Deep in the Living
Chapter 368 - 356: Anomaly Assessment

Chapter 368: Chapter 356: Anomaly Assessment

[Exploration Bureau, Personnel Section]

It is a special department mainly responsible for member changes.

The members of this department are not fixed, mainly composed of members from the ten exploration divisions who are temporarily free and don’t need to delve deeply into corners.

Primarily responsible for assessing newcomers,

Designing a test that can fully showcase the characteristics of newcomers, confirm their comprehensive qualities, and determine whether they can normally navigate the corners.

Such scene setups often require a large amount of manpower and resources,

Therefore, only newcomers who meet all "performance" standards qualify for the Exploration Bureau assessment.

And naturally, newcomers have different ranks.

Among them, newcomers from the Investigation Bureau [Special Operations Department] have extremely high priority.

As long as they come from the Special Operations Department, most can skip the assessment. Their comprehensive qualities are directly evaluated based on their "performance" in suppressing, exterminating, and capturing monster avatars.

Among them,

Yu Ze is their key focus, a talent expected to join the Exploration Bureau, surprisingly came voluntarily today.

And recently, the key target of focus is the [Eclipse Killer].

But Luo Di is only twenty years old; though he is a focus, he is far from being actively recruited.

Never expected, Luo Di actually came to submit a bureau application.

Of course,

The Exploration Bureau is willing to allocate resources to test this young "killer." But even if he passes the assessment, they will ask Luo Di to return to the Investigation Bureau and come back when he’s of suitable age.

After all, the overall progress of the Exploration Bureau is relatively smooth, without needing urgent staffing.

However, the assessment for Luo Di poses a problem.

His personal information has been presented through holographic imagery, with one event listed that is too exaggerated.

[Saiwei Vacation Island Incident]

Secretly infiltrated the Pseudo-human Organization Sisterhood, collaborated with several high-level Pseudo-Persons to execute the highest difficulty corner warrant, successfully erasing the ’Mr. Craft’s’ secondary avatar.

He himself gained Mr. Craft’s recognition, obtaining the pituitary (Star’s Color) and absorbed it as Alien Food.

He is also a Connector, whose connected world is recorded for the first time in the files, estimated at a world level above A.

An investigator looked at Luo Di’s information and gave an evaluation:

"With such experiences, no wonder the [Special Action Department] over there promptly engaged.

Additionally, based on Luo Di’s physical scan during his visit to headquarters, he seems to have completed an important journey in the Otherworld while incarcerated, bringing back many Hellish Items.

His physical structure has changed, especially the spine, surpassing the human body.

His current individual comprehensive strength is estimated to reach the human limit, capable of independently killing some ordinary monster avatars.

Standard combat-based assessment designs cannot match him.

This side suggests issuing a ’Assist Report’ to the yellow Containment Area, see if monster avatars are willing to assist, and the assistance reward can be rated at B."

"Received! Transmitting Assist Report."

The Exploration Bureau often utilizes monster avatars held within containment areas for newcomer assessments.

In conjunction with space technology brought from corners, simulating special scenes akin to corners to test newcomers, is currently the most effective assessment method.

Newcomers passing such tests generally demonstrate acceptable performance in subsequent real encounters with corners.

At the same time.

In the Containment Area marked [Yellow].

Monster avatars housed and imprisoned in different sections all received notifications in audio, electronic image, or paper form.

After carefully reading the information, despite the high rewards, few monsters volunteered. Some due to laziness, others discerning the "danger" in this assistance.

Of course, faced with rewards, someone always volunteers.

Inside a room set up like a children’s playground, a child piling up mud figurines reached out to catch a soft paper falling from the sky, touching the text information on it.

He himself has no mouth, yet a voice came from the mud figurine:

"B-level reward eh? Been a long time since such a big task was assigned. If I get the reward, I can leave early, no longer confined here.

Moreover, this person seems interesting, I’ll take it!"

As the child pressed his fingerprint, the Exploration Bureau’s matching test began, and the green light indicating high compatibility soon lit up.

...

Luo Di kept moving forward in the cramped space, showing no expression even as the ceiling lowered, the walls compressed, and the darkness seeped in.

He continually advanced without any hesitation.

The final passage turned into a strip less than a meter long, requiring Luo Di to compress his bones slightly, even wriggle through using tentacles.

Once through the slit, the space became spacious.

In front was a dimly lit "single-person dining room," evoking a retro feeling of the 90s, even reminded Luo Di of his childhood.

The dining room’s structure was quite strange;

The so-called single meant only having a metal frame folding table and a plastic stool, with a hanging fan above the table that creaked when rotated.

Square-shaped dining room, all four walls had serving windows.

The grease-covered glass had various window labels stuck with red tape.

Each window side hung an old tungsten light bulb, the only light source in the dining room.

Food seemed freshly cooked, still steaming, yet no serving attendants were visible.

Luo Di didn’t show any sign of stopping, having traveled ten hours from the prison, he’s quite hungry.

The broadcast already notified him during the red elevator ride that

Before the actual assessment begins, newcomers have a chance to eat.

Since the formal assessment hasn’t begun, Luo Di planned to eat a good meal, not knowing how many days the assessment might take, there might not be such eating opportunities then.

Taking the aluminum utensils from beside the serving window,

Luo Di reached directly into the window, intending to serve himself.

However,

As his hand gripped the metal ladle, a strong chill surged.

Looking again, he found a pale, cold hand holding the ladle, coincidentally touching his. Yet it was only a severed hand.

But Luo Di showed no fright or strong mental disruption, instead releasing his grip apologetically,

"Sorry, I thought it was self-service, didn’t notice.

Give me some potato braised beef, beans and minced meat, sweet and sour ribs, and fried yellow croaker.

Also, three servings of noodles, beef minced sauce, dry mixed sauce, and pork intestine.

If there’s barbecue, get me two pounds of grilled brains, five skewers of chives, and ten skewers of pork belly. That’s it, order more if not enough."

Just released from prison, Luo Di tried returning to his previous routine, ordering normally, making the atmosphere slightly awkward.

The pale severed hand holding the ladle got stuck mid-air, unsure of how to proceed.

Eventually, the hand slowly faded out, entrusting the place to Luo Di, transforming it into his envisioned self-service buffet.

Luo Di shrugged, promptly served himself, and even squeezed into a larger window for cooking noodles.

Soon, the only metal folding table in the dining room piled high with food, almost overflowing.

While eating, Luo Di felt gazes from multiple serving windows, sensing any waste could lead to danger.

Yet the entire meal was finished in half an hour.

Luo Di merely burped lightly without any visible bulge in his stomach.

The gazes from the windows dispersed, the long-lost mechanical broadcast voice sounded again:

≮Luo Di Investigator, your assessment test is ready, the four doors correspond to assessment start, bathroom, warm-up room, and resting room.

You have one hour of preparation time, please plan accordingly.≯

Luo Di lifted his eyes to find the previous serving windows had vanished, replaced by separate doors set in the middle of the walls.

He had no intention of resting, wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth, and headed towards the unmarked rustic wooden door behind him.

Pushing open the wooden door,

The wind howled,

Outside was a security line, familiar to Luo Di from the Investigation Bureau, used for zone sealing, indicating Pseudo-Persons are present.

Strangely,

Luo Di saw no investigators active there,

Facing a rather dated settlement area.

Confronting the scene with a strange smile emerging on Luo Di’s face,

He had been in Hell for so long, he almost forgot what Pseudo-Persons were like, how they felt; the scene before him seemed fitting for rehabilitation exercises.