Chapter 61: Why Was My Exam Different? …
[Packed with Practical Knowledge! A Little Monster’s Survival Guide: “Teaching You How to Identify Task Takers in Human Society”!]
Jian Tang swallowed nervously and clicked into the thread.
[As everyone knows, with the over-issuance of vouchers to the Anomalous World in the last version update, many task takers have surfaced in human society. This shift in the environment is highly unfavorable for our fellow monster compatriots who have transformed into human form and are living quietly among humans. Recently, multiple vicious incidents have occurred where task takers hunted down anomalous monsters in the real world. Many innocent compatriots have suffered. Deeply infuriated, the original poster has started this thread to educate everyone on how to identify task takers in a crowd, hoping to prevent further tragedies from happening.]
The vicious incidents mentioned by the original poster had been causing quite a stir on the Monster Forum recently, and Jian Tang had heard a fair bit about them.
From what he gathered from everyone’s discussions, the primary cause of this situation was linked to recent anomalies in the Abyssal Prison. A swarm of Sinister Seeds had escaped from within. Previously, they used to steer clear of task takers, but this time they had uncharacteristically chosen to parasitize task takers specifically. Driven mad, these task takers could no longer distinguish between instances and reality, slaughtering any anomalous monsters on sight, which led to numerous tragedies.
Monsters who simply wished to live a peaceful life in human society had no good solution to this predicament. They could only avoid mad task takers as much as possible, keep their distance, or simply retreat back to their old homes in the Anomalous World and never venture out again.
[First, because the opening times of instances follow no fixed pattern, most task takers do not have a steady job in the real world so that they can enter an instance at a moment’s notice. If you cross paths with an unemployed drifter who comes from an average family background and has no proper earned income, yet spends money lavishly, completely lacking for cash, and frequently acts like a ghost—making it impossible to track his pattern of movement—he is highly likely a task taker.]
Jian Tang let out a massive sigh of relief.
Feng Xun didn’t fit this description at all!
He had a proper job and lived a very structured life every day, commuting back and forth alongside him. He was absolutely in the clear.
As for his income… the man did indeed never look at price tags when buying things, but that was because he gave his wife a generous amount of allowance. He simply wanted to pamper his wife with wealth; the man could spend it however he liked, and there was nothing wrong with that.
[Second, please double-check if your memory has been tampered with. For instance, if an individual suddenly appears by your side and acts very close to you, and you cannot state their exact origin yet regard them as your most precious person—willing to unconditionally share your home, finances, and even surrender your heart and body to them—this is a textbook manifestation of system brainwashing. It is also a romance scam tactic commonly employed by certain task takers. You must remain vigilant!]
Jian Tang: Hahaha, this doesn’t apply either. I bought my wife myself, and his background is perfectly clean. I definitely haven’t been brainwashed.
But then again, just how despicable did a task taker have to be to use system brainwashing to pull off a romance scam? The monster compatriots who fell for it were truly pitiful, getting their bodies and hearts stolen without even knowing it. Con artists were truly detestable.
With two consecutive points ruling out the suspicion of Feng Xun being a task taker, Jian Tang relaxed more and more, accelerating his browsing speed.
[Third, task takers who spend years in the Anomalous World lose certain life skills that normal humans ought to possess due to altered lifestyle habits. For example, they might not know how to cook or are terrible at tidying up the house. Concurrently, they will acquire skills that normal humans rarely use in daily life, such as formidable combat techniques, a proficiency in slaughter and butchery, and a masterful operation of various cold and hot weapons.]
[Fourth, due to spending years in the oppressive and dangerous environment of instances, the vast majority of task takers possess extreme personalities and twisted mentalities. On the surface, they appear respectable, but in secret, they exhibit all kinds of perverted and abnormal behaviors. One must be extremely careful.]
[Fifth, …]
[Sixth, …]
…
[Regarding the above conditions, matching one requires vigilance; matching two means you need to keep your distance; matching three basically confirms they are undeniably a task taker. Please block them and sever ties as soon as possible!]
[PS: There are millions of task takers, and everyone’s circumstances vary. They are highly adept at disguising themselves. If they deliberately approach you, it is usually with an ulterior motive. Please use your discretion based on actual circumstances!]
Jian Tang nodded in agreement and happily closed the thread.
The assessment was complete—none of them matched! Safe and sound!
As for the matter of the paper star, it was also easily explained: didn’t the thread mention that many task takers had perverted personalities and bizarre behaviors? Maybe CEO Feng just had a weird habit of shoving things onto strangers. Feng Xun just happened to be the stranger who was picked. At their core, the two of them had absolutely nothing to do with each other.
People always tended to believe evidence that was more favorable to them. Backed by the informational thread on the forum, Jian Tang successfully convinced himself and finally went to sleep with his mind at ease.
A night passed.
The next day, Jian Tang rode in Feng Xun’s car to the company as usual.
On the way, Feng Xun brought up a certain matter with Jian Tang.
“A colleague from my department is getting married tomorrow. He sent me an invitation and invited you to come along too. Do you want to go?”
If it were an ordinary social gathering, Feng Xun would have likely declined. But when it came to attending a wedding banquet, he harbored a bit of interest.
He had never attended a wedding before, nor did he know what the format of marriage looked like in this dimension. He could take this opportunity to learn ahead of time; it would come in handy sooner or later.
Jian Tang was also highly interested, promising readily, “Sure!”
Before getting out of the car, Jian Tang kissed the man’s cheek—this was their routine goodbye kiss.
“Goodbye, boyfriend!”
