Chapter 243: Second Stage Engagement

Huu…

Lu Xin let out a long breath and stretched his neck.

It made a cracking sound.

He then looked up at the people before him, meeting their various expressions with a sincere smile.

“I’ll take this mission.”

…

A brief silence fell over the surroundings, perhaps tinged with underlying worry.

But whether it was Professor Bai, Mr. Su, Minister Shen, Chen Jing, Han Bing on the channel, or the armed soldiers clutching their guns tightly nearby pretending not to exist, a sense of anticipation bloomed in their hearts.

“Now…”

Han Bing’s voice came through the channel, trembling slightly.

*Smack!*

She seemed to slap her chest to steady her voice, saying, “Relaying mission details now:

Sea Country S-rank Ability User’s Mental Entity and Residual Influence Cleanup Mission.

Mission Rank: S-rank.

Operative: Lone Soldier.

Intel Analyst: Han Bing.

Support Personnel: Lone Soldier Team Member Doll…”

…

After stating all this, she paused and asked softly, “Mr. Lone Soldier, are you ready?”

“Ready.”

Lu Xin agreed quietly and picked up the glasses from the case.

At that moment, everyone’s gaze instinctively shifted towards him, or rather, towards the glasses in his hand.

As Lu Xin’s fingers touched the glasses, the feeling that they were a living thing grew stronger.

He could even feel the cold frames twitch slightly, as if they too felt nervous. But Lu Xin didn’t linger; he just looked at them for a moment, and the glasses instantly became inanimate again.

They seemed quite cunning.

Lu Xin smiled at them and put them on.

*Zzzz…*

A blue light scanned down the left lens.

Immediately, a clear electronic voice sounded near Lu Xin’s left ear: “Retinal information recorded.”

“Initial emotional threshold recorded.”

“Initialization sequence initiated…”

…

As incomprehensible data started scrolling across the lens, Lu Xin focused more on the frames.

He could clearly feel, as the frames rested against his temples, something like filaments slowly seeping into his skin, as if the frames were becoming part of his body.

He felt his consciousness grow slightly heavy.

It was like falling into endless darkness, tumbling down and down.

Until suddenly, he heard a violent heartbeat, and deep within the infinite darkness, a pair of indifferent eyes snapped open.

“Huu…”

Lu Xin suddenly became fully alert, realizing nothing had changed.

The glasses were still sitting securely on his face like an ordinary object, completely unchanged.

He looked ahead and saw that the scene before him had started to change slightly.

The view through his left eye could zoom in or out with his gaze. When he focused on a specific object or person, a red frame would appear on the lens, locking onto the target and displaying data like their mental radiation value. It was like a transparent LCD display screen.

However, only the left lens had this function; the right eye saw no change, just a normal lens.

The sensation was quite strange, like having a small television on his face.

“…Can you hear me?”

“Mr. Lone Soldier, can you hear me?”

…

The voice sounded again, but this time it came from the left side of the frames, not the headset.

When Lu Xin put on the glasses, the headset in his left ear seemed to suffer interference, and the sound vanished.

“So they have a headset function too…”

Lu Xin remarked in surprise, then chuckled, “These glasses are pretty advanced…”

Professor Bai’s expression was a little odd as he nodded. “We did incorporate some technological measures.”

His unspoken thought was clearly: *These glasses are indeed advanced.*

But compared to all the technology crammed into these small glasses, having a tiny embedded receiver in the arm…

…Never mind. The glasses belonged to someone else now anyway.

…

…

“Alright, I’ll go take care of the job now.”

Having agreed, Lu Xin gave a slight nod to the others and turned to walk forward.

He hadn’t taken more than a few steps when he suddenly turned his head and saw Doll floating right behind him, mimicking his movements.

“Wait here for me. I’ll be back soon.”

He added, giving Doll a smile.

Doll kept walking forward with her head down.

Lu Xin frowned. “If you pretend you can’t hear me, I’ll get angry.”

Doll froze, stopped walking, and looked up, her expression slightly aggrieved.

“Wait for me in the car.”

Lu Xin smiled at her again, pointed towards the car compartment, and continued walking forward.

Watching their interaction, the few people nearby exchanged glances discreetly, pretending not to see.

…

…

After turning around, Lu Xin walked faster and faster.

Before him stood the Red Cloak mental monster, over a hundred meters tall.

