Chapter 563: The Chosen One
"Brother, brother! Are those [Ability Users] the superpowered people from anime?!"
A four-year-old girl, who could already understand some news, stood at the entrance of a street-side ice cream shop. She looked at the large screen on a mall in the distance, which was previously used to promote movies, now playing a full-screen scrolling special broadcast from the Dongxia authorities.
A young man wearing a white striped shirt shielded his eyes from the sunlight with his hand, carefully watching the notice on the large screen.
[Dongxia issues a notice to the entire Ability User community. In order to maintain social order and stability and protect the safety of all the people, Dongxia will adopt a relatively strict management system for Ability Users. Ability Users possessing high-risk abilities are requested to proactively choose to report their personal information within 7 working days...]
Below it, the phone numbers of several special departments were also listed.
This notice scrolled continuously, giving people a quite serious feeling.
Outside this mall, where many middle-aged women usually danced square dances, the atmosphere at this time was also not as relaxed as usual.
A gust of wind blew, making the young man's shirt flutter wildly. It wasn't far from Binhai here, and the sea breeze was strong.
A feeling of an impending storm made the young man frown.
He inherently possessed relatively keen perception abilities. Just like at this moment, he clearly felt as if a torrent-like wave was sweeping the entire world.
Unlike those on the internet who were incomparably curious about the [Ability User] community, or even fantasized about becoming an Ability User themselves, Lee Dong-jin preferred a peaceful daily life.
Ordinary studying, ordinary working to earn money, and then finding an ordinary wife to live out his mediocre and peaceful life.
That was his ideal.
"You have great talent."
A voice sounded. Lee Dong-jin was stunned and turned around, seeing a woman with golden long hair draped down standing beside him.
Wearing a white T-shirt, she had a plump figure, and completely no flaws could be seen on her skin.
An Ability User!
Lee Dong-jin instantly had this realization in his heart. He completely lacked any means to identify Ability Users, nor had he ever come into close contact with an Ability User before. But just with this single glance, he clearly felt that the other party possessed an absolutely different "scent" from ordinary humans.
The woman raised her right hand. Lee Dong-jin immediately lowered his body, his whole body tense. He reached out his hand wanting to grab his younger sister, but grabbed empty air.
His heart sank. He turned his head, only to find that his younger sister, who was just tugging at his hem, had disappeared without a trace.
Not only that, when he looked into that shop again, it was also completely empty. Turning his head, both inside and outside the mall were completely empty. In this world, it seemed only he and this golden-haired woman before him remained.
"What did you do?!"
Lee Dong-jin was somewhat nervous, but wasn't panicked to the point of losing his reason.
The golden-haired woman exposed the back of her right hand. A complex pattern flashing with a silver-white luster appeared. In that pattern, countless symbols seemed to be linked and intertwined with each other, obtaining a kind of balance in constant motion.
Lee Dong-jin seemed to be attracted by that pattern for a moment, his eyes staring blankly at those symbols.
The corners of the woman's mouth hooked up.
"As expected, you are a chosen one. Lee Dong-jin, are you interested in becoming an~ Ability User?"
When the woman said the words 'Ability User', she paused for a moment. It seemed what she originally wanted to say wasn't these three words. Lee Dong-jin found that in this bizarre state, he was actually still so calm, his analytical ability even more outstanding than usual.
He looked at that pattern, as if something in his heart also began to stir restlessly.
He lowered his head and was silent for a long while, but then took two steps back.
"No, I don't want to be an Ability User."
The smile on the corners of the woman's mouth slowly faded, and her right hand also slowly lowered.
She could see that after this young man named Lee Dong-jin made the decision in his heart, there was not a single trace of regret.
"Heh, so this is your decision. I hope when the disaster arrives in the future, you won't regret it."
As the woman's voice fell, the dry, hot air and sound waves all around instantly appeared, rushing violently into his ears.
"Brother!"
The young girl gripped the hem of his clothes tightly with her hand. Her two faint eyebrows seemed about to stand upside down. She held an ice cream in her hand, and behind the young girl, the boss was looking at him with a helpless expression.
Lee Dong-jin immediately paid the money, picked up his younger sister with an apologetic smile, and turned his head to look around. It seemed that woman had completely never appeared.
[The new Chairwoman of the March Consortium, Ms. Lee Cheong-ja, declares that the Paradise city belonging to Ability Users has been rebuilt. All Ability Users are welcome to visit. Furthermore, any Ability User who enters Paradise will receive the protection of Your Excellency Mercenary Tao]
Lee Dong-jin heard a new advertisement again. He looked up. On that large screen, a quite cold and glamorous woman appeared. It was a Goryeo person, the footage from a press conference, with subtitles below.
