Joining the Sacred Bureau was so simple that Yu Zhibo couldn't help but suspect they were recruiting cannon fodder.
Wang Ange seemed to sense his doubt and explained, "You might not realize how scarce awakened individuals are. But the truth is, with the continuous emergence of various bizarre creatures and the demonization of animals, the supernatural ability users in our country are increasingly insufficient.
So, for every new ability user that appears, we try our best to recruit them. Of course, you are currently only an intern member. To become a formal member, you'll need to complete more missions and undergo comprehensive assessments. These include not only power evaluations but also ideological and moral character checks.
Speaking of which, Wang Ange looked at him with a smile and said, "Although we are short on ability users, we prefer quality over quantity."
"What if someone refuses to join?" Yu Zhibo couldn't help but be curious. Surely there are some ability users who don't want to join?
"You know that ability users possess extraordinary energy after awakening their abilities. Our country even regulates firearms, let alone individuals whose powers can crush firearms?"
As she spoke, Wang Ange's expression turned somewhat mysterious, appearing sinister in the darkness.
Yu Zhibo couldn't help but swallow, his mind conjuring up taboo words like dissection, human experimentation, and ability user breeding.
"It's not as dark as you imagine!" Wang Ange said, seeing the boy's frightened expression. "For those ability users who stubbornly refuse to join the Sacred Bureau, we usually employ special means to prohibit them from using their abilities again, forcing them to live in this world as ordinary people."
Wang Ange's expression turned serious as she explained, "The individual power of superhumans is immense. Once they reach B-class, destroying a city alone is not difficult. However, we don't have enough resources to monitor them constantly. Therefore, to avoid unnecessary risks, we must impose restrictions. You should understand this, right?"
She didn't mention that most people find it hard to adapt to a return to normalcy after getting used to having immense power.
Hearing that refusal didn't lead to dissection, Yu Zhibo breathed a sigh of relief. Although he had already decided to join the Sacred Bureau, he didn't want his organization to be too cold-hearted. Fortunately, the Sacred Bureau was still the Sacred Bureau of China, and its people-centric principle remained unchanged.
As for those scenarios in novels where ability users simply register and the protagonist acts weak to grow in secret…
"Are you kidding me? Do you have enough manpower to constantly monitor the actions of ability users? Even if you did, could you keep track of them? If these scattered ability users were to develop malicious intentions, ordinary people would be the ones to suffer."
Just then, Wang Ange continued, "Of course, there are ways to not fully join but still retain your abilities. With the increasing number of abnormal events occurring worldwide, the country needs the capabilities of awakened individuals. Therefore, the recruitment conditions are quite lenient now. For example, there are many intern awakened individuals in the bureau, most of whom haven't passed the assessment.
They are unwilling to give up their powers and don't want to live ordinary lives. So, they usually take on missions at the bureau from time to time, similar to mercenaries, and are also subject to national supervision."
Yu Zhibo nodded.
Seeing that Yu Zhibo had completely trusted her, Wang Ange smiled slightly and said, "Can we leave now? You know, people who have just awakened their abilities are easily targeted by dark creatures!"
Yu Zhibo had awakened, and Wang Ange didn't mind sharing some common knowledge known only to ability users. Dark creatures are formed from the fusion of dark spiritual energy, and newly awakened individuals are a great tonic to them.
"Alright!" Yu Zhibo nodded and prepared to bend down to carry Chen Bo away.
Wang Ange was very pleased with Yu Zhibo's cooperation. She was very satisfied with the boy's bravery and calmness when encountering the wild ghost, and his refusal to abandon his friend even when he mistakenly thought she was a formidable enemy. She believed he would likely pass the bureau's psychological assessment without much trouble.
Thinking of an intern member in her team who reluctantly joined the Sacred Bureau to avoid losing his abilities, Wang Ange couldn't help but shake her head. "It's truly one person compared to another, and one is dead from jealousy. Both grew up under the same nine-year compulsory education, yet the difference between people is so vast."
She never expected that a mission she initially thought was just for fun would yield such an unexpected gain. She truly was a lucky person favored by heaven!
Just as the two were at their most relaxed, two black nails, emitting a dark glow, shot through the night towards them.
"Not good!" Wang Ange's pupils contracted sharply. With a thought, two compressed air shields appeared in front of the black nails.
She hadn't expected Yu Zhibo to attract dark creatures so quickly after just awakening. In her haste, she couldn't exert her full power.
Clang!
The two black nails struck the air shields one after another. The air shield behind Wang Ange's head shattered, deflecting the nails, causing them to fall to the ground and then dissolve into black liquid.
Yu Zhibo, however, was not so fortunate. Because the air shield was formed hastily and was further away from Wang Ange, its toughness was clearly insufficient. It was directly pierced and shattered by the black nail, which then embedded itself into his temple.
Wang Ange stared blankly at Yu Zhibo's pierced head, completely unable to comprehend how the boy, who had been so full of life and potential just moments ago, had met such an untimely end.
