Chapter Thirty-Seven: Rampage of Superpowers
A piercing scream erupted inside the small shop, and Cardesia and Miles simultaneously covered their ears. The terrifying sound didn’t come from the speakers—it came from their own mouths. The psychics screamed, for reasons even they could not comprehend, unleashing a soul-shaking cry.
“Ah—!”
Miles didn’t even realize what he was doing. His thoughts couldn’t form; his memories scattered like shattered glass, everything in chaos: the fear when leaving his hometown, the panic upon arriving in the City of the Sky, the yearning to escape, the nerves before the prison break, the disappointment after failure… More fragments surfaced: being bullied by older students, quarrels with peers, being mocked for useless powers… All painful words, all memories that hurt him, swelling and multiplying, as if a tiny hole had been drilled into a warehouse wall, letting the long-accumulated contents flood out, overwhelming his fragile defenses and drowning the world behind the wall.
“Uwah—uwah!!!”
He screamed, voice growing hoarse and desperate. His pupils darted rapidly, visual information jammed—he could only receive, not understand: the anxious pink-haired woman, the snarling red lion, both shouting something incomprehensible.
“Don’t look at me like that…!!!”
Unable to understand, his fear and unease deepened—sadness, pain. Waves of negative emotion drowned his soul; amid the shrieks of demons, a voice faintly came through—his own.
The world is broken. This is not a world for me to survive in.
He should seek more, at least return to the past, reclaim an eternal moment that’s no longer fleeting. Open his eyes, gaze toward the starry expanse, establish a connection, call forth his true eternal self.
He saw more—so much more. A world beyond the world, countless dazzling lights. The stars formed roads, one shining brighter than all, drawing in his entire consciousness. He saw something there, a symbol, like scattered ink dots, containing everything.
Two stars trembled along the road, trailing beautiful tails across the darkness…
“...!!!”
The flickering stars overlapped with the world before him, reality and illusion indistinguishable. Thoughts raced, yet his eyes and ears faithfully sent incomprehensible signals: electric flashes, crackling sparks, snapping sounds. His consciousness trembled. It was a meltdown. Reason repeated over and over, though he could no longer heed it—it was a meltdown.
His psychic powers were out of control.
“Hmm.”
He heard a man’s voice.
“The dragon kind has awakened.”
·
“Cardesia, Cardesia?!”
Kira anxiously supported her friend, never having seen her so fragile.
“Don’t touch me… don’t look at me like that…!!!”
Cardesia shoved her away, ranting like a madwoman. Kira was lost, helpless. She didn’t understand what was happening—she had suffered from the agonizing sound moments before, now the pain had eased, but those around her seemed possessed. Cardesia and the child at the counter wore terrifying expressions, muttering incomprehensible words.
She heard the green-robed man say, “The dragon kind has awakened.”
Kira asked in panic, “What? Why?!”
“Maybe the song is just too awful,” the long-haired man speculated, “I think that’s it. All those songs are terrible.”
Song? The track currently playing in the shop? Yes, it was dreadful, utterly unmelodious, a chaotic jumble of notes and vocal humming—hardly music at all. Could it drive people insane?
A voice inside answered: Yes.
But I’m unaffected.
I am not that type of psychic.
She listened carefully, discerning the true melody. The track was laden with negative information, maliciously targeted at a certain kind of person. Discordant rhythms, screams hidden beneath high notes, chaotic syllables—normally, it would merely agitate listeners, causing temporary mania at most. But they were already in poor shape; if covert suggestions had been planted earlier...
Psychics would lose control. Supernatural powers would slip from adolescent hands, affecting the real world. Everyone knew this; it was the reason psychics were imprisoned...
A psychic meltdown.
Kira grabbed the computer and turned the screen. She saw the playlist—tracks named with random numbers and characters, utter gibberish. She decoded them easily, in less than a second. Now the song titles were clear: Enhancement, Probability Manipulation, Psychic… The current track was Energy Release.
“Stop it!”
She felt “resistance.” Another force was wrestling her for control over the information. The other sender was much stronger, but luckily, she was closer. “Stop it!” she shouted again; the other force was momentarily overwhelmed—no, it withdrew by choice.
