Chapter 151: Exposure

Chapter 151: Exposure

The team members' expressions changed in unison upon hearing this: "A lightning-type ability user?!"

Cao Zhan said in bewilderment, "But Xing Yuan hasn't left Sky City recently at all. How could he have appeared here for no reason?!"

Xing Yuan was the only lightning-type ability user in Sky City, and he always acted alone. Even if he went out to hunt at night, he would never team up with others. The nearby soil and ruins had been scorched by lightning, which indeed resembled his usual style.

Shi Xuan closed his eyes and used his abilities to sense the surroundings. He discovered a strong lingering aura of wanderers and frowned as he muttered to himself, "Could it be that the illusion-type wanderer was killed by him?"

They had searched Blackstone Street for so long without finding any trace of the illusion-type wanderer. For the time being, they could only come to this conclusion. Just as Shi Xuan was about to give up on investigating and lead his team back home, a sound suddenly came from a distance. Two black figures were squatting on the ground, packing up their live-streaming equipment. They were none other than the two streamers they had encountered earlier.

Cao Zhan couldn't help but blurt out, "I thought those two had already left. Why are they still here? They're simply courting death!"

The contaminated area was the lair of all high-level wanderers. These two ordinary people had wandered around in the middle of the night and hadn't been eaten by wanderers. It was unclear whether they had gotten lucky or experienced a miracle.

However, Shi Xuan raised his hand to signal his teammates to be quiet. He led them over and stood three steps away. He took the initiative to ask Lu Yan and Lu Xiaozhao, "Why haven't you left Blackstone Street yet? Where do you live? Do you need us to give you a ride?"

Compared to their first encounter, his attitude was much better, but there was a hint of probing in his tone. There was clearly a lingering aura of wanderers in the air, yet these two people were nearby and unharmed. Their identities were likely not simple.

Lu Yan had heard the footsteps of this group of people long ago. After he finished packing up the scattered items on the ground, he stood up and politely declined, "Thank you, but no. We live nearby, so we can walk back ourselves."

He disliked dealing with unfamiliar people, especially since this group came from Sky City.

After Lu Yan finished speaking, he gave Lu Xiaozhao a look and prepared to leave with the equipment. Unexpectedly, a gust of wind suddenly swept past his ears. Three sharp ice spikes abruptly appeared in the air, charging towards his back with piercing momentum.

"Whoosh—"

Upon seeing this, Lu Yan's gaze turned stern. He directly threw out a dense web of blue-purple electricity, instantly shattering the three ice spikes and forcefully pushing Shi Xuan back three steps. If Shi Xuan hadn't dodged in time, he would have been electrocuted by now.

"Captain!"

"Captain, are you okay?!"

The team members were all startled when they saw this and hurriedly stepped forward to support Shi Xuan. They obviously didn't expect their captain to attack the streamer in front of them, and even more unexpectedly, the person was a rare lightning-type ability user. They looked at each other, unsure of how to speak.

Cao Zhan was anxious. "Captain, you…you…"

He wanted to ask Shi Xuan why he had attacked for no reason and blame the person opposite for being too ruthless. However, their side was at fault, so they didn't even dare to seek justice.

With the support of his teammates, Shi Xuan struggled to steady himself. With an ugly expression, he spat out, "I'm fine."

Shi Xuan had originally made a sudden move just to test Lu Yan's strength. However, he didn't expect the other party's skills to far exceed his estimation. This time, he had offended someone.

After Lu Xiaozhao realized what had happened, he angrily threw the things on the ground, rolled up his sleeves, and rushed forward to fight them. "Are you guys crazy? What did my brother do to you to deserve such a sneak attack? If you have the guts, fight me fair and square. Hiding and sneaking around, what kind of hero is that?!"

Lu Yan frowned and called out, "Lu Xiaozhao, come back!"

Lu Xiaozhao immediately turned around and hid behind him, whispering, "Brother, these people are very sinister. You mustn't suffer any losses!"

As the captain, Shi Xuan lived up to his title. Even at this point, he could still smooth things over. He realized that Lu Yan was the one in charge and awkwardly said, "Sorry, I was just joking earlier. I didn't expect you to also be ability users."

Lu Yan smiled insincerely. "Is that so? That's not very funny."

Shi Xuan didn't mind his attitude. "Little brother, since your abilities are so powerful, why don't you live in Sky City instead of staying in Devil City to do live-streaming?"

