Chapter 86: Freshness

Chapter 86: Freshness

The Special Operations Bureau staff member who called herself Ren Wenwen had left.

Irene lay by the window watching her walk away. She turned back to look at Yu Sheng, who seemed slightly absent-minded, and asked curiously, “What is that Blizzard Mystery Case she mentioned?”

Yu Sheng’s expression was strange. “…A novel I wrote. It’s serialized on a media account.”

“And who is ‘Lin Qi’?”

“The male lead in the book.”

“What about ‘Night Blade’?” Irene blinked, then before Yu Sheng could answer, she looked suddenly enlightened. “Oh, I know. The female lead?”

Yu Sheng fell silent and looked up at the ceiling.

Irene seemed to have guessed something from his reaction and became cautious. “…Don’t tell me it’s another male lead?”

Yu Sheng leaned back in his chair. “If it were just another male lead, I could still accept that.”

Irene: “…Then a male antagonist? I don’t remember much, but I vaguely recall that kind of pairing exists…”

Yu Sheng glanced at her doll-like face and sighed internally, wondering if her already limited memory capacity could be reserved for something useful. Then he said, “It’s the male lead’s motorcycle.”

Irene: “…”

The doll froze in shock, even more shocked than when she had once seen a sky-covering eyeball.

She jumped down from the windowsill and pointed at him. “You actually write something that weird!”

“I did NOT write it like that!” Yu Sheng protested. “It’s probably just because people working at the Special Operations Bureau are under too much stress, so their worldview gets a bit distorted.”

If Ren Wenwen were still here, Yu Sheng would have wanted to sigh directly in front of her and say: young lady, your tastes are too narrow.

Hu Li, who had been listening quietly, finally leaned over curiously. “Benefactor, Irene, what are you talking about?”

“Good children shouldn’t listen. Even bad children shouldn’t listen,” Yu Sheng waved his hand wearily, then looked back at his laptop.

His grand plan to finish his manuscript still had not begun, but at this point he could not write anything no matter what.

“You’re not writing today, right?” Irene asked, eyes fixed on the computer.

“Maybe tomorrow,” Yu Sheng sighed. Then he noticed her gaze. “What do you want?”

“Can I play with this?” Irene pointed at the computer. “Watching TV every day is boring.”

Yu Sheng was silent for a moment. The doll quickly added, “I won’t look at your browser history!”

“I’m not worried about that!” Yu Sheng shot back. “I’m worried you’ll break it. Do you even know how to use it?”

“I do!” Irene said confidently.

“…Where did you learn that?”

“I don’t know, but I just can. I can even type!”

Yu Sheng looked at her skeptically, hesitated for a long time, then finally waved his hand. “Do whatever you want. Just don’t break it. I’m going to check out this new phone.”

With that, he ignored Irene and sat down, taking out the new phone given by Ren Wenwen.

A “gift” from Director Baili Qing.

Yu Sheng examined it carefully. It looked almost identical to a normal smartphone, except slightly heavier. He was not sure if that meant a larger battery or some special hardware. Ren Wenwen had not given him any manual, only saying the operation was the same as a normal phone, and that specialized guidance for “anomalous users” was integrated into the system itself.

After examining it for a while, he unlocked the screen.

A large red diamond-shaped emblem appeared, resembling a vertical, watchful eye. It was likely the Special Operations Bureau logo. The emblem faded, revealing a simple home screen with few icons. The most prominent was at the top: Boundary Communication.

Also a red diamond icon.

He opened it. It launched quickly, almost no loading time, revealing a clean interface.

Communication tools, data search, public channels, news feeds, and an emergency support option.

A strange sense of novelty rose in him as he explored the platform, said to be built by the Special Operations Bureau for all registered spirit-world investigators and independent operatives in the Boundary Zone. He quickly noticed he was already logged in under the username Yu Sheng.

Registration time: this morning.

Had the director pre-registered him? Or was the device pre-bound to the user upon issuance? Devices with confidentiality functions often worked like this…

While thinking, he opened the chat function and, on impulse, typed in Little Red Riding Hood’s name.

An avatar of a red-hooded figure appeared, marked online.

After a moment’s thought, he sent the first message.

“Are you there?”

Two or three seconds later, the avatar flashed, and a string of symbols appeared.

“???!”

“I’m Yu Sheng. The Special Operations Bureau just gave me a phone. I saw you using this software before, now I have it too.”

This time, the reply was delayed.

“You’re actually serious?! I thought you were joking!”

After a pause, another message came.

“I’m in class right now.”

Yu Sheng: “Won’t the teacher notice?”

“Nope. I’ve got my wolf on the roof handling messages. Using its eyes, claws, and shared senses. I’m sitting in class looking very attentive.”

Reading this, Yu Sheng paused slightly. “…You can do that?”

“I’ve practiced for over two years. At first I could only send emojis after urgent messages. Now I can even play ranked matches using shared senses with my wolf,” she replied quickly, sounding somewhat proud, as if this was the only time she showed her age-appropriate liveliness. “What about you? You really became a spirit-world investigator… and those two at your place? Did they register too?”

“They did,” Yu Sheng glanced at Irene typing furiously on the computer and Hu Li wandering around the house. “But there’s only one phone…”

He paused, then added: “Even with registration done, I’m not sure what we can actually do now that the novelty has worn off.”

“You should talk to that doll, Irene, right? She seems to know a lot about supernatural stuff.”

“She’d probably just tell me to go stick flyers on the street,” Yu Sheng replied immediately. “Better to ask you than ask her.”

“…That’s actually not a bad idea,” came the reply. “But you should not rush into ‘doing big things’ yet. When you have time, read the database. The Bureau shares a lot of files: special locations in the Boundary Zone, and information about stable-access Other Domains. You can also check public channels. Other investigators often share intelligence from recent incidents. You might find it useful. If you need money, check requests for assistance. If you’re worried about scams or pricing, you can ask me.”

A long, careful message.

Even through the screen, Yu Sheng could feel the sincerity of the girl who always seemed surrounded by wolves.

“Thanks. Very helpful advice,” he replied sincerely.

“No problem. Just a small suggestion. By the way, since you registered as an investigator, did you also register a team? What’s the name?”

“Travel Inn.”

He typed it carefully, then added: “It probably won’t show up yet. We only just submitted the paperwork this morning.”

“That sounds great,” came the reply quickly. Whether sincere or polite, it was hard to tell. “Maybe it will soon become a well-known name in the Boundary Zone?”

“Haha, I’ll take that blessing,” Yu Sheng typed back quickly. “I won’t keep you from class. I’m going to check the database.”

“Okay, bye~”

After ending the chat, Yu Sheng exhaled slightly and noticed the sound of Irene aggressively typing again.

He walked over.

“What are you doing? So noisy… don’t break it.”

“I’m playing a game. Someone said I’m slow, so I’m insulting them back,” Irene said angrily, sitting cross-legged in front of the keyboard, her whole body moving as she typed. “This keyboard is too big, it’s hard to use!”

Yu Sheng glanced at the screen and immediately saw her single-handedly dominating the chat. Every teammate, enemy, game developer, and even advertising sponsor had been thoroughly annihilated in verbal form.

Her typing speed was not slow at all.

Yu Sheng was impressed.

Terrible at games, but terrifying at insults. When scolding him at home, she was still somewhat restrained, but online she was completely unleashed.

However, her dominance did not last long.

Within minutes, she was banned. A large temporary suspension notice appeared on the screen.

“Told you so,” Yu Sheng said, laughing. “Got punished this time, huh?”

Irene was still furious when she suddenly froze.

“…Uh, this is your account.”

Yu Sheng: “…?”