“Prepare the third citywide air-defense alert!”
“Evacuation of the target area is complete!”
“The jamming aircraft are in position. The directional missile is ready to launch at any moment!”
…
One order after another spread rapidly outward from the tower control room through the radio, like an invisible protective umbrella slowly opening over the enormous city of Shenhai.
“Supervisor.”
Chen Miao lowered the satellite phone. Cold sweat had already soaked his temples.
“We still can’t establish contact with Flight MN538 from the ground. The situation is completely unknown. What do we do?”
Shen Zhuo stood silently before the console. From where the others stood, his profile was handsome and cold, his eyes dark enough to seem bottomless.
“Call the military district,” he said slowly. “Until the final moment, no missile is to be launched without my consent.”
Bang—crash!
The hijacker, no longer even remotely human in shape, flew out through the cockpit door, hurtled across the entire cabin, smashed through two partitions on the way, and crashed headfirst at the feet of a flight attendant near the tail of the plane.
Three seconds later, the entire row of passengers and the flight attendant screamed together.
“Aaaaaah—!”
“N-no way…”
Zhang Wenyong was shaking like a sieve, staring fixedly at the special S mark on Bai Sheng’s chest.
“It’s fake. It has to be fake…”
In truth, rumors about S-Class mutants had circulated among the public for a long time, but there was very little documentation. Some declassified materials showed that only twenty people in the world had undergone S-Class evolution. But what exactly they had become, what abilities they possessed, and even whether they could still be considered human—none of that was known.
“I don’t believe it!”
Zhang Wenyong roared. In his desperation, a crazed fury erupted from him. He swung his hand hard—
Outside the cockpit window, leaden clouds churned violently.
A thunderbolt carrying the force of a thousand tons came crashing down. The cockpit windshield cracked in response, spiderweb fractures exploding across it.
“Oh. Climate control?”
Bai Sheng rubbed his chin.
“...No one is catching me,” Zhang Wenyong said, his face twisted hideously in the thunderstorm. “All of you can die with that damned Supervision Office!”
The plane shook violently.
Then it suddenly lost altitude, plunging sharply toward the ground.
The copilot slammed headfirst into the instrument panel, and the cabin erupted in terrified screams.
Bai Sheng pressed one hand tightly over the copilot’s forehead, where blood was gushing out, and raised his other hand flat before closing it into a fist.
“Buddy, you’re way too impatient. Relax a little, okay?”
His five fingers snapped open.
Before Zhang Wenyong could react, four crisp cracks rang beside his ears.
Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap!
Blood burst from all four of his limbs at once. His body bent backward into an impossible ball shape, twisted at a terrifying angle, his entire person suspended like a bloody lantern.
“Ah—!”
Zhang Wenyong let out a shrill scream.
Then everything stopped abruptly.
Bai Sheng had made a shushing gesture.
The airflow instantly sealed Zhang Wenyong’s vocal cords.
With a heavy roar, the plane steadied.
Every passenger dropped back into their seat.
“The gap between you and me,” Bai Sheng said mildly, “is probably about the same as the distance between a paramecium and a human being.”
Clatter!
The submachine gun fell onto the cockpit floor.
The last hijacker—the one who had pointed the gun at Bai Sheng earlier—was trembling from head to toe. He scrambled backward on both hands and feet as if he had seen a living demon.
“I’m… I’m sorry… Spare me. Please spare me…”
Just then, his hand suddenly touched something behind him.
He looked down on instinct.
It was the book that had fallen to the floor earlier.
The title was terrifyingly long and reeked of absolute nonsense, but the bunny girl blowing a kiss and the four words By Bai Sheng were especially eye-catching.
In that instant, divine inspiration struck the hijacker.
“G-good book!”
He fumbled desperately to open the book and held it up before his eyes, looking up at Bai Sheng in terror.
“The a-author’s ideas are super sharp! I’ll buy—buy a hundred copies right now!”
Bai Sheng turned his face toward him and looked down from above.
Then the corner of his mouth suddenly hooked up.
“Too late,” he said with a smile. “Belated affection is cheaper than grass.”
His palm swept diagonally upward.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
The sound of bones exploding and the hijacker’s scream rang out at the same time, echoing through the entire cabin.
On the ground, inside the tower control room.
“Hello? Hello?”
The long-disconnected comms suddenly began to hiss with static.
Then a lazy voice sounded.
“This is Flight MN538. Can you hear me?”
