Chapter 003 Chapter 3
52nd floor, Criminal Investigation Center.
Zhou Qi stood in front of the French window with his arms folded, staring into deep thought.
Not long after, Zhou Qi's assistant came over with two cups of coffee and handed them to Zhou Qi with a smile: "Director! You have quite a network of contacts! You can even invite big names in the academic world! Then our center's future mental assessments--"
Zhou Qi said calmly, "My relationship with him hasn't reached that level."
If there was no other way today, he would not have resorted to this desperate measure.
The assistant understood immediately.
It is unlikely that this veteran free foreign aid will become their regular consultant.
What a pity.
He then remembered something and quickly reported, "Oh, right, you just asked me to check the other information about that girl named Xia Meng. I've carefully screened it, and there's nothing special."
In fact, they had already checked Xia Meng's background.
The Black Tower will not rashly allow unrelated ordinary humans to come into contact with the Black Tower.
Originally, Zhou Qi had no intention of letting Xia Meng participate.
This time it was a coincidence.
It is said that when they went to "invite" her, they considered knocking her out and sending her back to school directly.
As a result, Wang Xiangyi stopped it without leaving any trace.
Before they arrived at the Black Tower, Zhou Qi already had detailed information about Xia Meng.
24 years old, a graduate student in the Department of Psychiatry at Jingbei University, about to graduate.
Wang Xiangyi's close disciple, he has excellent academic performance in school and a brilliant resume.
His family background is clean, his parents are ordinary humans, and there have never been any sentinel humans in the family.
Her age is far beyond the 12-18 year old awakening period.
And there is a high probability that they do not carry any sentinel genes in their bodies.
In other words, she had never had any interaction with the Black Tower before, and probably wouldn't have any in the future.
Zhou Qi pursed his lips in thought.
But he always felt that there must be something different about Xia Meng.
It doesn't feel that simple.
"Oh, right." Zhou Qi suddenly remembered something and tilted his head to say, "A sentry will probably report in today."
"Okay." The assistant took out a notebook and asked casually, "What's your name?"
Zhou Qi looked out the window and calmly uttered two words: "Li Zhou."
The assistant was stunned at first, then looked up in disbelief, her voice rising uncontrollably. "That Li Zhou? One of the legendary seven S-Class Sentinels in the world? The only Chinese S-Class? He actually came to us?"
The tone of his voice was higher and higher, showing his excitement.
Zhou Qi didn't respond, which was considered as his agreement.
"But Director..." the assistant couldn't help but ask curiously, "I heard he's been abroad for the past few years. Why not let him take charge of a black tower in China? Any one will do..."
Zhou Qi spoke calmly, "S-Class Sentinels are the equivalent of a peacekeeping force protecting all of humanity. Their very existence* transcends national boundaries."
Assistant: "So why did he come back this time...?"
Could it be that something big is going to happen in the capital?!
Zhou Qi glanced at him and didn't answer his question. He just ordered: "Help me settle him down when the time comes."
The assistant immediately realized that his curiosity had crossed the line and nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay, no problem."
The sky outside the tower is clear.
The wind is very strong at high altitude.
On the top of the black tower that no one noticed, the person Zhou Qi mentioned was half-crouching on the top of the tower, facing the wind whistling from the sky, raising his hands and brows, overlooking the earth.
He was a very young and handsome man with brown hair and gray eyes. At first glance, he seemed to have some Eastern Slavic ancestry.
He was wearing a floral shirt and shorts that didn't seem to suit the weather in April. He had a tall and straight figure, a pair of sunglasses on his forehead, and soft hair that was a little long, casually tied up in a small bun at the back of his head.
He was covered in dust, but in good spirits, looking around with a lively look.
Under the vast sky, the earth is vast.
The man tilted his head back slightly, sniffing the wind with his nose. "...I really do smell something familiar. Where is it?"
While muttering to himself, he suddenly looked down at the tower as if he had realized something.
…
In the elevator, Xia Meng put on a well-behaved attitude and listened attentively.
"Okay, Master, anything else?"
Unfortunately, Wang Xiangyi didn't buy her trick at all and even saw through her perfunctory attitude at a glance.
Tsk, the little fox cub is starting to let things go in one ear and out the other again.
