You Zhengping didn’t come home, so Yu Hua filled up on leftover mantou from that morning. Food wasn’t a pleasure for him; it only provided the energy he needed to maintain his existence. Without Xiao You in front of him eating happily, all the gourmet foods in the world were meaningless to Yu Hua. 

Since he had become an auxiliary policeman, it was a common occurrence for You Zhengping to work overtime. He had fewer scheduled shifts than a proper police employee, but he still had mandatory night shifts, and sometimes he swapped shifts at the last minute. 

Yu Hua flipped through his calendar and noticed that You Zhengping’s night shift was a little earlier than usual, but it was still within the normal range. 

Since You Zhengping had started out as an auxiliary policeman, Yu Hua had been recording the pattern of his husband’s shifts. He had done this before knowing that You Zhengping was a Protector, and he continued after finding out. 

Before, the record had been so he could prepare night shift snacks ahead of time; he had also determined the number of people working the same shift to make snacks for his colleagues, too, so that it wouldn’t make a bad impression for only Xiao You to have snacks; if people stole his food again, Yu Hua was worried that Xiao You wouldn’t have enough. 

Now the record was still for making snacks, but he had added another assignment: observing the movements of the levelers. 

Using the energy from Yuan Luori’s System, Yu Hua had once again suppressed 99% of his power, only leaving 1% power and three abilities. 

The three abilities consisted of “time replay” (within twenty-four hours), creating images (five to ten minutes), and the ability to change vitamins into poison that attacked the immune system. 

Leaving the poison ability was because Yu Hua knew that it could stimulate the energy in his body. It was for emergency use only. But Yuan Luori had passed too few levels, less than a hundredth of Yu Hua’s number. The poison made with his power could stimulate 3% of Yu Hua’s power at most. After that, there would be no effect. 

The remaining 1% of power wasn’t enough to let Yu Hua sense the whole world’s protective screen. He couldn’t immediately notice the arrival of a leveler. 

By recording the pattern of You Zhengping’s shifts, he could determine something about the levelers’ movements from them. 

You Zhengping suddenly swapping shifts today made Yu Hua develop a sense of wariness. First he searched the news online. Because the Protection Organization had blocked off the media, the news that a bomb had gone off in the Xuyang District’s Central Park hadn’t gotten out. 

Yu Hua turned on his computer and logged into the Xuyang District’s district life forum and quickly skimmed the most recent posts and comments. Going through the babble of countless people’s replies, he quickly gathered what had happened today. 

At the same time, on his phone, he sent tomorrow’s work plan to the Zhen Li Studio group of four so the other three could prepare in advance. He received instant replies. 

Zhen Li replied first with “copy,” Yuan Luori replied “scram,” and Lian Yufan was slow to respond. 

There were many posts on the district life forum. Using software he had made himself, Yu Hua could open a hundred of today’s posts at once and shrink the hundred web pages on the computer screen. The business laptop’s 14-inch screen was thickly covered in writing. The web pages’ scrollbars quickly slid down. The average person would have gotten dizzy looking at a single web page, but Yu Hua could take in all one hundred posts at a glance. 

Today there had been 3,587 new posts added about life in the Xuyang District. Eliminating the advertisements, there were still 2,014 remaining. Excluding ads, there were 54,229 replies. There was ridiculing, venting, anecdotes, and other sorts of replies. Though Yu Hua could read a hundred posts simultaneously, it was still a very large volume of work. 

The software worked automatically. It quickly opened the posts and scrolled through the page, opening a new page as soon as the previous one had been skimmed through. There were one-hundred pages on the screen the whole time, letting Yu Hua reading through the posts as quickly as possible. 

Half an hour later, the last message in the work group was still Yuan Luori’s “scram.” Lian Yufan was silent. Maybe he had seen it and not responded, or maybe he didn’t have his phone. 

Yu Hua divided his attention. With his eyes fixed on the screen, his fingers quickly typed on the phone to ask Lian Yufan whether he had received the plan. 

Twenty more minutes passed, and Lian Yufan answered: I’m asking for the day off tomorrow, deduct my wages as you like. 

In the way of the rich and arrogant, he was too lazy to argue with Yu Hua over a few hundred yuan for full attendance. 

Meanwhile, Yu Hua hit “enter” on the computer, pausing the software’s automatic function. He enlarged four pages. 

These four were chat posts. Yu Hua expanded them to cover the whole desktop, then refreshed them and skimmed them again. He found that some of the replies were missing. These replies had been deleted by the administrator.  

The approximate contents of the replies had been “I’m planning to take the kids to the park this weekend,” “When I passed by the park today, I was there were a lot of people surrounding it,” “The park is going to be renovated, it’s already closed,” “There’s nowhere for public square dancing now that the park is closed.” All of them were messages related to the park. 

