On Monday morning, Yu Hua came to work looking gloomy. 

He had passed a rather chaotic weekend. 

First he had happily passed a romantic Saturday with his husband, which his husband had considerately prepared in accordance with his interests. Though the choice of movie had been kind of funny, that wasn’t a big problem. That day should have been very happy! 

But two Destroyers had suddenly appeared. Yu Hua had been ready to forgive them onto account of them sensibly giving him and You Zhengping pink hearts. 

But Xiao You had urgently gone out “on assignment” on Saturday night because of those two Destroyers, leaving him lying alone among decomposing rose petals. He had gotten up in the morning and still had to work to scrub the bedding. And the new Destroyers had brainwashed his subordinates. First thing on a Sunday morning, he had been faced with his ignorant subordinates’ disobedience. 

Yu Hua had even printed out the receipt from the app-based taxi, but Huan Zixu had “changed” his impression, making him think that he had stayed home all day sleeping and that the business with the warehouse hadn’t happened. 

So what about his plan to make his subordinates kneel on the receipt on the acupressure mat? Yu Hua was annoyed. 

The absolute most angering thing was that these two seemed to know quite a lot, Xiao You had gone to the base and hadn’t come back, and Yu Hua had slept alone for another night. 

They had just gone on a sweet date, and it had been closely followed by two nights of solitude in a row. Was this how a normal couple was supposed to live? 

According to precedent, every time they caught a Destroyer, the next morning, Xiao You would come home early. Yu Hua had gotten up first thing and baked many cute cakes and made egg yolk pastries, cream puffs, and other such afternoon tea foods. He had put them in a lunchbox and carefully made an ice bag, so that when Xiao You came home and finished eating breakfast, he could take them to work and share them with Cen Xiao and the rest of his friends. This way, Cen Xiao would praise him for his virtuousness and continued advising Xiao You to treat him well. 

Yes, while he had always been unhappy about Cen Xiao so clearly coming between them, this time Yu Hua was inwardly in approval of Cen Xiao. 

He knew to advise Xiao You to return to his home. He was a good brother. 

Even though the person Xiao You liked this time was also Yu Hua himself…

Thinking of this, Yu Hua felt happy and pleased, and the little pastries he made were especially delicious. 

But Xiao You didn’t come home in the morning. 

At 8:30 AM, Yu Hua had stared at the table covered in pastries, his mood going from clear skies to a thunderstorm. He couldn’t resist calling Xiao You. 

Xiao You did pick up. He said he was working back-to-back shifts. After finishing his assignment, he had gone straight to work. He would only be back in the evening. 

If he could take the call, it showed that he had left the base and returned to the police team. Why could he return to the police team but not come before that to see him? They could have eaten breakfast together! If he didn’t have time to eat breakfast, he still could have come back to have a look at him, kiss him, take the sweets and go! 

Yu Hua raised his hand and brought his palm down towards the sweets he had worked hard to make. The air pressure around him dropped. If that palm fell, then the whole Xuyang District might be done for. 

When the palm was only a millimeter away from the sweets, the message notification belonging to You Zhengping rang. Yu Hua glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw a pop-up window on his phone: I’m sorry for being so busy right now. In a few days, I’ll ask for a vacation and go on a trip with you, okay? Love you (finger heart).

The power to topple mountain and overturn seas vanished in an instant. The direction of Yu Hua’s palm changed. He carefully packed up the mango layer cake and strawberry cake on the table into cake boxes and put them into another lunchbox. He also wrote out a label that said “exclusively for You Zhengping” and stuck it onto the lunchbox.  

He called an errand runner and sent him to bring the two lunchboxes to the Xuyang District’s first police station. One box was especially for You Zhengping, the other box was from him as a common person to the hardworking people’s police. 

When he was finished doing this, his thunderstorm having changed to an overcast sky, he arrived at work. 

When he walked in, he saw Zhen Li kneeling on the ground, practicing tightening his abdominal muscles and doing a yoga cat pose to warm up. He remembered the employee benefit, and his expression improved slightly. He nodded and said, “Go ahead and warm up, but don’t hurt your knees.” 

Hearing him, Zhen Li’s eyes brimmed with tears. The first class seats and five-star hotel hadn’t been bought for nothing! 

“Where are the janitor and the stupid dog?” Yu Hua said darkly, sitting in his chair, casually putting his feet on the desk. 

He wasn’t even calling them Director Yuan and Director Ha? It seemed that the great master was very angry. Zhen Li swallowed carefully and explained on Yuan Luori’s behalf, “Director Ha is still little, only three and a half months old. It can’t use a human toilet, so Yuan Luori went to an estate nearby to walk it. That estate has an area specially set aside for walking dogs, and Yuan Luori brought a poop scooper. He won’t harm the estate’s environment.” 

“Fine.” Yu Hua wiped the desktop. There was no dust. Yuan Luori had in fact done a good job cleaning. 

