Chapter 128
Before departing for City A, Wen Xin made a trip to the dungeon to meet the suspicious individuals thought to be Espers.
Surprisingly, these people had no connection to the rumor-mongering arsonist who wielded the hallucinogenic candle. Under the influence of Xiao Qi’s illusions, lying was nearly impossible for them.
Standing before them, Wen Xin regarded their weary faces and asked softly, “Earlier, you asked me whose side I’m on. What did you mean by that?”
The others remained silent, their gazes at Wen Xin filled with unexplained hatred and hostility. Only the middle-aged man who had questioned Wen Xin earlier raised his head high, his eyes sharp. “Between mutants and humans, whose side are you truly on?”
Wen Xin had expected such a question sooner or later, given his collaboration with Xiao Hei and the others. Meeting the middle-aged man’s intense gaze, he did not respond immediately. Instead, he calmly countered, “Have we met before?”
The man blinked. “What?”
“There are mutant trainers, others who have allied with high-tier mutants. Why don’t you hate them or question them?”
Wen Xin estimated that widespread doubt and resentment against him would emerge only after his definitive break with First Base, not before.
The man hesitated, his mouth opening and closing before falling silent. His paranoid expression wavered for a fleeting moment.
Even this brief lapse was enough for Xiao Qi to catch on and use it as an entry point to access the man’s memories.
“Wen Xin, should I directly transmit the images to you?” Xiao Qi asked through their mental link.
“Do it,” Wen Xin replied impassively.
Countless fragments of memories, like shards of glass swirling in a storm, flooded Wen Xin’s mind, replaying glimpses of the past. To his surprise, Wen Xin realized he truly had met the man before.
It was during his journey to City Rose in search of Ah Jiu. He had encountered a group under zombie attack and lent a hand. The middle-aged man had bushy eyebrows and large eyes, his body covered in mud and blood. He had appeared disheveled but still led his companions—brothers and relatives—over to thank Wen Xin afterward. His hearty laughter had left a deep impression.
Yet, in less than a year, the man had become a shadow of his former self.
Xiao Qi’s voice echoed in Wen Xin’s mind: “Wen Xin, just like the previous Esper, they’ve been subjected to mental conditioning—specifically, the suggestion that you favor mutants and oppose humanity!”
This explained why those unfamiliar with Wen Xin had so easily believed the defamatory rumors about him. But this man was different.
Having once been saved by Wen Xin, the man had experienced a fleeting moment of doubt when the mental conditioning was applied, albeit too weak to resist it fully. Still, it left a minor crack in the programming.
The memories revealed something more startling—the man had escaped from somewhere.
Once the crack formed, the daily mental conditioning had failed to instill complete hatred for Wen Xin. Instead, it compounded the fissure, sparking his desire to flee.
The surroundings in his memories—the silver metal walls, heavily guarded patrols, intricate electronic instruments, and uniformly white-and-blue hazmat suits—all hinted at the man’s origin: a secret laboratory.
Like the mutants of old, this group was also test subjects. But this time, the experiments involved humans.
The memories shifted further back. About twenty individuals were shown restrained in an observation room, their hands and feet shackled, heads encased in strange white apparatuses. They lay silent as eerie, blue photon lines crisscrossed the ceiling and walls, creating an otherworldly, sci-fi aesthetic.
Since Xiao Qi was constructing this scene from the man’s memories, Wen Xin’s consciousness plunged into the same murky void the man had experienced.
With his wrists and ankles chained and his head immobilized, the man retained only a faint awareness. Wen Xin, through the man’s perspective, could hear guttural roars all around—feral, frenzied, yet strangely exultant.
A sudden realization struck Wen Xin: nearby cages held mutants, each in a heightened, volatile state.
Why were people placed so close to mutants and outfitted with monitoring devices? Wen Xin chose not to act rashly but instead to quietly observe and wait for events to unfold.
It wasn’t long before he noticed something amiss with his—or rather, the man’s—body.
The pressure from the restraints on his wrists and ankles was diminishing. Simultaneously, the monitoring equipment on his head began emitting frantic alerts.
The middle-aged man attempted to break free and discovered the metallic fastenings creaking under his increasing strength.
Wen Xin realized the truth: the restraints weren’t loosening—his strength was amplifying.
And not just his strength—something more profound was transforming within him.
The discordant roars, initially a chaotic cacophony, gradually resolved into clarity in the middle-aged man’s mind. To his shock, he realized he could discern precisely how many mutants were nearby from the seemingly random noise.
His hearing sharpened, his sense of smell heightened, and his vision became more acute. The man quickly recognized the changes in his body and was stunned by their magnitude.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from a short distance away.