Its massive form made everyone in the city seem as small as ants.

Beneath the bright moon, its exceptionally vivid red robe, and the seemingly bottomless abyss within the rifts beneath it, unseen things stirred restlessly in the darkness, representing fear…

From various parts of the city in the distance, distorted mental power emanated.

One after another, stray mental monsters, drawn by its presence, were slowly crawling towards it.

Along the way were swathes of polluted people.

A despairing father wept helplessly, clutching his child; a disheveled young man clung to the legs of a girl walking numbly forward.

An old man, limbs bent unnaturally against his body structure, propped himself on the ground, head tilted back, eyes eerie, scuttled forward with uncanny agility. Before him, a group of terrified children huddled in an alley, blocked by a plump teacher with outstretched arms.

…

*Bang!*

Lu Xin fired his gun, turning the distorted old man into a charred husk enveloped in arcs of electricity.

Then, without breaking stride, he continued forward.

*Can I really handle a mental monster like this?*

He thought, *I don’t even know what it really is. Of course, it’s difficult.*

*But what if I truly have no restraints?*

…

His train of thought shifted slightly. The glasses on his face gave him a sense of security, to some extent.

It even sparked a growing excitement within him, filled with anticipation…

*Because of the Second Stage, my family hid themselves away.*

*But now that the Second Stage is complete, there shouldn’t be much left to worry about, right?*

…

As Lu Xin pondered this, his mood lightened, and his steps quickened.

He was just an ordinary person, and right now, he wasn’t borrowing his sister’s power. So even running, his speed was relatively slow. Amidst the collapsed buildings, polluted crowds, and vehicles, he seemed incredibly small. But as he ran, he suddenly heard cheerful laughter from the face of a building ahead.

“Brother…”

“I’m here…”

Lu Xin looked up and saw a small shadow rapidly climbing down the building face ahead.

It was his sister, whom he hadn’t seen for days. Beneath her messy black hair, her eyes were exceptionally bright and lovely.

Like a small spider in the ruins under the Red Moon, she scrambled down the wall face, calling out to him.

Lu Xin adjusted the glasses on his nose with his forefinger, then smiled and reached out his hand to his sister.

When she was just over ten meters from the ground, his sister leaped down, arms outstretched, and hugged Lu Xin’s arm.

In that instant, Lu Xin felt a completely different kind of power.

His form distorted slightly, and his speed abruptly increased manifold, allowing him to leap lightly over the cars on the road.

Ahead, by the roadside, a woman carrying a satchel appeared. She looked gently at Lu Xin, nodded, and smiled:

“Those glasses suit you.”

Mom expressed rare satisfaction with Lu Xin’s aesthetic choice.

“Is it enough?”

Lu Xin also smiled, looking up at Mom.

“Whether it’s enough or not isn’t important.”

Mom replied with a smile, “The main thing is, since you’ve reached the Second Stage, you should start working on mending your relationship with him. We’re family, living together every day. What’s the point of always being wary of each other?”

Lu Xin thought Mom made sense, so he nodded. “Okay.”

…

…

*Gurgle…*

The radiation of mental power was intensifying.

As Lu Xin got closer to the Donghai Grand Hotel, the mental power radiation in his location grew stronger.

In the onlookers’ vision, distinct distortions appeared around Lu Xin’s body, making their eyes blur slightly. Once their eyes adjusted, they saw two shadows, one large and one small, accompanying Lu Xin.

They walked alongside Lu Xin, chatting and laughing as they moved forward.

Minister Shen’s pupils constricted instantly. He sucked in a sharp breath, his hair practically standing on end.

Then, an immense rage surged within him, and he shot a fierce glare at Professor Bai.

“You old fraud!”

“Didn’t you say his family wasn’t real? That they might even disappear as he became more familiar with his abilities and underwent Second Stage enhancement? Then explain to me… them! What’s going on with those two women, the big one and the small one?”

…

He cursed, furious and anxious. It was clear he was genuinely enraged.

Even Mr. Su gave Professor Bai a slightly helpless look. “This can’t happen again.”

It took Chen Jing a moment to realize the crucial, perhaps misleading, role Professor Bai had played in this matter.

“How can you call me a fraud?”

Professor Bai looked rather innocent, spreading his hands. “Everything I said was merely reasonable speculation based on facts… Of course, since it was speculation, some deviations are perfectly normal, wouldn’t you say?”