A Stroke of Luck

Just when Brian had no idea what he would run into next...

An emotionless mechanical female voice came from the four corners of the room. "Employee Brian, identity confirmed. Please enter Aberration Ray Detector No. 009 within five seconds."

As the mechanical female voice finished speaking, an instrument in the room that looked very much like a CT scanner projected a sheet of green light, illuminating an area.

At the same time, the mechanical female voice also began the countdown. "Five, four—"

Brian swallowed. Without hesitating, he strode beneath the green projection, his heartbeat quickening, filled with a powerless sense that his fate was in someone else's hands.

At that moment, he was filled with longing for power!

As Brian entered the green projection zone, the countdown stopped.

But the entire room began to vibrate at a low frequency.

Bzzzzzz—

The sound made Brian restless and irritable.

At the same time, yellow rays turned into a grid, constantly passing through Brian's body as if scanning and examining him.

As those tangible yellow rays shone into Brian's body, a dense, almost black dark red slowly surged, forcibly stimulated out, merging into the yellow rays and dyeing them a faint dark yellow. Then they quickly deepened into an earth yellow before passing out through his body again.

Those earth-yellow rays were mixed among the other yellow rays.

They did not stand out at all.

Relying clearly on the corner of his vision, Brian's Super-Calculation Perception forcibly imprinted this change into his mind.

But his consciousness and condition were not good.

He had no idea what those rays were. When they pierced through his body, it was like countless tangible, hair-thin needles stabbing into him. Coupled with the low-frequency, grating noise of the instrument, it was enough to make someone want to explode!

Just as Brian felt he was about to lose control, clutch his head, and howl out loud, that ear-piercing low-frequency vibration finally began to slow, then vanished within a breath or two.

Hah—

Brian could no longer hold himself back. He dropped to one knee, lowered his head, and gasped for breath.

Sweat poured off him in streams.

A wave of weakness surged through him.

Brian knew clearly that the yellow rays just now had carried intense radiation!

Streaks of blood appeared in his eyes.

Stimulated by his emotions, his talent Wrath uncontrollably pumped out large amounts of adrenaline, rapidly blocking out the weakness in Brian's body and mind, transforming it instead into an utterly clear fury.

Right now, he really wanted to punch those bastards outside to pieces!

But Brian understood very well.

He had no background and no strength. No matter how angry he acted, it would only be impotent rage.

At that moment, a thought took root and sprouted in the depths of his heart: he did not want to experience a scene like today's ever again!

He had to become stronger!

After several deep breaths, Brian forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart. The bloodshot streaks in his eyes slowly faded, and the adrenaline flooding his body also began to metabolize, expelled from his body along with copious sweat.

Without the stimulation of adrenaline, Brian could no longer support his body and slowly collapsed to the floor.

As he drifted in and out of consciousness, in a daze, he seemed to hear a man's screams and Team Leader Susan's roar.

Thud—

The room's heavy door was opened.

Susan's expression was icy. She stepped over several soldiers lying on the ground screaming, ignored the residual radiation in the room, and strode quickly to Brian. Gritting her teeth, she hoisted Brian, who weighed around a hundred and sixty or seventy pounds, onto her shoulders and walked outside.

Baviel looked at this stubborn niece of his and did not stop her. He only said seriously, "The Infiltrator, Subject 132, is extremely alert and cruel. Without Brian's cooperation, it will be very difficult for us to complete the mission assigned from above."

Susan glared fiercely at this friend of her father's, feeling that he was incomparably unfamiliar. "Mr. Baviel, don't talk to me about your bullshit plan. All I know is that Brian is one of my people, and he passed the machine's examination! As long as he isn't an aberrant, then if anyone wants to touch him, they can ask the twin guns in my hands whether they agree first!"

"You're asking for trouble, Susan."

Baviel stepped aside. "This means you're using your future to vouch for this insignificant little nobody. He's only been on your team for a few days. You don't even understand his real past. He—"

"Shut up!"

"Brian is my companion now!"

"I never abandon someone I've accepted!"

"If there really is something wrong with him,"

"I'll execute him myself!"

Susan cut Baviel off, slung Brian over her shoulder, and strode toward the base's infirmary.

Behind her.

Baviel shrugged.

He felt a little sorry for his old friend.

