The second line of defense that gradually grows

The aberrant tide flooded the world. Qin Zhilu frowned daily at the endless list of missions on his terminal. An Yu finally couldn’t watch any longer and proactively took one.

That had been his first time on a solo mission. When the giant aberrant beasts on the prairie rushed at him like a tidal wave, he just manipulated space a few times and then easily ended the battle with a few thermal charges.

—That battle log was only three and a half minutes long, but it had rushed to the top of the Spire’s broadcast charts the very next day.

“It makes perfect sense.” Billy commented while looping the playback. “Fast-paced sensory stimulation. That’s how short videos got popular.”

The time-space ability user displayed unparalleled efficiency when cleaning up common aberrations.

Through repeated practice, An Yu’s manipulation of time-space had become as natural as the flow of thought. Although he was still a fragile body that could be easily crushed by aberrants, the filthy things simply couldn’t get close to him.

If Qin Zhilu didn’t go with him, he would bring An and Ning. But most of the time, they just stood behind him in a daze, while the white-and-blue morpho butterflies leisurely flapped their wings beside him. After the footage went online, the forums jokingly nicknamed the butterflies An Yu’s exclusive “atmosphere squad.”

An Yu realized in a daze that humans indeed changed very quickly.

Ling Qiu had once said that humans were creatures of their environment; the subversion of the environment would lead to the subversion of the person. When adapting to rapid environmental changes, the mind and behavior had far more room for adjustment than the body. This was the advantage humans held over other creatures.

Since some unknown day, he no longer feared important people. When accompanying the Commander in and out of Black Tower, he saw in the glass reflections that his own gaze was as cold and heavy as the Commander’s.

Sometimes he would go deliver bread to the Commander late at night and see him asleep, slumped over the screen. He would poke open the Commander’s terminal, and under the lop-eared bunny’s intrusion warning, he would assign several of the Commander’s cleanup zones for the next day to himself.

His combat points soared, and the bakery and investment returns were very considerable. Xu Shuangshuang started to suggest he rent a factory and launch low-priced, pre-made bread products.

He originally didn’t want the trouble, but the next day during a mission, he passed District 53. Under the clouds, new high-rises for the low-income district were under construction. An Yu watched quietly through the porthole for a long time, then finally sent the factory idea to Yan Xi.

He still remembered that during a mission months ago, he had stood on the ruins and told the humans mixed in the aberrant tide that the Main City couldn’t promise much, but the one thing it could guarantee was that if they were alive, they would have bread to eat.

Wealth and prestige rose rapidly. The codename “Corner” quickly penetrated the Spire, the Main City, and spread out to the whole world.

In the spring of 2149, humanity encountered the invasion of non-biological aberrants, time-space illusions, and a swift, dense tide of aberrants.

But that same spring, humanity gained a second, sturdy line of defense—Qin Zhilu’s supervision subject, Corner.

But Corner seemed very low-key. After the aberrant tide slowed, he started pushing off missions again.

High Peak proposed he and Qin Zhilu participate in Black Tower’s decision-making, which was flatly refused by Qin Zhilu.

“Strictly speaking, Corner still doesn’t have much humanity.” Qin Zhilu said to High Peak, his expression unchanged. “He is just a small beast that will get close to a few individual humans, and he has self-destructive tendencies at the drop of a hat. So don’t have high expectations for him.”

One day, when summer finally arrived, An Yu was in the shooting range, munching on bread, quietly waiting for the Commander.

Today happened to be his 100th shooting lesson—unfortunately, he still hadn’t overcome his fear of holding a gun.

Ling Qiu had once said that humans sooner or later had to make peace with the things they were destined to be unable to do. An Yu strongly agreed with this view. He hoped the Commander could also quickly recognize this fact and stop forcing him to come there every day to listen to the noise. His sleep schedule was now the same as a normal person’s, but he seriously suspected that was the result of being scared into a sleep disorder by the gunfire.

Qin Zhilu walked in, but he didn’t grab a gun. Instead, he said, “New mission. Come with me.”

An Yu asked in surprise, “Hasn’t this wave of aberrants already receded? The mission hall is back to a green light; there was a surplus of manpower.”

Qin Zhilu nodded. “It’s a distress call from the Equality Zone. The other Protectors couldn’t be mobilized. You have to make the trip with me.”

The Equality Zone was near the Yug Snowfield. The vast wind and snow refracted the dazzling aurora.

The aberrant arctic snowy owls were terrifyingly large. When they flapped their pale wings and swooped toward the human activity zone, the sky itself seemed to be pressed down. They let out chilling, strange cries while rotating their necks 360 degrees in the air—the ordinary humans in the Equality Zone would collapse just from the sight. Dozens of people had already been scared mindless.

But this kind of aberrant, which had no strange abilities, made no difference to An Yu.

