Protective Talisman

"Anyway, your task for the next two days is to search this street and see whether there are any Calamity hairs left beneath the ruins, or anything else unusual..."

"Anything unusual?"

"A Calamity's power affects the surrounding reality. How exactly it does so varies from one Calamity to another... Some Calamities merely need to stand there to warp everything nearby. Some ignite fires. I've heard that the stranger ones can even control humans... We call this kind of influence a 'Calamity Domain.'"

"The higher a Calamity's rank, the greater the destructive power and range of its Calamity Domain. Generally speaking, we classify all known Calamities from Level One to Level Nine, though each level has an alternate name to more intuitively convey its destructive power.

"For example, Level Nine Calamities... are usually called 'World-Ending.'"

"World-Ending..." Chen Ling froze. "So a Level Nine Calamity can really destroy the world?"

"Though that name is somewhat exaggerated, it's not far from the truth... Rumor has it that a World-Ending Tier Calamity possesses the power to completely wipe out an entire Human Domain." As if recalling something, Qian Fan lowered his voice.

"You didn't know?"

"What?"

"Actually, the one that escaped from your Third District the night before last... was a 'World-Ending.'"

"!!!"

Chen Ling's face instantly turned pale.

"Haha, I'm kidding." Seeing Chen Ling's reaction, Qian Fan laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "I heard your Third District's Calamity Pointer did indeed explode. Usually, that only happens when a 'World-Ending' descends... but no matter how you think about it, that's impossible, right?

"It's been nearly a century since a 'World-Ending' descended. And if it really had been one, the Third District would have been wiped out immediately. How could it still be safe and sound now?

"So, it was probably a Calamity whose domain just happened to affect the Calamity Pointer.

"Didn't your Enforcer Han Meng fight it yesterday? It was confirmed to be a Level Five Calamity, not some World-Ending... So relax."

Qian Fan stood with his hands on his hips, his face full of smiles.

But Chen Ling couldn't smile.

As the "culprit" who had beaten Han Meng senseless, he understood better than anyone what Qian Fan's "Level Five" Calamity truly was.

The "Level Five" Han Meng had encountered wasn't really Level Five... It was simply because [Audience Expectation] had happened to be stuck between 14% and 15% at the time. The Audience that seized the stage correspondingly possessed the combat power of a Level Five Calamity.

And Chen Ling clearly remembered that the number of Audience members who had escaped then was less than one percent of the entire auditorium...

What if the Audience escaped en masse?

Would that mean... a complete "World-Ending" would descend?

At the thought, cold sweat broke out across Chen Ling's back.

He had known the Calamities in the "auditorium" would be powerful, but he hadn't expected them to be this powerful... They were super Calamities capable of "World-Ending"! A ticking time bomb capable of destroying a Human Domain!

"Alright, hurry up and get to work." Qian Fan spoke with satisfaction.

"...Okay."

After Qian Fan left, Chen Ling was the only one remaining on the ruined street.

He took a deep breath and temporarily suppressed the fear in his heart, then lowered his head and began searching through the rubble... No matter what rank the Audience members were, they seemed bound by the Theater's rules. As long as Chen Ling kept [Audience Expectation] above 20%, nothing would happen.

[Audience Expectation -1]

[Current Expectation Value: 32%]

The two lines of text formed amid the rubble, then vanished in an instant.

Ever since he had infiltrated the Enforcers, Audience Expectation had risen by a full 10%. But as time passed, it still steadily declined. At the current rate, if he did nothing, it would fall back to 20% in at most thirty-six hours.

For the next several hours, Chen Ling carefully searched the ruins, but he still found no hairs or traces left behind by a Calamity Domain.

To be honest, Chen Ling was also curious about what exactly the Calamity that had escaped alongside his "Audience" was.

"Chen Ling!"

A voice called out from nearby. Chen Ling, who had been intently searching for clues, looked up and saw his fellow sufferer Wu Youdong walking toward him.

"I heard you came here early this morning?" Wu Youdong was drenched in sweat. Unless something unexpected had happened, he must have walked all the way here from the Third District. "Why are you so fast? Didn't you go home?"

"No. Something came up."

"Something to do with your younger brother?"

At those words, Chen Ling abruptly raised his head. "What did you say?"

"Oh, when I came over just now, I passed by your house... I saw Officer Han Meng there, saying he wanted to see your younger brother." Wu Youdong wiped away his sweat and couldn't help sighing. "But brother, your family's circumstances are even worse than mine... Your house even has holes in it?"

Chen Ling completely ignored Wu Youdong's teasing and asked again, "Did Han Meng question my younger brother?"

"No. There was a tall man wearing silver-rimmed glasses standing inside and talking to him. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but after only a few words, Officer Han Meng left... He never went inside."

A tall man wearing silver-rimmed glasses?

Chen Ling stood stunned for a long while before a thought suddenly flashed through his mind... He had actually forgotten about that!

Earlier, he had sent word to Aurora City, intending to have that [Doctor] cure him. But so much had happened these past few days that it had completely slipped his mind... Now it seemed that the [Doctor] had arrived as promised to treat him.

But hadn't the Third District been sealed off? How had he gotten in?

Questions flashed through Chen Ling's mind one after another. He desperately wanted to return home and see what had happened.

"I won't keep talking to you. My assignment is to settle the surviving residents of Ice Spring Street, and I've got a mountain of things to do." Wu Youdong checked the time, said goodbye to Chen Ling, and hurried away.

Since Han Meng had been drawn away, he probably hadn't had the chance to interrogate Chen Yan. Home was still safe... Thinking this, Chen Ling quickly headed toward Qian Fan and the others.

That [Doctor] was a complete unknown to Chen Ling. He didn't dare leave Chen Yan alone with him for too long.

He had to go home. Immediately.

Creak—

Chen Ling took a step and crushed a broken brick beneath his foot. He looked down and spotted a faint trace of red pressed beneath the debris.

Chen Ling frowned slightly, then bent down and brushed away the fragments. The outline of that red object gradually became clear... When he saw it in its entirety, his pupils sharply contracted.

It was a damaged protective talisman.

Two tiny words were embroidered in one corner of the talisman—

Chen Yan.