Signing the contract

"Lu, do you really have the aptitude to become an armored warrior?"

"This isn't something you can fake."

"I fully support your ambition to become an armored warrior and serve Yero City."

"But if you resort to underhanded tricks to achieve it, you'll be taking the wrong path."

After hearing Lu Zhan's account, Xu Dayong looked more serious and attentive than ever.

To him, recruiting an ordinary soldier and recruiting an armored warrior were two entirely different achievements.

The latter could even count as a meritorious service.

"Director Xu, Commissioner Xin from the Inspection Office told me my test results!"

"The Ninth Medical Security Center should have my test report."

"With your connections, I'm sure you can get to the bottom of it."

Seeing that Xu Dayong merely "doubted" his aptitude rather than getting hung up on his "identity," Lu Zhan breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed Xu Dayong was interested.

"The Ninth Medical Security Center has your test records? That makes things easier."

"Otherwise, I really wouldn't have the resources here to test your aptitude."

"As for the other things you're worried about, none of them are a problem as long as you truly have the aptitude."

Upon hearing that the testing center had his records, Xu Dayong's attitude immediately changed.

Just a moment ago, he had genuinely feared that Lu Zhan was "risking his life to pull a scam," hoping to get an aptitude test for free.

Such incidents had happened plenty of times during past recruitment drives.

As for Lu Zhan having some trouble with his personal relationships?

Heh, what did that have to do with their recruitment office?

He, Xu Dayong, was only responsible for recruiting soldiers.

"Director Xu, you really are a conscientious, responsible official!"

Lu Zhan greatly admired Xu Dayong's willingness to "take responsibility."

Xu Dayong did not disappoint Lu Zhan's "glowing appraisal," either. With just a few phone calls, he confirmed Lu Zhan's situation.

Then, without further ado, he grabbed Lu Zhan's hand and pressed his fingerprint onto the enlistment contract.

"Lu, from now on, we're family."

"It's only because I, Xu Dayong, appreciate talent. The recruitment offices in other districts wouldn't dare make an exception for you."

"After all, this goes against the regulations. But District 13 is a special case!"

Looking at the bright red fingerprint on the contract, Xu Dayong could no longer suppress his smile.

The more he looked at Lu Zhan, the more he liked him. After all, this "meritorious service" had walked right through his door.

"Director Xu, since we're family now, I'll speak frankly."

"I want to enlist right away and begin armored warrior training."

"I only have fifty yuan to my name. I can barely afford to eat."

Seeing Xu Dayong in such a good mood, Lu Zhan seized the chance to play up his plight.

To prove he was telling the truth, he placed his last fifty yuan directly in front of Xu Dayong.

"You have nowhere to stay?"

"You want to start armored warrior training right now?"

Xu Dayong snapped out of his rosy visions of promotion and wealth and glanced at the fifty-yuan note before him.

He knew perfectly well what Lu Zhan was worried about.

As a precaution, he could not let anything happen to his "achievement."

Xu Dayong therefore decided to look after the young man before him.

"Lu, armored warrior training isn't something you can accomplish overnight."

"First, you need to attend classes and learn the basics of life alchemy."

"Only then can you begin the real trials."

"Under the normal procedure, you'd have to wait at least seven days before joining a class."

"Oh, fine. I'll get you into an existing class!"

Xu Dayong casually made another call, though perhaps the signal was poor.

He had to dial several times before getting through.

Fortunately, everything that followed went smoothly. As a favor to Xu Dayong, the training center

agreed to let Lu Zhan join a class early.

Only then did Lu Zhan finally feel the weight lift from his heart.

Although he had paid the price of twenty years of military service, at least he had escaped his immediate predicament.

To express his gratitude, Lu Zhan deliberately left the fifty yuan behind in the office when he left the recruitment office for the training center.

The banknote might not have been worth much, but it was a token of his appreciation.

It was already everything Lu Zhan owned!

"What?"

"You still couldn't detect anything?"

"How is that possible?"

"No living being can violate the seventh law of life alchemy."

While Lu Zhan was busy enlisting, the task force investigating the July 24 massacre was holding a meeting in a conference room at Division One of the Inspection Office.

The atmosphere in the conference room was exceptionally tense, and task force leader Ouyang Hao's demands were deafening.

"Sir, this was already the third round of testing!"

"Every one of the seventeen severely injured armored warrior trainees has been examined three times."

"But we haven't detected any foreign life elements in their wounds at all."

"I know it doesn't make sense, but those are the test results."

Faced with Ouyang Hao's roaring, Liu Yiyang had to speak up despite his trepidation.

After all, he had been responsible for testing for foreign life elements all along.

The seventh law of life alchemy: [When two life forms come into contact, the stronger will inevitably affect the weaker.]

According to this theory, if a human came into contact with a Mutant Beast,

the Mutant Beast's own life information would radiate into the human.

The human's body would then contain the Mutant Beast's life information, and even its unique foreign life elements.

In the past, the Inspection Office had relied on this detection method to track down Mutant Beasts without fail.

This time, however, the method had failed.

"Chief, could we have been wrong from the very beginning?"

"That night,

it wasn't a Mutant Beast that went on a killing spree, but a human."

"Members of the same species have strong resistance to life information radiation. Unless there's an enormous difference in rank, our methods can't detect it."

"And precisely because the killer was human, we couldn't detect any foreign life elements in the wounded."

Moros, another member of the task force, offered a bold conjecture.

In fact, the possibility had already occurred to him when the second round of testing failed.

"Impossible!"

"Both the seventeen surviving armored warrior trainees and the ordinary people claimed they saw a Mutant Beast."

"Surely all those witnesses couldn't have been mistaken?"

Ellie, one of only two women on the task force, disagreed with Moros's assessment.

She had been primarily responsible for "screening" those seventeen armored warrior trainees. There was no way they could have lied.

"Witnesses?"

"Heh, they can't even remember what the Mutant Beast actually looked like. How can we base our judgment on what they said?"

Moros stood by his own view as well. Compared with those vague statements, he placed more trust in the test reports laid out before him.

The test reports could not be wrong, and no living being could defy the seventh law.

Therefore, the only thing that could be wrong was the "Mutant Beast."