Chapter 40 – 6 or 7

Early in the morning, Cheng Li drove to the neighborhood to wait for the person to come out.

He hadn’t even taken a few puffs of his cigarette when Jian Xie’s figure appeared before him. His brand-new outfit caught his eye and made him look up instantly.

He had always seen the other person dressed in student-like attire, or very casually, as if he didn’t care about his appearance at all. Although that face meant that he would catch everyone’s attention even if he wore a sack on the street, this outfit was obviously very different from his usual preference.

All that could be seen was Jian Xie wearing a white T-shirt underneath a pure black jacket draped over it. One side of his hair was swept up and tucked behind his ear, giving him a slightly rebellious appearance.

Cold and detached, unapproachable, and looks like he can take on ten guys at once.

If it weren’t for his pale complexion, the dark circles under his eyes hinting at fatigue, and the indescribable aura surrounding him, he would have thought he had mistaken the wrong person. He would have subconsciously offered him the cigarette in his hand and asked, “Would you like one, Sir?”

“……”

“I know,” Cheng Li hadn’t even spoken yet when Jian Xie raised his eyelids, as if he knew what he was going to say, “I didn’t pick out this outfit.”

After saying that, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly, as if he had been forced to say it.

Although this was the case, there was no hint of complaint or annoyance, which made it very interesting.

Cheng Li let out an “Ah” and suddenly felt a bit curious. He leaned in and asked, “Is it your girlfriend?”

Apologies, as a responsible adult, he shouldn’t be paying attention to these things.

But the high school student in front of him was completely different from the teenagers he usually saw. If he really did fall in love early, it would be like being pulled down from a pedestal, and in Cheng Li’s heart, he would suddenly become more down to earth. Besides, gossip was human nature after all.

“No.” Jian Xie immediately denied it without hesitation.

It wasn’t even a girlfriend. He didn’t know how to define the other, just a strange roommate.

The house being his body.

After Cheng Li uttered those words, a snort of derision immediately echoed in Jian Xie’s ears, seemingly filled with endless mockery toward the term “girlfriend.”

“Really?” Cheng Li teased.

“……”

Upon hearing this, Jian Xie’s expression became somewhat subtle.

How could he describe how he felt this morning when he woke up, half asleep, half awake, as he opened his closet with bleary eyes?

When he rolled over to get out of bed and Qin Zhuo reminded him to open the other side of the wardrobe, Jian Xie should have perked up and sensed something was wrong.

When Jian Xie opened the wardrobe as instructed and saw clearly, he even thought he hadn’t woken up yet.

In his line of sight, all the familiar clothes in the wardrobe had disappeared, except for the neatly folded school uniforms. The rest were all brand-new clothes of different styles, with the tags still attached. Jian Xie’s lips twitched slightly. He picked up a tag hanging down and glanced at the price tag before silently putting it back.

Okay, it was definitely not something he could afford.

So there was no need to think twice about who paid for it.

【This is the reward you owe me.】Qin Zhuo spoke very naturally about this strange matter, as if it was It’s right.

Jian Xie thought about it for a long time before remembering that It had indeed said at the subway station that It needed a little something in return for making an appearance.

A black mist enveloped his body and drifted out from behind him, almost filling the entire mirror. 【Every single one, I want you to wear them for me. That’s my demand.】

Jian Xie: “…”

Jian Xie’s gaze swept over several pieces of clothing that he found strangely tailored, covering almost every style available on the market.

He paused, then finally couldn’t help saying, “Did you pick all these?”

This unpredictable, moody evil god gave him the illusion that he was being used as a doll in a fun dress-up game.

And the sizes of these clothes were so perfect that he didn’t even need to put them on to know they’ll fit. So how did It know?

Given the timing of the wardrobe haul, Jian Xie could only conclude that the other party had made the purchase on the afternoon following the subway incident. After all, for a full twelve hours, he had lost control over his own body, and Qin Zhuo, with his permission, could have gone anywhere.

Going to the mall wasn’t impossible.

No matter how he thought about it, the whole thing seemed very frightening when summed up…

If Jian Xie weren’t a guy, he would have directly regarded Qin Zhuo as a pervert.

Upon hearing this, Qin Zhuo made a disapproving sound and did not answer this obvious question. Instead, It said in a lazy tone, 【This one. I want to see you wear it today.】

—It was the outfit Jian Xie was currently wearing.

