Chapter 630: A Night Under Flame City

What kind of mess is this?

Lu Xin dragged his suitcase along the bustling streets of Flame City, feeling an overwhelming sense of aimlessness.

This chaotic meetup has taken more than a few dramatic swings.

Just an hour ago, he was luxuriating in his hotel bathtub, comfortably awaiting a three-million payday.

Now, he’s suddenly become a wanted man in Flame City.

To make matters worse, his car was left behind at the hotel.

The most infuriating part? He just discovered that his creditor is a scumbag who runs on counterfeit money…

Forced to split from them, evading Flame’s Ability Users was usually simple—his parasitic items could help him escape—but now Lu Xin only worries that someone at the meetup might get hurt.

Especially Dracula.

One nagging question remained: if she gets captured by Flame and locked up, will he still collect his balance?

…

Mulling over that, he walked along rain-dampened streets, carefully sensing his surroundings. He glanced at his sister, sluggishly crawling along the wall, and only relaxed when he was sure no one was tracking him.

With a bag in one hand and a case in the other, he reached the underside of a bridge spanning a river, lost in thought as neon reflections danced around him.

At six or seven thousand a day, even a seven-star hotel was out of reach—and the meetup was still over thirty hours away.

He decided he might as well squat under the bridge for the night.

He looked up and saw the city appearing calm on the surface.

Yet every so often, distant gunfire and startled cries cut through the quiet.

On nearby roads, clusters of people gathered, pointing in various directions.

They were probably discussing the sudden chaos that had erupted in Flame City.

That sparked a glimmer of hope in Lu Xin’s heart.

Maybe Dracula really could escape…

Flame City was enormous, with skyscrapers and countless hidden corners, especially without a distinction between Main and Satellite Cities.

The key was that Flame City likely hadn’t any Mental Overlord among its ranks.

With so many unruly Ability Users infiltrating—in line with Dracula’s claim that Flame had drained too many personnel for the so-called ‘Hell’ project—it was nearly impossible to track down a few exceptional lunatics in such a sprawling metropolis.

That thought brightened his mood; his chance of retrieving his balance suddenly looked promising.

“Wah…”

Just as he started to relax, a resounding, heavy alarm suddenly burst through the air.

His skin prickled instantly, and he snapped his head upward.

It was a Level 1 Alert.

Such alerts only sound when a city faces a colossal threat.

In his time in Qinggang, he had only heard them twice.

Instinctively, he began to rise, ready to seek out his colleague…

…But he quickly realized he wasn’t in Qinggang; he was in Flame City now.

Besides, this Level 1 Alert might have been triggered in search of him.

So he crouched down, lit a cigarette, and kept a wary eye on his surroundings.

Whenever an alert sounded in Qinggang, the whole city mobilized to block off any special pollution or intruders; a careless glance upward could reveal Flame’s enforcers surrounding you in layers.

Unexpectedly, the alarm in Flame City grew louder and layered over all the usual noise. Instead of the sound of armed personnel gathering, street speakers and public broadcast systems began repeating a message:

“S-level Defense Mechanism Activated. Attention, all citizens of Flame City: The S-level Defense Mechanism is now in effect.”

“All citizens must return home or head to the nearest safe house within two hours and take sleeping medication to fall asleep.”

“Repeat: Anyone who fails to fall asleep within two hours will face the consequences.”

“…”

Such broadcasts echoed repeatedly throughout the area in an eerily strange loop.

This wasn’t the first time Flame City had heard them.

The busy streets and crowds surged even more as they listened.

Panicked pedestrians dashed towards their homes or cars, with footsteps clamorously overlapping as every vehicle blared its horn and drivers shouted, desperate to get home.

As it got later, the number of vehicles dwindled, and the congestion quickly dispersed.

In a flash, a vibrant city turned desolate.

Lu Xin felt a strange unease: “What is Flame City planning exactly?”

“Why force every citizen to sleep within two hours?”

“And why threaten them with consequences if they don’t?”

“…”

Frowning over these questions, he soon realized:

This was Flame’s true power.

The problem in Flame City was that too many unidentified Ability Users like him had infiltrated.

And these outsiders were unruly—they’d just caused massive chaos.

Without a Mental Overlord, Flame faced a daunting task tracking them down.

After all, in a sprawling city teeming with people, hiding was all too easy.

