17, Patrol Department

Lin Qing only felt a numbness in his hand, as if he had touched a switch, causing his entire arm to start uncontrollably trembling, which extended to half of his body.

Meanwhile, Chen Yanan forcefully grasped his hand to prevent him from breaking free and said, "Try it now."

Lin Qing forcefully closed his eyes and visualized the dazzling, brilliant thunderbolt once again.

The spirit could not affect the external, but it could influence the internal.

This was like when extreme anger or a burst of survival instinct could unleash unusually strong power, influencing hormone secretion.

The mental state brought about by visualization could theoretically affect the mysterious energy within the body.

Over the past few days, Lin Qing had observed that the mysterious energy inside him already tended to mimic bioelectricity, but it was always just a bit short.

So, before the visualization blurred, he still had hope of making a breakthrough.

Now, Chen Yanan actively expended her body's mysterious energy, turning it into bioelectricity to help him find the feeling, bringing him even closer to that state.

Suddenly—

Chen Yanan felt a current of electricity coming from Lin Qing's skin, numbing her hand and instantly repelling it.

"Did it really work?" Chen Yanan was both shocked and delighted.

Lin Qing slowly opened his eyes and looked at his palm. It seemed unchanged from usual, but now he could clearly feel the mysterious energy within his body, seemingly ready to be transformed into bioelectricity at any moment.

He had finally made a breakthrough.

"Sister, thank you," Lin Qing said with a slight smile.

"What's there to thank me for?"

Chen Yanan clicked her tongue in admiration, "It seems you were just a little bit short of a breakthrough, no wonder a little help from me made you succeed. It was mainly you."

"Being just short, who knows if I could have succeeded before the memory blurred?" Lin Qing shook his head.

"Anyway, as long as you've made a breakthrough, that's good. Just slowly adapt and get used to it. I reckon in a year or so, you'll be able to master Min," Chen Yanan said with a smile.

A year or so?

Lin Qing called up the Entropy interface in his mind and saw that Min Combat Skill was now appearing in the predicted projects.

Recording successful.

Now, he just had to wait another ten days and complete the Sunrise Training Method, then he could advance in Min Combat Skill.

A year was a bit too long.

It was said that the faster one masters the combat skill under the same conditions, the higher the compatibility and talent represented.

He achieved mastery on the fifth day, and that too with a push from Chen Yanan, indicating that his compatibility and talent were only average.

However, that was not important, as long as he had made a breakthrough.

"You can note in the additional information section during tomorrow's exam that you have achieved mastery in combat skill."

Chen Yanan reminded, "This will also be a bonus for you. With this, your written exam result can be even worse, and those who notice might even give you benefits."

"Benefits?" Lin Qing asked, puzzled.

"Just add it," Chen Yanan said.

Lin Qing nodded.

...

December 25th, early morning.

Every Patrol Bureau in Lin'an City began their monthly professional examination.

For formal appointments and promotions in the Patrol Department, one generally needed to pass a professional exam.

First were three written exams—political literacy, basic theory, and professional capacity, mainly involving rote memorization.

Lin Qing had already poured over the related books, and during the exam, he found the questions not too difficult—they were mainly just diverse. However, if he wished, he could easily score 280 out of 300 points.

But intentionally making errors, he probably only scored around 150 points.

The afternoon exam included combat, shooting, physical ability, apparatus, and professional skills.

With the patrol officer promotion exam combined with the written test, the total was 800 points, and a score of 560 was required to pass.

With Lin Qing's combat and shooting skills, these two items were naturally full marks, and the physical ability exam was specifically for the Sunrise Training Method, which he had fully mastered, naturally also obtaining full marks.

As for apparatus and professional skills, as long as he was familiar, even if he didn't get full marks, he could still score around eighty.

"Total score, probably around 610."

Lin Qing privately estimated his score, if not for his cousin asking him to score lower on the written exam, he could have easily achieved over 700 points.

But those rankings didn't matter much, passing was enough.

...

Just three days later, on the morning of December 28th, the professional exam results were announced.

Lin Qing's final score, 614 points.