Upon realizing what had happened, she became furious. The hair tie that had been holding her hair together snapped, her long hair flying wildly as a terrifying aura emanated from her.
However, the powerful aura she was unleashing was only halfway through when it abruptly stopped. The scene before her stunned her.
Bang! With a faint sound of an air explosion, Yu Zhibo, whose head had just been pierced, suddenly turned into a plume of smoke.
Clatter! A wooden board, one meter long and twenty centimeters wide, fell from the smoke onto the floor with a crisp sound in the silent corridor. There was a small hole pierced through the board.
Yu Zhibo's real body was squatting near the doorway not far away. A section of the wooden door behind him was missing, exactly the size of the board that had fallen to the ground.
Yu Zhibo stood up with lingering fear, his crimson eyes opening as he stared in the direction from which the black nails had come.
Under the gaze of the Sharingan, a black figure emerged from the darkness of the adjacent corridor and stopped twenty meters away from the two.
It was a person completely clad in black, with a dark sheen flowing all over their body. The only discernible features were the eyes, which lacked even whites, making them hard to spot without careful observation.
One word could describe it: Black!
Seeing it, Yu Zhibo couldn't help but recall the dark creatures mentioned in the system's initial mission.
"Is this a dark creature? It has a human form but is entirely black, as if a shadow has materialized." Yu Zhibo thought to himself. With his Sharingan activated, he could see that the shadow's body was flowing with evil, dark spiritual energy, its quantity exceeding his own by five times, comparable to Wang Ange's.
On the other side, Wang Ange quickly recovered from her shock at the substitution jutsu. She knew that now was not the time to be surprised by Yu Zhibo's abilities. She looked at the shadow with a grim expression.
"Little Yu, pick up your companion and leave on the motorcycle quickly. I'll deal with this monster!" Wang Ange took a deep breath and stood in front of them, her back straight.
"But Sister Wang…" Yu Zhibo was a hot-blooded youth and felt it was unchivalrous. How could a boy let a girl bear the danger alone?
"Get lost!" Wang Ange roared, her voice filled with anger. "Take your friend and leave. You haven't grown yet and are just a burden. Don't get in my way!"
This scene was all too familiar!
Yu Zhibo inexplicably recalled countless TV dramas where the male protagonist tells the female lead to leave while saving her, and she refuses, leading to both their deaths. He glanced at Chen Bo, who was sound asleep on the ground, gritted his teeth, picked him up, and turned to run in the other direction of the corridor.
With his strength of 22 and agility of 24, he ran at incredible speed with someone on his back, quickly approaching the corner.
Seeing this, the shadow raised its arm, extended its index finger, and then the fingertip transformed into a black nail, shooting towards the back of Yu Zhibo's head.
Wang Ange's expression turned even colder. Prepared, she raised her hand and clenched her five fingers, causing the air in front of her to collapse silently. The black nail lost its momentum, fell to the ground, and then turned into liquid, flowing back towards the dark creature and merging into its body.
Wang Ange's brows furrowed. She lowered her arm, her legs clad in denim tightening, and she charged towards the shadow like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Meanwhile…
Yu Zhibo's expression was calm. Carrying Chen Bo, he had already reached the electric scooter outside the hospital compound and was about to start it to leave.
Bang bang bang! Intense fighting sounds echoed from within the hospital, along with the sound of walls shattering, indicating that the battle between the two inside had reached its climax.
Outside the hospital gate, Yu Zhibo held the scooter's throttle, but ultimately, he didn't turn it.
Placing the sleeping Chen Bo on the back of the electric scooter, Yu Zhibo looked at the "Great Fireball Technique" skill pack floating in his consciousness and decisively clicked to learn it. Instantly, a surge of skill information and comprehension flooded his mind, allowing him to instantly master this famous ninjutsu from the anime, as if he had practiced it countless times.
Upon checking the skill details, he found it was indeed different from the skill packs purchased in the store. Skills obtained from main quests were directly at intermediate proficiency upon learning.
[Great Fireball Technique (Intermediate Proficiency), C-class. Skill Usage: Gather chakra in the throat and exhale a massive fireball forward, launching enemies into the air. Spiritual Energy Cost: 60 points/use.]
Yu Zhibo looked at his spiritual energy. He had used the substitution jutsu once for 18 points, spent nearly 6 points to activate his eyes, and 1 point to help Chen Bo break free from the illusion, totaling 25 points.
However, spiritual energy recovered with rest. After closing his Sharingan, he had recovered 5 points of spiritual energy, bringing his current usable spiritual energy to around 80 points.
"System, can my Great Fireball Technique defeat that monster?"
"The Great Fireball Technique has a restraining effect on dark creatures and is more than enough to eliminate it!" A line of information appeared in his mind, which was the system's response.
"Then that's enough. With my current spiritual energy, I have more than enough to perform one substitution jutsu and the Great Fireball Technique. I will not abandon my savior!" Yu Zhibo gritted his teeth, his expression fierce, and ran back into the compound.