Sky-cracking Rider

"...Physiological state normal... Biological reaction in sleeping state... Delta waves stable... Spiritual power intensity at 384 degrees... Comprehensive assessment B-grade, Elemental Affinity Eight Stars, no abnormalities found... no Battle Qi..."

Chen Fei's consciousness began to coalesce amid indistinct sounds.

"Oh! Alpha waves present, he's waking up."

Chen Fei slowly opened his eyes to see a hatch with a transparent window, beyond which lay a checkered grid of ceiling panels and evenly spaced lights.

His mind became slightly more functional and he could discern that what he had initially thought to be a "door panel" was actually a cover. Struggling to turn his head, he seemed to be lying in a rehabilitation pod.

First, let's regain focus, and review the homework.

Oh, right, a sudden memory gap... It wasn't from drinking too much, but from an energy deficit of over six thousand points, which caused a surge of blood to my heart and knocked me out.

Also, there was weakness all over my body as if having undergone severe physical energy depletion. Thankfully, there was no severe reaction from lactic acid buildup, likely due to the rehab pod's effect in catalyzing the rapid decomposition of muscle lactic acid, or else I would have suffered unbearably.

Click... Pssst!

Like the sound of deflating, the lid of the rehabilitation pod slowly rose, revealing Chen Fei in his skimpy sleepwear.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

A man with glasses extended his hand toward Chen Fei.

"Those are fingers!"

Chen Fei wasn't about to think the man's weird gesture represented any number.

"Looks normal to me!"

The man calmly withdrew his hand.

After all, it was a multiple-choice question, and there's more than one correct answer.

"Where am I?"

The rehabilitation pod slowly rotated from head to toe, naturally shifting Chen Fei from lying to leaning inside the pod.

"You are in Hanhai, um, at the community health station, yes, a health station, responsible for headaches, colds, distributing external medicine and the like. Surely not for treating something like cancer or AIDS. That definitely wouldn't be handled here."

The man with glasses awkwardly rephrased his speech, looking highly suspect.

"A secret facility, right?"

Chen Fei bluntly exposed the man's evasiveness. He had heard "Hanhai?" followed by an immediate conversational freeze more than once, and it wasn't just from one person.

"Right, right, right! Heh, exactly! Look less, ask less, keep a secret, otherwise, you won't be able to leave!"

The man with glasses continued to gesticulate, clearly not adept at lying.

Technical Staff!

Confirmed!

All are honest kids, incapable of even telling a lie.

"How long have I been lying here?"

Chen Fei stood up, feeling a bit weak. His legs struggled to maintain stability, so he leaned against the rehab pod momentarily, waiting for his body to regain balance and strength.

The man with glasses hastily said, "Ten days, a full ten days."

Unwittingly, the power in the conversation had shifted to Chen Fei.

"By the way, where's my Little Bird? How is Xiao Jiu?"

Chen Fei's first thought was of the little guy.

The little guy should be capable of taking care of itself, and Officer Yuan Zheng of the sergeant's team would also help, and things like bird food could be found aboard the Mobile Base Vehicle.

Moreover, this small town has a high level of greenery, so there would be no shortage of live food like insects, which is even more suitable for Little Bird to forage on its own.

The man with glasses hesitantly said, "Bird? Uh, I have to ask, just a moment!"

He hadn't heard of any bird and immediately took out his phone and started inquiring outside the room.

In the short time it took to exchange these few words, Chen Fei had regained much of his strength and was able to stand firmly on his own.

"'Adam'!"

This artificial intelligence AI had not terminated its process, as it needed to provide the "AI Arena" service to Chen Meng's classmates, and most of the thousand accounts that had been given out were already bound with personal information, with an online rate of no less than 100 people for 24 hours, peaking at 600 people.

Adam: Multiplex frequency wave sampling failed, unable to connect to the battlefield data link.

After ten days, the battle had long been over. How could the battlefield data link still exist? The naive "Adam" never grasped the logic behind it and, after a string of circular errors, terminated its task thread.

AI is AI, even more flexible than a "Cybertrom" derivative, but still unable to escape the inherent limitations of an AI.

"'Adam,' try to connect to the network, locate Xiao Jiu!"

Chen Fei didn't wait for an answer from the man outside and began searching for Little Bird's whereabouts on his own.

He hadn't seen it for ten days and wondered if it had become cold or hungry.

That seemed unlikely; the little guy was clever after all!

And it was a Magical Beast with a unique Social Welfare Number, registered properly, and thus entitled to enjoy legal rights and treatment.

Out of the two leg rings on Little Bird, aside from one being a Spatial Storage Artifact, the other was not just an identity tag but also a tracker.

Adam: Location of "Xiao Jiu" confirmed, 50 meters away and approaching.

Huh?

The civilian positioning error could be as much as three meters which, after "Adam's" algorithmic correction, could be reduced to about one meter.

