Regarding the matter of awakening lightning abilities after transformation

Section 321, Chapter 315: False Freedom

The special operations group under military control was indeed more strictly regulated than during the Hermit Bureau era. All members carried standard-issue weapons, wore black special operations boots, and had weapon belts and enough rations and water for three days on their waists.

Seeing the team members bowing their heads to check their equipment, Gu Cheng suddenly remembered the afternoon when Song Shiyan took her to Zhou Ji's Home-Style Restaurant. In a small, old private room, under the dim yellow light, she met Zhou Li and Qin Kexin for the first time.

Almost two years have passed in the blink of an eye, and she has finally transformed from a novice who had just started out into a highly capable awakened individual who can now stand on her own.

As the girl tied her loose hair into a neat single ponytail, she reminisced about the past, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

I wonder what Director Song went through after the Hermit Bureau was dismantled, and where he is now working.

"Is everything ready?"

Ouyang Tuo asked in a deep voice, and a chorus of responses immediately rose from all around. He glanced at Gu Cheng and only slowly approached the crack after seeing her nod.

Unlike weak ones, neutral rifts send awakened individuals to different locations by violent and chaotic spatial currents. As a team, each member will spontaneously gather around the descending creature, and then the main attacker, who bears the greater pressure, will kill the descending creature.

Looking at the entire Group C, Gu Cheng is the strongest in direct combat. In addition, this is her first time participating in crack handling, so Ouyang Tuo is very curious whether the girl's strength is really as powerful as the information states.

Passing through the ripples in space, Gu Cheng heard the soft sound of bubbles breaking. Her whole face seemed to be immersed in seawater, warm and moist, accompanied by a trace of saltiness on the tip of her tongue. Soon, a ray of sunlight shone in through her eyes.

The blood-red sunset illuminated the dilapidated and desolate buildings. Gu Cheng sniffed the air, which was filled with moisture and a faint smell of blood. When she opened her eyes again, she was standing on a street, surrounded by broken stone steps and small puddles overgrown with moss and weeds.

An indescribable sense of ease first welled up in my heart, followed by an unparalleled joy.

"After a year apart, this sense of freedom without constraints is truly intoxicating."

Hearing the slightly trembling female voice in her mind, Gu Cheng staggered a few steps, covered her lips and took a deep breath, trying her best to control her muscle spasms. She could feel every cell and every organ in her body cheering.

"I think I understand what some of the Jackdaw followers are thinking."

There was no unpleasant repulsion effect, no annoying ability constraints, and every breath of air was so clear and sweet. Awakened beings had no need to be timid or hesitant; this was the place they should be living, far more so than the outside world.

"Thanks to Ying Qiuhuai, we have experienced a much greater rejection effect than others, and the gap between reality and our expectations will only be greater when we return to it."

Once her emotions had stabilized, Gu Cheng took out a metal rod from her bosom. It gleamed with silver light, and a Tang sword, about half her height, quietly fell into her palm. Her bioelectric radar began to spread silently.

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” She paused, then smiled. “If the so-called price is only this, then this deal isn’t harsh at all.”

Ying Qiuhuai gave her the chance to rise to the top in one step.

Stepping forward through the crunching sand, Gu Cheng opened her spiritual vision. The black mist in her field of vision was extremely shallow, only a thin layer like gauze.

"It seems we're still a long way from the BOSS."

With a graceful flourish of her Tang sword, Gu Cheng crouched slightly, moving slowly forward, close to the shadows of the ruins.

The wind blowing from afar was clean and refreshing, and everything around was unusually quiet. Bioelectric radar indicated the presence of small biological activity underground. Based on the feedback of electrical signals, the girl lifted a dilapidated billboard, revealing arthropod insects covered in armor underneath.

At a glance, there were probably three or four of them, looking quite menacing, perfect for testing her simplified version of the stun gun.

A sudden burst of azure light flashed, and half a minute later, Gu Cheng raised her hand and pushed over the billboard, completely burying the wreckage on the ground.

"You used too much force..."

Theoretically speaking, transmitting current with this precision is not much more difficult than charging a mobile phone. The problem is that Gu Cheng's mental strength is difficult to concentrate in actual combat, and once the current leaves his body, the energy required for each additional inch of movement increases exponentially.

"My strength is up to par, but my control isn't good enough... Gu Chengyan, why do I never see you training your abilities?"

