Zhou Qiming was, after all, an officially recognized B-rank Awakened—a high-level combatant, the kind of person who would be respectfully addressed as “President Zhou” out in public.

He quickly sobered up. “Pollutants? Where are they coming from? Have we reported this to the Prevention and Control Center?”

The Thunderbirds had caught the scent of humans and let out high-pitched cries as the mass of pitch-black thunderclouds closed in. Purple lightning coiled around the clouds, intensifying the feeling of oppression.

A sharp-beaked Thunderbird collided with the plane. It wasn’t a large creature, yet a clear dent appeared on the fuselage. The aircraft shook violently. Even through several doors, Lu Yan could hear the screams of the passengers outside.

The stunned Thunderbird shook its head, flew back into the flock, and was immediately followed by another, diving toward the aircraft.

“Please remain calm, passengers. The plane has been hit by a flock of birds. We are currently contacting the nearest airport for an emergency landing,” the captain’s voice came over the broadcast.

Below the clouds was a city. If the plane were to crash here, it would be no different from a terrorist attack.

Special Operations Department Emergency Response Plan, Page 7, Article 3.

When accidentally encountering pollutants, if the location is densely populated, prioritize protecting the civilians’ evacuation.

Lu Yan: “Time is tight, no time to wait for reinforcements from headquarters. Add a flight setting for me. And ‘Wall Phasing’ as well.”

Zhou Qiming scratched his head. “Alright.”

Some people were awake, but not completely awake. Just like some people were alive, but one foot was already on the road to the afterlife.

Opening the emergency hatch in mid-flight was undoubtedly suicide. Fortunately, the “Virtual World” talent was truly powerful.

A pair of pure white, virtual wings sprouted from Lu Yan’s back. They could be seen with the eyes, but to the touch, they were merely a mass of air. He stepped out of the cabin into the freezing air 30,000 feet up, where the temperature was minus 62 degrees Celsius.

Frost quickly gathered on Lu Yan’s eyebrows. His body temperature spiked rapidly, and fine scales grew across his skin under his clothes to retain heat. The King Fish was even considerate enough to keep the scale growth limited to his wrists, so as to avoid anyone noticing anything abnormal.

The pressure difference inside and outside the cabin was immense, causing a strange sensation of expansion in his internal organs. He had just grown the wings and wasn’t yet skilled in using them. A moment later, he saw Zhou Qiming flapping his wings and emerging.

“I won’t lie to you, when I first awakened my talent, adding a ‘flight’ setting for myself was my favorite thing to do,” Zhou Qiming said, pulling out a blade. “Although I’m not a Combat-type, when it comes to a fight, how could I let you go in alone?”

The Thunderbirds themselves were only E-rank pollutants, with a pollution level around 800. But when they swarmed, the pressure they exerted was anything but trivial.

[Try not to get electrocuted; your wings will go numb. You won’t survive the fall. And, cut off their heads.]

Lu Yan’s weapon was still the dagger the Prevention and Control Center had given him—not long, but sufficient.

Once he learned to flap his wings, he wove through the flock like a fish in water, each hand-move resulting in a clean kill. The blood of these birds was actually blue.

A mouth emerged from his palm, occasionally sneaking a few bites of meat from the Thunderbird carcasses when Lu Yan wasn’t looking. After a while, it started letting out electric-tinged burps. Even then, the King Fish remained greedy, specifically targeting the tender meat on the thighs, but because Lu Yan refused to cooperate, it even started growing white filaments out of the cracks in his skin again.

Lu Yan felt sick to his stomach. He pulled off a bird’s head and plugged the mouth in his palm. Fortunately, because he was moving fast and was far away, no one noticed this brief anomaly.

Lu Yan decided he needed to buy some gloves. The “child” was growing up and becoming rebellious.

Inside the cabin, many passengers exclaimed in shock, unable to resist pulling out their phones to record. A foreign passenger watched the scene, muttering to himself: “…Angel?”

The captain stared for a long moment, then steered the plane to flee the airspace at top speed.

When Zhou Qiming finished off his tenth bird, he wanted to turn back to boast to Lu Yan, only to see that in the blink of an eye, the other man had already slit the throats of two more.

