604: Chapter 604 The Function of the Soul-Suppressing Bell, Special Search Team Chief

Sub-level 3 of the Special Investigation Team Headquarters, a certain screening room.

In the spacious room, not a single main light was turned on, making it appear exceptionally dark and deep.

Cold air poured in from the ventilation vents at the four corners, spreading along with the low-frequency humming of the machine room's operation.

A peculiar smell of ozone drifted in the air, mixed with a faint aroma of cold brew coffee.

The two intertwined, forming a strange and chilly atmosphere.

The light sources in the entire hall all came from the giant curtain walls surrounding the perimeter in a ring.

The curtain walls were evenly divided into nine independent large screens.

At this moment, several of those screens had completely gone dark, plunging into a dead-silent pitch black.

This represented that the examinees in that area had triggered the protection mechanism and were forcibly ejected from the "Illusion Realm".

On the remaining screens, various bizarre and grotesque images were being played in real time from an overlooking God's-eye perspective.

Inside screen number three on the left, the image shook wildly inside a gloomy morgue.

A bald security guard, built as robustly as a bear, was crawling backward frantically on the tile floor covered in water stains using both hands and feet.

He held a dry powder fire extinguisher in his arms, blocking it in front of his face like a shield.

A male corpse with pale, white eyeballs dragged its stiff steps in pursuit behind him.

The burly bear-like man lost one of his shoes as he ran, and a shrill, pig-slaughtering scream erupted from his mouth:

"Help! Captain Wang, help! Oh mom — — There's a ghost!"

While wailing as he tumbled and crawled, he closed his eyes and brandished the fire extinguisher in his hands indiscriminately.

The heavy iron canister smashed wildly in mid-air, almost hitting his own body several times.

This appearance, streaming with tears and snot and extremely disheveled, was simply like a completely different person compared to his sturdy, tough-guy physique like a bear.

Everything presented on the screen was just like a living "The Truman Show" performance.

People from the outside world would never imagine.

This screening room located beneath the Special Investigation Team Headquarters was once an excavated ancient underground sacrificial site thirty years ago.

Back then, hundreds of workers participating in the excavation collectively went crazy, biting and killing each other simply because they stared directly at a certain evil entity deep within the ruins.

Today, that source of terror was deeply buried one hundred meters beneath the feet of the screening room.

The outer perimeter was poured with layers of nuclear-reactor-grade special lead-zinc concrete, completely isolating it from the surface.

As for the images presented on the surrounding curtain walls.

They were precisely the technological Breakthrough achieved by the scientists of the Special Investigation Team's Equipment Department after spending decades deciphering the eerie characters carved on the surface of the evil entity.

Every examinee who put on the helmet and entered the illusion test was essentially being guided by the audio frequency band of the "child bell" of the Soul-Suppressing Bell.

This power would help their consciousness cross spatial dimensions and successfully smuggle into the Other Shore World connected by the residual power of the evil entity.

And every shudder of fear and every clenched-teeth fist-swing they experienced in that world would be captured by the "mother bell" of the Soul-Suppressing Bell suppressed deep underground.

Scientists then utilized modern quantum analysis technology to translate the mental fluctuations received by the mother bell, ultimately projecting them into these clear and intuitive images on the screen.

Although constrained by the Bottleneck of technology and the time difference between the two worlds, the System was still unable to perfectly capture the coherence of all details like a movie long take.

But at least, when the examinees' emotions fluctuated violently or erupted with a strong survival instinct.

The mother bell could still precisely restore those high-intensity consciousness fragments on the screen.

At this moment, a man was sitting alone on the genuine leather sofa right in the center.

He wore a crisp, dark-black high-ranking uniform, and his broad shoulders propped out cold and hard lines in the clothes.

The golden wheat ears on the shoulder insignia refracted a cold metallic luster under the faint fluorescent light of the screen.

The man's body leaned forward slightly, with his elbows propped on his knees.

His gaze ignored the bear-like burly man streaming with tears and snot in the morgue, nor did it look at the images from other examinees.

Instead, it was firmly locked onto screen number six right in the middle.

The background of that screen was extremely dark and appeared very blurry.

It seemed to be inside some abandoned factory, where rusted pipes crisscrossed horizontally and vertically.

A thin, frail boy with a slender figure was surrounded by a group of distorted, roaring dark shadows.

The boy did not retreat at all, instead choosing to take the initiative to attack.

He dodged the pounce of a dark shadow sideways, his waist and back suddenly exerting force as he twisted his body and threw a punch.

A vicious hook punch accurately hit the monster's head, instantly smashing that mass of dark shadow into distortion and dispersion on the spot.

Following closely, his footwork slid under his feet, shuttling through the encirclement like a leopard; lifting his knee and side-kicking, he successively repelled the dark shadows lunging fiercely forward one after another.

The picture rapidly zoomed out, and time passed instantly.

