Chapter Summaries

After Qinggang contained the pollution outbreak, Lu Xin learned that the attackers had escaped and been made wanted across the Alliance. He asked headquarters for permission to pursue them himself, saying he would not be alone.

• Lu Xin saw the Administrative Hall blame the poisoning incident on illegally gathered poisonous mushrooms and provide treatment and quarantine for civilians.
• Han Bing told Lu Xin that the attack was designated the 8.18 Attack, while the pollution events were named Red Rose and Crying Crowd, and both were considered resolved.
• Han Bing explained that the attackers had escaped, the tracking scouts had gone missing, and the City Defense Department planned to issue a high-reward wanted notice for Qin Ran and the others.
• Han Bing began explaining Lu Xin's compensation, but Lu Xin postponed reviewing it and asked to go on a business trip to pursue the attackers.
• Lu Xin told Han Bing he needed only approval and said he would not be alone.

Qinggang’s leaders debated Single Soldier’s request to leave the city and pursue the escaped ability users, questioning whether he was avoiding scrutiny or hiding his powers. With little evidence to explain how he defeated the mental monster while saving more than a thousand people, the meeting ended without resolving his intentions.

• Minister Shen objected to Single Soldier’s application, arguing that his concealed abilities needed to be questioned.
• A middle-aged official suggested investigating whether Single Soldier planned to evade questioning or leave Qinggang for good.
• Researchers reported that they had almost no evidence about how Single Soldier defeated the Super-Class B mental monster.
• A professor proposed that Single Soldier had either concealed his actions or risked himself to protect his colleagues and the contaminated people.
• The professors teased Minister Shen for withdrawing his people instead of leaving observers behind.

Chen Jing defended Lu Xin’s request to leave High Wall City and pursue the knights’ order, arguing that he followed regulations and could not be stopped if he insisted. After questioning his motives, she received approval from Mr. Su and agreed to approve his application.

• Chen Jing told the meeting that Lu Xin’s application should be treated as a straightforward request and warned that they probably could not stop him from leaving the city.
• Chen Jing called Lu Xin and urged him not to pursue the knights’ order, citing the dangers outside the city and the group’s powerful ability users.
• Lu Xin acknowledged his lack of experience fighting ability users but said they had no experience dealing with him either.
• Lu Xin said he wanted the people responsible for the deaths in Satellite City to pay, then nervously admitted that the bounty could be discussed later.
• Mr. Su nodded to Chen Jing, who told Lu Xin she could approve his application.

Lu Xin’s application to hunt three Ability Users outside the city was approved, and the mission was classified as Level A. Professor Bai ordered all information about the Soldier classified and insisted that the organization fully support him, while Lu Xin rejected the proposed teams and requested only a driver.

• Chen Jing approved Lu Xin’s application and required him to provide an estimated departure date, so he said he would leave in about ten days.
• Chen Jing told the meeting that Lu Xin planned to deal with three Ability Users within ten days, shocking the attendees.
• Professor Bai called for all information about the Soldier to be classified, and Mr. Su made access and disclosure subject to strict controls.
• Professor Bai also insisted that Lu Xin receive full support for the mission, and Minister Shen agreed.
• Gecko warned Lu Xin that the wilderness was far more dangerous than life inside the city.
• Chen Jing classified the trip as a Level A special operation and offered support teams, but Lu Xin declined them and asked for a driver.

Lu Xin arranged for Gecko to accompany him on an urgent mission tracking the Knights' Order, despite Gecko's protests. As they prepared to leave, Lu Xin told an unseen presence not to hurt Gecko, then reluctantly softened the rule to “try not to hurt him as much as possible.”

• Lu Xin asked Chen Jing for a high-performance car, supplies, and a skilled driver, and named Gecko as his choice.
• Gecko protested being sent outside the city, but his superiors persuaded him by promising a future training mission in Main City.
• Gecko returned and told Lu Xin that they would form a special operations team, with Lu Xin as captain and Gecko as deputy, and leave in half an hour.
• Lu Xin spoke to an unseen presence and instructed it not to hurt Gecko, then allowed it to try not to hurt him as much as possible.
• Gecko heard Lu Xin's warning and nervously asked whether he was serious about the qualification.

