In full view of everyone, Jian Xie took the crowbar out of his schoolbag and placed it under the table.
Although it could be understood as the crowbar being simply too conspicuous—after all, no one in their right mind would leave it out in the open, as it would inevitably attract the attention of passersby—imperceptibly… it also gave people the feeling that Jian Xie didn’t need props, it even felt like it was a bit of a hindrance to him.
Wu Qinghe, who witnessed everything: “…”
It silently clutched the fabric around its chest.
Help, I’m having a nonexistent heart attack.
It never would’ve thought that Jian Xie would take props so lightly. As far as it knew… props were required to kill monsters, right? Even it was somewhat wary of Special A-level props, but Jian Xie didn’t seem to take this rule seriously.
Could it be… Could it be that he doesn’t need props at all?
This thought made it feel extremely horrified, and its scalp suddenly exploded.
Damn it.
Wu Qinghe never thought that the other party would actually…
It accidentally knocked over a glass of water.
If this was true—
No one has the right to take away his title. No matter how he was ranked, he should be the genuine star candidate from hell!
However, no one noticed the little episode on Wu Qinghe’s side and they just stared at Jian Xie’s every move.
They were all waiting for him to react, but Jian Xie never raised his head. He was busy doing his homework and seemed to have never put himself in the right position of a candidate.
In this strange situation, the surveillance camera operator in charge of another district couldn’t help but take off his headphones and looked at his interface.
If vision could penetrate the Internet, the No. 7 contestant who should have been the most unknown would have been surrounded long ago.
But the other party was still doing his homework, not taking the one-day time limit seriously at all, as if he was just any other high school student on the street. He was spinning his pen while thinking. His casual look was in stark contrast to the candidates in other districts who were running around and searching for information.
Is this a live show…?
Just when everyone thought he was going to continue like this and were about to look away out of boredom, Jian Xie suddenly stopped moving.
As soon as he raised his eyes, the pen that was spinning between his fingers fell to the ground with a crisp “click” sound.
But Jian Xie did not bend down to pick it up. Instead, he looked out the window expressionlessly and squinted his eyes slightly, as if observing something.
“…There are monsters coming.”
This was the first sentence spoken by the person in charge from the [Investigation Department] so far. Compared with other more lively and talkative departments, they were like a pool of stagnant water, sitting there in silence as if they were collectively mourning the candidates being monitored behind the surveillance cameras.
It was his abrupt words that made everyone suddenly realize that something was wrong.
This was a KFC located on the first floor of a busy downtown area. As Jian Xie came up, they also saw that even on a weekday, there were still many people dining there. The sounds of children playing and short video music intertwined in the air, creating a rather noisy environment.
However, now this situation was really——
It was too quiet.
It was like entering a predation field.
Following Jian Xie’s gaze, everyone gasped when they saw the scene outside the KFC window.
The sky of the entire city had turned into a fishy yellow color that only sandstorms could bring. All the pedestrians on the street have disappeared. Only people with insight could see the monsters swarming in the filthy sand, all unconsciously emitting sounds of hunger and thirst.
The fine teeth growing on the surface of their skin opened and closed. Even though they couldn’t smell anything through the screen, they could still imagine the stench of rotting garbage.
“……”
Jian Xie, who had qualified for the autumn recruitment must have seen this scene, and because he was right there facing the monsters, he must have felt the impact even more than the others. But why was he still sitting there, as if these monsters had not appeared in front of him at all?
“Cut the footage to a map.”
It was still the head of the investigation department. His voice was calm and urgent, waking the rest of the people up, “Hurry up!”
The surveillance camera operator immediately shifted the focus away from Jian Xie and switched to global mode. Jian Xie’s figure, who was doing his homework with his head down, instantly disappeared from sight and was replaced by a blue-green interface similar to a map. Almost instantly, all the streets, subways, and even underground streets of the city appeared on the map.
At the location where Jian Xie was, a red dot began to flash continuously, and it was even expanding like a virus.
To the naked eye, its color was so deadly and vivid that it looked like a drop of blood about to fall from the screen.
Meanwhile, the streets near him were suddenly filled with tiny yellow dots, which at first glance looked like fireflies floating in the air, rapidly approaching the deepest red light source. However, this was by no means a beautiful sight because anyone who was familiar with the monitoring window of the “Eye” would know that each yellow dot represented a C-level monster.
——There were unexpectedly so many monsters!
The faces of several members of the [Investigation Department] who had been maintaining silence suddenly changed. They stood up from their seats and stared at the map intently.
Even the person in charge of the surveillance who did not have insight value realized the urgency of the matter at this moment.
The values on the map were constantly rising. Although they were only C-level monsters, the huge energy gathered together had reached the Special A-level… and was still rising. It could no longer be simply described as Special A-level.
But… but, why would they leave their own territory and rush towards Jian Xie?? This completely went against the nature of these C-level monsters. Even in the so-called most dangerous first three zones, such an unimaginable thing would never happen!
Even if Jian Xie double-clicked the button at this time, they would definitely not be able to get to his rescue in time to provide assistance. He was as good as dead.
