You can’t run hypotheticals on life. Just like no one can know how they’ll be living ten years from now, no one can rewind to some past fork in the road, change one condition, and see how the present would look.

  So when Zhu Shi said that, I could only give a noncommittal response. Still, there was one thing she’d gotten wrong. I’d emphasized it before: the real object of my obsession isn’t the supernatural itself. It’s the unpredictable, reality-transcending adventure. The world of the strange just happens to come closest to delivering that. They look similar on the surface, but to me the distinction is huge.

  “Since you brought up my ability, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask for years.” I spoke seriously. “It’s important to me.”

  Seeing my tone, she straightened up. “Go ahead.”

  I asked the question that had haunted me for so long.

  “What exactly is my superhuman ability?”

  “Hm?” She looked confused. “You’re asking me? Don’t you know better than anyone?”

  “It’s like this…”

  I laid out the full story of how I awakened—everything from start to finish.

  “Ah, no wonder you carried candles around in junior high and kept staring at them.” After hearing it all, realization dawned on her face. Then she delivered an unintentionally brutal line: “I even wondered if you’d been possessed by some evil spirit to act so strangely. Turns out the weirdness was just your brain.”

  “Did you say something just now?”

  And how did she even know about my junior-high days?

  “Ahem!” She coughed awkwardly, finally getting serious. “Right. So what you want to know is the underlying principle behind your ability, correct?”

  “Exactly. Even in fictional worlds, stories usually explain where powers come from. Is it some undiscovered mutant gene? Radiation from a special mineral? Or maybe humans are just capable of awakening abilities, but only a tiny percentage ever do…” I rattled off a few examples.

  “That’s hard for me to answer precisely.” She studied me up and down.

  For a moment I had the uncanny sensation that my clothes had vanished and I was being examined completely bare—maybe she was using some kind of special perception. The feeling passed quickly. She withdrew her gaze and concluded, “There are many known causes of superhuman awakening. Everything you just mentioned has real documented cases. All I can say right now is that you don’t appear to have any demonic or monstrous blood mixed in. Anything more specific would probably require detailed testing.”

  Ask Luoshan for in-depth testing… I weighed the idea carefully in my mind.

  “But that’s strange…” Zhu Shi suddenly recalled something. “By all logic, supernatural entities and phenomena attract each other. Since you’ve been a superhuman for years, you’re already part of ‘our side.’ The fact that you’ve never encountered anything weird up to now is even harder to explain.”

  “Supernatural things attract each other? Why?” I asked, intrigued.

  She gave a shrugging, non-answer: “No idea. It’s just an accepted phenomenon.”

  “Isn’t that explanation a little too vague?” I complained.

  “And a lot of the places you investigated before—I checked them too.” Then she said something I couldn’t process at first. “Plenty of them genuinely had supernatural activity. For someone like you, finding them shouldn’t have been that hard. Yet you never ran into anything…”

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  Her words sent a shockwave through me. “Wait—I don’t understand. You’re saying…”

  “I can’t figure it out either. It’s almost like you and supernatural events don’t attract each other—you repel each other.” She sounded genuinely puzzled.

  Many of the places I’d investigated really did have genuine supernatural activity? And I was somehow repelling weird events?

  This was the first time I’d ever heard anything like it.

  But if she wasn’t exaggerating earlier, then logically I should have been far more likely than an average person to stumble into the supernatural. Years of searching with zero results really didn’t add up.

  I steadied myself and probed tentatively: “…So, following that logic—if I were to join Luoshan…”

  “If we can’t identify the reason, even becoming a member probably wouldn’t change anything. You’d most likely still be cut off from supernatural encounters.” She stated it bluntly, then fell into thought. “Speaking of which, by all rights you should have missed the cave in the fifteenth-floor room just like every other time… Was there some special change this round that finally let you encounter something?”

  Hearing that, only one decisive change came to mind—I met Alice.

  I’d just been thinking that once I connected with Luoshan, I wouldn’t need Alice’s jinx-like aura anymore. Now it looked like that was wishful thinking.

  I absolutely cannot let Alice leave!

  She was still indispensable—more so than ever.

  I had to keep her firmly in my grasp. No matter what, I couldn’t allow her to slip away.

  Luoshan seemed to be looking for Alice too, but I had no idea what their goal was. Could I get some information through Zhu Shi? I carefully considered how to phrase my questions. One wrong word and I might tip my hand—revealing that I knew where Alice was.

  “Anything else you want to know?” Zhu Shi seemed to notice the question hovering on my lips. “It’s fine. Today we basically met each other for the first time all over again. You’ve already told me a lot—I’ll answer whatever I can.”

  “Just about the fallen demon hunter.” I finally settled on my wording. “You said earlier he was the killer from the murder eight months ago in that fifteenth-floor room. But the police officer I talked to claimed the murderer from eight months ago was the same person as the recent serial killer—and that it was a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girl. Was the fallen demon hunter… actually a girl before he transformed?”

  “Oh, that…” She looked embarrassed. “No, that’s not it. Don’t worry—you didn’t burn a little girl.”

  “So the officer lied to me on purpose? He framed someone innocent as the killer?” I pressed. “Why? Who is this girl he was looking for?”

  “That’s related to a mission Agent Kong is currently on. It’s not really convenient for me to disclose…”

  From her expression, it seemed even she felt uneasy about Luoshan pinning serial murders on Alice. But I was still an outsider to her—no direct connection to the matter. Pushing too hard might raise suspicion. I’d have to find another angle to probe.

  Right then, Zhu Shi’s phone rang.

  She glanced at the caller ID, her face shifting to professional mode, and answered.

  I quietly moved my right hand behind my back and lit a “firefly,” using its special perception to eavesdrop. The caller was one of the gray-uniformed personnel who’d collected the fallen demon hunter’s body earlier. Their tone sounded odd—they said preliminary autopsy results were in and asked Zhu Shi to come take a look.

  What could be so important that they needed a frontline operative to come back and see it personally?

  Zhu Shi agreed, ended the call, then turned to me with an apologetic look. “Sorry—I have to head back. Work stuff.”

  “Related to the fallen demon hunter? Before he died he said he’d met me two years ago and that we had bad blood, but I have no memory of him at all.”

  I’d mentioned that briefly when recounting the fight.

  “I’ll look into it.” She nodded, then added, “Actually, there’s something very strange about his death.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “He had another ability: using shadows as pathways to teleport between different spaces.” She explained. “But according to your description, even while fleeing in panic, he never once used that skill—which would have been perfect for escape. Maybe I’m overthinking… but this incident might not be over yet.”

  That ability did ring a bell.

  The fallen demon hunter had first appeared by emerging from a shadow.

  If he could come out of shadows, he could obviously go into them.

  Yet even in desperate flight, he never escaped into one—not until death.

  This incident might not be over—I couldn’t help thinking the same thing.

  After saying goodbye, Zhu Shi turned and hurried away. I prepared to head home myself.

  If circumstances had allowed, I’d originally planned to take out the black jade I’d obtained from the basement and ask her to appraise it. But judging by the wariness she showed toward supernatural objects and her strong sense of duty as a Luoshan hunter, handing it over might mean I never got it back. So I shelved that plan for now.

  Suddenly I noticed she’d walked a few steps, then turned back to look at me—her eyes hesitant.

  I didn’t know what she wanted to say, so I stayed put and waited.

  After a moment she let out a breath. Her expression softened, and her voice returned to its everyday tone. She gave me a small smile.

  “See you tomorrow, Senior Zhuang.”

  She spoke with a gentle smile and raised her hand in a light wave goodbye.