Standing at the entrance of the internet cafe just a street away from the bureau, and looking up at the sign of the Speedwalker Internet Cafe, Pei Yan could hear the captivating melodies coming from inside the room, filled with temptation luring him in.
"Hey, Pei Yan, are you okay? If not, we can go back. You don't look so good!" Xia Yu, who had already stepped into the internet cafe, turned around to look at Pei Yan, swaying in front of the sign, took a couple of steps back, and supported him with concern.
Pei Yan shook his head vigorously to dispel the strange thoughts. "It's nothing, I just got a little dazed. I'm almost sober now."
After saying this, Pei Yan walked into the internet cafe with large strides. At this moment, Wang Wenze was arranging a private room for the group and instructed everyone to leave their IDs and head upstairs. Shortly afterward, Wang Wenze entered the private room with five bottles of drinks and everyone's IDs.
Wang Wenze placed Pei Yan's ID in front of him and handed him a bottle of green tea: "You had a bit too much to drink, have some green tea to calm down."
Pei Yan didn't say much, put the ID in his pocket, opened the green tea, and took a sip. The cold, slightly sweet liquid eased his dizzying mind a bit. He put the green tea bottle on the table and reached out to turn on the computer. After several unsuccessful attempts, he suddenly remembered something and smacked his head.
Everyone turned their gaze towards him, and only then did he say with frustration, "I drank too much earlier and just remembered that Wenlin sealed my powers, so I can't use them now."
"Tsk, I forgot about that too. Well, it's no big deal if we can't use them, we're just here to play some games!" Wang Wenze said, clapping his head and trying to lighten the mood.
"Yeah, it's fine, we're just playing!"
"Right, it's all good!" The other three said, not minding at all, and leaned back on the sofa again waiting for the computers to start up.
But before they could settle in, a slight tremor on the ground once again drew their attention. Looking up, they saw Pei Yan, who had just touched the power button, with his fingertips glowing with a dazzling blue light, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
"This is bad, something's happening!" Wang Wenze, who had once supervised Pei Yan, quickly stood up. It was the same as when Pei Yan had touched that electrical box before.
Ye Jiumu pushed back his chair, and looking at Pei Yan who was uncontrollably twitching, asked coldly, "Wasn't he already sealed internally?" Then he turned to Liang Qian and gestured towards a corner of the room's surveillance camera. "Blast!"
Liang Qian understood and pointed at the surveillance camera with one hand. A light pop sounded, and a wisp of black smoke rose from the camera.
"Hiss!" Meanwhile, Xia Yu sitting next to Pei Yan let out a light gasp. Ye Jiumu looked at her with concern and asked, "What's wrong?"
Xia Yu shook her slightly numb arm and shook her head: "It's nothing major, I just tried to pull him away, but there was a current on his arm. What should we do now? Should we forcibly stop him?"
"Xia Yu, go watch the door! Don't let anyone in, I'm calling the bureau now!" Wang Wenze instructed while he quickly took out his phone and dialed the number.
At that moment, Pei Yan, who had lost consciousness, underwent another change. The blue light in his hand grew brighter and brighter, and after a series of pops, the entire row of monitors and computers in the room continuously turned into streams of black water, flowing into him. The lights in the room started flickering.
Soon, the sound of complaints came from the hall outside.
"What's going on! The internet speed is so slow! Is someone downloading something?"
"Damn, it's cut off the power directly!"
"How come it just cut off the power? I was about to win in PUBG!"
Xia Yu sneaked open a corner of the room, peeking out through the crack in the door. The hall, which was originally bright and spacious, had become extremely dark. Under the flickering chandelier, the furious roars and curses from the people standing in the internet cafe made the scene appear especially eerie.
Seeing this, Xia Yu quickly closed the door, and with lingering fear, asked: "Oh my god, this is a big problem. Won't we get punished when we get back?"
"Ah, whether we get punished or not is one thing, we should first think about how to get back." Liang Qian, squatting by the wall, curiously stretched out his finger and poked Pei Yan, who had fallen on the ground, with his clothes ripped and entirely mechanical, said with a sigh.
Fortunately, the bureau didn't let them struggle for long. Less than five minutes after the power was restored at the internet cafe, police cars and utility trucks arrived at the entrance.
Police personnel in uniform came in and announced that a large-scale electricity theft had occurred nearby, causing unstable voltage. The criminals had been caught, but for safety reasons, they needed to close for a day for safety checks.
The players in the internet cafe, hearing this news, realized it wasn't the boss's fault. Their anger diminished, and they apologized profusely to the front desk and internet cafe staff while leaving one after another.
Among the crowd, Wenlin and Elder Lin, in plain clothes, headed straight for the private room door under the cover of the police. Seeing them, Xia Yu hurriedly opened the door a crack to let them in.
"We..." Ye Jiumu started to explain but was interrupted by Elder Lin, who crouched down to check Pei Yan's condition: "Don't talk. Xiao Wang already explained the details over the phone; it's not your fault."
"Wenlin, what happened? Which level of seal did you use on him?" Elder Lin didn't blame these young people much but was somewhat dissatisfied with Wenlin as this was his second mistake that day.
"First-level awakening seal. Higher-level seals would burden his body." Wenlin, also puzzled, muttered to himself and placed his hand on Pei Yan once again. After a while, his expression changed dramatically: "How is this possible, my mark is gone!"
Standing by, Liang Qian couldn't help but interject, "Did he awaken unexpectedly and break through your seal? There's precedent for that happening before."
"Impossible. His internal energy capacity hasn't changed much from before, far from reaching the first-level awakening standard. There's something else going on here." Wenlin, who had investigated him three times in that day, immediately refuted decisively.
"We'll discuss this matter later. The most urgent thing now is to transport him back to the bureau. Luckily, you chose a place close to the bureau; otherwise, it would have been troublesome." Elder Lin stood up, clapped his hands, and looked at Ye Jiumu: "Jiumu, can you do it? If not, we can use Jiezhi Space for transport."
Feeling the gaze of the elder, Ye Jiumu, always looking to prove himself above his brother, gritted his teeth and spat out three words: "No problem!"
Then he kneeled down on one knee and placed his hands on the floor. A layer of orange-yellow light rose from the ground, and a stream of colorful liquids slowly flowed out of Ye Jiumu's body, eventually forming a large photo on the ground. The pattern on the photo was exactly the teleportation array Pei Yan had seen that day.
Elder Lin observed Ye Jiumu sweating profusely with satisfaction and then turned to Wenlin, instructing: "Handle the situation here, ensure the details are clear, provide the owner with a reasonable explanation, make sure all video footage is destroyed, then calculate the economic loss here and submit a report for compensation to the merchants after approval from the bureau."
"Understood, I'll be going out now." Wenlin nodded, turned around and went to the door. Xia Yu opened it and, seeing no one around, let him sneak out quickly before shutting it again. The instant the door closed, the yellow light inside the room grew to its peak, then, amidst the glow, the six people inside faded into blurry figures and vanished without a trace.