The Green Tea Skill Shows Its Power for the First Time. As soon as the AI voice fell, inside the room...
Looking at the pitch-black corridor ahead, as if ghosts were floating, Huangfu Jun was also a little nervous. But what exactly was the extremely sunny and positive energy? Could it be yang energy?
Thinking of things full of yang energy, Huangfu Jun suddenly had an inspiration. She decisively took out her phone, opened the music app, and played the "Athletes' March." It had to be the most authentic version played by a military band!
As the sonorous and powerful orchestral music resounded, Huangfu Jun felt as if she had returned to the playground of her school sports meet. For a moment, the red genes in her blood blazed hot and hot, dispelling the damp, cold, fishy, and gloomy air. Even the long, dark corridor became a thorny path of life toward death. Striding forward with vigor, never forgetting the way she came, there was hope at the exit!
Back when she was human, she had never feared any terrifying scene. Not to mention now that she had the body of a half-demon. She straightened her back and strode into the corridor. The motion-sensor lights in the corridor lit up one after another, and she could finally see that the eerie shadows in the darkness were actually piles of garbage that filled the long corridor—decayed and rotten wastepaper, various withered vines and plants. The walls on both sides, covered with green wallpaper, were stained with years of accumulated grease, giving off a dazzling oily sheen. Even the crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling were dim and yellow, covered with thick grease and dust.
Huangfu Jun walked forward with a mix of disgust and caution, stepping on the garbage that made crunching sounds. Where there was no garbage, the floor was sticky, creating a resistance underfoot. As she walked, she suddenly felt a strange sound under her foot, as if something had been kicked and rolled far away. Huangfu Jun stopped, a cold sweat breaking out on her body. As the object rolled into the dark shadow, a black mist suddenly appeared, slowly converging into a large black shadow.
Huangfu Jun looked up and held her breath. The shadow finally took shape, with eight distinctly shaped tentacles. Each tentacle was doing a different job—one held a handheld vacuum cleaner, another wielded a shovel as if planting flowers, and another even curled around a wok, flipping something.
Huangfu Jun breathed a sigh of relief. She had finally seen Director Zhang Yu. But all those tasks seemed to be happening in different spaces. In the corridor, she could only see the shadow, but couldn't hear any sound. A few steps further, the eight-legged octopus seemed to be in another space. Huangfu Jun waved her hand a few times, but it didn't react. Even when she reached out to touch its tentacle, she only felt a wisp of light black smoke, with no substance at all.
Huangfu Jun typed her request into her phone and played it with an AI voice toward the octopus's back: "Director Zhang, I am Huangfu Jun, a new employee of the Seventh Bureau. Sent by the Supervision Bureau at the request of Ying Wu, I've come to the archives to retrieve files. May I ask what procedures are needed from your side?"
The octopus shadow didn't respond at all. Huangfu Jun increased the volume and played it several more times from different positions, but still no reaction.
Huangfu Jun bit her lip. If she couldn't touch the entity, how could she communicate with it? If she forced communication and angered it, with its frenzy, any one of its tentacles could send her to the afterlife. She recalled Ying Wu's advice: "The person managing the archives is the octopus you saw earlier. He has a bad temper, as you've seen. After knocking, no matter how crazy he acts, ignore him. His territorial awareness is very strong; going crazy is normal. Just go in and find the files."
Suddenly, she had an idea! She couldn't connect to Zhang Yu's brainwaves, but she could make him take the initiative to connect with her! Huangfu Jun immediately took action. She set a five-minute alarm on her phone, then picked up the mop and bucket next to the bathroom door. In an instant, she was running around the messy corridor, leaving behind a blur of motion. She was strong and fast; in no time, the walls were wiped clean of dust, the piles of garbage on the floor were cleared, and even the crystal chandeliers above were washed spotless.
By the time the loud alarm rang, Huangfu Jun had already washed her hands, straightened her cuffs, and walked out of the restroom. As she stepped back into the corridor, a black shadow suddenly floated down in front of her. She instinctively stepped back half a step. Before she could see clearly, the shadow drifted away again. Then, the door to the archives in front of her suddenly cracked open, as if pulled by some invisible force, slowly opening bit by bit. The lights inside turned on one after another, and Huangfu Jun's jaw dropped with each light that came on.
