Chapter Summaries

Lu Xin stayed with Kid in her isolated room and discovered that he could communicate with her, unlike other people. After Chen Jing explained Kid’s dangerous, growing abilities and asked what he felt when looking at her, Lu Xin concluded that she was very lonely.

• Lu Xin tried to leave Kid’s room, but she followed him, so Chen Jing told him to stay and wait for headquarters’ decision.
• Lu Xin watched television with Kid, who offered him the remote before returning to quietly handling her plush toy and building blocks.
• Chen Jing explained that Kid was Qinggang’s most powerful ability user, that her abilities and uncontrollable side effects were worsening, and that Lu Xin was the first person observed to communicate directly with her.
• Lu Xin studied Kid as she mechanically sorted building blocks and told Chen Jing that she seemed very lonely.

Qinggang officials and experts assessed the risks of Kid’s growing dependence on the Solitary Soldier and decided to begin a communication plan. Lu Xin asked Kid the first of three prepared questions, and she smiled and nodded when he asked whether she was happy with her life.

• Su Xinzhong convened an emergency meeting to determine what was causing Kid’s abnormal behavior and whether it threatened Qinggang.
• Professor Bai said Kid and the Solitary Soldier were drawn together by their similar mental levels, while Professor Chen explained that their interaction appeared to have positive effects.
• Professor Chen proposed using the Solitary Soldier to ask Kid three questions, and Su Xinzhong approved moving forward with the plan.
• Chen Jing told Lu Xin to begin, and he asked Kid whether she was satisfied with her life.
• Kid smiled and nodded when Lu Xin rephrased the question as whether she was happy with her life.

Lu Xin questioned the doll about her preferences and wishes, then learned she could not understand whether she controlled her mental power. Qinggang’s officials decided he should guide her training, leaving him to stay with her as the likely leader of her care team.

• Lu Xin learned that the doll disliked some assignments, seemed especially receptive to his requests, and wanted to play with her Lego blocks.
• Chen Jing asked whether the doll could restrain her mental power, but the doll appeared not to understand the question.
• Professor Chen explained that the doll had never learned to think about controlling her mental power and said Lu Xin could help teach her.
• Minister Shen objected that the plan would expose Qinggang’s classified information, but Professor Bai argued that Lu Xin could receive special clearance.
• Mr. Su asked for a full application, and Professor Chen told Chen Jing to let Lu Xin stay with the doll as the likely leader of her nanny team.

Lu Xin accepted a B-class mission to accompany Kid, whose growing attachment to him made it difficult for him to leave her alone. Chen Jing revealed that Kid could borrow the mental power of everyone within her influence, potentially drawing on all of Qinggang City, and Qinggang classified her as a nuclear weapon.

• Chen Jing told Lu Xin that his temporary B-class mission was to accompany Kid and prepare him for a possible higher-level assignment.
• Kid followed Lu Xin to the public bathroom, and Chen Jing asked him to accommodate her dependence until they developed a plan.
• Chen Jing explained that Kid’s emotional instability could endanger Qinggang City, and Lu Xin signed a confidentiality agreement to hear her secrets.
• Chen Jing revealed that Kid could borrow the mental power of everyone within her expanding range, which might now cover all of Qinggang City.
• Chen Jing said internal documents described Kid as Qinggang Nuclear Weapon.

Lu Xin learned the rules for caring for Kid, known as the Qinggang Nuclear Weapon, while awaiting preparations for the second stage of his training. When Kid became upset at the thought of him leaving for the night, he decided to stay in her room and sleep on the too-small sofa.

• Lu Xin reviewed Kid’s care instructions and asked Chen Jing about the Advanced Talent Training Conference and his second-stage application; Chen Jing said the application was approved and Professor Bai would oversee the stage.
• Lu Xin asked about the interrogation results for Vice President Xiao’s stepmother, and Chen Jing agreed to seek approval for him to handle that matter alongside Kid’s mission.
• Kid followed her bedtime routine, showered, and went to bed while Lu Xin closed the bathroom door and prepared to leave for his room downstairs.
• Kid made room for Lu Xin on the bed, but he told her to stay and sleep; when she looked sad, he decided to remain in her room.
• Lu Xin tried the sofa and told Chen Jing over the channel that it was too small to lie down on.

The Special Purity Department approved Lu Xin to take Kid along while investigating Lu Weiwei’s Wish Event. The interrogation results confirmed that Lu Weiwei had caused Xiao Yuan’s nightmares but was not an ability user.