Inside the busy control room, every hurried footstep seemed to have been frozen by a pause button.
Everyone’s expression stiffened.
They turned to stare at the console, barely able to believe their ears.
Shen Zhuo’s pupils constricted slightly.
After several seconds of silence, he ended the satellite call with the military district and reached out to pick up the radio.
“Who are you?”
“I’m an innocent passenger who got dragged into this disaster and is fully prepared to sue this airline into bankruptcy.”
Bai Sheng sat in the captain’s seat, holding the radio in one hand while silently mouthing reassurance to the half-dead copilot.
I’m joking—
The copilot: “…………”
“The three hijackers have been subdued. However, the captain is seriously injured, and the copilot looks like he’s about to pass out too. As for how much fuel we have left…”
Bai Sheng frowned and studied the flight instruments.
Several seconds later, he finally said, “Can’t tell. The copilot just smashed the instrument panel with his head.”
The copilot, unable to endure it any longer, struggled back from the brink of death, opened his mouth, and uselessly coughed up a mouthful of old blood.
“At present, we need to make an emergency landing, but I’m not familiar with operating a B777-300ER civilian airliner. Requesting assistance from ground control for a forced landing. Can you provide landing clearance?”
The control room exploded.
Countless people panicked. Countless people shouted. A storm of noise poured through the radio into the cockpit.
Bai Sheng waited patiently.
A moment later, he finally heard a clear, steady voice come from the other end.
“This is the tower.”
Shen Zhuo stood beside the floor-to-ceiling window, looking up toward the endless sky.
“Forced landing approved. Prepare to receive operating instructions.”
Ten minutes later.
The enormous civilian airliner roared as it slowly landed on the apron.
More than a hundred ability users from the Supervision Office stood in tight formation, waiting in full readiness. Rows of gun barrels gleamed with cold silver light.
Shen Zhuo wore a tactical throat-mic headset. His index finger was already on the trigger, and the tightly closed cabin door reflected in the dark depths of his eyes.
Every second stretched impossibly long.
After a long while, the cabin door was finally pulled open with a heavy whoosh.
Everyone’s expressions tightened at once.
A young, lean, capable figure appeared behind the door.
It was Bai Sheng.
He was probably nearly one meter ninety tall. A travel backpack hung from one shoulder, decorated with a boxing-glove charm and a basketball charm. He had changed into a shirt on his upper body, but only the bottom two buttons were fastened, faintly exposing the hard lines of his abdominal muscles.
Beneath his left collarbone, the blood-red S leapt into everyone’s eyes.
“…”
The surroundings fell into complete dead silence.
Bai Sheng’s eyes were naturally sharp in shape. The blood splashed near the corner of his brow had not yet dried. When he looked down from above like this, there was clearly a trace of cold scrutiny in his gaze.
“S-Class…”
A breathless murmur came from the crowd.
The next moment, Bai Sheng’s face changed miraculously.
He smiled in a friendly, spring-breeze sort of way and waved at the many gun barrels aimed at him.
“Hello, everyone!”
Then he jumped down.
The distance from the cabin door to the ground was more than three meters, but he landed without making a sound.
The heavy things he dragged in both hands, however, hit the ground with two loud thuds.
Bang! Bang!
They were two climbing ropes.
Each rope bound a tangled mass of limbs twisted so badly their shapes could no longer be distinguished. On the left were the two hijacker accomplices, all their bones shattered and their hands and feet tangled together. On the right was the mastermind, Zhang Wenyong, whose torso had been twisted alive into a spiral.
In that instant, everyone’s hearts lurched.
Even the experienced inspectors almost vomited. Chen Miao quickly covered his face and stopped looking closely, gesturing for his subordinates to go with him and take custody of the criminals.
But before several people with raised guns could step forward, Bai Sheng stopped them.
“Wait. Answer a question for me first.”
Chen Miao silently begged him with his eyes to ask quickly.
“Before the hijacker shot me, I heard someone over the radio say he never made deals with criminals. That high-and-mighty bastard was—”
“Me.”
Bai Sheng turned his head.
His gaze met Shen Zhuo’s.
The Supervisor of Shenhai City was always dressed the same way: a well-tailored black suit, white shirt, clean cold-pale face, and elegant thin lips habitually pressed together.
His black leather gloves were thin and tight, revealing the long knuckles beneath. The index finger hooked around the trigger did not move at all.
Even the sound of the wind seemed to have frozen.
No one around them dared move. No one even made a sound. Many of the gun barrels were visibly unsteady.
