Epoch of Twilight

Luo Yuan looked at him in surprise. "You know me, cadre?"

"You can call me Xu Zhiqiang. Nice to meet you, Mr. Luo. I didn’t recognize you earlier. I’ve only seen photos and videos of you, but I have been watching you."

Luo Yuan was stunned. He had not realized that he had been recognized. His earlier transformation was not merely to get out of danger, but also to show his abilities at the same time. He was concerned that his rebelliousness would cause conflict. It seemed like none of the people at the top of the military or political ranks were ordinary people.

"Okay, is there anything I can do for you?" Luo Yuan asked.

"Can I talk to you in private?" asked Lieutenant Colonel Xu Zhiqiang.

The two of them walked to a corner while all eyes remained on them. Everyone was stunned. Xu Zhiqiang thought for awhile before he said seriously, "I realize that this mission is very unusual. I was not notified of your existence, and that should never have happened. I was skeptical at first, but now that I have met you, I understand what’s going on."

Luo Yuan frowned as he said, "I think you might have gotten the wrong guy. There’s nothing special about me."

"No, the Desert City doesn’t have the right to mistreat a level-5 evolved person. From what I understand, the government considers you a VIP. But that’s just one of my many doubts!"

"I don’t think I have anything to do with this. I’m not interested in politics."

Xu Zhiqiang’s expression did not change at all as he continued, "Mr. Luo, this has nothing to do with politics. You don’t realize how serious this problem is. The evolved humans gathered here are made up of more than 90% of all evolved people in the Desert City, and all the artillery weapons I requested before the mission were rejected without any valid reason."

"Are you saying that the Desert City is planning to wipe out all evolved people?" Luo Yuan stared at him coldly. He was concerned that this might involve Huang Jiahui and the rest, who were still in the Desert City, and he was exuding a terrifying vibe.

Luo Yuan’s force field had reached a state where it was no longer predictable and he could not control it himself. On normal days, nothing happened, but when he was agitated, it could be released through his Will.

Ordinary people’s anger was scary, yet harmless, but when Luo Yuan was furious, it could cost the life of at least one light-blue level beast. Nobody could stop him. Although this happened unintentionally, it was unbearable for ordinary people. For a second, Xu Zhiqiang had difficulty breathing and his temples pulsed hard, but he managed to endure it thanks to his strong Will.

"Is this the difference between a level-5 and a level-4?" he thought to himself. Luo Yuan looked terrifying as he transformed, and Xu Zhiqiang knew that his gigantic body and powerful abilities gave him the strength to kill as many people as he wished. Once a mutated creature reached light-green level though, it would slow down for a while.

Xu Zhiqiang had never killed a level-5 creature on his own until now. His official evolution level was still level-4, and he had always thought that there was not much of a difference between level-4 and level-5. Unfortunately, he had totally underestimated Luo Yuan’s abilities. He was not a level-5, but a level-6.

...

"Your abilities are so much more powerful than what they’d estimated!" Xu Zhiqiang said helplessly with a poker face. "You need to calm down though."

Luo Yuan felt his heart beat hard. He forced out a smile, the terrifying vibe he’d exuded earlier vanishing. Relieved, Xu Zhiqiang said, "What you said just now might be possible, but the chances are very small. They would be digging their own graves if they did that. The New Capital City would never do something that was not in its people’s favor. What I’m suspecting is that the Desert City is controlled by someone else."

"Who could control Desert City? And what would they do with these 10,000 people in this cruel world?"

"The idea might sound ridiculous to you and me, but those village farmers are full of themselves. Our world has never lacked foolish or greedy people, especially during recent years. We have seen so many of them," Xu Zhiqiang said solemnly. He seemed to be recalling something unpleasant.

Luo Yuan frowned, thinking for a while before he said indifferently, "So what do you want me to do? If it’s going to put me in a difficult situation, you can forget about it."

Xu Zhiqiang did not mind his attitude at all, as he had been told to be cautious of evolved people and try to please them. The great purge had caused most of them to avoid politics, and especially such sensitive incidents. Luo Yuan’s attitude was understandable. Not many were as passionate towards authority as he was.

"It will not put you in a difficult situation, but rather in a neutral one."

"I will pretend that I don’t know anything," Luo Yuan said calmly.

Xu Zhiqiang gave him a satisfied smile, "Of course I’m just guessing. Perhaps the situation is better than we imagine. Anyway, we should discuss this after we have completed the mission."

