Chapter 58: Collaborator

Returning from the lounge, Zhao Yan’s attitude had indeed changed. He directly closed the scoring system and asked Wu Chang, "Young man, I see you have a unique bone structure. Are you interested in joining the Administration?"

Wu Chang had not originally intended to join the Administration immediately, which was why he had answered in a near-trolling manner during registration. He hadn't expected that the connection with Meng Yawen would allow him to join the Administration despite such lackluster data.

He remembered that before Zhao Yan couldn't help but leave, the score he wanted to give him was D-.

Joining the Administration with a D- score shouldn't attract too much attention.

Thinking of this, he replied, "Of course I'm interested. Being a civil servant has always been my top career goal."

Zhao Yan gave a light cough and explained, "To be precise, you don't count as a civil servant yet."

Wu Chang frowned, "With an organization as large as our Abnormal Phenomenon Administration, we aren't an administrative unit?"

"That's not it. It's just that the Bureau has a regulation: before new members join the Administration, there is an assessment period. During this period, you belong to temporary members; the official name is Collaborator."

"Only after passing the assessment period, completing sufficient contribution points, and having the intention to transfer to a permanent position will you become a full member."

Wu Chang: "In other words, there is no establishment for the current job, just a contract worker?"

Zhao Yan felt a bit of a headache from being asked. He rubbed his head and said:

"The existence of the Administration is special. You cannot measure it by ordinary civil servants. This system is actually a form of protection for you."

"Without becoming a full member, although you will have fewer benefits, the corresponding responsibilities will also be much lighter. Unless there is a major crisis endangering the entire city, the Administration has no right to forcibly conscript temporary members under normal circumstances."

"But full members are different. Once you become a full member, even if you face a mission where you know you will die, you must grit your teeth and take it on, whereas temporary members can choose to refuse. It is precisely because of this point that many temporary members will actively refuse to become permanent."

Wu Chang raised his eyebrows. The Administration was quite humane, providing various cooperation models for solo players.

After asking a few more questions, his understanding of the Collaborator model became clearer.

With top-tier players delving deeper into the Abyss Game, the scale of Abyss Game players has been expanding in recent years.

Especially in the Xia Kingdom, which has a huge population base, new Abyss players appear almost every moment.

The Administration cannot check them one by one, nor can it accommodate and manage so many players.

Coupled with the influence of film, television, and various cultural works, individuals who suddenly gain extraordinary powers will, to a greater or lesser extent, have some resistance to state-affiliated institutions.

Forcing all players to join and crudely managing them uniformly would instead drive players to the opposite side of the Administration, making them easily incited by other forces and turning them from our own people into enemies.

In order to unite all forces that can be united, the Administration provides great freedom for Collaborators.

On the basis of not violating the law, Collaborators are almost not subject to any restrictions, nor are they required to disclose personal secrets such as current level attributes and skills.

Zhao Yan was not wrong; for players like Wu Chang who have some little secrets of their own, Collaborators are more suitable for them than full members of the Administration.

After receiving Wu Chang's affirmative answer, Zhao Yan registered him as a member of the fighting club and told him to come back in three days.

The baby-faced man and the middle-aged man with a crew cut had recently found several other Collaborators, and they would hold an induction ceremony together in three days.

Everyone is a Collaborator in Wanghai City and can be considered colleagues, so it's just right to greet each other.

If one minds exposing their identity, they can submit an application, as the Administration also provides special online meeting services.

Seeing that Wu Chang had no other requirements, Zhao Yan signaled that he could leave.

"By the way, wasn't there supposed to be a statement taken?" Wu Chang had one foot out of the Administration when he suddenly remembered the reason he was called in.

Zhao Yan waved his hand perfunctorily, signaling him to go home quickly.

"Blood Thorn is a Class-A wanted criminal in the Bureau. Several brothers from various branch offices have fallen at his hands. You can just slaughter that bastard and it won't matter; what statement is there to take?"

On the way back to the dormitory, Wu Chang saw that Fang Hui hadn't gone out today and was in the dormitory calling on his various 'godfathers' to help bring him food.

