Chapter 2
—
Shen Wu Chuang’s eyelids twitched uncontrollably, just as they had that morning. His pupils warped into a blood-red “∞”, radiating a chilling, star-like glow.
As Manager Sun’s body distorted and flattened, Shen Wu Chuang could feel a surge of energy coursing through him.
Had he accidentally become an ability-user?
He couldn’t make out what his coworkers were shouting, but their panicked movements made it clear—they were trying to flee. So he roared, “No one is allowed to leave!”
He hadn’t expected anyone to listen, but the command carried an unnatural weight.
His coworkers froze in place, as if petrified, not daring to breathe, terrified that the slightest provocation would turn them into the next Manager Sun.
Shen Wu Chuang bitterly smiled. These were the same people who had bossed him around, who had treated him like dirt—now, just because he was an ability-user, they obeyed his every word. What did that make all the times he had helped them without expecting anything in return?
Did that make him kind?
His gaze swept over Zhang Jun, Summer Yunyun, and the rest.
Summer Yunyun tried to slip away, but under his three-second stare, she flattened into a sheet of paper with a thud.
Zhang Jun rushed forward, clutching his leg and begging for mercy. When Shen Wu Chuang didn’t budge, he too collapsed into paper.
The room erupted in chaos. Shen Wu Chuang knew he couldn’t let a single witness leave. One by one, under his unblinking gaze, his coworkers, the tables, the chairs, the potted plants—all turned to paper, indistinguishable from the scattered design drafts.
He didn’t feel triumphant. Only sad.
His eyes burned, his vision shrouded in dark red. Tears streamed down his face, but when he wiped them away, the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth.
Stay calm.
He had turned everyone in the meeting room into scrap paper.
Stay calm.
He had become an ability-user—the kind everyone despised and feared.
Stay calm.
On the bright side, no one would dump the worst tasks on him anymore. No one would frame him for their mistakes. He wouldn’t have to bow and scrape to anyone ever again.
If anyone dared to cross him, he’d flick his fingers and reduce them to two dimensions!
So he had to stay calm.
First, stay calm. Second, run.
It was Wednesday, 9:15 a.m.—the company-wide department meeting time. The perfect chance to escape.
Step one: clean the blood off his hands and face. If anyone saw him like this, they’d know something was wrong.
Using his sharp memory and spatial awareness, he felt his way to the water dispenser in the corner of the meeting room, grabbed the rag used for wiping spills, wet it, and pressed it to his face.
After stuffing the rag back into the dispenser’s storage compartment, he adapted to the dark red haze clouding his vision, slowly making out the outlines of objects.
That was enough.
He cracked the door open, peering left and right. Seeing no one in the hallway, he ducked his head and hurried toward the elevator. Checking his reflection in the elevator’s polished surface—aside from his bloodshot eyes, he looked no different from a Ben Chu.
Good.
If anyone asked, he’d say he pulled too many all-nighters and his eyes were acting up, that he was taking leave to see a doctor.
He made it out of the company unnoticed, fleeing to a secluded alleyway, where he finally let out a breath of relief.
But before he could catch his breath, he heard the sharp barks of a large dog approaching.
He looked up—a massive, brown-mahogany mastiff was charging at him at full speed, drool flying, ready to tear him apart.
Great.
Now even a dog thinks I’m an easy target!
Shen Wu Chuang glared at it, just as he had at his tyrannical coworkers.
“Dog! You’re asking for it! You dare bite the Two-Dimensional Tyrant?!”
The mastiff’s barking cut off abruptly. Ignoring the stabbing pain in his eyes, Shen Wu Chuang smirked coldly at the flattened paper beneath his feet.
“I warned you. You didn’t listen.”
A boy, no older than seven or eight, perched on the alley wall, a lollipop in his mouth. He grinned toothlessly at the haggard, skeletal ability-user below.
“You’re pretty strong, Two-Dimensional Tyrant. Wanna join the Ability-User Mutual Aid Association?”
Shen Wu Chuang hadn’t expected to be watched. He instinctively tensed, eyeing the boy—dressed in a studded leather jacket and combat boots, far too mature for his age. For a moment, he forgot his own situation and blurted out:
“Kid, where are your parents?”
