"Do you believe that someone without an ability can still wield power far beyond S-rank, even D (Danger)-rank, through extraordinary talent in a particular skill and training?"
"She can read anyone's emotions from the slightest changes in their expressions and movements. She knows what to say to manipulate their feelings and actions, and can set off complicated chain reactions to make everything unfold just as she wants."
This is a world where ability users are placed under strict control.
After the ability war ended in 2070, all ability users ranked D (Danger) and above were forcibly confined in the Black Tower, where they would spend the rest of their lives.
But that had nothing to do with Yi Wenle. She was just an ordinary person, with only a tiny bit more money than most, a tiny bit more insight into people's emotions, and a tiny bit more hatred for illegal ability users.
Ever since Yi Wenle's older sister protected her once, she couldn't stand anyone in her family.
Her sister was a saintly, innocent white lotus. Despite having an incredibly powerful ability, her catchphrase was "I'm sorry," and she apologized to everyone she met.
Her father was a sexist patriarch who favored sons over daughters and doted on her younger brother.
Her mother cared about appearances and was greedy for profit. Even if someone mistreated her family in public, she would rush to forgive them as soon as they offered her a little something, then turn around and scold her family for being unreasonable.
Her younger brother had been spoiled by their father. Not only was he terribly rude, he was also spiteful and malicious. When he caused trouble, the other side didn't dare pick on him, so they took it out on Yi Wenle and her sister instead.
The more Yi Wenle thought about it, the more her hands itched to set things right.
It was time for a little adjustment.
Two years later.
Her saintly, innocent, E (Extinction)-rank ability-user sister hardened her heart and trampled underfoot everyone who had bullied their family, right there in the Black Tower.
Her biased, sexist father had learned to put himself down. Now he was a full-time househusband, spending his days studying his family's preferences or going out for tea and bird-watching.
Her image-conscious, profit-hungry mother had become fiercely protective of her family. She had also honed her abilities and turned their small family business into the nation's wealthiest company, with a monopoly on ability-device technology.
Her malicious, brainless younger brother got slapped with the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms every time he swore. After enough slaps, his eyes cleared, his manners returned, he stopped racing motorcycles, cut ties with his worthless friends, and started doing well in school.
Just when everyone in the family had been properly adjusted, things went wrong.
After three years of petitioning the government, her sister was finally allowed to leave the Black Tower for a day, wearing an ability-suppressing device. But on the way home, she was attacked by an illegal ability user. Her sister's ability went out of control, leaving all four of her limbs broken. Until the attacker canceled their ability, her injuries couldn't heal, and she could only stay alive with the help of recovery-type ability users.
Their perfectly good life had gone bad.
Yi Wenle: "(Expletives) Who! Who did this!"
To avenge her family, she had to identify everyone in the organization that had triggered her sister's ability, then use schemes, turncoats, frame-ups, and more to kill every last member.
But the organization had countless support-type ability users who concealed their leader's whereabouts so thoroughly that she couldn't find a single member, let alone infiltrate the group. She didn't have an ability, after all.
So she needed a useful tool.
Detective Shen Mochi, an S-rank causality-type ability user, had been feeling troubled lately.
On the first day of classes at White Tower Academy, he met a very strange, very pretty classmate.
"I like you (your ability)," she said. "Here's ten million. Consider it this year's retainer."
Shen Mochi blankly accepted the card. Only after Yi Wenle left did he belatedly blush.
He... seemed to have become the kept man of the person he'd secretly loved for ages.
Ability rank guide: C, B, A, S | D (Danger), E (Extinction), F (Final), G (Genesis)
Theme: Love and freedom
