BFET Chapter 4

Genius

After leaving Fei Yuelan’s office, Xie Yi and Shen Shu walked one in front of the other down the corridor, neither of them speaking for a moment.

Shen Shu, lagging behind by a step, focused his gaze on Xie Yi, his dark eyes reflecting Xie Yi’s figure.

Suddenly, Shen Shu saw the person in front of him stop.

He also stopped accordingly, and as he was about to say something, the person in front of him suddenly turned around—

In the next instant, Shen Shu only felt a tightening on his wrist, and his whole body was pulled violently into the side safety passage. He stumbled, his vision darkened, and a faint, cool sensation touched his neck.

In the dim light, Shen Shu looked at the person in front of him and asked with a light smile, “Captain Xie Yi, what are you doing?”

They were very close.

Xie Yi’s scrutinizing gaze fell on Shen Shu’s face. Not only did he not see the slightest panic in the other person, but when their eyes met, he even saw a hint of—teasing?

Xie Yi narrowed his eyes and asked in a cold voice, “Why were you in the Fengjiang Enclosed Zone this morning? And why were the Nyclas chasing you?”

Shen Shu quietly looked into Xie Yi’s eyes. “Captain Xie Yi, what are you talking about? I don’t quite understand.”

He claimed not to understand, but his tone was completely unrevealing.

“Don’t understand?” Xie Yi met his gaze, the knife in his hand moving closer.

A slight stinging sensation came from his neck, and Shen Shu smelled a faint trace of blood.

He looked at Xie Yi, seeing his own reflection in the other’s dark pupils. “If Captain Xie Yi wants me to understand, I can pretend to understand.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Xie Yi raised his chin slightly. “Then answer my question from just now.”

“Of course, it was to meet my new captain, but I unexpectedly encountered that thing on the way.” After Shen Shu finished speaking, he chuckled very softly, “Are you satisfied with this answer? My captain.”

Xie Yi ignored Shen Shu’s last words and instead followed up on his answer with a natural question, “So you ran away after seeing me?”

Shen Shu hummed and tilted his head. “If I didn’t run, I’d be too much of a nuisance.”

Xie Yi: “Should I praise you for being so sensible?”

Shen Shu readily accepted: “Thank you.”

Xie Yi stared at Shen Shu for a moment. “You better be truly sensible.”

With that, he sheathed his knife and glanced at Shen Shu’s clothes as he turned to leave. “I’ll give you half an hour to change into your team uniform. Meet at the west gate.”

Shen Shu watched Xie Yi leave, then reached out and touched his neck.

His fingertip, damp with moisture, pressed against the fine wound. The stinging sensation climbed along the nerve endings into his brain, giving him a secret thrill.

He indulged in it alone, completely ignoring the Smart Terminal on his wrist that had been lit up for quite some time.

On the illuminated screen, only the character “Fei” was flashing.

Nearly two in the afternoon.

You Xue, who had arrived early at the west gate, was reviewing the newly requested Fengjiang Central Zone Extraction report for the past six months when suddenly a reminder popped up on the suspended screen: ‘Team Member Data Updated’.

?

You Xue’s hand moved faster than her brain, quickly tapping to open it.

When she saw the third name that had appeared on the interface, which had previously only contained Xie Yi’s and her own names, she couldn’t help but exclaim, “No way!”

Shen Shu.

You Xue looked at the name, feeling vaguely familiar. After a moment, she realized, “Isn’t this the rookie king who suddenly disappeared from the training base this year!”

Just as You Xue was expressing her surprise, a jeep stopped in front of her.

She instinctively looked up, then reacted quickly, closed the screen, opened the door, and got into the car. Before she could even fasten her seatbelt, she waved her left-hand Smart Terminal at Xie Yi. “We have a new teammate!”

Xie Yi glanced at her, his expression calm. “I know.”

“That’s all?” You Xue stared at Xie Yi in shock.

“?” Xie Yi looked at her, puzzled. “What else?”

You Xue withdrew her left hand, tapped her chin, and tried to put on a cold expression. In a deep voice, she said, “Never mind, make his name disappear when he comes back.”

Xie Yi: “…”

“Cough… why are you looking at me like that?” You Xue awkwardly retracted her hand and muttered, “Don’t tell me you don’t want to do that?”

Xie Yi paused for two seconds with a complicated expression. “Read fewer novels.”

“?” You Xue: What does my novel have to do with this! You’re the one who dared to publicly refuse new recruits at the meeting; I’m just making a reasonable guess! What does my novel have to do with it!

You Xue complained inwardly, glared at him, and then turned her attention back to the new teammate. “This Shen Shu disappeared for more than a month. I thought he wouldn’t be joining the main team.”

Xie Yi: “Disappeared?”

“Yeah.” You Xue glanced at him with an expression that said, ‘How come you don’t know anything?’ “It was pretty big news back then. After all, he was the top rookie of this year and the only S in the overall assessment.”

When the reserve force training base submits the list of qualified personnel to the main team each year, they rate the people on the list based on their performance during the three-year training period.

The assessment covers many aspects, and the criteria change every year, but they are known for being strict.

S-level, the highest rating, is rarely seen even once every few years.

After saying that, You Xue saw Xie Yi fall silent. It seemed that the previous S, who was rarely seen in several years, was the person in front of her.

She silently shifted her gaze and muttered softly, “Suddenly, I feel like my mediocre self doesn’t fit in with this team.”

Silently reciting in her heart that one can’t compare oneself to a freak, You Xue opened the Smart Terminal again. “Let me see how high the Awakening degree of this rookie king is. Wow, his hair is so white, and he’s so good-looking.”

–Gene Resonance: Evolutionary Awakening

–Biological Evolution Direction: Vision

–Awakening Degree: 28%

You Xue blinked as she looked at the number, then looked at the words ‘Evolutionary Awakening’ above.

