Chapter 126: Making a Wish

Xiang Jianxing's phone call brought good news, at least for the vast majority of players.

Due to his crucial performance in this Erosion Dungeon and Professor Shi Ning's recommendation, Wu Chang was getting promoted.

Whether as an administrative unit or as a supernatural violence institution where strength reigns supreme, the Bureau of Anomalous Phenomena maintained a strict hierarchical system internally.

Excluding non-formal members known as Assistants, formal members were divided into six major ranks.

Each formal member received a weighted score based on factors such as current combat power, future potential, and merit, ultimately determining their assigned tier.

The six major ranks, from low to high, were Combatant, Explorer, Investigator, Executor, Rover, and Harmonizer; each major rank was further subdivided into three minor tiers: Third, Second, and First Grade.

For instance, Wu Chang, Ling Hu, and Hamster, having just converted to formal status, were Third-Grade Combatants, while their instructor Zhao Yan, serving as a backbone force in Wanghai City, was a First-Grade Combatant poised to advance soon to Explorer.

Above Combatants lay Explorers, signifying that when entering dungeons for conquest, one no longer worried about completing main quests and could begin exploring various gains and side tasks within the dungeon.

Xiang Jianxing and Meng Yawen were currently at this stage.

Moving higher, reaching level thirty to become a top-tier combat force in the Wasteland Realm, or completing a dive mission to enter the second layer of the Abyss, indicated the capability to thoroughly investigate a dungeon's mysteries, begin pursuing higher dungeon completion rates, and become an Investigator.

Director Gao and Leng Shan were currently at this stage.

However, due to the vast difference in their potential, though both were level thirty, Director Gao, despite having the bonus item of being a branch bureau director, remained only a Third-Grade Investigator, whereas Leng Shan, before even reaching the second layer of the Abyss, had already become a Second-Grade Investigator.

As for Shi Ning, he was an exception; his importance in the research field far exceeded that in the combat field, so even though he was only level thirty, he enjoyed the treatment of a Rover.

Bureau members who could surpass the Explorer rank to become Executors were all experts who had made a name for themselves in the second layer of the Abyss, capable of standing alone, representing the threshold many considered the entry point for being a true big shot.

In the real world, they each held sway over a region; for example, with just a word from Xu Dejun, everyone had to show some face.

As for the even higher ranks of Rover and Harmonizer, those were figures who had dived to the third layer of the Abyss and basically no longer appeared in the real world, so Xiang Jianxing had not said much about them over the phone.

The weight of a B-class merit was heavy, causing both Wu Chang's and Xiang Jianxing's rank scores to surge dramatically.

Consequently, Xiang Jianxing rose from a First-Grade Explorer to a Third-Grade Investigator, while Wu Chang, under Shi Ning's recommendation, jumped up an entire major rank to become a Third-Grade Explorer, surpassing his instructor Zhao Yan.

Judging by Xiang Jianxing's tone, if not for Wu Chang's poor foundation—starting with only a D-minus rating—his rank could have been pushed even higher.

Wu Chang was very satisfied with the rank of Third-Grade Explorer; this was exactly what he had wanted from the start.

Becoming an Explorer meant stepping into the ranks of the Bureau's core members and possessing a certain degree of autonomous authority.

This meant that unless he wished otherwise, even Director Gao could not forcibly assign him missions; as long as it wasn't a city-wide crisis like an Erosion Dungeon, he could openly slack off.

This aligned perfectly with his initial plan: to observe the Bureau's internal operations from a sufficiently comfortable position, hidden in plain sight, and evaluate whether to join the Bureau in the future.

If not for Xiang Jianxing's final remark, this would have been a perfect outcome.

Xiang Jianxing finally told him that to ensure no cultists of the Evil God infiltrated the Bureau, core members, upon registration, were required to open their attribute panel observation permissions for inspection of any skills or statuses related to Evil God cultists.

The Bureau possessed specialized detection methods, so he was instructed not to hold anything back when displaying his attribute panel, lest unnecessary misunderstandings arise.

Upon hearing this news, Wu Chang was instantly dumbfounded; good heavens, was this an inspection for Evil God cultists, or an inspection of me?

Having reached this step, he had practically walked straight into the muzzle of a gun.

If he displayed his attribute panel, his heaven-defying attribute values would absolutely expose his identity as a Monster Newbie.

