Chapter 14: Interview Notice

July 14th, 2023

The next morning, Lin Xuan was called to the factory building by Tang Mingxu with a phone call.

“Lin Xuan, baby, you’re my baby.” As soon as Lin Xuan entered, Tang Mingxu exaggeratedly embraced her.

Lin Xuan was frightened and immediately stepped back outside the door. “Boss, I don’t like this type of behavior.”

“You wish.” Tang Mingxu pouted and gave Lin Xuan a disdainful look.

“That’s good.” Lin Xuan breathed a sigh of relief. She almost thought the boss had changed his sexual orientation.

Tang Mingxu was in a very good mood and didn’t get angry at Lin Xuan’s words. He still smiled and looked at her affectionately. “Baby, you’re famous.”

“What?” Lin Xuan looked puzzled.

“You’re famous. You’re famous in the secret escape circle, and our store is famous too. Just this morning, our store’s reservations have increased seven to eight times, and it’s still rising. The reservations for the funeral parlor are already booked for half a month ahead.” Tang Mingxu’s eyes sparkled, radiating the light of money.

“Famous? How did I become famous?” Lin Xuan was confused.

“Do you remember Shen Zhi? He was one of the handsome guys who came to play the escape room yesterday, the one you cursed to have a fishbone stuck in his throat. Let me tell you, he really had a fishbone stuck in his throat. Hahaha…” Tang Mingxu burst into a maniacal and gloating laughter. “He was cursed by you yesterday, but he didn’t believe it. After leaving here, he deliberately went to eat grilled fish to test whether the curse worked or not, and the result… he almost died. Hahaha…”

Tang Mingxu couldn’t help but burst into laughter again. “No, it’s not right to laugh at such a tragic event. It’s immoral, but… I’m really happy. Hahaha… Ahem, I’ll stop laughing now, I’ll stop. Anyway, your curse has proven effective once again. What’s even more amazing is that they were live-streaming their meal yesterday, and the comedic effect it created directly brought fame to our store and your curse as a female ghost. Here, let me show you the video…”

In the video, just a second before, Shen Zhi was confidently proclaiming that feudal superstitions were unreliable, curses were imaginary, and that the curse was a shameless marketing tactic by the store. But the next second, he was unable to speak due to a fishbone stuck in his throat. He tried drinking vinegar, swallowing rice, but still couldn’t dislodge the fishbone. In the end, he had no choice but to be taken to the hospital. What’s even more unbelievable is that the live stream didn’t stop, it continued until the doctor used forceps to remove the fishbone from Shen Zhi’s mouth, even giving a close-up shot of the fishbone.

As Lin Xuan looked at the barrage of “hahaha” comments, she couldn’t help but burst into laughter as well.

“Putting that aside, my brother Tang here is the most loyal person. Our store is thriving, and you played the biggest role. I’ll give you a bonus at the end of the month.” Tang Mingxu playfully threw a flirtatious glance at Lin Xuan.

“Thank you, boss. The boss is the most handsome.” Lin Xuan was so happy that even the boss’s flirtatious glance didn’t bother her eyes.

“Work hard and curse a few more. Earnestly.” Tang Mingxu said.

“Yes, I will definitely curse a few more. Huh?” Why does that sound a bit off?

“I checked this morning, the two teams that made reservations aren’t strong, they probably won’t be able to clear the room. You stay in the dressing room and think about curse lines while you’re at it.” Tang Mingxu said.

“Curse lines?” Lin Xuan was puzzled.

“I’ve noticed that people have a wicked side. The more you forbid them from doing something, the more they want to do it. Take Shen Zhi’s case, the more you tried to stop him from eating fish, the more he wanted to eat it. As long as he went to eat it, there was a chance for the fishbone to get stuck in his throat. So, I think you can keep following this route for your curse lines in the future. For example, choking on water, stumbling while walking, choking while eating, and so on. The more players care about it, the more they pay attention, and the easier it is for the curse to come true.” Tang Mingxu enthusiastically explained his thoughts.

“But what if nothing happens?” Lin Xuan asked.

“It’s okay if nothing happens. These are just daily occurrences. If it doesn’t happen today, it won’t happen tomorrow, but it will happen someday. Once it happens, your curse will be considered successful.”

Lin Xuan, a person who possessed divination abilities, was being convinced by Tang Mingxu’s words and was momentarily stunned. She couldn’t help but raise her thumb and praise, “Boss, if you ever stop running escape rooms, you’ll definitely be a great swindler.”

“That’s right.” Tang Mingxu tilted his head proudly. “You think about it carefully, don’t be lazy. I’ll go attend to the guests.”

Lin Xuan naturally didn’t really consider those “choking on water, stumbling while walking” lousy curses. Those were tricks of a scammer, and she had her own special abilities. However… no matter how good her abilities were, she lacked in merit points.

“Sigh.”

Looking at the lonely 8 merit points in her personal panel, Lin Xuan couldn’t help but sigh.

Just yesterday, she had 99 merit points, but in the blink of an eye, only a small fraction remained. Where did all the merit points go?

Lin Xuan began reviewing:

Pulling “Sadako’s Long Hair”: -10 merit points.Helping Qian Lian avoid bad luck: +10 merit points.Activating the “Sadako’s Long Hair” secondary attribute: -50 merit points.Carrying Chen Chu to climb the television: -40 merit points.Basic system operation for today: -1 merit point.Balance: 8 merit points.

