Rise of Superpowers

[Before reading this Dungeon: it's a bit long, so readers who don't like Dungeons can skip straight to Chapter 78.]

[The Dungeon content might be a bit bizarre. The author was a little feverish during the two weeks it took to write this part.]

[The protagonist will be set up, because the trial elbows every survivor equally.]

[He will get revenge. I said it's major foreshadowing. Anything you don't understand is foreshadowing, so don't panic.]

Su Luo found a random restroom in the mall and sat down on a toilet.

With a thought, a translucent system panel opened before his eyes.

The profession Dungeon was completely isolated from the outside world. Not only was communication impossible, but even time flowed at a different rate. Fortunately, the personal panel's basic functions still worked, and he could still check his [chat history].

He quickly searched through the skill images. Now wasn't the time to pursue combat power; gathering information was his top priority. Soon, his gaze settled on a skill.

[Charm Spell (green)]

Su Luo opened the image and began learning it on the spot.

Three hours later, in a café in a corner of the mall.

Su Luo sat by a window, a phone in his hand. His fingers flicked rapidly across the screen as he browsed news and apps.

"Hey, buddy, how much longer do you need it?" a potbellied middle-aged man beside him asked.

"A little longer. Sorry about that." Without looking up, Su Luo stirred his Mana slightly, and a spell faintly materialized.

"Oh, sure, no problem. Take your time, no rush." The middle-aged man's eyes went vacant for a moment, then he nodded.

Su Luo spent a full two hours looking through the phone before returning it to its owner.

After putting the information together, Su Luo gained a preliminary understanding of this world:

Its technology was similar to Blue Star's. Judging by its civilian technology, it was about five to ten years behind. There was nothing supernatural about it either; it was a purely technological civilization.

Its social structure was rather peculiar. It had a long history, a different system, and maintained its ancestral institutions.

The emperor, ministers, cabinet, constitutional monarchy, and nobles all seemed rather incongruous to Su Luo.

But none of that was the point. The real focus was the storm that had swept the globe a month ago.

He easily found the recording of the livestream known as the "Turning Point of the Era."

In it, a breathtaking beauty sang onstage. When the song ended, she put down the microphone and began to dance.

Countless brilliant points of light appeared around her, like stars circling her. The stage spotlights seemed to be drawn by her invisible will, weaving together into a dreamlike curtain of light and shadow.

What happened next, however, defied everyone's understanding. She actually rose into the air, step by step, moving gracefully as though climbing an invisible staircase, higher and higher! The camera zoomed in frantically, allowing hundreds of millions of viewers around the world to see every expression on her face and every flutter of her clothes!

Everyone was stunned. Could wires lift someone that high?

Before the cries of astonishment had died down, Le Lingyan was already suspended high above the city at night. With countless skyscrapers behind her, she continued to dance, radiant light shining all around her like a goddess descending upon the world. Everyone in the city witnessed the unbelievable sight.

Even the stupidest person knew what had happened.

The supernatural!

Flight!

The livestream comments went completely wild!

And technical difficulties made it impossible to interrupt the livestream, causing the number of viewers to reach two billion as it aired around the globe.

Su Luo had watched everything before this with a blank expression, but at this point, he actually laughed.

What did they mean, it couldn't be interrupted for special reasons? What server could handle more than ten times its capacity without lagging?

At last, Le Lingyan finished her breathtaking dance and descended slowly from the sky amid a sea of light. As she came down like a fairy from heaven, the livestream was finally cut off in an emergency.

Le Lingyan was taken away on the spot, and the authorities rushed to dispel the rumors:

There was no such person as Le Lingyan!

Oh, no, that wasn't right.

The person who had just dispelled the rumors was a temp.

It was: the latest holographic projection and optical special effects.

But hardly anyone believed it.

The world plunged into a frenzy of worship, fear, and investigation of supernatural powers. Le Lingyan herself swiftly vanished from public view and was said to have been taken into custody by the relevant authorities.

Countless people firmly believed she was a god descending to earth, a fairy from heaven, a savior, a messenger of God...

Countless believers worshipped her day and night. Foreign churches invited Le Lingyan to become their pope and a god's earthly vessel, while countless cults changed their talking points overnight and recruited new members...

Su Luo felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

He hurriedly looked up Le Lingyan and found two videos introducing her, one from before the incident and one from after.

A pure, innocent beauty who had acted since childhood, with exquisite poise, no scandals, impeccable chastity, and genuine talent...

That's a female lead's character profile, isn't it...?

Then where's the male lead?

Su Luo rubbed his chin.

Besides that, anomalies kept occurring. According to rumors, high-precision laboratory instruments were frequently malfunctioning around the world, multiple orbital satellites had gone out of control and crashed, and navigation systems had suffered widespread failures.

Even America's recent birthday military parade had been canceled because it "did not wish to waste public resources." The New York Times reported inside information from an unnamed source: the new main battle tanks had all broken down.

At the same time, a well-known American gun rights advocate was assassinated. But for unknown reasons, the assassin's gun suffered reduced range and deviation. The shot had originally been aimed at the head, but ended up adding a flower above the neck.

"Technology is being suppressed, and the laws of physics are being changed... What a classic novel trope... But what's going on here? Is it the world itself... or is someone doing it?"

Whatever the case, Su Luo breathed a sigh of relief.

The Dungeon was called "Rise of Superpowers," and its setting was a modern society.

Humanity's nature, the terror of destruction, and modern weapons that could not be resisted.

Likewise, a new force that would overturn and transform human civilization could hardly arrive without bloodshed.

Su Luo had thought the emerging superpower system would have to clash with modern military forces and take a few nukes.

It seemed the superpower system wasn't that overpowered after all. The world's rules had changed, humanity's strongest military power was being dismantled, and once the superpower system arrived, it would only have to face an unarmed human civilization.

Meanwhile, "lucky ones" kept appearing around the world, awakening abilities such as breathing fire, freezing things, and turning to steel. According to information Su Luo had traced, some of these "lucky ones" called themselves "Awakened" and shouted, "The Era of Superpowers is about to arrive!"

Every information platform had the same attitude toward this kind of information.

Delete it the moment it appeared!

His preliminary information gathering complete, Su Luo sat where he was, tapping his fingertips on the table. He quickly came up with a rough plan.

But before that, he needed to solve the problem of sustaining his Mana.

In this utterly "magicless" environment, every bit of Mana he used depleted his reserves. He had to solve the Mana problem first.

Only by wielding violence himself could he have the confidence to explore an unfamiliar environment.

He got up and left the café, hitching a ride with a passing car headed for a remote town far from the city center.

In the end, he found a two-story villa on the edge of town that looked as though it had long been abandoned and made it his temporary residence.