Ever since the appearance of wanderers, Sky City had established a special zone for ability users. Basically, they had recruited all the ability users they could find. Lu Yan possessed powerful lightning-type abilities but chose to live in a place like Devil City and make a living through live-streaming. He was the first of his kind.

Lu Yan couldn't say that he was poor. He put his hands into the pockets of his coat and asked indifferently, "Can't it just be a personal hobby? Does your ability user team have to manage everything?"

Shi Xuan smiled. "That's not what I meant. The special zone for ability users has always been eager for talent. If you go to Sky City, you will definitely have better development. Staying in Devil City is really a waste. I was presumptuous today. I hope you two won't take offense. My name is Shi Xuan. Next time if you come to Sky City, you can directly mention my name. I'll definitely apologize with a banquet."

After he finished speaking, he saw that Lu Yan was still on guard. He had no choice but to leave with his teammates first. Once they got in the car, Cao Zhan, who was sitting in the back seat, finally couldn't resist asking, "Captain, why did you suddenly make a move to test them earlier?"

Shi Xuan sat in the passenger seat, closing his eyes to rest. Upon hearing this, he slowly exhaled. "Didn't we get the results? The other party is a lightning-type ability user, at least level three. The illusion-type wanderer we were trying to catch probably fell into his hands. I didn't expect Devil City to actually hide such a master."

He muttered to himself, "Interesting. Sky City has never had a lightning-type ability user other than Xing Yuan. When the news spreads back, many people will likely have ideas about recruiting him. There are people outside of people and skies outside of skies. You should learn a lesson. Don't think you're invincible just because you have some abilities. Fortunately, I was here today; otherwise, you would have kicked an iron plate."

The other team members felt somewhat ashamed upon hearing this. At first, they indeed hadn't taken the two exploration streamers seriously. They didn't expect the other party to actually be a lightning-type ability user. Fortunately, no conflict occurred; otherwise, they really would have kicked an iron plate.

Only Cao Zhan couldn't help but mutter, "Captain, we didn't have time to do anything. You were the one who made the first move and started fighting with them."

Shi Xuan mercilessly retorted, "Didn't you curse them as suicidal idiots?"

Cao Zhan choked and his voice instantly weakened by eight decibels. "I did."

Phew, next time, I'll never be so mouthy again.

As they drove away, the distant horizon revealed a faint white glow. The orange sun slowly rose, dispelling the boundless gloom and dyeing the clouds a shocking red. The abandoned high-rise buildings in the contaminated area and the Ferris wheel in the amusement park became black silhouettes at this moment, silently telling the story of past glory. It was a nearly desperate romance, akin to the collapse of the world.

Lu Yan saw this scene and stood on high ground. He found a good angle and took a photo with his phone. Then, he clicked to send it to Phantom, along with a line of text:

"Good morning, the sunrise at dawn today is beautiful (image)."

After sending the photo, Lu Yan couldn't help but silently give himself a thumbs-up in his heart. Tsk, clocking in for work at five in the morning. I wonder if anyone else does that. I'm truly a model worker. I don't feel guilty about my salary.

After doing all this, Lu Yan directly leaped down from the ruins and patted Lu Xiaozhao on the shoulder. "Let's go home!"

Today's live-streaming task was successfully completed, and they received quite a few tips. After going back and editing the video, they could attract another wave of traffic. It was perfect.

Lu Xiaozhao was still angry about Shi Xuan's sneak attack. "Brother, you shouldn't have let those people go. They're simply despicable and shameless!"

Lu Yan lifted his eyelids and asked, "Go home when I tell you to. Why so much nonsense? If you're so capable, why didn't you rush forward to fight just now? Why did you keep hiding behind me?!"

Lu Xiaozhao covered his head, looking aggrieved. "There were too many of them. I couldn't beat them."

Lu Yan: "So you knew there were too many of them. Could I have beaten them? Stop talking nonsense and hurry home!"

Lu Yan had fought all night last night and now only wanted to go back to sleep. Lu Xiaozhao also looked like he was about to pass out from exhaustion. After they left the contaminated area, they directly hailed a taxi to go home. However, they didn't expect to hear a shrill cry nearby after getting out of the car.

"Don't take my son! Please, I beg of you! Don't take him!"