Lu Yan wove through the flock expressionlessly, his pure white wings radiating holiness under the sunlight. Yet, Zhou Qiming couldn’t help but shiver. For a moment, watching Lu Yan’s detached, even vaguely satisfied expression, he had a chilling realization: if those things around him weren’t birds, but people, it would be exactly the same to Lu Yan.

P City, Wilderness.

They were at least 200 miles away from A City. Zhou Qiming and Lu Yan stood by the highway. Neither wore combat suits, and their clothes had been shredded by the Thunderbirds, making them look unkempt. Zhou Qiming in particular had been shocked by electricity at the end, and his hair had puffed up like a clump of popcorn.

The two stood by the road, looking miserable and desolate—not at all like heroes who had just saved a plane full of people, but like amateur beggars on their first day of panhandling. No passing car was willing to stop. Their luggage and phones were still on the plane. Lu Yan had a detector with him, but it lacked calling functionality.

Fortunately, half an hour later, staff from the P City Prevention and Control Center arrived.

“Mr. Zhou! Mr. Lu! I am the person in charge of the P City Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center,” the person in charge was a middle-aged woman. “We detected abnormal movement of the Thunderbird flock a few hours ago, but we never expected them to appear on the flight path. On behalf of all the citizens of Luochuan, I offer our sincerest gratitude.”

She bowed deeply.

Lu Yan had a strong impression of this city. According to the Awakened Forum, many animal mutations occurred here, including a famous A-rank polluted area: the “Luochuan Botanical Garden.”

The botanical garden was built in the suburbs; it was said that residents within a hundred-mile radius had already been evacuated. The local Prevention and Control Center had considered purifying (exorcising) the area, but the two resident A-rank Awakened were not confident they could handle it. Plus, the polluted plants showed no signs of further spreading, so they let it be.

Awakened were human; they were strategic resources and high-cost consumables. Most advanced polluted areas were far too dangerous for current Awakened.

The two were taken to the center, settled in, and soon after, their luggage from the plane was recovered. Zhou Qiming opened his phone to scroll through TikTok, then suddenly shouted: “Holy crap, Dr. Lu, we’re trending!”

Headquarters tried to keep the topic of pollution disease as serious as possible, avoiding “entertainment-ization,” but they couldn’t stop the public’s curiosity. There was even a small group of people online who had turned the high-level pollutants disclosed by the authorities into their new objects of faith. It was hard to know whether to laugh or be angry.

Lu Yan shifted his gaze. The video title was: “Encountered extreme thunderstorms on a plane today, actually saw an angel in the lightning!”

Logically, it should have been both him and Zhou Qiming, but for some reason, the camera stayed entirely on Lu Yan. The comments were full of “So handsome” and “Fighting angel.”

Lu Yan lost interest and looked away. Compared to this, he preferred the bonus money from the Center. Because he had resolved the Thunderbird flock, the center had issued a reward of 1,000 contribution points. At this rate, he could buy that silver longbow in just three months of hard work.

The system was heartbroken: [Kid, it’s Mama who is too poor to support you. If you really want money, the bounty section of the Awakened Forum has plenty of posts.]

For example, the nearby Luochuan Botanical Garden: the authorities announced that whoever resolved it would not only get to pick any A-rank spiritual weapon they wanted but would also receive a bonus of 100,000 contribution points.

Lu Yan: “We’ll see.”

The journey was a bit bumpy, but by the next morning, Lu Yan arrived in A City.

Zhou Qiming had to sign a contract and was running late, so he could only tearfully tell Lu Yan to stay in touch.

Lu Yan pulled his suitcase alone to the Special Operations Department headquarters in A City.

Located in the suburbs, it looked less like a government department and more like an industrial park. It housed many buildings, with each area serving a specific function. The buildings were access-controlled, with a balance of relaxed and strict management, and featured a large training ground.

Lu Yan’s assigned accommodation was in the “New Recruit Dormitory” in the northwest corner. Though called a dormitory, each person had their own room. The rooms were spacious and bright, equipped with distress signals everywhere. After all, many Awakened had unstable mental states—this was no joke.

