Superpower Light Orbs

Soon, a man wearing a specially made restraint collar was brought in under guard, his eyes fierce and vicious. He was a C-rank Iron Arm superhuman sentenced to death for brutally slaughtering an entire village. Now, he had been sent here as a disposable test subject.

Su Luo seized the man and refined him in an instant!

He closed his eyes, and his immense mental power swept over the prisoner like an invisible tide, engulfing him completely in an instant.

This time, he did not probe gently. Instead, with almost brutal precision, he pierced straight through the prisoner's surface consciousness, chaotic emotions and instinctive resistance, ignoring every trace of mental noise.

Aiming for the depths, Su Luo thrust straight in!

"Aaargh!!!"

His soul torn apart, the condemned man let out a shrill scream that sounded scarcely human. His body convulsed violently, and his eyes rolled wildly upward.

Su Luo knocked him unconscious with a heavy punch.

Yet the extreme pain from the depths of his soul instantly broke through the barrier of unconsciousness, and the test subject woke up roaring again.

Su Luo stopped and had an assistant inject him with a sedative and a nerve suppressant.

After three injections in a row, the test subject fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Su Luo resumed his search. In his mental perception, everything around him faded, as though he had entered an abstract world.

Finally, in the deepest part of the soul, he "saw" it!

Beside the very core of the prisoner's soul, there was not empty space. Something floated there... an indescribable presence.

It was neither matter nor an energy body in the ordinary sense. It was more like a ball of light forcibly "embedded" in the soul, emitting faint but distinctive fluctuations.

The orb of light had no fixed shape and pulsed faintly, as though it possessed some primitive form of vitality. It was intertwined with the soul itself, yet seemed out of place, like a foreign "plug-in" forcibly implanted there.

Su Luo confirmed that nothing of the sort existed in the depths of his own soul.

This strange orb of light was either a trait unique to the humans of this plane, or... it was connected to superpowers!

He tried to touch and analyze the orb of light with his mental power.

But it was extremely difficult. Its nature was beyond imagination. When his mental power swept over it, he could only perceive the faint fluctuations leaking from its exterior; he could hardly penetrate it to glimpse its secrets.

It seemed to exist in another dimension, or rather, its composition was entirely different from every form of energy and matter Su Luo understood.

Su Luo ordered the assistant to inject a specially formulated antagonist to forcibly awaken the test subject.

Twenty minutes later, the test subject slowly woke, but his eyes were unfocused and vacant, his mouth was crooked, and drool dribbled uncontrollably from it as he made meaningless rasping sounds.

He had gone completely insane. The body's slumber could not shield him from the pain of his soul being torn apart. On the contrary, without the body to buffer it, the pain was even more direct and severe.

Forcing his way in again, Su Luo quickly found the "light" and observed it quietly, while having the assistant find a way to make the test subject use his superpower.

The subject was incoherent and could not communicate effectively, so they could only resort to physical stimulation. The assistant worked at it for a long time, brought in two professionals, and used who knew how many methods. Even Su Luo frowned at the sight.

At last, the test subject's survival instinct was triggered. His right arm suddenly swelled and thickened, its skin instantly taking on a gray-black metallic sheen, while the bones inside emitted a grating sound as they deformed!

Su Luo clearly observed the orb brighten slightly and "spit" out a peculiar energy that flowed into the test subject's arm, supporting the manifestation and maintenance of his superpower!

After repeated experiments, Su Luo determined that the orb supplied part of the energy needed to use a low-level superpower. At the same time, comparison confirmed that no such orb existed in an ordinary person's sea of consciousness; so far, it had only been found in the souls of superhumans.

Through repeated "hands-on practice," Su Luo's technique for probing souls and locating the orb improved rapidly. What had begun as a brutal tearing of the soul eventually became a process that took only a few minutes to pinpoint its location.

The pain the test subjects' souls had to endure was also greatly reduced. Although they still passed out from the pain, it was far better than going completely insane.

