The Eldritch Files

”Five A’s?”

Han Su came out, turned back to look at the numbers on the display, and was a little surprised himself. Then he nodded. ”This evaluation system is pretty fair...”

Amidst everyone’s stunned gazes, he remained perfectly calm. He walked back to his seat and sat down, letting the staff collect the rulebook from his table. He suddenly turned to a few of the others and said, ”It’ll be a while before all the assessments are finished.”

”Anyone want to go for a smoke?”

”I saw a place where we can smoke on my way in!”

...

At his words, the man with the gold-rimmed glasses, the soldier in camo, and a skinny young man with greasy hair all froze for a moment. They glanced at each other, then nodded.

Han Su led them out of the training room and into the emergency stairwell across from the elevator. He then took out the ”workplace weapon” that Zhang Chiguo had slipped him.

A pack of cigarettes.

It was only half a pack, with a plastic lighter inside. Han Su handed one to each of them and lit them up.

”How did you get this in here?”

The camo soldier, or rather, the man codenamed Black Tiger, took a deep drag. ”I thought I wouldn’t get to smoke until we were out. I had a pack on me when I came in, but the staff took it away.”

Han Su said, ”I know someone on the inside. He gave it to me.”

”So...”

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses suddenly looked at Han Su. ”You must be pretty familiar with this place, then? What exactly does the Disaster Management Bureau usually deal with?”

Han Su smiled faintly. ”I just have a few connections, that’s all. It’s not much of an advantage.”

He then looked at the others and smiled. ”Why don’t we talk about why you all came here instead?”

”For the things you can’t access on the outside.”

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses, codenamed Doctor, said, ”I realized a long time ago that something was wrong with this world. Whether it was the ’debunking experts’ aggressively promoted by the media, the various bizarre stories reported in certain tabloids, or the flyers secretly distributed by religious groups.”

”It even got to the point where research into certain parts of history became taboo, requiring specific qualifications and background checks just to participate.”

”But on the outside, no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find any leads. I could feel some colossal entity blocking and erasing every clue I found, deliberately creating an atmosphere of rational reality for me.”

”So, I decided to get to the bottom of it. I shifted from investigating those strange phenomena to investigating this colossal entity.”

”And then, I discovered the Disaster Management Bureau. And then, I signed up!”

...

Listening to him, the others couldn’t help but look at him with surprise.

’This guy investigated the Disaster Management Bureau’s existence on his own and then signed up?’

Just then, the man codenamed Black Tiger spoke slowly. ”I don’t know what we’ll be facing, but my unit fought a very strange battle.”

”My brothers were up against a group of fanatics in the wilderness who were capturing people for live sacrifices. The enemy was completely unarmed, yet they killed all of my men. I took a bullet to the head myself. It was the worst defeat I’ve ever suffered.”

”When I got back, my commanding officer asked if I wanted revenge. I said yes. So, he recommended me to this place.”

...

”I’m different from you guys. You’re all really impressive.”

At this point, the most inconspicuous skinny boy spoke up. His codename was Mouse. He had received one A in the additional evaluations, but the rest were all C’s—not even a single B.

He wasn’t very familiar with the others; he had just tagged along when he heard there were cigarettes.

He ducked his head slightly and said in a low voice, ”I only know that this place is related to certain mysterious phenomena and lost civilizations.”

”I only found that out by hacking into some big shot’s email.”

”My reason for coming is also simple. I have a disease. Under the current medical system, I won’t live for more than two years. But a certain technological artifact unearthed from the Radiation Era can save my life.”

”The problem is, everything from the Radiation Era has been sealed away. If I want to get access to those things, joining the Disaster Management Bureau and putting my life on the line became my only choice. As long as I don’t die on a mission, I can use that artifact to extend my life.”

...

Hearing this, the others were quite taken aback. For a moment, they didn’t know how to comfort him.

Han Su pulled another cigarette from the pack and offered it to him in a friendly gesture. ”Have another one while you can.”

The skinny boy accepted the cigarette with a complicated expression.

”So, it seems we all came to the right place after all.”

Han Su smoked casually with them, then looked at Black Tiger. ”You’re looking for revenge, so for you, mastering those mysterious powers is the most important thing. If I get the chance, I’ll recommend you for it.”

Black Tiger was stunned. He pulled off his hat, looking a bit lost, and ran a hand through his hair. A prominent scar was visible on the left side of his forehead. ”Th-thanks.”