• Professor Chen judged Lu Xin trustworthy, and the officials agreed to let him work with Kid while considering both of their well-being.
• Professor Chen and Professor Bai approved Lu Xin and Kid investigating the Dreamweaver-related case together, and Mr. Su lifted the first-level alert and authorized a task force.
• Mr. Su revealed that a Sea Nation expert team led by its first Old Captain would arrive the next day with research on S-class ability users, and ordered Qinggang to welcome them while staying prepared to restrain them.
• Lu Xin received approval to accompany Kid and investigate Lu Weiwei’s Wish Event, then opened the interrogation summary.
• The interrogation results said Lu Weiwei had caused Xiao Yuan’s nightmares but was not an ability user.

Lu Xin learned that Lu Weiwei’s wish had drawn on another person’s ability and caused Xiao Yuan’s nightmares, while the woman who introduced her to wish-making had died. Chen Jing merged Lu Xin’s investigation with his mission accompanying Kid, then gave him the results needed to begin tracing the Wish Event.

• Lu Xin read Lu Weiwei’s interrogation and learned she had wished for Xiao Yuan to go mad or die, though another person had used her mental power to affect him.
• Lu Xin learned that Lu Weiwei had made the wish after Yu Chen, a housewife, told her about a supposedly powerful god, and found a report that Yu Chen had died by suicide.
• Chen Jing told Lu Xin that Kid would join his reactivated special operations squad and explained the precautions for taking her on missions.
• Chen Jing told Lu Xin that the Special Purity Department had investigated Yu Chen’s connections and sent him the results so the Wish Event investigation could begin.

Lu Xin reviewed Yu Chen’s records and chose to investigate a stress-relief course she had attended, planning to observe the next class rather than summon its participants for questioning. The next morning, he set out with Kid under the careful supervision of her service team.

• Lu Xin found Yu Chen’s attendance at a Stress Relief and Guidance Course worth investigating, and Chen Jing explained how the courses were designed to help the public resist mental pollution.
• Lu Xin decided to observe the course the following morning, and Chen Jing arranged a vehicle to collect him at eight-thirty.
• Lu Xin washed up while Kid stayed in the safe house, then watched television with her as the service team prepared their breakfast and helped her dress.
• Chen Jing explained Kid’s protective clothing, alarm hair clip, and contact lenses, which helped limit the effects of her mental power on others.
• Lu Xin and Kid left in a specially modified van with a protected driver and the rest of Kid’s service team on standby.

Lu Xin visited the seventeenth-floor counseling classroom with Kid and discovered two people with abnormal mental states. Chen Jing ordered the building sealed and the Special Task Force dispatched while Lu Xin kept watch.

• Lu Xin brought Kid along after Chen Jing explained how to keep people safe around her.
• Lu Xin and Kid rode to the seventeenth floor, where Fatty Liu recognized Lu Xin from an earlier job and showed him the counseling business.
• Lu Xin looked into the classroom and spotted two people with abnormal mental states.
• Lu Xin alerted Chen Jing, who ordered the Special Task Force to the building and the City Defense Department to seal it off.

Lu Xin uncovered a growing number of people bearing Mental Monsters while inspecting psychological counseling centers, prompting Chen Jing to order an urgent citywide search. On a busy Main City road, he spotted so many abnormalities that he wondered whether he had entered the Ghost Domain.

• Lu Xin identified two people with visible abnormalities at the first counseling center, and armed personnel captured them without resistance.
• Chen Jing ordered Lu Xin to inspect other counseling centers after he reported seeing abnormalities directly on the suspects.
• Lu Xin and Kid joined the response teams, finding three affected people in the second classroom and four in the third.
• During questioning, Fatty Liu said the counseling center taught stress-relief lessons and sometimes encouraged students to gather and curse people.
• Lu Xin spotted numerous people with abnormalities across a busy road, and Chen Jing ordered the teams to arrest them all.

Lu Xin warned Chen Jing that many people in Main City had mutated, while Qinggang received a Sea Nation delegation under heavy security. The delegation proposed closer cooperation, but an urgent call to Mr. Su interrupted their meeting and left him directing his secretary to contact Minister Shen.

• Lu Xin saw monsters and mutations hidden throughout Main City's crowded streets and warned Chen Jing that arresting everyone would require more personnel.
• Mr. Su and Professor Bai welcomed Old Man Ye and the six other members of the Sea Nation delegation at Qinggang's east gate.
• Minister Shen learned that the red-cloaked researcher Shen Ming was the delegation's only detected ability user and ordered preparations to stop the visitors if necessary.
• At Donghai Hotel, Old Man Ye proposed cooperation between the Sea Nation, Qinggang, and the wider Alliance on ability-user research.
• After receiving a phone call during the meeting, Mr. Su told his secretary to contact Minister Shen.

