Chapter 5: CH 5

There was silence in the helicopter.

That was a hell of a thing to see.

The hierarchy of Awakened people was clear-cut. From Level 1 to Level 6, then Auxiliary phase, followed by the capstone Monarch level.

The criterion for determining an Awakened person’s level was how many elements they could control.

Being able to master seven elements was Auxiliary level, while Monarchs needed to master nine or more.

In general an Awakened person could only control one or two elements when they first awakened. If they had the ability to handle three or four, it was enough to be called gifted. Awakened people as a whole were already scarce, and even among them, at most one in a hundred had that kind of talent.

The record for a new Awakened came from Britain in the twentieth century. Just after awakening, he controlled seven different elements and immediately entered Auxiliary level. At the time it set off an uproar within the occult community. There wasn’t a single person who wasn’t left in awe.

But this boy wearing a school uniform had just spread his slender fingers, and at the tip of each finger there was a different element.

A flame flickered, a puff of wind drifted, a curl of water rippled, an ice prism glittered, a point of light gleamed, a dot of darkness seethed, an electric spark pulsed, a branch of wood sprouted, a metal shaving glinted, and a black clump of soil rustled.

Radiant light converged into multi-colored lines in the narrow cabin until it finally disappeared into nothingness.

That was ten elements!!! Ten!!!

He Yuan immediately jumped up from his seat and slammed his head into the ceiling. It wasn’t possible to restrain his excitement.

A seventeen-year-old at Monarch level???

Not just him, but also the sunglasses-wearing Si Yan swore out loud and almost made the helicopter swerve back and forth.

Even Si Yan, who’d just broken through Monarch level himself, had only mastered nine elements. You could imagine his shock.

“I can do it too.”

Zong Yan seemed completely unaffected by the other people’s mood. He even wondered to himself why they were so surprised. For him the scene just now was like a child taking out his toys and saying “do you have one of these”, “I have one too”, like a kid’s display of one-upmanship.

Anyway it wasn’t an astonishing thing for him. After all, that was the most Zong Yan could do.

They were all E-rank abilities, which he summoned at random times to the tip of his fingers just to amuse himself. Take fire, for example. If Zong Yan wanted to go any further, he’d have trouble scratching up a fireball.

It was because of this that Zong Yan was a little bewildered by the look in their eyes.

Hey, hey, what’s up? Everyone here’s E-class, so just talk normally, okay?

“Oh, and even though I have this ability, that murder has nothing to do with me. If your organization wants me to clarify, I can provide evidence.

“Because I was framed.”

No, we didn’t actually think you were a suspect in the first place, He Yuan thought numbly.

Maybe at first because of the unknown state of affairs, the police had been on alert for a potential enemy. But the Dragon Group was a professional organization accustomed to fighting against otherworldly creatures. The murder case was obviously caused by some kind of extraterrestrial.

The Dragon Group had been activated to take over this case because it was classified as something ordinary people couldn’t handle. And the other reason was to investigate whether there was a new Awakened in Jiangzhou.

In a nutshell, compared to the murder case, Zong Yan was the main attraction.

Thank heavens the Dragon Group got there first.

He Yuan felt like his heart was about to jump out of his chest. The temples on both sides of his scalp were vaguely bulging.

What on Earth was a seventeen-year-old Monarch?

How terrifying. He was only seventeen years old and hadn’t even experienced Second Awakening yet. His future was beyond imagination.

If he wasn’t guided to the right path, if he were bewitched by some kind of sect, for example, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Fortunately… this person had now been found by the Dragon Group.

—

“Star vampire？”

“Right, that’s what it said in the book.”

Zong Yan quietly concealed the matter of his killing the star vampire, and instead dumped the blame on the unknown client.

After the farce on the helicopter just now, he’d come to understand a very important point. That is, his superpower seemed to be different from whatever these people called “awakening”.

Since it wasn’t the same thing, they might as well be chickens talking to a duck. Zong Yan had to take it one step at a time and firmly conceal the cards in his hand.

“Where did you put the manuscript?”

“… In my school bag. I left in a hurry, so it’s probably still in the classroom.”

He Yuan was thoughtful. “Hold on, I’ll take notes.“

The room was silent, and the cold light overhead cast its pale illumination on the floor.

This was an impregnable underground fortress. The main part of the structure was built from an extremely high-end cold-forged alloy, and the overall effect was of cool, hard, black steel. In the case of aerial bombardment, it could ensure the people inside were safe and protected. Even in a nuclear attack they could launch the fastest response possible.

