Chapter 3
[‘Brain Overload’ and ‘Spirit Shock’ belong to the same system of Esper Abilities. Do you want to fuse them?]
“It can actually merge Esper Abilities of the same type?”
Yang Xi was a little surprised, but he immediately chose to fuse.
In his perception, the two Esper Ability Beads in his body were devouring each other under the effect of his ability. His spiritual power was constantly vibrating, making him feel a slight loss of gravity.
[Fusion complete]
Esper Ability: Super Brain
Introduction: Launch a spiritual attack and greatly enhance the brain’s calculation and deduction ability.
Evaluation: Grade-D+. This is a double-edged sword. Use it carefully.]
After the successful fusion, Yang Xi felt a sense of sleepiness hit him like a tidal wave. He collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.
…
Morning.
“Knock, knock, knock”. A series of light knocking sounded on Yang Xi’s door. When he opened the door, he saw a pretty girl with rabbit-like hairdo standing at the door.
“Thank you for last night.”
???
Who are you, miss?
It took Yang Xi a long time to realize that this delicate-looking girl in pajamas was the curly haired girl from last night.
He did not expect that she looked so pure without makeup, which was completely different from his initial impression of her.
“I’m returning the coat to you. Thank you for last night. Actually, I had a bit of self-consciousness last night, but I was just too tired.”
Yang Xi took over the coat and rubbed his eyes, quickly turning much more awake. He smiled and said, “It’s nothing. Just a small gesture.”
He sniffed the coat. Surprisingly, there was no smell of alcohol. Instead, there was a light floral fragrance.
Seeing his actions, the girl explained, “I specially used an aromatherapy technique on your coat for you. Last night, the alcohol smell on me was too heavy. Oh right, my name is Lin Naixue.”
“My name is Yang Xi… are you feeling well? Do you have any discomforts anywhere?”
Yang Xi had a sense of trying to sound her out. After all, he had just stripped her Esper Ability last night. Thankfully, although she didn’t even know that she had an Esper Ability in the first place, from the looks of it, stripping her Esper Ability away didn’t have any effects on her life. Yang Xi was relieved.
…
After stuffing the last mouthful of fried dough stick into his mouth, Yang Xi took out a wet wipe and carefully wiped his hands. Then, he opened the document on the computer.
This was the video he had gotten from his colleague Fan Peng. As a semi-official newspaper, Deer Harbor Evening News had the authority to record these events.
The 17-inch screen in the office was very high-definition, looking at the video, it was as if everything had returned to the day of the accident.
This was 158 Street, Honey City Convenience Store.
Originally, this was an edited video stitched with recordings from a few cameras on the street. Under Yang Xi’s Esper Ability Super Brain ‘s deduction, he seemed to be looking at the scene from the first person perspective.
Under the effects of Brain Overload, his ability to collect and process information had reached a terrifying level. Even the ant-sized pixel of the can of milk left behind by passersby could be seen clear as day.
Yang Xi felt that his brain was like a CPU that was running at a high speed, constantly heating up.
Glacier Hero dodged the attacks of the Bloodthirsty Demon Wolf repeatedly while luring it towards where the crowd had already dispersed.
Mystic Beasts had descended to Planet Azure through the ‘Black Cavity’, and the appearance of such Black Cavities was very fast. At present, human society did not have any means to predict its appearance. They could only rely on the cooperation of the officials and various hero agencies to arrange enough Heroes around the world to stop the invasion of the Mystic Beasts in time.
The size of this Bloodthirsty Demon Wolf was not outstanding among its kind that had already appeared before. Three years ago, the one that appeared in the 4th District was five-meters-tall and nine-meters-long, causing huge casualties. This one was only about three-meters-tall and six-meters-long. However, it was already a towering creature as large as a bus.
Glacier Hero firmly restrained the mutated beast. By constantly creating ice beneath his feet, he could ignore the terrain and move quickly. At the same time, he was also constantly attacking the Bloodthirsty Demon Wolf with Freezing Gas Blast.
The Bloodthirsty Demonic Wolf’s surface exuded a fire-like blood energy that blasted together with the frost produced by the Freezing Gas Blast.
At this point, Yang Xi pressed the pause button.
