In reality, Lin Han suddenly sat up in the Simulation Capsule.

The capsule lid opened, cold air pouring in. Lin Han grabbed his phone and immediately searched for news related to the X City Orphanage.

Soon, several news headlines popped up.

Just as he thought. Lin Han knew he wouldn’t find anything useful online anyway, so he immediately got up, preparing to head to the SAVE office building.

Although he was theoretically still on suspension, he didn’t believe Qin Zhizhi would be so heartless as to just kick him out.

Besides, this matter was closely tied to the Metamorphosis Society.

He just didn’t know how he was going to explain to Qin Zhizhi how he found out about it…

Forget it, he’d figure it out as he goes.

Sorting out his thoughts, Lin Han prepared to leave.

However, just as he pushed his door open, he locked eyes with Jiang Wanfeng, who was standing in the living room.

Jiang Wanfeng was wearing loose loungewear, her hair draped down casually. She rubbed her eyes with one hand and pressed her stomach with the other, looking like she wasn’t fully awake yet.

“Bro, I’m hungry. Hurry up and cook~”

Jiang Wanfeng whined out of habit, but when she saw Lin Han fully geared up and ready to head out, alarm bells instantly went off in her head. She asked suspiciously:

“Where are you going?”

“To the SAVE Branch.”

Jiang Wanfeng’s sleepiness instantly faded by half.

“Aren’t you on your day off?”

“Just going over to confirm a few things,” Lin Han said. “I might be back late tonight, so make something to eat yourself.”

Jiang Wanfeng stared at Lin Han for a moment, noticing that her brother’s expression was unusually serious today, so she merely said softly:

“Be careful then.”

Lin Han nodded, walked to the entryway, changed his shoes, and opened the door.

But with the door only halfway open, he suddenly stopped and looked back.

“There are frozen dumplings in the fridge. Boil them yourself when you’re hungry.”

Jiang Wanfeng froze for a moment.

“Huh?”

“Wait until the water is boiling before putting them in the pot. Don’t just throw the dumplings straight into cold water. Last time when you boiled the dumplings into a mushy paste, it wasn’t the dumplings’ fault, it was yours.”

“……”

“Also, don’t order fried chicken and milk tea while I’m gone. You already ate a bunch of potato chips last night, so no more junk food today.”

Jiang Wanfeng’s face slowly turned red.

“If you’re really too lazy to cook, there’s oatmeal in the cabinet…”

“I know, I know!”

Flustered and embarrassed, Jiang Wanfeng hurled a throw pillow at him.

“If you have somewhere to be, hurry up and leave! Why are you more nagging than Mom?!”

Lin Han caught the pillow, casually tossed it back onto the sofa, and looked at Jiang Wanfeng helplessly.

“Go away!”

Jiang Wanfeng glared at him.

Lin Han finally headed out the door.

The moment the door closed, the flustered annoyance on Jiang Wanfeng’s face gradually faded.

She stood in the living room, staring at the doorway for a while.

“Stupid Bro…”

She muttered under her breath, then turned and walked toward the kitchen.

She opened the fridge.

Upon seeing the bag of frozen dumplings, Jiang Wanfeng fell silent for three seconds.

“Put them in after the water boils… Of course I know that.”

Despite her words, she silently took out her phone and began typing a search:

Lin Han hurried to the SAVE Branch as fast as he could, making his way straight to the floor where the Intelligence Processing Division was located.

He ran into a few colleagues along the way; upon seeing him, they all gave him a look that said, “Weren’t you suspended?”

But Lin Han couldn’t be bothered to explain.

Right now, there was only one problem, how was he going to talk to Qin Zhizhi?

Lin Han walked up to the Division Chief’s office, raised his hand, and was about to knock.

Then, he paused.

—Maybe I should make up an excuse first?

Something like, “I noticed something off in the news.”

A bit of a stretch…

Just as Lin Han stood at the door, experiencing a rare struggle to find the right words, the office door suddenly opened from the inside.

Gu Xinglan stepped out, and their eyes met.

Lin Han froze for a moment.

Gu Xinglan also froze.

A brief silence fell over the air.

Gu Xinglan was still wearing her Special Operations Division combat uniform. She didn’t look well, and there was a faint trace of exhaustion in her eyes.

She obviously hadn’t expected to see Lin Han here, either.

“Why are you here?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.”

Gu Xinglan raised her eyebrows, looking as if she were about to make a sarcastic remark as usual. For some reason, however, she didn’t say anything and just quickly walked away in silence.