Lu Xin and Gecko prepared to leave the city on a ten-day mission, loading a heavily equipped military vehicle with supplies and weapons. Before setting out, Lu Xin brought his family along, leaving Gecko nervously trying to greet them as the suspension bridge lowered.

• Gecko reviewed the extensive supplies prepared for their wilderness trip and explained why they needed provisions, currency, and weapons.
• Gecko admired the modified military Humvee, and Lu Xin joined him after signing for the vehicle and receiving his identification documents.
• Gecko said he had no family to visit, so Lu Xin asked him to stop at Moon Platform to pick up his own family.
• Gecko drove Lu Xin to his apartment building, where Lu Xin said his family was already in the car, though the back seat looked empty to Gecko.
• Gecko nervously introduced himself to Lu Xin's unseen family as the vehicle approached the lowering suspension bridge out of the city.

Lu Xin and Gecko left Satellite City No. 2 to track the fleeing Knights, whose trail had gone cold after they stopped in an abandoned town. With Mom’s help, Lu Xin learned she could locate someone she had seen before, and he directed Gecko onto the road she chose.

• Lu Xin traveled with Gecko, Mom, and Sister while Father stayed behind, and Gecko explained that two City Defense Department agents had disappeared while investigating the Knights’ abandoned-town stop.
• Gecko drove at high speed to the town, where City Defense Department agents reported that the seven-person group had left south on five motorcycles and an off-road vehicle.
• After reviewing the limited evidence, Lu Xin asked Mom for help, and she directed him to take the road on the left because she had seen one of the Knights before.
• Lu Xin told Gecko to follow the small road on the left and said his family would help him track the Knights.

Lu Xin, Gecko, and Mom pursued the group that had attacked Qinggang, following Mom’s directions through the wilderness. After hours of travel, they caught the scent of fresh blood and found their quarry nearby.

• Gecko drove the off-road vehicle onto a route that Mom indicated, despite investigators believing the fugitives had gone south.
• Lu Xin and Gecko used Mom’s ability and the map to pursue the group, which had fled hundreds of kilometers from Qinggang without stopping.
• Gecko speculated that a distant High Wall City had hired the group, while Lu Xin focused on bringing them back.
• Gecko kept driving and singing through the night as they crossed the wilderness and passed ruined settlements.
• Mom and Sister sensed fresh blood, and Mom told Lu Xin they had found the fugitives nearby.

Lu Xin and Gecko found the remains of their two missing agents and realized a Puppet-type ability user had likely used them to create mental modified humans. Lu Xin tracked the knight order to Blackwater Town, where Gecko warned that they would face a powerful settlement and its leader.

• Lu Xin and Gecko followed the smell of blood into the wild grass and found human organs watched over by wild dogs.
• Lu Xin connected the remains to the Puppet-type ability user and the two missing agents, then ordered Gecko to collect their remains.
• Gecko packed the remains into body bags while Lu Xin and Mom looked toward the southwest.
• Lu Xin guessed the knight order was hiding in a settlement, and Gecko found Blackwater Town in that direction on the map.
• Gecko explained that Blackwater Town was a large nearby black market with armed forces nearly as strong as Qinggang's City Patrol Army.

Gecko and Lu Xin reported finding the two missing agents and entered Blackwater Town to investigate the Order of Knights. In Qinggang, officials deduced how Lu Xin might have predicted the Knights’ destination and ordered a task force to stand by, ready to destroy the town if the investigators sent a distress signal.

• Gecko warned Lu Xin that Blackwater Town’s residents might see them as easy targets, then reported their location and plans to Qinggang.
• Gecko and Lu Xin drove toward Blackwater Town after reporting that the missing agents had died and the Order of Knights might be there.
• Qinggang officials convened an emergency meeting and questioned how the investigators had found the missing agents and identified the Knights’ likely location so quickly.
• Professor Chen deduced that Lu Xin had predicted the Knights would seek supplies and Mental Mutants at Blackwater Town.
• Minister Shen ordered a task force to wait ten kilometers from Blackwater Town and use a long-range plasma weapon to flatten it if the investigators sent a distress signal.

