Chapter 24
Bai Hewei drove his newly purchased car to work.
Since he now had a vehicle, and an electric one at that, tasks like picking up documents from the district or municipal offices inevitably fell to him.
However, Bai Hewei was more than happy to take on this kind of work. Everyone in the office tacitly agreed that if you went to pick up documents around four or five in the afternoon, you could head straight home early after finishing the task.
At around four o’clock, Bai Hewei calculated the travel time, confirmed it was a good time to retrieve the documents, informed his colleagues, and prepared to head out.
Just as he jogged into the unit’s parking lot, he saw a foreigner standing there with a bewildered expression. The man was holding a phone, and a navigation app was blaring, “You have arrived at your destination.”
This foreigner seemed a bit unusual.
Having just captured a spy, Bai Hewei was naturally a bit wary of foreigners. But on second thought, he reminded himself not to paint everyone with the same brush—the country was full of foreign tourists and international students.
Perhaps the man just needed some help.
After a moment of hesitation, Bai Hewei stepped forward and asked curiously, “Excuse me, do you need some help with something?”
“He… Hello. My Chinese is not very good, but I can communicate,” the young foreign man said, quickly extending his hand to shake Bai Hewei’s.
Bai Hewei gave it a brief shake.
“I am an international student. I want to sign up for the district basketball team but cannot find the place. A lady told me to come to the subdistrict office,” the young foreigner explained in halting Chinese.
Oh, the district basketball league!
Bai Hewei understood instantly.
These days, in order to boost local prestige, local governments were launching all kinds of sports tournaments in rotation.
One day it would be a basketball tournament between different factory zones and units; another day it would be a friendly tug-of-war match between different jurisdictions, or maybe a volleyball or badminton tournament. Of course, the most famous and effective ones right now were undoubtedly the soccer matches hosted by various prefectural-level cities, where tickets were famously hard to come by.
As grassroots subdistrict workers, Bai Hewei and his colleagues had to pretend to be spectators and cheer for the players when the tournaments weren’t very popular. But when a tournament became a hit, they had to act as volunteers, picking up trash and maintaining order.
What made it truly depressing was that these games were almost always scheduled for evenings or weekends. For grassroots workers, it was no different from working overtime.
Those with children could at least bring them along to watch the games as a substitute for family activities. But for a bachelor like Bai Hewei, it was pure, unadulterated overtime.
Naturally, given Bai Hewei’s height, long legs, and youthful good looks, recruiting him to the team would definitely draw a large female audience. Many teams had tried to invite him, but he had always declined under the guise of not being good at sports.
And now it was even more impossible. He was an Evolver now; how could he go around bullying ordinary people?
“Which unit do you want to sign up with? Which school are you from?” Bai Hewei asked.
For tournaments organized by units like theirs, college students were definitely excluded from the league. How could a bunch of working stubs who had been beaten down by life for years compete with young college students? However, as far as Bai Hewei knew, many units, in order to make their teams stand out and win, secretly recruited a lot of young college players or even professional players to act as external ringers.
“I am a student at the nearby university of technology. This is my student ID,” the young foreigner said, handing over his card. “Any team is fine. Playing basketball can add academic credits.”
Bai Hewei glanced at the student ID. The name printed on it was Pullman Alfred.
“Leave your phone number. I’ll ask our unit’s labor union for you. Their district union seems to be recruiting people right now. As for other units, you probably won’t be able to join,” Bai Hewei said sincerely. This foreigner’s appearance was far too conspicuous. Other units had disciplinary or confidentiality requirements, so they might not choose him to participate. But the labor union might work, though it still wasn’t a guarantee.
“No problem, thank you,” Pullman said, nodding quickly.
“Alright, I’ve noted it down. I’ll let you know when there’s news. I have to head over to the district office right now to handle some business,” Bai Hewei said, waving his hand. “You should head back early too.”
“Okay, okay, thank you,” Pullman nodded immediately.
Bai Hewei then got into his car, hit the gas, and drove off toward the district government building.
Pullman watched Bai Hewei leave, standing frozen in place for a short while before slowly walking away.
It seemed Bai Hewei hadn’t noticed anything unusual about him.
After all, before coming here, he had briefly dispersed all the evolutionary particles within his body.
This was the “clever utility” of his supernatural ability.
With this skill, he could temporarily deceive any machine and disguise himself as an ordinary person without abilities.
Even though evolutionary particles would slowly gather back in his body over time, it was still enough to hide from all sensory-type Evolvers and the tracking of countless detectors.
In fact, even Forbidden Zones would find it difficult to detect his existence.
For certain professions, Pullman’s ability was practically a god-tier starting build.
Even the world’s strongest couldn’t possibly comprehend every single ability in existence.
So this is Bai Hewei?
So this is the man.
Pullman couldn’t help but chuckle.
No wonder Gentleman had suffered such an utter defeat.
Even just interacting with him at close range, one could sense the unimaginably colossal evolutionary energy resting within Bai Hewei’s body.
Against someone like that, it was no wonder anyone would lose spectacularly.
