A Greeting

"Take it."

As she spoke, a steaming can of drink was tossed into the Patrol Car.

"Thanks. Red Tea flavor? I wanted coffee."

Holding the warm Red Tea drink, Lu PingAn grumbled a little.

It was not that he was dissatisfied with the free drink. At this hour, getting a hot drink from a vending machine was already pretty good.

Still, he should have been sound asleep under warm blankets, not sitting in a Patrol Car on the street. It was a little annoying.

Xia Qin smiled but said nothing. Dragging him out on a night patrol had been a spur-of-the-moment idea anyway.

"Hang in there. Dawn's almost here. I'll treat you to breakfast later."

"Don't tempt me with breakfast. I'm not a kid."

"Yes, yes, not a kid at sixteen. Want your big sister to order you a children's meal at KGC later?"

Lu PingAn felt rather helpless. Becoming younger was a good thing, but she seemed to genuinely see him as a precocious little brat. That was pretty depressing.

"Your first day on duty. How does it feel?"

"Kind of strange. It seems pretty boring, and I can't really help with anything. I can only watch from the back."

"Actually, more than ninety percent of nights are like this. Our job isn't to defeat some Demon King, but to prepare for trouble and defuse the unexploded bombs."

Lu PingAn rolled his eyes and said nothing more. He had already seen through everything and could not be bothered to explain.

Trying to rope him in? Trying to give him a political lecture? He did not even know whether he would still be alive six months from now. What was the point?

The reason he was willing to waste his precious all-night gaming time and patrol with her was because of her promise.

"Fine, fine, little brother Lu PingAn. If you want me to write you a recommendation letter and get you extra points for an internship, you have to actually intern for at least a few nights and learn how grassroots Keepers work. Otherwise, if you claim you interned with Keepers and an examiner asks you a random question about the details, wouldn't you be finished?"

That was one of the reasons. Becoming a "Tier 1 Keeper" and having "professional internship experience" both earned extra points in the special college entrance examination.

"By the way, you're paying me three thousand for one night. Do Professional Keepers really make that much?"

"Not really. You know there are only three of us still on duty in our group. The higher-ups allocate funds through the books so we can hire temporary help. All right, I know you don't want to hear this. Professional Keepers do make a lot. Their average salary is more than ten times that of ordinary people."

That was the main reason Lu PingAn had been forced to give in. He needed money—desperately.

"Seven hundred and sixty thousand? Ugh, just kill me."

Thinking of the bill that had just arrived, Lu PingAn could only comply.

He had found the greatest similarity between the two worlds: outrageously expensive medical bills.

"Stop messing around. Your life isn't worth that much."

Although he had assured his parents back on his Homeworld over the phone last night that he could handle all the family's debts himself—

In the short term, he really could not handle them.

"Didn't you say Relevant Departments could help get rid of stuff like loan sharks for me?"

The other side of having a high-threat target under the supervision of Relevant Departments was that someone would help them avoid excessively troublesome situations.

If a super "unexploded bomb" was not tempted by an evil god and had no ability to lose control on its own, only to lose control because of bullshit like being bullied or loan sharks, it would truly make people want to cry.

"Our logistics and accounting departments are professionals. You also insisted on keeping your parents' house. Seven hundred and sixty thousand is what remained after all the miscellaneous garbage was squeezed out. Otherwise, it would have been over three million. We've converted it into something like a mortgage now—just over six thousand a month, paid off in twenty years. That's already the best solution. If you get your license and work hard, you can pay it off in three or four years."

It was now 1998. Nearly a million was no small sum. It was enough to buy more than one apartment in the city.

Lu PingAn sighed helplessly. Other transmigrators survived great disasters, awakened cheat abilities, and soared to greatness.

He, on the other hand, had started out saddled with a huge debt. He was seriously unlucky.

But Lu PingAn also knew this was the best solution available.

It meant the "official side" had stepped in, cleared and bought out his chaotic debts totaling several million, leaving him to repay only the legal, bare-minimum portion.

The downside was that he now owed money to the "official side." Not repaying it was not an option.

"Can it be changed to a forty-year loan? Sixty years would be even better."

But six thousand a month was still too much. The average salary in Ancient City was not even two thousand, and an ordinary job could never repay it.

".Don't push it. Do you think you're buying a house? This is already the best deal I could secure for you."

Xia Qin was both irritated and amused. Did this guy really think it was easy to have the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs step in and forcibly buy out a debt? He really did owe money, and other people's money was real cash too.

She had spent two and a half days running around over this, gone to several departments, beaten up a few bastards, and even owed favors.

"Tch. No imagination. You've never seen a truly monstrous mortgage, the kind a family has to repay for two hundred years."

As he said things no one could understand, Lu PingAn silently remembered this favor.

With the experience of two lives, he knew rules were rigid but people were flexible. Xia Qin could have followed procedure and dumped this mess on him entirely.

"Once you get into Gu City Great Secret Art Academy, you'll be a Keeper-in-training. There are subsidies and a Settlement Allowance too. The first two years will be enough for your repayments. If you want to clear the debt quickly, you can take the professional qualification exam in your freshman year and start accepting commissions. It's just a little difficult."

After laying out the arrangements she had prepared for him, Xia Qin closed the car door, turned on the Patrol Car's radio, and headed for the next assignment.

She had intended to get Lu PingAn on the right track as quickly as possible, but staff shortages had recently made their workload rather heavy, and overtime had become routine.

So she simply brought him along. Any extra tutoring would help, and it would also make it easier to observe him up close.

