mysterious forerunner

Chapter 389: Proficient Professional Skills

All the disasters that befell the Nagatomo family occurred in Zhang Qingxiang's [Shrine].

On the road across the river, a group of night riders passed by and looked across the river at the famous "Kawa Sakura Garden" of the Nagatomo family. Like every night before, the lights there were like stars, magnificent under the night sky.

"It is worthy of being the ancestral home of a great family that has been passed down for thousands of years."

The night rider praised with envy, and without noticing anything unusual, he rode away.

Night riders are local patrol officers of the Special Affairs Investigation Department of Neon. They are all professionals. They patrol at night on bicycles and solve mysterious incidents on the spot.

Zhang Qingxiang stepped down on the entire ground with his last foot, and not even a single ripple was transmitted.

This is the power of the [Divine Chamber]!

But this matter cannot be left alone like this.

The destruction of such a large family would shock both Japan and North America. The internal fighting between the two parties in Shanzhong Lake, which was instigated by Director Zhang not long ago, might be stopped as a result.

So Zhang Qingxiang left some "clues".

It is hidden quite deeply, and requires capable people to dig it out with care.

Simply put, it’s some “details”.

What the Japanese are most proud of now is that they pay great attention to details.

At dawn, the sinkhole of the Nagatomo family's "Kawa Sakura Garden" was discovered.

This was a big deal, and soon a large number of journalists and Neon's [Special Affairs Investigation Department] arrived.

At noon, this explosive news made headlines in major media outlets.

The next day, a senior agent from the Special Affairs Investigation Department unearthed the clues left by Zhang Qingxiang.

He personally brought the evidence and reported to the head of the department in Tokyo:

Judging from the current evidence, it was done by North Americans.

They should have discovered that the Nagatomo family had secret connections with certain local civilian professional organizations.

They raided the Nagatomo family, most likely to find direct evidence and interrogate several important members of the Nagatomo family.

Later, the action may have gotten out of control, leading to large-scale conflicts among professionals and ultimately the destruction of the Nagatomo family.

The person in charge's face turned pale, and after a long while he said stiffly: "Your investigation direction is wrong, change your thinking."

However, someone in the [Special Affairs Investigation Department] secretly sent this news to certain "civilian professional organizations."

In the eyes of these organizations, this is the North Americans' revenge for our actions in Yamanakako!
As a result, the flames of internal strife did not die out, but instead intensified.

……

Zhang Qingxiang had left Neon with the ancient brush, but did not return to China. Instead, he headed north and entered a cold region.

The [genuine mysterious treasure] of the Mao Xiong is in the hands of a private collector.

Zhang Qingxiang also did not plan to leave it to the Ice Queen.

Not to mention the historical frictions between the two sides, just looking at the future, a less powerful neighbor is of course most beneficial to China.

Zhang Qingxiang's behavior on the Russian side was much more brutal because the Russians are "rough" in their approach to doing things.

He doesn't follow the rules and always thinks of taking advantage of others.

Zhang Qingxiang is willing to spend money on things that can be done with money, such as buying information.

But I always encounter those kinds of scum who don't want to do the job after taking the money, then act fiercely and maybe even want to beat you half to death.

Zhang Qingxiang naturally threw them into the garbage dump.

It was not easy to do things in the Bear Country. It took Zhang Qingxiang half a month to get this [True Mystical Treasure].

However, the secret department of the Bear Country did not discover anything unusual in its own country until Zhang Qingxiang left.

Inefficiency, rigid mechanism, idleness and numerous problems.

It was twenty days later that Zhang Qingxiang returned to China. He first went to Base 184, stayed with the little girl for a week, and then returned to his original city in a low profile.

Prepare to plan your own promotion to true god.

Not to mention whether these two [True Mystical Treasures] are suitable, the preliminary preparations alone are very long.

First of all, one’s own accumulation is not enough.

This matter cannot be rushed. Zhang Qingxiang estimated that even if he practiced without distraction, it would take at least a year for his mysterious energy to reach the threshold of becoming a true god.

In addition, there is another prerequisite: proficient professional skills.

Zhang Qingxiang's [Chaofeng] profession had fourteen known professional skills in his previous life.

But it is impossible for any professional to master all professional skills.

Every professional has a different growth experience, and the awakened professional skills will also be different.

