Beside the runway, Wade had just finished twenty laps of ton-level armored weight-bearing flight under 3x gravity.
Kate, carrying her bag, followed beside him and asked, "What did you call me over here for?"
Wade dismantled the various weighted components from his body and pointed to a bulging backpack on the lawn. "I have something for you. Go get it yourself."
As the equipment was removed and the gravity effect gradually dissipated, the lawn began to stir. The turbulent airflow beneath his feet slowly spread, growing larger and larger.
[Main Ability: Gas Manipulation - Advanced Level
Precise Control Range: 50 meters
Rough Sensing Range: 100 meters]
Wade felt that within a hundred-meter range, he could control the surrounding airflow at will, keeping it at normal atmospheric pressure.
Once he continuously compressed the range of the gas, it would enter a high-pressure state starting from the fifty-meter mark. The smaller the range, the stronger the pressure, and the power of the resulting attack would increase exponentially.
The airflow was compressed to its limit in his palm, the pressure increasing instantly, and a pure white sphere the size of a goose egg condensed in his hand.
Wade silently felt the compressed gas in his palm, estimating it was more than five times stronger than before. He couldn't help but laugh. "If I hit with this, that guy Jordan Li probably won't be able to take it. Even his invulnerability won't help; it'll blast him unconscious."
"You did those things to me," Kate said, walking over with the backpack and mocking him coldly. "And now you want to buy me off with a gift? Is your conscience bothering you?"
"You're certainly narcissistic enough," Wade said, dispersing the air bullet and sneering. "You don't actually think you're a good person, do you?"
Kate glanced into the backpack, suddenly jerked her hand back, and fell onto the lawn. "A—a mouse! You... you despicable guy, do you think this is funny?"
Wade beckoned toward the backpack, and an anxiously scurrying white mouse darted out, suspended in the air.
"Quick, take it away!" Kate tried to stand up and flee, only to find her body pinned in place by an invisible force. "What are you trying to do? I'm going to scream!"
"No one outside can hear us talking," Wade said, landing beside her and repeatedly waving the white mouse in front of her eyes. "Use it to fully demonstrate your ability."
Kate turned her head away in strong resistance. "Why?"
Wade looked down at Kate and used air tentacles to slowly peel off her red gloves. "Because I like it... and you must do it."
Kate bit her lip, feeling more humiliated than if she had been stripped naked in public. She glared at him with wide eyes. "You... pervert!"
Wade pointed his finger, and the white mouse landed in Kate's palm, looking around. "Hurry up, or I'll make it crawl all over you."
Kate frowned and closed her eyes tight. "If I do it, can I leave?"
"Of course you can. I'm not some kind of demon."
"You'd better keep your word, or else..." Kate suppressed her pent-up resentment and concentrated on her palm.
The white mouse's agitation gradually subsided, and its alert exploratory movements became sluggish and dull.
Wade's mental power projected from his body, completely covering the white mouse's head.
He carefully sensed Kate's method of using mental power, observing how she precisely intervened in different areas of the mouse's brain to override its instincts and twist its behavior patterns.
The white mouse began to spin in place, over and over, trapped in an inescapable command loop.
Although Wade and Kate's mental control abilities shared the same source, their development paths were different.
He was most guarded against mental intrusion into thoughts, memory reading, and control, so he preferred developing four aspects: protective barriers, thought detection, memory locking, and Subconscious Implantation.
Wade suddenly spoke: "Amplify its fear."
Kate's brow furrowed slightly as she did as she was told.
The white mouse stopped spinning, its body trembling violently and its fur standing on end, as if it had seen a natural predator.
Wade clearly captured a powerful surge of mental power being precisely injected into the amygdala of the mouse's brain, overriding its own emotional feedback.
He commanded again: "Now, make it forget the fear from just now and lick its fur in your hand."
Kate's mental power flowed, acting directly on the basal ganglia associated with motor memory and habit formation.
The white mouse stopped trembling and began to stick out its tiny pink tongue to lick Kate's palm.
Wade carefully noted the difference: the mental intervention on the amygdala was a forceful override, while the intervention on the basal ganglia was more akin to guidance.
These two methods were of great reference value for his further development of "Memory Lock" and "Subconscious Implantation."
The former could be used to forcibly suppress or replace specific thoughts, while the latter was suitable for more covertly implanting or modifying behavioral motives and memory fragments.
"Well done." Wade used the airflow to return the white mouse to its cage, and the invisible restraint vanished.
Kate immediately scrambled back, rubbing her numb wrist. "Now, can I go?"
"How does it feel to be a good, obedient girl?" Wade leaned down to pick up the red gloves from the lawn, dangling them between two fingers and waving them gently before her eyes. "It's much easier than being isolated as a monster by everyone, isn't it?"
