Chapter 13
Ordinary citizens might feel that life hadn’t changed all that much, but in reality, the existence of Evolvers had long since transformed the world.
Previously, countries around the globe only needed to focus intently on developing their technology and economy. Now, alongside those two traditional giants, a third power had emerged: “Evolvers.”
The vast majority of Evolvers possessed abilities that were practically negligible. For instance, testing revealed that those with physical enhancement abilities only gained an advantage roughly equivalent to wearing a bulletproof vest. Similarly, those with so-called clairvoyance or enhanced hearing were nowhere near as useful as a standard smartphone. Even healing-type abilities, in terms of scope and depth, often couldn’t compete with a professionally trained physician holding a doctorate.
Yet, this world was incredibly vast, and the number of Evolvers was immense. Among these millions of individual cases, there existed exceptional Evolvers who were fully capable of altering the world.
Take, for example, a certain spice-loving nation that was also a global population giant. An individual from a lower caste had awakened an ability named the “Axis of Time.” It was rumored that this Evolver could traverse a timeline stretching ten years into the past or future to observe global developments, and could even actively intervene in events that had already occurred or were yet to happen.
However, the specific mechanics of this temporal traversal—whether a precise time and location could be targeted, and how long they could remain in that state—remained an unsolved mystery. Furthermore, given that country’s historical track record, the domestic Research Institute harbored deep skepticism regarding this reality-bending ability. As Wen Zhiyi put it: “They always love to boast. If they truly possessed an Evolver capable of manipulating time, yet haven’t used it to eliminate brilliant scientists or political leaders of rival nations, are we to believe it’s because they are holding out for a Nobel Peace Prize?”
Similarly, in the world’s primary superpower, whispers had emerged of an Evolver capable of manipulating viruses. If utilized effectively, this ability was more than enough to place all of humanity on a definitive countdown to extinction.
There were countless other undiscovered or yet-to-be-fully-realized supernatural abilities out there.
Consequently, starting from five years ago, nurturing and training Evolvers had become a critical arena in the geopolitical chess match between major world powers.
Their own nation focused on unlocking the inherent potential of Evolvers, dedicating immense effort to seamlessly combining supernatural abilities with modern technology. By integrating Evolvers into ordinary society, the state successfully prevented societal friction from boiling over, directing its research primarily toward the practical utility of these abilities. As a result, various types of Evolvers flourished across all trades and industries, significantly altering the evolutionary trajectory of future technology to a certain degree.
When it came to research on evolutionary factors specifically, the domestic scientific community consistently maintained a position at the absolute forefront.
Among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, however, each nation gravitated toward a different specialization.
Their neighbor, America, leaned heavily into biopharmaceuticals derived from Evolvers. Their evolutionary serums, in particular, were universally reviled. Extracted from Evolvers and administered to Evolvers, their efficacy was undeniably outstanding, but it effectively treated the lives of Evolvers as an inexhaustible, assembly-line resource pool. In fact, the underlying reason many foreign rogue organizations relentlessly swindled Evolvers from various countries into moving overseas was precisely to harvest them for these resource pools.
Yet, even with a tongue as venomous as Wen Zhiyi’s, he had no choice but to acknowledge their formidable strength in biopharmaceuticals.
Meanwhile, the Special Operations Department reported directly to the central government, with branch offices established across every province. Its budgetary allocations were benchmarked against national defense expenditures, securing its position as one of the most powerful and authoritative executive organs in the country.
Naturally, the Minister of the Special Operations Department was a figure who could not be underestimated. It was considered a rare luxury if she appeared at headquarters even one or two days out of the month. Her daily schedule was a relentless blur, split between delivering briefings to the central leadership and traveling abroad to attend vital international conferences.
Forget about an authoritative national titan of that caliber—even the provincial Director of the Special Operations Department was a figure who typically remained hidden like a divine dragon, requiring Huo Ling to book an appointment well in advance just to catch a glimpse of him.
Huo Ling and the provincial Director maintained a strict, cooperative division of labor.
