In front of the magnificent palace, so spirit-like figures floated.
They hovered around a person, repeating a phrase with gentle voices.
"Join our big family."
"Join..."
Hah!
Lu Cheng abruptly opened his eyes and sat up from his bed.
He covered his slightly damp forehead, breathing a little heavily.
"Another one of these dreams."
As the ti approached the end of December and the rule was about to end, this dream had been occurring more and more frequently.
At first, it only appeared once every two or three days, but starting the day before yesterday, every ti he fell asleep, he would see the sa scene and hear the sa voices.
It wasn't even just when falling asleep; even just closing his eyes for a mont would cause those images and sounds to surface.
"...Should I seek help?"
Lu Cheng struggled internally.
At this point, even if he was unwilling to admit it, he had to acknowledge that he had beco a spore addict.
The authorities had long ago published the manifestations of the several stages of addiction, or rather, parasitism.
Cherishing life, craving congregation, reducing food intake... the symptoms of each stage had already appeared in him.
A few days ago, the authorities announced the symptoms of a new stage—violent tendencies.
What Lu Cheng was grateful for was that he currently only felt irritable and disgusted towards others, but hadn't reached the point of using violence.
Yet, deep down, he harbored a hidden worry.
If he continued to let it develop unchecked, sooner or later he would also beco violent towards others.
At that ti, there would be no place for him in the academy.
Lu Cheng absolutely could not accept the consequence of being expelled from the academy. For this reason, he decided to seek help to prevent the degree of parasitism from worsening further.
After enduring for several hours until dawn, he went directly to the dean's office, wanting to explain his current situation and seek help.
When he arrived at the door, Dean Zhou Qinfeng had just arrived. Seeing him, Zhou Qinfeng imdiately smiled: "Lu Cheng, what brings you to see ?"
As a rather outstanding student of this year's cohort, Lu Cheng had considerable fa within the academy; the dean and various subject teachers all knew of him.
Lu Cheng hesitated: "Dean, I... might..."
Although he had decided to seek help, the words were difficult to say out loud when they reached his lips; he still couldn't let go of his pride as an excellent student.
Seeing Lu Cheng hemming and hawing, Zhou Qinfeng chuckled: "Lu Cheng, just say whatever you need to say directly. Being so indecisive will put you at a disadvantage if you go to the research office in the future."
"Research office?" Lu Cheng was startled.
"Oh, you students probably don't know yet. The most outstanding graduates of each academy cohort are assigned to the Counterasures Research Office. Last year's graduates had over ten assigned. Looking at next year's candidates, I think you have the potential."
The Counterasures Research Office!
Upon hearing this, Lu Cheng's heart raced wildly.
Nowadays, everyone knew that the Counterasures Research Office was almost the most important and comprehensively powerful institution in Beixing.
Below the top decision-making level, all other official departnts had to coordinate their actions with the Counterasures Research Office.
Every ti a new rule was released, it was first researched, analyzed, and intelligence compiled by the Counterasures Research Office. Afterwards, they formulated counterasures and distributed them to various departnts for actual implentation.
It could be said that joining the Counterasures Research Office not only provided the highest level of safety guarantees and the highest level of ticulous cultivation within Beixing, but also offered the opportunity to participate in the nation's decision-making group.
The latter temptation was the greatest.
Imagine if a suggestion he proposed was adopted, and all national departnts had to act according to it—how much sense of achievent would he have?
Moreover, since Beixing currently had the largest global population and the most intact national power, many other countries would directly copy and use the counterasures formulated by Beixing.
This ant that proposing an effective suggestion might lead the entire world to follow it. This kind of feeling, even top-level figures before the Doomsday Rules era might not necessarily have experienced it.
...However, this departnt's recruitnt standards were extrely strict, only taking a small handful of people who possessed the most core knowledge and were the absolute best in their respective fields.
Ordinary Ascendants with special abilities or items might be temporarily located and called upon through the database when the research office had a need, but they wouldn't beco formal mbers of the research office.
What Zhou Qinfeng ntioned—that outstanding academy graduates would be assigned to the Counterasures Research Office—undoubtedly ant becoming formal mbers who could stay permanently at the research office base.
This was unquestionably what the vast majority of Ascendants dread of!
"Lu Cheng."
"Lu Cheng?"
"Ah... Dean."
Lu Cheng snapped back to reality, his rapidly beating heart still not cald.
"You still haven't said why you ca to see ."
"Uh, it's nothing, just... well, I wanted to apply to change dormitories, and I didn't know how to do it."
He absolutely must not reveal that he had already been parasitized by the alien spores to the third stage!
Lu Cheng was extrely firm in this mont.
He believed that if the dean knew, his image in the dean's mind would definitely plumt drastically.
If he didn't say it now, the dean would still think of him as an excellent student qualified to be assigned to the Counterasures Research Office after graduation next August.
If he said it now, would the dean think he didn't even have this level of self-control and discipline, and how could he be assigned to the Counterasures Research Office which had extrely high demands for rigor?
Lu Cheng didn't dare to gamble.
