Our Responsibility

"Then how could someone like that possibly be recruited?"

For a moment, silence fell over the entire office, thick with tension. After a while, Minister Shen, whose face was stern and imposing, was the first to leap to his feet. "We must immediately begin comprehensive monitoring of him, even..."

"No!"

Professor Bai cut him off. "My personal decision is to approve the recruitment—and to approve guiding him as well!"

"What?"

This time, it was not only Minister Shen. Even Chen Jing and the others at the meeting openly wore astonished expressions.

"This young man's risk of losing control is indeed quite high, but it's clear that he has always been working hard to control himself!"

Professor Bai continued, "I've read his file. In the ten years since the Crimson Moon Orphanage incident, he hasn't shown any further signs of abnormality. Instead, he studied seriously, worked, and persisted in helping with the reconstruction of Crimson Moon Elementary School. I believe this is a rare virtue. At the very least, it shows that although his Mental Mutation level is high, he has always been working hard to control himself. If we give him a certain amount of guidance and assistance, there's a good chance we can keep him stable and reduce his risk of losing control!"

Minister Shen instinctively said, "But he..."

"Very dangerous and difficult to understand?"

Professor Bai shook his head. "When a person's Mental Mutation level reaches a degree beyond ordinary people's imagination, various abnormal states are bound to appear. From the perspective of ordinary people, quite apart from his dissociative identity disorder, the mere fact that he possesses Mental Mutation abilities could be considered highly abnormal. We might even directly define such people as mentally ill, or... insane!"

"But that should not become the basis for our judgment."

"We should face these changes with humility and reverence, rather than with a sense of superiority and prejudice!"

"Compared with them, we are normal people!"

"But from another perspective, we are ordinary people too!"

"..."

Professor Bai's words left the meeting briefly silent and hesitant, and the atmosphere grew somewhat oppressive.

Not everyone could accept and face such changes as calmly as this professor.

"Of course, there's another, even more important reason!"

Professor Bai turned around and looked toward the plump, round-faced old man seated in the middle of the conference table.

"This time, when I came to attend the Research Institute's special meeting, I discovered that people in other High Wall Cities, as well as organizations such as the Technological Church and mining companies, have already discovered S-class Mental Mutants. Although the specific intelligence is still unknown, you can imagine this: when these people can completely master the abilities of these S-class Mental Mutants, and are no longer content merely to deal with Mental Pollution incidents in their own cities, but decide to use them militarily and turn their attention toward other High Wall Cities, what will we have to resist them with?"

"..."

"S-class Mental Mutants..."

Professor Bai's words caused looks of horror to appear on many people's faces.

The round-faced old man was silent for a while before asking, "Isn't Kid's potential quite high?"

"Kid has tremendous potential among the Mutants with a low risk of losing control!"

Professor Bai's gaze looked somewhat weary. "But many people have already set their sights on those with a high risk of losing control!"

Minister Shen suddenly said, "What they're doing is dangerous!"

"But not doing the same is equally dangerous!"

Professor Bai let out a soft sigh. "Everyone else is doing it. If you don't, you'll fall behind!"

Everyone in the meeting room fell silent.

Most of them had experienced the hardships of High Wall City's early construction, so they understood the cost of falling behind.

After remaining silent for some time, Minister Shen said, "I agree with Professor Bai's opinion, but I still insist that for someone with such a high Mental Mutation level and such a great risk of losing control, supervision must be strengthened. At the same time, before his mental state is confirmed to be stable, he must absolutely not be allowed to enter the Main City. I have to take responsibility for the millions of residents in the Main City!"

"I understand your concern!"

Professor Bai chuckled. "But there's no need to be so tense. I believe we can find a better way to handle this!"

"Professor Bai..."

Just as the group had fallen somewhat silent, the round-faced middle-aged man seated in the center suddenly spoke with a smile.

"I have a question. If the mental states of these Mental Mutants are all unstable and their risk of losing control is high, and apart from observation, we can no longer use any other means to assess that risk, then how should we determine whether they're safe?"

Professor Bai turned around. After a moment of silence, he smiled. "Sometimes, the standards of judgment can seem rather laughable!"

"If we truly can't determine whether he's normal, but still have no choice but to consider making use of their abilities..."

"Then we can only trust some standards that may sound rather laughable!"

"For example..."

"Whether this person's heart is kind and yearns for beautiful things!"

"..."

Professor Bai's words once again left the office silent for a moment.

"We'll decide this matter later. Professor Bai, after you return, I hope we can have a proper talk."

At the end of the meeting, the round-faced middle-aged man spoke with a smile, bringing the meeting to a close.

One shadow after another began to disappear from the meeting room, but Professor Bai did not leave.

Chen Jing knew that the professor still had something to say to her, so she took the initiative to give him a private report. "Professor, regarding his abnormal behavior while handling the Mental Pollution Source incident, I already explained it in the first test video I sent you. I still hold to my previous view: certain aspects of him do indeed appear abnormal, but that doesn't mean his risk of losing control is high."

"From my initial contact with him, it was clear that he was simply a very ordinary person."

"He likes money, and he also likes... women. He's a little sly, too, but all of that is an expression of human nature."

After a pause, she added, "Of course, at the time, I had no idea that his Mental Mutation level... would be this high!"

"..."

"What you said makes a lot of sense. I also trust your judgment!"

The white-suited old man smiled. "Strictly speaking, though, I don't think the possibility of losing control or not losing control is that important. You've dealt with them too much, so you've been influenced by them. In our line of research, we need to understand problems from different angles. For example, everyone thinks he's dangerous because he has dissociative identity disorder, but from another perspective..."

"He's had the disorder for so long, and his Mental Mutation level is so high, yet no problems have ever arisen. Doesn't that happen to prove his self-control?"

"..."

"This..."

Chen Jing was somewhat startled by Professor Bai's words. After a pause, the habit formed through years of their teacher-student relationship made her immediately adopt the City Defense Department's perspective and answer his question. "Then if he could have avoided losing control, but lost control during prolonged contact with Mental Pollution incidents, wouldn't that have become our responsibility?"

"Responsibility shouldn't be understood that way!"

Professor Bai smiled. "It should be said that guiding him to use his abilities without losing control—that is our responsibility!"

Seeing that Chen Jing could not answer for the moment, Professor Bai continued with a smile. "Besides, which of the people recruited so far hasn't lost control? Kid's autism, Gecko's lecherousness, the Drunkard's delusions, and even your..."

"...severe gambling addiction and extreme pink obsession?"

"..."

Listening to Professor Bai, Chen Jing's face turned red. She raised her head and said, "I've corrected them!"

"You've merely relied on powerful self-control to force yourself to hide them!"

Professor Bai smiled. "I only want to tell you that you need to look at problems more calmly and thoroughly, and not be easily influenced. When all is said and done, we're researchers. We only believe in facts and data. Everything else is nothing but pointless speculation and nonsense..."

"Of course, before this young man is formally recruited, or even guided, he'll still need to undergo more detailed testing!"

"..."

Chen Jing frowned. "The people in the Main City won't possibly be willing to let him go there for testing!"

"That's fine!"

Professor Bai smiled. "We can arrange for staff to go there and test and evaluate him in the Satellite City!"

Chen Jing looked somewhat surprised, then smiled. "Professor, you certainly have influence. You actually managed to convince those old diehards to come all the way to the Satellite City."

Then she asked with some concern, "When?"

Professor Bai smiled. "As soon as possible. To be honest, No. 041 special pollution source has given me a bad feeling!"