“You don’t know? Aren’t you an ability user?”
Yuzhi looked at Amelia with some surprise, as his confusion did not seem to be fake.
She still remembered that bouquet of flowers materialized out of thin air, something ordinary people couldn’t do… Amelia was most likely an ability user, but he probably hadn’t been out of the laboratory very long before entering the red-light district, so his common sense might be a bit muddled.
After self-persuading, she explained, “An anomaly is an ability user with mental mutations, and they are able to manipulate invisible mental fluctuations, which is also called mental power.”
Amelia nodded, staring blankly at her in mutual silence for a good while before reacting, “Just like that?”
“Yeah.” Yuzhi didn’t understand why he was surprised, “I’ve only seen an order-disrupted person once before. After all, the appearance of order-disrupted persons is very easy to recognize.”
“What is an order-disrupted person?”
Following this question from Amelia, not only did Yu Heng cast an even more intense gaze, but Yuzhi also couldn’t help muttering, “Have you ever suffered from amnesia? How come you don’t know anything?”
Amelia shook his head, “I was in another place before, which is very different from here. I’ve never heard of these things, and nobody told me.” How could the demon world possess knowledge of this world?
He appeared genuinely candid, and Yuzhi figured he might have never left the laboratory and had no one talk to him, hence remaining completely ignorant of the outside world.
Unconsciously harboring some sympathy, she didn’t probe further and continued explaining, “Order-disrupted persons are ability users with physical mutations; their bodies differ from ordinary people and they possess different powers. The order-disrupted person I saw, I don’t know what level he was, but his lower body could turn into wolf legs and he could run very fast.”
“Do they have levels?”
“The levels of ability users range from high to low, divided into levels one through five,” Yuzhi picked up an iron spoon and tried hard to bend it, failing to succeed after a good long while. “A level five order-disrupted person is about on par with an ordinary person, at most able to use mental power to bend a spoon.”
Amelia nodded and asked again, “Are there no other kinds of ability users?”
“What other kinds of ability users could there possibly be?” Yuzhi deeply felt the need to properly lecture Amelia, “Didn’t you manage to conjure flowers? If it was driven by mental power, you’re an anomaly; if it was changed using flesh and blood, you’re an order-disrupted person. There are only these two types.”
Quite simple and easily recognizable characteristics.
Amelia looked at the spoon and felt somewhat puzzled, “Why have I never seen them? Are there very few ability users?”
“Of course not. Most ability users are in other places, such as the Northern Territory, Eastern Capital, Southern Port, or Western Mountain, and only the Abandoned District is different…”
Just as Yuzhi was about to continue, Yu Heng brought over their dinner.
“Wash your hands.”
With a single glance from Yu Heng, Yuzhi immediately ran toward the restroom.
He set out the tableware and sat down opposite Amelia.
Then, expressionless, he took a fork and stabbed fiercely into a piece of meat chop, watching the splattering juices as he slowly raised his eyes, “Want to taste? Multi-tongued chicken meat.”
His completely flat tone didn’t sound like an invitation, more like a threat.
Amelia suspected he was insinuating something, probably disliking him for asking questions all over the place and clinging to his younger sister.
Yet the demon race wouldn’t care about a threat of this magnitude.
He glanced at the tender and juicy-looking meat chop, proactively leaned forward, placed his own cleaned bread plate over, and blinked at Yu Heng, “You said you were giving it to me.”
Yu Heng locked eyes with him for a moment, paused, and actually cut half a meat chop for him.
Amelia happily ate it using his fork.
Yuzhi happened to catch this scene right when she returned, finding it rather novel, “It’s rare for you to be so generous, Brother.”
She turned to look at Amelia, but her gaze immediately locked onto that completely clean plate.
He ate too fast.
She was somewhat surprised, wanting to tell him not to eat too quickly as it easily led to overeating, but the moment she met Amelia’s eyes, she instinctively reached out and passed half a piece of bread from her own plate over.
It wasn’t until she watched Amelia leisurely finish eating the bread that she snapped to her senses regarding what she had just done.
