He took advantage of the fact that Brian Clark hadn’t come home yet to go to a nearby mall and buy an identical phone, attempting to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.

Helen Grant wasn’t short on money. When he made his last wish, the system gave him a sum of this world’s prize money, depositing a hundred million into his account as an inheritance. It was legitimate money in this world, and using it wouldn’t affect the financial market.

However, Helen Grant didn’t want to touch that money. He liked the feeling of creating value with his own hands. He had managed not to use it for over a decade, but this week he kept breaking his own rule, dipping into his private stash several times to buy furniture.

With the new phone in hand, Helen Grant recalled the look of concern on Brian Clark’s face that morning, and his heart ached a little.

When they got married, he had clearly promised Mark Clark that he would take good care of Brian Clark through his own efforts. Now, because of his unemployment, he was making his partner worry so much. Helen Grant felt utterly useless.

Their family savings had always been open and transparent. Brian Clark only needed to check the bank balance to know that they barely had enough to cover this month’s mortgage, and there was no guarantee Helen Grant would be able to control his powers this month. If he couldn’t control them, he didn’t dare look for a job—if he accidentally hurt someone at work again, he wouldn’t have the money to pay for medical expenses.

Holding the phone, Helen Grant thought he had to find an excuse to transfer some money from his private account into the family account, so Brian Clark wouldn’t worry.

How could he “launder” his private stash into the communal property? Helen Grant let out a long sigh.

The life of an ordinary person is just too hard.

Author’s note: First Quarter Moon 2020/5/13 11:56:57

Brian Clark: How can I transfer over three million in private savings into the family account?

Helen Grant: How can I transfer a hundred million in private savings into the family account?

Mr. Melancholy: Sigh, why is it so hard to just live a good life?

Chapter 5

“I thought your generation of guardians would be happy.” Director Miller, the leader of Brian Clark and the others, said gravely after reading the report Brian Clark had submitted.

Director Miller was the direct superior of Brian Clark and his peers, and had once been known as the “strongest guardian.”

He was forty-three this year, kept himself in excellent shape, and usually seemed as kind as the uncle next door. Only his sword-like brows, marked by the passage of time, still hinted at the sharpness of his youth.

“If possible, I hope you never have to encounter a destroyer in your lifetime,” Director Miller said.

Although Brian Clark and the younger generation were guardians, they had never actually seen a destroyer. Everything they knew about destroyers came from books; they had no real combat experience.

After a moment’s hesitation, Brian Clark asked, “Fifteen years ago, you chose me to be a guardian-in-training. Back then, you told us that we would face terrifying enemies in the future. But fifteen years have passed, and we haven’t encountered a single destroyer. Why is that?”

Director Miller shook his head and said heavily, “I don’t know either. Fifteen years ago, in our era, destroyers would appear in our world every so often. They hid among the population with various motives, and if caught, they would commit suicide. To this day, we’ve fought destroyers for hundreds of years, yet we know nothing about the power behind them.”

Director Miller had lived through the toughest times. He started participating in destroyer hunts at seventeen, and during the hardest period, he and his team arrested more than thirty destroyers in three years. At that time, there were as many as a hundred destroyers worldwide.

No one knew where the destroyers came from or why they kept coming to this world. They would randomly become someone in the world, complete with full social records. No matter how advanced technology became, it was impossible to prevent destroyers from altering government records.

Such an unknown existence filled humanity with fear. All nations, in the face of the destroyer threat, were more united than ever, establishing international organizations to hunt destroyers worldwide.

Even so, after hundreds of years, they still hadn’t captured a single living destroyer. Director Miller had heard foreign guardians mention that they had once caught a destroyer alive, but as soon as they tried to ask about the force behind them, the destroyers would immediately self-destruct.

The peaceful lives of ordinary people were built on the blood and sweat of countless guardians.

But ever since Brian Clark’s cohort became guardians-in-training, the world had not seen a single destroyer.

“Fifteen years ago, we faced an apocalyptic crisis,” Director Miller recalled. “I originally planned to tell you about it when you went on your first mission, but who would have thought you’d never have a single mission?”

Brian Clark and the others felt guilty under Director Miller’s envious gaze of “You’re really lucky.” Their generation of guardians really had it too easy.

Director Miller fell into his memories. Fifteen years ago, he was only twenty-eight, not much older than Brian Clark, but already a battle-hardened warrior.

That day, all the guardians around the world simultaneously sensed a vast, terrifying power. Strange phenomena appeared in the sky: every country in nighttime saw a blood-red full moon, while every country in daytime experienced a total solar eclipse.

The Earth’s magnetic field went haywire, birds and beasts wailed, and Director Miller stood beneath the blood moon, feeling as if the air around him had frozen.