Zhan Xue

An Yu‍‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‍​‌‍‍​​‌​​⁠ recalled that he had only stepped back half a step, and Codex had already automatically retreated to the furthest distance. He looked in the direction Codex had disappeared. “Can he see what I’m thinking?”

Yan Xi nodded gently. “This is Codex’s currently known ability. He can instantly perceive the thoughts of everyone around him. See the kraft paper book in his hand? That book is part of his actual body. Anything he sees or knows, if it matters enough to him, will be recorded and stored in that book.”

An Yu entered the elevator, stunned. “Doesn’t he get overloaded with information, meeting so many people every day?”

Yan Xi smiled. “He says that when he first became an aberrant, it almost drove him crazy, but he gradually learned to block out passersby and only perceive people he’s close to. He can even block anyone’s thoughts if he wants to.”

“Insight,” An Yu softly said. “That ability is completely at his command.”

Yan Xi nodded. “But whether he actually eavesdrops, only he knows. The higher-ups are very respectful of boundaries, and no one wants to supervise him. High Peak simply let him be independent and he’ll lead all future non-biological aberrants.”

An Yu suddenly remembered something. “By the way, the non-biological aberrants we encountered in the orphanage and the museum all had abnormal gene entropy.”

“Indeed,” Yan Xi frowned, a faint mechanical grinding sound coming from his eye sockets. “After Codex appeared, many non-biological aberrant cases subsequently appeared within a month. Among them, only he has normal human genes.” He added meaningfully, “He is the third person, after Law and you, to break the genetic entropy theory. And his mental stability is excellent. Although not to your extreme extent, tests show his mental power is even more stable than Law’s. These two traits led High Peak to decide to make him a high-level officer directly.”

An Yu didn’t understand the genetic entropy theory. “Can he hear people’s thoughts from a long distance away?”

Yan Xi immediately chuckled. “You and Zhu Tao think very similarly. Zhu Tao thought Codex could hear the thoughts of Super-aberrants the moment he stepped into the disordered zone, precisely locating their positions. Codex almost fainted when he heard that. He said he can only hear people who are physically near him.”

An Yu sighed. “Oh.”

“So, for now, we don’t see much use for his ability,” Yan Xi said with some regret. “In fact, as of now, among the three non-biological Protectors we have, only one has a useful ability.”

“Three?” An Yu asked in surprise. “Codex, Lumen, who’s the third?”

“Sisi,” Yan Xi said seriously. “She just woke up two hours ago. Human will confirmed. Gene entropy 19724. Distortion type: candle.”

An Yu’s back tingled. “So that means she’s like…”

“Yes, a precious, highly talented healing-type Protector. All her characteristics match your description of Chen Nian. They are completely homologous aberrants,” Yan Xi said. “Sisi is willing to join the Protectors, but she’s a bit difficult to communicate with. She requested to speak with the participants of this mission. High Peak wants you to meet her tomorrow.”

An Yu nodded. “Okay.”

The elevator descended to the first floor, but An Yu pressed the close door button and the negative first floor. “I heard there’s a Brain archive room underground.”

Yan Xi was somewhat surprised. “Yes, what files do you want to see?”

“The Yuge Snowfield in 2122.”

Yan Xi’s face showed hesitation at his words. “The publicly available files for the Yuge Snowfield are similar to online information. Other details are top secret and require approval from higher-ups.”

An Yu opened his terminal. A green “S-rank Secret Approved” electronic seal glowed on it, signed by Qin Zhilu.

Yan Xi stared at the seal for a long time. “This is the highest authority. You’ve only been on two missions with Law, and he already trusts you this much.”

An Yu didn’t speak. On the way to Brain, the Commander had proactively registered information access for him in the system and synchronized a copy of his orphanage mission battle report to him. That battle report made no mention of the 019 containment subject, and completely erased the time anomaly that had occurred to An Yu back then.

In his opinion, this was a very clear instruction from the Commander.

“The retrieval system for the intelligence database is very complex. It will take some time to pull up the desired information,” Yan Xi stepped out of the elevator, holding the elevator door for him. “What do you want to query?”

An Yu followed him into the rows and columns of computer matrices. “I want to see all the exposed personnel files from the Yuge Snowfield when the first major blizzard descended. And…”

He paused. “All of my own data that Brain currently controls.”

The Yuge Snowfield was top secret. Even with Qin Zhilu’s signature, dozens of agreements had to be signed before the data could be retrieved. While Yan Xi processed those procedures for An Yu, An Yu first browsed his own files.

The files consisted of two parts. The first part was extracted from the orphanage and District 53’s information databases, mechanically recording his physical examinations and supply requisition records before he entered the Main City. The Main City was very indifferent to the lowly Bait City orphans. Eighteen years of data were a monotonous string of records. An Yu scrolled to the bottom in just two minutes. The social relations column was even empty; not even Ling Qiu had a name.

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An Yu’s eyes widened blankly. For a moment, he didn’t know whether to be touched or horrified.

