Left with no choice, Freya decided to just throw caution to the wind and said, “I wasn't trying to lure you to Sanheng Street! I wanted you to notify the Mobile Squad so they could come and deal with that Rank Five bad guy.”
Hearing Freya's soft, cute voice, Nolan carried her over to a relatively bright spot illuminated by the moonlight and set her down. He then reached out and took off the low-hanging hat on her head.
Seeing the girl's cute appearance and the slight look of resignation written all over her face, Nolan couldn't help but let down his guard a little. There was no denying that humans were visual creatures; seeing something cute always made them relax their vigilance, and Nolan was no exception.
He said, “Since you know about the Mobile Squad, you should also know that they aren't just at anyone's beck and call.”
Nolan was a Rank Four official extraordinary, making him the strongest in this city, but he certainly wasn't the strongest in the entire country. Otherwise, if an extraordinary above Rank Four caused trouble, the whole country would be helpless to deal with them, which was completely unrealistic.
However, after Rank Four, every promotion on the Extraordinary Pathway became exceptionally difficult. This resulted in a very small number of high-rank extraordinaries. Even with an entire country as the base, the total number might barely exceed a hundred. Among them, some might be high-ranking officials, military officers, or the King's personal guards. There were even fewer Rank Five extraordinaries who would choose to work as police officers.
Therefore, these people couldn't be permanently stationed in any single city. Instead, they formed various "Mobile Squads" led by Rank Five extraordinaries, with the other team members being at least Rank Four. If a tricky, major case occurred in the country, local authorities would request one of these Mobile Squads to come and help handle it.
Nolan placed his hand on Freya's shoulder and said, “So, you still haven't explained what that note was all about.”
“Uh...” Freya hesitated for a moment before saying, “Well, um... it's my extraordinary ability. I can see certain things that will happen in the future...”
After all, she couldn't exactly tell him that she had a system, could she? Even if she did, it was highly doubtful whether Nolan would understand or believe her. It was much better to use a more common, easily understood explanation. Passing off the system's death crisis predictions as an extraordinary ability was the perfect cover.
“Prophecy?” Nolan didn't look particularly surprised by this. Since Freya had mentioned the Mobile Squad, it proved she definitely knew about the Special Service and the extraordinary world, and she might even be a rogue extraordinary herself.
Nolan said, “An ability related to prophecy... Are you an extraordinary of the Destiny Pathway?”
Freya nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, quickly agreeing. “Yes... that's right!”
In truth, she had no idea what abilities the Destiny Pathway possessed. So far, she only understood some of the abilities of the War, Law, Mind, and Devil Pathways, remaining completely in the dark about the others.
Nolan added, “But can a prophecy from the Destiny Pathway really predict things thirty days in advance with such precision?”
Freya said cautiously, “Is... is that not possible?”
Nolan didn't know much about the Destiny Pathway either, only possessing some superficial knowledge. He said, “So, you saw a disaster thirty days from now in your prophecy, and you came to report it to the police?”
Freya nodded. “Yes, yes!”
But in the next second, Nolan's tone shifted. “But I'm sorry, I can't just take your word for it.”
Freya's expression froze. Seeing the cautious look on Nolan's face, she couldn't help but look distressed.
How should she put it? It felt a bit frustrating. In the second simulation, Freya had spent a month in Nolan's squad, and she had grown quite fond of this captain who protected his own and cared deeply about his subordinates.
But their relationship had vanished into thin air after that simulation ended. Now, it was just Freya who was extremely familiar with Nolan, while Nolan didn't know her at all.
Nolan continued, “So I can't call the Mobile Squad based on your word alone. To call them in, we need solid evidence, and your prophecy ability cannot serve as that evidence.”
“I will go to the Obsidian stronghold you mentioned and check out that warehouse on Sanheng Street. If the facts are indeed as you say, and a Rank Five fellow is trying to subvert this city, I will immediately request assistance from the Mobile Squad.”
“Ah.” Freya opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Nolan continued, “I know what you're thinking. My trip this time is to investigate. The key is to act cautiously, avoid conflict with the other party as much as possible, and leave immediately once I gather evidence.”
Freya thought about it. This... actually seemed feasible?
In the previous simulation, Freya hadn't specified the enemy's strength. Nolan had likely led his team straight into the warehouse, inevitably clashing with the Obsidian boss and resulting in their total annihilation.
But taking a different approach now and acting cautiously might actually work.
While Freya was lost in thought, Nolan pulled out a pair of handcuffs from his coat. “So, my dear Miss Destiny, will you voluntarily go to the police station and wait for my return, or should I escort you there first before heading to Sanheng Street?”
Hearing this, Freya quickly waved her hands. “No, no, I have to go with you! After all, I can predict the future. Maybe I can spot some danger ahead of time and help you avoid it!”
Nolan thought about it and realized she had a point. Besides, there were only ordinary duty police officers at the station right now, with no other extraordinaries. Keeping Freya, a rogue extraordinary, by his side was actually safer. Thus, he changed his mind. “Fair enough, but you must stay close to me and not do anything unnecessary.”
With that, the two began to advance through the night, and after some time, they successfully arrived at Sanheng Street in the southern part of the city.
It was around ten in the evening. Normally, there shouldn't be many pedestrians on the street at this hour; ordinary people would have gone home to rest. How could they still be wandering around outside?
Yet strangely, upon arriving at Sanheng Street, Freya noticed quite a few pedestrians. Every now and then, she could see one or two scattered people walking down the street.
