The entire laboratory erupted in chaos.
"Feng Qian! How are you?" Mu Xingrui was the first to rush forward, but stopped abruptly two meters away, not daring to get any closer.
What happened at the casino?
"Is your recording equipment malfunctioning?"
A cacophony of voices exploded in his ears. Feng Qian raised a hand, his movements as gentle as if he were soothing a frightened animal. Yet, this casual gesture instantly silenced the entire laboratory.
Mu Xingrui's pupils contracted sharply. At this moment, Feng Qian exuded an indescribable aura of danger that defied description.
But Mu Xingrui was no stranger to this; he had felt it before with Zhang Suyuan, a feeling that was cold, terrifying, and inhuman, oppressive and suffocating.
"What happened to you in the casino?" Mu Xingrui kept a safe distance, his right hand discreetly resting on the gun at his waist.
Feng Qian's smile widened, the curve of his lips so precise it looked as if it had been measured with a ruler. "Director, I'm truly lucky."
His fingers tapped lightly on the armrest of the chair. "I did win."
He suddenly leaned forward, a movement that caused at least three researchers to instinctively step back and bump into the instrument panel.
"Guess what I won?" Feng Qian's voice suddenly seemed to become three-dimensional, as if it came from all directions at the same time.
The laboratory's overhead lights began to flicker, and with each shift from light to darkness, Feng Qian's figure became a little more blurred.
On the third flash, his eyes lit up faintly, and the space in front of him distorted slightly.
"I have gained extraordinary powers..."
Mu Xingrui was immediately startled.
"Don't be nervous." Feng Qian stood up, the light in his eyes dimming.
But no one dared to let their guard down.
Finally, Mu Xingrui spoke up and called an emergency meeting.
The conference room lights cast cold shadows on Feng Qian's face, making his pale golden pupils appear like the scales of some cold-blooded animal.
He briefly recounted what he had seen and heard.
Everyone instinctively avoided eye contact with him, afraid of being burned by his gaze.
Mu Xingrui noticed that when Feng Qian blinked, his eyelids closed a half-beat slower than normal, as if he was deliberately showing off his inhuman eyes.
"So," Mu Xingrui adjusted his posture, "The internal structure of the casino..." His voice trailed off, "... is exactly the same as what Wang Jianheng and Meng Hongyu described before?"
Feng Qian's fingertips tapped rhythmically on the solid wood conference table, each tap as precise as if calculated.
"You can see a red carpet," his voice carried a strange rhythm, "Crystal chandeliers, empty gambling tables..."
A smile suddenly appeared on his lips, revealing teeth whiter than usual. "... And there's a croupier who looks like a dead man."
The thermometer in the conference room showed a constant room temperature of 25 degrees Celsius, yet everyone inexplicably felt a chilly coldness.
Someone unconsciously rubbed their arms, their movement standing out starkly in the deathly silent conference room.
Mu Xingrui's gaze remained fixed on Feng Qian's clasped hands. He remembered there used to be a scar there, but now it was as smooth as new.
"Your extraordinary ability..." He deliberately avoided eye contact with those golden eyes, "What exactly is it?"
Feng Qian blinked slowly, his golden irises flickering under the light. "Anyone who is looked at by these eyes..."
He paused for a moment before continuing, "They will be in a state of temporary paralysis, losing all ability to move."
A suppressed gasp came from the corner of the conference room. Feng Qian's tone was too relaxed, as if he were discussing lunch choices, rather than a supernatural power capable of instantly dismantling an enemy's fighting strength.
"Duration?" Mu Xingrui asked, his tone tinged with apprehension.
Feng Qian suddenly turned to look at a member of the Investigation Bureau sitting in the corner. The young man immediately froze in his seat, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
"For ordinary people..." Feng Qian withdrew his gaze, and the member immediately slumped into his chair, "About five minutes."
The air seemed to freeze. Everyone realized that the smiling man before them was no longer the ordinary investigator who had survived by luck.
The rarity of extraordinary individuals meant that his status underwent a qualitative leap from then on.
"What did you bet on?" Mu Xingrui's question broke the suffocating silence.
Feng Qian's fingers traced a perfect circle on the table, his nails scraping against the wooden surface with a teeth-grinding sound. "I won all three rounds of dice betting. I can't believe it myself, I'm really that lucky!"