"Congratulations, the new Patrol Department Chief."

"Lin Qing, you must be forming your team soon?"

"From now on, it's Group Leader Lin."

"Group Leader Lin must treat us tonight!"

After the team members from Group Two learned about the scores, they all offered their congratulations, even though they had known that Lin Qing was bound to become the Patrol Department Chief, but they hadn't expected it to happen so soon?

"Congratulations." Even Group Leader Han showed a rare hint of a smile.

"It will take at least until the middle of next month to establish the team." Lin Qing shook his head, "For this half a month, I'll still need to trouble you by staying in Group Two."

He was not in a hurry, still following his daily routine of three practice sessions, patrolling, and mastering combat skills.

In the blink of an eye, the year 2120 had passed.

...

It seemed that there was no New Year's Eve celebration during this era, Lin Qing simply had a late-night meal with a few colleagues from the Inspection Bureau after finishing a patrol mission as a celebration of the New Year.

On January 1, 2121, a leader from the City Patrol Bureau came, along with the Xiao Shan District Bureau Chief, Captain Xiao, and the head of the Political Work Department, with these departmental leaders in attendance.

After the Bureau Chief issued the title and personally appointed him as the leader of Group Seven, Lin Qing officially became a Third-class Patrol Department Chief.

And he was only eighteen years old!

This was quite rare.

The leaders of other groups also treated him with an attitude of complete equality.

The number of encounters and frequency with which the single women of various departments and other groups within the Bureau met him also noticeably increased, as did the smiles.

This also proved the saying—

"As long as you are strong enough, you will find the world full of goodwill toward you."

The new Patrol Department Chief uniform and shoulder straps were also quickly prepared, his salary rose to 7000 yuan, and his benefits improved in all aspects.

Of course, these were not important to Lin Qing.

What mattered most was...

The right to carry firearms!

The Inspection Bureau issued the standard revolver M500, which was one of the most powerful handguns in the old era and was still respectable today.

His cousin was also issued this gun, and it was much more powerful than the average firearm.

Although this gun wouldn't be of much use against the fierce convicts from Qinghu Island Prison, for a captain accustomed to defensive combat skills like "Steel" or "Earth Element," it would still be unstoppable.

Unfortunately, he hadn't captured any wanted criminals recently, nor had he found an opportunity to earn a medal.

Group Leader Han remained very stable in attitude.

"No worries, as long as you perform excellently in patrol duties and make no errors, after working for a full year, you can also receive a Third-class Merit."

Lin Qing could only hope that after the new group was established, some of the new members would be second-generation seekers of glory.

...

Inside the captain's office on the second floor.

Xiao Peidong sat in front of the desk, looking at the screen showing the plan for establishing Group Seven, and glanced over the materials appointing Group Leader Lin Qing, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"To think he's become a Patrol Department Chief so quickly..."

He tapped his fingertips lightly on the desk, "However, this kid didn't keep the reward money for Chen Yanan, and he hasn't made money while following Han Linsong lately. It seems that Chen Yanan no longer needs his help..."

He was still just acting as captain.

If Chen Yanan returned to the team with not much decline in strength, and if he hadn't been confirmed as the permanent captain by then, he would have to remain as the deputy captain or go to another district to become a captain.

"The tasks assigned by the Yuanhong Society... I must remain in Xiao Shan District to carry them out."

After much thought, Xiao Peidong made a decision: "Forget it, I'll try to get this kid's Group Seven to operate together with Han Linsong's Group Two to prevent him from making too much money..."

...

January 5.

Lin Qing was practicing the final session of the 'Sunrise Training Method' Version 4.6 at home.

A few days ago, he had used up the last of his High Energy Release Liquid.

However, it was just a few sessions shy of completion, so he didn't bother buying another set, just waiting until today.

['Sunrise Training Method' Version 4.6 completion.]

With the completion of this final session of the method, a prompt finally appeared before Lin Qing's eyes.

The number of anticipatory projects was restored to 1/1.

Lin Qing didn't hesitate, activating the thought:

"Pre-request the 'Combat Skill: Agility'!"