"He's still in school, how could he be a wanderer? He's perfectly fine!"

Lu Qian's living quarters were notorious slums, barely better off than the contaminated zones. Yet today, it was unusually graced by the presence of an armed patrol unit. They stood outside a bakery, forcibly dragging out a struggling boy, who appeared to be around 14 or 15 years old. His throat emitted beast-like roars, and his scarlet tongue lashed out wildly, attempting to attack, but was securely locked inside a metal face cage. Below his knees, instead of normal human legs, there was a dense cloud of black mist.

The bakery owner's wife chased after them, crying and shouting, only to be forcefully restrained by the patrol officers: "We suspect your son is a latent wanderer. According to regulations, we must take him back to the research institute for processing. Please do not obstruct our work!"

The woman sobbed uncontrollably, sitting on the ground and throwing her shoes at them in anger: "What wanderer?! I don't understand! He's my child, born from my womb. Would I not know if he was a wanderer?! Give me back my son! Give him back to me!"

Due to this commotion, a crowd had gathered around the bakery, watching the spectacle. Lu Qian, taking advantage of his height, managed to squeeze through the crowd. He witnessed the patrol officers apprehend the young boy and watched as five patrol cars sped away, leaving behind only the bakery owner's monotonous yet heart-wrenching cries.

How could this happen?

Lu Qian frowned, feeling surprised. He had bought bread from that shop before and knew about the owner's son, who would often play marbles at the entrance every day and had even spoken to him a few times. Clearly alive and well, how could he suddenly become a wanderer?!

Whispers from the onlookers filled his ears:

"How terrifying, to have a wanderer living in their home..."

"I heard her son suddenly went berserk last night, biting people. The monitoring institute found out. Thank goodness the patrol took him away; otherwise, I wouldn't dare live here..."

"Poor thing..."

Squeezing out a few minutes from their limited lifespans to watch the drama was the limit for these ordinary people. Soon, they began to disperse. Lu Qian and Xiao Zhao also returned home. Before going upstairs, he glanced at the sky. It should have been brightening, but the sun was red as if dripping with blood, casting an eerie and gloomy hue over the surrounding sky.

Wanderers typically avoided the sun during the day, only becoming active at night. In the past, Xing Yuan would just be settling down for sleep at this time. However, the monitoring headquarters suddenly issued a temporary notice for all third-level psychics and above to attend a meeting at the main office. As a result, his napping spot was forced to shift from his soft bed to the cold, hard surface of the round table in the conference hall.

"According to the meteorological bureau's observations, there may be a rare phenomenon of a red sun appearing soon. Currently, we are uncertain whether this phenomenon will affect wanderers. However, based on citizen reports received from Devil City, fifty-six latent wanderers have been discovered within just three days..."

The highest leader of Sky City's monitoring headquarters stood before a virtual projection, delivering a speech. Due to the vast size of the venue, his voice echoed through the speakers, creating layers of reverberations that sounded like the incessant chanting of a monk reciting a spell, inducing drowsiness.

Xing Yuan sat expressionlessly in the front row, his eyelids half-closed. His eyes, naturally dark with little white showing, made his demeanor appear cold and impatient. All he wanted to know was which fool had placed him in the front row, directly facing the old man on the podium, making it impossible for him to even nap.

Xing Yuan's slender fingers pressed against his temple as he raised a cold eyebrow. "How much longer is he going to ramble?"

Luo Yang, sitting beside him, yawned. Judging by the dark circles under his eyes, it was clear that he had pulled another all-nighter: "It should be almost over. In two hours, it'll be dinner time. The director will definitely let us go eat. It doesn't matter. Just play with your phone; time will pass quickly."

During meetings, Luo Yang never idled. His fingertips tapped rapidly on the screen, chatting with over a dozen new targets on his contact list. Yan Feng, always meticulous, sat beside him, diligently taking notes.

Bored to the extreme, Xing Yuan casually scrolled through his phone. Unexpectedly, he came across an unread message from Lu Qian sent that morning. Tapping into it, he was greeted by a strikingly atmospheric and beautiful photograph.

A red sun slowly rose from the horizon, painting the sky a vast expanse of orange, resembling a heart pulsating with intense heat. In the distance, the darkness of night gradually receded like an ebbing tide. The indistinct light of dawn softened the ravaged buildings, leaving only undulating silhouettes, a testament to the photographer's skillful composition.

