CHAPTER 52: CHAPTER 52 EDUCATION IS A PROBLEM (2)

EDITOR: DRAGON BOAT TRANSLATION

"You really like reading novels, huh? But you shouldn’t be so blatant about it."

Ren Suo let out a sound and hurriedly turned off his phone, then smiled apologetically at Chen Kun, "Sorry, Brother Kun."

"Although we have more freedom when we’re out in the field, if something happens and you can’t deal with it in time, it’ll still count against your record," Chen Kun reminded him, not too upset. "My stomach hurts a little..."

Ren Suo caught his drift and patted his chest, "Go ahead! I’ll keep an eye out here."

"Alright then, I’m leaving it to you!"

As Chen Kun entered the teaching building, Ren Suo took out his phone again, leaning against the gymnasium’s wall. He glanced at the middle school students lined up for a blood draw inside the gym and continued reading "Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

Ren Suo had been working for seven days straight—yes, without any days off. Even the thesis defense for his senior year of college was something he had to ask for time off to attend.

It wasn’t that the Tactical Bureau didn’t offer vacation days; the Bureau’s official office hours were actually very humane: nine to five, weekends off. However, being a national public sector unit, once things got busy, this schedule naturally went out the window.

Of course, the Tactical Bureau was not a heartless employer. As a special unit specifically established by the state and staffed entirely with Cultivators, the remuneration and benefits were, if not exceedingly generous, at least compliant with laws and regulations. Overtime was duly compensated, and any weekends worked could be taken as time off later. According to the team leader, You Jilong, things would likely calm down after this busy period.

Well, if this busy period ever ended...

During these seven days, Ren Suo had spent a total of less than three hours in the Tactical Bureau’s office. The rest of the time, he was out on field duties with Chen Kun.

When Tactical Team Three sent personnel out on assignments, they usually worked in pairs or trios, depending on the mission’s danger and difficulty. Ren Suo’s partner was Chen Kun, a former police academy trainee.

Chen Kun, a year older than him, had been a police academy student. Just as he was about to become a police officer, he was found to possess talent for Spiritual Energy. Soldiers and police academy students were among the first batch of public sector workers tested. Thus, after training, he also joined the Tactical Bureau, though only two months before Ren Suo.

Ren Suo had actually wanted to be paired with Qiao Muyi, hoping to get closer to her. However, to protect new team members like him, the Tactical Bureau followed the practice of ’experienced members leading new ones,’ pairing reliable and capable seniors with recent recruits.

However, Ren Suo glanced at the WeChat group "We Are the Successors of Mysterious Country" and thought it was probably for the best he wasn’t paired with Qiao Muyi. Qiao Muyi’s WeChat alias, ’Xiao Qiao,’ always had a way of posting things that were particularly exasperating. Not only did she often boast about her great unit, but she would also frequently share pictures of sizzling barbecue at night and occasionally post a GIF that seemed suggestive at first, only for a female Ghost to suddenly appear.

Ren Suo felt that being in the same group as her would, sooner or later, get him implicated and beaten to death.

Even though he was out in the field every day, the work wasn’t very tiring. To be precise, Ren Suo and his colleagues’ job was to put on their uniforms, head to designated locations, and oversee others undergoing physical exams.

For instance, he was currently at Lianjiang City No. 36 Middle School’s gymnasium—a school with an average promotion rate—where his main task was to watch students line up for blood tests.

Normally, such physical exams would be organized by the school, with students sent to a nearby health center. However, word was that higher-ups had ordered the swift completion of blood tests for all students in the city’s primary, middle, and high schools. Even if other check-ups couldn’t be finished, the blood tests had to be done.

It didn’t take much for Ren Suo to figure out that the blood test was crucial for the state’s detection of Cultivation talent. Previously, civil servants like him had their blood drawn under the watchful eyes of the Tactical Bureau. Now, as a member of the Bureau, it was his turn to supervise others getting their blood drawn.

Moreover, it wasn’t just schools. Various private enterprises were also urged by the government to conduct physical exams. Compared to students, these enterprises represented the bulk of the population. Lianjiang City, as one of the top four tier-one cities in Mysterious Country, had a permanent population of over 20,000,000 and a floating population exceeding 8,000,000. Every day, countless people flocked to Lianjiang City from all over Mysterious Country seeking opportunities.

Although Lianjiang City had many students, they seemed relatively ’simple’ to manage compared to the vast number of white-collar workers, construction laborers, and people from all other walks of life.

For one thing, students were mostly concentrated in schools, all of which were managed by the Ministry of Education. If the Ministry demanded schools organize student physicals, no school would dare refuse. One policy from the Ministry, and any school that dared to disobey would face the consequences.

Besides, Lianjiang City had just over nine hundred primary schools, more than three hundred middle schools, one hundred fifty high schools, and forty-three institutions of higher education. Did that sound like a lot? Compared to the city’s individual proprietors and private enterprises, it was merely a drop in the ocean.

It was said that those assigned to other departments were slowly screening these working permanent residents, busy to the point of exhaustion. Compared to them, Ren Suo, who only needed to supervise students’ blood draws at school, was considered quite lucky.

Ren Suo had also asked You Jilong why they didn’t just publicize this Spiritual Energy Technique and let people get tested at hospitals themselves. You Jilong had glanced at him and merely asked, "Have you seen any information about Spiritual Energy on the internet, whether foreign or domestic?"

Ren Suo understood immediately—his recent daily life had blinded him.

Because he had mainly been interacting with Cultivators recently, and the higher-ups didn’t seem overly concerned about them leaking information, he had assumed that the development of Spiritual Energy was common knowledge. In reality, however, countries were still tacitly blocking all sorts of ’rumors’ online.

