Everyone put on the Protectors’ specialized masks for going out and hurried to the park. When they saw the verdant woods, their faces all filled with disbelief. 

The woods that two hours before had been in total disarray were now more even lush than in the past. The remains of the scorched vegetation had been absorbed by the soil, providing enough nutrients for the grass to grow some centimeters taller than before. 

They didn’t know whether this was returning energy or new energy. Lian Yufan pressed his palm to a tree and quietly felt the energy flow. 

“It’s not a restorative energy,” Lian Yufan said. “The nature of restorative energy is to look back, to regress, a sort of energy that goes against the current. The energy remaining in these trees is full of vitality. It’s life energy.” 

“So who did this?” Luo Huai said in wonder. 

Luo Huai went up to the old tree and poked the trunk with a finger. A white light appeared in his palm. Luo Huai pressed the white light to the center of his forehead and quietly read the tree’s memory. 

He “saw” a black-cloaked man standing in the woods, putting his hand on the old tree’s age rings. Through the old tree’s “memory,” Luo Huai felt the power of the life force surging through it. When the woods had come back to life, Luo Huai wanted to continue watching, but he felt a mighty force of refusal. 

It was the tree instinctively forbidding him to read. If he pried and collected the memory by force, his mind would be injured. 

Luo Huai placed the white light back in the tree, returning the memory, and said to everyone, “A black-cloaked man restored this place. That’s all I saw. The tree won’t let me see the rest.” 

“There are memories that you can’t collect?” Lian Yufan asked in a not very pleasant voice. 

Luo Huai quietly looked at Lian Yufan and gave no explanation. 

It was Director Xiao who said, “Luo Huai can in fact read and collect the memories of others, but if a person doesn’t want to forget a segment of memory no matter what, if the intensity of their wish reaches a certain level, then Luo Huai can’t collect it. If he collects a memory by force, Luo Huai’s own mind will be controlled by that consciousness.” 

“So if a person’s memory has been collected, they didn’t resist very hard?” Lian Yufan whispered. 

Director Xiao didn’t want to get too involved with this topic. He said, “If this was done by the black-cloaked man, then that’s good news for us. If the target of the Destroyers’ mission really is what he says, someone who cherishes life and is willing to respect the social order, then at present we only need to concentrate on dealing with Destroyer 192. 

“The most pressing matter is to locate Destroyer 192’s whereabouts. Captain Lian, you’re an expert in investigation. What ideas do you have?” 

Lian Yufan forced his train of thought aside. He considered and said, “I’ve already seen everyone who approached the manmade lake and the little boy Junjun during the day. The flow of people through the Xuyang District Park is very large. It’s hard to fix on one particular person out of over a thousand. We have no time—the fastest way to investigate now is to lure the snake out of its hole.” 

“What are you planning to do?” You Zhengping asked. 

“We have Yuan Luori and Zhen Li in our hands. Arrange for them to make it appear as though they’ve contacted the black-cloaked man, with one of our people disguised as the black-cloaked man. Destroyer 192’s character is aggressive and extreme. He believes he won’t lose to anyone in a one-on-one fight. He’s too self-confident. So when the black-cloaked man appears, he’s likely to be present,” Lian Yufan said. 

“That makes sense. We can chose a remote place, where people are as scattered as at the amusement park. That amusement park is a good place.” You Zhengping thought that the amusement park had been through it before and would be good to offer up again. 

But Lian Yufan said, “Destroyer 192 has the ability to control things from a distance. The more remote the place, the more cautious he’ll be. If we choose a place like the amusement park where he can’t hide himself among the crowd, then it’s possible he won’t appear nearby. If we want to lure him in, it’s better to choose a place with many people where it’ll be easy for him to make a big scene, where he can take small children hostage. The safer he feels, the more likely he is to appear. It’s best to choose a school, a mall with a playground, or some such place.” 

“Impossible,” You Zhengping opposed resolutely. “We can’t disguise or protect that many people, and we definitely can’t use children as bait.” 

He and Cen Xiao had been seriously injured rescuing one child. If a whole bunch were taken hostage, the Protection Organization would be unable to operate. 

