Idle Chatter

"Hm, what a wonderful era." Rolling his neck, Jiu Ming wearily put the book in his hand back, then walked out under the ghost-struck stares of quite a few people.

"His shadow... seems to have no head." One reader tugged at his companion. At first, few people noticed it, but when Jiu Ming went elsewhere to look for books, the lamplight stretched his shadow longer, and someone spotted that detail.

Then the matter gradually spread.

"Obviously. We've been watching him for half the day, so why say 'seems'?" His companion was quite displeased at being poked in the waist. "Maybe it's some special ability. It has nothing to do with us anyway, so don't meddle."

"True." The two nodded and continued reading their books with great interest.

Jiu Ming had long known that this world was not particularly peaceful, but after reading some materials, he realized that its instability far exceeded his imagination. Cities were very safe, but the situation outside them was far less stable. Even though human armies regularly swept out the Exotic Beasts beyond the cities, some always slipped through the net or migrated nearby and remained there.

Like weeds, they were cut down wave after wave...

Exotic Beasts reproduced no slower than humans, perhaps even faster. Humans came of age at sixteen by this world's standards, yet even after evolving, those Exotic Beasts' growth cycles had not increased much. Instead, they were somewhat shorter than humans'. Once adult, Exotic Beasts possessed considerable combat power, while humans had to learn.

No wonder it had always been a stalemate.

"Let's go. Time to make an appearance. Of course, you don't need to show yourself voluntarily." The agreed time soon arrived. Wang Hai had come over himself again, but this time, he was not walking. He had driven here.

"He actually opened the door..." The car was not empty. Besides Wang Hai, there was another person inside. Though male, his skin was remarkably fair, as if he had not seen sunlight for years. Seeing Jiu Ming open the door and get in left him feeling somewhat... awkward? It seemed some expectation of his had fallen through.

"Who's he?"

"Let me introduce him. This is my colleague, Li Rui Ming. He does research." Wang Hai gave a brief introduction and started the car. "Your existence is rather unusual, so he shamelessly insisted on coming along this time."

"Huh? So does that mean you want to send me to an operating table?"

"You've read too many novels. We're not some unscrupulous illegal organization. How could we do something like that?" Li Rui Ming shook his head and took out a pen. "At most, we'd seek your cooperation. Your existence... is simply bizarre. I checked a great deal of information and have never seen another case like yours. Some people may have unusual abilities and survive for a while in a spiritual form after death, but none are like you."

"Once a spiritual body is exposed to the outside world, it can easily be dissolved by the planet's magnetic field. It's only a matter of time. You're probably the only anomalous case in this world."

As he spoke, Li Rui Ming pressed the pen in his hand against Jiu Ming's palm. With a slight thought from Jiu Ming, the pen was stopped by his skin as though it had poked an ordinary physical body.

"Huh? What's going on?" Li Rui Ming looked toward Wang Hai in the driver's seat. "Old Wang, didn't you say bullets could pass through him?"

"I can even trade blows with him in hand-to-hand combat." Remembering how his leg had gone numb and made him look foolish, Wang Hai replied irritably, "Ask him."

"Just treat it as a special talent of mine." Jiu Ming reached out and took the pen from Li Rui Ming. As Li Rui Ming watched curiously, the pen easily passed through Jiu Ming's palm.

"Just as I thought. Then what's the upper limit of your physical immunity?" Li Rui Ming did not exclaim that this was not physical immunity. His question showed that he had done considerable research on "energy bodies" like Jiu Ming. This was not a game—who dared claim there was absolute physical immunity? Absolute magic immunity?

Even a physical attack would render any physical immunity meaningless if the attacker could shatter a planet with one punch. The spatial vibrations stirred up by that punch alone could probably wipe out every existence within range...

Well, there were no Saiyans in this world.

"Old Li." Seeing Li Rui Ming getting so carried away with his questions, Wang Hai slightly sharpened his tone, speaking especially to Jiu Ming. "Don't mind him too much. Researchers tend to be a little blunt-minded."

"It's fine. It's not some great secret anyway." Jiu Ming waved a hand. Even if there were differences in his physical immunity, they would not be significant. "Since he's researched it, he must already have some idea. You could say ordinary attacks are ineffective against me, but if they include a special factor, it's different. Like that net you used to catch people."

"Oh? No wonder you could be trapped that night."

"Ha, I know about that." Taking back the pen Jiu Ming returned, Li Rui Ming was happy to explain some related details since Jiu Ming was not hiding much. "That net uses a fairly common production method. When High-Energy Mineral Crystals are mined, they are wrapped in a layer of Insulating Material. That material has very strong energy-blocking properties."

