He is the leader of the Tantric sect in Chagdu.

Chapter 103 Head of Control Department, Ankasha

The outskirts of the city.

For decades, malice has relentlessly poured into this land, and the darkness of the earth is the underlying color that has seeped into its roots—even though the sky is as bright as daytime now, rendering the arched dome that envelops the distant suburbs as a clean, pure white, it cannot erase the "pitch black" that has hardened on the ground.

Above is pure white, below is pitch black—and in the very center of this cramped space, gray matter eternally lingers between them.

This is the color that belongs to "that one".

In the eyes of the people in the suburbs, gray was initially a symbol of evil, depriving them of their freedom and sealing everyone off from the reality of death.

Today, gray has become a sacred color worthy of longing, ever since the "Father of Light" split the corona to give birth to Him and brought His messengers to this place.

【Gray Garden - Control Department】

"/22, Special Sample Observation Record: During feeding, the sample's physiological state was good, vital signs were stable, and there were no abnormal signs—communication was still blocked. The administrator can only confirm that the target has intelligence at present, but still cannot verify the origin of its language system."

Based on in-depth comparison and deduction, it is determined that it does not conform to the language model of any era in the development of Hallownest—their grammar and vocabulary are even so ancient that they do not belong to this millennium.

Behind the lens reflecting a faint light, a pair of small, dark eyes blinked twice, and the writing on the file paused for a few seconds—after a moment's hesitation, he continued recording: "Perhaps it's a bit excessive, but in my judgment—these twenty-one individuals, suspected to be from the bottom nest, are most likely anomalies related to mystery—this is beyond my research scope. If possible, I request that mystery apprentices be transferred from headquarters to serve as assistants; perhaps that will allow me to extract the necessary information from them more quickly."

The final signature reads: "Ankasha, Interim Head and Supervisor of the Control Department, Backup Research Notes - Summary of Day 1 Observation Report, now archived."

He put down the file in his hand, stuffed the pen back into the hard bag on his chest—the man bent the buckle at the back of his head, removed the hanging glasses perched between his high nose bridge, pressed the "lockdown" button in front of him, and announced the end of today's research.

As a layer of gray matter enveloped and sealed the giant glass container, until the scattered figures completely disappeared before Ankasha's eyes, he finally sighed softly, rubbed his aching temples, and slowly walked down from the observation platform with the help of the gray mist.

"What a waste of a whole day—mystery, it's such a wonderful thing."

The speaker was a man who appeared to be only 1.4 meters tall. Despite his short stature, he possessed a calm and composed demeanor befitting a middle-aged man. Although his figure was short, his proportions were surprisingly harmonious and upright.

Ankasha was wearing a white coat that almost dragged on the ground. Although she was complaining, there was no frustration in her deep black eyes, which were like crushed diamonds. They were as calm as a bottomless pool.

"interesting----"

He looked up at the area in front of him that was isolated by the gray fog, known as the "Sealed Zone": a core area that had just been defined a week ago—supposedly a construction plan that the "Messenger of Light" came up with on a whim.

Of course, most of the current plans are still in the blueprint stage and have not yet been implemented. Therefore, this temporarily designated section only has some basic functions available, just like detaining some people who still pose a threat or have great value.

Specific examples include: the captured leader of a folk cult, the secret guarantor of a mysterious external society, the leader of a certain independent faction, and speculators who have a biased view of the outskirts of the country—and so on.

—Most of the time it's just a normal "prison".

The Gray Garden does not lack this force, but at least in the early stages of its rapid expansion, the spread of authority still requires the participation of this special group of people. The most common method is to let them fully understand the greatness of light before releasing them back into the outside world. In this way, they will naturally become the attraction that the Gray Garden exerts on its outward expansion.

However, aside from its function as a regular "prison," in recent days, this quarantine area has finally been used to detain a group of genuine "abnormal beings."

After initial identification, this group of individuals, suspected to originate from the bottom nest, was assigned the number 001 as the first batch of "special operations" under the control department, and temporarily named: "Aphasia Syndrome"

Returning to the ground from the observation platform above the fog layer, Ankasha casually took off her white coat. Soon, someone jogged over to catch her. The girl, who was running towards him, lowered her head slightly, lowered her voice, and greeted the short man in front of her in a soft voice.

"Supervisor, is the work finished?"

The speaker was a girl who looked to be only thirteen or fourteen years old. She was clearly a canine, and her severely mutated feminine traits had almost completely covered her human features, with even the palms of her hands having grown a soft, thick pad of flesh.

But it is still a little taller than Ankasha.

The temporary supervisor needed to tilt her head slightly to meet her gaze, so Ankasha chose not to look at her. She frowned deeply, rubbing her ribs, which ached from the impact, and said in a low voice, "Be careful, don't always be so reckless—"

He didn't know how many times he had said that, but this girl, who was probably not very bright, never listened and always acted recklessly.

"Feel sorry----"

Ankasha's serious expression was indeed quite powerful. The little girl, Qiuzhong, hurriedly apologized, and almost bumped her chin on the top of her supervisor's head with her bow.

"never mind."

Ankasha wisely chose not to speak to this guy, stepped out of the restricted area, and turned to Gray Matter, saying softly, "I asked headquarters to send me a more normal assistant half a month ago."

