Ark, Just Tell Me Whether the Mission Is Complete

He hadn't even chosen it yet, and it was already looking down on him?

"Are you afraid I won't complete the mission and you won't get your system KPI?"

Everything that existed had a reason for existing.

Since this system had just said it wanted to help its host become someone useful to the world,

then naturally, someone must have ordered this system to assist its host.

And if someone was giving orders, there had to be evaluation criteria similar to KPIs.

But logically speaking, shouldn't the worse the host was, the happier the system should be?

The worse the host, the greater the contrast created through the system, and the higher the system's performance metrics should be.

Yet after seeing his status panel, this so-called Positive Growth System wanted to run away. That could only mean one thing.

"Could it be that you're a useless system that can only crawl around in dark corners?"

The moment Luo Chen laid out his well-reasoned conclusion, the system's blue screen gradually turned overloaded red, but it still gave him no response.

However, the system's reaction allowed Luo Chen to seize its weakness.

The abilities this system could provide its host were limited, yet it wanted higher KPIs. That was why it wanted to unbind itself from him and find someone powerful to cling to.

Looking at it from a useless thing's perspective, that was only human nature.

But this system had provoked him and still wanted to run?

Luo Chen couldn't pretend he hadn't seen that human-like Eastern Dawn.

With that in mind, Luo Chen decided to make a deal with this adorable little system.

"System, if I'm not mistaken, you need the host's consent to unbind."

"Since that's the case, let's play a game. Give me a mission and a beginner's reward. If I can't complete the mission, I'll choose to uninstall you voluntarily."

"If I complete it, you'll upgrade my reward and give it to me permanently. How about it?"

"Of course, you can also refuse. In that case, I'll start taking good care of myself and try to live another hundred or two hundred years, putting a little pressure on your performance."

Luo Chen's proposal was undoubtedly an enormous temptation to the Positive Growth System.

The reason it wanted to unbind from Luo Chen was not because his physical abilities were too poor, but because his temperament was somewhat twisted.

As a Positive Growth System, what it valued most was whether its host had a sunny heart and positive energy.

And the disposition of Luo Chen, this Eastern Dawn, happened to run completely counter to its system's purpose.

As the saying went, if the direction was wrong, the harder one worked, the more one failed.

That was why the system wanted to change hosts.

But as Luo Chen had said, the system needed the host's consent to unbind, and Luo Chen did not agree. So it had wanted to play dead and slack off, lest it aid evil.

Now Luo Chen had given it a choice. As long as it assigned him a mission and reward to test him, Luo Chen would unbind from it if he failed.

Giving a Debuff Also Came With a Skill

After analyzing its data, the system calculated that its chances of winning the bet against Luo Chen exceeded 99.99%. Rather than wait until this host died, it might as well choose a difficult mission and win.

After ripples trembled across the system panel, a line of text gradually appeared before Luo Chen.

[Current mission: Become an official officer of the Lungmen Guard Department.]

[Temporary skill obtained: Debuff Disguise Technique.]

[Debuff Disguise Technique: The host may alter their face and voice into those of a breathtakingly beautiful member of the opposite sex. However, after disguising themselves, the host's physical abilities will be drastically reduced, and they will attract more attention from those around them. Using this skill may attract people with ill intentions. Please remain safe.]

[After completing the mission, Debuff Disguise Technique will upgrade into Myriad Transformations.]

[Myriad Transformations: By touching any person, the host may completely transform into that person's appearance.]

[After mission failure, this system will automatically uninstall itself according to the agreement.]

After saying that, the system fell silent.

Only a sky-blue skill panel remained for Luo Chen to examine.

Luo Chen carefully read the description of the Disguise Technique and briefly imagined the consequences of using it.

If he went to the Lower City and used this Disguise Technique to investigate the Rat King, he would very likely attract a group of criminals coveting his beauty.

And the skill's negative effect would make his already pathetic physical fitness even worse. The final result could only be one man on top of another.

"Sure enough, this adorable little system really wants to run. It gives me a debuff and even throws in a skill."

Luo Chen muttered to himself for a while.

Although the assistance this system provided was limited, it had broadened Luo Chen's approach to solving the problem.

Thinking of this, Luo Chen used the skill and rubbed his face. In an instant, an exquisite face that would make anyone blush with a single glance appeared on him.

The debuff to his body was also obvious. Luo Chen could clearly feel that his phone, which normally weighed almost nothing, now felt like a brick.

"I should record a video first."

Luo Chen turned on his phone camera and spoke solemnly at the screen.

"Hello, everyone. I'm going to expose the true face of Lungmen's underground emperor, the Rat King..."

Three days later.

Inside a bright, spacious meeting room at the Lungmen Guard Department headquarters,

more than a dozen Human Resources Department staff sat around a huge round table. Some earnestly wrote their evaluations, while others occasionally exchanged words with their colleagues.

After discussing each newcomer's assessment, they would send the report they had written to Superintendent Chen, who sat in the middle.

Chen Huijie flipped through report after report, nodding from time to time with a satisfied smile at the corners of her lips.

Although there were no especially outstanding elites among this batch of newcomers, their overall quality was quite good.

For the tasks assigned to them by each department, most of them had given their all and thrown themselves wholeheartedly into their missions.