”As for Doctor...”

Han Su said, ”A man that smart is bound to be curious. If anything comes up that requires brainpower, we shouldn’t hesitate to pass it his way. It would not only help us but also satisfy his curiosity to the fullest.”

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses looked a little surprised and sighed. ”That’s true. I usually try to avoid trouble, but if something genuinely interesting comes along, I’d be willing to do it even if I had to pay.”

”As for you, just work hard!”

Han Su patted the last skinny boy on the shoulder. ”As long as you prove your worth, why would the Disaster Management Bureau be so willing to let you throw your life away so easily?”

”You made the best move by coming here.”

The skinny boy, who had looked uneasy, now seemed visibly moved after hearing these words.

”In a new place, we’re bound to face many new opportunities. One person can only encounter a limited number of them, and even fewer that are a good fit. But if we all look out for each other, it means more opportunities for every single one of us.”

Han Su smiled. ”Of course, we’re all just strangers who’ve recently met. I don’t think we need to tie each other down. Once we get through the rookie period, it’ll still come down to whose path is wider.”

His words left everyone deep in thought. No one rejected the idea of sticking together, but no one wanted to be immediately tied down by some random clique either.

Han Su’s speech had put everyone’s minds at ease.

But Han Su himself, the one who had done all this, didn’t think much of it. It was just standard procedure for him.

Back at the Ancient Castle, he had put in a lot of effort to convince the other children to escape with him. Comparing that to now, he could only say:

’Compared to children, adults are so much easier to persuade!’

”The rookie period isn’t that easy to get through.”

Just then, a voice spoke up. It was the woman who had been wearing the black hood. She had now taken it off, revealing a head of neat, short hair.

She was standing not far away, looking like she wanted to approach but was a bit hesitant.

The men looked up at her, all feeling a bit awkward. There were gaps in the others’ evaluations, but they weren’t huge. This woman, however, was a god-tier figure with two S’s and four A’s. Just one look at her made them feel she was in a completely different league.

To these people who already had one foot in the ”mysterious side,” she exuded an extremely mysterious aura.

Only Han Su glanced at her, motioned with the pack of cigarettes in his hand, and asked, ”Want one?”

The woman in the black hood seemed embarrassed. ”I don’t smoke.”

Han Su said, ”You can learn!”

She hesitated for a moment, then walked over and reached out to take one. But Han Su pulled the pack back. ”On second thought, never mind. Smoking will kill you.”

His words made the other trainees, who were holding cigarettes, look extremely awkward.

As Han Su put the cigarettes away, he smiled at the woman in the black hood, or rather, Miss Crow. ”We’re all new here and don’t really know anything about the Disaster Management Bureau. You, on the other hand, seem pretty familiar with it?”

The short-haired Crow shook her head. ”I’m not familiar with the Disaster Management Bureau either, but I am a little familiar with the Mysterious World... Not much, just a little.”

”I just remember my mentor telling me that passing the Disaster Management Bureau’s assessment only grants you a legal opportunity to come into contact with surreal matters. What comes next is actually the most dangerous part.”

”Executioners are the first line of defense against mysterious Penetration... and they are expendable bricks.”

”To those things trying to penetrate into our reality, ordinary people aren’t the most dangerous. People who truly understand them aren’t the most dangerous either. The most dangerous are precisely those who have only one foot in the door—in other words, us.”

...

They didn’t quite understand what she meant by a ”penetration defense line” and ”bricks,” but listening to her flat, emotionless tone, they felt an inexplicable sense of unease.

Amidst the silence, the more Han Su looked at this girl, the more interesting he found her. He suddenly smiled and interjected, ”If that’s the case, then it seems all the more necessary for us to discuss things among ourselves...”

As if remembering something, he turned to Glasses. ”Are Executioners allowed to have private discussions, according to the rulebook?”

Glasses nodded. ”As long as Miss Ai doesn’t catch us, there’s no problem!”

”Good enough.”

Han Su smiled and nodded. ”Then after we’re split into groups and get our phones back, how about we start a group chat?”

Originally, based on his performance in the assessment, it would have been somewhat difficult to gather everyone together. The abilities he had shown didn’t give him a dominant position over the others.

But now, with the arrival of the woman in the black hood, or rather, Miss Crow, the whole thing seemed to fall into place naturally.