With a mere thought, the snowy owls scattered across the sky instantly gathered at a single point. Jiang Xiao, who had just arrived, immediately shouldered his cannon and sent a high-yield thermal charge.

The violent explosion and firelight swallowed the aurora. Mis stared at An Yu in shock, the giant wings spread behind him tensed and trembling.

Mis was a middle-aged man. His skin, covered in dry, cracked wrinkles, made him look a bit old, but he was tall and solidly built. From his aberrant features, he likely possessed genotypes of both avian and terrestrial beasts.

“His name is An Yu. I told you about him.” Qin Zhilu added indifferently. “The controller of time and space.”

Mis’ gaze trembled. After a long time, he said, “Time… then could he…”

“He can’t.” Qin Zhilu paused. “He currently can’t. We don’t know about the future.”

After a long time, Mis retracted his meaningful gaze and murmured: “Don’t let Black Tower develop expectations that are too high.”

“I understand. After a blind man regains his sight, the first thing he does is throw away the cane that had helped him. So An Yu will be an ace in the hole, not a second cane.” Qin Zhilu paused. “One Qin Zhilu in this world is already enough.”

An Yu flew high into the sky with the help of his mechanical wings. He heard Qin Zhilu and Mis’ conversation in his earpiece and frowned unconsciously.

His emotions seemed to be growing more numerous, which sometimes troubled him greatly.

He locked onto the Snowy Owl King amidst the aberration tide, not even leaving Jiang Xiao time to react. The high-frequency spatial jumps violently tore the Snowy Owl King’s body apart, and in an instant, it exploded into fragments high in the air.

The fragments rained down. The people of the Equality Zone raised their heads to look up, their expressions a mix of shock, hope, and fear.

An Yu pressed the button for his wings, letting himself descend slowly. “I’m tired, Commander,” he said. “Let’s go back.”

Before he boarded the aircraft, Jiang Xiao came running over. “I’m very happy to meet you here again! It seems you have truly grown.” He paused, his red pupils trembling with excitement. “Your aura was extremely strong now. You’re truly destined to be a leader.”

An Yu glanced at the arm exposed beneath his short sleeves. “Are you really not cold?” He himself was wrapped in three layers of cold-weather gear, which was ridiculously expensive at over five thousand points apiece.

Fortunately, the Commander had paid.

Jiang Xiao sighed. “Do you remember my fourth-level aberration? I wrote you a letter. It’s an Arctic Willow. Its only ability’s cold resistance.”

An Yu remembered. Seeing he looked a little disappointed, he offered a random attempt at comfort: “If there’s a refrigerator aberrant in the future, Xi De definitely wouldn’t want to take that mission. It would be perfect to send you.”

Jiang Xiao gave a stiff smile. “Thank you for your trust.”

An Yu looked at his gaunt cheeks. “When are you going back?”

Jiang Xiao said seriously, “I’ll wait until the Equality Zone go through this aberrant tide outbreak. Although I didn’t obtain a mental-enhancement gene on this trip, my mindset has improved a lot. I hope to serve the Spire better.”

An Yu gave a casual nod and turned toward the aircraft. “The Spire is waiting for you. I still have an open slot for a bound support.”

Jiang Xiao was shocked. Immediately, excitement burst from his red eyes, and he strode after An Yu.

An Yu broke into a run as his voice was carried back by the wind and snow: “The prerequisite is that you controll your perverted words and actions!”

In late August, the people of the Main City, under the dome, officially welcomed high summer.

The aberrant tide had completely come to an end. An Yu entered vacation mode. Besides returning to the Spire every day to work out and sleep, he spent the rest of his time holed up in his shop.

Corner’s signature bread had already launched a pre-packaged version. With the help of production lines and supply chains, the people of Bait City all over the world could buy it at any time for an extremely low price. It was a strategy of small profits but high volume.

The bakery was also about to release its first handmade cookie, which would be launched as a summer limited-edition item.

An Yu received a sample of the outer box in advance— it was a pitch-black square paper box, wrapped with a complimentary thin piece of leather.

Xu Shuangshuang felt the leather and sighed with emotion, “This feels so good, so thin and tough. It must have been expensive, right?” Seeing An Yu remain silent, she tilted her head. “Boss, are we not adding this to the cost? Is it sponsored by our big sponsor?”

An Yu snapped back to his senses and asked blankly, “Who is our big sponsor?”

“The Jiang Group.”

An Yu immediately shook his head. “It isn’t.” The leather had indeed been free, but the one who had paid was the Commander. He had initially only told the Commander that he wanted a pure black material with a mysterious feel. He had never expected the Commander to directly order the same leather used for his gloves.

He was just too rich.

A rich aroma of powdered sugar and butter wafted out from the back kitchen. Maddie came out carrying a baking tray and smiled, “The taste test is here!”

There were four flavors in the cookie box. An Yu tasted them one by one, and then, in a cheerful mood, began to write the product description.