He replayed the scene of the Freezing Gas Blast exploding and spreading on the Bloodthirsty Demon Wolf’s body.
Then he pulled up the segment of the instant when the blast of freezing air hit and erupted in the Honey City Convenience Store.
There was a qualitative difference between the two.
“As a Grade-A Hero, Glacier Hero will definitely be able to freely control the power of the Freezing Gas Blast.”
“Perhaps it was a tactical consideration?”
“No… no, his expression tells me that from the moment the Bloodthirsty Demon Wolf got within 10-meters of him, he was already using his full strength.”
As a reporter, Yang Xi had once dabbled in microexpression reading. Now that he was in the state of Super Brain, his ability to read microexpressions was comparable to that of a criminal studies expert who had been working for years.
“If he was already using his full strength at this point in time, then why did the power suddenly change? From the power of the freezing air, his strength had increased by more than three times in an extremely short period of time!”
“There must be an unspeakable secret behind this!”
“I just need to find the video between him using his Esper Ability with all his strength, and the instant where he suddenly increased his strength!”
Yang Xi held the fountain pen in his mouth and started to inspect the video frame by frame.
“Glacier Hero must have done something between the fifth and sixth Freezing Gas Blast to increase the power of his Esper Ability!”
Yang Xi was like a shark that smelled blood and refused to let go. He quickly isolated the video recording of the instant between the two Freezing Gas Blast.
Cameras from five different angles had captured the details of the battle between Glacier Hero and the Bloodthirsty Demon Wolf.
When the fifth Freezing Gas Blast hit the Bloodthirsty Demon Wolf on its nose, it let out a painful roar!
Glacier Hero stepped on ice and crossed over the entrance of a spicy hotpot shop and landed on the asphalt road as ice shards bloomed behind his feet like lotuses.
As Glacier Hero’s long blue fringe covered his eyes. He seemed to be gathering his energy for a few seconds. When the Bloodthirsty Demon Wolf turned around, he clenched his hands into fists and released a huge Freezing Gas Blast!
The Freezing Gas Blast froze half of the Bloodthirsty Demon Wolf’s body, but it was quickly blasted apart by the burning blood qi!
After playing it over and over again, Yang Xi finally found some clues!
The moment Glacier Hero leaped across the hotpot shop, just as he crossed the word “hot”, he covered his mouth with his left hand.
This was different from his previous habit of walking on ice. Whether it was to maintain his balance or to act cool, the hands of Glacier Hero were always spread out on both sides.
But this time, before he landed, he deliberately covered his mouth with his left hand.
This was the only suspicious point that Yang Xi found, and his intuition told him that there was something fishy going on.
Yang Xi saved this short video clip on his cell phone. Although it might be that he was overly suspicious, he had to investigate the truth of the entire matter!
Fan Peng, who was sitting at the desk beside him, poked his head over. “What are we having for lunch?”
“Do you want to eat frog meat hotpot? The weather is a little cold, so it’s better to eat something hot. The yellow pepper hotpot base with Odorrana frog downstairs is really superb! This meal is on me. Consider it the one written off from the one I owed you last time!”
Fan Peng pulled Yang Xi out of the news agency. Unlike Yang Xi who was a “normal employee”, Fan Peng was an Esper. The index fingers and thumbs of his hands when formed into a rectangle, could take pictures and videos. The recordings could be transmitted to his equipment through the miniature bluetooth device on his pinky. He jokingly called this Esper ability “Paparazzi”.
Paparazzi allowed him to avoid many checkpoints at celebrity parties where cameras were confiscated, letting him capture some sensational photos.
However, he usually only sold these photos to other small news agencies to earn a considerable commission.
“Damn it, it’s so cold. Don’t these girls feel the temperature?”
Fan Peng, who was rubbing his hands, stared sneakily at the long-legged girls coming and going outside the Frog Pot restaurant.
Yang Xi gave a faint smile. This good friend of his probably didn’t know that all girls had a divine weapon called ‘being bare-legged’.
Fan Peng rolled his eyes at Yang Xi who was also rubbing his hands beside him. “It would be great if I could have a meal with these cute girls. It’s a pity that I have a man like you by my side.”
For some reason, Yang Xi suddenly thought of Lin Naixue.
“Brother, what unhealthy thoughts are you having right now?”