Professional skills are different from secret arts. Generally speaking, when a professional reaches the realm of domination, he will master at least three professional skills.

Most Overlords can master five.

Zhang Qingxiang's previously awakened professional skills included [Appraising Treasures], [Measurement], and [Calling a Stag a Horse].

In his previous life, Zhang Qingxiang only mastered these three.

But in this life, he awakened three more:

[planning], [borrowing] and [being superior].

The use of the skill [Calculation] is not only to calculate the profit and loss of a store and the profit of a piece of goods, but also to plan strategies, uncover conspiracies, and formulate battle strategies for both sides.

This isn't a specific skill, but it is very useful.

[Borrowing] can allow you to borrow tomorrow's power and use it today. The more you use it, the more proficient you will become. The more proficient you are, the more you can borrow, such as the day after tomorrow, the day after tomorrow... even next year, and the year after next.

Of course it has to be repaid, and with interest.

[Superior] can make you one level higher than the target in a short period of time.

This is a very advanced skill, especially after reaching the [Domination Realm].

[Chao Feng] who has awakened this skill is almost invincible in battles of the same level.

The purpose of "proficiency" in professional skills is to enable professionals to "understand the essence" of their own profession.

Only in this way can one be promoted to a [True God] based on this profession.

From Zhang Qingxiang's current perspective, the skill that is closest to being "proficient" is [Treasure Appraisal]. The others are still far behind, especially the three skills that are awakened later.

There is no fixed standard for "proficiency". Some professionals reach "proficiency" after using it a hundred times, while others do not feel proficient even after using it a thousand times.

When professional skills reach proficiency, the professionals themselves will have a clear perception of it.

However, professional skills are not secret techniques. As long as one's own strength is sufficient, they can be released continuously.

At each level, the number of times a professional skill can be used each day is fixed.

So there is no need to rush.

Zhang Qingxiang decided to start with the easy ones and then move on to the difficult ones, starting with [Appraising Treasures].

……

The General Administration originally had three "warehouses" in the capital.

The earliest one is located in the basement of the General Administration Building, with an area of ​​2,000 square meters, and is used to store various secret objects.

Later, it was not enough, so they rented a factory building on the nearby Baqiao Street and converted it into a warehouse.

Later, as the space was no longer enough, they bought land near Yundu Temple and built a building.

But no one expected that these three warehouses would not be enough.

Mystery came suddenly, and the Secret Security Bureau developed rapidly. The number of various secret objects and materials handed over by branches from all over the country was huge.

So the three elders held a special meeting and decided to build a new headquarters for the Secret Security Bureau in the western suburbs outside the city.

Then a general meeting was held to announce the matter.

The resources that the General Administration can mobilize are huge. It would normally take three years to build such a headquarters. However, with the participation of some [professionals], the construction period is estimated to be three months.

The first thing to be built was the warehouse.

It was built in three days.

Then it took seven days to arrange the formation.

Ten days later, the General Administration sent someone to transport all the contents of the three warehouses to the new headquarters warehouse.

In addition to these three warehouses, the General Administration also rented seven or eight other office locations outside because the original building could no longer accommodate the increasing number of staff.

These people will also be concentrated in the new headquarters in the future.

The thorough integration of all aspects has allowed many people in the capital to discover opportunities.

All the agents of the General Administration, big and small, and officials with or without power, tried every means to take advantage of the opportunity to get their own connections in.

Of course, all the staff of the original three warehouses were retained.

The new warehouse at the headquarters is very large, leaving ample space for the future. The original staff is definitely not enough, so we have to continue to recruit new staff.

Xiao Liu is from the No. 3 warehouse of Yundu Temple. Originally, the agents of this warehouse were considered new qualifications in the sequence of warehouses. Now after the merger, Xiao Liu has also become a "young senior".

There have been a lot of new people joining the company these days, and they are all very polite to Xiao Liu.

But Xiao Liu herself had no sense of being a senior because she was too young. She had just graduated for a year and worked in a company for seven months, but the company went bankrupt due to the economic downturn.

When Xiao Liu had been unemployed at home for half a month, something mysterious happened.

Xiao Liu got the job of [Assassin] for unknown reasons!
Then he was recruited by the headquarters step by step and gloriously became a Secret Security Bureau agent!