At that moment, Yuzhi realized there was a reason Amelia had been able to enter the red-light district.
Even if he didn’t do anything or say anything, just quietly gazing at her with those moist, dark, and bright eyes for a short while would make her heart inevitably soften.
Like seeing a small animal with white fur…
Yuzhi averted her gaze, resolving not to make eye contact with Amelia during meal times anymore; he had already eaten several pieces of bread just now, so she couldn’t spoil him!
Relying on relief food and his looks to freeload for half a month, the little succubus possessed zero sense of shame, obtaining another half piece of bread from Yu Heng before deciding to stop upon confirming no more food could possibly be extracted.
He resumed the previous topic: “Why is the Abandoned District different?”
Yuzhi answered while eating: “Most people in the Abandoned District don’t have special abilities, they’re just ordinary people.”
“Are everyone in the Abandoned District ordinary people?”
She paused, lowered her head, and kneaded a piece of bread: “Probably. The Abandoned District is just as its name implies, an area abandoned by this country. The people who come here are those who voluntarily or forcibly gave up their original lives. If they’re ability users, even if they’re level five, as long as they aren’t wanted criminals, they can go register elsewhere and become legal citizens through an ability test.”
“I see.”
His lukewarm reaction sparked Yuzhi’s curiosity, and she felt somewhat strange, “Aren’t you unhappy? You’re an ability user; after escaping the laboratory, you can go live in other places and even go home. At most you’d just have to be careful not to let people from the laboratory catch you again.”
Yu Heng also shifted his gaze over.
Amelia was unconcerned. He knew he wasn’t any ability user and estimated he wouldn’t pass an ability test either.
The most important thing for him upon coming to this world was to find the person the archdemon wanted him to find, and then figure out a way to make that person self-detonate.
Compared to living in other regions, he was much more eager to confirm whether the district chief was the person he needed to find.
If the district chief happened to be the one, he might be able to go home sooner and even have a wish granted, so why bother residing in other regions?
Amelia casually asked, “Aren’t there ordinary people in other places?”
“Very few, and they have it a bit harder than ability users.”
Amelia let out an “oh,” then added, “But I don’t want to have it hard, I’m not an ability user, I only know a little small magic.”
“Magic?”
Yuzhi remembered he had mentioned this word before. Stealing a glance at her older brother and seeing no sign of prohibition from him, she grew bold and pursued the questioning, “What is the magic you mentioned? Is it like the flowers from last time? Isn’t that a manifestation of your ability?”
She reckoned Amelia was at most a level four ability user.
“No,” Amelia rested his chin in his hand, “I don’t have the ability you’re talking about, magic is just a form of exchange. Using magic power to exchange for some useful effects.”
Yuzhi: “Wait, wait, what is magic power? Useful effects?”
“It’s…” Amelia thought for a moment, reached out, and gently stroked the dirty black cloak draped to the side, “Like this.”
In the blink of an eye, the cloak looked brand new.
Yuzhi widened her eyes, stepped closer, grabbed that cloak, and felt it up and down trying to find any flaws.
“It’s like magic tricks.” Searching for a while without finding any, she couldn’t help muttering, “That really is an interesting ability, are you an anomaly?”
Anomalies’ ability manifestations always varied; perhaps Amelia just called this magic… That made sense.
Yu Heng remained silent, his gaze fixed without moving.
“It’s not a magic trick, it’s magic. And I’m not an anomaly either.”
The white-haired youth casting magic sighed slightly, “I’m not good at these, I only know a little small magic. Besides, my magic power isn’t enough; even if I knew other magic, I couldn’t use it.”
“How do you acquire magic power?” Yu Heng suddenly spoke up.
Amelia couldn’t help glancing sideways, not expecting this cold fellow to be curious about this, but he didn’t feel there was anything unspeakable about such common sense, “Eating, or…”
“Bodily fluid exchange.” He said with a straight face.
“Crack,” the plate under Yu Heng shattered, and a fork embedded deeply into it.
“Brother!” Yuzhi cried out. Yu Heng released the fork and went off on his own to fetch adhesive.
