Ch 189: The Cannon Fodder Won’t Play Along Anymore [QT]

Mu Xing’s reputation had been badly slandered online, but since he rarely went online himself, he knew nothing about it.

No one knew that the “extremely ruthless” Instructor Mu actually spent most of his days doing the same thing as those “pitiful” ability users—wearing a little straw hat, squatting in the fields, and watching new seedlings grown through ordinary agricultural methods.

Although he was officially an instructor for Dragon Fang, he didn’t manage their affairs, nor did he participate in their missions.

Gu Zhao and the others, on the other hand, were constantly busy, running all over the country.

Even though China’s general environment was peaceful and harmonious, not every ability user was content with mediocrity. Dragon Fang’s task was to root out those secretly scheming to cause unrest.

The Dragon Fang leadership had once approached Mu Xing, inviting him to join in managing Dragon Fang’s daily operations. After all, his strength was recognized by everyone—his plant abilities were practically unstoppable. Many of the newly arrived awakened didn’t even know that their Instructor Mu also had a spatial ability, simply because he never had the chance to use it.

But Mu Xing directly refused, and with perfectly sound reasoning: “Dragon Fang already has plenty of fighters. What it lacks is farmers. Sending me out on missions would just waste my powers.”

Dragon Fang’s senior leaders: Don’t think that just because you said it so righteously we can’t see through you—you just want to farm!

Unfortunately for them, the Agricultural Institute strongly supported Mu Xing. They said his powers had enormous potential; if he could truly produce new high-quality crops, his contribution to society would be immense.

And so Mu Xing was able to loaf around openly and without shame.

Since the higher-ups were of this opinion, providing food, housing, and even a salary, he was happy to stay at the Agricultural Institute.

If they had really forced him to take missions, Mu Xing might have long since run as far away as possible. After all, with his bug-like abilities, if he didn’t want to be found, no one could find him.

*

Leisurely days passed, and three years went by.

The Agricultural Institute’s official account had become one of the most popular government accounts online.

Every so often they released updates—each time announcing some new crop they had developed.

Most were simply novelties, but now and then something truly surprising appeared.

For example, the honeydew-flavored sweet potato from three years ago was now in mass production, and had become one of the public’s favorite foods.

Netizens also knew the Agricultural Institute had quite a few plant-type ability users, and these new crops were their creations. The leader among them was someone called “Xingxing,” who sounded quite young. This was discovered when a conversation was accidentally recorded in a video.

Later, when asked by netizens, an Agricultural Institute spokesperson admitted in an interview that their research into ability-based plants had indeed always been led (or “played with”) by Xingxing.

But no one ever connected this diligent “Xingxing” with the infamous, “ruthless” Instructor Mu.

In these years, domestic ability users had already fully integrated with ordinary people—very different from abroad, where the conflict between ability users and the public had only grown worse.

Groups like Organization Zero loudly proclaimed that ability users were “superhumans,” superior beings destined to rule the world.

As childish as it sounded, there were indeed ordinary people deceived into joining them.

Mu Xing could never understand: according to these organizations, awakened people were “chosen by the gods” while ordinary people were beneath them. And yet there were still people eager to throw themselves at their feet to be treated like servants?

One day, Gu Zhao came to find Mu Xing.

He told him that a neighboring country’s official organization similar to Dragon Fang had asked for help. They had sent an ability-user undercover into Organization Zero, who discovered their headquarters. The intel said Organization Zero was conducting human experiments, trying to artificially create “superhumans.”

This was an outright crime against humanity.

Even worse, the documents showed that Organization Zero had listed many of China’s ability users as targets. They hadn’t acted yet only because it was too difficult.

And strangely, Mu Xing’s name was on the list.

Back then, those two men who had taken an interest in him had later realized that Mu Xing’s symptoms at the time might well have been an awakening—long before the global wave of awakenings.

They had been very interested in the possibility that Mu Xing was the first awakened. Unfortunately, when they risked returning to his old apartment, he had already vanished.