Sometimes, when Ren Suo grew tired of gaming, he would lie down, watch some videos, and scroll through Weibo. He would occasionally see sensational headlines like "Shocking! Vengeful Flame Soul Spotted in Luzhou," "Complete Guide to Eating Fujian People," or "Live Stream: The Death Designer," among other bizarre news.

However, after a short while, messages like ’This video is no longer available’ or ’This Weibo post has been deleted’ would appear. If Ren Suo were patient enough to wait a bit longer, he might even see the website’s official administrators banning the corresponding blogger or streamer, notifying everyone that the person had just spread rumors and that their account was now defunct, so everyone should just move on.

So, in this early stage of Spiritual Energy Technique development, all nations tacitly blocked the news. They collected individuals with Cultivation talent through various means, recruiting them in advance. This approach also helped prevent the emergence of Superpower User groups.

Ren Suo suspected one reason they learned ’Magic: Garment’ and ’Magic: Lock’ was that these Skills lacked flashy special effects and wouldn’t arouse suspicion even if used openly.

Even if they revealed everything, most people would probably just assume they had practiced something like the Thirteen Horizontal Exercises for Supreme Guards or the Dismemberment Hand Technique.

As it stood, the state was still operating discreetly, searching for Cultivation talents through widespread blood testing.

"Don’t touch me!"

Ren Suo shifted his gaze from his phone screen. He saw a middle school boy, who was about to have his blood drawn, attempting to flee. The female teacher monitoring the line hurried to grab him. "Wen Junjie! Don’t go, it’s just a blood draw!"

"No, I don’t want to!"

Ren Suo squinted slightly. He mentally counted to ten, then switched his equipped ’Magic: Garment’ to ’Magic: Lock’.

The reason Tactical Bureau members were assigned to school blood drives was the high density of students. Collective blood draws made it highly probable to ’hit the jackpot,’ necessitating the presence of Bureau members to intervene.

Moreover, students differed from adults. Often unaccustomed to society and nurtured in an ’ivory tower’ with a ’center of the universe’ protagonist complex, their Awakening Abilities could easily be triggered, making them even more dangerous.

However, Ren Suo hadn’t ’hit the jackpot’ in these seven days. He had heard Qiao Muyi’s group encountered someone who would rather die than undergo a physical exam, but he didn’t know the details—that was classified information.

It can’t be this coincidental... Chen Kun still hadn’t returned. Ren Suo braced himself, walked over, and asked, "What’s going on?"

Perhaps Ren Suo looked a bit intimidating, or maybe the Black Body Armor he wore symbolized some fierce authority. The middle school boy suddenly tensed, shook off the teacher’s hand, backed away, and yelled, "Don’t come over!"

"Hmm?" Ren Suo deliberately took a step forward, stared into the boy’s eyes, and asked, "Why?"

"This child is being naughty. I’m trying to reason with him..." the female teacher said hurriedly, reaching for the boy again. "Wen Junjie! Stop messing around! If you keep this up, I’ll have to call your parents—"

The other students in line turned to look.

"They can’t control me either!" The middle school boy, seemingly provoked, yelled, "If you come any closer, I won’t be polite—"

In that instant, seeing the middle school boy before him—who looked like he was about to provide some real action—a long-dormant thrill surged through Ren Suo.

No longer hesitating, Ren Suo lunged forward and swiped a hand toward the middle school boy. His speed wasn’t particularly fast, and the boy seemed to react, trying to raise his hands to block.

However, being touched by Ren Suo meant his defeat.

Seeing the boy go limp as if boneless after Ren Suo grabbed him, the female teacher quickly clutched Ren Suo’s arm. "He’s just a child, don’t—"

"It’s alright." Ren Suo waved his hand. "He’s just lost his strength. But for his own good, it’s best he stays like this for now."

Just then, Chen Kun finally returned from the restroom. Seeing Ren Suo holding onto a boy, he immediately understood and quickly called the Tactical Bureau.

「 」

"Injured your hand?" the auntie at the Jian Ji checkout asked, noticing the bandage on Ren Suo’s right hand.

"A kid hurt me." Ren Suo opened his Alipay app to show the payment code. "A bowl of beef brisket with fried sauce over Yee noodles, please."

"That looks pretty serious." The auntie seemed to empathize. "Kids these days are so hard to teach. They don’t listen when you tell them, and even if they listen, they don’t do it. Sigh..."

"Yes, education is a problem," Ren Suo replied with a smile.

Carrying his takeout home, Ren Suo looked at his injured right hand. Although it still ached faintly, it wasn’t without benefits—at least You Jilong, seeing his injury, had given him three days off.

The middle school boy was already under Tactical Bureau control. Given his age and status as a young Awakener, despite the intentional injury, he probably wouldn’t face severe punishment—assuming he had no prior offenses.

Though there was no detailed report yet, Ren Suo guessed the boy’s Awakening Ability was likely related to air or Wind Blades. How else could his own palm be slashed as if by a steel knife just from grabbing the boy’s arm?

He’d received eight stitches at the hospital, and it had hurt enough to make him cry; otherwise, You Jilong wouldn’t have reluctantly granted him leave during such a busy period.

According to You Jilong, Cultivators like them had better recovery abilities than ordinary people; an injury like this would typically be ready for stitch removal in three days.

After seven non-stop days of work, he could finally unwind. Ren Suo planned to check out the Cultivation Ground, which Tactical Bureau members could use for free, and as for the rest of his time...

Naturally, he’d spend it gaming all night!

"Education, that’s a problem," Ren Suo thought again as he launched "Over My Dead Body."

"I’m begging you, guys, please stop causing so much trouble..."