45: Chapter 45 The Chuunibyou Boy

Yanjing City center, CBD financial district.

The 600-meter-tall "Gemini" tower stood like two sharp swords piercing the clouds. This was the economic lifeline of the entire city, with hundreds of millions of funds flowing through fiber optic cables every minute.

However, at this moment, all passersby had stopped in their tracks, heads tilted up, holding their phones, pointing and whispering at the top of the tower in a mix of fear and curiosity.

On the edge of the rooftop helipad, a figure was roaring against the gale at a height of 200 meters.

It was a youth who looked only fifteen or sixteen years old.

He was wearing a tiger-skin skirt that was not only ill-fitting but looked like it had been picked up from a garbage dump; the fabric even had a conspicuous washing tag that read "Taobao hit, buy one get one free." On his head was a plastic-looking purple-gold crown, and the two pheasant feathers that should have been majestic were now bent by the strong wind, drooping limply over his forehead.

The youth was gripping a steel pipe he had swiped from some construction site, sprayed with a layer of cheap gold paint that would leave gold powder all over one's hands with the slightest exertion.

But in the eyes of the youth Great Sage Equal to Heaven, this outfit was supreme battle armor, and what he held was the Ruyi Jingu Bang.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh —"

The wind at high altitude was strong, blowing so hard that his snot was about to run out, but he couldn't wipe it.

Because the System notification sound was crazily flooding his mind.

[Ding! Detected that the host is performing a high-difficulty roleplay!]

[Current roleplayed character: Great Sage Equal to Heaven Sun Wukong.]

[Current environment: Lingxiao Palace (top floor of Gemini Tower).]

[Current roleplay degree: 15%... 18%...]

As the numbers jumped, Great Sage Equal to Heaven felt a surge of dry, hot power within his body; that was the faint Demonic Qi bestowed by the System. This power made him forget his fear of heights, forget the physics test paper he had to hand in tomorrow, and even feel that he could truly pierce the sky with one strike of his rod.

He stepped with one foot on the base of the lightning rod, struck a pose from Peking Opera, took a deep breath, centered his Qi into his Dantian, and roared the line he had practiced countless times under his blanket toward the ant-like traffic and crowd below.

"I want this sky to no longer cover my eyes!"

The voice was hoarse and cracked, but that didn't stop him from feeling good about himself.

"I want this earth to no longer bury my heart!"

He waved the paint-peeling steel pipe as if to smash some invisible shackles.

"I want all living beings to understand my will!"

"I want those Buddhas to vanish into smoke!"

Roaring the last sentence, Great Sage Equal to Heaven completely lost control of his emotions. That was the restlessness of puberty, dissatisfaction with the heavy academic load, and the burning soul of a chuunibyou who wanted to be different.

To match the Aura of this line, he raised the steel pipe with both hands, exerted force from his waist, and smashed it fiercely against the priceless custom-made tempered glass curtain wall beneath him!

"Taste my old Sun's rod!!!"

"Bang —!"

Although the steel pipe was of poor quality, under the blessing of the faint Demonic Qi bestowed by the System, this strike actually erupted with non-negligible destructive power.

Huge spiderweb-like cracks instantly exploded on the glass.

Immediately following, with a loud "clatter."

The two-centimeter-thick tempered glass shattered completely, turning into countless crystal-clear yet deadly glass rain, falling toward the bustling street six hundred meters below.

This scene made the scalp of the crowd on the ground tingle.

"Ah!! Run! Something fell from above!"

"My car! That's tempered glass!"

Screams and car alarms immediately descended into chaos.

Fortunately, there was a wide green belt around the lower perimeter of the Gemini Tower, and most of the broken glass fell into the bushes. Only a few fragments splashed onto the road, smashing the hood of a BMW parked by the roadside, causing no casualties.

But the panic caused by such high-altitude littering was more heart-stopping than a bomb.

Within three minutes.

The shrill siren resounded throughout the entire block.

Several Special Police armored vehicles rammed through the intersection to seal it off, and fire trucks quickly laid out huge inflatable life-saving cushions downstairs. The red and blue flashing lights illuminated the glass curtain wall on the bottom floor of the building, turning it bright red.

