’t need to say anything. We old folks should have learned to trust and let go long ago.”
Pardes still seemed unconvinced, but the Bishop raised his hand, interrupting his brother’s opposition:
“Even if he hasn’t truly joined us, we cannot stand by while a fellow member of our kind is in danger. That goes against the spirit of the Round Table Conference.”
“…”
“Please help me contact him.” The Bishop turned to the young student, speaking kindly.
There was no need for detailed explanations on how to proceed. The student evidently held the Bishop in high regard and immediately stepped back, bowing slightly: “Yes.”
2:30 in the morning.
The phone rang.
It was the darkest hour of the night, and the mournful wind was beating against the hospital room’s glass windows. Shen Zhuo suddenly turned around, only to see his phone quietly resting by the bedside lamp. It wasn’t the intelligence personnel bringing the latest news from Norway.
Then he realized the ringing was coming from Bai Sheng’s phone on the other side of the bed.
“…”
Shen Zhuo’s hand was still tightly gripped by Bai Sheng in his unconscious state. He reached out with his other hand to pick up the phone. On the scream was an unknown number from an unknown location, which must have been hidden using technology.
—Although he didn’t know exactly which organization the other party belonged to, it was as expected.
Those who sent Bai Sheng back to Shenhai wouldn’t sit idly by.
Shen Zhuo silently sighed, then pressed the answer button. His voice was weary yet clear and steady, and he spoke in English, “I am Shen Zhuo, the chief supervisor of Shenhai City. Please speak directly.”
The caller probably hadn’t expected him to be so straightforward. There was silence for a moment before a somewhat youthful voice, with a disguised Northern Irish accent, came through, “Hello, Supervisor Shen. Through some channels, we’ve learned that you are seeking methods to decrypt psychic abilities, and we happen to have collected various information on abilities, including some that may interest you…”
Shen Zhuo impatiently interrupted him, “Less than 10 hours left. Get to the point. How do we decrypt it?”
“…”
The poor young student seemed dumbfounded. After a few seconds, the call was probably taken over by someone else, and then an elderly, heavy voice came through, finally getting straight to the point this time:
“First of all, Supervisor Shen, you need to achieve two things.”
“Firstly, find someone with strong mental resilience and mental strength; secondly, trigger the daydream again.”
By the bedside, Shen Zhuo’s brow furrowed slightly.
“The biggest flaw of the ‘daydream’ is that only one dream can be formed at a time. That means when a second dreamer appears, as long as this person’s mental power far surpasses the first, the dream will naturally shift: the most feared scene of the first dreamer will no longer exist; instead, it will construct the most painful scene for the second dreamer. During this transition, the first dreamer has a great chance of waking up and escaping the dream.”
“Two years ago, in Norway, the incident of psychic crime occurred when the husband, a C-class evolutionist, managed to enter the daydream, forcing the dream to change and awakening his wife. Afterwards, the husband dreamt of the most feared war of his life, but he endured the battlefield in the dream and emerged victorious, thus completely dismantling the ‘daydream.'”
“When the ‘daydream’ is destroyed, the practitioner will suffer severe backlash, which is why the B-class psychic was killed. However, I must remind you that this is a very, very rare occurrence—because in most cases, the second dreamer is forever trapped in the depths of terror, never to awaken again.”
“So basically, it’s a one-for-one extreme operation.”
“Your biggest challenge now is to immediately find someone with mental strength unparalleled and willing to exchange their life for Mr. Bai’s. Do you understand what I mean, Supervisor Shen?”
***
On the rooftop of the hospital, the wind howled, and within a few minutes, the helicopter was ready to go, with a special operations team standing by. Shen Zhuo stepped forward briskly, holding his phone. His suit jacket fluttered in the wind stirred up by the rotor blades as he proclaimed, “How convenient! I happen to know someone with unparalleled mental strength!”
“…”
The elderly voice on the other end seemed bewildered, possibly doubting what he heard. “What did you say?”
“Supervisor!” Luo Zhen jogged up, “We’re ready for takeoff. Where are we headed now? Any good news from Northern Europe?”
Shen Zhuo raised his hand to signal Luo Zhen to wait, then spoke loudly into the phone, “One last question. Are you a civilian organization that has filed a case with the International Supervision Office?”
“?” The caller seemed puzzled and replied slowly, “You don’t need to inquire about our organization’s identity. We are just—”
“Do you have an organization structure?”
“Huh? Organization structure?” The person on the other end was stunned by his question.
Shen Zhuo didn’t hide his sarcasm. “Without a structure, Bai Sheng won’t truly follow your commands!”
“…………”
There was a long silence from the other end of the call, indicating a state of existential doubt.
Shen Zhuo ended the call with a press of his finger, tossed the phone to Luo Zhen, and bent over to enter the helicopter cabin. “First, go to the supervision office and bring Yang Xiaodao. In case there’s a conflict with the Central District, we’ll need him to hold back Yue Yao. Notify Shui Ronghua and tell her to prepare the laboratory. Once we bring back Su Jiqiao’s serum from the Central District, start cultivating the HRG ability-enhancing agent immediately. We must trigger the daydream again, and I need to go in as well.”
“What?” Luo Zhen turned back from the pilot’s seat, dumbfounded. “We’re going to draw Section Chief Su’s serum? And you’re going into the dream? Is that for real?!”
Shen Zhuo didn’t answer, quickly fastening his seatbelt and sneering while grinding his teeth.
—One-for-one extreme operation.
No wonder Nielsen pretended to be affectionate, and Yue Yao hesitated to speak. They were all playing games.
The helicopter departed from the rooftop in the raging wind, heading toward the darkest night sky before dawn. As the earth receded beneath them, the helicopter window reflected the cold, sharp face of Shen Zhuo, the chief supervisor of Shanghai city.
As long as the second dream was broken, the practitioner would suffer severe backlash and even be killed in retaliation.
“Since that person surnamed Rong is so confident that he won’t be killed in retaliation…” Shen Zhuo looked down at the vast night below, filled with mockery and a faint smile.
“Then let him learn his lesson with his life.”
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For every Ko-fi received for a perticular novel, I will release a new chapter!
This was so good I need to know what happens next *crying*
Thank you for the chapter. Waiting patiently for the next one! (◕ᴗ◕✿)