Half an hour later, countless police cars tore through the city with sirens blaring, racing toward the airport at breakneck speed.
“Supervisor.”
A Class B evolutionist turned around and held a tablet out to the back seat with both hands.
“This is the information on Flight MN538 that the Air Traffic Administration just sent over. The background checks on the other three hijackers are here as well.”
Inside the speeding car, Shen Zhuo took the tablet. The glow of the screen reflected off his cold lenses.
According to Zhang Zhao’s broken confession, his three remaining accomplices were going to hijack a civilian airliner flying from Country M to Shenhai Airport today. They planned to use the passengers on board as leverage in negotiations with the government and demand Zhang Zhao’s release.
And the hijacked MN538 was already approaching Shenhai Airport.
Only an hour and a half remained before landing.
“Customs is urgently pulling the passengers’ personal information. Once they finish, they’ll send it to us immediately. Um, Supervisor…”
The Class B evolutionist swallowed, looking at the three hijackers’ files in Shen Zhuo’s hands. His voice wavered slightly.
“The two Class C accomplices aren’t much of a concern, b-but the mastermind…”
The tablet displayed the hijacking mastermind’s sullen face.
Zhang Wenyong. Thirty-five. Unemployed.
Zhang Zhao’s older paternal cousin.
A Class A evolutionist with an outstanding fugitive registration.
The situation was clearly urgent, yet the air inside the cramped car seemed to freeze.
The fully armed Class B evolutionists carefully shut their mouths, none of them daring to look up at Shen Zhuo’s face.
Humanity’s sudden evolution had begun five years ago.
It had started with a once-in-a-century meteor shower. According to later statistics, more than four thousand meteorites had fallen to Earth, and a considerable portion of them were discovered to be a highly unusual kind of extraterrestrial substance—
Evolution radiation sources.
Not long after that meteor shower, humans all over the world began to undergo sudden evolution one after another. After coming into contact with radiation-source meteorites for various reasons, their physical abilities strengthened drastically overnight. Some even developed supernatural abilities of varying intensity.
Afterward, radiation sources were rapidly collected by governments around the world. The hundred thousand evolutionists worldwide were also registered one by one and divided into four grades—A, B, C, and D—based on the strength of their abilities.
More than eighty thousand Class C and D evolutionists had been recorded. Their ability strength remained within a controllable range. Most possessed abilities such as X-ray vision, object displacement, or extremely enhanced senses. Their social impact was fairly limited, and they were generally absorbed by various nations’ Supervision Offices or special forces.
The Class B evolutionists numbered fewer than twenty thousand. They possessed formidable physical qualities, were difficult to kill with ordinary bullets, and had stronger abilities such as control over water and fire. They were the focus of monitoring and protection in every country and held extremely high research value.
And at the top of the biological chain were the world’s two thousand-plus Class A ability users.
They truly stood at the peak of the pyramid of human evolution.
They possessed extremely high individual combat ability and unique control over natural elements, electrical currents, magnetic poles, and more. Some could even affect the climate within a certain range, causing natural disasters such as floods, hailstorms, and blizzards. Those two thousand-plus Class A evolutionists were no different from two thousand-plus ticking bombs hidden inside human society.
A Class B Zhang Zhao merely gave the Supervision Office a serious headache.
But a bloody and brutal Class A Zhang Wenyong could make the entire city of Shenhai pay the price.
At the same time, at the airport.
“You have to evacuate! All non-evolutionists, evacuate immediately!”
A young man in a Supervision Office uniform, wearing the collar of a Class B evolutionist, was roaring furiously. One hand pointed toward the sky, while the other gripped the SWAT captain by the collar.
“The one on that plane is a Class A mutant! He’s extremely dangerous! If you stay here, you’re just throwing your lives away!”
The airport had already fallen into chaos. Red and blue police lights flashed over one another.
The SWAT captain, still held by the collar, snapped angrily, “We haven’t received orders from above yet! The airport passengers haven’t been fully evacuated! We—”
BEEP BEEP!
Car horns sounded from far away, drawing closer.
The crowd scattered in panic.
Four armored riot-control vehicles came roaring in and stopped at the entrance to the apron amid shrieking brakes. Dozens of well-trained, fully armed evolutionists jumped down from the vehicles, each wearing a collar around the neck. Every uniform bore the words Shenhai City Supervision Office.
“E-evolutionists?”
“Are those evolutionists?”
The crowd stirred in fear. Then someone suddenly noticed something.
“Look! That car—”
A domestically produced black sedan with a license plate of six ones stopped steadily in front of the runway.
The next moment, the car door opened.
Shen Zhuo ducked out of the car, one hand pressing down the black coat lifted by the wind.
The young man shoved the SWAT captain away and sprinted over.
“Supervisor!”