But she was a girl and timid, and her performance in several tasks was not very good. Fortunately, her boss understood her and finally transferred her to the warehouse.

Xiao Liu doesn't put on airs with newcomers because most of them are older than her.

Until today, a new person came and looked like he was not even a college graduate yet.

From hairstyle to clothing, there is a fresh style.

The new employee's name was Zhang Xiang. When Xiao Liu came to work, he was already sitting at his workstation.

Several veteran agents asked each other and learned about Zhang Xiang's basic situation - that was it. No one had the idea of ​​"educating the newcomer" or "establishing some rules."

Xiao Liu had a good impression of this young junior, so he secretly paid attention to Sister Chen Lian who was working at the station to his right.

She is a veteran in Warehouse No. 1 and likes to order newcomers around.

It is far from being oppression or bullying, but Chen Lian always assigns too much work to the newcomers, or asks them to run errands to buy this and that.

If a new employee didn't understand something, got the procedure wrong, or went to the wrong department, she would deliberately not say anything.

Xiao Liu was worried that Chen Lian might use these methods to embarrass his junior, so he would quietly remind him when the time comes.

But for some reason, Chen Lian didn't do that today.

It even seemed as if Chen Lian didn't notice at all that Zhang Xiang was still a newcomer.

In fact, if the old agents in the warehouse asked each other, they would be surprised to find that this newcomer was not brought by any of them.

No one saw when or how he came.

But it seemed that a group of veteran agents suddenly accepted the existence of this new colleague deep in their consciousness.

At 9:30 in the morning, the warehouse supervisor appeared with a light blue folder under his arm, clapped his hands and shouted to everyone in the large office: "Get to work!"

"It's work!"

"Everyone, take your positions. The number of secret objects sent by various branches has increased by 40% during this period."

"Everyone speed up."

Half of the staff in the warehouse department are responsible for identifying secret objects.

The most popular profession here is [Appraiser].

Even if you are not in a related profession, you still have to learn a related secret technique.

Xiao Liu's job is not related to the secrets, so he can only stay in the office. Accordingly, there is no "subsidy" and the salary is much lower.

Xiao Liu saw Zhang Xiang also followed the "appraisers" and asked curiously: "What is the job of that newcomer?"

The uncle at the next workstation thought for a moment and said, "I don't know. Ask someone else."

Xiao Liu was not meddling in other people's business.

The colleague in front of me turned around with a playful smile and said, "Liu, are you interested in her? Are you asking around for her?"

"Don't talk nonsense." Xiao Liu blushed and felt a little guilty.

"Why should you be embarrassed? If you like it, you should be brave enough to fight for it. Don't be shy. It's the new employee's first day at work. I guess..." The colleague in front of him looked at his watch and said, "Identifying three or four secret objects is the limit. He should be back in half an hour at most. Prepare some glucose and yogurt and send them to him."

The first time a newbie uses secret techniques continuously and at a high intensity, he will definitely not be used to it, and may even become exhausted.

"I'm just asking casually." Xiao Liu said one thing and meant another. He was afraid that his colleague would continue to pester him with this topic. Fortunately, the team leader called his colleague away. Xiao Liu breathed a sigh of relief, but his eyes inadvertently glanced at the big refrigerator in the corner.

It is filled with yogurt and glucose.

Half an hour later, the two new employees who joined the company yesterday came back exhausted and leaned on the refrigerator to drink two bottles of glucose.

For them in this condition, of course, taking secret medicine would be more effective, but where can they get so many secret medicines to supply every day?

Just drink some glucose and yogurt.

More than ten minutes later, Zhang Xiang still hadn't come back, and Xiao Liu felt a little strange.

Two hours later, almost all the old appraisers came back, including Han Dingkun, Xiao Liu's former colleague in Warehouse No. 3.

This guy's profession is [Appraiser]. As he walked, he boasted to his colleagues: "I appraised 26 secret objects today. Hehe, that's one more than my previous best record."

"Your records are the records of our General Administration. You are now our backbone."

But the newcomer Zhang Xiang hasn't come back yet.

Xiao Liu was a little worried: Could it be that on his first day at work, he was so eager to show off that he overused his secret skills and was sent to the hospital? The colleague in the front row came back, and Xiao Liu was embarrassed to ask about Zhang Xiang again, otherwise he would definitely be grabbed by this big mouth and chattered.

