"Someone actually breeds Aberrant Creatures?"
Yang Jia's sudden words left Xiao Xiao momentarily unable to believe it, struck by a profoundly absurd shock.
He had already seen many Aberrant Creatures, whether it was the Rat-Man he first encountered in the subway station, the Suffocation Puppet in the abandoned warehouse, or the woman suffering in the coffee shop this time. When they mutated, they were indeed twisted and terrifying, carrying horrifying power and capable of killing many people at any moment. Yet at the same time, Xiao Xiao had also felt deep pain and despair from them.
For even one such thing to appear nearby was already a tragedy.
Yet in a world like this, there were actually people who deliberately cultivated such things?
Even his usually calm voice trembled slightly. "Why would they do this?"
Yang Jia said quietly, "In this city, we aren't the only ones who are special. Nor are we the only ones pursuing Pain Substance."
"Pain Substance?"
Xiao Xiao came to his senses. Those people were pursuing Pain Substance too?
Just moments ago, he had realized the importance of Pain Substance because of the enhancement of the three Demolition Hounds. And now he had suddenly heard about such a bizarre matter...
For a moment, he found it difficult to understand. "Isn't this exactly what the city hates most?"
"Every Aberrant Creature could bring disaster to the entire city, so our mission is to resolve these matters..."
"If that's the case, why can the City Will tolerate them?"
"..."
"The City Will is too vast—so vast that we can't fathom it, and it's very difficult to communicate with it completely and without obstruction."
Yang Jia let out a soft breath and said quietly, "Sometimes, we even feel that the city is too bloated. This makes some parts of it sluggish, leaving it able to distinguish only between Aberrant Creatures and the natives."
"Sometimes, the difference between the two isn't so easy to define."
"And we merely serve the City Will. There's no need for us to become deeply entangled with them."
"Some Outsiders even see them as friendly. After all, the more Aberrant Creatures they produce, the easier it is for us to earn points."
"..."
Xiao Xiao fell silent for a moment.
That was true. Just as Little Four had said at the beginning, if he hadn't interfered, and had dealt with the little girl next door after she mutated, he could have easily harvested a considerable number of points...
But was something like that really acceptable?
He vaguely felt deeply uncomfortable inside. He didn't want to express it too directly, but a profound disgust had nevertheless arisen within him.
How could people like that be tolerated? How could anyone cooperate with them?
"Of course, you don't need to be too nervous right now."
Yang Jia seemed to notice the sudden pressure weighing on Xiao Xiao, and softened her voice as she explained, "In fact, you're still far from being qualified to come into contact with them."
"We're not certain whether the little girl next door is actually connected to their breeding."
"Little Four has investigated many such incidents. The child next door is the most ordinary case of all, and the possibility that she's connected to them isn't very high."
"Normally, I shouldn't be telling you any of this yet. I just happened to hear that something like this occurred right beside you, so I came to warn you."
"For now, you only need to remember this: if you hear about an incident related to the Shepherds in the future, stay as far away as possible."
"..."
"The Shepherds?"
Xiao Xiao committed this unfamiliar name to memory.
"Yes. A group of people who breed misery and pasture pain..."
When Yang Jia spoke those words, her voice also grew somewhat cold. Deep fear could be heard within it.
Xiao Xiao fell silent.
Some people collapsed because of pain and became threats that polluted the city, while others cultivated pain so they could harvest it.
He couldn't describe how he felt after hearing this. He only felt... exceptionally disgusted!
"Let's not talk about this anymore. For now, continuing to grow stronger is the most important thing for you."
Yang Jia didn't dwell on the matter either, continuing, "I've calculated it for you. Your points are already quite high."
"Dealing with the Suffocation Puppet earlier earned you three hundred points. And this time, resolving the coffee shop's mutation incident should also earn you nearly three hundred points, according to Mister Ye's plan."
"You now have nearly six hundred points in your hands, which means you can choose your own enhancement path."
"..."
Xiao Xiao's attention was drawn back. "Path?"
"Yes. Every Outsider will eventually walk their own enhancement path."
Yang Jia explained softly, "In the early stages, we strengthen ourselves through various Enhancement Elements."
"The more Enhancement Elements we obtain, the stronger we become."