"This is all your fault, you jerk." Tears welled up in Kate's eyes as she lunged for the gloves. "Give them back!"
Wade looked down and twisted his wrist, easily making her miss. "Beg me. Say... Master, please return the Sealed Object to me."
"Or, you can practice with the mouse some more until I'm satisfied."
Kate's eyes widened and her chest heaved violently, but she remained silent.
Wade flew in circles around her ear, whispering occasionally, "More and more people are coming..."
Kate lowered her head, her lips moving with difficulty. "Master... please... please return the Sealed Object... to me."
...In the afternoon, at the dormitory building.
The fourth-floor corridor was silent. Most people were resting, with only a man and a woman walking side by side.
Wade asked casually, "The group hasn't gathered in a long time. Have they forgiven you yet?"
Kate clenched her hands, her face full of resentment. "What do you think?"
Wade pressed her shoulder and sped along, chuckling. "You've heard the story of the boy who cried wolf, haven't you?"
The two stopped at the ajar door of Dormitory 416 and walked inside one after the other.
"You're here? Have a seat." Jordan Li sat at the computer desk, where the screen displayed a countdown for the release of the documentary "The Seven: Anti-Drug Operation."
Wade opened the fridge with familiar ease and took out a can of soda. "Do you want one, Senior?"
Kate leaned back on the sofa, picking at her fingers repeatedly. "Whatever."
Ten minutes later, Andre and Luke walked in together. Seeing the figures on the sofa, the two immediately stopped by the bed.
Wade looked at the door, closed it, and spread his hands. "Alright, the soundproofing layer is set up. Let's talk business."
"I've had enough!" Jordan Li pulled a bloodstained cloth bag from under the desk and tossed it into the center of the room. "Having these files and evidence here makes it so I can't even sleep. I don't want to argue anymore. What do you guys want to do?"
Luke leaned against the bed, looking up and sighing. "Jordan, there's no need to take these forged papers to heart... If it's really that bad, I can just burn them so we don't have to look at them anymore."
"Forged?" Jordan Li pointed at the computer screen. "You were there at the scene! You saw with your own eyes what state those 'drug dealers' were in! Would a drug dealer beg for mercy to protect a child? Homelander and the others were simply committing a massacre..."
"What it was doesn't matter." Andre flipped a coin in his hand. "Even if Vought directed and acted it out themselves, then what? After exposing it, are we just going to wait for Vought to come knocking on our door? What we should do now is keep a low profile and let this matter slowly pass!"
Jordan Li turned toward the sofa. "Kate, you were there too! Didn't you sense their thoughts? Can you really act like nothing happened?"
Everyone's gaze in the room instantly focused on her.
Kate hugged her legs, curling up on the sofa. "I—I only know they were very afraid and wanted to run away... There were so many people then, so many messy thoughts. I don't know why they stopped running and turned to attack us instead."
Jordan Li suddenly began to clap, analyzing with a serious face. "That's exactly the problem! As long as someone is a normal person, when they encounter a power they can't fight against, their first reaction should be to run as far away as possible, not to wait there and die."
Wade added at the right moment, "You mean... they were being blackmailed?"
Jordan Li snapped his fingers and shook the files in his hand. "Exactly! Combined with these files, the probability is extremely high."
Luke opened his mouth and retorted in a low voice, "Maybe they were just high on blue crystal? Who knows if they just lost their heads?"
Andre took the files and flipped through them. "I'll go feel out my dad. If it's all true, I agree to expose this."
Wade raised both hands and spoke up, "I agree too. But we have to find a discreet way, otherwise we'll be in trouble if they trace it back to us."
Kate glanced at everyone and also raised her hand.
Jordan Li walked to the bed and hit Luke several times with a pillow. "What about you?"
Luke spread his hands. "Four to one. What else can I say? We'll all shoulder the consequences together."
Wade nodded, leaned down to pick up the bloodstained files, and quickly scanned the blurred names and locations. "Waiting for Andre's information is too passive. We need to take action too."
He pulled out one of the pages and pointed to several recurring terms: "Transportation loss, special processing, temporary requisition... these don't sound like drug dealer slang, but rather like some kind of... logistics records."
Jordan Li pointed to a portrait in the files. "That's a good lead. Those Mexicans were very likely transported across the border by smugglers associated with Vought."
"Luke, you know a lot of people. See if you can indirectly ask around about these situations from classmates whose families are involved in transport and logistics."
Luke took out his phone and tapped quickly. "Alright, I'll take note of all this."
Wade sat on the sofa, working with Kate to extract useful information from the files.
He was more than happy to see the group's actions to expose Vought's dark secrets.
'Go ahead and investigate. As long as you keep looking, the Awakening won't be far off!'
PS: Support the new book, please!
plz support my patreon
patreon.com/AZofficial
it is 30 chapter ahead