“I know,” Lian Yufan said, looking at You Zhengping. “I’ve always liked to use numbers to weigh the value of lives. A hundred lives have more weight in my eyes than a single life. If there was another choice, I wouldn’t propose this method. But Destroyer 192 has already acted in a location with a thick concentration of people. He doesn’t care about their lives. Today he used a child’s life to threaten us, tomorrow he can use ten, a hundred, a thousand. Rather than let him act without even knowing concretely where that will be, at least we can limit the range of his activities!” 

You Zhengping bit his lip. He was opposed to Lian Yufan’s idea, but he had to admit that he was right. If today’s emergency at the park happened again, no one would be able to bear it. 

“Luring the snake out of its hole is a good idea,” said Director Xiao. “We’ll prepare in advance to be able to protect the residents to the greatest extent. I remember that the Xincheng Mall’s movie theater and food court are being renovated. Adding in the economic slump, there won’t be many people there in the morning on a working day.” 

“They are being renovated. They’ll only reopen for business next month,” said You Zhengping. 

Since the two-person world at the amusement park had turned into a twenty-some-odd person world, You Zhengping had wanted to arrange a two-person date. He had taken careful notice of the movie theaters and knew that Xincheng Mall, which was near his home, was being renovated. 

“We’ll find a celebrity to do a giveaway event at the Xincheng Mall to attract the majority of the people there. Then we’ll have Yuan Luori and the fake black-cloaked man arrange to meet at a location close to the event,” Director Xiao said. “The largest explosive range we know for Destroyer 192 is fifty meters. Assuming this range can broaden two or three times, that’s 150 meters. I’ll send people to put down an energy field at a radius of 200 meters to restrict the explosive range.” 

This energy field was a repulsion field formed by ten or more Protectors simultaneously releasing disruptive energy. Within that field, any ability would be affected by the repulsive force and its range controlled, but its force wouldn’t be weakened. 

For example, if Destroyer 192’s attack radius was fifty meters, inside the repulsion force field, the spread of the explosion would be blocked by countless force fields. The range of dispersion would be contained to ten meters, but the force wouldn’t change. This would mean that the people at the heart of the explosion would have to bear over ten times the force. This was an enormous trial for the Protectors. 

The park had been an emergency. Even if they had set up an energy field, the little boy would still have been at the heart of the explosion, so it had been up to You Zhengping and Cen Xiao, who had been on the scene and who had abilities most suited for rescue, to act. If the Protection Organization proactively set a trap, they could calculate the bearings in advance and establish a repulsion field. 

That was what Lian Yufan meant when he said that the range could be controlled. 

That was the order that Director Xiao gave to the Protectors. Everyone raised objections to perfect the plan, and in the end, the only questions that remained were: who would be the celebrity who lured people in at the mall, and who would impersonate the black-cloaked man? 

The celebrity lure would have to bear enormous stress. It wouldn’t be fair on anyone. And the black-cloaked man might end up in a face-to-face battle with Destroyer 192. No one whose strength was a little lacking could stand up. 

“I’ll be the black-cloaked man,” You Zhengping volunteered. “I had direct contact with the black-cloaked man last time. I heard him speak with my own ears and saw his bearing. I can mostly imitate him. My first space can store weapons and energy, so I can feign having many different kinds of abilities. Yuan Luori and Zhen Li both said that they haven’t seen the target of the mission. They only heard the System that issued the mission say that this person is incomparably strong, almost all-powerful. I think I’m the special ability user best suited to pretend to be all-powerful.” 

“That truly is the optimal choice,” Director Xiao agreed. “And the celebrity…” 

“Actually, we don’t need to find a celebrity,” Lian Yufan said after a hesitation. “It’s best for this assignment to be carried out by someone aware of the circumstances. Zhen Li…is a good choice. Many celebrities are only popular within a certain circle, without high public awareness. Rather than finding an especially well-known person, we should instead find someone who will most easily attract the eye of passersby. Zhen Li’s potential in that respect is very high.” 

Hearing this, the Xuyang District squad’s members simultaneously remembered how Lian Yufan had looked learning the sliding kneel with Zhen Li during the day. They instantly fell silent. 

“Isn’t Zhen Li the first Destroyer we captured? When did he become a celebrity?” asked Luo Huai, who had just arrived in the Xuyang District and had only read the materials. 

“Destroyer 192 must know what Zhen Li looks like, right? Will that alert him in advance?” Director Xiao asked. 

