I'm being held captive by a monster

Chapter 217 Lack of Aggression

Committee, Siege Department, Minister's Office.

February 2, 12: am.

Four hours have passed since the Taoyuan host was completely destroyed.

Although everyone knew in advance that the destruction of Taoyuan was a foregone conclusion.

But in the afternoon, when everyone discovered through the technical team that Taoyuan had actually hidden his host computer among the many devices in the coordination department, they couldn't help feeling nervous and amazed.

Who would have thought that the committee’s biggest enemy would have its “heart” right inside the committee?
"Lao Zhang, this operation is really beautiful!"

"Minister Zhang, our committee's biggest concern has finally been resolved!"

"When Lao Zhang signed the military order, I tried to dissuade him. I told him not to be so radical and to leave himself a way out. I didn't expect that I was too conservative! Hahaha!"

"Minister Zhang, you are the first leader of the Encirclement and Killing Department to receive a standing ovation from the entire Coordination Department!"

In the office, almost all the senior executives of the Coordination Department came with various valuable gifts.

In addition to thanking Zhang Guang for giving the opportunity to kill Taoyuan to the Coordination Department, what impressed them most was that Zhang Guang did not say a word during the entire operation.

You know, Taoyuan’s host is in the Coordination Department.

They couldn't stand any fault Zhang Guang found.

But Zhang Guang didn't say a word from beginning to end.

He even stopped some whispers within the siege department, and kept emphasizing that it was Taoyuan's treachery and cunning, and not the coordination department's fault.

It can be said that this has given enough face to colleagues in the coordination department.

Although everyone guessed that Zhang Guang’s purpose was not so simple, he wanted the votes from his colleagues in the coordination department.

But just tell me whether Zhang Guang did a good job in this matter?

If I don’t vote for Zhang Guang, who should I vote for?

"Hey, you're welcome!"

“It’s all thanks to everyone!”

"We're united against the outside world! Normally, we have healthy competition internally!"

"Eh! Forgiving? I'm not. Don't run away from the dinners and drinks you owe me! I remember them all!"

Zhang Guang said with a big laugh!

This also caused everyone in the office to burst into laughter.

They all said yes, yes!
"Everyone, thank you for your hard work!"

"It's getting late. I think Lao Liang's blood pressure is about to rise from laughing. Let's stop chatting tonight and go back to get some rest!"

"And the day after tomorrow, our committee's celebration party has been moved to the day after tomorrow! Not tomorrow!"

"Several committee members will be here by then, so let's prepare well!"

After chatting until 2:30 in the morning, Zhang Guang clapped his hands, stood up and said.

Finally, everyone shook hands and exchanged a few words before leaving with a sense of reluctance.

It has been a long time since we had such a relaxed gathering within the committee!

Everyone is scheming against each other all the time.

Now that I have put aside all the conflicts and contradictions, I feel like I have returned to a few decades ago!
"Okay, okay, see you the day after tomorrow!"

"Slow down! I won't see you off! Hey...Xiao Xu! Have some sense!"

Zhang Guang stood in front of the office door, watching everyone go with a red face!

After everyone left, he smiled, shook his head, and returned to the office.

Of course, although he was polite in words, Zhang Guang did not hesitate to accept all the gifts that everyone had worked so hard to prepare!
Fortunately, his office is big enough.

If it were an ordinary team leader’s office, there probably wouldn’t be enough space for anything!

"An An, this trick of yours is getting better and better the more you think about it!"

Zhang Guang pushed open the wall behind the office, walked into the dark room inside, looked at Lin Xing'an and said.

"If I had directly exposed the connection between the Coordination Department and Taoyuan today, every one of these people would have changed their attitude."

"My vote as a candidate committee member won't be secure either."

He sighed as he sat on the sofa.

Now, seeing the performance of his colleagues in the Coordination Department this afternoon, Zhang Guang is completely relieved.

His spot as a candidate for committee member is definitely secured!

"I just offer suggestions, but the real decision-making is still you."

Lin Xing'an poured a glass of water for Zhang Guang.

Zhang Guang took it and took a sip.

"Come on, An An, let's release the ghost realm. I want to see how your abilities have improved over the past two days. Have you and Ke Ke been slacking off?"

He poured himself another glass of water and raised his eyebrows at Lin Xing'an.

"Director Ke taught me very seriously, but I'm not that proficient in controlling the ghost realm yet."

