Chapter 197: Vice Bureau Chief
Chapter 197
It didn’t take too long for the chopper’s blades to gradually slow down their frantic spinning, as the aircraft touched down gracefully on one of the empty helipads.
Then after that the side door opened and the four of them stepped out. Alex took a deep breath of the crisp and salt-tinged sea air before following Phil, Claire, and Carl through a set of reinforced doors of the building that automatically opened the instant they approached it.
The moment Alex stepped inside the central complex, he couldn’t help but stare in awe.
And why wouldn’t he? When just the inside of the building was even more spacious and hyper-futuristic than its exterior had suggested. It had the presence of this kind of soaring ceilings lined with soft, ambient LED channels that illuminated the corridors constructed from some sort of seamless, high-tech materials that looked both rare and expensive.
And the crazy part was that there were sleek drones zipping silently through the upper air space, carrying pads containing various data and whatnot. Alex couldn’t help wondering whether this was really 2009 because this looked like something only the future would possess.
It seemed like his country had really invested heavily in this organization. But Alex snapped right out of it.
As they walked past an open training room bounded by heavy force-field emitters, Alex’s sharp eyes caught sight of several Awakeneds putting their extraordinary powers on full display.
To his left, a towering dark man was actively transforming his bare arms into what looked like dense, jagged gray stone kind of material. Alex figured it was probably an ability that could enhance his durability, meaning the guy was a brute force type.
A little further down, a woman wearing a blue training uniform swung a long, liquid blade made entirely out of water, which easily sliced clean through a thick steel target dummy as though it were made out of warm butter.
’This place is truly insane,’ Alex thought to himself, as his forest-green eyes took in every detail while maintaining a calm, unbothered expression on the outside.
Phil led the group through a series of secure elevators and hallways until at long last, they arrived before a set of double mahogany doors guarded by two sentries, who were most likely Awakeneds.
Phil gave a polite nod to the two guards, before one returned the greeting and immediately pressed an identification scanner, allowing the doors to part smoothly.
Inside the spacious office sat a man who appeared to be in his early forties. He wore a crisp, dark uniform adorned with subtle golden insignias on the lapels. But what instantly made Alex’s instincts flare up was the overwhelming presence emanating from the man.
It was the exact same presence Nyx’s father gave when he first saw him. Alex then realize instantly that the man sitting behind the desk must also be a genuine Master Realm Awakened. So he told himself to be careful around this man.
Phil stepped forward, standing at attention as he offered a military style salute. "Vice Bureau Chief, we have returned. This is Alex Walker, the person we were instructed to retrieve."
The Vice Bureau Chief slowly lifted his head, and his sharp, dark brown eyes locked directly onto Alex the instant he heard Phil’s words. A heavy silence soon filled the room as the older man continued to stare intently at him. To be honest it made him feel a bit uncomfortable.
"Hmm..." The Vice Bureau Chief hummed softly, leaning back in his leather chair as his eyebrows knit together. "That’s strange. I don’t seem to sense any trace of primordial essence radiating from you that would signify you’re an Awakened at all. Yet... the Chief herself personally recommended you, even going so far as to hand you her own organizational token."
Internally, Alex felt a jolt of panic shoot through his body. Because he was technically using Desire Energy and not primordial essence, to conventional Awakened sensing methods, he appeared completely devoid of energy. However, he forcefully kept his heart rate steady, maintaining a serene and confident expression under the Master Realm expert’s gaze.
If anything he had ever learned in this life, it was to always stay calm under pressure.
After a long moment, the Vice Bureau Chief let out a soft breath and shook his head, with a faint, polite smile breaking his stoic expression.
"Regardless of how you hide your energy, welcome to the United States Awakened Bureau... though personally, we simply refer to it as The Awakened Bureau. So rhe Bureau was originally established roughly a hundred years ago with a single core mandate: to closely monitor the activities of Awakened individuals throughout the country, as well as handle catastrophic threats that no ordinary human military force could ever dream of handling. And trust me, we have faced quite a lot over the years."
He paused, resting his hands together on the dark desk. "Now, as standard procedure for every new recruit who joins our organization, you will first be required to undergo a series of physical and ability evaluations. This allows us to accurately gauge your raw strength, categorize your innate ability, and subsequently assign you to an appropriate squad that you will be working with."
Alex offered a simple nod.
"Understood."
"Phil here will guide you to the testing center," the Vice Bureau Chief stated, returning his attention back to a stack of documents before remembering to add. "Good luck, young man."
