Numbered monster no. 2

Ye Jiang: "."

Qin Daichuan waited patiently. After a while, Ye Jiang spoke up, "He's an illusionist. I met him on the third day of the competition. He's very cheerful, loves to praise people, and is very clingy."

Yu Wei: "..."

Qin Daichuan: "..."

Yu Wei: "That's it?"

Ye Jiang said, "That's it."

silence.

"Understood, I'll see Ms. Ye out," Qin Daichuan said. Yu Wei still felt unsatisfied and wanted to ask more, but Qin Daichuan stopped her with a faint look. At this moment Ye Jiang suddenly said, "He's a gentle person."

Qin and Yu both looked at her at the same time.

Ye Jiang looked back at them.

Dong Zhen a gentle person. His illusions were free and romantic, revealing a rich spirit. The two people in front of him seemed to be investigating the boy as some kind of criminal, but Ye Jiang inexplicably felt that the boy was not the one they were looking for, because the boy's love for nature far outweighed human conflicts.

Ye Jiang said, "He's not the person you're looking for."

The Ability Control Bureau is in complete chaos, with numerous issues piling up. The Ability Control Bureau has allocated manpower to form a team, led by the captain of Operations Group Two, to search for the missing contestants in the wilderness.

They didn't find the contestant, but they found a bright green fruit outside the Green Forest Exclusion Zone —a forbidden fruit.

The members of the Ability Control Bureau immediately changed their expressions.

Forbidden Fruit, disappearance—when these two words are put together, one naturally thinks of one thing: Could it be...?

The Ability Control Bureau tried to cover up the matter again and again, but somehow the news leaked out, reaching the ears of the missing contestant's relatives and friends, and spreading throughout the city.

The Forbidden Fruit, despised by the world, suddenly appeared, sparking heated discussions among citizens and indignation among righteous people.

Just then, another rumor began to circulate in the city.

"... I heard that the Forbidden Peach Tree revived a few days before the competition. At that time, a young man walked out of the Green Forest Exclusion Zone... that young man..."

"Contestant Dong Zhen registered his ability at Xingyi Technology as Level E. How could someone with only Level E escape alive from the treacherous Green Forest Exclusion Zone? He must be hiding something..."

"That boy often follows Ye, the top-ranked player. Ye earns two or three hundred thousand points a day. Could it be that the boy is helping him...?"

"... Young man... Green Peach..."

A group of people arrived outside the Green Forest Exclusion Zone, filled with rage. The leader, a white-clad superhuman, tried to calm them down, but even one superhuman's anger couldn't be quelled.

"I really saw it! Yesterday, I secretly went into the wilderness to look for my missing brother, and when I looked up, I saw that boy standing on a tree in the Green Forest Exclusion Zone! It was that boy who did it. He's still inside the forbidden area. He's the one who fed all the missing contestants to the strange peach tree, which is why we can't find them. They've disappeared without a trace!"

The white-clad superhuman said gently, "Don't get agitated. Whether it's him or not, the truth will come out once we catch him."

"It must be him! More than one person saw him enter the Green Forest Exclusion Zone. That's a forbidden area. Why would he go in? And with the strange peach incident happening at this time, what a coincidence!"

"Kill him! Make him pay for my brother's life!"

"Yes, why arrest him? Kill him! If it's just an arrest, we can just tell the Ability Control Bureau. Why come in person!"

"Kill him! Kill him!"

Many of the people shouting were relatives and friends of the missing contestants, including ordinary people and those with superpowers. Grief and anger brought them to the brink of madness, but the light of humanity that could bring them justice was right in front of them. They had summoned the light, which convinced them that the swords they were raising were aimed at justice. Look, the Child of Light are on their side. The Child of Light will illuminate the darkness and uphold the indomitable!

"Kill him! Kill him!"

The hostility spread and infected each other.

The white-clad superhuman was moved.

A burst of laughter suddenly came from the green forest ahead. The sound was not loud, but the crowd suddenly fell silent. A tall, slender figure emerged from the forest. The young man walked out of the Forest Green Exclusion Zone and leaned against a tree, lazily surveying the crowd.

"I could hear a commotion from afar." The boy lifted his eyelids slightly. "Who are you trying to kill?"

He gave a cool, smirk. "Me?"

The crowd was silent.

The white-clad supernatural being Yun Hua, said gently, "No one wants to kill; everyone just wants to find the truth."

He looked at the boy and said, "Many contestants are missing. May I ask...?"

The boy interrupted him, realizing what he'd done. "Oh, so you think I did it."

This statement ignited the crowd's anger.

"Who else could it be? I wasn't entirely convinced before, but I never expected you to actually be in the Green Forest Exclusion Zone. Tell me, what were you doing in there?!"

