Chapter 58: The Collaborator

Upon returning from the lounge, Zhao Yan's attitude had indeed shifted. He directly closed the scoring system and asked Wu Chang,

"Young man, I can see you have an extraordinary bone structure. Would you be interested in joining the Administration?"

Wu Chang had not intended to join the Administration right away, which was why he had given answers bordering on a joke during registration. He had not expected that, thanks to his connection with Meng Yawen, even his perfunctory data would be enough to get him in. He remembered that before Zhao Yan had reluctantly left the room, the score he wanted to give was D-. Joining the Administration with a D- rating shouldn't draw too much scrutiny.

With this in mind, he replied, "Of course I am interested. Being a civil servant has always been my top career choice."

Zhao Yan gave a light cough and explained, "Strictly speaking, you won't be considered a civil servant just yet."

Wu Chang furrowed his brow. "With an organization as large as our Bureau of Anomalous Phenomena, you're telling me it's not a government administrative unit?"

"Not quite. The Bureau has a regulation: new members must go through a probationary period upon joining. During this time, you are considered provisional members, with the official designation of 'Assistants'."

"Only after you pass the probation, accumulate sufficient contribution points, and express a desire to transition will you become official members."

Wu Chang mused, "So basically, signing up now means no permanent staff position—just a contract worker?"

The question gave Zhao Yan a slight headache. He rubbed his temples and said, "The Bureau's existence is unique; you can't measure it by ordinary civil service standards. This system is actually a form of protection for you."

"Without official membership, you might lose out on quite a few benefits, but correspondingly, your responsibilities are much lighter. Unless there is a major crisis threatening the entire city, the Bureau has no right to forcefully conscript provisional members under normal circumstances."

"Official members are different. Once you become official, even if faced with a mission known to be certain death, you must grit your teeth and take it on, whereas provisional members can choose to refuse. Because of this, many provisional members deliberately decline to convert."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow. The Administration was surprisingly humane, offering multiple cooperation models for solo players.

After pressing for a few more details, he gained a clearer understanding of the Assistant system. As top-tier players deepened their exploration of the Abyss game, the scale of Abyss players had been expanding steadily in recent years. Especially in the Summer Country, with its massive population base, new Abyss players appeared almost constantly. The Bureau simply didn't have the time to vet them individually, nor could it accommodate and manage such a vast number of players.

Moreover, influenced by movies and various cultural works, individuals who suddenly acquired supernatural powers would, to varying degrees, harbor a certain aversion to state-affiliated institutions. Forcing all players to join and imposing heavy-handed, uniform management would instead drive players to the opposition, making them susceptible to instigation by other factions and turning potential allies into enemies.

To unite all forces that could be united, the Bureau granted Assistants an extraordinary degree of freedom. As long as they did not violate the law, Assistants faced virtually no constraints and were not required to disclose personal secrets such as their current level attributes and skills.

Zhao Yan was not wrong. For a player like Wu Chang, who harbored a few little secrets of his own, the Assistant role suited him far better than full official membership.

Upon receiving Wu Chang's affirmative response, Zhao Yan registered him as a member of the combat club and told him to return in three days. The doll-faced woman and the short-haired middle-aged man had recently recruited several other Assistants, and an orientation ceremony would be held for everyone together in three days. Since they were all Assistants in Wanghai City, they could be considered colleagues and take the opportunity to greet one another. If anyone minded exposing their identity, they could submit a request, as the Bureau also provided special virtual meeting services.

Seeing that Wu Chang had no further requests, Zhao Yan signaled that he was free to leave.

"Right, didn't you still need to take my statement?" Wu Chang asked, having already stepped half a foot out of the Bureau, suddenly recalling the reason he had been summoned in the first place.

Zhao Yan waved dismissively, gesturing for him to hurry home. "Blood Thorn is a class-one wanted criminal in the Bureau, and several of our brothers across various branches have fallen at his hands. You slaughtered that bastard outright, so what statement is even necessary?"

