Something’s wrong, evacuate immediately.
Although there was no public broadcast, the sparse information spread quickly from person to person, alerting the vast majority of the staff. Knowing what was happening was one thing; being able to escape was another matter entirely.
At this moment, they stood at the only elevator leading outside, completely trapped.
“What’s going on?”
“Don’t know, the elevator isn’t responding.”
“The system is locked.”
“Why is this happening…”
Amid the panicked crowd, a man in his thirties took down a cross necklace from his neck and gently clasped it in his hands.
“Maybe it’s time.” He said quietly, “Judgment Day has come.”
The familiar coworkers around him looked at him with bafflement.
“Judgment Day?”
“Our Judgment Day.” He closed his eyes. “Want me to remind you what we did? Turning lost Ordinary People into monsters, watching their desecrated bodies shattered into carbon repeatedly, only to be reformed again and again. Now, the punishment has finally arrived.”
One coworker scoffed, “What does that have to do with me? I’m just a worker. I was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement when I came here. Whatever the boss tells me to do, how could I disobey?”
“Even the swordsmen in the world wars believed they were innocent,” another sighed, “the sin of mediocrity.”
The metaphysical debate was confined to this small area, but soon, more people began to realize what was about to happen. As the transformation devices continued their operation, several nearby rooms had already begun to mutate.
From cracked walls emerged broken, pitiful figures — their skin gray and cracked like cement, their hollow stone eyes lifeless.
“It hurts… it hurts so much.”
“I’m so cold, can someone give me some glue to patch me up?”
“Is survival or reproduction the question? Or is it two questions, depending on how many are born?”
“Where are my… my shoes?”
The psychic waves emitted from the broadcast stopped their muttering. Fear gripped their gray faces, driving them toward the corridor leading to the elevator, where they encountered dozens of staff members.
Then, anger was born from that fear.
“They’re coming, they’re coming… don’t push me!”
Panic lingered for a short time among the crowd, but it wasn’t too bad. The mutants were only first-tier strength, cramped in such a narrow space with no numerical advantage, so ordinary employees managed to hold them off.
But the lowest-tier janitors fared much worse.
Helena had initially blended in with the cafeteria workers, but after several mutant charges, she found herself isolated.
Her mid-stage first-tier power was on par with the mutants’, and in her plainness and exhaustion, a ripple formed. Three mutants approached from different directions, and a cold, gray hand stabbed into her abdomen.
“Peck—”
As life rapidly drained, Helena recalled her brief life. Working at the Academy felt like a month ago, yet it seemed so distant.
During those three years, she constantly sought trouble for the white-haired girl, hoping to use research on her achievements to leave the Academy and enter higher circles.
When she was transferred to the Research Institute, she thought her dreams had come true. But now, she finally understood that the direction she ran was toward destruction’s end.
“A seed was planted in my heart, ai la di la ning, that it could fulfill a small wish with magic… Are you feeling better now?”
“Peng.”
Hearing the girl’s soft reply, Xu Chuyao breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally recovered, to counter the negative emotions, she sang many children’s songs and Tang poems for her beloved girlfriend.
No matter how bad things got, Chuyao was about to start her “I am the Milk Dragon” act.
Shen Ning herself was calm, but several reflections had yet to settle.
The Sexually Repressed Shadow was so agitated it nearly made a mistake — after all, it had been so long since seeing Chuyao; sexual repression was natural.
The Broken Shadow’s tears streamed down, “Her singing is still so beautiful.”
The Milky Ning Reflection nodded vigorously, like a fan swaying to their idol’s concert song.
Shen Ning’s mood was similarly stirred. When she missed the other most, she truly arrived, bringing along her overwhelming force.
There was nothing left to fear.
The girl collected herself, stood with her beloved, and walked outside. The special room used to confine “out-of-control materials” had a lifespan of just an hour and a half and could no longer be used.
When they came out, Yu Jing asked with concern, “Why did Shen just react like that? What did you do to her?”
The latter half was directed at Fort Supervisor.
“That’s their so-called experiment.” Xu Chuyao said simply. “We’ll explain after we get out.”
“The things in the broadcast just now were provided by you. In other words, those emotional waves originated from yourself.” The Milky Ning Reflection said to the girl. “It’s fine the first time without preparation, but next time you encounter this, you should try resisting it. Think more about happy things, something to emotionally regulate yourself.”
Hearing this, the other two reflections stared at it in disbelief, their expressions utterly incredulous.
“No, sis, you’re spoiling the topic too much,” the Sexually Repressed Shadow couldn’t understand. “This absolutely cannot be explained by observation or thought.”
“Because Chuyao said it’s related to the experiment.” The Milky Ning Reflection said elegantly, “Take what she said and think about it, you’ll get the conclusion.”
“She just said that casually, now you’ve found a bug reason for it, huh?”
Shen Ning didn’t join the reflections’ bickering but mulled over the Milky Ning Reflection’s words.
Originating from my own emotions?
Today there were two experiments. One in the morning — hearing Liu Shu’s voice in reality, she momentarily panicked and was terrified. The second in the afternoon — Sveina purposely crushed Liu Shu’s head before her eyes, filling her with rage ever since.
Those two emotions perfectly matched what she had just experienced.
“The elevator exit is definitely blocked. Follow me.”
Fort Supervisor swiped his card to open the emergency passage, but the heavy metal gate blocking everyone was, unsurprisingly, locked tight.
“We have to get through here to get out.” He pressed his hand against the wall. “Wait a moment, I’ll use earth elemental control to make a hole.”
“No need to bother, let me handle it!”
Cheng Chen shouted sharply. A palm the size of a sandpot slapped loudly against the metal door. The same elemental force, controlled at peak third-tier, rapidly merged, and with several cracking sounds, the gate shattered into pieces.
Though called an emergency passage, it was really just a vertical shaft with a wall ladder to climb.
“You go first.” Xu Chuyao gave the order.
Because Chuyao was wearing a skirt.
The emergency passage was in the corner of the Research Institute, far from the main area, but as they climbed, they could still hear heavy, dull noises on the other side — moments of thunderous rumbles followed by groans.
When Xu Chuyao was the last to climb out and look back, she saw the ground on the other side had collapsed inward, and the elevator rails had fallen in.
The staff were indeed not afraid of first-tier mutants, but the building structure of the Research Institute had become nourishment for the transforming mutants. The entire structure collapsed, burying all the staff underground.
Fort Supervisor silently mourned them for a second, then sat on the ground cursing Sveina.
“Stop cursing!” Xu Chuyao walked over and kicked his leg. “First, be honest.”
“At this point, Fort can no longer consider what he’s here to investigate. The Research Institute is blown up, and he’s lost his supervisor title. What resistance is there?”
“We were ordered to establish the Research Institute and carry out projects ordered by the Locke Morgan Family, all under command. Besides, I’m not the one responsible here — Sveina, who handled everything at the base, is.”
He described the Research Institute’s work. In the early years, the goal was pure: bringing Ordinary People from unknown places into the experimental rooms to expose them to X Crystal radiation, seeing if any could awaken innate abilities. Failures were directly destroyed.
The bad news? No successes at all.
Good news? There was no good news—only bad news.
Because more and more Ordinary People were consumed, the cost sank ever deeper, and responsibility increased, the Locke Morgan Family urgently adjusted research direction, exploring ways to control mutants. The Soul Four Restriction and Transformation Formula were the first breakthroughs. They gained an endlessly regenerating army, proving this path was feasible.
When Cheng Chen heard the words “Soul Imprisonment,” his expression tensed.
Turns out his authority really couldn’t handle this… but since he’d already heard it, he might as well listen fully.
“Good, we have an army. How do we control the army? An expert in the family proposed… I don’t know who this expert is, but through seismic wave phenomena in the earth’s crust, he suggested a possible resonance reaction — coexistence of dual attributes.”
Simply put, mutants are both stone and human, capable of transmitting shockwaves and exchanging information, and that information is assimilative. If you vibrate, I vibrate too.
“But the mutants’ mental state, haha, isn’t ideal. So we set the goal on the most direct emotions. Shen Ning’s appearance became the final puzzle piece.”
Using the most direct emotions to control mutants—make them fight with intense emotions, make them calm with… direct destruction. If destroyed, next time we have more materials, we use them again.
“We brought Shen Ning here hoping to obtain some positive emotional waves — happiness, joy, spirits high, that sort of thing — without exposing our true intentions. But Sveina acted on his own, doing many strange operations.” Fort shrugged helplessly. “I don’t understand why he did that, and he even blew up the Research Institute.”
While talking, he suddenly recalled something. “By the way, that beautiful young lady, you said earlier you’re here for business?”
“Business?” Young lady is a respectful term, but ‘big’ is a descriptor?
“To investigate suspects related to the Clown Gang and Supreme Society,” Xu Chuyao said.
“Then I understand now, you must be after him. No wonder he ran so fast.”
Turns out he was a member of the terror organization. No wonder he was so jittery.
“Get up, don’t just sit on the floor and give up.” Xu Chuyao kicked him again. “You need to find a way to contact your family superiors immediately and tell them how much trouble’s been caused here.”
Then she turned to her people. “We’re going to find Sveina. We can’t let him escape.”
But where was he?
At this moment, Shen Ning raised her hand, “He might have gone to Fred Academy.”
Fred Academy’s principal was surprised by the arrival of such an outstanding former graduate.
“Sveina, what are you doing here? I thought you’d be handling things at the Research Institute. So many people went there just now.”
Not many came—mainly two peak third-tiers. That was quite a formidable lineup.
“I wanted to borrow the city broadcast at the Academy to handle some matters, so I stopped by to see you.” Sveina smiled brightly, radiating characteristic confidence. “Also, I stored some things in the Academy warehouse before. Could you help me get them out?”
“No problem.” The Fred Academy principal replied readily. “You said they were confidential. I’ve had strict guards on the warehouse these past months. The doors haven’t been opened once.”
After saying that, he sent someone to move the boxes and arranged for a teacher to escort Sveina to the broadcast hall.
Walking through the school grounds, Sveina looked at the familiar old sights and took a deep breath.
As an ambitious, thoughtful member of the Supreme Society, Sveina had a simple goal—one—
Blow up his alma mater.