He didn’t want to argue with Qin Zhuo over such a small matter. Anyway, Jian Xie didn’t care much about clothes, so he just wore what he had been given.

After he finished getting dressed, Qin Zhuo, shrouded in black mist, suddenly embraced him from behind and buried his head in his shoulder, rubbing against it for a while. He didn’t know what the other was doing, but it wasn’t a big deal, so Jian Xie just went along with it. This continued until the alarm set for 6:30 a.m. went off and he was finally able to go downstairs.

He has to say, even though they were not human, they have pretty good taste.

Thinking of this, Jian Xie straightened his jacket, which had been messed up by Qin Zhuo, then looked up at Cheng Li, who was still looking surprised, and said, “It’s almost seven o’clock. We should go.”

“……Okay.”

Cheng Li couldn’t hide his disappointment.

He thought he could get something out of him, but Jian Xie clearly didn’t care about such things, which made him seem particularly unprofessional. He silently condemned himself for prying into the other person’s private life, then straightened his expression, cleared his throat, and tried to steer the conversation back on track.

“Come to think of it, this neighborhood looks kind of familiar.” He seemed deep in thought. “The Management Bureau seems to have carried out a mission here once, but I don’t remember it…”

Jian Xie paused for a moment. “Fire?”

“I can’t remember.” Cheng Li rubbed his nose. He was just mentioning it casually. “This place always gives me a gloomy and suffocating feeling.”

“……Hmm.” Jian Xie said, “Maybe it’s too old.”

This residential area was clearly quite old. The walls of the buildings were covered with mottled marks, and even the exercise equipment in the public area was rusty, indicating that the living environment was not very good. Families with better financial conditions would not live here.

The last time he saw his neighbor, he was wearing the uniform of Xicheng No. 2 High School, which was very strange. According to Jian Xie knowledge, it was an expensive private high school.

The two got into the car. Cheng Li turned the key to start the engine and looked at Jian Xie, who was obediently fastening his seatbelt.

From this angle, he could see the other person’s hair whorl and their exquisite profile, which was really pleasing to the eye, but Cheng Li knew that the other person was definitely not as simple as they appeared.

“……”

Noticing his gaze, Jian Xie raised his head and looked over expressionlessly, his eyes slightly questioning.

Cheng Li immediately shivered and didn’t look again. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, looked forward, and drove obediently.

*

From the outside, the Supernatural Management Bureau looked no different from any other building. Even passersby would not give it a second glance.

The words “City Archives” were displayed on the exterior, which appeared to be some sort of disguise. After all, for most citizens, this was a completely unknown confidential institution. Even the lobby on the first floor was extremely similar to an ordinary library, so anyone who accidentally entered would not find anything unusual.

The young lady at the front desk was originally looking down and organizing documents. When someone entered, she casually looked up, but upon recognizing Cheng Li, she revealed a peculiar expression. Then her gaze shifted to his back, as if searching for something.

Her gaze fell on Jian Xie.

Curious, amazed, puzzled… but most of all, unbelieving.

The front desk staff kept staring at Jian Xie as if he were some kind of rare thing she had never seen before.

“……”

When Jian Xie halted and squinted back at her, she immediately averted her gaze, lowered her head, and began typing away on her phone.

Not surprisingly, she was typing a message.

He had a feeling it was for a post on the internal network of the management bureau…

“What’s wrong?” Cheng Li noticed that Jian Xie wasn’t following him, so he stopped and turned back, looking puzzled.

Jian Xie replied, “Nothing.”

He started walking again.

Cheng Li knew nothing about the brief incident that had just occurred. He appeared solemn as he led Jian Xie behind the screen to the elevator. Then he took an employee card out of his suit jacket and pressed it against the elevator door. The down button eventually lit up.

While waiting for the elevator to come down, Cheng Li straightened his tie and whispered, “Do you know which five departments there are?”

Although he had indeed sent the materials in advance, there was so much of it and it was so varied that he was worried that Jian Xie hadn’t read it all, or even if he had, he wouldn’t remember it.

“I know,” Jian Xie said bluntly.

There were five departments: [Investigation Department]¹Confirmed, the author indeed was interchanging bureau and department when mentioning the Supernatural Management Bureau. Sorry about that guys, I have no time to go back so I’ll just make sure to keep it consistent for the following chapters!, [Logistics Department], [Weapons Department], [Eye], and [Anomalous Object Containment Department].

