396: I see hope in you (5k-word chapter)

Universe Human Alliance, Alien Management Bureau Headquarters.

Lin Yang bid farewell to the White Fatty Old Man and entered the building where the Alien Management Bureau was located.

Approaching the building, with the layers of mist no longer obstructing his view, the building's appearance was revealed to Lin Yang.

It was an ancient-style pavilion, similar to those from the ancient times of Blue Star's Shangxia Kingdom, reaching straight into the clouds, giving him a sense of being transported back to ancient times.

“It's actually this kind of building…” Lin Yang murmured involuntarily.

Through the mist, he could only see a towering building, and he had thought it was a modern skyscraper, but he didn't expect it to be an ancient-style structure.

Subsequently, Lin Yang went straight inside.

The interior decoration was a combination of ancient and modern styles.

There were smart terminals with blue lights at the entrance, and also a front desk reception area.

However, at this moment, in the vast hall, besides the front desk staff, he was the only one.

“Hello, I'm here to report for duty.” Your Excellency Lin Yang looked around and walked to the front desk.

“Hello, Lin Yang, welcome to the Alien Management Bureau.” The front desk staff smiled and said, “Director Song has already instructed that if it's you, you can go straight up to see him.”

“Uh… You know me?” Lin Yang subconsciously asked, somewhat surprised.

He hadn't even taken out his employment certificate yet, and this person recognized him?

The other party's smile deepened: “As the champion of this Cosmic Competition, Lin Yang is probably known by few people now.”

“Alright.” Lin Yang finally reacted.

It was probably because the battle between the Silver-haired woman and the White Fatty Old Man against those several Ancestral-level mysterious existences caused too much commotion.

Now, any cosmic force with a bit of strength should know of his existence.

As for the Cosmic Competition champion factor… its influence might not be that great.

“Your Excellency Lin Yang, please hand over your employment certificate to me. I will process your official employment procedures. You can go directly to Director Song to report. After the employment procedures are successfully completed, you will be integrated into the Alien Management Bureau's internal smart System. You can check your employment information at any time and also accept tasks on the internal System.”

The front desk staff reminded him, then pointed to the direction to Lin Yang's right behind him and said, “The elevator is over there. Director Song's office is on the eighteenth floor. Your identity information has been recorded, and you have obtained internal access to the elevator. You can go straight up.”

“Okay, thank you.” Lin Yang left his employment certificate and walked towards the elevator.

“You're welcome, it's my honor to serve you. I wish you smooth and safe missions within the Bureau.” The front desk staff bowed slightly.

“Eighteenth floor…”

Lin Yang used the elevator by facial recognition.

At the same time, he was also somewhat puzzled that Song Qingfeng, as the head of the Alien Management Bureau, had his office on the eighteenth floor instead of the top floor.

This made it hard for him not to associate it with certain things.

That is, the eighteen layers of hell.

On Blue Star, high-level offices are usually on the top floor, or if not, on floors with auspicious numbers. But Song Qingfeng's office was specifically on the eighteenth floor.

This made Lin Yang wonder if the saying of the eighteen layers of hell was also common in the Ten Thousand Universes.

“But if there is also a saying of the eighteen layers of hell in the Ten Thousand Universes, then Song Qingfeng should avoid this floor even more.”

Lin Yang remained silent, watching the elevator rapidly ascend to the eighteenth floor, temporarily suppressing the doubts in his heart.

Stepping out of the elevator, he could see Director Song Qingfeng's office at a glance.

How to put it… this floor was very empty, with only Song Qingfeng's office.

The vast floor was extremely quiet.

If it weren't for the unusually bright lights, Lin Yang would really have felt like he had walked into hell.

Bang bang.

Lin Yang stood at the door of Song Qingfeng's office and gently knocked.

“Come in.”

Hearing this, Lin Yang pushed the door open directly and said to Song Qingfeng, “Director Song, I'm here to report.”

“Lin Yang, you came quite quickly.” Song Qingfeng evidently already knew of his arrival, and immediately pointed to the chair opposite him, saying, “Sit down and talk.”

“Thank you, Director.” Lin Yang sat down in response, not being polite.

