Chapter 19: Period of Withdrawal (Part 1/2) (1/2)

Chapter 19: Period of Withdrawal (Part 1/2)

Acumen College was located in the Pingjiang District, a core district of Xia City that was located in the outer city zone. Here there were several middle schools, high schools, and research institutions in great numbers aside from Acumen College. Together they jointly formed a near-hundred square kilometer education district. It was the number one region in Xia City for the humanities, so naturally it was the best living area in the city.

After sending Luo Nan off to school, Zhang Yingying turned the car around and arrived on a campus of a research institution located several kilometers away from Acumen College. This research institute operated under the name of the International Science Expedition Society. In reality it was a contact gathering point set up for and by the Awakened.

Since the number of Awakened in Xia City was quite sparse, this place was quite barren throughout the year. Sometimes months would go by without even a person there. However, this time when Zhang Yingying entered the campus, she saw the rarely-seen sillouhette of Aunt Susan working on duty.

“Hey! Susan! Congratulations on gaining another 5 kilograms of weight!”

Aunt Susan was half caucasian. Rumor has that she was an extremely beautiful halfie when she was young, but right now she was extremely large and heavy. This inactive middle aged woman weighed in at 120 kilograms. The biggest hobby she loved to do was staying home and playing games; she was a kindred spirit with Zhang Yingying because of this. They normally had a good relationship.

“I’ve been working overtime everyday! I’m dying!”

Susan’s thick chin trembled as she complained loudly: “You know the “Pro-Altered Humans” doctrine that was agreed upon? It hasn’t even been five years ago when they stated that Burners don’t count as Altered Humans. Ha, they sure focused on the altered made by Archetype Formatting back then. But right now they’ve changed their tunes one by one. These driveling liars have no backbone!”

Zhang Yingying was amazed: “They want to recruit Burners into the society? But the first batch of Burners still haven’t finished serving their required time yet right? I recall that their service agreement is for twenty years……”

“The thing is that there is a batch of them that was able to retire early due to injury. There’s approximately two hundred of them. Hehe. We’re going to transform into a Veteran Society pretty soon.”

“Two hundred!?” Zhang Yingying’s eyes were bulging wide open. “There’s only how many Burners in the entire world?”

“Seventeen thousand six hundred and twenty six Burners. That is the latest data.”

Although Susan looked boorish, she was extremely perceptive towards numbers. She could grasp all data and statistics of the society, making her the society’s secretary. Her authority was quite large.

“There’s no need to wait for the large wave of retired Burners in twenty years. In the next ten years, the vocal power of the society will be snatched away by the government army.”

“I’m not that pessimistic, contrary to belief.”

Zhang Yingying wasn’t ready to delve deeply into this topic. She moved closed to Susan’s side and took a look at the various data that was being casted within a large area. Susan just happened to enlarge a certain person’s profile that made Zhang Yingying quite amazed:

“He Yueyin. The leader of the 7th special combat squad of Ship Lanshan. I just got out of there a moment ago…… 20 years old? When did she undergo the alteration?”

“She was part of the first batch. Rumor has it that she was 15 years old when she got in a car accident. She was in a life threatening state, and only through altering her into a Burner could she continue living. She grew in the military from that point on, achieving an outstanding military service; her life experience is quite extraordinary. She just retired from the military today, but soon she’s going to become our big shot vice-president.”

Susan’s words were overflowing with the hint of mock and ridicule. But she still gave He Yueyin a rating of “C+” without the slightest hesitation when she was calibrating Captain He’s profile. This was the highest ranking given to entrants of the society.

As a matter of fact, these two that were present here were evaluated to have a mere rating of “C”.

Zhang Yingying clicked her tongue. When she saw that Susan was going to continue inputting data, she rushed to hold Susan’s hand back: “Susan my dear. Let me look someone up!”

Susan glared with her bloated and puffy pig eyes: “Get lost. Do you know how busy I am right now? I need to enter the data and ratings of over two hundred people’s profiles, and I need to get it done within five days! This damned job isn’t something that can be done just by tapping a few times on the keyboard!”

“Yes yes of course. I know that you have it tough, but think of our friendship! Last week I played ‘Chronicles of the Lajia War’ with you! For three days and three nights! Then I wanted you to play a few rounds of ‘Wilderness’ with me! But you just ran off on me!”

Susan felt a bit guilty: “I had to come work overtime.”

“Grievances from overtime should be settled during overtime!”

Zhang Yingying raised her flexible screen and casted an image onto the console in front of Susan’s body: “Just this one person. I need him to be entered into the database today. And I need him to have his rating evaluated. That’s all I need.”

Susan mumbled to herself. But she still paused her task-at-hand in the end, activating Zhang Yingying’s flexible screen.