I, the World’s Strongest, Have Failed the Civil Service Exam Thirty-Nine Times – CH56

Chapter 56

When Bai Hewei arrived, Team [Interdict] and the Special Operations squad were locked in a tense standoff.

Neither side initiated a fight, yet neither was willing to back down first.

Vivian appeared no different from usual. Only someone who knew her well would notice that she seemed a bit “slack-jawed” at the moment, silently trailing behind her companions like a shadow.

When her companions stopped, she stopped—entirely devoid of self-awareness.

Shirley glared at them with hatred, eagerly lodging her complaint.

“Brother, it’s them! They captured me on purpose!”

“I’ll get revenge for you,” Pullman assured her.

“Mixing yourselves in with Chinese evaluators—do you really think they’ll treat you with genuine sincerity? Haha, China itself often preaches that ‘those not of our kind are bound to have different heart.’ They are the strictest nation in the world when it comes to immigrants; even many descendants of Chinese heritage find it difficult to return. Do you honestly think they’ll feel at ease using you?”

A member of Team [Interdict] seized the opportunity to sow discord without hesitation. “In China, you have to abide by every single law, and evaluators are treated no differently from regular citizens. Could you two really adapt to that?”

To the members of Team [Interdict], evaluators were the chosen ones meant to stand above ordinary people. Who in their right mind would want to mingle with commoners?

Pullman and Shirley were truly foolish. As long as they joined Team [Interdict], the world’s wealth, beauty, and power would be theirs for the taking. Yet they chose to live in a country where they had to treat regular people as equals.

Even if someone took so many drugs their brain fried, they shouldn’t make such an utterly stupid decision.

“Bah, you don’t know shit,” Wei Yan shot back, refusing to back down an inch. “If you guys were really living like rulers, you wouldn’t be standing here facing off against us. Don’t tell me you really think a dog moving into a luxury villa becomes the owner of the villa? Hilarious! Why don’t you take a look at how many evaluators your precious research institute turned into disposable tools like you first?”

“Besides, is it really that hard to guess the raw materials for those evaluator serums? How many evaluators had to be sacrificed for that single shot you took?”

When it came to slinging insults, the Special Operations side was certainly not one to lose.

Yet despite trading verbal blows for half an hour, neither team actually made a move.

They simply stood there, cursing at each other.

Neither side wanted to break the current equilibrium, choosing instead to wait for an opportunistic moment to strike.

“Pfft, Number One, don’t you think it’s hilarious how they’re just standing there like idiots?” Bai Hewei found the scene quite amusing. “Look at Team [Interdict]—hair dyed in all sorts of colors, standing around without a lick of proper posture. Their mental state looks way worse than our side’s. And that guy over there—are those tattoos on his arm? He wouldn’t even qualify to take the civil service exam.”

Bai Hewei’s focus was, naturally, quite different from everyone else’s.

“What are you still standing around for? Hurry up and help!” Seeing Bai Hewei taking his sweet time, Cecilia instantly felt a surge of frustration.

He was eager to get back early to finish his summer homework—why was Bai Hewei moving so slowly?

Jonathan, the captain of Team [Interdict], along with several other members, had actually noticed Bai Hewei long ago.

It couldn’t be helped. People were scarce in these ruins, and Bai Hewei was squeaky clean, with a small robot perched on his shoulder—he was simply too eye-catching.

During their days in the forbidden zone, even as they approached the ruins and encountered fewer forbidden zone creatures, accidents still happened. Consequently, whether it was Jonathan or Cecilia’s group, everyone was inevitably covered in dust and grime, looking far from presentable.

Bai Hewei, however, was a stark contrast.

He wore the most ordinary clothing—a white top, no less—yet inside the forbidden zone, there wasn’t a single speck of dirt on him. That alone spoke volumes about his strength.

Ever since Jonathan became the captain of Team [Interdict], he had encountered countless powerful evaluators and personally slain many top-tier ones.

Yet, the moment his eyes fell upon Bai Hewei, an uncontrollable surge of panic welled up in his heart.