Freya suddenly recalled something and said, “Be careful. I suspect these people... are highly likely to be the eyes and ears of that Obsidian mastermind! That guy is suspected of having some kind of ability related to 【clones】.”
“Clones?” Nolan frowned slightly, a vague guess already forming in his mind. He said, “Understood. Then we must not let these lookouts spot us.”
As he spoke, Nolan lightened his footsteps, avoiding the moonlight and hiding in the shadows of the buildings. He actually wanted to tell Freya to wait in place, but before he could speak, he noticed she had already caught up, her movements fluid and almost completely silent.
Seeing that Freya wouldn't hold him back, Nolan stopped speaking. Instead, he observed the movements of every pedestrian around them, moving quickly and carefully through their blind spots.
Soon, a dilapidated warehouse with walls painted blue appeared in their line of sight. Even though it was late at night, lights were still on inside the warehouse, as if people were still working.
Nolan and Freya also noticed that the closer they got to the warehouse, the number of nearby pedestrians visibly increased. These people were like minions in a real-time strategy game who had been given a "patrol" command, moving back and forth along set routes.
After observing for a moment, Nolan suddenly said to Freya beside him, “Pardon me.”
“Eh?” Before Freya could even react in her confusion, Nolan scooped her up and tucked her under his arm. Then, just as a cloud drifted across the sky, obscuring most of the moonlight, Nolan bent his knees slightly and leaped several meters high, jumping straight from the ground onto the warehouse roof.
In particular, as they descended and his feet were about to touch the roof, Nolan's falling speed visibly slowed down, as if gravity had been briefly warped. As a result, he made almost no sound at all.
This was one of the core abilities of the Law Pathway's Punisher: manipulating the direction of "force." Specifically, when others attacked Nolan, he could warp the attack, deflecting its direction or even reflecting it straight back.
In addition, he could warp the "gravity" acting on himself, making his body lightweight so he could leap incredibly high, or even completely reverse gravity to take off from the ground. Right now, Nolan had warped gravity just before landing to slow his descent, which was why he made no noise.
It was worth mentioning that activating these extraordinary abilities required consuming something called "spirituality"—essentially, an extraordinary's mana bar.
However, even though Freya was also an extraordinary, she couldn't feel a single shred of spirituality. After all... her extraordinary abilities didn't seem to require a mana bar to maintain.
If this were a MOBA game, she would probably be one of those mana-less warrior heroes.
Nolan gently set Freya down. Rubbing her waist, she couldn't help but whisper, “Couldn't you be a bit gentler? Like carrying me bridal-style or something? Did you really have to tuck me under your arm like this?”
Nolan thought about it for a moment and said, “But I think carrying a strange girl bridal-style would be a bit too intimate. It wouldn't look good.”
Freya was left speechless, actually finding his logic somewhat reasonable for some reason.
The two began to search the warehouse roof stealthily. Since the place was so dilapidated, the roof naturally wasn't intact. Before long, Freya found a small hole. She waved to Nolan, lay flat on her stomach, and began to peek inside.
The first things that caught her eye were large, tightly packed crates, which a group of people in various outfits were moving and unloading.
One of the crates was opened, and a "worker" pulled out a large amount of white protective foam. He then took out a pocket knife, sliced the foam open, and retrieved large jars filled with a turbid liquid.
Freya could vaguely see what looked like octopus tentacles looming inside the jars.
Then came the second and third crates. The items inside were all different: bones of some creature, twisted goat horns, and bags filled with unknown contents.
“These are probably ingredients for brewing potions.” Nolan, who also saw this, wore a grim expression. This place was actually a potion factory!
The Devil Pathway potions distributed by Obsidian were likely manufactured right here!
Just then, Freya saw a figure walking toward the unloading area, standing quietly and watching the people work like an overseer.
However, because the angle wasn't very good, the person happened to have their back to the roof opening where Freya was, preventing her from seeing their face. She could only see that this person had red hair.
This reminded Freya of the flash of red she had seen when she died in the previous simulation!
Freya hurriedly whispered, “That red-haired guy is highly likely the mastermind behind Obsidian!”
She was even contemplating whether she should move to another spot and find a different gap to see if she could get a clear look at his face.
But right at that moment, Freya suddenly felt her vision brighten. The dark cloud that had just covered the moon had drifted away, and the moonlight shone down once more.
Although they were on the roof and it was bright, as long as they stayed low and didn't run around, the probability of being spotted was theoretically quite low.
However... once the moonlight fell again, Freya was shocked to see a figure standing in another corner of the warehouse roof, quite some distance from them.
They had actually stationed a lookout on the roof as well?!
Well, it wasn't hard to understand. If Freya and Nolan could think of the roof as a hidden vantage point to spy on the warehouse, there was no reason the Obsidian mastermind wouldn't think of it too. The lookout hadn't noticed them earlier simply because it was too dark, just as Freya hadn't spotted him either.
In an instant, both the "workers" inside the warehouse and the "pedestrians" patrolling outside froze completely, as if someone had pressed a pause button.
In the next second, their movements were uncannily synchronized as they all turned their heads to look directly at Freya and Nolan's position.
“Run!” Without a second's hesitation, Nolan scooped up Freya in the same under-the-arm position as before and leaped into the air.
The two seemed unaffected by gravity, gliding directly through the air, but the pedestrians below were not slow at all. Like rabid dogs, they craned their necks, keeping their eyes glued to the pair while sprinting down the street.
This scene instantly reminded Freya of the horde of "black figures" that had engulfed her in the system's death preview thirty days from now.
......
Rate on N.U.