Yu Hua used the search function to search the district life posts for “park” and found that apart from the notice issued by the government that the park was being renovated, there were no other posts mentioning the park. 

He opened a chat post at random and used a fake IP to anonymously post the reply “Did something happen at the park today?” After posting, he refreshed repeatedly and found that the reply had been deleted within three seconds. 

“The park?” Yu Hua’s fingers gently counted out on the tabletop. 

Yu Hua was a minor expert in date locations in the Xuyang District. When he and You Zhengping had been dating, he had gone to a lot of effort to find spacious places for their dates where they could avoid Cen Xiao and the other third wheels. He had researched all suitable and unsuitable date locations. The woods in the Xuyang District Park held a special significance for Yu Hua. His and You Zhengping’s first kiss had been there. 

Their first date had changed from a candlelight dinner to a barbecue in Cen Xiao’s backyard. Yu Hua hadn’t been in a very good mood that day. Anyone would have been unhappy if their perfectly good date plan had fizzled out, their first date with someone they had a good impression of turning into a barbecue party. He had assisted in the barbecuing, listening to You Zhengping fooling around with Cen Xiao and the others. 

Back then, Yu Hua and You Zhengping had been at the stage of mutually working out dating. They hadn’t been as familiar with each other as they were now. Yu Hua couldn’t display that he was unsatisfied. Being very scheming, he had “accidentally” let You Zhengping see the date plan he had stayed up late working on. In the long schedule, from 6 AM to 10 PM, each span of time had been planned out from great to small without omission; it was a plan that he had poured all his heart’s blood into. 

The scheming Yu Hua had been unwilling for his heart’s blood to go to waste like this. He had never been devoted to selflessness; if there was payment, there had to be reciprocation. As he had barbecued the skewers, he had examined his blind date out of the corner of his eye, wanting to know what You Zhengping would do when he had seen that plan. 

You Zhengping had calmly put down the phone and pretended not to have seen. Then he had gone over to Cen Xiao and kicked him aside, saying, “Do you know that you’re going to burn to death like that?” 

Then he had held down Cen Xiao’s head, planning to dip his third wheel underlings in mashed garlic and barbecue them. The scene had been very chaotic. 

In the end, it had been Yu Hua who had appeared as the crowd-pleaser, easing relations between You Zhengping and the underlings. Ultimately, both You Zhengping and Cen Xiao had thought that Yu Hua was too nice. 

Yu Hua had taken that opportunity to ask for a second date, and he had left it up to You Zhengping to decide where. 

You Zhengping had consulted with his underlings for three or four days and had found that no matter where they went, there was some flaw. His head had swelled, and he had realized how hard it had been for Yu Hua to make that plan. 

Finally, everyone had chosen the park. The scenery was good, there were restaurants nearby, and they could rent a local barbecue. Most importantly, the area was large, convenient for Cen Xiao and the others to follow in secret to avoid no one being there to take care of it if You Zhengping lost control of his special ability. 

Yu Hua and You Zhengping had gone out in a boat in the park, and Cen Xiao and the others had also rented some boats and followed nearby; the melancholy husbands had gone for a walk, and the underlings had pretended to be passing by.

Finally, in the late afternoon,Yu Hua  had taken You Zhengping by the hand, and the two of them had gone into the woods, avoiding the underlings’ lines of sight. They had hidden behind an enormous old tree and gently kissed in the light of the setting sun. 

You Zhengping had thought that he would be so excited that his special ability would riot, but instead nothing had happened. The evening breeze had gently caressed his face. When he opened his eyes, he had been met with the sight of Yu Hua’s clear eyes. You Zhengping’s heart had beat rapidly. He had opened his arms and hugged Yu Hua, initiating a deeper and longer kiss. 

That day, the back of a single sheet from the desk calendar hadn’t been enough to record Yu Hua’s feelings. He had used up the earlier pages with comparatively few notes, voluminously filling up three pages with writing. And that had been barely enough to record his feelings at the time. 

And now? Was the park really being renovated, or had something else happened to it? 

Yu Hua tucked away a bottle of vitamins and went to Zhen Li’s house. He took the black cloak that Zhen Li had stashed at the bottom of the wardrobe.  

The whole way, he maintained an illusion, not letting the security cameras and people around him see him. Wrapped up in black clothes, Yu Hua came to the park under cover of night. He saw that the buildings around the park were shielded with blue sheet metal, and there were people standing guard every ten meters. 

The people standing guard wore civilian dress. Their carriage was as upright as a javelin. They looked like people who had received specialized training. 

Yu Hua looked for a place where the guard was relaxed and lightly jumped in. Because he was protecting himself with the illusion, an ordinary person’s naked eye couldn’t see him. Yu Hua easily snuck into the park. 

