Odd Containment Specialist.

Chapter 849 The Universal View of the Control Bureau

“This person is watching us,” Hu Ling said.

Hippolyta: "Hey, have we met somewhere before?"

“No, no,” Xia Shou said. “I just didn’t expect there to be such young people on the ship.”

"Don't underestimate them just because they're young. Do you know the witch's trump card? These two sparred with that guy. It was when the Divine Law of China descended, and the Control Bureau even issued an ultimatum." A man with a mustache interjected.

Xia Shou was stunned and didn't know how to react for a moment.

Should I act surprised?
Judging from this person's tone, it seems that sparring with me is a very important thing.

When Xia Shou didn't know how to respond, Hu Ling corrected him: "It wasn't a head-on fight, we ambushed them. That guy was really strong, we just escaped."

"That's still impressive! You guys survived the ultimatum."

"I do know about the witch's trump card, but is it really that strong? I heard our first mate is a level 5 superhuman, so the witch's trump card isn't even level 5, is it?" Xia Shou asked casually.

He was certain that his upper limit of strength had not been exposed. After all, York had helped him distort the light to shield him during his final battle with the writer. So he was curious why this person would give him such a high evaluation, to the point that it was an honor for those two to escape from his grasp.

The man with the mustache let out a contemptuous sneer, then shook his head, as if mocking Xia Shou's ignorance of the immensity of heaven and earth.

"Are you from the Control Bureau?" the man with the mustache suddenly asked.

“No,” Xia Shou said calmly, but his heart was pounding with nervousness.

He didn't know why his identity had been discovered.

"Hahahaha!" The man with the mustache laughed, and many people around him laughed along with him.

Then, the man with the mustache said, "Oh, it's nothing. The Control Bureau is much better than the weirdos of other organizations. I was even thinking of working there as an employee once I've saved enough money. But since you're from the Control Bureau, your question just now was obviously a rhetorical question, wasn't it?"

“I’ve already said no, but if you insist on saying that, I don’t care.” Xia Shou shrugged.

The man with the mustache nodded: "I don't mind either, but usually, people like you are from the Control Bureau, and only those who joined the Control Bureau after becoming superhumans without experiencing anything major."

Xia Shou: "..."

Little Mustache: "That's how it is when those involved are blinded by their own interests. Apart from the Bureau of Control, no one really cares about the anomaly level. The level is useless most of the time because it's just a priority for activation. The mechanism of the ability is far more important than the level."

In many cases, it is even easy for a Level 1 superhuman to kill a Level 5 superhuman. It is very common for a Level 5 superhuman with no ability to be killed by a Level 1 superhuman with a strong ability. Free agents who have been around for a long time can hear many examples of this.

Only the Bureau of Control takes levels seriously because they fear the leakage of magical power. So even when dealing with a useless LV5, they have to consider many factors, since they also need to protect ordinary people.

But we don't care about all that. If we can win, we'll kill. The reason why a group of people avoid Level 5 superhumans is because if we kill a Level 5 superhuman, the Bureau of Control will come because they'll smell it. If we fight a Level 5 superhuman, the moment we make a move, the curse power will dissipate, and they'll come because they'll smell it too.

That's why we don't want to mess with those Level 5s. Many of them are really trash, and we don't want to provoke them. We're just afraid of the Control Bureau.

Those lunatics, on the contrary, think they're incredibly powerful, constantly extorting "peace fees." Oh, some Level 5 individuals will find shady organizations of superpowered individuals, threatening them with money, otherwise they'll unleash their powers, causing their magical energy to leak out and attracting the attention of the regulatory authorities. Usually, these organizations either relocate or pay up to settle the matter, hence the term "peace fees."

As if guessing that Xia Shou was unaware of the peace fee, the man with the mustache offered an explanation.

"Oh, I see. I see."

Xia Shou was too lazy to pretend anymore, because he could tell that the other party was completely convinced that he was a member of the Control Bureau.

There's no point in him continuing to pretend like this. If he really wants to continue faking it, he'll just be creating the image of a "free man pretending to be a member of the control bureau."

The man with the mustache continued, "Moreover, the people in the Control Bureau have another characteristic: their promotion level is 'Graduate.' So, after hearing about Level 5 Graduate a lot, they subconsciously think that ordinary Level 5 superhumans are also amazing. But a Graduate is a Graduate, and a superhuman is a superhuman."

Level 3 and above finishers are all monsters of the same level, far beyond what we ordinary soldiers can compare to. Their trump cards cannot be judged by the standards of ordinary finishers. You are from the Control Bureau, so I don't need to explain.

"Hey buddy, be careful next time you're out in plainclothes. Spending too much time within the system can make you inexperienced."

The others around also burst into laughter, and most of them seemed to have no dislike for the Bureau of Control at all.

"Honestly, once you start a family, you realize that the Control Bureau is really great. Apart from the slow money-making and the grueling work, everything else is really good, especially the family benefits."

"I recently had a child, and that's when I started thinking I should join the regulatory agency. After all, people like us never know when we'll die, so we need to have some kind of insurance for our wives and kids," the man with the mustache chuckled.

Xia Shou's tense mood relaxed a little. At this moment, he truly realized that the Bureau of Control actually had a very good reputation. It was just that he had always been in contact with other superhumans during missions, so he had only encountered enemies. That's why he had the stereotype that everyone was against the Bureau of Control.

However... among those present, there were also those who had direct conflicts with the Control Bureau.

Xia Shou glanced at Hu Ling secretly, but the other party immediately noticed.

“Oh, we were later put on the pardon list. Hu Ling, Hippolyta, you can check it out before you board the ship, so you don’t stab us in the back later,” Hu Ling said proactively.

Xia Shou didn't say anything. He knew that after the ultimatum was issued, the Control Bureau pardoned another group of people.

Because the casualties in that city were so severe and the concentration of cursed energy was ridiculously high, continuing to force those people would only force the last ones to fight in the harsh cursed energy environment, causing them to be corrupted. And those rebels, in order to survive, certainly didn't care about that.

Besides this point, and for various other reasons, an agreement was eventually reached to grant amnesty to a portion of the personnel.

Xia Shou found the conversation very rewarding. The perspective of an ordinary superhuman made him realize the limitations of his role as a "cleaner," and that staying in the Bureau of Control for so long had created an information cocoon for him.

From this perspective, it is quite important to act as an ordinary superhuman.

After waiting a while, Sparrow called everyone onto the ship, and that ended the conversation.

Once aboard, Xia Shou discovered that there were even more crew members on board. From their behavior, he could tell that those who had been chatting with him on shore were temporary hires, while those who had been on the Black Pearl were Sparrow's own men.

Xia Shou's eyes searched around the crowd. He remembered that Sparrow had said that Ximen Qing had also boarded the ship. What kind of person would Ximen Qing be in reality?
(End of this chapter)