“…”
Under everyone’s eyes, Bai Sheng’s expression went through a very complicated change.
He seemed a little put out, and also a little relieved.
After a long while, he finally sighed and murmured, “Beauty really is the most persuasive weapon in the world… Now I believe it.”
“I forgive you, Supervisor.”
Bai Sheng raised his voice and lifted his chin at Shen Zhuo.
“Come make a deal with me!”
No ripple could be seen in Shen Zhuo’s dark eyes.
Bai Sheng gestured toward the climbing ropes in his hands.
“My hands aren’t free. Come over and button my shirt for me. These three hijackers are yours to take back to the Shenhai City Supervision Office, and the account between us is wiped clean. How’s that?”
That simple?
If one only looked at his face, Bai Sheng could even give people the illusion that he was handsome and approachable. But everyone knew that an S-Class evolutionist’s close-combat ability was comparable to a humanoid weapon. Even if he simply stood there smiling and did not move, he carried a pressure that felt hidden and ready to erupt at any moment.
“…”
Shen Zhuo tilted his head and gave Chen Miao a look, signaling him to go.
“I said you, Supervisor,” Bai Sheng emphasized.
Then he raised an eyebrow and smiled.
“I just like being served by beautiful people.”
In that moment, everyone behind them subconsciously stole glances at Shen Zhuo’s back, guessing what expression he had right now.
They were destined never to know.
“…”
Shen Zhuo stood where he was for several full seconds.
At last, he exhaled, handed his gun to Chen Miao, and walked over with steady composure to stand in front of Bai Sheng.
Shen Zhuo was already considered tall and slender, but face to face, his line of sight only reached Bai Sheng’s chin.
With his lashes lowered and without saying a word, he buttoned Bai Sheng’s shirt one button at a time from bottom to top.
“There’s something I’m very curious about.”
Bai Sheng tilted his head slightly and asked softly beside Shen Zhuo’s ear, “If I hadn’t been on this flight today, how were you planning to resolve this incident?”
“…”
“In the process of humans and evolutionists learning to coexist, not a single conflict has ever been resolved cleanly,” Shen Zhuo answered after a moment.
“All methods and negotiation techniques designed for human hostage-takers have proven inapplicable. As a result, every ability-user crime results in large numbers of civilian deaths. I must handle such incidents strictly in accordance with Article One, Clause One of the work manual.”
Wind swept across the empty apron.
High above them, the aircraft windows showed the terrified and dazed faces of the passengers inside.
“So,” Shen Zhuo said, lifting his eyes, “the cost of sudden evolution, when it falls on any ordinary civilian, is annihilation.”
Their eyes met.
At such a close distance, Bai Sheng could even see his own reflection in Shen Zhuo’s pupils.
“So this is why you, as a hard-line opposition figure, are globally famous for your unfriendly attitude toward evolutionists?”
The corner of Bai Sheng’s mouth hooked up.
“Supervisor Shen Zhuo?”
Shen Zhuo did not answer.
He fastened the last button beneath Bai Sheng’s collarbone, took half a step back, and looked up at him calmly.
“Obey the law. Do not commit crimes. Article One, Clause Ten of the Supervisor’s Work Manual requires me to be very friendly to you.”
Bai Sheng: “…”
Chen Miao held his breath and forced himself to lead people forward.
Very carefully, he took the climbing ropes from Bai Sheng’s hands and had the three hijackers—whose conditions were now completely impossible to determine—dragged onto a riot-control vehicle.
Another search-and-rescue team quickly entered the airliner to inspect the cabin and rescue the injured.
“On behalf of the Shenhai City Supervision Office, I sincerely thank Mr. Bai for his contribution to the safety of the city.”
Shen Zhuo gave a polite slight bow.
“Welcome home. Your luggage has already been retrieved. The Supervision Office will send a car to escort you out of the airport.”
A bulletproof sedan slowly drove over and stopped beside them.
Shen Zhuo opened the car door and made a “please” gesture.
Very good.
Very friendly.
Bai Sheng rubbed his chin and got into the car.
Just as Shen Zhuo was about to close the door, Bai Sheng suddenly reached out and held it.
“Wait. That Supervisor’s Work Manual of yours… can I borrow it and take a look?”
They looked at each other through the car window.
Bai Sheng’s face was full of curiosity, nearly bursting at the seams.
“Every work manual differs greatly depending on the supervisor’s personality,” Shen Zhuo replied coldly. “Mine is long and dull. I prefer to be the only one who knows its contents.”