From the outside, the archives seemed to be only forty or fifty square meters. But when the door opened and the lights came on, she saw that it was probably as large as an entire football field. Inside, rows of bookshelves lined up like the boundaries of a maze, stretching across the vast space. Huangfu Jun lifted her chin back into place, then solemnly bowed deeply toward the depths of the corridor, paying high respect to the ever-busy and overwhelmed Mr. Zhang Yu.
Standing up, she did not hesitate and quickly entered the archives. Finding the workers' files in the maze-like archives was not easy, especially because the retrieval marks on the bookshelves were blurry and the content was sketchy. Fortunately, she was fast enough. In the blink of an eye, she had roughly browsed half of the bookshelves and luckily located the shelf marked "Worker Files."
But when she actually stood before those files, she was a bit dumbfounded. The consecutively numbered worker files filled five bookshelves, each over three meters high and ten meters long. The volume of files was terrifying! Just flipping through them would wear down the skin on her fingers! This workload was brutal!
But she had no time to lament. She had less than seven minutes left. With so many files, she would have to run dozens of trips back and forth. Using her powers consumed a lot of energy, especially since she had barely eaten all day. To avoid suddenly fainting from low blood sugar, she had to make a few trips first and then quickly find something to eat. The first problem to solve was how to carry as many files as possible at once.
She first picked up a stack, then gathered another stack with one hand and tossed it on top. After tossing several times, the towering pile of documents was almost as tall as she was. But just as she turned around, a chaotic flash of black and white snowflakes appeared before her eyes! Startled, she thought, "Oh no! My stamina is exhausted; I'm about to faint!" But she was holding such a heavy load of files—if she fainted, she would either be crushed by the mountain of books or be crippled by the fall! The next second, another black curtain flashed before her eyes, the beginning of a complete blackout.
Her legs went weak, and she fell backward straight as a plank. But the imagined pain did not come. At the critical moment, a powerful force suddenly appeared, steadily supporting her waist.
Back in the office, Guiche Jun was frowning, staring at his computer screen as if facing a great enemy. His eyes were fixed on lines and lines of rapidly flashing text. He wanted to finish the mountainous task in the shortest time, but after several attempts, he couldn't even get started. After another attempt, he got furious, pushed the keyboard away forcefully, slumped back in his chair, grabbed his pearl milk tea, and took a big gulp to calm down.
"Guiche Jun, young people these days drink coffee while working. You're keeping up with the trend, and it's still hot," said Ying Wu, holding a thermos cup, glancing at Guiche Jun's milk tea with a sarcastic smile.
Guiche Jun, holding his milk tea, his cheeks bulging as he chewed a few times, gave Ying Wu a flirtatious glance with his beautiful peach blossom eyes. "Work is too bitter; I need some sweetness."
Guiche Jun turned to Shan Yang. "Uncle Shan, you're the oldest among us. Your demon power is the deepest. You must be able to distinguish half-demons from monsters."
Shan Yang stroked his white goatee and said thoughtfully, "This Huangfu Jun is indeed not a demon, but so far, I haven't sensed any half-demon magnetic field from her."
Jin Ji, whose expression had been getting uglier, took over. "Humans can't enter the Monster Bureau. She's not a demon, not a half-demon. What exactly is she?"
Ying Wu's gaze on the computer screen grew colder, her voice low and icy. "What she is doesn't matter. What matters is that the Monster Bureau is not easy to get into."
The atmosphere in the office instantly froze, everyone's expression turning gloomy. After a pause, Guiche Jun suddenly stood up, grabbed his milk tea, and walked out while drinking, leaving behind a casual figure. He waved his hand and said nonchalantly, "Time is tight and the task is heavy. Better think about how to complete this review."
Ying Wu shot a fierce glare at Guiche Jun. Jin Ji and Shan Yang returned to their work, but there was a different look on their faces.
