Employment Training

Three days passed in the blink of an eye, yet Sun Hang's memory showed no signs of recovering.

At nine o'clock on the morning of the third day, before the doctor making routine rounds had arrived, two soldiers clad in black tactical gear pushed open the ward door with a set of identification documents and a discharge summary signed by the department head.

They had Sun Hang change into a light gray uniform, then took him to an SUV whose windows were covered in privacy film and whose side bore the Tianfu City Anomaly Investigation Bureau emblem.

"Where are you taking me? The Investigation Bureau?" Sun Hang could not help asking.

The two soldiers said nothing. They merely sat on either side of him, silently gripping their weapons... They made Sun Hang feel as though he were some criminal being escorted under guard.

Sun Hang could only look over the buildings lining both sides of the road... He realized that Tianfu City felt completely unfamiliar to him. Not only that, he could not speak the Tianfu City dialect either. That suggested that before losing his memory, he most likely had not been a local resident of Tianfu City.

Could he really have been a drifter?

After an hour and a half on the road, the SUV came to a stop in a spacious compound.

At the soldiers' signal, Sun Hang got out by himself. The SUV then quickly drove out of the compound.

"Sorry for the trouble, please show me your identification." A middle-aged man wearing the same light gray uniform as Sun Hang, though with Anomaly Investigation Bureau insignia on his chest and cuffs, came over and spoke to him.

Sun Hang pulled out the only two identification documents he had from his pocket and handed them over.

"0420, right? We've been waiting for you." The middle-aged man returned the documents to Sun Hang. "Employment training is about to begin. Come with me."

He led Sun Hang into the building. In a tiered lecture hall as large as a movie theater screening room, more than twenty people were already scattered across the seats. They all wore the same unmarked uniforms as Sun Hang.

"Everyone from this batch is here. We can begin." The middle-aged man spoke into the radio hanging from his shoulder, then casually found a seat in the back row.

Sun Hang also sat down in the back row, with two empty seats between him and the middle-aged man.

Not long afterward, a tall, skinny man in a white lab coat, thin as a bamboo pole, walked onto the stage and began, "First, welcome to the Tianfu City Anomaly Investigation Bureau. Although all of you are currently only unaffiliated Temporary Investigators, I believe it will only be a matter of time before you become full-time employees."

"Restarting life is also only a matter of time," a young woman seated in the row ahead of Sun Hang muttered softly. "Starting right off with empty promises... Does he really think everyone sitting here is an idiot?"

Sun Hang quietly rose, hunched over, and slipped into the row ahead to sit beside the young woman. He lowered his voice and asked, "Were you also... 'voluntarily forced' to sign that contract?"

"What else?" The young woman slightly turned her head to glance at Sun Hang, raising an eyebrow. "Everyone who can sit here owes the Federation a huge sum of money. Unable to repay their debts, they have no choice but to sell their lives to the Federation... Tch, becoming full-time employees? It would already be a miracle if we lived long enough to pay off our debts."

"Uh..." Sun Hang wanted to ask more, but the bamboo-pole man onstage had already finished his brief introduction and begun the formal content of the employment training. Sun Hang had no choice but to focus, afraid of missing any important information.

Every word this man said might determine whether Sun Hang lived or died in the future.

"I'm sure everyone present knows about Anomalies, but the Federation's classification rules for Anomalies have never been disclosed to the public. The first thing I will teach you is how Anomalies are classified and named," the bamboo-pole man said.

"Other than a very small number of 'special Anomalies' with 'names,' the vast majority of Anomalies are referred to by code names. A code name consists of two parts. The first uses the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to define an Anomaly's broad category. For example, the most troublesome Rule-type Anomalies carry the category designation 'A.' Beyond that, Type B Anomalies are Phenomenon-type Anomalies, while Types C, D, and E all belong to Biological Anomalies, representing animals, plants, and microorganisms respectively..."

The bamboo-pole man paused briefly before continuing, "Of course, Anomaly classifications are not that precise. Some 'hybrid types' have been discovered throughout history, such as beasts fused with fungi. Those have to be judged according to the actual circumstances. Generally speaking, if the fungal part controls the animal part's behavior, it belongs to Type E Anomalies. If the fungus is merely an appendage of the animal's body, then it is classified as a Type C Anomaly."

"Then there are Inanimate Anomalies. Their classifications are even more complicated: Appliance-type, Architecture-type, Giant-type, Environment-type... Furthermore, the boundaries between different categories can sometimes be blurred, so experts must discuss the matter before making a decision."

"As for the second half of a code name, it is simply a numerical sequence representing the order in which the Anomaly was discovered. Although this number does not indicate strength, most Anomalies ranked within the top ten are not beings humanity can easily provoke. As for the Zero-type Anomalies regarded as 'absolute taboos,' they are also called Primal Anomalies... For example, Ding Zero - Decaying Mother Tree is the origin of all plant-type Anomalies."

"Are Zero-type Anomalies the strongest?" one newly hired Temporary Investigator could not help asking.

"Anomalies cannot be measured by quantifiable values. At most, we can assign them a vague 'danger rating,'" the bamboo-pole man said. "Zero-type Anomalies have the rating of 'highest'... Of course, you can rest assured. I can say this: everyone here will go their entire lives without having any connection to a Zero-type Anomaly."

After saying that, the bamboo-pole man cleared his throat and said, "All right, that is everything that needed to be said. Congratulations, everyone. You are now qualified Investigators."

The room immediately erupted in an uproar.

Sun Hang could not help frowning as well... How had the employment training ended just as it began?

It was like a game's tutorial had only just told the player that WASD moved forward, back, left, and right, that the right mouse button aimed and the left mouse button fired, before tossing the player straight into a hell-difficulty level and saying, "You have fully mastered this game's techniques. Now try challenging the final BOSS."

Was this some kind of joke?!

The Temporary Investigator who had just asked a question immediately stood up and asked in disbelief, "Is that really all there is to the employment training?!"

The bamboo-pole man nodded. "That's right. That is the full content of the employment training. You must understand that Anomalies are extremely special existences. When investigating them, experience is not only useless—sometimes, experience can get you and your teammates killed. Therefore, this is the employment training procedure for both full-time and Temporary Investigators."

"But we do not even know what we are supposed to do!"

"The specific mission objectives and necessary intelligence will be provided when you receive the corresponding assignment. There is no need to worry," the bamboo-pole man replied.

"Then what about weapons training?"

"We will not issue weapons or weapons permits to unaffiliated personnel. If you require fire support during an investigation, the accompanying soldiers or Peacekeepers will provide it."

Whenever Temporary Investigators carried out missions, soldiers or Peacekeepers would accompany them—these people were there both to assist them and to monitor them.