Even among the bottom twenty, those who already had one foot out of the Guard Department, more than half had not given up and were still doing their utmost.

Take the youth ranked twentieth from last, for example.

During an Operations Department operation, he had encountered a knife-wielding criminal alone.

Knowing he was no match for him, the youth did not try to show off. Instead, he kicked over a roadside trash can and shoved down a nearby shelf, delaying the criminal long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

Although this person lacked the ability to stop the criminal head-on, he had still achieved his objective by using the terrain and applying his wits.

That was what true adaptability meant. The reason Ch'en had established the practical assessment was to test whether the newcomers possessed this ability.

And this youth fit the criteria perfectly. He could be accepted as an exception.

Aside from this youth, three others among the bottom twenty had also performed rather well and could be accepted as exceptions.

She believed that with the addition of these hundred-plus newcomers, the Guard Department's backbone would become even stronger.

"Huh? This guy stayed in his dorm for three days? I remember him being pretty hardworking. Was the blow too much for him, so he gave up on himself?"

Just as Chen was reflecting on how the Guard Department would only grow better and better, a startled cry suddenly drew her attention.

The other Human Resources officers also turned to look at the speaker.

Realizing that he had spoken too loudly, the man immediately looked apologetically at Superintendent Chen and lowered his voice.

"Sorry, ma'am. This last-place Luo Chen's performance was too disappointing. I couldn't help raising my voice."

Chen waved her hand. "It's fine. Tell me, what did Luo Chen, the one in last place, do during the practical assessment?"

"According to our inquiries, he's been staying in his dorm these past few days, saying he's waiting for the Rat King to come to him."

The moment those words came out, the entire meeting room fell silent.

"What is this idiot doing? Did he just give up?"

"I feel like the training hit him too hard. This guy's mind obviously isn't normal anymore."

"Even if a normal person gave up, they would tell us directly, right? Someone who says he's waiting in his dorm for the Rat King to come knocking... I think we should get a psychiatrist from the Medical Department to examine him."

When it came to Luo Chen, everyone felt some degree of sympathy and regret.

They sympathized with him because Luo Chen was the orphaned child of a martyred Guard Department veteran.

They regretted it because Luo Chen genuinely wanted to join the Guard Department and continue his parents' work.

Speaking of which, Luo Chen had simply been born at the wrong time. If it had been a few years earlier, his overseas credentials and status as a martyr's orphan would have guaranteed his entry into the Guard Department.

But the current Guard Department was no longer an organization one could join with a mere letter of recommendation.

After Chen and Swire were promoted to senior superintendents, they established a series of examinations and rules for recruiting new Guard Department members.

All the old hands with no real ability had been sent off to administrative work. If applicants for other department positions failed to meet the required standards, the Guard Department would absolutely not take them.

"Maybe the blow was too much and he started hallucinating. Have someone from the Medical Department check on him," Chen sighed helplessly.

She sympathized with Luo Chen's situation as well, but rules were rules.

Letting him join the Guard Department despite failing to meet the requirements would only harm him.

Speaking of which, Hoshiguma had asked her two days ago whether she knew of any job opportunities. Tomorrow, she would have someone at the Governor's Office find Luo Chen some simple clerical work.

Just as Chen's attention shifted away from Luo Chen and back to the work in front of her,

ring, ring.

The phone at her waist suddenly rang.

Chen glanced at the number on the screen, her expression darkened, and she silently left the meeting room.

Only after finding an empty balcony did Chen answer the call. "Hello... What is it?"

"Chen Huijie, I need you to help me find someone!"

Lin Yuxia's familiar voice came from the other end of the line, but it was the first time Chen had heard such a furious tone from her, one as irritable as Swire's.

Anything that could make Lin Yuxia, who always pretended to be aloof, lose her composure had to be something serious.

Why Does This Background Look Familiar?

"Calm down. Did something happen?"

Chen asked Lin Yuxia about her problem in a highly professional manner, but the other woman did not appreciate it at all. Instead, she immediately unleashed a torrent of abuse.

"Chen Huijie, that's easy for you to say! My father is being chased around by my mother with a knife, and you're telling me to calm down?"

"So you haven't seen any of the things online at all?"

"I've been busy with work lately. What happened online?"

Following Lin Yuxia's words, Chen opened her browser and searched for the day's trending topics.

The instant the search results appeared, Chen's eyes widened, and she was completely stunned.

At that moment, every trending headline in Lungmen had been dominated by the words Rat King.

[Breaking news: Lungmen's underground emperor, the Rat King, allegedly has twenty illegitimate children.]

[Person involved gives emotional account, revealing the Rat King's history of abandoning his wife and children under their real name.]

[An expert claims that powerful people with successful careers often lead unspeakable private lives. Rumors concerning the Rat King are highly credible.]

[More and more people are coming forward as witnesses. In his early years, the Rat King bullied men and women alike and committed every kind of evil. No Lungmen citizen should whitewash a gang leader.]

Chen Huijie clicked on the second trending topic, and a video immediately popped up.

The video's protagonist was a young woman of around twenty. Her opening line was, "Guys, who understands this?"

"Twenty years ago, the Rat King abandoned his wife and child, leaving only my mother and me to rely on each other..."

"..."

"Even when my mother died sick on the street, he never came to see her once. How cold-blooded does someone have to be to do something like that?"