I chose the safe house, and the Human Alliance regretted it.

Transfer energy.

Two words, very light and faint.

Everyone was stunned.

But as soon as he finished speaking,

Countless points of light overflowed from the Alliance's superhumans, like a reversed galaxy, like exploding fireworks, like a blizzard rising from the ground into the sky.

"No!" Old Liu cried out in terror, "Wang Wei, stop!"

He realized that his hard-earned Five Elements Abilities and Devouring Abilities were gone.

"How is this possible!"

"Where are my superpowers?!"

"No, no, no, no..."

The league's top officials were completely panicked, and many of them collapsed to the ground.

Those faces that were once high and mighty, pointing fingers and giving orders, are now filled with fear and bewilderment.

The city's entire population of Alliance ability users were equally terrified.

Their superpowers were stripped away, and they became useless.

These allied forces and pillars, at this moment, are like spines that have been removed, collapsing to the ground.

The points of light swirled, coalesced, and differentiated in the air before falling like rain.

It landed on the old man.

It fell on the women.

Falling on the children,

It falls on ordinary people.

At the front of the crowd, the old man lowered his head, looking at his trembling hands.

A flame burned in his palm, the blazing flame of an SSS-level superpower.

Tears welled up in his eyes, and he knelt down, his voice trembling: "I...I've awakened?"

"I've awakened too!"

"I have superpowers!"

"God... I'm finally not a useless person anymore!"

A group of ordinary people wept with joy.

Some people were holding their children tightly, while others were squatting on the ground wailing.

A person raised both hands above their head, watching the lightning in their palms emit a dazzling light in the night sky.

Ice, wind, enhancement, petrification... all sorts of supernatural powers erupted.

They are no longer a burden, no longer discarded pawns, no longer the "fools" in the mouths of those in power.

People are gradually awakening, and the light continues to fall, like snow, like rain, like a justice that has been too long overdue.

Old Liu stood there, his face pale and his lips trembling.

He finally understood—Wang Wei didn't want to kill people, but to uproot the very foundation of the alliance.

Everything he had painstakingly built up was destroyed in an instant by just two words.

In peacetime, he could rely on privileges, but in the apocalypse, without superpowers, he was nothing.

"Whoosh—"

The ordinary people of Jiangnan City knelt down before Wang Wei.

Wang Wei frowned and said softly, "Stand up."

The crowd was stunned.

"From today onwards, you don't need to kneel before anyone," Wang Wei said softly. "Before, you knelt because you had no choice. Now, you are truly in charge."

The crowd was silent for a moment, and then, one by one, they stood up.

Some wiped away their tears, some straightened their backs, and some clenched their fists.

When they stood up, their legs were still trembling, but their eyes shone with light.

Wang Wei turned around to face the alliance leaders and superhumans who were slumped on the ground.

"Now," he said, "you shall judge."

The old man led the way and walked up to the front of the crowd.

He was wearing tattered clothes, with frayed threads on the cuffs and mud stains on his trouser legs that hadn't completely dried.

His back had been bent for decades, but now it stood straight.

He looked at the members of the alliance, and his aged voice rang out: "In your eyes, we are a burden, a nuisance, a bunch of fools, and we don't even deserve to have names."

"Old men, women, children—that's who we are."

He walked slowly toward Old Liu, each step firm and steady.

"Jiangnan City never received any support from the Alliance from the very beginning, and you—killed all the superhumans in Jiangnan City!"

"You deserve to die!" the old man said indignantly, spitting as he spoke.

He walked up to Old Liu.

Old Liu looked up at the old man with a wrinkled face and tattered clothes.

He had never given such a person a second glance.

In his world, such people are just numbers, just "population," just sacrifices that can be made.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Old Liu's voice trembled, not from fear, but from unfamiliarity.

He is not used to being looked down upon.

"Me?" The old man grinned, revealing his missing front tooth. "I'm a garbage collector. The news once reported on me—an 88-year-old man who makes a living by collecting scraps, his perseverance has moved countless people."

He paused, then his voice suddenly turned serious: "But none of you have ever considered why I, at my age, still need to scavenge for garbage to make a living?"

Old Liu opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.

"You keep making empty promises to your own people, supporting overseas superhuman organizations," the old man's voice grew louder and louder, "Do you want the people of Jiangnan City to just sit here and wait to die!"

The old man's eyes reddened, but he didn't cry.

"You say it's for the greater good. You say it's a sacrifice. You say it's for all of humanity."

He raised his right hand, which was covered in calluses and had dirt still stuck under his fingernails.

Old Liu's face darkened, and he roared, his voice trembling with fear, "How dare you! I am the leader of the alliance, from the Dragon Kingdom—"

The old man grinned, a smile that held neither reverence nor fear.

There is only one kind of exhilarating feeling: having waited so long for this day to finally arrive.

"That slap... will be really cool."

The old man said sternly, "I'll copy exactly how those law enforcement officers beat me back then and return it to you."

"Snap—"

The crisp sound echoed throughout the entire city.

The entire city of Jiangnan fell into a deathly silence for a moment.

Old Liu's face was tilted to one side, and five red finger marks appeared on his face.

He was stunned.

It wasn't just pain, it was humiliation. A wretched old man who collected garbage had beaten him—the highest decision-maker of the alliance—in front of millions of people.

"Insects!" Old Liu trembled with rage. "You dare hit me! How much have I sacrificed for the Dragon Kingdom and the Alliance! You lowly ants—"

He hadn't finished speaking.

"Snap—"

Another slap.

This time it's the other side of the face.

"Fuck you, fuck you!" The old man was also furious, and kept slapping Liu with his right hand.

One, two, three... He wasn't hitting anyone, he was venting his anger.

Decades of humility, decades of being ignored, decades of being "for the greater good".

Today, he can finally stand tall and return the humiliation he has suffered over the years with a series of slaps.

Everyone in Jiangnan City was dumbfounded.

The leader of the alliance was publicly humiliated by an old man who collects garbage, one blow after another, as if he were beating a child who didn't know any better.

No one stepped forward to stop them.

Nobody dares.

No one has that ability.

Those once high-ranking alliance leaders now bowed their heads, unable to look.

They lost their power, their authority, and even the courage to stand up.

The higher a person's position, the more they fear death.

The old man's applause stopped. He looked down at Old Liu's face, which had been beaten beyond recognition, and suddenly laughed.

"This slap is for the ordinary people who died in the five major bases."

"This slap is for the superhumans who died in Jiangnan City."

"This slap is for me—for everyone you call 'fools'."

After the last three slaps, he turned around and walked back into the crowd.

The crowd fell silent for a moment.

Then, another ordinary person stepped forward—a young mother.

She brought the child's face closer so that a senior league official could see it.

"Remember this face," she said. "He's the one who killed your father."

The league's top officials lowered their heads, trembling all over.

One after another, ordinary people stepped forward.