The patrol officers came back to their senses one after another from the suddenly dramatic change of pace.
The scene was a mess, with trampled and bumped items tangled up in supple spider silk.
Only the vegetable seller who had almost been smashed to death by the spider was still scared out of his wits. He wiped the sweat from his face with a shaky hand, his legs too weak to stand up.
Huh? Where are the people?
The patrol officers realized the young superhuman had disappeared. They looked left and right trying to find Qi Yuan.
"Where is he?"
Xue Team Leader, her hair in a ponytail, scanned the whole scene but didn't see Qi Yuan. She turned and asked the vegetable seller.
The vegetable seller's tanned face was full of confusion. Under Xue Team Leader's repeated questioning, he finally forgot his fear and found his voice again.
"I think... he put the money over there, picked up the vegetables and left."
After answering, he reacted and hurriedly gathered up the money.
He rubbed the bills with his rough fingers to confirm they were real money and the amount was correct before finally relaxing.
"Hey, what are you thinking? A guy that powerful wouldn't shortchange you that little bit of money," Zhou Hai squatted next to him and mocked him, then gave some unsolicited advice: "Uncle, you should put up a sign about what happened today. You'll absolutely make a killing saying what superhumans ate here and how they all frequent your stall, touting the amazing quality.
The vegetable seller had just worked up a frown, wanting to teach the youngster that he didn't understand hardship and you can't judge a book by its cover, when he heard Zhou Hai's latter remarks. His attitude did a 180° turn. His face lit up with a big smile.
"Good idea, young man, you've got a clever mind."
After speaking, the stall owner patted Zhou Hai on the shoulder, grinning ear to ear.
"Give uncle some ideas, I'll give you a 5% discount next time you buy vegetables."
Seriously, not even a 10% discount?
Such a miser...
But Zhou Hai wanted to dig up some info from the vegetable seller, so he swallowed down his real thoughts.
"No problem, uncle, let me tell you..."
While the two were chatting away, the patrol officers were also discussing things.
"He really lives up to being a superhuman, able to calmly buy groceries after killing the monster."
"When will I reach that level of mastery?"
The young patrol officer still had dreams, picturing himself living the life of a high-level superhuman.
"You? Dream on."
The older patrol officer shook his head. He knew exactly what his apprentice was capable of.
"Master, must you discourage me like this?"
"What discouragement, I'm telling the truth. It's better this way. Talking to superhumans, I'd be worried about accidentally saying the wrong thing."
"That's nonsense. If we don't ask now, won't it be even more troublesome to bother them later?"
A gruff female voice rang out. Xue Team Leader's gloomy expression clearly showed she was on the verge of beating them up.
Master and apprentice looked at each other speechlessly, shoving back and forth.
Finally the older patrol officer let out an awkward laugh. "Team Leader Xue, we're outside...gotta keep up appearances...otherwise how will we find fresh meat?"
Xue Team Leader knocked herself on the head, putting away her gloominess and returning to her heroic, dashing big sister image.
No one noticed that under a manhole cover, two pairs of eyes had witnessed it all.
A long time passed before even the patrol officers finished cleaning up the scene and left.
Only then did the two pairs of eyes meet, seeing the same fear in each other.
"It's too dangerous here, I'm getting out."
"Let's go together. We'll find a new boss."
"Okay."
...
Qi Yuan, who had been discussed by the patrol team, was on his way home carrying the groceries.
The dramatic events of his life had enriched his experience dealing with reality. Realizing the "few hundred thousand" were gone for good, he collected himself and headed home with the vegetables.
Their housing complex was average, but conveniently located near facilities.
His mom had raised them alone, so whether the complex was near a patrol station was very important to her.
Unlocking the door with his key, as soon as he entered he heard his little brother's monkey sounds.
"Really? Big brother is that amazing?"
"That's right, big brother goes out late every time to fight monsters. It's a secret he told me not to tell you."
Time may defeat a beauty, but not elegance.
Qi Yunlan sat gracefully on the sofa, smiling as she watched her younger son Qi Ao gesturing wildly.
Qi Yuan frowned as he walked in carrying the groceries and set them on the table.
He didn't know anything about this "secret" of his.
His foolish little brother had obviously been tricked by Mom. Grinning like an idiot, he charged at Qi Yuan head first like a battering ram.
"Big brother, Mom said it's true you fight monsters outside, is it?"
Blocking his pubescent little brother with one hand, Qi Yuan looked over at his distant mother, signaling to her to give him a clue.
Should he expose it or keep up the lie?
But Mother Qi didn't get his signal. She just walked over, smiling as she watched her two sons "communicate", and carried the groceries into the kitchen to start making dinner.
His little brother was still waiting expectantly for his reply, craning his big round head up at him, eyes shining.
Qi Yuan wanted to trick his little brother like before, but today he had actually killed a monster. Saying it out loud felt a bit like bragging.
The overly real experience made him lack the joy he used to get from making up wild stories.
He needed to regain that sense of fun.
Thinking of this, he looked down meeting his little brother's worshipful gaze and smiled mysteriously.
His brother understood, making an "I get it" expression and bouncing around excitedly, still peeking at him as if expecting confirmation of his guess.
Then Qi Yuan's smile disappeared.
"It's fake. Mom lied to you."
His little brother's expression froze for a moment before crumbling. He cried out to the kitchen, "Mom, how could you lie to me?"
Qi Yunlan was chopping vegetables in the kitchen when she heard her younger son yelling.
She stopped the knife in her hand, looking at her vain younger son's breakdown calmly and puzzled, "What? Didn't I say 'let's tell a story about big brother'? Aren't stories all lies?"
Her matter-of-fact reply left Qi Ao at a loss for words. He plopped down on the floor throwing a tantrum.
But Mother Qi had already gone back to chopping vegetables, completely ignoring his actions.
Qi Yuan noticed but wasn't about to placate someone he'd just bullied.
After messing with his little brother for a bit, Qi Yuan was in a good mood as he entered the kitchen to help out, setting out bowls and chopsticks on the dinner table.
Seeing no one rushing to comfort him, his little brother dejectedly crawled up and hid in the bathroom.
Qi Yuan watched his red-faced little brother leave.
Foolish little Ah Dou, you've still got a lot of growing up to do if you could be tricked by your naturally black-bellied mother.
When Mother Qi finished cooking and came out only to find her younger son hiding in the bathroom, ignoring her knocking, she called out, "Are you constipated?"
That simple line successfully broke little Qi Ao who had been waiting for his mom to console him. He had no choice but to roll out of the bathroom.
The family of three enjoyed a warm dinner.
Mother Qi turned on the TV to watch her idol dramas, little brother sat in the living room doing homework, and Qi Yuan sprawled on the sofa scrolling through his phone.
Although a high school senior, the college entrance exam was irrelevant to him.
With monsters running rampant, the population had drastically declined. To allow cities to develop steadily, aside from those in combat majors and top students preparing for scientific research, universities were no longer recruiting more students.
Thus, aside from those preparing for the exam, slackers like him who were neither combat majors nor going into research only needed to enjoy their final wild years of high school.
After all, with fewer people, there was less employment pressure.
Clicking into his class group chat, his class leader's usual endless messages had reached 99+.
[@Yuan, Yuan bro, you've been holding out on us classmates for 3 years, never showing your powers!]
[Shi Jianwen, what's the situation?]
[Go watch livestream 666**233, Yuan god is about unleash his big move!]
[With that level why aren't you going into the combat major??? High level thinking I don't get it]
[All I can say is holy sh*t]
[Link here: https://......]