As a highly capable and elite Evolver himself, the former was responsible for commanding the field operations of the department and keeping rogue Evolvers in check. The Director, on the other hand, was a career bureaucrat who had climbed the ranks from the civilian sector; his responsibilities centered on liaising and coordinating with external departments, taking the political fall during high-level meetings, and extracting funding from the treasury.
With one managing concrete tactical affairs and the other overseeing macro-strategy, the two had always complemented each other perfectly. Most provincial branches across the country utilized a similar administrative structure, deliberately preventing the department from becoming an unchecked echo chamber run solely by Evolvers, while simultaneously ensuring that bureaucratic outsiders couldn’t micro-manage seasoned field experts.
However, given the catastrophic destructive potential of Evolvers, even the most rigidly bureaucratic leaders wouldn’t dare overstep or excessively penalize the department’s operators.
A provincial Director had to be meticulously vetted by the central authorities. As for the supreme national Minister, she possessed impeccable ideological credentials, an unyielding political hand, and connections that reached into the stratosphere. Otherwise, how could she possibly keep a tight lid on an operation of this magnitude? She was a titan whose name was explicitly mentioned on the national evening news on a daily basis, and her political weight spoke for itself.
Thus, when Wen Zhiyi calmly stated that the Minister intended to meet with Bai Hewei in person, the color completely drained from Huo Ling’s face.
He was merely a departmental chief within the provincial branch, someone who only had the privilege of seeing the supreme leader during the year-end national briefings. Who could have anticipated that the chief would demand a face-to-face meeting with Bai Hewei the moment she touched down from her overseas assignment?
The sheer thought of the protective detail, security protocols, and administrative coordination required for the upcoming meeting gave Huo Ling a massive headache.
On top of that, he would have to compile a comprehensive year-end work summary ahead of schedule, just in case the Minister took a sudden whim to interrogate him on operational progress. If he failed to answer cleanly, it would be a professional death sentence. Along the way, he also needed to tip off the provincial Director about the matter, to see if the old man needed to cut his schedule short and rush back to accompany them for the inspection.
“Relax. The Minister explicitly stated that her meeting with Bai Hewei will be strictly private and conducted outside official channels. The Evolvers stationed in her personal detail represent some of the most elite assets in the entire nation; they don’t need you to handle security,” Wen Zhiyi said, completely seeing through Huo Ling’s frantic anxiety and not even bothering to waste breath scolding him.
The Minister regularly represented the nation’s supernatural interests in tense negotiations with foreign powers. Could her personal security detail possibly be lacking?
Did Huo Ling really need to stick his nose into places it didn’t belong?
“Then when exactly is the Minister returning?” Huo Ling had completely pushed all other worries to the back of his mind, focused entirely on surviving this impending trial first.
“The exact date hasn’t been finalized. The overseas summit is merely drawing to a close, and there’s no telling what unexpected variables might surface,” Wen Zhiyi replied. “But estimate it to be sometime within the current month.”
Huo Ling quickly calculated the timeline. The municipal public institution exams for this month wouldn’t take place until the very end of the month, and even if they fast-tracked the administrative process, the onboarding and recruitment paperwork wouldn’t be finished in time.
There was absolutely no way for Bai Hewei to officially become one of their “own personnel” before his meeting with the Minister.
“I suggest you stop fretting over these inconsequential administrative details,” Wen Zhiyi let out a soft sigh. “Based on my understanding of those foreign research teams, now that they have successfully refined the third generation of their evolutionary serums, their immediate next step will be to harvest a more massive concentration of evolutionary factors. Tell me, who on earth presents a more enticing target to them than Bai Hewei?”
The primary ingredient for those evolutionary serums was the evolutionary factors harvested from human bodies; the more flawless the baseline combination of those factors, the more explosive the serum’s efficacy would be. And as the verified strongest being on earth, the evolutionary factors coiling within Bai Hewei were undeniably the absolute pinnacle.
If he were in the shoes of those foreign researchers, he would stop at nothing to secure Bai Hewei’s evolutionary factors to pave the way for the fourth and fifth generations of their serums.
