A First Sequence–level gift—one that could rival the Dragon Emperor, Ice Emperor, and Flame Emperor!
Zhao Feng's eyes blazed with excitement.
As someone in the Spiritual Energy Bureau, he had a clear understanding of what a First Sequence gift meant: those who possessed tremendous strength from the very first aura revival.
What made them formidable wasn't only their abilities—it was also their cultivation talent.
Only when both were present could one be called First Sequence.
If your esper ability is strong but your cultivation talent is average, you won't have enough aura to bring your gift to bear.
Take himself, for example. He possessed the ability Plunder, yet because his cultivation talent was painfully ordinary, his strength was scarcely different from a normal person's.
But that state of affairs was about to end.
Petrification—a First Sequence gift. They would both be his.
As for whether the authorities would list him as wanted, and the Bureau would hunt him down afterward?
Heh.
A curl of disdain tugged at Zhao Feng's lips.
In this era, would they truly have the heart to kill a First Sequence esper?
Even if they did harden their hearts to kill him, all he had to do was slaughter some mutated beasts in the city beforehand, save a few civilians, let them be grateful, then massage public opinion a little… and who knew how many people would step forward to "whitewash" him.
After all—was he wrong?
He only wanted to become strong. What was wrong with wanting to become strong?
As for that little girl?
She couldn't control her ability to begin with—she had even petrified her own parents. For all he knew she didn't want her gift at all; death might even be a release for her.
Words like these—he could spin out as many as needed. Whitewashing was easy.
He could even claim the little girl had told him so herself—that she hoped he would help her "find release."
No one would know otherwise.
That was reality. The value a living First Sequence esper could create far outstripped that of a dead one. Even if his defense was nothing but words with no proof, there would be countless people willing to believe.
And if that still didn't change their minds—then he would just run.
Find a place to lie low and train, striving to catch up to the Dragon Emperor and the rest.
Then, using Plunder, he would seize the gifts of a few espers with decent talent and bolster his own.
When his strength no longer feared anyone, he could stride into the light as he pleased.
"This era is my era."
"Everyone is selfish. I'm not wrong."
"Rather than wait for a little girl who refuses to cooperate to passively master her gift, better that I inherit everything from her."
"That's how you maximize benefit."
No one knew that inside the Spiritual Energy Bureau there was a researcher about to plunder a little girl's ability and talent—and that, after her ability and talent were stolen, her frail body would likely fail under the backlash and die.
As the foremost force holding off mutated creatures in the city, the Spiritual Energy Bureau was, without question, the institution most trusted by the populace.
Even if the public doubted him, they would not doubt the Bureau.
All the more so if he was a researcher within the Bureau.
Forget the common folk—even people inside the Bureau had not imagined that someone would stab them in the back.
At present, the vast majority of espers with powerful gifts had joined the Bureau, devoting themselves wholeheartedly to eliminating mutated creatures in the cities. A small number of talented espers chose not to join, but they trained in peace.
Sometimes, when they happened upon Bureau espers fighting mutated creatures, they would even step in to help.
But there are always those who prefer a different path. To them, abilities and talents are not merely the power that sets them apart from ordinary people—they are the poison that lets their inner desires spill free.
Their swelling egos make them unwilling to submit to the rules society lays upon them, still less the laws humankind has set.
Mocked for their looks? Then die.
Scolded unfairly because parents played favorites? Then die.
Bullied for seeming weak? Then die.
Were they wrong? In and of themselves, perhaps not—but their methods were wrong, even more extreme than before the aura revival.
Why did it become like this?
Because they had power.
Many whose minds have not yet matured will, in a moment of impulse, do things they themselves cannot later understand—not only minors, but adults as well.
A boss grinding you down? Relatives sneering at you?
When the emotions surge, who can guarantee they will think clearly?
Especially when drunk.
Power can make a person lose their way. Thoughts they've had—and thoughts they never dared to have—burst out all at once.
And the only way to suppress this phenomenon is to make them realize the gulf between esper and esper, and between weak and strong.
At the start, it was the Scarlet Flame Bird that made the point; later, displays of the strength of Skyler Quinn, Firewing, and Chris Frost served the same purpose.
They wanted these people to understand that their strength was nowhere near enough to achieve their ambitions.
In truth, it had some effect. The dark impulses in many hearts were indeed shaken by the overwhelming power those champions displayed, and thus restrained.
But restraint is restraint. There will always be those who refuse to restrain themselves and cling to wishful thinking.
It is hard enough to face mutated creatures; no one wants to deal with internal "trifles" on top of that, still less see people undercutting them at a critical moment like this.
Yet there are always people who do not care what situation humanity is in, who do not wish to know what Huaxia faces.
They care only for themselves.
They want to overturn the era, to realize their ambitions.
They do not remotely grasp that if it were not for soldiers across the nation holding the line against mutated creatures breaking into human cities—if it were not for one Spiritual Energy Bureau fighter after another clearing mutated creatures within the cities—
Where would they find the life and time to sit here plotting how to "be kings and overlords"?
If not for heroes throwing themselves forward one after another, defending civilians' safety with their lives, how would they enjoy their current safety?
Therefore, against those who, in the dark, seek to challenge order—who try to stoke internal strife—Huaxia has only one stance:
Suppress them.
Suppress them completely.
Until not a single sound remains.
At the same time, in Ning City—
This city guarded by the First Sequence esper Nathaniel Gray should have been exceedingly safe, yet a rare death had occurred.
The victim was a young woman, twenty years of age, a beauty by any measure.
The cause of death was simple: excessive blood loss.
Had it been the mauling of a mutated creature, people could have understood. But this was not the work of mutated creatures.
"There will always be scum who deserve to die, no matter the era."
Nathaniel Gray's tone was icy; disappointment shadowed his eyes.
Humanity had reached a time like this—why did there still have to be those who would do such things for lust?
His gaze moved to the paper in his hand, scanning the information on it.
[Target Name: Liu Yongsheng]
[Esper Ability: Unknown (suspected to be physique-related)]
[Current Location: Ning City—Shishui Nianhua Bar]
Beyond that, there were notes guessing at Liu Yongsheng's ability, an estimate of his strength, and a record of his crimes.
This was not the first time—he had used his power to force women to sleep with him; this time it had cost a life.
(End of this chapter)