After hearing the “beep” sound of the phone being hung up, Cheng Li remained in the posture of answering the phone for a long time. After a while, he finally moved again.
He turned sideways and opened the glove box of the car, revealing a stack of document bags wrapped in cowhide. On the bags was Jian Xie’s name written in pen. Obviously, the bags contained data for review related to him.
Cheng Li stared at it for a while.
He knew what was inside, and any investigator with common sense would know that the information on it meant extreme danger.
Did he want to take this risk for Jian Xie?
He, who had always been known for his smoothness and cunning, who managed to maintain a sane mind amid those who have gone insane, would change his principles for a teenager?
Cheng Li took a deep breath.
After a while, he grabbed a pen and wrote his name on top of the files.
After finishing, he looked closely at his name on the cowhide cover. It was next to Jian Xie’s name, like some kind of curse that trapped him.
Strangely enough, for Cheng Li, it was quite interesting to put the two names side by side and he couldn’t help but laugh.1简邪程理: Jian Xie Cheng Li all together could mean “drive away evil spirits”
Thus, he finally signed it.
He has always been rational, but after just a few days of getting along with the other party, he actually allowed an uncertain factor to join the Management Bureau just because of his own personal judgment. It seemed that Jian Xie really had a special temperament that made people pay attention to, care about and trust him.
He was indeed someone who didn’t talk much in class and yet still maintained a subtle “good popularity”.
He even passed on the gambling mentality to him.
He really wanted to know what would happen after Jian Xie, who has the power to crush monsters, joined the Bureau. He may be a little crazy for looking forward to it.
It turned out that he was not as rational as he thought he was, it was just because he had not encountered anything that made him willing to go crazy.
But simply signing as a recommender was not enough.
Cheng Li turned on his mobile phone, tapped a few times, and logged into the intranet of the Supernatural Management Bureau.
His account was the default one which only internal employees have with permission to log in to the website. Even if an ordinary person accidentally clicked in, they would only see a 404 invalid page. Everything was under the full monitoring of the “Eye”.
The intranet was divided into two modules: mission allocation and forum chat.
Mission allocation was issued by the “Eye”, in which monitored monsters were issued in the form of missions. The main building would organize the information of low-level monsters, and investigators could choose to accept missions.
For some tasks that were quite dangerous and must be handled with caution, the information would be packaged and sent directly to capable employees to solve.
The difference was that one was random, equivalent to overtime, and would have good pay, while the other one was mandatory and must be completed by designated investigators within a specified time. The general grade was B or above, and the mortality rate was quite high.
The forum section was completely anonymous, and employees of the Supernatural Management Bureau could freely post discussions in the forum.
He took a quick glance and found that several posts in the anonymous spam section had been pushed to the top of the hot lists.
[Let’s discuss whether there will be any Special A-level new employees in this year’s autumn recruitment? I bet there will!]
[Who are you guys going to pick for this year’s Star of Honor? Can we not have the same old high-ranking guys fight it out???]
[The danger level in the first three areas has increased recently, right? I heard that some Special A-level bosses were seriously injured…]
The title of the last post briefly caught Cheng Li’s attention.
As in the information he had given to Jian Xie before, the monster’s initial appearance was based on a horror game similar to the Eighteen Levels of Hell.
After the game and reality merged, the monsters on each level were distributed in different real-life areas, which were the so-called eighteen districts.
Ordinary people did not notice any changes in their daily lives. However, for the investigators who were responsible for maintaining order, since the first three areas were located in the last three levels of the horror games in the past, the levels of the monsters contained therein naturally reached an average of a very high level of B.
In other words, once one was assigned a task in these three areas, it meant that trouble had come, and investigators could buy accident insurance in advance.
But all this has nothing to do with Cheng Li, who has sunk down to a B-level investigator. Unless he was deliberately sent to death, he would not be able to receive missions of this level.
Therefore, he just frowned and didn’t click to read it.
Cheng Li switched the web page to his personal page, but a few seconds later, his avatar and ID popped up on the mobile phone screen.
Surprisingly, right below his ID photo, a line of information was displayed—His authority was [A-level Investigator].
