Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 28 Awakening
Before the sun had risen, the sky was already dimly lit, and the chirping of birds echoed throughout the forest.

They flitted back and forth among the branches, searching for early-rising insects to feast on.

A sparrow, carrying a green worm in its beak, landed on a boulder and began pecking at its hard-earned breakfast as quickly as a sewing machine.

Suddenly, the boulder moved. The sparrow was startled by the noise and quickly picked up an insect and flew to the side. Just as it left, the boulder was overturned and a fair hand lifted the fallen leaves and lay on the edge of the pit.

"This is what it feels like to be alive."

Ai Liang climbed out of the pit, breathing in the fresh air with great relish.

Judging from his current behavior, it's hard to associate him with that cold-faced academic genius. If others saw him, they would probably think he was Ai Liang's twin brother.

"Five years, God knows how I spent those five years."

Ai Liang was like an old ghost who had just possessed a young body, or a muscular dystrophy patient who had been paralyzed for many years and had recovered his health. He kept fiddling with his palms, repeating the simple action of clenching his fist, releasing it, and clenching his fist again.

Ai Liang felt everything around him with his body. The breeze was cool on his cheeks, the ground felt solid under his feet, and the fragrance of wildflowers in the air. All of this was so nostalgic that it made him recall the past.

Ten years ago, Ai Liang had just awakened his powers and, with the mind of a twenty-something and the body of a five-year-old, embarked on the path of a superhero full of expectations. However, just a few months later, he tasted the bitter fruit of abusing his superpowers.

During a police manhunt, the information was leaked, allowing the criminal gang to escape in advance, and the police's pursuit ended in vain.

When everyone was at a loss, Ai Liang, who was secretly observing the police's progress, decided to play the hero. He used his mental power to cover the entire city of Nevada, attempting to find the criminals who had scattered and fled.

There are bound to be more troubles than happiness in this world, and tragedies far outweigh comedies.

That time, what Ai Liang read was not only the thoughts of the few people being arrested, but also the thoughts of nearly ten million people in the entire city.

Hired murders, organ trafficking, the cries of patients, school bullying—Ai Liang saw all the darkness hidden in the corners of the city clearly.

Ai Liang absorbed all of the despair and fear before death, the torment of illness, the anger in the hearts of the victims, and the jealousy and greed of people in daily life.

In comparison, those positive emotions of happiness and optimism are utterly insignificant under the weight of such overwhelming malice.

Since then, Ai Liang has never provided the police with any information about criminals. The evaluation file in the police station has completely reversed its assessment of him. The righteous Chaoyang citizens have become executioners who treat human life as worthless. The title has also changed from the 'hermit' that Ai Liang initially called himself to the code name 'throat-cutting demon' that the police have given him.

Over the next five years, Ai Liang donned a trench coat, carried a short sword, and transformed into Ai Tusheng.

Later, Shi Feng, claiming that the original title was too bloody, changed Ai Liang's code name to "Extrajudicial Punisher." Although the old name was erased from the files, it was passed down in the black market.

Five years later, Ai Liang turned ten. Nevada, once a notorious crime capital with a consistently high crime rate, had transformed into a model city with excellent public safety.

At the time, a saying circulated in the underworld: 'If you get caught by the police, you might still have a chance. But if you're targeted by a throat-slitting maniac, you either choose to end it all or turn yourself in. The former will give you a quick death, and if he's on a tight schedule, the latter will determine how long you live—it all depends on your sentence.'

At that time, Ai Liang was like a Damocles' sword hanging over the heads of all criminals. As long as they crossed a certain line, they would inevitably be attacked by him. He would not accept mediation or communicate with them. He was like a Tindars hound hiding in the dark, secretly watching your every move. Once you touched that vague boundary, he would drag you into the darkness and tear your throat open.

Because Ai Liang knew everyone's secrets, he could find criminals simply by following his memories. In the first two months, he wiped out more than a dozen underground forces.

Therefore, he was once rumored to be a ghost of revenge, and various supernatural versions of his story have emerged. One of the reasons for his retirement that Mus listed earlier was adapted from this story.

At this point, everyone would probably think of Ai Liang as a super-powered teenager who was corrupted by negative emotions and embarked on a path of hunting down villains, but that's not the case.