Mu Xingrui, however, asked, "What kind of chips did you use to participate in the gambling?"
"Lifespan." Feng Qian uttered this word with a strange sense of pleasure.
Mu Xingrui: "How many years?"
"Ten years." Feng Qian slowly licked his lower lip. "It's a good deal, isn't it?"
Mu Xingrui frowned, recalling Wang Jianheng's aged face. "After winning, you demanded extraordinary power?"
Feng Qian shook his head. "The stakes were agreed upon before the game started. I wagered ten years of my lifespan in exchange for extraordinary power equivalent to that ten years."
"If I had known I could win so easily, I would have definitely increased my stakes, betting everything I had. I wonder how much supernatural power I could have gained?"
Upon hearing this, Mu Xingrui's hand suddenly trembled involuntarily. Feng Qian described this deadly gamble in the tone of reciting an ordinary breakfast menu.
He suddenly realized that although Feng Qian had won the bet at the Lucky Casino and seemed to have lost nothing, he had even gained extraordinary powers.
However, Feng Qian's mindset underwent a significant change. Simply put, he developed a gambler's mentality; having tasted success, he wanted to continue gambling, especially given his lucky streak, which amplified this mentality even further.
But Mu Xingrui couldn't say anything, after all, he was the one who forced Feng Qian to participate in this mission.
After the meeting ended hastily, Feng Qian was taken for a full physical examination.
The researchers who examined him were very interested in his eyes.
In truth, Feng Qian knew perfectly well that someone was plotting to gouge out his eyes for transplant experiments, but no one dared to say it aloud.
Thinking of this, Feng Qian's lips curled into a subtle smile. If someone really made such an unreasonable request, he would definitely agree.
Those eyes are not something everyone can bear!
As Feng Qian's various physical data indicators were released, a group of Scholar marveled at them.
Feng Qian's golden pupils gleamed as he whispered a few words to an inconspicuous assistant.
The assistant's eyes widened in shock; every word Feng Qian uttered seemed like poison coated in honey, slowly spreading through the air.
Are you content with this? Content to forever remain an unknown assistant?
"A bunch of incompetent academic tyrants are riding high on you, and you can't even sign your own name on any of your published papers."
"You're clearly a child prodigy, yet you're being exploited by these old fogies, forced to rely on seniority until you're old and gray, and you might still be being exploited."
"If you want to change your current situation, you can try Lucky Casino."
Hearing these words, the assistant could only laugh awkwardly and lower his head to organize the documents. Only after Feng Qian turned and left, and his footsteps faded into the distance, did he dare to look up and realize that the back of his shirt was soaked with sweat.
However, he did not tell anyone else what Feng Qian had just said.
Feng Qian made no attempt to conceal the changes in his personality after gaining extraordinary power, and like Zhang Suyuan, he would occasionally give people an inexplicable sense of gloom.
What was most unsettling was Feng Qian's staring habit; he would occasionally stare intently at others, his golden pupils unblinking.
"It's like being valued," Zhou Yuan, a member of the Intelligence Analysis Group, described in a private report, a red mark left on her arm by her fingernails. "Feng Qian's gaze wasn't on a person, but more like on... a piece of collateral."
Mu Xingrui observed Feng Qian, who was testing his abilities at the training ground, through the surveillance camera. When those golden eyes were on him, even the most well-trained special forces soldiers would freeze in place.
Mu Xingrui then took out Feng Qian's physical examination report and examined it carefully.
Like Zhang Suyuan, Feng Qian's physical functions improved, but his metabolic rate slowed down considerably, cell activity decreased significantly, and even a large number of cells died, making him like a living dead.
Feng Qian escaped the Lucky Casino safely, won the game, and gained extraordinary powers. This event had already caused a huge uproar within the Investigation Bureau, and even many people outside the Investigation Bureau who were following the matter had received the news.
People's hearts are restless, and many people's wishful thinking has reached its peak.
Of the three people known to have entered the Lucky Casino so far, two won and received prizes. Only one lost badly, but survived.
It looks like the odds of winning are pretty high.
