Airport

Time flew by.

It was May 22. In the Jiangcheng International Airport waiting lounge, Li Qingye pulled his suitcase along behind his mentor and two other classmates.

Seeing how much more haggard Li Qingye looked, his mentor sighed inwardly. All he could do was hope Li Qingye would find a way through it on his own.

Behind his sunglasses, Li Qingye looked utterly dejected. In reality, he was quietly observing his surroundings.

For more than a week after completing his Gene Modification, he had been getting familiar with and studying his body and his Gene Abilities.

After some investigation, he had discovered something he'd previously overlooked: some Gene Abilities could be switched on and off.

Take Super Senses, for example. If it remained active all the time, it would have too great an impact on daily life.

With Super Senses active, his hearing was about 3.7 times sharper, and he could hear a small portion of the ultrasonic range.

His sense of taste was about 14 times sharper, while his sense of smell was a staggering 45 times sharper.

In other words, if he kept Super Senses active, things that ordinary people found delicious, or even the slightest noise, could easily become unbearable to him.

Fortunately, through experimentation, Li Qingye had found a way to control some of these heightened senses: he used his Memory Palace to set up a filter for sensory information.

Senses like taste were essentially formed by sensory cells, neurons, and brain cells.

In this process, Li Qingye couldn't alter his brain cells or sensory cells, but he could block some of the sensory cells from sending information to his brain cells.

It was like "the body had been injured," but "the brain hadn't received the signal that it was injured," creating the "illusion that I'm not hurt."

After adjusting this mechanism, Li Qingye applied it to limiting his Super Senses, allowing his brain to receive normal sensory information.

If he could limit them, naturally he could activate them again.

At that moment, Li Qingye had activated Super Hearing, carefully listening to the passengers around him.

More than twenty meters from Li Qingye and the others, two young men in their twenties were casually looking over the flight information board.

Pop! The gum bubble of one of them, a blond man with an earring, burst. He pretended not to be looking and glanced to his left.

"Ahu, we're just going to watch?"

The other man, Squinty, took a sip of cola and murmured with a smile, "We'll just watch. As long as he doesn't get away, it's fine."

"Ugh, what a hassle." Blondie kept chewing his gum.

Neither of them noticed that Li Qingye, more than twenty meters away, had heard every word of their quiet conversation.

These two have been hanging around ever since I left the lab, Li Qingye thought to himself.

Although Blondie and Squinty had changed their disguises several times and never come within ten meters of him, they clearly didn't know that with Super Senses active, Li Qingye could identify a person's scent with incredible clarity.

Especially after his eyes had become red-green colorblind, he had consciously started using scents to identify people in his daily life.

No matter how Blondie and Squinty changed their disguises, it was difficult to change their scent. It was a blind spot most people didn't even think about.

A cold killing intent flashed in Li Qingye's eyes behind his sunglasses.

He might have seemed refined and mild-mannered, with his messy hair and stubble making him look like a frail scholar who couldn't hurt a fly.

But in reality, he was now absolutely capable of killing without batting an eye, and he had plenty of experience.

These weren't Li Qingye's own abilities or experience, but those of his grandfather, Li Shengli.

Ancestral Memory had two applications. One was "third-person mode," like watching a movie. The other was "first-person mode," which made the memories feel like real experiences. Of course, this mode had a side effect: first-person memories could influence one's personality.

His grandfather, Li Shengli, had fought in the Crossing the River Campaign and the Korean War. He had been a scout and killed countless enemies.

Li Qingye had chosen some of his grandfather's memories and, by experiencing them in first-person mode, acquired skills such as "Firearms Mastery," "Melee Combat," "Wilderness Survival," "Battlefield First Aid," "Hand-to-Hand Combat," "Trap Setting," "Reconnaissance and Analysis," "Map Drawing," "Code Mastery," "Camouflage Techniques," "Vehicle Driving," "Swimming," "Demining," "Explosives Handling," and "Iron Will."

The way he was now, he was hardly any different from a veteran who had fought on the battlefield.

Blondie and Squinty showed signs of special-operations training, but if it came down to a real fight to the death, the ferocity forged on the battlefield was something no training camp could instill.

Li Qingye could be almost certain who had sent these two to watch him.

[Dear passengers, the flight from Jiangcheng to San Francisco will depart in one hour. Please proceed...]

An announcement rang out in the waiting lounge, and flight information began scrolling across the screens in the hall.

One of his classmates turned to their mentor and said, "Boss, it's almost time to board."

"All right, let's go!" Their mentor pulled his suitcase toward the boarding gate.

Li Qingye followed.

Blondie and Squinty, who had booked the same flight, also pulled their suitcases toward the boarding gate as if nothing were amiss.

For Li Qingye, choosing to go abroad came with enormous risks.

After all, back home, there were many methods he couldn't use. And with the mutation at Xin Xin Group already attracting attention, those people certainly wouldn't dare make a move against him in the country anytime soon.

But time would eventually make people forget.

The rules back home restrained Du Shuping and the others, but they also restrained Li Qingye. Under those same rules, the resources, manpower, and connections his opponents controlled could easily crush him.

That was why going abroad became the key to breaking the deadlock. Staying in the country meant certain death; going abroad meant a one-in-ten chance of survival.

For that sliver of hope, Li Qingye was willing to take the risk.

Inside the cabin.

After stowing his suitcase, he leaned back in his seat and appeared to be resting with his eyes closed. In reality, he was listening for any movement from Blondie and Squinty.

The two were sitting four rows behind him. They made no suspicious moves, acting just like ordinary passengers.

"Passengers, please turn off your mobile phones and other communication devices..." The flight attendant made an announcement, reminding everyone of the various safety requirements.

The two classmates were discussing their trip to America with their mentor.

The one with glasses and a face dotted with acne was a young man named Lin Yulong. He seemed shy at first, but was actually quite the chatterbox. From the moment they met up until they boarded, he had talked nonstop.

Li Qingye's mentor was named Tie Dongqing, a thin, middle-aged man.

The other classmate was a young man named Tian Nanxing. He had spiky hair and a pair of phoenix eyes.

Apparently annoyed by Lin Yulong's endless chatter, Tian Nanxing stood and said to Li Qingye, who was sitting nearby, "I'm going to the restroom."

Li Qingye lifted his legs to let Tian Nanxing pass.

Li Qingye, still resting with his eyes closed, suddenly tensed slightly, then returned to normal.

After Tian Nanxing passed Blondie and Squinty on his way to the restroom, Squinty stood up too and headed toward it.

Li Qingye instantly focused, locking his hearing onto the airplane restroom.

Two breaths. A door closing...

Thanks for all your support, everyone! (ω｀) Please add this to your favorites and vote for it.