After looking back and forth several times, she clicked on the Awakening degree value details in disbelief.

–Initial Awakening Degree: 20%

–Current Awakening Degree: 28%

“Xie Yi.” You Xue looked at Xie Yi with a ghostly expression. “I’ll never call you a freak again. This Shen Shu is clearly the freak.”

Before Xie Yi could answer, You Xue continued, “Initial Awakening degree of 20%, now 28%.”

“He’s not even a Complete Awakening; he’s just an Evolutionary Awakening!” This was what shocked You Xue the most.

The Awakening brought about by Gene Resonance is divided into two categories: Evolutionary Awakening and Complete Awakening.

In addition to the improvement of physical functions and pollution resistance, humans with Evolutionary Awakening also have one of their five senses evolve, and some even gain dual-sense evolution.

Humans who develop special abilities on the basis of Evolutionary Awakening are called Complete Awakening.

The difference between Evolutionary Awakening and Complete Awakening, in addition to the most obvious difference of having special abilities, is the difference in Awakening degree.

Although the Awakening degree can be improved through training and combat, the former is more limited in terms of both initial Awakening degree and upper limit than the latter.

This is also why You Xue was so surprised.

You Xue clicked her tongue and couldn’t help but ask Xie Yi, “Can you still keep your position as captain?”

Xie Yi glanced at her lightly. “Try and see.”

You Xue, silently praying that the big shots would leave the small fry alone, swiped through the data and continued to look down, muttering, “He’s improved by 8% in just three years. What has he experienced? He hasn’t even been in a Enclosed Zone, has he!”

“If you want to know, you can ask him yourself later.” Xie Yi glanced at the time. “But as far as I know, this Shen Shu is Fei Yuelan’s student. He may have been in a Enclosed Zone.”

Fei Yuelan’s student? He may have been in a Enclosed Zone?

These two sentences contained a lot of information. You Xue paused for a moment before scolding, “I’m really going to have to fight with you geniuses! Are you still going to grind even like this!”

After scolding, she felt that something was wrong. “Wait, you just said I can ask him myself. What do you mean? Aren’t we going on a mission now? Where do I have time to…”

She suddenly stopped, widened her eyes, and looked at Xie Yi in disbelief. “Xie Yi, are you crazy? You’re taking a newbie to the Central Zone!”

As soon as You Xue finished speaking, there were a few rhythmic knocks on the car window next to her.

The two people in the car looked over one after the other.

They saw the person they had just been discussing standing outside the car, bending over, and looking at them through the car window.

You Xue: ……

The car window slowly lowered.

Shen Shu lowered his head, his gaze lightly sweeping over You Xue, then looked at Xie Yi inside, and smiled slightly. “I shouldn’t be late, right? Captain Xie Yi.”

“10 seconds left.” Xie Yi met his gaze. “You’ll be late if you don’t get in the car.”

You Xue subconsciously turned her head when she heard this sentence, her eyes full of shock as she looked at Xie Yi: You’re going to count it as late even if he doesn’t get in the car?

Shen Shu, who was outside the car, didn’t react much when he heard this sentence. He just nodded, stood up straight, walked to the back row, opened the car door, and got in.

As the jeep started again, You Xue looked at the person sitting in the back seat from the rearview mirror and couldn’t help but feel that this newbie named Shen Shu had a pretty good personality. And this face—photos were definitely too superficial.

You Xue suddenly felt that her future field work life was full of beauty.

Xie Yi: “She’s You Xue.”

Hearing her name, You Xue turned her head to look at the back seat and said with a smile, “Hello.”

Shen Shu also looked at her and replied politely, “Hello, Shen Shu.”

After the two finished greeting each other, Xie Yi continued, “You Xue, explain the situation.”

“Okay.” You Xue understood and opened her Smart Terminal, adjusting the projection to the view range of the three people.

On the blue light screen were several graphs. You Xue highlighted several nodes: “Extraction in the Fengjiang Central Zone and Mid-Section Zone is carried out simultaneously, twice in the last six months, with intervals of no more than three months. The most recent one was half a month ago.”

After saying that, You Xue called up another graph: “Extraction in the Peripheral Zone is carried out six times, once every month. The most recent one was this morning.”

“The analysis and report of each extraction result did not show any abnormalities.” You Xue switched to two new light screens and circled the key points. “Except for the pollution wavelength result analysis, the environmental reconnaissance and some key Mutated Entity reconnaissance during the extraction process also showed no abnormalities.”

“Except for this time.” You Xue added, “However, the pollution wavelength I extracted from the Peripheral Zone also showed no abnormalities after analysis.”

In short, everything was normal, except for the sudden relocation of the Nycla group. This kind of situation had never been encountered before.

“Do you think it might just be a change in the habits of the Mutated Entity creatures?”

You Xue looked at Xie Yi. “I checked the data and found that there were such cases in Linhai and Jing’an several years ago.”

“No, changes in biological habits don’t cross zones.” Xie Yi directly denied. “Don’t forget that although the Nycla is only a preliminary subspecies, its long-term habitat is actually deep in the Mid-Section Zone. That place is already infinitely close to the Central Zone.”

Anything involving the Central Zone must be handled with caution.

Xie Yi immediately made a decision: “We’ll go directly to the Source of Pollution. Share a copy of the Mutated Entity situation at the Source of Pollution and in the Central Zone.”

“Okay.” You Xue nodded and put away the light screen, thinking that since they were bringing a newbie this time, she and Xie Yi should act together, and Shen Shu would assist in staying on the periphery. Just as she was about to turn her head and tell Shen Shu, she heard Xie Yi say, “Shen Shu and I will go in. You do as usual, but adjust the location.”

You Xue:?