On Player Talents

"Is something the matter? Is it already lunchtime? Then ask Xiao Liu to bring me a meal."

Deputy Section Chief Cheng flipped through a huge pile of documents, constantly comparing, entering, and adjusting information on his phone and computer.

Just from his unkempt hair and uniform—he couldn't even be bothered to wear a tie—you could tell he was a serious worker.

"A deputy section chief is like a deputy group leader, a position only the first five groups have on our side. He must be pretty experienced. He certainly looks capable."

Zhang Anzai thought for a moment, then said, "Section Chief Cheng, I'm the 01 administrator of Group 7. Our leader said you wanted to see me."

Only then did Cheng Ye look up. His small eyes, behind rimless glasses and beneath hair that wasn't exactly short, glanced at Zhang Anzai before he lowered his head again. "The 01 administrator from Group 7... Give me a second."

He put down the documents and checked on his computer. "Oh! You're the one in charge of Fate Controller."

Zhang Anzai understood. He remembers the players but not the staff.

"That's me." Zhang Anzai had seen plenty of leaders who were good for nothing but making a mess of things, so Cheng Ye's demeanor didn't bother him much.

"Uh... Come over here. Let me tidy up a bit." As he spoke, Cheng Ye started clearing his messy desk. He shifted his office chair and moved various documents to all sorts of places around him.

Watching him rearrange everything, Zhang Anzai was inexplicably reminded of his room back in the real world. So this is that legendary practical style: looks like a mess, but you can still find everything yourself. The kind of setup that drives mothers crazy.

His office wasn't as large as the Group 7 leader's, and it didn't even have a spare chair. But as he tidied, Cheng Ye stood up too and showed no sign of sitting back down.

Once things were more or less in order, he opened a folder. Inside was the player Fate Controller's personal file.

"Anyway, the main reason I called you here was to talk about this player."

The file he'd opened had plenty of notes, mainly in the sections on personal talents and dungeon performance.

"I work in the Player Records Department, and my main responsibility is player talents. I don't think I've ever heard of this player's talent before, but I suspect it has a lot to do with his performance in the dungeon."

As expected, Zhang Anzai's dungeon performance had been so outstanding that the higher-ups had come asking questions.

"Calm and Composed... Aside from the information you submitted, did he show any other unusual behavior? Something more ordinary, like his personal conduct?" Deputy Section Chief Cheng asked.

Calm and Composed was a Grade B talent. Of course, Zhang Anzai had made it up. Its supposed effects were an exceptionally high IQ, incredible focus, powerful logical reasoning, and extreme calmness.

Although he'd fabricated it, Zhang Anzai had drawn on his extensive experience as an administrator, so it was unlikely anyone would see through it.

"Uh... Maybe nothing special beyond what I already mentioned. The player is very smart, and he's got a lot of nerve," Zhang Anzai replied.

Deputy Section Chief Cheng was clearly not satisfied with that. "Then be more specific. Your dungeon report says he saw an employee's corpse in that gas station. How did he react?"

Zhang Anzai pretended to think back. "Mm... He was very calm. He just backed away right away so he wouldn't step in the blood or disturb the scene."

Deputy Section Chief Cheng nodded. "And later, when he dug up the asphalt and saw the remains of a ghost, how did he react?"

Zhang Anzai replied, "I don't think he reacted in any particular way. He was very composed and just took care not to touch anything."

Making things up was proving rather difficult. As an administrator, Zhang Anzai had plenty of dungeon experience, but that didn't mean he was emotionless. In the high-pressure environment of a dungeon, things like that always made his heart pound.

"Then that explains it..." Deputy Section Chief Cheng nodded, then asked, "How is he with you? I mean, how would you describe your relationship?"

Zhang Anzai replied, "Ah, yeah. He always seems to keep people at a distance. He's not exactly polite, and even after going through another dungeon together, I don't feel like we've become friends."

Hearing the question, Zhang Anzai was sure his plan had worked. "Section Chief Cheng, have you figured something out?"

Cheng Ye sat down and pulled up some information on his computer. "I think this player's talent may fundamentally be an absence of emotion."

"An absence of emotion?" Zhang Anzai looked a little confused. "Do you mean he has some kind of mental illness? Though, now that you mention it, he does seem to show very little emotion."

Deputy Section Chief Cheng waved a hand. "You could put it that way. Emotional blunting is usually a symptom of other mental illnesses, and his case seems more unusual. But it probably still counts as some kind of mental illness.

"In any case, that's likely why he isn't affected by negative emotions and can explore dungeons so easily."

Zhang Anzai thought helplessly, It's not easy at all... But no matter what, I managed to fool him.

"You mean he can't feel fear because he has no emotions?" Zhang Anzai continued playing along.

Deputy Section Chief Cheng nodded. "That's probably it. If so, his talent should count as a top-tier Grade B."

Zhang Anzai suddenly felt a little guilty. Section Chief Cheng takes his work so seriously... He really must not have time to read novels or anything.

This character archetype was so familiar that anyone who'd read even a few novels would recognize it—the standard protagonist template in an infinite-flow story.

By this point, Deputy Section Chief Cheng seemed to have learned just about everything he needed. That was probably why he hadn't bothered to get Zhang Anzai a chair, knowing the meeting wouldn't take long.

But Zhang Anzai had used up time he should have spent working to come all the way here. There was no way he'd just head back.

So he made his move. "This talent is that powerful? Then, Section Chief Cheng, do you think... someone else could acquire it?"

Cheng Ye thought it over and shook his head. "I suspected this player had a mental problem before you came, but I didn't find many cases like this while researching. Even if there are some, the talent would be caused by an illness, so it wouldn't be like the others."

Zhang Anzai nodded. "Most of our newcomers still believe that talents can generally be trained."

At that, Cheng Ye suddenly grew animated. "You can't exactly say that's wrong."

As he spoke, he shifted the computer screen slightly toward Zhang Anzai and switched from the research page to a records page.

The screen was packed with talents of every kind, sorted into the four grades: A, B, C, and D. "From what I've found, the dungeon space is very special. In theory, you really can train yourself to develop any talent in there."

Looking at the page, Zhang Anzai felt rather pleased. After all that acting, I finally got to Burning Mantra.

He held down his excitement and drew Cheng Ye in further. "Is that so?"