Observer

Nelly did not understand why this S-Class Ability User carried a nuclear bomb with him.

She had heard that Huaguo had a custom of setting off fireworks on New Year's Eve. Could it be...

However, Nelly hurriedly withdrew her perception. She had not meant to do that just now, and she knew very well that such behavior was impolite.

Gu Yan also sensed a probing gaze. He turned around, glanced over, and met Nelly's eyes.

"Thank you!"

"...It's nothing." He did not ask any further questions.

The group silently got into the car and headed for the Ability Bureau.

It was already very late, but there were not particularly many vehicles on the road. The journey was completely unobstructed, and they would probably arrive soon.

The pedestrians and vehicles they passed by would likely never have guessed what kind of beings were sitting in the car that brushed past them.

"Should I use my ability to help her?" Gu Li suddenly asked halfway there.

"She might not need it. We'd better not interfere recklessly."

The two people in the back seat remained silent.

Nelly held Fornia's hand with one of hers and gazed curiously at the nightscape of this eastern city. The various plaques covered in strange phrases opened her eyes wide.

She recognized all the characters, yet somehow could not understand them when they were strung together.

Still, when a sign contained the name of a food, she could guess that it belonged to the catering industry. After making a rough comparison, she noted down the places with more customers and better business. Their dishes were probably good, and she could bring Fornia there to try them when she had time.

There were also cinemas, shopping malls, and so on. She had to visit those as well.

"I'm so sleepy..."

She had only woken up that afternoon, yet now she was...

For some reason, drowsiness suddenly surged over her, and Nelly fell into a deep sleep in only a moment.

"Little Nelly?" Fornia called softly. When she turned her head, she only then discovered, by the light shining in through the car window, that Nelly had actually fallen asleep.

With a doting smile, she shook her head. After that, she also stopped making any noise, and the two of them seemed as if they did not exist.

None of the three noticed that Nelly's eyes opened a sliver, revealing a chilling gaze. The corners of her mouth curled upward, making her seem like a completely different person.

"Slow down! It won't be easy to repair this kind of instrument if you damage it!" A burly man hoisted a metal case onto his shoulder. He staggered and nearly fell, but Zhang Yu hurriedly steadied him.

"It's fine, just a little thing!" The man's face flushed red, but he still pretended to be relaxed.

"Go show off to the girls, you jerk. Why are you pretending in front of me?" Zhang Yu picked up the remaining components and walked toward the office building.

"Brother Yu, wait for me!" The man tried to stride after him, but the weight on his shoulder would not allow it.

"Hurry up!" Helpless, Zhang Yu stopped and turned around.

"Hehe..." The man slowly came over. After gradually getting used to the weight, he asked, "Brother Yu, why were you punished again today?"

Zhang Yu sneered. "Wang Yong, do you know?"

"There are three things you mustn't do at the Haishi Ability Bureau."

Despite Wang Yong's burly appearance, he was a prankster at heart. Naturally, he would not let this opportunity pass, so he asked, "What three things?"

"First, don't provoke Gu Li for no reason. Second, don't bully the director's daughter."

He paused at this point.

"Third, don't ask why Zhang Yu was punished!"

Before Wang Yong could react, Zhang Yu became animated again.

"You look curious too, so I'll tell you why I was punished..."

Wang Yong looked expectant as he waited for him to continue.

"Because I did both of the first two things."

"..."

The words serves you right were swallowed down with difficulty by Wang Yong.

While the two were talking, they had already arrived in the hall.

"Just put it here!" Zhang Yu set his things down and went to help Wang Yong with the heavy load.

"What exactly is this thing used for?"

"Ability management departments across the country—no, across the world—have begun equipping themselves with it. It was jointly developed by Huaguo and the Beautiful Country. It's an instrument for observing special energy, commonly known as the Observer."

"Special energy? Is it an ability?" Wang Yong scratched his head, baffled. Hadn't they already had equipment for detecting abilities?

"No. Remember those monsters that appeared last time? It's that kind of thing."

At present, humanity had already gained the preliminary ability to monitor Honkai Energy intensity and was spreading the technology across the world in hopes of reducing casualties.

However, it could only monitor Honkai erosion and outbreaks. It was extremely useful against Deathsworn and Honkai beasts, but it was useless against Herrschers who possessed cores.

Unless the Herrscher deliberately exposed themselves—or simply did not care.

Moreover, accurately locating the site of a Honkai outbreak could not be done with satellites alone. The distance was too great, and Honkai Energy was too strange and unpredictable. Satellites could only locate the general area. Precise positioning required the ground-based "Observer."

The two men put the instrument in place. They only needed to wait for professionals to adjust and test it before it could be used normally.

The Observer consisted of a display screen, underground probes, above-ground receiving equipment, and a main unit casing. Its display screen was only about the size of an ordinary television.

"Can something this small really do it?"

"Heh, why not try it and see?" Zhang Yu was not the type to sit idle either. He began fiddling with the instrument, fascinated by it.

"Brother Yu, it's working! It's working!"

"Let me see!"

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at the display. A vivid red dot had appeared over Haishi.

However, the red dot only remained for a few seconds. If the two men had not happened to be staring at it, that brief duration would have been automatically judged a false reading by the AI and left unrecorded in the database.

That was because such a short-lived Honkai outbreak had never occurred before, and the intensity value determined this time was highly abnormal.

The intensity was calculated using a single Deathsworn as the baseline. For example, if an Assault-class Honkai beast appeared, the Observer would give an intensity value between 5 and 20.

"Wang Yong, you broke the instrument!"

Just now, the value given by the Observer had been—

???

None of them noticed Nelly's abnormality.

"What an interesting world." As she sensed everything around her, "Nelly's" thoughts stirred faintly.

Her eyes were closed, yet space was like her fingers. Through "touch," the entire city of Haishi lay within her grasp.

Whether it was a crab feeding on the eastern beach or a leaf drifting down in the west, she could know it all as long as she wished.

"It's too dull. I'll find you some entertainment!"

Her finger twitched almost imperceptibly. Suddenly, an out-of-control truck appeared from nowhere at the intersection ahead and swerved toward them.

"Look out!" Gu Yan reacted first. Gu Li hurriedly turned the steering wheel to dodge, but no matter how quickly they reacted, they could not ignore the vehicle's inertia. The collision was imminent!

"Tsk."

Gu Yan's entire body blurred. He passed through the windshield, stood in front of the car, and pressed down with one hand—

The truck stopped dead in an instant, and a handprint appeared on its front. Gu Li was in good physical condition, and the airbags cushioned the impact, so she was not injured.

Gu Yan showed the truck no such gentleness. Several enormous ice pillars rose directly from the ground, lifting the truck into the air and pinning it there, unable to move.

No one was injured, and there had been no accident, but traffic was still paralyzed.

All these actions had taken place in the blink of an eye. Gu Yan turned to look at "Nelly," who had somehow appeared beside him.

"What did you just do?"