Chosen: Beyond Fate

No one slept well last night.

It wasn’t just Lou Feng. There probably wasn’t a single person in the whole outpost who had slept well. Well, except for Mr. Tao, who was holding down the center. Reportedly, he had slept soundly all night, and the next morning he even ate an extra flatbread and had an extra bowl of porridge. His appetite was excellent.

The view he had with breakfast, though, was a little terrifying. On the training ground outside his office window lay more than a dozen corpses covered in white sheets. Every last one of them was the result of the Security Bureau’s lightning-fast purge from the night before.

At six o’clock yesterday evening, after Tong Shan returned to his room, the report he submitted at half past six landed directly in the hands of Lü Yingyue, the director of the Cliff City Security Bureau.

In response to Tong Shan’s recommendation, prompted by the sudden incident at the Recycling Management Department, that they tighten discipline and management and root out the weeds, Lü Yingyue finished reading the report and wrote only one comment: These small-scale measures barely scratch the surface.

Then, by seven-thirty, the directors of the Security Bureau from all three major cities and four minor cities in Haizhou were sitting in the same conference room. By eight o’clock, the military’s airship was hovering over the outpost.

The outpost, which had been chaotic for days because of people coming and going from all sides, was instantly sealed up like an iron barrel. Not even a fly could get out.

Three specialized operations teams, accompanied by Heart Core Chosen Ones, swept through the place from top to bottom one person at a time. With Heaven’s Eye assisting them, they didn’t miss a single person. Gunfire popped like beans in a hot pan for half the night.

They successfully sorted out a whole pile of Chosen Ones of unknown origin. Among them were two wanted criminals who had changed their appearances and sneaked into an outsourced patrol team, three Imperial spies, a group of poor bastards who had assumed false identities to try to fish for benefits from Spring City, and nine believers of the Heretic Cult.

By the time they were discovered, one of them had already made it into the logistics department and was about to take charge of the cafeteria. The things inside the plastic-wrapped packages in his room were probably not as harmless as rat poison.

The next morning, Ji Jue was still yawning when he saw what they had dragged in overnight, along with a freshly approved collective First-Class Merit. He was stunned.

“Holy shit, the Heretic Cult really exists?”

“What else did you think?” Tong Shan asked back in confusion.

“I thought...” Ji Jue coughed awkwardly a few times.

I thought you corrupt officials were just making shit up and forcing innocent people into crimes. Who knew it would actually be exactly as you said? So among this whole circus of monsters and freaks, the Security Bureau actually had the highest moral standards?

“All right, stop making wild guesses in your head.” Tong Shan waved his hand. For the sake of his blood pressure, he really didn’t want this topic to continue. “Last night’s operation uncovered quite a few leads. That means we’ve got a lot more to handle on this mission. How are your preparations coming?”

Ji Jue reached out and pointed at Horsey behind him. “I brought everything I own. I even went to borrow quite a few materials from my teacher. If we fail this time, I might really go bankrupt.”

“Don’t worry. Even if something goes wrong, the team will prioritize protecting you and evacuating you.” Tong Shan took the initiative to extend his hand toward Lou Feng, who was wearing a long face and seemed deeply troubled. “We’ll also be relying on your support from here on, Mr. Lou.”

“I’ll... do what I can.” Lou Feng forced a smile. When he noticed Ji Jue looking at him from the side, his smile immediately drooped, and he no longer wanted to acknowledge him.

Ji Jue, for his part, was not so tactless as to directly ask, “Didn’t you say you weren’t coming?” Since Lou Feng had already come, there was no need to bring up topics that would only stir up trouble.

“Glad you made it,” Ji Jue said. He patted Young Master Lou on the shoulder and sighed. “At least I’ve got some company.”

Lou Feng snorted coldly, shrugged his shoulders, and shook off that dirty hand before getting into the vehicle first. He was still as stuck up and aloof as ever. Obviously, he was pissed off and just waiting for a chance to challenge a certain someone again.

