Chapter 20: The Interview

"Ah! Ahhh..." Fat Jun on the chair screamed and twisted his overweight body wildly. After about seven or eight seconds, he gradually calmed down.

"I... I'm not dead?" Fat Jun gasped, looking down at his right arm where the bullet had struck. Strangely, there was no blood, just a small deep black hole where the bullet had hit.

Then, Fat Jun's right arm began to "melt," followed by "fermentation," and eventually it turned into a huge mass of flesh-like lumps with a "pffft" sound as it ejected the bullet.

A few seconds later, his arm slowly returned to its original state.

The other three watched everything unfold.

Officer Huang put away his gun: "Fat Jun, that arm of yours must be from a beast. I've never seen such a strange bodily mutation ability in the talent list I know." Officer Huang rubbed his temple with his thumb and frowned, "But as of now, you're still human."

"Currently?" Fat Jun sounded a bit discouraged.

Officer Huang sighed and looked at Gao Yang. "What's your opinion?"

"Brother Yang! Brother Yang, help me..." Fat Jun almost cried. "I know you won't abandon me, you saved Brother Kai, didn't you? How could you bring yourself to kill me?!"

"Not killing for now." Gao Yang said.

"Why?" Wang Zikai seemed disappointed. "This guy's useless, we could just kill him."

"What do you mean, useless!" Fat Jun shouted, "I'm much more useful than you! You're a—" Fat Jun couldn't quite bring himself to say the word "lost one."

Gao Yang turned to Fat Jun: "His arm mutation must have been caused by that white cat bite. If the mutation spreads to his whole body, we can kill him later. But if it's just limited to his arm, it's still more valuable to keep him alive."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Fat Jun's survival instincts kicked in. "I can heal, I'm the only healer in the team! I'm valuable!"

Officer Huang pondered for a moment: "Alright, tie him up, let's observe him for a few days."

Officer Huang then looked at Wang Zikai: "This noble and arduous task is assigned to you. Make sure he's fed well, don't let him starve to death."

"No problem." Wang Zikai patted his chest, grinning. "I'll take good care of him!"

…

The three left the underground garage and returned to the living room.

Before they knew it, it was already 5 AM, and dawn was about to break. The floor-to-ceiling windows directly faced the bustling river view. The three of them sat on a comfortable couch, sipping beer, watching the river's shimmering surface slowly change from gray-blue to light pink with the first light of dawn.

After a discussion, Officer Huang concluded, "This situation with Fat Jun is the first time I've seen it. But he should not be a beast, at least not yet."

"Is the white cat that bit him a beast?" Gao Yang pondered, "I thought beasts could only disguise themselves as humans, but could there be an animal form too? Also, can being bitten by a beast cause an infection? Like zombies?"

"Not sure." Officer Huang shook his head. "The contact person from the organization once hinted to me that there are more than just the 'slow beasts' and 'rage beasts'... What we know is just the tip of the iceberg."

At this point, Officer Huang glanced at Wang Zikai.

Wang Zikai had been overly excited all night, and after partially transforming into a beast and fighting, he was now physically exhausted. He had fallen asleep on the couch and was snoring.

"Your friend... might also be a new type of slow beast."

Gao Yang nodded.

He had also noticed that Wang Zikai was very different from Old Liu.

Old Liu would automatically ignore and filter out any language related to "beasts." It was unclear how Old Liu would react to visuals or personal experiences related to beasts, but Officer Huang speculated that it might cause the "lost one" to be triggered and enter a berserk beast transformation.

However, Wang Zikai didn't filter anything related to beasts, whether it was language, visuals, or personal experience. Instead, he directly memorized, understood, and rationalized everything. Simply put, he never thought of himself as a beast; he firmly believed he was human. Could all of this really be because he wasn't very intelligent?

"Not sure if it's just a feeling." Officer Huang said self-deprecatingly, "Ever since meeting you, I've felt like this world is becoming less safe. There was a subtle balance before, but now it's being broken, and things seem to be spiraling out of control. I've been awakened for years, but this is the first time I've felt this way."

"..." Gao Yang didn't know what to say.

"Counting the number of awakened ones I've encountered," Officer Huang pulled out a cigarette box, "Some are strong, some are weak, some are reckless, some are cautious, some are crazy, some are cold-blooded..."

Officer Huang squinted: "But most of them are dead, for various reasons."

Gao Yang remained silent, quietly waiting for the next words.

