Apprenticeship

07 sensed the loosening of the barrier through the energy remaining in the tower. He gestured to Sora, who was reporting on his work, and then left with a smile in the other's surprised eyes.

"A month, longer than I thought." 07 walked into the house and just saw Shi Youchen coming out of the culture medium filled with blue liquid, then quickly put on a floor-length robe that covered his feet.

At this moment, Molly, who had fallen asleep against the other side of the culture medium, drowsily opened her eyes. "Hey, you're awake?" she said, her eyelids twitching, and she even looked at the wrong person.

"..." 07 silently reached out his hand, pulled her shoulders and turned her towards Shi Youchen on the other side, "He's awake."

"Oh, then I'll go first. See you later." Morrill walked out staggeringly with sleepy eyes and almost bumped into Yan Zhiyuan who was rushing over.

Yan Zhiyuan helped her up like a gentleman, and only after watching her safely enter the portal did he look away and walk to the side of Shi Youchen and 07.

"Let me see your results," 07 said with anticipation. His fingers fluttered as a data interface circled around Shi Youchen. "The energy growth curve is quite good, and the base values are much higher. As for the rate of increase..." 07 paused after looking at the results, still unsatisfied. "Only a breakthrough to the lower level of Level 6?"

"I really was too harsh. I didn't leave him much time to breathe. Never mind, this will suffice." 07 would never take primary responsibility on himself. "Go back and prepare. I'll take you and Morrill to a place in three days."

Shi Youchen's left hand was tightly grasping the robe on the outside of his thigh, and his palms were already covered with sweat.

Yan Zhiyuan had planned to wait until 07 confirmed his departure before telling Shi Youchen about the news he had recently learned. However, he didn't expect Shi Youchen to suddenly stop 07 as he was about to leave.

"Wait a moment."

Under Yan Zhiyuan's puzzled gaze, Shi Youchen told 07 his carefully considered decision, "Please accept me as your disciple."

07 paused as he turned to leave. Because his back was facing Shi Youchen, the expression on his face was not noticed.

It was a twisted excitement, a frenzy of wishing something come true.

"Have you thought it through?"

Shi Youchen: "I've made up my mind."

Yan Zhiyuan was about to say something when he suddenly felt a chill piercing his soul—07's eyes, terrifyingly white under the dim fluorescent light, were staring at him. Then Yan Zhiyuan's throat felt like it was being strangled by a rope, and he couldn't utter a single sound.

"To become my disciple, you need to abandon your past like Kong and I did, and start a new life with a new name and a new appearance." Every word 07 said hit Shi Youchen's heart hard.

"From now on, there will no longer be a person named Shi Youchen in this world."

Many images and people flashed through Shi Youchen's mind in an instant, and finally stopped at the edge of the cliff where he jumped off in the Lincaros Mountains.

Just as he had jumped without hesitation, he also resolutely deleted all the past scenes from his memory.

"Okay, I accept." Shi Youchen said.

07 then turned around and approached Shi Youchen, stopping about a fist's length away. He reached out and brushed aside the strands of hair on Shi Youchen's forehead. Looking at the always alluring mole above his eyebrow, he said, "From now on, your name will be '笹', and you will be my disciple, 07, from the Maintenance Bureau. As for this face, it will naturally need to change as well."

07's index finger gently touched Shi Youchen's mole.

He didn't feel any pain, but in a moment, an ink-colored tattoo appeared on Shi Youchen's forehead, connecting to his temples.

The tattoo looked like a flying bird with its wings folded, perched on the peak of his brow.

"Alright, with this seal of mine in place, no one will be able to see you clearly." 07 withdrew his hand with satisfaction, and said one last thing, "Remember, call Morrill in three days."

"Yes, teacher."

...

After 07 left, Yan Zhiyuan looked at Shi Youchen with some concern and asked him, "Have you really thought it through? This decision may make it impossible for you to..."

Shi Youchen interrupted him, "I don't have any relatives in this world anymore." His fingertips curled up, "But I can't even decide my own death. Do you know what this means?"

Yan Zhiyuan could not refute this.

Shi Youchen: "I need power, the power to not be controlled by others. So even if it means temporarily bowing my head and surrendering, as long as he can give me what I want, I will accept it."

"Moreover, you should have noticed that in his eyes, cooperative alliances are far less stable than the relationship between master and disciple. Kong is the best example. Even a level 8 esper like Lu Ming is in his way, so he can kill him at will."

So instead of becoming a subordinate who works for him, it is better to become a master and apprentice with a close relationship.

"I'm different from you, Yan Zhiyuan. I don't want to live for anyone now. I just want to know how far I can go."

"This is what I've been thinking about every minute of the month I've been here."

After a long silence, Yan Zhiyuan sighed, "Okay, but I still want to remind you, even though 07 is now your teacher, you must not forget your original intention."