Having such a stubborn, one-track-minded daughter.

What a miserable fate.

Baviel nudged a few of the fallen soldiers with his foot. "All right, stop acting. Push the corpse inside into Aberration Ray Detector 009. If it really is the body of an aberrant, our bonus this month won't be small."

Only then did the soldiers who had been screaming moments ago grimace and climb up from the floor.

Clearly, they were not quite that fragile.

A moment later.

The sealed room released a yellow glow once more.

Only this time, the glow appeared for less than two seconds. The instant it entered the corpse, it shifted from yellow to red-orange, and as time passed, it dyed the entire room a pale red.

Seeing this.

A smile appeared on Baviel's face.

Mad Dog Ike really had been an aberrant!

In his dazed haze, Brian felt as if he were flying through the clouds, his head bumping again and again into soft, cotton-like cloud banks.

He had to admit.

These clouds were springy and fragrant.

Still muddled.

Brian's head swayed back and forth. He opened his eyes, only to see an arched obstruction blocking his entire forward view.

Without thinking, he reached out, wanting to move the obstruction aside.

Hm?

That feel.

The next instant.

Thud~

As the world spun.

Susan threw Brian over her shoulder and slammed him hard into the ground.

Brian sucked in a sharp breath, curling into a C-shape as the heavy impact hurt so badly he could barely breathe.

"Hmph!"

Susan snorted coldly, lowered her head, and glanced at the obstruction that had kept swelling since she was fifteen, to the point that she could no longer see her own feet. A faint blush rose on her cheeks. She grabbed Brian by the ankle and dragged this groping bastard onward toward the infirmary.

A moment later.

Because he did not know when to shut up and brought up that accidental touch again, Brian, beaten black and blue by the embarrassed and furious Susan, stripped off his clothes. After electrodes were stuck all over his chest, he bit down on a breathing tube and obediently lay inside a large glass tank filled with green liquid.

Brian had no idea what the green liquid was made of.

In any case, once he lay down in it.

He felt his whole aching body continuously flooded with cool, soothing comfort.

About ten minutes later.

The female doctor who had been staring at the monitor knocked on the glass lid. "All right. Most of the special radiation in your body has already been cleared. For the next while, eat more vegetables, exercise less, and absolutely no activities between men and women. In about half a month, your body should return to normal."

Brian spat out the breathing tube he had been biting, moved his body around, and felt that he really was much more comfortable.

He took the bath towel the doctor handed him and, ignoring her openly appreciative gaze, wiped himself down while asking, "Is that yellow light very harmful to the body?"

The female doctor looked at Brian strangely, as if wondering why he did not even know that.

But considering that Brian had been brought here by Susan, she still nodded.

"Yes. It's a very violent method for detecting aberrants."

"After ordinary people are irradiated by it, large numbers of cells in their bodies fall into accelerated decline."

"You can think of it as having your life shortened by several years."

"But don't worry."

"Team Leader Susan overextended her own merit points to exchange for this Body Repair Fluid for you, and you were brought in very promptly, so you shouldn't have been affected much."

Susan.

Brian was moved.

In truth, thanks to the marvel of Super-Calculation Perception, not only did he remember that nearly black, dark-red substance hidden inside his body, he also knew clearly what Susan had done and said earlier.

Brian knew this was simply Susan's personality, not special treatment for him.

But he was still deeply moved.

Working under someone like that

was pretty lucky.

Also, through Susan's conversation with that Baviel, Brian finally learned many things.

Deformed beings...

Infiltrator Subject 132.

So this was the secret his uncle had been hiding!

Brian had already harbored killing intent toward this uncle who had changed his face and threatened him.

Now that he knew the man had actually used him as cannon fodder to test the waters, and with Susan taking the risk to vouch for him, after weighing it all, Brian decided to confess to Susan about his uncle threatening him into joining the NW Department!

As for the consequences, no matter how bad they were, they probably couldn't get much worse.

He had truly been lucky to pass the test this time.

Brian didn't believe for a second that Baviel would really let him off.

If he did not deal with the hidden danger that was his uncle, he might very well get dragged down with him!

Thank you to reader "Night's Radiance" for the twenty-thousand book coin reward. Thank you, Boss Ye!

Thank you to reader "Azure Sea Breeze" for the five-thousand book coin reward. Thank you, boss!