Chapter 272

Chapter 272: “Something Always Happens Around Him”

Yu Sheng suddenly felt pessimistic about his future as a writer. Very pessimistic. Mostly pessimistic about what kind of reputation he might end up with in the literary world someday.

Even though Ren Wen Wen was the only example he’d met so far, one example already made him feel doomed.

Still, tastes weren’t something he could talk people out of—especially not someone who worked at the Special Operations Bureau, living under constant pressure and risk. Even if she was a clerk in headquarters, given what that headquarters was like, monitoring a printer probably counted as a special operations position.

What if she relied on this bizarre shipping hobby as emotional support?

Ren Wen Wen didn’t notice his suffering and kept talking excitedly. “Teacher Yu, when will you post your next story? Are you still writing mystery and detective stuff? Will the old characters have a chance to show up again? I really love Mr. Seventeen, the one you mentioned in The Rain Harbor. When will you make him the lead…”

Yu Sheng still didn’t respond. But Irene, quick-mouthed as always, lifted her chin from Foxy’s arms. “Next book, the male lead rides a three-wheeled scooter!”

Ren Wen Wen’s eyes lit up. “Oh, that’s interesting. The route where a machine and its master fall in love over time!”

Yu Sheng froze. “…What?!”

So that was it. This young lady shipped humans and machine spirits.

“Let’s talk about something else,” he said, exhausted. He waved a hand and looked up at the pickup point sign. “I’m guessing this isn’t just a pickup point.

“I don’t know your standards for building a ‘station,’ but if this counts as a station, it can’t just be two people delivering packages and takeout to one household. This is also an observation post, right?”

Ren Wen Wen looked awkward on the spot.

“Don’t be nervous. I’ve known for ages,” Yu Sheng said with a laugh. “You probably already have observation points around here. And even if you didn’t, your Director’s eyes probably never stopped looking this way. I’m just confirming—don’t overthink it.”

“Y-yes. You could say that,” Ren Wen Wen said, then hurried to correct herself, like the word choice mattered. “I mean, the name ‘observation post’…”

She drew a breath and continued seriously. “This station will pay attention to Wu Tong Road 66, but as you know, we can’t actually observe your house at all. So the station’s main purpose is to observe the area around you—strictly speaking, to observe all of Wu Tong Road…”

Yu Sheng frowned. “What’s there to observe? It’s worth setting up a whole station?”

Ren Wen Wen hesitated, then said it anyway. “Because… things always happen around you.”

Yu Sheng stared. “…”

“Uh, I’m not the one who said it,” Ren Wen Wen blurted, instantly selling her boss out in panic. “Captain Song said it. I don’t know who he heard it from.”

“…I can guess,” Yu Sheng said, tugging at the corner of his mouth. He shook his head. “Fine. I don’t really care. I’ll treat it like I have two extra sentries at the front door. At least deliveries and takeout will be easier.

“All right. You keep working. I’m going back.”

He waved to Ren Wen Wen, craned his neck to glance at the remaining cargo still on the truck, then turned and strolled away.

He had the vibe of a retired uncle taking an evening walk.

Ren Wen Wen watched him go. She watched him reach an open patch of ground dozens of meters away, push open a door in thin air, and vanish.

Only then did she finally exhale.

She turned back to the truck, eyeing the remaining crates: a border scanning station, a fixed depth-sensing station, an entity-detection radar, and two field-type shield generators normally issued only to deep divers—plus a pile of other equipment.

A full border outpost didn’t have much more than that.

“Wen Wen, do we really need the shield generators?” one agent muttered as he dragged down a heavy equipment box. “Even if we need them, why install two…”

“Frontline units wish they could cover the entire floor with these and sleep on top of them every day,” Ren Wen Wen said, glancing at him. “Carry it in. They’re good stuff. A normal inland outpost doesn’t get equipment like this.”

“Oh.”

—

Inside the Special Operations Bureau headquarters, in the Director’s office, Song Cheng was reporting again.

“The Wu Tong Road station has already made contact with Yu Sheng. Ren Wen Wen was on site. The contact went smoothly. Yu Sheng has no objections to the new station, and he even seems pretty satisfied.”

“In most cases, he’s easygoing and lazy,” Bai Li Qing said calmly. “As long as we don’t substantially interfere with his life, he won’t resist. Our ‘observation’ is ineffective on him, but an extra pickup point makes Wu Tong Road 66 more convenient, so of course he has no objections.”

