Looking at Pei Yan's excited face with dark circles under his eyes, Hu Wenjun knew this rambunctious kid was too excited to sleep last night. Amused and exasperated, he tapped his forehead and teased, "You're pretty excited, huh? Are you a grade-schooler? It's like a field trip syndrome!"
Being seen through by Hu Wenjun, Pei Yan awkwardly scratched his head. After finally wrapping up the dull physical training, he had spent the entire night engulfed in emotions from talking with his family and the anticipation for today's training, tossing and turning until he finally fell deeply asleep in the dead of night.
"But you might be disappointed today. The superpower training you're looking forward to is still not happening."
Upon hearing this, Pei Yan, who was barely holding on with feigned energy, blurted out a lament, "Ah!"
"Ah what! Stand at attention! I see your physical training isn't up to par yet!" Seeing Pei Yan slump instantly, Hu Wenjun barked a reprimand.
Three minutes later, seeing Pei Yan standing as straight as a javelin, Hu Wenjun nodded in satisfaction and took an item out of his jacket pocket, walking over to him: "Take a look at what this is."
At these words, Pei Yan looked down, seeing a transparent blob resembling jelly in Hu Wenjun's palm, gently swaying with the motion of his hand.
"Jelly? Rubber?" Pei Yan looked up at Hu Wenjun and asked in confusion.
Hu Wenjun didn't answer him but casually tossed the item to the ground: "Look again!"
Pei Yan's gaze followed the object's trajectory, but he failed to spot it on the ground at first glance. He then squatted down, carefully searching the ground for a while, but found nothing.
At this point, Hu Wenjun also crouched down, picked an inconspicuous pebble from the bumpy ground of the playground. Once this pebble touched Hu Wenjun's palm, it transformed back into that transparent blob.
Before Pei Yan could ask, Hu Wenjun grabbed Pei Yan's wrist, and with a flash of white light, the two figures vanished from the center of the training ground. The transparent object suddenly fell from mid-air, turning into an unremarkable pebble on the training ground.
"Hoo, hoo, hoo!" Looking at the vast grassy field around him and feeling the breeze carrying the scent of soil, Pei Yan gasped with his mouth wide open, incredulous.
On the other hand, Hu Wenjun sat down freely, flattening a patch of grass, and patted the grass in front of him, shouting, "Silly boy, stop gawking and take a seat. Let's have a chat before the training."
"Oh!" Still in a daze, Pei Yan obediently sat cross-legged in front of Hu Wenjun, waiting for this instructor to provide him with an explanation.
"What you just saw is called Jiezhi Space. It's a tool developed from materials and methods leaked from the Daoist World. It's used not just for daily training at the bureau, but primarily for capturing fugitives who resist from other dimensions. Once a battle ensues, we drag the enemy into this space to resolve it, thus avoiding civilian casualties." As Hu Wenjun spoke, he took a bag of peanuts from his coat, tearing it open and explaining as he ate. At the end, he stuffed a handful of peanuts into Pei Yan's hands.
Holding the peanuts Hu Wenjun passed over, Pei Yan cracked one open and chewed it, relaxing. He looked around, plucked a piece of grass beside him, scrutinized it closely, and marveled sincerely, "Oh my, it's just like the real thing, a Spatial Magical Artifact! This is amazing! If it could be mass-produced and sold to everyone in the country, everyone could have a big villa with a farm. That'd make the realty moguls cry."
"Cough, cough, cough!" Hu Wenjun, almost choking on Pei Yan's imaginative line of thought, coughed several times before swallowing the peanut stuck in his throat. He smacked Pei Yan on the back of his head: "What kind of wild ideas are going through your head? Selling it to everyone in the country? How generous! The bureau only has about thirty sets, and only task team leaders can use them."
Tossing the grass aside and rubbing his sore head, Pei Yan muttered softly, "I was just saying, Instructor, will I be able to use such equipment in the future?"
"You, well, you're still in the reserves at the bureau for now."
Unwilling to let the matter drop, Pei Yan continued, "So Instructor Hu, how many people does our bureau have anyway?"
"About three hundred or so." Instructor Hu squinted into the distance, estimating as he replied.
After hearing this, Pei Yan asked in puzzlement, "Huh, so many people, but during the three-month training here, I've seen only about a hundred people in the building."
"There's not much work at the bureau on usual days, so why keep so many around? Unless there's a large mission requiring emergency mobilization, most people have regular jobs in society. They draw the bureau's allowances monthly and return yearly for capability assessments and a week of intensive retraining." Hu Wenjun explained while cracking open peanuts.
After a while, Hu Wenjun looked at Pei Yan's incredulous face and chuckled, "It's not what you imagined, is it?"
Pei Yan shook his head with a wry smile, "It's different, much more down-to-earth. It's just like my neighborhood's salaried retirees."
"That's how people are; there's not all that much grandeur. Most of the time, we lead ordinary lives. This is also what I want to teach you: to maintain a sense of normalcy. Understand? Don't think that having powers makes you superior. That'll disconnect you from society and ultimately turn you into an awkward stranger. We merely happen to possess certain abilities, enabling us to undertake special jobs." Hu Wenjun tossed the peanut shells aside as he earnestly imparted his advice.
Beginning to understand Hu Wenjun's sincere intentions, Pei Yan nodded sensibly. He could feel the genuine goodwill of the people here, rather than a mere intent to exploit his abilities to turn him into a monster.
With this in mind, he thoughtfully placed a peanut in his mouth, chewing slowly, and asked, "I understand, Instructor Hu. So, besides our bureau, how many people like us are there nationwide?"
Hearing this, Hu Wenjun slapped his thigh, rolled his eyes, and pondered for a moment: "Well, including those registered with the bureau, there are over three hundred people. About four hundred serve in the military. Counting those hidden among the populace, the number wouldn't exceed nine hundred, and that's just domestically."
"So many among the populace? And there's the Superpower Special Team! A four hundred-strong unit of superpowered individuals. They must be really strong!" Pei Yan, having casually asked the question, was thrilled to get such a sensational answer and immediately pursued further.
Hu Wenjun, himself once a young man, naturally understood why Pei Yan was so excited. He deliberately left him hanging, remaining silent with a feigned deep thought. Under Pei Yan's persistent questioning, he finally uttered two words, "Very strong!"
"Then, then, between them and us at the Otherworld Investigation Bureau, who's stronger?" Pei Yan inquired eagerly, his eyes full of enthusiasm.
"Now that's something you should ask him." With those words, Hu Wenjun flashed a mysterious smile and clapped his hands. A dazzling white light appeared behind him, and three faint figures gradually materialized before Pei Yan.