He has already met several of those from the [Investigation Department], including Cheng Li and Yu Jinghe. They were mainly responsible for investigating and dealing with monsters and would eliminate them if necessary.

When it came to the [Logistics Department], the props provided to messy-tie and Fu Huanyu were mostly auxiliary in nature and were likely indispensable for reporting and follow-up work.

As for Wu Qinghe, the opportunist who brought him the phone and was desperate to survive, he was from the [Weapons Department.]

The name of this department was pretty self-explanatory. It should be responsible for researching and developing weapons.

Although he had met a few people, his understanding of the relevant departments was limited to basic information. The descriptions of their responsibilities were also brief summaries based on the incidents he had encountered so far. For example, he did not understand the functions of the [Eye] and [Anomalous Object Containment Department].

He asked his question out loud.

“Okay, that’s good. You’re smarter than I thought.” Cheng Li first breathed a sigh of relief, then explained as succinctly as possible, “The [Eye] is a supervisory department… responsible for things like employee performance evaluations. It assigns missions on a regular basis and mainly operates a huge piece of equipment.”

This instrument was also called [Eye]. Rather than considering it a title, it was more accurate to say that the department was established based on this instrument.

Currently, the highest known level of investigator was Special A-level. This was already the limit of human capability, and any further advancement couldn’t guarantee that the individual would retain their sanity.

However, there was no need to worry about the device going crazy. It could even reach level S after being set up. This was precisely why it could detect things that investigators couldn’t sense.

Jian Xie nodded, indicating that he understood.

“Finally, there’s the [Anomalous Object Containment Department], which is very similar to our [Investigation Division]… Sometimes it is even considered a sister division.” Cheng Li frowned and said, “The only difference is that we’re responsible for living monsters, while they’re responsible for non-living monsters.”

Jian Xie’s attention was piqued. “Non-living monsters?”

He has never heard of that before.

“Since it’s a game based on the eighteen levels of hell, then everything is designed to make life miserable for the players, right?”

Cheng Li sighed, feeling a bit melancholy for some reason. He turned his head and glanced at Jian Xie, then continued, “Non-living monsters refer to ‘closets that eat people when brought home, clothes that skin people, and faucets that spray sulfuric acid,’ and other such abnormal objects…”

Suddenly, a “ding” sound came from in front of them, interrupting what he was about to say.

The elevator was here.

Cheng Li immediately stopped talking and stared intently ahead.

Jian Xie noticed that from the moment they stepped into the Management Bureau, the other had been acting somewhat unnatural, as if he were on guard against something.

The door slowly opened before their eyes, revealing the scene inside. Three men dressed in identical suits were standing in the elevator, apparently engaged in conversation. When the elevator came to a stop, they glanced forward. One of them noticed Cheng Li standing there and couldn’t help but smile.

“You shouldn’t be here today,” he said in a very sarcastic tone, exchanging glances with the two people beside him and curving the corners of his mouth. “How strange. I thought you received the message that only A-ranked investigators are eligible for the lottery assessment.”

The young man’s hair was dyed green at the ends, which was quite eye-catching. A look of contempt fell on the elevator card in Cheng Li’s hand.

——That was the ID card that every investigator was equipped with.

A few months ago, Cheng Li went to the logistics department to pick up his new ID card because his level had been changed from A to B. This was common knowledge.

“If I remember correctly, you are no longer that person.” Green Hair said leisurely, “You were so capable back then. Who would have thought that fate would change so quickly?”

Facing his provocation, Cheng Li frowned. “Move aside.”

They had already reached the first floor, but the people in the elevator showed no intention of leaving. Green Hair even placed his hand on the open button, clearly intending to make things difficult for them.

Jian Xie’s gaze fell on the tags hanging from the collars of their suits, which all read the same thing—

[Eye].

Suddenly, Jian Xie: “….”

Originally, Jian Xie thought that the other party’s hostility was so great that they must have come from the Logistics Department or Investigation Department or something similar, since people from those often came into contact with each other.

Unexpectedly, he had unlocked a character he hadn’t encountered before.

Seeing that Cheng Li didn’t respond, Green Hair felt slightly bored. His gaze fell on Jian Xie behind him, and he immediately guessed the other person’s identity. He laughed coldly again, “It’s you, isn’t it? The eyewitness who saw three students die at that private high school. What’s going on now? Think you can join the Bureau? Why didn’t you die with them?”