Lu Xin and Gecko arrived at Blackwater Town, where they learned the town charged for parking and openly sold people through its Labor Market. After Lu Xin sensed something nearby, he decided they should look around first.

• Lu Xin and Gecko followed the scouts’ road to Blackwater Town and negotiated the town’s rules for entry, weapons, and parking.
• Gecko paid to park inside the town, and Lu Xin reassured himself that the expense could be reimbursed.
• Mom told Lu Xin they were close and that he should get ready, while Sister grew excited.
• Niuzi offered to guide Lu Xin and Gecko to the town’s markets and described its trade in enslaved laborers.
• Gecko asked Niuzi about another kind of market, then promised to find him later as Lu Xin chose to look around first.

Lu Xin and Gecko tracked the knight order to a mahjong parlor in Blackwater Town, where Lu Xin identified a likely target among the card players. The chapter ended with Lu Xin telling the man in the red suit to finish his turn before they dealt with him.

• Lu Xin and Gecko walked through Blackwater Town’s lively street while Mom guided Lu Xin toward their targets.
• Gecko weighed whether to alert Master Snake or find the knight order first, and Lu Xin chose to search for them before contacting the town’s boss.
• Mom led Lu Xin and Gecko to a mahjong parlor, where Lu Xin sensed the targets behind a closed room door.
• Gecko asked for a plan, but Lu Xin said there was no need and kicked the door open.
• Lu Xin spotted a man in a red suit among the card players and told him to finish his card before they continued.

Lu Xin confronted the red-suited Puppet-type Ability User in a wilderness card room and tried to take him alive. The apparent surrender turned into an attack by mental modified humans, leaving Lu Xin and Gecko facing the puppets.

• Gecko restrained an angry card player and drew his gun while Lu Xin identified the red-suited man as the Puppet-type Ability User who had attacked Satellite City No. 2.
• Lu Xin told the red-suited man he had come to take him back alive, and the man appeared to accept being arrested.
• Two card players suddenly attacked Lu Xin and Gecko, so Gecko shot them down.
• The two wounded men revived and launched another attack, and Gecko recognized them as mental modified humans.
• Lu Xin recalled his research materials on Puppet-type Ability Users, including that their puppets could be controlled through mental threads and weakened by destroying their spines.

Lu Xin and Gecko defeated the Puppet-type ability user’s mentally modified fighters and survived their hidden bombs, but the red-suited man escaped as armed forces converged on the gambling hall.

• Lu Xin and Gecko subdued the two mentally modified fighters, while the red-suited Puppet-type ability user sat still and appeared to accept defeat.
• Mom warned Lu Xin that the danger was not over, and he discovered a bomb inside the fighter whose spine he had broken.
• Lu Xin crumpled the fighter around the bomb and pushed the mass away before it exploded, while Gecko disarmed the bomb inside the other fighter.
• Lu Xin explained that the two living gamblers had lost money to the mentally modified fighters, then noticed that the red-suited man had escaped through the window.
• Niuzi led an armed group toward the gambling hall as people outside called for security officers.
• Lu Xin told Gecko to explain the situation and climbed through the window to deal with the approaching group.

Lu Xin pursued the man in the red suit into a warehouse, where the man ambushed him with Gatling guns and used a Puppet-type ability to force him to imitate a dangerous movement. With Sister’s help, Lu Xin evaded the bullets and turned the attack against the gunmen, leaving the man in the red suit trapped.

• Lu Xin chased the man in the red suit while Gecko stayed behind and faced the people in the room until armed officers arrived.
• Lu Xin followed Mom’s directions to a warehouse, where the man in the red suit had set up three Gatling guns and prepared to flee on a motorcycle.
• Lu Xin climbed across the warehouse ceiling to avoid the bullets, but the man in the red suit used Forced Imitation to make him grab his own throat and fall.
• Lu Xin called for Sister, who caught him and swung him across the warehouse behind one of the Mental Mutants.
• Lu Xin distorted the gunman’s body, causing the Gatling gunfire to hit the other attackers, then confronted the terrified man in the red suit.

