"Come on, look at the camera."
Amid the calls of his parents, Lei Ting, dressed in a black university graduation gown and wearing a square academic cap, smiled and looked at the camera.
In the sky, dark clouds were churning, as if a storm was brewing. But this did not affect the graduates' mood, which was filled with joy and a hint of reluctance.
"Three, two..." Father started counting down. Lei Ting maintained a smile, but the dark clouds above his head had their own plans and were not willing to cooperate obediently.
In the gray sea of clouds, there were faint flashes of lightning.
"One!"
Click!
Along with Father's final call of "one", besides the sound of the camera taking a photo, there was also a dazzlingly bright white glow.
"Ah!" Lei Ting woke up with a start from his dream and found himself in a strange place.
There were dilapidated tin houses, the pungent smell of rust, swirling dust, the faint rumbling of thunder outside, and his hands and legs tightly bound by hemp ropes.
He felt as if he was in a very strange posture, curled up on the ground with his abdomen facing down, his hands facing up, and his face forward. And his whole body ached faintly, an indescribable discomfort.
"Awake?" A man squatted down in front of Lei Ting, grabbed his collar, lifted his entire upper body, took a couple of glances, then threw him carelessly back to the ground with a flick of his hand.
"It's good that you're awake. You'll save some energy when we move later." The man turned around, looked at the rickety tin door in front of him with a serious expression, and cursed in a low voice:
"A bunch of f*ck*ng soldiers. They chase faster than dogs!"
After being thrown like that, Lei Ting's mind cleared up instantly, and he understood his current situation.
His name was Lei Ting, male, almost 23 years old and about to turn 23, an ordinary graduate from a second-tier university in Shanghai. It was his graduation ceremony two months ago, and he had an accident during that ceremony and ended up in the hospital. Later, since he wasn't seriously injured, he was discharged soon.
Not long after being discharged from the hospital, Qi Cheng, a good friend from the same university and also his neighbor, came to him and said that he had found a small mountain with beautiful scenery near Shanghai and that it was rarely known to people. Qi Cheng invited him to go hiking, saying that only climbing an untamed mountain could be considered real hiking. Unable to resist, Lei Ting agreed.
As a result, during today's hiking trip, the two of them encountered a group of men who were acting in a flustered manner, as if they were hiding from something. So they went up to ask, but as soon as they opened their mouths, the leader of the group knocked them out with something hard. He had just woken up until now.
After recalling the sequence of events, Lei Ting exerted force with his lower body. After several attempts, he finally managed to sit up straight.
After first confirming that Qi Cheng, who was lying beside him, still had good breathing, Lei Ting's heart, which had been in his throat, relaxed a bit. Then he began to observe the place they were in.
"Cement floor... Tin walls on the left, right, front, and above. Behind... There's a big iron lump, all rusted. What a pungent smell... It looks like this should be some abandoned factory building..." Lei Ting made a judgment in his heart and turned his gaze to the other people in the factory building. Then he was to find that these people were all well-equipped, wearing special combat uniforms from an unknown country but definitely very advanced. They each had a gun in their hands and on their backs, and they were not small pistols but rifles! There were even sniper rifles!
At this moment, these people, who seemed like special forces soldiers, were all staring seriously at the tattered tin door of the factory building, which seemed to collapse at any moment, and their black muzzles were also aimed at it, as if they were very afraid of what was outside the door.
Just as Lei Ting was wondering if there was some terrifying monster outside the door, a loud voice from a loudspeaker came from outside:
"People inside, listen up! You are surrounded. Release the hostages and surrender, and you will be dealt with leniently!"
Hearing this line that had appeared countless times in TV dramas, Lei Ting instantly understood the current situation and the cause and effect.
These guys who had kidnapped them were a group of terrorists. In order to avoid the pursuit of the military police, they fled into this mountain forest. As a result, he and Qi Cheng happened to run into them. As for why their equipment was so good, it was beyond his understanding. In order not to expose their whereabouts and to have some bargaining chips in case the military police caught up with them, they knocked him and Qi Cheng unconscious, took them as hostages, and brought them here. But in the end, the military police still caught up, and they had nowhere to retreat, so they had to hold on to this dilapidated factory building.
After figuring out the cause and effect, Lei Ting was full of questions.
