"Is there no room for negotiation?" Shi Rang asked.
"The human resources departnt will send soone over shortly to register your equipnt passwords. Please cooperate with the process."
The tension that had been gripping Shi Rang's heart finally eased.
It seed the Bureau had not placed him on their suspect list. Otherwise, they wouldn't have wasted their breath saying such things.
Putting on a display of the resentnt and indignation typical of soone being laid off, Shi Rang refused to comply. Instead, he furrowed his brows and imdiately called Shi Shixin.
As a leader who had been suddenly parachuted into the position, being abruptly dismissed naturally required a show of dissatisfaction.
After two dial tones, the call connected. Shi Rang began his performance to wrap up his undercover mission.
"What is going on here? Why are people telling my position is gone?" he demanded sharply, his tone entirely lacking any respect for his elder.
While he was on the phone, the agents from the Internal Affairs Departnt swaggered past him. Hearing him throw a tantrum at the person on the other end of the line, the last agent even obligingly closed the door behind them.
"It is an order from higher up," Shi Shixin replied, keeping his voice low as always while putting on a facade of false respect. "The attacks around the headquarters have prompted them to start another round of investigations. I am in a very precarious situation right now..."
""
"That is your own problem."
Shi Rang threw out that single sentence before hanging up in an excellent mood, letting out a long sigh of relief.
The Bureau replacing soone like him, who was unworthy of his position, had actually done him a huge favor.
Although he hadn't found the intelligence the Alliance needed, his current findings were enough to bluff them and report back. He hadn't transmitted any of his recent intelligence anyway; sending espionage reports from inside the Bureau's territory was basically asking to be caught, and the Deer Hunter couldn't appear in two places at once.
Shi Rang had amassed quite a bit of intelligence, just waiting until he left the area to send it all at once.
He had previously been worried about how much longer he would have to keep coming to work here before he could safely leave without arousing suspicion. But now, he was finally free.
Both missions had been perfectly completed. It was ti to return to the Second District.
He still had a lot of combat training classes left to finish.
Shi Rang couldn't wait to start packing his things. He was so delighted he almost wanted to hum a tune, but he had to maintain a bitter and deeply resentful facade, furrowing his brows deeply and pulling down the corners of his mouth as he went through the rest of the termination process.
Tap, tap, tap...
A flurry of footsteps approached. Shi Rang initially thought it was the HR departnt arriving, but when he looked up, he saw a sowhat familiar woman standing outside his office door.
It took him a mont to recall her na.
It was Vya, the employee he had helped out of a tough spot on his first day of work.
"D-Director Shi..." Vya was bent over, panting heavily, having clearly run all the way here. "Are you leaving?"
Shi Rang hadn't expected the news to spread so quickly, but as a director, it was normal for him to attract a lot of attention.
He found it difficult to direct his feigned anger at a face that was showing genuine concern for him, so he simply shook his head in resignation. "I was just an idler taking up this seat. It probably left them dissatisfied."
Vya bit her lip and gave him a complex look. Finally, she bowed deeply to him. "Your character is obvious to everyone. You were a good director."
Dropping those words, she actually turned and ran back the way she had co.
Shi Rang blinked, savoring the parting words that lingered in the air.
But aside from dealing with Aurore, stamping a few docunts, and signing his na, he hadn't really done anything at all...
'Does simply arriving and leaving work on ti without doing anything extra make soone a good leader?'
'Or is it because punishing Aurore served as an example? Or perhaps she actually just wanted to thank again for helping her that ti, but was too embarrassed to say it directly?'
Shi Rang remained completely baffled.
Other people's thoughts were simply too difficult to decipher, and it wasn't like he had a mind-reading Anomalous Effect.
Carrying the small plastic bin designated for departing employees, Shi Rang left the main building.
Shi Rang really wanted to leave today and just "flee" straight back to the Second District, returning to a far more peaceful and comfortable environnt, but he had to play his part to the very end.
The Charity Foundation's ultimatum was for him to move out within a week. He had more than enough ti, so he couldn't act too hastily.
After all, in the eyes of outsiders, this was an incident where he lost both his job and his dignity. By all accounts, he needed to drag his feet and linger here for another three to five days.
Sitting in the study of his residence, rapidly typing out the exclusive intelligence for the Pan-Continent Alliance, Shi Rang glanced over at the Mini-Humans chasing each other around a water cup in the corner of his desk. He couldn't see Robbie and the other Tiny Ones, but Jack was currently playing and running around with those fast-moving little guys, acting as a Marker of sorts. Right then, a philosophical question suddenly occurred to him.
