Chapter 231
Sitting in the car sent by the Ability Government, Lan Subing let out a big yawn. Her last task yesterday came late at night, and with school starting early, she hadn’t gotten enough sleep. She had planned to catch a nap in the classroom, but who would’ve thought the organization had another task lined up?
With Su Bei by her side, she felt at ease. Leaning slightly, she pulled a pillow from her 10-Cubic-Meter Storage Bag, propped it against the door, and closed her eyes: “I’m going to sleep for a bit.”
“Sleep well,” Su Bei replied softly, then took out the organization’s notebook and continued reading the classified intelligence about the Destiny organization.
To add an extra layer of secrecy to the notebook, Su Bei had tricked Manga Consciousness into giving it the same protective measures as his phone when browsing the comic forum. To outsiders, it looked like nothing more than a high school math book.
Su Bei was certain no sane person would voluntarily pick up such a book, let alone quiz him on its contents. And as a high school student, it was perfectly reasonable for him to be seen with it.
After all, Ability users didn’t only have the path of graduating high school and fighting Nightmare Beasts—some chose to attend regular schools again.
The driver glanced at the two Ability users in the back through the rearview mirror, his eyes widening slightly. He’d seen people napping plenty of times, but someone studying a math book? That was a first.
“Young man, you love studying that much?” the driver said quietly to Su Bei. “Even using this time to read?”
Su Bei smiled: “Life is about learning.”“Well said!” the driver praised enthusiastically.
But before he could say more, Su Bei cut him off, pointing at the sleeping Lan Subing and whispering: “Shh!”
Realizing he might’ve disturbed her rest, the driver nodded quickly, lowering his voice to a whisper: “You young folks are so ambitious. I wish my kid loved studying like you.”
Su Bei didn’t respond further. For one, there wasn’t much to say, and for another, even their hushed voices might bother Lan Subing. Thankfully, the driver took the hint and fell silent.
He knew his job was on the line—one complaint from a passenger, and he’d be out. In times like these, Ability users who could fight were the priority. Someone like him, with no combat skills and only good for running errands, was replaceable.
But the driver didn’t want to be replaced. The job might seem grueling, driving around all day, but the pay was good. While a regular driver might earn three to five hundred a day, he could pull in nearly a thousand.
The Ability Government treated its Ability users well, combat or not. With the responsibility of saving the world, the government funneled plenty of funds their way. Plus, years of taking on missions had left them with more money than they could spend.
Following the GPS to a deep mountain where the road ended, the driver parked skillfully: “This okay to drop you off here?”
Su Bei nodded in agreement, then woke Lan Subing. The two got out and headed into the mountains.
The task location wasn’t very specific. The Nightmare Beasts were first spotted by a group of wild-hill climbers halfway up the mountain, and later, detection personnel saw them again at the summit.
So, barring any surprises, the Nightmare Beasts were likely concentrated between the halfway point and the top. Even with the search area narrowed, finding them was still a hefty task.
With only two of them, splitting up wasn’t an option. If something went wrong, they’d have no way to call for help.
Reaching the halfway point, both stopped in unison. Lan Subing looked at the dense trees around them, her face full of worry: “How are we supposed to find them?”
In theory, Su Bei could use the Destiny Compass to locate the Nightmare Beasts, but the overlapping trees blocked his view. The Destiny Compass only worked when the target was in his line of sight, so it wasn’t useful here.
After some thought, Su Bei pulled a megaphone from his 10-Cubic-Meter Storage Bag and handed it to Lan Subing: “Try the megaphone?”
They didn’t need the Nightmare Beasts to come to them—just to make enough noise to reveal their positions. Su Bei figured this wouldn’t drain too much Mental Energy for Word Spirit. But Lan Subing didn’t agree, shaking her head: “To make the Nightmare Beasts create noise we can hear, I’d have to shrink the range of my Ability. And if I do that, to cover the whole mountain, I’d probably have to leave all the fighting to you.”