The battle ended, and the boy, along with several bruised and swollen classmates, supported each other as they walked out of the water plant's gates.

They slumped on the weed-grown steps, panting heavily, with joy all over their faces, celebrating their survival after a catastrophe.

When seeing that boy's gaze filled with doubt as he raised his head to look at the sky.

A ripple flashed across the middle-aged man's deep eyes, and the corners of his mouth turned upward into a tiny arc.

He did not turn back, merely raising his right hand and waving it casually in mid-air.

From the deep darkness behind him, a sound of extremely light leather shoes stepping immediately sounded.

A young man under thirty years of age with an extremely capable temperament walked forward quickly.

He stopped half a meter away from the sofa and bowed respectfully.

Without uttering half a word, he already understood tacitly, pulling a paper file out of the black folder clamped under his arm and handing it over with both hands.

The middle-aged man took the file, his gaze sweeping across the paper surface.

[ Candidate No. 263 ]

[ Name: Fang Cheng ]

[ Address: Jiuchang Street, JB District, Dongdu City... ]

He closed the file and tossed it backhand onto the coffee table beside him, producing a muffled sound.

"Director Qin."

The middle-aged man's voice was low, exuding a majesty of one who had been in a high position for a long time:

"This candidate's family background seems to be problematic?"

The young man called Director Qin bent his waist even lower, a layer of fine sweat seeping out from his forehead.

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva and reported at a rapid pace:

"Yes. His father, Fang Shijie, is directly associated with the sensational 'Guangwumen Shooting Incident' seventeen years ago, and was once suspected by the police to be the serial killer 'Midnight Crimson Demon'."

"However, during the initial net-closing arrest operation, Fang Shijie poured gasoline and burned himself to death, causing the clues to the case to be completely severed."

Director Qin paused and explained cautiously:

"Subsequently, the Supervision Division of the Intelligence Department conducted a five-year tracking surveillance on the orphan left behind by this suspect."

"It was finally confirmed that he is just an ordinary person, showing no anti-social tendencies or abnormal abilities, so he was long ago removed from the firewall's key-focus list."

"Moreover, during this political review stage, we sent people to conduct detailed covert visits to his graduation institution, the combat club where he worked part-time, and his surrounding neighbors."

"No one found any conduct issues with him; instead, they praised his diligent and hardworking attitude."

Director Qin listed the strong evidence investigated as exhaustively as possible, and his words clearly showed high regard for this candidate's potential.

"Heh."

The middle-aged man let out a cold snort, casting his gaze back to the screen right in front:

"Since your evaluation concluded that he is an ordinary person, how do you explain his performance when facing those eerie entities in the Black Rain World, Director Qin?"

This cold snort was like a heavy hammer, fiercely smashing against Director Qin's heart.

The shirt on his back was instantly soaked in cold sweat, and daring not to voice any rebuttal at all, he hurriedly lowered his head to express his stance:

"It is this subordinate's operational error and lax gatekeeping! I will go notify the chief examiner right now and kick him out!"

"Wait..."

The middle-aged man raised his hand, stopping Director Qin's action.

His gaze landed on the upper right corner of the file, on that young Yingjun, well-defined ID photo.

"When did our Special Investigation Team's talent selection become a yamen that only looks at bloodlines instead of ability?"

The man leaned back against the chair back, his tone smooth yet every word resonant and powerful:

"How many times have I emphasized in meetings that when recruiting personnel, first look at ability, and second look at Heart-Nature."

"Not retreating when facing monsters, daring to step forward to save companions when encountering danger, and being able to throw a punch in a desperate situation have already proven his awareness and true color."

"Family background and past resume are certainly evaluation indicators for political review, but they can never serve as the sole basis for a blanket veto."

"As long as his intentions are upright and he dares to aim the blade at those monsters, why can't the Special Investigation Team make an exceptional recruitment and give him a chance to prove himself?"

Director Qin stood in place, secretly letting out a long breath, his tense shoulders finally relaxing.

In fact, according to the Special Investigation Team's strict political review standards, candidates like Fang Cheng, whose immediate family members bore major tainted backgrounds, should have been directly crossed off during the initial document review stage.

However, a certain old leader who had just stepped down to the second line personally called and pulled strings to beg him the other day.

He simply couldn't brush off this favor, so he used his authority and held his nose to cram Fang Cheng's materials into the re-examination list.

Of course, daring to do this didn't entirely count as practicing favoritism and committing irregularities.

Because the underlying logic of the "Black Rain World" was very special.

It was by no means the virtual environment proclaimed to the outside world, but a genuinely existing different world.

All intruders whose consciousness was projected over would face extremely severe dimensional rejection phenomena.

That world would not only forcibly strip away the intruders' real-world memories, but also completely suppress the power dormant within their bodies, turning them into thorough ordinary persons in the so-called "Illusion Realm".

This move was originally the Special Investigation Team's ultimate killing weapon specifically used to deal with ill-intentioned infiltrators and distinguish friend from foe.