Ji Jue’s smile grew warmer and kinder. Tsunderes really were so easy to read.

He didn’t even have to worry about Lou Feng slacking off. All Ji Jue had to do was provoke him a little, and he would go all out. A casual “What, you can’t do it anymore?” would be all it needed to make him work the millstone hard enough to throw sparks.

Now that Ji Jue had one more person helping him, even gathering materials would be much easier. This was a prospective craftsman who had inherited the Exquisite Work matrix, too. When it came to preprocessing and preserving all kinds of materials, he had a unique advantage. He could keep things cold, fresh, stable, and in perfect condition.

Ji Jue hadn’t even needed to ask. Lou Feng had brought a blessing cage without anyone telling him. It was definitely a high-end model. With that capacity, it could hold at least five items or more, right?

Looking at the lantern-shaped alchemical work hanging from Young Master Lou’s waist, Ji Jue was so envious his eyes were practically glued to it. There was no helping it. It was expensive, really expensive, fucking ridiculously expensive.

Among the Blessing Cages sold openly by the Association, even the lowest-grade ones were barely good enough to hold a single item, and only for a limited amount of time. Even that kind of shoddy thing cost more than an ordinary blessing, never mind a custom high-end model like this one with multiple functions built in.

He couldn’t afford one, and he didn’t have the skill or technical level to make one either. His only option was to freeload.

Thinking back to his first dungeon run and the glorious days when Mr. Ball had carried him, Ji Jue could only wipe away a couple of silent tears. Some things, once missed, were gone for good. It hadn’t even been three months, and Mr. Ball had already returned to boss status[1]. Ji Jue could no longer freeload off him. All he could do was miss the good old days.

And so, after going through the preparations, applications, approvals, and clearance, the two vehicles drove out of the outpost one after the other, heading toward the distant Spring City.

Deep within the pale, desolate fog, everything grew distant and hazy. Beneath the overlooking gaze of Heaven’s Eye, they gradually disappeared from sight.

***

Last night, in Master Kong’s lounge...

After returning from a hard day’s work, Lou Feng reported everything he had experienced and discovered during the day in full detail, including Ji Jue’s invitation.

“You’re not going?” Master Kong, who was studying blueprints, looked up expressionlessly. “Why not?”

Lou Feng wasn’t sure how to respond. He couldn’t understand what was so wrong with refusing on principle, nor could he understand why his teacher was taking it so seriously.

“I just feel like... it isn’t necessary, is it?”

Master Kong said nothing. After finishing the blueprint in her hands, marking out the key construction points and her suggestions, she set down the pen, looked at the student sitting uneasily beside her, and sighed. “Now I finally understand why it always felt like you were missing something. You’ve simply had too easy a life.”

“Huh?” Lou Feng stared at her.

“I’m not going to lecture you about being completely out of touch with everyday life[2] or not knowing hardship. A family as prestigious as yours would probably be laughed at if they bothered learning those things. But over the past couple of days, you’ve at least gotten a taste of hardship and suffering. So let me ask you one question. If you were any member of the Recycling and Processing Department, and you were faced with the same situation, what would you choose?”

1. Here “三个月之期都还没过，球哥就已经龙王归位” (“The three-month deadline had not even passed yet, but Mr. Ball had already returned as the Dragon King”) is a meme/trope reference, not literal. It’s playing off the Chinese webnovel meme “三年之期已到，恭迎龙王归位” (“The three-year term is over; welcome the Dragon King back to his throne.”) It usually refers to a hidden big shot who was temporarily down-and-out or acting lowly, then suddenly returns to power and becomes unreachable. Translating it literally here wouldn’t make sense here, so I translated it as “boss status” instead. ☜

2. “五谷不分” literally means “unable to distinguish the five grains.” It originates from the Analects, where it referred to someone who could not tell apart the five staple crops: rice, millet, broomcorn millet, wheat, and beans. In modern Chinese, it is an idiom used to mock someone who is detached from everyday life, lacking basic practical knowledge or experience with manual labor. ☜