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"Is this the house?" In the void, a pair of cold, wrinkled eyes vigilantly surveyed the surroundings. He was not visible, but his voice could be heard: "It's a very comfortable place to live."
“Yes, if we can capture her alive, we should. If we can’t, we’ll just have to let her die here.” Another person, hidden in the shadows at the edge, spoke calmly: “Her ability is omniscience. ‘Lotus’ said that an omniscient person can probably imitate the abilities she knows. Be careful not to reveal your ability in front of her.”
He spoke sarcastically, his body hunched over, his hand gripping the gun at his waist: "People like them get all the good things in the world."
Wealth, superpowers... and health. They enjoy the power they exploited from Pandora without paying any price.
Although his companions urged him to capture the girl alive, Achini was already determined to kill her here. He knew these people born with a silver spoon in their mouths all too well. If their lives had never been difficult, how could they possibly give up their readily available, extravagant lifestyle and truly agree with their ideals?
If their powerful forces cannot be used to their advantage, they will become the greatest hidden danger.
His companions were still too inexperienced.
The man remained calm, clasped his hands together, and an invisible force enveloped the entire house, beginning to push and compress. In no time, he squeezed everything inside into a mass of flesh and blood.
He calmed himself down and said in a low voice, "Go in. If you can't subdue her within ten minutes, come out immediately. I will activate 'Spatial Compression'."
Others responded one after another.
In the still air, no one else could be seen. Within the range of the 'Shadow Walker's' ability, everyone could be perfectly hidden in the interlacing shadows. The only sound was the thud of a few empty bullet casings falling to the ground.
"bite--"
The other person's voice disappeared quickly after they finished speaking. Shu Ningmiao reacted and quickly pulled herself back to reality.
As she opened her eyes, she noticed the strange noise outside. She widened her eyes and stood up alertly to observe her surroundings.
No one entered the room, yet Shu Ningmiao showed no sign of relaxing her vigilance.
Since Prometheus failed last time, the people he sends this time will definitely be much stronger than last time.
Choosing her home might have been partly for easier tracking, and partly to exploit the terrain for their advantage.
It's probably some kind of confinement-type ability. The fact that the other party is so confident means that this ability has an overwhelming advantage in enclosed spaces, and it's related to space.
She looked around and saw that the room was bright and clean, with washed dishes neatly placed in the cupboard, the table was also clean, the vase on the table had been refilled with new flowers, and there was a plate of sliced oranges.
Where is Shu Changyan? She was taken aback. She couldn't worry about that now. If the other party's ability was related to space, she had to leave the enclosed space first in order to break the deadlock.
But would the other party let her leave so easily?
Shu Ningmiao grabbed the doorknob, and just as she was about to turn it open, a faint sound of the lock being turned could be heard from outside the door.
She immediately let go, grabbed the umbrella next to the entrance, and before she could swing it, she saw the person's face.
Shu Changyan glanced down at her, took the umbrella from her hand, and hung it back in the entryway. He remained calm and silent, simply placing his hand on the door frame to block most of the view behind him.
Shu Ningmiao pushed him out: "Go out first."
He pushed twice, but couldn't budge it. Shu Changyan was tall and slender, and didn't look as muscular as Yelü Qi at all. In fact, he looked more like a wall than Yelü Qi when he stood there.
Shu Ningmiao frowned, annoyed, and instantly switched to an "angry" state. Just as she was about to push again, Shu Changyan suddenly bent down and put his arms around her shoulders.
Shu Ningmiao reflexively wanted to push him away, but then felt that he was acting strangely, so she looked up at him with a suspicious expression.
Shu Changyan held her carefully, his slightly cool hands running through her hair, his fingertips stroking the nape of her neck. She could feel his hands trembling slightly.
His breath was hot, but his hands were very cold. There was still some lingering smell of cooking oil. Shu Changyan had a comfortable and warm scent about him.
"You reek of cooking oil!" Shu Ningmiao exclaimed, getting a chill down her spine. "Stay away from me."
Shu Changyan let her scold him, buried his face in her hair, and breathed on her ear. She could hear the subtle difference in his tone compared to usual; it was strangely cold: "Go inside first."
Something was getting increasingly wrong. In addition to the smell of cooking oil emanating from Shu Changyan, there was also a very familiar smell of rust constantly invading her sense of smell, carrying a raw, earthy odor.
Shu Ningmiao suddenly flung her hand and pushed him away. With the help of her supernatural power, she actually pushed Shu Changyan aside. As soon as she rushed out the door, the air around her seemed to freeze, filled with a chill, and immediately dropped several degrees.
The stench of blood was overwhelming. Several corpses lay scattered in the garden, their clothes intact and their eyes still open.