“He can put on makeup to change his appearance,” Lian Yufan said. “The black-cloaked man didn’t remove Yuan Luori’s disguise skills. I’ve seen his skill at applying makeup. He can make you look like a different person. We can choose some famous TV or movie star to imitate. It’s best for it to be one that will have an extreme visual impact and be able to attract the notice of the largest number of customers. We’ll also have irregulars pose as mall employees to rope customers into the event. If we can gather 90% or more of the customers at the center of the event, the repulsion field will be able to protect them completely.” 

With this planned out, You Zhengping could just about force himself to accept it. This was much better than coming to the rescue again if Destroyer 192 chose another heavily-populated area. 

—

Yuan Luori had no place to live. When he had come to this world, his identity had been a tramp living in the gutter. While following Zhen Li, he had posed as an elderly man and lived on the park benches. When he had joined the studio, because Zhen Li was poor, he’d had no money to rent an apartment for his employee, and he was unwilling to let Yuan Luori stay in his basement. So he had spent over a hundred yuan to buy Yuan Luori a folding bed. He had him stay at work overnight; it amounted to included lodging. 

Yuan Luori actually didn’t feel that it was a hardship. As an assassin, in order to conceal himself, he had often stayed under the eaves of houses, under beds, in the trucks of cars… In sum, he had stayed everywhere. As long as there was a bed, he was comfortable. And the office’s bathroom had a water heater and a shower head, so he could take a shower. Wasn’t that better than living in the park? 

Also, he was the studio’s environmental maintenance director. He cleaned the office an hour before working hours every day. By sleeping there, he could save on travel time. He could get up and go right to sweeping. By the time his three other colleagues came to work, Yuan Luori already had the room cleaned up. 

After reviving the woods in the park, Yu Hua saw that there were more and more Protectors arriving, so he left the park and went to the studio. He had come to find Yuan Luori. 

Yuan Luori had been sent by the Clearing League to test the waters. He knew quite a few of the league’s people. Yu Hua wanted to use the identity of the black-cloaked man to question him about Destroyer 192’s habits, make Yuan Luori lure 192 out so Yu Hua could get rid of him and prevent 192 making trouble that would force Xiao You to work overtime again, ruining the couple’s leisurely evening mealtime. 

In the moonlit office, Yuan Luori was curled up asleep under the folding bed. He had tucked a doll representing himself into the bed. There was a copy of Criminal Law next to the pillow. 

When Yu Hua saw Yuan Luori not sleeping in his bed, he paused his hand on the way to shaking Yuan Luori awake. 

Though he wouldn’t be controlled by the System again, wouldn’t complete missions again, Yuan Luori still maintained an assassin’s habits. Zhen Li had bought him a bed, but he didn’t dare to sleep on the bed. He used a life-sized doll as a diversionary tactic, while he himself slept soundly under the bed. 

This was what a leveler was like. Even if they cleared, they still couldn’t live ordinary, peaceful lives. 

Zhen Li was lucky. He had only gone through four levels, and his nature was adaptable. Before encountering excessively difficult worlds, he had returned to a peaceful life. He could happily enjoy his good food and pretty clothes, livestream and be an internet celebrity. But Yuan Luori’s luck wasn’t so good. 

How could a few days heal the torment of thirty-seven worlds? 

And what about Yu Hua with his 3,841 worlds? Did he really understand what “ordinary” was? 

Eleven years after coming to this world, Yu Hua had been exerting all his energy to disguise himself, but he had never been able to sleep peacefully, had never been able to make a single friend, had never been able to trust anyone. 

Only when he had met You Zhengping four years ago had Yu Hua understood what disorder was, had understood what playful fun was. 

Xiao You was fireworks to him. 

At this point, Yu Hua resolutely stuck out his hand and sent the folding bed flying. Yuan Luori was instantly startled awake. He drew a dagger from his waist and stabbed in front of himself. Opening his eyes wide and blearily said, “Who’s there?” 

As he attacked, two soft, clear contacts fell down. 

Yu Hua: “…” 

He even wore contact lenses to sleep, afraid of not being able to see when he woke up. It was unclear whether the lenses didn’t fit, or whether Yuan Luori instinctively rejected them. If he made a slightly strong movement, his lenses would fall out. 

In the moonlight, with his near-sightedness and astigmatism, Yuan Luori really couldn’t see clearly. He had his eyes opened wide, but all he could see was a smear…no, two smears (doubled by astigmatism) of black, so he involuntarily squinted and stretched his neck out faintly, trying to see who it was. 

