Epoch of Twilight

Fang Qianru opened the door, and just as she had finished changing her shoes, the door of the guest room opened.

"Cousin, you have returned from the mission!" A girl said. She looked young, maybe around eighteen or nineteen. She was wearing a thin night gown and her face was flushed with a tired look but had an expression of a sweet innocent girl.

If Luo Yuan was there, he will surely recognize this lady, not as a stranger but as Wen Yujie that got lost in Desert city.

She was lucky as she just had a close encounter with death. Just as the last train arrived in Hope city, there was a strong earthquake in Desert city that flattened the surrounding area. Just as luck would have it, her cousin sister lived here and she did not need to go to the refugee camp that was set up by the government.

"It’s already late, why aren’t you sleeping yet?" said Fang Qianru, her face showed signs of being tired.

"I couldn’t sleep without you coming back!" said Wen Yujie.

"Are you still thinking of what happened in Desert City?" Fang Qianru asked with a worried expression.

"No. It was a natural disaster and was also fated. At least some people are still alive," Wen Yujie sighed and was reluctant to talk about it. Living in the post-apocalyptic era, one would have to be strong or they would not be able to survive the apocalypse.

"Who is the owner of the clothes you’re holding?" At this moment, she noticed the clothes that her cousin was holding. The clothes seemed to be a set of combat uniform. However, what surprised her was that this uniform belonged to a man.

After seeing Wen Yujie’s looking at the clothes she had in her hand, Fang Qianru began to panic and pretended to pay no attention to it, throwing it on the couch, "I found it by the road. I’m not sure who’s the owner but it would be a waste to throw it away so I took it back."

Wen Yujie looked at Fang Qianru suspiciously. She knew her cousin well, and she was from a family that was well to do. Furthermore, her aunt was a doctor, so typically her cousin would also be obsessed with cleanliness. Even though it was the apocalypse, her living conditions were still above average because of her strong evolved abilities. Based on her character, she would not just simply pick up old, worn clothes. This was just too strange. Nonetheless, she turned her gaze onto the garment, "This is just nice, the rags are getting dirtier. I will cut up the clothes."

Before she could make it to the couch, the garment was back in Fang Qianru’s hands and with an unnatural expression, she said, "Oh gosh, to cut such clothes that are still in a good condition when a set of army uniform would cost 20 catties of food coupons! If you need new rags, you can take any of the old clothes from my wardrobe."

"Well if you don’t want to use it for rags cloth, don’t tell me you want to wear it?" Wen Yujie said, "Or do you plan to wash the clothes and return them to its owner?"

"Wen Yujie, are you done yet?" Fang Qianru flushed and knew that she was teasing her. From being embarrassed, she turned angry and said, "Are you being mischievous? Let me see what I can do with you!"

Just then, she leaped towards Wen Yujie and the two of them started a game of tag until Wen Yujie finally begged for mercy, ending the game.

Wen Yujie continued to pester her for a while and saw that her cousin was tight-lipped. No matter how she asked or prodded her cousin, she would not say who the clothes belonged to. She soon grew tired and returned to her bedroom. However, Fang Qianru followed her closely, quietly entering the room before she went under the covers and asked softly, saying, "Do you really want to know? Stay up with me and tonight we sisters will have pillow talk."

Wen Yujie secretly smiled to herself and muttered, "I am dead tired, spit it out if you want to talk."

Seeing that Wen Yujie did not object and was nonchalant about it, she slightly covered her flushing hot face and asked, "Do you believe in love at first sight?"

"Did you meet a handsome guy? These type of people are the most unreliable. Be careful and don’t get cheated," Wen Yujie said but found that her cousin had already fallen for this man and was worried.

"He is not like those handsome guys with pale faces, though his skin is also a milky white!" Fang Qianru quickly retorted, and went silent for a while before softly saying, "Originally I had not wanted to say this but if it wasn’t because for him today, you may not be able to see me now."

As she mentioned about this, she could not help but feel traumatized. The situation then was too fearsome, and Luo Yuan had saved her from hell.