Shi Youchen: "Of course. So what is the matter that brought you to me?" He could of course tell that Yan Zhiyuan came with something on his mind, but his rhythm was disrupted by the small episode of him becoming 07's apprentice.

Yan Zhiyuan straightened his mind and said, "Since I joined the 'Inferior Research Team', I've seen many people with different physical reactions who volunteered to be research subjects. Most of them are relatives and friends of the research team members. Everyone is working hard to restore their health, but there has been no success."

"But last week, the condition of one of the members' older sister improved significantly. Her body values have been moving towards normal every day since then, and she has completely returned to normal as of yesterday."

"They wanted to observe for a while, but I didn't have that much time, so I quietly asked that member."

"He said...his sister returned from the floating island, but he couldn't reveal anything else."

Yan Zhiyuan couldn't hide his excitement. "I know about the Floating Island. It's the other half of the alien dimension, and together with the place we're in now, it forms a complete maintenance bureau. As long as we keep going upwards and break through the sea surface above our heads, we can see the Floating Island itself."

This was the first time that Shi Youchen heard of this. He thought that this area filled with bright blue was all that was needed to maintain the alien space. After all, it was big enough and perfect enough. He didn't expect that there was a floating island above it.

It sounds like a combination of sky and sea.

"So you want to go to the floating island?" Shi Youchen asked. He knew that Yan Zhiyuan had been trying his best to find a way to help Lin Zhouze recover. This time there was a rare hope of progress, and he would never give up.

Sure enough, Yan Zhiyuan said, "Yes, I plan to go there and try my luck, but I'm afraid if something goes wrong, it will be hard to deal with it alone, so I wanted to ask if you would like to come with me."

Shi Youchen: "When? How will we get there? Are you sure?"

Yan Zhiyuan looked embarrassed. "The next time the floating island opens its access channel will be in three days. The channel will be open for 24 hours, but 07 just said that he has something to talk to you and Morrill about in three days, so..."

The two sides collided.

Before coming, Yan Zhiyuan had always believed that Shi Youchen would most likely agree to his request out of personal feelings, but he did not expect that the other party would temporarily worship 07 as his master. Now, between his past friend and future teacher, which side Shi Youchen would choose was not something he could guarantee.

Sure enough, Shi Youchen was silent for a moment. Just when Yan Zhiyuan thought he was going to reject him, he heard him say, "I will ask him for it in three days. I will deal with the matter over there as soon as possible and then we can go to the Floating Island together."

Shi Youchen's promise not only made Yan Zhiyuan, who had something to ask of him, feel warm, but also made him feel comforted.

Because this means that Shi Youchen did not completely abandon his past self as 07 said.

He still remembers his past friends, which means he is destined not to become a person like 07 who puts his own interests above all else.

"Okay, thank you." The huge stone in Yan Zhiyuan's heart finally fell.

——

Ying Yungui had just come out of the rainforest area, sweating all over, and the wound on his back was even more terrifying.

After Lu Ming's defection, the Lu family's status declined significantly, and the joint training base in City A, District 8, was no longer under the Lu family's management. In the end, Ying Yungui took the initiative to take over this hot potato.

Because the training base had been attacked twice, and even important data had been lost, the other superpower families in District 8 did not want to be implicated, let alone held responsible. Ying Yungui handled the process with ease.

Just when those guys were about to laugh at the young man, the Lu family represented by Lu Zhiqi, the remaining branches of the Mo family, and the old patriarch of the Maile clan all stood up and expressed their willingness to become the helpers of the Ying family and to be loyal to the Ying family in the future.

With the full support of the Luo family who moved back to District 8, the reconstruction of the training base was completed in just a few days.

During this reconstruction, Ying Yungui deliberately allocated resources to actual combat, including expanding the field training area, updating equipment related to simulated warfare, and absorbing many members with special abilities who were not of aristocratic family blood.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that he wanted to turn the training base into a "resource pool of soldiers."

But it was precisely because of Ying Yungui's drastic changes that some people with little background who had special abilities saw the development prospects and sincerity here and came to recommend themselves.

The number is even greater than the number that Lu Ming spent a lot of time and effort to recruit back then.

Among those who came to recommend themselves, there were some with rare abilities. Although their levels were not high, Ying Yungui specifically instructed the training base to set up a high-matching environment for them.

Today was the day after Ying Yungui and his father parted ways on bad terms, and also the day after he sensed Lu Ming's complete death. He had locked himself in the rainforest for the entire morning, emerging wounded just before lunchtime.

But Shen Buhui had been waiting outside for more than an hour.

Shen Buhui and Mai Er had a special relationship, which Ying Yungui knew. Mai Er was usually busy due to his job, so Shen Buhui's presence here meant that there was very important information, and Mai Er needed Shen Buhui to convey it to him personally.

Sure enough, Shen Buhui hurried forward and whispered in Ying Yungui's ear: "Something happened to Li Ming. She asked you to go to the other courtyard quickly."