"Zhao Qi, wake up!"
Zhao Qi heard a familiar voice calling his name and opened his eyes groggily.
"Gah, my head! Gu Yan, you bastard!"
Gu Yan gave an awkward smile, looking a little embarrassed. He had been too focused on running at full speed and had failed to consider that Zhao Qi couldn't keep up, dragging him along and making him bump into things the entire way until he passed out.
"If we weren't old friends, I'd squeeze a house out of you!" Zhao Qi wasn't an unreasonable person. Knowing that everything had happened suddenly, he only grumbled a couple of times.
"What happened just now? You suddenly lost your mind and dragged me into a run."
As soon as Zhao Qi finished speaking, he saw Gu Yan glance toward the entrance, still shaken.
"It was a nuclear explosion. This place is about twenty kilometers from the city center. The people near the entrance were all caught in it. The blast yield probably wasn't small. Luckily, I ran fast."
With Gu Yan's physique and the enhancement, breaking through human limits was easy.
Zhao Qi was first shocked, then sighed regretfully. "What a pity. My childhood dream was to see a nuclear explosion up close."
This guy's thought process is seriously messed up. That was Gu Yan's assessment.
There were seven air-raid shelters in the eastern suburbs. The one they were in was one of them. At present, it held tens of thousands of people, yet it didn't feel crowded.
Inevitably, many people overheard their conversation. Quite a few understood Chinese, and this even sparked a small commotion.
What did it mean for a nuclear bomb to be detonated in a superpower's top-tier city? No one could quite put it into words, but without a doubt, whoever had done such a thing was absolutely insane.
"We still don't know what's happening outside. We'd better wait until things stabilize. By the way, did you bring any water or food? I'm not sure how long we'll be waiting."
"When the explosion went off, I was haggling over prices. How could I have food or water?" Zhao Qi chuckled. "But do you know how fun it is to haggle with foreigners? It's hilarious!"
"..."
Gu Yan didn't actually think he would be trapped here in his current state. But if he encountered that Herrscher, he might be able to survive by posing as half a fellow member. Zhao Qi, however, might not be so lucky.
He had only been in this world for a few hours. Without the original owner's memories, he and Zhao Qi were merely casual acquaintances. He could simply ignore whether Zhao Qi lived or died.
But Gu Yan was an emotional person. Zhao Qi had carried him to the air-raid shelter without a second thought, which showed how close he had been with the original owner. Gu Yan genuinely didn't want to abandon his companion either.
The ease he felt when spending time with his friend couldn't be faked. His memories from his previous life were undoubtedly real as well. So what exactly was "Gu Yan"?
Gu Yan's answer was that he had inherited the original owner's memories, perhaps even fused completely with him. He was the original owner. He was Gu Yan himself.
"System, am I right?"
The answer was affirmative. Gu Yan felt a little delighted. The fusion of the two Gu Yans belonged to two worlds, rather than being a lone wandering soul lost in a foreign land.
He was a transmigrator, and he was also a native resident.
After figuring this out, he felt as if he had taken on some invisible burden.
The Honkai?
That made sense. If he continued believing that he didn't belong to this world, perhaps the moment he became a Herrscher, he would turn into a puppet of the Honkai, thinking only of destroying the world.
If he wanted to live well, it seemed he had only two choices: oppose the Honkai or become its slave.
His fist slammed into Zhao Qi's back. Damn it, I can't be the only one suffering.
He had been fleeing ever since he woke up.
Damn it, I just wanted to be a couch potato!
Inside the Pentagon
It was already dusk, two hours after the nuclear explosion in Jinshan City.
A group of Beautiful Country's senior generals had gathered, their faces grim.
A file appeared on the meeting room's holographic screen. The attached photographs were slightly blurry, but it wasn't hard to recognize Ji.
After all, Ji was a very typical Western beauty.
G, real name unknown, born on December 1, 230, in Wright City...
Abandoned immediately after birth, she survived in an orphanage until the age of seven, when she was sold to an illegal organization. As an experimental subject with exceptionally strong resistance to the side effects of certain drugs, she was studied by the organization for twelve years, yet still failed to awaken an ability.
The unimportant details, the codename "G," and the tragic circumstances described in the dull text failed to stir the generals. The only useful information was that she had "failed to awaken an ability."
During the first clash, none of the ability-detection equipment operating in Jinshan City had detected any ability fluctuations from Ji. It could therefore basically be concluded that she had no ability.
To possess extraordinary power without an ability—before this, there had only been two cases worldwide.
Could that illegal organization have accidentally cultivated such a monster?
Just as everyone was at a loss, the information on the holographic screen vanished, replaced by an audio call.
Although everyone present had weathered countless storms, they were still extremely confused and shocked. Whose audio call could reach the Pentagon's meeting room at a time like this? An alien?
"How is it? Have you found anything?"
It was Ji!
"What are you trying to do?" an old, highly respected man demanded. The rank insignia on his military uniform showed that he was actually a marshal.
The old marshal didn't ask Ji "why." He asked what she intended to do. Ji's actions had already been classified as crimes against humanity, so "why" was no longer important.
"Don't rush. Let's wait a little..." Ji gave a light laugh, her tone teasing and playful.
No one said anything. Only a few people tried to locate Ji, but they found nothing. She seemed not to exist in this world. The Beautiful Country's technology, which it was so proud of, was worthless before her. After leaving Jinshan City, she had vanished from the face of the earth.
An ability beyond human comprehension.
Soon, everyone learned what Ji had been waiting for.
Wright City, Seaver City... a full twenty-six coastal cities had suffered nuclear strikes. When the news arrived, an inextinguishable grief lingered in everyone's hearts.
Bang!
"You're declaring war on all of humanity!"
The old marshal slammed his fist onto the table, his eyes wide and the veins on his forehead bulging.
The furious emotions made everyone want nothing more than to tear Ji apart.
A lunatic. A completely deranged lunatic!
"That's right!" Ji's voice held a trace of excitement. Even through the call, her contemptuous tone was unmistakable.
"As the emissary of the Honkai, the First Herrscher—the Herrscher of Reason—hereby declares war on humanity!" Her tone was no longer flippant or mocking. Instead, it carried reverence, as if she were performing some glorious and magnificent deed.
"This world will not allow you to run wild!" the old marshal said firmly.
"Haha~" Ji sounded as though she had heard a joke. Her tone turned dangerous. "I don't care who will allow me. I care about who can stop me."
"Humanity, prepare to welcome despair!"
The call disconnected.
"Immediately mobilize the military to participate in rescue operations across all twenty-seven cities, including Jinshan City. Contact the Ability Administration..." The old marshal began issuing orders, his face grave and furious.
"Also, release the contents of the call to the leaders of every country, and investigate exactly what the 'Honkai' and 'Herrscher' are." He rapped twice on the table, then enunciated every word:
"Whatever the other side is, we fight to the death!"
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