By the time they returned to the Lianjiang City National Security Bureau, it was already 7:26 p.m.
You Jilong, the National Security Bureau black vest in charge of leading them, directly announced that they were dismissed on the spot. He told them that their future work assignments would be sent to their phones by text message within one to three business days.
Someone asked whether they needed to keep their identities as cultivators secret. You Jilong spread his hands. "Up to you, but it's best not to. The Internet Surveillance Department is still removing information about cultivators online. Although your files have already been encrypted by the National Security Bureau, if you voluntarily reveal your real-life information and attract persecution from certain criminals... don't say I didn't warn you."
Although they had the youthful urge to show off, they more or less understood that they had stepped into the whirlpool of a new era. At the very least, the trainees loudly agreed on the surface before heading home separately.
Thanks to Jie Qiansi's efforts, all the members of Eighth Team had added one another on WeChat and been pulled into a WeChat group—yes, the very same We Are the Future Successors of Xuan Country group. Over the past few days, he had gotten acquainted with nearly all the other Lianjiang City trainees, and they were willing to stay in touch for exchanges. Thus, the group now included every cultivator who worked as a Lianjiang public servant.
When exchanging WeChat contacts with Qiao Muyi, Ren Suo thought for a moment and seriously said, "I'm not actually trying to hit on you."
Qiao Muyi blinked at Ren Suo, making him swallow hard—Damn it, this really is the key's charm—before Li Qingxuan walked over, shot Ren Suo a glance, and pulled Qiao Muyi away.
Ren Suo felt utterly miserable. Just how could he make Qiao Muyi obediently get into bed in front of him,
and then go to sleep?
After saying goodbye to everyone, Ren Suo took the subway home. On the way, he stopped by Jian Ji downstairs. When the auntie saw him coming over for noodles at night, she asked in surprise, "Haven't seen you in days. Did you find another takeout place?"
"I went traveling." Ren Suo shrugged. "One serving of Braised Beef Brisket Noodles with Fried Sauce."
"Okay, two servings... one serving?"
"Yeah, one serving. Here, eighteen yuan."
"Young man, eat more." The auntie earnestly advised, "Don't try to lose weight, kid. You should know that getting a girlfriend these days doesn't depend on your figure..."
Ren Suo had not expected the auntie to be so considerate. He nodded. "Yeah, I know."
"It depends on your face and your figure," the auntie said. "For someone like you, even a better body wouldn't help."
Ren Suo said, "...Can you refund my money?"
After returning home, Ren Suo pushed open the door. Finding no signs of anything unusual or anyone having entered the apartment, he immediately opened his bedroom door and dragged a large storage box out from under the bed.
The storage box was stuffed full of clothes. Ren Suo pulled them all out, revealing the Little World Game Console beneath them, like some science-fiction artwork.
Ren Suo let out a soft breath. The Little World Game Console was so mysterious that he had naturally hidden it away before leaving home. He was not worried about some special state department discovering the Little World Game Console and coming to seize it—if it really were discovered, did Ren Suo dare resist a government agency? He could only hand it over obediently. Maybe he would even be rewarded with several apartments for his contribution.
What worried him was that if the console were stolen by a thief, he would really suffer a huge loss. If the thief discovered its magical properties and then found someone to silence Ren Suo, he would not even have pants left to wipe away his tears with.
Although the thing did not look like it could sell for much, it would be troublesome if it encountered a thief with particularly refined taste.
Once he confirmed everything was fine, Ren Suo relaxed. He moved the console back into the living room and activated it with the controller. The console immediately connected itself to the television. After five days apart, Ren Suo finally saw the familiar cosmic sci-fi startup screen again.
The menu still contained only "World Store," "What Should You Do Right Now?" and "If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters."
Ren Suo noticed a tiny spinning disc icon in the lower-right corner of "If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters," as though it were loading. But Ren Suo had not inserted any game disc—and even if he wanted to, he did not know where to insert one.
