Split Up and Act Separately

(Thanks to The Demon Who Never Forgot His Original Aspiration and ilovemmsid for the monthly votes, and to Goldfish Farmer for the donation. Today, I sorted out the male and female leads among the character profiles. PS: I've run out of ways to trick people into giving me "recommendation votes" ← savor those quotation marks.)

Their abilities could not be activated. Whether it was Ye Wanqing or Xiao He, neither of them could offer much help. But this once again revealed the limitations of their combination: if either one of them ran into trouble, then neither of them would be of much use.

That was precisely why they needed other Mutants to handle special situations.

As Xie Haining and Xia Yu entered the flooded area, they broke away from the convoy and began operating on their own.

Since she was going into battle, Xia Yu's uniform differed from Ye Wanqing's. She wore pants instead of a skirt. She pulled a small bottle from her clothes, opened it, and drank it.

"That's the Enhancement Serum prepared for her. It contains carefully measured proteins from various organisms," Cui Man explained. "In a situation like this, she probably needs mobility more than fifty times the strength, right? She'll likely choose something balanced, like a spider..."

"Does her ability have any weaknesses?" Xiao He asked curiously.

"Yes," Cui Man explained. "She has to be careful about what she eats. She can't eat raw food like sashimi, and if she accidentally swallows a fly flying toward her while walking, she'll transform too. That's why she has to wear a mask."

"What the hell..." Xiao He shot Cui Man a suspicious sidelong glance. Was this woman serious?

"According to our subsequent research, the bodily fluids she absorbs also depend on the species. For example, if she wants to gain a cat's strength, she needs to consume a larger amount of cat serum. But for tiny organisms like insects, she only needs a very small amount of bodily fluid," Cui Man added. "Aside from using her own serum to reverse the transformation, exhaustion will also force her to revert."

With that, Cui Man took out a tablet. "Let's watch her performance, shall we? She should be able to save a lot of people."

Judging from her performance, Xia Yu was not much different from a superhuman Mutant. She jumped higher, ran faster, and possessed greater strength. The difference was that her hands allowed her to cling to walls, making climbing easier.

Watching her like this, Xiao He suddenly grew interested. "Can she shoot spider silk in this form?"

"No. She can only shoot spider silk after fully transforming into a spider," Cui Man said, shaking her head.

Xia Yu nimbly leaped between the buildings while drones followed her and livestreamed the entire way.

Before long, Xia Yu came across a group of pedestrians stranded on the roof of a car. They had tried to wade through the water, but the current was far too strong. One of them lost his footing and was swept away by the rushing water.

Xia Yu immediately leaped into the water and grabbed the person being swept away. Her tiny body was nearly submerged by the floodwater, but she effortlessly lifted him above her head and hurled him onto the patch of land beside them.

"The contrast is huge... She's such a tiny kid," Xiao He said with a curl of his lip.

"Sometimes, it takes people like her stepping forward to give others strength," Cui Man said with her arms folded. "Even such a small child is trying so hard. How can those big, strong men just sit there and do nothing?"

Sure enough, encouraged by Xia Yu, the bystanders watching from the side began joining the rescue effort. They found ropes and supported one another as they reached toward a family trapped atop a car, then everyone worked together to pull them toward shore.

Xia Yu jumped onto the roof of another bus that still had passengers inside, reassured them for a moment, then jumped back into the water and pushed the entire bus toward shore.

Her tiny body was pushing such a huge bus, with more than a dozen people still inside. The contrast created an intense visual impact.

"She did very well, didn't she?" Cui Man said with a satisfied nod. "She works very hard in training too."

"Completely unlike someone else," Ye Wanqing said, glancing at Xiao He.

"Can't be helped. Our abilities are different," Xiao He said lazily, propping up his chin. "Even if I train, my Superpower will still have the same effect once it activates... Besides, I do train."

As he spoke, Xiao He continued watching the footage transmitted by drones from all over the city. In reality, the armed police and firefighters had saved more civilians than the Mutants, but what moved Xiao He most was the way ordinary people rescued themselves and each other.

The slightly stronger men entered the water to pull women and children who were about to be swept away back to shore. The crowds on land found ropes and worked together to forcibly drag people trapped in subway stations out. A driver who had just escaped from one car immediately rushed to another to save those trapped inside. Scenes like that could be seen everywhere.

Xiao He had grown weary of much of the ugliness this world displayed. Ordinary people searched desperately for love, while rich people changed girlfriends every week, keeping one in public and another in secret.

It was precisely because of such ugliness that he had been indifferent toward working for Yinglong from the very beginning, wanting only to lie around and earn some money.

But the scenes before him deeply inspired him: evil existed in the world, but so did goodness.

People did not actually need "superheroes" like Yinglong, because they themselves were heroes.

That was why Xiao He felt that he should do something too, whether he was Yinglong or just an ordinary Chinese person.

Thinking of that, he could not help growing restless.

"Don't rush. Didn't you tell Wanqing the same thing?" Cui Man said, patting Xiao He's shaking leg to calm him down. "The root cause of this flood was the rising water level of the H River, which caused a levee breach. Most of the armed police and firefighters are currently trying to seal the breach, but they're too slow. As long as you can find a way to block it, everything else will be easier to handle."

Xiao He nodded and calmed down again. Cui Man was right. He had to find a way to solve the problem at its source.

Until then, they could only rely on Xia Yu and Xie Haining.

Xia Yu was currently running all over the city, doing her utmost. Her ability was quite powerful, and she had cleared several particularly troublesome rescue sites. But one person's strength was ultimately limited. She could not turn the situation around on her own.

As for Xie Haining, there was even less he could do. His Superpower did not enhance his physical abilities in the first place. Instead, it slowed his perception of time, giving him more time to process information. Xiao He had actually thought this ability was useless, but Xie Haining unexpectedly handled things quite well. At the moment, he was rescuing a family of three stranded on the roof of a single-story house.

Xie Haining bounded along, using submerged car roofs, roadside trash cans, and other footholds to quickly reach the house. Then he grabbed onto its air-conditioning unit, flipped himself up, and landed nimbly on the roof.

"His movements are so smooth, like flowing clouds and running water..." Xiao He said with a frown.

"Yeah, that counts as part of his ability too," Cui Man explained. "With his perception of time slowed, he can adjust his balance at the fastest speed possible. His ability is actually extremely suited to bringing out human combat techniques, and he almost never makes mistakes while moving. Don't underestimate him. He's much stronger than you think."

"But..." Xiao He pressed his lips together. "His physique is still that of an ordinary person, right? How is he supposed to save this family of three?"

"I'm curious too." Cui Man shrugged. "Let's see what he does."