At the entrance to the Triskelion, Lin Xiao was giving himself a pep talk. It was his first day at work; he had to stay in a good mood. From now on, he was a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. As long as he stayed inconspicuous and didn't get involved in anything, he should be able to keep his head down and survive. After mentally preparing himself, he stepped inside.
The receptionist was the same woman from last week. When she saw Lin Xiao, she instinctively shrank back-muscle memory. That six-foot-eleven humanoid beast from last week had left an indelible psychological scar on her. But then she froze.
Was the person in front of her... the same person from last week?
He was still just as tall and just as big, but his entire bearing was completely different. Last week, he had looked fresh out of prison. Today, he looked fresh off a magazine cover.
"Morning." Lin Xiao nodded at her, his tone gentle.
The receptionist opened her mouth, looking at Lin Xiao with flushed cheeks. Lin Xiao was very pleased with this.
He headed toward the elevator, turning at least a dozen heads along the way. Someone pretended to read a document while actually following him with their eyes down the entire corridor; someone else nearly walked into a wall at a corner. Lin Xiao kept a straight face and a steady stride, with only one thought in his head-Finally, they're fucking looking at me like a handsome guy instead of a monster.
It felt great.
Eighth floor, agent assistant office area.
Agent Coulson had deliberately arrived half an hour early today. As a veteran agent with twenty years in the field, he understood the importance of a newcomer's first day. He had prepared the onboarding paperwork, a desk, a computer, and a "S.H.I.E.L.D. New Employee Essential Handbook"-a handbook detailing what employees could do, what they couldn't do, and what would get them locked up in a deep-sea prison.
Coffee in hand, he stood at the entrance to the office area, waiting for Lin Xiao.
Footsteps sounded at the end of the corridor.
Very familiar footsteps-heavy, powerful, each step carrying a presence impossible to ignore. Coulson smiled and turned his head-
Then his smile froze.
Someone approached from the other end of the corridor. He wore a well-fitted white shirt, his hands in his pockets, his steps unhurried. The face was definitely Lin Xiao's, but he looked like a completely different person from two days ago. That distinctive scar was gone, his skin looked better, his features had become sharply defined, and his entire bearing had gone from "demon from hell" to "top male model who had just signed a ten-million-dollar film deal."
Coulson put down his coffee.
He picked up Lin Xiao's onboarding file from the desk and opened it to the first page. Attached was an ID photo taken three days earlier-the man in the photo had a vicious gaze and a scar on his face, like a mob boss fresh out of prison.
He looked up at the man.
Down at the photo.
Up again.
Down again.
He had practically rubbed sparks off the photo.
"Boss, I'm here." Lin Xiao walked up to him with a standard workplace smile. "Reporting for duty."
Coulson stared at that face for a full five seconds. As a veteran agent with twenty years of experience, he had seen disguises, Skrulls, and all sorts of superpowered modifications-but going from ferocious beast to male model in three days was a transformation whose speed and extent still exceeded his comprehension.
"...Mr. Lin."
"Aw, just call me Lin Xiao, boss."
"All right, Lin Xiao." Coulson took a deep breath and pointed at the photo, then at Lin Xiao. "Is this you?"
"Yes, that's me."
"I'm asking you, is this you?" Coulson's tone grew even more serious.
"Yes, it really is me." Lin Xiao nodded innocently.
"Why the fuck does this look nothing like you?" Coulson frowned.
"You say it doesn't look like me, and other people say it doesn't look like me, but that really is me."
"Then why is the scar on your face gone?" Coulson asked with a frown, pointing at the hideous scar in the photo.
Lin Xiao gave a few dry coughs and pulled a small cloth bundle from his pocket. Inside was a strip of scab about the size of a centipede.
"Oh, you mean this? It fell off on its own. I don't know why either. Once it fell off, I turned handsome. You've seen a lot-could you tell me why?"
The corners of Coulson's mouth twitched. He wanted to say something, but twenty years of professional discipline made him swallow it all.
"...Fine." Coulson put his amiable smile back on, though the corners of his eyes were twitching. "Everyone has their secrets. I won't ask. Just do your job. Welcome aboard, Lin Xiao. Your desk is over there."
Lin Xiao was directed to his desk.
Seven or eight clerks and agent assistants were already seated in the office area, and every eye followed him-had been following him since he walked through the door. Someone pretended to type without putting a single word on the screen. Someone else brought a coffee cup to their lips, forgot to open their mouth, and spilled coffee all over themselves. Mainly, Lin Xiao was just too freaking handsome now. Several female employees practically had hearts in their eyes.
