Chapter 29
An Evolver who looked like a teenager was currently treading on the outer wall of the Sage Tower, his body forming a perfect ninety-degree angle with the vertical surface.
His feet seemed firmly glued to the concrete, walking completely unhindered across a surface that defied all laws of physics.
The moment the autonomous drones drew near, he slammed his hands together with absolute force.
The previously orderly drone array seemed violently collided by a colossal invisible force, emitting a deafening roar before plummeting straight down.
The drones that had dominated the entire airspace just a moment ago were completely wiped out in the blink of an eye.
The current state of the Sage Tower, however, was far from ideal; it was a total scene of tattered destruction.
The youth turned around, treading step-by-step along the vertical concrete wall. He paced unhurriedly through a shattered window to step back into the penthouse lounge. Glancing at Batu, who was heavily fortified by bodyguards, he curled his lip in clear displeasure.
“They didn’t come personally; they just sent a drone swarm to say hello.”
Only then did Batu let out a massive sigh of relief, cautiously poking his head out from behind his bodyguards’ defense line.
“Indeed, I didn’t perceive a single thing,” Batu said, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. “Once the distance exceeds one hundred meters, it becomes exceptionally difficult for me to perceive their presence. I am not an Evolver equipped with powerful combat capabilities; thank you very much for your assistance just now.”
“Don’t worry, with us stationed here, they can only deploy these petty parlor tricks to test our waters,” the youth looked at Batu with a grin. “They won’t abandon their target this easily.”
Batu, with his sensory capability, was the absolute ultimate bait. The personnel from the Special Operations Department would never ignore an adversary who had completely exposed the files of all their core Evolvers.
He genuinely wished to witness exactly how formidable this Bai Hewei, who had utterly defeated Gentleman, truly was.
“That youth is the S-Class Evolver [Magnetic King], Field. Presently, he is an exceptionally popular superhero over in America. An oil conglomerate signed him and has been pushing his branding aggressively; word is a dedicated blockbuster film and merchandise lines will launch for him soon,” Guan Yan said, pointing to the youth on the surveillance feed. “His ability is magnetic manipulation, which carries an incredibly vast range of utility. Prior to your sudden emergence, he was universally recognized as a prime candidate for the strongest Evolver in the world.”
As he spoke, Guan Yan stole another glance at Bai Hewei. He still found it somewhat difficult to reconcile the ordinary guy sitting next to him with the title of the world’s strongest powerhouse.
“Magnetic manipulation? That looks spectacularly powerful,” Bai Hewei marveled. “I saw him slam his hands together just now, and the entire drone swarm instantly lost control, smashing into each other to self-destruct. If he pulled a stunt like that during a military conflict, wouldn’t he be able to single-handedly neutralize an entire military base?”
“No,” the robot resting on Bai Hewei’s shoulder intoned evenly, its voice flowing out. “Field’s ability is indeed formidable, but he is incapable of developing his capability to its absolute pinnacle. In fact, looking at the current baseline of Evolvers, ninety-nine percent fail to comprehensively master their own supernatural abilities.”
Hearing Wen Zhiyi speak, Guan Yan subconsciously sat up a bit straighter.
“Huh? Why is that?” Bai Hewei asked curiously. “Evolvers have been around for a full five years now; they still haven’t mastered their powers?”
“Captain Guan Yan, I would like you to clarify this point,” Wen Zhiyi interjected suddenly, like a professor springing a surprise pop quiz.
…Talk about holding a grudge.
Back during the training cohort, everyone openly gossiped that Wen Zhiyi was incredibly petty, and it turned out to be completely true.
Bringing up this question out of the blue was entirely because Guan Yan had bickered with him during a lecture back then, wasn’t it?
“Because the precise development of an ability requires a colossal repository of knowledge as a foundation,” Guan Yan answered. “Take Field’s magnetic manipulation, for example; presently, he can only execute crude and basic applications. If he wishes to precisely manipulate micro-particles, or leverage his power to assist with scientific research, it requires him to thoroughly master all physical theories of mechanics and advanced mathematics, and sometimes even factor in real-time meteorological variables. Such calculations are completely impossible for Field; he never received elite education and can barely calculate single-digit arithmetic.”
The same logic applied to Gentleman’s spatial capability. To deploy his shifts smoothly at any moment or location, he required an exceptionally rigorous mastery of spatial dimensions, such as calculating coordinate variables on the fly.
But plain to see, the vast majority of current Evolvers completely lacked the corresponding cognitive capacity.
