Deep in the Living
Chapter 371 - 359: Crack, Boundary and Exploration Bureau

Chapter 371: Chapter 359: Crack, Boundary and Exploration Bureau

In the personnel monitoring room,

The agents temporarily taking over personnel tasks here showed different expressions, either admiring, looking serious, or silently starting to prepare.

According to the current data, Luo Di is already in an unstable state, such a person cannot be kept.

Just as some agents prepared to go to the assessment space for secret handling.

The moonlight faded away,

returning to the previous state of the black clouds pressing down, gale-force winds howling.

Luo Di removed his mask,

The blood threads between his eyeballs dissipated along with it,

He went to the small shop in the neighborhood, picked out a plastic lighter, and took a pack of Red Towers,

bit onto the cigarette tip, shielding the lighter,

lit it amidst the fierce wind.

He leaned against the street lamp alone, waiting for the result.

The so-called Exploration Bureau assessment is indeed difficult; it requires moving alone in a corner-like environment, searching for that monster avatar lurking and ambushed in the darkness, confronting it with individual strength.

However... this difficulty is only fitting for those new recruits, not for a Connector like Luo Di.

What the True Hell has bestowed upon him gives him strength beyond his peers.

If there’s a real assessment, only the previous journey in Hell could be worthy.

The Exploration Bureau itself knows this well; they are clear that Luo Di’s strength has already met the standard, or even exceeded it. Therefore, what this assessment truly needs to test is Luo Di’s stability.

Actively exposing old wounds,

provoking and drawing out that instability from the deepest thinking level,

under such circumstances, examine his mental state.

If he can still maintain stability, still target the monster, then he is considered qualified.

Exploring corners requires not only strength but more importantly, a heart that can always remain bright.

There have been many powerful exploration teams that lost contact in the corners before, precisely because someone in the team was infected by fear, completely fallen, thus causing internal collapse.

At this moment, Luo Di, who is smoking, has all his values in a stable state,

and it’s not just an ordinary stability, there’s no killing intent, no hatred, only calmness after the event.

As the Red Towers burned in his mouth completely,

The wind stopped,

The street lamps in the neighborhood lit up, and the loudspeaker at the top of the street lamp broadcasted the voice of the community worker.

≮ Congratulations, Luo Di, your assessment test is over, please leave through the ’exit’. We will give a comprehensive evaluation based on your performance, to judge whether you can join the Exploration Bureau. ≯

Luo Di looked in the direction where the street lamp pointed, a solitary red door stood in the center of the neighborhood.

"Some sort of spatial technique?"

Luo Di walked toward the standalone red door,

Reached out to open the door,

Stepped into it,

Buzz!

A burst of light flashed by, Luo Di found himself on a moving bus, with no driver but one passenger.

Yu Ze was sitting in the last row, waving to Luo Di who just boarded the bus.

"Congratulations, fellow! Getting on this bus means you passed the assessment. But whether you can join the Exploration Bureau is still uncertain. Come over here and rest for a while.

You’ve controlled your emotions well, but you should have been angry, right? Perhaps killed ’someone’?

Don’t worry too much, the Exploration Bureau must test individuals’ performance in extreme conditions, only then can they see if they can maintain stability in the deeply oppressive corners.

After all, the fear there is ’alive’; it doesn’t just affect your mind, your body will also have problems.

Only individuals who are stable enough will the Exploration Bureau dare to send into a corner; otherwise, the talents they’ve worked so hard to cultivate will end up becoming their enemies."

"Hmm."

Luo Di didn’t mind the arrangement of the Exploration Bureau, he even appreciated them, thanking them for this assessment that reminded him of an important ’Pseudo-Person’; to be precise, it should be the monster that has already gone to the corner.

He also went to sit in the last row, by the window, glancing outside.

Surprisingly, what he saw wasn’t indoors but outdoors, more like an island... an unknown island.

Because Luo Di could see the coast through the gaps between the trees and the water meeting the beach.

Unlike any seawater he’s ever seen.

The seawater here was dark and tranquil, without the slightest ripple, it seemed like there were no creatures living within it.

Due to limited vision, Luo Di couldn’t estimate the specific size of the island, but he faintly sensed that this island was fundamentally different from any resort island he had ever been to.

"Are we still inside the World Bureau?

The construction of this island should use spatial technology similar to the assessment scene, technology brought out from the corner?"

"You got half of it right.

The technology was applied, but this island was ’naturally’ formed.

At the initial establishment of the Exploration Bureau, humans hadn’t found a way to venture into corners with stable means, with extremely high mortality rates.

As a few strong individuals stepped forward, bringing back related objects and technology from the depths of the corner, the World Bureau began the [Rift Plan]."

At this moment,

Even though Yu Ze was sitting in the rear row, he somehow sat in the front row, pointing toward the windshield,

Luo Di rose and walked over, sat in the driver’s seat, looking toward the front.

Looking beyond the island’s trees obstructions, toward the central area.

Even amidst the darkness,

They could clearly see a [rift] in the island’s center, a vertical structure, a hundred meters long.

"Is this... a stable route to the corner?"

"Yes~ this rift claims the lives of hundreds of predecessors to be ’opened up’.

It’s a stable passage to the shallow area of the corner, allowing agents to enter a relatively safe area.

Instead of being randomly thrown into completely unknown dangerous areas, or directly landing in a monster’s mouth.

Moreover,

Once an agent’s related task is completed, as long as they return to the shallow area and meet certain criteria, they can return through this rift, back to this island.

The existence of the rift is extremely important for the entire Exploration Bureau.

Many times when being hunted in the corner, or bearing severe injuries, or when the fear pressure reaches the limit, as long as one can return to this island they are safe, preserving a talent selected among thousands."

This island was formed during the opening of [Rift], due to corner infiltration, spreading into this space, to be precise, This island should be considered a spatial part of the corner.

As the island seeped from the corner’s surface, merging with the world’s surface,

The nature of the island changed; it became both a part of the corner and a puzzle of reality, bestowed with a dual nature.

It can bear the path to the corner through the [Rift], while also serving as a transit station, a boundary.

The island’s nature is very similar to the [between the rift] constructed during Pseudo-Persons’ promotion.

Such a perfect place naturally became the new site for the Exploration Bureau."

"I see..."

After a simple explanation,

The bus windows reflected a cluster of pure white buildings built around the [Rift],

Among which ten buildings were the most prominent, each engraved with standard Arabic numerals on the exterior.

Some were like towers, others like spheres, some were modern technological buildings, and some were old buildings of the past.

"These ten buildings must be the [Exploration Ten Departments] that Yu Ze mentioned?"

"Yes~ once selected formally, we’ll be assigned to one of the departments."

Without any enclosing walls, the driverless bus carried the two into the island’s central architecture cluster, which also serves as the actual site of the Exploration Bureau.

Besides the departmental buildings, it also housed various basic buildings, seemingly matching agents’ needs for a place to rest upon return, storage, etc.

However, there were no pedestrians on the way, nor any city-like shops.

The streets were all white walls.

"Don’t the agents coming back from the corner have daily lives?"

"No, or rather they don’t want to.

They are used to living in the corner,

Most agents don’t even want to come back; it’s just that their activity time in the corner has ended, requiring them to come back to remove the fear so they can embark on the journey again.

I assume, fellow countryman, that you will surely like the life in the corner as well... by then, your desire for the human surface will greatly diminish."

"What’s inside?"

Yu Ze merely raised a finger, making a silent gesture.

Soon,

The building where the personnel department is located arrived.

A woman enveloped in a barrel-shaped white robe was already standing downstairs.