"A net specifically for dealing with Ability Users?"

After thinking about it a little, Jiu Ming understood what the net was for.

"After all, there are many kinds of abilities. If you want to capture someone alive, you naturally need special methods. That said, the net is basically useless against people like Old Wang from the Flesh System."

After speaking, Li Rui Ming asked Jiu Ming expectantly, "Um, after the students' internship ends, could you..."

"No!" Jiu Ming decisively shook his head. What a joke. Judging from the look on Li Rui Ming's face, cooperating with them would definitely mean more than just one person. Being surrounded by a group of research maniacs? No matter how he looked at it, that was not a good thing.

"Then could you let us take a sample... We can trade for it!" Li Rui Ming realized his request was a little excessive and hurriedly added, "How about High-Energy Mineral Crystals? Not the ordinary stuff circulating on the market."

"Hmm, that... we'll talk about it later." After thinking it over, Jiu Ming did not agree outright. It was not that he feared they would discover something through research. The mention of taking samples simply made him uncomfortable. He was a Soul Body—how were they supposed to take samples? There was nothing to take...

"Alright, Old Li. You've said everything you needed to say. Now it's time to discuss business." Wang Hai pulled out a document envelope and handed it to Jiu Ming in the back seat. "Take a look. There are some students you'll need to pay extra attention to, as well as some special precautions... Oh, right. Can you possess someone like ghosts do in movies?"

"I haven't tried, but I probably can." Because his Soul Body was so unusual, aside from certain "functions," he was no different from an ordinary person as long as he wanted to be. So he had never considered trying possession.

"Old Li... dedicate yourself to science." Wang Hai promptly sold out his colleague. "I was going to lead by example, but I'm the Driver now."

"..." Li Rui Ming's mouth twitched slightly. There was no hesitation in his eyes; instead, there was some anticipation. "No problem! But when you try possessing someone, see if you can maintain that 'solid' state of yours."

"That? Definitely not." Jiu Ming shook his head. "I tried it when passing through walls. When I merge into something, I can't remain solid."

"Alright then, come on!"

"..." Jiu Ming continued sitting silently, opened the document envelope, and pulled out the materials inside to read at his leisure, as if he had not heard Li Rui Ming. "For some reason, I find the thought disgusting and awkward. I'm not doing it."

"Passing through walls is fine, so mere possession should definitely work."

Having thoroughly cut off Li Rui Ming's argument, Jiu Ming focused on the information in the document envelope. First was the list of students participating in this internship. There were nearly two hundred of them. Quite a lot!

Scanning through the list carefully, Jiu Ming actually saw Du Fei's name. Hmm, that kid. Though his ability was a little useless, if he made good use of it during this internship, his sensitivity to scents would put his survival rate among the highest.

"Joint internship among multiple schools?"

"Of course. To cultivate the students' abilities, every internship is organized jointly by many academies. Students form teams with students from different schools and hone themselves through cooperation. You don't need to worry about chaos making people impossible to find. Even if they're students from other schools, help them if you can, but don't intervene excessively. Otherwise, it won't be something that can be overlooked. That would count as deliberately disrupting the students' normal internship, which is illegal."

"Hey, it's actually illegal? This is about protecting the students' lives."

Looking at Jiu Ming's youthful face through the rearview mirror, Wang Hai shook his head slightly. Still just a young man. "Those Exotic Beasts undergo plenty of killing before reaching adulthood. If humans want to fight Exotic Beasts and do not use special methods to cultivate students' abilities, are we supposed to send a group of greenhouse flowers in as fresh blood? The sacrifices would be even greater then."

"Still, this year, the higher-ups seem to have some strange ideas... Sigh. Anyway, try to act as little as possible, but anyone you can save must be saved."

Jiu Ming lightly tapped the documents in his hand with a finger. "If no one finds out, then it'll be fine, right?"

"That depends on what clever methods you have." Wang Hai shrugged. "Remember, neither the students nor the guards and emergency rescue personnel within the internship area can discover you. Providing hidden assistance isn't easy."

The pay was high, sure, but if he slipped up even slightly, he would end up caught between both sides. The employer would bear no responsibility, while he would also face punishment from the government... Though it usually was not too severe, it was embarrassing!

Emergency rescue personnel only acted after students sent out a distress signal. Once they did, that student would lose their qualification for this internship, meaning they would have to repeat the year. The incident would also be recorded in their file and greatly affect their future prospects. Unless absolutely necessary, they should avoid using it.

Rescue personnel also needed time to reach the scene, so even after sending a distress signal, they could not relax. If they failed to hold on until the rescuers arrived, it would all be pointless.