But once Flame’s ‘Sleep Warning’ rang out, outsiders were caught in a no-win situation.

While Flame’s citizens could sleep, someone like him—a stranger without access to a seven-star hotel—was forced to squat under a bridge. How was he supposed to sleep?

If he stayed awake, he’d immediately stand out from the locals.

But if he slept, who knew what dangers might lurk in his dreams?

…

As Lu Xin pondered these dilemmas, the surrounding streets fell eerily silent. Vehicles and pedestrians either hurried off or darted into the nearest safe houses; no one remained outdoors.

The silence was almost terrifying.

Anxiously, Lu Xin scanned the area for his sister and father, whispering, “What are we going to do?”

Suddenly, his sister, who had been dangling from the bridge, tumbled down onto his back with a soft thud.

Half-asleep, she mumbled, “I’m fine. I can fall asleep right now.”

Lu Xin was taken aback: “You still need to sleep?”

“I’m just bored…”

She lay on his back, her small face pressed against his neck, her arms and legs dangling and swaying.

“When I’m bored, I just want to sleep.”

“…”

“You…”

Feeling a bit awkward teasing her, Lu Xin turned to his father, “Got any ideas?”

His father’s towering figure was partially cloaked in the shadows beneath the bridge, his blood-red eyes strikingly prominent.

He seemed to be scrutinizing the rapidly emptying, silent city—meticulously scanning the brightly lit skyscrapers and orderly buildings, lost in thought. Finally, after a long pause, he softly said to Lu Xin:

“Do you think this city needs a terrifying Demon King?”

“…”

Lu Xin was dumbfounded: “At this hour, you’re still worrying about your own affairs?”

“Then I have no choice…”

His father spread his hands and slowly sank into the dark shadows.

“What else can we do?”

Lu Xin grumbled deeply before resuming his crouch under the bridge, lost in thought.

After a while, he concluded, “Since they can’t figure it out, I might as well stop thinking about it…”

He got up and started walking along the bridge tunnel, heading deeper into its recesses.

Having decided to spend the night there anyway, he moved further inside where no one would notice him.

As long as he stayed out of trouble, even if everyone in the city fell asleep two hours later, what difference would it make?

…

“Wah wah wah…”

The deeper he went, the quieter it became.

Near the end of the tunnel, he suddenly heard a low, muffled cry ahead.

The sound was faint, yet in the surrounding darkness it rang out with eerie clarity.

“Huh?”

Startled, Lu Xin fumbled for his lighter and flicked it. In its weak glow, he saw a man crouched in a corner, weeping. Judging by his ragged clothes and several scrapes, he looked like a vagrant.

The man, noticing the lighter’s flicker as Lu Xin approached, did not react; he simply kept his head bowed and cried softly.

“Hey man, are you crying because you have nowhere to sleep?”

Lu Xin sighed and offered him a cigarette. “Cheer up—have a smoke.”

The vagrant continued his soft cries, unmoved.

But as Lu Xin extended the cigarette toward him, the man suddenly stopped crying.

A cold gust of wind swept beneath the bridge, making the small flame flicker.

Lu Xin blinked and then, to his astonishment, when he looked again the crying man was gone.

Both his cries and his figure had vanished.

Curious, Lu Xin pushed his lighter forward to illuminate the space beneath the bridge.

There, at the very base of the bridge, lay a man pressed against the wall. His clothes were tattered and he looked just like a vagrant.

He showed no sign of life—his body was stiff and unresponsive, as if he had been dead for a long time.

Lu Xin was taken aback.

Every detail of the corpse’s clothing and scars exactly matched the man he had just seen.

But he was dead!

Then what had Lu Xin actually witnessed earlier?

…

…

In his astonishment, as the small flame sputtered out, darkness reclaimed the space under the bridge.

A cold wind swept through, and the echoes of crying still seemed to linger.

“Sigh…”

In his astonishment, the flame flickered and the space beneath the bridge was plunged back into darkness.

A cold wind swept through, and the sound of crying seemed to linger.

“Sigh…”

After a while, Lu Xin managed to relight his lighter. Still, all he saw was that solitary corpse.

He fell silent for a moment, sighed softly, put a cigarette in his mouth, and lit it with the flame.

Then, placing the cigarette in front of the corpse, he murmured, “Whether alive or dead, you sure cried your heart out…”

“This cigarette is for you…”