It’s thanks to Chen Chu’s exceptional appearance that attracted Sadako’s favor, and she voluntarily gave an 80% discount. Otherwise, Lin Xuan’s merit points would have been in the negative.

“I need to find a way to earn more merit points.” After last night, Lin Xuan’s attitude towards earning merit points underwent a significant change.

Previously, her requirement for merit points was simple: to earn enough to maintain the basic operation of the system, which was 1 merit point per day.

But after last night, Lin Xuan decided that she wanted to earn more merit points and buy more props. With her hidden skill of “drawing hate,” what she was buying wasn’t just props, but her lifeline! Who knows what kind of unfortunate events she might encounter in the future. This time, Lin Xuan was truly aware of her luck value.

Jin City, Guanghua District, in the old government building.

An Wenbo had just returned from the Imperial Capital and as soon as he entered his office, his assistant brought him several lists to review.

“These are the awakened superhumans in the past six months?” An Wenbo looked through the lists.

“Yes, a total of five, among them, only one is a D-level superhuman,” the assistant introduced. “He is a diving enthusiast. During a deep dive, his equipment was damaged, and he ran out of oxygen. Instead of drowning in the sea, he evolved a pair of gills and gained the ability to breathe underwater. The rest are all F-level, mostly power-based abilities.”

“Wang Dawei?” An Wenbo read the name on the resume.

“Yes.”

“Physical evolution, atavism? Breathing underwater doesn’t seem to be significant at the moment. Sign a confidentiality agreement, create a file, and continue observing. As for the other F-levels without special abilities, don’t bother with them. If there are special abilities, also sign a confidentiality agreement.” In the official superhuman ranking, F-level is the lowest. Taking power-based abilities as an example, F-level superhumans have slightly stronger strength than ordinary people but nothing outstanding. Typically, their potential is triggered by extreme events, leading to evolution.

For example, we occasionally see news like a mother lifting a car to save her child pinned under it. Such cases represent power evolution. Usually, if the level is below C-level, the official department will not intervene. Even the superhuman themselves will only think that their strength has simply increased and won’t consider themselves to have superhuman abilities.

But for other types of superpowers, such as fire-based, water-based, or atavistic fish gills, they require the intervention of relevant departments because their abilities are too special and easily noticeable by ordinary people. Special training, especially in terms of confidentiality, is needed for such individuals.

“Alright.” The assistant nodded and handed another document separately to An Wenbo. “Xie Xingyu asked the bureau a few days ago if they still needed to recruit people and recommended this person.”

“Xie Xingyu?!” An Wenbo furrowed his brows and took the list, looking at it carefully. “Lin Xuan, Sadako-type skills? Climbing a television!”

As the leader of the sixth team in the Special Events Investigation Bureau’s superhuman division, An Wenbo had seen countless superpowers, but this “Sadako-type” was a first for him. What on earth was climbing a television?

“Lin Xuan, 21 years old, a senior student majoring in financial management at Green Leaf University. More than half a month ago, she was involved in an extremely severe car accident, but miraculously only sustained minor injuries. She was hospitalized for only two days before being discharged. I speculate that she awakened during the accident, and her awakened ability protected her. According to Xie Xingyu, three days ago, Lin Xuan crawled out of a television set into Chen Chu’s home…”

“Spurt!” An Wenbo sprayed his tea water half a meter away. “Who?”

“Chen Chu,” the assistant calmly repeated.

“Why did she crawl into Chen Chu’s home?” An Wenbo calmed down, asking while using a napkin to wipe the files he had accidentally wet.

“On her way home from her part-time job, Lin Xuan encountered a pervert who followed her. In a moment of desperation, she used the Sadako skill and accidentally crawled into Chen Chu’s television, coincidentally discovered by Chen Chu. In the end, Chen Chu intervened, helped resolve the situation with the pervert, and handed him over to the local police station.” The assistant had thoroughly investigated the causes and consequences of the incident in the past three days.

“So, you’re saying this girl not only crawled into the television by herself but also brought Chen Chu with her?” Those two perverts, though bad, were definitely not foolish. They wouldn’t just stay in one place waiting for Chen Chu to run all the way over to catch them. So it must have been this girl named Lin Xuan who crawled back with Chen Chu.

Thinking of that scene, An Wenbo suddenly felt like laughing.

“Yes,” the assistant adjusted their glasses.

“This ability is indeed quite rare, but it’s only F-level, the level is somewhat low.” An Wenbo contemplated for a moment. “Let her join us.”

“Alright, what position should we assign to her?” With such low combat power at the F-level, there was no need to send her on missions. If she entered the organization, she would need an appropriate position.

“Just come up with a designation for her.” An Wenbo didn’t pay much attention to it.

“Alright.” The assistant turned and left, sitting at their own desk, opening the computer. They spent an hour browsing recruitment websites and studying how other companies conducted their hiring processes. Then, they wrote an interview notice and sent it to Lin Xuan’s email.

At this moment, Lin Xuan was in the library helping Song Ranran revise their thesis and checking for plagiarism when her phone made a “ding” sound.

Lin Xuan turned her head to look and saw the words “Interview Notice” shining brightly on the screen.