Ai Liang was indeed affected and did hunt down criminals, but in fact, that was just a means he chose to vent his negative emotions.

After receiving the malice from the entire city, Ai Liang quickly used her mental abilities to transfer all these negative emotions, but she was still inevitably affected to some extent.

Ai Liang fears that one day he will cross the line and become a tyrannical demon. In order to vent the darkness in his heart, he picks up a short knife and points it at the criminals.

If you really want to put it in perspective, the ratio between punishing evildoers and venting emotions is about 50/50. This made him realize that he wasn't really suited to be a superhero.

If we were to categorize people into factions, Ai Liang would most likely fall into the chaotic good category. He would only do what he believed to be right. Normally, he would abide by the rules and behave politely, but at certain special times, he would disregard the rules altogether.

For example, if a friend who isn't very close to him hands him a can of beer and offers to buy him a couple of drinks, he will politely thank him first, then refuse, and then throw the beer into the trash can.

Or, while cleaning up gangs, they might take on commissions to make money, yet they would disdain the gold and banknotes in the safe inside the villa and refuse to take a single penny.

During the period from when Ai Liang was ten to fifteen years old, the public security environment in Nevada was very good, with almost no major criminal cases. As a result, Ai Liang withdrew from the public eye and focused on her school life, which was three years of junior high school.

Because he was deeply affected by negative emotions, and because of his five years of hunting experience, his temperament was completely different from that of a normal student.

Left with no other choice, Ai Liang opted for a clumsy method: separating her consciousness from her body. Reactions like joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness are controlled by the brain and are passive. Memories belonging to the soul's consciousness, however, are controllable. This way, she only needed to ensure that the memories remaining in her body wouldn't affect her.

Daily life is like playing a virtual reality game, controlling one's body to complete various actions, which results in Ai Liang rarely showing any emotional fluctuations and almost never smiling.

Therefore, he became a cold and eccentric figure in the eyes of his classmates, a proud and aloof genius. No one wanted to be his friend, but this was better than scaring people to tears with just one glance.

Ai Liang has undergone three psychological treatments in the past ten years: the first was when she first received malice, the second was five years ago when she retired as a 'hermit', and the third was just now.

This time, he cleared more than 90% of the negative memories in his brain. In the words of the game, the level of confusion dropped from 99% to 9%, and it will no longer affect his normal life.

Ai Liang pressed the power button, but the phone only vibrated once and then remained silent.

"My phone is dead, so it looks like I slept for quite a while this time."

Ai Liang stuffed her phone into her pocket, turned around, and walked to the edge of the pit.

"Let's just bury these things here. We might not even need them if we take them back."

With a light tap of his toes, Ai Liang caused the surrounding dust to surge into the pit, burying the motorcycle and tent. Afterward, he moved a large rock over the pit and compacted it.

After finishing all this, Ai Liang stretched and thought that going back wouldn't be so troublesome. Ai Liang floated in mid-air and flew straight towards the city of Nevada.

He rode the motorcycle out to be seen by the cameras, since he couldn't hide his meeting with Muslims. Nevada today is not the 'San Andreas' of ten years ago; nearly 70% of the underground forces have been more or less infiltrated by the police.

On the way back, there's no need to worry about surveillance along the way. Flying doesn't require following a road; just lock onto the destination and rush forward. Ai Liang's chosen route is through mountains and wastelands, and with his perception activated along the way, he'll definitely not be detected.

To avoid creating a sonic boom, Ai Liang flew at a speed of about 200 meters per second. It has to be said that telekinesis is really convenient.

Ai Liang stopped as they approached the city.

He gazed at the city where he had lived for more than ten years, the joy of regaining his five senses being overwhelmed by memories of the past.

Ai Liang knew in his heart that if he continued to use mental abilities such as mind reading, he would eventually fall into darkness again.

No one is perfect, and no one can guarantee that they have never done anything wrong.

Great reputations are not undeserved, and true wisdom is not found in those who can read minds.

Moreover, some abilities are completely uncontrollable. Telepathy and the ability to sense good and evil are passive skills. Ai Liang can clearly perceive the true feelings hidden behind the smiling mask of others.