"However, Enhancement Elements also have different properties and characteristics. We can't keep improving our strength by collecting different Enhancement Elements forever."
"For one thing, the point cost would be too high. For another, the burden on the mental level would become too heavy..."
"So, once we have established a certain foundation, we choose a path as our primary direction of enhancement."
"For example, Violence Factor only requires twenty points to obtain one unit during the novice stage. At the veteran stage, we can likewise spend two hundred points to exchange for its advanced power. At the next stage, we can even choose an element costing two thousand points per unit to obtain the high-level power of Violence Factor. This progressive enhancement centered around a core element is our enhancement path."
"This enhancement path centered around Violence Factor is called the Strong Body path."
"Besides that, there's the Hunter path, which centers around Lurking Instinct, and the Observer path, which centers around Extreme Sensitivity..."
"Of course, there are many other paths, but the three our city is most familiar with and has mastered are these."
"Every Outsider needs to determine their path during the veteran stage. Judging from the points you currently have, you've reached the time to make this choice..."
"..."
"Strong Body, Hunter, Observer..."
Xiao Xiao was drawn in by Yang Jia's words, and an inexplicable stir arose in his heart.
Three different paths represented three different kinds of security...
So which method should he use to protect himself?
At the other end of the city, Yang Jia gently exhaled after ending the call.
At that moment, she was standing atop the tallest building in the city. Beneath her lay the glittering streets and dizzying streams of traffic.
After putting away her phone, she tapped the Bluetooth communicator beside her ear. As blue light flickered, she took a gentle step off the edge of the building.
Gravity instantly seized her body, and the ground rushed toward her with tremendous force.
As Yang Jia plummeted at high speed, she lightly traced a finger with her left hand. A translucent, doorframe-like outline of air instantly appeared beneath her feet, rotating into place.
Her rapidly falling body passed through the frame, and when she landed, she made no sound.
With merely a slight bend of her knees, she straightened and raised her head. Before her stood a black high-rise, many of its windows still lit. Yet now, the building had become a living thing. It struggled to pull its foundations from beneath the earth, enormous tentacles churning the ground. Nightmare-like flesh filled the building, and countless struggling people could vaguely be seen screaming within it.
Facing a gigantic monster hundreds of times her size, Yang Jia merely raised the gun in her hand with a cold expression.
Before she hooked the trigger, a translucent frame appeared in front of the muzzle.
Bang!
An ordinary bullet shot from the muzzle. But after passing through the translucent frame, it accelerated instantly, wrapped in a terrifying kinetic force beyond description.
The bullet, less than a centimeter in diameter, screamed away, twisting the air into a chaotic spiral.
Rumble...
A huge section of the high-rise monster's body was torn away by that tiny bullet. It let out a pained roar as dozens of enormous fleshly tentacles rose high and smashed toward Yang Jia, who was walking forward.
At that moment, Yang Jia dodged the enormous flesh monster while frowning and speaking to the voice in her earpiece:
"In less than half a month, he's already accumulated six hundred points and obtained a special dangerous object shaped like three terrifying hounds."
"Is everything that happened to my classmate really just a coincidence?"
"..."
The gentle electronic voice in the earpiece said softly, "Based on my analysis of the various information I investigated, it really was just a coincidence."
"While handling these mutation incidents, he never actually displayed exaggerated combat power. He was simply calm enough to find the correct solutions."
"He even gave those pitiful existences a little comfort in their final moments."
"..."
After saying this, it paused briefly before continuing softly, "If I had to describe him, I would say he's a gentle person."
Yang Jia seemed surprised by that answer. She nimbly dodged a huge tentacle that extended from underground and suddenly flipped up a hundred square meters of ground, then asked softly, "What does Little Four think of him?"
"Little Four was frightened by him."
The gentle electronic voice replied, "The hundred points that were deducted should originally have been borne by him. But Little Four was too afraid to bring it up."
"Phew..."
Yang Jia didn't know what to say for a moment. Frowning, she raised her gun again. This time, three overlapping translucent frames appeared before the muzzle.
"When I first returned, I was actually very depressed. I thought I had overestimated myself and was powerless to change the situation with the Black Door."
As she fired the bullet imbued with destructive power, she sighed softly. "But now, I feel that perhaps there really is still hope..."
Before you continue