Wang Xiangyi snorted heavily and said unhappily, "Instead of caring about irrelevant people, you might as well finish the analysis report I gave you three days ago. I want to see the email before 7 o'clock tomorrow morning."
Xia Meng looked at the teacher in shock.
Seven o'clock!?
Doesn't that mean she has to stay up all night tonight?!
Didn’t we agree beforehand to give her a week?
By moving the deadline up so much, Lao Wang is trying to kill her!
Xia Meng couldn't believe it: "Master, are you a devil!?"
Wang Xiangyi replied coldly, "Yes, it can be."
Xia Meng hung her head, muttering to herself with despair, "...Oh my God, this hellish world, this devilish master, I wish they would all explode."
Wang Xiangyi sneered.
"That's a nice thought. I wouldn't explode even if you exploded."
The back-and-forth between the master and the disciple has long been commonplace.
The elevator reaches the first floor.
After a crisp "ding" sound, the elevator door slid open.
Wang Xiangyi had just taken a step forward when a violent flash of fire suddenly exploded in front of his eyes the next second.
Boom——!!!
A wave of scorching air rolled towards them, directly covering the faces of the master and disciple.
What the hell!?
Really exploded?!
The explosion occurred at the gate of the Black Tower. The empty hall was in chaos and the alarm blared suddenly.
Someone yelled, "A sentinel's gone berserk! It's an A-rank!"
"Damn it! It's actually a fire-type ability!"
"Hurry up and call the field team for support! Protect the people at the scene!"
"Evacuate the crowd immediately!! All guides and non-combatants please evacuate immediately!"
Screams and roars were heard one after another.
Several sentries rushed over from all directions.
But the fire was so big that all the sentries could only stand outside a certain range, maintaining a vigilant distance while waiting for reinforcements.
It was as if a huge fireball was burning at the gate, enveloping the runaway sentry.
Wherever the fireball passed, everyone retreated and no one dared to stop it.
This was probably the first time Wang Xiangyi had seen such a scene. He clutched his chest and tremblingly grabbed Xia Meng, "Let's go, let's find a place to hide..."
But before they could finish their words, they heard a sentry not far away shouting at them: "Get out of the way!!"
The master and disciple watched helplessly as the fireball suddenly approached them, and the heat wave hit them so hard that it seemed to engulf them in an instant.
Xia Meng's pupils constricted instantly, and a strong desire to survive erupted.
She subconsciously grabbed Wang Xiangyi's arm and was about to push him out.
The next second, a black shadow suddenly fell from the sky in front of them, leaped down lightly, and just stood between them and the fireball. With a raised hand, he calmly suppressed the runaway fireball.
Xia Meng opened her eyes wide.
In the blazing and dazzling firelight, she saw a tall and agile figure.
The firelight burned his brown hair and the flying corners of his shirt. The interweaving of light and shadow seemed to give the figure a layer of colorful and brilliant divine light.
As dazzling as Apollo in ancient Greek mythology.
——This should have been Xia Meng’s first impression of her savior.
But at this time he was wearing a flowery shirt and flowery shorts, looking very flashy, and looked like a tourist who had intruded into the island.
Somehow, at this moment, Xia Meng suddenly wanted to ask him: Brother, are you lost?
The flames quickly died down.
Because the sentry who went berserk was controlled.
The man chopped the man down with his knife and subdued him neatly.
The god who descended from the sky seemed to have solved this difficult problem with just a casual move.
With ease, a bloody disaster can be averted without warning.
The sentries who came to their senses rushed forward and began to implement first aid measures, putting a controller on the neck of the unconscious sentry.
With a click, the collar-like controller locked onto the man's neck with precision, and the thin silver ring illuminated the man's rank number, A-BJ001596. A stood for Sentinel rank, and BJ was the abbreviation for the Beijing branch.
The sparks dissipated and thick smoke filled the air.
The entire hall floor was a mess.
But the people around seemed to have gotten used to this situation and began to clean up quickly.
Many others looked in surprise at the powerful sentry who had suddenly appeared. Some stepped forward and thanked him warmly, "Thanks, brother. It's a good thing you intervened, otherwise someone would have died today. By the way, which department are you from? You look a little unfamiliar."
The man rubbed his wrist slowly and replied with a calm smile: "I just arrived today and haven't started working yet."