As Luo Yuan was leaving, he looked Xu Zhiqiang deeply in the eyes. Now that his Intelligence was +14, even a quick, unintentional scan could give him an almost perfect analysis of one’s instincts. Xu Zhiqiang was using his power to show his abilities, trying to persuade him to complete the mission instead of going back to the shelter to find out what was going on. This man certainly had an agenda of his own. He possessed a strong desire to control others, so he was without a doubt a very dangerous person.

Unfortunately, this was not some common mission, but a Grade D mission. "Hopefully, I will not die in the process", Luo Yuan thought to himself. His information was insufficient, and this was only one side of the story, so it could not be trusted completely.

...

As soon as Luo Yuan came back, Wen Yujie asked curiously, " Do you know the special team’s leader?"

"He knows me, I don’t know him!" Luo Yuan replied.

"If you want to brag, at least try to make some sense," Wen Yujie expressed her resentment as her face flushed in anger. The others were staring at her, some in disdain and others in mockery.

"First, I never brag. Secondly, if you want to live, you should shut your mouth from now on!" Luo Yuan said as he stared at her.

Wen Yujie let out a soft groan. She was not sure why, but her anger vanished as Luo Yuan stared at her. She walked up to Luo Yuan immediately.

"This is certainly very useful," Luo Yuan thought to himself.

...

Perhaps most of the mutated insects in the Desert City had been killed earlier, and some of them had been badly injured or left behind, because their journey was uneventful. However, there were a lot of them traveling, and there was a lot of tension. It was already 3 p.m. when they arrived near the train station.

They could see the station in the distance, but they had to adjust to everybody’s pace, so the journey there was unimaginably long. Luo Yuan felt stressed out as he thought about the defense system. Most of the trains in the reconstruction area were underground, but there were buildings on top of the station divided into freight and public transportation.

As the agent linking the entire city, the quality of the construction played a vital part. Not only had the buildings been built using cement, which was rare in the Desert City, but the defense system was also entirely military grade.

However, the majority of the enormous buildings had collapsed. The district looked like it had been burned. The strange thing was, although Luo Yuan did not see any fire or smoke, the air seemed slightly distorted when he tried to look in the distance. The temperature was obviously very high.

"Let’s take a look!" said Xu Zhiqiang.

He took the lead as they walked towards the buildings. When they were 500 meters away, they could feel a wave of heat coming towards them. The closer they went, the higher the temperature got. Some of the evolved people could not handle the heat and backed out. Xu Zhiqiang did not force any of them to follow him. If they could not handle the temperature outside, they could forget about completing their mission inside.

As they were approaching the edge of the burned parts, the temperature reached 70 degrees, and more and more of them backed out. Luo Yuan noticed that Wen Yujie was sweating and her skin had turned red, yet she did not say anything.

"You should go back too. You should not be here."

"The heat isn’t enough to scare me away. I haven’t even used my power yet!" said Wen Yujie. She did not want to embarrass herself.

"Shut up! I’m asking you to go back." Luo Yuan stared at her.

He had a strong Will, so he could make anyone listen to him even without using his power on purpose. Wen Yujie pouted and groaned, but she eventually left.

The burned concrete ground was still being baked under the high temperature, becoming crispy and sandy. There were crackling and sizzling sounds as they stepped on it. Most of the facilities had been burnt, and what was left was only a pile of ashes and a looming cloud of smoke.

The temperature inside was currently over 70 degrees. Only six of them, including Luo Yuan, remained at the scene. As carbon-based organisms, they were naturally vulnerable to high temperatures. Their proteins would start degenerating when the temperature reached 70 degrees Celsius. Even the strongest evolved person with mutated genes and a high heat resistance could not survive in 100 degrees Celsius. That kind of temperature would cause their cells and blood to start boiling.

Luo Yuan looked at the remaining people. Perhaps under the government’s suppression, keeping a low profile had been instilled into every evolved person’s mind, because those people did not ring a bell at all. Obviously, they had not played a part in the earlier battle. They exuded a low-energy vibe, so it was obvious that they were thinking of quitting.

Xu Zhiqiang frowned and stopped immediately. "The difficulty of this mission has exceeded our expectations. Only a few of us were able to make it this far! Before the new tactic arrangement, I would like to introduce to you a very powerful evolved person. Perhaps most of you have heard of him."

He looked at Luo Yuan, and Luo Yuan nodded at him before Xu Zhiqiang continued, "This is Mr. Luo Yuan. The only level-5 evolved person in the Desert City."

Under the unusual circumstances, Xu Zhiqiang had lowered his voice, but it was still a shocking moment for everyone. They were all curious. Luo Yuan was not aware that his name had been circulating around the Desert City for a long time. He had become kind of a legend. People had been hearing his name, but they had never actually seen him in person. They had not expected this quiet young man to be such a mysterious person.