Chapter 13
The way the institute detects superpowers is a bit terrifying, especially for lightning superpower users. They had Chen Nan grab a metal ball to test her abilities.
Thinking it was just another simple experiment, Chen Nan initially didn't take it seriously. She sat in the special chair, letting them attach various small, wire-tethered metal pieces to her body, and casually placed her hands on the metal balls they mentioned. The next moment, her hands were attracted, and she felt an electric shock. At that moment, Chen Nan understood their intention. Because after sensing the clear attack, her right palm, which had previously displayed supernatural power, and her left hand, which hadn't reacted before, simultaneously burst into flames.
"you!!"
The electricity crackled as Chen Nan's hands gripped the two small metal balls tightly. Amidst excruciating pain in her body and heart, Chen Nan cried out. With her cry, the two metal balls she was clutching instantly turned to ash.
"It's Grade A, or maybe it's—"
While Chen Nan reacted this way, the staff members in white coats around her all wore expressions of ecstatic joy. The leader, a research man in his forties, even stared at the screen in front of him with an expression of pure elation.
But just as he was about to continue speaking, something like a whip came flying towards them at incredible speed.
"Chen Nan, stop!!"
Tang Ke, who had been standing outside, noticed the commotion inside and immediately pushed the door open. Seeing Chen Nan kneeling on the chair, one hand holding onto the chair and the other hand whipping out white lightning like a whip, he immediately shouted to stop her.
In fact, Chen Nan noticed and heard Tang Ke's reprimanding voice when he came in.
Even so, Chen Nan did not stop what she was doing.
With a swing of her arm, as if cracking a whip, Chen Nan unhesitatingly lashed the lightning bolt in her hand at the three people in white coats on her left. After the whip had passed, Chen Nan turned around and struck the four people on her right.
"Ahhh!!!"
With two swift strikes from Chen Nan, the entire testing room was filled with screams of pain. All the examiners present were ordinary people; none possessed supernatural abilities. Suddenly struck by lightning, their instinctive actions were to dodge and crouch down. The person whose back was struck the most by Chen Nan even had a burn-like gash on their clothes, collapsing to the ground almost instantly, and a suspicious stench of urine filled the air.
"We were just conducting a routine check-up and didn't mean to harm you. Did you really have to do this?!"
Seeing the young students at the front who had been knocked unconscious, and those whose hair was all sticking up and who were screaming as they retreated, the bespectacled man who had been standing at the back and hadn't been hit, only experiencing a slight pain in his shoulder, immediately started shouting. As he pointed his finger and berated them, he also subconsciously glanced at Tang Ke, who had rushed in from outside.
As a newcomer and a newcomer, Chen Nan has a protection period, during which she usually doesn't have to take responsibility for her mistakes. During this time, if she does something wrong, you can simply contact her guardian. But unfortunately, Chen Nan's current mentor and guardian is Tang Ke, which makes things a bit more complicated.
"Is this how you do a checkup? My heart is hurting so much from the pain, is this how you do a checkup?"
Chen Nan is never one to cause trouble. Most of the time, she is even a bit weak-willed and has a kind of "good-natured" feel to her.
But when things really cross her bottom line, she becomes fearless.
As she removed the wires still attached to her body, Chen Nan left the examination chair, her face filled with anger and lingering resentment.
As she grew angry, the tiny, transparent lightning snake that hadn't yet retracted from the palm of her right hand began to hiss and spin and sway incessantly.
Feeling the strength in her palm, Chen Nan understood how to use her power as a lightning ability user without needing anyone to teach her.
Feeling angry, she turned her palm toward the connecting line next to her.
With a hissing sound, the testing equipment next to the bespectacled professor suddenly started smoking.
"you--"
"Alright, Professor Shen, if that's the case, then I can't blame my apprentice for intervening. She only truly displayed her abilities last night; she's a newcomer and hasn't learned how to control them at all. Testing her abilities this way at this time naturally caused her to react defensively. And the pain was so bad it even hurt her heart? Is this testing method really correct? Aren't normal tests supposed to progress from Grade A step by step? What's going on here? Did you start directly from Grade B or even Grade A?"
Tang Ke's voice suddenly turned cold at this moment, and the person he called Professor Shen also stopped talking and simply lowered his head in silence.
After a long pause, looking at the research students groaning beside him and on the ground, the other person slowly said, "I started at Level B, but I didn't just do it recklessly. I heard about her fight with Cao Guang earlier. Cao Guang is a Level B plant-type ability user. The fact that she could fight him without getting injured means her ability level is either Level B or higher. Lightning ability users are already rare in our country, and you ability users even have abilities beyond ordinary people—"
"Alright, I'll report this to the Superpower Court. Professor Shen, you're very capable, but by blatantly harming a new superpowered individual like this, you can expect to be in court explaining yourself. With such disregard for the suffering of superpowered individuals, I really hope that one day you or your daughter will become superpowered. Then, I'd like to know if Professor Shen will treat himself or his daughter the same way?"
The entire testing room was quiet. Everyone fell silent as Tang Ke suddenly shouted. Even the two people who had been lying on the ground groaning were now quiet.
Chen Nan had been quiet, but now that she saw Tang Ke, who hadn't shown much emotion until now, seemed to have really lost her temper, Chen Nan quickly calmed down, but suddenly didn't know how to react.
