[The exclusive cultivation system for this character is the "Social Superstar System."]
[The core rule of the "Social Superstar System" is: Every time you establish a cooperative relationship with more extraordinary humans, you can receive rewards through the "Exclusive Cultivation System."]
[Current progress is—Cultivation Task 1: Establish a friendly cooperative relationship with one superpower user (regardless of ally or adversary) (Reward: 1 attribute point)]
Ji Minghuan quickly scanned the words on the panel, his eyes lit up, and while digesting the new setting in his mind, he thought, "Isn't this just perfect?"
This mechanism suited him well. If he couldn't break the current situation using the "Welfare Institute" lead to find the clues left by his Mentors, he would have to get closer to those superpower users and see if he could learn any information related to the experimental facility from them—and at this stage, his actions complemented the "Character Cultivation System."
It was already late, and he pressed the power button to turn on his phone.
He always ate the cafeteria food at the Welfare Institute and never ordered delivery, nor was he qualified to. He opened the app, carefully selecting, and finally ordered an Italian dinner—the main course was pasta, and the soup was potato soup.
After confirming the order with the merchant, he glanced at the clock on the wall; it was eight-twenty in the evening.
He thought, "If there is a way to confirm the real-time time of the experimental facility's time zone, there is a chance to determine the approximate location on the map of that facility through the time difference."
Unfortunately… Ji Minghuan lived a life in the experimental facility without seeing the light of day. He couldn't even see the sky, let alone judge local time by the daylight, and what was even more despairing was that there was no equipment like a clock in the confinement room.
In the first half of the month, Ji Minghuan once requested his Mentor to hang a pendulum clock on the wall of the confinement room, saying that this way, he could know the current time and regulate his sleep to ensure his schedule wouldn't be disrupted. He chose a pendulum clock instead of a regular clock because he felt the confinement room was too quiet, and if the pendulum could create some noise while swinging, it wouldn't be too depressing for him.
It's hard not to develop depressive feelings when staying in a vacuum-like silent environment for a long time, and at this time, some noise was indeed a luxurious indulgence for him.
Unfortunately, the Mentor did not agree to his request, and since then, he hasn't brought it up again.
If the researchers in the experimental facility required him to eat three meals a day on time, he could've judged whether it was morning or night by the time others delivered food to him. But reality was harsh. Almost every day, upon waking and opening his eyes, he would find an extra set of cutlery and meals in the confinement room.
Therefore, he couldn't judge the time of day based on when they brought food.
Lying in bed waiting for the food delivery, Ji Minghuan put his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling in a daze, suddenly thinking of the accident encountered by Gu Wenyu's mother.
He opened the video app on his phone to learn about the only publicly known member of the superpower user organization "Rainbow Wings."
"Fan Dongqing," currently the only publicly known Rainbow Wings member.
The reason why he's exceptional within such an organization is that his superpower is too extravagant. Every appearance is accompanied by a grand spectacle, impossible to hide—disclosing his identity was a necessity.
"Fan Dongqing" first appeared before the world when an extraterrestrial meteorite was about to strike the Li Jing Capital.
At that time, he intercepted the meteorite in mid-air with his superpower "Vessel of Li Qing," thereby saving the city from impending doom.
Ji Minghuan searched keywords like "meteorite" and "Rainbow Wings" and clicked on a video documenting that event.
The sudden sonic boom reverberated through the night sky, dragging a trail of fire as the meteorite tore through the sky, hurtling towards the city, transforming into a massive fireball due to the heat generated by its rapid descent. People watched the meteorite about to crash into the city, their hoarse shouts rising and falling, engulfing the entire Li Jing Square.
At that moment, a giant floating dragon boat suddenly appeared from a corner of the night sky, slowly sailing under the dark canopy.
The journalist's camera zoomed in, focusing on the dragon boat, which had lanterns and sounding boards hung with burly men in ancient robes rowing oars back and forth. The sound of air being twisted by the oars echoed with a vigorous, vessel-disturbing rumble, and the thick, blood-red hue emitted by the lanterns cast a shadow covering the sky as it descended.
As the oars stirred the air, the sounding boards attached to the dragon boat opened and closed, snapping noisily. The swaying sound of lanterns, the crackling of oars rowing through the air, and the joyful and rhythmic beats of the sounding boards melded together into a grand symphony that echoed over the capital, spreading in all directions.
