Chapter 5: So-Called Ability Users (Part 1)

Chapter Five: So-Called Ability Users

May 6. Beijing. Tian Yi's bookshop.

“Nice work with the credit card. Within three days, you'll be more famous than a pop star,” Tian Yi said brightly, holding his coffee.

“Is that what you called me here to tell me?” Zuo Dao looked distinctly unhappy.

“Of course that's not all,” Tian Yi said.

Zuo Dao gave a couple of dry chuckles. “I get it. Now you're going to bring up prison...”

Tian Yi replied, “I've already explained the prison plan to you. With your intelligence, I'm sure you know it by heart by now. Just improvise as circumstances require.”

“Sounds like you want me in there as soon as possible,” Zuo Dao said. “Then with your intelligence, you should also know that Hell Island surfaces today. Even if I walked out and turned myself in right now, HL probably couldn't get me there in time.”

“Quite right,” Tian Yi said. “So I didn't call you here to hurry you into prison. There are some things I need to tell you.”

“What things?” Zuo Dao asked.

“Things you should know about ability users,” Tian Yi answered.

Zuo Dao said, “What's there to talk about? I know the six ranks are Paper, Normal, Strong, Fierce, Mad and God. Besides, there's Divine Mist in the prison. What are they going to do, eat me alive?”

“What I'm going to teach you is how to eat them alive under those conditions,” Tian Yi said.

Zuo Dao's expression changed. “Oh? Have you got some drug that counters the Divine Mist?”

“That's not what I mean,” Tian Yi said. “Let me start with the basics.” He topped up his coffee and continued, “Under the Empire's standards, the number of ordinary civilians an ability user can kill in a given amount of time is one of the measures used to determine their strength rank.

“The theory comes with additional conditions. It uses a city with a moderate population density as its model and assumes an actual incident is in progress. Killings have consequences: the police intervene, the media report on them, people flee. How many people see the killer and the killings, how those witnesses react, and so on—all of that has to be considered.

“In short, the figure takes as many reasonable hypothetical conditions into account as possible. It isn't based on an ability user slaughtering a tightly packed crowd while everyone stands there waiting to be killed.

“The central conclusion is that the more people killed in less time, the higher the ability user's rank.”

Zuo Dao replied, “I know that standard. Most ability users know about it.”

“EAS added a new set of annotations to that standard, dividing abilities into what they call ‘ability types.’” Tian Yi took a sip of coffee and continued, “They defined seven categories of ability: Constitutional Mutation, Mental Interference, Energy Conversion, Molecular Influence, Spacetime Guidance, Order Disruption and Unknown Domain. It's quite a good innovation. Almost any ability can be slotted in somewhere, and anything they really can't define can go under Unknown Domain.

“The ability categories and the six ranks brought mutants into the system as well, though they added a special designation for w-class mutants. What distinguishes these mutants is that their abilities have no limits. If they achieve a profound enough mastery of their abilities, or have nothing to hold them back, they could destroy Earth, galaxies, even the universe. That's why the Empire arrests every one of them it finds, trying to nip them in the bud.”

Zuo Dao swallowed. “I suddenly feel very unsafe.”

“You've never felt safe.” Tian Yi laughed mockingly. “Next, I'll tell you some things you can't find in the records, knowledge passed on entirely through personal instruction. Namely, the ‘true standards for assessing abilities.’”

Zuo Dao asked, “Hmm... Am I misunderstanding you, or are you saying you've got a theory of ability ranks in your head that nobody else knows about, and it's the only correct theory in the world?”

Tian Yi answered without hesitation. “Yes.”

“Once I've accepted that level of arrogance from you, I suppose believing the theory won't be too difficult,” Zuo Dao said with a shrug.

Tian Yi caught the sarcasm but didn't mind. He explained, “This is common knowledge within the Inverted Cross. Gu Wen knows, Gambling Snake knows, Spayton, Dr. Stranger, Marshal, and so on... I've made time to explain it to everyone except Gunsmith.”

“Why didn't you tell Gunsmith?” Zuo Dao asked, puzzled.

“He's an idiot,” Tian Yi answered.

A brief silence fell...

Tian Yi was the first to return to the subject. “I don't waste my breath on people who can't understand, so I only explain it to those who can.”

Zuo Dao replied, “All right. I'll try to understand.”

Tian Yi said, “First, cyborgs shouldn't count among the six ranks. Books of the Heart can read them just the same. They aren't worth studying in depth.

“Now, let's go from weakest to strongest.

“Paper, the lowest rank. Even here, physical capabilities are noticeably greater than an ordinary person's. Control over energy is very weak, but they can already sense its presence.

“Normal. Physical capabilities are roughly at the limit an ordinary person could reach through training. They can exercise rudimentary control over energy and have a good chance of surviving accidents and attacks that would kill an ordinary person.

“Those two groups make up the bulk of ability users. Though ability users account for a pitifully small proportion of the planet's population of over ten billion, the sheer size of that population still makes their total number staggering. At least sixty or seventy percent of them are Paper or Normal rank. Without deliberate training, most ability users find it very difficult to advance beyond Normal rank.

“Next we come to the backbone of the ability-user population.

“Strong. Their physical capabilities have gone well beyond human limits. They're practically comic-book supermen, with destructive power, powers of recovery and resistance to injury that ordinary people can't even imagine. They're approaching proficiency in controlling energy, which means they must also have thoroughly mastered their own abilities. Within this rank, there's an enormous gap between highly gifted people who have studied their abilities in depth and those who have barely reached Strong rank. Take a gifted assassin like Gambling Snake. He doesn't need to rely on his ability at all. Just by allocating his energy and using his physical skills properly, he can hold his own against any opponent of the same rank.”

Zuo Dao said, “Could you explain more specifically what this ‘energy’ you keep mentioning is?”

Tian Yi said, “That's the most important thing to understand. Fundamentally, advancing in rank simply means improving your understanding and use of energy. That's the key to what I want to teach you. But don't interrupt now. Let me finish this part first...”

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