He took a deep breath: "Where are they?!"

After a moment of silence, the gray mist slowly condensed into a line of small characters in front of him: "Listen to me, don't rush—"

After a brief moment of thought, the temporary supervisor decided not to bother with something that wasn't even human-shaped.

"never mind."

Working people always have to learn to compromise.

Continuing forward, Ankasha casually turned her head again, and sure enough, she saw the girl timidly following behind her. After a few seconds of hesitation, she could only sigh softly.

—I can't bring myself to get angry at a little girl from the Indus Valley—

After a moment, he added another premise:

—At least for the short term, it's bearable.

—The girl who caused Ankasha trouble is named Jiaen. She is one of the few, no more than ten, full-time employees in the Control Department, and also his only assistant at the moment.

Ankasha didn't really understand the criteria her new employer used to select members—after all, for the factions in the suburbs, "value" was the only weighted indicator for measuring population.

Common sense dictates that someone like Jiaen, a member of the Yinqiu race, should have long since become a "special service" in a money pit or a exotic commodity on the black market for organs—at least in Ankasha's understanding of the outskirts, those factions weren't kind enough to keep a freeloading girl as their concubine.

side.

—His new employer is definitely a "suburban freak".

For a "perfect worker" like him, he could only accept whatever his superiors did, and could not change it—but since being taken over by this faction called "Grey Court," despite his confusion, Ankasha did not actually reject this "change" in his heart.

"It's not bad at all," he thought.

A life with boundaries always makes people feel relaxed, like a drowning person occasionally surfacing to breathe in oxygen – a sense of clarity.

If possible, Ankasha hopes to stay in this faction a little longer.

As long as it doesn't collapse in the complex situation of the nest.

The all-night observation experiment came to an end. Following the workflow, the final steps were handed over to the gray fog. Ankasha watched the gray curtain behind her slowly fall, and she lowered her head in thought before taking a step.

At this stage, since the organization is still in its infancy, the [Sealed Zone] has only just taken shape—currently, only two departments have been granted full-time positions here: the "Security Department," which is responsible for maintaining absolute violent control internally, and the "Control Department," which the messenger requested be built as quickly as possible.

Furthermore, because that "messenger" was extremely busy, needing to oversee the entire operation of the Gray Court while also listening to the teachings of the Father of Light, he appointed temporary heads for these two departments respectively.

Ankasha is one of them.

"Ankasha: Male, Fantasy Species Halfling, 42 years old, has passed the Soul Purity Screening, Mental Limit: 4 (Excellent), Radiance Affinity: 5 (Extreme), Vessel Strength: 3 (Good), Overall Quality Assessment: 4 (Excellent) - Currently assigned as the temporary head of the Control Department."

Forty-two years old is an age when people from the suburbs are already in the "final stages of their careers" or even should be buried long ago, but for a half-man, he has just reached his prime and has lived on this land for nearly twenty years.

He has been able to live peacefully until now because he is the rarest and most valuable "technical talent" in the suburbs. According to his former employer, he was a senior technician who worked for a giant company. Twenty years ago, he came to the suburbs alone for some reason.

During his active period, due to his "bottom line" that was out of place in the suburbs and his bad temper, he changed "masters" hundreds of times, but with his excellent technical skills, Ankasha was always able to find a new job and live a very comfortable life.

Even in this eerie place, it is the same.

Ankasha's gaze was deep and unfathomable.

This was not his first encounter with "mystery." For ordinary people in the city, supernatural power was something that only existed in creations. But for Ankasha, who had once worked as a "researcher" within a giant corporation, mystery was an objectively existing form of power.

Even in his original employer, there were quite a few scholars who possessed "mysterious powers"—those beings who interpreted mysterious power in irrational ways were undoubtedly "superior beings" to mortals.

"Oh----"

Thinking of this, Ankasha chuckled softly.

How ridiculous: offspring living under the same dome, even born from the same mother's womb, are inherently separated by the superiority or inferiority of their species, and then subjected to selection and differentiation by a "superior force" of "mystery".

The strife in this cramped nest seemed like an eternal, despairing impending doom.

"It's disgustingly rotten." He squinted, no longer dwelling on these issues that weren't his concern. At least for now, working in this place called "Grey Court" satisfied his burning curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

It was like a parched soul drinking from a living spring, a feeling of exhilaration and joy.

—This is enough for now.

"—Please wait a moment."

The process of leaving get off work was not smooth. The troublesome girl from Inchi always managed to find something new to cause Ankasha. When the supervisor looked at her expressionlessly, Jiaen scratched her head embarrassedly and said, "Supervisor, you can't rest yet."

Facing Ankasha's dangerous gaze, Jia En quickly waved his hand: "It really is a last-minute notice—it just came from above, saying that an envoy is coming to observe the work situation on-site. It's really important, so please stay at your post a little longer!"

Looking at the girl bowing deeply, the supervisor felt a bellyful of anger with nowhere to vent it, and the sleepiness from staying up all night also surged into his consciousness at this moment.

"Tsk." He closed his eyes helplessly, deeply immersed in the powerlessness of a working person, and also a strange, unprecedented emotion—a complex mix of unease and anticipation.

He chuckled dryly twice: "I hope this 'messenger' appointed by the Father of Light is as easy to talk to as the gray fog."

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