Chapter 21: Awakening, Erasure, Important Decisions Regarding the Former Chief Executive Officer...

"Beep beep beep—"

In a daze, Fu Ze pulled his hand out from under the soft blanket and reached out in the direction of the sound.

I pressed the power button, but the alarm clock was still ringing.

The alarm clock continued to ring even after I pressed the volume button.

I swiped randomly across the screen, but the alarm clock kept ringing...

"Hey buddy? Does your phone alarm not have a delay function?" Fu Ze sat up angrily, gritting his teeth as he looked at the phone that was ringing wildly.

At that moment, a reasoning question appeared on his phone screen, accompanied by four seemingly identical options.

Fu Ze: ...Thank you, I'm fully awake now.

After a little effort to turn off the alarm clock, Fu Ze rolled off the bed and shuffled towards the bathroom in his cotton slippers.

As he splashed the cold water from the tap onto his face, Fu Ze finally felt a sense of reality, as if he were alive again.

By pulling up the blinds, Fu Ze allowed the 7 a.m. sunlight from V City to naturally stream into the room, illuminating what was originally a very dim space.

Well, I didn't have time to take a closer look yesterday due to limited conditions, but Bogdan is really quite good-looking. At least compared to the previous internet celebrities, he fits Fu Ze's definition of "beauty" better.

At the same time, this body is not only flexible and supple, but also possesses muscles with extremely explosive power and endurance.

With her striking good looks, healthy and youthful body, coupled with a remarkably clean resume and personal background, Bogdan truly lives up to his reputation as a pawn carefully cultivated and placed into the adjudication board by the Cummins Group.

Fu Ze was very satisfied and accepted the gift.

This satisfaction with his new body lasted until he took off his pajamas to take a shower.

Dude, while the bottles and jars you have next to the sink show you're a person who takes care of yourself, aren't you being a little too meticulous? Shaving your armpit hair is one thing, but is it really necessary to do this here?

Fu Ze chose to retract his positive review.

Setting aside his mixed feelings, he rubbed soap on his body while sorting out his next action plan.

According to information stored on Bogdan's phone and computer, today is the first day of their internship at headquarters for the elite new executives selected from various city adjudication bureaus.

As Fu Ze had guessed yesterday, if he hadn't caused the prison break and disrupted things, theoretically Bogdan would have found an opportunity to approach Snake Eyes after entering the Tribunal and then sent him to his death.

After completing this task, Bogdan will continue to lurk in the Judgment Board, providing Cummins with just the right "favors," while Cummins will occasionally throw out some pawns to become "helping" for Bogdan's advancement. Both sides achieve mutual success and are happy.

However, the change came so suddenly that no matter how powerful and influential the Kangming Group was, they could never have imagined that the elite troops they sent out had been replaced.

If this had happened in L City, Fu Ze would probably have had a headache about how to impersonate the other person in front of those who were familiar with Bogdan.

However, he is currently far away in V City, far from the emperor's reach. In order to ensure that Bogdan's identity is not discovered, the Kangming Group will only contact him through a secret email address and will never come to his door easily.

Moreover, the Cumming Group had just sent Bogdan to infiltrate the Tribunal and kill Fu Ze, so they are unlikely to make any further moves in the short term.

What's the difference between this and releasing a tiger back into the mountains?

Oh no, there are still some differences.

Because Fu Ze has no bottom line; he's the kind of person who can be trusted to accept the sweet talk and then throw the bullets at you.

In other words, if someone releases a tiger back into the mountains, they only need to worry that this tiger will become a major threat in the future.

But Fu Ze, this "tiger," is the kind of super vicious tiger that, after being released, will immediately turn around and silently follow the person who released it, and then take the opportunity to bite them a couple of times.

But that's a story for later. Right now, Fu Ze's most important task is to get to the Trial Bureau a little early and leave a good impression on his colleagues and mentors.

Oh, right, the mentor of Bogdan was Yuan Jianxing!

Fu Ze couldn't help but sigh when he thought of Yuan Jianxing.

It's a bit of a pity, a bit of sympathy, and a bit of a laugh.

He felt that he would hardly encounter anyone more unlucky than this guy in the near future.

From a hindsight perspective, whether it was arresting the minor internet celebrity who was voluntarily helped to escape punishment, or going beyond his authority to hand over Snake Eyes, or even pre-arranging that not all the windows in the office hall be opened, Yuan Jianxing took every step in the right direction.

But the world is never short of teammates who are as bad as pigs.

Of course, it would be a bit of an exaggeration to describe the executives other than Yuan Jianxing as "pig-like teammates," since their actions were quite reasonable and justifiable from their perspective at the time.

Based on the principle of antinomy, Fu Ze can only resign himself to being a "god-like opponent."

Wearing his executive uniform, which was neatly ironed and hanging outside the wardrobe, Fu Ze went out looking quite presentable.

Along the way, he enjoyed the long-lost friendliness of the civilized side of V City.

The breakfast vendor on the street even offered him an extra egg for free; when he boarded the tram, the crowd that had been crammed at the door automatically dispersed into the carriage, giving him ample standing space; and even before he got off, a young girl dressed as an artist pushed through the throng to him, tore a page from her notebook, and handed it to him. On the page was a sketch of herself with headphones on, drawn in gray-purple colored pencils…

Perhaps due to time constraints and artistic treatment, the face in this painting does not quite resemble Fu Ze himself, but the artist keenly grasped and recorded that free and unrestrained spirit.

"Thank you, I'll keep it safe." Fu Ze took off one earphone and smiled at the girl.

And so, Fu Ze arrived at the Trial Bureau with great joy.

