Chapter Ninety-Two: Headquarters Support Team

“Welcome, welcome. Now that you’re here, we can rest easy.”

The director smiled at a middle-aged man with a neatly built frame and short hair. “To be honest, we never expected to take first place in such a special way. I’m afraid things are going to get busy for us next.”

“We’re only a branch office. If there’s anything we’ve done poorly, please have the headquarters and Captain Lin give us more guidance,” the middle-aged man with short hair said modestly, though there was a faint confidence in his expression. “Director Wang, you’re too modest. We’re here to assist you. Just say what you need from us. Let me introduce the people I brought with me first.”

The director chuckled. “Please do. I’ve long wanted to meet the young talents from headquarters...”

Watching the adults exchange polite pleasantries, Zhou Shu and the others stood behind them and waited.

The veteran demon-subduers stood together, while Zhou Shu still, as always, remained with the three trainees.

He was yawning when Ren Guang, peering curiously toward the other side, suddenly nudged him with an elbow. The unexpected jab made Zhou Shu start violently, and he hurriedly sidestepped.

Ren Guang was startled by his reaction. “Old Zhou, you all right?”

Zhou Shu recovered himself, somewhat embarrassed, and returned to his spot, waving a hand. “I’m fine, I’m fine. I’ve just been exhausted these past two days, and I had nightmares all night. I haven’t quite come back to myself yet.”

“Oh, these past couple of days have really been too much. I didn’t sleep well either yesterday, but I still feel that the world of us students is simple compared with the world of adults,” Ren Guang said, gesturing toward the director’s side.

At that, Zhou Shu glanced over there and asked, following Ren Guang’s lead, “What do you mean?”

“Heh.”

Ren Guang rubbed his hands together. He loved this kind of gossip and inside information the most. “Our director first mentioned that we took first place, meaning the total annihilation of the mutated outbreak, right? Even headquarters didn’t manage to handle that one so quickly. And then he went on to say that the people from headquarters should give us more guidance. How exactly are they supposed to guide us?”

“But the people who came aren’t pushovers either. After a few polite words, they started introducing their team members. Those guys are no ordinary lot. They’re all rising stars from the Beijing headquarters over the past two years, and each of them is formidable. Coincidentally, I have an online friend at the Beijing headquarters, and we were talking about this very thing yesterday.”

Even Lin Tianjing, standing nearby, became interested. She turned her head. “You really do know a lot of people. What’s the story with them?”

“These people have impressive backgrounds,” Ren Guang said with a self-satisfied smile, pointing toward the other side. “Jingjing, see that sweet-looking girl? Her real name is Liu Shuijing. She’s also a high school senior this year, and she’s a hereditary beast whisperer. Their family has several mutated tigers, though they didn’t seem to bring them this time.”

As he introduced them, Zhou Shu listened from the side as well. He was curious about the situation at headquarters too.

Among the people who came, there was only one girl. The rest were all rough old men.

The leader of the group was named Lin Tai, a very powerful second-rank demon-subduer. In terms of the rankings used in novels, he was at the late second rank.

The deputy leader was named Zhao Jiangfan, a short and sturdy middle-aged man. It was said that he practiced a form of hardbody martial arts similar to the Iron Shirt and Bell Protection arts, with astonishing defense. On paper, he was at the mid second rank, but in actual combat he could go toe-to-toe with a late second-rank expert.

Ordinary pistol bullets could only graze his skin, and even the claws of a first-rank mutated creature would leave nothing more than a few pale white marks. A second-rank creature would have difficulty injuring him at all.

Beside him was a young man of similar build named Liu Wushuang, his disciple, who also cultivated hardbody techniques. He was said to possess extraordinary talent and was a late first-rank demon-subduer.

Master and disciple were a rather interesting pair. Though their names carried the characters for sail and willow, both were short and sturdily built and trained in defensive hardbody arts.

The two identical-looking men were twin brothers. The older was Zhang Chao, the younger Zhang Yuan. They were both university juniors and had only recently entered the first rank.

Still, these twins were no ordinary pair. They shared a near supernatural understanding of each other and were both skilled in swordsmanship. When they joined swords, their combined battle strength came close to that of a second-rank demon-subduer.

