The Eldritch Files

”Oh... what?”

It was a good thing Han Su hadn’t put the wonton in his mouth yet, or he would’ve sprayed it everywhere. He looked utterly stunned. ”What the hell?”

”Don’t get too excited.”

Zhang Chiguo shot him a cold glance. ”Miss Ai makes her judgments based on logic, and that’s why she gave you an S-Class. An evaluation like that is extremely rare, and it’s bound to provoke a great deal of doubt and debate.”

”So when I saw the evaluation, I took the opportunity during a meeting to bring the whole thing out into the open.”

”Now that it’s out in the open, procedure becomes a hundred times more important. As a result, no one had any grounds to reject your promotion application. However, even so, they still managed to set a difficult challenge for you.”

”Only by completing this challenge will you be able to get your Investigator License.”

”...”

Han Su, caught completely off guard, was blindsided by the sudden news.

’An Investigator License? It’s happening just like that?’

”Of course, that challenge is incredibly difficult. It’s unrealistic for you to complete it as you are now. However, this application did bring you one other benefit.”

”You can start your Mysterious Power training early,” Zhang Chiguo said as he ate.

This news truly invigorated Han Su. ”Uncle Zhang, does starting Mysterious Power training mean I can learn that Invisibility Spell?”

”The first one in the Zero Sequence?”

”Of course,” Zhang Chiguo said. ”That’s one of the most basic training exercises. All Mysterious Power training has to start there.”

Han Su thanked him sincerely. ”Just getting access to that Spell is enough for me.”

”Uncle Zhang, I can tell you must have put in a lot of work on my behalf for this. Thank you.”

Zhang Chiguo just chuckled. ”Don’t get all sentimental. If you just caused a little less trouble, I’d be the one thanking you.”

Feeling both moved and excited, he asked, ”So what’s the challenge they’ve arranged for me?”

At this, Zhang Chiguo sneered. ”They want you to go and subdue the Ghost Truck.”

”The Ghost Truck?”

Hearing the indignation in Zhang Chiguo’s voice, Han Su paused, a little stunned. He recalled the killer truck he had faced with Xu Ji, and a strange feeling stirred within him.

Maybe it was because his first encounter with it had gone relatively smoothly, but he didn’t feel the proper sense of dread for the anomaly.

And yet, everyone else kept saying how difficult this anomaly—the first one he had encountered in the ”present”—truly was. The Disaster Management Bureau hadn’t even managed to deal with the escaped anomaly yet, which made him feel like he couldn’t quite get a handle on the situation.

’Is the Disaster Management Bureau just that useless, or did I underestimate that anomalous truck?’

”It’s more like they’re trying to make you back down in the face of an impossible task!”

After revealing the mission, Zhang Chiguo just gave another cold laugh. ”That Ghost Truck’s rank isn’t particularly high, but its existential properties are extremely complex.”

”So many people have been chasing and trying to corner it for so long, and they still haven’t been able to subdue the anomaly. They’ve even been pushed to the point of considering whether to ask the Legendary Investigator to come back. And now, they actually want *you*—someone who’s only been with the Disaster Management Bureau for a month—to go and subdue it?”

”My advice is to simply ignore it. Taking this chance to begin your Mysterious Power training is already a great outcome in itself.”

Han Su listened to Zhang Chiguo and nodded slightly, but inwardly, he couldn’t relax.

What Song Chushi had told him recently had cast a shadow over his heart. He glanced at the glass of water next to his bowl of wontons; the surface was perfectly still.

But he felt as if ripples could appear on its surface at any moment.

’That monster will complete its metamorphosis within half a month. Only by getting an Investigator License can I protect myself. Now that the opportunity is right in front of me, how could I possibly just toss it aside?’

Of course, even though he was tempted, he knew his priorities. Learning the Invisibility Spell to return to the Ancient Castle was the most pressing matter.

Only by returning from the Ancient Castle could he have any hope for a future. Otherwise, everything was meaningless.

After finishing the late-night snack with Zhang Chiguo, Han Su returned to his room. He could have gone home to rest, but since Zhang Chiguo had said the Mysterious Power training would start the next day, he decided to just stay at the facility.

Early the next morning, someone knocked on his door. Han Su, who had been up and waiting, opened it, but was surprised. It wasn’t Secretary Cui Qiao at the door, but Miss Crow.

She was wearing a black hoodie, dark skinny jeans, white flat-soled sneakers, and a baseball cap.

Han Su opened the door so quickly that she was met with his eager, expectant gaze. Startled, she took a step back, then lowered her head and spoke rapidly.

”My aunt... My mentor sent me to come get you. She said she’s waiting for you in Training Room C1.”

”Let’s go!”

Han Su, who was already dressed and ready, immediately closed the door and followed her. They wound through the base’s labyrinthine corridors until they reached a spacious training room with a metallic, industrial aesthetic.

There were many similar training rooms throughout the base, though Han Su himself didn’t have the clearance to book one yet. All he could reserve were the firing range and the gym.

However, the few times he had been here, he had been escorted by either Miss Crow or someone else, which was convenient.