"I need to observe the entire process of a superpower awakening," Su Luo told the assistant beside him. "Also, clear out the empty underground levels. At least one level—I have a use for it."

With that, Su Luo handed the assistant a set of blueprints.

"These are blueprints I designed. Build it using your current industrial capabilities. It's the framework and container for the future Mana Conversion Device."

Having given his instructions, Su Luo went straight back to his lounge. While waiting for new experimental material, he continued studying [Spell Permanence Technique (Incomplete) (Blue)].

After his earlier studies, Su Luo could already make some simple spells permanent on simple objects.

For example, Su Luo had specifically requested a necklace and made [Charm Spell] permanent on it. Although the effect was not as good as when Su Luo cast it himself, the mana consumption was reduced by nearly seventy percent.

He could also make an illumination spell permanent on a light bulb, allowing it to shine without electricity...

A day passed, and the experimental material still had not arrived. Su Luo went straight to Wang Shouye, who was stationed underground, to ask about it.

"It's not that we aren't doing our best, Mr. Su." Wang Shouye looked troubled. "The truth is... right now, nowhere in the world is there a reliable method. Extreme emotional stimulation, especially a near-death experience, can raise the chance of awakening slightly, but that's all. Some people suddenly awaken on the verge of death, while others inexplicably gain an ability after eating a meal or going to sleep."

"Low-level superpowers awaken so quickly that the process is hard to catch. High-level awakenings cause a bigger commotion, and S-rank and above even come with strange phenomena in heaven and earth. But recently, we haven't detected any such events in Hudu or the surrounding area."

Su Luo said, "All right, then! If a high-level superpower awakens, notify me directly. I'll fly over."

He turned to leave, then remembered something and looked back to add, "Send over a batch of material from mutated creatures first. I've got time to kill anyway."

Just as Su Luo reached the door, the communicator in Wang Shouye's pocket vibrated. Wang Shouye glanced at the screen and immediately called him back.

"Mr. Su, wait! Dongli Cang... he's started another global livestream."

"Oh?!"

Su Luo turned around, a flicker of interest in his eyes. This guy, suspected of being the "world's protagonist," was extremely valuable for research.

Wang Shouye quickly projected the livestream onto the screen in the office.

Onscreen, Dongli Cang's face dominated the picture. He was speaking passionately, his expression animated and his words full of righteous conviction. Combined with his genuinely handsome face, he was quite compelling.

Far behind him was a terrifying beast tide, stretching endlessly into the distance amid billowing clouds of dust.

Su Luo had seen early photos of Dongli Cang: rough skin and a somewhat loserish air. He looked like an entirely different person from the radiant savior now before the camera.

"...All right, friends! Conviction is power! Now, let my comrades-in-arms and me go save this world together!"

The shot changed, showing the Superpower Management Bureau's elite fighters charging fanatically toward the beast tide as though they had been pumped full of stimulants. Superpowers flashed in a dazzling array of colors, and the battle instantly reached a fever pitch.

Wang Shouye suddenly spoke, his gaze fixed on the screen. "Tell me, what do you think our Director Dongli is thinking right now?"

Su Luo looked at the spirited face on the screen and said calmly, "He's saving the people of a city."

He paused, then added, his tone betraying neither pleasure nor displeasure, "It also looks like he's playing a game."

Wang Shouye slapped his thigh and, for some reason, added, "Come to think of it, it's strange. Every somewhat sophisticated machine and weapon in the world has become scrap metal. Even guns can barely kill people anymore... So why is it that the communications network, especially the livestream signal, is absurdly stable and completely unaffected?"

Su Luo kept his eyes on Dongli Cang's face and did not answer immediately.

The office was filled only with the sounds of slaughter from the livestream and Dongli Cang's powerful commands, occasionally transmitted through his equipment.

After a while, Su Luo spoke again.

"It seems you suspect him."