Chapter 56
Suddenly, there were faint sounds from outside the door.
It wasn’t just someone passing by; it sounded like several people doing something right at the threshold—rustling noises.
Yu Zhi guessed it might be Lu Liming and the others. He glanced at Fu Suxi and, seeing that he showed no reaction, got up to open the door.
Outside stood two men and a woman. Zuo Feiyang and Shang Yu were pushing each other back and forth, while Lu Liming stood to the side with a solemn expression, seemingly lost in thought.
Noticing the door open, both Zuo Feiyang and Shang Yu immediately stopped shoving and coughed awkwardly.
Shang Yu cleared her throat and tentatively called out, “Minister Yu.”
“Do we need to submit the mental health assessment results for Mr. Yu and Mr. Lu?”
The Special Operations Bureau didn’t keep idle personnel. Yu Zhi and Lu Liming had been brought in earlier for treatment because they saved Zuo Feiyang and helped eliminate a pollution source.
Originally, Shang Yu had planned to wait until the two recovered physically and then officially recruit them into the bureau. But now that they were tangled up with the new minister, she didn’t dare make decisions on her own.
Yu Zhi stepped aside, signaling for the three of them to come in first.
Shang Yu walked straight up to Fu Suxi’s side, handed over Lu Liming’s report, and spoke softly, “Lu Liming is a B-level healing-type ability user.”
Fu Suxi casually put the report aside and looked at the two silhouettes standing at the door—one tall, one short.
[Accessing personal information…]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 25]
[Mental Power: 150/410]
[Physical Fitness: B-level (Pending Upgrade)]
[Ability Talent: Healing Sequence – Restoration]
[Overall Assessment: Potential stock in a rare talent sequence]
Fu Suxi’s eyes narrowed slightly. Back in H City, Lu Liming’s mental power limit was 200.
He glanced at Zuo Feiyang. “What about yours?”
Zuo Feiyang froze for a moment, thinking he was concerned about his subordinate’s mental contamination. He answered honestly, “The researchers said I’m fine now and can go out on missions again.”
Fu Suxi: “Has your mental power value changed?”
Zuo Feiyang knew he was asking about the upper limit of his mental power and shook his head. “No change.”
Fu Suxi’s brow twitched slightly, and his gaze fell onto Yu Zhi’s head.
[Accessing personal information… Unable to view target’s information]
[Unable to view]
[Unable to view]
Just like in H City, still inaccessible.
Fu Suxi half-lowered his eyes, lost in thought as he looked at Yu Zhi’s smoothly contoured profile.
Yu Zhi naturally sensed the man’s scrutinizing gaze, so he turned his back, pretending not to notice. He had intended to briefly remind Lu Liming about the situation with Fu Suxi to prevent him from blurting out anything reckless again.
Unexpectedly, Lu Liming spoke first: “Brother Yu, I get it.”
Yu Zhi looked at him skeptically.
Lu Liming gave him a confident look. “Really.”
When he first saw Fu Suxi, he was indeed confused. But recalling all their experiences, it was impossible not to understand now.
Clue #1: Brother Yu could recognize Fu Suxi with just one look.
Clue #2: Fu Suxi always acted as if he wanted to kill Yu Zhi, but never actually did it.
Clue #3: Yu Zhi never truly fought Fu Suxi head-on; he just snatched a few items.
Clue #4: Now the two of them were pretending to be both brothers and lovers.
Every clue pointed to one conclusion—Yu Zhi and Fu Suxi were old acquaintances!
No matter if they had been enemies, or if it was just a chase-and-run relationship, at least now they were in some kind of cooperative relationship.
Lu Liming had made up his mind not to drag them down. Thinking of this, he lowered his voice so only Yu Zhi could hear, “Brother Yu, don’t worry. I don’t hold grudges, and I’ll fully cooperate with you two.”
Having said that, he adopted his ‘ex-boyfriend persona’ and let out a long sigh, raising his voice deliberately, “No matter who you’re with now, I wish you happiness!”