Gu Zhao said gravely, “This is a rare opportunity. Organization Zero is a cancer that should never have existed in this world.”

He had originally planned to let Mu Xing stay behind to look after the base. But unexpectedly, Mu Xing insisted he would go too.

Gu Zhao was surprised. He thought he knew Mu Xing’s temperament—this was the sort of thing he should have no interest in.

But Mu Xing met his gaze calmly. “They didn’t mean me well. If not for that prophetic dream I had, I might already have fallen into their hands.”

He added, “Think about it. With their insane methods, what would have happened to me if they had captured me?”

“So,” he concluded, “we have a grudge.”

Counting the original storyline, this was simply a blood feud.

*

When Mu Xing’s group left China and reached the S-country border, they were met by S-country ability users sent to receive them.

They clearly knew Gu Zhao—or rather, they recognized the powerful China ability users who frequently appeared in public.

But when they saw Mu Xing, they hesitated. This person just looked… far too harmless.

He wore a warm yellow sweater, his skin pale and soft, smiling with bright eyes, like a tender bamboo shoot freshly sprouted from the ground.

He seemed completely out of place among the tough, battle-hardened Dragon Fang members.

“And this is…?” the S-country representative asked Gu Zhao.

Gu Zhao replied, “This is Mu Xing.”

The man asked sensitively, “Mu… as in that Instructor Mu?”

Gu Zhao nodded. “He is our Instructor Mu.”

At once, the S-country ability users looked at Mu Xing with respect and… a trace of fear.

S-so this harmless-looking young man was the infamous Instructor Mu, feared across China and even the world?

If he walked down the street, thieves and con artists would target him in a heartbeat!

But then they remembered the stories—those operatives who secretly entered China, never to return, their fates whispered about among ability users. It was said they had all fallen thanks to this very Instructor Mu.

A chill ran down their spines. Never judge by appearances.

Mu Xing didn’t understand their language and looked questioningly at Gu Zhao.

Gu Zhao, holding back laughter at what they were imagining, explained, “He heard you’re Instructor Mu and got scared.”

Mu Xing: “?”

More confused. “Why scared?”

He was completely unaware of his fearsome reputation.

Yu Wei pulled out his phone, searched “Instructor Mu,” and handed it over.

Mu Xing accepted it, puzzled.

Ten minutes later: “…”

He burst out laughing. “China’s most brutal ability user, the present-day prison minister of the base, the terrifying Instructor Mu… Looks like those guys at the base really have too much free time.”

Yu Wei hadn’t expected that reaction and asked curiously, “You’re not angry?”

Mu Xing blinked. “Angry? Why angry?”

He found it funnier the more he read, handed Yu Wei back his phone, and pulled out his own to start searching his name online. “Don’t you think it’s actually pretty cool?”

The S-country hosts were baffled why Instructor Mu was laughing so happily and cautiously asked Gu Zhao.

Gu Zhao chuckled. “Don’t worry. Instructor Mu is very satisfied with his reputation.”

The S-country ability users: “?”

They looked at Mu Xing with even greater horror. To be pleased with such a savage reputation—what kind of twisted person was this?

*

After arriving at their destination, the Dragon Fang team didn’t rest even a moment and went straight for Organization Zero’s headquarters.

Mu Xing finally stood there again.

It was unfamiliar to him. Even though in the original plot the previous Mu Xing had been here for years, his world had been confined to one spacious laboratory.

But in another way, it was familiar too: every room, every corridor of this vast underground fortress had the same deathly white walls and lights as that lab where he had been imprisoned.

Now it was midnight. Even in Organization Zero, most members were asleep, with only night guards on alert.

The S-country ability users asked, “Should we first ambush the exits to prevent anyone from escaping?”

After hearing Gu Zhao’s translation, Mu Xing shook his head. “No need.”

He took a deep breath and spread his hands.

