594: Chapter 594: A confident and talented player

Special Investigation Team headquarters main building, third basement floor.

There was a specially constructed circular area here.

The surrounding walls were uniformly painted dark green, glowing with a chilling sheen under the incandescent lights.

The fluorescent tubes seemed to be interfered with by some unknown force, occasionally emitting a low-frequency "humming" sound.

The air was year-round permeated with a lingering smell of disinfectant.

There was also a faint mist drifting from somewhere, slowly flowing against the concrete ground.

Looking around, not even a single window for ventilation could be seen.

The inner circle of the building was an arc-shaped wall, evenly embedded with nine heavy iron doors, their panels marked with eye-catching digital numbers.

The environment appeared exceptionally oppressive and enclosed.

At the entrance on the east side of the corridor, however, it connected to a spacious lobby.

Several rows of cold metal benches were placed inside the hall.

At this moment, the benches and aisles were already densely packed with examinees.

This was precisely the waiting area for this spring recruitment interview.

As for the rooms behind those iron doors, they were precisely the "interrogation rooms" dedicated to the internal use of the Special Investigation Team.

Fang Cheng and Ma Donghe were also sitting on one of the rows of metal benches.

Their interview time was scheduled in the nine to ten a.m. batch.

To avoid traffic jams and being late on the way, the two agreed to rush over early in the morning.

When they first came in, seeing those flickering white mists on the ground,

Ma Donghe even stared with wide eyes, thinking somewhere was on fire and smoking outward.

If not for the red-on-white banner clearly hanging at the entrance reading "Special Investigation Team Spring Recruitment Interview Venue",

this gloomy and terrifying setup would probably give many people the illusion of mistakenly entering the netherworld.

Fang Cheng glanced around the environment and shook his head inwardly.

The intention of the Special Investigation Team's upper management in choosing to build interrogation rooms in such a place could not be more obvious.

It was none other than wanting to use the environmental atmosphere that never saw daylight year-round to sensually strip away the prisoners' sense of security before the formal interrogation.

That is, in psychology, the tactic of striking first to gain the upper hand.

And now, this special treatment used to crush psychological defenses fell entirely unchanged onto them, the group of candidates coming for the examination.

Now it seemed the effect was surprisingly good.

Facing such a powerful organization wielding the power of life and death, coupled with such a gloomy and oppressive environment, almost few people could maintain their composure.

Some candidates continuously took deep breaths, trying to calm their wildly beating hearts.

Others closed their eyes tightly, reciting their self-introductions under their breath.

Although hundreds of people gathered in the entire lobby, it was eerily quiet.

Apart from sporadic whispers and the soft sound of shoe soles rubbing against the ground, there was only the clanging sound of iron doors opening and closing echoing repeatedly.

Everyone's nerves were tightly pulled by those nine heavy soundproof iron doors in the inner circle.

As the doors opened and closed time and again, some entered and some left.

As many as two thousand-odd candidates all had to accept the screening of fate here.

Even though the Special Investigation Team had arranged most of the purely clerical interviews for tomorrow in order to divert traffic, the progress still couldn't be fast.

Judging by the current throughput speed, this interview would probably last until late night before completely concluding.

Fang Cheng glanced at the wall clock, adjusted his sitting posture, and leaned his back comfortably against the back of the chair.

After more than half an hour of observation, he gradually figured out the pattern within.

Candidates applying for Logistics Department clerical positions had very short times entering the rooms, basically coming out in around five minutes.

Fang Cheng had extremely good hearing and caught the relieved whispers of several candidates.

The examiners inside seemed to have only simply asked a few routine questions, checked their identity information, and directly let them pass.

The process appeared extremely relaxed.

In contrast, the encounters of candidates applying for special duty positions were completely opposite.

They had to stay inside for at least ten minutes, and some even dragged on for nearly half an hour.

When that heavy iron door opened again, these police academy students and combat enthusiasts, who usually thought highly of themselves, were mostly pale-faced and speechless.

A few even had trembling legs, barely walking out while supporting themselves against the wall, looking just like they had seen some terrifying monster inside.

Fang Cheng pushed his gold-rimmed glasses, made a brief deduction, and sorted out the behavioral logic of the Special Investigation Team's upper management.

Clerical personnel were basically ordinary people.

When applying, they had already passed a strict political background review.

During the interview process, with the vicious discernment of those veteran interrogation experts from the Special Investigation Team, a few glances were enough to see through whether an ordinary person was lying or had ulterior motives.

As long as their background was clean enough, naturally there was no need to waste too much time on them.

But special duty positions were different.

These talented martial artists and police academy students were the core force for the Special Investigation Team to carry out missions in the future.