Shu Ningmiao quickly glanced at the clothes on the corpses and determined that these people were members of Prometheus.
She was also wondering why these people hadn't made a move yet.
The corpses, shrouded in black cloaks, were perfectly intact, showing no signs of struggle. If it weren't for the bloody marks on each person's throat, indicating cuts from sharp weapons and torn flesh, it would be impossible to tell whether these people were truly dead.
The heart-shaped earrings she was wearing remained silent. There was no trace of superpowers being used here from beginning to end. Were these people killed before they even had a chance to use their superpowers?
Her gaze shifted to the doorway, where leaned against the body of a middle-aged man. Unlike the body lying on the ground, it looked as if someone had deliberately brought it in and casually placed it there.
A gleaming fruit knife was stuck in the man's throat.
—This fruit knife was in her kitchen half an hour ago, and maybe ten minutes ago she was cutting an orange.
She turned to look at Shu Changyan, who was walking down the steps, his eyes unusually devoid of any smile, and even showing a hint of inexplicable hostility: "Did Prometheus's people contact you before?"
"……Accident."
Shu Ningmiao sat back down on the steps, took out her terminal and sent a message to Yu Lu, asking him to clean up the mess, clumsily changing the subject: "Why didn't you leave any survivors?"
Having failed to find specific information about the 'Neural Connection' ability users in Lin Chuiyun's mind, Shu Ningmiao even tried to search through their memories for clues.
“Prometheus will not leave any survivors.” Shu Changyan paused before saying, having a good understanding of Prometheus: “Even if I don’t kill them, they will commit suicide.”
His deep blue eyes, when his expression turned somber, were like cold stars, extremely oppressive, as he looked down at the corpses with a cold indifference.
Prometheus had carefully chosen this day to make his move, but Shu Ningmiao thought it would be better for them to do it at school, as dealing with Shu Changyan's concerns would be much more troublesome than dealing with their attack.
She repeated her response when questioned by the police, omitting some details and telling him the general story.
Shu Changyan did not ask for further details; this information was sufficient for him.
"Do you want to take a leave of absence?" Shu Changyan pressed her shoulder and gently pushed her back into the house, his voice returning to normal: "Come stay at my place for a while."
Shu Ningmiao was stunned by his words: "Why would I ask for leave when I'm perfectly fine?"
“Take a break from school for a while, it won’t affect anything.” Shu Changyan said seriously, not like he was joking. “You’ve been targeted by Prometheus, and there will be trouble during this time. I can’t stay by your side all the time, so it’s better to stay in a safe place.”
"No." Shu Ningmiao's expression was somewhat incredulous.
She knew Shu Changyan's suggestion stemmed from concern, but the death threat still hung over her head and hadn't been fully investigated, Prometheus was watching her closely, and she also had to deal with the superhuman at the school.
All these troubles won't disappear just because she hides away.
“I don’t need your protection. If I always run away from everything, I’ll only stay in the same place for the rest of my life.”
Shu Ningmiao turned off the terminal screen in her hand. She received an affirmative reply from the other end, and she calmly looked at Shu Changyan: "I am also a superhuman."
He also said that she would become stronger, and one day she would be stronger than him, stronger than Yelü Qi, and stronger than that person with the dyed bangs.
Shu Ningmiao never took this as a joke to coax a child. If she wanted to become stronger, she couldn't be afraid of failure and getting hurt.
She wasn't a fairytale hero who could do everything perfectly. Shu Ningmiao admitted that she was just an ordinary person. She would get tired, be afraid of getting hurt, and fear death. Relying on her brother, who was the one who carried out the mission, might be safer—that's what the Shu family did.
Shu's father did not adopt Shu Changyan out of kindness, but rather out of pure self-interest. He provided Shu Changyan with the resources to enter the military region, and in return, he wanted to enjoy the benefits brought by his meritorious service.
If it weren't for Shu Changyan's prominent status as an agent, and given his father's business acumen, the Shu family wouldn't have been in such a decline by now.
But she can't.
She needs her own strength, even if it means stepping outside her comfort zone and truly facing death and fate.
The only truly useful lesson her parents taught her was that only what you truly possess is truly yours.
Shu Changyan didn't say this to comfort her, but his heart was still pounding.
Looking into her eyes, his agitation caused by fear finally calmed down a little, but his mind was still in turmoil.
Analyzing that barely perceptible vulnerability, his fear was nothing more than the fear that she would get hurt where he couldn't see her, the fear that he would lose her forever.
But Shu Ningmiao is an amazing child.
He ran his fingertips through her hair a few times and said calmly, "Please understand how I, as your older brother, feel."
jingle.
The doorbell rang loudly, and the police arrived quickly. Shu Ningmiao opened the door and met Yu Lu's gaze, who was dressed in a suit.