This way of dying was really horrible… Imagine millions of ants simultaneously gnawing at your body. Because there was only one body, they would crawl up to suck the marrow out of your bones. The most cruel part was that you would still be conscious throughout the process.
The pain alone was enough to drive a normal person crazy. Even if they were saved by chance, they would be reduced to a mindless walking corpse.
But Jian Xie, who was at the center of the storm, calmly put away his homework, picked up his pen and put it in his pencil case, then zipped up his schoolbag.
“I haven’t even finished answering one yet,” he said in a flat voice and sighed. “It came faster than I thought. Let’s leave it at that for now.”
The early bugs get eaten by the bird. Although there were still many monsters that have not yet arrived, these C-level monsters… it was enough to swallow them whole.
No one knew what he was thinking, but the people behind the screen felt like they were suffocating.
What do you mean “faster than I thought”? Did you really anticipate this apocalyptic scene?
As Jian Xie’s voice fell, the monsters that had gathered together finally couldn’t hold back anymore and slammed onto the glass wall like a downpour, making crackling sounds like hail hitting the ground. The glass windows could not withstand such heavy blows and began to tremble. Layers of crushed limbs stuck to the glass, which was a terrifying sight.
He pushed his bag aside, stood up, and picked up the crowbar under the table with his bandaged hand.
He looked at the window, then suddenly raised his hand and made a move that no one expected.
He actually smashed the glass in front of him!
With a “crack”, the glass suddenly shattered and debris flew in front of everyone’s eyes. Unlike the scene of monsters swarming in, that everyone imagined, the monsters that originally existed in the sky disappeared in an instant as the two streams of air inside and outside the room blended together. The turbid air was immediately purified.
Wu Qinghe clutched his hand and stared rigidly at the scene in front of him.
An extremely terrifying opponent, an enemy so formidable that one cannot even muster the will to resist…
It was the first time he was so glad that he was on the right side.
“T-this is absolutely impossible!” Green-hair, who had been waiting to see the show, subconsciously opened his eyes wide. He staggered back and knocked over a chair, but no one had the energy to laugh at his clumsiness. They only heard him mutter incoherently, “Just now, h-he actually—”
Compared with Jian Xie’s quick and efficient performance, his recommendee Lin Zishi seemed like an inefficient clown.
There was no doubt that all the monsters in the red dot’s range have disappeared.
Everyone subconsciously looked at the still open map. The total amount of monster energy was still displayed in the upper right corner, but it had plummeted to an extremely low value. The yellow dots outside the red dot range floated solitarily, but no one dared to approach as recklessly as before.
“We all saw it.” The person from the investigation department spoke in a tight tone, as if being strangled. “That was not an illusion.”
“……”
The monitoring room fell into silence.
With their years of experience, no one would fail to see that it was entirely due to Jian Xie’s own exceptional insight value which resulted in absolute domination!
Although they were only C-level monsters, such an astonishingly large number was enough to rival currently known Special A-level monsters.
Even the most composed and disinterested evaluators paused their work and stared at the thin boy on the screen. All the contempt and dissatisfaction they had shown before disappeared, leaving only a deep shock in their heart.
The red dot was an energy point that could only be generated by monsters of Special A-level and above.
But at this moment, they couldn’t tell whether it was made up of gathered monsters or represented by Jian Xie himself.
Although there were still a hundred screens showing the progress of other candidates, everyone knew that the real “6” had been born… No, a mere 6 only represented the madness of an incomplete demon, “7” was the most suitable number for him—”absolute domination.”
The outstanding performance of the number 6 has appeared time and time again every annual autumn recruitment season. Everyone was used to looking forward to the outstanding performance of number 6 and believed that number 7 would always be left to the last.
But this was the first time that a newcomer who drew number 7 has performed so outstandingly.
——That was to say, if Jian Xie joined the Supernatural Management Bureau, only his ID card would start with 7-1, making him the one and only with it!
Everyone was speechless and tacitly fell into silence.
Noise once again flooded into KFC as Jian Xie returned to the real world. The glass that he had previously broken with a crowbar remained intact.
If it weren’t for the fact that the “Eye” device could penetrate through a predation field, these examiners might not have been able to see the horrifying scene just now.
Just like these ordinary people who were waiting for their food to be served in KFC and had no idea that they had just brushed past danger.
Unaware that he was being watched by everyone, Jian Xie slowly put away the crowbar.
As if remembering something, he raised his head and added insincerely, “That’s the effect of the prop.”
He paused, straightened his rumpled tie, picked up his shoulder bag, and left with an indifferent expression.
Wu Qinghe from the Weapons Department had mixed feelings: “…”
You’re really good at putting the blame on the props.
Even if it was the Physics Holy Sword Crowbar, it won’t be able to reach this level, and what you have in your hand is only a B-rank item…?!
Translator Xena’s other works: https://ko-fi.com/xenatl/gallery
– Just click the pictures and the link will show <3
Xena note: As usual, part 2 will be uploaded on Wednesday 12pm!
