Withdrawal Period (Part 1)

The Pingjiang District, where Zhi Xing Institute was located, lay on the outskirts of Xia City's core urban area. Besides the institute, it was home to numerous middle schools, universities, and research facilities, together forming an educational zone spanning nearly a hundred square kilometers. It was one of the areas with the best cultural and natural environment in Xia City.

After dropping Ronan off at school, Zhang Yingying turned the car around and drove to a research institute just a few kilometers from Zhi Xing Institute. This institute was affiliated with the International Science Exploration Association and was, in fact, a contact and gathering point established by the Awakened.

Because Xia City had so few Awakened, the place sat idle year-round, sometimes without a single person showing up for months on end. But when Zhang Yingying entered, she spotted the rare sight of Aunt Susan on duty.

"Hey, Susan. Congrats on gaining another ten pounds."

Aunt Susan was half white. Rumor had it that she had been a beautiful mixed-race woman in her youth, but now she was merely a lazy, crude middle-aged woman weighing 120 kilograms. Her favorite pastime was staying home and playing games. Because of that, she and Zhang Yingying were fellow travelers, and they usually got along quite well.

"I'm going to die from working overtime every day!"

Susan shook her thick, fleshy chin and complained loudly. "What happened to the Association's principle of saying no to Modified Humans? It hasn't even been five years, and now they're saying Burners aren't Modified Humans. Ha! The original target was Prototype Format modification, but now every last one of them has changed their tune. What a bunch of spineless liars!"

Zhang Yingying let out a "Wow." "They're recruiting Burners into the Association? But the first batch of Burners hasn't even reached the end of their service term, has it? I remember the agreement said twenty years..."

"But a group of them retired early due to injuries—around two hundred people. Heh heh, this place will soon turn into a veterans' association."

"Two hundred?" Zhang Yingying's eyes widened. "How many Burners are there in the entire world?"

"Seventeen thousand six hundred and twenty-six. That's the latest figure."

Susan looked crude, but she was exceptionally sensitive to numbers. That was why she had become the secretary in charge of the Association's data statistics, wielding considerable authority.

"We won't even need to wait for the large-scale retirement wave twenty years from now. In another ten years, the government and military will have seized the Association's influence..."

"I'm not that pessimistic."

Zhang Yingying had no intention of discussing the subject further. She leaned closer to Susan and looked at the various data within the giant Projection Area ahead. By chance, Susan had enlarged someone's profile, leaving Zhang Yingying quite surprised.

"He Wei, leader of the Lan Shan Battleship Special Operations Team's Seventh Squad. I just came from there... She's twenty? When did she undergo modification?"

"First batch. Supposedly, she was in a car accident at fifteen and was on the verge of death. Her life was saved through Burner Modification, and then she developed her career in the military. She's earned outstanding battle merits and comes from an extraordinary background. She retired today, but soon, she'll become our esteemed vice president."

Susan's words dripped with cold mockery, yet when assigning a rating, she unhesitatingly gave the woman a "C+." For membership evaluations, that was already the highest grade.

In fact, the two people currently present had only been rated C.

Zhang Yingying clicked her tongue twice. Seeing Susan about to continue, she hurriedly pressed down on her hand. "Susan, darling, let me cut in line!"

Susan glared at her with puffy, pig-like eyes. "Fuck off. Do you know how busy I am right now? I have to rate and enter the data for over two hundred people within five days. Damn it, this isn't something I can solve just by tapping on a keyboard!"

"Of course, of course. I know you've had it rough, but think about our friendship. I played LuoJia War Chronicle with you last week—that was three days and three nights! Later, I wanted you to play a few rounds of Wilderness with me, but what did you do? You ran off!"

Susan looked a little guilty. "I came back to work overtime."

"Then settle the grievances of overtime through overtime!"

Zhang Yingying took out her flexible screen and slapped it onto the console in front of Susan. "Just one person. I need him entered into the Database today and an evaluation requested. That's all."

Susan muttered under her breath, but in the end, she paused her work and activated Zhang Yingying's flexible screen.

"Oh my god, Wilderness Ten Days again. Aren't you sick of playing it yet?"

Susan quickly found the relevant module and connected it to the large projector ahead. Zhang Yingying had done an excellent job with the preliminary work, saving Susan a great deal of effort.

"Replay."

The Projection Area began replaying the game match between Ronan and Zhang Yingying aboard the Lan Shan Battleship. It included records of the gestures he used to control his game character, as well as the character's movements, tactical changes, and more.

Though she had experienced it firsthand, Zhang Yingying did not slack off in the slightest. She observed everything seriously, even more intently than Susan.

Judging by his control techniques, Ronan really was a novice. He made a great many redundant movements and often made mistakes, resulting in delayed weapon switching, failed coordination between multiple weapons, and so on.

But to Zhang Yingying, none of that mattered. She was not testing Ronan's esports skills. She was looking for something deeper.

For example, when choosing a trajectory for Black Tooth, the lines Ronan traced with his fingers were as precise as if he had drawn them with a ruler. Or when facing Wind Flare's erratic movements, after suffering two setbacks, the accuracy of his predictions made Zhang Yingying grit her teeth in secret.

These things revealed certain qualities Ronan possessed, but they were still not the core issue.

At that moment, Susan operated the controls, placing her right hand in the center of the sensor zone. A brilliant white light immediately split the Projection Area in two.

The game footage and replay of Ronan's controls occupied one side; real-time corresponding data charts occupied the other.

As the replay progressed, numbers began jumping across multiple sections of the charts, bringing up several fluctuating trend lines.

More than half hovered at low levels and remained relatively flat and unchanged. But three showed significant variation.

Zhang Yingying became even more focused. "Control latency dropped from 0.12 to 0.09, and the stable duration exceeded four hours. Tsk, tsk. With that level of concentration, and he still says he doesn't like games!

"Damage output increased between 0.1% and 0.8%. It's a little low, but as long as it can improve, that's fine.

"Character activation, anthropomorphism went from 52% to 72%... Twenty points. Passing won't be a problem!"

Zhang Yingying let out a long breath. Even setting that ability aside, his basic qualities were not without merit. That made things much less worrying.

"Another non-combatant. Your agency really takes the cake. Targets like this aren't easy to make money from, you know?"

Susan curled her lip and used the Software to produce a preliminary assessment.

Name: Ronan

Age: Sixteen (developmental stage)

Ability Direction: Mental Enhancement (Precision)

Level Assessment: Unawakened (not scored)

Potential Rating: E+

Recommended Direction: Precision control, repair and fabrication.

Susan skillfully imported the data into the Association's exclusive Database, pressed a key, and the system automatically sent a contact notification, connecting with a fledgling several kilometers away.