Chen Jing's mass arrests of people Lu Xin identified as abnormal triggered a crisis because testing found no evidence of contamination, leaving the authorities unable to justify the detentions. As the arrests stalled, Lu Xin accepted that others might doubt him but insisted that deciding whether to believe him belonged to his leaders.

• Minister Shen learned that Chen Jing had ordered nearly a hundred arrests and sealed several locations over suspected contamination, but officials could not prove the detainees were abnormal.
• Chen Jing's subordinates reported that testing and interrogation had revealed no abnormalities in those arrested, though some admitted contact with the Wish Event.
• Chen Jing questioned Lu Xin about his certainty, explaining that the arrests faced mounting pressure and that the tests had found nothing.
• Lu Xin said he understood why Chen Jing might suspect him, but maintained that identifying abnormalities was his job and deciding whether to believe him was the leaders' job.

Lu Xin’s warning about a spreading wish-and-curse ritual prompted Chen Jing and Minister Shen to treat the situation as a major pollution event and launch an emergency response. Chen Jing ordered Lu Xin to find every mutated individual, and citywide reinforcements arrived as the hunt began.

• Chen Jing questioned a young man Lu Xin had identified as suspicious, and he revealed that a curse game had supposedly caused his neighbor to break her leg.
• Minister Shen rejected his secretary’s call to dismiss Lu Xin as unreliable and ordered mass arrests, isolation, a Level 1 city alert, and the High Wall Overclocked Electro-Ion Cannon aimed at the Main City.
• Chen Jing reported that suspected mutated individuals had taken part in a wish- or curse-related ritual spread through the city and needed immediate isolation and communication restrictions.
• Kid held Lu Xin’s hand to show that she believed him, and Chen Jing arrived to order him to find all the mutated individuals.
• Helicopters, military vehicles, and City Defense Department support arrived as the Level 1 emergency response began.

The Sea Nation's first Old Captain argued that the Alliance must unite to face the growing threat of Mental Mutants and warned that ability users could become uncontrollable. He revealed that he had brought an S-rank ability user to the meeting, turning everyone's attention to the young man in a red cloak.

• Mr. Su dismissed an urgent phone call as a minor dispute and resumed receiving the Sea Nation's expert team.
• The first Old Captain urged closer cooperation between the Sea Nation and the Alliance, criticizing the divisions among cities and factions.
• The Old Captain described his past leadership and admitted that ability users, especially S-rank ones, frightened him.
• Professor Bai argued that society should understand, accept, and guide ability users, but the Old Captain warned against trying to control them.
• Mr. Su asked whether the Sea Nation had brought an S-rank ability user, and the Old Captain pointed to the young man in the red cloak.

The Sea Nation’s Old Captain revealed that it had prepared Qinggang’s chaos as leverage and demanded to take over the city, declaring war when Mr. Su refused. Meanwhile, Lu Xin helped Qinggang search for mutated Ability Users, but many remained hidden as the city prepared for further incidents.

• Old Captain told Mr. Su and Professor Bai that the Sea Nation wanted to cooperate with Qinggang because it faced a degeneration that made people less human.
• Old Captain said the Sea Nation would take over everything in Qinggang, and Mr. Su called the demand a declaration of war.
• Lu Xin flew over the eastern district with Kid and learned that more than a thousand suspected Ability Users had been detained, though many remained at large.
• Chen Jing asked Lu Xin to help identify the hidden Ability Users and prepare targeted measures against the threats they posed.
• Mr. Su asked Old Captain whether the Sea Nation had arranged the city’s chaos in advance, and Old Captain admitted it had prepared to strike first to avoid being killed.

Minister Shen ordered a response to the Sea Nation team after learning they had brought an S-rank ability user to Donghai Hotel. Mr. Su ordered their arrest, and Watchdog subdued the team while the red-cloaked young man was fitted with an ability inhibitor and helmet.

• Minister Shen reviewed the available forces and ordered Mr. Su and Professor Bai to leave, Watchdog and the other ability users to act, and the super-frequency ion cannon to aim at Donghai Hotel.
• Mr. Su refused to leave and told Old Man Ye that Qinggang would resist any threat, then ordered the Special Task Force to arrest the Sea Nation team.
• A Sea Nation team member reached for a gun, but Watchdog’s fear ability overwhelmed him and forced him and the other four members to their knees.
• Old Man Ye resisted Watchdog’s ability, and Mr. Su asked Watchdog to stop forcing him to kneel.
• Two people approached the motionless red-cloaked young man, toppled his chair, fastened an ability inhibitor around his neck, and covered his head with a protective helmet.