Lin Han stood where he was, his expression a bit peculiar.

Was… the sun rising from the west? She actually didn’t snark at him?

Before Lin Han could figure it out, Qin Zhizhi’s voice came from inside the office.

“Eh, Lin Han? I was just about to call you. How come you’re here? Come in, come in quickly.”

Lin Han walked into the office, still feeling a bit bewildered.

Qin Zhizhi sat behind a wide desk, her twin tails bobbing. A large stack of documents was piled up on her desk. Seeing Lin Han come in, she immediately revealed a “you came at the perfect time” expression.

“Division Chief.”

Lin Han closed the door.

“I…”

“Did you see the news? A little something happened over in X City.”

Qin Zhizhi cut him off directly.

Lin Han fell silent for a second, then nodded with a strange look on his face.

He had done more than just see it; he had just come back from the scene.

Qin Zhizhi clapped her hands in satisfaction.

“Then that makes things easier to explain.”

She pushed a file in front of Lin Han.

“Now SAVE suspects that the incident is related to the Metamorphosis Society.”

Lin Han picked up the file, which contained basic information about the orphanage, along with a few photos sent back from the scene.

Qin Zhizhi continued,

“X City has been completely overwhelmed by the Metamorphosis Society lately. Although Bai Yu went to X City a few days ago and destroyed a few of their strongholds, she has now been called back to oversee W City. She can’t take the main force of the Special Operations Division over there like last time.”

“So Headquarters decided to send a Special Operations Division squad over as field support.”

Lin Han looked thoughtful.

“Gu Xinglan’s squad?”

“That’s right, and your Team 7 will be responsible for assisting with the investigation.”

Qin Zhizhi said with a smile,

“After all, you were the ones who got the name of the Metamorphosis Society out of the Former Mutant and locked onto Qingchuan Public in advance. Now the higher-ups feel that your Team 7 is very valuable in this matter.”

Saying this, a very smug expression appeared on her face.

“In other words, you’ve finally been noticed by the higher-ups!”

Lin Han glanced at her.

“That doesn’t sound like a good thing.”

“Nonsense, this is a fantastic thing!”

Qin Zhizhi’s expression turned serious.

“Anyway, this mission is very important.”

“Your official mission is to assist the X City Branch in investigating the attack, confirm the active range of the Metamorphosis Society’s remaining forces in X City, and, if necessary, conduct a joint operation with the Special Operations Division, Team 3.”

“Any objections?”

Lin Han shook his head.

“No.”

Qin Zhizhi was taken aback, clearly unaccustomed to this.

“So obedient this time?”

“……”

Qin Zhizhi looked at him suspiciously.

“Usually, you’d at least complain a bit, saying things like, ‘Why is it our Team 7 again?’ or ‘Division Chief, are you using us to plug holes again?’”

Lin Han really wanted to retort, “Division Chief, aren’t you quite self-aware?”, but this business trip was exactly what he needed right now—like someone handing him a pillow just as he felt sleepy—so he decided not to talk back to Qin Zhizhi.

Qin Zhizhi stared at him for a few seconds, then finally leaned back in her chair. Since her feet couldn’t reach the floor, they dangled gently in the air.

“Never mind, I’ll just assume you finally found your conscience.”

“When this mission is over, if you do a beautiful job, I can apply to the Director to give all of Team 7 a paid vacation.”

Then, Qin Zhizhi waved her hand.

“Alright, go notify your team members to get ready. You depart in two hours and will travel with Team 3.”

Lin Han was just about to leave when Qin Zhizhi suddenly remembered something.

“Right. What were you originally going to say when you came to see me today?”

Lin Han’s back inexplicably stiffened, and he played it off with a dry laugh.

“It’s nothing, really. I just felt like something was missing when I wasn’t working, so I wanted to come back and ask if there was anything I could do for the organization.”

“…Since when are you so enthusiastic about work?! Who are you trying to fool? Doesn’t your conscience hurt?”

Qin Zhizhi was shocked.

Before she could press him any further, Lin Han quickly stepped out of the office.

Closing the door behind him, Lin Han let out a soft sigh of relief.

He had only meant to come back to check the internal files and see if he could find anything useful, but he didn’t expect to end up going straight to X City…

Thinking of this, Lin Han felt a bit complicated.

—In other words, he was going to see Monica again.

And this time, it wouldn’t be as Phil…