"You're different." Officer Huang turned to Gao Yang, "You have a very unique aura."

"Really?"

"Yes, I think you'll live a long time."

"Really?" Gao Yang liked hearing that. Honestly, he was quite afraid of death. Once you're dead, everything's over, but as long as you're alive, there's always hope.

"So..." Officer Huang's voice dropped. "I think I'm dangerous."

"Why?"

"I used to love reading comics as a kid. Those who live long usually end up being the main character. But the people around the main character usually have very short lives..."

Gao Yang broke into a sweat: "That makes a lot of sense. I can't refute it. I'm definitely different from others. After all, I came to this world from another, and when I awakened, I had a mysterious system. Honestly, you could call it a 'main character halo.' But maybe this is just a survivor bias. Perhaps there are thousands of 'transmigrators.' I'm not the first, and I won't be the last..."

Gao Yang zoned out for a moment.

Officer Huang stood up: "It's decided. I'm going to try to stay away from you."

"Ah?" Gao Yang was surprised. "Officer Huang, don't leave me!"

"Not quite." Officer Huang took a drag from his cigarette, showing a mysterious smile. "What I mean is, we need to join the organization quickly. That way, you'll have more companions, and statistically, the risk of me getting killed will be better shared."

Gao Yang was speechless: "Uncle, I think you're the one who's a transmigrator!"

Officer Huang took out a notepad and pen, quickly wrote down the time and address: "Tonight at midnight, you and Qingling come over. I'll take you both to the interview."

"Okay!" Gao Yang took the paper.

…

Gao Yang rested for a while at Wang Zikai's place, then went to school.

Wang Zikai stayed behind to guard Fat Jun and continue his training. Because of the sudden "explosion" last night, Wang Zikai thought it was the result of his training and was now very energized. It seemed that he could use this to make Fat Jun behave for a few more days.

After the morning self-study, Gao Yang asked Qingling to meet him on the rooftop and briefly explained what happened last night. Of course, he downplayed the incident with Wang Zikai's explosion.

Qingling didn't comment.

In the morning, Gao Yang went to ask the English class representative, Wan Sisi, about a few English questions. She was flattered and happily helped him solve the problems. After finishing, Wan Sisi invited Gao Yang to have lunch together, along with some other classmates.

Gao Yang happily accepted, spending a "quite pleasant" lunch time with his classmates, who all believed his previous aloofness was due to grief over Li Weiwei's death.

The afternoon passed without incident.

The evening self-study also went by without anything happening.

After the evening self-study ended, Gao Yang met Qingling in a small alley near the school. This had become their regular meeting spot. As soon as Gao Yang saw Qingling, he started to undress.

"No need." Qingling said.

"Not disguising today?" Gao Yang was a little surprised.

"Mm." Qingling glanced at the note. "The location is 121 Huangsong Street, Feiyang District. It's too far, and we need to cross a bridge. We can't walk there."

"What should we do then?"

Qingling thought for a moment. "Let's just take the last subway."

"Alright."

The two of them walked out of the alley, with Qingling linking her arms with Gao Yang's and resting her head on his shoulder, acting sweet and girlish. "Let's pretend we're students in early love. It makes more sense."

"Fine." Gao Yang didn't mind. After all, in a world full of beasts, having a super-powered beauty bodyguard clinging to him gave him a steady sense of security.

They took the subway, and thirty minutes later, they got off and arrived at Feiyang District in the Hexi area. Then they walked for about another twenty minutes through a dark street. During that time, Qingling bought spicy skewers from a night market. She really loved spicy skewers!

Huangsong Street was a soon-to-be-demolished old district, with low two- or three-story cement houses on both sides of the street. The outdated shops had closed early, and the road was full of potholes. Few streetlights were working, and most likely, the cameras were "broken" too.

They followed the address and quickly found number 121.

It was an inconspicuous small storefront with a rusty roller door half-pulled down. Behind a faded blue cloth, neon lights flickered, and there were sounds of fighting and explosions—old street arcade machines were barely visible.

"I didn't expect there are still arcade halls like this now." Gao Yang used to love coming to places like this as a kid. You could spend fifty cents and hang out for most of the day. Of course, his skills were terrible, and he mainly just stood behind the older kids, watching how they cleared the levels. Looking back, this was probably the earliest form of game streamers.

"Let's go in." Qingling put on her mask.

"Wait." Gao Yang stopped her.

"What's up?"

"Give me a song's time first."