The park was built around the lake, so the first thing to meet the eye was that enormous manmade lake. Yu Hua came to the side of the lake and saw the remnants of little boat that there hadn’t been time to clear away completely yet floating in the lake, and the scorch marks from the explosion on the guardrail around the lake. 

There had been a fairly severe explosion here. There had been more than one explosion point. 

Several dead goldfish were floating in the clear water of the lake. The moonlight flashed off their scales in a deathly radiance. 

Yu Hua avoided the patrolmen inside the park and came to the woods where he and You Zhengping had gone on their date. Many trees had fallen in the woods. Yu Hua found the old tree that had witnessed their first kiss. The old tree had been split down the middle and fallen. The trunk had been burned to charcoal. Only the enormous roots remained relatively intact. 

Yu Hua crouched down and put his hand on the growth rings on the old tree’s cross section. He closed his eyes and felt the pulsation deep underground. 

“Still alive.” He opened his eyes, relaxing slightly. 

This old tree had a history. The park’s location had formerly been the house of a feudal official of the last dynasty. In that tumultuous era, the official’s whole family had fled from calamity, and his mansion had been picked clean. The courtyards had been burned, and after the fire, a sapling had grown up to represent the new era. 

Over a hundred years had passed, and the sapling had become an old tree. Its thick, solid trunk had recorded the city’s trials and tribulations, and it had witnessed Yu Hua and You Zhengping’s story. 

Yu Hua got out the medicine bottle, poured out ten vitamins, and squeezed them in his hand. The vitamins turned into poison that could instantly destroy a person. These ten vitamins, ground into powder and added to water, could have destroyed the ecosystem of a small river. 

Yu Hua swallowed all ten down in one go. The poison damaged his seal, and his power rose to 3%. 

From a branch of the old tree, he plucked a still indomitably living leaf. He placed the leaf on the old tree’s growth rings. He lightly tapped the leaf’s central vein with the tip of his index finger, and an energy full of life force poured into the tree’s roots. 

The old tree’s burnt black trunk was once again washed with green. The fallen trunk stood up once more with the aid of that tremendous power. The split apart thick tree trunk slowly fused together. 

At the same time, all the other trees in the woods that had fallen but were still struggling to live stood up along with the old tree. The grass on the ground that he been burned by the wild flames also once again grew green. 

It wasn’t that Yu Hua had the power to bring the dead back to life. It was that the life force of these plants was indomitable. They hadn’t yet died. As long as you gave them enough energy, awakening that vast vitality, then they would be revived. 

Yu Hua felt around on the old tree’s upright trunk and found the crooked characters “You Yu¹.” 

These had been carved by You Zhengping after their kiss. The park didn’t permit carving writing into trees. Because of those two characters, You Zhengping had paid a 2,000 yuan fine and had been forced to write five thousand characters of self-criticism. The self-criticism had been posted on the park’s notice board for a whole month. 

Of course, given You Zhengping’s writing level, he couldn’t have written five thousand characters of self-criticism. Of course it had been ghostwritten by Yu Hua. The signatures on the self-criticism had also been both Yu Hua and You Zhengping’s names. 

Yu Hua’s fingertips brushed the two characters that had been paid for with two thousand yuan and five thousand characters of self-criticism. He gently said, “You have to live on, to witness our whole life. Even when we pass away, you still have to live on, until these two characters have been worn away by the passage of time.” 

The noise of the tree coming back to life had been huge. Soon there were people coming to the woods. Yu Hua hid in the night and avoided them. 

3% power was enough to let him completely blend into the surroundings. The Protectors may have been able to detect unusual energy ripples; the ordinary people currently guarding the park couldn’t sense them. 

The park was being patrolled by the Protection Organization’s irregulars. They looked in disbelief at the blackened woods that had been restored in one night. They quickly phoned Director Xiao, reporting the marvel of spring coming to the withered trees. 

Director Xiao was currently at the base analyzing Destroyer 192’s abilities for the Protectors. “We must have taught you during training that there are numerous types of attacks among Destroyers, and an endless stream of all kinds of magical items. It’s hard to guard against. But all their items and supporting powers encircle a core, and that core is their origin ability.” 

“The origin ability is in fact hardly different from the Protectors’ power. For example, Cen Xiao’s fire ability. He can use petrol bombs and other heat weapons to assist in increasing his power, and all the supporting items are chosen according to the core fire power. For another example, Lian Yufan has a repairing ability, so he’d developed a habit. Every time he inspects the surroundings before a battle, he’ll first destroy certain articles with destructive power and keep a very light part of these articles on himself, so he can mount an unexpected attack at any time.

