Clearly, the severity of the situation had exceeded the realm of office politics.
Splashing hot coffee on someone's face was the sort of thing street thugs did, it should never have occurred in an office environment.
"Lao Luo, you should go to the hospital to have that looked at, be careful not to leave a scar."
"I want to, but the section chief is keeping an eye on things today."
"Got it."
Duan Mingyuan put his briefcase on the desk, he had only mentioned it as a matter of formality, knowing full well that Lao Luo was not going to take his advice.
He hadn't been in the office long when he noticed shadows spreading through the space, even cloaking the only entrance and exit, making the office look like a cocoon woven from shadows.
A cage specifically waiting for him.
And all of it pointed to the section chief's office, which was also the source of the blood smell.
Before confronting the enraged section chief, he took out a roll of medical gauze from his drawer, the third compartment where he kept medicine, band-aids, and first aid supplies, for the first time having something other than cold medicine come in handy.
Arriving at the door, he knocked politely three times.
"Come in."
The smell of blood grew stronger, and the office was a few shades darker than outside. The only source of light came from the computer screen. Taking advantage of the dim illumination, he saw a woman lying on the ground, his colleague, who had been hit hard on the back of her head, blood pooling around her.
The likely weapon was a crystal globe from the desk, its base stained with obvious blood marks.
Noticing Duan Mingyuan's gaze, the section chief said indifferently, "I've emphasized many times not to cram a slide full of dense text. She got what she deserved."
He intentionally paused for effect, staring at Duan Mingyuan with a threatening look, "And you, you were an hour late today!"
"I've already explained the situation at that time to you."
Duan Mingyuan simultaneously took out his phone and dialed the emergency hotline, clearly explaining the location and the victim's situation, before immediately bending down to bandage the wound on the unconscious colleague's head.
"Hasn't anyone taught you not to do other things while you're supposed to be listening to someone?!"
A roar followed, and with it, a crystal globe whistled towards Duan Mingyuan's head.
The section chief had thrown it with considerable force, seemingly aiming to smash his skull.
The instant he heard the sound, Duan Mingyuan turned to the side, and the crystal globe brushed past his head, shattering into several pieces against the wall.
The basic bandaging work was also completed.
He steered the topic back on course, "The people in the alley were killed by you, weren't they?"
"Were they your companions?"
The section chief's voice had changed, becoming high-pitched and ominous, his sclera painted with the color of blood, his face showing a dissonant mix of rage and a sneer, "You are much more perceptive than them, they had no idea how they died until the very end."
Throughout their exchange, the section chief had been observing Duan Mingyuan's expression.
However, this observation made him uneasy. After learning that his companions had been gruesomely killed by his own hand, there was no change in Duan Mingyuan's expression.
This caused him to take a closer look at the document on the computer screen.
Duan Mingyuan, 29 years old, without any special abilities, the kind of person you could never count on to perform at the company's annual party.
That was the section chief's assessment of the man before him.
The two humans who had been involved in the cleanup had revealed quite a bit of information before they died.
Duan Mingyuan was not yet a formal member, which meant that he must eliminate this threat in the cradle before they had any contact.
When he saw the wreckage in the alley, one thing became clear—he mustn't give this "new recruit" any time to grow.
Facing the section chief's provocation, Duan Mingyuan propped his chin with his hand, "Amplify negative emotions."
Lao Luo's face was scalded because he was a few minutes late.
A female coworker in the office was reprimanded for putting too much text into a slide.
Although the section chief was so enraged that he was almost out of his mind, he believed that everything he did had a reason, at least in his own mind.
Many malicious thoughts can breed in people's hearts due to different emotions.
For example, after working overtime until late at night and finally looking forward to a day off once a week, one is awakened early in the morning by the deafening renovation noise from upstairs, which continues until noon. In a state of extreme fatigue and anger, malicious thoughts will thus arise.
Under normal circumstances, people bury these malicious thoughts deep within their hearts.
But under the influence of malevolent entities, these malicious thoughts turn into actual actions amidst strong emotional fluctuations.
"This is your ability, you belong to a very rare type."
The section chief paused.
He stared at Duan Mingyuan and suddenly felt a shiver run down his spine.
The latter, as if ignoring him, seemed to be absorbed in his memories, "I remember now, indeed there are very few malevolent entities that develop some strange abilities."
"What, what are you talking about?"
This was indeed his ability, and it was the proof that he had surpassed his peers, dominating over other malevolent entities, but now it had been spoken by someone he had only met once.
"I once considered very seriously making this my future career, so I did a lot of preparation and research."
Duan Mingyuan patiently started to explain to him, and later, various real-life factors made him realize that it was a worthless profession.
Due to the passage of time, like the mathematical formulas in the textbooks from his school days, he couldn't quite remember many of the research conclusions.
"I have studied many of your kind."
"What did you do to them?"
The section chief blurted out.
Although the situation was somewhat ludicrous, he, a malevolent entity, was frightened by a human.
But this time, Duan Mingyuan didn't answer his question; he just calmly looked at him.
Besides the part about abilities, he also remembered some other research results.
For example, how to deal with the malevolent entity attached to a host without killing the host itself.
"Don't come any closer; if you lay a hand on me, your section chief will be killed too. Do you want to become a murderer!?"
Facing the approaching Duan Mingyuan, the section chief sprang up from his office chair like a startled cat, with his back against the wall, he threatened loudly.
"Cough ah—"
The next moment, the section chief let out a pained cry, his blurry consciousness suddenly became clear, and he saw Duan Mingyuan standing in front of him with his fist pressed against the section chief's abdomen.
The punch was so forceful that it almost made him vomit his dinner from the night before.
He didn't know if he was hallucinating or not, but in addition to the vomit, it seemed like something else was crawling out of his throat, screeching and desperately wriggling its body.
"I won't let you go; they will never let you go!"
He also saw Duan Mingyuan confronting the screeching shadow. Facing the shadow's threats, this usually solemn and serious clerk suddenly smiled understandingly.
"Great, it's a deal," he said.
Then, a hand struck the shadow.
The wriggling stopped and the whole world quieted down.
Nauseating and sticky liquid splattered all over his face.