My Superpower Is Kind of Cute

Chapter 38: Reflection

Seeing how intently I was examining it, Wu Peng said as he headed downstairs, “Mr. Chen, if you’re this interested, feel free to keep looking. We’ll be on our way.” “Sure.” I agreed without even turning around. I wasn’t going to get anything else out of them anyway, and if I kept trying to keep them there, they might just think I was gay. Seeing how readily I agreed, Wu Peng secretly breathed a sigh of relief and, together with Geng Dong, quickly fled this trouble spot. I grabbed the speaker and examined it closely. It was an oval-shaped black contraption with a flashing indicator light on top—it looked incredibly ordinary. Seeing that Qi Yun was also examining it with curiosity, I asked, “Can you tell how it’s built inside? Do you guys have anything like this back home?” “Not really,” Qi Yun answered honestly. “Over there, we basically rely on our own spiritual power for soundproofing—we don’t need any of these fancy gadgets. But seriously, this thing is pretty handy. It’s a must-have for home, travel, murder, arson, and robbery. I’m getting more and more interested in your world.” “That’s exactly what I was saying—technology drives progress. Study hard, and you’ll be able to serve your country in the future.” I chatted casually with Qi Yun, completely carefree, while deep down, I was growing increasingly intrigued by the little gadget in my hand. Less than half a minute later, just as I was wondering whether to take this thing home as a souvenir or something, the indicator light suddenly started flashing faster, and the entire sphere gradually grew hot. I immediately thought of scenes from movies about time bombs, shuddered all over, and instinctively tossed that hot potato out of my hand. A deafening “BOOM” nearly burst my eardrums. A flash of fire erupted from the speaker mid-air, and by the time it hit the ground, its casing had already turned pitch black and was billowing thick black smoke, instantly filling the air with a pungent, acrid smell of burning. Qi Yun and I stared at the scene before us, both frozen in place. Qi Yun spoke softly, “Mengmeng, how did you manage to break it?” “It’s not like I broke it on purpose,” I protested loudly. “Didn’t you realize this thing is a disposable item? It even has a self-destruct feature. Damn, people are so treacherous—that bastard Wu Peng set me up. He didn’t even mention something this important to me. If I hadn’t reacted so quickly, I’d have been blown to smithereens.” “Why are you rambling on? Let’s get out of here.” Qi Yun was much calmer than I was—after all, he didn’t care if his soul got disfigured—and he warned me, “Now that this soundproof speaker’s broken, that explosion just now was pretty loud. It might attract the attention of people nearby.” “Right.” I snapped out of it instantly. Glancing out the window, I saw the lights in the neighboring houses gradually coming on. I knew something was wrong, so I scrambled out of that old house and ran out of the alley without looking back. I had no idea if anyone had spotted me—it felt just like being in a spy thriller, and it was fucking thrilling. “Um, do you think it might start a fire?” It wasn’t until I’d gotten away that I thought of that. Frowning with a hint of worry, I asked Qi Yun. Qi Yun shrugged it off. “Probably not. There were no signs of a fire when we came out, and besides, it’s not like no one noticed over there—it wouldn’t catch fire that easily.” Hearing Qi Yun’s words, I felt even more uneasy. I wandered back and forth on the street for about ten minutes before, feeling guilty, I crept back into the alley. The area around the old house was much livelier than before—at least ten people had gathered, men, women, and children of all ages, all chattering away. Seeing that the house was fine, a huge weight was lifted off my chest. “I wonder which little brats decided to come to this empty house in the middle of the night to party. They hadn’t even started dancing before that cheap Bluetooth speaker blew up.” “Exactly. They should all be arrested and locked up. What kind of people are they? Do they want to keep us from sleeping? I have to get up early tomorrow morning to play mahjong.” … Listening to the comments around me, I felt utterly ashamed and slunk away. By the time I got home, it was already late at night. Dragging my weary body, I took a hot shower to wash away the day’s exhaustion. Just as I was settling comfortably into bed, ready to sleep, Qi Yun walked into my room with a hint of gloom on his face. I immediately pulled the covers tightly over myself, frowned at him, and whispered, “I’m going to sleep.” “I need to talk to you about something.” “Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” I reluctantly got out of bed, scratched my head, and yawned. “You want to watch a movie starring some celebrity again? Just tell me the name, and I’ll look for it for you first thing tomorrow morning.” Qi Yun’s expression seemed to darken even further. He shook his head and said, “It’s not that.” I grew a little impatient. “What else do you have to say?” Qi Yun was silent for a moment before speaking slowly, “What do you think of those people’s abilities just now?” “You’re asking me that?” I snapped. “You should be asking yourself—how am I supposed to know? Who was actually fighting just now?” “I didn’t think they were that strong, but don’t forget—that Huang Zhenxing claimed to be the captain of the Fourth Mercenary Squad. That means there are at least three others at his level, not to mention the members of the Black Cloaks and Hunters factions, as well as the higher-ranking officers above them.” Hearing Qi Yun say that, I began to feel like the situation might be a bit serious. I timidly asked, “You can handle all of this, right? You seemed to be fighting pretty easily just now… right?” Qi Yun shook his head. “Actually, it wasn’t as easy as I’d imagined. The main reason was you.” “Me?” I asked, somewhat taken aback. “Could my good looks actually be a reason holding you back?” “Get lost! Snap out of it!” Qi Yun’s roar snapped me back to reality, and he immediately added in a grave tone, “I used to think that as long as we merged, I could perform at my usual level, but I was wrong. You’ve only just awakened your spiritual power, and your physical constitution is still nearly that of an ordinary person. With you, I can only perform at less than fifty percent of my capacity.” “But… but wasn’t that aura you gave off just now really powerful…?” “Right, that’s the second problem—I can only project an aura, but I can’t unleash my true power.” Qi Yun sighed. “Back in the day, it wouldn’t have taken more than three moves to take that guy down.” I rolled my eyes and said, “So it’s my fault, then.” You have to understand—before he soul-traveled into my body, I was the owner of a lottery shop, happily living my carefree life. It’s nothing like now, with all these messes happening every other day. And now he’s actually blaming me? I can now somewhat understand how my parents must have felt when I was going through my rebellious phase in middle school. Qi Yun said calmly, “Not entirely. After all, it’s because of me that you got dragged into this, Mengmeng.” “At least you’ve got a shred of conscience.” Qi Yun frowned and continued, “But this isn’t a sustainable situation. I’m confident I can take on one Huang Zhenxing, but if two or three more of his caliber show up, it’ll be hard for me to hold them off at my current level. You have to understand—when spiritualists join forces, the result isn’t just one plus one.” I asked cautiously, “Could it be a ‘one times one’ effect? That’s even worse than ‘one plus one.’ ” Qi Yun glared at me. “I’m talking about serious business here.” “So what do you want me to do? Start training… my spiritual power right now?” “That’s for later. I think you, Mengmeng, should join the guild right now.” I eyed him warily. “When did you get brainwashed? Why would you want to join something like that for no reason?” I strongly suspected he’d set his sights on those high-tech spiritual energy products and was just rambling on and on to me for no good reason.