“Wait, isn’t that… the face he had before he turned into the air conditioner?”
“Why would his own face appear reflected in the eyeball?”
Bo Ting was stunned for a moment.
The air conditioner he had imagined did not appear, so he involuntarily leaned in closer to observe it.
However, perhaps startled by his sudden approach, the eyes reacted and instantly fled far away from Bo Ting before he could try the same trick again.
It was as if they were afraid of sticking to him.
Bo Ting: …
What the hell.
They could even dodge?
So they had a certain level of activity, huh?
Bo Ting rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
But with the floating eyes keeping their distance and not coming anywhere near, he had no choice but to temporarily shelve the idea.
Ahem.
Next time.
Next time, when these eyes weren’t on guard, he’d try again.
Bo Ting thought to himself, stopped looking at the surrounding air, and casually got out of bed to walk into the bathroom.
The eyes were blocked outside the bathroom door.
He let out a breath of relief and looked once more at the glass mirror in his home bathroom.
It was still an angular Peony air conditioner unit, looking the same from every angle.
Bo Ting choked a little and twitched the corner of his mouth slightly.
He had just seen that familiar human face earlier, and now looking at the panel in the mirror felt a bit unfamiliar.
As expected, it was hard to go from luxury to frugality.
Bo Ting shook his head and leisurely finished washing up.
…
The Resurgence Management Office had been calm these past few days.
Most of the higher-ups from the troublemaking Rebirth of Fire had been captured, and the remnants were on the run with no time to cause trouble.
The even more concerning Copper Splitter had now entered a decline phase, its fate unknown.
Mengjia City was so quiet it felt just like before the anomalies appeared.
Aside from monitoring Taiping Luxury Garden, they surprisingly had nothing else to do?
Lu Jingshan stretched lazily, just thinking he might get a break, when he received a meeting notice.
“Come to the conference room after lunch.”
“Important message to announce.”
The text from Captain Zheng on the third floor had just been sent.
The Ability Users in the office immediately changed their expressions.
“Tch, based on past experience, messages like this in the afternoon mean nothing good.”
Xue Hengfu grumbled, suddenly losing his appetite.
Si Ning didn’t say much.
“We still haven’t figured out Taiping Luxury Garden’s current goal. It’s not surprising if something big happens sooner or later.”
Even so, he was a bit curious deep down. According to the current monitoring, everything in Mengjia City was normal. So what exactly was the big deal Captain Zheng was talking about?
“Whatever, let’s eat first.”
Lu Jingshan waved his hand.
“It’s confidential anyway. We’ll know after lunch when we get back.”
The group hurried to the cafeteria to eat, and as soon as they returned to the lobby, the bell urged them upstairs.
After Lu Jingshan and the others entered the conference room, they saw Captain Zheng with his head down, flipping through documents in his hand, his expression a bit odd.
“You’re all here?”
“Yeah, Captain, what’s going on?”
He Chengfeng asked with a frown after sitting down.
He had originally planned to go out on patrol today, but the notice held him back, so he could only let his team go first.
Zheng Shangyun looked at the squad captains, all turning to him with busy expressions, and couldn’t help twitching the corner of his mouth.
As if he loved holding meetings.
It was just that this incident… was too fantastical.
Even now, Zheng Shangyun still found it somewhat unbelievable.
Because after receiving the latest top-secret report, he had stared at it for a long time but detected no possible “presence” in the air.
But he was a genuine SSS-Level Ability User.
In the current Ability User rankings, SSS was already the highest.
Anything higher would lead to alienation, no longer in the human category.
Thinking of the situations with the higher-ups in the First Ability User Squad, Zheng Shangyun’s expression grew complicated before he snapped back.
“What I’m about to say might sound absurd to you.”
“But this is genuine information. Before today, I was as clueless as you.”
“I hope everyone stays calm after reading it.”
The idea that the air he breathed every day was filled with floating “eyes” everywhere—anyone hearing this for the first time would struggle to accept it.
Zheng Shangyun sighed and handed the documents to the Ability User captains, who passed them around one by one.
“Classified documents. They’ll self-destruct after reading.”
As soon as he finished speaking, He Chengfeng, who was sitting closest, picked it up and read it.
At first, He Chengfeng’s expression was dismissive, but by the second line, his face changed, full of: Are you kidding me?
Remembering Captain Zheng’s warning, he patiently read on, though his expression turned subtle after finishing.
The important files circulated one by one.
Half an hour later, all the squad captains had read them.
He Chengfeng paused, then opened his mouth.
But before he could speak, Zheng Shangyun interrupted.