After answering this, he turned around.
Xia Meng's legs were weak.
Both the master and the disciple were weak fighters, and Wang Xiangyi was not much better. He was trembling as he fumbled with the quick-acting heart pills in his arms.
Suddenly a hand reached out in front of her.
It was a hand with distinct joints.
She wore a black wristband on her wrist, which made her palms look even whiter and her fingers even longer.
"Are you okay?" the man asked in a clear voice.
Xia Meng raised her eyes and looked at his face.
This guy in flowery shorts has a very sunny and handsome face.
Her facial features are delicate and deep, her eyebrows and eyes are bright and cheerful, there is a smile at the corners of her lips, and she even has a dimple on one side.
Even his appearance looks like someone from Greek mythology.
She met his clean, clear gaze.
As their eyes met, a familiar thick fog suddenly rushed towards her.
In the blur, she heard his voice sighing and murmuring as if in her ear, his tone anxious and hesitant: "-Where? Where are you!"
At the same time, an almost suffocating pain surged into her mind like a tide, and countless complex human voices came with clear malice, there were cries, screams, shouts, wails, roars... all drowned in the tail end of his voice.
Xia Meng couldn't help but be shocked.
She had never heard so many noises in the fog.
Unlike Fan Xue's voice, which was only one person's, Xia Meng seemed to be able to hear the cries of thousands of people in the thick fog of the young man in front of her.
It's like thousands of ghosts crying together.
...The brief echo quickly dissipated.
Xia Meng blinked calmly, pretending that she didn't hear any sound and that there was nothing unusual.
She reached out and took his hand, using it to gain leverage to stand up.
This man is very tall.
Xia Meng was not short to begin with, but when she stood in front of him, she could only reach his chin.
After standing still, she let go of his hand and was thinking about how to formally express her gratitude, but the man's hand suddenly caught up with her, grasped her wrist, and the warmth of his palm touched her skin.
Xia Meng looked up in surprise: "What's wrong?"
The man was staring at her intently, and suddenly asked out of nowhere, "Are you a sentry?"
Xia Meng was stunned and denied it instinctively: "No."
sentinel?
Does she look like a weakling?
A hint of doubt flashed in the man's eyes.
He opened his mouth, as if about to say something, but by chance his eyes swept across a row of world clocks hanging on the white marble wall in the distance. Suddenly, he slapped his head and said, "Oh no! I'm going to be late!"
He quickly let go of his hand and walked to a huge black mountaineering bag thrown on the ground next to him. He raised his foot, hooked it, reached out to grab the strap, and then picked up the entire mountaineering bag and swung it behind him. His movements were smooth and flowing.
He turned around and ran quickly towards the elevator, looking back and waving at Xia Meng with a smile: "See you later!"
Xia Meng put her hands back into her coat pockets.
She watched him run away, and was infected by his hearty smile, and couldn't help but curl the corners of her lips.
She could feel a vibrant vitality coming from him.
Even after people leave, the remaining warmth carries a refreshing and pleasant vitality.
This person seems to be naturally likable.
Well, who doesn’t like sunshine?
Watching his figure disappear at the elevator entrance, Xia Meng suddenly came to her senses——
Ah! I forgot about Lao Wang!
Her master was still sitting on the ground!
She quickly turned around to support Wang Xiangyi.
Old Wang seemed to have just recovered. His old face was pale, with green in the white and black in the green.
Xia Meng quickly fanned him to make amends and asked attentively, "Master, do you need me to take you to the medical center upstairs?"
Wang Xiangyi waved his hand and said weakly, "No need."
He looked up at the mess on the floor of the Black Tower hall, and the fear of being engulfed by the flames and the suffocating feeling of facing death seemed to reappear in his mind.
After a pause, he suddenly turned his head to look at her and asked seriously, "Xiao Xia, didn't you ask me before, is there anything else?"
Xia Meng was confused and thought for a while before she realized that Wang Xiangyi was referring to what happened in the elevator just now. He hadn't said anything after "Don't empathize with criminals."
Wang Xiangyi looked straight into her eyes and slowly continued the second half of the sentence he had left unfinished before getting off the elevator.
"And then—"
"Sentinel, it's actually more dangerous than you think."
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