Even without using mental powers to peer into other people's minds, Ai Liang would still be disturbed by this junk information floating in the air, just like when her neighbor uses an electric drill to renovate next door every night while she's sleeping, making so much noise that she wants to puncture her eardrums.

At first, Ai Liang was quite interested in observing other people's emotions, but she soon got bored. Would you care about how the pedestrians you pass by are feeling? This ability is still passive observation. It's fine if others are in a good mood, but if you encounter someone in a bad mood, it feels like a perverted and lewd man insisting on showing you the women's underwear he's wearing today. It's simply indescribable.

Every five years, Ai Liang's abilities undergo a qualitative change, and a bunch of random knowledge suddenly pops into his brain. The ability to seal himself off is a technique he just learned in the last few days.

Ai Liang gazed at the distant skyscrapers, silently closed his eyes, and shut down all his abilities, leaving only telekinesis. He had had enough of this over the years anyway.

The telekinetic abilities are highly concealed, so there's no need to worry about being discovered. Moreover, his sudden disappearance after so many years would be very disorienting. He can unleash his other abilities when needed.

Returning home from the balcony, Ai Liang opened the bedroom door. The light was still on, proving that no one had been there for the past few days.

Ai Liang glanced at the electronic calendar; four days had passed since she left, which explained why her phone had automatically shut down.

After turning off the desk lamp, Ai Liang connected her phone to the data cable. Although there was wireless charging, wired charging was faster.

Five minutes later, Ai Liang turned on her phone and immediately saw several missed calls.

All the calls were from Yue Qihua, Ma Yu, and others, exactly as Ai Liang had imagined.

Ai Liang chuckled softly.

'Just as I suspected, I'm completely dispensable to them. They probably have no idea their son has been missing for days, or perhaps they know but don't care.'

Ai Liang realized long ago that her situation in this family was like that of a vending machine placed in front of a beverage shop—they were all family, but she was superfluous.

Except for Chinese New Year, Ai Liang had almost no contact with either of them from childhood to adulthood. She even asked the nanny to attend the parent-teacher conferences in elementary school on her behalf. She also spent Chinese New Year's Eve with both of her parents every year.

When Ai Liang turned ten, she never spent New Year's Eve with her family again; she would always be alone in a quiet room reading books.

However, this is also good. Once they turn sixteen and become adults, they can legitimately sever ties with them and live independently without any psychological burden. This is a decision that benefits both parties.

After figuring it out, Ai Liang dialed Yue Qihua's number back.

"Who is it so early in the morning?" Yue Qihua's voice was a little hoarse as she murmured in a sleepy tone.

"Ai Liang".

"Ai Liang, where have you been these past few days? You haven't been answering my calls."

"My phone suddenly wouldn't charge, but I just fixed it."

"I thought you had blocked us all."

Yue Qihua and the others called Ai Liang for several days in a row but no one answered, which led them to this suspicion.

"Are you home this afternoon? I'll go get my schoolbag."

It's not good to leave my schoolbag at someone else's house all the time. I'll have to get it back sooner or later anyway, so I might as well go get it today.

As for why it was in the afternoon, the reason is quite simple. Yue Qihua once mentioned in a casual conversation at school that the nanny they hired usually came in the morning to clean the house and cook lunch, and would leave in the afternoon.

Ai Liang chose to meet in the afternoon to avoid running into their nanny.

However, Yue Qihua remained strangely silent for a while after hearing this.

"what happened?"

Ai Liang asked with some doubt. He keenly noticed that Yue Qihua was different from usual today, and seemed to be in a somewhat depressed mood.

"That apartment is empty now, Xingyue and I have moved back to Grandpa's house."

Back then, Yue Qihua and Yang Xingyue rented a house nearby for the convenience of going to school.

I'm graduating soon and don't need to go to school anytime soon, so moving back home is quite normal.

I just didn't expect it to happen so suddenly.

"Let's meet at the library or bookstore, the usual place."

While on the phone, Ai Liang took off her trench coat and stuffed it back into the combination lock box.

"Actually, Xingyue and I can't go out lately. Why don't you come to my house?"

Yue Qihua's voice sounded somewhat tired, and unlike her usual cheerful attitude, every word she spoke was tinged with hesitation.

"address?"

"Qiushui Manor, No. 6 Ginkgo Road".

Ai Liang heard a familiar place name.

(End of this chapter)