Inside the office, the Luminous Tube violently oscillated.
Under the watchful gazes of Jiaoma and the others, the orange light of the Luminous Tube suddenly flared with cyan arcs.
Yang Zicang felt a slight stabbing pain in his head, and the distant black mass in his consciousness exploded downward, his spiritual perspective scattering like a storm breaking through trash. His mind tightened abruptly, as if something was being forced in.
After a momentary daze.
The sharp-faced youth opened his eyes and looked at his fingertips. Just now, as though suspended upside down in the spiritual current, his ethereal psychic arm seemed to have grasped a ghost-like, blurry figure, pulling it from the chaotic cosmic flux and preventing it from being swept into the endless abyss of nothingness.
“Impressive, Zicang. Do you know what level of Dissonance Band you’ve captured?”
“What?” Yang Zicang was still somewhat dazed.
“It’s a Full Moon-level band. You should know that accounts for a whole B-class intersecting zone.”
“Congratulations, Zicang!” Jiaoma cheered excitedly. “With this and a few more ordinary bands, you’ll make it to elite employee by the end of the year.”
“I see…”
Yang Zicang looked down at his empty hand.
That faint touch was gradually fading away.
After offering their congratulations, the others returned to their seats, leaving Jiaoma behind. Watching the youthful girl bent over as she methodically processed the captured waves around him, Yang Zicang relaxed back into his chair.
“Take the afternoon and tomorrow off—catching a frequency like that is exhausting,” Jiaoma said considerately. “I can take the afternoon off too. We could… Well, why not come over to my place? Take a look at the mountains and the water, enjoy the scenery, and unwind.”
That would probably not be very relaxing.
Yang Zicang sat up abruptly: “Um, Group Leader. Actually… a few days ago, a cleanup team from the Operations Department already invited me to join them.”
Jiaoma’s movements paused for a moment.
“You didn’t go, did you?”
“Yeah, but I want to.”
Jiaoma continued working in silence, then strode off to her own seat without looking back.
[I returned Jiaoma’s 10,000N investment in Virtual Zero Sequence and distributed a super bonus of 50,000N.]
“Hmph!” The girl in the aisle puffed out her cheeks and turned to glare at him, protesting coquettishly, “Who cares about our stinky boy’s Virtual Zero Sequence? Bleh bleh bleh!”
[I rejected Group Leader Jiaoma’s gift of 50,000N in Virtual Zero Sequence.]
Some aunties and uncles couldn’t hold it in—several heads poked up from their workstations, sipping their lips and peeking quietly.
[I felt many warm gazes on me.]
[I think it’s time to slip away from this office romance atmosphere.]
……
“Phew~” Yang Zicang fled the office as if escaping. Fortunately, there weren’t many personal belongings here—a jacket was all he had to his name.
“Next, I’ll rest… Forget it, I might as well head straight to the cleaning squad to report in.”
He took out the piece of letter paper, looking at the room number and the simple map on it.
As his spiritual power reached the “Second Ring, Ninth Stage,” the auditory hallucinations of the forest that had occasionally echoed in his mind had faded considerably, yet the feeling became more profound, as if his body and mind were immersed in the winds of the forest.
Walking along, Yang Zicang pondered his meeting with Zorro from yesterday.
There wasn’t much of the usual estrangement felt between strangers meeting for the first time, because, nominally, they were partners who had had many business dealings—at least, they had to act familiar to keep up appearances. Apart from that, though, Yang Zicang genuinely liked the casual yet slightly “irreverent” unconstrained aura that naturally emanated from that guy.
He recalled a sentence Zorro had uttered yesterday.
—”The archive library isn’t as comprehensive as you think.”
Although the man’ tone was ordinary, combined with his act of immediately suspending his finger over the coordinates of the chessboard—the lines crossing each other—it was clearly a hint meant to indicate the squares form “well” patterns too.
And what he proceeded to talk about next was… the intel on how to get out of here.
It was quite subtle. But from the very beginning, when this guy insisted on contacting me through the “Wellspring Engine of Lost Memories,” all the way to how he later only helped promote “the Well” for me everywhere, he had already tried many times to implant concepts related to the “Well” in my mind, attempting to cultivate a tacit understanding in this regard.
This was something Yang Zicang had only realized yesterday, in that instant when he saw the finger pointing at the chessboard.
“‘Well’ plus the method of ‘leaving’; adding ‘go’ to ‘well,’ doesn’t that make the character ‘advance’? This guy…”
Yang Zicang, as he walked forward, silently thought to himself.
Even though both developing the “Wellspring Engine” and inquiring about “Virtual Zero Sequence” had been spur-of-the-moment ideas, this man could immediately seize on that focal point and exploit it. Truly someone worthy of having received an invitation from the Lost Illusion Company in a down-to-earth manner through his own ability.
[So I have reason to speculate that Zorro did not find any information related to “Dark Gold” or “Engines” in the Literature Department.]
His contemplative figure moved down the corridor, and a tall, elegant woman with delicate features appeared at the bend ahead.
“Hello, you’re Mr. Zicang, right?”
“Yes. Hello, I’m Yang Zicang. May I ask who you are?”
“I’m a support staff member for the First Cleanup Group, responsible for documentation. My name is Zhou Linna. Captain Fu gave me some materials about you beforehand, so I immediately recognized you,” the woman said with a smile. “It’s a coincidence running into you here. Please wait a moment.”
As she spoke, she began rummaging through a stack of folders in her hands. In just a moment, she pulled out a relatively thin folder with a black-gold pattern and handed it to Yang Zicang.