As soon as he entered the training room, he saw a woman in a red windbreaker standing by a window, reading a book. It was the same Investigator he had seen on Beidi Street. He had met her at night, and her presence had been sharp and unyielding.

Seeing her now in the daylight, she seemed to have a more languid air about her, though she was still wearing ten-centimeter high heels. She was already tall to begin with, around one meter seventy.

With the added height from the heels, even if she wasn’t as tall as many men, her presence was absolutely commanding.

When she saw Han Su enter, she took off a pair of black-framed glasses, looked him up and down, and then asked abruptly, ”What exactly is your relationship with Zhang Chiguo?”

Han Su thought for a moment. ”Family, but not by blood?”

The woman in the Red Windbreaker sneered. ”That old codger. He’s so rigid you could stuff him in an oven and he still wouldn’t warm up.”

”It’s certainly rare for him to cash in a favor to get me to train someone he’s not even related to by blood.”

”...You’re really not his illegitimate son?”

”...”

Han Su was speechless. He even felt a little disappointed.

The Lady in the Red Windbreaker smiled, but her expression immediately turned stern. ”My training is extremely rigorous. Are you prepared?”

Han Su nodded seriously.

’Every trip back to the Ancient Castle risks my life. It’s not a question of being prepared or not.’

”Good. That’s the right mindset.”

The Lady in the Red Windbreaker walked over. ”What’s your current level of proficiency with Spiritual Penetration?”

Han Su answered honestly, ”I haven’t tried it yet. Uncle Zhang told me to forget that sensation for now, and to wait until I had a proper instructor.”

The Lady in the Red Windbreaker nodded, walked to Han Su’s side, and took his hand.

”Come.”

Knowing the Lady in the Red Windbreaker was testing him, Han Su began to release his Spiritual Power, doing his utmost to keep the flow of the Spiritual Penetration to the faintest trickle.

Their Spiritual Powers had barely touched before they both withdrew. The Lady in the Red Windbreaker shook her head. ”As I thought. Very unrefined.”

”Given the limits of a normal person’s Spiritual Power, releasing it the way you do... well, you’re a three-second man, at best. After more than three seconds, you’ll get dizzy, your vision will blur, you’ll feel weak, and you’ll lose the ability to think and judge clearly.”

”In that state, how could you possibly fight an anomaly, no matter how many Spells you’ve mastered?”

”So, as I see it, the most important thing for you right now is to strengthen your foundational training in Spiritual Penetration.”

”...”

Han Su frowned slightly. He just wanted to get to the Spells he could apply directly. Tedious basic training might be useful, but it didn’t seem particularly important to him.

Just as he was thinking this, however, the Lady in the Red Windbreaker added, ”But I don’t have time to sit with you through tedious basic training. You can have Weiwei help you practice that in your own time. What I’m going to train you in now are Encrypted Spells.”

Hearing this, Han Su immediately perked up. ”Okay.”

The Lady in the Red Windbreaker turned and walked to the wall of the training room. She gently raised a hand and stroked its surface.

As her Spiritual Power seeped into it, faint, formless patterns began to light up on the black wall.

The wall was made of metal, but in a very ancient style. Inlaid among the patterns, it looked as if various strange electronic components and circuits had been embedded, causing line after line of text to materialize across the entire surface.

Each column of text had two rows.

The top row was in modern, readable text, apparently describing the contents of the Encrypted Spell. The bottom row was a twisted and bizarre, tadpole-like script.

Beside him, the Lady in the Red Windbreaker let out a soft breath. ”These are the eleven Zero Sequence Encrypted Spells in the Disaster Management Bureau’s possession. As someone just beginning their Mysterious Power training, these are the Spells you have clearance to access and use.”

Han Su had seen the Mysterious Power that Secretary Cui Qiao excelled at, which seemed to belong to Tier Three.

Now, hearing about Sequence Zero, he was a little curious. ’It can’t be that what I’m learning now is a higher tier than Secretary Cui Qiao’s, can it?’

As if guessing his thoughts, the Lady in the Red Windbreaker scoffed. ”Zero Sequence means it *has* no Sequence. It’s the most basic category of Encrypted Spells.”

”The Disaster Management Bureau possesses three major Sequences. Each Sequence contains a different number of Spells. Though their effects and manifestations vary, they have all been confirmed to share the same ultimate source.”

”But outside of these three major Sequences, there are also some scattered Spells that were excavated from ruins. We’ve confirmed that they point to *some* kind of Mysterious Power, but we don’t know what their ultimate source is. All of those are categorized under the Zero Sequence.”

”These Spells, with their unknown sources, are somewhat safer to use and have broader applications.”

”...”

As he listened to her, Han Su looked up. The lines of script on the wall, imbued with a mysterious and anomalous power, filled his vision.

Zero Sequence Encrypted Spell, No. 01: [I Shall Enter the Abyssal]

No. 02: [My Limbs]

No. 03: [What Is Conceived Is the Boundary]

No. 04: [Wandering Spirit’s Return]

No. 05: [I Command Thee to Appear in the Light]