Chapter 7 An Alternative Way to Get Ashore: "Strengthening Muscles and Bones, Relaxing the Mind"...
Shu Qing studied diligently for seven days, relying on willpower and a special ability to prolong his life. He slept for less than twenty hours in total and finally finished reading the several gigabytes of materials.
On the day of the exam, she stood in the Supermarket Management Bureau with a throbbing headache, only managing to stay alert thanks to a lucky break she had the night before.
The little snake demon was released and lay on the soft cushion, looking listless, also appearing to be sleep-deprived.
Only Jin Wanli and Hu You, the two proctors, were alert and kept a close watch on Shu Qing from every angle, determined not to miss any possible evidence of cheating.
The first two rounds were a written test and an interview. Relying on her comprehensive and in-depth learning, Shu Qing answered fluently and made it all the way to the practical skills test.
However, the practical part is not so user-friendly.
First of all, it was very unfriendly to the little snake demon—Shu Qing watched helplessly as it was locked in a glass box filled with lightning and thunder, forbidden to fight back, only allowed to hide, and had to wait until a minute later for Shu Qing to give the order to "fight back" before it could bite the dummy that served as the core of the formation to pieces.
When it came time to pass this hurdle, even the two proctors looked rather grim.
A minute that felt like an eternity finally passed. Shu Qing took the little snake out of the glass box and carefully checked each of its scales. Seeing that it was intact, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The little snake demon rubbed against her fingers, whether to comfort her or because it was frightened, it was hard to tell if it was acting cute.
This was the first time it had acted so affectionately. Shu Qing wasn't surprised; instead, she felt sorry for it, thinking it must have been frightened by this unfortunate practical test. She gently stroked its head with her finger.
Next, she should take care of herself.
The test was unfriendly to monsters, and not much better to humans either—she was presented with a variety of different types of instruments, which she needed to activate according to the correct operating procedures and use to deal with various scenarios given by the examiner.
Shu Qing felt her head hurt even more.
She held her breath and focused, the symbols and lines she had memorized taking shape in her mind. The instruments in front of her started operating one by one, and through intuition, she felt the lines of energy converging moving invisibly throughout the room.
It felt as if a fierce gust of wind had swept past her ears, or as if a silent thunderbolt had struck before her eyes; she seemed to stand in the eye of the storm. She endured the throbbing headache, vaguely sensing an overwhelming familiarity. If it weren't for the increasingly intense, dull pain in her head, she would have almost fallen into a deep dream within this inexplicable sense of familiarity—
"hiss--!"
The little snake demon suddenly darted onto her shoulder, as if claiming its own territory, wrapping its tail around her and letting out a fierce hiss at Jin Wanli.
A pure white chill spread around her, permeating her senses and senses. Shu Qing was caught off guard and inhaled a breath of cold air, as if she had directly inhaled the polar wind. A chill shot straight from her nasal cavity to her lungs.
The sudden chill jolted her awake, and her headache vanished. She could still sense the invisible, clashing wind and thunder, but the dreamlike feeling was gone.
Shu Qing gritted her teeth in resentment and glared at Jin Wanli with hostility.
They actually sabotaged her during her exam?
Jin Wanli brushed aside the chilling aura that rushed towards him, jumping up and down in a fit of rage: "You're protecting her?!"
The little snake demon remained unmoved, curled up in the crook of her shoulder, its cold head pressed against her.
Shu Qing subconsciously raised her hand to block the little snake—she had no choice. Although she knew the little snake might be able to take on ten of her, protecting baby Pokémon was a primal human instinct.
She said with a half-smile, "Minister Kim, weren't you here to proctor the exam?"
"Who the hell is here to proctor the exam?"
Jin Wanli completely dropped his pretense, revealing a pair of dazzling golden eyes. "I'm here to take him away!"
Shu Qing's legs went weak and her vision went black. If it weren't for the table next to her that she could use for support, she would have almost collapsed to the ground.
She felt a tightness in her chest and couldn't breathe. For a moment, the solid floor seemed to turn into a massless gas, and gravity failed miserably. She felt as if she had floated into the outermost layer of the thin atmosphere.
In an instant, the frost returned to her body. Although it was cold, she could finally breathe again. Shu Qing took a deep breath, and the cold air rushed into her empty lungs, choking her and causing her to cough and shiver.
"Okay, I just experienced what it's like to crash-land in the Arctic from space."
Shu Qing muttered a joke to herself, but her hands weren't idle either. She grabbed a talisman device that looked like a floating lamp from the table.
She made a complex gesture, and the pattern that she could only draw haltingly a moment ago suddenly took shape under the intense tension. The levitating lamp hummed, and the spherical bulb floating above slammed into the lamp base with a bang. The light dimmed, and a black gravity field with a diameter of three meters spread out around Shu Qing.
The gravitational field negated the Secret Service Secretary's miraculous magic, and Shu Qing's feet finally felt the solid ground again... although the ground was still somewhat ethereal.
The young human and the monster had exchanged blows in just two seconds. At this moment, Hu You, whose reaction time was extremely slow, finally snapped out of his shock and grabbed Jin Wanli's shoulder, saying, "Don't be impulsive!"
Jin Wanli shook him off, letting out a vicious sneer, "A little trick—"
His words were abruptly cut off before he could finish speaking.
The name tag on the blond boy's chest flashed a warning red light rapidly, and there was a hidden array pattern embroidered inside his uniform. At this moment, the red light started from the name tag and flowed through his entire body along the array pattern, making the invisible patterns stand out, almost like a layer of blood vessels pumping from his heart through his body.
Shu Qing was startled. The little snake demon's pupils contracted, and it suddenly stood up halfway.