Metal clasps shattered one after another with rapid, gunfire-like pops. Someone had broken free of their restraints using brute force alone!
“What are these things growing from my hands?!”
Still reeling from shock, the middle-aged man instinctively raised his gaze toward the source of the commotion.
His pupils constricted as he saw thick vines erupting from someone’s palms, writhing wildly as if under their control.
This… was undeniably an Esper ability!
“Wen Xin!”
Noticing Wen Xin’s abnormal state, Xiao Qi hurriedly ended her illusion. Yuan Yanzhong took two strides forward, catching Wen Xin, who appeared as if he’d been struck by an overwhelming force.
Wen Xin waved a hand to indicate he was fine, but the lingering dizziness from the illusion still swirled in his mind. He pressed his temples repeatedly, but the sensation wouldn’t subside.
Yuan Yanzhong, noting Wen Xin’s pale complexion, seemed to realize something and frowned. “What did you see in the illusion?”
Wen Xin glanced at the confused onlookers before letting out a slow breath. “Come with me,” he said.
The middle-aged man, desperate, called out again. “Officer Wen!”
He hadn’t expected a reply, but the young man at the front turned to face him.
Wen Xin’s voice was steady. “Mutants or humans—I stand with neither.”
It wasn’t a definitive answer, sounding more like a vague, evasive statement, a reed swaying in the wind. The middle-aged man’s eyes dimmed, his resentment growing. But then Wen Xin continued, “I don’t believe I have the power to decide humanity’s fate or that of mutants. My stance has always been singular—justice.”
The word “justice” was broad, yet Wen Xin imbued it with a weight that felt timeless.
Meeting the middle-aged man’s stunned gaze, Wen Xin added, “What you fear will never happen.”
Outside the dungeon, Wen Xin’s expression darkened further. “Someone discovered that the energy released during a mutant’s evolution could awaken latent human potential with almost no side effects. The extraordinary physical abilities these people possess are the results of those experiments.”
Typically, when mutants evolve, their ferocity surges and their strength grows exponentially.
It’s akin to disturbing a mother bear protecting her cubs—an act no sane person would dare attempt unless they had a death wish. Thus, few could have imagined that a mutant’s evolution could offer such significant benefits to humans.
But that wasn’t Wen Xin’s primary concern.
What unsettled him was that these individuals were attempting to use this method to mass-produce Espers!
That same day, Wen Xin and his group set off.
Under Yuan Yanzhong’s full-speed travel, it took less than three days to reach their destination, City A.
As Wen Xin had predicted, City A had gone into full lockdown following Wen Jinfeng’s disappearance. Refugee checkpoints were closed, barring any outsiders from entering. Patrols had doubled at the gates, and heavy-duty missile launchers had been mounted on the city walls.
Yet, none of this posed any real obstacle to Wen Xin and his companions.
Xiao Qi snapped her fingers as she eyed a patrol team in the distance.
The guards wavered, their vigilant expressions suddenly turning vacant. Even as Wen Xin and his group walked openly past them, they didn’t react.
Wen Xin’s childhood home was in the southern district of City A. Even when he had fled here previously, he hadn’t returned. It wasn’t that he’d forgotten its location—he simply didn’t know how to face the lonely building.
He hadn’t set foot there in nearly ten years.
Even the sturdiest of buildings eventually show the wear of time. What had once seemed vast and empty to Wen Xin now appeared as an ordinary house.
There was no gilded décor or priceless antiques. The white walls had yellowed, and the corner near the door was filled with childish scribbles in colorful crayons.
The most intact drawing was a family portrait of four, with a big, cheerful smiley face added nearby.
As if worried people wouldn’t understand, each figure had a wobbly label over their head: [Mom], [Stern-faced Dad], [Annoying Brother], [Me].
Seeing the whimsical marks, Yuan Yanzhong seemed to glimpse a shadow of the past—a small figure enthusiastically drawing on the wall with clear, lively eyes that curved into crescent moons when they smiled.
The vision felt so vivid that Yuan Yanzhong momentarily believed he had truly met a young Wen Xin.
But how could that be? Wen Xin had been born over two decades ago, long before Yuan Yanzhong had even hatched.
Knowing he had grown up surrounded by love and care, not as a universally despised child, Wen Xin felt no fear of the past. He couldn’t help but rest his hand on the drawings, a look of nostalgia in his eyes.
As his gaze traveled upward, it landed on a scribbled black mass next to the label [Me].
Even the black mass had a label.
[Mr. Ghost].
Translation Notes:
“Esper” refers to ability users.
In Chinese web novels “Espers” typically refers to individuals with supernatural or psychic abilities. These powers often include telekinesis, precognition, pyrokinesis, or other mental or elemental abilities that go beyond normal human limits.