Before leaving, he didn’t even turn his eyeballs around again, acting as if he completely ignored such a living, breathing person as Amelia.
To this, Yuzhi’s explanation was, “My brother is rather shy, he gets easily like this when excited, probably thinking your magic is very interesting. But what was that body thing you mentioned?”
Under the gloomy gaze projected by Yu Heng, Amelia indicated it was merely a kind of ritual; once they reached adulthood they would naturally know, and right now it wasn’t the time to know.
Hearing such a standard adult-style phrasing, Yuzhi knew she was most likely being brushed off.
The culprit was definitely her brother.
She gave a hrumph, muttered a few words about her brother being an idiot, and lowered her head gloomily to eat her meal.
Once finished and the table cleared, she dragged Amelia along, demanding he perform a few more magic tricks for her to see.
It was probably a way to vent her anger.
Amelia glanced sideways at Yu Heng, who was reading a book on the sofa nearby.
This brother’s attention had been on them all along; if he acted rashly, Yu Heng would definitely take action.
Though he didn’t know what would happen, there always remained a vague sense of danger. A demon’s premonition was very accurate, and he didn’t want to test the waters with his life, so he would act cautiously for now.
He asked Yuzhi, “Can you share a little emotion with me?”
Asking was a ritual for demons. Although he could take emotions without asking, getting consent made the efficiency of converting magic power higher.
“Emotion? How do you give that.” Yuzhi couldn’t understand, “Is it some kind of game?”
“Pretty much.”
“Then… give you a little?” Yuzhi glanced at her brother not far away, her confidence quite solid.
Amelia’s eyes brightened slightly as he reached out to gently touch her hair, withdrawing his hand almost immediately.
Yuzhi even thought he was merely brushing away a fallen leaf, without sensing the slightest anomaly, “Is it starting?”
“I’ve already gotten it.”
The white-haired youth smiled at her, looking quite delighted as he slightly revealed two canine teeth.
“Just like that?”
At that instant, before Yuzhi even had time to remark on how extraordinarily good-looking Amelia was, she abruptly felt her mood grow much more placid.
It was a hard-to-describe sensation, as though a breeze had quietly swept past, blowing away the anticipation and joy she originally felt, sending those emotions drifting thread by thread into midair where they vanished.
She felt a trace of boredom, a sudden, inexplicable boredom.
Why was this? She didn’t quite understand.
Amelia closely scrutinized the changes in the girl’s facial expression, finding her state of sudden lethargy rather surprising.
Yuzhi’s sensitivity to emotional perception was much higher than he had imagined… It seemed that in the future, if he wanted to harvest her emotions, he would have to be a bit careful.
Thinking thus, he asked, “Yuzhi, what magic do you want to see?”
Lacking enthusiasm, Yuzhi looked around and casually pointed at her brother, “Make my brother a bit cuter?”
Yu Heng observed with cold detachment, as if the targeted subject wasn’t him.
Amelia nodded, mimicking the posture of human magicians he had seen, raised his hand, and snapped his fingers.
The transformation was completed in an instant.
Yuzhi immediately turned back to look, and at just a single glance, she couldn’t hold back her laughter, “Hahaha, haha, Brother, you, you’ve become, so cute hahaha.”
Long ears, white head, white body, short tail.
The cold-looking black-haired youth was still seated on the sofa, having somehow changed into an all-in-one rabbit outfit.
Clustered with fluffy white fabric, the palms and soles of the feet were made into pink heart shapes, matched with long ears and a large carrot strapped to his back.
Truly… uh…
If the person wearing this outfit wasn’t glaring with murder in his eyes as he strode over, grabbing him by the collar with his feet off the ground and forcing him to change into this outfit.
He probably, maybe, might have been considered cute.
Amelia slowly put on the rabbit outfit, caught sight of the gloomy god of death beside him, and decisively gave up struggling.
Anyway, it was merely a two-hour transformation magic; he would endure it and it would pass.
Aesthetics were personal matters, after all, and couldn’t be forced.
This fellow wasn’t going to look cute; there was no saving him.