An Yu filled the small blackboard with dense writing. Behind him, Maddie and Xu Shuangshuang were both eating cookies, and the crisp, crumbling sound of their chewing filled the room.

With his back to them, An Yu asked, “Is it too long?”

“No,” a strange, somewhat hoarse female voice responded.

An Yu turned around in surprise.

He had been holed up in the shop for the better part of a month, but this girl had only started appearing in the last week. He had a strong impression of her because she always wore an old yellow baseball cap, keeping her head down to hide her features, and she never spoke.

The bakery closed every day between the afternoon and dinner for a break of several tens of minutes. The time wasn’t fixed, but she managed to accurately catch the moment it reopened every day, coming in to buy two or three freshly baked breads, finishing them that day, and returning the next.

This girl had a very good figure, in Ling Qiu’s words: large breasts, a narrow waist, and long legs; slender but not bony, with a perfect ratio of muscle to fat. No matter how the world evolved or how disaster ravaged people, humans could always appreciate this kind of beauty.

An Yu had no concept of what made a “good figure.” He only felt that her silhouette was somewhat familiar. This feeling was especially strong when she turned her back to browse the shelves.

But he just couldn’t, for the life of him, remember who she was.

The girl stood behind him. She finally raised her head and said timidly, “I’ve always really liked these bread stories. Actually, the Main City has many more exquisite and delicious breads, but after reading these cards, I could taste different flavors in these simple breads. Boss, you are an interesting person.”

An Yu replied politely, “Thank you for liking them.”

Xu Shuangshuang, who was standing to the side, should have been scanning the code for payment, but she was completely frozen in place, not moving for a long time.

It wasn’t until An Yu looked at her that she let out an “Oh,” collected the payment in a fluster, and handed over the packaged bread.

The wind chime rang as the girl left. Outside the glass window, that beautiful silhouette gradually disappeared.

“She actually…” Xu Shuangshuang swallowed. “She actually looks like that.”

The girl’s face was covered in scars. There were burns, and also cuts from sharp objects. Strips of flesh and keloids were tangled together, pulling her facial features out of shape.

“I’m not discriminating, but that’s really a bit scary. It’s amazing you didn’t react at all, unlike me…” Xu Shuangshuang suddenly snapped back to her senses and said in frustration, “Was I too rude just now? How did you manage that, not reacting at all?”

An Yu didn’t know how he was supposed to have reacted. He hadn’t had any expectations for the girl’s appearance in the first place. As for ugliness, after seeing so many irregularly shaped aberrants, a face like that could almost be called orderly.

He turned back to the small blackboard to continue thinking, and said casually, “Her figure’s very familiar. I seem to have seen her somewhere.”

He had only said it casually, but unexpectedly Xu Shuangshuang said, “Right! I thought she looked familiar too. If I hadn’t seen her face, I would have suspected she was some big celebrity. Besides, that girl must have lived nearby, to be able to see from her window when we open for business. Oh, right, you’d have to be pretty rich to live in this area, wouldn’t you? She’s probably a kid from a big family.”

An Yu nodded casually. “Maybe.”

He finished writing the product description, personally packed the first cookie box, preparing to take it back for the Commander to try, and then turned to ask Xu Shuangshuang, “Has the tests for the molds been returned yet?”

Xu Shuangshuang pulled out a glass box from under the counter. “You were really careful with these tests. If they can’t open the box, they can only measure with their eyes. The people at the mold factory complained several times.”

An Yu carefully checked the octopus, fishtail, feather, and flower-branch cookies in the test box. After confirming everything was in order, he carefully tucked it away and said, “It can’t be damaged, or my life will be in danger. I’m off work. See you tomorrow.”

Xu Shuangshuang muttered behind him, “What do you mean ‘off work’? You are off work. Our night shift hasn’t even started…”

An Yu put her muttering to the back of his mind. He pushed the door open alone and stepped out into the nighttime lights of the Main City.

This city and its people were slowly recovering from their pain. Shops reopened, and the bar street was bustling once again. Molly, who had been released by Black Tower long ago, had also gotten through her depressive period. Her daily broadcasts were full of energy.

The cathedral had been silent in the night for a long time. The people of the Main City had mourned the Poet, who was paralyzed and would not return, for a while, but they also quickly shifted their attention. Having lost the night prayers, religious-themed plays at several local theaters had recently become very popular.

Yan Xi sent a message: “Sorry, there’s some traffic. I’m going to be two minutes late.”

An Yu replied, “It’s okay. I’ll wait for you at the street corner.”

At the intersection, people came and went in an endless stream.

An Yu stood in the crowd, quietly watching the peace and tranquility of this human Main City.

Author’s Note:

The next mission is about to start.

M1zushi: this is the calm before the storm, we’re next to the story’s climax and ending:blobsweats: