Danger loomed sharply, the situation suddenly intense.
Annoyed.
Xu Chuyao turned over, glanced at his phone—how was it only 7 a.m., yet there were already people outside the cabin door?
“Is there a call?”
“I—” Class Advisor Yu Ye’s voice came through, “You need to get up quickly, it’s urgent.”
“They’re looking for you.” Mi Xiaolu said, his head resting on the bed beside Xu Chuyao.
“I know, I know, but could you help me open the door?”
“But I’m still asleep.”
The two girls didn’t need to argue, because the dorm supervisor A Hui climbed upstairs and helped Yu Ye open the door.
“How are you still asleep?” The Class Advisor came to the student’s bedside and lightly patted his head. “Get up quickly and take a look.”
Xu Chuyao’s eyes were still half-closed, mumbling, “They’re looking for me, Principal Lü or the Director, tell them to wait a bit.”
“They’re not from above, they’re from downstairs asking you what to do.” The Class Advisor said, “Xiao Wang initiated the first Soulstone attack.”
After several promotions, the young woman named Chuyao, who now had three shining golden stars, was the highest responsible person for related affairs.
“All right.”
Despite the difficulty, Xu Chuyao reluctantly got up.
After putting on simple clothes and washing up, Xu Chuyao sat in the office eating breakfast while checking the incident’s details.
Due to the time difference, the incident happened late at night in Center City, in a place called Kunqiaosi City—a common district with deserted public housing apartments—where a Soulstone device was discovered.
When the patrolling personnel found it, the building had already begun to disintegrate in a faint glow, giving only time for residents in nearby apartments to scatter.
During the evacuation, the Security Department of Kunqiaosi City followed Xu Chuyao’s instructions and set up an air cushion at the exit, turning the evacuation into a game of catch and throw.
As for the building with the Soulstone, there was no chance for rescue.
“This scattered residential area was originally designed as relief housing, not a gated community,” Yu Lin said, holding a flat panel, “There are only five floors, so…”
As the main security officer of Center City, he came to Shengling Academy early this morning. Among those Yu Ye mentioned was him.
Because these scattered residential buildings are low-rise and have fewer residents, casualties weren’t too many.
But from another perspective, if this were a gated community—with guards at the main gate and locks downstairs—someone could still smuggle things in unnoticed.
So this incident is hard to say whether it was luck or misfortune.
“Worth mentioning is that the mutants produced during this transformation behave differently from before. Miss Xu, please take a look.”
Wei Lin placed the flat panel in front of Xu Chuyao, playing video footage from the scene.
The camera showed the abandoned tall building bathed in faint light, and some creatures made of crystals slowly emerging.
But they weren’t as wild as before; instead, they walked slowly, occasionally freezing in place as if confused, while…
“Can you not be so annoying? I really can’t take it anymore!”
In a dorm room, a shadow on the wall crazily pointed at a girl:
“I don’t even know what’s wrong with you. Why didn’t you just take the initiative to kiss me? You stayed dazed all night, even laughing to yourself sometimes.”
Since last night’s health assembly, Shen Ning had been like this.
“Don’t say it so seriously.” The worn-out Tong Ying comforted her. “That’s just a smile; life goes on, it’s normal.”
He sympathized, having felt the same at times.
Shen Ning didn’t want to explain, only wanting to recall the softness of her girlfriend’s little laugh and cute smiles before turning over to sleep.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Indonesian archipelago, at the Yerhala Research Institute, someone was at a loss.
“What do you mean ‘open D2’?”
Facing Gori’s repeated questions, the lead experimenter Zhan En replied helplessly, “That’s just how it is. Their behavior is exactly like this.”
The wave patterns were too complicated to see clearly, but anyone could tell the creatures standing still in the deep inspection room, laughing until the stone floor seemed to crack, were extremely happy.
You couldn’t say it was a smile born of fear, anger, or forced happiness.
“The point isn’t whether they’re happy, but that they behave like this.”
In the data submitted by the Bokmogen Family, mutants were supposed to be stable and numb, only attacking when seeing humans.
But now, the mutants in the lab alternated between moments of overwhelming fear and moments of dazed, foolish smiles.
They weren’t supposed to be like this, they shouldn’t be so unpredictable. This was wrong.
Mendes kept asking about progress every day, and Gori was under a lot of pressure, especially with this erratic behavior.
“Master Gori, we just received external news.” A woman at the door spoke up. “There was a small Soulstone attack in Kunqiaosi City, and the mutants produced showed similar smiling behavior.”
Rao was the institute’s female assistant, responsible for receiving and processing outside information during working hours.
“That’s good news.” Lu En stroked his chin. “It means the mutant abnormalities aren’t caused by the lab. It won’t affect anything here.”
Gori glared at him coldly: “I hope that’s truly good news.”
Seeing his superior looking angry, Lu En whimpered a few times and became serious: “Analyzing the intelligence, since the abnormal mutants appeared simultaneously in different places with the same emotions, it probably isn’t individual behavior, but something influencing them.”
“What could be influencing them?”
So far apart, affecting so many mutants at once.
Lu En shrugged and gave a tentative answer: “I don’t know.”
Gori fought the urge to punch something and asked in a low voice, “You think the Congregation knows?”
“I don’t know… I’m not sure, but I think the Svina Cult might know something—they’ve studied this for a long time.”
Because of the mutants’ strange behavior, they didn’t cause much damage; most casualties came from the initial radiant light and the building’s collapse.
“I understand. You can leave now. I’ll discuss this with my Intelligence team first.”
Xu Chuyao sent Wei Lin away, then sat in her chair thinking for a long time before deciding—to not rely on Xu Chuyao, but to ask professionals for help, after all, when it came to Soulstones, no one was more capable than Shen Ning.
Arriving at her girlfriend’s dorm room, Xu Chuyao knocked on the door.
Danger loomed sharply, the situation suddenly intense.
A single word from the girl, yet the voice sounded a bit confused.
“I—I haven’t gotten up yet.”
Too much. Chuyao was already up early; how could he still be hiding under the covers?
“Wait, wait for me!”
Shen Ning’s voice was oddly agitated; after a moment, she came out to open the door.
“What are you doing out here?”
Seeing his girlfriend’s slightly flushed face, Xu Chuyao curiously glanced at her.