Why were there terrorists in China? And near Shanghai, an international metropolis? Weren't these things "extinct nationwide" decades ago? Where did they get their equipment? Why was it so good? Since the military police had been chasing them, why wasn't there any warning when they entered this area? There were so many questions like these filling his mind that Lei Ting was completely confused.
In contrast, the risk of being held hostage by terrorists and possibly losing his life at any moment was put to the back of his mind.
"Surrender? In your dreams!" The unshaven old man, who looked to be in his forties or fifties and had just spoken to Lei Ting, shouted crudely:
"Lenient punishment? I know exactly how I'll be sentenced if I'm caught! My brothers all have guns, and we've taken hostages. Even at the lightest sentence, it's the death penalty! So what's the use of surrendering? I'm telling you, if you want me to release the hostages? Then send a helicopter! Send our group safely to the airport! And arrange another plane to send us safely to the border of Myanmar! Once we're safe, we'll naturally release the people we've captured!"
After making his demands, the old man spat on the ground and cursed in a lower voice: "D*mn lowlifes of this country. Their noses are so sharp. We were discovered just after getting the equipment. Luckily we caught two people, otherwise we'd be in big trouble this time. When we get back to Myanmar, I'll gather more brothers and give you a real hard time!"
Outside the dilapidated tin factory building, a new recruit who had been temporarily pulled in to act as a negotiator because of his standard pronunciation and clear enunciation looked at the company commander beside him for help.
He didn't know anything about negotiation. His superior had just told him to say something casually to stall for time, so he had to try using this line that often appeared when confronting kidnappers in military police dramas.
As for what to say next, he had no idea at all.
"Just say something that you think can stall the bandits. Talking about daily life is fine too." As the company commander of the 8th Company, 11th Battalion, 7th Regiment, 23rd Brigade, 5th Division of the Eastern Military Region of China and the overall commander of this operation, Wang An was extremely calm and composed at this moment. It seemed that he didn't have the usual sense of urgency when facing terrorists, as if there were just a few noisy kittens and puppies inside the factory building.
Seeing his superior so confident, the new recruit could only nod and say "Yes". After thinking for a moment, he started saying what he thought a negotiator might say to the terrorists inside the factory building.
"Don't talk to me about this useless stuff!" After about three minutes, when the unshaven old man inside the factory building saw that the voice outside was gradually straying from the topic, he felt extremely resentful and threatened:
"I'm telling you! My demands won't change! And now I'm adding one more! You must prepare five hundred million yuan for us! In cash! Only then can I guarantee the safety of those two kids! I'm only giving you half a day! If I don't see the five hundred million yuan and the helicopter to pick us up after half a day, I'll chop one of the kids up!"
"How dare you?!" The young man, who was a new recruit and also the temporary negotiator, was instantly filled with anger when he heard the terrorists inside the factory building make such a blatant threat and shouted loudly.
"Hmph! You'll find out if I dare or not later!" After saying this, the old man stopped talking, retreated to the big rusty iron lump in the middle of the factory building, and leaned against it to rest.
"D*mn it! Company Commander! We..." The young man in charge of the negotiation had just started speaking when Wang An reached out his hand to interrupt him.
He still had that leisurely posture and said unhurriedly:
"Don't be afraid. Half an hour is enough."
Inside the factory building, Lei Ting, who had listened to the whole conversation, fell into deep thought.
Somehow, Lei Ting always had a feeling that the military police outside didn't really care about their safety, and even the negotiator in charge didn't seem very professional.
Maybe they had some hidden plans, but Lei Ting couldn't just wait around like this. If the military police outside really didn't care about him and Qi Cheng, then they were done for! He had to find a way to save himself!
If it had been two weeks ago, when Lei Ting encountered such a thing, he definitely wouldn't have had such thoughts and would have just waited obediently for rescue. But now it was different. After the accident at the graduation ceremony, he was no longer an ordinary person! He had the qualification and confidence to try to save himself!
With a thought, Lei Ting's hands, which were tied behind his back, began to emit faint silver-white electric arcs, making a slight hissing sound of electricity.
That's right, he, Lei Ting, was a superpowered person! A superpowered person who could control electricity! He had been struck by lightning during his university graduation ceremony, and not only did he miraculously survive, but he also didn't get seriously injured. And it was then that he awakened his superpower!
A superpowered person!