On his way back to the dorms, Wu Chang noticed that Fang Hui was not out today and was currently in the room calling upon all his "fathers" to bring him back some food. Wu Chang immediately took on the errand, choosing the most extravagant combination from the cafeteria and swiping his own card. Whether or not anyone would try to make things difficult for him in the Bureau in the future depended entirely on Fang Hui whispering sweet nothings into the right ears, so he definitely needed to fatten this fellow up.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and before long, the day of the orientation ceremony arrived.

There were a total of six new Assistants. Including Wu Chang, four of them showed up with uncovered faces, participating in the ceremony as they truly were. Of the remaining two, one saw that everyone else was unmasked and awkwardly removed their mask, while the other remained entirely mysterious, showing no intention of taking theirs off.

As the archivist for their files, Zhao Yan presided over the day's orientation. He looked over the six individuals and announced loudly:

"Your skill levels are quite similar for this cohort, all resting in the 7-9 grade tier. Before you surpass grade 10 and truly come into your own, I will act as your instructor, guiding and training you all."

"As players of the Abyss game, combat effectiveness is the foundation for clearing instances and staying alive. Combat effectiveness is not just about attributes; having power and learning how to wield that power are equally important. In the time ahead, I will teach you how to fight as players and how to maximize your abilities."

"Since everyone is meeting for the first time, nothing beats a friendly sparring match as a way to introduce yourselves."

At this, Zhao Yan grew excited, as if he had been waiting for this day for a long time. He stepped onto the boxing ring and beckoned to the group.

"Sparring with opponents of a higher tier not only lets you more intuitively grasp your own shortcomings, but watching from the sidelines also gives everyone a basic understanding of each other's combat styles, preventing total blindness when cooperating in the future."

"Don't worry, I'll hold back."

Observing Zhao Yan's reaction, Wu Chang covertly curled his lip. Connecting this with the previous conversation between Zhao Yan and Meng Yawen, when Zhao Yan had first joined the Administration, his instructor must have been Meng Yawen. Judging by Zhao Yan's expression, Meng Yawen had probably put him through the exact same kind of beating back then. Now the tables had turned, which explained why he was so eager.

Just as Wu Chang guessed, sparring between instructors and newcomers was a traditional program of the Administration. It served the purpose Zhao Yan mentioned, but it also aimed to knock the arrogance out of newcomers, showing them there were always mountains beyond mountains and people beyond people.

As the registrar and evaluator for everyone, Zhao Yan had a basic grasp of each person's combat capabilities. Ordering them from strongest to weakest based on combat power, he called them onto the stage one by one.

As a veteran player, Zhao Yan's combat techniques were extremely polished, and his timing was precise. Without using any skills, relying purely on physical combat, he easily defeated them all. Even the masked man who went up first failed to last a single minute under his hands.

In those brief sparring sessions, far from giving Zhao Yan any trouble, none of them had even managed a single effective strike.

As the five of them fell in succession, Wu Chang, ranked sixth, stepped onto the ring.

With the other five, Zhao Yan had been considering how to let them showcase their abilities as much as possible so he could observe their combat habits and offer advice. But for Wu Chang—the D-grade slacker who only had two skills and relied entirely on hiding to clear instances—Zhao Yan's primary concern was how to throw the fight skillfully enough so that Wu Chang, equipped with only a single crowd-control skill, could manage to survive a full minute. If he accidentally one-shotted Wu Chang and humiliated him too badly, Meng Yawen would likely never let him hear the end of it.

Yet he quickly discovered that the expression on Wu Chang's face as he stepped onto the ring was far more conflicted than his own.

Hesitating for a moment, Wu Chang said, "Instructor, my skill isn't really suited for sparring. Can we just call it?"

With a dissatisfied look, Zhao Yan retorted, "Do you think that when you enter an instance, a boss is going to stop attacking you just because your skill isn't suited for combat? Avoidance solves nothing; if you're weak, you need to practice more! Precisely because it's unsuitable, you need to train until it becomes suitable!"

Looking slightly embarrassed, Wu Chang explained, "It's not that I want to avoid it. It's just that I can't control the effects of my skill, and I'm afraid I might hurt you."