Yu Zhi: “…”
From behind came Fu Suxi’s ambiguous laughter.
Yu Zhi opened his mouth, thinking to say something, but caught a glimpse of Shang Yu’s burning, gossipy eyes and decided to keep quiet.
Forget it. Xiao Ming wasn’t wrong in what he did. Just leave it at that.
He turned around and asked Fu Suxi, “Do I need a mental power test as well?”
Fu Suxi: “Get someone to come.”
Shang Yu responded and quickly stepped out.
Before long, she returned with a researcher in a white lab coat.
When the researcher entered the room, he found five people packed into the small testing chamber and fell silent.
Seeing no one intending to leave, he had to ask, “Who’s here for testing?”
Shang Yu pointed at Yu Zhi.
The researcher led Yu Zhi to an instrument against the wall. Yu Zhi glanced down. The detection device looked more like a torture instrument than medical equipment—there were even handcuff-like restraints at the armrests.
Sensing his slight resistance, the researcher looked at his unfamiliar face, then glanced at the others, and guessed Yu Zhi’s identity.
The researcher softened his tone and explained gently, “The cuffs on the hands and feet are mainly to keep you still and prevent movement that could affect the data. Just treat it as a normal check-up. It’ll take about twenty minutes, with at most a mild tingling sensation.”
Yu Zhi gave a light “Oh,” and slowly sat into the device, letting the researcher attach sensors to his temples, chest, wrists, and other spots.
After the test started, he felt a very faint prickling sensation, slightly numbing. After a few minutes, his body got used to it, and even that mild irritation disappeared.
With twenty minutes of idle time, Yu Zhi decided to check the barrage of comments in his livestream.
[Livestream H310000 Ya: Broadcast in Progress]
[Online Viewers: 5302]
[User “Cyber Bodhisattva” urges you to quickly complete the hidden task and tips you 10 universal coins.]
[User “momo” looks forward to seeing your mental power value and tips you 20 universal coins.]
[User “Cutest Girl in the World” hopes you and your lover can enjoy your collection together.]
[User “Pure Love Warrior” is curious about your ability user level.]
[User “Arrogant Rich Young Master” anticipates your test results and tips you 0.1 universal coins.]
After watching for a while, Yu Zhi found that the audience was mainly divided into three groups:
One group came for the tasks, always urging him to do the hidden task—collecting the corpses of pollution sources.
Another group was there for Fu Suxi. Some wanted him to kill Fu Suxi, others wanted him to do some indescribable things to Fu Suxi, etc.
A very small third group was simply watching his stream for him personally, unrelated to tasks or Fu Suxi.
Yu Zhi pondered for a moment and tried calling out to the system in his mind.
The system gave no response.
Yu Zhi tried again: [System, want to make money?]
Still no response.
Yu Zhi was surprised. Not even profit motivated it now? The system was really gone?
After twenty minutes, the system still didn’t respond, but the mental power test ended.
The researcher looked at the data and was visibly shocked as he sized up Yu Zhi. “This…”
Zuo Feiyang and Lu Liming, who had been waiting, craned their necks to see.
“How is it?” “What’s the number?”
Unable to hold back, Zuo Feiyang approached. He saw the electronic screen next to Yu Zhi displaying a line of text—
[Mental Power: 99/99]
Zuo Feiyang: “???”
99 mental power?
Not even enough for a D-level ability user?
He couldn’t believe it. “That’s impossible.”
Yu Zhi was confused. “What’s wrong?”
The researcher explained, “Currently, mental power values for ability users are roughly divided into five levels: D-level for 100 to 200, C-level for 200 to 400, B-level for 400 to 700, A-level for 700 to 1000, and anyone above 1000 is collectively rated as S-level.”
Yu Zhi gave an “Oh.” “So what’s mine?”
The researcher hesitated, “Your mental power value is ninety-nine, which doesn’t reach D-level.”
Yu Zhi blinked. He recalled the system once saying he was an utterly talentless E-level, just an average Joe among average Joes.
He asked, “So I’m an E-level ability user?”