Once infected, certain personality traits could be infinitely amplified. Lu Yan had already evolved to the stage of carrying disinfectant everywhere he went.

While checking in, the receptionist’s eyes lit up, a look of excitement appearing on her face: “You’re… you’re that person from the trending search yesterday! That winged Awakened, right!”

Lu Yan’s face was too iconic to be easily forgotten.

After speaking, the receptionist looked down at the registration form and gave an surprised “Eh.”

“An Auxiliary-type Awakened… though your spiritual power threshold is quite high.”

He was considered a standout among this batch of new recruits. There were powerful abilities among Auxiliary-types, but Lu Yan’s registered talents were only “Early Warning” and “Cross-Species Communication.”

The receptionist couldn’t hide her disappointment, though she masked it well: “Mr. Lu, your room is ready. Please keep your key card. A cleaning lady will come by every day. Please arrive at the training hall promptly at 8:00 AM on April 1st.”

[Tsk, looks like you’ve been pegged as a weakling.]

Lu Yan didn’t care much. If he weren’t forced to come for training, he would still be in the hospital performing surgeries.

“I don’t need a cleaner,” Lu Yan said. “During these three months of training, I don’t want anyone entering my room without my knowledge.”

“Understood. I will notify the logistics department and temporarily destroy the spare room card.”

Lu Yan nodded and dragged his suitcase into the elevator.

The German Shepherd that Tang Xun’an raised was named “Xiaotian” (Sky-Roarer).

Actually, Tang Xun’an had named it “Wangcai” (Prosperous Fortune), but Xiaotian thought the name was too ugly to display its majesty, so it had changed it itself.

Xiaotian stepped on the automatic feeder to pour itself some dog food, then picked up the pooper-scooper to dispose of yesterday’s waste in a trash bag. It was a dog with a strong sense of self-management.

Everything was done by exactly 7:00 AM.

Xiaotian bit the leash and went to the second floor, ready to get Tang Xun’an to take him to the yard. He pushed the door open with one paw and found his usually disciplined master lying in bed, scrolling on his phone.

Tang Xun’an was a light sleeper and dreamt frequently. Although he went to bed at 10:00 PM sharp every night, he would usually lie awake with his eyes closed until dawn without sleeping.

Xiaotian jumped onto the bed. On the screen, a video was playing of an Awakened battling pollutants. The pollutant was a low-level Thunderbird, which the person in the video could kill with a single bite. Because these mutated Thunderbirds were visually striking, and the person in the video was handsome, it made for quite an aesthetic scene. The comments were flooded with “So handsome,” “Battle Angel,” and “Big brother, I can.”

The video was short, and as it finished, Xiaotian realized Tang Xun’an had set it to loop.

Man and dog stared at each other on the bed.

Tang Xun’an explained: “I was just thinking his blade technique is a bit poor.”

“But he was using a dagger.”

Tang Xun’an: “…”

Xiaotian wagged its tail. “By the way, Little Wang told me there’s still one vacancy for the chief instructor of this new recruit training. Are you going?” The “Little Wang” in its mouth was Tang Xun’an’s former liaison, now one of the heads at the Prevention and Control Center headquarters.

Tang Xun’an had lived too long; Little Wang was his fourth liaison. For convenience, all of his liaisons were called Little Wang.

Every Awakened, especially those with high mutation levels, had a long “cooling off” period after completing missions to allow their mutation levels to return to standard levels. After a few weeks of rest and the Institute’s tireless efforts, Tang Xun’an’s mutation level had dropped to 94.1. Once it hit the standard of around 90, he could go back out on missions.

“No.”

The position of chief instructor was more symbolic than practical. It was usually reserved for high-level Awakened who liked to show off. Tang Xun’an had no such worldly desires.

“The person in this video—what did Little Wang say his name was? Little Lu, right? He seems to be going, too. You going?”

“Going.”

Xiaotian: “Heh, men.”

After a moment of silence, Tang Xun’an explained: “I’m just going to assess my future teammates.”

The German Shepherd nodded its head busily. “No need to explain, I understand, I understand.”

Tang Xun’an: “…”