“What’s this?”
“Joining the First Action Department is quite difficult. Thanks to the group leader’s recommendation, you’ve been exempted from the entry assessment and can directly join our First Cleanup Group. However, you’ll only be a reserve member—you can’t enter the elite team or transfer to another group within the First Action Department. So, do you still want to join?”
“The First Action Department, the First Cleanup Group?”
It was the same group that had observed him in the Psi-kat Cassette training ground!
Yang Zicang flipped through the documents. He could more or less understand what Zhou Linna had said; after all, he was just a newbie who knew nothing. The documents detailed the work content clearly, requiring only his confirmation and signature.
“This says, entering the frequency-impaired mental torrents as a Psychic Body?”
“That’s right. Have you heard of the ‘Blackfish’ Dreamscape? Our job is somewhat similar to theirs. Even in the relatively safe wavebands that have been filtered out, dangerous things occasionally slip in. We’re responsible for cleaning them up and reintegrating them.”
Yang Zicang let out a soft breath. In recent days, he had heard about the Blackfish Dreamscape company from his colleagues. Those selected to work there were all top-notch in psychic abilities or had great potential in this field.
It seemed that his selection was likely due to his mental strength growing to nearly “Three-Ring Strength” level at this time.
“If you’re willing, Mr. Zicang, please sign this document.”
Zhou Linna smiled faintly.
“Once you become a member of our team, you can train by taking on regular cleanup tasks and accumulate points redeemable for a ‘Black Gold Staff Card.’ When you’ve saved up enough to exchange for the Black Gold Card, you’ll qualify to join the elite team for missions.”
After reading it, Yang Zicang immediately took the pen and signed his name.
He hadn’t realized it before, but after harvesting those bands, Yang Zicang marveled at the fact that he was actually inclined toward combat.
“Alright, welcome aboard, Mr. Zicang,” the girl said cheerfully. “The month is almost over; you’re welcome to report for duty anytime before September 1st.”
“I’d like to go check out these so-called tasks right now.”
“Wow, so eager… but it’s already lunchtime.”
“……”
That said, when Yang Zicang returned to his dorm, he was holding a dark photograph featuring a “Lost Engine.” The frozen engine in the picture had an ethereal, mist-like quality.
Could this engine possibly be…
As he gazed at it, the faint voice of his newly replaced staff card echoed in his mind.
{Sub-Ether Passage: HJA403 Zone. To activate, invest 1N of principal.}
{Currently, 4 members have chosen this cleanup mission.}
“So many people? No wonder tasks with an ‘Ether Passage’ attract a lot of applicants.”
Yang Zicang chuckled. According to Zhou Linna, such cleanup missions meant the passage might appear in the vicinity of the Lost Illusion Company.
What did that mean? It meant a publicly funded trip! Maybe he could even contact Xiao Machao.
However, this thing couldn’t be used while people were watching, so Yang Zicang took it back to his room.
After investing 1R, the photo instantly exploded forward, and countless strands of dense energy lines spread out, forming a two-meter-wide cubic Cruxspace.
On the other side of the space emerged a world of hazy light. As Yang Zicang stepped in, the scenery immediately became vivid.
In the now-empty bedroom, the shimmering black cube silently floated like a black hole, drawing in the surrounding light.
Thump, thump, thump.
The sound of knocking on the door echoed.
“Are you there, Brother Zicang? It’s Jiaoma.”
No one answered.
Little Jiaoma stood outside, looking at the small doorplate on the door, which displayed a yellow smiley face pattern indicating someone was inside.
The young girl frowned, and the wine-red halo on her chest lit up.
“Hello, Group Leader Fu.”
On the sensing screen was a man lying on a recliner surrounded by a stretch of gravel.
{Is this little Leader Jiao? Hi, this is our first time communicating via telepathy, huh. Any business?}
“I want to ask, have you sent a transfer invitation to my team member? The one recently joined: Mr. Yang Zicang.”
{Oh, him, yes, we sent an invitation ten days ago. No, wait, seven days… Huh?}
The man on the opposite beach chair scratched his head, clearly having forgotten how many days ago the invitation was made.
Jiaoma let out a frustrated sigh, releasing a puff of stale air.
“I asked several cleanup groups but couldn’t find out. I thought no invitation had been sent, but it turns out Captain Fu from the First Team extended the offer.”
{After all, he’s a team member with telekinetic attack abilities. His joining is a great help to us.}
Fu Qiyong chuckled softly on the other end of the Mental Link.
{Yeah, my team member just told me he’s already started working. His first assignment was to pick a job with a sub-ether passage. Hah, that guy.}
Jiaoma glanced at the smiling face she sensed, thinking; no wonder no one had responded from inside—he must have been too eager to jump into the sub-ether channel.
At that moment, she felt a bit of relief.
{It looks like Captain Jiao is reluctant to part with your team member. No worries—if he can’t handle it, he might end up returning to your group.}
Jiaoma, who had already turned to walk back, paused briefly.
“Captain Fu, why do you say that?”
{Because he chose Sector 403. For new regular team members, the cleanup tasks there are the toughest.}
“The toughest!” Jiaoma’s eyes widened slightly: “Captain Fu, you’re not referring to that patch of land inside the Death Mist, are you?”
{Exactly, that’s the place. Don’t worry, though, since Steward Chiqin has already cleared it up. It’s not too dangerous.}
Jiaoma turned to look at the dark door, a complicated expression flickering in her eyes.
Safe as a cleanup group’s job might be, it was never as secure as in their own team.
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