Bai Hewei!

The world’s strongest evaluator.

On the night Bai Hewei awakened, Jonathan—who was out executing a mission at the time—had felt an extraordinarily terrifying evaluator coming into being.

Now, the terror he had sensed that night materialized before his eyes the moment Bai Hewei appeared.

It was him.

It was actually him!

“Ah, why must we always resort to fighting and killing?” Bai Hewei walked up to Cecilia with a beam, casting a casual glance over the members of Team [Interdict]. “Originally, we just came over to save Pullman’s sister. We had no intention of throwing hands with you. Blocking our path like this—are you looking to pick a fight with us?”

“Exactly! Jonathan, don’t go thinking you guys are so high and mighty!” Cecilia placed his hands on his hips, radiating confidence. “We have just as many people as you now. If you’ve got the guts, try defeating us first, instead of pulling cheap tricks!”

“Not bad, you’re even using idioms now,” Bai Hewei praised with a chuckle, looking at Cecilia.

This posture of completely ignoring everyone around them made the members of Team [Interdict] extremely uncomfortable.

Wherever they used to go, people would look up to them in awe.

Now, however, the tables had turned completely.

It seemed they could only look up to the person standing before them.

“He’s not right… Captain, this guy is seriously wrong,” the woman with black dreadlocks murmured, her teeth chattering as she spoke. “Ever since he walked over, every instinct in me has been screaming to run.”

Although she wasn’t a perception-type evaluator, she was exceptional among mental-types. She possessed a keen ability to judge whether someone was a threat she could afford to mess with—a textbook bully who preyed on the weak while fearing the strong.

Yet after Bai Hewei stepped forward, she was terrified to the point of being nearly speech-deprived.

The other members also avoided looking directly at Bai Hewei.

They could still trade blows back and forth with the other Special Operations evaluators, but facing Bai Hewei? That was a fight they genuinely couldn’t win.

Having been injected with the evaluator serum, they were stronger than ordinary S-class evaluators—and, naturally, far more sensitive.

Looking at Bai Hewei was like gazing at a towering mountain they could never hope to cross.

The more sensitive they were, the more acutely they perceived the vast chasm between him and themselves.

Perhaps through other underhanded methods they might stand a chance against Bai Hewei, but in a direct confrontation, they absolutely refused to have him as an enemy.

“Mr. Bai, this might all just be a misunderstanding. We merely invited Ms. Shirley over to help,” a smile quickly plastered itself onto Jonathan’s face. “Since we’ve both made it here, why don’t we rely on our own abilities? Whoever gets the data gets to keep it. After all, if a fight breaks out here and destroys the place, it won’t benefit either of us.”

Jonathan’s words were a show of weakness, but they also carried a veiled threat.

Before securing the data, no one wanted their efforts to go to waste.

“And what do you propose?”

“Mr. Bai, neither of us wants to take unfair advantage. How about we enter the building together?” Jonathan suggested with a pleasant smile. “How much we can retrieve will depend on our own capabilities.”

Bai Hewei turned his head slightly, consulting the Number One sitting beside him.

“Should we strike now?”

“No need. Let’s go inside first,” Wen Zhiyi thought it over for a moment before shaking his head in refusal. “Locating the data takes priority; we can handle the rest afterward.”

If they initiated a battle prematurely, there was no telling what tricks his “mentor” might have up his sleeve.

Wen Zhiyi did not dare underestimate anyone who had managed to come out of the No. 0 Research Institute alive.

“Fine,” Bai Hewei agreed readily. “Then let’s head in first.”

With that, Bai Hewei waved his hand, prompting Zhang Fuzhi, Pullman, and the others to go ahead while he brought up the rear.

The members of Team [Interdict] didn’t dare make a move, forced to watch helplessly as the group went in first.

“We’ll be taking our leave then. See you in a bit,” Bai Hewei waved at them, jogging forward to take the lead at the very front of the group to clear the path.