His abilities and items weren't particularly special or powerful. If he wanted to enter the Counterasures Research Office, the only path was through the academy's graduate assignnt!
"Want to change dormitories? What, are the students in your dorm affecting you?" Zhou Qinfeng didn't detect Lu Cheng's thoughts, only assuming he had disagreents with his roommates.
"It's my own reason."
The excuse Lu Cheng had casually co up with now forced him to continue down this path: "Because I often stay up late studying, it affects my roommates' rest, so..."
"Hehe, you really are diligent." Zhou Qinfeng laughed. "It reminds
of when I was young, I also had a period of studying through the night. Good, good."
Zhou Qinfeng thought for a mont and said: "Giving you a single dorm room definitely isn't possible; it wouldn't be fair to other students. How about this: I'll have a counselor give you a key to a self-study classroom. If you can't sleep at night and want to study, go study in the self-study room, not in the dormitory. That way you won't affect others."
"That's great, thank you, Dean!"
"Hehe, it's good for young people to work hard, but you also need to be careful not to overdo it. There should be a balance between tension and relaxation."
"Yes, I'll rember. I'll head back now then."
Lu Cheng quickly left, feeling relieved inside.
Fortunately, he smoothly used the dormitory topic to cover it up, otherwise he really wouldn't have known what to say.
"Lucky the dean ntioned it first, otherwise I almost ruined everything..."
Lu Cheng had absolutely no idea that academy graduates could be assigned to the Counterasures Research Office.
This information gap didn't just exist for him; he estimated very few students in the entire academy knew about it.
The reason was simple: the academy only started operating last year, and their cohort this year was only the second.
With just two short cohorts, no effective information network had ford yet. The graduates from the previous cohort who were assigned to the Counterasures Research Office had no need, or even were not allowed, to tell outsiders about their destination.
Because special institutions like the Counterasures Research Office definitely had a large number of confidentiality agreents.
"Now I know about this, while most other academy students don't. This is the advantage of the information gap." Lu Cheng thought. "I must seize this opportunity. As long as the assignnt is successful, I'll be completely 'ashore'!"
If there was any destination in this era that could be called "going ashore," the Counterasures Research Office was definitely one of them.
Before, he didn't know, so he didn't hold out hope, only thinking that being assigned to a decent official departnt after graduation would be satisfying enough.
Now that he knew this path to the heavens existed, he had to take it!
As for the spore parasitism problem...
Lu Cheng thought: "This matter absolutely must not let the academy teachers know; it can't affect my evaluation. I can only rely on myself to tough it out!"
...
Counterasures Research Office base, interrogation room.
On either side of a long table, three people sat on one side, and one person sat on the other.
Among the three, besides Zhang Minglu and an investigator, there was another person who was a rather well-known Ascendant in society, with the online userna "I Am a Good Man," real na Li Liang.
Li Liang had gained so online fa as early as the first rule period by posting, and was affectionately called "the guide" by netizens.
Later, during the [Five Senses Elimination] rule period, he beca popular again because he could skip classes using his own hypnosis item.
Afterwards, when the authorities fild the entertainnt program "Battle of the Ascendants," the director brought him in to participate as one of the mbers, which basically made him completely famous.
Now, the Counterasures Research Office had called him here for naturally only one reason: to use his hypnosis item to extract intelligence from the Divine Child Yuzawa Jun's personal bodyguard.
That's right, the person sitting on the other side of the long table was that ninja bodyguard.
After Guan Tong discussed with Gao Liangwei, they transferred the people from the official residence's underground prison into Beixing territory via the page shelter, and they were received by the Beixing authorities.
Besides those scholars, Andai State people, Yuzawa Family opposition mbers, and so on, this ninja bodyguard was also among them.
After receiving the people, Zhang Minglu first had Ascendants with healing abilities restore the tongue the ninja bodyguard had bitten off himself.
Then, through the "Battle of the Ascendants" director's channel, he brought Li Liang over to have him use his item to assist in this interrogation.
Li Liang readily agreed.
From the mont he agreed to participate in the official variety show recording, he had planned to cling tightly to the official's thigh.
Just as he said in his posts, he had good self-awareness. He didn't trust the solicitations from various organizations that coveted his item's ability, only trusting that the official's guarantees were the most reliable.
At this mont, Li Liang held his hypnosis item, the Hypnosis App, displayed on his phone as a swinging pendulum pattern.
The ninja bodyguard sitting opposite, due to insufficient Mind Power, had been controlled by Li Liang using the item after regaining consciousness and had fallen into a hypnotic state.
"What is your na?"
Li Liang began asking questions prepared in advance by Zhang Minglu.
"I have no na, only a codena, 'Shin'." The ninja bodyguard said woodenly.
"Shin. What are your duties?"
"Protect the Divine Child-sama, complete all tasks assigned by the Divine Child-sama."
Li Liang nodded. At this point, Zhang Minglu signaled him to ask a key question previously raised by Guan Tong.
"The Divine Child, Yuzawa Jun—is he dead?"
"No." Shin said. "The Divine Child-sama is immortal."
Reviews
All reviews (0)