Meanwhile, in the archives of the backyard, Huangfu Jun had already safely escaped danger. Standing before a tall pile of files, she bowed deeply to her benefactor who had lent a hand at the critical moment. After bowing, she raised her phone and played an AI voice: "That was really fortunate just now. Thanks to Director Zhang, thank you."
Standing in front of her was the monster in its original form that had "caused a scene in the office"—Logistics Director Zhang Yu. This time, he remained in his terrifying octopus form, back facing Huangfu Jun, his eight legs still waving different tools, busy in different spaces. Hearing the AI voice, he slowly turned his head, revealing his sticky, terrifying skin and huge, black eyes as big as bowls. His eyeballs rotated in an extremely eerie manner, looking down at Huangfu Jun as if examining her. The atmosphere suddenly became frightening. Huangfu Jun felt that if the octopus opened its mouth, it could swallow her whole.
Zhang Yu finally spoke slowly, his voice as hoarse and dry as tree bark, grating on the eardrums. He said slowly, "You shouldn't meddle."
Huangfu Jun was a bit confused, thinking that the octopus's vision might not be good for looking at small sticky notes, so she continued to type on her phone and play the AI voice: "Did I do something wrong? Could it be that I lost something important while cleaning? I sorted all the garbage. If you need anything, Director Zhang, just tell me, and I can surely find it."
The giant octopus was clearly stunned. After a moment, he raised his head as if laughing loudly at the sky. Huangfu Jun was bewildered. She couldn't grasp much of Zhang Yu's meaning.
Zhang Yu laughed twice before continuing, "It's all garbage, nothing to retrieve. The problem is, since you've started, you have to keep doing it."
Huangfu Jun's eyes widened in surprise. Her phone AI said, "Keep doing it? Are you transferring me to the logistics department?"
"Hehe, no. Even if I wanted to, Bai Lin wouldn't let you go."
Huangfu Jun immediately understood and smiled as she typed another line: "So you mean I should come help you in my spare time?"
Zhang Yu nodded.
Huangfu Jun thought seriously for a moment before giving her answer. "I'm strong and fast. If the office isn't busy, I'm happy to help you, Director Zhang. But I have an elderly person at home to take care of, so I won't have much time. Would once a week be okay?"
When Zhang Yu heard this, his figure, which had just become very solid, instantly turned ethereal, eventually becoming a blur of black smoke with only faint outlines visible. Huangfu Jun was a bit startled. Had her refusal offended Director Zhang? But aside from helping others with extra work, she had too many things to do herself.
Just then, the alarm she had set rang, abruptly pulling her wandering thoughts back to reality. Time was tight. Other matters would have to be postponed. She turned around to move the files again, but as she bent down, the world before her eyes started snowing again. She was depleted of physical strength; forcing herself to lift heavy objects would still be difficult. As sweat beaded on her forehead, a black shadow suddenly slithered in front of her like a snake. She focused and saw it was an octopus tentacle, the tip holding a large tray with a steamer of steaming meat buns and a cup of fresh soy milk.
For a moment, her eyes moistened. The last time someone brought her hot food when she was most exhausted was before her grandmother fell ill. When her grandmother was around, she always had a shoulder to lean on in her vulnerable moments.
Placing the buns and soy milk into Huangfu Jun's hands, Zhang Yu's figure dissipated like smoke. Huangfu Jun had no time to thank him; she quickly took a big gulp of the soy milk. The sweet and warm liquid flowed through her mouth and down her throat, warming her entire being. When she came to her senses, the whole steamer of buns had disappeared into her stomach. After she finished eating, the steamer and empty cup also dissipated like Zhang Yu's form, vanishing into thin air.
Having replenished her energy in record time, Huangfu Jun found it much easier to lift the stack of files this time. But there were too many files; she couldn't finish them all in one go, so she focused on the ones Ying Wu had pointed out. As she stood up, the scene before her suddenly changed. In an instant, she was back in the dimly lit office building, far from the ocean of books in the archives. She blinked. In front of her was a door with a temporary paper taped to a plaque: "Supervision Bureau Temporary Office."
Recalling how Zhang Yu had shuttled between several spaces, Huangfu Jun understood—this must also be Zhang Yu's doing. Her heart felt warm.