Cheng Li was a B-level investigator who had dropped from A-level.
This was also the reason why Yu Jinghe easily believed his lies. They were partners in the past, and the other knew that he would not easily lie.
This was indeed the case until he met Jian Xie.
Although it was difficult for Cheng Li to return from his current level, his authority was not taken back.
He didn’t know if it was to cruelly remind him of his past glory that has left him with such vulnerabilities for so long, making him disgusted with himself.
All along, Cheng Li has been thinking about how to return to his original level.
That was why he didn’t report this error.
Also because with his current level of authority, he could view most of the files, which meant he has the keys to many secret gardens.
Perhaps one day, Cheng Li would be able to find a similar situation to his among a large amount of complex information and get the opportunity to return to his original level.
However, after a long period of fruitless efforts, he was almost in despair.
It was not until tonight, when Cheng Li witnessed with his own eyes the scene where Jian Xie stopped Fu Huanyu from transforming into a monster which astonished him and made his heart pound.
If… if Jian Xie grows…
Not only would he be able to prevent transformation, perhaps he would also be able to reverse transformation easily by then!
Thus, this was the answer he found.
Jian Xie.
The boy’s behavior when facing the monsters when he sent the other back tonight further confirmed his inner thoughts.
Therefore, whether from his personal fondness for Jian Xie or from his own future gamble, he would definitely help the other party pass the autumn recruitment review smoothly.
He believed that if Jian Xie’s power was used in the right place, it would definitely be a disaster for monsters.
He could even save the monsters to humans ratio which was getting worse and worse!
Reportedly, these incidents have been happening more and more frequently recently, and even Cheng Li, a social animal who could accept 996 overtime29:00 am to 9:00 pm, 6 days per week; i.e. 72 hours per week, 12 hours per day., found it difficult to manage.
There were also some who needed to deal with former investigators who had been transformed into monsters due to improper use of props, which often caused psychological pressure.
Although it was understood that the grotesque and ugly monster in front of them had lost its humanity, people would still feel disgusted when thinking that the being they were going to kill was a colleague they used to work with.
Of course, the prerequisite of all this was that Jian Xie would be qualified to join.
As the thought flashed through his mind, Cheng Li’s fingers tapped the phone a few times and then he put the phone down, took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it up and took a deep breath. His eyes turned to the outside of the car, waiting for the other party to respond to him.
A few minutes later, he received a private message with a green light.
The other party must be on a mission, otherwise it would be impossible for him to reply so quickly. He must be working 0073007 means midnight to midnight, seven days week while operating in a high-intensity area.
Cheng Li tapped it.
[Are you sure? Use this opportunity on a high school student of unknown level?] The other party asked.
He shook off his cigarette and replied: [Yes.]
[Ok, I don’t owe you any favors anymore.]
Cheng Li did not respond to this sentence, but rather turned off his mobile phone. The light of the cigarette butt flickered until he finished the whole cigarette in his hand.
The feeling of betting everything was unexpectedly quite refreshing.
……..
In the silent night, Jian Xie was the only one walking under the moonlight in the community.
He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but he noticed that he’d been sleeping later and later these days. His habit of going to bed at 10 o’clock at the latest has been completely broken.
“……”
The corners of Jian Xie’s mouth twitched, and he reached out to touch the bottom of his eyes. It seemed that the dark circles were going to become a permanent guest.
He ignored the shadow behind him, but he knew It was nearby. That familiar aura had been enveloping him since It appeared a few days ago, as if It was asserting It’s sovereignty possessively at all times. Now their scent was becoming more and more consistent.
Jian Xie walked into the corridor where a cold air instantly enveloped his head.
But before his body could react by shivering, the air was directly eliminated by the invisible barrier around him, without even having a chance to touch him.
Jian Xie: “…..”
This reminded him that he was now facing a rather difficult problem.
He knew that his special physique would cause monsters to covet him. The monsters blocking the entrance to the community tonight were a good example.
But he didn’t even have to do anything, they were annihilated in an instant and became his meal.
He knew that Cheng Li saw this scene.