“I’m an orphan.”
The boy hopped down from the wall, picked up the flattened mastiff, and handed it to Shen Wu Chuang.
Shen Wu Chuang winced. “Sorry, I didn’t know—”
But then he realized something was off.
“Wait, where’d you get those clothes?”
“The Association.” The boy shrugged.
Before Shen Wu Chuang could respond, the boy yanked him deeper into the alley, shoving the paper-thin dog into his arms.
“Shh!” The boy pressed a finger to his lips, nodding upward.
Shen Wu Chuang looked up—a dozen officers in black Abnormal Abilities Management Bureau uniforms streaked across the sky, their capes forming sleek cones as they dove.
The leader—a man with a cold, chiseled face, his lips pressed into a thin line, his brows furrowed like a hawk’s—glanced down at the alley.
For a split second, his razor-sharp gaze locked onto Shen Wu Chuang.
A chill ran down Shen Wu Chuang’s spine, as if Death itself had descended, the Sword of Damocles poised to fall.
Fortunately, the man looked away, signaling his team to fly onward. Otherwise, Shen Wu Chuang might have stopped breathing entirely.
“Hey, snap out of it,” the boy patted his arm. “You know who that was?”
Shen Wu Chuang swallowed hard. “I—I do. Captain Xiang Peifeng of the Abnormal Abilities Management Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Team. I’ve seen him on the news.”
—
### The Meteor Incident (Background Lore)
At the end of the last century, a 10-meter-wide meteor exploded 30 kilometers above Ni Xu City’s eastern sea, raining radioactive debris across the globe. The fallout triggered earthquakes, tsunamis, and mass casualties.
But the real horror was the genetic mutations.
Some recovered unchanged. Others perished in agony. A few survived—and evolved, gaining abilities.
The cost? Their minds grew fragile. Ability rampages, abuse, and violence became common.
Facing radiation hazards and rising ability-related crimes, Ni Xu City’s highest governing body, the Three-Ring Council, established the Abnormal Abilities Research Center and the Abnormal Abilities Management Bureau to track, regulate, and suppress ability-users.
The Criminal Investigation Team, led by Xiang Peifeng, was notorious for hunting down rogue ability-users. His brutal efficiency made him a media darling.
—
“Good, you know,” the boy crunched his lollipop. “I thought you didn’t. Now, back to my question—you joining the Association or not?”
Shen Wu Chuang hadn’t recovered from the shock. Normally, he’d refuse outright, but now he hesitated.
“…What does your Association do?”
The boy paused thoughtfully.
“Uphold justice? Take money? Solve problems?”
Shen Wu Chuang’s mouth twitched. Black-market middlemen, more like.
He had just escaped that toxic workplace. The last thing he wanted was another structured hellhole with quotas and office politics.
“No thanks.” He turned to leave.
“Wait!” The boy grabbed his sleeve. “You’re a criminal now!”
“So? What’s it to you?” Shen Wu Chuang stopped, arms crossed, looking down at him. “Gonna turn me in?”
Though if he says yes… what then? Flatten him too?
His rationality was returning, sharpened by fear. He noticed the small suppressant collar around the boy’s neck. What’s his ability? Could I even take him if I had to?
But the boy shrugged.
“You’re not wearing a suppressant collar.”
Shen Wu Chuang bristled. “And?”
The boy countered, “Xiang Peifeng noticed you.”
Shen Wu Chuang remembered that piercing gaze—his hair stood on end.
“So? What’s the big deal?”
But his brain was already racing. That team had been heading toward his company. Had someone already reported the incident to the Bureau?
What now? Run? Where?
The boy studied his expression.
“You know what happens if Xiang Peifeng catches an uncollared ability-user?”
Shen Wu Chuang took a step back. “What does happen?”
The boy lowered his voice.
“I heard…” he whispered, “he locks you in a room covered in ability-user eyeballs. He won’t let you sleep. The others torture you with abilities you can’t even imagine. And he—” his voice dropped to a hush—”he erases the damage, so there’s no proof. Just… endless torment until you die.”
