Chapter 645: Startling Change (II)
"If I were you, I wouldn't be holding that Origin Stone like that."
Just as Lun Heping was feeling vexed, wondering what exactly was in his hand, a cat-masked man appeared upstairs without a shred of warning.
With a magnetic voice, he offered Lun Heping a piece of advice.
"Origin Stone?!"
As the fundamental power source that had utterly transformed the world, the illustrious name of the Origin Stone was known to every soul on the planet.
It had provided humanity with an almost infinite supply of free electricity, allowing mankind to stride confidently into a fully electric age. Aside from a handful of tycoons in the old energy sector, nearly everyone else had reaped immense benefits from it.
"To be precise, it's a fragment of an Origin Stone."
...
"I'm rich..."
When the Infinite Origin Stone had fallen to Earth back then, fragments had scattered for thousands of miles around. Many who arrived upon hearing the news had managed to pick up some scraps.
The three major nations that arrived later only secured the majority of the larger pieces; a considerable portion of the remaining fragments had fallen into private hands.
Whether it was the Seris Empire, the Scandinavian Alliance, or the Castilian Federation, all had expended tremendous effort to collect the remaining parts.
Unfortunately, as the functions of the Origin Stone became public knowledge, everyone understood that the item was a rare treasure, and they quickly drove its price sky-high.
Numerous nobles and wealthy individuals also vied to collect Origin Stones, taking pride in their possession.
In any case, the Origin Stones placed in the power plants by the three major nations were already entirely sufficient to meet the world's demands, so there was naturally no longer any need for their collected portions to be handed over.
"Why can't I hold it with my hand?"
"Origin Stones are corrosive. Look at your hand; isn't your skin starting to peel?" the masked man said, a hint of playful mockery in his tone.
Upon hearing this, Lun Heping quickly cast his gaze to his left hand, which held the Origin Stone fragment.
He could clearly see that where his left palm touched the Origin Stone, the skin had vanished, directly exposing the flesh beneath.
Yet, what was even more horrifying was that he felt absolutely nothing!
No pain, no itch, no numbness.
This stark contrast, defying his primal instincts, made Lun even start to wonder if he was trapped in an illusion. RANO.BEs
Logically, if an entire patch of skin were gone, he should be grimacing in agony, but now there was no sensation whatsoever.
In a sense, this was more terrifying than pain itself.
So, the very next second, as realization dawned, Lun tucked the Origin Stone fragment into his trench coat pocket.
...
"Kid, that's not something you should be holding," the cat-masked man warned Lun, seeing his action.
He had originally intended to intimidate the other party, hoping Lun would back down and relinquish the Origin Stone, but it seemed he had overplayed his hand.
However, the cat-masked man didn't seem to care much. He simply leaped down from the third floor, preparing to reach out and snatch it.
Lun Heping swore he had never in his life seen a human so agile. Leaping two stories down from the third floor, he landed directly in front of him with the grace of a cat.
But he soon lost any inclination to admire it, because this cat-like masked man thrust sharp, gleaming claws straight towards his kidney!
That was where the Origin Stone lay, inside his trench coat pocket.
Faced with an attack that an ordinary person could not possibly withstand, as a regular male high school student, the only thing Lun Heping could do was close his eyes and await his impending doom.
"Bang!"
However, the expected misfortune never arrived. After a dizzying spin, Lun Heping was astonished to find that when he opened his eyes, he was standing beside a bus stop nearly ten kilometers away.
Fortunately, there was no one waiting for a bus nearby at the time, so Lun Heping's sudden appearance didn't cause a commotion.
"Don't come back. Live."
Those six words echoed in his ears.
It was Hui's voice!
Lun's brain crashed.
The complexity of the situation had far exceeded his processing capacity.
He had only wanted to visit the girl he secretly admired, to see if there was any chance, but it turned out to be like opening a door to a new world.
And this door was proving to be extremely unfriendly to him.
...
"Soul Shadow, what are you doing!"
The masked man, whose cat-and-mouse game had been interrupted just as it reached its final stage, glared furiously at a girl who had stopped his actions.
It was a face identical to Hui's.
"Consciousness backlash," the scolded girl licked her lips, then looked at the cat-masked man with watery eyes.
"Don't let it happen again."
"..."
...
The sun was quite fierce, and Lun hid in a corner of the bus stop.
"How did it heal so fast?!"
He looked at his left palm and saw that the peeled spot had already healed by more than half. It was simply beyond imagination.
After waiting for nearly twenty minutes, the bus slowly ambled its way to the small station.
There were few people on the bus. Lun Heping casually picked a corner seat and slowly began to sort through his thoughts.
"The matter at the villa, I definitely have to report it to the Jìsōu Division, but if I report it with my real name, it'll definitely be dangerous..."
The Jìsōu Division, responsible for handling homicides in the Seris Empire, was a place that dealt with numerous heinous criminals, and at the same time, an organization with a notorious reputation.
Even a commoner like him knew full well that the Jìsōu Division was too corrupt. The wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice it had presided over were countless, and cases where informants were turned into masterminds themselves frequently occurred.
If he were to foolishly go and report it with his real name, without any money to grease the palms of the "bigshots" inside, he would likely find it very difficult to emerge unscathed.
...
The bus continued its journey, and Lun, with his meager understanding of society, pondered his next course of action.
"Warning! A dangerous individual who recently murdered multiple people and fled is currently at large within New York City. The Jìsōu Division urges citizens to remain vigilant! There are currently four victims in New York City. The suspect's general appearance is as follows..."
The TV on the bus, which had been playing various advertisements, suddenly interrupted with a news flash.
Lun Heping, whose mind was in an extremely sensitive state, instinctively looked at the news on the TV.
Two of the victims were none other than Hui's parents!
The camera then cut to the residences of the other two victims, which just happened to be Lun's own home!!!
"The suspect's name is Lun Heping, believed to be a latent psychiatric patient. After murdering his adoptive parents, he then, due to emotional issues, infiltrated and killed the entire family of a classmate. Only that classmate, having temporarily gone out, managed to escape the calamity..."
On the screen, Lun saw a still-shaken Hui, but he detected a subtle abnormality in her eyes.
"Those aren't her eyes..."
The powerful memory of a teenage boy was fully demonstrated when it came to his secret crush.
...
At the end of the news, Lun Heping's student photo was also broadcast, warning citizens to watch out for the murderer.
"What in the world is going on?!!!"
Suddenly, without rhyme or reason, he had become a murderer wanted by the Jìsōu Division. Lun Heping was on the verge of a breakdown.
PS: Recommending "Stepping Alone in the Apocalypse," a book also written by someone in the reader group. It seems more and more readers are rebelling and becoming authors...
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