Cross Scar

As he thought about these questions, a faint dizziness suddenly began to wash over him. Fragments of memories from his new life surfaced in his mind:

The new memories were almost identical to the standard ones he had experienced before. He had still escaped from the Ancient Castle, been sent to an orphanage, worked hard at his studies, and gotten into Qinggang University.

The difference was that he had not been disfigured, and both his eyes were intact. Only his left hand bore a cross-shaped scar on its back.

His left hand had also become somewhat stiff as a result, not as nimble or useful as his right.

And this one change seemed to have caused many other changes in his life.

For example, in his file at the Disaster Management Bureau, the damage to his right eye had been replaced by stiffness in his left hand.

He looked down at his left hand and saw that it was indeed slightly curled and stiff. It wasn't that he couldn't stretch it out or grip things; it just felt rusty and awkward.

A cross-shaped scar on its back stood out starkly.

Everything else seemed to follow the same script:

He had still woken up in class, talked with Black Rose, gone to the library to look things up, met the friendly long-haired student, and dealt with the private detectives who had come looking for trouble. Then he had run into Song Chushi, but this time...

He hadn't given him a Spell?

For a moment, Han Su even doubted his own memories. But after thinking it over, he realized that Song Chushi really hadn't given him a Spell.

He had only made note of the monsters Han Su described, then probed him with indirect questions, asking whether he believed that mysterious and bizarre things really existed in this world—and whether they might even be right beside them.

Ordinary people couldn't see them. Some highly powerful department had deliberately severed their awareness of them.

That didn't make sense...

Han Su could barely understand what had changed.

Normally, when he was affected, many events in his memories changed.

For example, when he had injured his leg, he naturally hadn't taken part in the school's high jump competition. But why had this time's changes affected someone else's actions?

Han Su uneasily recalled more details.

In these memories, when he had faced the Ghost Truck, he had still recited the Spell. It was already in his mind; whether or not Song Chushi had ever given it to him, he would instinctively have recited it when he encountered a dangerous aberration.

At the time, though, he hadn't understood why he knew the Spell. Only after he had flickered back this time did he understand where it had come from.

And after he recited the secret incantation, the Ghost Truck had still begun to melt, then fled in terror.

The Spell was supposed to activate the Mysterious Power the monster had left in his right eye.

Then why had it worked the same way as it had when he was in the Ancient Castle, even though his right eye hadn't been injured?

What's more, a whole series of changes had followed, though they were all confined to the details. Since Song Chushi hadn't given him the Spell, the Disaster Management Bureau had only been suspicious that he'd had contact with someone as dangerous as Song Chushi.

They even suspected that Xu Ji and he had survived the Ghost Truck only because Song Chushi had helped them. They had detected traces of his intervention and kept Han Su at the Disaster Management Bureau.

Had Song Chushi intervened along this Life Path?

As the memories filled in, more and more questions surfaced. Han Su increasingly felt as though he had touched upon something extraordinary.

"My name is Cui Qiao. I've been working with Chief Zhang for two years."

As Han Su pondered, the woman in the black suit beside him brought him back to reality. She gathered up a stack of documents and said, "Your information has been entered, and your file will soon be classified."

"Someone will even arrange for you to take leave from your university. You don't need to worry about any of that. Just do well in the training ahead."

"Also, if anything comes up, come to me. If I can't handle it, I'll go to Chief Zhang."

"..."

Han Su nodded repeatedly. "Thank you, Ms. Cui."

The woman in the black suit chuckled. "No need to be so polite. Chief Zhang looks out for you, so of course I won't treat you like an outsider."

"Old Zhang's really doing well for himself now..."

Han Su remembered that when Zhang Chiguo had taken charge of the Kidnapping Case, he hadn't been doing well at the Public Security Bureau.

Despite his age, he had never been promoted. Instead, he'd been stuck doing the toughest, least appreciated work as a frontline detective.

But now, after only three or four years, how had he risen to such a high position in this mysterious department, with such a beautiful secretary to boot?