It wasn’t that she’d be completely drained of Mental Energy—she’d still have about half left. But this was only their first task of the day, and with no advanced Mental Energy, she recovered slowly. She needed to conserve at least half to last the entire day.
“No problem, you focus on finding them,” Su Bei said, prioritizing efficiency. He needed the free time to study. He couldn’t exactly pull out a math book to review while searching for Nightmare Beasts, so the sooner they found them, the better.
Unlike Lan Subing, he didn’t have her concerns. His advanced Mental Energy recovered quickly, and low-level Nightmare Beasts didn’t take much to defeat.
Seeing his insistence, Lan Subing had no objections. She raised the megaphone and used her Ability: “「Nightmare Beast Movement」、「Nightmare Beast Movement」、「Nightmare Beast Movement」…”
Using her Ability while climbing, they reached a point about a quarter of the way from the summit when they finally heard something.
Following the noise, Su Bei spotted sixteen low-level Nightmare Beasts. They resembled wild boars, clearly not very strong. But their bodies were covered in stone-like armor, suggesting impressive defense.
Perhaps because they were of the same species foraging together, they moved with surprising coordination. The sixteen Nightmare Pigs charged at Su Bei, surrounding him completely, leaving no room for escape.
For an ordinary Ability user, this might’ve been a disaster. But Su Bei? No chance they’d take him down. He first attacked with regular Gears, but their power wasn’t enough to pierce the armor.
Undeterred, Su Bei used his previously acquired skill, Trigger-Type Gear, to pinpoint the Nightmare Pigs’ weakness—a tiny gap at their necks.
Once he identified the weak spot, the rest was easy. With his precise control over Gears, despite the narrow gap, he effortlessly sent Gears straight into the Nightmare Pigs’ necks.
“Pfft, pfft, pfft!”
Blood mist sprayed into the air, and soon, all sixteen Nightmare Pigs collapsed in unison. Su Bei remained spotless, as if he’d just wandered onto the scene.
Picking a few Nightmare Pigs that looked like they’d taste good roasted and storing them in his 10-Cubic-Meter Storage Bag, Su Bei leisurely walked back. To keep Lan Subing safe from attack, he’d handled it alone.
When they regrouped, Su Bei gave an “OK” gesture: “Task complete. Let’s keep going.”
Though they’d taken down sixteen Nightmare Beasts, they still had to patrol the entire mountain to ensure no stragglers remained or new ones appeared.
As they explored, they found a few more stragglers. By the time they finished and started down the mountain, two hours had passed.
On the way down, feeling refreshed and alert after the action, Lan Subing had the energy to chat: “By the way, Su Bei, why are you always reading that math book lately?”
Su Bei gave his standard answer: “Because I want to go to college in the future.”
But Lan Subing wasn’t so easily fooled: “You never mentioned that before.”
Su Bei replied calmly: “Last semester, I was still adjusting to the Ability world, so studying wasn’t a priority. The first half of this semester was all about the Tri-School Competition, not exactly the best time to prep either. Now that everything’s settled, it’s time to plan ahead.”
“But you seem so urgent about it, like you’re about to drop out and take the college entrance exam tomorrow,” Lan Subing muttered.
That wasn’t an easy question to dodge, so Su Bei started spouting nonsense: “I’m not urgent. I just want to outshine you all.”
Lan Subing: “…”
Speechless for a moment, she finally said sincerely: “Well, you’ve succeeded. I saw Zhaohua and Qi Huang secretly studying textbooks after class too.”
Su Bei: “…”
Now it was his turn to be speechless. He’d been so focused on his studies that he hadn’t noticed. Hearing this, he was genuinely shocked: “Their competitive streak… Are those two really going to college?”
They were both from Ability families. Qi Huang’s family was smaller, but her close relatives were mostly Ability users too. Kids like them were raised to understand the Ability world and saw themselves as future Ability users, with little interest in the ordinary world or college.
