Phantasmal Genesis

“Suspect number 2, Chen Zhou.”

In a Tian Hai restaurant, a man and woman dressed casually were seated facing each other. The man pushed a picture towards the woman.

If Chen Zhou were here, he would notice that the person in the photo was himself.

“A roadside beggar that spend his days hazily suddenly ran to a library five days ago, and he changed a lot after that.”

“He started with writing middle school students’ homework, which earned him his first pot of gold, and then he bought a new set of clothes and even a Hua Wei phone to flex.” 

“Afterwards, he started carving wooden sculptures, drawing on the roadside, performing magic on the streets, busking at night……it’s like he became a multi-talented genius overnight.”

“Just looking at his experiences these past five days, I feel like he wasted his entire life.” The man marvelled, his voice laced with a bit of powerlessness and disbelief.

“He knows all of this? Then why was he even a beggar?” The woman pouted, looking at the picture of the ordinary-looking Chen Zhou.

“Either he’s crazy, or there’s a problem here. It’s no wonder that he’s the second suspect.”

The man took out a lighter and set the picture on fire, before tossing it into a glass cup. After the man watched the photo turn into ashes, he poured his tea into the same cup and started stirring.

“You should know about the Blue Aurora incident, the first suspect is already under our surveillance, and this guy, Chen Zhou, the second suspect, is under our responsibility. If we find anything suspicious, we need to suppress him immediately.”

The man’s face was serious. Only they knew that the effects of ‘Blue Aurora’ was still spreading, even despite the fact that they had controlled the players in the school. No one knew what was going on, and what effects ‘Blue Aurora’ would have on this world.

Some of them thought of the worst possible scenarios, ‘Blue Aurora’ could be a special influence from aliens, and unless human technology could catch up, no one could stop them.

If that was the case, they could only pray that ‘Blue Aurora’ was harmless.

As of right now, they tried to stay positive, and that ‘Blue Auroraa’ was something ordinary humans had obtained from the black technology from aliens.

As the ‘Blue Aurora’ incident only happened in Tian Hai city, they had assumed that there was a reason to believe that the people who had obtained black technology were contained in Tian Hai city.

Of course, the higher-ups had created a suspect list in Tian Hai city, from number 1 to the last number, and that list was still growing.

And as for the two of them, their current mission was to investigate suspect number 2, Chen Zhou.

“Ma, that’s really troublesome.” The woman stretched lazily with squinted eyes, a comfortable sigh escaping from her lips.

At this moment, a server had brought their orders to them. There was a plate of chicken stew with mushrooms and a plate of pickled fish, they were the newly released signature dishes of this restaurant.

“The taste is so much better than the unit canteen.” The woman picked up a piece of fish with her chopsticks, as the fish melted in her mouth, she couldn’t help but praise the food.

The man also ate a piece as he laughed, “If this person isn’t suspicious, we should get him to go cook in the unit.”

The chef in their unit was extremely well paid, it was hard to find someone in this country that could cook better than he did. For appetisers like this, these two could taste the difference with just one bite.

If the chef in their unit had world-class cooking, then the person who had prepared this pickled fish was the best in the world.

It wasn’t exaggerating at all.

This chef had just been working for two days here, and the number of customers coming to this restaurant had basically doubled already. Most of the people that ate here couldn’t even stomach the food from other places afterwards.

The two of them had already gotten tired of the food in their unit, and eating this man’s dish had amazed them.

It wasn’t hard to imagine the reactions of the ordinary people who would praise even one meal in their unit canteen.

“We had him investigated, while Chen Zhou’s parents were still alive, they weren’t the type to cook at home, they were the type that’d cut their fingers just by chopping vegetables.”

“It’s hard to imagine how he became such a godly cook in such a short time.”

“Did his family hide it for him? Was this man born a genius?” The man ridiculed.

A multi-talented child genius had become a beggar for three years after his parents’ passing?

“Should I be proud? That our country has such a genius like this.” The woman laughed leisurely.

And after the two had finished eating, it had been two hours. The man looked at his watch.

“It’s almost time.”

Chen Zhou spent only three hours here every day, and his monthly salary was in the tens of thousands. After work, he would always go to the city’s library on time.

The two of them took a cab to the library first and sat down somewhere.

After a while, a boy wearing extraordinary clothes came in. It was obvious from his movements that he visited this place frequently, he took a book and sat down to read.

It seemed as though he was very engrossed in reading.

The man and woman sat facing each other, and only the woman could see Chen Zhou.

“You wouldn’t believe what he’s reading.”

The woman’s voice was incredulous, mixed in with emotions of shock and laughter.

The man thought for a moment before hesitantly guessing, “《Brief History of Time》? 《Misery and glory》?《Book of Change》?Or……《Posparturm Care of Sows》?”

“No no no.” The woman’s smile grew wider as her eyes became crescent moons, while stifling her laughter, she spoke,

“He’s actually reading 《A Woman’s Value》.”

“……..”

The man held onto his forehead as he turned around to take a look, unable to control himself.

Suddenly, Chen Zhou’s expression froze as he looked forwards with dull eyes, his pupils moving from left to right as if he was looking at something in the air.

“Gambling proficiency……?”

The man thought that he had heard something and was shocked, Chen Zhou seemed to be experiencing something they couldn’t see.

His gaze matched with the woman’s, and he held his breath as he tried to listen in.

“Just being proficient in gambling……Would I be caught……?”

“This is just in the small thousands……I wouldn’t be killed even if I was caught……”

“But……”

“A skill from the operating system……even if it’s just proficient……”

“It should be fine……”

As if he was trying to convince himself, Chen Zhou seemed hesitant.

In the end, he stopped reading and took out his phone to call a cab, leaving the library urgently.

The man stared in the direction that Chen Zhou was leaving towards and took out his phone.

“Suspect number 2 is on the move!”