The last sentence was extremely malicious.

Upon hearing this, Qin Zhuo snorted derisively.

For some reason, Green Hair suddenly felt a chill down his back and couldn’t help but shrink back.

Jian Xie gave him a cold glance.

It didn’t take a genius to notice that even though it was their first meeting, this person’s hostility toward him was way too much.

It was fine to talk about Cheng Li, but you can’t talk about Jian Xie, especially not in such an extreme way!

Cheng Li immediately became angry and replied without thinking, “Haha, that’s hilarious. He can’t, but can you? Just because you were penalized that day for being in charge of monitoring the “Eye” and failing to notice the monster, you’re acting so upset—is the watch on your wrist a fake? You can’t afford a real one, can you?”

In just a few words, he revealed the reason why the other person was in such a state.

Cheng Li once said that the ‘Eye’ was the one responsible for monitoring monsters.

The opportunity for Jian Xie to come under the scrutiny of the Supernatural Management Bureau was precisely the reason why Green Hair was fined.

A B-level monster appeared in his area of responsibility, but he failed to issue a warning in time. By the time investigators arrived, they found only three cold, mangled corpses and no other traces of the monster. Even its scent had completely disappeared.

Because of negligence, a loss of life occurred and the victims were three underage students.

The bureau only imposed a fine on his performance and issued a warning without dismissing him, which was already lenient considering that he was a rare A-level investigator.

After all, there were only seven A-levels to begin with and Cheng Li had already been demoted. The remaining six couldn’t just give up so easily.

It was his own fault, yet he was holding a grudge against Jian Xie, believing that it was because Jian Xie had reported him that the management bureau thought he had neglected his duties. This guy was truly ridiculous. Thinking of this, Cheng Li smiled coldly. “Your new hairstyle looks great, and the color suits you well.”

After saying that, before anyone could react, Cheng Li pressed on. “I forgot you just got out of a relationship. Sorry, let’s change the subject. Have you made plans for plastic surgery yet?”

He has completely let himself go.

“You—!”

The defended Jian Xie: “…”

Regardless, he seemed to be able to imagine what Cheng Li used to be like, and he was indeed quite defiant.

“That’s enough.” Suddenly, a deep voice interrupted the increasingly heated argument between the two. It came from the person standing in the middle of the three people in the elevator, who looked the most mature. His gaze fell on Jian Xie, as if appraising him, surprised that he looked so young. “Are you a new candidate preparing for the autumn recruitment?”

Jian Xie replied, “Yes.”

“Have you drawn lots?”

“No.”

Upon hearing this, the other party looked surprised, then actually showed a hint of sympathy.

Jian Xie’s blunt reply made Green Hair snicker, but this time with a hint of schadenfreude. “Then you’re just in time. You’re really lucky.”

He even released his hand, stepped out of the elevator, and made room for them to enter smoothly. This behavior was really unusual.

Cheng Li frowned, and a bad feeling suddenly arose in his heart. He took a step forward. “What do you mean?”

“I meant it literally.”

Seeing that the two were about to fight again, the last young man in a suit, who had been silent in the elevator, finally spoke up.

“He…” The man frowned, a little confused. “Is he the sixth or seventh person to come for the autumn recruitment?”

Jian Xie looked at him. “Does that have to do with anything?

“Of course. It’s a regulation of the Bureau because 6 and 7 are very special numbers.” The other person looked at him with concern and said, “If it’s the devil’s 6, then you’ll go straight to the top three zones for the draw. If it’s god’s 7, you’ll go to the bottom three zones for the draw. There’s no in between.”

There were so many high-level monsters in the first three areas that even the Special A-level monsters could hardly resist, especially since most of the monsters have a certain level of intelligence and are only interested in investigators, even going so far as to chase and toy with them in certain situations. The last three zones, on the other hand, rarely see high-level monsters, with most being low-level creatures that travel in packs. These were both exhausting and unrewarding to deal with.

In other words—

Either die or be unable to act.

Translator Xena’s other works: https://ko-fi.com/xenatl/gallery
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  Confirmed, the author indeed was interchanging bureau and department when mentioning the Supernatural Management Bureau. Sorry about that guys, I have no time to go back so I’ll just make sure to keep it consistent for the following chapters! ↩︎