Under that extreme fear, loss of power, and loss of self-cognition, even an S-class psychic-type mutant could not remain clear-headed, making it easiest to expose a selfish and cruel nature.

Since this young man was able to rely on the shell of an ordinary person, bravely swing his fist when encountering monsters, save others at the expense of himself, and ultimately complete the assessment.

It naturally proved that his Heart-Nature was pure and good, possessing the hard qualifications to be admitted by the Special Investigation Team.

"What is the current situation?"

The middle-aged man's low voice interrupted Director Qin's thoughts.

Director Qin immediately opened the tablet in his hand and glanced at the displayed data:

"According to the real-time statistics reported by various examination rooms, there are currently four candidates who have persisted in the Black Rain World for more than twenty minutes."

"Among them, a candidate in the ninth examination room has even reached twenty-four minutes and fifty seconds, which is already very close to the twenty-five-minute collapse limit value set by the System."

In this interview, the Special Investigation Team's scoring criteria were completely different from conventional exams.

The "Illusion Realm Test" was not about seeing who cleared the level faster or came out earlier.

Instead, it depended on who endured the different-world rejection phenomenon and continued to resist the unknown fear for a longer time.

As long as candidates could persist inside for more than twenty minutes, their scores were all excellent.

They belonged to good seedlings with extremely tenacious wills, and after entering the Special Investigation Team in the future, they would receive massive resource tilting and key cultivation.

As for those who couldn't even last ten minutes and were frightened into mental collapse and forced awakening upon contacting monsters, they had essentially lost the qualifications to become field agents.

The middle-aged man pondered for a moment.

"Adding the candidate named Fang Cheng just now, that makes five."

His gaze swept across the big screen, his steady voice revealing a trace of disappointment:

"It is still too few; this year's situation is not optimistic, and we need more fresh blood."

"Go notify all examination rooms to widen the passing line conditions a bit; as long as they persist inside for more than ten minutes, regardless of their grades in other subjects, recruitment can be considered at discretion."

"As for those over fifteen minutes, they can be included in the key cultivation list."

"Also, once today's test is completely over, you compile the detailed list; I want to review it personally."

"Yes, this subordinate understands."

Just at this moment, the screening room's thick soundproof door was pushed open from the outside.

Accompanied by the sound of high heels stepping on the ground, a civilian female secretary wearing a gray bodycon skirt walked quickly to the side of the sofa.

She glanced at her wristwatch and reported in a soft tone:

"Director-General, it is eleven o'clock sharp. Lunch has been prepared and sent to your office; you can go back first to have a little."

"At one-thirty this afternoon, you also need to go to the Ministry of Defense building to attend the military's joint defense high-level meeting. The special service motorcade is already waiting in the underground garage."

"Mhm."

The middle-aged man nodded slightly, pressed his hands on his knees, and stood up from the sofa.

His tall and upright figure cast a huge shadow on the ground.

This person was precisely the current highest commander of the Special Investigation Team, Director-General — — Ling Shaofeng.

The female secretary skillfully picked up the military woolen overcoat draped over the sofa armrest, shook it open properly, and draped it over Ling Shaofeng's shoulders.

Subsequently, she handed over the peaked cap with the flying eagle badge with both hands.

Ling Shaofeng took the police cap, put it on, and raised his hand to tidy up his collar.

He turned around, strode forward toward the door.

When he brushed past Director Qin, the sound of his military boots hitting the ground suddenly paused for a moment.

"Little Qin."

Ling Shaofeng did not turn his head, his deep gaze staring straight ahead into the darkness, his tone unhurried:

"In conducting oneself and doing things, one must understand a sense of propriety."

"Clear water has no fish; I can allow people underneath to seek a little private gain for firewood, rice, oil, and salt, but inside this door, before the greater righteousness, not a single grain of sand can be mixed in, understand?"

This pointed reprimand was like a basin of ice water poured straight down from overhead.

All the hairs on Director Qin's body stood on end, and his just-dried back was once again drenched in cold sweat.

He lowered his head tightly, not even daring to use strength to breathe, his Adam's apple rolling with difficulty:

"This subordinate understands..."

Ling Shaofeng said no more, striding out of the screening room.

The heavy metal soundproof door slowly closed behind him, returning the hall once again to a silent darkness.

Director Qin stood stiffly in place, blankly looking at that broad back that had long since disappeared outside the door, only feeling his legs go weak for a moment.

He let out a long breath of turbid air held in his chest, raised his cuff, and wiped away the cold sweat on his forehead.

Then, he smiled bitterly and shook his head.

Today's hurdle was considered safely passed with the Director-General's usual trust.

Director Qin looked at the images displayed on the surrounding screens and muttered to himself in a low voice:

"Fang Cheng, since you have stepped into the threshold of the Special Investigation Team, strive for some dignity from now on, perform well, and never cause any trouble for me..."

(End of Chapter)