In the corridor.
Han Ling followed closely beside Wang Hai.
"Captain, are we really going to let him join our team? His ability is only F-Class Hearing Enhancement. Won't that be unsafe when the time comes?"
"What does F-Class matter? Abilities can evolve, can't they?" Wang Hai said.
"Ability Evolution isn't that easy! There isn't much Origin Power in the air, and we need it both for Body Tempering and for fighting. Where would we get any extra to spend on frequently using and gaining insights into our abilities so they can evolve?"
Han Ling spoke with some frustration.
"And even if his ability undergoes Ability Evolution, it'll still be a support ability. Won't fighting Calamity Beasts be just as dangerous for him?"
"You know his ability is a support ability, too, so we can minimize the situations where he has to face Calamity Beasts directly. Besides..."
Wang Hai glanced at Han Ling. Rather than forcing an argument in Shen Heng's defense, he gave an example:
"Two armies go to war. One steals the other's intelligence and ultimately succeeds in surrounding and annihilating the other army!"
"In that situation, what would you say caused the annihilated army to lose?"
Is the captain trying to give me a lecture?... Han Ling paused slightly. Emotion made her want to say it was because that army couldn't beat the other, but reason wouldn't let her say that. She wrestled with it for quite a while before replying:
"Uh... because their intelligence work wasn't as good as the other side's?"
"No, because they couldn't beat the other side!" Wang Hai shook his head.
"Huh?" Han Ling looked a little stunned. "But they were surrounded. Isn't it normal that they couldn't win?"
Wang Hai nodded. "Exactly. It's normal not to win in that situation, but how many battles are evenly matched? In ancient times, the few fighting the many and the weak defeating the strong weren't uncommon. Ultimately, it was because their combat strength was too weak to beat the other side!"
"Ah... well..."
Han Ling's expression grew complicated. For a moment, she actually had no idea how to refute him. Only after a long while did she shake her head.
"That's not right, Captain. By that logic, shouldn't we have even less reason to let him join? His ability doesn't have much combat power, after all!"
"Have you forgotten what you just said?" Wang Hai asked.
"What I just..." Han Ling thought back, then said, "They lost because their intelligence work wasn't as good as the other side's?"
Wang Hai nodded. "Combat strength is the most direct and most important factor in deciding a battle, but it isn't the only factor. The fact that you could say that means you're already aware of how intelligence affects combat!"
Wang Hai paused there and looked at Han Ling.
"Our team's abilities mostly enhance individual combat capabilities."
"But combat has never been solely about the ability to fight head-on. Intelligence support is also a very important factor!"
"And his ability can help us quickly pinpoint Calamity Beasts' locations and save us a lot of unnecessary trouble!"
"Like that Shadow Cat we encountered two months ago!"
Hearing this, Han Ling nodded thoughtfully. Shadow Cats were Calamity Beasts exceptionally skilled at concealing themselves. They had already closed their net around it, but a civilian had blundered in afterward, causing the Shadow Cat to flee early. They still hadn't found it.
"Actually, what strikes me as stranger than anything else is his personality," Wang Hai said.
"His personality?" Han Ling tilted her head slightly.
"Yes!" Wang Hai nodded slightly. "You've read his file, too. Based on that, what sort of person do you think he should be?"
"Hmm..." Han Ling pondered for a moment, recalling the file she had read the night before. "Someone showy and vain?"
"Then what sort of person did he seem like just now?" Wang Hai nodded and continued asking.
Han Ling recalled Shen Heng's behavior just now. After a while, she looked at Wang Hai with some uncertainty and replied:
"He seemed very mature just now, nothing like a high school student!"
"Exactly!" Wang Hai nodded. "That's why I'm quite curious. Why is there such a huge difference between how he acts and what his file says?"
Han Ling thought for a moment and guessed, "Maybe because he nearly died yesterday? After a brush with death, it's normal to change a lot, right? It's not like he could've become a different person, could he?"
"Yes, it does seem to be because of that brush with death!" Wang Hai nodded. "I was originally thinking I'd recruit him and then give him some proper discipline. Looks like I can skip that step now!"
"But he said he needed to think about it! What if he doesn't join?" Han Ling turned to look at her captain.
"He'll agree. Even if he doesn't agree this time, he will sooner or later!"
"Hm? Is it because he owes a lot of money?" Han Ling asked curiously.
"No!"
"Then is it because of his mother's illness?"
"Not that, either!"
"Then why?"
Wang Hai slowly stopped walking. He turned to look down through the window, at the people coming and going below.
"You'll find out someday!"
Inside the hospital room.
Shen Heng sat blankly on the bed, his eyes slightly unfocused. He was listening...
"Old Wang, I'm peeling a pear. Want some?"
"Room 703, bed two needs an IV change!"
"Xiao Lin, how's the patient in bed three doing? Have there been any..."
"Hello, I'd like to ask..."
"Mom, don't worry. Dad's surgery went very well. The doctor just came out and told us. Yes, I'll take good care of..."
"Good heavens, I'm the one getting an IV! What are you doing lying in the hospital bed?"
"Chirp, chirp..."