Their families might not oppose college, but they wouldn’t let it interfere with missions or networking in the Ability world. Balancing both would take too much energy.
Lan Subing shrugged. She planned to go to college too, so she was fine with it: “Maybe they’re serious?”
Thinking of the true contents hidden under his math book cover, Su Bei shivered. What if they got into college and he didn’t because he hadn’t actually studied?
No way that could happen!
As they finished the task and returned to the waiting car, where Su Bei resumed reading, Lan Subing suddenly tugged at his clothes, shocked: “Look at the news! The government figured out what the Nightmare Beasts are after!”
Her “news” referred to Ability user updates, typically posted on the official website.
Hearing her, Su Bei leaned over. Sure enough, the top headline read: “Why Are Nightmare Beasts Rampaging? Don’t Pick Up Roadside Stones.” Clicking in, the article started with a bunch of fluff, describing recent events and quoting Ability users’ complaints. It repeated the headline question three or four times, padding to a thousand words before finally answering.
In short, a rare Life Stone had likely been dug up by someone, and the Nightmare Beasts, sensing its aura, were swarming.
After reading, Lan Subing frowned: “What’s a Life Stone?”
“It’s a prop unique to the Nightmare Beast world that can enhance the quality of spawned Nightmare Beasts,” Su Bei said, his hand unconsciously touching his chest, where a Life Stone fragment had turned into a Gear.
“It can improve Nightmare Beast quality?” Lan Subing’s eyes widened in surprise. She’d never heard of such a thing. No wonder the Nightmare Beasts were going crazy—it was a valuable item.
But she quickly spotted a flaw in the explanation, asking skeptically: “Didn’t you say Life Stones only exist in the Nightmare Beast world? How could one be found in our world?”
Su Bei shrugged: “Life Stones can be brought out.”
A Life Stone big enough to cause such a frenzy must be massive, though. How someone managed to smuggle it out of the Nightmare Beast world was anyone’s guess.
But now that it was exposed, the person who brought it out was likely gone.
“You’re pretty knowledgeable, young man. All that reading paid off,” the driver, overhearing, praised. “Are Life Stones useful for humans? I’d love to boost my son’s quality a bit.”
Su Bei’s mouth twitched: “Only for Nightmare Beasts.”
They weren’t entirely useless to humans—his Life Stone fragment could restore his life force in extreme situations. But that was just a fragment. As the saying goes, too much of a good thing can backfire. A larger Life Stone could overwhelm a human.
This intel came from the Destiny organization’s database. Someone in the Nightmare Beast world had stumbled upon a guarded Life Stone. Surrounded by powerful Nightmare Beasts with no escape, he tried absorbing it to boost his strength and break out.
He couldn’t control the influx of life force and exploded. The informant didn’t say how they knew, but the record remained in the organization’s archives.
Life Stones were incredibly hard and couldn’t be cut with tools. Su Bei’s fragment was a rare, naturally shed piece, which was why humans could absorb it.
Hearing this, the driver looked disappointed. Lan Subing, reminded by him, suddenly asked: “By the way, Su Bei, where’d you read about Life Stones? I want to look it up too.”
“You know,” Su Bei said with a polite smile, “my sources are always mysterious.”
Lan Subing understood—he couldn’t tell her. She pouted helplessly: “So, if we find this stone and return it to the Nightmare Beasts, the problem’s solved, right?”
“Not necessarily,” Su Bei shook his head. “Finding a single stone across the whole country is like finding a needle in a haystack. And even if we do, do you think the government would just give it back?”
Lan Subing was surprised: “They wouldn’t?”
But she quickly realized: “You’re right. It’s something that can enhance Nightmare Beast quality. Why would we give it back?”
If they couldn’t get it before, fine. But now that it was on their turf, returning it would be aiding the enemy. If the Nightmare Beasts got mad, so be it—they were already mortal enemies.
Su Bei nodded: “But either way, if they find the Life Stone, we’re off the hook.”