“Captain, should we go in too?” A team member asked nervously, reluctant to take the exact same route as Bai Hewei.

“We’ll follow behind them into the building. Once inside, follow my orders for everything—understood?” Jonathan instructed sternly. “If something goes wrong, I might not be able to save you.”

“Understood, Captain.”

Heavy-hearted, Jonathan led his team inside nonetheless.

He could only hope that the ability-container sample the Doctor mentioned would trap Bai Hewei and his group first.

Bai Hewei led the way at the very front, waiting for Number One to guide him.

“We have the original floor plan for this company’s facility. Even though most of it has been destroyed, we still know the general layout,” Wen Zhiyi spoke slowly to Bai Hewei. “It’s best to tread carefully. I can’t be certain whether the No. 0 Research Institute left any of their research subjects behind in this place.”

With Bai Hewei taking the lead, the rest of the team felt an immense sense of security and peace of mind.

“What’s over there? Looks pretty huge,” Bai Hewei shone his heavy-duty flashlight toward a massive pile of ruins. “Is it an auditorium or something?”

“The structure on your left is the company cafeteria,” Wen Zhiyi explained. “There’s nothing useful inside, so there’s no need to check it out.”

“…A cafeteria that big?” Bai Hewei blinked. “Looks like this company used to have a ton of employees here.”

“Before evaluators emerged on a large scale, constructing those two giant dispersers at the entrance required a massive amount of manpower and resources. At its peak, this company had nearly ten thousand employees at this site, not including the local day laborers they hired,” Wen Zhiyi offered a brief explanation.

“This literally feels like a dungeon in a cyberpunk game,” Cecilia bounced around, practically wishing he could take pictures of the scene. “It really has that vibe.”

“Bai Hewei, stop pulling me,” Cecilia added out of nowhere.

“I didn’t pull you,” Bai Hewei turned around in confusion. “I’m walking ahead of you—how could I pull you?”

“Then who touched me?”

“Wasn’t it someone else?”

“What on earth?!”

Before Bai Hewei could even finish his sentence, Zhang Fuzhi, Wei Yan, and the others started shouting one after another.

Even Pullman and Shirley felt as if something had made physical contact with them.

“My defensive ability has been active the entire time! Nothing has gotten close!” Cold sweat broke out on Chu Han’s forehead. “But just now, I felt something touch my foot too. You guys… there couldn’t be ghosts here, right?”

He had heard that when the forbidden zone expanded back then, many of this company’s employees and local workers failed to escape.

Five years had passed; even their bones had long been decomposed into microscopic organisms, leaving not a trace behind.

“Stop blabbering nonsense,” Zhang Fuzhi snapped immediately. “We work for the state; we can’t be harboring superstitious thoughts! Did you forget the pledge you signed just a couple of days ago? It’s probably just some forbidden zone creature—nothing to get worked up over.”

“But… there really is something!”

“Didn’t you guys feel it too?”

Following those two questions, everyone fell into an involuntary silence.

No other life forms could survive in a forbidden zone.

Thus, when no one uttered a sound, the surroundings became eerily quiet.

Thump, thump, thump.

It sounded like a rubber ball bouncing.

There was no one here—how could there be the sound of a bouncing ball?

“There really is no one. My defense has been up the whole time,” Chu Han kept his voice hushed, pinching himself to stop his mind from wandering. If he had known better, he wouldn’t have watched those horror movie recaps to unwind a few days ago.

Now his head was completely filled with all kinds of terrifying scenarios.

“Don’t panic. It’s likely an ability that affects the senses,” Wen Zhiyi’s voice resonated with reassuring steadiness. “This is just the entrance plaza and the area around the cafeteria; the influence of the ability is limited here. Let’s head upstairs first and see what on earth is deliberately targeting us.”

“Makes sense,” Bai Hewei chimed in quickly to keep his own tension from showing.

He obviously didn’t believe ghosts existed in this world, but facing an unseen enemy certainly made it easy to scare oneself.

And that was pretty terrifying in its own right, okay?