"..."
"Hiss-! Is this ability a passive that can't be turned off?"
Shen Heng sucked in a sharp breath and raised a hand to support his head, his brows tightly knitted and the veins on his forehead throbbing.
The surrounding noise kept pouring into his mind, making him feel as though his brain was about to explode.
Instinctively, he raised his hands to cover his ears, trying to block out the noise. It did nothing, however, and even made the sounds in his mind clearer.
Realizing his approach was wrong, Shen Heng quickly looked at his palm. As the lines on his palm were imprinted in his pupils, the sounds in his ears began to fade bit by bit.
They hadn't disappeared. Rather, once his brain started working, it automatically filtered out the other useless sounds to keep them from interfering with its work.
With the sounds temporarily subsiding, Shen Heng didn't dare let his mind idle and immediately began to think.
"Is there a way to solve this?"
If the ability is passive, that means I can't turn it off. Then could I find a way to control it so it doesn't hear so far away?
No, I already tried that just now. It doesn't work.
This thing is like sensory enhancement. Can you control your ears so they don't hear sounds, or your eyes so they don't see things? You can't!!
Right now, I'm passively listening to sounds within forty or fifty meters. If I use Origin Power, I can hear even farther, with a limit of around five hundred meters, just as I said earlier!
In that case, what if I exhaust my Origin Power?
After all, without Origin Power to support it, the ability should stop working!
Shen Heng sensed the consumption of Origin Power inside his body. Soon, however, he discovered to his dismay that the ability's normal consumption couldn't even keep up with his natural recovery.
Doesn't that mean these sounds will be with me all the time?
Even if I exhaust my Origin Power, the Origin Power my body naturally recovers right afterward will be enough to keep the ability active in its normal state!
Shen Heng pressed his temples, his head aching.
If there's no solution, doesn't that mean this will stay with me for the rest of my life?
This really is going to be the death of me!
His head aching, Shen Heng racked his brain for a solution.
After a long while, unable to come up with anything, Shen Heng could only set the problem aside for now and consider something else.
Should I join the Supervision Bureau?
Shen Heng thought for a moment, picked up his phone, and began searching through news from recent years.
Half an hour later.
He leaned back against the head of the bed again.
"There isn't even a single news report online about another world or Calamity Beasts."
"Is the government deliberately covering this up? Why?"
"With an invasion from another world, wouldn't it be better to call on everyone to cultivate and improve their combat strength?"
"Besides, can something like this really be covered up? If high-tier Calamity Beasts invade and cause mass casualties, there's no way to hide it! Everyone can post videos these days, after all. Once it happens even once, it'll be almost impossible to cover up completely!"
Shen Heng leaned against the back of the sofa, closed his eyes, and sank into thought.
Clue after clue flowed through his mind.
Suddenly, Shen Heng opened his eyes. A conjecture had formed in his mind.
"Maybe they aren't promoting cultivation for everyone because not everyone can cultivate. Maybe you have to awaken an ability first."
"And they can cover it up because there hasn't been a large-scale invasion by high-tier Calamity Beasts yet, so there haven't been mass casualties!"
"Combined with that conversation just now..."
"The name Supervision Bureau makes it easier to deal with ordinary people, they told me to keep it secret, and things might become increasingly dangerous in the future..."
"So..."
"Although the overlap between the two worlds began ten years ago, it's progressing very slowly?"
"Although I'm not among the first to awaken, I'm still part of a relatively early batch?"
"So..."
"Actually..."
"Everyone in the Supervision Bureau right now is a noob?"
Shen Heng's eyes grew slightly unfocused. He found his own conjecture hard to believe, yet couldn't find one that fit better.
If things really were as he suspected, then this was undoubtedly when the wave was just beginning.
To put it in investment terms, this was the tailwind, the best time to get on board!
Then, under these circumstances, should I join?
Shen Heng hesitated. It was as though a ship inviting him aboard had appeared before his eyes.
If he could get aboard now, then standing at the summit in the future would be no problem at all!
Then... should I get aboard?
Shen Heng thought and hesitated.
If he had a combat-type ability instead, he might have made his decision right then.
But...
His ability really wasn't suited to combat.
F-Class Hearing Enhancement, with a maximum range of only around five hundred meters!
That meant that if he wanted to put his ability to use, he had to be at the scene himself.
It was obvious just thinking about it: in a world like this, five hundred meters might be all right at the beginning, but after the early stages, five hundred meters would probably be no more than the blink of an eye to these extraordinary species.
When that happened, unlike the others, if he, with his Hearing Enhancement ability, was targeted by a Calamity Beast, he really would be fighting it naked!
And in a world like this, it went without saying that the future was bound to be extremely, extremely dangerous, and that very, very many people would be sacrificed!
If he joined, he would probably be among those who died gloriously when the time came!
Then he really would be giving his life for humanity!
Of course, Shen Heng wasn't unwilling to accept giving his life for humanity. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone to save that woman yesterday.
But things haven't reached that point yet!
Shen Heng sighed softly, picked up his phone, and checked the time.
Saturday, March 26, 2022, 13:50.
"I'll head home first!"