Chapter 38: It’s Over

[You want to use him?]

Sang Chu replied coolly: [Yes, but unfortunately, the ability users are too vigilant. Even if he can’t see you, you might not be able to get close. So, we just need most of the ability users to lose their powers. The plants underground are his doing—he wants to use them to neutralize everyone’s abilities. Once that happens, New City’s strength will be cut by more than half. For a while, no one will be able to cause trouble.]

Tu You: [But isn’t that using people as test subjects?]

Sang Chu: [Mm, that’s unavoidable. But he’ll start with those ability users who are most valuable to him.]

Tu You’s eyes widened, her rabbit ears twitching as she slapped them down: [But even if they lose their powers, they’re still ability users! Those people will definitely target the powerless ones first!]

But in the end, ordinary people only get a brief respite. In the apocalypse, people are like livestock.

There wasn’t much she could do—she could only do her best while keeping herself safe.

But she was selfish too. She couldn’t just leave all those crystal cores behind.

Nor could she leave these things for Cheng to play with.

Tu You glanced at Sang Chu, picked up her things, and left without another word.

……

Back home, Yu sat on the bed crying alone. When he tried to approach, she saw him and, panicked, grabbed his hand and tried to pull him outside.

“Go, you have to go, don’t come back here!”

“Go? Go where?!”

The people outside had blocked both the front and back doors. Xiuying, terrified, pulled Yu behind her.

“If you want to kill me, fine, but don’t you dare touch my son!”

“Hmph, what can a woman like you do? Hurry up, or if you’re late, that dog Jian will cause trouble again!”

Xiuying: “What are you talking about?”

L sneered at the aging woman who still tried to maintain her dignity: “No wonder Jian used every trick to get you. You used to be pretty, but what’s the use of that in the apocalypse? Stupid. Let me tell you, your old friend was sent to the Cavalry Base by Jian himself. Your son also got in trouble, but his brother was useless, couldn’t take you, so Jian had to go to the higher-ups and get me to do it. Anyway, you’re all going to die. At least you’ll die knowing the truth, instead of being stupid and trusting that heartless man!”

“?”

Yu looked at Xiuying, whose face had gone pale and whose body was shaking uncontrollably. After a long time, he finally managed to ask in a trembling voice, “Then what about my brother?”

“Dead! Your little brother is long dead!”

The group burst out laughing, slowly closing in on the mother and son.

Xiuying looked at the group of ability users, their faces as greedy as rats, and desperately shielded Yu as she backed away. “Please, let my son go. You can have whatever you want.”

Yu: “No, I’d rather die here with you than beg them!”

Afraid these beasts would hurt him, Yu shoved her behind him with all his strength, clenched his fists, and tried to look brave.

L: “What can a powerless kid like you do?”

To prove himself, L reached out. An invisible force, like a hand, grabbed Yu by the neck. With a flick, Yu was thrown across the room.

Cough, cough, cough—

Yu, battered and bruised, felt like his insides had been rearranged as he coughed violently.

But just then—

Bang—

A loud crash.

Both the front and back doors were slammed shut. The small house suddenly felt suffocating.

Xiuying’s eyes turned red, her head bowed, muttering like she was possessed: “It’s my fault, I killed my son, I… I shouldn’t have trusted that man, it’s my fault, it’s all my fault…”

L: “Stop pretending! There’s an ability user in your family, isn’t there? Hmph, come out!”

L snorted coldly, raising his hand in disdain. His lackey hurried to open the door, but as he turned, a fellow ability user’s hand pierced through his stomach.

That man spun around, grabbing the green thorny vine and injecting it into the person behind him.

The scene turned into chaos.

L immediately realized a psychic was manipulating things from behind.

He quickly raised a shield, not hesitating to attack Xiuying: “What are you doing? Do you even know what you’re doing…?”

“Shut up.”

A cold voice made L frown in confusion: “What?!”

The voice was low and chilling, like it came from the depths of a cold abyss, but his face showed no sign of the source.

“Shut up!!”

Xiuying suddenly looked up and roared: “Shut up!!!”

Her eyes were bloodshot and crazed as she stared at L: “You… you’re a psychic!”

“I told you to shut up!!!!”

Xiuying glared at L, her power suddenly erupting: “I told you to shut up! You killed my husband, you killed my second son, you killed Jian, you killed everyone who hurt my son, I told you to shut up!!!”

In her rage, Xiuying unconsciously boosted her own power. Yu, watching her crazed state, was stunned: “…”

But he didn’t dare make a sound, afraid to draw attention.

L’s eyes grew darker, as if he really was being controlled.

“L!”

“L, what are you doing?!”

“L, wake up!!!”

But no matter how they shouted, it was useless. The controlled L crushed someone’s head with one hand. Staring at the corpses and the mindless L, Yu couldn’t believe his eyes.

That L, like a puppet, left without hesitation, following the screams next door.

Soon, the chaos faded away.

Yu crawled over to the trembling figure on the ground, gently pulling her close: “It’s okay, Mom, my brother isn’t dead. I came home to tell you, he’s alive. Brother Jingwen’s friend saved him…”

But the dazed Xiuying didn’t seem to hear him, her mind on the verge of collapse.

Yu, tears streaming down his face, hugged her tightly, whispering over and over in her ear: “Mom, it’s me, Xiao Yu. Please don’t leave me, okay…”

Lu Min hurried over after hearing the commotion and saw Xiuying in her crazed state.

He quickly contacted Sang Chu, then walked over to Yu: “Stop calling her, I need to check her condition. Someone’s coming.”

“Brother Min?”

“It’s me!”

But just as Lu Min was about to use his power to calm her, Xiuying suddenly glared in his direction, her eyes unfocused, as if she wasn’t seeing him at all.

But those eyes, that psychic energy, made people feel deeply uneasy.

“Mom, this is Brother Min, he’s the one who saved my brother. He’s a good person, trust him, okay?”

“Someone’s coming, hurry!”"