"Ah!" Wen Yujie was surprised, "What happened, was it that dangerous?"

"There were mistakes in the information given. In the beginning, it was thought to be just an average mission and we did not expect to encounter a vicious creature that was way beyond our capabilities. The vice-captain was killed and I was trapped, only being able to await death. It was he who saved me."

Wen Yujie could feel Fang Qianru’s body tremble slightly. Obviously the situation that she was describing was an understatement of what actually happened.

"So the uniform belongs to him?" Wen Yujie asked.

"Yes!" In the dark, Fang Qianru gently nodded her head as her face flushed red. She had a giddy expression and said, "Oh what do you think I should do, I think I have fallen for him. He’s just so handsome and gentle when he speaks. His eyes are just like magic, crystal clear and bright. Just one look at him makes my heart feel like jumping out of my body."

Wen Yujie was secretly worried. With her cousin’s current condition it seemed like she was ready to throw herself into the arms of that man. If this stranger had ill intentions, she could foresee that Fang Qianru would be willing to do anything, even to the point that she could be sold. She quickly asked, "Do you know of his background? What if he already had a family, what would you do?"

"That I am not sure, he is a new colleague and we just met today," said Fang Qianru, slightly distressed. Suddenly as if she remembered something, she excitedly exclaimed, "Oh yes, I had asked about him, and it seemed that he was also from Desert City. Perhaps you might know him."

Wen Yujie was stunned for a moment, her expression turned stiff as she had a bad feeling about this, "The guy ... ... what is his name?

"Luo Yuan, his name is Luo Yuan. Do you know him?" said Fang Qianru in anticipation.

"Luo Yuan!" Wen Yujie repeatedly mulled over the word, her mind was distracted.

"Do you know him? Desert City is so small, you must have heard of him!" Fang Qianru kept asking.

"I know him!" Wen Yujie grunted a reply.

Fang Qianru squealed and sat up immediately. In her excitement, she did not realize her cousin’s tone had changed to a whisper, "If you really do know him, please tell me quickly. What kind of person is he?"

"I only saw him only a few times from afar. I am not familiar with him and I have nothing to say about it. I have to sleep now," Wen Yujie turned around and said.

"Oh, please tell me! You’re not doing anything these days anyway," Fang Qianru kept urging.

But no matter how hard Fang Qianru urged her, Wen Yujie stayed still and did not utter a single word.

...

The next morning, after Luo Yuan finished his breakfast, he walked all the way to the headquarters of the Firearm Bureau’s headquarter.

Once the security guards at the door spotted him, they immediately saluted him. They did not even bother to check his documents and quickly let him in.

Yesterday, Luo Yuan’s godlike, flight into the air was both a shock and a wonder to the two guards.

Luo Yuan nodded his head gently, welcoming the guards’ excited gaze and leisurely walked into the manor.

Because Luo Yuan woke up much earlier than the rest, there was only a small number staff in the hall. After having a sip of tea handed to him by an office personnel, he then picked up a roll of newspaper and scanned through the news.

At this moment, the time was not even 6 a.m. The dawn had a cool, peaceful atmosphere that calmed the mind. The changes of his four-dimensional vision yesterday had caused some unease to his emotions but with this atmosphere, his unease gradually faded and his heart regained its composure.

During the apocalypse, the ability to have a blissful and carefree day like this, and to sit in a peaceful manor like this while quietly sipping tea is a blessing. As for the matter of life and death, everything was up to fate.

Besides, the changes in his vision was not without a solution. The reason why four-dimensional images affected him boiled down to his brain being unable to receive messages with four-dimensional characteristics. If he tackled the problem from this angle, he had already thought of a number of solutions such as enhancing his Wisdom. This will in turn strengthen his Intelligence and weaken the effects of the four-dimensional messages substantially.

