By the time the citizens emerged from the shelters, it was already evening. The golden afterglow of the setting sun cast shimmering scales of light on the outer walls of the city''s buildings, creating a melancholic yet beautiful scene.
Yang Xi took the opportunity to blend into the crowd. Thanks to the presence of professional heroes, wearing eccentric outfits in public wouldn''t attract much attention. Besides, everyone was too busy posting updates on their social media, whether it be PushPush or their Moments feed.
For ordinary people, experiencing such a dangerous and thrilling event gave them a real sense of having survived a catastrophe. It was also a rare break from the monotony of daily life—something that naturally needed to be shared and vented about online.
"It’s practically turned into a carnival." Yang Xi shook his head as he stepped out of the restroom after changing his outfit. He watched the crowd eagerly taking selfies with the remains of the mutant beast behind the police cordon.
Meanwhile, staff from the Hero Association were using utility vehicles to collect the carcasses of the mutant beasts, while reporters swarmed around the two heroes, bombarding them with questions. Camera flashes went off continuously, and live-streaming drones hovered in the sky. Though the number of live viewers had dropped somewhat, the stream still maintained a popularity count in the millions.
The bullet comments were filled with discussions about Spicy Noodle Superman’s explosive performance. Many people even spent money to purchase his official fan badges.
Just from today''s battle alone, the designated gift donations for Spicy Noodle Superman had exceeded ten million. This level of popularity was rare—normally, only A-rank heroes could attract this kind of following.
It could be said that after today’s fight, Spicy Noodle Superman’s status in the professional hero circle had risen significantly.
After all, people loved stories about heroes who "risked their lives to protect the citizens'' property and achieved a breakthrough in the heat of battle."
As a side note, this was the official explanation provided to reporters by the PR department of Red Sky Agency, to which Spicy Noodle Superman belonged.
After dealing with the reporters, Flame Butterfly quietly pulled Spicy Noodle Superman aside. After making sure no one was eavesdropping, she whispered mysteriously, "Senior, do you know what I just encountered?"
Spicy Noodle Superman only wanted to go home and rest. He was barely holding back the side effects of the blue pill through sheer willpower. "Who? Some citizens taking shelter in the upper floors?"
"No, no! It was this!"
Flame Butterfly excitedly pulled out the corpse of a mutant beast’s clone from who-knows-where, presenting it to Spicy Noodle Superman like a treasure.
"This is… the One-Eyed Slayer’s clone? So this is what you went off to deal with?" Spicy Noodle Superman was surprised.
Flame Butterfly put her hands behind her back and twisted her toes shyly. "Not me. It was some masked weirdo. I wanted to capture him since he was technically violating the Ability Act, but… I wasn’t his match."
"You weren’t his match?"
Spicy Noodle Superman was puzzled. With Flame Butterfly’s strength, she was at least C-rank. Ordinary ability users shouldn''t be able to overpower her so easily.
"Yeah, he crushed my fire butterflies with his bare hands… o╥﹏╥o."
Flame Butterfly recounted her brief fight with the masked man.
As a self-proclaimed genius, suffering setbacks twice in a row today was a huge blow to her confidence.
Spicy Noodle Superman stroked his stubbly chin. "Could it be an ability user organization? I heard the Sakura Group from District Six has been active in Harbor City lately."
Flame Butterfly’s eyes lit up. "So, Senior, you think that mysterious guy is from the Sakura Group?"
If her opponent was from the Sakura Group, then losing to him wouldn’t be so embarrassing.
On Azure Planet, aside from the Hero Association, there were numerous ability user organizations. Some were officially recognized by the Federation, while others operated in the shadows.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Among them, the Sakura Group from District Six was one of the most formidable. It was composed of highly skilled individuals, including A-rank ability users. There were even rumors that the leader of the Sakura Group was a powerful S-rank ability user!
And to put things into perspective, even the world''s strongest hero, "Blaster," was only S-rank!
"We can’t be sure yet. From your fight with him, he didn’t reveal much of his abilities. We should report this incident."
"Aah! Do we have to?"
Flame Butterfly felt that reporting this would be way too embarrassing.
"Yang Xi, where the hell did you run off to? I was afraid some exotic beast swallowed you whole!"
Upon spotting Yang Xi, Fan Peng immediately hung up his phone and waved Lin Naixue over to join him as they hurried toward Yang Xi.
When the exotic beasts attacked earlier, everyone had fled in chaos, but Fan Peng and Lin Naixue had managed to take shelter in the same refuge.