Her gaze sharpened. “Just remember to remind the station staff that under any circumstances—and I mean any circumstances—they must treat Yu Sheng as a human. That is the most important point.”

“Understood.” Song Cheng nodded seriously. “It’s already written into the code of conduct, and all station staff will be trained. I told them that even if they see Yu Sheng grab an entity on the spot and eat it alive in front of them, they must remain calm—”

“Wrong,” Bai Li Qing cut in. “They should show appropriate surprise. They can even tease him about how he eats everything—because that is a normal reaction when one human sees another human eating random things.

“Your thinking is off. Go back and rewrite the training content. If you have to, assign that young man named Li Lin over there, or find someone with the same wide-open mind.”

Song Cheng stiffened. “…Yes, Director. I’ll adjust it today.”

Bai Li Qing nodded.

A knock came at the door. After she gave permission, the duty secretary appeared. “Director, Director Zhang from the Technical Department is here. He says there’s major progress and wants to report directly to you.”

“Let him in.”

A moment later, a middle-aged man walked in. White shirt, dark brown trousers. Thin build, thinning hair, and an odd kind of glow on his face.

He nodded to Song Cheng in greeting, smiling like he’d just won the lottery.

Bai Li Qing lifted an eyebrow. “Little Zhang, why are you so happy?”

Director Zhang’s smile widened. “Director, our automatic recognition and filtering system is a success! It can recognize the space-time rifts Yu Sheng opens and suppress warnings, switching over to automatic recording. He won’t have to file Door Opening reports anymore.”

Even Bai Li Qing’s expression shifted. The corner of her mouth lifted—slowly, unmistakably. “Very good. I’ll contact Yu Sheng as soon as possible and have him cooperate with testing the system so we can see how it runs.”

Director Zhang kept smiling, but then hesitated and rubbed his hands. “Director, there’s one more thing.”

“Hm?”

“It’s news I got on the way here. The Testing Laboratory reported it,” Director Zhang said, his expression turning strange. “It’s about that… cast iron sample that was sent from the cafeteria to the Testing Department last time.”

Bai Li Qing reacted quickly. “Oh. The iron block Foxy from Hotel used to pay after she ate? What did you find?”

“Routine tests showed nothing special in composition. It’s just extremely pure iron,” Director Zhang reported. “After finishing the standard projects, the lab decided to try forging some… things from it, mainly to see its mechanical properties after reshaping. They made a hammer.”

“Too much,” Bai Li Qing said bluntly. “Keep it short. What happened?”

Director Zhang spread his hands. “A machine spirit appeared.”

Song Cheng’s jaw practically hit the floor.

Even Bai Li Qing jolted. She snapped her head up so fast her stare nearly drilled through Director Zhang.

After a moment, Bai Li Qing let out a controlled breath. “…Now tell me in detail.”

“There isn’t much more detail,” Director Zhang admitted, suddenly less confident. “A machine spirit appeared. The main signs are a certain self-repairing trait, a sense of ‘cooperating’ with human force when used, and a tendency to ‘communicate’ with nearby machinery.”

He swallowed. “When no one was present, surveillance recorded the hammer lightly tapping a nearby impact analyzer. The lab team believes it may have been a kind of… social behavior.”

Song Cheng couldn’t hold back. “What kind of hammer did you make? A mechanically powered warhammer? A rocket-boosted impact hammer? Did you pack it with—”

“It’s just a hammer,” Director Zhang said, hands still spread as if begging the world to be reasonable. “They cut a small piece off the ingot. They barely remelted anything—just pressed it into shape, punched a hole, and temporarily stuck a wooden stick through it as a handle.”

“And that produced a machine spirit?” Song Cheng asked, sounding like he’d forgotten how to breathe.

“Yes. That produced a machine spirit,” Director Zhang said wearily. “I’ve studied many cases involving machine spirits. For a machine to show pseudo-conscious behavior, the conditions are always a certain level of complexity, long-term contact with humans, and extremely rare coincidence. I’ve never seen anything like this…”

He rubbed his face. “I even suspect that if they hadn’t made a hammer—if they’d made an ear scoop instead—a machine spirit would’ve appeared anyway.”

Song Cheng stared, hollow-eyed. “Forget you. Who has ever seen that?”

“I haven’t,” Bai Li Qing said as she rose from behind her desk. “So now—take me to see it.”