But Xiao Liu pricked up his ears and listened carefully to the appraisers' conversation.

If a colleague really was sent to the hospital, they would definitely discuss it.

[Assassin] has good hearing.

But none of the appraisers mentioned this point.

At twelve noon, we start lunch and take a nap.

A total of four office canteens were planned for the new headquarters, but only Canteen No. 3 has been built so far. However, it is more than enough to supply meals to warehouse and security staff.

Qu Miao, a colleague in the front row, picked up the meal card and took Xiao Liu's arm: "Let's go, let's go eat."

She is gossipy and sociable, but not annoying.

Several colleagues went to the cafeteria together. Xiao Liu chose his favorite stir-fried lettuce and spicy and sour bean sprouts, accompanied by a small bowl of rice and a bottle of yogurt.

Qu Miao pinched the three-finger-thick soft flesh on his waist, gritted his teeth and stomped his feet at the pork belly in the stall... and ordered two pieces.

Qu Miao sat down with the meal tray and vowed: "Starting from the next meal, I must control my diet. I really need to lose weight."

Xiao Liu smiled and put a small spoonful of rice into his mouth. Suddenly, he saw a new student walking in slowly, picking two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes, taking two steamed buns, and preparing to find a place to sit down.

Xiao Liu wanted to ask him to come and sit with him, but he couldn't open his mouth.

Qu Miao saw it, and stood up and waved his arms regardless: "Hey, Zhang Xiang, come here, come and sit with us."

Zhang Xiang was obviously stunned, probably because he was unexpectedly greeted by someone, but he smiled slightly and came over with the food tray.

Before he arrived, Qu Miao winked at Xiao Liu and said, "Hey, sister, I can only help you up to this point."

Xiao Liu's fair little face turned a little red.

Another colleague smiled secretly.

"Hello, everyone." Zhang Xiang sat down, said hello calmly but did not call him "senior".

Xiao Liu was shy and didn't know what to say, but Qu Miao stretched his head to look at the food on Zhang Xiang's plate: "Stewed meatballs? Let me try one."

Zhang Xiang took a new pair of chopsticks and picked one for her.

Qu Miao asked while eating: "What did you do this morning? The other appraisers have already returned."

“I work in a warehouse.”

"Don't fool me. You just took up the job not long ago. How many times can you use the secret identification technique? You should be back in half an hour at most. Tell me honestly, were you slacking off in the warehouse?"

Zhang Xiang thought about it seriously and realized that he had only been in office for a little over a year, which was not a long time.

"Not long. But I was really working, not slacking off."

“Tsk—” Qu Miao waved her hand and didn’t believe it at all. Xiao Liu didn’t believe it either, but she said, “Don’t ask any more questions. It might be bad if his supervisor hears it.”

Of course you're afraid of being discovered when you're lazy as a newcomer, but you still force others to admit it.

Qu Miao despised her, and now he started to protect her?
Zhang Xiang didn't say anything else and just ate seriously.

But Qu Miao rolled his eyes and asked again: "Zhang Xiang, where are you from? Who else is in your family? What is your occupation?"

A colleague standing by laughed secretly and said, "Are you checking the household registration?"

Qu Miao didn't take it seriously and secretly winked at Xiao Liu with pride: Leave it all to me, I promise to find out everything for you.

Xiao Liu blushed again.

Zhang Xiang felt that there was nothing he couldn't say.

"I am from Yuan City, my parents are still at home, and I am a [court official] by profession."

The economy of the original city is good, so I think the family conditions are also OK. [Chaofeng] is also a good career. I heard from the seniors in the bureau that this career has a very good prospect.

"What do your parents do?"

"They are all professionals, working for our local secret security agency."

Qu Miao's eyes lit up, and he nudged Xiao Liu with his elbow. These conditions were quite good. The family had no burden, and both parents were professionals, so their income must be quite good.

Xiao Liu's face turned red all the way to his neck and he didn't dare to raise his head.

Qu Miao asked a lot of irrelevant questions and forgot the most important one: Do you have a girlfriend?

Zhang Xiang was answering questions while eating, and they didn't affect each other at all.

He ate quite fast and answered questions clearly.

"I'm done eating, you guys take your time." Zhang Xiang smiled slightly, nodded to his colleagues, picked up the tray and left.

