Chapter 36 Personification
In late June 2030, the last month before the calamity.
After retiring from the military, he worked for a security company and rose to a senior management position by the age of 26. During his free time at work, he would go to the coffee shop downstairs from the company to relax.
He remembered that the coffee shop had very good coffee and a nice atmosphere, and the customers were mostly employees from nearby office buildings.
The café is called "First Encounter" and has a small garden outside with many common and beautiful flowers, but what I like the most is an ivy that has fallen from the eaves by the window at the back.
It covers half of the window, blocking the sunlight when it's scorching hot and casting a shadow on the table. When the wind blows, its triangular leaves fall onto the windowsill.
While on the phone, I used to hold an ivy leaf in my hand, and later I started to roll the ivy vine around my hand.
Over time, we can discern his mood from the actions he takes with his hands. If he's rolling something up, he's in a good mood; if he's pinching leaves, he's in a bad mood.
Compared to the delicate flowers outside, ivy doesn't receive much attention, to the point that the shop owner sometimes forgets to water it.
I had seen it several times while traveling, and when I noticed that the ivy leaves were turning yellow, I finally couldn't resist and asked the shop owner to water the ivy.
The shop owner said it wasn't that she didn't want to water it, but that the ivy had grown too tall and it was too much trouble to take it down.
Sui Cheng frowned and took the initiative to take over the task of watering the plants.
Within a few days, the ivy leaves turned lush and green again.
Later, I went on a business trip for a few days. I was supposed to go straight home, but I ended up at the company again. On the way, I took a look at the ivy, but it was no longer hanging under the eaves. Instead, it was just placed on the ground in the flower bed, squeezed together with the other flowers, looking pitiful.
At that moment, he had the idea of taking the ivy home.
The coffee shop was closed that day, so he called the owner and said he would come back to take it when the shop reopened, and the owner readily agreed.
But unexpectedly, the accompanying passenger didn't make it in time.
He fell ill that night, developed a high fever, and fell into a coma. He was taken to the hospital and lay in bed for more than a week.
The day I was discharged from the hospital was the day of calamity.
Meteors visible even during the day fell like daylight onto the earth, causing temperatures in early July to soar to over 40 degrees Celsius before plummeting to below zero at night.
The strange changes that occurred within a single day caused intense panic among everyone.
Supermarkets and stores throughout the city were being scrambled for resources, and government departments promptly dispatched the military to maintain order.
But the unexpected biological mutation dealt humanity a heavy blow. Overnight, the city transformed into a world of alien species, engulfed in a frenzy of attacks by mutated creatures, leaving the entire city shrouded in a bloody mist.
When Sui Cheng realized he had gained superpowers, he understood that the world had changed, and the first thing he had to do was protect his younger sister, Sui Ling.
On the day of the calamity, Sui Ling also developed a high fever, which reminded Sui Cheng of himself a few days earlier. He thought this was an opportunity for humans to awaken their supernatural abilities, but in the end, Sui Ling did not awaken his supernatural abilities.
The official decision came quickly: the army was dispatched to relocate humans to safe places and to recruit all those with superpowers.
Xinghai City did not receive the news immediately, and a more powerful alien species appeared in the city center, which could occupy Xinghai City in a few days. So he led Sui Ling and a few humans he met along the way, stopping and starting along the way, and finally arrived at the newly established Huaxia Base.
That ivy was forever forgotten by him in the flowerbed of that coffee shop, squeezed among the many flowers, becoming the most inconspicuous existence.
Those flowers mutated on the first day of the Calamity Day; their fragrance could bewitch humans, who would then use them as nourishment.
That's how ivy grows slowly.
In fact, it developed sentience earlier than any other plant. About a year ago, it was bought and hung under the eaves, its branches and leaves drooping down. Some people would find it annoying to be on the window and would tear off its branches and leaves, but since it came with Suicheng, it has never encountered those people again.
Suicheng sat by the window, its warm hand entwining its branches and leaves. Although it was talking to someone on its phone and its gaze wasn't fixed on the ivy's branches and leaves, it still felt affection for that person.
When no one is around, the ivy will quietly roll up its branches and leaves, stick them to the wall, find its most beautiful branches and leaves where no one can see it, and then wait for the rider to come, and then quietly let them hang down.
When the passenger said he was going to take it home that day, it was so excited it almost gave itself away. Its branches and leaves were so excited they almost wrapped around his wrist, but thankfully he managed to control it.
After finishing the phone call, I gently pinched its leaves through the fence and whispered, "I'll pick you up tomorrow."
"I'll pick you up tomorrow."
Ivy repeated this sentence to herself many times, and then began to wait.
But little did it know that would be the last time it saw the passenger.
When the accompanying carriage failed to arrive, the city descended into chaos, and creatures mutated—this was the day of ivy's doom.
It grew larger and larger, taking over the flowerbed in the coffee shop and devouring all the other species around it.
Feeling that it had become stronger, it felt an urge to find a rider.
But modern humans hate other species to the core, and will do anything to eliminate them if they see them. It cannot do that to Suicheng.
About half a year later, Ivy had become unimaginably powerful, and the entire Xinghai City was under its control.
To become a real person, it needs a body. Finally, it found the most suitable body downstairs at the company building it was traveling to. Although it was already dead, it still had plant-based superpowers within it.
Ivy devoured the body, then took his form and absorbed some of the remaining memories.
The name of this body suits him well; it is "Law Master".
Lu Zhi felt that this was not enough, so he walked around Xinghai City, learning from the things left behind in the city how to be a good human being.
Many superhumans arrived in Xinghai City and cleared out most of the alien species on the outskirts. Lu Zhi hid in the shadows, trying to figure out how to blend in with the group and leave legitimately.
But as he was preparing to act, he heard the name of his attendant.
"Hey, is that dual-elemental ability user from the China base? I heard he's really powerful."
"That's no ordinary feat."
They chatted without restraint about the ride, recounting all the rumors about him at the China base, which Lu Zhi also heard in detail.
From that day on, the lawyer had a plan.
He wanted to take the initiative to find him.
From the superhumans at the Huaxia base who learned about the advanced species in Xinghai City, to taking on the mission and being deliberately lured to Tianhu City to deal with the superhuman used as bait, all the way to meeting Lu Zhi.
It was all orchestrated by the law enforcement officers behind the scenes.
In such a dangerous city, it's impossible for a person to live unharmed. Moreover, this body originally belonged to a dead person, and it would take some time for the Law Enforcement to completely devour it and make it its own.
So he pierced his own chest with his own vines, turning himself into a half-dead man, waiting to be rescued by his attendants.
His body followed the chariot away from Xinghai City, but his true form had already settled underground in Xinghai City, as if it had fallen into a deep sleep.
The human body is too weak to withstand his power. It is perfectly normal for his internal organs to be squeezed to the point of rupture and for him to vomit blood as soon as he exerts his strength.
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