Epoch of Twilight

Minister Ren was a busy man. After the documentation process was completed, he was ready to leave after a few words with Luo Yuan. It was rare for Luo Yuan to accompany the minister to the door. If not for the minister’s help, Zhang Wu and Wang Xiaguang would not have received the great jobs they had now.

Zhang Wu was now working with Interpol, from being the lieutenant he was before. Wang Xiaguang was assigned to the largest Industrial Planning Bureau in the department. Although that was an easy thing to do for Minister Ren, it meant a lot to Luo Yuan.

After sending the minister on his way, the meeting was adjourned. Everybody had a strange look on their faces as if they were holding back laughter. Wu Qianru mustered up her courage and walked up to him. "Vice-captain, I did not know you were that kind of person," she said, blushing.

Luo Yuan was not pleased. He had no idea what Lin Feiyan had said about him in his absence. Lin Feiyan was nowhere to be found. Perhaps she had sneaked her way back to her office, he thought. She was lucky, or else he would have shown her what happens when you did not respect your superior.

"Let me introduce all of you to our newest member. This is Xu Zhiqiang. He is an old friend of mine from the Special Battle Team. He is very experienced in all aspects of battle. Please welcome him warmly and get well acquainted with each other."

"Welcome, welcome! Finally, a new member to the unit. My name is Xie Junhui."

"Hi, my name is Li Dong."

"A friend of the master is a friend of mine. I’m Fang Peibin!"

...

Luo Yuan was glad that the atmosphere was very cordial amidst the members of his unit. After they shook hands and exchanged a few words among themselves, they started to get to know each other better.

"Vice-captain, when you say we should get to know each other, can we talk about everything and anything under the sun?" Li Dong said with a chuckle.

"Of course, that’s part of the unspoken rules of the department. I’ll only protect you, not destroy you. If you guys would like to get know each other better, why not?" Luo Yuan laughed. They called the unspoken rule ‘The Spirit-Break Beating’. Every newly joined evolved human who joined must go through the process. It not only showed the hierarchy within the unit but also allowed the new members to quickly adapt their new working environment.

The first step was to identify their ability. If one had no ability, there was no place for that person in the unit. The second step was to destroy the idea of power, rank and previous status qualifications. Before every evolved human joined the sword unit, every one of them was the best in the departments they were from. All of them arrived rebellious and arrogant, which caused conflicts very easily. To make one listen to another was very simple when the other person was proven stronger. While the third step was to battle to know one’s ability better.

Of course, the process was with exception of Luo Yuan. Not only did he not have to undergo all the steps, he dominated the entire unit. Xu Zhiqiang got to know a little more about the situation within the unit from Luo Yuan. He was not surprised at all as he was an easy-going person. He had no trouble with the process and started to unbutton his shirt and prepare himself.

"Could he be an evolved human that transforms?" Fang Peibin said curiously, looking at Xu Zhiqiang as he prepared for the test. He was considered a transformer because as soon as he unleashed his power, his body morphs along with it. If he did not take off his shirt, it would be destroyed when it happened.

"Maybe, or he could be an energy-based evolved human!" Li Dong exclaimed. "the Vice-Captain should definitely know."

"You guys watch out for yourselves. I’m not revealing any information to you." Luo Yuan declared and said no more.

Since Xu Zhiqiang arrived, the frequency of hallucinations caused by the four-dimensional mark on his forehead increased by ten-fold. Initially, the hallucinations would occur every half an hour or so, but now it appeared every few minutes. Especailly when Luo Yuan was looking at Xu Zhiqiang, there was no stop to the hallucinations.

He had yet to transform himself. Once he did, nobody could tell what would happen.

Xu Zhiqiang took off his sweater and showed off his ripped muscles. Then he took off his pants and shorts till the only thing that remained was his underwear. He was a little embarrassed. After stacking his clothes neatly in a pile, he walked outside and stopped when he was a hundred meters away.

"What is he doing?" Xie Junhui asked, his eyes focused on the new recruit in the distance. He was puzzled.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud! The thud was sounded like the release of extreme power. There was dust that rose high from the open space a hundred meters away. The sound was deep and could have been a colossal beast, it seemed to shake the entire space. It was hard to imagine that the sound came from the human being that stood there.

Then, Xu Zhiqiang started to transform. The muscles in his body were like roots in trees, his black blood vessels were thickened and bulged. They were showing and crawling on his skin like giant earthworms and a terrifying beast’s aura was exploded out of him. Initially, everyone was shocked when they saw but they were not disturbed by the discovery and paid close attention.

In less than a second, his 190 centimeter tall body had grown more than three meters tall. A moment later, he was seven meters tall! Flesh and bones were not growing out of his body, instead, they appeared to have manifested out of thin air as he wrestled with his transformation. Luo Yuan who had his four-dimensional vision could feel everything. Ever since he started his transformation, the hallucinations in his head were going haywire. It was dark but now it was so bright that it was stinging his eyes. Even the plasma band was not able to able to cover the hallucinations.

The hallucinations were crystal clear. He saw the colors change in waves within his mind. It made him feel like he was staring straight into the sun. At that moment, Xu Zhiqiang stood more than 15 meters tall. That was his height he was when he transformed the last time, but now he was still growing. The cement road that was flattened by the excavators could not hold his weight anymore, and his feet were sunk into the ground. Five seconds later, his transformation was complete. He stood up slowly. The air surged at his movements which cause a strong wind to blow. Sand was flying everywhere around a monstrous black giant who was 27 meters tall.