Conversely, the scholars and researchers who possessed the necessary academic foundations rarely awakened these strategic combat abilities; instead, they unlocked powers closely tied to mundane daily life. Even among top-tier mathematicians, the ability that best aligned with their baseline was merely a calculation enhancement. Following testing, that level of mental calculation still fell drastically short of the latest supercomputers.
“Then it’s no wonder they can’t develop their powers. Who would want to work that hard to study after becoming an Evolver?” Bai Hewei caught onto the logic instantly, stating his thoughts.
“Exactly! I just need to stab a doll; why on earth should I study human anatomy and grind through an entire medical PhD curriculum?” Guan Yan chimed in with his own complaint. “They claimed that finishing a full medical PhD and working as a forensic pathologist for a few years would allow me to comprehensively master my ability. By the time I finish all that studying, my entire youth will be ruined. What would be the point of mastering my power then?”
Consequently, even though Guan Yan and his peers knew the exact trajectory to elevate their abilities, their progress had completely stalled.
Working their regular shifts was already exhausting enough; who could possibly endure having to study dense, dry academic theories upon returning home?
At the very least, Guan Yan couldn’t.
“Ahem, I still don’t know what my ability is, so I don’t have to worry about studying this stuff for now,” Bai Hewei felt a deep wave of sympathy. Who wanted to study? He was already on the verge of a mental breakdown just trying to study for the Essay and the vocational test; if he had to study dense, highly technical academic files like that, he would rather pass away.
“Batu’s Sage Tower won’t just house Field alone,” Wen Zhiyi knew the baseline nature of these Evolvers all too well, so he had long since abandoned trying to encourage them to study. It was a completely futile effort anyway. He could only comfort himself that his nation’s Evolvers had at least undergone systematic public education, leaving their general quality several tiers higher than their foreign counterparts.
“There are a total of five, and Gentleman is among them,” Bai Hewei added casually.
“How do you know that?” Guan Yan blanked for a second, inquiring. Even their intelligence agents hadn’t managed to pinpoint the exact number of people who had reinforced Batu’s compound.
Yet Bai Hewei hadn’t stepped foot near the Sage Tower from start to finish, remaining cooped up in this corner the entire time—how could he possibly know there were five Evolvers inside?
“I saw them,” Bai Hewei stated matter-of-factly. “There are exactly five. The energy density inside their bodies is roughly on par; they should all be the Evolvers you talk about.”
It wasn’t easy for Bai Hewei to explain the mechanics, as he certainly couldn’t blab that his eyes currently possessed the properties of a telescopic zoom, magnification, and X-ray vision.
“What do they look like individually?” Wen Zhiyi inquired.
“One is a red-haired woman, looking to be… maybe in her twenties or thirties? I can’t accurately gauge the age of foreigners, but she looks exceptionally beautiful,” Bai Hewei provided a physical description.
Click, click, click.
The little robot underwent a swift configuration change, smoothly morphing into a miniature projector.
The profile image of a red-haired woman was projected directly from the robot’s camera aperture.
“Is this the person?” Wen Zhiyi located the matching intelligence file.
“Yes, exactly her,” Bai Hewei nodded repeatedly.
“This is Laurent from the City of Romance, her ability is [Infinite Resurrection]. This woman’s power is incredibly troublesome; presently, she stands as an extreme manifestation of a healing-type Evolver. Her rapid regeneration only applies to her own body, and its efficacy vastly outstrips other Evolvers of a similar track. In fact, she can mend fatal trauma and resurrect instantly at the moment of death. Our international intelligence indicates she can achieve resurrection twice within a single hour,” Wen Zhiyi’s tone grew significantly more solemn. “Furthermore, she is among the rare few who proactively requested rigorous military training after uncovering her ability profile.”
Firearms, close-quarters combat, sniping—she ground through every single track.
Because her ability merely guaranteed her resurrection, but did nothing to grant her baseline self-defense capabilities.
“An ability like that didn’t get her captured?” Bai Hewei was shocked.
“She awakened precisely after she was captured,” Guan Yan sighed. “Initially, Laurent resembled regular healing Evolvers; her power only worked on herself, and its efficacy was sluggish, healing her trauma very slowly. She was originally just an impoverished student working multiple jobs to keep herself afloat when she was abducted due to her healing capability to undergo research. Who knows if her luck was spectacular or atrocious—everyone captured alongside her perished on the operating tables during the very first wave of procedures.”
When Evolvers first emerged, despite their diverse capabilities, they were still no match for highly trained corporate mercenary squads.
