In another room not far from the hospital ward, the light was dimmed low. Several screens embedded in the wall emitted a faint blue glow, and the largest one was silently playing real-time footage of the neighboring ward.
Two high-backed chairs faced the screen. Charlie, who had just left the ward, sat in one. He had already taken off his coat, his collar slightly loosened, as he stared silently at Jiang Ming’s face on the screen.
The elderly man in the other chair looked more relaxed.
One hand propped up his cheek, while between the fingers of his other hand, a dark, shiny fountain pen rotated slowly, paused, and rotated again in a rhythm that defied gravity.
But his eyes also remained fixed on the screen, unmoving.
“What do you think, our Director Rex?” Charlie’s voice echoed in the dim room.
Rex did not answer immediately, not until the fountain pen completed a complex flip between his fingers and came to a steady stop.
“The preliminary assessment from over there says that micro-expressions and physiological baselines… show no obvious signs of lying. Furthermore, what he said matches some of the clues found at the scene.” The Director finally spoke, shaking his head slightly, his gaze still fixed on Jiang Ming’s profile on the screen.
“If it weren’t for this assessment report, I would have suspected he was in league with those cultists.”
“He took out three cultists by himself! Especially this one, Bear Claw Truss. A rank-two wanted criminal who had been active for seven years and had taken down three of our veteran field agents… yet he was killed by a newly awakened Beyonder.”
“As for the change in his appearance, that is actually the easiest part to explain. Beyonder awakening, especially when it involves a violent disturbance of the soul’s origin, has a very small probability of triggering Adaptive Remodeling on a physical level, leading to changes in appearance or even body type. It is perfectly normal for a newly awakened young man to be unaware of such obscure cases” Rex said.
“Oh?” Charlie raised an eyebrow. “You mean…?”
The fountain pen in Rex’s hand finally stopped rotating and was gently placed on the table. He raised his hand and rubbed his brow, revealing his exhaustion.
“I mean, rather than treating him as a suspect, it’s better… to see if we can find a suitable opportunity to recruit him. We need people who can survive against those kinds of monsters. Our manpower is a bit too thin.” He paused. “If that’s not possible, at the very least, we must arrange for someone to keep a close eye on him.”
***
In the afternoon, Jiang Ming completed the simple discharge procedures. The hospital not only waived all treatment costs, but the logistics personnel from the Order Bureau also handed him an envelope embossed with the official seal, containing a substantial amount of prize money.
The official statement called it a “Civilian Reward for Assisting in the Removal of Major Public Security Threats,” with specific items corresponding to the three wanted cultists.
In addition, Jiang Ming requested a letter of identification to prove that he was, indeed, Jiang Ming.
Grasping the envelope as he walked out of the hospital gates, the afternoon sun felt a bit piercing. The money wasn’t a small amount; it was enough for him to live decently in Opeth City for a while.
“Tsk, I really don’t know if this is a blessing or a curse.”
He muttered to himself, casually tucking the envelope into his inner coat pocket before turning to merge into the flow of people on the street.
Relying on his memory, he returned to that cheap but relatively clean little inn.
The wooden stairs let out a slight groan beneath his feet. Using a somewhat unfamiliar brass key to open the door, he was greeted by the familiar air, tinged with a faint scent of mold.
The room was no different from when he had left—a simple single bed, a worn-out desk, and a small water stain spreading on the wall. The faint clamor of the city drifted in from outside the window.
Jiang Ming lay on the bed, sorting through all the memories in his mind.
Jiang Ming came from a remote territory of the Holy Moon Empire that had been forgotten by maps, where the luster of his family title had long since worn down into dull copper rust. His parents had exhausted their last favors and savings at their deathbeds to obtain that precious recommendation letter to the Dome of Knowledge for him, before passing away one after another.
After handling the funeral arrangements, the young Jiang Ming sold the ancestral home and all the old belongings he couldn’t carry. With his meager remaining cash and that letter concerning his future, he crossed half the continent alone and came to this legendary city of peace.
“Well, parents dead, family fortune collapsed, traveling far from home…” Jiang Ming tallied the scattered coins in the inn’s drawer while silently complaining in his heart. “It really is… a classic to the point of being a boring starting script.”
In this world, this amount of money was enough for an ordinary person to live frugally in Opeth City for a year or two, but for a prestigious Beyonder academy, it would probably only cover the fees for the first semester.
Jiang Ming picked up one of the coins. The front featured a portrait of himself as the Lord Protector, while the back was inscribed with the coin’s value.
It wasn’t much different from the one the angel had given him, except that one had nothing on the back.
“Looks like a new life and a new outlook.” Jiang Ming thought as he placed the angel’s coin into the inner pocket of his clothes.
Perhaps because he played this game every day, Jiang Ming adapted to this world extremely quickly. Aside from a slight sense of emptiness from not having a phone, he didn’t feel any other strange sensations.
“Growl…”
Just then, Jiang Ming’s stomach issued an unceremonious protest. He exhaled in resignation and pushed open the door; it was true he hadn’t eaten for a day and a half.
“Click.”
Almost simultaneously, the sound of a key turning came from the opposite door.
Elvira was backing out of her room, closing the door behind her. She held a brass key in her hand, her red eyes scanning the dim corridor without much emotion, happened to meet Jiang Ming’s gaze.
The two of them froze, separated by the hallway just over a meter wide.
And then—
“Gurgle…”
The sound of Elvira’s stomach growling was the first to break the silence.
Almost as an instinctive reaction, Jiang Ming’s own empty stomach let out a resonant response.
“…”
Jiang Ming’s gaze subconsciously drifted toward Elvira’s flat stomach beneath her uniform, then quickly looked back up.
There was still no expression on Elvira’s face, but the fingers holding the key tightened imperceptibly for a moment as her red eyes quietly watched him.
An atmosphere of absurdity and awkwardness filled the corridor. Between the yellowed wallpaper and the light from the old chandelier, two people involved in the cathedral incident stood in the hallway of a cheap inn, staring at each other because of synchronized hunger signals.
Jiang Ming suddenly felt like laughing. He tilted his chin, pointing toward the door behind her.
“Neighbor?” Jiang Ming asked. “The lodging reimbursement standard for your Bureau… is quite down-to-earth.”
Elvira did not answer the question; she simply tucked the key back into her pocket and prepared to leave.
Jiang Ming stepped aside to clear the way to the stairs. As Elvira passed him, he suggested in a casual tone, “That place at the corner downstairs, the smell of roasted meat has been wafting halfway down the street. It’s my treat.”
The young woman paused and looked at Jiang Ming, somewhat puzzled.
“It’s not for nothing, of course. Could I trouble you to tell me a bit about Opeth City and your Order Bureau? I am a foreigner, after all, and there’s a lot I don’t quite understand,” Jiang Ming said, scratching his head.
Elvira looked at him and thought for a moment. It wasn’t until her stomach rumbled a second time that she spoke as if resigned to fate.
“Fine.”
She had been craving the roasted meat from that shop for a long time. More importantly…
She was currently very short on money.