While there were only the two of them in the office, Zhen Li put in a good word for Yuan Luori. “Great master, Yuan Luori didn’t know what he was doing. He’s innocent. We got caught last night because we’re useless, but Yuan Luori really…wasn’t deliberately disrespectful towards you. He really, really respects you. You’re his belief system.” 

“Yes.” Yu Hua half lowered his eyelids, accepting Zhen Li’s explanation. 

But inwardly, his anger hadn’t dissipated. He needed to find someone to vent it on. 

Zhen Li said, “Great master, I have important information, can you screen off the surroundings? In case the walls have ears.” 

Yu Hua reached out a finger and touched the top of the desk. An invisible ripple radiated outwards from Yu Hua. “Go ahead.” 

Zhen Li clearly felt that power. He thought faintly that the great master was even stronger than he had been at the interview at the very beginning. Many times stronger. 

Qualified two-faced spy Zhen Li briefly explained the two points that Huan Zixu had brought up the day before, concerning the System’s future scheme and the natural law power. When he was finished, he stared anxiously at Yu Hua, looking forward to having his misgivings dispelled. 

“Huan Zixu is a genius.” Yu Hua nodded faintly. “Only 199 levels, and he’s more or less guessed the outlines of the truth.” 

“So…it’s true about the world law? The reason that I can use the alternate dimension stomach is that the world law acknowledged me?” Zhen Li said in astonishment. “This power…wasn’t it set aside for me by you?” 

Even though the handsome uncle Protector had punctured Huan Zixu’s plans for instigation yesterday, Zhen Li was still hoping to get an answer from Yu Hua. 

“I did leave it for you. The System can’t directly remove a leveler’s initial item and origin ability, but I can,” Yu Hua said patiently. “But later, when you ate the rope Yuan Luori used to bind you, and when you ate the poison bubbles at the amusement park, and the paper slips and cardboard box, that was actually your own skill. An alternate dimension stomach can in fact eat those things, but have you considered whether an ordinary person’s esophagus could endure those items?” 

“I was choking!” Zhen Li said, wide-eyed. 

“The poison bubbles could even be absorbed into the body through the skin. You ate the poison bubbles. They touched your whole oral cavity and esophagus. Why weren’t you poisoned?” Yu Hua asked. 

Zhen Li said, “…That’s right, I actually never thought of that!” 

“When you felt that it was difficult to swallow, that was because your ability is too weak. It hasn’t upgrade yet, but it’s already visible in its rudimentary form.” Yu Hua smiled faintly. “When Yuan Luori tied you up on the toilet, why do you think I hinted to you to eat the rope?” 

“!!!” Zhen Li was shaken. “Did you think then that my power came from the world law?” 

Yu Hua glanced at him with an “isn’t that obvious?” expression. 

Zhen Li covered his heart. He thought that he was the person in the studio who somewhat understood the great master. He hadn’t thought that there would be many secrets he wasn’t aware of. The great master’s thoughts were too deep. It was impossible to see the bottom. 

“Why-why didn’t you tell me? I would have worked hard to upgrade and help everyone…” Zhen Li said, aggrieved. 

Yu Hua turned his chair. Looking out the window, he said, “Do you think that the Protectors and the Destroyers can shake hands and make peace?” 

“That…would be hard to force them into,” Zhen Li said after thinking about it. 

“I know that.” Yu Hua gazed at the far-off insubstantial clouds. “One person’s power can’t change hundreds of years of hatred, and it’s not something I can impose. I’ll only follow along as this develops, quietly waiting for the day their ideas change.” 

“You-you hope that the Protectors and Destroyers will work together?” Zhen Li said. “And that’s why you set down the rules that no one could harm people or violate the law, and why you haven’t shown yourself, letting the Protectors come into contact with different Destroyers. The two sides exchange ideas in battle, understand each other. You only appear when the battle is white-hot and the two sides are about to bring about irreversible losses to save a desperate situation, and use an even stronger enemy as an excuse to force the Protectors to leave behind the Destroyers, who have information, and then gradually acknowledge…” 

“No!” Yu Hua interrupted Zhen Li’s guesses and said firmly, “I hope that day never comes.” 

But the great master’s actions were clearly facilitating such a day… Why? Zhen Li stared at Yu Hua, faintly feeling that there was a trace of sorrow hidden in his eyes. 

Was the great master still concealing something that they didn’t know? A means to truly protect this world, but a means that would make the great master forever…

Zhen Li didn’t dare to think about it any further. He faintly thought that he had felt the edges of the truth, something that Yu Hua didn’t want anyone to know about but was still slowly bringing about. 

Zhen Li shook his head, shaking out his train of thought. He changed the subject. “Great master, about the System confusing the world law and maybe sending more powerful people, is that true?” 

“It’s half right,” Yu Hua said dully. “It’s true that more powerful people will come, but you and the other levelers haven’t only been used to confuse the world law. It’s also to…” 

Strengthen the System’s power. 

Yu Hua’s seal had been created by absorbing more than half of the System’s energy. Each time a part of it was unsealed, a bit of energy that had originally belonged to the System would drain away. The more his power awakened, the stronger the System would be. 