The Supervision Office evolutionists along the way called out as they saw him.
“What’s the situation, Team Leader Chen?”
“Team Leader Chen!”
But the young man—Chen Miao, leader of the Supervision Office’s Second Team—had no time to answer his colleagues. He ran all the way to Shen Zhuo and saluted.
“Supervisor, the situation is very bad. The hijacking mastermind Zhang Wenyong’s ability has just been confirmed. He can control the climate on a small scale, and he seems to have some connection to several fishing-boat hijackings from back then…”
Shen Zhuo said nothing. Facing the violent wind, he strode toward the apron.
“Senior, listen to me.”
Chen Miao glanced around very quickly, then lowered his voice and changed the way he addressed him. His tone was urgent.
“Your body really can’t take you injecting that drug so often anymore. Let’s request outside support. Before Brother Yue returned to the central district, he told me that no matter what situation you ran into, you could ask him for help. Brother Yue is still the first ability user in our country ever rated Class A…”
Chen Miao caught one look at Shen Zhuo’s face and immediately fell silent in horror.
“He’s nothing but a dog Fu Chen left behind after he died,” Shen Zhuo said coldly.
“…”
Chen Miao did not dare speak.
A trace of ridicule surfaced in Shen Zhuo’s eyes.
“Besides, it’s only Class A.”
Was he talking about Zhang Wenyong, the hijacker?
Or Brother Yue in the central district?
Chen Miao hesitated and did not dare make a sound.
At that moment, Shen Zhuo stepped over the police cordon. The SWAT captain happened to turn around. He did not recognize Shenhai City’s Chief Supervisor, but his gaze landed on Shen Zhuo’s unmarked neck, and he was instantly shocked.
“How did a passenger get in here? This area is extremely dangerous! Someone, take him away!”
Before the captain finished speaking, his hand was suddenly empty.
The submachine gun had been wrenched away by an unimaginable force.
Shen Zhuo did not slow down. He walked toward the control tower, raised the submachine gun toward the sky with one hand—
Bang bang bang bang bang!
Bullets flew. Screams erupted.
Everyone was terrified into stillness, and the uncontrollable chaos abruptly went quiet.
“I am Shenhai City Supervision Office. This site is now under my control. All noncombatants, evacuate immediately!”
Shen Zhuo’s face was cold. He casually tossed aside the emptied submachine gun, drew a silver special-issue pistol from the back of his waist, and loaded it as he walked.
“Notify the tower to hail MN538. I will speak to the hijacker myself.”
Beneath the sky, leaden clouds gathered thickly.
A massive civilian airliner howled across the firmament.
When the chaos and screams broke out from the rear of the cabin, Bai Sheng was lying in a fully reclined first-class seat. His long legs were lazily crossed, thunderous music leaked faintly from his over-ear headphones, and he was reading with rapt attention from a book whose cover was suspiciously inappropriate.
“Hands up! Don’t move!”
“Aaaah—!”
A flight attendant rushed down the aisle.
Bai Sheng noticed nothing at all and turned the page without looking away.
“Everyone, put your hands on your heads! Lower your heads! Or I’ll shoot!”
A Class C mutant hijacker roared as he charged in. The muzzle of his submachine gun swept around the cabin once, then suddenly stopped in disbelief.
“Hey? What the hell are you doing?”
Under the gun barrel, in seat 1A, Bai Sheng slowly raised his head from behind the book.
“?”
The hijacker: “…”
Everyone: “…”
“Put your damn hands up!” the hijacker shouted, almost losing his mind.
Bai Sheng looked at the gun barrel in confusion, then leaned out and turned back to look at the trembling passengers. Only then did he seem to realize what was happening. He reached up and removed the obviously expensive over-ear headphones.
The next second, music that made everyone’s scalp prickle poured out.
“Super Idol’s smile isn’t as sweet as yours—”
“A hijacking?”
Bai Sheng closed the book and blurted out the three words, completely baffled.
For an instant, the first thought of everyone around him was:
This handsome guy is definitely not right in the head.
Bai Sheng dressed somewhat like a returning international student: white T-shirt, jeans, sneakers, a black smartwatch on his wrist. His unruly black hair even had a small streak dyed silver-white.
He looked pretty trendy.
Calling him handsome enough to cut someone down with one glance would not have been an exaggeration. Unfortunately, the more devastating his looks were, the more cratered his IQ and EQ seemed to be. From his face alone, no one could tell how serious the problem in his brain was. The two were practically inversely proportional.
The hijacker nearly cursed out loud.
Then his eyes fell on the book in Bai Sheng’s hand. On the cover, a seductive bunny girl was blowing a kiss. The title read:
On the Role of Synthetic A Priori Judgment and Binary Opposition Thought in Promoting Voluntary Male Sterilization.