As he got closer, Fan Peng nudged Yang Xi and grinned. "You little brat! You had such a golden opportunity, and you wasted it! But don’t worry, as your bro, I made sure to keep a one-meter distance from your girl the whole time!"
Yang Xi was speechless, but he still gave Fan Peng a brief explanation—nothing more than a typical excuse about getting knocked over and separated.
"Are you hurt?" Yang Xi asked Lin Naixue.
She shook her head. Unlike Fan Peng, she had seen with her own eyes that Yang Xi had deliberately gone upstairs earlier, but she didn’t expose him. "I’m fine. Fan Peng looked after me along the way. But you—didn’t you take a fall? Are you alright?"
Fan Peng suddenly realized. "Oh yeah, bro, you better not have messed yourself up. You should go get checked at the hospital right now! Exotic Beast Insurance actually covers injuries this time!"
"Exotic Beast Insurance" was a special policy introduced by insurance companies specifically for exotic beast invasions, and the federal government strongly recommended every citizen get a plan.
After all, in today’s world, you might go your whole life without experiencing a car accident, but encountering an exotic beast invasion was an unavoidable fate for every Azure Star citizen.
According to experts, the average person on Azure Star would face 3.26 exotic beast invasions in their lifetime.
No one really knew how they came up with that number, but it sounded intimidating enough.
Yang Xi, of course, knew he wasn’t injured, and he couldn’t afford a hospital check-up anyway—it might expose the fact that he was an ability user.
What he planned to do next was extremely dangerous. Maintaining the guise of an ordinary person would save him a lot of trouble.
Since his work wasn’t done yet, after bidding farewell to Lin Naixue, Yang Xi and Fan Peng returned to the company to continue working.
By the time they finished processing the backlog of documents, it was already 8 p.m. Yang Xi declined Fan Peng’s dinner invitation and made another trip to the restroom from earlier, retrieving the mask, robe, and gloves he had stashed in a storage box, stuffing them into his backpack.
He had chosen that particular restroom in the evening to remove his disguise because the surveillance camera there was broken.
"That saves me a lot of hassle."
Today had been a busy day, but the most crucial part was acquiring the B-rank ability Fireproof Shell. Yang Xi knew he needed some time to properly digest his gains.
Having too many abilities wasn’t always a good thing. Ordinary ability users might only have a single power, but through relentless training and development, they could uncover multiple applications. Yang Xi, on the other hand, could hardly afford to dedicate too much time to refining any single ability.
"I won’t be collecting any new abilities for a while."
Yang Xi placed his backpack beside him and closed his eyes to rest on the subway.
Silently activating his Super Brain, he figured he might as well practice brain overclocking on the way home. Time was something he was severely lacking—he needed to make the most of every moment.
His sense of smell intensified. Yang Xi could detect the scent of grilled food on the middle-aged man across from him—cumin, garlic, and a bit of chili powder. Hmm, grilled eggplant. There was also a faint trace of engine oil; the man’s profession was likely an auto mechanic. His right hand smelled of blood—probably a minor injury sustained while working.
A meter away from him was a woman. Her perfume was strong, and… hmm, she had body odor. There was also a faint durian scent in her mouth—not too strong, so she probably hadn’t eaten actual durian, just something durian-flavored. Candy? Cake?
He needed to analyze further.
If he could identify the brand of her perfume, he could roughly estimate her income and then deduce her occupation. By studying her habits, he might even get a glimpse into her personality.
Seems like cramming more general knowledge into my brain should be a priority too.
Even though his Super Brain was only at D-rank for now, its potential far surpassed the B-rank Fireproof Shell. Properly developing it would be much more beneficial in the long run.
"Hm? Someone’s stealing my stuff?"
The moment his backpack was snatched, Yang Xi’s eyes snapped open.
It was likely that his act of guarding his bag had made the thief think there was something valuable inside. Seeing him with his eyes closed, the pickpocket must have thought this was an easy opportunity.
Normally, adult men weren’t prime targets for pickpockets.
"This guy…!"
Yang Xi immediately stood up to chase after the thief in the dark green aviation jacket. But as he pushed past passengers, he realized something was off—there was no sign of the thief anywhere in the car!
The doors between subway cars hadn’t opened, meaning the thief couldn’t have escaped to another carriage.
Yet among the dozen or so passengers in the car, not a single one matched the thief’s appearance!
Even if he had taken off his jacket, where could he have possibly hidden Yang Xi’s backpack?
Did I just run into an ability user?
Was it Phasing? Invisibility? Or something else entirely?