On the day 100% of his power awakened, the System would be restored to the power it had had in its prime. 

And on that day, it seemed that he could have no choice but to…

Yu Hua sighed. He only wanted one quiet lifetime. Why was it so hard? 

“So when the time comes, how strong will the people who come be?” Zhen Li said in fright. “How much damage will they cause? Will the Xuyang District still exist? How many losses will there be among the Protectors?” 

“You sound more and more like a Protector,” Yu Hua said. 

“I…” Zhen Li was also a little taken aback. 

“Think up a reason to pass this on to the Protection Organization. The powerful people who will come in the future will definitely be ones who hold a portion of natural law power. If the Protection Organization has some trump card that they haven’t used yet, then that will be the time to get it out,” Yu Hua said. “It won’t be long now, a year…half a year…and then they’ll be here.” 

“A portion of natural law power?” Hearing this expression, Zhen Li was frightened. 

“Right, the ability to distort certain natural laws,” Yu Hua said. “It’s a threshold that levelers pass at five hundred worlds, and it’s a level that the System wants levelers to survive. After five hundred levels, the levelers’ points disappear, and the System’s market disappears, because they have absorbed fragments of the natural law power that they’ve destroyed. They can warp a certain space, create their own little world and lay down new laws in it. Five hundred levels is the boundary line between humans and gods.” 

This fell into the category of things Zhen Li couldn’t understand. He shook his head and said, “Why does the System want to destroy so many worlds, create so many levelers, and then in the end kill them? What is its goal? Doesn’t it take human life and death into account?” 

Yu Hua laughed mockingly. “Does the earth’s rotation need a goal? Does the sun attracting all the bodies in the solar system to orbit around it need a goal? Does a black hole constantly sucking in and consuming everything around it need a goal? When the universe explodes and is reborn, will it take into account the life and death of the insignificant beings on all the celestial bodies?

“The System absorbing parallel worlds is instinct, it’s a rule, it’s an inevitability of the world’s development, it’s the destruction that must come after too much prosperity. There is no reason. There is only inevitability.” 

“Then is there any meaning in our opposition and efforts?” Zhen Li said blankly when he heard Yu Hua. 

If everything was inevitable, then why did they have to struggle? Why not enjoy life while they could?

“Do humans stop scientific development in its tracks because they are certain to die in the future? Will they cease to yearn for the sky because gravity exists? Will the Protectors give up on protecting ordinary people because something has been fate?” Yu Hua said firmly, “Humans are creatures who go forward in defiance of natural order. Every day we exist, we oppose heaven and earth. We will not stop until we are destroyed.

“And that’s why I want to be human. I won’t be a god,” Yu Hua said. 

Zhen Li crouched silently on the floor, curling into a ball, considering what Yu Hua had said. 

When Lian Yufan arrived at the studio with their new colleague, this was the scene he saw. Yu Hua had his legs propped up on his desk, while Zhen Li was crouching in a corner drawing circles in the air, looking as though he had been bullied. 

Witnessing this scene of the employee bullying the boss, Lian Yufan felt displeased. He angrily said, “Yu Hua, you’re oppressing us again!” 

“No, no, no, I wanted to crouch.” Zhen Li quickly crowded the other two into the bathroom and locked the door behind them. 

Huan Zixu, who had just arrived at the office, was stunned. In spite of himself, he asked, “Does your company always welcome its new employees in the bathroom?” 

“I think we do…” Zhen Li said thoughtfully. 

When Yuan Luori had come, he had tied Zhen Li up in the bathroom, and later Yuan Luori himself had gone to clean the bathroom. And Lian Yufan had been forced into the bathroom by the formaldehyde smell. It seemed to be the fixed pattern. 

But that wasn’t important. Zhen Li held Lian Yufan in place and said, “I just had a feeling.” 

“What feeling?” Lian Yufan asked. 

Zhen Li stretched out his finger and drew a circle in the air with only a five centimeter radius. 

This tiny circle was connected to an alternate dimension space. Lian Yufan tossed a piece of soap into it, and the soap vanished without a trace. Zhen Li himself didn’t know where that piece of soap had gone. 

“This…” Lian Yufan looked at Huan Zixu. “You were right. Zhen Li is a Protector.” 

Zhen Li “grabbed” the circle and tossed it towards his abdomen. He nodded in satisfaction. “It can still serve as an alternate dimension stomach. I’ll be able to promote food on the livestreams.” 

Lian Yufan for once gave Zhen Li a friendly smile. “I’ll try applying to the organization to see whether they’ll agree to let you become a true Protector.” 

“Thank you so much,” Zhen Li said happily. 

He had suddenly understood the true use of the alternate dimension stomach because of Yu Hua’s words. If a battle was destined, then Zhen Li hoped to become a power. 

Even if it was only a tiny spark, it could still light up the path at his feet. 

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Author's Note

Yu Hua: I want to be human. 

Lian Yufan: Act like a human being!