Beneath the snack street was a dark and greasy sewer.

The meat tumor huddled in one corner of the drain, slowly pulsing as it absorbed nutrients.

Countless blood-red filaments stretched outward like IV tubes, continuously feeding it with vigorous life force.

The life force was extremely fresh because every bit of it came from young people who came out of the surrounding office buildings and stopped by the snack street to buy dinner.

It knew this place was a treasure trove.

The last time it came here, it noticed that the area was packed with office buildings and especially full of young people who easily became its food once they started working.

The company where Lin Jianyuan used to work was a textbook example.

Of course, now that it finally escaped, the meat tumor would rather die than return to Lin Jianyuan’s old company, even if Lin Jianyuan himself already quit long ago.

That place left it with a massive psychological shadow, so it chose another section of this excellent hunting ground instead.

The snack street.

Right now, the temperature inside the underground sewer was close to forty degrees Celsius. The air was thick with the stench of sewage.

Filthy sludge clogged the pipes, while black wastewater constantly trickled down through the manhole covers. But the worst smell actually came from waste cooking oil.

Greasy black residue contaminated the pipes long ago. If a human were stuck in a hellhole like this, they probably wouldn’t even last a minute.

But it was an Aberration, so it didn’t care.

As long as it could absorb life force, anywhere was the same to it.

No. That wasn’t quite right. As long as it could get away from that demon Lin Jianyuan, anywhere was paradise!!

It was genuinely going insane.

As an Aberration, it never imagined Aberrations could go insane too.

What kind of life was it living under Lin Jianyuan these past few months?!

Forget eating. Just the one or two savage beatings it received every single day nearly flattened its entire tumor body!!

It once weighed a full 500 kilograms! It was big enough to fill most of a basement!

And now?!

The tumor, currently the size of a ping-pong ball, couldn’t even squeeze out tears anymore.

Because it weighed less than half a kilogram now!

It didn’t even dare to cry!!! Because crying would make it lose water!

If it shrank any further, it really was going to turn into a beef ball that couldn’t even pee!!! AAAAAAAAH!

Thank god it got out.

It didn’t know what happened earlier, but its overwhelming survival instinct told it that this was its one and only chance.

Without hesitation, it fled Lin Jianyuan’s home, and the first thing it did after breaking out was to eat.

According to its old habits, it should have found somewhere safe, slowly expanded its vascular network, rooted itself inside young, vibrant humans, and gradually gnawed away at their life force bit by bit.

But it couldn’t wait anymore. It was starving.

It was already down to the size of a ping-pong ball. If it got any smaller, it really was going to turn into a beef ball that can't pee!!

Then it would be completely screwed! It wouldn’t even be able to extend its blood threads!

Thankfully, it was still a ping-pong ball for now…

In short, priority number one was getting away from Lin Jianyuan. Priority number two was stuffing itself as quickly as possible!

The first part was easy. It knew there was one place Lin Jianyuan absolutely despised and would never willingly return to: the company where he used to work.

The second part was easy too.

There was a snack street near Lin Jianyuan’s old company, and it was extremely unhygienic, which made it extremely suitable for feeding.

After all, going to work only damaged your health chronically. Eating filthy garbage, on the other hand, could make you vomit and sh*t yourself acutely!

So it came here without hesitation to hit two birds with one stone!

The ping-pong-ball tumor settled comfortably inside the sewer.

Blood-red threads slowly extended outward, covering the entire pipe system like a spiderweb. Before long, its spirits suddenly lifted.

Finally ate! That fresh, scalding, crisp, and springy texture!

Life force! The young and vibrant human life force!

Delicious!

It went so, so long without tasting anything like this. The ping-pong-ball tumor was so happy it almost cried.

The blood threads continued spreading.

Golden life force traveled along them like glowing firefly tails, and one little spark after another entered its body.

Glug glug glug.

Glug glug glug.

The ping-pong-ball tumor slowly swelled and contracted like it was breathing. As it fed, its body gradually became vigorous again.

Like a balloon being filled with water, its flesh slowly expanded and became plump and glossy.

Its original body also gradually resumed beating.

Ba... dum.

Ba... dum.

Good! Wonderful! As expected of an excellent hunting ground!

At this rate, if it stayed here for another week, it could regain its original size. It might even grow larger than before!

Given enough time, it might even advance to A-class!

The ping-pong ball could barely contain its excitement, causing its tumor-heart to beat even faster.

Just as it happily imagined returning stronger than ever, surpassing A-class, and beating Lin Jianyuan senseless while the Evil Domain and its army of little toys were away:

BANG!

