An ordinary connection, a person of culture.

This polluter...

Zhao Yi was pondering when the polluter suddenly moved. Countless hands made of water lunged at him at incredible speed! Already on guard, Zhao Yi fired several fireballs at the monstrous hands. Bang! Water and fire collided with an explosive crack, and steam instantly billowed out! The mist had only blurred his vision for a moment when a giant palm appeared before him, striking straight at his face. Alarmed, he raised his arms to block.

"Ugh!"

Zhao Yi grunted, feeling the bones in his arm crack. The tremendous force sent him flying, and he only stopped after being knocked back over a dozen meters.

Besides their abilities, ability users invariably had excellent physiques, which improved with their ability rank. As the strongest B-rank, his flesh and bones were not quite bronze skin and iron bones, but they came close. Yet a single clash with the polluter had cracked his bones, and his skin was festering and corroding. This was pollution.

So fierce!

An A-rank polluter, all right!

Zhao Yi ran his tongue over a canine tooth, his fighting spirit roused.

Arrows of fire shot out, converging on the polluter from all sides. At the same time, he propelled himself into a sprint, closing in on the polluter, intending to attack at close range while the fire arrows weakened it. Yet the polluter remained unmoving, neither dodging nor evading. Not good! Sensing trouble, Zhao Yi stopped advancing. Sure enough, the fire arrows he had launched at full power struck the polluter with a hiss and were all extinguished. He pushed off his toes to retreat, but it was too late. A gigantic palm came down on him, pinning him to the ground!

Dust flew. When it settled, Zhao Yi was pinned beneath the giant palm, unable to move.

"Cough, cough!"

His lungs hurt fiercely. Discovering that a section of his ribs had caved in, Zhao Yi clenched both fists and gathered power for another fire attack. Before he finished, the polluter suddenly descended from above, taking humanoid form and hovering over him, its head lowered to examine him at close range.

Startled by the face suddenly drawing so close, Zhao Yi lost his concentration. His formidable fireball became a spark or two, tinier than a handheld firework.

Zhao Yi: "..."

It was too close. Pollution poured over him without pause. Zhao Yi's gaze lost focus for a second before he bit through his lip to snap himself awake.

He was about to make one final, desperate attempt when he suddenly noticed the polluter drawing back. Its head turned sharply, its neck stretching long as it stared at his red, swollen right arm with its cracked bones.

The Invisible Man: "..."

Zhao Yi did not know that the Invisible Man's mind had wandered. It had recalled those monstrous hands back at the hospital, which a certain ordinary human had crushed beneath a light step.

It was not the problem.

Its monstrous hands were still very tough.

That human was the problem.

Having established this, the Invisible Man was finally satisfied.

Monstrous hands gathered behind it, malicious thoughts burgeoning. It could crush this ability user now.

More and more monstrous hands gathered, from dozens to hundreds to thousands upon thousands, until they covered the entire sky behind it.

Yet it still did not strike.

It remembered a certain human, and thought of how this ability user was one of that human's kind...

"Holy... shit."

Feeling that the sky had grown a little overcast, Zhao Yi raised his eyes slightly and saw monstrous hands filling the sky.

What had he done to deserve this? Killing him hardly required so many hands, did it?

Zhao Yi's face darkened. With a spectacle like this, after he died for his country, the nation would not even find a fragment of his bones, would it?

This was going too far!

Still secretly gathering power in both hands, filled with grief and indignation, Zhao Yi was about to drain himself dry to unleash the most powerful fire attack of his life. Suddenly, the polluter vanished into thin air. Two seconds later, its presence had receded as well.

The polluter had not entered the Zhou residence.

"..."

The people in the Zhou residence seemed to have heard the commotion and were hurrying over. A fellow member of the Ability Control Bureau noticed the situation first, vaulted over the iron gate, and landed beside Zhao Yi in a few strides.

"Hey, hey, are you all right?"

"I'm... cough! Cough, cough!" With his lungs injured, Zhao Yi coughed his heart out. "Not... not dying yet..."

Not only was he not dying, he still had some strength left. He grabbed his fellow Ability Control Bureau member's arm hard and asked, "Look at my face. Am I... am I beautiful enough to topple a nation?"

His fellow Ability Control Bureau member's expression went from concern to indescribable in a second.

Zhao Yi was extremely persistent. "Am I? Am I?"

His fellow Ability Control Bureau member patted his hand. "Brother, you've been badly polluted. Your brain's gone wrong. Get some sleep."

There was nothing wrong with Zhao Yi's brain. He genuinely thought he was probably very charming. Otherwise, why would that A-rank polluter have spared him after examining him?

His phone rang. Zhao Yi took it out, glanced at the caller ID, and answered. "Captain, I lost that polluter... I'm fine... That polluter... it's very strange."

The hospital, third floor of the inpatient building.

The Invisible Man returned to the hospital. It had merely gone for a wander and come back without doing anything. Huh, why had it run out

in the first place?