Once found, the Nightmare Beasts would stop their widespread search and focus on attacking the stone’s location. Defending it would be the government’s job, not theirs as students.
“I have a question. If the Nightmare Beasts attack the Ability Government over the Life Stone, can they hold them off?” Lan Subing asked a critical question.
It was a good question, and Su Bei fell silent. Normally, he’d trust the government, but this was a comic world. Who knew if the author would make the government fail just to push the protagonists onto the battlefield?
Surprisingly, the driver spoke first: “Kids, have some faith in the government. They’ve held up through worse. This won’t be any different. That’s a problem for two years from now.”
He sighed: “You’re only in your first year. Impressive. When I was your age, I couldn’t even handle a low-level Nightmare Beast.”
His words eased Lan Subing’s concerns but piqued her curiosity about his Ability. Too shy to ask a stranger, she signaled Su Bei with her eyes.
Su Bei didn’t catch her meaning at first. After some awkward staring and gesturing, he finally got it and asked reluctantly: “What’s your Ability, sir?”
Lan Subing shot him a frantic look, waving her hand subtly and mouthing “be subtle.”
Catching on, Su Bei added: “Of course, you don’t have to say if you don’t want to. Just asking casually.”
He raised an eyebrow at Lan Subing, as if to say, “Happy now?” Satisfied, she leaned back, waiting for the driver’s answer.
“Hahaha, what’s there to hide?” the driver laughed heartily. “My Ability is [Steady Driving]. I can drive any vehicle smoothly.”
Both were surprised—they’d never heard of such an Ability. But the Ability world was like that: powerful Abilities often converged, while low-tier ones could be wildly diverse. [Steady Driving] didn’t even fit neatly into a category.
Noticing their surprise, the driver continued while driving: “Don’t underestimate it. I can drive cars, motorcycles, trucks—normal stuff—but also trains, planes, subways. Give me a pig with reins, and I’ll drive it smoothly too!”
“Innate driver’s sacred body,” Lan Subing quipped quietly.
Though teasing, her eyes showed admiration. For him to say this, he must’ve tested his Ability across those vehicles, confidently mastering them all.
Facing a weak Ability without discouragement, experimenting to maximize its potential—his mindset and effort were truly admirable.
Su Bei nearly laughed but covered it with a cough, then clapped: “That’s a really useful Ability.”
It was far more practical than his [Gear Creation]. The driver could even tame mounts, making him a versatile driver and beast tamer. Su Bei felt he was underutilized just shuttling them around.
Given the urgent times, someone with his skills should’ve been in high demand, not stuck driving a taxi.
His honesty made the driver a bit shy. Having met all sorts of people in his job, he could tell genuine from sarcastic. Usually, when people learned his Ability had no combat use, they hid disdain. But these two passengers didn’t look down on him at all.
“It’s not as great as you think. It can’t fight Nightmare Beasts,” the driver said, intending modesty but sighing genuinely. “An Ability user’s main job is to fight Nightmare Beasts.”
When he first discovered his Ability, hadn’t he dreamed of heroically slaying beasts and saving the world? Reality was harsh—geniuses were rare, and he wasn’t one.
“No, supporting the fight is also resisting Nightmare Beasts,” Lan Subing, overcoming her social anxiety, said earnestly. “By staying here to help, you’re fighting alongside us.”
Choosing to stay in the Ability world with a weak Ability took courage. Sure, the pay was good, but outside, with the right job, he could earn just as much.
With his Ability, big bosses would’ve fought to hire him. Yet he chose the risky government job, proving he was indeed fighting alongside them.
Her words carried a spark, lifting the driver’s spirits. Before he could respond, their phones pinged simultaneously.
“Ding dong!”
“Here we go again!” Su Bei didn’t need to check to know it was a task alert. He slumped back dramatically, looking at Lan Subing: “Got any more chicken soup to soothe my soul?”
Lan Subing, looking equally drained, wore a pained expression: “Who’s gonna soothe me first?”