Fan Peng waved a hand in front of Yang Xi’s face.
At this moment, a fragrant wind drifted over. A girl with long wavy hair plopped and sat down opposite Yang Xi. The only thing was, this girl was wearing a black professional suit.
The girl took off her sunglasses and raised her eyebrows at Yang Xi. “Hey handsome, do you mind adding a pair of chopsticks?”
Yang Xi was a little surprised. “You also work nearby?”
Did I guess wrongly about this girl’s profession?
Lin Naixue nodded. “I have two jobs. I work a day job and a part-time job at night.”
Yang Xi asked the service staff to add a set of cutlery. “It must have been hard on you. Do you lack money?”
“Yes, very lacking!”
“Speaking of which, I’m not the host today. The one treating you is this boss.”
Yang Xi elbow bumped the dumbfounded Fan Peng beside him.
Fan Peng could be said to have had many girlfriends, but this was his first time seeing a girl as pretty as Lin Naixue.
“Hey, hey, how do you know this girl? Haven’t you ever been in a relationship before?”
Yang Xi spat out a frog leg bone and replied nonchalantly. “My roommate.”
“You… this…!!!”
Fan Peng was instantly overcome with envy and jealousy. Could it be that he had made a mistake by renting an entire apartment for himself?
Since it was rare for Yang Xi to finally get to know a member of the opposite sex, Fan Peng did not behave like he usually did. He behaved like a normal person and buried his head in his food.
Yang Xi did not continue to ask her why she needed money. In this world, everyone had their own difficulties. If not for the accident last night, perhaps he would not even know the name of this girl.
Although they lived in the same rented apartment, they were destined to be strangers.
The atmosphere at the dining table turned odd. Initially, when the two of them were together, Fan Peng would still talk about some particularly boring topics with Yang Xi. However, now that Lin Naixue was here, he did not want to steal the limelight from his good friend. He could only secretly feel anxious at the side.
“I say, Old Yang, how can you not take the initiative when picking up girls? Moreover, it’s a top-grade item of this level?”
Fan Peng secretly sent a message to Yang Xi through his cell phone. But before Yang Xi could open the message to take a look, a terrified scream suddenly sounded out from the street!
“Mystic Beast!!! A Mystic Beast has appeared!”
Everyone looked in the direction of the middle-aged man who was screaming with his briefcase on his back. At that moment, they saw a Black Cavity suddenly appear at the signboard on the fourth floor of the Silver Imperial Tower which read “Bene Education”. Something that looked like spider legs emerged from the Black Cavity and opened up the entire black cavity, revealing a scarlet pupil half a meter in diameter.
Its vertical pupils seemed to be adapting to the light of Planet Azure for a while. Then, it saw the dumbfounded crowd below.
There were even a few drivers who were distracted and ended up slamming into each other, resulting in a traffic jam.
“There’s a Mystic Beast! Quickly run!!!”
“Mommy! I want Mommy!” A little girl fell helplessly and was drowned in the crowd.
“Calm down! Everyone, calm down! Maintain order!” A traffic police officer in reflective uniform attempted to push back the crowd, but it was useless.
Even though it was already a normal occurrence for Mystic Beasts to attack, seeing chaos erupt among the people everytime it happened was still an unavoidable problem.
After all, in the face of survival, no one would give in. There were only so many underground shelters in every community. If they were late, they could only hide outside.
Hence, everyone on Planet Azure paid special attention to their running ability. It was fine if they did not do well in their primary school cultural classes, but if they did not do well in sports, they would definitely have to participate in a stampede.
Basically in school, the math teacher never dared to let the physical education teacher “fall sick”.
“Mystic Beasts are invading! Mystic Beasts are invading! Calamity level-B! Citizens, please seek refuge in the nearest shelter. Heroes, move out! Heroes, move out!”
On the radio and television, a short message about the invasion of Mystic Beasts played continuously. Everyone also received refuge guidance on their phones.
Yang Xi and company exchanged looks before hurriedly joining the fleeing group!
At this moment, a burly man wearing an elaborate jacket suddenly jumped and charged towards the Mystic Beast!
“It’s the Grade-B hero, Hot and Sour Rice Noodles Hero! He’s here to save us!”