This was the first time since awakening that he had unleashed his power without restraint.

Countless vines shot up, growing at impossible speed from the ground and the depths below, wrapping the enormous structure in a dense, suffocating cocoon.

It all happened silently, in just a few breaths. The entire base was surrounded by vegetation.

From above, anyone might think a primeval jungle had sprouted there overnight.

The S-country ability users stared, jaws dropped into O-shapes.

T-this… this was Instructor Mu’s power?

No wonder the Chinese people called him the devil!

Was this really the same kind of ability as theirs? Was this something a “normal” ability user could ever do?

A vine coiled around Mu Xing’s waist, lifting him onto a tree branch to sit.

Mu Xing said lazily, “I won’t go in. I’ll watch the outside for you—no one’s getting out.”

Gu Zhao relayed this, leaving Yu Wei outside with him as a precaution, while the rest slipped quietly into the dark.

Mu Xing leaned back on the branch and watched the moon.

Yu Wei, proud and excited, said, “Mu Xing, boss, that move—you stunned them all!”

Not just those S-country people—even Yu Wei, who had already seen Mu Xing’s plant abilities, was still shaken seeing it again.

Like them, he also felt Mu Xing’s power wasn’t even on the same level as theirs.

The difference was like between level-10 mobs and a final boss.

Mu Xing also thought he was amazing. Maybe being the first awakened did mean he was special.

Then Yu Wei suddenly asked, “Are you unhappy?”

Mu Xing was stunned. “Why are you suddenly asking that?”

Yu Wei scratched his head. “Just a feeling. You’ve seemed down this whole trip, and you’ve been eating less too. Honestly, if you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to come. Organization Zero isn’t that scary—with the boss leading us, we’ve got more than enough strength.”

Mu Xing hadn’t expected even the straightforward, rough-edged Yu Wei to notice.

He casually plucked a leaf, chewed it, found it bitter, and spat it out. “It’s not that I don’t want to be here. I just loathe that organization.”

He really hadn’t wanted to come.

But because of the original storyline, it felt as if this body carried a faint obsession of its own.

He sensed that he would only be at peace after watching Organization Zero be destroyed with his own eyes.

Hearing this, Yu Wei thought it made perfect sense.

In his heart, and in the hearts of everyone in Dragon Fang, even the leaders of the research institute and agricultural institute, Mu Xing was basically like a saint.

His mindset was noble, he was selfless, and he had no ambition at all. Despite possessing power so overwhelming it was nearly invincible, he acted as though he didn’t even realize it—spending every day squatting in fields playing with plants.

He treated everyone politely, and if someone gave him even a small cookie, he could be happy for a long time.

If that wasn’t saintly, what was?

For someone like him, it was perfectly natural to despise a vile organization like Zero.

Mu Xing sat perched in the tree. It wasn’t long before alarms began blaring within the underground fortress.

The sound was trapped by layer upon layer of vegetation above, not a whisper escaping to the outside.

Half an hour later, people began to flee from the exits in a scattered rush.

Though the organization had many ability users, even more were unawakened “researchers.” Frail as they were, they were the core of Zero’s human experiments, and now they were being protected and evacuated first.

But each and every one who made it out was “warmly received” by Mu Xing.

So when Gu Zhao and the others emerged from the underground fortress and looked up, they were greeted by the sight of dozens of vines thrashing about in the air—each one suspending a person, all of them half-dead and barely breathing.

The S-country ability users watched in horror as one still-resisting power-type ability user was strung up by a thick vine, smashed against the ground again and again like a sandbag.

Bang!

Smack!

Within moments, the man was bloodied and limp, just like the rest.

Seeing everyone staring at him, Mu Xing said innocently, “They weren’t being very cooperative, always struggling. Tying them up properly took too much effort. I had no choice but to use this method to make them behave.”

The S-country ability users: …

They didn’t understand his words.

But one thing was clear—Instructor Mu was absolutely a devil!

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