"Sigh." Looking around the bare garden, Yang Bo was speechless. The garden mainly contained poisonous plants and insects; there wasn't a single animal in sight.
This meant his hopes of acquiring a new ability through the assessment had fallen through.
He scored 98 points on the assessment. The deduction was due to his improper handling of a poisonous spider. The pigeon egg-sized spider had been swatted to death by Yang Bo with a single slap.
He really hadn't done it on purpose. The spider had suddenly jumped out, and his reaction had been entirely subconscious. According to protocol, he should have stepped back to maintain a safe distance and then used tools to deal with it. Poisonous animals and plants were to be avoided at all costs, minimizing direct contact even when wearing a Protective Suit.
"Forget it. I'll just go to work tomorrow." After the assessment, Yang Bo felt extremely depressed.
When Yang Bo's assessment results came out, Liu Zhijie stared wide-eyed at his ranking.
"A 98? Could Yang Bo's Genetic Evolution be leaning towards intelligence?" Liu Zhijie knew exactly how difficult the assessment was. It was nearly impossible for ordinary people to memorize all the poisonous plants and animals, which was why he had specifically stated that sixty points was a passing grade.
However, Liu Zhijie couldn't be sure. Determining the direction of Genetic Evolution required highly complex testing, with a blood sample being the absolute minimum requirement.
Even now, no one knew exactly how many directions Genetic Evolution could take. First, because everyone's physique was different, their evolutionary paths varied as well. Second, there was the issue of secrecy. Genetic Evolvers kept their personal abilities strictly confidential. Once their abilities were known, others could easily devise countermeasures against them.
The next morning, Yang Bo woke up feeling incredibly refreshed. Every night, he used his Light Energy Control to exhaust his energy, which allowed him to sleep exceptionally well and wake up fully rested.
After getting ready, he headed to the bus stop, wondering if he should ask his boss a few questions at the company and see if he'd answer them.
Yang Bo didn't notice a young man wearing sunglasses and a hooded sweatshirt nearby. Beneath the sunglasses, the young man's eyes were cold, glaring at Yang Bo with unbridled fury.
In this world, it was common for people to go out wearing sunglasses, hoodies, and their hoods pulled up. The majority of the population were mere residents, and over time, they had developed reclusive, homebody personalities with almost no social circles.
The bus arrived. As Yang Bo lined up to board, the sunglass-wearing youth unknowingly inched closer and brushed the back of his hand against Yang Bo's.
Suddenly, the young man shuddered violently. His mind turned to mush. He forgot who he was and where he was. Looking around with bewildered eyes, he was shoved from behind and stumbled into the bus.
Yang Bo inexplicably felt a jolt as well, as if he had been shocked by static electricity. He looked around suspiciously.
After getting off the bus and entering the company, Liu Zhijie called Yang Bo into his office and asked, "Good score. How do you feel?"
"I feel like there's something wrong with me. When I killed those animals, I didn't feel any guilt," Yang Bo said after a moment of hesitation.
"That is simply human nature. If you look at history, the number of people who have died in wars far exceeds those from anything else, like disasters or plagues.
"Humans are also Advanced animals, standing at the top of the food chain. Look at the fierce beasts out there—how do you think they maintain their position at the top? Through slaughter and hunting. You don't need to overthink it. Missions are optional. If you don't feel comfortable, you can choose ones that don't involve animals," Liu Zhijie explained.
Yang Bo nodded. "Got it, boss."
"Go on down and take a mission. You are currently at the Low Level E-level, so you can only accept E-level tasks," Liu Zhijie added.
Yang Bo nodded again and went to select a mission. To his surprise, there were quite a few available—at least a dozen. Some of the listings vanished while he was browsing, presumably taken by others.
"Clean the basement." Yang Bo accepted an E-level mission worth 1,500 Credit Points, which involved clearing out clutter from a basement.
Gathering the necessary equipment for the job, Yang Bo hopped into the car. As usual, the client had sent a vehicle to pick him up.
Liu Zhijie had mentioned before that the majority of their clients were celebrities and politicians. These people didn't want certain things exposed to the public. Take the garden he cleaned last time, for example—it contained dozens of endangered and protected plant species. If that information were to leak out, those famous figures would be in massive trouble.
Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away from Yang Bo, the young man in the hoodie and sunglasses got off a bus, looking completely disoriented. He had no idea who he was, where he was, or what he was doing. Fragmented memories occasionally flashed through his mind.
Ring! The word popped into his head. The young man looked at the ring on his finger, took it off, and stared at it as he walked.
Suddenly, his body convulsed, and he collapsed onto the road, the ring flying out of his hand. An oncoming bus slammed into him. Although the bus was equipped with an AI system, the young man's erratic behavior was too sudden, and the system failed to trigger a warning in time.
After the bus came to a halt, the doors immediately swung open. An automated voice echoed inside, "All passengers, please evacuate immediately. Please evacuate immediately."
Within ten seconds, two black-and-white drones hovered in the air. These were police drones equipped with Laser systems.
Twenty-five seconds later, two Anti-Gravity hovercars arrived—one ambulance and one police cruiser.
At this exact moment, Yang Bo, who was still in the client's car, was utterly dumbfounded.
A notification had suddenly popped into his mind: [Mecha Pilot +8]!
"Holy crap."
Yang Bo grew increasingly bewildered. He silently recited his Skills and discovered that, sure enough, he now possessed this one.
"What the hell..." Yang Bo was deeply confused. "What is going on? I haven't killed anyone, have I?"
He began to carefully recount his day, from waking up in the morning to arriving at work. He couldn't pinpoint anything out of the ordinary.
After thinking a bit harder, he finally remembered being shocked by static electricity on the bus.
"Could I have been ambushed?" Yang Bo wondered. He then took a closer look at the back of his hand and noticed a very faint red dot, almost like a pinprick.
While Yang Bo was mulling over his suspicions, back at the scene of the young man's car accident, two police officers frowned. "A C-level citizen. We don't have sufficient clearance; this is beyond our jurisdiction. Report it to our superiors."
The young man was loaded into the ambulance. Upon examination, the doctor discovered that the victim was already not breathing. However, resuscitation procedures still had to be followed. Since they didn't know the victim's identity, they could only use the most basic life-saving methods. Some people were allergic to certain Potions, and some Genetic Evolvers could not come into contact with specific drugs.
Meanwhile, as Yang Bo got out of the car to start his work, he roughly pieced together what had happened. "The deceased target yielded 8 points, which should make him a C-level Genetic Enhancer. A C-level Genetic Enhancer taking the bus... Could he have been targeting me specifically?
"That person poked me with something, and my own Electric Energy Control discharged a shock. Did it fry his Biological Chip?
"So the static electricity I felt was actually the Electric Energy releasing from my own body?
"I'll have to check the news when I get back to see if there are any reported deaths today. The death of a C-level citizen is no small matter," Yang Bo thought to himself as he gathered his tools and entered the basement, ready to start working.