The Sea Nation’s Old Captain revealed that its red-cloaked S-rank ability user wanted to die and had been brought to Qinggang to become a weapon in the coming war. When the Crimson Moon rose, the young man activated his ability despite the inhibitor, and a gigantic shadow appeared beside Donghai Hotel as mutants across the city turned toward it.

• Mr. Su and Professor Bai learned from the Old Captain that the red-cloaked young man had an unknown, terrifying ability and wished to die so his soul could return to his True Hometown.
• The Old Captain said he had brought the young man to Qinggang to witness his own masterpiece and see what a true god looked like.
• As the Crimson Moon appeared, the young man asked to be freed, and the armed personnel evacuated Mr. Su, Professor Bai, and the Old Captain from the meeting room.
• Watchdog and six other ability users tried to restrain the young man, but he activated his ability while the inhibitor shocked him, separating a smiling shadow from his falling body.
• Lu Xin and other ability users sensed a disturbance as a shadow taller than Donghai Hotel rose beside it, while the detained mutants turned toward the building.

A red-hooded Mental Monster emerged beside Donghai Hotel and grew stronger as Qinggang’s officials scrambled to contain it and uncover the Sea Nation’s plan. Its influence drove mutants across the city toward the hotel, leaving Qinggang under a Level 1 alert.

• Lu Xin saw the enormous red-cloaked Mental Monster beside Donghai Hotel as detectors around the quarantine zone sounded alarms, and Chen Jing ordered stronger containment and emergency reports.
• Mr. Su ordered Old Captain interrogated while Professor Bai said the crisis was an expected test of their preparations.
• Minister Shen prepared ion cannons, but Professor Bai identified the monster as the growing mental body of a dead Sea Nation S-rank ability user and warned that destroying it could trigger unknown consequences.
• Professor Bai recommended interrogating Old Captain, waiting for investigation results, and considering the Unconventional Emergency Defense Plan, while Minister Shen still ordered twenty ion cannons prepared.
• The monster’s mental waves changed the quarantined mutants and hidden mutants throughout the city, driving them toward Donghai Hotel as armed soldiers opened fire and the mutants fused together.
• Qinggang sounded its Level 1 citywide alert as the chaos spread.

As Qinggang City’s isolation zone filled with mutants and growing Mental Monsters, Lu Xin reported their behavior while the Information Analysis Team debated their source. Professor Bai proposed that the Sea Nation’s dead S-rank ability user had used wishes and curses as bait to draw monsters from a collective mental realm, setting up an attack that could turn Qinggang City into a Ghost Domain; Mr. Su began verifying the theory and preparing recommendations.

• Lu Xin reported that weak Mental Monsters on the mutants combined and grew stronger when their hosts died, while the mutants charged toward the monster beside the hotel.
• Chen Jing ordered personnel to avoid killing the mutants and use anesthetic rounds or special bullets instead.
• The Information Analysis Team examined True Hometown and debated whether its Mental Monsters were created or summoned from a collective subconscious realm.
• Professor Bai rejected the summoning theory and suggested that wishes and curses had lured the monsters to Qinggang City before the S-rank ability user’s death triggered their appearance.
• Professor Bai warned that the coordinated attack could turn Qinggang City into a Ghost Domain and let the dead ability user’s mental level rise without limit.
• Mr. Su took over the screen and began verifying Professor Bai’s theory so he could recommend how to clear the monsters.

As Qinggang descended into chaos under the influence of a growing Crimson Moon and a red-cloaked Mental Monster, Chen Jing announced that the cleanup operation had begun. Lu Xin prepared to act, and Chen Jing assigned him to request Kid’s assistance.

• Lu Xin fought off monsters at the quarantine perimeter but felt unable to contain the growing crowds and mutants.
• The Crimson Moon appeared to fill out as citizens saw the red-cloaked Mental Monster and reacted with terror.
• Lu Xin and Kid stared at the Mental Monster, sharing his dislike and unease toward it.
• Chen Jing relayed the Information Analysis Team’s recommendations and ordered personnel to prepare for the cleanup mission.
• Han Bing joined Lu Xin’s channel, reassured him about their missed meeting, and lifted his spirits.
• Chen Jing ordered Lu Xin to request Kid’s assistance.