If he were to face off against Bai Hewei himself, he would likely have no choice but to run for his life.
Yet the impression Bai Hewei left on him was entirely outside Pullman’s expectations.
To think he was actually this kind of person.
This country was different from what he had imagined, and completely different from what was portrayed in the foreign media.
Even Bai Hewei, along with the other Evolvers on the street, were fundamentally different from those in other nations.
In such a chaotic era, there was actually a country that managed to maintain this level of public security and peaceful daily life.
Inside the personnel office of the Special Operations Department.
Du Ke and Shang Wenwu, the two newcomers, sat obediently, each holding a cup of hot tea as they nervously underwent their onboarding interview.
They were both candidates who had passed the recent municipal public institution written exam.
For this exam cycle, the Special Operations Department had been allocated a total of two permanent posts within the establishment, both designated for Evolvers.
Originally, there had only been one slot, but someone in the department had just reached their maximum years of service and taken early retirement, thus freeing up an additional slot.
One was a field-agent post, which Du Ke had applied for. The other was a comprehensive information desk post, which Shang Wenwu had applied for.
The two of them felt that the atmosphere inside the Special Operations Department today was bizarre to the extreme.
They felt that ever since they walked through the door, people had been sizing them up constantly.
Granted, it was perfectly normal for newcomers to be looked over, but both of them were Evolvers—especially Shang Wenwu, who was a sensory-type. He could clearly perceive that these looks were not born out of curiosity toward rookies, but rather a form of intense scrutiny.
How strange. Their background checks had already cleared without a single issue.
Pondering it back and forth, Shang Wenwu could only attribute it to the inherent nature of the Special Operations Department’s work.
They had to remain suspicious of everyone year-round; it was bound to be an occupational hazard.
“Du Ke, Shang Wenwu, congratulations on joining our Special Operations Department. In a moment, I’ll take you to the cafeteria first to log your identity details and fingerprints. After that, whenever you eat or buy coffee and milk tea in our cafeteria, you just need to scan your face or press your fingerprint. The final bill will be deducted from your cafeteria subsidy first. It costs one yuan per meal, so remember not to waste food,” the HR lady said with a warm smile. “Additionally, although the posts you tested into are these two, your actual assignments will depend on the arrangements made by the higher-ups. Do you have any objections?”
Discrepancies between the tested post and actual job assignments were a common sight within the system.
Sometimes, it wasn’t that the specific post lacked personnel, but rather that it was the only slot that still held a permanent vacancy within the establishment, so they naturally had to recruit under that name.
Consequently, situations arose where a candidate applied for a certain subordinate unit, only to be pulled directly up to the parent organization to work before they could even report for duty.
The most flagrant offender was the Organization Department. They frequently loved using quiet, leisurely units like the Party School or the Bureau of Veteran Cadres as bait. As a result, certain candidates aiming for a relaxed lifestyle would score exceptionally high, taking first or second place, only to find that before they even knew which way their designated unit’s door faced, the Organization Department had already prepared their desks at the main office.
“No objections,” Du Ke and Shang Wenwu said in unison.
“Excellent. In a moment, I’ll take you to meet Director An. She is the Office Director for our Special Operations regional branch. When the main leadership is absent, she generally calls the shots,” the HR lady explained. She was an ordinary human, but many personnel within the Special Operations Department were ordinary citizens who had long since learned how to perfectly coexist with Evolvers.
“Since you are both Evolvers, you will likely need to rotate through the eight field squads,” the HR lady continued. “Our department’s eight field squads are in a chronic state of understaffing. Don’t misunderstand; now that we have high-tech equipment, the safety of these squads has shot up significantly, making them comparable to regular SWAT units. But as you know, there are a lot of Evolvers nowadays, which breeds plenty of conflicts. Plus, many foreign Evolvers flee to our territory. They have no ID cards or lodging, and if they end up wandering the streets, it causes a lot of trouble. The field squads are just always short on hands.”
This place was also one of the designated resettlement units for retired special forces operatives.
Otherwise, vacancies within the establishment wouldn’t be this tightly strained.
The HR lady led the two of them downstairs, heading toward another building to introduce them to the team.
The Special Operations Department’s compound was very large, spanning a total of five office buildings, and preparations were already underway to construct a sixth.
There was no helping it; there were simply too many tasks to handle. Even with this setup, they remained in a state of severe work overload.
“Sister Zhang, more newcomers?” A squad returning from an outside mission ran into them, and someone immediately called out a greeting.
“Yes, these two passed the recent municipal exam. I’m taking them to meet Director An,” the HR lady replied.
“Our squad is bleeding for people! It should be our turn to get some fresh blood, right?” the squad members instantly started clamoring.
“Exactly! Any ability will do, but it would be best if we got someone who knows how to write materials. We only spend two hours outside catching those illegal Evolvers, but we have to spend five or six hours writing reports and paperwork. It’s an absolute nightmare!”
“I know! And after all that, they still claim our formatting is wrong.”
…
Before Du Ke and Shang Wenwu could even offer a reply, the leading squad captain suddenly turned his head and scrutinized them thoroughly.