Gu Cheng was actually quite curious about the latter's supernatural abilities, which included erasing both matter and energy—a power that sounded both domineering and mysterious.

"I don't need to exercise."

Gu Chengyan spoke calmly.

"You can improve your understanding of electromagnetism by building physical models. My abilities are elusive and lack systematic organization; I can only rely on instinct."

Gu Cheng thought for a moment and felt that what the woman said made sense.

Meanwhile, about a kilometer away from her, a middle-aged woman in her early thirties, dressed casually and wearing black-rimmed glasses, was engaged in a fierce battle.

Wang Yuxin was originally an English teacher who became an Awakened due to an accident. Unlike Gu Cheng or Su Wanxi, who are highly lethal, her ability is rather useless: she can extract liquid from wet objects.

It sounds pretty good, but because Wang Yuxin's ability strength is too low, only D-level, the actual effect is not satisfactory. Liquid extraction can only be applied to inanimate objects, and the extraction time is also relatively long. It takes about five minutes to dry several freshly washed clothes. Overall, the efficiency is not as good as a dryer.

Wang Yuxin lifted her glasses, her expression extremely unpleasant. In front of her were three strangely shaped, vicious dogs.

The vicious dog's face was only partially covered by fur, its bald skull exposed, its limbs thick and strong, its forepaws sharp, and two gleaming fangs embedded in its upper jaw, emitting the stench of a rotting corpse.

Perhaps they weren't dogs at all, but a mutated wolf. Two other wolves lay on the ground not far away, their bodies riddled with bullet holes, likely from 9mm bullets.

Wang Yuxin thought to herself, "If only I had fired a signal flare to request backup first," as cold sweat broke out on her back.

Originally, there were only three wolves attacking her, but after the shot was fired, the other two, like fish that had smelled blood, poked their heads out from the brick and tile debris.

Wang Yuxin carried a total of two Type 92 9mm pistols and one Type 95 assault rifle. One of them was empty and hanging on her waist, while the other pistol still had a few rounds left in its magazine for deterring targets.

"Looks like I'm having some bad luck..."

If she continued to fight, she would definitely get hurt. Wang Yuxin loosened her grip on the gun and slowly moved her left hand to her buttocks, where there was a signal flare loaded with a distress signal.

"Hiss..." One of the wolves hissed a few times upon seeing this, then kicked its hind legs and pounced. The other two also stopped watching at the same time, opened their blood-red mouths, and charged toward their target.

Wang Yuxin felt a chill in her heart. She fired the gun with her right hand and hastily drew her dagger with her left, thrusting it upwards with all her might.

"Sizzle." A gun-shaped bolt of lightning, long enough to pierce through the street, shot out, and the wolf, which was hovering in mid-air, was turned into charred remains in the white light before it even had time to howl.

Chapter 316, Section 322: Land Immortal

Does this ability really exist?

Wang Yuxin swallowed hard, then looked up at the young woman walking slowly towards her. The woman was wearing an apricot-colored long trench coat and casual denim shorts. Her fair and slender legs were covered with a layer of crystal-clear gauze, exuding a hazy beauty in the sunlight.

It was that new team member who had just joined, whose name seemed to be Gu... Wang Yuxin paused for a moment, then stood there awkwardly.

"Hello, I'm Gu Cheng."

Gu Chengxin happily reached out her hand, her voice clear and crisp, with a polite smile on her face.

"It's Wang Yuxin, Miss Wang, right?"

Since both were holding weapons in their right hands, they had to hold hands with their left hands. Wang Yuxin inevitably noticed a diamond ring on the other's middle finger, which was dazzling and adorned the woman's snow-white hand.

"Yes, that's me. Thank you for your help, Miss Gu."

She got engaged at a very young age.

Releasing her grip, Wang Yuxin's eyes flashed with amazement. She then quickly drew her pistol to change the magazine. Gu Cheng nodded and turned around, walking to the crater to examine the wolf carcass.

These poor little creatures were hit head-on by the stun gun, their entire bodies were covered in charcoal, and they were still slightly warm to the touch, accompanied by the foul smell of burning protein.

"Another waste."

Gu Cheng muttered to herself, "I could have saved some of my mental energy."

"By the way, Miss Wang, if I remember correctly, your ability level is only D."

If it were Qin Kexin, she wouldn't have had to spend so much time outsmarting and outmaneuvering these wolves.

Hearing Gu Cheng speak, Wang Yuxin rubbed her glasses a few times and said in a broad voice, "Yeah, it's still hard to use superpowers in direct combat."