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Zhu Tao was considered his closest and most relaxing friend, followed by Billy. Ning, Bo, Xi De, and others were labeled “trust” and “friendliness.” While An had an unique “need/flattery” tag. Jiang Xiao’s tags were almost catching up to Qin Zhilu’s; at different stages, he had successively received “rejection/fear,” “annoyance/disgust,” “pervert,” “slight moved,” and “weak dominance desire” tags.

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It was too absurd.

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After Yan Xi left, the Yuge Snowfield data popped up on the large screen. Since it was a sudden incident, there were very few visual records, only three blurry photos, taken by Qin Zhilu’s mother, Tang Ru, who was sketching in the snowfield at the time.

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In the third photo: the mysterious color vanished, and a dazzling red light appeared on the horizon. Across from the red light, a huge humanoid silhouette stretched horizontally, enveloped in a golden halo.

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The Yuge Snowfield was the initial point of the abnormal snowstorm’s descent. Personnel involved included several hundred tourists and nearby residents. The two individuals with the highest exposure levels were writer Tang Ru and her friend Zhan Xue.

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[Zhan Xue]

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March 2122: Secretly executed, aged 32.

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Embryo in womb was just 3 weeks old at time of death, too small. Determined to have naturally miscarried with her death.

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The countdown light came on and the system indicated that the review had ended.

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“Yes.” An Yu withdrew his gaze from the black screen. “Let’s go back.”

On the way back, An Yu looked at the Main City streets outside the car window. “Do you know Zhan Xue?”

“Madam Qin’s university roommate, best friend,” Yan Xi sighed. “The second directly exposed person back then. Unfortunately, she wasn’t as lucky as Madam, she immediately became abnormal.”

“What else do you know?” An Yu asked.

Yan Xi shook his head. “Only that she was secretly executed. Specific aberrant features and such are top secret. I have no right to know.”

An Yu looked out the window. After a while, he softly asked, “Does a three-week-old fetus make the abdomen protrude?”

“Of course not,” Yan Xi was startled. “Three weeks is just a gestational sac. Forget three weeks, a full-month gestational sac is only as big as a small blueberry.”

An Yu asked again, “Then, is it possible for such a gestational sac to continue developing if removed from the mother’s body?”

Yan Xi shook his head and sighed. ” Ex-vivo gestation technology has been mature for decades, but due to ethical concerns, it has never been officially put into use.”

“No, I mean, if the gestational sac is removed from the mother’s body without artificial cultivation, just on its own…” An Yu trailed off, because Yan Xi was looking at him with a complex expression through the rearview mirror. He sighed, “Sorry, I asked a foolish question.”

Yan Xi was silent for a while, then suddenly smiled and shook his head. “I understand.”

“Hmm?” An Yu’s hope flickered. “What?”

“Isn’t that a new character from [Super Aberrant Kindergarten]? That little squirrel was brutally removed from humans as an embryo, but it survived and even awakened an ability,” Yan Xi chuckled. “But that little squirrel was almost full-term when it was removed. Even for an aberrant, if it’s removed at the cellular stage, it wouldn’t survive.”

An Yu leaned back in his seat expressionlessly. “…Oh.”

Yan Xi earnestly advised, “You should make more friends. You need to distinguish between cartoons and real life.”

An Yu: “…You’re right.”

Yan Xi glanced at his face in the rearview mirror. “But it’s understandable. After the disaster, humanity rapidly entered a hyper-entertainment society. Not only Bait City people are immersed in it, even Main City elites can’t avoid it. Do you know that very popular virtual idol recently?”

“No,” An Yu yawned boredly. “Sorry, I didn’t have much entertainment in Bait City either.”

He was the dregs of the dregs; he didn’t even have an electronic device, so where would he get entertainment?

“You can see her just by casually browsing through social media. She’s really well-made; no wonder so many people are crazy about her,” Yan Xi said as he parked the car in the parking lot outside the church. “Oh, yes, the idol’s production company is in the office building opposite the Corner bakery. Those employees quickly got rich overnight thanks to this virtual idol. It’s quite mysterious, actually. They eat bread from your shop every day. Is that why they’re so lucky?”

The phrase “got rich overnight” made An Yu perk up slightly from his listless state.

“You really like coming to church,” Yan Xi remarked. “You didn’t even bother going back to the bakery.”

An Yu showed no emotion. “It’s inspiring here.”

The predictive nature of [The Asylum] regarding the orphanage incident had become horrifyingly strong to him. In the past few days, he had repeatedly recalled their last meeting, when Eye persuaded him to buy the book [Perception of Lucky Numbers.]

It wasn’t necessarily about getting rich again. An Yu thought that he just wanted to verify Eye’s prophetic ability.

“I’ll wait for you in the car,” Yan Xi said with a smile. “Many people in the Black Tower think the Poet is a charlatan playing tricks, and they’ve disliked him for a long time, but they haven’t been able to find fault. However, some are his loyal followers.”

“What about you?” An Yu asked casually.

Yan Xi thought for a moment. “It doesn’t matter if he’s a fraud, as long as he can genuinely make people feel calm, that’s enough.”

He looked at the bustling crowd outside the car window. “Just like entertainment drugs, the pornography industry—which one isn’t harmful? But they can indeed make people forget pain. In the current world, that has unparalleled value.”

An Yu pondered for a while, nodding as if he understood, yet not quite.