Chapter 7
Chapter 7
“You’ll proctor it personally?”
“Director Lu, this…”
Lu Xingshan nodded, still looking perfectly amiable.
“Two interesting youngsters showed up. I want to see how they perform.”
Even Qin Lan, already skewered by everyone’s stares, froze.
Two?
Presumably, he was one.
Who was the other “interesting” applicant?
Qin Lan looked around curiously with everyone else but found nothing.
The other applicants began whispering.
“Could he mean me? Did he recognize my outstanding aptitude?”
“Bullshit. He obviously means me! My B-rank Talent towers over the rest!”
“What’s so special about B-rank? Mine is B-rank too.”
“Maybe it’s me. I woke up feeling refreshed this morning. I might be on the verge of enlightenment!”
One sentence from a 4-Star Anomaly Hunter was enough to stir the entire crowd.
“Hey, buddy.”
Someone poked Qin Lan’s shoulder.
He turned to find a young man with long hair tied into a short braid. Without a closer look, one might have mistaken him for a handsome woman.
He seemed about twenty and was reasonably good-looking, though his otherwise decent features somehow carried a faintly sleazy air.
“Buddy, do you have connections? Director Lu was giving you meaningful looks. Are you his illegitimate son?”
The long-haired youth leaned closer and asked this outrageous question.
Qin Lan stared at him. “If I were his illegitimate son, would I need to take the exam?”
“The license should have been delivered to my bedroom before I even woke up.”
“They’d say the license prepared years ago had finally welcomed its rightful owner.”
The youth considered this.
“Good point. So what rank is your Talent, buddy? B? A?”
“If someone like Director Lu noticed you, it has to be A-rank or above, right?”
Qin Lan narrowed his eyes and quietly stepped away.
“F.”
After the recent assassination attempt, Qin Lan was wary of everyone.
The Anomaly Hunter Bureau was difficult to infiltrate, but nothing was absolute. Caution could not hurt.
The youth paused, then curled his lip. “Fine, don’t tell me.”
“It really is F-rank.” Qin Lan smiled.
The youth nodded perfunctorily. “Sure, sure. Mine is F-rank too.”
“I really am F-rank!”
“So am I.”
Qin Lan shook his head.
What a sorry state the world was in. These days, no one believed him even when he called himself trash.
Why could there not be a little more trust between people?
Lu Xingshan coughed softly, and every conversation stopped.
“I believe many of you have researched the Anomaly Hunter licensing process in advance.”
“But procedure requires me to waste a few words explaining it.”
Lu Xingshan spoke warmly.
“To obtain a license, you must enter an instance under your recorder’s observation and survive encounters with at least ten 1-Star anomalies.”
“Alternatively, you may kill one 1-Star anomaly alone.”
No one spoke. They all understood the weight of those brief words.
“Of course, the last person to pass by killing an anomaly did so seven years ago.”
“You need only survive.”
Lu Xingshan’s magnetic voice had a calming power.
“Director, may I ask something?”
Another young applicant spoke up.
“Who was the monster who killed a 1-Star anomaly during his licensing exam?”
The braided youth beside Qin Lan immediately gave a knowing chuckle.
“Heh. Do you even need to ask?”
Qin Lan glanced at him. This fellow seemed to know quite a bit.
Sure enough, Lu Xingshan smiled and pointed at himself.
“Me.”
Damn.
Qin Lan’s mouth twitched.
He really let that brag land.
“Seven years ago, I took my first licensing exam.”
“Today, I am the director of the Anomaly Hunter Bureau in Safe Zone 088 and a 4-Star Anomaly Hunter.”
“If any of you perform exceptionally, your prospects may be no less impressive than mine.”
Lu Xingshan smiled.
“Soon, I will take you to a Fallen Zone. Keep your recorders active at all times, or your results may be invalidated.”
“You may work alone or cooperate in teams. Accumulate ten successful survivals against 1-Star anomalies, and you will earn a formal license.”
“Any method is acceptable.”
Lu Xingshan looked approvingly at the eager young applicants.
“Any questions?”
Qin Lan raised his hand.
“Director Lu, can results be swapped in an Anomaly Hunter Bureau exam?”
“Or can someone tamper with them?”
The room fell silent. Everyone looked from Qin Lan to Lu Xingshan.
Something flickered in Lu Xingshan’s eyes. He seemed to read a great deal from Qin Lan’s gaze.
After a moment, he smiled.
“You may all rest assured.”
“If anyone dares play tricks on Anomaly Hunter Bureau ground, I’d twist off his head and hang it by the door as a wind chime — even if he were the chief administrator of Safe Zone 088.”
Everyone drew a sharp breath.
What a terrifying statement.
The chief administrator ruled an entire Safe Zone like a local emperor. Yet Lu Xingshan had casually threatened to make his head into a wind chime, without the slightest restraint.
From his tone, Qin Lan had no doubt he would actually do it.
“Then I have no more questions.”
Relieved, Qin Lan lowered his hand.
He turned and found the braided youth grimacing beside him.
“What’s wrong? Hemorrhoids acting up? You look awful,” Qin Lan asked casually.