Zong Yan sat in a chair with one hand propped on the table, watching He Yuan scribble with a pen. He suddenly asked, “Is this an underground headquarters?”

“Yes.”

The tip of He Yuan’s pen paused for a moment. After the ink began to pool on the white paper, the pen continued to slide smoothly to the other end.

“Have you heard of the U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command?”

Of course Zong Yan had heard of it.

NORAD was developed by the Americans during the Cold War.

At the time, the Soviet Union had pioneered the development of satellites and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The United States, also a superpower, was naturally shocked.

On the chessboard of geopolitical statecraft, the military was one of the most important elements.

If the Cold War were to heat up and the Soviet Union launched a nuclear strike at American soil, the United States would have no defense.

It was under this kind of pressure that American talent hollowed out a mountain and created NORAD, which was a full fifteen stories high. The Americans armed it with the finest equipment and shipped over countless high-density instruments. It monitored the entire country and even the world, ensuring that if the Soviets suddenly went to war, the United States wouldn’t suffer a decapitating strike all at once.

“This is an underground command center, but unlike the Yankee version, the Dragon Group’s base only deals with things ordinary people can’t manage.”

“You mean the Awakened?” Zong Yan asked.

Back on the school playing field, Zong Yan heard He Yuan say the word “Awakened” to the police captain.

This word had never appeared in his memory before, but Zong Yan had a vague sense of foreboding that it was the reason for most of the things that had happened to him today.

“Yes.”

He Yuan finished writing the last few words and nodded pleasantly.

Zong Yan didn’t know if he was imagining it, but ever since he’d demonstrated his rookie superpowers with all ten fingers on the helicopter, the attitude of these Dragon Group members seemed to have made a 180 degree turn. The man’s face was full of smiles and even, to overstate it a bit, somewhat servile.

“There are certain people who aren’t born any different from everyone else, but one day they suddenly awaken and possess extraordinary powers. The odds are about one in three million. In other words, it takes about three million people for just one Awakened to appear.

“Usually, awakening happens between the ages of eighteen and nineteen. Nineteen is the most common. And these people are called Awakened.”

After explaining, He Yuan continued down the line. “One last question… Why did you accept the commission?”

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“…”

Zong Yan remained silent for a while. “Because I didn’t have any money.”

For a young person, it was an extremely difficult thing to talk about.

During the first semester of senior high school, Grandma suddenly died. Since then Zong Yan had lived alone.

When he took translation jobs it was difficult for him to make much money. Even with state subsidies he was stretched to the limit.

He needed to earn money to support himself. He had to pay water, gas, and tuition fees. Moreover, for various reasons, translation jobs weren’t available every month. When he was truly down and out, the only thing Zong Yan could do was buy a big bag of steamed buns, and then every day in his little room he summoned water out of thin air to improvise some soup.

Then, suddenly, there was a job with five times the deposit. The owner of the second-hand bookstore naturally gave him the details, and a chain of events followed.

He Yuan didn’t react to the answer. He just wrote down the last few words in his notebook, suddenly closed it up, and showed a friendly smile. “The statement’s finished, so you can ask anything else you want to now.”

“Okay, when can I go back?”

The man across the table looked like he was choking on the question. It took a long time to reply.

“You want to go back? Aren’t you curious about this ability?”

“Oh, I mean, I’m curious.” Zong Yan nodded his head. “But if I want to know, I’ll have to pay something in return. So tell me, what do you want?”

Holy sh*t, this kid was a little too insightful, right?

He Yuan stared at Zong Yan’s deep black eyes, and suddenly felt an unfathomable sense of uncertainty.

Generally speaking, when a person found out they had powers they didn’t know about before, there were three kinds of ordinary reactions.

Wild joy, or panic, or disbelief and avoidance. 

The problem was this kid had none of the three.

And the other problem was that He Yuan had been named the guide of this new Awakened person, so he had to continue even with a massive headache.

It was truly worthy of being Monarch-level at awakening. Talk about perplexing.

“No, no, no. All of us are Awakened, and there are only a few thousand people on the planet with the ability to do what we do. Ever since ancient times, historical records have been littered with traces of Awakened. Because there are so few of us, the Awakened are very harmonious and friendly with each other, especially for official organizations like ours that are part of the government. There will absolutely never be any cost to you.”

These words were completely true, and it didn’t matter who you were. The treatment of Awakened who were discovered by the Dragon Group was so good it was almost astonishing. They focused on supporting and vigorously cultivating talent. Even the high tuition of Miskatonic University was fully covered by the state.