Gu Cheng's doubts deepened upon hearing this: "Only a D-rank is required to handle neutral rifts? Are the military's requirements this strict now...?"

Perhaps because the woman's tone was sincere enough, Wang Yuxin couldn't detect any airs in her voice, which even softened her tone: "I've only participated in handling three rifts. My superiors explained that the higher the level of the rift, the more it can stimulate the awakened one's abilities to grow."

"Even if we can't help, we can just find a place to launch a signal flare and wait for rescue or wait until the crack closes."

In other words, it's about learning from experience. Gu Cheng can easily understand this. The first time she dealt with the crack, Su Wanxi and Zhou Li were in charge of the whole process, while she and Qin Kexin were responsible for cheering her on.

This is indeed a good way to improve the overall quality of awakened individuals. The downside is that the risk is slightly high. If it were Gu Cheng, she would have made sure that Wang Yuxin's ability strength reached C level first before considering letting her get involved.

"Miss Gu's ability is to manipulate electricity?"

Wang Yuxin observed that the woman had a silver-white revolver hanging at her waist and a Tang sword gleaming with a chilling light on her right side. She had never seen an Awakened One who used a long sword as their main weapon before; Gu Cheng was the first.

"Hmm." Gu Cheng nodded, the electric light flowing along the blade's spine gradually fading. "Miss Wang, are you planning to stay nearby, or go find the other team members to regroup?"

Before Wang Yuxin could answer, a crimson flame shot into the sky. Gu Cheng looked up and clenched her fists.

Someone nearby asked for help.

"I'll go with you." Wang Yuxin finished packing her gear and walked behind Gu Cheng, then added.

"...If Miss Gu doesn't mind."

Gu Cheng was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, and subconsciously answered no. She quickly frowned again. In her understanding, the awakened ones who entered the rift were all a team, so there was no question of whether or not they would be discriminated against.

"you..."

The girl's gaze darkened slightly, and she swallowed back the words that were about to come out.

Never mind, maybe she's just overthinking it. After giving a few casual words of advice, Gu Cheng once again expended her mental energy, and her bio-electric radar slowly scanned along the direction in which the signal flare was launched.

......

After emptying another magazine, several more giant rats surged toward him. Ouyang Tuo narrowed his eyes, and his invisible mental power blasted toward the target like a cannonball.

As the captain of Team C, the man naturally has reason to be proud. He has long been a master of using telekinesis, and if it weren't for his limited talent, he would never have stopped at Rank B.

"I wonder how Gu Cheng is doing."

As fellow B-level Awakeners, Gu Cheng's pace shouldn't be much slower than his.

"Electric current manipulation, hehe, from a versatility perspective, it should be stronger than my ability. It has the strength of B+ level ability and is so young..." Ouyang Tuo was quite envious of Gu Cheng, envious that she still had room for improvement, instead of being stuck at B level, rarely making any progress in her life.

The strong smell of blood filled the man's nostrils. He sniffed and slowly pulled out a spare magazine. Instead of replacing it immediately, he found a step to sit on and lit a cigarette with a click.

The bluish-gray smoke blended into the deep black haze, and a point of scarlet rose quietly in the darkness. Ouyang Tuo shook his right leg, his gaze drifted to the sky, and soon fell back to the ground, landing on the pool of blood-red flesh.

In a few minutes, the smell of blood will attract more monsters. Ouyang Tuo knows this well. He has been involved in crack handling for six years, and his highest level of experience was dealing with a strong neutral crack. His combat experience is far richer than that of other team members.

Experience and loyalty are the most important factors for promotion. Even if Gu Cheng is strong, it will be difficult for him to threaten his position as captain in the short term.

He threw the cigarette butt on the ground halfway through his cigarette, grinding it back and forth with the sole of his boot. Ouyang Tuo looked up at the red signal flare on the horizon, his facial muscles twitching involuntarily.

He disliked the team members who only slowed him down. Or rather, they were more like a group of vampires than team members, firing a couple of shots symbolically when problems arose, and then setting off a few meaningless fireworks with their extremely weak abilities.

It's utterly ridiculous, yet he manages to use the system to seize the fruits of his labor that rightfully belong to him.

If it weren't for the concern that excessive casualties would cause the rift to tremble and thus affect the military leadership's evaluation of him, Ouyang Tuozhen would have considered ignoring the situation.