Lin Han turned off the alarm clock and got out of the Capsule, his mind still a little groggy.

He didn’t know why he had said those things to Monica before logging off, either.

Things like “live on” or “what belongs to me”…

It made him seem like some kind of sharp-tongued, soft-hearted tsundere character…

He just had a slight soft spot for that blonde idiot, it wasn’t like he cared that much!

“I can only blame the game for being too realistic,” Lin Han muttered.

Monica’s “thank you” and her smile still lingered in his mind.

…Anyway, he definitely wasn’t a tsundere!

Speaking of which, why had his inner thoughts become so cringeworthy?! Was he really influenced by the game that deeply!

After calming himself down, Lin Han glanced at his phone.

8:37.

He had twenty-three minutes left before his perfect attendance bonus was deducted.

And only twenty-three minutes left before he lost his last shred of tenderness for this world.

Thus, Lin Han rushed out the door.

Twenty-three minutes later, he dashed into the SAVE W City branch building with just thirty seconds to spare before the clock-in deadline.

The punch card machine let out a “beep.”

Lin Han leaned against the wall, feeling as if he had just completed a battle more thrilling than crusading against a Calamity.

“Yo, Old Lin, clocking in right on time again today. Haha, understandable.”

A passing colleague greeted Lin Han, and Lin Han returned a bitter smile.

Lin Han belonged to Team 7 of the Intelligence Processing Division, and he was its Team Leader.

It sounded pretty good.

But in Team 7, the true meaning of Team Leader was: the first person to take the blame when a team member made a mistake, the last person to leave work before a report deadline, and the easiest person to remember when the higher-ups couldn’t think of who to dump trouble on.

Taking a deep breath, Lin Han pushed open the office door.

Then, he saw the familiar chaos…

At the very front of the office, a young woman with long black hair sat upright in front of a computer.

She wore a neat black uniform, her posture straight, her expression cold, looking as if she could pull a resignation letter out of her pocket the next second and elegantly smash it into Lin Han’s face.

Her name was Shen Qingshu, one of Lin Han’s team members.

From a distance, the scene of Shen Qingshu working was as beautiful as a painting.

…if the computer screen in front of her wasn’t displaying an error prompt.

Lin Han walked over and took a look.

“You still haven’t figured out how to use Excel?”

Shen Qingshu was expressionless.

“I figured it out.”

“Then what does ‘invalid file format or extension’ mean?”

“It is slandering me.”

“Why would office software slander you?”

“Because it fears me.”

Lin Han fell silent for two seconds.

“Did you change the spreadsheet’s extension to jpg again?”

Shen Qingshu’s eyelashes fluttered imperceptibly.

“Since it can be seen, it should be an image.”

“The computer doesn’t seem to think so.”

“Ignorant iron box.”

Shen Qingshu looked very imposing.

If Lin Han hadn’t just taught her how to use the software yesterday, this imposing aura might have lasted a bit longer in his eyes.

On the other side of the office, a man was down on the floor.

He wasn’t injured.

He was doing push-ups.

“198, 199, 200!”

Zhou Ran sprang up from the ground, grabbed the water cup on the desk, tilted his head back, and took a huge gulp.

He was tall with short hair, and his shoulders were as wide as a door. The uniform he wore always gave off a tense feeling that its buttons would collectively sacrifice themselves in the next second.

If this weren’t the SAVE office building, Zhou Ran would look more like a contestant at a bodybuilding competition.

“Morning, Team Leader!”

Zhou Ran revealed a hearty smile.

“Today, too, we must face our work with a spirit full of strength!”

“Doing push-ups in the office doesn’t count as work.”

“But Team Leader, a strong physique is the foundation of all work.”

“Then can you use your strong physique to teach Shen Qingshu how to use Excel?”

“201! 202! 203!”

You’re always like this, going quiet whenever you run into a hard-to-answer question.

Lin Han shook his head, walked over to his workstation, and sat down.

“T-Team Leader… good morning!”

To the side, a trembling girl handed Lin Han a cup of coffee. Even though she hadn’t done anything wrong, her expression looked as if she had just burned down the entire office.

Tang Xiaoman was the third member of Team 7.

She wasn’t tall, her speaking voice was soft, and her bangs were always a bit messy.

She was usually responsible for running errands, organizing documents, contacting other departments, and, when everyone else was busy, answering the office phone with an expression that looked like she was about to cry.

As far as Lin Han knew, she worked part-time at a convenience store at night, at a family restaurant on weekends, and occasionally took on all sorts of bizarre odd jobs.