To prevent other forces from sending undercover agents, or to screen out dangerous elements hiding anti-social personalities, the Special Investigation Team must be extremely cautious and control every checkpoint well.

After all, fortresses were often most easily breached from within.

For the upper management of the Special Investigation Team, perhaps this interview was the most core evaluation item of the entire spring recruitment.

Just as Fang Cheng was deep in thought, the door to room number five was pushed open.

A male candidate wearing sportswear and with delicate features walked out.

He pulled open his tight collar, panting heavily, the back of his clothes already soaked with cold sweat.

Fang Cheng had seen his admission ticket and knew that, just like himself, he was applying for the medical position.

Estimating quickly in his heart, this person had stayed inside for a full twelve minutes.

Analyzing according to the pattern summarized just now, Fang Cheng felt a sense of doubt in his heart.

Was the medical position he applied for considered clerical or special duty?

You must know that in the military system, although medical soldiers did not directly participate in frontal combat, following assault teams deep into the front lines was a common occurrence.

Moreover, the Special Investigation Team required candidates for medical positions to also participate in the Xishan outdoor physical fitness test tomorrow.

The treatment was obviously different from ordinary clerical staff.

In Fang Cheng's mind, Shi Chengyi's smiling appearance couldn't help but surface.

Back then, this Logistics Department minister solemnly guaranteed that the medical team's work was leisurely and could satisfy his wish for a quiet life.

Now it seemed he had still been somewhat tricked by this old fox's rhetoric.

"Hoo——"

A heavy exhale came from beside him.

Ma Donghe shifted his bear-like bulky body, pressing the metal bench to emit an unbearable creaking sound.

Watching yet another examinee with an ugly complexion walk out of the interrogation room, he leaned close to Fang Cheng's ear and muttered:

"A-Cheng, look at these guys' cowardice. I bet the examiners definitely prepared extraordinary methods inside."

"Maybe they'll even be like what's shown in the movies, tying you to an electric chair while feeding you truth serum and hooking you up to a lie detector!"

Although his voice was deliberately lowered, it still appeared exceptionally clear in the silent corridor.

Hearing these words, several young examinees nearby who were anxiously preparing were frightened so that their complexions turned a few shades paler, swallowing saliva continuously.

"Brothers, do you happen to know some inside information?"

An abrupt voice suddenly chimed in.

Fang Cheng turned his head to look and saw a skinny young man with pointed ears squeezing over from the neighboring seat.

It was precisely that skinny guy who hid behind the crowd eavesdropping on their conversation the day before yesterday when receiving the admission ticket in the administrative hall.

This fellow seemed to really like eavesdropping on others talking, and that pair of ears grew a circle larger than ordinary people's, like two wind-catching fans.

Ma Donghe glanced sideways at the skinny guy, snorted coldly, and turned his head away, making it clear he didn't want to bother with him.

Yet the skinny guy was a self-acquainted person, caring not the slightest about Ma Donghe's cold face.

He rubbed his hands, leaned closer with a smiling face, his mouth as sweet as if smeared with honey:

"Big Brother, look at this build of yours, this aura, you're definitely a top expert chosen out of a hundred. Once you enter the exam room later, those chief examiners will probably all be shaken by your aura."

"And this brother wearing glasses, his appearance is exceptionally Yingjun, and his sitting posture as steady as Mount Tai—at first glance, a Genius contestant with complete confidence!"

"Your younger brother Hou Peng greets you here. May I know the honorable names of you two?"

Flattery never fails.

Ma Donghe had originally felt somewhat disgusted, but was flattered quite comfortably by Hou Peng's rapid-fire flattery.

He raised his chin and cleared his throat:

"Consider you kid to have an eye for things; my name is Ma Donghe, and this is my brother Fang Cheng."

Hearing this, Hou Peng immediately cupped his hands together and said with a smiling face:

"Long time, long time! So it's Big Brother Ma and Big Brother Fang, disrespectful, disrespectful!"

Afterward, he carefully leaned forward again and probed in a lowered voice:

"What specifically is the procedure for the test Big Brother Ma mentioned just now?"

Ma Donghe crossed his arms and spoke with affected mystery:

"Seeing that you're quite sensible, I'll mercifully tell you."

"The Special Investigation Team's psychological evaluation is extremely weird; the most important thing is eight words: maintain calm, be a good person!"

"Otherwise, whatever you fear most is what it will give you. If your will is not firm and you piss your pants inside, then you'll directly pack up and leave."

"If during the test you accidentally expose your true nature and reveal your original form, I'm afraid it won't be as simple as just failing the interview..."

Speaking to this point, Ma Donghe paused and said with affected mystery:

"Have you read Journey to the West? If the demon-reflecting mirror shines out a demon, and it has no background support, what should be done next, you should understand?"

