Chapter 62 Exposing Power 1

To avoid wasting time sleeping, I've been staying at home in my fire elemental form for the past two days, manipulating thousands of "fireflies" to search for clues about Asahi's whereabouts in Saltwater City.

Since there was no one else at home, my entering fire elemental form wouldn't attract attention. And those "fireflies" didn't cause any particular commotion after dispersing throughout the city. While thousands of "fireflies" gathered together would certainly be conspicuous, once dispersed, even if passersby saw them, the most they would react was something like, "Wasn't that a glowing little bug that just flew by?"

While I'm busy, I'm also trying to find ways to continue optimizing "Firefly".

Although the current "Firefly" can save preset commands, it still cannot perform a thorough, automated search. It can execute automated commands like "follow the person in front" and "report to me when a specific face appears nearby," but it still can't do something as difficult as "finding a specific person in a complex urban area." In any case, I still have to operate it manually.

I want "Firefly" to at least remember the scenes it has encountered. With a memory review function, at least I can go back and look for clues that "Firefly" might have missed. This direction of development should be feasible; since it can remember my preset commands, there's no reason why it can't remember other things.

It's a really complicated feeling. Before meeting Mazao, I had never paid so much attention to camera-like skills like "Firefly". And now, "Firefly" is the skill that has evolved the fastest.

When my mind goes blank from the search, I will relax for a while, think about other things, and regain my mental flexibility.

A dreamlike mist...

There are still many unknown aspects to that dream.

Originally, I had many questions I wanted to ask in the Misty Dream. For example, I wanted to ask Number Four about the giants and the apocalypse, or ask Number Two why she and Number One reacted so strangely to the name "Xuanming"... But before I could ask them, I was forced to log out of the dream.

I don't know when I'll be able to enter the Misty Dream again. If I can't find Mazao within the time limit, considering the repulsive effect between me and the strange things, there might not be a next time.

It was noon, and just as I was about to search for Mazao's whereabouts again, one of the "fireflies" I had scattered in the outside world suddenly sent out an alarm signal.

I was immediately jolted awake, instinctively thinking that the "fireflies" had discovered the hemp seed, but then I realized something was amiss.

No, this "firefly" that sent the signal doesn't belong to the ones I sent out to search for Asahi.

These are the "fireflies" I left with Chang'an.

Because the Fallen Witcher incident is still shrouded in mystery, even though I've parted ways with Chang'an, I haven't retrieved the "Firefly" yet, planning to do so later. I've also worried that leaving my fragments of my spirit with Chang'an might bring him bad luck, so I subtly inquired about it before Ma Zao left.

According to Asaho, simply being close to others won't trigger the "jinx" effect; at least a certain level of interaction is required. Because of this, while Asaho is always worried about whether she might affect me, she never worries about the residents upstairs or downstairs, nor about the people she passes by on the street.

Just to be on the safe side, I haven't even looked towards Chang'an lately. On one hand, I don't want to affect my resolve to part ways with him; on the other hand, I'm even worried that my gaze might bring misfortune there.

But I can't care about those details now. Because the preset command I set for the "fireflies" around Chang'an is to "send an alarm to me immediately when Chang'an may be in mortal danger."

Through the "fireflies," I saw scenes from Chang'an—

It was a spacious indoor space, dimly lit, and dusty, seemingly an empty, large warehouse.

Chang'an sat in the center of the warehouse on a wooden chair. He didn't look like he was sitting there voluntarily. He was bound hand and foot, strapped to the chair, like a prisoner undergoing a brutal interrogation.

You can remove the phrase "as if" because at this very moment, Chang'an is being beaten.

Two men in black suits stood around him. One of them repeatedly beat him, who was unable to resist, while the other stood behind him, trying to keep the chair steady with his hands.

He was already bruised and battered, crying out in pain. His attacker ignored him, continuing his merciless assault, kicking him and his chair to the ground. If the beating continued, it might actually kill him.

It looks like he's been beaten up for quite a while now. Why is it that "Firefly" is only alerting me now?

As this question subconsciously popped into my head, a surge of intense anger rose within me.

Although I don't know how far away they are or in which direction they are, it doesn't matter. My gaze is the range of my flames. The moment I felt aggression towards those two men in black suits, they were ignited by my "gaze."

Flames erupted directly onto their bodies, and not only that, the entire warehouse was engulfed in flames under my excessive offensive intent, its interior engulfed in a boiling inferno.