Below the image was a caption: Good morning, the sunrise this morning was beautiful.

Morning? Xing Yuan thought it was far from morning; it was already dark. He zoomed in on the picture and immediately recognized the location as the contaminated zone, unconsciously frowning. After all, normal people didn't wander there without reason.

Buzz...

Lu Qian, originally lying in bed catching up on sleep, subconsciously opened his eyes upon hearing the notification sound. In the darkness, he fumbled for his phone and groggily opened it. About ten seconds later, his eyes adjusted to the light, and he saw a line of emotionless text:

"You went to the contaminated zone."

It was a statement, not a question, coming from his sugar daddy.

Quite observant.

Lu Qian tossed his phone aside and got up to wash up in the bathroom. Splashing cold water on his face, he felt more awake. Looking out the window, he realized he had slept through daylight until nightfall, the passage of time silent and unnoticed.

Devil City had once again fallen into a deathly silence.

Xiao Zhao hadn't woken up yet, and with no one cooking, Lu Qian lazily sank into the sofa. His tousled hair fell over his handsome features, leaving him in a state of mental blankness. After regaining his senses for a moment, he picked up his phone to reply to Phantom:

"I just happen to live near the contaminated zone. They say the sunrise there is beautiful, so I wanted to take a photo for you to see."

Lu Qian had merely snapped the photo on a whim, but the gentle words strung together created an illusion: I took this specifically for you.

Xing Yuan couldn't discern the complexities of human language traps. He lightly licked his mouth, pleased with the attitude of the person on the other side of the screen. It was a subtle emotion that arose only when someone truly cared about you.

Small and fragile, yet like bait dangling from a fishhook, it was the beginning that drew everything closer.

Xing Yuan typed a cryptic message: "Aren't you afraid of dying?"

He was about to click send but suddenly realized that the teasing tone seemed too intimate. Hesitating, he deleted it and replaced it with a slightly more critical remark: "You took ten minutes to reply."

Tsk, so sharp.

Lu Qian replied: "I accidentally injured my hand today, so typing is a bit slow."

Xing Yuan furrowed his brow: "Why?"

Lu Qian didn't provide too many details: "It's a bit chaotic near the contaminated zone."

Robbery, murder, arson—these things happened daily in various corners of Devil City. Getting hurt wasn't uncommon.

Xing Yuan belatedly realized this, wondering if the other party had gotten injured while trying to capture the sunrise for him. The reasoning was absurd and ridiculous, sounding almost idiotic, incapable of moving anyone.

A faint hint of mockery flickered in Xing Yuan's eyes, but it couldn't be detected through text: "Should I transfer some medical expenses to you?"

Lu Qian was unaware of Xing Yuan's expression on the other side of the screen. Seeing the message, he was somewhat surprised, thinking that this fool really intended to transfer medical expenses to him. He typed a nonchalant response:

"Not injured, I was just kidding."

The other party had already transferred him quite a bit of time. Even if Lu Qian wanted to scam money, he couldn't mercilessly exploit a single fool. His conscience wouldn't allow it.

Xing Yuan didn't expect Lu Qian to respond that way. Normally, shouldn't the other party cry pitifully, then ask him for medical fees, nutritional supplement fees, relocation fees, and other miscellaneous expenses? Luo Yang, that fool, was often tricked by the sobbing vases in his phone in such a manner.

Xing Yuan couldn't help but believe a fraction of Lu Qian's claim of being injured, but he also suspected the other party was playing hard to get. Frowning, he turned off the phone screen and tossed it onto the conference table, lazily propping his head up, lost in thought. After a few minutes, he retrieved the phone again and typed:

"Snap a photo and send it over."

Seeing the message, Lu Yan's eyelids twitched: "???"

What? Does chatting now require sending pictures?

Before he could ask why, his phone vibrated momentarily, and another message came through from the other side, the tone laced with a faint disdain:

"Hands only, no need to show your face."

Xing Yuan merely wanted to see if Lu Yan's hands were injured; he had no interest in his face. If it turned out to be some grotesquely ugly person with a crooked mouth and slanted eyes, he would lose all interest in chatting and delete the contact instantly.

Online chatting, after all, is best when no one sees each other. It's good for everyone—no harm done, and there's no insurance to claim if something goes wrong.