Chapter 14: Mecha Piloting +8!

“Sigh.” Yang Bo looked around at the barren garden, speechless. The garden mainly consisted of poisonous plants, along with venomous insects. There were no animals at all.

In other words, the idea of gaining new abilities through the test was dashed.

Test score: 98. The deduction came from not handling a venomous spider properly. The spider, the size of a pigeon egg, was slapped to death by Yang Bo.

Yang Bo really didn’t mean it. The spider jumped out suddenly, and his reaction was instinctive. According to protocol, he should have retreated to maintain a safe distance and used tools to handle it. Direct contact with toxic plants or animals should be avoided, even when wearing protective gear.

“Forget it, work starts tomorrow.” After finishing the test, Yang Bo felt quite frustrated.

Yang Bo’s test results came out, and Liu Zhijie’s eyes widened as he looked at Yang Bo’s ranking.

“98 points?! Is Yang Bo’s gene evolution in intelligence?” Liu Zhijie knew the difficulty of the test well. It was hard for ordinary people to remember all the poisonous plants and animals, so he had specifically stated that a score of 60 would be passing.

However, Liu Zhijie wasn’t sure. Determining one’s genetic evolution path requires very complex testing, with the most basic requiring a blood sample.

Even now, nobody knows how many paths there are for gene evolution. The first reason is that every person’s physique is different, so the paths of evolution are different. The second is confidentiality. Genetic evolvers are highly protective of their abilities because if others knew, various countermeasures could be prepared.

The next morning, Yang Bo woke up feeling especially good. Every night he used Light Energy Control to drain his energy, which made him feel exceptionally restful, waking up refreshed.

After getting ready, he went to the bus station, pondering whether to ask the boss some questions at work. Would the boss answer them?

Yang Bo didn’t notice a young man with sunglasses and a hoodie standing nearby. The young man’s eyes, hidden behind the sunglasses, were cold, and he glared at Yang Bo with burning anger.

In this world, many people wore sunglasses, hoodies, and kept their hoods up when they went out. Most were residents who had developed reclusive personalities with nearly no social circles.

The bus arrived. Yang Bo queued up to board. Before he knew it, the young man wearing the sunglasses had moved closer, brushing Yang Bo’s hand with the back of his own.

Suddenly, the young man shook violently, his mind turning to mush. He couldn’t remember who he was or where he was. His gaze became dazed as those behind him pushed him into the bus.

Yang Bo, feeling a tingling sensation like being shocked by static electricity, looked around suspiciously.

After getting off the bus and entering the company, Liu Zhijie called Yang Bo to his office and asked, “Good score. How are you feeling?”

“I feel a little off, like I don’t feel any guilt killing those animals,” Yang Bo hesitated before replying.

“That’s human nature. Check the history books. The number of deaths from human wars far exceeds those from disasters or pandemics.”

“Humans are the apex predators. Look at the beasts in the animal kingdom. What secures their place at the top? Killing and hunting. You don’t have to worry about it too much. You can choose your tasks. If it doesn’t feel right, you can take jobs that don’t involve animals.” Liu Zhijie assured.

Yang Bo nodded, “Got it, boss.”

“Go pick a mission. You’re now E-level, so only E-level tasks are available to you.” Liu Zhijie added.

Yang Bo nodded and went to select a job. To his surprise, there were many tasks available, at least a dozen. However, some had already been taken.

“Clean the basement.” Yang Bo chose an E-level task that offered 1,500 credits to clean out some basement junk.

Equipped with the necessary gear, Yang Bo got on the transport that the client had arranged to pick him up.

Liu Zhijie had mentioned before that most of their clients were celebrities and politicians. They didn’t want certain things to be exposed, like when they had cleaned the garden with dozens of endangered protected plants. If that had gone public, those celebrities would have been in big trouble.

Meanwhile, over a hundred kilometers away, the young man with sunglasses and a hoodie got off another bus, still dazed and unsure of his identity or purpose. Fragments of memories flickered in his mind.

Ring! The word “ring” flashed in the young man’s mind. He glanced at the ring on his finger, took it off, and looked at it as he walked.

Suddenly, the young man twitched and collapsed, the ring flying out of his hand, landing in the path of an oncoming bus. Even though the bus had an advanced AI system, the young man’s sudden actions had not triggered the system’s warning in time.

After the bus came to a halt, its doors opened, and a voice sounded: “Passengers, please evacuate immediately. Please evacuate immediately.”

Within ten seconds, two black-and-white drones, equipped with laser control systems, hovered in the air. These were police drones.

Within twenty-five seconds, two anti-gravity vehicles arrived. One was an ambulance, the other was a police vehicle.

Meanwhile, Yang Bo, still on the bus, was dumbfounded.

Because just now, a message suddenly appeared: Mecha Piloting +8!

“What the…?” Yang Bo was stunned, his mind a whirl. He mentally summoned the skill and found it was indeed there.

“What the heck is going on…?” Yang Bo was perplexed. He hadn’t killed anyone, right?

He began replaying the day in his head. From the moment he woke up to now, he hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

He thought back further and remembered being shocked by static on the bus.

“Could I have been sabotaged?” Yang Bo carefully inspected the back of his hand and noticed a faint red dot, like a pinprick.

While Yang Bo was filled with suspicion, the young man from the accident caught the attention of the police.

Two police officers frowned. “C-class citizen. We don’t have the authority to handle this. We need to report it.”

The young man was loaded into the ambulance, but upon inspection, the doctor found he was no longer breathing. Nevertheless, they proceeded with resuscitation procedures. Since the man’s identity was unknown, the most basic methods were employed. Some people are allergic to certain drugs or, in the case of some genetic evolvers, cannot be treated with specific medical substances.

Yang Bo, preparing to get to work, figured out roughly what had happened: “The deceased gave me 8 points. He must have been a C-class Gene Enhancement. Was a C-class enhancer riding the bus just to target me?”

“That guy pricked me, and my Electric Power Control discharged, possibly destroying his biological chip?”

“The static I felt, was it actually my own Electric Power surging out?”

“I’ll check the news later to see if there’s been any report of a death today. The death of a C-class citizen is no small matter.” Yang Bo muttered to himself as he entered the basement, ready to start work.