The corners of Feng Xun’s mouth turned up. “Goodbye.”
He watched the youth pull open the car door. Just as half of his body had leaned out, the boy suddenly spun back like a tiny whirlwind.
The youth moved exceptionally fast. By the time Feng Xun reacted, a kiss had already been planted on the corner of his mouth.
“Sneak attack, heehee.”
Hitting his mark and immediately retreating, Jian Tang bounded out of the car with a laugh and waved to the person inside. “Goodbye for real this time! Bye-bye!”
Feng Xun watched the youth hop and skip away like a little rabbit. Tucking his tongue against the kissed corner of his mouth, he let out a low chuckle.
To dare launch a sneak attack on the Bloody Butcher, and successfully escape completely unscathed after hitting the mark… in the entire world, there was only this one person before his eyes.
Jian Tang entered the office building. While waiting for the elevator on the first floor, he ran into his colleagues.
“Good morning, Little Tang!” Sister Xia from the administrative department greeted him with a smile, winking at the youth. “Did you have a fun Qixi yesterday?”
“It was very fun!” Jian Tang said with a grin. “Thanks to your guidance, my boyfriend really liked my gift.”
The handmade couple plushie he gave Feng Xun had been completed under Sister Xia’s guidance. Without her instruction, let alone a week, it would have been hard for him to sew a presentable finished doll even in a month, and he wouldn’t have made it in time for Qixi.
“Good morning, Sister Xia, Little Tang.” A few more colleagues walked over, greeting them familiarly.
“Oh, Sister Xia, did you bring a new craft kit to the office again?” a colleague asked, looking at a bulging, colorful bag in Sister Xia’s hand.
“Mm-hmm. Work isn’t busy anyway, so I brought a little handicraft to play with.”
“I don’t have much work today either. I plan to finish binge-watching the show I was watching yesterday.”
“Haha, same here. I recently found a super entertaining variety show to watch during meals. I’ll recommend it to you guys in a bit!”
Everyone happily shared their respective plans for slacking off, prompting someone to sigh with emotion.
“The questions on the recruitment exam were so difficult back then; I actually thought this company had very high professional requirements.”
This promptly garnered unanimous agreement: “Exactly, exactly! I didn’t expect the workload to be this relaxed. It’s a massive relief.”
As they spoke, they began to share the exam questions they had faced back then. The more Jian Tang listened, the more something felt amiss.
“Y-you guys… faced those questions during the written test?”
“Yeah,” everyone said.
“Weren’t there any questions investigating personal circumstances? Like family situation, personal preferences, future plans, or things like that…?”
The colleagues all burst out laughing: “This was a hiring exam, not a survey questionnaire. Of course there weren’t any.”
Jian Tang: “…”
The elevator arrived, and everyone walked in, talking and laughing.
Jian Tang, in a rare turn of events, didn’t join in their chatter. Standing in the corner alone, his head was buzzing.
Why?
Why was everyone else’s exam completely different from his own?
Could it be that before the written test, CEO Feng had already discovered he wasn’t human, and so specifically drew up a special set of questions targeting him? Didn’t that imply the other party already knew he was an undercover spy?
But… wouldn’t a normal person immediately kick a spy out upon discovering them? Why did CEO Feng still hire him?
More importantly, throughout their two brief interactions, he hadn’t detected any obvious hostility in CEO Feng’s eyes. The other party also seemed to have no intention of using him to do anything for him; there were absolutely no signs of that.
Jian Tang constantly felt as though he had overlooked an incredibly important detail.
He forced himself to calm down, racking his brain to recall the questions from back then.
Because he had blindly answered most of the questions with a dismissive attitude, he had long forgotten the details. There was only one question he remembered quite clearly, which asked what places he had always wanted to visit but hadn’t managed to yet.
Jian Tang had truthfully filled in “Firefly Forest” at the time. Coincidentally, Feng Xun had taken him there that very evening.
“…”
No, no, no, impossible! Things are absolutely not what I’m thinking. This is way too absurd!
If Feng Xun really is CEO Feng, wouldn’t he be a task taker? But I’ve already double-checked; Feng Xun is fundamentally not a task taker! He isn’t!
The elevator arrived at his floor, and the doors glided open. Jian Tang rushed out like the wind, as if as long as he ran fast enough, he could leave those terrible, unbidden thoughts far behind.
Jian Tang burst into his office, double-locked the door, and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes to compose himself for a while.
Once his emotions settled a bit, he sat down at his workstation and booted up his computer.
There were no new emails in his work inbox, meaning there were temporarily no orders to process. Today would most likely be another peaceful day.
Jian Tang pulled out his phone and began to carry out his duties as an undercover spy.
He reported the situation regarding the “Dream Dust” failing on CEO Feng truthfully to the Duke of Nightmares. Of course, he omitted details like the paper star, only describing the circumstances that had transpired within the company.
The Duke of Nightmares had long given up hope on this assignment anyway; he merely cursed in his heart at how incredibly cautious that bandit, the Bloody Butcher, was in the real world, to the point where even a harmless substance like Dream Dust couldn’t get near him.
Naturally, Fila didn’t reprimand Jian Tang for the mission failure, nor did he demand that Jian Tang return the remaining Dream Dust or the other high-grade items, merely instructing him to continue lurking and monitoring.
Jian Tang: [Understood.]
He hesitated for a moment, then continued typing.
Jian Tang: [Lord Fila, if I may be so bold, could I ask why you chose CEO Feng as your agent in the first place? Compared to other task takers, what makes him different?]
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