Qu Miao grabbed Xiao Liu's arm and shook it hard: "Hey, hey, hey, seize the opportunity! If you don't do it, I will!"

Then she pinched the flesh on her belly and wailed, "Forget it, they will definitely not like me."

But colleagues all think: "Xiao Liu, you two are a perfect match. Zhang Xiangren is a clean and honest person, and his family conditions and personal conditions are very good."

Xiao Liu is 1.67 meters tall, slender, with very fair skin and pretty features. She wears glasses and looks gentle and quiet, a typical beautiful girl next door.

Originally, she was just curious about this newcomer, but as her colleagues talked about him all day long, she paid more and more attention to Zhang Xiang.

She is very good-looking and doesn't like dressing up like many young boys. Her hairstyle and clothes are very decent.

It's just that he doesn't seem to like communicating with people actively.

Every day when I go to work, I follow the appraisers to the warehouse and stay there until the end of the afternoon.

The rest of the time, I can only see him at lunch.

After a week, Qu Miao became worried about Xiao Liu: "It's been a week, why haven't you made any progress?"

Xiao Liu blushed and whispered, "Don't talk nonsense. It would be embarrassing if he heard it."

That won’t do. My sisters’ affairs are my affairs. If my sisters fall in love, I can also... have a share of the fun!
Qu Miao went to find a solution.

But in the afternoon, she sneaked to Xiao Liu's workstation and said, "Something is wrong. I wanted to find someone to transfer you two to work on the same night, but I didn't find Zhang Xiang's name on the supervisor's duty list.

Where does this guy come from? Why didn't the supervisor assign him to work on duty?"

The department has two people on duty every night.

Two days later, it was a normal afternoon when the alarm on the wall suddenly rang.

In an instant, all the well-trained people were divided into two groups. One group rushed to the warehouse quickly and took out their own main secret objects; the other group stayed in the office, ready to destroy various documents at any time.

The voice of the chief supervisor came from the radio: "Emergency, there is a powerful monster in Shuangmen River that is hurting people! We are the closest, and we will send a team to assist the local branch!"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that the warehouse was not attacked.

"Which team's turn is it?"

"Team Four."

Soon twelve agents stepped forward, including Xiao Liu.

The Secret Security Bureau now has a complete crisis response mechanism. Even the civilian staff in the warehouse have already organized an emergency queue.

Last time it was team three that went out, this time it's team four's turn.

Shuangmenhe is a nearby district, and the branch is urgently dispatching manpower to deal with it. The incident was very close to the warehouse, so the branch asked for help from the warehouse.

Team leader Xiao Liu led four teams of twelve people in three cars and headed straight to the scene of the incident.

Driving out of the new headquarters, everyone brought instant messaging devices.

The team leader said in the public channel: "We just received information from the branch office. This monster must have been hiding among the people for a long time.

Today, it was suddenly provoked and revealed its true form. It has already devoured 37 innocent people. It is probably a fourth-level..."

[Secret World] has not yet overlapped with the Earth world, and the weirdness in the mysterious scene cannot exist apart from the scene for a long time.

But if the living things on Earth are polluted and the changes are strange, this is not included.

In fact, in the past two months, there have been more and more incidents of monsters hiding in human society suddenly launching attacks.

As the [Secret Realm] gets closer, the number of strange creatures that are infected will naturally increase. More than 80% of them are humans, and only 20% are animals and plants in the city.

The team leader continued, "We are not frontline detectives. After arriving at the scene, we are mainly responsible for peripheral security work. Listen to me: don't try to be a hero..."

The asphalt road ahead suddenly bulged up, then shattered with a loud bang, and a huge monster emerged from under the road.

The car in the front veered sharply but was still blown away. The team leader was in the first car.

The car rolled in the air more than ten meters high. The team leader saw from inside the car that a huge half-human, half-insect monster emerged from the ground. The part that was exposed above the ground was seven or eight meters long!

It has two long tentacles on its head, and is waving four huge hook-shaped insect legs. Its upper body is shaking constantly, and it is trying hard to drill out.

The two cars behind suddenly braked to a stop, and the monster shook its head violently, and its tentacles hit one of the cars like a whip and flew out.

It was only at this time that the first car crashed into a big tree on the side of the road.
The tree broke with a loud bang and the carriage was crushed.