To crack the secrets of evolution, numerous financial syndicates and research facilities hired an immense volume of mercenaries to abduct them. This was especially true for healing-type Evolvers, who represented the concrete hope of securing longevity to those aging, disease-ridden corporate executives.
Laurent naturally perished on the operating table as well.
However, to the researchers’ utter bewilderment, when her corpse was piled alongside the other victims to be collectively incinerated, she suddenly resurrected.
Consequently, the facility was completely ecstatic, launching a fresh round of invasive research on her body.
If a media outlet hadn’t happened to expose the dark transactions of that facility, leading to her rescue, she likely would have been trapped there for the rest of her life.
Afterward, Laurent enlisted in the military, emerging from her training as an exceptionally formidable black-ops agent.
“Through relentless combat deployment, her ability grew increasingly powerful, and the frequency and speed of her resurrections skyrocketed. However, we estimate she doesn’t possess true immortality. If her physical form is obliterated completely, or if someone terminates her a specific number of times within a short window, they can breach her resurrection threshold, rendering her entirely incapable of returning to life,” Guan Yan noted. “She is highly troublesome to handle, and exceptionally difficult to poach. Word is plenty of nations extended magnificent olive branches to her, but she turned them all down.”
“Those research labs really bring nothing but ruin to people’s lives,” Bai Hewei marveled with a sigh.
“Research itself carries zero flaws; it is simply that certain individuals leverage the guise of research to execute malevolent acts,” Wen Zhiyi countered immediately.
“Right, right, I forgot to add a qualifier. It’s those foreign research labs that are truly atrocious,” Bai Hewei corrected his phrasing instantly.
“There are two more. One is a man wearing a mask; I couldn’t see his face clearly, but his frame is massive, packed entirely with raw muscle—he looks profoundly powerful. The last one is very young, looking like an underage kid, and he’s just been playing games the whole time,” Bai Hewei carefully detailed their descriptions.
Wen Zhiyi pulled up several photos, but Bai Hewei shook his head, indicating none of them matched.
“An adversary without an intelligence file is the absolute most troublesome; they are highly probable to be secret Evolvers cultivated in total isolation by those hidden syndicates,” Guan Yan frowned. “It looks like for this deployment, our single squad won’t be enough to handle the mission.”
No matter how formidable Bai Hewei was, he couldn’t possibly take on five S-Class entities simultaneously.
Furthermore, they had to factor in Batu, who was feeding them real-time sensory data on their positions.
If Bai Hewei launched a rash assault, it would be a death trap custom-tailored to neutralize him.
“Following this initial wave of testing, they will likely take the initiative to seek us out,” Wen Zhiyi stated. “We must establish a solid defense grid; they are not the type to sit quietly without striking back.”
Guan Yan nodded. He returned to the main building to assemble the other squad captains for an emergency tactical meeting.
Naturally, Bai Hewei tag-along back with them.
Inside the Sage Tower.
“Who do you think launched that assault on us?” Field muttered, staring at the shattered penthouse lounge before bursting into a laugh.
The documentary crew had refused to continue filming Batu under any circumstances, scrambling frantically out of the Sage Tower the moment the drone swarm collapsed.
Similarly, the lovers Batu housed within this building had fled in a massive stampede, though they took care to plunder whatever gold jewelry, physical cash, and bank cards they could grab from Batu’s safes along the way.
Batu didn’t have the luxury of time to track down these ungrateful partners.
He only desired to preserve his own life right now.
“Who else could it be? Capable of deploying a drone array of this scale while perfectly hiding from our sensory grid—only the Special Operations Department possesses that playbook,” Laurent stated without a trace of hesitation. “Batu has been launching provocations against them for so long; they waited until now just to drop a casual greeting, which is already exceedingly polite. If it were any other rogue organization, multiple waves of assassinations would have landed by now.”
Hearing Laurent’s words, Batu’s complexion turned quite sour.
But recalling Laurent’s ability profile, he couldn’t help but feel a trace of envy.
If he possessed an undying body, why would he ever need to live in such constant terror?
“The Special Operations Department never strikes unless they have absolute certainty of success. Batu’s previous provocations successfully exposed the ability profiles of several of their squad captains, yet they remained completely quiet for a long period. Launching an assault now means they have likely secured a mechanism to neutralize Batu,” the towering Evolver chimed in. “They cannot possibly allow Batu to keep drawing breath.”
The Special Operations Department stood as the absolute vital shield safeguarding China’s Evolvers and citizens, and the details regarding their operatives were highly classified. Yet Batu could effortlessly extract their ability data and sell it to foreign entities hostile to China.