If he refused to display his attribute panel, wouldn't that imply he had something to hide? Did the Ningjing Sect's Ludan have a hand in deploying the Erosion Dungeon? Could he really only hide up to this point? Although his impression of the Bureau was quite good at this stage, that impression stemmed entirely from the Bureau's lower echelons.

Regarding the Bureau's upper echelons, his intuition had always told him not to approach rashly before acquiring sufficient strength.

Previously, he thought his aversion to the Bureau's leadership was merely a reluctance to be a lapdog or be bound by an organization; only after experiencing the Erosion Dungeon did he realize that the source of his vigilance also stemmed from the unknown aspects of the Bureau.

Just like that classic iceberg theory diagram, the Bureau he had seen was merely the part of the massive iceberg floating above the water, or even just a corner of that part. According to intelligence gathered from the Abyss Game forums, the Abyss Game first began absorbing players on a large scale at least twenty years ago.

Yet by that time, the four major organizations had already taken shape.

There was a conspiracy theory in the forums that was nearly universally accepted: the four major organizations had already been researching the Abyss Game before its "open beta."

No one knew exactly how many secrets such a colossal entity concealed.

Especially after the Erosion Dungeon incident, he felt increasingly unfamiliar with both the Abyss Game and the Bureau.

The unknown was the greatest fear.

Just as he was worrying, a sudden flash of inspiration struck, and he thought of a solution.

He picked up the Miracle Stone and made a wish directly: "Grant me the ability to alter my attribute panel in a way that can deceive the Bureau's inspection."

"Your wish request exceeds the scope of wishing; wish failed."

Tsk, as expected of an inspection capability emphasized additionally by Xiang Jianxing; ordinary abilities simply could not conceal it.

However, there was still a way; the registration time for core members was two days later, and after midnight tomorrow, his dungeon cooldown would end.

If directly obtaining it was impossible, surely obtaining an opportunity to gain such an ability should be feasible, right?

Wait, since wishes exceeding the scope received a prompt rather than directly consuming the Miracle Stone, could he be a bit greedier? He tried making a wish: "The next time I enter a dungeon in the Abyss Game, take me to a dungeon that can resolve all hidden dangers on my person."

He had originally aimed for the upper limit, thinking that if one wish failed, he would gradually lower his requirements step by step.

Who would have expected that the moment the wish was spoken, the Miracle Stone flashed with intense light, shattered into starlight-like points, and merged into his body.

"The Miracle Stone has shattered; your wish is successful."

It succeeded just like that? The wish succeeding so readily surprised him somewhat; would it come with compromised effects? But matters had come to this; he could only take it one step at a time.

The next day, the Wanghai City Branch Bureau held a small victory celebration, attended by both Director Gao and Lei Huo.

Meng Yawen, however, having initially been stalking Wu Chang, now found it awkward to appear and used an excuse to absent herself from the celebration.

Gazing at Director Gao's bald head, Wu Chang seemed to recall something.

He opened the dormitory group chat, scrolled up through the chat history, and found two photos snapped by He Wei along with a blurry video clip.

He called Zhao Yan over and asked in a low voice with a suspicious expression, "Is this our bureau director?"

Zhao Yan hurriedly covered his phone screen with his hand and made a "shush" gesture.

"Put it away quickly; in the Wanghai Branch Bureau, this matter is not something to be mentioned."

Wu Chang shrugged and said, "That's quite normal; everyone has more or less some special hobbies. I won't spread rumors."

Zhao Yan didn't know how to respond to that; after holding back for a long while, he could only say, "Director Gao's actions aren't merely a simple hobby; all of this is for the sake of Wanghai City."

The celebration lasted until evening; besides celebrating the resolution of the Erosion Dungeon crisis, they also distributed the rewards Lin Jiang had wished for upon achieving a perfect clearance of Silent Town that day.

Ten thousand Corrupted Silver Coins and one permission slip for a Mid-Tier Reward Dungeon could truly be called an unexpected windfall.

Unfortunately, although the reward instance didn't share its cooldown with the Abyss Game instances, a one-month interval was required between reward instances, so it couldn't be stacked with the Wish Instance in time.

After the celebration banquet, Wu Chang returned to Golden View Garden. As soon as the clock struck midnight, he entered the Abyss Game, ready to begin his Wish Instance.

(End of chapter)