The Secret Service Secretary was completely encased in the uniform, his golden eyes fixed menacingly on the doorway.
Shu Qing turned her head and saw a man in his late twenties standing at the door. He wore gold-rimmed glasses, a black suit, and had a gentle and refined demeanor. He was the kind of man whose appearance was easy to like.
"Miss Shu, hello." The man walked towards Shu Qing, extended his right hand, and introduced himself politely, "I am Xie Heng, the head of the special monitoring team of the Extraordinary Biological Administration Bureau."
This was one of the few people Shu Qing had met since joining the Super Management Bureau who had given her a somewhat favorable impression. She shook hands with him somewhat awkwardly, saying, "Mr. Xie."
A junior assistant behind Xie Heng added, "Professor Xie is our Supermarket Management Bureau's chief specially appointed expert."
Shu Qing readily changed her address, "Thank you, Professor."
Xie Heng turned around, made a hand gesture, and released the binding array on Jin Wanli's uniform. Jin Wanli, with a gloomy face, retreated behind Hu You without saying a word.
Shu Qing frowned slightly, not trying to hide it—this brat had caused so much trouble. He kept saying he'd let her take the exam, but then he secretly attacked her during it, and finally brazenly assaulted her. Was she really going to let him get away with it like that?
Is there no discipline left in the Supermarket Management Bureau, this government agency?
“The Superpower Administration Bureau’s ‘Special Operations Department’ is different from other special operations departments,” Xie Heng smiled apologetically and reintroduced her, “Our Special Operations Department is officially called ‘Service Department Composed of Special Superhuman Creatures’. It is full of high-level monsters that can transform into human form. Wanli is the highest-level monster known, level 9.2.”
Shu Qing: "..."
Okay, well, what a high-level monster.
“Oh,” Shu Qing said, quite understandingly, “so it’s a protected animal.”
Jin Wanli flew into a rage: "What did you say?!"
Shu Qing automatically ignored Jin Wanli's outburst—to be honest, as a typical young person who grew up with a modern education, she really didn't have any concept of "racial differences" in her mind. If you're talking about danger because of strong combat power, then she would think that there are 180cm tall men on the street who are dangerous no matter where you are.
“I have no prejudice against monsters,” she said. This was the truth, because if Jin Wanli were a person, she would definitely be even more relentless. “But even if the situation is special, shouldn’t there be an explanation for how public officials… oh, I’m sorry, monster officials, to lay a hand on citizens like us who haven’t broken the law?”
What's wrong with protecting animals? She followed all the rules and procedures; she didn't intentionally attack any protected animals.
Xie Heng nodded and said, "Of course, there will definitely be a public reprimand and disciplinary action." He glanced at Jin Wanli, signaling him to hurry up and come over to apologize.
Jin Wanli was clearly already a pro at this. Although he was unwilling, he still bowed smoothly and recited a passage, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have bullied you by relying on my fighting strength," from memory.
Shu Qing was mainly unwilling to suffer this injustice. After all, she wasn't injured. Now that she had received an apology and calmed down, the matter was over, and the topic returned to the main point.
She glanced at the table full of equipment and asked, "So, do I consider myself to have passed the exam?"
“Of course,” Xie Heng said gently, “Miss Shu has clearly already acquired the ability to use the demon-suppressing equipment and can adapt to changing circumstances.”
Jin Wanli, whose proctor position had been downgraded to a test question, looked even worse and gritted his teeth in resentment.
Shu Qing felt a small surge of joy—these seven days of hard work hadn't been in vain!
“Wanli’s previous procedures were not very standardized,” Xie Heng said, “but I have retrieved the surveillance footage and have a full understanding of the situation. There’s no problem; I’ll manually process the adoption permit for Ms. Shu.”
He logged into the system on the intranet of the Supernatural Biology Administration and re-registered the "exam passed" result for Shu Qing. Shu Qing watched from the side and casually reminded him, "My name is the 'Qing' from 'Seven Emotions'."
Xie Heng paused slightly, deleted the character "晴" that he had originally typed, and said, "Sorry." He then asked, "It's rare to see people use the character '情' in a name. Does it have any special meaning?"
"Oh, it's nothing. My mom said it means 'strengthening muscles and bones, and soothing emotions,'" Shu Qing explained. "My mom is a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. She's seen so many patients that she feels it doesn't matter whether I succeed in my studies or career. She just hopes I'm healthy, happy every day, exercise, and don't suffer any injustices."
She laughed self-deprecatingly and said, "As a result, I haven't exercised much, but my willpower is really unyielding."
The little snake demon nestled on her shoulder, laughing silently.
They dared to confront a level 9.2 superhuman creature head-on without showing any fear. Isn't that a testament to their indomitable spirit?
Xie Heng sincerely praised, "Your mother has a keen eye for things."
He completed the entire process himself, and the printer produced a thin sheet of paper. Xie Heng affixed the official seal, sealed it with a gold-embossed hard cover, and officially issued the exquisite license to her.
Shu Qing took it with both hands, and a heavy weight was finally lifted from her heart. Overjoyed, she couldn't help but press her face against the snake's scales.
In addition to this invaluable license, she also received a subsidy contract from the Superpower Management Bureau—to ensure that high-level superhuman beings receive good care, the Superpower Management Bureau will give her a subsidy of 10,000 yuan per month.
I never expected to have such benefits. Looking at it this way, she's practically an unofficial caregiver.
I stumbled upon a stable income, and the amount wasn't too low, so the seven days of hard work were definitely worth it.
Shu Qing happily thought: Could this be considered a different kind of civil service exam success?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
