Using the cover of darkness, Qing Chen quickly dashed past two blocks and ran into the familiar landscape.
Instantly, his photographic memory converted the terrain of his neighborhood into that of a 3D model.
A chilly autumn breeze swept across the ground, still carrying a hint of dryness from the day.
In just a short few moments, the teenager quickly calculated his opponent's running speed in his head…
No, he needed to get there faster!
With his lungs burning, Qing Chen could almost feel the sensation of his blood boiling.
Suddenly, he stopped at a hidden corner.
His breathing seemed to have stopped as well as his body.
The tung tree leaves were rustled in the wind as their shadows swayed around on the ground, illuminated by the moonlight.
Jogging footsteps could be heard in the distance, and a light above just got switched off.
None of these bits of information were important to Qing Chen anymore.
3.
2.
1.
NOW!
The teenager raised the shovel above his head and swung in front of him.
With a loud bang, the shovel slammed into the man's legs, hard. Losing balance, he rolled forward.
Qing Chen didn’t hesitate another second and fled the scene as soon as he did the deed.
As he left, that man's screams echoed across the entire neighborhood. Almost all of the lights lit up, and some peeked out their windows to look at what was going on. But all they could see was a man screaming in agony on the ground.
The man's right leg was broken, and the bleeding wouldn't stop.
Slowly, more and more people started gathering in front of their windows, but none of them saw Qing Chen.
Even the man himself didn't realize what had hit him.
After Qing Chen returned home, he saw that Li Tongyun was shivering in Jiang Xue's arms. Qing Chen asked, "Is Xiaoyun hurt?"
"She is okay, just scared. I'm gonna go call the police now and let them know about the situation."
"It's alright, I already called," said Qing Chen.
Li Tongyun heard his voice and raised her face towards Qing Chen, "Brother, there's one that ran away." Tears streamed down her face.
"Don't worry, I took care of him already," answered Qing Chen.
Only now did Jiang Xue notice the trace of blood between Qing Chen's forefinger and thumb, the place where he held his shovel. It was obvious that a skirmish went down.
But to her surprise, other than the small blood print, Qing Chen’s body did not show any obvious signs of injury.
"Your hand is bleeding. I'll get some bandages for you," said Jiang Xue as she stood up.
"I'm just a normal kid," Qing Chen sighed as he looked at his bleeding hand, feeling helpless at the feeling that his physical body was not strong enough.
Looks like he needed to figure out the abilities of the Inner World, and fast.
"Aunt Jiang Xue, I'm fine." Qing Chen said, "I have bandages in my house too."
By now, all of their neighbors were awake from the noises. At first, they were afraid to come out, but now as it got quieter, they all peeked out their doors.
Seeing that more people were getting attracted to his apartment, Qing Chen hurriedly said, "The police will be here soon. Remember, I have no association with what happened today."
Jiang Xue hesitated and said, "Alright."
……
The police cars sirens, the curious whispers from people talking, and the messy footsteps all faded to the background. They had nothing to do with Qing Chen anymore.
He lay on the bed, thinking to himself about the moment he swung the shovel at that criminal. He felt reborn like he was living in the life of a new person.
One reason that he decided to take revenge on that man was that it was wrong to make a little kid have to feel pain like that.
Another reason was that he needed to practice gaining courage and confidence to prepare himself for the further dangers of the Inner World.
He slowly drifted asleep… until a knock on the door woke him up.
Qing Chen opened his sleepy eyes and found Li Tongyun outside his door.
"Brother Qing Chen, can you come upstairs for a moment?" Li Tongyun said meekly.
"What happened?" Qing Chen was confused.
"You need to help mom," said Li Tongyun, it seemed to be something urgent.
Qing Chen hurried upstairs and saw that Jiang Xue was sitting beside the table with both of her arms by her side.
"Did you get hurt?" asked Qing Chen.
"No," answered Jiang Xue, "… But my mechanical limbs are out of battery."
This time Qing Chen was seriously surprised because he never considered the fact that the limbs require a battery to function. He always assumed there was more advanced technology that powered it, like a nuclear reactor or something.
Jiang Xue had used her mechanical limbs so much in the past few days, now they couldn’t move anymore and were useless.
In simple words, it was out of battery.
"Wait, how come the battery ran out so fast?" Qing Chen asked, "How do people in the Inner World charge them and still be involved in heavy combat?"
Jiang Xue explained, "There is a lot that you don't know since you haven't been there. The Inner World has already finished fully upgrading its electric charging systems. Around the cities, you could see nuclear-powered condensed energy towers. The power that was generated by these towers could be delivered to the ‘cloud towers' that provide electricity for the entire city."
"In the Inner World, 90% of electric-powered devices, including cars, communication devices, mechanical limbs, kitchenwares, and lighting, are wireless. Just like the Internet, the charging system covers the entire city like WIFI."
"Everyone has their own billing number, not dissimilar to an ID card. The charging systems will calculate a month of usage, and as long as you pay the bills, you can enjoy convenient charging. These systems are, of course, owned by the five big corporations."
"In City 18, there are about three hundred cloud towers working around the clock, so people there already lost the sense of having to "charge" their devices, because their devices are constantly being charged."
Wireless charging? Isn’t that like the dream of Nikola Tesla?
Now, Qing Chen used his knowledge to analyze.
The primary function of charging was to deliver energy to various devices. In the Outer World, there was such technology developed already, like the Xiaomi Air Charge technology, covering the charging of an entire room.
Xiaomi’s technology was based on the fact that they were able to precisely locate the waves transmitted from the devices that need to be charged.
However, among the two, the location technology was the most important, because if it didn’t function as intended, the charging system would waste tremendous energy, emitting power in all directions instead of toward one point.
If the location technology was not matured, the charged air would coalesce in the room, heating it like a microwave.
This was a terrifying thought to consider.
From what he had heard, the Inner World must have overcome the technical difficulties and had achieved what the Outer World could only imagine.
Would this device be harmful to humans? The damage must be minimal since its radiation would be even less than that of a cell phone.
As technology improved, it wouldn't have much effect on humans at all.
Although Qing Chen hadn't researched the technology of charging in the Inner World in-depth, he still learned about Nikola Tesla in school and knew about the air charging technology.
But regardless, this was a brilliant and convenient invention.
At this time, Li Tongyun suddenly asked, "Would this wireless charging emit radiation? Last month, there's an old couple nearby that broke their cellular lines because they said these cause too much radiation. Would that cause even more radiation than cellular lines?"
Jiang Xue didn't think much about that, but now that Li Tongyun mentioned it, she also became a little worried, "I think I read an article online that even cell phone's radiations are dangerous, so would those cloud towers be even more harmful?"
Indeed, there were too many rumors about how phones could pose dangers to human health.
Some believed the rumors to such an extent that they even took down cables and lines built by cellular companies…
Qing Chen thought about it and said, “Maybe the level of radiation differs for different people."
"What do you mean?" asked Li Tongyun.
Qing Chen considered this for a moment and finally said, "People who study less in school get more radiation."
Li Tongyun: “???”
Jiang Xue: “???”
… …
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