As Lin Xing'an spoke, he released his ghost domain.

It was not fully expanded at once, but was only controlled within one square meter.

After holding on for about six minutes, he let out a sigh of relief, releasing it instantly and then retracting it instantly.

"Sure! Come on!"

Zhang Guang nodded with satisfaction and pulled Lin Xing'an's arm.

"Hmm... huh? Precipitation is so good?"

He felt Lin Xing'an's strength and a hint of admiration appeared in his eyes!
"An An, do you know why I postponed the celebration party for a day?"

Zhang Guang gestured to Lin Xing'an to sit down and personally poured him a glass of water.

"…Because we need to take care of the committee members' time?"

"That's one thing, but it's mainly for you."

"Huh? For me?"

A look of doubt appeared on Lin Xing'an's face.

"An An, this celebration banquet is mainly to introduce you. You will be the focus of the whole audience."

"Although ability is indeed not important, there is no way around it. Many people look at ability first."

"So this extra day is specifically for you to improve your abilities."

Zhang Guang didn't keep anyone in suspense and spoke directly.

But the doubt in Lin Xing'an's eyes was even greater.

"...Improve your abilities? Aren't abilities...fixed? Do you mean to let me absorb more of the darkness to improve my strength?"

he asked with a frown.

Zhang Guangze shook his head.

"Child, your awakened ability was given by your mother, and we cannot change it."

"But abilities are composed of countless different characteristics. While maintaining our abilities, we can absorb the Yin of other gluttons and gain their abilities and characteristics."

He patted Lin Xing'an's hand and said.

Seeing that Lin Xing'an still didn't seem to understand, Zhang Guang didn't get anxious, but continued to drink his water.

"An An, Ke Ke has taught you how to integrate the characteristics, or attributes, of your abilities into the ghost realm, right?"

"Ah."

Lin Xing'an nodded.

"Then An An, what are the characteristics of your [Wave] ability?"

"It's to restore your physical strength."

"Very good. Restoring physical strength is the characteristic of your ability. This characteristic is hidden in your darkness."

Zhang Guang tapped Lin Xing'an's chest.

"And after you die, if a gluttonous ghost absorbs the darkness you left behind, there's a chance it will inherit your abilities."

"Note: absorbing the gloom after your death only has a chance of inheriting your abilities, not gaining your abilities."

"Just like your [Tide], the recovery of physical strength is gradual and layered."

"But after absorbing your Yin Hui and gaining your ability attributes, the recovery of physical strength is just normal recovery, far less than your own ability." Zhang Guang paused, then gave another example.

"Your ability attributes are very simple. It would be easier to understand if you changed it to an ability with multiple attributes, such as Commissioner Jiang Rong's Class A ability [Life Force]."

"This ability encompasses multiple attributes such as vitality absorption, vitality release, and vitality transformation."

"All these attributes combined together constitute Commissioner Jiang's complete ability, [Vitality]."

"Suppose... there are only two of us here, I'll be a little disrespectful."

Zhang Guang cleared his throat.

Lin Xing'an also nodded to show his understanding.

"Suppose Commissioner Jiang has an accident. If you absorb the shadow left by Commissioner Jiang, you will randomly gain one of her attributes. Do you understand?"

"Understood……"

Lin Xing'an took a deep breath.

Of course he understood this principle.

After all, his ability to control darkness was gained by killing the copycat at the train station.

But what Lin Xing'an didn't expect was that the gluttonous ghost would also use this method to gain additional abilities...

"Minister, you mean... to allow me to gain other abilities by absorbing the darkness?"

"but……"

Lin Xing'an pursed his lips hesitantly.

"It's okay, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. It's okay to speak up."

Zhang Guang waved his hand.

"Bullmaster, what is the probability of absorbing darkness and gaining abilities?"

Lin Xing'an asked after a moment of silence.

He still remembered what Teacher Orange said, that the probability of humans acquiring ability attributes was less than one in a thousand.

“One percent, but through special methods, it can be as close as one tenth.”

"one tenth?!"

"Well, increasing the probability tenfold, while still low, is already worth a try."

"..."

Lin Xing'an was shocked.

It can actually be improved so much?

He instantly became curious about this special method.

What would happen if humans mastered this method?
"But... isn't the darkness of a dead glutton usually absorbed by humans and animals?"

