Confinement Reprieve, New World Order
Less than a day later, Di Tian, Jiang Po, Huang Shang and the rest of the original twelve alighted from the Nine Lights Void Ship.
Actually, they didn't technically alight by themselves. The scary-looking lady, Shen Li, simply came into the cabin where they were and told them they were going to be released. The next moment, she waved a hand and they were all teleported off the Void Ship at the same time.
"Ah, I missed this smell," Jiang Po had a wide smile on his face as he took in deep breaths of air. Noticing the odd looks everyone else was giving him, he said, "What? I surely can't be the only one who got sick of the stale metallic smell inside the ship?"
"I don't think anyone else missed the faint smell of smog outside the ship, dude," Di Tian patted his friend's back humorously. He glanced around.
Liang Qiang was glancing around too, "Isn't this....."
"Block 31C? Yeah, I think," Di Tian cut in. The former dormitory block was now rubble. The area was marked with yellow caution tapes with bright lettering warning people to keep away.
Some of them became misty-eyed at this point. There was something they had deliberately avoided talking about; out of the two hundred and ninety something persons that occupied the block, they were the only people that survived the explosion.
Forgetting the fact that not everyone knew everybody else on the block, some of these people were casual acquaintances, classmates and even roommates.
"What do we do now?" Huang Shang muttered.
"Given the circumstances, it's likely that we've been assumed dead," Di Tian said. "We should start from there and try to get in touch with our families and friends."
They nodded. With the news they knew about the upcoming recruitment event, it was rather pointless for them to remain in college. All of them wanted to participate in the global competition and join the cultivation organizations outside the planet.
Liang Qiang was the first person to leave. Her home residence was not far from the University. Others followed suit afterwards.
Soon, only Di Tian, Jiang Po and Huang Shang were left.
"Tian'er, you could come home with me if you don't mind." Jiang Po hesitated before speaking. He knew Di Tian did not have a home to go to; he was an orphan.
"I'll be fine, but thank you," Di Tian said with a smile. He wanted to be left alone more than anything else right now.
Huang Shang suddenly said to Jiang Po, "C...Can I come with you?"
"Err," Jiang Po threw the guy a perplexed glance. "Why? What about your folks?"
"I'm better off if they think I'm dead," Huang Shang gritted his teeth hatefully. Di Tian and Jiang Po secretly exchanged perplexed glances.
"Sure, there's no problem. You can come with me. Before we leave though.." Jiang Po turned to Di Tian. "Tian'er, do you want to go on a sky ride with me, hehe?"
"A sky ride?" Di Tian snorted derisively. "Ignoring the fact that you probably don't have a hang of your flying ability yet, are you planning to carry me in a piggyback style, tsk?"
"I was actually thinking of carrying you the 'bridal carriage style', but piggybacking doesn't sound that bad if that's what you want," Jiang Po smirked suggestively.
"I think I'll pass, bye," Di Tian's eyes widened in mock irritation and he hurriedly dashed away in a half-run. Jiang Po and Huang Shang chuckled heartily as they watched his back view.
"He sure runs fast," Jiang Po commented, secretly relieved that the little charade lifted Huang Shang's mood. "Shall we?"
Huang Shang nodded, then said seriously, "You're flying, right? Should I hold on piggyback style, or will you carry me princess-style?"
Jiang Po's expression stiffened.
*****
Di Tian first visited a local bank nearby to withdraw some funds. His bank hadn't been notified yet about news of his potential demise, so the process was smooth.
That done, he purchased a new laptop as all his devices were lost in the explosion. Luckily, he had a cloud backup, so he was able to sync the data from his old device to the new one.
Ignoring the bombardment of work mails in his inbox, he went straight to the social platforms. A string of tags caught his attention almost immediately.
#GlobalFlashGrenade#SpecialAbilities#Superpowers #NewEra#ElderYi#PlanetColonization#EarthTakeover #NewWorldOrder#GlobalCompetitionAnnounced#WorldTournament #CultivationEra
Di Tian clicked on a couple of the tags and read some of the top posts.
#Superpowers: Everyone on the Planet is a Modern Day Mutant after the Global Flash Grenade.....
#ElderYi: Overpowered Entity Reportedly claims Sovereignity of the Planet....
#GlobalPowerShift: USA Capital City Devastated by Elder Yi's Retaliation...
#WorldTournament Global Competition Announced by Elder Yi set to mark Earth's Integration into the Cultivation Universe...
It was just as Zhu Lan had reported. Di Tian spent more time watching clips of people who posted themselves using their special abilities.
He realized that this pool of special abilities was very vast. Then again, it made sense as the planet had more than a billion humans alone .
Telekinesis, telepathy, flight, invisibility, shape-shifting, intangibility and elemental manipulation were the more common ones while only a few gained special abilities to manipulate the elements and cast force fields. Some even claimed they had temporal and spatial manipulation abilities, although the claims sounded bogus.
Di Tian watched a video of a girl who claimed she could halt time for a millisecond. In the clip, nothing basically changed, and the comment section was filled with people calling her out for lying.
"In retrospect, my accelerated healing and mind splitting abilities seem rather lacklustre," Di Tian could not help but think. But the next moment, he shook off this line of thought.
"Compared to the special abilities, the Grand Primordial Helix in my Sea of Consciousness holds more significance. Now, if I could fully unlock its secrets...."
Intentionally, he withdrew into his mind space to observe the double helix structure. This time, he decided to try out a few experiments he had been wanting to for a while.