Huo Ling’s heart immediately leaped back into his throat. “Our national defense perimeter is incredibly formidable, isn’t it? They shouldn’t be able to launch a large-scale infiltration across our borders.”
“Why shouldn’t they? They can easily disguise themselves as ordinary tourists, corporate investors, or even simple backpackers to cross our entry points completely out in the open. Do you honestly believe those foreign Evolvers only know how to enter illegally?” Wen Zhiyi countered sharply. “As long as they enter through legitimate administrative channels, we have no legal basis to block them. When that time comes, every single one of them will converge on Bai Hewei’s position.”
Huo Ling felt a profound sense of despair, realizing that his future likely held not a single day of rest.
Maybe I should just call the Director back early. The old man hasn’t hit retirement age yet, he shouldn’t be dumping every single piece of heavy lifting onto my shoulders.
“There is another matter of critical importance,” Wen Zhiyi said, his tone turning dead serious. “Bai Hewei’s official Evolver classification dossier has already been delivered to my desk. By all objective criteria, he should be classified as a Rank SSS. But if we actually stamp his file with a rating of that magnitude, he will be completely stripped of his ordinary civilian status by law, and will never be permitted to step out into public unescorted again.”
To someone like Bai Hewei, that would be an absolute prison sentence, carrying an incredibly high probability of triggering a severe psychological backlash against the state.
Realizing what Wen Zhiyi was hinting at, Huo Ling spun on his heel, preparing to bolt out of the room.
“If you walk out that door, don’t blame me for filing a formal complaint the moment the Minister arrives,” Wen Zhiyi stated with complete nonchalance.
“Hahaha! I’m not running away, I was just a bit stiff from standing still and needed to stretch my legs,” Huo Ling’s face broke into a spectacularly radiant smile. “Chief Scholar Wen, you’re the seasoned professional here. What do you suggest we do?”
“Bai Hewei has already mastered control over his strength. As long as he doesn’t actively instigate trouble, it’s virtually impossible for anyone to identify him as an Evolver through casual observation,” Wen Zhiyi offered a composed smile. “Personally, I believe we should classify him as a Rank B. I will design a custom Evolver badge specifically for him to assist with dampening and stabilizing his internal output. This badge will break away from traditional designs; only an Evolver of comparable caliber will ever be able to recognize it for what it truly is. What Bai Hewei requires most right now is stability. We cannot take a single action that disrupts his current peaceful life, unless he explicitly desires it himself.”
“Excellent, excellent. Outstanding idea.”
“The electronic version of Bai Hewei’s classification dossier has already been sent to your internal intranet terminal. I expect to see your signature in the approver column,” Wen Zhiyi smiled warmly. “The Research Institute deeply appreciates your dedicated service.”
“…If I sign my name to this document, does that mean if Bai Hewei later discovers his true classification has been doctored, or if external departments find a discrepancy in his rating, the blame will fall squarely on me?” Huo Ling attempted a final, desperate struggle, desperately wanting to avoid signing the file.
Once his signature was stamped on that line, the moment a single variable went sideways with Bai Hewei in the future, the political accountability would rest entirely on his shoulders.
No wonder Wen Zhiyi hadn’t hurled a single insult at him during their entire conversation.
The man had cleanly dug a massive administrative pit just to drop him inside.
“As an executive leader, you can neither charge onto the physical front lines nor reject strategic directives. Therefore, your only purpose is to shoulder the administrative weight. Chief Huo, Director Huo, I’ll leave this in your capable hands,” Wen Zhiyi smiled serenely.
By Wednesday afternoon, the moment Bai Hewei finished his quick lunch in the office cafeteria, he immediately rushed out with his application materials to register for the exam.
The turnout on the third day of registration was significantly smaller than the massive crowds on day one. After lining up for roughly an hour, Bai Hewei finally reached the front of the queue.
“Hello, these are my application materials,” Bai Hewei said as he stepped up to the counter designated for his specific position.
“Brother Bai? You became an Evolver too?” The person responsible for collecting and reviewing the registration files on behalf of the Special Operations Department turned out to be Lu Chengshuai.