Lin Xiao sat down at his desk, and the chair let out a familiar groan. He looked around, met those curious gazes, and gave them a friendly smile.
Everyone lowered their heads at once and pretended to work.
Lin Xiao was very pleased.
Now this was what going to work should feel like.
"Lin Xiao."
Coulson's voice came from behind him. Lin Xiao turned to find his superior wearing a subtle expression somewhere between kindly and calculating.
"It's your first day, so normally we'd let you get familiar with the place first," Coulson said amiably. "But I happen to have a little assignment for you. Nothing too urgent. Think of it as practice."
Lin Xiao's vigilance instantly shot to maximum. A S.H.I.E.L.D. "little assignment"-he knew all too well what those words meant.
"What assignment?" Lin Xiao asked.
Coulson walked over to his desk with a smile and pointed toward the corner.
There was a mountain in the corner.
Not figuratively, but a real mountain-paper documents piled as high as a small hill, in a dozen or so stacks, the tallest nearly touching the ceiling. Dust danced in the sunlight. They looked as though no one had touched them since the dinosaurs went extinct.
"Sort and archive these old documents." Coulson patted Lin Xiao's shoulder. "Sort them by date, category, and clearance level, enter them into the system, then deliver them to the appropriate archive rooms. No rush. Just finish before you leave today."
Lin Xiao looked at the mountain.
"Boss."
"Yes?"
"Roughly how much stuff is in that pile?"
Coulson adjusted his glasses and gave him a gentle smile. "Not much. A little over two thousand files. They accumulated over the years, and no one's gotten around to sorting them."
"How many years?"
"...Possibly, roughly, five or six?"
Lin Xiao took a deep breath. His pectorals rose and fell beneath his shirt, pulling the buttons taut before releasing them.
"Boss, my position is agent assistant."
"Correct."
"Not archivist."
"Correct."
"Do you know what an agent assistant's duties are?"
Coulson considered it, then answered earnestly, "Assisting agents with their various tasks."
"Does sorting old documents count?"
"Yes." Coulson nodded. "It's part of assisting."
Lin Xiao fell silent.
Coulson looked at him with that trademark amiable smile, then turned to leave, offering kindly, "If you find it too much trouble, you can go out and turn left. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s field division is right there. Perhaps I could introduce you. With your skills..."
Before Coulson could finish, Lin Xiao raised a hand to stop him.
"Boss, stop right there. I'll do it."
Coulson: ...
After an indeterminate pause, Coulson nodded and added, "Oh, and this is a little test. It's your first day, after all. We have to see what you can do."
Lin Xiao watched Coulson's back disappear behind his office door, then turned to face the mountain of documents again.
Over two thousand files. Five or six years' worth. Before the end of the day.
"A test, my ass," Lin Xiao muttered, rolling up his sleeves. "You just couldn't be bothered to find someone to sort them, and I happened to show up."
He walked over to the mountain and was just reaching for the first file-
Ding-
Lin Xiao's hand stopped in midair.
That sound. That damned sound. He had developed a conditioned reflex-every time it rang out, it was either going to add strength or screw him over.
Host detected facing a workplace test. Temporary mission "First Impression" triggered.
Lin Xiao's eyelid twitched.
Mission: Complete all sorting and categorization within two hours without damaging any documents. Requirement: Must be completed under the observation of at least three colleagues. Rewards: 1-3 random attribute points and one random item.
Lin Xiao stared at the system panel in silence for a full three seconds.
"Doupao."
"Here."
"Didn't I just say you deliberately waited until I rolled up my sleeves to issue the mission?"
"All system missions are automatically triggered. No deliberate intent is involved."
"Then why didn't it trigger earlier?"
"The host must demonstrate the behavioral intention to 'begin work' before the system can determine that the mission's triggering conditions have been met."
Lin Xiao took a deep breath.
He had no time to argue with the system. Two hours, two thousand files. He had to get moving.
Several colleagues in the office area were sneaking glances his way. They watched a six-foot-eleven musclebound giant stand there in a daze for ages, his expression shifting from anger to helplessness to a certain reckless, all-or-nothing resolve.
Then the giant moved.
Lin Xiao bent down, picked up a stack of documents with his left hand, and flipped one open with his right. His eyes swept over the page-date, category, clearance level. All three pieces of information were extracted, sorted, and marked in a fraction of a second. Then his left hand flicked, sending the file flying precisely across five meters into the appropriate archive box.
