Chapter 60 Bureau of Anomalous Phenomena Management

Looking at Zhao Yan and the masked man lying on the ground, and the few assistants who couldn't help but step back as he approached, Wu Chang knew that his goal had been achieved.

He hadn't initially planned to join the Bureau, which was why he had turned in a D-minus rating on his preliminary assessment record.

However, since he had already joined, he needed to salvage his reputation.

Even though the Bureau was friendly to newcomers, and he had Meng Yawen backing him up—making him half-connected—underneath the Abyss Game, the law of the jungle remained the fundamental tone within the organization.

The weak were bound to be heavily humiliated by the strong.

Having submitted an absurdly low rating record, he was bound to attract targeted hostility from many people.

Whether they found him an eyesore or simply despised all weak people, there would undoubtedly be plenty of attempts to step on him, both openly and covertly.

To avoid these troubles, it was already too late to change his rating record.

The only option left was to adopt a different approach—one that would make anyone wanting to trample on him unable to bring themselves to do it.

He remembered a joke:

*Ever since I turned into a piece of shit, no one has ever dared to step on my head.*

What he was doing now was turning himself into a piece of shit.

The Mamba Iron Elbow was weak in power, but its control ability was so strong that even the instructor found it hard to dodge, and the duration of the control was long while its effect was utterly disgusting.

Once this information spread, everyone who wanted to cause trouble for him would have to think twice.

After all, bullying a 7th-tier rookie with a D-minus rating wouldn't yield any rewards even if the bullying succeeded.

Yet, if they were to get hit by that elbow, lose face in front of a large crowd, and become the laughingstock of everyone, the consequences would be huge.

After weighing the pros and cons, in the minds of certain people, he would transform into a piece of shit that they found repulsive yet dared not step on.

Wu Chang glanced at Zhao Yan on the sparring ring, a trace of apology in his eyes.

It was just that Instructor Zhao had to be wronged for the greater good.

On the ring, it took Zhao Yan a long time to accept the reality that he had lost a spar to a rookie.

The thought that he would become the talk of the town for a long time gave him a headache.

Soon, however, he let it go.

Whenever people in the Bureau mentioned Seaside City nowadays, their first association would be the branch director streaking on live stream; no one would care about a small fry like him losing a spar to a newcomer.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help thanking the director, as well as the mysterious newcomer who had forced the director to streak.

*Tsk, are the words "rookie" cursed these days?*

Pulling himself together, Zhao Yan sprang up from the ring with a carp kipe and continued the unfinished part of the onboarding registration.

He led the group to the Bureau's server, inputted their information into the system, and then said:

"Open your attribute panels now, and under the social tab, you'll see a mini-program named the Management Bureau."

Wu Chang couldn't help asking: "Is the Abyss Game so smart that it even allows players to code their own mini-programs?"

With a hint of pride, Zhao Yan said: "This is different from the mini-programs in mobile applications; it represents administrative authority over the Barrens."

"Only when an organization clears enough instances and completes special team trials can it obtain temporary administrator authority, allowing it to exert control over the Abyss Game within the scope of that authority."

"Throughout the entire Barrens, only four organizations possess temporary administrative authority."

This was the first time Wu Chang had heard intelligence regarding temporary administrative authority.

Previously, while reading forum discussions about the Moonlight Sanatorium, someone had mentioned that the Bureau had sealed off the entrance and exit of the instance, and he had been wondering how they managed to do it.

Now it seemed that must have been the effect of the temporary administrator authority.

A question naturally followed, and he couldn't help asking:

"Are there no administrators inside the Abyss Game? Why delegate administrative authority?"

In the description of his trait, the administrator unblushingly suspected him of cheating, which implied that administrators should exist within the game.

Since administrators existed, it made no sense to delegate administrative authority.

Zhao Yan shook his head and said:

"I'm not clear on the specific details, but I once heard a big shot in the Bureau drop a hint, comparing the Abyss Game to a driverless car. The autopilot system is only responsible for moving forward, while the internal management—specifically the administration within the Abyss Game—doesn't receive excessive interference."

"We're getting off topic. The administrators of the Abyss Game are too far removed from us; we should focus on the task at hand first."

Pulling the conversation back, Zhao Yan continued:

"Open the Bureau mini-program, and you will see your position, level, contribution points, task board, and benefits within the Bureau."

"The task board interface is frequently updated with bounty missions issued within the Bureau. All bounties published internally have been verified by administrators, and the compensation paid will not be less than 90% of the market price at minimum. You don't have to worry about being scammed when taking public bounties, and you also earn contribution points upon completion."

After leading everyone to briefly browse through a few bounties, Zhao Yan exited the task board and directed them to enter the benefits interface.

Ranking first in the benefits interface was the "Instance Intelligence Quick View."

Zhao Yan emphasized: "The Instance Intelligence Quick View updates instance news in real time and pushes relevant information based on your level. Although important intelligence requires additional payment, for newcomers like you, the free portion is already sufficient."

Wu Chang opened the Instance Intelligence Quick View, declined the mini-program's request to "sync the in-game attribute panel," and entered Level 10 in the custom level column.

After a brief loading process, real-time intelligence suited for Level 10 players appeared on the interface.

