Chapter Fifty-Nine: Joining the Demon Suppression Bureau

There was a hint of jest in what Karen Wang said earlier, and after the two of them settled into the small conference room, he simply told Shu Zhou to disregard it.

However, he did explain the entire sequence of events.

When they discovered that Shu Zhou was a student at First High and that his homeroom teacher was none other than Liu Feiyan, captain of the Third Demon Suppression Unit, Karen Wang had deliberately kept quiet about it.

Since it wasn't mandatory to immediately inform the relevant parties, he decided to play a little prank on Liu Feiyan.

Coincidentally, Liu Feiyan found out what was going on today, which led to the earlier scene.

Now understanding all this, Shu Zhou cast a sidelong glance at Karen Wang.

Serves him right—messing around with nothing better to do.

In their class, no one dared to provoke their homeroom teacher, let alone tease her for amusement.

Still, this situation was rather interesting.

He'd heard that their homeroom teacher was single, and this Captain Wang didn't look particularly old himself. Could it be...

The look Shu Zhou gave Karen Wang gradually turned speculative.

Feeling uncomfortable under Shu Zhou's curious gaze, Karen Wang quickly changed the subject and told him about yesterday’s detailed examination results.

His body was healthy, with no issues at all. Physically, he was at the level of a national second-class athlete.

They had also looked into Shu Zhou's sports training background and found that he hadn’t received any specialized training and barely did much on his own. This meant he was naturally gifted.

He was still under eighteen, his body hadn’t fully developed yet, and with more training his physical abilities could improve further—his final physical strength might even reach a brightness level of ninety units.

To draw a comparison with athletes, this put him on the level eligible for world-class competitions.

This was also the baseline for ordinary combatants in the Demon Suppression Bureau.

But compared to his physical abilities, Shu Zhou’s psychic capacity was far more impressive.

Although it wasn’t clear when he had awakened, by this age, to already have a brightness of 115 and to have developed the abilities of "Slow-Motion Vision" and "Alertness," he’d already crossed into the realm of "beyond normal human limits," becoming an esper.

After a brief conversation, Shu Zhou signed several agreements and officially joined the Dongyuan City Demon Suppression Bureau.

Since Shu Zhou was willing, and since without joining there was little else to discuss, even if only for access to internal information, he would have joined anyway.

Once the paperwork was done, both of them breathed a sigh of relief.

Now, they could speak in detail.

"So, my brightness of 115 is really that impressive?" Shu Zhou asked.

"It's quite impressive indeed," Karen Wang replied. "Do you know how many espers there are in Dongyuan City?"

Shu Zhou shook his head.

Karen Wang gestured with his hand. "Thirty-nine in total!"

"Wow, that many?" Shu Zhou was startled.

"It sounds like a lot, but not even ten can actually fight. Including you, there are nine: five official demon slayers and four trainees."

"Only that few?"

"Actually, that's not bad. Strictly speaking, the trainees aren’t even considered proper espers yet..."

According to Karen Wang, the World Esper Association set the boundary between ordinary people and espers at a brightness of 100 units.

"Brightness" was a derivative concept from the study of the "human body’s aura," used to gauge the strength of bio-energy.

Using ultra-sensitive, high-frequency energy resonance scanners, they could detect a variety of colors in the human aura. The color indicated the type of abilities, while the brightness represented the energy level.

The higher the brightness, the more energy a person possessed, which generally meant they were stronger.

Shu Zhou had heard the term "brightness" during his previous test, but hadn't understood its meaning. He only knew it was similar to the attribute units displayed by the Hunter System—when his psychic attribute was 1.17, his measured brightness was 115.

According to international classification, anyone or anything with brightness over 100 was designated as Class C, meaning they had surpassed normal human limits.

Below 100 was Class D—ordinary humans.

Of course, the difference among "ordinary" people could be vast, like the gap between Shu Zhou and a world champion at the start.

Karen Wang explained that the domestic classification system was different: anyone above 100 brightness was First Rank, and the higher the rank, the stronger the individual.

Rather than starting with nine or more ranks, and complicating things with terms like Super First, Special First, Ultra Super Special First, and so on, which could easily get confusing, they simply started at First Rank and kept counting up, even up to a hundred, with no overlap or chaos.

Of course, humanity hadn’t yet faced such a headache, as there were currently only four ranks domestically, and the fourth rank was equivalent to the international S class, along with some countries’ peculiar ranking names.

For instance, in Great Qin, the official system was straightforward numeric ranking, such as First Rank Mutant, but espers themselves had their own informal, colloquial categories.

Once someone exceeded brightness of one hundred, they were called "Demonized." When demonization reached one hundred percent and brightness passed two hundred, they became a "Demon," and beyond that, a "Great Demon."

The reason for these names was the profession of "Demon Slayers" in the Demon Suppression Bureau, a title passed down since ancient times, so the terminology remained unchanged.

The official ranking for human combat-capable espers was a combination of numbers and titles, but the self-styled titles among espers themselves could be messy. However, the term "Foundation Establishment" was generally accepted for those above one hundred brightness, while above two hundred, terms like "Divine General," "Celestial Master," "Arhat," and others proliferated.

Shu Zhou hadn’t expected that actual "demons" existed—it just showed the deep influence of traditional culture. While many online speculations missed the mark, the term "demon" proved not to be far off.

He also learned what set him apart from the other three trainees: his brightness was higher, at 115—already up to the standard of a First Rank Demon Slayer, even higher than the highest among the official slayers, Zhang Peng, whose brightness was 112.

The other three trainees hadn’t broken the 100 mark—the highest was only 99. They were recruited because the Demon Suppression Bureau was understaffed and needed to cultivate new talent from trainees, who might even be called into action in emergencies.

Of course, they would always go with an armed combat team.

This wasn’t unique to Dongyuan City; the same model was being implemented worldwide, doubling the number of frontline combatants. Yet, judging from the ever-increasing reports of "anomalies," the number of fighters was still insufficient, and the situation was growing more dire.

The trainees who were selected were all promising; after some special training, they could break 100 and officially become demon slayers.

Shu Zhou’s brightness was high, but his foundation was weak. Even though Zhang Peng’s brightness was three units lower, his experience, combat skills, and team synergy gave him a huge edge—Shu Zhou wouldn’t stand a chance against him.

Especially if you ignored the highest brightness value, Zhang Peng’s other attributes were all in the high nineties, close to a hundred, while Shu Zhou’s were only in the eighties.

That was a significant gap.

Still, among the other three trainees, Shu Zhou was already quite impressive—he’d met the demon slayer standard and awakened psychic powers. With some firearms and sniping training, he could basically join the combat squad for monster hunting.

Of course, the best scenario was to first join another demon slayer’s team to gain practical experience. Even if he failed as a sniper, there was no need to worry about safety—other demon slayers would handle any trouble.

Speaking of combat, Karen Wang snapped his fingers and said, "By the way, I’ll have someone take you to our armory. While we’ve discussed that the most suitable growth path for you is 'Sharpshooter,' firearms come in many varieties. Which type suits you best still depends on your personal inclination."

"It’s even possible that the Sharpshooter path isn’t right for you. People are always naturally suited to some things. No matter how reasonable a plan seems, innate aptitude can lead you elsewhere—like how many people plan to be scientists as children, but with time, naturally find the path that fits them best."

When Shu Zhou heard the word "armory," his eyes lit up instantly, like a diehard fan discovering a mysterious website left by upperclassmen on the wall.