He had no idea where she got so much energy.

Lin Han took the coffee.

Tang Xiaoman immediately breathed a sigh of relief and scurried back to her seat as if she had a guilty conscience.

Lin Han opened his computer expressionlessly, long accustomed to everything that went on in the office.

If there ever came a day when the subordinates under him weren’t causing such a ruckus, Lin Han might actually be more surprised.

He took a sip of coffee and logged into SAVE’s internal system.

A red-flagged briefing popped up.

Lin Han clicked open the file.

Several photos of the scene appeared on the screen.

Large swathes of scorched streets, overturned vending machines, torn lampposts, and a Mutant strapped to a stretcher with restraints.

Half of the man’s face was covered in grayish-black chitin1, fine black markings were faintly visible on his neck, his arms were swollen and deformed, and his knuckles looked like some sort of insect’s exoskeleton.

Lin Han quickly skimmed the text in the report.

Compared to what he had heard on the TV program in the morning, the intelligence Lin Han now held was undoubtedly more detailed, and some of the details were also slightly different.

The general public might not have much understanding of SAVE’s rating system, but Lin Han knew very well that not just any random Calamity could be designated as B-Class.

D-Class Calamities generally possessed the characteristics of low danger and low urgency, and SAVE didn’t have the manpower to deal with them. This type of Calamity was usually entrusted to Calamity Hunters, namely licensed civilians.

C-Class Calamities, on the other hand, made up the bulk of what SAVE handled and usually posed a threat to people’s lives. Only when SAVE was short-handed would they hand over C-Class Calamities outside the urban area to Calamity Hunters.

But once it reached B-Class, the danger of the Calamity underwent a qualitative change. They often possessed the power to easily wipe out city districts, and if not dealt with immediately, would cause massive losses. SAVE would also dispatch an entire Transcendent Squad to annihilate them.

Calamities of this level usually only occurred a few times a year in W City.

However—

“Is this already the fifth one this month? A B-Class Calamity, Aberrant…”

Lin Han frowned.

The document described that the destruction across the West Business District wasn’t actually caused by a “high-voltage power line explosion” as broadcast on TV, but was purely the damage caused in the instant the Mutant appeared.

A Mutant this powerful was already the fifth one this month.

Probably no rational human would think this was a coincidence.

So, where was the problem…

Lin Han pulled up the previous four files and carefully compared them.

Time passed quickly as Lin Han immersed himself in his work…

“Is the chitin the breakthrough… or…”

“Team Leader? Team Leader!”

A large hand waved in Lin Han’s field of vision, interrupting his muttering.

“It’s time to eat,” Zhou Ran said casually. “Team Leader, do you need me to bring you some food?”

Lin Han looked up and saw that several hours had already passed without him realizing it.

For some reason, he had a vague feeling that he was only one step away from the clue, but he just couldn’t grasp it.

“Forget it, let’s go get some food together.”

Lin Han stood up and glanced around the office.

Shen Qingshu was still facing her computer with a cold expression, while Tang Xiaoman had a miserable look on her face as she processed a mountain of documents.

Looking again at Zhou Ran standing beside him, Lin Han suddenly felt that something was off.

“Speaking of which, is someone from our team missing?”

“I’m right here, Team Leader.”

The voice from the corner startled Lin Han. He then saw a man wearing glasses stand up and wave at him.

“Team Leader, you already ignored me when you arrived this morning,” the man said with a self-deprecating laugh.

“Is… is that so…”

Lin Han’s mouth twitched.

Xu Weian, the last member of Team 7.

Compared to the other team members with distinct personalities, he had no real defining traits.

Or rather, his defining trait was being incredibly unremarkable, resulting in a very low presence.

It was so low that sometimes during roll calls at meetings, the leader would subconsciously skip him, only to be suddenly startled right before the meeting ended.

“Xu Weian is here too?”

Lin Han had lost count of how many times he had heard similar words.

Looking at Xu Weian, who had already made peace with it, Lin Han felt a bit embarrassed and asked, “Want to go get something to eat together?”

Xu Weian quietly nodded.

Just as they were about to head out, several members wearing combat uniforms hurried past in the corridor.

Lin Han subconsciously glanced over, and his gaze froze.

At the back of the group, a young girl happened to turn her head, and their eyes met.

She froze for a moment.

Then, the corners of her mouth slowly curled into a slightly mocking smile as she stopped in her tracks.

“Lin Han?”