Bang!
The car door closed.
Then the vehicle slowly drove forward.
Watching Shen Zhuo’s figure grow farther and farther away in the rearview mirror, Bai Sheng finally could not hold back. He opened his mobile banking app and asked the driver, “Brother.”
“Please tell me, Mr. Bai.”
“There’s a private job that pays one million in cash, settled daily. Interested?”
“…”
The driver turned back to look at him in disbelief, moved almost to tears.
“Brother Bai, money isn’t important. What matters is that I respect your character. Knife mountains, seas of fire—whatever it is, just say the word!”
Bai Sheng patted his shoulder encouragingly.
“Steal Supervisor Shen’s work manual and let me take a look. How soon can you get it done?”
The car fell silent.
The driver slowly said, “Brother, a job that gets my whole family wiped out costs extra.”
The sun gradually sank westward.
On the apron, people came and went. The passengers were inspected one by one by staff from the inspection teams and escorted off the plane. Many could barely stand, trembling as they supported one another.
“Waaah—waaah—!”
A little girl of four or five had gotten lost in the chaos. She cried until her face was red, then turned and ran headfirst into Shen Zhuo’s leg.
“…”
Shen Zhuo stood silent for a moment.
Then he bent down, touched her head, and picked her up.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, truly…”
A young woman came running over under a staff member’s guidance, thanking him again and again. Frightened and grateful, she took the little girl from Shen Zhuo’s arms.
“Supervisor.”
Chen Miao walked over quickly and spoke in a low voice.
“The Central Supervision Office just called. They require you to make a statement regarding this hijacking incident. A dedicated car is already waiting outside.”
The Central Supervision Office had been making things difficult for Shenhai City for a long time.
That had not changed since the first day Shen Zhuo took office.
Shen Zhuo nodded, but did not leave immediately.
He quietly looked at the passengers gathered in a circle not far away, crying with joy after surviving.
Then he suddenly asked, “How are the injured?”
“Only the captain and copilot were seriously injured. They lost a great deal of blood, but their conditions are stable. Miraculously, neither is in life-threatening danger.”
“…”
“That Bai probably has some kind of medical ability,” Shen Zhuo said softly.
Healing belonged to a rare category of ability. Its probability of existing on Earth could be described as one in a thousand. But Bai Sheng was an even rarer S-Class, so it would not be strange no matter what random assortment of abilities he possessed.
Chen Miao rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“I didn’t expect an S-Class to suddenly come to Shenhai City. After Brother Fu died, this is the first time I’ve seen a living S-Class…”
Then he caught sight of Shen Zhuo’s eyes and shivered, immediately reacting.
“I’m sorry, Senior! I didn’t mean to!”
Shen Zhuo’s inorganic, icy black eyes stared at him without a word.
“…”
Chen Miao met his gaze in terror.
After a long while, he still could not help asking in a tiny voice, “Se… Senior, if our Supervision Office had an S-Class holding the fort, those people from the Central Supervision Office definitely wouldn’t dare make things difficult for us anymore. Will you find a way to recruit him?”
Shen Zhuo withdrew his gaze, turned, and crossed the apron toward the black official car in the distance.
“No,” he answered coldly. “Every year, my birthday wish is for evolutionists to stay farther away from my life.”
“—Huh?!”
Chen Miao was dumbfounded.
“D-does that include me? Senior! Senior—!”
The sunset deepened into dusk.
Far away, the city lights began to glow.
The vast metropolis was gradually swallowed by night. At the end of the deep blue sky, two or three stars flickered with faint light.
Nine o’clock that evening.
The news channel.
“Today, a vicious attempted hijacking occurred at our city’s airport. It has been confirmed that all three hijackers were perpetrators of the recent Shenhai City Bank robbery. All have now been arrested and brought to justice…”
Inside an abandoned hospital room, an old television flickered with dim light.
The images on the screen kept changing. Before the camera, passengers and family members embraced one another and wept.
Amid the reporters’ long lenses and microphones, a black bulletproof official car with a license plate of six ones slowly drove away from the airport.
The person in the back seat wore a black suit and white shirt. His side profile was quiet and expressionless, but the window rose after only one fleeting glimpse.
In front of the television, a slender young man sat in a wheelchair.
There was a smile in his eyes. He propped his chin on one hand and murmured, “Shen Zhuo…”
The room was low-ceilinged and dilapidated, as if it had once been burned by a great fire. The charred walls and floor tiles still bore stains from the 1980s.