“Xiao Quan, bring the documents, and also bring a bottle of our special beverage.” Song Qingfeng instructed Xiaoquan Assistant through the communication device.

Lin Yang's eyebrows raised slightly, there's even a special beverage?

After Song Qingfeng finished speaking, he didn't continue, apparently waiting for Xiaoquan Assistant to bring the documents.

One minute later.

A young man walked in, holding a special material document bag in one hand and a bottle of black liquid drink in the other.

Then, at Song Qingfeng's signal, he handed both the document bag and the drink to Lin Yang:

“Lin Yang, welcome to your new position. These are some relevant documents for this mission, you can review them first. As for this drink, it's a specialty of our Alien Management Bureau, you can taste it later.”

The young man said with a smile.

Lin Yang took the document bag and the drink, and when he heard the young man's voice, he couldn't help but be slightly stunned, looking directly at the person and tentatively saying:

“Excuse me, if I may ask, your voice sounds familiar. Are you the one who secretly helped that day in front of the Universe Alliance office building?”

The other party smiled slightly: “Lin Yang has good hearing. Yes, that day I was instructed by the Director to go and assist you, but in the end, I didn't help much.”

“Thank you!” Lin Yang thanked the Xiaoquan Assistant, then looked at Song Qingfeng again: “Thank you, Director, for your assistance.”

Although he didn't provide much help, he did buy him a few seconds at a critical moment.

Lin Yang remembered this favor.

“Those old fellows are too overbearing. I've long had issues with them, but unfortunately, my strength is limited, and I temporarily dare not openly clash with them. I can only provide a little help in secret, but as Xiao Quan said, it didn't help much, you don't need to take it to heart.” Song Qingfeng waved his hand.

Lin Yang's eyes moved slightly.

Song Qingfeng's words sounded quite interesting.

He seemed to have considerable grievances against those several Ancestral-level existences.

“It seems that even within the Universe Human Alliance, it's not entirely a monolithic entity with everyone united.” Lin Yang mused in his heart.

He was somewhat curious about who those old fellows actually were, and immediately asked.

However, Song Qingfeng smiled and said, “Since your master hasn't told you proactively, then I shouldn't say too much. When you are able to know, you will know without me telling you.”

“…Alright.” Lin Yang was helpless.

“First, take a look at your current mission. This is a high-quality mission that hasn't appeared for several years. Take a look and decide whether you want to accept it. If you accept, this mission will be directly assigned to you.”

Song Qingfeng pointed to the document bag, motioning Lin Yang to open it, and also said:

“Missions within the Alien Management Bureau can be completed individually or as a team. For team missions, you can find teammates yourself or be randomly assigned by the Bureau. However, since you are new, you probably don't have anyone familiar. If you need teammates, I can introduce some to you, but for this mission, I still highly recommend you complete it alone.”

“Oh?” Lin Yang's eyebrows raised, and he quickly scanned the mission details.

“Special-grade Mission: Universe No. 2361 has sent out a distress signal. The distress caller in that Universe recently discovered that people in their park have been continuously disappearing, suspected of being attacked by non-human forces. The opponent's power level is preliminarily judged to be that of an ordinary Super Gene Warrior, skilled in concealment, and monitoring equipment cannot capture them.”

“Mission Reward One: The distress caller from Universe No. 2361 is willing to offer a medium-quality extraordinary characteristic material with Life characteristics, requesting the culprit to be found and killed, and to guard the park for half a year.”

“Mission Reward Two: The Alien Management Bureau mission System will evaluate based on comprehensive factors such as mission completion time and mission completion rate, and issue corresponding travel mission rewards based on the evaluation.”

“Mission Reward Three: This mission can normally earn mission points. Additionally, due to the distress caller's special request, if the entire park is perfectly guarded for half a year during the mission period, then the final point settlement will be increased to 1.2 times.”

“Note: Any other additional income obtained during the mission period belongs to the mission taker and does not need to be submitted.”

The mission details were very short, only a general description. Lin Yang quickly scanned it and somewhat understood why Song Qingfeng had specifically contacted him earlier, saying this mission was suitable for him.

The reason was that extraordinary characteristic material with Life characteristics.