This obviously wasn’t a random stroke of coincidence. The higher-ups in the Special Operations Department knew the two men were well-acquainted, so they had explicitly deployed Lu Chengshuai to man the desk for his registration.
Within the Special Operations Department, only high-ranking executives like An Tingyu held the security clearance necessary to know that Bai Hewei was the world’s strongest being. The few other operators who were privy to the truth had been bound by strict supernatural confidentiality restrictions, physically incapable of uttering a single syllable. A fresh rookie like Lu Chengshuai, who had only recently onboarded, was naturally completely cut off from intelligence of that caliber.
“Yeah,” Bai Hewei offered a light smile. “I didn’t expect it myself, to be honest.”
“Brother Bai, have you undergone your official Evolver tier evaluation yet? Our system requires us to verify your Evolver status details,” Lu Chengshuai asked casually as he took the stack of documents.
“The official tier evaluation paperwork hasn’t cleared yet, but my Evolver certification has already passed. This is the app your department developed, right?” Bai Hewei pulled up the Evolver App on his screen.
Hearing this, Lu Chengshuai logged into the administrative backend of the application. After verifying Bai Hewei’s official status profile, he confidently stamped a green checkmark onto his application file. “Alright, Brother Bai, all your materials have been thoroughly verified and logged. Next, you just need to wait for the written exam notification. By the way, Brother Bai, what specific ability did you awaken?”
“From what I can gather, it feels like my raw strength just increased a bit. Nothing flashy or exceptional. I estimate my rating will probably hit around a Rank C or Rank D at most.” Bai Hewei genuinely didn’t believe he was anything spectacular. Those truly formidable Evolvers could trigger flash effects that looked like high-budget movie CGI, whereas he had absolutely nothing to show for it. Naturally, he assumed his tier wouldn’t be very high.
“Strength-type Evolvers are fantastic! They’re highly sought after across numerous industries, and our department is always looking for more. Work hard, Brother Bai—I’ll be waiting for you in the Special Operations Department,” Lu Chengshuai encouraged warmly. “When the time comes, we’ll be able to fight shoulder-to-shoulder again.”
Bai Hewei gave a polite, sheepish laugh. He glanced left and right to ensure no one was paying attention before leaning over the counter to whisper, “Little Lu, give me the honest truth. As of right now, how many people have signed up for this position? Also, how brutal is the overtime situation in your unit? If I actually pass, what’s the monthly take-home pay, and how much goes into the housing fund? Do we get to take our full annual leave, or is it mostly adjusted rest days?”
As a seasoned worker, the criteria Bai Hewei cared about most were naturally the compensation, benefits, and vacation policies that awaited him upon landing the job.
Lu Chengshuai glanced around. It was currently the middle of the lunch hour and the final day of registration, so no new candidates were approaching the desk. He also leaned down and lowered his voice, saying, “Brother Bai, you’ve thrown a whole mountain of questions at me. Let me break them down one by one.”
“Counting your file, the total number of applicants for this specific position sits at 189. There’s still the entire afternoon to go, so it’ll probably cap out at around 200. The primary rush took place over the first two days—especially yesterday, I was running so ragged I didn’t even have a single second to take a sip of water. But our department’s compensation package is phenomenally high. The baseline salary and allowances for the Special Operations Department are standardized nationwide, though there are variations when it comes to year-end performance bonuses. Although our province’s economic metrics can’t compete with those wealthy coastal hubs, our housing prices and cost of living are significantly lower. Normally, for fresh hires like us, the pay grade for standard administrative and public institution tracks is completely identical. The monthly vehicle allowance and the thirteenth-month salary bonus apply to public institution posts as well.”