"What did you do to my child's father? Waaah, give me back my husband..."

"Stop talking nonsense, kill him!"

A superhuman threw an attack at the boy, but missed and shattered a patch of wildflowers in front of the Green Forest Exclusion Zone.

The boy straightened up, frowned, and a dangerous glint flashed in his eyes. "Humans... you really know how to make people angry."

The white-clad superhuman sighed and conjured a lightsaber. Seeing this, the others were relieved and looked at their Child of Light.

Yun Hua pointed his sword at the boy. "I'm sorry, but today I must seek justice for these innocent people who have lost their loved ones."

"Oh, are we going to fight?" the boy asked nonchalantly. "But before that, I have a question I'd like to ask you, is that alright?"

"He's about to die and he's still spouting nonsense! Yun Hua, kill this man!"

"Kill him!"

The white-clad superhuman was merciful; ignoring the cries of those behind him, he was willing to give anyone a chance to prove themselves. He asked, "What do you want to ask?"

The boy didn't want to prove himself; he simply looked at the humans staring at him with hatred and asked, "I want to know, in your eyes—what is romance?"

His question was extremely abrupt.

Upon hearing the news that a crowd had gathered outside the Green Forest Exclusion Zone, Xiao Pei from the Ability Control Bureau rushed over. As soon as she arrived, she heard this sentence, and her expression changed drastically.

"Escape!"

She shouted loudly at the crowd.

"Jehovah!!!"

A scream drowned out the shout of the head of the Ability Control Bureau. The eagle-man parted the clouds and swooped down toward the Green Forest Exclusion Zone. Its huge wings whipped up a gale, and the humans below quickly raised their hands to shield themselves from the wind. A gust of wind passed, and the boy in front of them disappeared.

A slight displeasure appeared on Yun Hua's gentle face. Xiao Pei let out a deep breath, and everyone looked up at the departing eagle-man.

Above the Sky, on the back of the eagle-man, Ye Jiang held onto the boy, stabilizing his body.

"You didn't come back," Ye Jiang said to the boy.

The boy stared at her, bewildered.

Ye Jiang, her face expressionless, said again, "That's why I came to find you."

The boy's eyes widened suddenly.

It was he who took it upon himself to like this human and cling to her. The boy thought that she didn't care about him at all, that she was always so indifferent, and that she had just never driven him away.

But she said she came to see him.

She came to find him.

So, he wasn't actually someone dispensable in her heart, was he?

The boy suddenly felt a surge of grievance, as if the person standing in front of him was truly his close sister.

He said, "They said I did something bad."

The human said, "You didn't do it."

He said, "They're going to kill me."

Unafraid of attacks and unconcerned about being misunderstood, the boy felt extremely wronged at this moment.

The human said, "I won't let them succeed."

Humans remained indifferent, as did their voices—faint, with a chilling quality like a deep pool. Yet, the boy's eyes lit up with starlight at her words, and he suddenly calmed down.

"Sister," he called softly.

He thought to himself, "I really, really like this person."

Chapter 68, Monster Number 2.

"I'd like to know, in your opinion—what is romance?"

Upon suddenly hearing these words, Xiao Pei, the captain of the Ability Control Bureau, was first shocked, then her heart sank. Long passages of text she knew by heart flashed through her mind.

A homeless man, dressed in rags and unkempt, drew a kitten with a twig dipped in water on a quiet street corner. The adorable kitten came to life, snuggling up to the homeless man's legs and begging for the bread from his hand.

A drunkard staggered over and kicked a homeless man, yelling, "Get lost! This is my turf!"

The homeless man showed no anger, tilted his head back, and asked with a smile, "Brother, what does romance mean to you?"

The drunkard slapped him across the face, yelling, "My romance is smashing your watermelon head!"

With that slap, the homeless man vanished, leaving only the kitten's voice. "What a pity, this isn't romantic at all, meow~"

"... Varied..."

The drunkard was so frightened that he sobered up, but his eyes only cleared for a second before he became intoxicated again. He suddenly raised the beer bottle in his hand and smashed it hard against his own head, followed by several more blows, apologizing as he did so.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have drunk so much! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have become such an empty-headed idiot! I'm sorry..."

The kitten, speaking in a human voice, tilted its head, looked at the drunkard, yawned, scratched its ear with its paw, and then disappeared.

A uniformed officer finished his observation and ran over, forcefully stopping the drunk man.

Soon after, this event was documented in writing and recorded in a secret file.

Monster Archives:

Number 2: The Wanderer.

The 2453rd victim, a drunkard, did not receive a satisfactory answer. The Wanderer then encouraged him to self-harm and repent, but he did not die.

In 2198, the Wanderer disappeared without a trace.

Xiao Pei was startled; there was no mistake, that signature question...