Sure enough, after he finished reading the documents, Song Qingfeng smiled and said, “That distress caller is willing to offer a medium-quality extraordinary characteristic material with Life characteristics, and you happen to possess the extraordinary characteristic talent of Life. The extraordinary characteristic materials of the three supreme talents are all rare and hard to come by. Plus, the difficulty of this mission is not high, I think you have the ability to complete it independently.”

Lin Yang nodded slightly: “Thank you, Director, for keeping an eye out for me, but I have a question.”

“Speak.” Song Qingfeng looked at him.

“Does requesting help from the Universe Human Alliance always require payment?” Lin Yang asked.

When Song Qingfeng introduced the Alien Management Bureau to him previously, he described it more as providing emergency assistance services to the Human race for free, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.

Song Qingfeng immediately smiled slightly: “Of course not. We are not a fee-charging organization. In most cases, requesting help from us results in free assistance, but there are some special circumstances, such as the one you are currently in.”

“Because it requires being stationed there, occupying the power of one or more Alien Management Bureau members for a long time, we generally charge a certain fee to the petitioners for such tasks, but the price is not high.”

“It's just that this time, the other party actively offered such an extraordinary characteristic material with Life characteristics to offset the cost.”

“Oh, oh...” Lin Yang immediately understood the Alien Management Bureau's assistance rules.

Instantaneous rescues are all free.

But if Alien Management Bureau members need to be stationed for a long time, then a fee is required.

Song Qingfeng then continued: “Generally, for such valuable items, when they far exceed the original fee, they are usually collected by the Alien Management Bureau, then converted into cash, and the excess is refunded. However, this extraordinary characteristic material with Life characteristics is suitable for you, so I took the liberty of reserving it for you, and there's no need for conversion. After you arrive at the mission point, you can directly ask him for that extraordinary characteristic material with Life characteristics.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Yang immediately stood up and said, “Thank you, Director, for your care!”

The value of a medium-quality extraordinary characteristic material with Life characteristics definitely far exceeded the cost of being stationed for half a year.

Song Qingfeng's actions were essentially giving him this immense benefit for free.

This left him with little to say besides expressing his gratitude.

Song Qingfeng waved his hand slightly: “My help to you is not because of your master or others. It's mainly because I see some hope in you, and some shadows of the Human King. But you are luckier than the Human King; you have powerful elders protecting you, so you should not follow the Human King's old path in the future. I hope that one day, you can break some shackles for our Human race.”

Lin Yang's heart stirred: “Director, do you know the Human King?”

“Haha, not really. If you want to learn about the Human King from me, I can't give you much information. You'd best go back and ask Yu Ancestor of your Yu Xia Universe, or your master. The events of that year were deeply involved. At that time, I didn't have enough qualifications to truly get involved, so I don't know much about the specific details,” Song Qingfeng truthfully replied.

“Understood.” Lin Yang nodded, “Then I'll go to Universe 2361 for the mission now.”

“Go, but be careful. Although the mission rating states that the culprit's strength level is likely that of an ordinary Super Gene Warrior, that is only inferred from the residual power at some crime scenes and does not represent the culprit's true strength. Therefore, if you encounter something far beyond your ability to handle, remember to request assistance or simply withdraw immediately,” Song Qingfeng admonished.

“Understood!” Lin Yang replied, then left the office.

“Lin Yang, I'll see you out.”

Xiaoquan Assistant followed, then pointed to the black drink in Lin Yang's hand:

“Please find a relatively safe environment and time, and try our special drink.”

“What's special about this drink?” Your Excellency Lin Yang couldn't help but be curious, seeing him mention the drink multiple times.

“Lin Yang will know once he drinks it. In short, there's no harm in it,” Xiaoquan Assistant said with a mysterious smile.

“In that case, I'll drink it now.” Your Excellency Lin Yang immediately twisted open the bottle cap.

“Lin Yang, it's better if you don't drink it here. Please drink it when you are alone,” Xiaoquan Assistant quickly stopped him upon seeing this.

“Oh... alright.” Lin Yang's eyes flickered, wanting to take a sip directly, but in the end, he tightened the bottle cap again.