The music in the shop finally stopped. She looked hopefully at her friends, but their pain did not subside.
Red flames floated around Cardesia, the boy slumped across the table, electric sparks flickering around him.
“About half a minute left.”
The green-robed man smiled expectantly, “I get to fight two dragons today. Not bad.”
Kira refused to understand his words; her mind couldn’t process more threads. She summoned all her computational ability, searching for a way to relieve her friends’ suffering.
Purging malicious information… impossible, she couldn’t directly intervene in human memory… Inducing physical coma… impossible, she lacked the strength to defeat Cardesia… Information, data… new information…!
The green-clad man gripped his knife handle. She shouted urgently, “Please, wait! Let me try!”
Did he agree? She didn’t know; she couldn’t spare more attention. The computer switched to the previous track—a pop song by a trending idol.
Once again, Kira felt a splitting headache. She hated this song, truly despised Xingli’s music—
But everyone else loved it.
“——??!”
The music played. Kira covered her ears and sang with all her strength. The two voices crossed time, weaving together in a duet of dream and reality.
She poured all the information she’d received from her friends into her song, praying that her emotion would reach their hearts. Praying that the suffering ones could sense the positive feelings she released—opposite to pain and sadness.
“Oh?”
Mingke was intrigued.
A faint, imperceptible light flashed through the shop. The sign of dragon awakening was blocked by his power, failing to reach the eyes of those in Dragonhead District.
·
He could almost touch it.
The star coming from afar, the power to reveal the world’s truth.
Deep within, power surged, the world before his eyes grew more unreal, and the two beams of light falling from the galaxy shone ever brighter. Soon, very soon, he would see the truth within the light, the true self—
“——??!”
A new voice flooded his ears. He’d lost the ability to process external information, but this song crashed into his brain, coarse, unyielding, unreasonable. Like someone slapping him hard, golden stars burst before his eyes.
The world is wonderful! Beautiful landscapes, delicious food, lovely songs! There’s family, friendship, and love, and so many things worth remembering! Wake up, don’t lose yourself!!
Crackling, mental slaps rained down. Are you insane?! His consciousness roared, pain bringing a moment of clarity—just for an instant, he became aware of what was happening around him.
He heard a song. He remembered—he used to be happy when he listened to this song… With that as the spark, more memories became clear: his parents, his friends, daily life at school, the kind people he knew…
The world is awful. But there are good things in it. Many, many things worth cherishing; this place was never somewhere he couldn’t survive, never was… even the City of the Sky…
The stars from afar paused; the dazzling world faded. He gradually forgot the earlier sensations…
He gradually looked toward the real world.
·
“——??!”
Kira finished the first verse. Thirty-five point five seconds, exactly as she had practiced.
More than half a minute had passed—had her spontaneous idea succeeded? She trembled as she looked at the two psychics.
The fire and lightning vanished. They were drenched in sweat, gasping for breath as if waking from a nightmare.
“Great!!!” Kira cheered excitedly, then screamed, “Ah, my head, my memories are attacking me! Turn it off, turn it off!!”
She grabbed the computer screen, and the idol’s song stopped automatically.
Cardesia leaned on her shoulder, breathing heavily.
“Oh God, Kira.” She finally managed to recover a bit, “Thank you, you scared me to death.”
Kira quietly echoed, “Scared me to death…”
Miles slumped over the table, feeling as if his brain had just been visited by a drunken man at the toilet—a thought that made him nauseous.
“What happened?”
Mingke’s voice sounded full of regret: “You just cheated death.”
The green-robed man picked up his music player, put on his headphones, and cheerfully left the shop.
He had found a good song, was close to finding the strange source, had encountered interesting things—more importantly, he realized he’d gained something.
“How interesting.”
Things must be done one at a time. Finish the last matter, then afterward…
He thought of a good idea, a brilliant idea. Whether it succeeded or failed, it would be a plan he could thoroughly enjoy.
Mingke listened to a new song and stepped onto the street.
You are a genius; remember in a second: Red Spring—