Yu Hua: “…” 

If Yuan Luori couldn’t adjust to his contact lenses, he might keep sticking his neck out. His posture would get worse, and Yu Hua wouldn’t be able to sell him off for a good price. 

Recently, a talent competition had been interested in Zhen Li, wanting to invite him to participate in their show. Zhen Li was the company’s mainstay, making a steady flow of income on his livestreams, and advertising companies were gradually coming to them. The hundred million was just around the corner. Yu Hua thought that Zhen Li was very suited to being an internet celebrity and didn’t want to sell him to the show. So he had recommended Yuan Luori. 

Yuan Luori wasn’t as popular as Zhen Li. The show group didn’t especially want to sign him. Yu Hua was currently haggling with them, planning to use all kinds of means to build Yuan Luori’s popularity to wrap him up and sell him to the show group. Yu Hua would do some false accounting again, deposit some hundreds of thousands from his own hundred million into the company’s account. This way he could launder the money bit by bit. 

At a time like this, he couldn’t develop a habit of craning his neck. Yuan Luori had to wear his contact lenses properly! 

While he considered the company’s future, Yu Hua divided his attention. When he had just drawn back his train of thought to speak to Yuan Luori, he suddenly heard movement outside the window. He quickly ducked into the door of the bathroom. 

“Where did you go?” Squinting, Yuan Luori waved his knife around. He couldn’t tell whether it was his astigmatism that made him unable to tell where the person had gone, or whether they had really disappeared. 

Just then, another black-cloaked person climbed in through the office’s window. It was You Zhengping disguised as the black-cloaked man. 

The studio was on the twenty-first floor. Neither You Zhengping nor Yu Hua had taken the stairs. They had used their special powers to climb up. Also, neither of them had concealed his figure. They had guessed that Destroyer 192 would be secretly watching the Zhen Li Studio, which was so conspicuous. They were deliberately giving him an opportunity to see that a black-cloaked person had come to see Yuan Luori in the middle of the night. 

Neither had thought that the other would come, especially not that they would come one right after the other. 

Yu Hua: “…” 

Who knew what Destroyer 192 would make of seeing two black-cloaked people climb into the studio one after the other. 

Yu Hua didn’t know the true identity of the black-cloaked man in front him, but he could guess that this was some Protector, so he hid behind the door to listen in and probe the Protection Organization’s plans. 

You Zhengping knocked Yuan Luori’s dagger out of his hand. Imitating the black-cloaked man’s deep and resounding voice from the amusement park, he said, “Quiet down, it’s me.” 

The owner of this voice had removed Yuan Luori’s System’s power and beaten him almost into blindness. Naturally Yuan Luori remembered it. Hearing that his idol had come, he instantly no longer cared whether he could see. He executed a practiced and elegant sliding kneel towards the black figure, sliding right up to You Zhengping. “Great master, is that you?” 

You Zhengping and Yu Hua: “…” 

Zhen Li’s livestream dance teaching was pretty effective. 

“The Clearing League has sent a new leveler. He is arrogant and has violated the rules I set down. He must be killed without pardon!” You Zhengping said, imitating the black-cloaked man’s tone. 

“Clearing League” and “leveler” were the terms that Yuan Luori and Zhen Li used. The Protectors called them “Destroyers.” In order to match his identity, You Zhengping had deliberately used their terminology. 

During the questioning before, Yuan Luori had revealed that he worshipped the black-cloaked man. You Zhengping knew that he would listen to the black-cloaked man’s orders. 

“What? Is there someone who still dares to jeopardize public safety? What has he done?” Yuan Luori said angrily. 

“About the same as you. He placed bombs in a central park with over a thousand visitors and damaged a public installation. He also kidnapped a little boy.” 

“How can you call that the same as me? My circumstances are comparatively light, a fixed-term imprisonment of between three and ten years. He created enormous losses to public property. That’s at least ten years, with the most serious penalty being death!” Yuan Luori protested, firmly unwilling to be associated with Destroyer 192.

The melancholy husbands: “…” 

He hadn’t memorized Criminal Law for nothing. 

---

Yuan Luori: My punishment is to be near-sighted and astigmatic, and to study for three years. His punishment has to be worse than mine!