She placed her hand on the door frame, blocking his path with her arm, and raised her voice: "The police are taking me back to school, you go back first, brother."
Yu Lu frowned: "I just arrived."
"Do you think you're the only one doing all the work in your police station? People are dead, and you have to watch over the body collection too?" Shu Ningmiao retorted sharply, "I have something to tell you."
She pushed Yu Lu out, closed the door behind her, and the body in the yard had already been collected. Shu Changyan had probably also notified the police station, and knowing that the executor was at the scene, the surrounding police officers were practically walking around the house.
She was speechless. Even if the police station was mostly staffed by ordinary people, there was no need to be so timid when dealing with military personnel.
Yu Lu sat properly in the driver's seat, his posture upright, his back as straight as a pine tree. Even as she was bossing him around, he remained calm and composed, without any expression: "Have you discovered something?"
He had a numb feeling, like he'd been working so hard that his nerves were dulled. His eyes always had a faint bluish-black tinge, as if he was working overtime every night.
That was just an excuse. Shu Ningmiao did have a new discovery, but she couldn't tell him.
She discovered that Shu Changyan was quite familiar with Prometheus's style and knew about Prometheus's habit of not leaving any officials alive, so he must have clashed with Prometheus more than once.
Including the charioteer she saw during the overpass explosion, the military has clashed with Prometheus multiple times.
However, the Prometheus incident was still handled by the inefficient police department.
At first she thought the military was too busy with foreign wars to take on Prometheus's affairs, but now it seems that might not be the case.
Is it that the military doesn't want to take on the Prometheus case, or is it that someone doesn't want the military to take on the case?
With so many high-profile attacks and blatant demonstrations, how many Prometheus members has the police arrested?
No, they didn't even capture many alive.
There are several groups of students from Cornunos who have joined Prometheus. Even if we respect civil rights, the police department cannot be this useless. It seems that the two forces have reached a balance.
Pinne reveres those with superpowers, but they are ultimately a minority. Those who hold power in Pinne's upper echelons are not only those with superpowers. For example, their principal, Alo Belial, is just an ordinary unawakened individual, yet he controls most of Pinne's wealth.
Ordinary people who don't fit in are already ostracized, let alone those with "superpowers" that can completely change their lives.
Superpowers seem to divide people into two races. Those who are not of our kind are bound to have different hearts. The rift and struggle between superpowered individuals and ordinary people has never disappeared since the appearance of Pandora, hundreds of years ago.
Among Prometheus's many ideas, the most important was to abolish the mining of Pandora, because in their conception, things such as superpowers and technology were merely derivatives of Pandora.
However, according to the information she investigated, most ordinary people who joined Prometheus did so simply to "oppose those with superpowers." No one can live without Pandora and technology, which have permeated every aspect of life, but the last thing ordinary people need is those with superpowers.
Like Miss Yang, whom I met at the Shi family banquet, she joined Prometheus purely to oppose those with superpowers.
Strangely, because of these attacks, she discovered that there were many superhumans in Prometheus. Shu Ningmiao didn't know why they joined Prometheus. Perhaps they had a similar past to Lin Chuiyun, hating superhumans and even hating themselves.
Among the high-ranking officials of Pinhea, were there any who felt that the existence of Prometheus was necessary?
Do those in power, who are ordinary people, feel that the world cannot be controlled by people with superpowers?
While Prometheus's basic idea was to oppose Pandora, it has been interpreted in different ways by different people. People usually choose the part they want as the main theme in order to achieve their own goals.
Killing some to appease the people, leaving some to deter those with supernatural abilities—Pinnie's attitude towards Prometheus was far less harsh than she had imagined. Prometheus was like a wildfire raging across the wasteland, impossible to extinguish, neither the grass nor the flames could be completely burned.
“I find Prometheus terrifying,” Shu Ningmiao said casually from the back seat.
“They really are utterly irrational and inhuman.” Yu Lu actually echoed her words: “Back to Cornunos? I told you, you could tell me if you wanted to leave school.”
"I'm sorry," Shu Ningmiao said insincerely, "I forgot."
She didn't intend to mention the Prometheus ability user to Yulu.
Some people may already know that Prometheus can steal other people's abilities, but they mistake her for an omniscient being and then rationalize it themselves.
Since they thought it was reasonable, they wouldn't reveal her unusual behavior to Pinheis; she wanted to use this information gap to find the rat in the school.
"What do you plan to do with Su Ni?" She leaned forward. "Just asking."
Yu Lu was silent for a moment: "He has no criminal tendencies, so we will not detain him, but we will continue to monitor his movements."
She knew it.
Shu Ningmiao looked away: "Let's go."
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