Chapter 8: You old hag! You have absolutely no sense of honor!
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Ahead, a student dressed in a blue school uniform suddenly sprang up, hoisting a cannon barrel on his shoulder and fired a long-range artillery shell at the ground.
“Boom!”
The entire block of high-rises shook violently, and the buildings hit by the artillery fire crumbled with a deafening roar.
Di Qiu pushed her eyelids open wider to gaze at the distant battle in the sky, marveling, “Wow, how did that guy suddenly get a cannon barrel in his hands? I didn’t see any weapons with them before. Could it be his supernatural ability?”
“Little brat, you still have time to watch the show? Hurry up and go snatch the anomalies,” Zhu Yufang said as she propped herself on her cane and darted past Di Qiu like a streak of lightning, moving so fast it caught her completely off guard.
Di Qiu just watched helplessly as that hunched figure used momentum to leap, hopping along the exterior walls of the high-rises.
“Holy...!?” Di Qiu was stunned for two seconds.
Zhu Yufang’s rapid sequence of moves was practically instantaneous—her silhouette barely left a lingering afterimage.
“Damn! Old lady! That’s unfair!” the student carrying the cannon shouted.
“Oh dear, impolite child, at your age you should be calling me Granny Fang. Though old, my memory is sharp. The rules never said you can’t snatch, right?”
Zhu Yuling’s figure had already disappeared beneath the rubble, leaving only her clear voice drifting across the sky.
“Besides, isn’t it every man for himself?” Her calm and gentle tone ended with a hint of sharpness, and then the rubble burst forth with astonishing power again.
Seeing the high-rise about to topple, Di Qiu hurriedly ran backward, leaving that chaotic battleground behind.
She wanted to snatch as well, but judging by the current situation, she wasn’t confident of taking the lead outright.
Suddenly, a digital screen appeared in the sky, showing a countdown: 7:56:39, along with a line of text:
[Zhu Yufang eliminated C-level anomaly ×1]
Six.
What a vigorous elderly person indeed.
She really managed to snatch an anomaly first.
Di Qiu glanced at other supernatural users dashing about the sky, then looked down to see only afterimages where legs had once been—so only she couldn’t fly?
Less than half an hour into the test, the entire city was already engulfed in smoke and fire.
Originally, it was said that an old and a young person would team up, but now Di Qiu was the only one left sitting inside a convenience store, eating oden.
She never expected this empty city to be operating normally.
Driverless buses on the streets, various shops with open doors, food available—Di Qiu tasted a few bites; it was edible, and the flavor was better than what she had eaten in the town before.
Apart from the absence of people, everything in this city functioned normally.
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It was hard to imagine that the Central Micro Bureau had spent so much money to create such an empty city just for a test scenario.
Di Qiu ate for a full half hour, rubbing her still-empty stomach. “So strange, why does it feel like I haven’t eaten anything?”
She turned to look at the activity outside the convenience store, faint figures and sounds of battle still visible on the horizon.
After a moment, Di Qiu stood at the door, scanning her surroundings before fixating on a small electric scooter parked at the roadside, keys still hanging from it.
In such a vast city, Di Qiu had little clue where to find the anomaly seals.
The only time she had encountered an anomaly was while fishing.
She decided to ride the scooter and take a tour around this empty city while watching the digital screen hanging in the sky.
Information flashed by frequently.
As Di Qiu looked up, one line of text disappeared and another appeared:
[Chai Lening eliminated A-level anomaly ×1]
The message lingered for about three seconds before slowly fading away.
“Looks like real-time reporting.”
Di Qiu withdrew her gaze and, using the battle reports around the city, followed the green route, eventually arriving at the foot of Qing Shan Park.
Looking up, she saw a Taoist temple at the summit.
The surroundings were silent; even the sounds of the recent battle vanished the moment she entered the park.
She wondered if no anomalies had appeared here at all during that time.
Di Qiu decisively chose to climb the mountain. After searching around, she saw a cable car station ahead but, after a moment’s thought, opted to hike up.
Not for any other reason than fearing that the cable car might trigger some anomaly seal halfway up. Even if she survived an anomaly’s attack, if the cable car broke first, she’d be dead before making a move—and there’d be no one to argue with.
Having climbed the equivalent of twenty-three floors, this small hill was manageable.
Reaching the summit smoothly, she found the temple’s doors wide open. Di Qiu first looked down at the scenery below—half the city lay before her.
She glanced at the time displayed above. The entire journey, with stops to admire the view, had taken about an hour. Not a single new anomaly had appeared in that time.
After enjoying the view for a while, Di Qiu turned and approached the temple. The moment her left foot stepped inside, a faint but pleasant fragrance wafted to her nose.
Looking ahead, she saw only a large incense burner with three tall incense sticks burning fiercely.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Extremely wrong.
Di Qiu reluctantly withdrew her foot hanging in midair.
—
Central Micro Bureau Test Office.
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“That Zhu Yufang is old but ruthless; she’s taken the lead every time,” one said.
“Never thought that among so many young people this time, an old lady would outshine them all. Truly unprecedented,” another remarked.
“By the way, what level is her supernatural ability?” a young man in casual clothes holding a thermos asked.
“Invisibility at S1 level,” Deng Jingxiang replied.
“Invisibility? But Zhu Yufang’s actual combat power doesn’t seem limited to just invisibility. Are you sure she doesn’t have a secondary hidden ability?”
Supernatural awakeners don’t have only one fixed ability. Currently, thirteen different abilities have been discovered among awakeners, even when voluntarily revealed.
That’s the highest number of awakened abilities known so far.
This person initially awakened a deprivation C2 ability.
“We can’t be sure. You know we can only detect one ability at a time. The detected ability is one of the highest the awakener possesses. If they don’t reveal their hidden abilities, we have no way of knowing.”
“True enough.” Zhang Lei stretched, turned, and grabbed a chair, lounging lazily. “Looks like the Central Micro Bureau is about to welcome its fourth middle-aged or elderly supernatural user.”
Among the nineteenth awakeners, Zhu Yufang’s ability level is the highest; the others range between A and B levels.
The anomalies in the test city are set from F to S3 level.
Each level has as many as three hundred anomalies; with good luck, one might encounter an anomaly every hundred steps.
With even better luck, snatching a hundred F-level anomalies before others do suffices to pass.
There’s no requirement for specific anomaly levels; this entry-level test is quite lenient.
Deng Jingxiang said nothing, eyes shifting to the list and count on the screen. Almost everyone had successfully eliminated at least ten anomalies in these two hours.
No, there was only one exception.
A student named Di Qiu.
When registering names and checking information files earlier, she noticed that Di Qiu came from Dan Dan High School and had some impression.
Yesterday, another person from Dan Dan High School was detected with an S3 level ability and was probably undergoing secret training now.
Unexpectedly, that obscure school produced another supernatural user.
Seeing no anomaly elimination information behind Di Qiu’s name, Deng Jingxiang was not surprised.
She had never received formal supernatural training and didn’t know how to sense anomaly locations or break seals.
Suddenly, the screen emitted a red alert, and the five proctors in the office instantly became vigilant.