"After all, only humans and animals can kill gluttonous ghosts."

"After being killed by them, our Yin Hui will automatically be absorbed by humans and animals, making it basically impossible to collect it."

Lin Xing'an was not in a hurry to ask about the method to increase the probability.

His words made Zhang Guang smile meaningfully.

"An An, you are too naive."

"...Could it be...could it be that there are still gluttonous ghosts who kill each other in order to obtain each other's abilities?"

Lin Xing'an was stunned and took a breath.

Zhang Guangze took a sip of water and said, "An An, why do you think the committee made the rule that Tao Ghost cannot be killed?"

He asked back, narrowing his eyes.

"My child, this rule is the most basic and fundamental of the committee. It is precisely because of this that we are prevented from killing each other."

"Of course, more than 95% of the committee members don't know that absorbing each other's Yin can gain each other's abilities."

"Like Xu Zhe, the number of gluttons he killed could build a building, but when he killed gluttons, he simply killed them and never dared to absorb the dark."

"Do you think he might not know that absorbing Yin Hui can gain abilities and attributes? Of course he knows, but he simply doesn't dare to absorb it."

"Killing the gluttonous ghost is one thing, we can turn a blind eye to it."

"But if you continue to absorb the darkness after killing, that's another matter. If you're discovered, then..."

Zhang Guang didn't say anything else, and a light flickered in his eyes.

Lin Xing'an also nodded seriously.

He really didn't expect that the rule that gluttonous ghosts cannot kill each other was based on this point.

So... can we use this to deal with Xu Zhe?

He secretly buried this idea in his heart.

"Minister, if that's the case...it's even more impossible for me to absorb the glutton's darkness..."

"I can't possibly... kill my own kind for a one in ten chance, right?"

Lin Xing'an spread out his hands, a look of absurdity on his face.

Zhang Guangze signaled him not to panic.

"An An, do you know how many gluttons die naturally during each round of the committee?"

"Of course, the natural deaths I'm talking about include those who successfully fought humans and animals but died after returning from battle, those who were executed for violating the rules, and so on..."

He looked at Lin Xing'an and asked.

Lin Xing'an slowly shook his head.

Zhang Guang held up four fingers and said, "On average, there are more than 400 of them in each round."

"For those who died of 'natural causes,' we will seal a small part of their dark side into their corpses to keep them from decaying."

"And most of the obscure things are collected secretly."

"Through this continuous accumulation, we have secretly sealed the dark secrets of 3,612 gluttonous ghosts."

"Among them, there are over 200 Class B abilities, over 500 Class C abilities, over 1,000 Class D abilities, and over 1,000 Class E abilities, which is slightly more than the Class D abilities."

Zhang Guang listed the data calmly.

His words stirred up a storm in Lin Xing'an's heart.

After using a special method to increase the probability of obtaining ability attributes through Yinhui to 10%...

Theoretically, the committee could use these 3,000+ Yinhui to "create" a gluttonous ghost with various abilities and attributes...

Even if these abilities aren't strong, when combined, they're extremely terrifying...

"... Minister, are you the one collecting the obscurity information? Do the committee members know about it? Is this legal?"

"Mainly...will it have an impact on your campaign committee?"

Lin Xing'an asked after a long silence.

Zhang Guangze shook the cup in his hand and shook his head, "Of course it's not legal."

"The collection of Yinhui was secretly carried out by Jiang Rong when she was still in the Siege Division. She was the only one doing it the entire time, and no one else knew about it."

"It wasn't until Jiang Rong became one of the seven committee members and I was promoted to the head of the Encirclement and Killing Department that Jiang Rong told me about it."

"And currently, in the entire committee, only Jiang Rong and I know about this."

Zhang Guang paused.

"Now, you know it too."

He looked at Lin Xing'an and said.

Lin Xing'an also felt Zhang Guang's trust and quickly stood up. "Thank you for your trust, Minister. I will definitely..."

"No, no, wait until I resign and run for committee member. You still have to carry out this matter for us."

Zhang Guang waved his hand and said.

"must!"

Lin Xing'an also nodded heavily.

"An An, the Wave ability is too useless. It has neither the ability to actively attack nor any defense."

"It doesn't seem like a big deal at the moment, but it will limit your development in the future."

"So tomorrow morning, I'll take you to absorb the darkness. It would be best if you could gain some strong offensive abilities."

(End of this chapter)