Compared to his gigantic body size, the loft which was three-storeys tall next to him was not even half his height. They were only up to his thigh, where they looked like toys around him. Luo Yuan was not surprised as he had seen Xu Zhiqiang transform before, but the rest who were seeing it for the first time were completely shocked.

Fang Peibin had his mouth wide opened. He then composed himself. "Isn’t this cheating, how are we supposed to beat him?" he said. As compared to his previous height which was less than two meters, his transformation made it seem like he was cheating.

"Xie Junhui you go, your ability is more suitable to tackle him."

"You can do it, don’t worry we are only learning from each other." Li Dong encouraged the same thing.

Xie Junhui hesitated and said," I will try."

Luo Yuan looked at Xie Junhui in curiosity. He had just joined the team not too long ago, and he had never formed a team with anyone on a mission. He was always a lone ranger. Moreover, he had hardly observed Xie Junhui in training so he did not know anything about his ability and what he would do to tackle such giant beast.

"Brother Qiang, please show some mercy. My body can’t even take a punch from you." Xie Junhui walked a few steps forward and shouted at Xu Zhiqiang who was a distance away. He was shaking.

"Don’t worry, I’ll try not to attack then?" Xu Zhiqiang said in a deep, thundering voice as the air shook with each syllable.

Two fists hit each other from two meters away. A loud thud echoed from them, the air nearby vibrated intensely. The force was terrifying, it was sufficient to smash a tank.

Xie Junhui then walked a few meters closer, putting him and the giant 20 meters away from each other. To Xu Zhiqiang, Xie Junhui was tiny at his feet. Looking at his gigantic body that looked like a small mountain, he gulped, focused and waved his hand.

Luo Yuan who had been paying attention noticed that an invisible force appeared in the area. The force was more obscure than a magnetic field, it was hard to sense and barely there. Just because he recently had his Physique increased to +17 was he able to feel it and that was already him trying hard.

Although he had just felt the force, Xie Junhui had been using it since the beginning. With the help of a +2 Will attribute, he could use the force in battles especially for linear flying.

Luo Yuan had suspected it was a gravitational skill, but he was not sure. Now that both forces appeared upon him, he diverted his attention to the changes around Xu Zhiqiang.

He was incredibly fast. In the eyes of an ordinary person, he could move a great distance within the blink of an eye and it was tough to keep up with him. However, with Luo Yuan’s +16 Agility, he could see everything clearly.

As Xie Junhui released his power, and the forces around him crashed together with a similar gravitational energy from the opposite direction. Suddenly, Xu Zhiqiang lost his balance and collapsed to the ground in a terrifyingly loud boom. Xie Junhui had been thrown back from the release of his power. The neutralization of the forces did not take long. In less than one second, the forces around Xu Zhiqiang were back to normal.

Xu Zhiqiang stood up clumsily. He made a massive hole in the ground. He asked in his thunderous voice,"What kind of ability was that. It is really strange."

"Gravity" Xie Junhui answered, confidently."Although, that’s not the only power that I have. If you were to really fight me, I can careful hold myself!" he continued while scratching his head, but he then hid within the crowd to avoid a rematch. He was afraid that the giant would give him a punch.

It was gravity! Luo Yuan thought to himself. As a force that was everywhere in the universe, such power had great potential. It was way better than his Earth Stomp. Unfortunately, such control would require +2 of Will, a high cost to bear.

It was then that Luo Yuan, who was still perfectly fine, felt pain in between his eyes. He felt dizzy after that, and soon he was staring into the darkness, his mind completely blank. He could hear Wu Qianru screaming in his ears. Unsure of how long had passed, he opened his eyes. He was lying on the ground, a group of people had surrounded him.

"Master, are you alright!"

"Send Boss Luo to the hospital now!"

"Don’t just stand here, I’ll go find a stretcher!"

He shook his head and he looked lost. He felt extremely uncomfortable which kept him on the ground and unable to stand up. There were two images in his head. One seemed to come from his subconscious mind, like a dream, while the other was the reality.

Theoretically, the two images could easily cause a stir in the thinking process where one was unable to differentiate which was fake and which was real. What surprised him was that both were running parallel to each other, without making contact.

He could clearly sense which was fake and which was real. One image was running before another at an interval of a few seconds. It was eye-opening for him, which made him thinking, could this be a...premonition of the future?

What was happening? What happened just now?

All he could recall was a pain in between his eyes and he passed out. Hearing what the people were saying and with him still lying in the dirt, he knew that he had passed out was not too long ago.

"The pain was in between my eyes!" he shouted. And then, he went silent. He had a bad hunch and launched his attributes panel immediately.

He quickly glanced at his natural ability, and he was shocked. His four-dimensional vision leaped from 2% to 5% when he passed out. That was still bearable for him as he had added Intelligence in the plasma band. It could withstand the force for a short period of them. What shocked him was the additional ‘Four-Dimensional Brain 1%’ in his four-dimensional vision column.

"Four-dimensional Brain"

"Four-dimensional Depth: 1%"

"Effect: Foresight (2 seconds)"

"Remarks: The four-dimensional world is colorful. Ordinary people can’t look at it with their eyes because they have simple brains. However, you who have the path of four dimensions opened for you, you’re no longer a simple minded human."

Feeling the dizziness, Luo Yuan scowled in anger of what happened.