Another solution would be to enhance his Will as it could, to some extent prevent the adverse effects of the four-dimensional vision. Ever since his Will was enhanced, the effects of the four-dimensional vision on him weakened significantly. Even if the depth of his four-dimensional vision was 1%, it reduced the effect significantly even if he took off the headband. However, as for the choice between enhancing his Wisdom or Will, these solutions were only temporary. It was like stopping a river to build a dam, he was unable to get rid of the problem from its root.

To solve the problem from its root, Luo Yuan thought that his entire brain should be able to enter the fourth dimension and even his whole body should be reborn into that of a four-dimensional organism. Nonetheless, this was just thoughts that came to him in delusion. Apart from some people who were as gifted and as talented as Xu Zhiqiang, becoming a four-dimensional being was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

The process was a transition of life. With the nature of such a transition, unless there was a miracle, success would be impossible.

But it was better to be more of a realist. Compared his delusional solution of being reborn as an organism in the fourth dimension, his solution of increasing Will and Wisdom was more feasible. His 16 points Will was already sufficient and could temporarily slow down the effects. On the other hand, his current attributes were already above 15 points. Only Wisdom had 14 points which was indeed slightly lower than his average attributes. This had a major impact on him being able to utilize the full potential of his abilities.

Thinking of this, Luo Yuan could not help but regret his decision to destroy the Tree of Wisdom. One fruit from the blue-level Tree of Wisdom could increase his Wisdom beyond 14 points, what more for a green ranked tree. The increment would be more significant.

Although the system could also enhance these attributes, having such invaluable items that helped him in this journey was a boon. No one would complain about having extra help.

Fortunately, the tree was not the only one out there as the tree was closely related to the birth of an intelligent race. Behind the back of every intelligent race, there was a huge chance that they also had a Tree of Wisdom that was similar to this. It also meant that if an intelligent race was discovered, they would also find this magical tree.

Luo Yuan eyes lit up. At this moment, he could not help but feel fortunate to have joined the sword unit.

Compare to him previously operating alone, like a headless fly blindly searching in the wild; he now had the help of government resources with the system in his brain, everything was relatively simpler.

An intelligent race did not refer to a solitary mutated beast. Since it was a race, it would have to be of a huge population and have a certain degree of social organization. Provided its population advanced to a certain size, it would grow outwards and if its expansion led to conflicts with the Reconstruction Area, it would certainly leave a distinct trace of their race.

Just as he had finished the cup of tea, members of the sword unit started to come in one after another.

"Brother Luo, the item you gave me last night had caused me so much misery. In the middle of the night, I was woken up and summoned to the military office for an interrogation. I only came back at two or three in the morning." Before Li Dong even entered the hall, his loud voice could be heard from far while he had a miserable expression.

Luo Yuan chuckled as he had expected this reaction, "Who asked you to be in such a hurry, you could even do it in the day."

"How would I dare ignore the things that you’ve instructed me to do. Nonetheless, it is really good stuff. This is the real deal, a homoeothermic superconductor that could conduct more than 300 volts. It is beyond my imagination. However, it is still in its preliminary testing period and they have alerted the superiors that even the senior officer personally came by to ask about it. I figure that there will still be some people dropping by and ask about the situation." Li Dong looked excited.

"Homoeothermic superconductor!" Luo Yuan was slightly surprised as well.

The concept of a homoeothermic superconductor had been well known in the time prior to the apocalypse. Even for an illiterate person, they would be able to know a thing or two. To give an idea of what it is about, homoeothermic superconductors have always captured the fascination of people studying material science. Until the present day, these types of superconductivity was still unattainable. Prior to the apocalypse, even the most resourceful laboratories that were conducting tests on superconductor was unable to produce these levels of conductivity at temperatures that was way beyond -50 Celsius, let alone such a level conductivity at room temperature. There was still a long way to go.

However the temperature at which the corpse of the mutated beast’s was conductive actually went beyond 300 degrees. This meant that the range of the superconductivity was below 300 degrees. It was simply a miracle and almost revolutionized the whole energy industry. It was not surprising that this news had piqued the interest of top leaders.