Fortunately, everyone was a professional and had already rushed out before the car hit the ground, but they landed in a mess.

The team leader rolled over on the ground for a few times, covered in dust, and half-knelt on the ground, staring fiercely at the monster, with his arms open: "Swamp!"

Xiao Liu was in the last car and was stunned.

The car braked suddenly and stopped. The colleague who was driving yelled, "Get out of the car..."

Everyone rushed to open the car door—bang! With a loud bang, a huge black insect limb suddenly appeared in front of the windshield, pierced the hood and engine with a strange blow, and then suddenly lifted the car up into the air.

Another insect leg swept across, and as the huge hook at the front was about to poke into the carriage, everyone screamed in fear.

"what--"

Fortunately, at this time, the team leader's [Swamp] came into play.

The insect's leg seemed to cut into the sticky medium, slowing down a bit.

"Go! Go!"

Several people opened the car door and jumped down from mid-air.

boom!
The insect's legs pierced deeply into the carriage. The team leader groaned and blood came out of his nose. His secret technique was broken.

"Gaga, zhizhizhi..." The monster roared towards the sky and then crawled out from under the ground.

Its lower body was bloated and fat, like a bee, but it was ten meters long!

It waved its tentacles in the wind a few times, as if it had caught a mysterious aura, and rushed quickly towards the warehouse.

"Stop it!" the team leader yelled and immediately reported to the warehouse.

Several team members gritted their teeth and rushed forward. The insect shook its antennae and tapped in the air, as if it had touched something, and circles of blue energy waves spread out.

The agent who rushed forward curled up in a ball, holding his head in pain.

The team leader caught up from behind, jumped into the air, and an ancient three-eyed musket appeared in his hand. He fired three shots at the monster.

The bullet with spiritual light was directly bounced away by the monster's strong body, but it angered the monster.

A tentacle struck the team leader who was still in mid-air like lightning.

The team leader seemed to be hit head-on by a train. He flew backwards and hit the ground, without a sound.

"Team leader!" the team members cried out in pain.

Xiao Liu, who was a little frightened just now, suddenly came to his senses and became resolute.

The monster used its huge body to knock away the two team members who were rushing towards it, and the knives and swords in the two men's hands were stabbed into the monster's body.

Too bad it didn't do any harm to the weirdo.

"This thing is definitely more than level 4, it could be level 6 or even level 7!"

The team member fell to the ground, spitting blood and yelling.

Suddenly, the space behind the weird head twisted, and Xiao Liu, wearing glasses, quietly appeared there.

This is the professional skill of [Assassin].

Xiao Liu accurately found the strange weakness - this is also the professional skill of the [Assassin].

A dagger appeared in her hand. She aimed at a white line behind the monster's head and stabbed it hard.

The dagger was too short and was only a first-level secret object. Xiao Liu stabbed with all his strength, but only left a wound on the monster.

But she was very agile and quickly pulled out the dagger, and with her other hand she stuffed a grenade into the wound.

It was too late to run away. A tentacle fell from a high place, and Xiao Liu fell faster and hit the monster, then rolled and fell at the monster's feet.

boom!
The grenade explodes.

This is a special grenade issued by the Secret Security Bureau. It was developed by the [Twelve-story Building] Research Institute. Secret materials have been added to it, and it is specially designed to target strange things.

The explosion hit a vital part and he felt strangely painful.

This was the first time it felt pain today. It was furious and raised one foot. Circles of light blue energy ripples emerged under its feet. Xiao Liu didn't know what ability this was, but she felt that she was locked by this ability.

Even if he was not injured, he would never be able to break free and escape.

Let alone now.

If that foot falls, I will be crushed to pieces.

Xiao Liu's glasses broke and he tilted his face, ready to accept the coming of death.

But she vaguely saw from under the monster that a person appeared opposite her, and he looked a bit like... Zhang Xiang!
But she really couldn't see clearly.

The man pointed a finger at the huge monster and said, "This is a longhorn beetle."

boom!
The huge creature suddenly disappeared, and Xiao Liu felt a little itchy on her face. She tried to move her eyes and caught a glimpse of a longhorn beetle lying on her face!

"Mom——"

Xiao Liu, who has been afraid of insects since childhood, let out a terrifying scream.

(End of this chapter)