Clinging to the hospital's outer wall, it pondered this question. Unable to find an answer, it slowly sank into the wall and passed into a ward.

The television was playing in the ward, showing a shoddily made comedy. The leads laughed with exaggerated gusto, and the human in a hospital gown watched intently, seemingly unaware that someone else had entered the ward.

Suppressing its malicious urge to pounce on the human and kill her, the Invisible Man approached her from behind while invisible, silently observing her.

It had only just drawn near, and had clearly not revealed itself, when the human suddenly turned her head, looked straight at its location, and met its eyes precisely, as though no spatial barrier existed before her.

"..."

"..."

"Want some candy?" the human asked it.

Candy?

A piece of candy was held out to it, small and wrapped in glittering paper.

A transparent hand appeared in the air, followed by an arm and a body, until the Invisible Man gradually revealed its entire form. Its hand accepted the candy very carefully, afraid that a moment's inattention would crush the fragile sweet to crumbs.

Its two hollow eyes looked down at the candy for a long time before it ate it.

"Was it good?" the human asked.

"..."

It seemed to know why it had run out. This human occasionally said things that made it feel strange.

Just like now.

Its icy body felt as though it had been scorched. It was very uncomfortable, and it instinctively resisted, yet felt a little reluctant to let it go.

The human stopped paying attention to it, drawn to the television. The Invisible Man watched her. A few minutes later, it tentatively moved beside her. Seeing that she did not object, it crouched next to her, shrinking itself down small because there was not enough room.

It stared at her without blinking.

The human sat on the narrow hospital bed, leaning loosely against the headboard, her shoulders relaxed and slumped, her hair tied casually back. As the Invisible Man took in this sight, its body straightened more and more. A fragment of memory flashed through its mind: a dim room, a movie playing, him sitting lazily on the bed, the trash can beside it overflowing with snack wrappers.

Its heart gave a sudden jolt. The Invisible Man sprang up and switched off the television from a distance with a snap.

Ye Jiang had been thoroughly enjoying the television when someone turned it off, interrupting her fun. Her face twitched, and her deep, dark eyes stared at the one responsible. "Fellow patient, what did you do?"

The Invisible Man shrank its neck back and wrote: [This is bad.]

Before the water marks had even disappeared, the Invisible Man vanished from the ward.

Ye Jiang: "..."

She slowly got up to turn on the television. She had just gotten out of bed when the Invisible Man returned, and a dozen or so books tumbled onto Ye Jiang's hospital bed.

Ye Jiang was silent. Only after a long while did she look at the Invisible Man, her gaze questioning.

The Invisible Man: [Work hard, strive forward, become someone useful.]

Ye Jiang: "..."

Ye Jiang had only just woken up and had lost her memory, so there was much she did not understand. But instinctively, she did not want to work hard, strive forward, or become someone useful.

Rather than that, she wanted to lie flat and watch television, eating candy as she watched.

She did not understand. "Why do I have to become someone useful?"

The Invisible Man answered without thinking: [Otherwise, you'll die.]

Ye Jiang: "??"

The Invisible Man fell into a brief daze. The answer "you'll die" seemed carved into the depths of its soul, but even it did not know where it had come from.

Ye Jiang did not press the matter. She had no such curiosity, merely replying with an indifferent "Oh."

Then she ignored it and went back to lying flat.

By the time Yu Qingyi arrived, the Invisible Man had returned to the room next door. Ye Jiang had left the pile of books on her bed without putting them away. Yu Qingyi saw them and asked in surprise, "Where did these books come from?"

Ye Jiang said the patient next door had given them to her.

Yu Qingyi was surprised. "You two have met?"

Ye Jiang said, "Yes. It's pretty nice. It listens to advice."

Helping put away the books, Yu Qingyi smiled. "Sounds like you're getting along well."

Ye Jiang said, "Yes."

Yu Qingyi stacked the books neatly on the bedside cabinet. Remembering something, she smiled and said, "On my way here, I heard someone saying that books several doctors brought to their offices had been stolen. Pfft, that's so funny. Who would steal books?"

Ye Jiang nodded in wholehearted agreement. Books were nowhere near as entertaining as television. Why steal them?

As she watched television, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that her friend seemed to be wearing something on her head. Looking closely, she saw a pink hair clip.

The pink hair clip was overly childish and did not quite suit her friend's demeanor, so Ye Jiang stared at it for a while. Noticing her gaze, Yu Qingyi raised a hand to touch the clip. She offered no explanation, only a somewhat dim smile.

Chapter 4: An ordinary connection, a person of culture.

[Attention! An A-rank polluter has appeared in City A!

Characteristics: water form.

Abilities: water control, high pollution level.

All citizens, please remain vigilant and reduce outings. If you need assistance, please call the Ability Control Bureau branch hotline at 522XXXXXX.]

Less than half an hour after the A-rank polluter disappeared, the Ability Control Bureau's notice appeared on the municipal television news, playing on repeat as the entire city went into lockdown.