Batu’s strategic threat level vastly outstripped other Evolvers who merely possessed pure destructive capabilities.
Therefore, Batu would either be captured or terminated.
There was zero statistical probability of him continuing to bounce around freely.
This was precisely why their squad had assembled inside the Sage Tower; they knew it was merely a matter of time before the Special Operations Department moved in on Batu.
“Bai Hewei is here,” Gentleman, who had remained silent all this time, spoke up. “I have a premonition. He has already arrived in this sector, he simply hasn’t stepped past our threshold.”
“This cautious?” Field looked brimming with enthusiasm. “I desperately want to uncover exactly what his ability is. How about this—let’s launch an assault on the Special Operations Department ourselves? We can’t just let them drop a greeting without striking back.”
“Go if you want, but I’m not running out to throw my life away,” Laurent rolled her eyes. “Even if I can resurrect, I don’t engage in suicidal stunts like that.”
“Personally, I feel a quick raid wouldn’t be a bad idea. Otherwise, if this stalemate drags on, when is it ever going to end?” the kid who had been playing games muttered casually. “How about I go test their waters first? I’ve long since heard that the personnel of the Special Operations Department are incredibly formidable and maintain absolute coordination. I prefer working against tightly coordinated, powerful teams above all else.”
“Keep it within reasonable boundaries. You absolutely cannot go slaughtering a massive crowd of their operatives, otherwise we will genuinely face an absolute global pursuit by China into the deep ends of the universe.”
“Relax.”
After demolishing a magnificent meal at the cafeteria, Bai Hewei strolled out with his little robot companion to catch some fresh air.
As for tactical deployment meetings, they had absolutely nothing to do with him, nor did he need to attend. Once their meeting produced a final strategy, he just needed to step out and execute it like a blunt instrument.
He was just a contract worker on an official field deployment; why should he display excessive dedication? He didn’t actually intend to take up permanent residence here anyway.
Although the border branch was spectacular, due to the unique classification of the department, there weren’t any shopping malls or movie theaters nearby. If someone wanted to catch a movie or sing KTV, they had to handle it within the designated entertainment block.
Even with the automated entertainment facilities, he still preferred a bustling, lively atmosphere. Their subdistrict office back home was magnificent on this front.
The Heping Subdistrict was located right in the vibrant city center. Gaps in administration aside, the lifestyle amenities were top-tier, featuring dozens of milk tea and coffee shops, with a dedicated street for local snacks right around the corner. There was a concrete reason why his salary vanished into thin air every single month.
As he coasted along until clock-out time, Bai Hewei completely shifted into slacker mode, planning to place a call to his parents to ask how their company-funded vacation was progressing.
But right as he unlocked his phone, a window abruptly popped up on his Evolver app.
[System is currently matching an opponent for you. Yes OR Yes?]
What kind of trash coding is this? Aren’t both choices exactly the same?!
Staring at the prompt on his screen, Bai Hewei didn’t rashly tap either option.
This Evolver app was genuinely garbage. Anyone could hack into the source code and modify the windows at will; an outsourcing company like that should be completely struck from future government procurement bidding notices.
[System will automatically initiate matching protocols in ten seconds… Ten, nine, eight…]
It even comes with a forced countdown bypass?!
Realizing something was profoundly amiss, Bai Hewei tossed his phone onto the bed and turned to throw the door open to exit—he needed to compile an incident report immediately.
Suddenly, the detectors inside the Special Operations Department emitted a piercing, screeching alarm.
The airspace directly above Bai Hewei’s dormitory building was completely enveloped by a colossal, glowing totem array, looking very much like a localized spawn gate at the start of a video game match.
“Abrupt anomaly detected.”
“Retrieving data… Zero matching profiles located within the classified repository.”
“Effective boundary of anomaly: Dormitory Building 1.”
“Current personnel count inside the structure: 8. Initiating communication links… Link pending…”
The AI fired off several rapid-fire warnings. Guan Yan and his fellow captains instantly sensed the distortion and rushed into the command office.
“Gentleman tore open a spatial rift to drop that unknown ability user inside!” the Team 3 captain slammed his fist against the wall. “These S-Class rogue elements are genuinely Annoying, especially this wretched spatial capability.”
Aside from the Special Operations main headquarters, which housed a fellow spatial Evolver capable of anchoring an absolute barrier, where were the local branches supposed to look for an operative capable of neutralizing an S-Class spatial user?
