PUA?

Mornings at Godolkin University were always filled with excess hormones and fake enthusiasm.

Things with the Boys Team had stabilized for now.

Lucian lifted his cup and took a sip of bitter coffee.

That appliance salesman was probably engrossed in an elaborate undercover drama about two men in the same boat by now.

LV3 Mind Control really was useful against ordinary people with weak mental defenses.

With just a little emotional guidance, he could plant an extremely firmly rooted false motive in their minds.

But that was all it could do.

To enter the underground secret laboratory called the Woods and find out what cards Vought held at Godolkin, he had to obtain the highest level of clearance.

The Woods held a large number of Supes. It was a live experimentation ground.

As long as he could get inside and make contact with those Supes, his abilities would undergo a qualitative leap.

He needed a master key.

Cate was that key.

Her Mind Control rewrote nerves on a physical level.

Once she removed those leather gloves, even Supes would obediently do as she said.

With that ability, Brink, Shitty, and even the entire Godolkin University would become his backyard.

Lucian put away his phone and slung his backpack over one shoulder.

Yesterday's copy of The Subconscious and Behavior Control still lay quietly in his bag.

He had no intention of attending practical combat class today. He had something more important to do.

Cate did not go to the lawn outside the central library that day.

Their brief encounter yesterday had triggered a severe stress response in her.

Lucian spent an hour ruling out the library basement and the abandoned chemistry lab.

He finally found her in the old indoor gym on South Campus, which was slated for demolition.

The power had been cut off here, and the air was thick with the smell of moldy wooden flooring and stale, sour sweat.

Sunlight could only seep through cracks in the broken glass overhead, forming several hazy gray shafts.

Cate sat in the shadows at the very top of the bleachers.

She wore a black hoodie that day, its hood still drawn tight.

Those enormous noise-canceling headphones covered her ears.

She was not reading. She simply hugged her knees, curled into a ball, and stared blankly at the empty basketball court below.

The black leather gloves had a lifeless sheen in the dim light.

Lucian climbed the rusty iron stairs, making his way up the bleachers one step at a time.

The sheet metal let out a piercing creak.

Cate jerked her head up, her body instantly going rigid.

When she saw it was Lucian, she immediately stood up.

She took half a step back, her back slamming into the peeling wall.

"How did you find this place?" She pulled one earcup aside, her voice carrying unmistakable anger.

Lucian did not answer.

He stopped two steps below her.

Unzipping his backpack, he took out the thick book and casually tossed it onto the wooden boards at her feet.

The book fell open, revealing the word written in marker on the title page.

Monster.

"The handwriting is very shaky. The ink spread where the strokes ended."

Lucian looked into her eyes. "That means your palms were sweating when you wrote that word, or... tears fell on it."

The corner of Cate's eye twitched.

She stared fixedly at the book on the floor without picking it up.

"Get out." She gritted her teeth. "I don't know what the hell you want, but I'm warning you. Stay away from me."

"What do I want?"

Lucian gave a cold laugh, his hands in his pockets.

Instead of retreating, he climbed another step.

The distance between them shrank to less than a meter.

"I just came to return a book. And while I'm here, to see whether the coward who ran away yesterday when I hit a nerve is hiding in this moldy dump feeling sorry for herself today."

"Shut up!" Cate's voice suddenly rose.

"You think you're a monster." Lucian ignored her anger entirely, speaking at a steady pace. "Because all you have to do is touch people to turn them into puppets."

"Your parents treated you like a plague."

"They shoved these gloves at you and told you they were to protect yourself. And you actually believed them."

Cate's breathing grew rapid.

Her chest heaved, and the eyes beneath her hood remained fixed on him.

"What do you know?" Her voice carried a suppressed madness. "You have no idea what I can do!"

"With one touch, I can make you strip naked and bark like a dog on this abandoned court until you die of dehydration. I can make you gouge out your own eyes!"

"Then touch me," Lucian said.

The only sound in the bleachers was the hum of fan blades turning inside the ventilation duct.

Cate froze.

She clearly had not expected that answer.

No one had ever dared say those words to her.

"You're asking to die." Cate bit her lip, her right hand abruptly seizing the edge of her left leather glove.

"Pull it off."

Lucian watched her movements, his gaze unruffled.

"Show me how much of a monster you are. Show me whether you really dare turn someone else's brain to mush."

Cate's hand went rigid.

She had already pulled the edge of the leather glove out of shape, but her hand hung in midair, still unable to pull.

Lucian suddenly moved.

He took a large step forward, standing directly in front of Cate.

They were so close that he could smell the faint laundry detergent on her hoodie.

Cate shrank back in fright.

But the wall was already behind her. There was nowhere left to retreat.

Lucian reached out and pressed his hand firmly over her right hand, which was gripping the glove.

A shudder ran through Cate.

She stared in terror at Lucian's hand resting on the back of hers.

"You don't even dare hurt someone who offends you."

Lucian stared into her panicked eyes and lowered his voice.

"What kind of monster are you? You're just a poor wretch your parents trained into submission."

Cate's eyes reddened.

She bit her lip hard, refusing to let her tears fall, but her body shook uncontrollably.

"They didn't make you wear gloves to protect other people."

Lucian released her hand and stepped back half a pace, opening up the distance again.

"It was to stop you from hurting them."

"They were afraid of you, so they made you afraid of yourself first."

Lucian bent down and picked up The Subconscious and Behavior Control from the floor.

He brushed off the dust and pushed it into Cate's arms.

Cate instinctively hugged the book, staring blankly at him.

"Stop hiding in dumps like this."

Lucian turned and headed down the rusty iron stairs.

"If you want to know how to truly control your ability instead of being controlled by it, come find me."

Without looking back, he walked straight down from the bleachers.

Lucian crossed the dust-covered floor and reached the gym entrance.

He had just pushed open the heavy wooden double doors when the sunlight outside made him squint.

Someone stood outside.

He was nearly six foot three and wore a custom red-and-white Godolkin University jacket.

His arms were folded across his chest, his broad shoulders completely blocking the view through the doorway.

A sophomore, currently ranked number one at the school.

Luke, the Golden Boy.

Luke looked at Lucian with a brilliant smile, but his eyes were unusually dark.

He glanced over Lucian's shoulder at Cate, who stood holding the book in a daze inside the dim gym.

"Hey, buddy."

Luke lowered his head and stared into Lucian's eyes.

"What did you just do to her?"