No amount of experience or textbook knowledge could compare to one real battle. No matter how eloquent the words, nothing compared to being comrades once.

The reason was straightforward: Gu University's entrance examination included a practical combat component every year.

Though Lu PingAn's current level made passing essentially impossible, Xia Qin was truly looking forward to seeing how far he could get in these mere twenty-odd days—how much a mortal could transform.

She knew Lu PingAn was pretending to be obedient and hiding things. Lu PingAn knew that she knew.

They were not yet familiar with each other and were still adjusting. Maintaining some distance was also a form of kindness.

You little brat. If I don't push you, how can I see what you're really hiding?

Thus, as she drove, Miss Xia smiled smugly to herself.

Still, after one night had passed, Lu PingAn had gained a clearer understanding of the so-called Keeper's life.

The Special Task Forces under the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs were not the superheroes he had imagined, but more like upgraded special police.

There were simply too many anomalies in this world. Combined with ordinary public security incidents, it was unrealistic to have these Special Task Forces patrol everywhere as neighborhood cops.

Most of the time, ordinary police officers carried specialized pollution-detection equipment while carrying out their duties.

But if they encountered trouble they could not handle—what the authorities called "Tier 2 or above Pollution Incidents"—

They could contact the Special Task Force on duty and request professionals to handle and suppress it.

However, because of that incident more than ten days ago, three of Zion District's seven Special Task Forces had nearly disbanded outright, causing a severe manpower shortage.

With fewer people came more work. The radio crackled to life every so often throughout the night.

Not every Pollution Incident reached the level of a secret realm. According to Xia Qin, incidents involving secret realms were at least Tier 4 Pollution Incidents, something one might not encounter even once in several months.

And if a secret realm involved a demigod, it started at the highest level of Pollution Incident. She had experienced that once, and only once.

Most of her daily work involved handling Tier 1 "Pollution Item entities" and Tier 2 "Polluted entities," preventing Pollution Incidents from escalating.

Put plainly, over the course of the night, she had taken three Pollution Items from the police, beaten apart a gang involving supernatural ability users, handled two supernatural robberies, and helped the police resolve several seemingly "ordinary" public security cases along the way.

No matter the era, people who had just awakened supernatural powers were often prone to becoming overconfident. Iron-fisted punishment was effective and had to be delivered promptly.

"She fought from the north side of the city all the way to the south. No wonder she's a true badass who put every talent point into combat. She tore down a gang's headquarters while facing more than a dozen gunmen and knife-wielders."

Lu PingAn also knew where the hand-to-hand combat and pistol experience fed back by his ability had come from. She had knocked down at least dozens of unlucky people that night.

The most outrageous thing was that she still said today had been relatively easy.

"Damn, this world seems a little unstable."

Along the way, Lu PingAn had also witnessed how real Professionals fought.

One person, two fists, one handgun, and a pair of long legs swept through everything.

The ability users fighting her used all sorts of strange abilities, but their legs were all simply and directly broken.

Quick footwork, decisive instantaneous judgment, then a close-range blow or a shot—that was enough to settle it.

"She never used any spells—supernatural abilities—from beginning to end. But she's supposed to use a sword, right? That's clearly her main path."

That was what baffled Lu PingAn most. Xia Qin had two weapons: a Deep Red customized handgun and a Kale Blue sword cane.

As far as Lu PingAn knew, Xia Qin simultaneously followed the swordsman and fighter paths, but only her swordsman path had reached Tier 2. Yet she had not drawn her sword even once!

No, considering that none of the experience fed back over the past few days involved swordsmanship, she probably had not drawn her sword all week.

At that moment, Lu PingAn realized that the supernatural world was probably not as simple as he had imagined.

Keepers of the same tier seemed vastly different. At the very least, a suspected wild Tier 2 ability user he had seen was instantly defeated by Xia Qin, an official Tier 2.

Seeing how formidable Captain Xia was, Lu PingAn understood why she had the confidence to use money intended for hiring assistants to "subsidize" him.

Suddenly, Xia Qin frowned and picked up the communicator.

"Patrol Car 116, Patrol Car 117, Patrol Car 200, respond if you can hear me. You haven't made your scheduled check-in for three hours."

But there was still only static from the other end.

Something had happened.

Without hesitation, Xia Qin turned on the Police Light and activated the tracking system.

The moment they arrived, Lu PingAn sucked in a sharp breath.

It was already six thirty in the morning. Dawn's light spilled down, yet it sent a chill through his heart.

The windows of all three Patrol Cars were wide open, but inside was nothing but vast swathes of red.

That red had painted the ground at the intersection completely.

And their owners had been pieced together into a "traffic light" in the middle of the road.

Xia Qin's expression turned ugly as she stared fixedly at the bloody graffiti on the ground.

Beneath the "traffic light," a bloody stick figure and a faceless little figure wearing a mask marked with a "?" had their arms spread wide, as if saying something.

".Sophist."

Her whisper was full of fury, and her calm hand clenched the cane until it creaked.

It was the first time Lu PingAn had seen Xia Qin so angry, but then an unexpected voice sounded beside his ear.

"Lu PingAn, we need to talk."

That Big Cat?

Only then did Lu PingAn notice that the pieced-together "flesh sculpture" looked familiar.

It was not a "sculpture" assembled at random. It had roots, branches, and leaves made of "components."

He had seen this in that deadly secret realm, except it had been built from the Living Corpses of Keepers and had been far more elaborate.

".The Tree of Life? Mother Goddess?"

So Chris's trouble had come looking for him?

"Lu PingAn, didn't you want to know which path suits you best? I can tell you."