The youth looked pained.
“Do you know why Director Lu dared use the chief administrator of Safe Zone 088 as his example? Why he wasn’t afraid of offending anyone?”
Qin Lan had a bad feeling.
“Don’t tell me…”
The youth nodded and pointed toward the Bureau’s entrance.
“Last time, one of the chief administrator’s relatives had his head turned into a wind chime.”
“I was still in school. I passed by, thought it was some new ornament, and went in for a closer look. Scared two drops of piss out of me.”
A cold breeze swept past.
At some point, Lu Xingshan had appeared behind them. He amiably patted both their shoulders.
“Applicants, it is time to collect your recorders.”
Now Qin Lan was grimacing too.
…
On the bus to the Fallen Zone, Qin Lan happened to sit beside the braided youth — or rather, the youth had deliberately latched onto him.
Qin Lan was quiet, but the other man seemed happy to carry a conversation alone.
Thus, Qin Lan was forced to learn the chatterbox’s life story.
The young man was Xue Chuan, and he was, in a very loose sense, a rich kid.
According to him, becoming an Anomaly Hunter had always been his dream, but his father had refused because it was too dangerous.
“Did the old man finally agree?” Qin Lan asked.
Xue Chuan shook his head, eyes gleaming with excitement.
“No. I finally outlived him!”
Qin Lan stared.
“Your father died, and you’re this excited? What a devoted son…”
Xue Chuan wagged a finger. “You misunderstand. My father and I weren’t close.”
“He was rich and had plenty of children. I was born to one of his unfavored mistresses.”
“He never cared about me as a child. Then I awakened an A-rank Talent, and suddenly he wanted me to join the United Government and clear obstacles for him in official circles.”
“But do I look like an idiot? Government work is boring. Becoming an Anomaly Hunter is real glory…”
Qin Lan could not understand how rich people thought.
A profession with a ninety-five percent mortality rate was glorious? They had too much food and not enough sense.
“Unfortunately, the old man had too many women. A few days ago, he overdid a certain two-person exercise, drained himself dry, and dropped dead.”
Xue Chuan smacked his lips. “I couldn’t even squeeze through the funeral doors. I only saw my brothers and sisters fighting over the inheritance.”
“I never wanted his money. With no one controlling me, I’m finally free.”
Another A-rank Talent.
As though worried Qin Lan would doubt him, Xue Chuan produced his registration form. A bold “A” stood out clearly.
In his entire life, Qin Lan had met only three people with A-rank Talents in person.
Su Xiaoyue, the 4-Star Anomaly Hunter Lu Xingshan, and now Xue Chuan.
That A was not merely a letter in the alphabet.
It marked a chosen genius who might not appear among tens of thousands.
And yet…
Why did this genius seem so unreliable?
“So? Want to team up with me?”
“My A-rank Talent will carry you.” Xue Chuan raised his brows smugly.
Qin Lan struggled to believe this street-punk-looking man possessed talent equal to Su Xiaoyue’s.
He initially wanted to refuse, but reconsidered. An F-rank student passing the exam alone would be difficult to explain.
If he teamed up with Xue Chuan, claiming an “A-rank expert carried the team” would save him considerable trouble.
For now, Xue Chuan seemed harmless apart from talking too much.
He could be trusted provisionally.
In truth, Xue Chuan’s A-rank Talent was the main reason Qin Lan lowered his guard.
No matter how domineering the Qian Group was, it would not sacrifice a promising A-rank Talent to assassinate a penniless slum boy.
That trade made no sense.
Thinking of Talents, Qin Lan glanced at the recorder around his wrist.
It was an upgraded version of the device used in the college entrance examination, developed internally by the Anomaly Hunter Bureau to monitor and transmit everything inside an instance in real time.
Would it detect his Talent?
The bus stopped sharply, and Qin Lan’s heart jolted with it.
“We’re here.”
Outside lay the Safe Zone’s exit.
A towering wall divided the Safe Zone from the Fallen Zone. On one side stood a prosperous city; on the other, ruined buildings stretched into desolation.
This was no ordinary reinforced-concrete wall. Built with a classified process approved by the United Government, it could withstand attacks from anomalies.
Without it, the Fallen Zone would continue expanding and devour what little living space humanity had left.
“Personnel deployment complete. Activate your recorders and upload the feed to the central intelligence system.”
“Once inside the Fallen Zone, examinees are strictly forbidden from killing one another. I will personally execute any violator.”
Lu Xingshan’s steady voice carried murderous authority.
Everyone shuddered, not daring to disobey. Those harboring malicious thoughts broke into cold sweat and abandoned them immediately.
“Tsk. Now that’s presence. A few words, and everyone is terrified,” Xue Chuan marveled.
“When do you think we’ll reach that level?”
Qin Lan did not answer. He gazed toward the distant Fallen Zone.
Ruins of a decaying city were faintly visible there. Once, it too had been a thriving world filled with people. Now anomalies had reduced it to rubble.
“All right…”
Lu Xingshan’s voice rang out.
“All examinees…”
“Move out!”