Yet the young man’s attire was extremely refined. His shirt and trousers were impeccably tailored. His face was fair and handsome, and his eyes were deep and gentle, like black obsidian.
He carried an understated nobility that was completely out of place with everything around him.
The screen changed, moving on to the next piece of international news.
The young man withdrew his gaze without interest.
“Let’s go.”
Two people stood guard at the door.
One of them, a woman with short green-dyed hair, immediately stepped forward, turned the wheelchair, and pushed him out through the shabby door.
Outside, the view suddenly opened up.
Not far away, mountains and forests stretched vast and dense. This was a village deep within the heart of a great mountain.
Rows of off-road vehicles had been waiting on the open ground for a long time. Dozens of headlights illuminated the building behind them.
It was, shockingly, a clinic that had long ago been reduced to charred ruins in a fire.
Dozens of armed evolutionist subordinates stood solemnly before the vehicles.
A man had been forced to kneel on the ground. He was filthy and battered, half of his left ear torn off alive. Blood poured down his cheek like water from a tap.
When he saw the young man in the wheelchair being pushed out, his eyes lit up. He scrambled and crawled toward him, trying to cling to his legs.
“Mr. Rong! Mr. Rong, I was wrong! I was only greedy for a moment. Please, I don’t want to die!…”
There was a sharp whoosh.
The green-haired woman’s hands suddenly transformed into vines. They lashed through the air like lightning and whipped the man until he rolled across the ground.
The young man in the wheelchair, addressed as Mr. Rong, raised a hand and stopped the vine woman.
“Where is the item?” he asked gently.
A subordinate immediately stepped forward, tore the pendant from the man’s neck, then lowered his head and presented it with both hands.
It was a transparent isolation tube.
Inside the tube was a black stone about the size of a fingernail. Its surface was rough and jagged, yet it shimmered with a faint blue glow, thin and mysterious as gauze or mist, like a star flickering in the night sky.
It was a meteorite.
Five years ago, more than four thousand meteorites like this had fallen to Earth, triggering sudden evolution in one hundred thousand people worldwide and once throwing human society into great disorder.
Afterward, these meteorites had been searched for and strictly investigated by governments around the world. All of them were sealed inside top-secret research centers, and no trace of them could be found among civilians anymore.
Ordinary people with potential would evolve as long as they came into contact with these meteorites.
That was why they were called evolution sources.
On the black market, they were worth a fortune.
“I-I wasn’t trying to steal it and sell it. My ability is too weak. I only wanted to gain more power…”
The man shook violently, tears and snot streaming down his face.
“I’ll never dare again. Please, please don’t kill me!…”
“You want power?”
Mr. Rong leaned forward slightly, interrupting his incoherent begging.
The man clutched his bleeding left ear.
“Y-yes!”
Mr. Rong smiled and leaned back in his chair with casual ease.
He tossed the meteorite upward, then caught it lightly.
As if pondering something, he repeated this four or five times before casually throwing the meteorite forward, letting it land on the sandy ground before the man.
“Within half a month, bring Shen Zhuo, the Supervisor of Shenhai City, to me.”
“It will be yours.”
The man’s eyes widened.
He could hardly believe what he had just heard.
“Complete the transaction within half a month, and you will gain the power of evolution forever. You will become one of us—a powerful member.”
“Otherwise…”
Mr. Rong paused softly and looked down at him.
“—you and your ability will both be reclaimed by me, principal and interest included. Do you understand?”
The man panted violently, clutching the evolution-source meteorite tightly in his palm.
A desperate, all-or-nothing light burst from his eyes.
After a long while, he gritted his teeth and forced out a few hoarse words.
“I… I understand.”
Mr. Rong patted his shoulder encouragingly.
The wheelchair brushed past him and headed toward the off-road vehicles.
“—Mr. Rong!”
The man suddenly remembered something. He shuffled forward on his knees and urgently asked from the ground, “That Shenhai Supervisor, Shen Zhuo… Is it all right if I bring you his corpse?”
Mr. Rong seemed not to have expected the question.
He paused.
Then he laughed, turned back, and sized the man up for a moment.
“If you can kill him, I will grant you the highest reward.”
“I will make you immortal.”
The man’s eyes went wide.
Mr. Rong turned away with a smile.
Under the vast night sky, dozens of off-road vehicles formed a line and sped away along the rugged mountain road, gradually disappearing into the silent depths of the mountains.