Compared with the previous timeline, Han Su vaguely remembered that she hadn't been so friendly to him before...

Could it be because he hadn't been disfigured or blinded this time?

Tsk...

The woman looked so cold and unapproachable. Who would've thought she was such a sucker for a pretty face?

Seeing how friendly she was, Han Su's thoughts stirred. He tentatively asked, "Miss, what was that sound I heard in there just now?"

"Why did you say I'd passed the test when I fell asleep?"

"Weren't you the one who told me to listen carefully and try to make out certain words or syllables in those sounds?"

"..."

He really did care about this question.

His unexpected kidnapping had come far too suddenly, and at a time that didn't match the previous pattern. It had to be connected to the stretch of "secret speech" he'd heard at the Disaster Management Bureau.

But if this secret speech could get him kidnapped ahead of time, might it have other effects as well?

To take it a step further, might it contain some kind of code that could delay—or even help him escape—this kidnapping?

"It's Ruinspeak."

Hearing Han Su use a different term, the woman in the black suit had initially been unwilling to answer such a foolish, novice question. But her good mood won out, and she replied, "It's a language that archaeologists unearthed in the ruins of a pre-civilization. Supposedly, it isn't human."

"We have you listen to it to check whether you've been contaminated by an aberration, and to assess your spiritual sensitivity and resistance. That'll come in handy during your training."

Her speaking style was as crisp as her clothes:

"You and the Xu Family's boy encountered the Ghost Truck, so you're both aberration contactees."

"You survived, but we still have to consider whether your minds have been twisted, or whether something else strange and dangerous has hidden itself in your mental worlds."

"This secret speech is exclusive to the Disaster Management Bureau. It has the highest rank, but it does the least damage to ordinary people's minds. If something is hiding in your mental world, listening to it is likely to resonate with it and activate it."

"So it's also used as a screening method at the Disaster Management Bureau, the final safeguard. The Bureau may have rules requiring it to recruit people, but that doesn't mean we'll take just anyone."

"But judging by the results, you're safe."

She turned to look at Han Su and suddenly smiled, revealing a row of small, white teeth. "Very safe indeed. You even fell asleep."

"So tell me—did you mistake that annihilating secret speech for snoring?"

"..."

"Mostly, you played the secret speech for so long. It sounded like an opera..."

Han Su plastered on a smile as well. "But honestly, I'm pretty interested. I've always been interested in the occult and religious cultures. Where can I learn more about this stuff?"

"Getting involved with those things is dangerous, and you don't have the clearance yet."

The woman in the black suit merely glanced at Han Su. "We'll see how you do later. First prove you're qualified to become an investigator."

But inwardly, she thought, Someone who can fall asleep listening to secret speech has the nerve to say he's interested in the occult?

"All right..."

Han Su agreed with a sunny smile, but inside, he became intensely wary.

Maybe I'm not the safest one after all. Maybe I'm the most dangerous.

That thing didn't just resonate with the Mysterious Power in me. It even sent me back...

But every time I flicker, I look as though I've just woken from a nap at that same point in time. That must be why I passed this test by accident.

But it seemed the woman in the black suit was unwilling to say more on the subject. Han Su wasn't content with such scraps of information, though, and continued probing. "So, miss, what will I be doing once I join your department?"

"Will I be catching things like the Ghost Truck?"

"..."

"Catching them?"

The woman in the black suit smiled. "That's part of the job, of course. But what matters more is tracing their origins, containing them, preventing them—and most importantly, lying!"

"Lying?"

Han Su was taken aback by the word. "That's part of the job too?"

"Of course. It's the most important part!"

The woman in the black suit smiled. "The Ghost Truck, contaminated by mysterious machinery, shouldn't exist in reality. Its existence would shatter a lot of people's worldviews, so we keep it out of the public's awareness."

"When it comes to supernatural aberrations, public knowledge is itself a form of the mysterious seeping into reality."

"Our job is to let ordinary people live in peace, keep them from encountering these things or being contaminated by them, and, most importantly, make sure they don't believe these things exist."

"Simple enough, isn't it?"