"Found it! Your bird has been adopted by the management committee."

The man with glasses re-entered from outside, gesturing with his phone.

"I already know!"

Chen Fei calmly opened the closet.

As expected, his clothes had been cleaned and hung inside, not a single piece was missing.

"Huh? How did you know?"

The man with glasses was utterly bewildered.

"Behind you!"

Chen Fei took off his clothes and began to dress himself.

Apart from Xiao Jiu, there was another guest.

"Behind me?"

The man with glasses stupidly turned around, just in time to hear a knock on the door.

Knock knock!

"May I come in?"

"Jiu!"

"Hey, hey, hey..."

The man with glasses was so surprised that he didn't know what to say.

Wasn't it agreed that he was a Metal Ability User, how did this turn into something like a Psychic Power User, that's just unscientific!

A comprehensive satellite and base station positioning leg ring that works anywhere there's network and signal, that's the power of science.

No sooner had the door been opened a crack than a flurry of wingbeats surged in.

"Jiu!~"

A little black-feathered bird had landed on Chen Fei's shoulder, hopping excitedly from left to right and back again, occasionally pecking his earlobe and emitting an excited, loud chirp.

It's no wonder the little one was so anxious after not seeing Chen Fei for several days.

The person outside the room followed and pushed the door open. To Chen Fei, he wasn't a stranger but Major Li Xinliang from the Fire Owl Special Warfare Group, whom he had met before.

"Major Li!" x2!

Chen Fei and the man with glasses exclaimed in unison.

It was said to be an adoption by the management committee, but Chen Fei hadn't expected that the one bringing Xiao Jiu would be a major from the Special Warfare Group.

"It seems you're mostly alright now."

Major Li Xinliang sized up Chen Fei; he had been keeping an eye on the young man's condition these past few days.

Merely a B-rank supernatural power user daring to fight against a being of extraordinary power wielding the Longinus, the audacity was off the charts, and so reckless.

Yet in the end, the former managed to beat the latter half to death, against everyone's expectations.

Reckless, absolutely and utterly reckless.

Surviving was pure luck on his part.

If it had been anyone else, they probably wouldn't have made it beyond the first exchange.

No wait! On this young man, luck seemed to have played more than just once.

A neophyte who dares drag the Dragon of Slaughter into mutual annihilation can't be evaluated by ordinary standards.

"Thank you for bringing Xiao Jiu."

Chen Fei reached out to grab the mischievous little one who had been causing trouble on his shoulder, holding it in his palm.

The little bird treated his palm as its own nest and began to roll around.

Major Li Xinliang said politely, "You're welcome, Xiao Jiu is a Magical Beast and needs someone to look after it. No one would just ignore it."

The whole Hanhai Central Base really didn't have the guts to let such a powerful Laser Jiu mix among sparrows; an accidental blast from its powerful laser beam, and who knew what kind of damage it might cause.

After Chen Fei was picked up seemingly lifeless, the Central Base immediately sent someone to take care of the Magical Beast.

If you want the little guy to behave, it's easy—just connect to the screen of the healing chamber and explain the situation. Little Bird would then patiently wait for daddy Chen Fei to wake up. It's been very well-behaved for the past few days, neither making noise nor causing trouble, showing excellent upbringing.

"If it's convenient, let's find a place to talk."

Major Li glanced at the man with glasses.

Understanding the hint, the latter immediately raised his hands and said, "You guys talk, I'll be stepping out first."

And with that, he left the room.

"Please speak!"

Chen Fei looked at the Special Warfare Group Major, shrugging his shoulders.

If somebody doesn't come to the temple without a reason, then aside from returning Jiu to its owner, the major must have other important matters to discuss.

Major Li Xinliang stood straight up and asked seriously, "Do you know who you fought with that night?"

This was getting to the crux of the matter.

Seeing such a stern expression, Chen Fei guessed that this must be the real issue, while Little Bird was just brought along for convenience.

Chen Fei spread his hands and said helplessly, "I don't know. I know nothing!"

He assured that he was completely oblivious, except for getting into an inexplicable fight, indeed he knew nothing.

He definitely wouldn't cause trouble for himself. Knowing too much might mean never leaving this small town.

"You can say that outside, but here, I'd still hope you'd be honest," Major Li wasn't easily fooled, almost as if about to say "confess and you'll be treated leniently, resist and you'll face strict measures."

Chen Fei didn't like this almost interrogative way of questioning and flatly said, "I really don't know, why don't you ask something more concrete?"

Beyond the opponent's gender being male, Chen Fei knew nothing about his age, name, abilities, or rank.

To suggest there was some feud or grievance between them was stretching it—unless the loop of Divine Song reached that level of pettiness to demand a life?

"Let me reveal a little bit then!"

Major Li Xinliang hesitated for a moment and said, "That guy... isn't human!"

"Huh?"