In this tense atmosphere, the curtain was suddenly "snap" lifted, and a burly middle-aged man with thick eyebrows and a square face burst into the room. As soon as he entered, he shrugged off his blue jacket to his accompanying staff and rolled up his shirt sleeves, heading straight for the monitor screen.
"How many Vanguards have arrived?" he asked while walking, exuding a strong presence but with a voice that betrayed a hint of frailty.
"Two," the woman with a plaster cast answered.
"?" The man's eyes immediately narrowed as he turned back to confirm the woman and her plaster cast, and, unable to hide his annoyance, he scowled, "Weren't you banned from stepping into the Secret Realm? What mess are you stirring up here!"
"Patrolling, just passing by," the woman tapped the badge on the left side of her coat and then pointed to the man with sunglasses beside her, "Nakata Hideo is also on the list for rescuing Vanguards, one order from you and he'll go save the high school girl."
"Yeah!" the man with the radiant sunglasses nodded vigorously.
Next to them, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman with a no-nonsense expression on her face hurried forward to explain, "Director Zhou, rest assured, he will also rescue the high school boy incidentally."
"My concern is not whether he would, is it?" the man gesticulated back and forth among the three, cursing with a mix of pity and anger, "You all stay put! Especially you, Daylight, mind your mouth, don't say anything, especially to the media outside!"
"Not even a safety update?"
"Do you think it's a spring outing?"
"Isn't it, though? I'd love for my son to experience this once."
"Thank the heavens! I thank you on behalf of your non-existent quantum son!"
As the two chatted and laughed, the monitor screen in front finally lit up, revealing a series of data and waveforms.
The technician in front of the screen quickly glanced over it, then stiffly shook his head and reported back, "No hope, Director Zhou, Nakata can't get in."
"It's full already?" the man's eyebrows knitted tighter as he took quick steps forward.
"Almost full," the technician stepped aside and pointed to the screen while reporting, "This Secret Realm is too small, with a very low capacity limit. There are too many encounterers... Right now, at most, one more no-role, zero-tier Vanguard can enter."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a hoarse male voice came from the corner.
"I've been waiting."
Looking towards the voice, the man holding a baseball bat lifted his hat slightly, revealing a face full of wrinkles and a mouth with rotten teeth.
While grinning sheepishly and swinging his baseball bat, he said, "Director Zhou Cheng, with this level of dominator, a single shot from the treasure and it's done."
Zhou Cheng seemed to smell his bad breath already but still asked with a grimace, "Are you confident?"
"The time you asked that question, the Vanguard would have already finished cleaning up," the man with the hat pushed his hat back down.
The technician then reported, "He's a no-role, zero-tier freelance Vanguard, meeting the entrance requirements. Although his strength test is only 18, taking his treasure into account, the AI has given a 67% success rate for the cleanup."
"67%? That's too low," Zhou Cheng rubbed his jaw and asked, "What if it fails? I mean, completely fails, becoming a monster kind of fail."
"Then no one will be able to enter, we can only wait for the Secret Realm to naturally expand."
Zhou Cheng immediately shook his head, "Is there a choice with a higher success rate?"
"Predicted to be in 16 minutes, the next suitable Vanguard will arrive, with a success rate of 84%. But as you are aware, every second we wait, someone might be in danger," the technician pointed to the screen and said, "The Secret Realm is so small that we can precisely detect the number of survivors through the collected radiation. Do you see that 46? It could turn into 45 or even 0 at any moment."
"When does the AI predict casualties will start?"
"This is a rule-class Secret Realm, prediction is impossible."
"Then how did you get the 84% just now?"
"That's the success rate for forcibly annihilating the dominator, not for completing the goals of the Secret Realm."
"...Then we wait, trade 16 minutes for a 17% increase in the success rate," Zhou Cheng then turned to the man with the hat and said, "Get ready at the entrance, enter only if there's an emergency."
"...So this is the best your agency can do," the man with the hat immediately turned sour and started to walk outside, pressing down on his hat, "I came by taxi, remember to reimburse me."
"You!" Zhou Cheng suddenly bellowed, "Wear the earpiece and follow commands! This is an emergency rescue, mandatory duty. Another goddam word and I'll send you straight to prison."
"..." The man in the hat shuddered and reluctantly took the headset, biting on a cigarette as he left the tent.
"Trash like this, I've seen plenty," Zhou Cheng turned back and cursed, "They're just after the reward for killing the master, completely ignoring the life and death of others. If it weren't for the emergency of the rescue, I wouldn't give this kind of garbage a chance."
With that, he started to exchange information with the school authorities.
In another corner, the woman with her arm in plaster also raised her hand and yawned, "Hideo is too powerful, can't get in..."
"Sigh..." The man with sunglasses let out a long sigh.
"All dressed up for nothing," the blonde female clerk said, trying to console him.
"Yeah," the man with sunglasses said dejectedly, looking down.
Seeing this, the woman with the plaster cast smirked again, "Already thinking about marrying the high school girl you rescue, huh?"
"Especially, you, annoying," the man with sunglasses said, clenching his fist in resentment.
"Ah ah, you mixed up the word order again."
"Damn! This dastardly East Continent language!"
"Still wrong."
"Damn it!"
While the three joked amongst themselves, the school authorities presented the most sensible teacher to give a report.
Standing before the imposing Safety Director Zhou Cheng, the young female psychology teacher showed not a trace of nervousness, her face full of the school couldn't possibly hold all her confidence, and she spoke freely to Zhou Cheng:
"The class that encountered the Secret Realm is senior year three class four, a very united and harmonious group. I know their head teacher, very responsible, and the students in the class are all good too. Right now, they must be united under Dr. Han's command, working together to face the challenges. Also, there is one particular boy in the class whose state might be especially suited to this Secret Realm!"
"Ah? What's this twist?" Zhou Cheng raised his brows and asked, "How so? Does he have a treasure?"
"No, no, not for that reason," the psychology teacher quickly raised her hand, trying hard to explain, "It's because he's very special, so special... If only one person could walk out of the Secret Realm, it could only be him."
"That's just nonsense," Zhou Cheng's brows instantly flattened back down, explaining uninterestedly, "Troubled youths with their little tricks aren't enough to get stuck in the master's teeth. Only Secret Ability and treasures can harm Creatures of the Secret Realm. Without such hardware, fighting skills are useless except for courting death."
"He's different, Director, he was born for this," the psychology teacher said, nodding emphatically, "My intuition tells me that for him, even the difficulty of this Secret Realm might be a bit low."
"This... heh... forget it," Zhou Cheng shook his head, knowing he shouldn't laugh, but he couldn't help it.
The psychology teacher had no choice but to retreat, "Anyway, he really is quite special..."
"How special?" The woman with the plaster cast suddenly became interested, striding energetically from the corner.
As she walked, she listed off her preferred types like she was reading from a menu:
"Autistic, orphan, obsessive-compulsive, unethical, moralistic or completely immoral, delusional, self-absorbed, fanatical about the Secret Realm, potential high IQ criminal, antisocial personality. Which condition does he have?"
The psychology teacher nodded along as the woman spoke, the more the woman listed, the more vigorously she nodded, "Right, right, right, that's exactly it!!"
"Which is it?" the woman asked, puzzled, "Which condition does he actually have?"
At this moment, all the school staff, as if meeting a kindred spirit, answered in unison with solidarity:
"All of them!"
The woman's eyes widened incredulously.
Human beings... can they really be this outstanding?
Immediately afterward, she flashed forward, grabbing Zhou Cheng by the collar with eyes alight with a demonic gleam.
"You fat fly, hand over the command to me."