Ren Suo paid it no mind and opened "World Store" to see whether "This Month's Free Game" had updated. As for the treasure chest and key, they were already practically in the bag, so there was no rush to open them.
He had bought "If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters" on March 28, cleared it for the first time on April 1, and uploaded his rating in the early hours of April 2.
And "Killer" had been March's free game. Now that it was April, the free game should have updated, right?
Ren Suo had only remembered this during intensive training. After all, right after clearing that hardcore bouncing game, he had immediately been summoned for public servant training and had not had time to check whether This Month's Free Game had updated.
It was already April 8. The "April Fool's Day Discounted Items!" section had disappeared from the store, replaced by a section called "One Punch Blasts Through the Road of Life and Death, Two Kicks Shatter the Gate of Right and Wrong." Ren Suo only glanced at it before ignoring it—he probably could not afford games that cost money.
Sure enough, "This Month's Free Game" had updated!
Li Dan pushed open the doors to the third-floor conference hall of the Lianjiang City National Security Bureau. Seeing that everyone was present, he yawned and casually found a seat.
He had slept through the entire night yesterday. Although it had felt great, he woke up with a subtle sense of exhaustion. Li Dan figured it might be a side effect of having gone so long without sleep, so he did not pay it much attention.
That fellow named Ren Suo really could make him fall asleep. Li Dan had already decided that he would ask the boss to transfer Ren Suo to their unit within the next few days. He had spent the entire afternoon coming up with reasons.
He could not exactly say that Li Dan wanted Ren Suo to sleep with him, could he?
A moment later, several more Black Vests entered the conference hall. Li Dan glanced around and discovered that every cultivator in Lianjiang City affiliated with Eighteen Bureau had arrived.
Although all Eighteen Bureau members were cultivators, not all state cultivators belonged to Eighteen Bureau. Leaving aside the Public Security System and administrative system, even other departments within the National Security Bureau had more or less a few cultivators, laying the groundwork for large numbers of cultivator public servants to join in the future.
Compared with other functional departments, Eighteen Bureau's greatest feature was that it specifically handled cultivator-related affairs. However, this function would soon be divided up as well. At the very least, minor cultivator and Awakened offenses like theft would be handled by cultivators from the Public Security System in the future. Eighteen Bureau would only need to deal with "extraordinary cultivator affairs."
Li Dan had originally planned to take off his vest and go home to rest, but halfway through his ride, he had been called back.
Had an Awakened who killed without restraint appeared?
Or had some important figure been killed by an Awakened?
Or was the Pacific Federation preparing to hold a world's number one supernatural martial arts tournament?
As Li Dan pondered this, Yu Kuangtu, seated at the head of the table, saw that everyone had arrived and said, "We hurriedly called you back because Red Chamber just confirmed a piece of news."
At the mention of Red Chamber, everyone unconsciously sat up straighter. As the earliest cultivators, nearly all of them had gradually cultivated under Red Chamber's guidance. Even if they had never met anyone from Red Chamber, they knew how important Red Chamber was to Xuan Kingdom's spiritual energy research.
Yu Kuangtu turned on the projector, and a webpage appeared on the projection screen.
"GIliGili?" Someone recognized it at once. "A Bullet Screen Interactive Website?"
"We chose it because this website has the highest view count." Yu Kuangtu operated the webpage and opened the bullet-screen site's rankings. Everyone immediately saw the top-ranked trending video.
"Ren Nesser posted a video? That Ren Nesser whose reputation spans the world, whom no country can ban, the hacker known as the strongest?" A black-vested man said, "I heard Ren Nesser is even a member of Immortal Palace, Xuan Kingdom's secret organization."
"The title of this video... it looks like a game."
"I think it's a True Human challenge."
Li Dan narrowed his small eyes and stared at the top-ranked video. In a low voice, he murmured its title:
"If You're Strong, Climb 10,000 Meters...?"
Before you continue