Joining the Alliance

"A Level 6 ability, that powerful?"

Zhu Yan feigned an envious expression. "Then what level is this senior player?"

The young man just treated Zhu Yan's question as idle chat. "Also Level 6. It's quite impressive, but in Bailu City, he's only considered average."

"Instances descended early over in Bailu City, so there's a bunch of top-tier experts there."

Oh.

Zhu Yan felt even more reassured.

His [Roleplay] could completely cover it!

...

The Human Alliance's "Ability Verification Test" venue was actually located on the third floor of Wanxiang Plaza, inside a relatively spacious storefront.

The outside of the storefront had also been modified, guarded by people in military uniforms and Alliance uniforms. Through the glass, Zhu Yan could see a solitary large table in the middle, behind which sat a short and stout man in his thirties.

Two Alliance members stood beside him, seemingly dedicated to his protection.

"Come on." The young man motioned for Zhu Yan to go in first. "Just wait for him to finish filling out the form."

A faint smell of disinfectant lingered in the air, reminding Zhu Yan of a hospital ward.

He pulled out a chair and sat down. The player behind the table looked up at him and began to ask questions.

"Name?"

Zhu Yan opened his mouth to answer, but the player beat him to it.

"Oh... Zhu Zeyu."

He looked down and typed rapidly on his keyboard, starting to mutter to himself again.

"Ability?"

Complaint, Complaint, Level 4 Complaint.

Zhu Yan hurriedly chanted in his mind, using his willpower to strengthen the effect of his [Roleplay].

A player's ability was also considered a part of [Roleplay]. Since Zhu Zeyu was technically his original character, assigning a random ability to him should work, right?

As for why it was [Complaint], it was because the [Complaint] ability card was with him.

His younger brother had mentioned the name of the [Bullying] ability in front of their aunt, so Zhu Yan didn't dare to use it.

But his aunt, she didn't know about or ever use her own ability, so the police station definitely didn't have any records of this specific ability on file.

Using this one carried the lowest risk.

"[Complaint]." The player said as expected, then frowned slightly.

"Ability level?"

"--What do you mean by Level 0.3?"

Holy crap.

Zhu Yan suddenly and weirdly remembered the newly added special attribute of [Roleplay], [Cheat].

He was [Roleplaying] the fictional character "Zhu Zeyu", but he couldn't completely be considered "Zhu Zeyu" himself.

[Complaint] was his ability, and also the ability he assigned to "Zhu Zeyu".

Therefore, by [Roleplaying] "Zhu Zeyu", he could obtain 6 percent of the other party's--or rather, his own--ability experience.

6 percent of Level 5 was Level 0.3.

Zhu Yan was out of ideas.

With a thought, he turned off [Cheat], only to hear the player opposite him ask again, "Ability level?"

The man's brow smoothed out. "That's right this time, Level 5. Wait!"

He looked at Zhu Yan in shock. "Holy shit, Level 5! How many instances have you cleared?"

Zhu Yan was scared out of his wits.

He screamed internally as he added background settings to "Zhu Zeyu", and the player, just as he expected, began to rapidly and continuously ask and answer his own questions.

"How many instances have you participated in? Two!"

"What were the contents of both?"

"One was 'What's the time, Mr. Wolf?', and the other was snatching food from monsters!"

"Initial ability level? Level 3!"

"Why did you participate in one more instance than others? Because it earns credits for Xishan University!"

"Why is the ability [Complaint]? Because you cursed up a storm every day in high school!"

Zhu Yan felt like his brain was about to explode from the rapid turns.

Two minutes later, the player opposite him finally finished asking all the ability-related information about "Zhu Zeyu" and solemnly gave Zhu Yan a classification.

"A genius!" he typed rapidly. "A genius worth cultivating."

Zhu Yan wiped the sweat from his forehead.

The man then began to slowly ask and answer questions about Zhu Yan's family background, his answers matching the household register completely fabricated by the art student word for word.

Three minutes later, he nodded to Zhu Yan. "Alright. You've passed. Go outside and wait for further arrangements. Call the next person in."

Zhu Yan felt as if he had been granted amnesty.

He abruptly stood up, almost knocking over the chair, which instead startled the three people in the room.

"Sigh. He's just a young man after all, look at how nervous he is," one of them laughed.

"Hahahaha, you can say that again. Weren't you nervous your first time taking the test?"

Zhu Yan walked out the door with stiff, uncoordinated steps, scratching his head that had just been through a brainstorming session, and finally let out a sigh of relief.

Guan En handed him a piece of candy and smiled. "A reward for being the first to pass the test. Only for you."

Zhu Yan thanked him, noticing the dark look in Guan En's eyes.

Hilarious. Others might not know what kind of person Guan En was, but he certainly did.

Ever since the instance [It], or more accurately, ever since Guan En sneaked out to find him to cooperate in getting the [Plague Potion], he couldn't be any clearer.

The last time he saw this kind of look was in the old city district, and it meant Guan En was planning to do something immoral.

What kind of thing?

Zhu Yan popped the candy into his mouth, pretending to casually walk to the side, his eyes quickly sweeping over Guan En's phone screen.

The words "Director Jin" flashed by.

Guan En seemed to notice and quickly turned the screen, which had a privacy protector on it, so Zhu Yan couldn't see a thing anymore.

Fine, that Old Fart who sucked blood using abilities.

Did they want to take his ability?

Zhu Yan sucked on the candy in his mouth; it was a White Rabbit candy, with a rich milky flavor.

What was there to take from a crummy Level 5 ability?

If they were willing to put out some resources to raise his ability level a bit higher, that would be great.

"Officer Guan, tell me, how great would it be if I could have a Level 7 or even Level 8 ability?"

Zhu Yan stared at Guan En's lowered face and hinted.

Whether it was useful or not, he might as well drop a hint.

Resources... resources...

Guan En looked up.

He had just been looking through a document; "Zhu Zeyu's" ability had already been transmitted to his phone in real time.

A very perfect, highly useful, and well-hidden offensive ability, and its level was even high. It perfectly fit Director Jin's requirements.

As for Level 7 or Level 8...

This player's personality was indeed quite suited for clearing instances.

This meant they could indeed nurture this ability on him to Level 6 or Level 7. This person only had a single ability, so there was no need to worry about him becoming too powerful to kill.

For a moment, Guan En's heart ached fiercely.

He lowered his head and looked at his chest indifferently, but from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the bright star emblem on his shoulder.

"Level 8 is very difficult." Guan En gave a formulaic smile. "To go from Level 7 to Level 8, rumor has it you need to clear five instances, or maybe four. But your talent is very high. If you work hard, you might just reach Level 7 by next month."

These ambiguous words made Zhu Yan's heart clench.

You'd better take this seriously, Officer Guan.

He wanted resources!

"Keep up the good work, young man!"

Guan En's finger paused on the screen as he sent a screenshot of the document to Director Jin.

"Director, I believe we can put significant effort into cultivating him."

"With a Level 5 ability, reaching Level 7 before next month should be about right."

"What do you say?"