A thunderous crash came from above as the manhole cover was suddenly ripped away!!!

“D-Drop your weapon!”

A young, inexperienced voice exploded overhead. It was so nervous that it was actually trembling.

Ping-Pong Ball: “?”

Another young voice hurriedly said, “No, wait! What do you mean, drop your weapon? It’s an Aberration! You should tell it to cease resistance instead!”

First voice: “Oh, oh, right! Sorry. Cease resistance. I went to police academy, so I’m kind of nervous. Sorry.”

Second voice: “Stop being nervous! You’re making me nervous now!”

Ping-Pong Ball: “???”

“You in there! Listen up!!!” the first voice suddenly yelled down the sewer again. “The Bureau is conducting official business! Cease resistance!!”

Ping-Pong Ball: “…” Are you f**king insane?!

The ping-pong ball flew into a rage.

Both of these idiots’ voices were trembling. They were obviously Bureau rookies!

One listen, and you could tell that this was their very first field assignment. They absolutely had no experience!

Five minutes ago, when it was only three centimeters in diameter, the ping-pong ball might have been slightly wary.

But things were different now!

It was already a massive five-centimeter ping-pong ball!

The tumor wasn’t afraid in the slightest. With an enraged roar, countless blood threads shot outward like swords!

Straight for their hearts!

The next second!

PSHHHHH!

Two guns were aimed at it! Two water guns!

But what came out of them wasn’t regular water, but floral water!

Special Bureau-made floral water designed specifically to use against Aberrations!

“Hah! That’s all you’ve got?” the giant ping-pong ball sneered. “A mere lucidity agent? You really think I...”

Before it could finish...

SIZZLE!

Every blood thread hit by the floral water curled up and charred as if fire burned it.

The giant ping-pong ball was shocked!

More blood threads surged forward, desperately lunging toward the two young men in an attempt to seize their guns.

However, SIZZLE! SIZZLE SIZZLE!

The two guns fired from both sides! One blasted and the other instantly followed!

The two young men worked together like they were playing live-action Counter-Strike, jointly blocking the blood-thread attacks!

Giant Ping-Pong Ball: “?!!”

These two obvious rookies were actually this strong?!

No! It wasn’t them! It was the water guns!

Those weren’t ordinary water guns! And its load definitely wasn’t ordinary floral water!

This was...

“Evil Domain!!!” The giant ping-pong ball screamed in despair. “You just won't leave me alone! You traitor to Abberationkind! YOU BASTAAAAARD!!!!”

It recognized it! This was the Evil Domain’s digestive fluid!!! This floral water wasn’t merely a lucidity agent!!!

It was 99.99999% lucidity agent mixed with 0.00001% Evil Domain digestive fluid!!!

If it were in its former prime, perhaps it could have endured such a savage assault!

But now! It was just a fallen B-class that's getting bullied by noobs!

No! It finally escaped! There was no way it was going back to Lin Jianyuan’s hell!

Absolutely not!!!

With that thought, the giant ping-pong ball completely lost the will to fight.

It turned around and fled without hesitation!

“Oh. It ran away.” University Graduate A scratched his head, then couldn’t resist looking down at the water gun in his hands. “Whoa. Is this thing really that powerful? At first I thought the higher-ups were setting us up...”

“Come on, come on, chase it!” University Graduate B said excitedly. “I haven’t played live-action CS in forever. Bro, you’re good! This is our first time working together and our coordination’s already this smooth. What did you study?”

University Graduate A: “Hehehe. I went to police academy.”

University Graduate B: “Hahaha, figured! I was already about to claim kinship with you!”

University Graduate A: “What about you, bro? What was your major?”

University Graduate B: “Forensic medicine, bro!”

University Graduate A: “Damn! We really are brothers!”

The two freshly graduated, extroverted university students socialized with each other while nervously but methodically pursuing the Aberration.

Actually, the socializing wasn’t slacking off. It was part of the strategy too.

Because that handsome and extremely dependable-looking A-class combat operative senior told them:

“Don’t chase too aggressively. Give it some room to escape and see where it goes to feed next. Ideally, pretend you’re total noobs so it thinks you’re weak and lowers its guard. Our goal is to let the line out and catch a bigger fish.”

The senior even said it didn’t matter if they lost track of it. The Aberration’s imprint was already registered, so their mobile terminals had a constant tracking signal.

And they didn’t even have to chase nonstop. When it was time to get off work, get off work. When it was time to eat, eat. If the target got too far away, just open the terminal’s navigation and recalculate the route.