“Deploy your robots and let them lead the way in front of us,” Wen Zhiyi continued. “Do not take unnecessary risks yourselves right now.”

Upon hearing this, everyone hurriedly set their robots down.

Watching the small robots line up in a neat little squad, turn on their chest searchlights, and fly forward in unison, the group couldn’t help but find the little machines endearing.

Robots were immune to sensory-manipulating abilities.

Thus, all they had to do was follow behind the machines.

Bai Hewei stepped onto the staircase, kicking up a cloud of dust.

As for whether it was actually dust or something else, Bai Hewei refused to overthink it. He made a mental note to burn his clothes and shoes the moment they left this place—they definitely couldn’t be kept.

“These robots are really useful,” Shirley’s eyes sparkled. “Nothing like the clunky ones I bought.”

“Once this is over, we’ll ask the Central Research Institute for one,” Pullman said, carefully guarding his sister as they advanced step by step.

Just as they reached the top of the stairs, the sound of the ball bouncing against the floor grew increasingly distinct.

Thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump.

It sounded as if an invisible object were bouncing back and forth down the second-floor corridor.

“Over there—is that a basketball?” Chu Han couldn’t help pointing it out.

Everyone looked toward the source of the sound and saw what appeared to be an actual basketball bouncing up and down along the corridor.

At that exact moment, the searchlights on the chests of the flying robots suddenly flickered.

“Communication error. Communication error.”

“Current image transmission feature disabled.”

“Current flight feature disabled.”

…

Varying prompt chimes began ringing out from the robots.

Far away at the Central Research Institute, Wen Zhiyi discovered that the feed displays from each robot’s perspective had simultaneously cut to black.

The recording and shooting capabilities of these robots had completely vanished!

Wen Zhiyi was instantly stripped of his ability to “see” the scenes inside the building through the robots.

In a split second, he had been rendered blind.

Separated by thousands of miles, even if Wen Zhiyi knew the structural layout of the facility, he had no way of guiding Bai Hewei and the others.

“Chief, this isn’t right.”

“Aside from their special materials, these robots utilize evolutionary factors for power. They shouldn’t be affected by the forbidden zone.”

“Furthermore, these robots were granted protective mechanisms by a control-type evaluator. How could this happen?”

…

To the Central Research Institute, these seemingly tiny robots were the culmination of numerous technological breakthroughs.

It was only because the Special Operations team was heading into a forbidden zone to uncover the secrets of the No. 0 Research Institute that each person was generously equipped with one.

Even then, they were meant to be retrieved afterward.

Bai Hewei had already carried out several missions with his robot without being granted ownership, precisely because these machines were extraordinarily precious.

Combining technology with special abilities, these robots should have performed at their peak in an environment like a forbidden zone.

Far across the ocean in America.

A white-haired old man held a communicator, gazing with a subtle smile at the footage relayed back by Jonathan.

“Wen… the No. 0 Research Institute had already conducted research on the technology inside those robots long ago.”

Even if Wen Zhiyi was a genius, he could only build upon the foundation laid by those before him. As long as the underlying principles remained the same, the resulting creations would be fundamentally similar.

Placing the same equation into different word problems still yielded the same solution principle.

Disabling those robots effectively severed the link between Wen Zhiyi and those evaluators.

Regrettably, Wen Zhiyi had made certain modifications to those robots after all.

Though all other functions were disabled, the voice communication feature remained miraculously functional.

“No need to panic. From here on, everyone follow Bai Hewei’s lead,” Wen Zhiyi didn’t harbor the arrogance that his research was unconditionally ahead of the rest of the world—otherwise, why would they have come here in the first place?

“Little Bai, what do you see?” Wen Zhiyi inquired.

“I don’t see the ball you guys mentioned. All I see is pitch-black darkness, overflowing with evolutionary energy,” Bai Hewei paused for a moment before speaking slowly. “We’ve already stepped into the range of someone’s ability… but I don’t see any evaluators.”

Click here to download the advance chapters (PDF & EPUB)