Not to mention an unbelievable talent like Zong Yan, who’d shocked the commander himself.

The cameras in the room probably covered 360 degrees without any blind spots, and the recording was synchronized to the Logistics Department of the Dragon Group. The psychological profiling team was in full swing. The Research Department had pulled every detail of Zong Yan’s life trajectory from childhood to adulthood out of the archives. It was likely the little Awakened had been touched, traced, and examined from top to toe by now.

A newborn Monarch, pristine and unpolished, was the focus of all eyes. The country had even taken the unprecedented step of blocking all information on the subject, which was an alternate form of protection.

He Yuan suddenly cleared his throat. He lowered his voice, “You… Don’t you want to find out the truth about the world?”

This statement was really trying hard to push his buttons.

Zong Yan pursed his lips.

But he really couldn’t refuse.

He needed to get faster. He needed more information.

Outside the glass curtain wall, an old man in a military uniform interlaced his fingers and straightened his back as he gazed through the glass.

The dragon-shaped badge on the old man’s chest was black and gold, representing the commander in chief of the Dragon Group.

His hair was gray and his eyes were deep-set, but his face was hale and hearty.

The otherworldly monster that appeared on top of the financial building was the first case in China. But it wasn’t the first in the world.

Recently there had also been instances of anomalies in ancient relics all over the planet.

The intensifying tempo of such events could only mean that something in the universe had already begun to stir. 

Human beings were an amazing species. They were incredibly weak, but they were also able to peer into the vastness of the cosmos. It was precisely because of their vision that they understood how insignificant they were.

If certain things truly awakened—just like the sky full of stars, if they really returned to their original orbits—the kind of havoc they’d inflict was unimaginable.

As was whether humanity would survive.

“Could he be our chance?”

The pattern of questions and answers and note-taking proceeded inside. When Si Xun suddenly spoke, his voice was remote.

“How the hell do I know.”

Si Yan, the captain of Dragon Team 7, stood next to the commander with an impatient look on his face.

“If you’re not old enough to be senile, you should remember what happened with the last person who was able to control six elements the moment he woke up.”

The commander was silent for a long time. Suddenly he lifted the cane in his hand and indifferently gave Si Yan a whack. He didn’t even give the other man a chance to dodge, but accurately jabbed him in the spine.

“You little brat, how dare you talk to your old man with such a rude mouth? Don’t think you can step on your father’s head just because you’re the ninth Monarch.”

It was true. Compared to the powerful second Monarch who’d reigned for half a lifetime, the ninth Monarch who’d just assumed the throne was indeed his junior.

“Old man, what did you just do?!” Si Yan roared in anger. The lightning in his hands began to surge.

He’d basically spent the entire year in Syria. He’d only just now returned to Jiangzhou and got promoted to Monarch level on the way. And now he was itching to see how much of a gap there was between him and the old man.

“I’ll klap you.” The commander sneered again and threw the cane in his hand. His whole body began to surge with the same electric light as he punched out.

For a while, the corridor outside the glass wall was full of lightning and thunder, with a flurry of explosions and flames shooting in all directions.

Members of the Dragon Group passed by from time to time. Everyone felt so moved they made a silent detour.

The commander and seventh captain had such a great father and son relationship.

TL Notes:

main attraction – 重头戏 – a play involving much singing and action; an opera difficult to act or sing

鸡同鸭讲 – chicken talking to a duck – talking without communicating, people not understanding each other

one step at a time – 步步为营 – advance gradually and entrench oneself at every step; consolidate at every step; expand as one goes along; fortifications are erected every time the troops make an advance; make a stand at every step; move carefully every step on the way; on the alert

servile – 狗腿了 – dog’s leg / fig. one who follows a villain / henchman / hired thug

full of smiles – 和颜悦色 – a (pleasant) benign countenance; a pleasing, gracious face; a pleasant smile on one’s face; all smiles; be all smiles and sweetness; be outwardly all friendliness and kindness; cheerful, amiable manners; with kind and pleasant countenance

didn’t matter who – 童叟无欺 – Neither the old nor the young will be cheated.; be equally honest with aged people and child customers; cheat no one neither the old nor the young; deal honestly [be honest] with one’s customers

junior – from 弟弟 – dìdì

Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:

Si Yan – 司彦 – Sī Yàn – Captain of Dragon Team 7

Si Xun – 司勋 – Commander of the Dragon Group

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