However, the moment he stepped through the door, the oppressive and chilling aura emanating from within the Trial Bureau completely extinguished any trace of his joy.

Almost every face that Fu Ze could see wore a solemn expression, as if they had lost their parents, a stark contrast to the cheerful laughter they had displayed during the power outage yesterday.

Fu Ze could roughly guess the reason.

Although he wasn't the one who started all of this, now that he was in the body of the real culprit, it was best for him to keep a low profile for the time being.

After presenting his identification documents to the front desk, Fu Ze was given a document. He then followed the instructions in the document to complete a series of onboarding procedures and finally took his seat in the auditorium of the Adjudication Bureau.

It seems that despite the major security breach that occurred last night, the adjudication board will proceed with all the matters that have already been decided in an orderly manner.

I don't know whether to praise them for remaining steadfast or to say that they are covering up the fact that everything is peaceful.

Just after Fu Ze sat down, a gasp came from beside him.

"It's you!"

Fu Ze turned his head and saw that the person making this reaction was the same hairdressing executive he had seen in Yuan Jianxing's office yesterday.

"Hello, senior." Fu Ze greeted him very politely. "Do you know me, senior?"

Realizing his lapse in composure, the executive immediately took advantage of the excuse provided by Fu Ze to back down.

She tilted her head back and said, "Ah, ah, I just happened to see your information before. I remembered you because you have a very distinctive appearance."

She made no mention of the circumstances or location under which she saw the information.

Seeing the other party's pretentious attitude, Fu Ze immediately had the idea of ​​teasing him.

He blinked, looking at the other person with slight disappointment: "Senior, did you only remember my face?"

The executive froze, seemingly frantically searching his memory.

"Of course not, I remember your name is Bo..." However, no matter how many times she opened her mouth, she couldn't squeeze out the last two words.

“Bogdan.” Fu Ze pronounced the name of the person he had replaced once again with perfect pronunciation. “You’re not the first person who can’t pronounce my name, senior. I’m used to it.”

Seeing the disappointment in Fu Ze's eyes, the hairdressing executive felt extremely guilty.

Fu Ze disliked embarrassing women, so he decided to stop the prank there.

He raised his head, a standard Fu Ze-style smile curving his lips. "So, in order to make it easier for everyone in V City to remember me, I gave myself a name that blends in with the local customs."

The executive immediately adopted a look of being all ears.

“Fu Ze. Fu as in symbol, Ze as in grace.” Fu Ze said, enunciating each word clearly. “Because Bogdan means ‘God’s grace’ in my native language, I naturally chose a name with a similar meaning but using a more common surname. The Tribunal system has also entered it into the system.”

From this sentence onward, the existence of "Bogdan" began to be erased from this world by "Fuze".

"Not bad, not bad, easy to listen to and easy to remember." The executive with his hair up freed his hand from the speech documents he was holding later and clapped his hands sincerely twice. "The new executives' collective induction ceremony will probably be delayed by half an hour. Based on past experience, it will probably take about three hours. I suggest you go to the restroom while there aren't too many people around."

Fu Ze nodded obediently, stood up, and waved goodbye to the hairdressing executive.

Although he hadn't drunk much water in the morning, he didn't feel the need to go to the toilet right now.

However, considering that there might be more people using the restroom later, he still followed the hairdressing executive's advice and made the trip.

After all, he doesn't really want to become famous among the executives just because a colleague accidentally noticed that he had shaved his hair in a certain place.

After this little incident, more and more people came to the auditorium, and Fu Ze was swallowed up by the ranks of the new executives and became an extremely inconspicuous figure.

After some time, Fu Ze spotted Mu Wangzhuo in the crowd in front of the auditorium.

It's fortunate that this guy has been going back and forth between the South District and the Central District so many times these past two days.

After recognizing Mu Wangzhuo, Fu Ze immediately began searching for Yuan Jianxing in the vicinity.

After all, Yuan Jianxing and Mu Wangzhuo are at similar executive officer levels, so they would naturally be assigned to positions close to each other.

No matter how hard Fu Ze searched, he couldn't find Yuan Jianxing in the auditorium of the Trial Bureau.

Thinking that since the other party was his mentor, the two would definitely have a chance to meet after this set of procedures was completed, Fu Ze began to wait patiently for the start of the induction ceremony.

When it was 9:30, a solemn and dignified melody resounded in the auditorium.

Regardless of rank, all executives stood up and bowed slightly forward.

This is the Executive March, adapted from a wartime song from the past, symbolizing the noble spirit and eternal pursuit of justice and peace by the executive officers.

After the melody finished playing, all the executives sat down again, and several senior leaders of the adjudication bureau took turns to speak.

Fu Ze was getting drowsy listening to those endless clichés, and he had to keep himself awake by repeatedly checking the whiskers carved on the double-headed lion emblem hanging behind the stage, which symbolized the spirit of the Adjudication Bureau.

However, just as a leader finished his closing remarks and everyone thought everything was over, a woman who appeared to be fully armed took the stage.

Unlike others who need to rely on collar ornaments to determine a person's rank, Fu Ze immediately recognized her as the deputy director of the Adjudication Bureau, the one Mu Wangzhuo had remotely invited to take away Yuan Jianxing, and the one rumored to have brought the young Yuan Jianxing back from the outside.

Standing before the podium, the deputy director bowed to those around her. She slammed her heels together, making a clanging sound.

"I am about to announce an important decision."

The deputy director took a deep breath, his voice a little strained.

"Notification regarding the demotion of former CEO Hara Mihoshi."

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Author's Note: Congratulations to Fu Xiaozhe for successfully switching to the "smooth-skinned" Unit 2 [glasses]

Brother Xingxing, what's wrong? Brother Xingxing [bursting into tears]