Modern technology simply hadn’t advanced to a baseline capable of fully jamming spatial dimensions.
By the time they processed the detector warnings, Dormitory Building 1 had already been entirely encased within that unknown Evolver’s ability boundary. They attempted to launch a manual breach, but every single assault proved entirely futile.
“Judging by the parameters, it stands as one of those rare Rule-Based capabilities,” the Team 4 captain noted, observing the dormitory building’s configuration. “To this day, the variety of Evolvers we have discovered spans over a hundred tracks, but this specific classification carries the absolute lowest absolute number. Across the globe, only three known individuals have ever surfaced—two have already perished, and the sole survivor is currently kept under absolute national protection, completely failing to match the parameters of this current attacker.”
A Rule-Based Evolver’s power was incredibly formidable on paper; as long as they established a conceptual rule upon awakening, every single individual within their boundary had to implicitly comply. Within those parameters, any regular destructive assault or supernatural ability that violated the rule was rendered entirely null and void.
But a Rule-Based user was equally fragile because they were bound by their own conceptual parameters. If the established rule was too absolute, the user themselves could easily succumb to their own ability’s backlash—which was exactly how the previous two had perished. If the rule was too weak, it carried zero actual binding constraint.
Because of Bai Hewei’s prominence, these top-tier global powerhouses were surfacing one after another, and many entities that should have remained hidden beneath the currents were stepping out onto the main stage.
Could this be the precise reason why the central government had delayed formally incorporating Bai Hewei into their official ranks? If they brought Bai Hewei under absolute protection inside a secure compound early on, how could these rogue elements have been baited into emerging one after another?
“Don’t panic. A Rule-Based ability is difficult to manage, but don’t forget who maintains the dedicated single-line communication link with the micro-robot on Bai Hewei’s person,” Guan Yan wanted to light a cigarette to soothe his nerves, but reminding himself that he was currently in a public indoor space, he held back.
“True enough. Professor Wen should be completely ecstatic; he finally gets to dissect a Rule-Based capability.”
“Don’t call him professor, it immediately triggers my trauma from when he hounded us to write papers back then.”
“Let’s stick to Chief Wen; it minimizes the psychological shadow slightly.”
In their country, regardless of gender or age, and independent of social standing, almost everyone harbored a trace of psychological trauma regarding public examinations and composing academic papers. This was especially true for those who had been severely tormented by exams; years down the line, they would still wake up sweating from nightmares of sitting in an exam room facing a blank answer sheet with absolutely no idea where to start. The sense of utter helplessness was genuinely terrifying!
Inside the dormitory building.
Forced into an automated matchmaking lobby, Bai Hewei was pulled through a distortion, arriving inside a bizarre, sealed space within a fraction of a second.
“What on earth is this? Did I get transported to an alternate universe?” Bai Hewei looked down at the physical plate armor covering his frame, and the heavy longsword resting in his hand, feeling completely at a loss for words.
He was just on a routine field deployment; did alternate-universe transport logic not even spare business trip personnel nowadays?
“This is an ability channeled by an exceptionally rare Rule-Based Evolver!” The micro-robot had already deployed its functional components, extending a set of rotor blades to hover smoothly into the air.
“Wait a minute, you can fly?” Bai Hewei blanked. “Then why did you keep resting on my shoulder the whole time?”
“Flying consumes an immense amount of energy. Although I can harvest solar and wind variables, the power conversion efficiency carries standard losses,” Wen Zhiyi stated with absolute righteousness. “This robot is currently still in its diagnostic testing phase.”
Fine, Bai Hewei had no counter to that. “Then what is this Rule-Based ability you just mentioned?”
“It’s difficult to explain clearly within a short window,” Wen Zhiyi’s tone sounded noticeably enthusiastic. “If you can capture him alive and ship him back to the Research Institute, I can apply for a bounty on your behalf. Presently, the Research Institute’s designated reward for a Rule-Based Evolver stands at one million yuan.”
“How much? One million?!” Bai Hewei’s voice shot up drastically. “Is that pre-tax or post-tax? Can it be deposited directly into my private card? Is this guy genuinely that valuable?”
Bai Hewei fired off a rapid sequence of inquiries.
“Post-tax, deposited directly into your card,” Wen Zhiyi answered.
“I’ll go catch him right now,” Bai Hewei rapped his knuckles against his plate armor. “Let’s move, let’s move! Lead the way, please.”
Author’s Note:
Bai Hewei: I didn’t really want to do much work while on deployment, but the moment you mention one million yuan, the situation changes completely!
