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Chapter 51 A Day for the Whole City to Eat Melon

Honglian grabbed her phone, glanced at it, and cried out in alarm, immediately running to the window.

Wang Baihu noticed that her phone seemed to be playing the same content.

No way!
He was startled and followed to the window. This office building was located on the main thoroughfare in the city center, and through the glass, he could see the most bustling commercial plaza in Jiangcheng. He saw that the several huge electronic advertising screens around the plaza had all turned into live broadcasts by masked men.

"I apologize for disturbing you all in this abrupt way, but I have no other choice. I am an ability user, but I am also a victim who has been persecuted multiple times and has no choice but to stand up and speak out for myself."

The voice sounded like a woman's, but it had most likely been edited.

“That’s right, superpowers do exist in this world, and everyone has the potential to become one of them. The reason you’re completely unaware is because a huge interest group is covering up the whole truth. It sees its own interests as everything and wants to bring all those who have gained abilities under its control. If you’re unwilling, then what awaits you is secret arrest, imprisonment, or even execution.”

"What nonsense is she spouting!" Wang Baihu said angrily.

"As you all probably know, something seemingly unbelievable happened on the sandy river yesterday, and based on my experience, it's all true. The organization will definitely try to quell this, for example, by fabricating it as a movie shoot or a special effects publicity stunt, but that's not the point I want to make. The attention this incident has garnered has given me the courage to be here and expose their existence."

"I want you to understand that you don't need to possess enormous wealth, nor do you need to wait for mutation. Whether you gain abilities or not is not determined by your will or background. Precisely because of this, abilities do not discriminate against anyone... It can be said that having abilities is a basic human right, and it should not be monopolized by any organization!"

"For the past ten years, I have been hiding and running away because I refused to submit to the organization's pressure. But today I don't want to stay silent anymore. I will fight them to the end! Listen carefully, this organization is called the Agency for Maintaining World Stability and Limiting the Proliferation of Capabilities, or simply the Agency for Limitation! It has a nice-sounding name, but that doesn't change the fact that it is all-powerful and dictatorial."

"At 2 PM the day after tomorrow, I will appear in front of the panda enclosure at Jiangcheng City Zoo to prove the existence of this ability to everyone who harbors doubts. I know the authorities will definitely come to stop me, or even silence me. But I must do this, because it's not just for myself, but also for you all, for everyone who might gain this ability but cannot enjoy it. I will fight to the very end!"

The avatar disappeared, and the electronic screen, mobile phone, and computer returned to their normal display.

Wang Baihu laughed in anger, "Jiangcheng? Isn't that our jurisdiction? When have we ever persecuted this kind of person... Being able to hack into several public networks simultaneously, hiding is no problem for them. They'd rather distort the truth than turn around and bite us back—isn't that deliberate provocation?!"

"But this person seems to know a lot about the organization..." Xiaojiu said timidly, "Could it be that he offended someone in another district and came here to cause trouble for the organization?"

"It's not just challenging the authorities... she practically wants to overturn the table and destroy the situation we've managed to maintain!"

boom!
The supervisor's office door was kicked open, and the usually elegant and composed team leader, Wan Chongshan, was visibly furious, his veins bulging. "You all saw that just now?"

All team members stood up in unison. "Yes, sir!"

"Damn it, we're already being lenient by not arresting her first, and she still dares to come to us like this?" He rarely swore. "This is intolerable! All of you, get to the conference room! We accept this declaration of war!"

"Sigh... I have to work overtime again today." Wang Baihu sighed. He took a few steps, but found that Honglian was still standing by the window.

"The meeting's started, what are you still looking at?"

Honglian seemed to suddenly come to her senses and said hesitantly, "It's nothing, let's go."

……

……

The masked woman's declaration added fuel to the already heated topic of ability users.

Whenever Chen Xuan turned on the TV, no matter which channel he switched to, the news content was almost always reporting on this matter.

"...Welcome to Jiangcheng TV's live coverage program. Our reporter is currently in front of the city zoo. Please connect with her for a live interview."

"Hello viewers, this is reporter Qiao Xi. As you can see, even though tomorrow is the day the abilities will be revealed, a considerable number of people have already gathered in front of the zoo. Judging from their posture, these people seem to be planning to camp on the pedestrian plaza at the main entrance that night so they can enter the park as soon as possible tomorrow." With the female reporter's gesture, the camera focused on the open space behind her—where a crowd of over ten thousand people could be seen, many of whom had already set up tents. Zooming out further, all sorts of camping tents almost covered half of the plaza.

The zoo, botanical garden, cultural center, and martyrs' park in Jiangcheng are all located in one area. To enhance the area's tourism value, the government built a pedestrian plaza in the middle of the four parks. Various festivals and events are held here, and camping is permitted. However, this large-scale, spontaneous camping event is unprecedented.

"Now I'm going to interview these tourists and see what they think about what's going to happen tomorrow."

"Is it pretty?" a voice suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Chen Xuan turned his head and found that the old man who frequented the store was looking at him with a smile.

The other person pointed to the television on the wall, "My daughter."

"Uh... So this is your daughter? A TV reporter?" Chen Xuan was surprised. He had thought the other party's daughter had a bleak future, but he didn't expect her to be so pretty and not at all like the old man. Someone like her should have no trouble finding a partner.

"Otherwise, why would she always carry a camera with her?"

"Yes... I mean, this job is pretty good."

"Of course, she's a nice person too, she's very popular at the station." The old man placed the things he wanted to buy on the counter. "Calculate the price."

There were several boxes of self-heating food and two folding stools.

Chen Xuan frowned. "Are you going to be with her tomorrow?"

“My whole family will go,” the old man said excitedly. “This is the first time she’s received such a high-profile assignment from the station, so I definitely have to go and support her!”

"There will be a lot of people there. Aren't you afraid of getting squeezed?"

"Well, I'm not going to the very front. Just staying in the garden is enough to support her."

Chen Xuan thought for a moment and then added, "If you hear any noise, don't go towards any noisy areas. There's a risk of a stampede if there are too many people; you can't afford to be bumped into. That'll be 65 yuan in total, thank you for your patronage."

"Hey, young man, you actually care about me quite a bit."

"That's right, since you're a regular customer. I hope to sell you more things in the future." Chen Xuan smiled and reminded him again, "Remember, don't go and join the crowd."

"Okay, got it." The old man paid and walked out of the shop happily.

That evening, Lin Qing returned to the shop. She could walk without much difficulty now, and her prosthetic body had recovered about 60% of its function. She couldn't be of much help in combat, but at least she wouldn't be a burden anymore.

"How's it going at the zoo?" Chen Xuan handed her a cup of coffee.

"Just as expected, we were being watched from all sides by the Security Agency." Lin Qing smiled. "Although I don't know these people at all, I know they were all sent by the agency. There were cleaners, security guards, and even ability users pretending to be tourists. The radio waves on the same frequency were like a symphony, but unfortunately, the security measures were strengthened this time, so I couldn't listen in. To be able to infiltrate to this extent in just one day, the agency is quite impressive."

Chen Xuan nodded. "If the masked woman really shows up in front of the panda enclosure, do you think they can resolve the crisis under the watchful eyes of so many onlookers?"

"If they couldn't do it, how could they have remained submerged for so long? I've never doubted the wonder of their abilities, nor have I doubted that they've already prepared personnel in this area," Lin Qing replied frankly. "With things escalating to this point, it's unlikely that only the security agencies in this district will be targeting us. If the pressure is high enough, I even suspect they could magically make the entire zoo disappear... right in front of everyone."

(End of this chapter)