Various (Chapter 139)
“Are…are you a specially hired guard?”
The man with the punk hairstyle’s expression kept changing, finally settling on a fawning one.
He spoke in a flattering tone, his eyes darting around but not daring to make direct eye contact, afraid of being dealt with.
Although those who successfully injected the transformation potion were considered super lucky, they were met with a harsh reality before they could even revel in their newfound fortune.
Just as they were excited about surviving through sheer luck, thinking they had turned their lives around and entered the world of the strong… they were met with disdain from the leaders managing the free distribution sites for the transformation potion.
It was hard to describe, but if one had to make a comparison, it was like how humans might look at a bug beneath their feet…
The unique contempt of the upper class.
Even though they were no longer ordinary people, class discrimination still existed. After all, successfully injecting the transformation potion didn’t turn them into true Espers.
It was more like a new direction of evolution.
Only a very few among them gained special abilities related to physical enhancement, while most ended up with other abilities, like characters from pre-apocalypse video games.
If Espers were currently classified as warriors, then those who injected the transformation potion were like special mages… their abilities were like opening a mystery box.
And their bodies were extremely fragile.
At first, the punk-haired man didn’t care, thinking that his special ability made him powerful. What did some lousy leader matter?
Even though none of them had physical enhancement abilities, their abilities were still offensive.
Dealing with a few ordinary people would be a piece of cake!
Then, someone took the initiative to teach the condescending leader a lesson, only to be beaten up by the nearby patrolling mercenaries.
They couldn’t fight back at all.
Aside from not being familiar with their abilities after just injecting the potion, another reason was that their physical fitness hadn’t improved at all…
Later, the troublemaker was shot dead by the leader, and the body was casually thrown into a cart outside to be cremated.
The others immediately went from being smug to trembling with fear, not daring to have any other ideas… This led to them taking the leader’s subsequent words to heart, including the mention of specially hired guards.
An Esper with pink hair and red eyes.
Just hearing the term “esper,” even if the leader hadn’t emphasized it, they wouldn’t dare to offend.
Thus, as soon as the punk-haired man saw Gu Luoyu’s distinctive features, he immediately went from being aggressive to submissive, behaving very obediently.
This made Ye Sheng click her tongue in admiration. Indeed, espers were highly valued in the base!
She had just been thinking that directly asking would be impolite and might get her thrown out… But in the face of absolute power, it wasn’t an issue at all.
However, it did save a lot of trouble, which was convenient!
Ye Sheng was quite satisfied with the man’s awareness, but Gu Luoyu had no interest in paying attention to irrelevant people. She casually nodded in response, her slightly furrowed brows showing a hint of impatience.
Even without speaking, it made the punk-haired man’s heart skip a beat. Remembering the earlier question, he quickly said, “To answer your question, my special ability is marking.”
Perhaps feeling that his verbal description wasn’t clear enough, the punk-haired man immediately demonstrated.
As he clumsily activated his special ability, a 【？】 slowly appeared above the head of the person sitting next to him, glowing red and very conspicuous.
Ye Sheng was stunned, her dark eyes staring blankly at the question mark.
If she hadn’t remembered that she was in a post-apocalyptic world, Ye Sheng would have pinched herself hard to see if she was dreaming… What strange abilities people had!
“Right now, it’s just a question mark. The leader told us to stay at the research institute for a while, as there are special methods to enhance our abilities!”
At this, the punk-haired man chuckled, his face showing a look of anticipation.
Ye Sheng couldn’t help but give him a sympathetic look. Sen Lan and the others had just managed to escape, and now there were new unlucky souls walking right into the trap.
Although the punk-haired man was timid, his ability was quite unique.
He would probably be more favored by the base… For example, marking key figures or wanted criminals would be very useful.
However, just as Ye Sheng was thinking this, the punk-haired man sighed and added, “After I mark someone, the effect lasts for twenty-four hours. During that time, no matter what method is used, it can’t be removed. But the target has to remain still, standing right in front of me without moving, or else the marking won’t work.”
“…”
Alright then.
It’s…pretty useless.
(ㅍ_ㅍ)
Ye Sheng quickly lost interest in the punk-haired man’s special ability and turned her attention to the others around her. Seeing Ye Sheng’s gaze on them, people eagerly started showing off their abilities.
After all, Ye Sheng had come with an Esper, so she definitely wasn’t an ordinary person.
“My ability is petal transformation. I can create a beautiful petal rain.”
It was indeed a petal rain, with colorful petals falling from the sky. Ye Sheng reached out to catch one, but the petal disappeared as soon as it touched her palm.
“I can keep time. Look, this is my hourglass. I don’t need any tools to tell the time; I can easily keep track of all twenty-four hours.”
Well, that sounds like a very useless special ability.
“I can mimic the sounds of various creatures, even contaminated ones. As soon as they make a sound, I can perfectly replicate it!”
A human soundboard, huh!
Listening with curiosity, Ye Sheng finally satisfied her curiosity and gained a better understanding of the abilities of those who had injected the transformation potion… Although most of the abilities were strange and useless, they were diverse and could be useful in certain situations.
Among the potion ability users, there were also powerful ones.
Like Chen Yuan, who could manipulate shadows to kill.
“My name is Huo Lin. If you ever need anything, you can call on me…”
The punk-haired man with the colorful hairstyle seized the opportunity to shamelessly recommend himself, hoping to get to know Esper.
But before he could finish his sentence, the commotion at the service hall’s entrance interrupted him.
The service hall’s door was pushed open from the outside, and seven or eight people in black robes filed in.
There were both men and women, each wearing bizarre masks, adding an air of mystery.
The woman leading the group wasn’t wearing a mask. Her pale skin looked like it had just been dug out of the ground, and she wore a black eyepatch over one eye.
The other eye, which was visible, was a light purple, and one corner of her thin lips was slightly raised.
A faint smile.
Her tall figure wasn’t slender but rather strong, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs. Every movement exuded a sense of agility and power.
Ye Sheng couldn’t help but think, Oh ho! Her shoulders instinctively shrank.
Past experiences had left her with a bad impression, so whenever she saw someone with a strong presence, she instinctively wanted to hide.
But then Ye Sheng remembered that her Psychic soothing ability had reached an advanced level. What was there to fear?
She wouldn’t randomly attract others anymore!
Just as Ye Sheng breathed a sigh of relief, Gu Luoyu leaned down and whispered in her ear, “That’s the captain of Esper Squad 1.”