“No,” the researcher paused, then continued to explain, “One hundred mental power is the cutoff between ordinary people and ability users. Anyone below one hundred is considered an ordinary person and, theoretically, can’t use abilities.”
Yu Zhi tilted his head to look at the display screen, confirming the number and falling into thought.
Ninety-nine versus a hundred—just one point short, not a huge difference.
His abilities were weird anyway—one was “no waste excretion” and the other could only erase pure killing intent. It didn’t seem like proper abilities at all.
If his mental power was a bit short, so what? After all, it wasn’t a standard ability anyway.
With that in mind, he asked, “No exceptions?”
The researcher shook his head. “Over the years, there’s never been an ability user with less than one hundred mental power. No exceptions.”
Yu Zhi nodded calmly. “Well, now you have one.” He’d just filled the gap of there being no E-level ability users in the world.
Researcher: “…”
Zuo Feiyang circled the detection instrument, noting its old wear and tear. He couldn’t help asking, “Maybe the machine is broken? Brother Yu, weren’t you an S-level ability user?”
When the words “S-level” came out, the others all turned their gaze on Yu Zhi.
Yu Zhi straightened and said expressionlessly, “Then maybe I lied to you.”
Zuo Feiyang assumed he was joking and spoke with reason, “The system personally congratulated you, and you cleared the pollution source alone. Even if you’re not S-level, you shouldn’t have such a low mental power value.”
Fu Suxi watched them with interest, his right hand tapping idly on the armrest.
After a moment, he slowly uttered two words, “Test again.”
There was only one detection device in this room, so they had to switch to the room where Zuo Feiyang and Lu Liming had been tested. At Zuo Feiyang’s strong insistence, everyone moved over.
Yu Zhi walked at the back and suddenly heard Fu Suxi’s voice above his head: “The system personally congratulated you?”
Yu Zhi paused, realizing Fu Suxi had seen through his deception to Zuo Feiyang. He said boldly, “The system did congratulate me, just not for being S-level.”
Fu Suxi: “…”
He lowered his eyes to Yu Zhi’s soft lips. “How many words that come out of your mouth are actually true?”
Yu Zhi raised an eyebrow. “Any words that come out of a real mouth are naturally true.”
“…”
Entering another testing room, Yu Zhi settled onto the detection device again, letting the researcher reattach everything. This time, not only was the researcher nearby, but also Fu Suxi.
Fu Suxi placed one hand on the machine, revealing a stretch of firm, defined forearm, his posture languid and unrestrained. He looked down at Yu Zhi and spoke meaningfully, “This time, there won’t be any mistakes.”
Yu Zhi’s eyelid twitched.
As time passed second by second, he watched the researcher’s expression grow increasingly excited.
“Two thousand, two thousand one, two thousand two… two thousand five!”
Shang Yu and Zuo Feiyang’s expressions changed dramatically as well, exclaiming in surprise.
The researcher quickly recorded the data and looked at Yu Zhi as if he were a rare treasure, overflowing with joy: “Mr. Yu! This old model device’s upper limit is 2,500. It can’t measure any higher.”
Seeing Yu Zhi remain unmoved, the researcher raised his voice emotionally: “I mean that 2,500 is the upper limit of this old machine, not your mental power limit!”
Yu Zhi responded dryly, “Oh.”
Overthinking it was pointless. His mental power cap was really just 99, damn it!
This “S-level” thing was clearly Fu Suxi’s handiwork.
He looked up at Fu Suxi, puzzled as to why he would make him an S-level ability user.
Noticing his confusion, Fu Suxi’s lips slowly curved, his tone casual: “Congratulations on becoming the very first S-level ability user in S City’s Special Operations Bureau.”
The man leaned in to remove the detection sensors from Yu Zhi. As his lips brushed past Yu Zhi’s ear, he left behind a whisper so faint it could almost be mistaken for an illusion:
“A passionate story of an S-level ability user being forcibly taken by his younger brother—fun, isn’t it?”
Yu Zhi: “???”
Does he realize he’s in a power fantasy story, not an erotic one?!