[Player Level: 10. Instance difficulty matching probability: F-grade: 10%; E-grade: 60%; D-grade: 25%; C-grade: 5%; B-grade: 0.01%.]

[Players are advised to pay special attention to D-grade instances and open the tactical board to formulate a suitable clearance plan based on current capabilities.]

[User data synchronization detected. Input player attributes and skills to generate a virtual player attribute card, which can help users customize exclusive data and formulate exclusive clearance plans.]

Wu Chang ignored the virtual player attribute card, declined the activation of the smart push function, and looked straight at the general content pushed to Level 10 players.

The instances matched by players had a great deal to do with their current geographical location in reality.

Being in the Xia Country, the instances players entered would most likely be those covered by the Bureau's jurisdiction, such as the Moonlight Sanatorium.

There was a small probability that players would enter public areas, such as *Safe and Sound*.

Such areas were ungoverned, lacking any responsible faction, and were extremely complex.

There was an extremely small probability of entering areas managed by other factions. If the instance happened to be a multiplayer one, facing other players of different skin colors and nationalities would add quite a bit of trouble along the path to clearance.

The information pushed within the Bureau mini-program mostly concerned instances within the region managed by the Bureau.

The content format referenced the public area leaderboards, divided into the Instance Danger Leaderboard, Special Attention Leaderboard, and Bounty Leaderboard.

For instances within the Bureau's jurisdiction, once the pollution of an instance exceeded safety thresholds, the Bureau would handle it immediately, and instances on the verge of out-of-control tiers rarely appeared.

For example, the number one entry on the D-grade Instance Danger Leaderboard, named *Thriller Tunnel*, had an instance pollution level rated merely as dangerous.

The number one entry on the C-grade Instance Danger Leaderboard, named *Midnight Bus*, although close to being out of control in pollution level, showed its instance status as "Sealed, currently under treatment."

Barring any accidents, the Bureau had already dispatched suitable breakers to handle it.

Notably, on the C-grade Special Attention Leaderboard, there was an instance named *Silent Town*. While its instance pollution level was only rated as dangerous, its title was highlighted in color.

The remarks indicated that this instance was newly emerged, possessed extremely high difficulty, and had recently seen multiple players fail to clear it.

Wu Chang casually skimmed past the C-grade instances. Given the Abyss Game's level of targeted hostility toward him—matching him with a C-grade out-of-control instance when he was only Level 8—there was no way it would easily let him off now that he had reached Level 10.

For other Level 10 players, the probability of entering a B-grade instance was 0.01%; for him, even a 50% chance would mean the Abyss Game was finally acting human.

Therefore, his attention was primarily focused on B-grade instances.

Regrettably, for C-grade and B-grade instances, the content visible in the free portion was exceptionally sparse.

The game files were like answer sheets filled with ink; only the titles were visible, while the truly meaningful answers were covered and blotted out by black squares.

Want to see the answers beneath the black squares?

Pay up!

The unlocking fee for each piece of information ranged from 1,000 to 100,000 decayed silver coins, and information involving safe zones and life-preservation was especially outrageously expensive.

Moreover, in each instance, there were at least fourteen or fifteen encrypted pieces of information.

If one were to buy all the intelligence, even achieving a perfect clearance might not guarantee breaking even.

The overarching theme was that intelligence equaled money.

Zhao Yan briefly familiarized the group with how to use the mini-program, then walked toward the interior of the club and waved for everyone to follow.

He led them into the elevator, pressed the button leading to the third underground level, and said:

"Many of you have expressed disappointment with the Bureau's architecture, thinking it isn't as special as you imagined."

"The Bureau in reality is merely a place for office work. Even if it were special in reality, could it possibly be more special than the Abyss Game?"

*Ding.*

As the elevator stopped, the group stepped out and discovered that they had entered Crimson Courtyard directly.

Wu Chang looked around in surprise. His inspiration value told him that his surroundings were not merely a simulation, but the genuine Crimson Courtyard.

During the elevator ride, he had not used his consciousness to connect to the Abyss Game, and the player pass on his attribute panel had remained unchanged.

This indicated that they had not entered Crimson Courtyard via their player identities, but rather that the basement of the Bureau in reality could directly lead to Crimson Courtyard!

The spot where they appeared was a vast plaza. Looking into the distance, the surroundings were filled with futuristic buildings and research institutes, and further away, massive steampunk-style factories could be seen.

Wu Chang looked even farther away, his gaze piercing through the neon-lit glows of the buildings, the white steam expelled by the factories, and the various colored energy ripples radiating from the tops of the research institutes, until he faintly caught sight of a massive red temple.

Its architectural style was intricate, resembling both a Taoist temple and a Buddhist shrine, while also blending traces of immortal celestial palaces from poetic and artistic works.

Countless fiber-optic-like lines hung down from the firmament, connecting to the top of the red temple, resembling a heavenly river composed of data pouring directly into the mortal world.

Within the sphere of the Bureau's control, for every instance generated, a cord would drop from the firmament, and for every instance broken, a cord would snap.

That red temple was the physical embodiment of the Bureau's temporary administrative authority over the Abyss Game.

The Bureau called it—Primordial Chaos.

Zhao Yan was quite satisfied with the look of shock on everyone's faces and said boastfully: "Welcome to the real Bureau!"

"Now, it's time to collect your onboarding newcomer gift packages."