Xiao Snow walked Shen Ning through his theory:
First off, the missing person cases had been ongoing for a while. People knew about them, but no one paid much attention—after all, who really cared about a few ordinary folks living in the outskirts? Then, after the recent attack incident, someone remembered those cases and thought they could be used to divert attention. So they published them. To him, it was just a small matter.
But someone else knew this wasn’t small. It was huge—possibly even bigger than the Joker Gang. As soon as they saw the report, they freaked out:
“Holy shit, who let this out?!”
Immediately, they pulled strings to get it retracted.
“So, what’s the real truth?” Shen Ning asked.
Xiao Snow grinned. “If I knew, I wouldn’t still be sitting here—I’d have already been hauled away for blabbing.”
At least he had a good sense of self-awareness.
Shen Ning told him to keep at it—she’d be happy to hear whatever he found out in the future.
But for now, she had things to do.
First, she needed to buy a box of chocolate milk from another friend—to give to Xu Chuyao at tomorrow’s Special Squad meeting.
Then, she had to head to one of her least favorite places: the infirmary.
Shen Ning really didn’t want to go, but with finals coming up, it was mandatory to get a psychological evaluation from Dr. Helena.
Only…
“They’re gone?”
“Yeah.”
A new, unfamiliar doctor told her, “Helena and her whole team left a few days ago—said it was an emergency reassignment. Left in the middle of the night and didn’t even pack up.”
He handed her a file folder. “This is yours, right? It has your name on it. No clue what’s inside—they didn’t take it with them.”
Her name was indeed on the folder.
Shen Ning frowned. “You know who I am, but don’t know what’s in here?”
“Of course I know who you are. Shen Ning, right? Ascension Academy’s… cough, cough… legendary little hero.” The new doctor, thick eyebrows and sharp features, smiled. “You’ve racked up quite a body count. There’s even a saying going around:
‘White hair dances through the Abyss,
Spiritual force shreds all demons like the wind.’”
“…”
Her repressed-shadow-self said that was definitely a line from Chuyao.
Her broken-shadow-self agreed—it had her vibe all over it.
But that didn’t matter. Shen Ning just felt that her reputation at school was veering wildly into some very strange territory.
Leaving the infirmary, she opened the folder and found it was her past psychological evaluations.
[January, Year XX]: Overall stable, but occasional flashes of aggression. Reasonable suspicion of potential safety risk.
[February]: No overt behavior noted. Reasonable suspicion that subject has learned to disguise intentions. Suggest returning her to the lab for observation.
[May]: Still reasonable suspicion…
[August]: Strong reasonable suspicion…
All handwritten by Helena, the reports seemed more like a witch hunt than professional assessments. Fortunately, they were so over-the-top that the Academy never acted on them. And now, with the entire team reassigned, this file was just a pile of scrap paper.
The new doctor clearly wasn’t planning to continue Helena’s legacy. As for Director Luo Kangsheng—since the Special Squad’s creation, he’d grown more and more disinterested, practically invisible these days.
In other words, the shackles around her identity—were gone?
Shen Ning looked up, watching the tree branches sway above, the wind brushing past her ears. Everything felt… surreal.
“A good thing,” said her repressed-shadow-self. “Definitely worth celebrating. Let’s go back to the dorm and study two good volumes of those learning materials.”
———
The Battle of the Commerce Plaza had changed many people.
As key participants who had witnessed Shen Ning’s overwhelming power firsthand, two second-phase boys had recently developed a keen interest in spiritual energy projection techniques.
Inside the Special Squad activity room, they enthusiastically shared their recent training experience with the group:
“We went to Teacher Niu—you know, our male advisor. Turns out, mastering these skills is super hard. He said projecting spiritual energy takes tons of practice. You have to make it second nature. And if you ever feel like you’re just… farting the energy out—yeah, you’ve failed. We failed.”
“It’s honestly really difficult. Seriously, Shen Ning’s just a freakin’ genius. Don’t think we suck or anything. I’ll be bold here and say—even our own leader hasn’t mastered a projection skill.”
Bold words, huh?
Xu Chuyao had just stepped into the room and nearly blacked out from hearing that. She coughed to remind them she was there.
“Leader! That’s not what we meant! You already have amazing wisdom and strength—totally badass. I mean, you didn’t even need a skill last time. When you stepped in—BOOM—you saved the day! Stabilized the whole collapsing situation—uh, yeah.”
“Alright, alright.” Xu Chuyao rolled her eyes at Shi Lei. “I just haven’t gotten a skill yet. Also, the phrase is ‘saved the collapsing building,’ not ‘the building about to… do something.’”
“Right, right. So cultured too.”
The lightning-tempered girl sighed quietly.
It sounded kinda lame to say out loud, but yeah—this was her squad.
Sincere at heart… just not so great with words.
Then again, if Shen Ning had given her a few more villain points that day, she probably would’ve drawn a new skill already.
Damn it, Shen Ning’s fault!
Still, it was obvious from the room’s energy that everyone was in good spirits. Despite the danger of the Commerce Plaza battle—and even with a few injuries—the results spoke for themselves.
The higher-ups didn’t bother tallying exactly who defeated which Joker member, or what rank the enemy was. What mattered was the final report:
Under the command of Xu Chuyao, with support from Advisor Yu Jing, the Special Squad eliminated all 108 members of the Joker Gang, including five second-phase enemies. The rest were first-phase.
That kind of record? Sky-high. Even if someone was only a backup player, it was enough to write a shining entry on their resumé. After graduation, they could walk into a mid-level leadership role with ease.
“Since everyone’s in such a good mood,” Xu Chuyao said as she sat down, “I’ve got a piece of good news too.”
Just as she was about to speak, Shen Ning entered the room. Seeing her, Shi Lei and Cheng Li greeted her enthusiastically and even pulled a chair over.
The white-haired girl first handed her girlfriend the chocolate milk she bought yesterday, then slowly sat down. “What were you talking about just now?”
“New mission,” Xu Chuyao said, taking a big gulp of her drink. “The Academy’s made a decision—we’re switching from defense to annihilation. In other words…”
“We’re going to find the Joker Gang’s base in Central City—and wipe them out completely.”