'Artificial humans are created beings, yet in a sociological sense, they are considered human. Can that sa logic be applied to native Mini-Humans?'
'They also originated from an Anomaly, share a human appearance, and possess a fundantally identical mind...'
He paused these complicated thoughts and hit the spacebar with a clack, completing the final signature. The informant this ti was himself, so he didn't have to adhere to any fabricated persona.
As for the Bureau firing him, Shi Rang truthfully inford the Alliance as well, to prevent them from urging him for further follow-up investigations.
Knock, knock. Soone was at the door.
Judging from the relatively light tapping, it was Jing Zi.
"What is it?" Shi Rang asked the closed study door, casually clicking the send button.
"A new phone has arrived."
Phone was a code word; Shi Rang imdiately understood that he ant a communication device. He had assud that to avoid drawing attention, the Ascension Society would wait until they had evacuated the Operations Zone before making contact.
As an exceptionally outstanding subordinate, Jing Zi only opened the door a crack to pass his own communication device through. He didn't even peek inside once during the entire exchange, which put Shi Rang greatly at ease.
Thanks to having A Piao as his backer, colluding with the Alliance right under the noses of the Ascension Society mbers was actually surprisingly easy.
Shi Rang grabbed the comms device. As soon as he turned it on, he found a ssage already waiting for him.
[Guess how The Prism reacted when they found out the Directional Reconstructor was dismantled?]
It was A Piao.
Shi Rang clicked away on the miniature keyboard. [Angry?]
[Wrong, they nearly died laughing! I really wish I could mimic their exact tone for you—"They talked such a big ga back then, but it turns out they got scared and started copying the Alliance. If they have so much civic virtue, why don't they just destroy themselves while they're at it?"]
Shi Rang: [Is it really okay to tell all this...]
[I'm not finished yet. I also figured out what that machine does. The unique traits of the Bureau's Council mbers were granted by that exact machine. It can add Anomalous Effects like ordering off a nu—completely natural and harmless. How great would it be if I could get my hands on it to play with!]
'Adding Anomalous Effects on demand...'
'Isn't that... exactly what I can do?'
Although his thod involved a few extra steps, the essence was the sa.
Shi Rang glanced at Jack on the desk, who was currently attempting to intercept a speeding Tiny One with a diving tackle, and suddenly felt a bit uneasy.
If the Council mbers knew of the existence of an "Anomaly that precisely creates Anomalies," then they were actually on equal footing with Shi Rang in terms of intelligence. He would have to be much more careful from now on.
He recalled the peculiar details he had noticed while sitting in on the council voting—such as the superhuman typing speeds of Council mber 2 and Council mber 3, as well as the combat prowess reflected in the rumors that Council mber 10 always personally visited the frontlines of containnt operations.
'These supre beings in charge of leading an institution that contains Anomalies... none of them are ordinary humans...'
Shi Rang synchronized the intel about his dismissal with A Piao. Since the latter was technically his superior, he still needed to report it.
Shi Rang: [What should I do next? Are there any other missions?]
A Piao: [Keep breathing, and try not to die?]
Shi Rang was left speechless by the dry joke.
That was showing its age.
[I'm just ssing with you. Keep a low profile and don't get mixed up in any new trouble. The identities I gave your two little sidekicks can't withstand a detailed investigation, so don't attract any attention. Just make a low-profile exit.]
'Am I not low-profile enough already?'
After confirming there were no further instructions, Shi Rang tucked away the comms device. He reflected on his recent routine of doing nothing but going straight to work and coming straight ho, then shut off his computer and stood up.
Living like that did indeed seem a bit unnatural, as if he had co here with a very specific, calculated purpose.
Jing Zi was still waiting outside the room. Seeing him erge, he imdiately followed.
"Should I prepare a car, Mr. Shi?"
"Go get so rest. I'm just going out for a walk; A Wei can co with ."
Jing Zi paused for a mont. He had initially wanted to insist on accompanying him, but the thought of getting a little personal ti was highly appealing—he had essentially been on the clock twenty-four hours a day without much rest. He couldn't help but feel a touch of gratitude for his boss's consideration and imdiately agreed.
And so, Shi Rang took his bodyguard and walked out into the small town that he had lived in for nearly a month yet barely knew.
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