Lu Xin subdued the Puppet-type ability user, but Mom warned him that the danger was not over. The chapter ended as Blackwater Town’s armed security team arrived with Gecko and confronted Lu Xin.

• The man in the red suit tried to escape by motorcycle and mental threads, but Lu Xin pulled him down and disabled his gun.
• The Puppet-type ability user stopped resisting and said his companions had split up after their experiment failed.
• Lu Xin questioned the man about where his companions had fled, but he refused to betray his reputation by answering.
• Mom told Lu Xin that the confrontation was not over, prompting him to look for what he had missed.
• A group wearing snake-patterned armbands brought Gecko toward Lu Xin, and a burly security officer threatened them for firing guns in Blackwater Town.

Lu Xin confronted Blackwater Town security officers who tried to take him and the captured man away, and realized the burly officer was under the influence of a Rose Flower or something similar. The officer’s reaction left Lu Xin convinced that the red-suited man had used this as his final means of protection.

• The burly security officer threatened Lu Xin and Gecko and ordered his men to take Lu Xin and the red-suited man away separately.
• Lu Xin noticed Mom watching and told the security officer that he seemed abnormal.
• As armed officers aimed their guns at him, Lu Xin calmly asked whether the red-suited man had given the officer something.
• Lu Xin suggested that the officer had received a Rose Flower or a substitute that made him feel increasingly fond of the red-suited man.
• The red-suited man’s expression changed, while Gecko realized what Lu Xin was implying.

Lu Xin and Gecko confronted Blackwater Town’s sheriff over the red-suited man, whom the sheriff had grown determined to protect. After Gecko brought Qinggang’s armored vehicle to bear, he used a loudspeaker to demand that the town’s leaders negotiate under threat of a missile strike.

• Lu Xin warned the sheriff to stop swearing and said he would act if the sheriff caused trouble over the red-suited man.
• Gecko seized two guns and aimed them at the sheriff and his subordinates, then Qinggang’s armored vehicle smashed through the wall and trained its Gatling gun on the crowd.
• Gecko warned the sheriff that Qinggang could strike Blackwater Town with a missile, and the sheriff lowered his gun and admitted defeat.
• Gecko took the sheriff’s loudspeaker, identified himself and Lu Xin as Qinggang’s Action Team, and demanded that whoever was in charge come talk to them.

Lu Xin and Gecko confronted Master Snake in Blackwater Town while trying to take the red-suited man back to Qinggang City. Master Snake’s cat suddenly sprang from her arms, and the armed standoff grew tense.

• Gecko intimidated the people of Blackwater Town until Master Snake arrived with armed forces and ordered her people to lower their guns.
• Lu Xin apologized for entering without warning, offered to pay for Gecko’s shots, and explained that the public security officer was under an influence that made him protect the red-suited man.
• Master Snake tested the officer’s feelings by having a subordinate aim a gun at the red-suited man, then said she would investigate before sending him to Qinggang City.
• Lu Xin insisted that they had to take the red-suited man back and refused to reveal the details because of a confidentiality agreement.
• Master Snake’s orange cat bristled, escaped her arms, and scratched her, prompting the surrounding armed forces to ready their weapons.

Lu Xin and Gecko secured Master Snake’s cooperation in Blackwater Town and brought the man in the red suit into a garage for questioning. Lu Xin summoned his sister, and the captive felt an unseen hand touch his face as terror overtook him.

• After Master Snake’s orange cat scratched her, she agreed to help Lu Xin and Gecko and had her subordinates arrest the security officer instead.
• Master Snake apologized for her subordinate and offered Qinggang City manpower, weapons, and fuel at a discount.
• Lu Xin asked to use the garage to question the man in the red suit, and Master Snake agreed while suggesting several methods of torture.
• Lu Xin led the captive into the dark garage, shut the rolling door, and said he hoped the man would confess on his own.
• Lu Xin called for his sister, and the captive felt a cold hand touch his face despite seeing Lu Xin standing still by the door.