But Jian Xie could see that Cheng Li was a smart man, just like Fu Huanyu who had already noticed something strange. There were some things that should and should not be said, and adults should understand this better.
This was also the reason why he was too lazy to cover it up.
Class president Jing Chen was an ordinary person, so it was best if he didn’t know. After all, curiosity killed the cat.
But in fact, in the final analysis, it didn’t matter even if he knew or not, because he would definitely not be the one left with psychological trauma, plus the words of an ordinary and inconspicuous high school student would not be taken seriously by anyone in the Management Bureau, as could be seen from the tone revealed by Fu Huanyu in the beginning.
Actions that seemed bold and reckless could be actually well thought out.
…So why couldn’t it be an active skill?
This could save a lot of trouble.
Firstly, the problem with the test. If Jian Xie went over and killed all the monsters, there was no telling how the Bureau would rate his performance.
[Your ability is active.]
It answered his doubts in a timely manner, and in answering Jian Xie’s questions, he now understood almost everything except those that were about himself.
“…” Jian Xie paused, his expression subtle. “Then…”
Having understood what he had not said, It added lazily, [You’re too hungry.]
What this meant was that his body has lost too much energy, just like an insomniac who lacks too much sleep and becomes extremely sleepy once in a sleeping environment.
Jian Xie started eating meat a few days ago and ate several large ones in one go, which was equivalent to giving his body a signal that it was time to eat.
Jian Xie: “……”
So, that’s how it is.
In other words, before Jian Xie went to the Supernatural Management Bureau for testing, he’d better hunt game to feed himself since he was starving, in order to avoid any accidents?
Logically speaking, Jian Xie felt that it was inhumane to ask a senior high school student to stay up all night to look for monsters. He estimated that he would not be able to get up at all.
“Then how did I before…?”
He suddenly thought of a very important question. Since his body needed to eat monsters to function, how did he maintain a normal life for a whole year with only an occasional lack of physical strength?
[Me.] It’s tone was calm, as if It was talking about something insignificant. [I was helping you hunt.]
Jian Xie was stunned and stopped where he was.
He looked at the orange lighting in the corridor and saw his shadow cast on the wall. That was It’s mimicry.
If an ordinary person saw such a terrifying black strange creature, they might turn mad in an instant, but Jian Xie stared at it for a long time and did not think it was scary.
It was even a little cute.
Of course, this thought must quickly flash by his mind and must not be noticed by the evil god.
[But it’s not completely useful.] He frowned, seemingly unaware of the impact his unintentional words had on Jian Xie’s heart. [Without your permission, I can’t use your body for more than half an hour, so I can only prey on some small fish.]
Then, It thought of something and clicked It’s tongue. [I wanted ‘us’ to be fine.]
The image of the other party hunting in the middle of the night unknowingly flashed through his mind. He imagined it to be like a big cat that was afraid that its owner would starve to death.
Jian Xie cleared his mind again.
This kind of imagination was actually completely inconsistent with the image It presented to the outside world, but for some reason it gave him such a very similar association.
“…I can do it,” he said slowly.
I always feel that although It seemed to have no desire for him, It was very concerned about Jian Xie’s physical condition, especially after he began to need to eat to replenish his energy, he was very dissatisfied with his passive response and lack of energy.
Since the two of them were now in an almost cohabiting relationship, he should explain his reasons a little bit.
“But I’m a senior in high school and I’m very busy with school.”
Jian Xie paused for a moment before saying to It, “If I don’t get a diploma, I won’t be able to find a good job in the future.”
What he said seemed to make sense but also not. Moreover, his tone was flat.
Something like money? It was not lacking of it. If Jian Xie wanted, It could acquire it with ease.
Anyway, this reason was a bit untenable.
[Why lie?]
Since It asked such a question, Jian Xie knew that It had noticed his thoughts, so he decided not to hide it anymore.
“Because I don’t trust you.” He said directly, staring intently at the projection on the wall, “Because I don’t know your true identity. Making me guess? But no information is given? I know that I need to eat monsters to function normally, but what happens after that?”
Jian Xie turned around and no longer looked at the projection on the wall, but instead looked straight at the huge black fog behind him that only he could see.
“Why are you living in my body?”
