What’s going on? Receiving a beating for taking a shadow hit.
“You’re not even a little kitchen girl, how can you get shocked like that? How are you going to manage in the future if you keep being like this?”
“She just proactively tapped you once and you got all tangled up, I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if she came at you on purpose.”
“Shocking you to death, buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz!”
That’s why Shen Ning’s neck was so red.
Now that Chuyao was here, Tong Yingjing stopped speaking, and the girl’s expression gradually calmed down.
“Nothing much, I just got out of bed,” she said sarcastically.
Getting up in the morning with a red face is a sign of abundant vitality — it’s a good thing.
“Really? Alright then, have you eaten breakfast yet?”
Of course not.
A few minutes later, two plates of chocolate and milk sat on the table. There was no meat or soup because the last batch was finished, and no new ones had been bought recently. Also, due to the short shelf life, they couldn’t buy too many at once.
Shen Ning held a piece of dark rice snow cake in both hands, eating it while listening to her girlfriend recount the situation.
“Here’s the deal: Little Gang caused trouble again. Last time they stole thirty-four Soulstones; this time they tried flexing their muscles in the city and almost caused serious casualties. The question is, why did it happen at the warehouse?”
Xu Chuyao raised her nonexistent eyebrows, like a teacher giving a lecture, and casually patted the invisible blackboard in the air.
“Because the mutants born from this round of transformation showed completely different behavior than before. Their aggression was much lower, but they just stood there dumbly, occasionally sneering arrogantly.”
Shen Ning, eating snow cake nearby, perked up.
“That sounds strange. Everyone feels it’s very odd. I feel the same,” Xu Chuyao said, supporting her chin with one hand and looking at her girlfriend. “What do you think is going on?”
The girl immediately answered.
Suppressing her anger, Tong Yingjing said, “Right, absolutely no talking about it. If you say it, your Counter Villain Value will plummet and you’ll be laughing at your own misfortune.”
Worried, Chuyao said, “But won’t this affect your judgment? What if you misjudge something…”
Shen Ning said, “Dark rice snow cake is the best, I love eating it.”
It’s true it would affect judgment.
Shen Ning quietly lowered her gaze. Seeing her girlfriend troubled by this matter, her heart twisted a little.
“Well, actually, I might have some clues.”
“We went to the tail building at Chen’s place last time. They said it was me. I used my calm temperament to influence them. The time they mentioned was exactly when you came here last time.”
Not to mention this time, just the last.
Xu Chuyao relaxed her grip and tilted her head.
“Last time you came over here, you were really angry.”
Shen Ning silently looked at the corner of her small bed… where a moderately sized shopping bag was placed, filled with her own prized items.
Why didn’t she throw it away? Because the girl decided to fight fairly—using hard power to take her girlfriend back.
Xu Chuyao followed her gaze and let out a light laugh.
It made sense. Mainly because she recalled her miraculous ten consecutive draws in a gacha game, and that precious Counter Villain Value came from then.
“So, you’re saying that your anger value hit two thousand back then, triggering a threshold that affected all the souls of the Soulstones in the entire city.”
“Two thousand what?”
Shen Ning didn’t quite understand.
“It’s a quantitative method. Just think of it as numerical values in a game,” Xu Chuyao explained, gesturing with her hand. “To put it simply, when I stole the baby last time, your anger value was 80. Later, when I stole your meat box and you were running and reading at the same time, your anger value was 800, or maybe around 600.”
No mutation, only concretization—the system notifications said so.
“I don’t know how you calculated it, but…” Shen Ning murmured, “it sounds about right.”
No wonder previous bouts of anger didn’t affect them; it turns out the numbers weren’t high enough.
There was one time that probably did: the day of the Disaster of the Soulstone in Freiden Free City.
For the girl, that day had a name—“Silent Night Incident.”
At the time, the mutants were already affected by Professor Swina’s psychic wave emitter, driving them mad, so no one singled them out separately.
After exchanging information, Xu Chuyao and Shen Ning felt everything could be explained.
“So you mean, the weird behavior of the mutants at midnight last time was also because of your influence. According to on-site info, they were just standing there grinning and panting… Shen Ning, you were really happy last night?”
The girl holding the snow cake’s hand twitched slightly.
“I… everyone gets happy sometimes, it’s nothing big.”
“But last night was different. To break the anger value threshold with happiness, you’d at least have to reach as high as last time’s anger value. How did you get so happy all of a sudden?”
Every time Xu Chuyao spoke, Shen Ning’s hands twitched more, the snow cake trembling and rattling loudly.
“I don’t remember anything good happening yesterday… Could it be because I kissed you last night?”
Hearing those words, the girl’s anxious heart finally died down.
“No way, that pure and innocent little kitchen girl? Haha, so cute.”