“I said the content is absolutely real.”
The room fell silent for a moment, everyone feeling a sense of surrealism.
“What the hell, these anomalous gods have such bizarre forms?!”
Cheng Hao, captain of the Fifth Esper Squad, cursed, instinctively looking around.
But everything looked normal; there was no sign of anything there.
Ever since Taiping Luxury Garden appeared out of nowhere, he felt his worldview constantly shattering. Now it had escalated to… the air he breathed every day wasn’t safe?
Lu Jingshan said gravely at this point, “If it’s true, then our usual conversations, this meeting right now…”
His voice trailed off as he looked up ambiguously.
Zheng Shangyun understood and shook his head.
“It’s fine for now.”
“These eyes are showing signs of resurgence, but they’re not fully awake.”
“They’re still in the dormant anomalous god category for the time being, so our daily lives won’t be spied on yet.”
The room relaxed at once.
But no one forgot the “for the time being” from Captain Zheng.
Meaning these eyes were starting to change now.
Zheng Shangyun glanced at everyone, his expression grave.
“The bigger headache isn’t just this.”
“Leaving aside the impact of the Eye of Virtual and Real’s resurgence on Mengjia City, the real trouble is another anomalous god—the Lurker of the Mountains. Estimates suggest this weird god from the wet forests will pass through Mengjia City soon.”
A once-in-ten-thousand-years coincidence like this—what could they even say?
“The Lurker of the Mountains?”
Si Ning, who had once gone on a business trip to the south, had heard of it. This anomaly was one of the first anomalous gods to resurge in the Federation’s south, with terrifying abilities. Everywhere it passed left rivers of blood.
The conference room atmosphere grew suffocating; no one had expected it to be this tough.
“It’s no longer just about stopping the Eye of Virtual and Real’s resurgence.”
“Now it’s enemies on two fronts, and we have to guard against the Lurker of the Mountains too. After all, its reputation precedes it—this one loves tormenting and killing humans.”
It even reveled in the pleasure of annihilating them like ants every time it passed a city.
Utterly arrogant and brutal.
Lu Jingshan thought with a grim face.
Hell-level difficulty made everyone’s faces look bad. But no matter how bad, they had to face it.
After all, the Eye of Virtual and Real wouldn’t stop its resurgence because of their thoughts.
And the Lurker of the Mountains certainly wouldn’t change its path.
Zheng Shangyun looked around.
“The First Ability User Squad will handle assessing the Eye of Virtual and Real.”
“Our focus now is on the Lurker of the Mountains.”
“Everyone, stay sharp.”
Detailed information on the Lurker of the Mountains appeared on every computer in the Resurgence Management Office.
After adjusting their mindsets, no matter how much they grumbled inwardly, they quickly bucked up and began studying it.
…
Inside Taiping Luxury Garden.
Bo Ting noticed that something big was indeed about to happen in Mengjia City these days.
After lounging on the sofa and scrolling his phone for a bit, he saw a netizen’s post on the forum.
“Huh, what’s going on?”
“The security around our area suddenly got stricter?”
The netizen posted a photo showing street staff numbers several times higher than a few days ago.
Soon, many citizens chimed in below.
“Me too.”
“Lots more people near my company.”
“Is something big happening lately?”
“No announcements online.”
The forum buzzed with chatter.
Bo Ting hadn’t expected to know before the locals. After watching the excitement for a while, he clicked into the images.
He had just wanted to see which streets had extra security.
But unexpectedly, he spotted a figure from the Population Census Office among the Federation security teams?
Hm?
Wasn’t that chubby staffer the one doing population surveys?
Why was he in security now?
Bo Ting was puzzled, looking at the candid shot of Xue Hengfu on patrol in the photo.
Was Mengjia City so short-staffed that even other departments were pulled in?
Things seemed pretty serious.
Hugging a pillow, Bo Ting increasingly felt something was off.
Should he remind the neighbors in the Taiping Luxury Garden family group?
With Mengjia City unsafe outside these days, what if someone went out and ran into danger?
—”Family, Mengjia City’s weather anomalies these days seem pretty serious.”
—”Try not to go out if you can.”
The quiet neighborhood chat group exploded with Bo Ting’s message.
Seeing what Bo Ting posted, Fitness Zhang Bro couldn’t help his curiosity.
“What weather anomalies?”
“Like the total solar eclipse on the day we first crossed over?”
Bo Ting: …
How was he supposed to know?
After thinking, he replied solemnly.
“No specific notice yet.”
Zhang Bro felt inexplicably disappointed.
Aunt Qian downstairs coughed.