Subsequently, possibly due to the intensity of the scene, the recording equipment lost signal due to electromagnetic interference: the video displayed only black and white static noise, accompanied by sporadic raspy static.
No matter what, from that day onward, Fan Dongqing became the first Rainbow Wings member whose identity and superpower were publicly disclosed to the world. Still, the other eleven members remained in the shadows—probably only those at the top of the United Nations had the authority to know their identities.
After watching the video, Ji Minghuan silently turned off the phone.
He thought, "If I want to know who killed Gu Wenyu's mother, then I must find a way to infiltrate 'Rainbow Wings' and become one of them to have a chance, or perhaps take a different route and become a top politician—this path's feasibility is too low to consider."
Out of boredom, Ji Minghuan followed his memories and found the "mask" Gu Wenyu had hidden as well as a set of black trench coat in the corner of the room.
In the game character setting, Gu Wenyu is a thorough otaku, with all the thoughts a teenage boy should have, but he hides it well externally—in fact, even before awakening his superpower, he spent several years meticulously designing his own "battle suit" and mask.
But in the month following his awakening, perhaps because he wasn't yet familiar with controlling his powers, Gu Wenyu never had the chance to wear them in public.
"The craftsmanship is so rough, I'd do better," Ji Minghuan clicked his tongue as he looked at the black mask in his hand. The eye sockets of the mask were blood red; other than that, it was pitch black and nothing could be clearly seen. He put the mask and coat back and stored them at the bottom of the wardrobe, "Keep them for now... just in case they're needed."
Unknowingly, the clock's hour hand had already shifted to ten o'clock at night. After having dinner, Ji Minghuan casually tossed the trash bags from the room and living room, took a shower, and lay down on the bed.
Gu Qiye said she had something to do tonight and wouldn't be back to cook, but he didn't expect Gu Qiye to be this late in returning home.
Bored and idle, Ji Minghuan picked up the remote and turned on the TV in the room, switching to the news channel.
The host was reporting a news story about a criminal superpower user code-named "Ghost Bell" who had appeared in Li Jing city, publicly issuing a criminal statement on media with a deep, metallic voice altered by a voice changer, elaborating his plan and boasting that if the Mutants Association had the guts, they should send "Rainbow Wings" people to handle him.
But his provocation aside, the problem was that Rainbow Wings had no time; they are universally acknowledged as the strongest superpower user organization, only appearing in critical situations, and would not waste time on a mere superpower criminal.
Unless the criminal was strong enough to destroy a city single-handedly, they wouldn't even pay attention.
Ji Minghuan watched TV while drinking hot water, gradually becoming drowsy.
Thinking that once he fell asleep, his consciousness would return to that confinement room gave him a bit of a headache.
But then he remembered his mentor promised he would see Kong Youling tomorrow, which suddenly reassured him a lot, so he lay obediently on his bed.
But just as his eyelids had barely closed, he heard a subtle noise coming from the first floor of the house.
Someone had opened the door, and the movement was urgent—superpower users have hearing far more acute than normal people, and Ji Minghuan picked up on this.
He sat up slowly from the bed, not turning on the light, but reached out the restraint belt in the darkness, laying it on the floor.
He had already tested the "restraint sensing" skill, confirming that the sensory ability generated by this skill could indeed penetrate barriers to observe the situation on the other side, and the "floor" naturally counted as a barrier.
Thus, as the restraint belt touched the floor, slowly, the belt replaced Ji Minghuan's own senses, with hearing and vision seeping like water through the wooden floor, descending downward.
Then, he clearly saw the scene on the first floor of the house.
In the dark, a man wearing a blue and green metal uniform was leaning against the wall, sitting down. He took off his helmet, revealing a pale face, and then placed the helmet on the ground, raising a hand to cover a shallow cut on his neck. Blood streamed down like a curtain, slightly staining his shoulder armor red.
Through the restraint belt sensory, Ji Minghuan quietly observed the man's face, then raised an interested eyebrow.
"So it was you..." he thought.
Without a doubt, the young man in his sight was Gu Qiye, otherwise there would be no explaining why he had the house keys.
And the key now lay in the metal uniform he was wearing, as well as the helmet on the ground.
All these matched the outfit of a certain character Ji Minghuan saw on TV today exactly.
And that mutant's code name...
—was "Blue Arc."
It was the mutant with lightning control powers that Ji Minghuan saw on TV during the day.