However, in the eyes of some bigwigs, a 2/3 win rate is still not safe enough, and the operating mechanism of Lucky Casinos needs further exploration.
Feng Qian, the tester who was exploring the Lucky Casino for the first time, was almost coerced into agreeing by Mu Xingrui.
Although Feng Qian was blessed with good luck, his test sample was not representative or universal, but what he won from the casino was so astonishing that many people wanted to take the risk and try it.
Now, there's a stack of test application forms on Mu Xingrui's desk. This time, he doesn't need to force anyone to participate; many people are volunteering.
He picked up the top document, written by Xiao Wang from the logistics team, "I volunteer to participate in the Lucky Casino testing project to obtain first-hand research data for the Supernatural Investigation Bureau..."
Turning to the second page, in the blank space for "Reasons for Application," a long string of selfless and flattering words were written.
"They've all gone mad." Mu Xingrui slammed the documents on the table.
He knew what lay behind these high-sounding applications. Meng Hongyu, fifteen years younger, was like a walking hormone, exuding sensuality every day. Feng Qian's "Golden Eyes" could still handle multiple well-trained special forces soldiers at the same time with ease.
Such a temptation is indeed very attractive.
"Knock knock--"
There was a knock on the office door.
The secretary walked in, holding a freshly printed document. "Director, we've received seven more applications..."
Mu Xingrui's fingers tightened suddenly, the paper crumpling in his palm. He abruptly asked, "What has Feng Qian been up to lately?"
"He spends most of his time in the training field or the lab, testing the range and duration of those eyes' effectiveness." The secretary hesitated for a moment. "And also... people often come to chat with him."
"What are you talking about?" Mu Xingrui asked.
"It was just... casual conversation, but the topic always came up." The secretary's voice trailed off. "Yesterday I overheard Xiao Zhang from the logistics team asking him what kind of talk to use to ingratiate himself with the dealers at the casino..."
Mu Xingrui felt a chill run down his spine.
The situation seems to be slipping out of control.
In the other office, Zhu Ci, the team leader in charge of supernatural events related to Xuanxiao Temple, was flipping through reports with an annoyed expression.
The project he was in charge of made almost no progress, and several of his top staff members were transferred to the investigation team at Lucky Casino.
He was unhappy, but he couldn't disobey his superior's orders.
In fact, not only Zhu Ci, but also many people from the investigation teams responsible for other supernatural events were transferred to focus on the Lucky Casino incident.
This was not due to the Investigation Bureau being driven by greed and irresponsibility, but rather a last resort.
Since the Investigation Bureau currently lacks any effective means to deal with unusual phenomena, sealing off the scene is the best course of action.
Everyone is feeling their way across the river.
However, the emergence of the Lucky Casino has given rise to a superhuman. If the casino's operating mechanism can be thoroughly understood and it can be brought under one's control to mass-produce superhumans, or used as an all-powerful wish-granting machine to inquire about the principles and secrets of supernatural phenomena, many problems will be easily solved.
Of course, this is the ideal state that the Investigation Bureau hopes to achieve.
But can it really succeed?
That's a casino. A gambler might win once or twice, but which gambler can keep winning forever?
Thinking of this, Zhu Ci picked up another report, which recorded some supernatural events that had occurred abroad.
America has many resurrected Ancient Gods, but unfortunately they are Native American gods, and they have become a direct threat to the regime's rule.
Many believers who serve gods have received extraordinary powers bestowed by the gods, becoming powerful superhumans who are completely beyond government control and only obey so-called "divine pronouncements."
"Why aren't there any resurrected deities in China? If praying to gods and Buddhas could make you a superhuman...?"
"Never mind, I'd rather not."
Zhu Ci shook his head. If there really were immortals in the country, the disadvantages would definitely outweigh the advantages.
First, there is no guarantee that the gods who ascended to heaven in ancient times would be willing to protect modern people.
Modern people are willing to acknowledge ancient dynasties as their ancestors, but whether others are willing to acknowledge your descendants is another matter entirely.
Secondly, and most importantly, the existence of gods, whether benevolent or malevolent, righteous or evil, symbolizes divine authority.
The emergence of theocracy is absolutely detrimental to the existing political system in China.
Therefore, it's best if gods and Buddhas never appear in reality...