I quickly closed my eyes. Now, there are two scenes in my mind. One scene is my home, and the other is the warehouse where Chang'an is. Because I am currently at home, my consciousness is also centered at home. But just like shifting the weight between my left and right feet, I have now shifted the center of my consciousness to the warehouse.

Then, I opened my eyes again.

The surroundings were no longer the living room of their home, but a warehouse engulfed in flames.

Chang'an lay on the ground, his back to me, struggling frantically like a wounded earthworm, terrified of being swallowed by the flames. However, bound to the chair, he couldn't even stand, let alone escape the inferno. Needless to say, my flames wouldn't harm my own people, and certainly wouldn't harm Chang'an.

I walked towards him, and he seemed to hear my footsteps amidst the sound of the blazing fire, looking over in a disheveled and flustered manner.

Then he saw my face.

"Ah, Ah... Ah Cheng!?" He was dumbfounded. "You...you...you..."

"It's me." I had mixed feelings.

I thought we would never see each other again, but I never expected to meet again under these circumstances.

Moreover, this was the first time I had shown myself using my superpowers in front of Chang'an. I cared a lot about his opinion of me.

I used to be so concerned about this and that, feeling that I shouldn't reveal my superpowers in front of others. Now, I don't care about so much. I've already used it in front of Zhu Shi and laid it out to Ma Zao, so there's no reason I can't tell Chang An. Besides, I lied to him last time, using the excuse that I was cursed by the cave in the fifteenth-floor room to distance myself from him, so revealing my superpowers now will make it easier for him to feel at ease.

Chang'an stared at me blankly for several seconds before finally uttering the second half of her sentence: "You... you've become a ghost!?"

"..." I almost choked on his inexplicable reaction.

That makes sense, since I'm currently in fire elemental form, I look almost exactly like a ghost with the color of flames.

"I'm not dead yet," I said as I exited my fire elemental form.

He wore an expression of utter shock, as if his worldview had been utterly shattered. From his perspective, it wasn't incomprehensible; a friend he hadn't seen for days reappearing in such a surreal way. If it were me, I'd probably struggle to process what I was witnessing.

Three or four seconds later, he seemed to suddenly come to his senses, a look of fear appearing on his face as he looked behind me.

I immediately turned around.

But there was nothing in that direction. No enemies, no danger, no strange creatures. If I had to name anything, there were only two men in black suits, their bodies badly burned by my flames, lying unconscious on the ground. What else was there?

Chang'an asked in a trembling voice, "Acheng, you killed someone...?"

"kill?"

It took me a second or two to realize what he was afraid of.

Even though this was the very person who had just been beating him, he seemed to feel compassion for them when he saw them burned beyond recognition. This wasn't some kind of "saintly heart," but rather a natural human reaction to the suffering of others.

He misunderstood; I didn't intend to burn those two to death. After all, I still wanted to ask them who they were, where they came from, and why they had assaulted Chang'an like that. Although I really wanted to burn them to death just now, and I was genuinely angry. How dare they treat my friends like that! I wanted to turn them into charcoal on the spot… Wait a minute, did I accidentally mix a little of that emotion into the flames?

And they've been lying on the ground without making a sound since just now, could they really have been burned to death?

I immediately went over to check and tried kicking one of the men in the black suit who was lying on the ground. He was unresponsive, like a corpse, and there was no blood or tissue fluid flowing from his body; I guessed that even the wounds had been burned by the flames.

By sensing the embers and heat, it was also possible to determine that they had stopped breathing and their hearts were no longer beating.

Is he really dead?

Something feels off; the "feel" of the flame I just felt was somewhat familiar...

"They...are dead?" Chang'an asked in a fearful and bewildered voice.

"There's no other way, just burn them to ashes and throw them in the bushes outside." I made a quick decision. "More importantly, Chang'an, who exactly are they? Why are they targeting you?"

As I spoke, I deactivated the surrounding sea of ​​fire.

Through the heat that had previously spread from the fire outside the warehouse, I was able to sense the surrounding terrain. It appeared to be in a remote suburb, and the warehouse itself seemed to be unused; the commotion that had just occurred shouldn't have immediately attracted attention.

I don't care about myself, but I can't let Chang'an get involved in a murder case.

Chang'an stared at me blankly: "Acheng, what are you talking about..."

(End of this chapter)