SPLASH…
The rain was still falling outside.
Because all the surrounding pollutants had been killed by the Tang Guang Sword’s earth-shattering strike, the streets were relatively safe for now.
Jiang Jianxin controlled the Tang Guang Sword to slice open her handcuffs.
The original van from the mental hospital had been destroyed in the pollutant assault, so Lin Xin’an brought her to a nearby supermarket to take shelter again.
CLICK—
He shut the glass door heavily, as if locking the downpour outside.
Both Jiang Jianxin and Lin Xin’an were soaked from the rain, their hair now plastered to their foreheads in wet strands.
The supermarket’s lights were off.
Rows of shelves sank into the darkness, and you could see corpses and bloodstains on the floor.
Lin Xin’an gave Jiang Jianxin a look and nudged his chin toward the supermarket’s interior.
The latter stared at him blankly, like a deer in headlights.
Lin Xin’an: “…”
“What are you spacing out for?
Go check the supermarket for any danger and take care of it.”
Lin Xin’an said through gritted teeth, exasperated.
Jiang Jianxin looked dazed.
“Dan…
Danger?
Oh, okay.
I thought you were going to check.”
Lin Xin’an was clearly an insider, familiar with things like “pollutant monsters” and “superpowers.” At a critical moment like this, Jiang Jianxin had subconsciously started to rely on him as a senior.
But Lin Xin’an obviously didn’t see it that way.
He shook his left hand, which was still bleeding and which he couldn’t even lift.
“If I go check and there’s a monster, I’d just be serving myself up on a platter.
Right now, you’re the one protecting me, the injured party.”
Jiang Jianxin nodded, picked up the Tang Guang Sword, took a deep breath, and forced herself to walk deeper inside.
The farther she went, away from the daylight filtering through the glass door, the dimmer and more somber it became.
Fortunately, the Tang Guang Sword’s strike had been clean.
Holding Tang Guang, Jiang Jianxin made a circuit of the store but didn’t find a single monster.
She returned to the entrance, sword in hand, to see Lin Xin’an holding his work ID to his ear as if it were a phone, speaking into it.
Seeing Jiang Jianxin, he added one more sentence:
“Alright, I’ll rest up for now.
Hanging up.”
Jiang Jianxin glanced at his work ID and said:
“There are no monsters inside.”
Lin Xin’an remarked with feeling:
“Your [Talent] is really incredible.”
Hearing this, Jiang Jianxin realized he had only sent her to check as a way to get her out of the way so he could talk to someone else.
She didn’t say anything, just leaned against the shelf closest to the glass door with her sword cradled in her arms.
She watched Lin Xin’an walk inside with light, mincing steps, like a large dog.
After leaning against the shelves for about twenty minutes, Jiang Jianxin was so tired and sleepy she had started to nod off when Lin Xin’an finally came out of the supermarket.
“Here, dry your hair.”
A slender hand holding a clean towel appeared before her eyes.
Jiang Jianxin looked up and saw that the Lin Xin’an before her was completely transformed.
His soaked brown vest and shirt had been replaced with new ones, and he had changed into a fresh white lab coat as well.
His drenched, stringy hair had been dried and even meticulously styled.
Seeing Jiang Jianxin’s surprised expression, a confident smile once again spread across the handsome psychologist’s face.
“I know what you’re thinking.
This isn’t mysophobia; it’s called having a passion for life.”
“As for these clothes, I got them from the supermarket.
Didn’t pay, because there’s no need.”
Jiang Jianxin looked at him.
Lin Xin’an smiled and pressed the towel into her hand.
“The apocalypse is here, miss.
Governments have fallen, laws have collapsed.
The world is about to descend into chaos.”
She took the towel and gave her wet hair a cursory wipe.
Just as she was about to ask Lin Xin’an what he meant by “the apocalypse is here,” she saw the good doctor take out his little mirror and begin to admire himself again.
Jiang Jianxin couldn’t take it anymore.
She cleared her throat and asked:
“What should we do next?
Are we going to stay here forever?”
Lin Xin’an put down the mirror, looked at her, and chuckled.
“Of course not.
Let’s reintroduce ourselves.”
“Greetings, Lady Jiang Jianxin.
I am Lin Xin’an, of the Bright Camp’s All-Knowing Sequence.
My Talent is the Mind Reading Technique, and I belong to the [Madhouse] organization.
I am a psychologist.”
Jiang Jianxin heard a string of words she didn’t understand and could only say haltingly:
“Hello, my name is Jiang Jianxin.
I don’t know what camp or sequence I belong to.”
Lin Xin’an looked at her thoughtfully.
“Not knowing your own camp and sequence…
That’s truly rare.
But seeing how powerful and destructive your Talent is, you’re most likely from the War Camp.”
Jiang Jianxin was still confused.
“Could you explain it to me in more detail?
What exactly are Talents, Sequences, and Camps?”
Lin Xin’an gave her a curious look.
His Mind Reading Technique told him the girl wasn’t lying; she genuinely didn’t know about these things.
“Alright, then let’s start from the very beginning.”
“The human world contains not only ordinary people but also superpower users; the two coexist.
Superpower users awaken Talents, gaining all sorts of supernatural abilities.
Based on the different characteristics of these Talents, humanity has divided them into seven major Sequences and three major Camps.”
“They are: the All-Knowing Sequence and Foreknowledge Sequence, which belong to the Bright Camp; the Fool Sequence, Deceiver Sequence, and Fantasy Sequence, which belong to the Chaos Camp; and the Mage Sequence and Sword Holder Sequence, which belong to the War Camp.”
“Below the Sequences are Mutated Levels.
Generally speaking, the higher the Mutated Level, the more it deviates from the original power represented by the Sequence Name.”
Lin Xin’an gave her an example:
“Take me, for instance.
Mind Reading Technique, All-Knowing Sequence, number six.
This means this Talent belongs to the All-Knowing Sequence and is the result of the All-Knowing ability mutating six times.”
Jiang Jianxin was starting to understand.
Although she had no childhood memories, she tried hard to recall the “Sword Master’s Daily Life” that she had written about in her diary.
‘If the Sword Master’s abilities can be explained as a Talent, then what the hell is the “Sword Sect”?’
‘Is there an organization in the Superpower World called the “Sword Sect”?’
Thinking this, Jiang Jianxin asked it aloud.
Unexpectedly, Lin Xin’an stroked his chin.
“Sword Sect?
Never heard of it.
We live in the real world.
Isn’t Sword Sect a term from the Cultivation World?”
Jiang Jianxin didn’t say any more, burying the question in her heart.
Lin Xin’an knew what she was thinking.
He patted Jiang Jianxin’s shoulder and said:
“Don’t get too hung up on it.
There’s something more pressing right now.”
He pointed out the window.
Outside, another mutation had occurred at some point.
Through the curtain of rain, the piles of corpses that had been motionless on the ground began to tremble again.
Faintly, one could see bodies struggling to crawl out from within.
Jiang Jianxin’s eyes widened.
“This is…”
Lin Xin’an sighed.
“This place is about to become a contaminated zone.
Although your sword can kill them easily, these monsters will revive after a short while.”
“So, we need to leave this place as quickly as possible, during the gap before they revive.”
BEEP BEEP—
In the distance, a blue and white vehicle with flashing red lights drove over, horn blaring, and stopped right in front of the supermarket.
Lin Xin’an looked at Jiang Jianxin and extended a hand earnestly.
“Jiang Jianxin, leave this place with me.
Join the Madhouse.”