First file, archived.
Then the second. The third. The tenth.
Lin Xiao's hands began to accelerate.
To his colleagues, this was probably the most absurd sight they had witnessed since joining-a muscular brute who could scare people to tears processing documents with astonishing speed and precision. His fingers flew, yet he turned the pages more deftly than they could with their fingertips. The documents seemed enchanted in his hands, flying out one after another, each landing precisely where it belonged.
Swish, swish, swish.
The entire office area fell silent. Everyone stopped working and turned to watch Lin Xiao.
Someone's mouth hung open, their jaw nearly dislocating.
A newly arrived intern rubbed their eyes, thinking they were dreaming.
Two hours later, Lin Xiao straightened up and dusted off his hands.
The mountain of documents in the corner was gone. In its place stood a dozen or so neatly arranged archive boxes, clearly sorted by date, category, and clearance level. Even the handwritten labels were so neat they looked printed.
He turned to look at his colleagues.
More than a dozen pairs of eyes stared blankly at him.
Silence. Absolute silence.
Then Lin Xiao spoke, his tone casual, as though he had just finished pouring a glass of water. "Done."
The silence broke.
"Holy shit-"
"I spent a whole month sorting those and still couldn't finish-"
"Did you see that? How can he flip pages so fast with hands that big-"
Coulson's office door opened. He emerged holding his coffee, his face still bearing its usual composed smile.
"What's all the noise-" His gaze swept over the corner, and his smile froze.
His coffee cup stopped in midair.
He looked at the neatly arranged archive boxes, then at Lin Xiao-who was leaning back in his chair with his legs crossed and an innocent look that said, "I didn't do anything."
"...You finished sorting them?" Coulson's voice sounded a little dry.
"Yep."
"All of them?"
"Yep."
"Over two thousand files?"
"Two thousand three hundred and forty-seven, to be exact." Lin Xiao casually picked up a list. "There are a hundred and twenty-two with clearance levels that don't match their dates. I listed those separately. Another eight have handwriting too faint to read. You'll need to confirm those."
Coulson took the list.
He stared at the neat handwriting for quite a while in silence. Then he adjusted his glasses, that professional smile returning to his face, though his voice carried an extremely subtle tremor.
"...Good. Very... good, Xiao. I really underestimated you... You really were made for this line of work."
Ding-Temporary mission "First Impression" completed. Mission rating: S. Distributing rewards...
Lin Xiao perked up.
Ding-Reward: Strength +3.
Whoa, that's a pretty generous helping of strength points. Congratulations to me, congratulations to me.
"What about the item?" Lin Xiao took a deep breath. "What's the item?"
Ding-F+ rank item obtained: [Natasha's Lace Armband].
Lin Xiao froze.
There was something in his palm-no, strictly speaking, it had materialized in his trouser pocket. It was thin and light, with a cool, silky feel.
He looked down and drew his hand just a little way out of his pocket.
Black. Semitransparent. Trimmed with exceptionally delicate lace.
Lin Xiao's brain crashed for a fraction of a second.
This is Black Widow's. What use do I have for this?
His expression underwent a complex series of changes in an extremely short time, from shock to bewilderment to disbelief, then to a subtle emotion he couldn't quite describe. In the end, all those emotions came together in a single sentence:
"I put on that huge fucking show, and this is what you give me? An armband? What the hell is that? I'm a grown-ass man. I wouldn't wear it if you killed me."
The system dinged:
Charisma +1 when equipped.
His eyes immediately lit up.
"I'll wear it. This is exactly what I wanted to wear. Damn, that's good."
Charisma +1. My charisma's at 17 right now, so one more makes 18. What does 18 mean? Probably getting cornered by talent scouts when I go out, secretly photographed walking down the street, and offered a discount by the owner when I buy water at a convenience store. Besides, this is a rare item that boosts another attribute. So worth it!
Lin Xiao fell silent for two seconds.
Then his right hand slipped discreetly into his trouser pocket, tucking that silky bundle toward his chest.
The motion was smooth and effortless, his expression unchanged.
Meanwhile, on the seventh floor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. building, Natasha Romanoff was reviewing a mission list. One entry read, "Tony Stark will be holding a press conference soon. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are required to assist in maintaining order."
Just then, Natasha suddenly stopped what she was doing, feeling as though something on her body was missing.