The recommendation printed on the wraparound band was passionate:
A profound masterpiece! First publication! Top world university! Doctoral dissertation topic in philosophy!
By Bai Sheng.
“…”
The hijacker held his submachine gun and thought:
What kind of short-circuited idiot wrote this? Could anyone actually graduate after submitting a thesis like that?
Bai Sheng observed his expression and felt he might have found a potential kindred spirit. Sincerely, he offered the book forward.
“Want to buy one? The author’s ideas are really sharp.”
“Fuck off!”
The hijacker’s pent-up rage finally found an outlet. He slapped the book away, sending it flying.
“Hands up! Get down on the floor!”
On the ground, inside the control tower.
The control room door banged open.
The staff at the monitoring station turned back nervously, only to see Shen Zhuo stride in, his face cold as frost.
Behind him, several ability-user guards escorted a staggering figure forward.
It was Zhang Zhao.
“Supervisor Shen!”
The negotiator hurried over, his face ugly.
“We just established contact with the hijacker, Zhang Wenyong. He is demanding the immediate release of his accomplice Zhang Zhao. His attitude is extremely aggressive, almost impossible to persuade. We’ve tried everything, but nothing has worked…”
“Have you found his family?”
The negotiator said with difficulty, “Zhang Wenyong stabbed his mother to death with his own hands when he was thirteen. His father’s whereabouts are unknown.”
Everyone’s expressions became hard to describe.
Shen Zhuo waved a hand to show he understood, then came to the monitoring station and took the headset. He asked air traffic control, “How much longer can the fuel last?”
The older officer’s brows were furrowed deeply enough to form a crease like the character for river.
“The reserve fuel can still buy us thirty minutes. The key concern now is that the hijackers may force a malicious landing and intentionally crash into a downtown area or a residential district…”
Shen Zhuo nodded once and put on the headset.
Several monitor screens lit his hard, cold profile.
His voice was steady and clear.
“This is Shen Zhuo of the Shenhai City Supervision Office. What are your demands?”
“…”
On the other end of the comms, static hissed.
A moment later, Zhang Wenyong’s cold voice sounded.
“Supervisor Shen. I’ve long heard of you.”
The cockpit door was wide open.
The old captain lay unconscious on the floor. The young copilot’s hands trembled as he gritted his teeth and forced himself to focus on the instrument panel, even though blood streaming down had already covered his left eye.
Zhang Wenyong stood behind the pilot’s seat.
One hand seemed to rest casually on the top of the copilot’s head.
His build was terrifyingly powerful. Even the muscles of his hand were abnormal. With just a light twist, he could snap a person’s head clean off at the throat.
“I have three conditions. Listen carefully,” Zhang Wenyong said coldly. “First, release Zhang Zhao immediately.”
Shen Zhuo glanced back.
Zhang Zhao was collapsed in the corner, his limbs spasming, while several Supervision Office ability users held guns to his head.
“Second, prepare a car and one hundred million in old bills. I’ll randomly take several female passengers with me.”
Zhang Wenyong’s tone through the headset was unusually vicious.
“Don’t even think about tampering with the car or the money. Otherwise, tomorrow you’ll receive the heads of all the hostages. Understood?”
Shen Zhuo remained unmoved.
“And the third?”
Zhang Wenyong gave a cold laugh.
“Third, I want you to lift surveillance on every evolutionist under the Shenhai City Supervision Office. Remove their collars. Destroy their registration files. Release evolutionists back into society.”
“I want you to give them their freedom back completely.”
For an instant, the surrounding area went quiet.
Even the uniformed inspectors’ expressions changed slightly. Their gazes turned complicated, and they could not help looking toward Shen Zhuo at the monitoring station.
But under everyone’s eyes, that straight-backed figure did not move in the slightest. Even his voice carried no emotion.
“Surrender. I refuse all three conditions.”
Everyone around him changed color at once.
In truth, no matter who stood there, they could only refuse.
As long as Zhang Wenyong was allowed to land, there would be no possibility of capturing him inside the airport. They could only watch helplessly as he took hostages and escaped. The various ability-user crimes that had occurred over the past five years had already left police forces around the world with too many bloody lessons.
But no one had expected Shen Zhuo to be this decisive.
He did not show even the slightest weakness. He did not ask anyone to discuss it. He simply made the decision outright.
“Do you know what you’re saying, Supervisor Shen?” Zhang Wenyong forced the words through his teeth.
“Do you know who you are dealing with, Zhang Wenyong?”
“…”
Shen Zhuo said, “I am the Supervisor of Shenhai City. I am the only person authorized to preserve the safety of this entire city at the cost of sacrificing a small number of lives.”
Inside the cockpit, Zhang Wenyong glared at the intercom, his lips trembling slightly.
