Chosen: Beyond Fate

In just four or five days, Lou Feng had come to a harsh realization: workhorses were called that way because a workhorse’s life was not fit for humans! Seriously!

People sitting comfortably in air-conditioned offices, sipping coffee behind their desks, would never see the blood, sweat, and tears of life on the production line.

The workload in the Recycling and Processing Department was brutal, like something straight out of a sweatshop. To keep up with quotas and deadlines, everyone worked rotating shifts around the clock.

The work had never stopped. Even then, contaminated materials waiting to be processed piled up into mountains. If someone slipped for even a moment, the mountain would grow out of control.

Spirit matter contamination happened almost daily. Even with every possible safety precaution in place, one careless mistake could still leave someone with permanent, life-altering injuries.

The recyclable components they had just finished dismantling and decontaminating were given nothing more than a quick rinse before being loaded onto trucks and sent straight back into production to keep up with demand.

As contamination leaks in Spring City grew more severe, isolation facilities that had originally been designed to last five to ten years were wearing out after only two or three. Even the filter cores used to store and contain contamination had a lifespan measured in weeks. After repeated use, not only did their performance deteriorate dramatically, their service life shrank even further.

If Ji Jue hadn’t suddenly shown up like a heaven-sent savior, everyone would have probably worked themselves to death and collapsed right there on the workshop floor. What was even sadder was that Lou Feng discovered that if he were not assisting Ji Jue, his own processing speed was not actually much faster than anyone else’s.

After all, the son of a wealthy family was never expected to risk his life like ordinary people scraping by. He had great parents and a good teacher. Everything he had was thanks to the Lou family name and the prestige that came with it. Yet once he stepped away from the Lou family, it felt as if he was nothing at all.

His teacher had once said that when he stopped caring about those things, there would still be hope for him. But how could a person simply throw away everything he had been used to and cared about since the moment he came into this world? When all his honors and achievements had come from that very thing, how could he possibly free himself from it so easily?

Several times, Lou Feng looked as if he wanted to say something, only to close his mouth. He really did not want to confide his doubts and confusion to a bastard like Ji Jue. Instead, he gritted his teeth, forced himself to keep up with Ji Jue’s pace, and panted heavily as he chased after him from behind.

When he came back to his senses, Ji Jue had suddenly stopped moving. Lou Feng looked up in confusion, tools in hand. “What’s wrong?”

Ji Jue yawned. “I’m tired. Let’s rest for a bit. How about you handle the next one? I’ll assist you.”

“Me?” Lou Feng frowned.

“What?” Ji Jue bared his teeth in a mocking smile. “Scared you can’t keep up? Forget it, then.”

“Go fu—” Lou Feng flew into a rage, only realizing after the words had already left his mouth that he had gotten halfway through a curse.

Damn it. It had only been a few days. Never mind making no progress, he was about to lose even his basic manners and upbringing. At that thought, sorrow welled up in him. Yet despite that grief and anger, he still raised his head, snatched the tool from Ji Jue’s hand, and snapped, “Move!”

Another rust-covered piece of containment equipment rolled in on the overhead hoist. Lou Feng merely gave it a casual slap. In an instant, a stream of spirit matter spread outward and enveloped the entire massive device. Then, countless rust spots peeled off on their own and sorted themselves into categories.

An invisible force emerged from the shaped spirit matter and began dismantling the device at a speed no slower than Ji Jue’s. Even with his hands full, Lou Feng still found time to shoot Ji Jue a sidelong glance and let out a cold snort, as if to say, See that?!

Ji Jue had no choice but to clap lightly. Yes, yes, I saw it. Amazing. Absolutely incredible!

Unfortunately, Lou Feng did not appreciate it. He merely snorted again before returning to his work, ignoring Ji Jue.

Ji Jue shook his head as he watched. Seriously, why did this rich young master come with a tsundere[1] streak?

The moment the thought crossed his mind, he smacked himself on the back of the head in alarm.

Crap. Have I been single for so long that even Young Master Lou is starting to look handsome? As a completely neutral passerby, honestly speaking, he’s still not as handsome as An Ran!

Speaking of which, how’s An Ran doing now? He can’t still be busy, right? Why does the Security Bureau work people to the bone like some shady sweatshop? Wen Wen has it rough too...

“Isolate it.” Lou Feng said, but Ji Jue did not react. Annoyed, he turned back and raised his voice. “Isolate it!”

“Fine, fine.” Ji Jue slapped one hand onto the instrument beside him. A force field appeared, sealing off the core of the equipment to prevent contamination from leaking. There was no need to mess with complicated parameters or settings. In situations like this, Deus Ex Machina made everything ridiculously simple.

Seeing Ji Jue showing off his ability again, Lou Feng could not help but give another cold snort. The Exquisite Work matrix was activated once more, further increasing his speed. I refuse to believe I can’t beat him today!

Ji Jue stood off to the side, completely baffled. He couldn’t figure out why Young Master Lou kept snorting and somehow getting more fired up each time. He was acting like a damn tractor.

For the rest of the work hours, Ji Jue simply carried his teacup off to the side. While resting comfortably, he occasionally shouted a few words of encouragement to cheer Young Master Lou on.

At the same time, he started counting everything he had earned from working himself half to death these past few days. He was stuffed, practically to the point of indigestion. He had never eaten this well before. Even back when he was processing scrap at Tidesound Workshop, things had never been this easy.

There was an old saying: the person who wronged you was the one who knew best how aggrieved you were. In the same way, the person beating you naturally knew exactly how much it hurt.

For all these years, Professor Ye had carved a bloody path from within academia to far beyond it, destroying everything in her way. Her signature Dissociation Technique had played no small part in that. After seeing so many people wail and cry under it, she made sure she would never end up in the same sorry state if she ever ran into a similar technique.

At the same time, because of her perfectionism and impossibly high standards, every work she created was absurdly stable. Any parts or circuits that were vulnerable to the Dissociation Technique had all been reinforced as well. Their Integration was so high that Ji Jue had never even heard of anything like it.

When Ji Jue tried to dismantle her works, he felt like a fly buzzing around a seamless egg. All he could do was forcibly wear it down through repeated attempts, like water dripping through stone. If his luck was a little worse, he could even trigger one of the preset traps.

Perhaps, in Professor Ye’s teaching plan, this was an alternative method to force Ji Jue to improve his understanding of a work’s composition and the structure of spirit circuits.

But actually dismantling them was absolute agony. It was nothing like now, where everything was so easy it felt like taking a kindergarten class.

For disposable products like these, no one would go out of their way to make trouble for themselves or complicate future maintenance by installing any seals or defensive measures. Sometimes Ji Jue only had to tug on a single line, and the whole thing would seamlessly open by itself.

1. Tsundere is a Japanese term for a character archetype who initially appears cold, standoffish, or even hostile, but gradually reveals a warmer, more affectionate, and caring side over time. ☜