Xu Chuyao naturally laughed without noticing her girlfriend’s face flushing deeper by the second.
“That means you were happy all night, not sleeping at all, haha… just kidding!”
Her red-faced girlfriend grabbed her for revenge.
“Stop teasing! Shut up! Shut up!”
As soon as she said “shut up,” she took a step forward. In her red state, her basic attacks were precise and ruthless, hitting Xu Chuyao so badly she couldn’t form a proper defense.
“Alright alright, I won’t tease you anymore, but it really is amazing… okay okay!”
“You still say more!”
[Counter Villain Value 4350]
This time Xu Chuyao was so excited she lost control, mainly forgetting this wasn’t her own bedroom but a guest battlefield.
Buzz buzz buzz.
A few hours later, the thunderous girl ran back to her room, sat on the edge of the bed, and muttered to herself:
“Brother, this time it’s really done.”
Nothing new happened; just the simple buzz of the soul indicator penetrating. But seeing the score was only 350, and after a rough estimate, it meant she had effectively lost about four points.
Xiaolu had just finished eating in the dining hall and came back. Seeing her roommate sitting on the bed sighing heavily, she asked suspiciously,
“What’s wrong? Did you lose again?”
“Can you not be so stereotypical?” Xu Chuyao gave her a reproachful look. “Labeling people is a very bad habit!”
That’s harsh. A lot of people’s cold and warm sides are shaped like this. You know that, right?
Xiaolu put down her bag and sat on her own bed. “Alright, I apologize. I won’t stereotype you anymore. So, what’s wrong?”
“I lost again.”
But it wasn’t the loss that made her sigh. Xu Chuyao detailed her mental journey. Because the other party wasn’t especially angry, just a little annoyed, continuing to provoke wasn’t worth it.
Hearing her roommate’s usual psychological monologue, Xiaolu’s stereotypical impression deepened a little more.
“If you really don’t want to lose, you could fight back. You’re already defensive; why not zap her like before?” she said casually. “Shen Ning wants to mess with you? Just shock her. After all, water conducts electricity.”
Xu Chuyao was briefly stunned.
Hmm, that actually makes sense.
Xiaolu turned her head and found her roommate was seriously considering the suggestion, feeling somewhat amused.
“So what? You can zap if you want, but don’t say I told you to.”
“Haha, if I have to blame anyone, it’s you. Such a smart idea is obviously mine.”
Discovering she had the power to strike back, Xu Chuyao’s confidence surged. She wasn’t angry anymore, nor was she serious. She leapt off the bed, bent over the desk, and began to write furiously.
“What are you writing?” Xiaolu asked curiously. “A challenge letter to Shen Ning?”
“You’re really stuck in your stereotype, Little Gang,” Xu Chuyao said without lifting her head. “I’m trying to find a way to deal with something that concerns countless lives.”
A report on handling the Smart Stone incident in Saint Josse City—Little Gang’s assault was not without flaws, but due to some special reasons, the actual damage was minimized. We’ve been working overtime day and night, and we’ve made some preliminary measurements on the special reasons behind the incident, though nothing is confirmed yet. Once verified, we’ll come up with some effective measures.
After finishing the report, she took a picture with her phone and sent it to Geng Lin, then opened her contacts to find Q from the Special Intelligence Team.
[Message sent to leader (Group chat: @Little Swina, new Strange Crystal experiment, we have a research direction now.)]
After the incident in Kun Qiaosi City, the security department hadn’t been idle. At least they caught the culprit—a Little Gang member wearing a rainbow mask.
As the first to charge headlong, Rainbow Little Jiu was not only brave but mentally a bit unstable. After the Soulstones were placed in the residential area, he didn’t run away through the underground tunnel first but stayed nearby admiring his work.
Capturing such a big catch should have been rewarding. He didn’t need to be as diligent as colleagues in Yaha City, who fought over a thousand regular people and more than twenty students. Having half that success rate should be no problem.
Then he saw the mutants from this incident useless as always just standing there not killing anyone, only laughing foolishly. Except for the snake tenants upstairs, no one else died.
Rainbow Little Jiu was injured on the spot and sat on the ground wailing. Then he happily reported to the patrol officer who found him and was taken back to the station.
It’s hard to say who was right or wrong, but no matter the side, this incident could be considered both a failure and a relief.
Ten days after the Smart Stone incident in Kun Qiaosi City, a visitor boarded a V-flight heading for Yingxunsi City.
“How many years has it been? The air here is still so unpleasant, filled with the stench of decay and hypocrisy.”
This is Yingxunsi City, where the God of the Scales’ mausoleum is located. The place where criminals from the war were judged, and where dangerous prisoners are held now.
Professor Swina, the first to use X Crystals on a large scale to blow up schools and city skyscrapers, causing thousands of deaths, was imprisoned here.