“If you surrender now, I can guarantee that all of you will serve life sentences without risk to your lives. But if you start a massacre, I will make sure you personally hear every moment of Zhang Zhao being tortured to death.”
“I will not give you the chance to fly a passenger plane into the city. Jamming aircraft have already taken off. A directional missile is armed and ready to launch at any moment, prepared to turn you and the entire plane into ash.”
“Zhang Wenyong.”
Inside the control tower, Shen Zhuo’s voice was calm to the extreme.
“You are a Class A mutant addicted to slaughter. If I let you escape Shenhai today, countless people will die because of you tomorrow.”
“I am going to end you in Shenhai.”
On both ends of the radio, there was no sound except the hiss of static.
It was as if even the wind had frozen.
“Fuck—!”
Panic and fury rushed to Zhang Wenyong’s head at the same time. He went almost mad, slammed the intercom down with a clang, spun around in desperation, and charged out of the cockpit.
Just outside the cockpit door was first class.
In the first row, a handsome guy with silver-white highlights was slowly raising both hands with the muzzle of a submachine gun pressed to his head.
Zhang Wenyong cursed. Without thinking, he grabbed the handsome guy by the collar and dragged him bodily into the cockpit.
Bai Sheng, hit by disaster out of nowhere: “…”
Zhang Wenyong snatched up the submachine gun with one hand and the radio with the other, spittle flying as he cursed.
“You bastard Shen, don’t think you’ve scared me! I have a hostage in my hands right now! If you don’t obediently do exactly what I said, I’ll kill him this instant! See if I dare!”
After a moment of silence, Shen Zhuo’s cold reply came through the radio.
“I never compromise with criminals.”
Bang bang bang bang bang!
The submachine gun spat fire.
A burst of bullets instantly riddled the hostage like a sieve.
“…”
Covered in blood, Bai Sheng slowly fell backward and collapsed onto the cockpit floor.
“Aaaah—!”
Outside the cabin door, the passengers burst into screams of utter terror.
The two Class C hijacker accomplices rushed over at the sound. When they saw the body lying in a pool of blood, they also froze.
“B-Boss?”
Zhang Wenyong panted heavily, clutching the radio with a death grip.
“Did you hear that, Shen? I can kill a few more. I can still—”
On the other end of the comms—
Bang!
Shen Zhuo turned back, raised his gun, and aimed at Zhang Zhao.
One clean, precise shot.
A scream so agonized it tore at the heart rang clearly into Zhang Wenyong’s ears.
“Your cousin has one leg left. The directional missile can launch at any time,” Shen Zhuo said calmly.
The cockpit seemed to freeze solid.
The radio slipped from Zhang Wenyong’s rigid hand and fell onto the control panel with a clatter.
“W-what do we do…”
One accomplice was trembling so hard he could barely hold his gun.
“That Shen bastard is insane. He… he means what he says…”
The essence of hostage-taking and extortion was a game of leverage.
But a Class A ability criminal and ordinary humans were not on the same level at all. That was why Zhang Wenyong had possessed an absolute psychological advantage.
Until Shen Zhuo flipped the entire board over.
“There’s still time. There’s still time.”
The other accomplice muttered neurotically.
“We’ll listen to him first and make an emergency landing at the airport. He won’t dare use a missile on us once we’re in the airport, right? There are so many people in this cabin. We can just grab a few hostages then…”
His voice stopped abruptly.
In the pool of blood on the floor, the handsome guy’s corpse suddenly opened its eyes.
Then he braced one hand against the floor and slowly sat up, peeling off the white T-shirt soaked through with blood.
Not only the three hijackers—even the poor copilot thought terror had driven him into hallucinations.
“Let me teach you something…”
Bai Sheng’s voice was low and hoarse.
His upper-body muscles were powerful and sharply defined. His shoulders were broad and solid. His six-pack looked carved by a blade, and the lines of his lower abdomen narrowed into the waistband of his jeans.
The submachine-gun bullets reversed out of his body one by one, clinking as they fell to the floor.
His torn, bloodied wounds healed at terrifying speed.
“Even ability users of the same grade can have an enormous gap in individual combat power. And that’s before we even get to…”
The final bullet withdrew from his heart.
Skin and muscle restored themselves completely.
At last, the blood-red grade mark beneath his left collarbone was revealed, reflected with perfect clarity in the hijackers’ trembling eyes—
S.
Bai Sheng stood.
With five blood-covered fingers, he swept his hair back.
Then he reached toward the nearest hijacker and clenched his hand through empty air.
The man did not even have time to scream. Amid the explosive cracking of bones in his limbs, he was twisted alive into a pretzel. The next instant, he was sent flying into the cabin wall.
The massive airliner shook hard amid cries of alarm.
“And that’s before you try to compare yourself to the moon,” Bai Sheng said coldly.