Since this was specifically instructed by Song Qingfeng to be brought over, he shouldn't be so blatant as to harm him.

This thing shouldn't be poisonous.

So, he'd listen to the assistant for now.

Of course, he wouldn't blindly trust others either. It would be simple to test for poison; he'd just ask System to check it later.

During their conversation, Xiaoquan Assistant led Your Excellency Lin Yang to the jump device that could reach other universes, set up the route to Universe 2361 for him, and then said: “Lin Yang, I wish you a successful mission!”

“Thank you, see you later.” Lin Yang waved to him, then entered the jump device.

Inside the jump device, a high-level warship was parked.

It appeared to be a technological warship from a Level 7 civilization.

“Is this... the mission warship assigned to me?” Your Excellency Lin Yang couldn't help but ask, “But why isn't it a Level 9 warship?”

“Your Excellency Lin Yang, Level 9 warships are only allocated for some important and urgent missions. The overall difficulty of your current mission is not high, so a Level 9 warship cannot be assigned to you for this mission,” Xiaoquan Assistant explained.

“Alright!” Your Excellency Lin Yang sighed, feeling a bit regretful.

He had thought that with this mission, he would finally get a Level 9 warship.

“Your Excellency Lin Yang, please take some leisure time to review some of the post-employment Precautions. They might provide you with considerable help at certain times,” Xiaoquan Assistant reminded him again.

“Okay.” Lin Yang nodded, indicating he had noted it, then entered the warship.

Afterward, the jump device activated, jumping the warship and the person together... In Universe 2361, within a cosmic starfield.

A Level 7 warship appeared out of thin air.

It was Lin Yang, who had just jumped here from the Alien Management Bureau.

“Hello, Your Excellency Lin Yang. The mission System has detected your arrival at the mission target universe. Timing will begin immediately. Please ensure that System remains in mission monitoring status at all times. If you forcibly shut down the mission monitoring System or leave the mission target Universe Zone, you will be penalized.”

As soon as he arrived in Universe 2163, Lin Yang received a reminder from the Alien Management Bureau's mission System.

“This is like having a surveillance device on me,” Lin Yang pouted.

But he didn't say much else.

The mission monitoring System is something every Alien Management Bureau member has; it activates once a mission begins and is mandatory.

This is to ensure as much as possible that during rescue missions, illegal situations such as members extorting petitioners do not occur.

In short, it's to maintain fairness in the rescue mission process.

Because originally, some unscrupulous Alien Management Bureau members would extort petitioners after arriving at the destination provided by the petitioner, only then providing assistance.

Therefore, the Alien Management Bureau later developed this set of mission monitoring Systems.

However, being in monitoring status at all times also made Lin Yang feel a bit uncomfortable.

But since he accepted this mission work, Lin Yang adapted a little and then didn't dwell on it anymore.

As the warship sailed, the target planet quickly appeared before his eyes.

The Alien Management Bureau's jump device's positioning could be said to be quite precise; it only took five minutes to reach the target planet.

“Scan the entire planet to confirm the presence of any Foreign race Life forms!”

Lin Yang did not directly enter the planet but prepared to scan it first from outside.

At the same time, to be safe, he also directly called out to System:

“System, can you scan the internal situation of this planet?”

“Answering Host, yes, but it requires some national treasure value to activate this service.”

“...You might as well change your name to the 'Money-Grubbing System'!”

Despite already knowing the System's nature, Lin Yang couldn't help but complain.

“Host, do you still require this service?”

“Yes! How much?”

Lin Yang rolled his eyes.

Asking System for help had a high probability of directly locating the mysterious culprit.

Spending a small amount to accomplish a big task was still very cost-effective.

By directly dealing with the culprit, he could then focus wholeheartedly on integrating the extraordinary characteristic material for the next six months without distractions.

So, this bit of national treasure value, so be it if it's spent.

However, before System could answer the fee, Lin Yang suddenly asked again:

“Oh, right, System, do you have a way to shield the Alien Management Bureau's mission monitoring System on me without the other party discovering it?”

——

A five-thousand-character chapter, making up for a bit of word count!

Thank you to all my brothers and sisters for your unwavering support, I bow to you all!

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