It was an extremely simple and clearly defined mission. Even brand-new university graduates could handle it easily!

The two graduates: “Understood!”

And just like that, they began the first official mission of their Bureau careers, physically dripping wet, no less.

Even so, when they thought about the fact that they somehow genuinely started working for the Bureau, it still felt hilarious.

It was very much: “Huh? I’m already officially on the job?”

LMAO! And they were even supposed to “pretend to be noobs.” Did they really need to pretend?!

HAHAHAHA, that senior sure knew how to make people feel good!

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

Lin Jianyuan only asked the Director for two college graduates, so he didn’t expect that the Director would send him sixteen in one go.

Well. They were already here. Perfect.

An Aberration deserved two slaps. But unscrupulous, black-hearted food vendors deserved two slaps even more!

Of course, the “two slaps” for humans was purely figurative. He obviously couldn’t actually send university students out to beat people up. But the two slaps for the Aberration were very literal. Two solid and full-force slaps.

But when Lin Jianyuan actually started assigning tasks, he realized that something was wrong.

The Director indeed sent him 16 university students. But only two of them were official Bureau Field Operations employees.

The other 14…

Lin Jianyuan asked with a headache, “What year are you guys in?”

14 youthful voices answered all at once:

“Junior year!”

“About to be seniors!”

“We’ll be seniors when school starts!”

They were currently on summer break between junior and senior year…

Well, it makes sense. Summer was prime time for social-practice credits and getting internship certificates stamped, after all.

Lin Jianyuan couldn’t help cursing internally.

F**k! That old bastard Director!

I knew there was something fishy about suddenly sending me sixteen little kids!

So 14 out of the 16 are interns?!

You're trying to make me happy and solve 14 university students’ summer internship requirements at the same time?!

Fine. Fine! An old bastard really is an old bastard!

Lin Jianyuan cursed and grumbled. But they were already here, and interns had their uses too.

Perfect, actually. These interns didn’t know Aberrations existed, so they could just handle things exactly like Aberrations didn’t exist.

Lin Jianyuan simply let the fourteen students improvise and clean up the unscrupulous vendors on the snack street.

The moment they heard they were going after shady food stalls, the students immediately became excited because they loved eating from roadside stalls too. And when they imagined that they themselves might previously have eaten this kind of disgusting garbage…

URK!

The 14 students instantly empathized with Lin Jianyuan.

University students really were university students. This was new to them, and at first they had no idea where to begin. So they asked AI, and everyone rapidly put together a plan.

They soon launched a full-scale assault on the shady vendors across the entire snack street by taking photos as evidence, posting on Little Red Book, confronting vendors on-site, filing reports and complaints, and using various other methods.

Extremely civilized. Extremely efficient. Extremely procedurally proper!

And extremely enthusiastic!

The college students were filled with righteous indignation. They unanimously declared that this was what meaningful social practice was supposed to look like.

Evil Senior Lin Jianyuan flashed a handsome smile and pretended to be pleasantly surprised. “Oh wow. If we have similar operations in the future, could I ask you guys to bring a few more classmates along?”

Meals included, milk tea included, course credits included, and internship certificate stamps included.

The students: “ABSOLUTELY!!!”

There were no credits in their eyes. Only a burning thirst for justice!

Lin Jianyuan happily created a group chat with these ambitious young people.

…Truthfully, Lin Jianyuan’s original plan was to beat the stupid meat tumor senseless, shove it into a sack, drag it back to the Bureau training grounds, and turn it into a communal punching bag.

But he changed his mind now.

If the stupid meat tumor could accurately identify illegal and black-hearted businesses… then why not let the line out and catch the bigger fish?

With the improved little water guns, even two inexperienced rookie combatants could pin the stupid meat tumor to the ground and beat the crap out of it.

Beat it for a while. Then let it go. Beat it again. Then let it go again.

Keep the stupid meat tumor permanently at roughly 95% dead, constantly desperate to replenish its energy, and constantly searching for places where humans were rapidly losing life force.

And behind it, an enormous mob of university students earning course credits could charge along yelling their heads off.

Report what needed to be reported, and expose what needed to be exposed on Little Red Book.

Now that was true sustainable development.

One move, N benefits. And the entire thing was automated.

Awesome!

Wasn’t this way better than being locked up at home and getting beaten by Lin Jianyuan alone?

At long last, he discovered the correct way to use the stupid meat tumor.

Lin Jianyuan was truly so happy for it.