Policy

Morning sunlight fell across Chen Ling's face. His eyelashes trembled slightly as he slowly opened his eyes...

"I'm back..." He rubbed the corner of his eye and let out a long breath.

After drawing the prize, he had wandered around the stage for a long time without finding any exit. In the end, only when the stage bell rang and the curtain opened did he return automatically.

"Current Expectation Value: 23%... It's getting close to the life-or-death line again." Chen Ling recalled the words on the screen before he left and muttered to himself, "I need to do something soon..."

"Bro..."

The blankets shifted aside. Chen Yan sat up in bed, rubbing his reddened eyes. "Morning."

"Morning." Chen Ling glanced at the clock on the wall, took out the last few copper coins from his pocket, and handed them to Chen Yan. "I'm going out for a while. I don't know exactly when I'll be back, so get yourself something to eat today..."

"Bro, where are you going?"

"To catch myself."

"...?"

Chen Ling put on a cotton overcoat and tucked the envelope the Enforcers had given him yesterday into his chest pocket. Then he turned around and rubbed Chen Yan's head. "Don't ask too much about it. Just stay home and wait for me to come back, understand?"

"Got it." Chen Yan nodded obediently.

After watching Chen Ling leave, Chen Yan rolled out of bed and looked at the two huge holes at the entrance of their home. His brow immediately furrowed.

"How am I supposed to fix this..."

He glanced at the few remaining copper coins in his hand, silently pocketed them, then took a heavy hammer and wooden boards out of the house and began comparing their dimensions.

Just then, a figure appeared beyond the holes, startling Chen Yan.

It was a man in a wool coat, with a dark blue scarf wrapped around his collar and silver-rimmed glasses perched on his nose. He looked artistic and wise.

But at that moment, even his wise eyes held a trace of bewilderment as he looked at the house that had been reduced to two gaping holes...

He wanted to say something, but felt that would be rude. So he tried to knock on the door, only to circle around the house without finding where the door was.

He returned to the hole and looked inside.

"Do you need something?" Chen Yan tilted his head.

"Is Mr. Chen Ling here?"

At the mention of his brother's name, vigilance flashed through Chen Yan's eyes. He studied the man for a few moments before asking again, "Do you need something?"

The man removed his white gloves and took a letter from his coat pocket. He unfolded it and held it in his hand, then spoke calmly into the house:

"I heard that Mr. Chen needs a [Doctor]."

"So, I came."

The biting cold wind poured in through his collar, making Chen Ling shiver.

"Hey, young man, where are you headed? Want a ride?" A lean, dark-skinned man dragged a rickshaw over and hurried up beside Chen Ling, grinning to reveal a row of yellow teeth.

Chen Ling glanced at him. "Enforcers' Headquarters."

"I know the place. I just dropped off two people there. You're all going to become Reserve Seats, right? How about this—since we've got some fate between us, I charged them ten, but I'll only charge you seven. You in?"

"...No, thanks."

"Six. Six, then. I can't go any lower."

"I don't have any money on me."

"No money?" The man frowned, gave him a few sidelong looks, then dragged his rickshaw away while muttering, "What kind of enforcer tries to become one with no money... Bad luck."

Chen Ling: ...?

Chen Ling thought the people in this world had terrible manners. He rubbed his hands, reddened by the cold, and quickened his pace toward the center of the Third District.

Before last night, Chen Ling had been constantly thinking about how to stop the Enforcers from noticing anything suspicious and tracing things back to him again... Now, he had an answer.

He would become one of the Enforcers.

He would become one of the Enforcers, participate in every operation investigating Calamity, and then interfere with it so it could never lock onto him.

"I join, I take part, I mess things up, I run."

That was Chen Ling's current policy.

Chen Ling crossed several streets and finally stopped before a massive building that looked like a glazed glass dome.

"What a grand place..." Chen Ling looked up at the dome and could not help sighing. "How much funding did this thing have to burn through?"

In a neighborhood filled with nothing but two-story mud-brick houses, such a unique building stood out as conspicuously and abruptly as an art museum suddenly built in a rural village in his previous life.

A few other young people carrying letters were also hurrying into headquarters. They exchanged glances and gave one another polite smiles and nods.

More than seventy people from the entire Third District had probably passed the written test. Normally, the elimination rate for the Martial Trial was also around fifty percent, so only about thirty people became Enforcers each year. Although this year's Martial Trial had changed format, the final elimination rate would not change.

In short, everyone entering this building now was actually a potential competitor.

Chen Ling entered the headquarters. Beneath the glazed dome, several rows of people were already standing in neat formation.

Like Chen Ling, these people wore ordinary civilian clothes. They stood ten to a row, each with head held high and every muscle taut, looking like soldiers awaiting a summons at any moment.

Chen Ling had arrived fairly late and could only take a spot at the edge of the last row. Once he was in place, one of the Enforcers glanced over the roster and nodded slightly.

"Everyone's here."

Another member of the Enforcers picked up a prepared speech and was about to begin when the headquarters doors were shoved open, and two figures slowly walked in.

Han Meng tossed his burned-out cigarette butt to the ground and crushed it beneath his foot. The four silver patterns on his black trench coat gleamed as his calm gaze swept across all the candidates in the Reserve Seat. An inexplicable pressure instantly descended upon everyone's hearts...

Everyone except Chen Ling.

Chen Ling raised his brows in surprise, his gaze instinctively landing on the back of Han Meng's head...

He had hit him that hard yesterday, yet he was already healed today?

Was this guy's head really that tough?

"It's Han Meng!"

"It really is him... He came too?"

"Who's Han Meng?"

"The chief Law Enforcer of our Third District, and the Third District's only Four-Pattern Enforcer."

"They say he's a super genius. He advanced to Four-Pattern at twenty-four and once completely crushed all the Law Enforcers of his generation in Aurora City... He's the pride of our seven districts!"

"He crushed the Law Enforcers of his generation in Aurora City? Seriously? If he's that amazing, why wasn't he recruited into Aurora City?"

"No idea... They say he had a feud with some big shot in Aurora City."

"I heard he's an incredible fighter. My mom really likes him."

"...How old is your mom this year?"

"Almost fifty."

"..."

With Han Meng's appearance, the candidates in the Reserve Seat immediately began whispering among themselves. Even the many Enforcers standing nearby unconsciously straightened their backs, their expressions turning solemn and serious.

Han Meng stopped beneath the dome and suddenly felt a chill at the back of his head, as if someone were examining his weakness...

He instinctively turned around and saw a group of Reserve Seats secretly watching him.

After meeting Han Meng's gaze, all the Reserve Seats lowered their heads and no longer dared to discuss him. The entire headquarters fell completely silent.

"My name is Han Meng. I am currently the highest-ranking officer in the Third District." Han Meng adjusted his mindset before speaking slowly. "The next three days will be your Martial Trial. Of the seventy-two of you, only thirty will remain in the end..."

Thirty people... That was even lower than the expected pass rate. Chen Ling fell into thought.

The ratio likewise surprised the other Reserve Seats. They could not help exchanging words again, their eyes full of confusion.

"However, among those thirty people, three will obtain early qualification to enter the Martial Way Ancient Treasury..."

The moment Han Meng said this, the entire headquarters erupted in an uproar. Even the Enforcers standing nearby widened their eyes.

Chen Ling did not understand.

More than half of the Reserve Seats present did not understand either.

Seeing this, Han Meng unhurriedly explained, "Do you know the difference between an enforcer and an enforcer officer?"