You don't have the power, You know

Qi Yuan flipped back to the official news reports, and the comments below were just as he had expected.

[Collective Purple Clay Teapots, pfft]

[Request a thorough investigation of this patrol team to give them justice]

[Someone was live streaming just as this incident happened, I suspect someone was messing around behind the scenes, don't fall for it everyone!]

[So what if someone was messing around? Are the things these people said not facts?]

[I advise everyone to not place your hopes on other people, just make sure you have the capability to punch back so others don't dare cause trouble]

Qi Yuan opened his browser and started browsing the news.

Endless chaos was happening all over Shen City, Shen City had become a huge mess.

Although it was common to have intrigues wherever there were people, this was not how things should be done...

Was this the Anti-Esper Association carrying out collective action?

His phone buzzed with a message, it was from the Chairman of the Shen City Esper Association, urgently summoning the A-Rank Espers for a meeting.

Qi Yuan got up and bid farewell to Gao Changze's group, "I need to head out for a bit."

"Things have already exceeded what we can interfere with."

Yin Qingran reminded him, she didn't want Gao Changze to get involved in such dangerous matters.

Even if Qi Yuan threatened them with their secrets, she would not agree.

Furthermore, a young master from a prestigious family like Qi Yuan would not be allowed to act recklessly by his clan either.

"This is the duty of A-Rank Espers."

Whether he wanted to or not, he had to get involved, furthermore this was also an opportunity.

Duty huh, then there's no choice...

Wait a minute, Yin Qingran's group suddenly whipped their heads towards Qi Yuan, crying out in unison.

"You're an A-Rank Esper!?"

"Yup."

Other than making Qi Yuan feel a bit smug, he was more puzzled.

Now that he thought about it carefully, it seemed like he had never told them before.

This made him shocked at the restraint of Shen Cheng University's teachers and students.

The teacher knew, and so did Liao Shiquan.

According to his high school's traditions, it should have already spread like wildfire.

Additionally, this case was obviously not something ordinary students could investigate, yet they had followed him to investigate without even asking if he was an A-Rank Esper.

Uh...

Should this be called fearless? Or did you guys fantasize about something weird again?

"Bro Yuan, why didn't you say earlier you had this level of ability?"

Gao Changze immediately switched his attitude.

Just earlier he had still been calling out gently, "Qi Yuan, Qi Yuan", but now he directly switched to calling him "Bro Yuan".

Yin Qingran uncharacteristically stuttered, "J-just how powerful is your Qi family!?"

Such a young A-Rank Esper, yet the Qi family still dared to let him move around freely. Not asking him to inherit the family business, nor to let him join the patrol teams to accumulate merits...

Just how deep were the Qi family's foundations?

They could even casually let an A-Rank Esper do as he wished, giving Qi Yuan the choice to grow independently.

"Well, let's just say it's different from what you imagine."

Qi Yuan casually replied.

Bullsh*tting about things, who can't do it?

If they became members of his squad, did they think they could still run away?

"Tsk!"

Three sounds of inhaling rang out in the room one after another...

...

Shen Cheng Esper Association Headquarters,

The table side was filled with people, the usually bad-tempered A-Rank Espers were quietly seated, waiting without a shred of impatience.

Yi Shi and the Chairman of the Shen Cheng Branch walked in late, and there was still another person Qi Yuan recognized following behind them.

Xue Shizong blinked his dead fish eyes, looking half-asleep, his presence as pitifully low as always.

He noticed Qi Yuan's gaze and nodded in greeting.

The three of them entered and took their seats in succession.

Xue Shizong looked towards the Esper sitting beside Yi Shi, patting that Esper's shoulder.

"Can you let me have that seat?"

That Esper jumped in fright, his gaze towards Xue Shizong filled with caution as he stood up to let Xue Shizong have his seat.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, the Chairman of the Shen Cheng Branch signaled the female officer to start the meeting.

The female officer briefly summarized what had happened recently, placing emphasis on today's occurrences.

A woman wearing a slim-fit combat uniform said, "We already know what's going on, just tell us straight what the upper echelons have arranged."

As she spoke out, the Espers' discreet probing gaze focused onto Qi Yuan and Xue Shizong.

One was an official whose background shouldn't be pried into, while the other was someone dispatched here during this special period of time.

The Chairman of the Shen Cheng Branch put his hands together, the skin looking as aged and withered as tree bark, heaving a long sigh.

The A-Rank Espers' hearts thumped, the Chairman's behavior undoubtedly heralded bad news.

"Since things have already come to this, I won't hide it from everyone."

"The Nine Seats and all dispatched S-Rank Espers can't make it back, similar events have also happened in Ji Du, they are unable to transfer more manpower to assist us."

An uproar rang out in the conference hall. Although they had already expected this in their hearts, such news was still hard for them to accept.

Someone slammed the table as they anxiously asked, "Why can't they come back!?"

"Because the Cleanup Plan failed, they are trapped in the Monster Zone. This is also why your orders were to investigate the suspected High-Rank Monster case. We need to know whether that Monster has advanced in rank, and if there is still a chance to open the exit for the S-Rank Espers to come back out."

Yi Shi stood up, lacking his usual irritability.

He swiftly finished explaining before this group of A-Rank Espers could ask further questions, "The good news is, according to the information you've gathered over this period, it shows that this Monster has yet to advance in rank. If we can help open the exit and let the S-Rank Espers escape the Monster Zone, things will become much easier to handle."

The Espers: ...

If not for keeping up the image expected of a veteran elder brother over many years, they probably would have spat at Yi Shi.

Are you kidding? What level are we at? Can we even fight? We don't have that kind of capability, do you understand that!?

Most of the S-Rank Espers were trapped inside, yet you want us A-Ranks to resolve things, why don't you go up to Heaven instead!?

Someone asked, "What's above S-Rank?"

Yi Shi looked towards Xue Shizong.

Xue Shizong turned off his phone screen and explained in a steady tone.

"Currently, the standards human society uses to grade Espers, Monsters and so on originate from Betafur's standards of E-Rank to S-Rank. These standards were adopted globally, so we had no choice but to change as well in order to facilitate communication. Later on we discovered that there were even more powerful existences above S-Rank. At first we collectively termed them S+, representing power that surpassed S-Rank."

"It was only a year ago when an extremely powerful Monster that vastly exceeded S+ suddenly appeared in San Zhu's region. From then on we formally split them into the SS-Rank and SSS-Rank."

"Apart from immense boosts in their base abilities, the main difference between SS-Rank Monsters and S-Rank Monsters is that their Monster Zones are no longer immobile, thoroughly liberating their range of activity."

"As for SSS-Rank, the full extent of their power still remains unknown. We only know that if left alone, they potentially have the power to transform the entire globe into Monster Zones."

The entire conference hall fell silent. The massive amount of information overloaded the brains of these A-Rank Espers, leaving their minds buzzing and dizzy.

The frog at the bottom of Qi Yuan's well was also stunned into bewilderment.

He had thought he was just about to hit the level cap and start his happy existence as an immobile money-making turtle, he didn't expect the game publishers to open up new levels again.

Are they playing with him?