He immediately took on the errand, chose the most luxurious combination from the cafeteria, and even swiped his own card.

Whether he would be given a hard time in the Administration in the future would all depend on Hui Zi's pillow talk; he had to properly nourish this guy's body. Three days passed in a flash, and in the blink of an eye, it was the day of the induction ceremony.

There were a total of six Collaborators being inducted.

Including Wu Chang, four people had no cover and participated in the induction ceremony with their original appearances.

Among the other two, one saw that everyone was not disguising themselves, so he awkwardly took off his mask, while the other remained mysterious and had no intention of taking off his mask at all.

As the recorder of their files, Zhao Yan was responsible for presiding over today's induction ceremony.

Zhao Yan looked at the six people and said loudly:

"Everyone's level in this batch is similar, all in the 7-9 level stage. Before you exceed level 10 and truly grow up, I will serve as your instructor to guide and train you."

"As players of the Abyss Game, combat power is the foundation for clearing dungeons and keeping us alive. Combat power is not equal to attributes; possessing power and learning how to use that power are equally important. In the coming time, I will teach you how to fight as players and how to maximize your abilities."

"Since it's everyone's first time meeting, there is no better way to greet each other than a sparring match that stops at the point of contact."

Speaking of this, Zhao Yan became excited, as if he had been waiting for this day for a long time.

He came to the boxing ring and waved at the crowd.

"Sparring with opponents of a higher strength level can not only allow you to more intuitively realize your own shortcomings, but others watching from the sidelines can also have a basic understanding of each other's fighting styles, so that you won't be clueless when you have to cooperate in the future."

"Don't worry, I will hold back."

Looking at Zhao Yan's reaction, Wu Chang secretly curled his lips. Combining the previous conversation between Zhao Yan and Meng Yawen, when Zhao Yan first joined the Administration, his instructor must have been Meng Yawen.

Judging from Zhao Yan's reaction, I'm afraid Meng Yawen had abused him like this back then, and now that the tables have turned, that's why he was so impatient.

The fact was just as Wu Chang guessed; sparring between instructors and newcomers is a traditional program of the Administration.

It is both for the reason Zhao Yan stated and to dampen the arrogance of the newcomers, letting them know that there is always someone better, and there is a heaven beyond heaven.

As the registrar and scorer for everyone, Zhao Yan had a basic understanding of each person's combat ability.

He sorted them by combat strength, from strong to weak, and called them onto the stage one by one.

As a veteran player, Zhao Yan's combat techniques were very proficient, and his grasp of combat opportunities was precise.

He didn't need to use any skills; just by using physical techniques, he easily defeated several people.

Including the masked man who went up first, no one could last more than a minute under him.

During the short sparring time, let alone causing trouble for Zhao Yan, none of them had even succeeded in a single effective strike.

As the five people were defeated one after another, Wu Chang, who was ranked sixth, walked onto the ring.

For the other five, Zhao Yan was thinking about how to let the other party show their abilities as much as possible, so as to observe the other party's fighting habits and give suggestions.

For Wu Chang, this D- scorer who only had two skills and relied entirely on camping to clear dungeons, the 'old six'.

Zhao Yan was worried about how to go easy so that Wu Chang, who only had one control skill, could last a minute.

If he accidentally killed Wu Chang in seconds and made Wu Chang too embarrassed, I'm afraid Meng Yawen wouldn't let him off.

But he soon discovered that Wu Chang, who walked onto the ring, had an expression even more conflicted than his own.

Wu Chang hesitated for a while and said, "Instructor, my skills are not suitable for sparring. How about we just forget it?"

Zhao Yan said with dissatisfaction, "Do you think that if you enter a dungeon, the BOSS will not hit you because your skills are not suitable for combat? Avoiding the problem won't solve it. If you're weak, you need to practice more. It is precisely because it is not suitable that you need to train it until it is!"

Wu Chang explained with some embarrassment:

"I'm not trying to avoid it; I just can't control the effect of my skill and I'm afraid of hurting you."

(End of chapter)