"Alright, submit the report that Chen Nan is rated A. I won't say any more. I hope you'll take care of yourselves."
After speaking, Tang Ke gave Chen Nan a look that said "follow me." Chen Nan, who had already calmed down and whose hands had returned to normal, immediately followed Tang Ke out the door. Of course, she didn't forget to take her superpowered soldier jacket with her when she left the room.
"I don't like this place. I thought that now that I have superpowers, I could actually do some good or practical things. But in reality, this morning someone secretly took pictures of me and pointed at me as if I were a suddenly mutated monster. And these people, they were all very polite and normal during the previous inspections, but today they suddenly attacked me. I am a rare lightning ability user, but in their hands I feel like a lab rat, or a dead pig without any feelings."
As soon as the two left the examination room, Chen Nan couldn't help but excitedly start talking.
Having been reborn, Chen Nan was fortunate enough to escape the cockroach virus infection of this world and was also lucky enough to gain superpowers, becoming a superhuman. She felt she should be grateful and face everything that lay ahead with an optimistic and rewarding attitude. Here, superhumans seemed to be able to live a carefree life for a year before being thrown outside to truly face the cockroach monsters and fulfill their duties as superhumans of the empire.
Chen Nan had mentally prepared herself for everything, but the fact that the staff had induced her to touch the electric ball and turned on such a high voltage was something she could no longer tolerate.
So at this moment, following her so-called new guardian and guide, Chen Nan unleashed her temper for the first time without any restraint.
She clutched her clothes, angrily expressing her dissatisfaction.
As they talked, after they entered the familiar elevator, Chen Nan even reached out and covered her chest, saying, "I really felt my heart hurt just now—"
The thought of feeling her heart pounding and tightening, causing pain, made Chen Nan, who had been speaking loudly, suddenly lower her voice.
“I—you go back and pack your things, I’ll take you away from the Superpower Institute right now.”
Seeing the image projected on the elevator display screen of Chen Nan clutching her heart, clutching her coat, and leaning dejectedly against the elevator partition, Tang Ke paused for a moment, then immediately uttered a startling statement.
"Is it possible? Can we really leave here?"
Chen Nan once genuinely felt this place was quite good. At least it was probably the safest place in the entire Lijing Security Bureau, and it was also the gathering place for all the superhumans in Lijing. Information on all the superhumans in the entire Li Kingdom should be gathered here.
According to Chen Nan's understanding, the various research and experiments conducted here should be the most advanced in the entire country.
But now, after that electric shock, Chen Nan instinctively sensed danger. So when she heard Tang Ke's words beside her, she immediately put on an expression of seeking reassurance and protection.
The entire team of superhumans at the Superpower Institute seemed to be doing protective work.
The Second Brigade seems to be carrying out large-scale rescue and destruction work outside.
The Third Brigade—that's the brigade they belong to. They received information from above to apprehend infected individuals throughout the safe zone. The information was confirmed by their superiors, and they were directly ordered to go and retrieve the individuals.
However, in their three teams, the captain was Xie Minghang, and everyone called each other Captain Xie. Under such circumstances, Tang Ke's title of Captain Tang sounded strange.
Having followed him for at least ten days, Chen Nan knew that he had no soldiers under his command.
When facing their opponents, the entire group of superpowers maintains a respectful yet polite attitude, showing disdain without offending them.
This made Chen Nan realize that the current leader of this country was surnamed Tang.
It is said that after experiencing the so-called twenty-year underground apocalypse, the country was re-established, and the highest leader of the entire country was surnamed Tang.
First came the first head of state, Tang Anbin, then the second, Tang Guoan. Tang Guoan died unexpectedly, and the country was replaced by a new leader, Zhang Yunqi. Then there was Tang Xin, who joined the army at the young age of sixteen, quickly discovered his special abilities, entered the Imperial Military Academy, and then joined the army's special abilities unit, eventually reaching the border special abilities team. Over the next five years, he participated in hundreds of border battles, slaying tens of thousands of cockroach monsters. Then, when the country held another presidential election, the then 22-year-old Tang Xin participated in the national election with great fanfare, ultimately winning overwhelmingly and becoming the fourth leader of the entire country.
I heard that the previous Grand Marshal had few children, apparently only one son and one daughter.
I heard that former Grand Marshal Tang Anbin had several sons later in life. That is to say, the current Grand Marshal only has one biological sister, but he must have a lot of cousins.
If that's the case, then it makes sense that Tang Ke, an ordinary space-age ability user, is called "Captain Tang" by everyone here and is subconsciously treated and tolerated by everyone.
Aside from his somewhat special identity, Chen Nan couldn't understand why a non-aggressive spatial ability user like him would receive such preferential treatment from all the other offensive ability users here. This place truly seemed to prioritize strength above all else. It was as if all the powerful individuals here had more epaulets and badges than others. And those younger people, those with lower-level abilities, seemed to subconsciously yield to those who were stronger.
Chen Nan, who is generally unwilling to use her brain unless absolutely necessary, thought of many things in a flash.
"Don't think too much about it. Just pack your things and come with me. Don't worry, you're in the newbie protection period now, and with me here, no one will stop us. You'll need to stay there for training afterwards, and I'll arrange that."
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