"I understand, I understand."

Hou Peng listened in a daze, his head nodding like a chick pecking at rice.

"Understanding is useless."

Ma Donghe sneered twice, looked him up and down, and raised his hand to pat Hou Peng's shoulder:

"Hehe, the reason why the Special Investigation Team's interview is difficult is precisely because this kind of exam is completely out of one's control. If you're originally a petty thief, don't even think about pretending to be an upright gentleman!"

Hearing this, Hou Peng was stunned once more.

Just preparing to get a bit chummy and ask a few more questions,

"Click."

The iron door of room number three was pushed open from the inside.

A staff member wearing a police officer uniform walked out holding a number tag, scanned their gaze across the lobby, and shouted loudly:

"Number 253, Ma Donghe!"

"Here!"

Ma Donghe stood up abruptly.

But because his movement was too big, his knee accidentally knocked against the back of the chair in front, producing a muffled thud.

He grinned, forcibly swallowing back his cry of pain.

Fang Cheng looked at his appearance of surface confidence and inner hollowness, and chuckled lightly:

"Donghe, perform well. As long as you perform normally like in the preliminary exam, you'll definitely get a high score."

"May your auspicious words come true!"

Ma Donghe grinned wide and laughed, reaching out to rub his cheeks vigorously.

Then he strode with big steps, full of vigor and spirit as he walked into room number three.

As the door closed again, the corridor resumed its oppressive and silent atmosphere.

Fang Cheng leaned against the back of the chair, closed his eyes, and began to rest his mind.

The True Qi within his body slowly circulated along his meridians.

His consciousness gradually sank, blocking out the noisy breathing and heartbeat sounds of the outside world, causing his state to tend towards stability.

The Killing Intent and sharpness in his bones were all retracted, firmly locked within that blood moon deep in the Inner Scene World.

At this moment, Fang Cheng's breathing was long and even, his muscles relaxed.

Viewed from the outside, he was simply an ordinary, harmless university graduate.

Only that overbearing qi and blood belonging to a martial arts Grandmaster still vaguely hibernated, not having dissipated.

Hou Peng, sitting to the side, rolled his eyes, his gaze falling on Fang Cheng.

Seeing that Ma Donghe had gone in, he wanted to take the opportunity to strike up a conversation with this gentle and easygoing handsome guy to accumulate more personal connections.

"Um, Brother Fang..."

Just as Hou Peng leaned forward half a step, before he finished speaking, his throat felt as if it were tightly choked by an invisible hand.

He shuddered violently.

As a cultivator with extremely acute perception, Hou Peng's intuition for danger far exceeded that of ordinary people.

He could even say with confidence that it far exceeded ninety-nine percent of special ability users.

At the very moment he approached Fang Cheng, he felt an extremely terrifying sense of oppression from this young man with closed eyes.

That was not deliberately externalized Killing Intent, but an absolute suppression on the level of life itself.

He felt as if he were a rabbit trying to approach a sleeping male lion.

Even if the other party merely rolled over, that aura inadvertently leaked out would be enough to startle him so that his hairs stood on end.

A layer of cold sweat instantly seeped from Hou Peng's forehead.

He forcibly swallowed back the flattery that had reached his lips, gently moved his buttocks, and retreated back to his own seat.

Then, his body stiffly pressed against the back of the chair, not daring to make even the slightest sound anymore.

The cold wind whistled through the ventilation ducts, blowing those white mists to drift slowly.

Occasionally, there was the sound of an iron door opening, which would draw a large swath of gazes like startled birds.

Then new names were called out, and new people harbored unease as they walked behind the unknown doors.

Time passed minute by minute.

The door to room number three remained tightly closed, and Ma Donghe had not come out all along.

Just when Fang Cheng was secretly guessing whether this fellow had beaten the illusion together with the examiners inside,

the iron door of room number six was slowly pushed open.

"Number 263, Fang Cheng."

The staff member's calling voice resounded in the corridor.

Fang Cheng opened his eyes, a trace of golden glimmer flashing deep within his pupils and disappearing.

He stood up, smoothed out the wrinkles on the hem of his clothes, ignoring the various gazes cast from around.

Then, stepping with steady paces, he walked straight into that dim door.

The heavy iron door slowly closed behind him, completely isolating all sounds from the outside world.

Fang Cheng's gaze swiftly swept across the interior.

Only one lamp was turned on in the room, making the light appear somewhat dim.

A blurry figure sat quietly in the shadows.

In front of him was placed an ancient bronze bell covered with green rust.

The dim light hit the surface of the bell, illuminating the eerie human face patterns on it.

"Please sit."

The figure spoke indifferently.