Last was Wang Huaiyu, one of the geniuses discovered by headquarters in recent years. He became a demon-subduer the day after he turned nineteen. Now twenty-one, he was already a late first-rank demon-subduer, skilled in dual sabers, with combat power that also came close to the second rank.

Good heavens. Two late second-rank experts, five first-rank experts, among them some who could directly rival the second rank, and others whose joint attacks also approached that level.

On the East Plains side, there was only one second-rank expert, and he was only at the beginning of the second rank. There were three mid first-rank experts, two at the beginning of the first rank, and three trainees.

A complete and utter crushing in every respect.

And however one looked at it, the demon-subduers from headquarters had clearly been trained through a proper, orthodox system. Not only could each of them wield weapons, but there were also those who practiced ancient martial arts, as well as the hereditary beast whisperer.

The East Plains city side was far worse. They were basically all self-taught drifters, and even those who knew fists, kicks, or weapons were only using the standard techniques of the Demon Suppression Bureau.

If one were to really introduce them properly, the only person on East Plains city’s side worth showing off was Zhou Shu. After all, the other side had a genius who became a demon-subduer the day after his nineteenth birthday, whereas Zhou Shu had become one when he was seventeen years and more than three hundred days old.

In terms of age alone, Zhou Shu was two years more of a “genius” than Wang Huaiyu.

What’s more, Zhou Shu was a core figure in the “Super Spearhead” project.

The reason he was still in East Plains city and hadn’t been taken to the Academy of Sciences for specialized cultivation was that higher-ups had discovered his expertise lay entirely in powered exoskeletons, and the finished technology for powered exoskeletons had already been completed.

So the higher-ups did not overreact. They gave him ample rewards and left the rest to Zhou Shu’s own future development.

Added to his previous military merits and his technological contribution this time, Zhou Shu’s noble rank had now risen to the fifth level, “Grand Master,” placing him among the middle ranks of official titles.

Aside from the middle-aged second-rank demon-subduers and the director, none of the young people present could compare with him.

If one were to use the ancient hierarchy of scholar, grand master, and nobleman, he could already be considered an officer of noble rank.

And his net worth had broken through fifty million directly. Because he had provided the powered exoskeleton technology, he would also continue receiving annual dividends from now on.

As long as products made with the related technology were sold at a profit, he would keep getting a share.

He was now the face of the East Plains City Demon Suppression Bureau.

Sure enough, after he was introduced, East Plains city managed to claw back some dignity. The downside was that when everyone sat down in the conference room, the eyes of all the younger members of the headquarters support team gathered on him, making him feel a little awkward.

Especially that girl named Liu Shuijing. She was sitting in the corner, with two dogs crouched beside her, a cat perched on the table, and three pigeons nearby.

It was one thing for her to stare. Her animal companions stared too.

One of her cats even seemed to want to come over and sniff Zhou Shu.

Strictly speaking, the girl’s animal companions were also part of her superpower, and all of them were extremely obedient. In fact, some battle plans needed to be discussed with these “spirit pets,” which was why they were allowed into the conference room.

Just then, while the director was explaining Zhou Shu’s plan, Zhou Shu noticed a message come through on his smartwatch saying that his cat had come back, and it had brought one with it.

After saying a word, he went out to look for 47 and the possibly arriving 11.

Once he left, Lin Tai, the leader of the headquarters team, frowned and asked, “What’s going on? You have your own beast whisperer?”

“The situation is a bit complicated,” Director Wang said, rubbing his brow in some distress. “This young man, Zhou Shu, always manages to come up with something new for us. We hadn’t even had time to report it before you arrived.”

The tone aside, just hearing that made Liu Shuijing a little awkward. After all, she had been sent precisely to make up for East Plains city’s lack of exploratory ability.

If East Plains city already had a beast whisperer to expand its reconnaissance capabilities, then a beast whisperer from outside like Liu Shuijing, whose combat ability was relatively weak, would become rather useless. Not only would she have no advantage over a local beast whisperer, she would also be occupying a valuable slot that could have gone to a higher-combat-capacity member.

But just as they assumed the gentle and soft-spoken Liu Shuijing would feel disappointed or angry, Zhou Shu walked back in, carrying two cats in his arms.

Liu Shuijing’s eyes instantly lit up.

And the animal companions she had brought with her immediately...

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