Encounter

After parting with Hank, Gu Yan returned to the area near his home. However, he had a habit of patrolling this entire stretch to prevent any collapse from occurring and affecting his family.

The matter involving the British Kingdom could not be covered up. The explanation given to the public by every country was that a magnitude-nine earthquake had caused the ground to sink, allowing seawater to flood British Island and destroy the country.

Although modern technology was sufficient to avoid most natural disasters, humanity's understanding of the world was still far too shallow. There were always special cases every year—only this time, the casualties had been a little too great.

Trying to use one's own knowledge and assumptions to summarize rules one barely understood did seem rather foolish.

But precisely because of that, people believed the official explanation, and the situation remained under control.

While the high-ranking officials of every country were doing everything they could to calm the people, a few clowns who loudly promoted conspiracy theories jumped out. Some claimed that a certain country was experimenting with new weapons, while others said that someone or other had endangered the safety of humanity.

Some even believed that the apocalypse was coming and urged everyone to enjoy themselves while they could. Those abnormal people had accidentally gotten it right, though.

The panic brought by these clowns naturally could not compare with a collapse. For all they knew, the FBI might break down their door the second after they made their statements.

However, what Gu Yan cared about now was this: Was taking five hours to buy groceries considered reasonable?

After experiencing a disaster, Haishi remained just as bustling outside the restricted areas. As the sky darkened, lights came on everywhere and illuminated the city.

Gu Yan walked along a certain snack street with several skewers in his hand. He was not being gluttonous—he was patrolling.

There were more people here, so the relative safety risks were also greater.

If even one Deathsworn happened to be mixed in among those people and had been corrupted by the collapse, it would cause casualties and panic.

Fine, there was indeed another reason. He had been out for quite a while. He would not get hungry while walking around and eating, but there were still two people waiting at home. However, as long as he bought two cups of milk tea before going back and made up an excuse—

"There were too many people in line, so I came back a little late."

Perfect!

However, Gu Yan did not particularly like crowded, lively places like this one.

As for the reason... perhaps it was because one could easily die of embarrassment without meaning to. Back when Zhao Qi had accompanied him, that guy was always saying or doing strange things.

So Gu Yan directly concealed his figure. Although he was only using a crude low-level Ability User ability that could not even evade thermal imaging, it was more than enough to fool ordinary people.

Amid the constant flow of people, there were naturally some wandering hands and petty thieves. For such vermin, Gu Yan merely gave them a small punishment, grabbing the hand they had used to commit the crime tightly until there was a sharp crack.

He had not been too harsh. They would only need one or two months to recover. Besides, once they cried out in pain, their victims would notice what had happened.

But there were exceptions...

"Ah!!"

"I'm holding my own wife's hand! Who the hell told you to meddle?"

A man squatted down and covered his wrist as he complained bitterly. His wife was also very concerned and began searching for the attacker, intending to demand compensation.

"..."

Gu Yan activated Resurrection, healed the man's wrist, treated some hidden ailments in his body, and restored his kidney function. That counted as Gu Yan's apology.

Gu Yan silently stepped back and shook his head helplessly.

"Sir, please let me through."

The Chinese was somewhat halting, but the speaker's voice was sweet, her tone gentle, and her manner polite. It was quite pleasant to hear.

Gu Yan nodded, subconsciously stepped aside to clear a path, and glanced back.

Where was she?

He looked puzzled. Only when he lowered his gaze did he see the golden-haired little girl pushing the wheelchair. She was the one who had just spoken.

Nelly watched the road, but she still noticed Gu Yan's expression from the corner of her eye. She looked back and gave him an aggrieved glance, trying to make him feel guilty.

But...

Gu Yan had no conscience—no, that was not it. Gu Yan suddenly realized that he had concealed his figure.

"Can you see me?" Gu Yan withdrew his ability and appeared in the middle of the street. Because he had alternated between concealment and cognition modification, the bystanders who saw this did not react with surprise and automatically ignored it.

Nelly halted and turned around, her eyes filled with confusion.

"Aren't you standing right here?" Being asked that, she was somewhat bewildered and felt that this person was acting strangely.

"Fornia, can you see him?" The other party gave a slight nod.

"I mean, just now." Gu Yan narrowed his eyes slightly, his expression serious.

He shifted his gaze to the wheelchair. He had not paid attention to the people around him just now, but now he understood something.

"Just now?" Nelly was not the forceful type. If it had been Fornia, she probably would have turned and walked away, treating Gu Yan as a lunatic.

To help her understand, Gu Yan concealed himself once again, disappearing from Fornia's sight. Nelly, however, could still see him.

No, it was not because of her retinas. Space itself was telling her brain that he was there. It was just like how her feet could feel the ground, telling her that Gu Yan existed right there and had never disappeared.

"I... can see him." Nelly noticed Fornia signaling to her and realized that something was wrong.

This person seemed to be an Ability User, the kind who could turn invisible. Yet she seemed able to ignore his ability.

But he would not investigate her and Fornia, would he? Although her personal information and passport had been handled by a group of British Kingdom naval technicians, making it basically impossible for them to be exposed, Ability Users could always accomplish unimaginable things.

Nelly took a deep breath and comforted herself that she did not need to be afraid. She was not an ordinary person either, so there was no need to panic.

"You're not from Huaguo, are you?"

"No."

"Can I leave now?" She smiled slightly, a hint of anticipation in her eyes.

Gu Yan likewise believed that the little girl before him was not ordinary. As a warmhearted citizen of Haishi, he could not simply ignore the matter.

"Little girl, are you an adult?"

"..."

Nelly nodded. In her country, she was already an adult.

Fornia sensed that Nelly wanted to leave and seemed unwilling to be questioned, so she spoke up:

"What are you trying to do?"

But Gu Yan ignored her.

Seeing Nelly nod, Gu Yan was somewhat surprised. However, he could not escape the look in her eyes that clearly said she wanted to slip away.

There was nothing he could do. Ability Users were not ordinary people. He had to find out what was going on. Only an idiot would bet that a grenade tossed into the street was a dud.

"Then, do you have this?"

He opened his palm, revealing his Ability Certificate to Nelly.

After seeing the contents of the certificate clearly, both Fornia and Nelly were startled.

S-Class Ability User!

"Do you have an Ability Certificate?" Gu Yan asked again. If this was a foreign Ability User who had not registered and had entered the country illegally, then things would not be simple.

"You're an Ability User, right?"

"Don't deny it. Lying won't work on me."

Gu Yan's aura was terrifying. Under the pressure he gave off, Nelly was at a loss.

Actually... even if she lied, Gu Yan might not be able to tell. But when she saw his identity, she had shown surprise, and her intention to retreat was obvious. She clearly was not a seasoned operator. It would be easy to fool her with a couple of words.

Tricking a little girl and all that—it was just too much fun!