Fully armed Special Police quickly occupied the building entrance, and snipers began searching for high ground.

And inside a black command vehicle a few hundred meters away.

Gu Changan was staring at the high-definition footage transmitted by the drone, his brows knitted into a "chuan" shape.

In the footage, the youth had smashed a piece of glass and wasn't satisfied; he was squatting on the edge, trying to pry off a second piece. He was still muttering to himself, something about "trampling Lingxiao Palace" and "being reckless and unruly."

"This child..." Gu Changan put down the thermos cup in his hand, his tone somewhat indescribable, "Is there too little summer homework?"

He turned his head to look at the person beside him.

Chen Beixuan was wearing that iconic explosive collar, holding a tablet computer in his hands, his expression unusually grave.

"What do you say?" Gu Changan asked, "Which Demon King has reincarnated? Or some ancient powerful being's Possession?"

Chen Beixuan pushed up the non-existent glasses on the bridge of his nose—a habit he had recently developed, which made him appear more cultured.

"Neither."

Chen Beixuan pointed to the youth still posing on the screen, his tone serious: "This child indeed has Demonic Qi fluctuations. Although it's as weak as a fart, it is indeed pure 'Battle Qi'. If we don't stop him and let him continue to 'roleplay' like this, turning fiction into reality, he might really awaken a trace of the Great Sage's true spirit."

Speaking of this, Chen Beixuan paused, a trace of disgust on his face.

"But this taste is too bad. How heroic is the Great Sage Equal to Heaven; even if he were down and out, he wouldn't wear this kind of chemical fiber fabric skirt. This is simply insulting my idol."

Gu Changan ignored Chen Beixuan's fangirl/fanboy remarks.

He picked up the walkie-talkie and pressed the talk button.

"Sniper, report the situation."

"Report Hunter, the target is in a state of extreme excitement, the movement trajectory is irregular, and the surrounding wind speed is too high, so I cannot guarantee a one-shot kill."

"Special Police Team One, can you launch a forced assault?"

"Report, the elevator to the top floor has been destroyed, the stairwell is piled with debris, and cleaning it up takes time. Forced entry might provoke the target to jump off the building."

Jump off the building.

This was the result Gu Changan least wanted to see.

Not because he was soft-hearted, but because if this kid jumped and died, the subsequent legal accountability would become very troublesome, the building management would have to claim compensation, and the social impact would be extremely bad.

"This is a typical terminal case of chuunibyou."

Gu Changan looked at the youth in the screen waving a rod at the air and made a judgment, "For this kind of underage 'Son of Destiny', physical strikes are the worst strategy, as they easily provoke rebellious psychology."

He put down the walkie-talkie and turned to look at Chen Xiaobei, who was clattering away on the Keyboard in the corner.

"Xiaobei."

"Here! Team Leader!" Chen Xiaobei immediately stopped what he was doing and turned around.

"I want all the information on this kid." Gu Changan's fingers tapped the table rhythmically, making a rhythmic tapping sound, "Especially his social media accounts."

"QQ Space, private diaries, Weibo alt accounts, Tieba posting history, Bilibili favorites... as long as it is a trace he left on the Internet, even a punctuation mark, dig it out for me."

A playful light flashed in Gu Changan's eyes; that was the expression of a hunter when the prey was about to fall into a trap.

"Remember, the more shameful, the better. The kind of dark history that he would curl his toes in embarrassment just thinking about in the middle of the night, mark it as a priority."

Chen Xiaobei was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood his team leader's intention.

This was going to use that trick...

"Hehehe..."

Chen Xiaobei pushed his glasses, his face revealing an extremely wretched and mischievous smile; it was an expression only a top hacker would have when facing a defenseless fat sheep.

"Team Leader, don't you worry."

Chen Xiaobei's ten fingers turned into a blur on the Keyboard, and the code on the screen flowed like a waterfall.

"Kids these days, although they clamor about being Heaven-Defying, they are too lazy to even turn on two-step verification. Even their security questions are freebies like 'What is my dream?'."

"Give me three minutes."

Chen Xiaobei stared at the screen, green light flashing in his eyes, like a hungry wolf that had smelled blood.

"I will strip away his non-existent Internet underwear until not even a loose thread remains."