Minutes later, Phil and Carl escorted Alex down into the lower levels of the facility, stopping just outside a massive, pristine white chamber lined with reinforced alloy paneling and dense impact-absorbing fields.
Several other new recruits were already gathered inside, all waiting for their turn alongside a team of evaluators wearing white lab coats and holding diagnostic tablets.
"Alright, recruits!" a stern looking man called out, pointing out toward a massive, complex looking weight machine situated in the center of the room. "We will first begin with pure physical lifting strength. This machine will keep increasing the weight until you reach your physical limit. Once you can’t lift anymore, it will lock in your result. Okay?"
"Yes sir!" Everyone chorused.
"Alright time for the first person to come try it out."
After he said that, Alex watched as a burly man with dark skin and a massive, and muscular frame stepped up to the machine first. He first took a deep breath to steady himself, before wrapping his thick arms around the heavy lifting bars, and grunted loudly as he hauled it upward.
The digital display on the wall ticked upward rapidly from one tons to two tons to five tons, to seven tons, to eight tons, before finally clocking at ten tons.
"Exactly ten tons!" the evaluator announced, making a note on his pad. "A very impressive performance for an Early Realm Awakened. Just the standard lifting capacity for Early Realm usually sits between seven to eight tons, so your raw physical foundation is really good. Very promising indeed."
Next, a lean, arrogant-looking young man with striking pink hair and a sneering expression strolled casually over to the machine.
Alex observed as the gayish looking guy cracked his knuckles, gripped the handles, and pulled upward with a sudden burst of power that caused the digital counter to immediately skyrocket past ten, to twenty, and thirty tons, before finally grinding to a halt at a staggering forty tons.
"Forty tons!" the evaluator shouted, impressed. "Definitely a Vanguard Realm Awakened!"
The pink-haired youth smirked arrogantly, shooting a condescending look at the dark-skinned recruit before stepping back into the line.
After a few more recruits completed their turns, the evaluator glanced at his tablet. "Next up, Alex Walker."
The moment he finally heard his name, Alex casually strode forward. Not too far away the pink-haired guy snickered under his breath, clearly expecting him to lift a measly five or six tons.
Alex placed his hands onto the metal bars. Then without even bothering to drop into a proper lifting stance, or take a deep breath to steady himself like how the others had done, he lightly flexed his muscles and pulled upward.
BZZZZZZT!
The moment Alex exerted his raw force, the digital display didn’t slowly count upward like how it had done for everyone else, instead it went completely haywire!
The numbers first spun like crazy, flashing wildly past one hundred, two hundred, and one thousand five hundred tons in a fraction of a second before the entire machine finally sparked, and then later began emitting a burst of black smoke.
It turned out that because the machine’s max limit was designed to cap out at the ceiling of an Ascendant Realm Awakened’s physical capacity, it couldn’t handle Alex’s physical strength, which was double that of a standard Ascendant Realm expert.
Besides the second possible reason for the little malfunction also had something to do with the fact that Alex used Desire Energy while other Awakeneds used Primordial essence.
A heavy silence descended upon the pristine white room as everyone stared at Alex in shock.
"What the...?" the evaluator muttered, tapping his diagnostic tablet in disbelief. "Did the central calibration short-circuit or something?"
"Yeah, I think it must have been a malfunction." the pink-haired youth scoffed, shaking his head.
While most of the recruits dismissed the event as a mechanical glitch, a few wise people in the room, including the vice Bureau Chief, who had been observing from outside looked at Alex with both suspicion and interest.
"Alright everyone, now we will be moving on to the Awakened Ability Evaluation!" the head evaluator announced, calling for order as staff cleared the broken weight machine and directed the recruits toward a row of heavily reinforced target walls.
The dark-skinned recruit stepped up first. He closed his eyes and grunted as a grayish, rocky texture rippled across his skin, hardening his entire body. Then he said briefly.
"My ability allows me to convert my skin into a special kind of rock," he explained proudly. "It effectively doubles my overall defensive durability and also increases my strength a bit."
Next was the arrogant pink-haired youth. He stepped forward, took a deep breath, and unleashed a piercing sonic scream toward the target wall. The intense shockwave left deep craters across the reinforced surface, drawing gasps from everyone present. Then with pride written all over his face, he walked back to his original position.
After him, a quiet girl with a curvaceous frame that made people’s eyes wander and brunette hair that fell lazily, stepped forward, and raised her hands to easily shape a swirling sphere of water before launching it to blast a gaping hole straight through a steel dummy.
Finally, it was Alex’s turn...