“The Destroyers are also like this. Their items are separated into healing, escape, and assistance types. Healing and escape correspond to medical treatments and means of transportation, though they’re more powerful than our current level of technology. The speed of healing and of escape are both faster. But as long as we stay alert, don’t slacken because they’ve been seriously injured, we can avoid the Destroyers suddenly recovering or suddenly diving into the earth or substituting themselves or another means of escape. Over the years, the Protection Organization has come to quite a few conclusions about these two types of items. I trust that everyone is proficient in this information. 

“The assistance items, no matter what form they take, are certain to benefit the use of the Destroyer’s origin ability. For example, Yuan Luori’s poison bubble item and crossbows are like this. Zhen Li isn’t strong. If he had Yuan Luori’s strength, the items he would have chosen would definitely have been of a sort that could turn articles into food or act as armor.” 

Everyone listened closely to Director Xiao’s lecture and compared it with their combat experiences. They nodded their heads. The contents of Director Xiao’s narration had been passed down through the Protection Organization for many years; countless Protectors had earned it with iron and blood. 

Lian Yufan was also participating in this meeting. He was sitting next to Cen Xiao, very far away from Luo Huai. 

Seeing that Luo Huai had also come to the Xuyang District, Lian Yufan’s chest had felt blocked. If this Destroyer’s ability to harm ordinary people hadn’t been so strong, and if his ability hadn’t been very useful, he might have withdrawn from this activity with the excuse of protecting Yuan Luori and Zhen Li. 

Lian Yufan didn’t want to work with Luo Huai. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to control himself after seeing Luo Huai; he wouldn’t be able to resist wanting to snatch one of the stars from Luo Huai’s wrist. 

Director Xiao continued, “For a long time, there’s been a question that has troubled the Protection Organization. We’ve been unable to determine the limit of the Destroyers’ items, because each Destroyer produces a completely different number of items. There are some whose items seem bottomless, and some who have no more strength to fight after a few items. 

“Now, Yuan Luori and Zhen Li’s cooperation has finally helped us answer this question. The reason is points.

“The greater the number of levels passed, the more points the Destroyer accumulates, and the number of items they can equip is also greater. Yuan Luori can approximately recall the range of points necessary to equip various sorts of items. With the intelligence he has supplied, we can roughly guess Destroyer 192’s accumulated points, and the number of items he can equip. This way, if we can only determine his origin ability, then we can succeed in capturing him.” 

“Sir, was the reason you didn’t step in today for the sake of probing Destroyer 192, figuring out his origin ability?” You Zhengping asked. 

Director Xiao nodded. “Destroyer 192 has the following distinctive traits. First, he had only one means of attack, the ability to transform items into bombs. We haven’t observed a limit in the number yet, but all abilities must have a limit. I suspect that his limit is the range of the explosions. He can produce any number of bombs at once within the limit of that range. For example, if his largest explosive range is a radius of a hundred meters, he can divide it into a hundred small-scale bombs with one meter ranges, or put it into one large-scale bomb with a hundred meter range. 

“Second, he wasn’t on the scene himself, but he could observe what was happening there. However, he couldn’t ‘see’ You Zhengping’s space. Admittedly, the spaces possess the ability to hide themselves, but they can be detected by focusing an energy probing instrument. This shows that Destroyer 192 can only use his eyes to ‘see.’ His sight can be blinded. 

“Third, there was a sentence he said during the conversation: ‘In my game space, everything is a weapon.’ This sentence reveals the true nature of his ability.

“In summary, according to my analysis, Destroyer 192’s true ability is…” 

Director Xiao hadn’t finished when he received the emergency communication from the park. He deliberately didn’t continue, letting the young Protectors analyze for themselves. Seeing that You Zhengping, Cen Xiao, Lian Yufan, and Luo Huai all looked equally thoughtfully, he understood that they had all guessed Destroyer 192’s ability based on the fundamental information. 

“The trees in the park have been restored,” Director Xiao related in disbelief. “We’re going to the park to investigate as quickly as possible!” 

You Zhengping and Cen Xiao stood up simultaneously. That old tree had left a deep impression on You Zhengping. When the two heavily injured people had heard that the old tree had been damaged, they had both been very upset.

After all, of that 2,000 yuan, 500 had been borrowed from Cen Xiao. 

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Author's Note

Destroyer 192: Haha, ordinary mortals, I’ll show you my frightening strength! 

The young Protectors: Director Xiao, is this person very strong? 

Director Xiao: I don’t know why, but the Destroyers who have reappeared after fifteen years… They’re not only weaker than before, they’re also more arrogant. 

Yu Hua: It must be because the System was weakened and the difficulty level has decreased. That’s given them the mistaken idea that they’re very strong. 

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Translator's Note

¹This is 忧郁, melancholy, as referenced in the footnote in Ch. 4.