Chapter 303: Little Steel Balls

Wind Capital, Western Suburbs.

A noisy street somewhere.

Inside a pachinko parlor with dim lighting and flickering, harsh neon signs.

The air was thick with the murky smell of cheap air freshener mixed with low-grade tobacco. The deafening clatter of steel balls and the high-decibel electronic sound effects from the machines intertwined, making one's head pound.

Wu Nuo, dressed in casual clothes, stared unhappily at the silver little steel balls that kept rolling down before his eyes.

——68 jackpots... still 25 more to go. How much longer did he have to play in this crappy place?

Just how much did that idiot sect master love pachinko? How come even the artifact's price was playing pachinko...

Speaking of which, had this pachinko stuff seriously existed since a thousand years ago?

Damn it, once he finished paying off this Binding price, he definitely had to find a way to properly break through to the third Energy Level so he would never have to use this stupid artifact again.

What made him even more speechless was...

It seemed that in order to ride the trend, every single machine in this parlor had been switched to magical girl themes.

The screens were full of 2D girls in gorgeous dresses, spinning around with staffs. Along with the steel balls dropping and winning, they even made all sorts of bizarre sound effects.

And seeing magical girls made him involuntarily recall the memory of his only two defeats.

So annoying!

Just as he was drowning in irritation, a passerby next to him carrying a plastic basket full of steel balls suddenly stopped, stared at him for a moment, then suddenly slapped his thigh.

"Hey! Hey hey! You look so familiar! Aren't you that guy who got cut in half in the video—"

Wu Nuo's face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

"You've got the wrong person!!!"

——Tomorrow when he came, he was definitely wearing a hooded shirt!

……

Fifteen days after the P Incidents ended.

Wind Capital Sixth Division Headquarters.

Section Chief's Office.

Afternoon sunlight trickled through the half-open blinds into the room. Several crisscrossing golden beams fell diagonally onto the floor, and floating dust was clearly visible in the light.

Rarely, there was no smell of smoke from the desk. Instead, there was a light, calming scent of tea.

Qin Shengshi leaned back in the wide office chair. Her pink braid draped down from her shoulder, and her dark yellow eyes, tinged with fatigue, gazed at a document on the computer, then turned toward the sofa.

Yan Jing, Chen Yujie, and Luo Xi were each seated on the guest sofa.

It wasn't that the Sixth Division lacked other first-grade sorcerers, but the ones truly counted as Qin Shengshi's trusted confidants, the ones with the best relationships among the operatives, were these three.

Because of that, they often discussed matters together.

And right now... even with physical constitutions monstrous compared to ordinary people at the second Energy Level, exhaustion was clearly visible in their expressions despite their attempts to hide it.

Even the most energetic one, the golden-haired girl like a little wolf cub, looked like she didn't really want to talk.

That was because, for the past few days, in order to handle the aftermath of the P Incidents, everyone in the entire Sixth Division, along with the purely administrative Fifth Division and the Fourth Division representing the technical department, had all been running around without pause.

Things like handling the television station's follow-up response, figuring out how to package this whole affair into something the public could understand.

Or dealing with the chaotic fallout across Wind Capital that night.

And the arrest of the rogue sorcerers, the corpses of the Harmful Beasts, the capture of remaining accomplices...

All kinds of follow-up matters had piled up like a mountain.

It was only in the last day or two that things were finally almost sorted out, and everyone's burden had finally eased a bit. Today also happened to be the weekend, which was why they had a chance to catch their breath here and do a summary.

"I remember your old classmate was discharged from the hospital yesterday."

Qin Shengshi looked at Chen Yujie. The other woman had squeezed out time from her busy schedule yesterday to go see Chu Tianjiao once, making her the one among them who understood him best.

"From your perspective, how is his situation?"

"..."

Chen Yujie had her bare feet propped up on the step, leaning back on the sofa lazily. "Just like in the report."

"For the specific physical examination results, the Fourth Division's report is definitely more accurate than what I can see with my eyes."

——That middle-aged man named Chu Tianjiao was in far better condition than anyone had anticipated.

It was hard to imagine that he had actually formed a symbiotic relationship similar to a contract with that demonic sword. The curse power circuitry inside his body, originally expected to be extremely chaotic, had miraculously stabilized.

In everyone's eyes, this was simply impossible.

Injecting a memory device directly without using a driver to filter and stabilize it was an extremely dangerous act in the eyes of normal superhumans.

The raw material of memory devices was memory salvaged from a certain special source. Once contacted without protection, both body and soul were prone to twisting and mutating, becoming unstable existences known as Admixed Beings.

Not to mention that Chu Tianjiao had previously been heavily modified by the Pollution Demon. He had even been injected with P Agent to boost his curse power compatibility, all so he could serve as a vessel for that demonic sword, used without regard for loss.

Logically speaking...

After going through all that, as an ordinary person, Chu Tianjiao basically had no chance of surviving.

But the fact was, he recovered his mobility after lying in the hospital for only a few days.

Not only that, his curse power level and physical functions had barely suffered any loss. He still maintained the peak of the second Energy Level, which was nothing short of incredible.

That sword had even gone completely obedient. It actually took over the role of the transformation device, storing the memory device and the curse power originally injected into Chu Tianjiao's body, allowing him to call upon it at any time without burden, and transform.

With this, it was as if a powerful rogue first-grade sorcerer with zero knowledge of the supernatural world had suddenly appeared, and he was directly connected to the P Incidents. As an official force, they naturally had no choice but to pull manpower from their busy schedules to monitor him at the hospital, and to inform him of the relevant matters he needed to know.

"Though, simply put, that guy is still the same as ever."

Chen Yujie sat on the guest sofa, took a sip of tea, and reported with a slightly subtle expression.

"After the Fifth Division people finished telling him the common knowledge he needed to know, and what happened that night, he seemed to have completely made up his mind to step into the supernatural world and become a sorcerer."

"He said that since the supernatural truly exists, burying his head in the sand like an ostrich is meaningless. That way, he can better protect his family. But of course, his family wouldn't agree so easily. The hospital room was in complete chaos."

"In any case, with this kind of thing, we can only wait and see how he ultimately decides."

"However..."

Chen Yujie shook her head and smiled helplessly. "Before Chu Tianjiao was discharged, he apologized to me. He said if the Sixth Division or I ever needed him for anything, just say the word."

"At least that sword strike I took probably wasn't for nothing."

"Also... he kept pressing me about who that girl he fought that night actually was... What could I say? I could only tell him I didn't know..."

Everyone present fell silent.

Qin Shengshi, sitting behind the desk, tapped her fingers lightly on the surface for a few seconds, then finally spoke.

"For now, observation remains the priority. Don't contact him unless it's an emergency. After all, he was modified by the Pollution Demon, and the risk of him losing control in the future cannot be ruled out."

"The field operations department needs to assign people to regularly update his danger assessment report."

"Both precautions and surveillance are necessary."

"However..."

Qin Shengshi's tone softened slightly. "From a personal standpoint, there probably won't be any major problems."

"After all, his life was saved by that girl... She must have had her reasons."