“You two passed the recent municipal exam? Then, which one of you is the civil engineering guy?” the captain inquired.
“I… I am,” Du Ke answered with a trace of trepidation, unsure why the man would ask.
The captain merely fixed his gaze on Du Ke for a moment, then sighed with a hint of regret. “Never mind. You scored very well. Work hard in the unit moving forward.”
“Al… Alright,” Du Ke replied hastily.
“That was Captain Liu Hang. He just returned from a mission,” Sister Zhang explained to the newcomers after Liu Hang and his team departed. “You’ll have plenty of occasions to interact with him in the future. You’ll get to know everyone slowly.”
Du Ke and Shang Wenwu both nodded, quietly following behind her.
“We’re here. Come on in,” the HR lady knocked on the door. “Director An, I’ve brought the two newcomers to report to you.”
An Tingyu raised her head instantly upon hearing those words.
Here it comes. That piercing feeling of scrutiny is back!
Shang Wenwu subconsciously snapped to attention.
However, he quickly noticed that Director An’s gaze didn’t linger on him for more than a couple of seconds. Instead, it locked squarely onto Du Ke beside him.
Again?
Shang Wenwu was thoroughly baffled.
The field captain earlier was one thing, but now even Director An was doing it. Why on earth did they care so much about Du Ke?
What could possibly be wrong with Du Ke?
They had chatted earlier; Du Ke was just a regular guy from a local architectural design institute. He didn’t even own a passport and had never stepped foot outside the country. There was absolutely nothing remarkable about him.
Even Du Ke’s supernatural ability carried zero connection to criminal activity.
It could be classified as one of the absolute safest ability types in existence, without exception.
Shang Wenwu felt something was profoundly amiss.
Why did it seem like the people in the Special Operations Department—especially the powerful figures—were all focusing their attention on Du Ke?
Could it be that Du Ke was the illegitimate son of some grandmaster, or perhaps he was actually a deep-cover foreign spy?
If his sensory perception weren’t completely infallible, Shang Wenwu would have started doubting his own sanity.
“You’re the newcomer who scored 241 points on the civil engineering post?” An Tingyu looked at Du Ke with an incredibly complex expression, opening her mouth to inquire.
This was the exact person who had squeezed Bai Hewei out of a spot.
Oh, wait, that wasn’t entirely accurate. It should be said that aside from Du Ke, there were more than twenty other people who had squeezed Bai Hewei out.
“Yes,” Du Ke answered, his heart hammering against his ribs. Although he was an Evolver, his grade was mediocre. His sole capability was the power to make people grow hair. However, compared to other Evolvers who could also treat hair loss, his ability worked at a remarkably slow rate. While others could treat hair loss in an hour, it took him nearly a month.
The architectural design institute had laid him off, so he took his severance pay to open a hair-loss treatment clinic. He had some clients early on, but later, as more and more Evolvers entered his exact sector, his business suffered a catastrophic drop. He had to sell the car he bought previously just to cover the losses and close down the shop.
Calculating his final balances, his only consolation was that he had performed slightly better than his colleague who took his severance pay to play the stock market.
But at least that guy hadn’t worn himself out while losing money, whereas Du Ke had worked from dawn to dusk only to lose his savings.
The survival competition among Evolvers was simply too brutal!
Left with no other options, he could only risk everything on a final gamble, aiming to land on the shore of a stable permanent post so he could support himself and his family.
He was already 36 years old now. Originally, he should have been barred from applying due to the Special Operations Department’s age restrictions. Who could have anticipated that the department would lift the age limit for this cycle? He had ground through practice questions day and night at home, finally managing to successfully secure a permanent post.
Could it be that Director An was dissatisfied with his age and his ability?
But he was fully capable of pulling heavy overtime!
“I’ve already reviewed your ability details and your specific profile. I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle the physical demands of a field-agent post. It just so happens that the financial section is short on hands, so you’ll report to the financial section first. As for Shang Wenwu, a sensory ability is useful across plenty of occasions, so you’ll report to Luo Chuan’s squad first. Since you’ve joined the Special Operations Department, if you encounter any difficulties in your work or life, feel free to speak to us. Within the boundaries of the law and the department’s capabilities, we will do our best to resolve them for you so you can work with peace of mind. As for disciplinary regulations, head over to the Discipline Inspection Office in a moment; the Secretary for Discipline Inspection will brief you on the requirements.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Du Ke and Shang Wenwu answered in unison.
“Good. That will be all.” An Tingyu waved her hand, signaling that they could depart.
Sigh.
An Tingyu couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.
A unified provincial public institution exam would take place in late July. She could only hope that when that time came, Bai Hewei would be able to pass successfully.
Lately, Huo Ling had been cooping himself up inside the Research Institute. Usually, whenever she looked for him, they communicated almost entirely via phone calls, and she had no idea what he was busy engineering.
But none of them harbored any doubts that these peaceful days couldn’t last forever.
As long as Bai Hewei remained within their jurisdiction, trouble was bound to find its way to their doorstep sooner or later.