Having experienced the bizarre scene just now, Lee Dong-jin completely didn't want to get involved with this kind of thing anymore. Holding his younger sister, he walked back. But the little girl was very curious, pointing at the screen and constantly asking this and that.
"Brother, who is Mercenary Tao?"
"Brother, is that Paradise an amusement park..."
The huge Ferris wheel in front of the mall slowly turned. The gorgeous woman stood above, her appearance constantly changing, finally fixing into the image of an emaciated old man.
He indifferently watched Lee Dong-jin holding his younger sister and walking into the crowded masses. Just like destiny, he completely gave up that glorious and wonderful path, proactively embracing the ordinary...
"Tsk, finding a suitable candidate is really not easy. No wonder that guy Aizen would completely choose to create one himself..."
He looked at the Paradise city promoted on the large screen, knowing that Mercenary Tao had already truly become a force to be reckoned with.
Coupled with that woman in the West District, she was highly likely the person chosen by Cao Qi.
He had already fallen far behind.
The old man caressed the [Card] in his hand with an unclear card face, countless streams of information seemingly flowing in his eyes.
Soon, he locked onto a new target, his figure slowly disappearing.
Within the borders of Myanmar, outside the former ruins of [Paradise], a grayish-black earthen wall three meters high blocked everyone's field of vision, making it completely impossible to see what was happening inside.
Lin Qinfu paced back and forth outside the wall. The terrifying commotion a few days ago made his liver and gallbladder seemingly tear apart. He rejoiced that his group of people was driven away early by Boss Bai.
Seeing a perfectly fine city turn into complete ruins in less than half a day, that kind of absurdity and fear was beyond words.
At this time, he was already completely certain that Boss Bai was a legendary [Ability User]. And the reason the eldest miss of the March Consortium took a fancy to him was exactly to intervene in the business of Ability Users.
Through the internet, he also noticed the big moves of the March Consortium, feeling he completely understood the meaning behind the various past events.
But at this time, Lin Qinfu still completely couldn't understand: [Paradise] was destroyed, so why did Boss Bai enclose the ruins?
Furthermore, who exactly built this wall?
You must know, although [Paradise] wasn't considered large, it still covered nearly 1,500 square kilometers. To completely seal it with a three-meter-high wall, the amount of engineering was not small.
But this wall appeared all of a sudden...
Rumble!
Rumble!
Huge commotions constantly sounded from within the wall. Lin Qinfu was incomparably curious, but completely didn't dare climb the wall to look.
He even ordered those militiamen they incorporated to stand guard everywhere with guns. Anyone who dared to climb the wall would be shot dead without exception.
The ground vibrated continuously. Suddenly, someone exclaimed.
Lin Qinfu turned his head and saw the people he brought were all looking up inside the wall, their faces terrified, their mouths opening and closing, but completely unable to say a word.
He also turned his head. In the next moment, Lin Qinfu was similarly horrified beyond measure.
An incomparably huge high tower was rising from a very far place inside the enclosing wall.
To be seen by them, its height had probably already exceeded ten meters, and it was still constantly rising.
Just like a legendary giant beanstalk, constantly growing: thirty meters, fifty meters, a hundred meters...
That huge high tower, its surroundings looked like cold, hard black rock. Not considered exquisite, but it had a sinister and terrifying feeling.
The huge commotion lasted for a full half day. Lin Qinfu was completely numb towards the end. He had already completely understood how that high wall was erected.
It was probably just like that tower and other buildings, "raised" completely out of thin air like this!
Is that an Ability User...
Lin Qinfu felt his worldview completely torn apart. It was completely different from the sporadic displays he had seen on the internet before. This kind of mighty power surpassing modern technology made him feel somewhat apprehensive.
And an even stronger sense of loss.
With this kind of Ability User present, their group would probably be completely useless to Boss Bai anymore...
Bang!
The high wall violently shook, and in the next moment, directly collapsed. Under the setting sun, the long-haired Kaito Shirogane stood on the edge of the collapsed outer wall. Seeing the group of "old subordinates" waiting here, he spread his hands and laughed.
"Welcome to move in, my... [Paradise]!"
Behind him, a brand new city had completely appeared. With the central black high tower as the core, various city blocks were scattered and arranged all around.
(End of Chapter)
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