Lu Chengshuai took a quick sip of water before continuing, “During the initial probationary period, our monthly take-home salary sits right at 9,500 yuan, and the combined employer-employee housing fund contribution breaks over 2,800 yuan. Once you clear probation and become a regular employee, the housing fund contribution jumps to around 3,500 yuan. The year-end bonuses and performance payouts generally hover between thirty and five hundred thousand yuan, depending on your unit’s evaluation tier. But those are just the basic baseline figures. If you get deployed for field duty—such as conducting cross-provincial apprehensions of rogue Evolvers or entering high-risk zones like a forbidden zone—you pull in substantial high-risk field allowances. I personally know an Evolver on the field operations track whose combined travel and high-risk allowances alone net him an extra ten to twenty thousand yuan a month!”
“On top of that, our uniforms for all four seasons and matching footwear are distributed every single year, and upon onboarding, you receive a dedicated internal intranet smartphone—always the absolute latest flagship model. If you can’t find the time to clear your annual leave, the remaining days are converted directly into cash payouts. Once your length of service hits ten years, you can apply for the internal housing allocation program, which allows you to purchase a residential property in the provincial capital at a price substantially below market value. With real estate prices already being low right now, combining it with our internal discount means it’s practically being handed to you for free, and your housing fund completely covers the mortgage. I heard that if you get stationed in those tier-one cities where housing costs are exorbitant, they even provide a supplementary housing fund allocation, and that supplement alone is higher than our actual salary.”
“Oh, and another phenomenal benefit: we have direct access to specialized Evolver hospitals for medical treatment, and if your immediate family members fall ill, you can submit an administrative request to have them admitted to the Evolver facilities as well. In the event of a line-of-duty fatality, the standard pension for regular civil servants is typically calculated at forty months of their base salary, while public institution grunts get twenty months. But our department operates on a dedicated fast-track protocol; regardless of whether you hold an administrative or public institution post, the line-of-duty payout is calculated at sixty months of your actual salary. Your actual salary, not your base pay—the statistical difference between those two calculation methods is massive. Fundamentally speaking, if our loved ones receive that payout, as long as they don’t indulge in reckless luxury, they won’t have to worry about finances for the rest of their lives.”
“Most importantly, our department doesn’t suffer from the endless political infighting and backstabbing rampant in other sectors. Everyone here is focused entirely on practical, concrete execution. Field operations and administrative support are completely segregated, running on two entirely separate promotion tracks, so there’s barely any conflict of interest between colleagues. And above all else, our provincial Director is a leader who truly steps up to weather the storm and shoulder responsibility! Brother Bai, as you know, as long as the leadership is solid and the colleagues are reasonable, we’re more than willing to put in the hours and log overtime. A healthy workplace atmosphere is everything.”
White Hewei nodded in profound agreement. A healthy working environment was of paramount importance. What employees dreaded wasn’t hard work or intense pressure; what they truly feared was pouring out their blood and sweat only to face exclusion and political maneuvering from their bosses and peers—that was the ultimate thankless ordeal.
As long as the workplace dynamic was supportive, grinding through overtime together didn’t matter in the slightest. Every single one of them had climbed out of a lifetime of grueling academic competition; who among them was actually terrified of a little hard work?
“Oh, and I almost forgot—we have three dedicated cafeterias. The head chefs are all certified culinary masters recruited through strict practical examinations. They roll out every regional cuisine imaginable on a daily basis, and if you’re logging late overtime, there’s an evening night-market menu. High-end coffee and milk tea are priced at a flat rate of one yuan for any flavor you want, completely heavily subsidized by our internal departmental budget.”
Lu Chengshuai patted his stomach with a look of mild sorrow. “I’ve only been on the job for a short while, and I’ve already put on over ten pounds. The cafeteria staff’s culinary standards are just too absurd. Nowadays, I don’t even have any desire to eat out at commercial restaurants; none of them taste as good as our cafeteria.”
Bai Hewei sucked in a sharp, freezing breath. With a compensation package this phenomenal, were they running a government department or nurturing a legion of dedicated knights templar?
No wonder everyone fought tooth and nail to break into the Special Operations Department despite its historically high operational mortality rate. It turned out there was an incredibly solid reason for it!
Author’s Note:
Huo Ling: Pfft! Demanding that I come over just to take the political fall—Wen Zhiyi, you have absolutely no heart!
