Extraterrestrial demons invaded; I laid the groundwork eight years in advance.

8:30 a.m., Tangxi Old Town.

Zhou Zheng rode his electric bike through the alleys of the old town, avoiding the morning rush hour traffic on the main roads.

He has lived here for many years and knows every alleyway like the back of his hand, so he can spend more time with Ping An by saving his commuting time.

Once out of the old town, the electric bikes turned onto the main city road and merged into the traffic.

He was wearing a helmet, and his jacket was zipped up to his chin. From behind, he looked no different from any other middle-aged man in the city rushing to work.

My gaze swept across the traffic at a steady pace—from left to right, from front to back.

A black sedan cut in from the left rear, about two cars away.

His gaze lingered on the rearview mirror for a second.

The car turned onto the side road.

The building of the Extraordinary Administration Bureau stands at the end of Tangxi Road, with gray and white exterior walls. A rectangular stone tablet lies horizontally at the entrance, with the words "Extraordinary Public Security Administration Bureau of Shanghai" engraved on it.

As a newly established agency after the revival of spiritual energy, the Extraordinary Administration Bureau is directly under the top leadership in terms of its organizational structure, and its functions span multiple departments, giving it immense power.

The Administration is mainly composed of four parts: Operations, Intelligence, Technology, and Administration. The Operations Department is responsible for dealing with rifts, eliminating monsters, and investigating supernatural events. The Intelligence Department is responsible for information collection and risk warning. The Technology Department is responsible for the processing of supernatural equipment and materials. The Administration Department is responsible for logistics, personnel, and file management.

He parked his electric scooter in the shed on the west side of the courtyard, removed the key, and went into the office building.

The hall was spacious and bright, with light gray tiles on the floor that reflected people's shadows.

The young woman on duty at the front desk was answering a phone call. Behind her, on the wall, hung a large LED screen that scrolled through various notices and promotional materials for extraordinary knowledge.

He smiled and waved to the receptionist, who nodded in response.

He stepped into the elevator. It was almost nine o'clock, the start time for work. There was only one person from the operations department in the elevator, holding a few folders.

The two nodded to each other without saying a word.

The elevator doors opened, and Zhou Zheng stepped aside to let him go in first, then followed him in. The button for the third floor was already lit up, and he pressed the button for the seventh floor.

As the department with the most staff and the busiest operations in the Administration, the Operations Division is concentrated on the lower floors to facilitate timely deployment.

The fifth floor houses the intelligence department, the sixth floor the technology department, and the seventh floor the administrative affairs department. The floors above the seventh floor contain the offices of the bureau's leaders and departmental meeting rooms.

Several departments each manage their own area and cooperate with each other, but all documents and materials ultimately have to go through the archives section of the administrative affairs office.

Zhou Zheng works in the archives department.

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The elevator doors closed, and the floor indicator lights began to flash one by one.

The folder in the officer's hand was facing up, with a red number above the title.

Zhou Zheng didn't turn his head; his gaze fell on the reflection of the stainless steel surface of the elevator door—there, the outline of the folder was reflected, the red number appearing as a blurry patch of color, but the outline of the numbers was still faintly discernible.

The elevator doors opened on the third floor.

His gaze naturally shifted from the reflective surface back to the floor indicator lights.

The person from the operations department walked out, and Zhou Zheng pressed the close button. The elevator continued to rise and stopped on the seventh floor.

Zhou Zheng stepped out of the elevator, walked through the corridor, and entered the office area.

The seventh floor was divided into more than a dozen rooms. He stopped at the door of one of them. There was a light-colored sign on the door that read "Administrative Affairs Office, Records Management Section".

He pushed open the door and went inside. It was a large office with more than a dozen workstations, almost all of which were already occupied.

Xiao Liu was entering data at the computer when he saw Zhou come in and said with a smile, "Good morning, Brother Zhou."

"Good morning." Zhou Zheng smiled and nodded, walked to his workstation, took off his coat and draped it over the back of his chair, and turned on his computer.

Xiao Zhao, who was eating a steamed bun across from Zhou Zheng's workstation, mumbled a greeting: "Brother Zhou, have you eaten? I still have two steamed buns left."

"I've already eaten." Zhou Zheng's voice was low, with a hint of a smile. "Eat more; young people are in the prime of their growth."

"Sigh, I still want to grow taller, but I'm already twenty-five this year, so reaching 1.85 meters is out of the question." Xiao Zhao sighed and lowered his head to continue eating his steamed bun.

Zhou Zheng smiled but didn't reply, and picked up his water glass to get hot water.

He was transferred from the customs system at the end of last month. At that time, the Administration Bureau had only been established for a few days and needed a lot of people familiar with administrative procedures.

He had worked in customs for over a decade and was familiar with file management, approval processes, and document circulation. In addition, he was well-liked and had a good reputation, so he was seconded to the customs office.

The work in the archives department is not too busy. Every day, we process archived documents, enter data into the system, and assist various departments in accessing archives.

Zhou Zheng is a reliable and down-to-earth worker who never argues with anyone. In addition, he is a bit older, so his colleagues in the department call him "Brother Zhou".

As he walked back to his workstation, he glanced at the section chief's office. The door was open, but there was no sound from inside.

Not long after Zhou Zheng sat down, there was a knock on the office door, and a young man poked his head in, holding a brown paper file box.

"Brother Zhou, this is from the Operations Department. I'm here to deliver some archived documents."

"Okay, put it there." Zhou Zheng pointed to an empty space on the corner of the table.

The young man put down the file box and handed over a list: "This batch was sorted out yesterday. Please check it and sign it."

Zhou Zheng took the list and glanced at it—it was filled with seven or eight items, including numbers, names, number of copies, and number of pages.

He checked each item one by one, confirming that the number of documents in the box matched the list, then signed it and handed the receipt to the other party: "Okay."

"Okay, thank you." The young man took the receipt, turned around, and left.

Zhou Zheng sat back down in his chair, opened the file box, and the cover of the first document had a black title printed on it: "Summary of the Interrogation Record of the '10.21' Illegal Trade in Monster Materials Case and Subsequent Work Arrangements." A red stamp was affixed to the security classification column: "Internal Reference."

His gaze lingered on the title for two seconds, then he closed the cover, pulled out the file folder, logged into the Administration's file management system, entered the filing date and number, and clicked confirm.

After completing the process, he signed his name on the filing registration form, put the documents aside, and processed the remaining documents.

At 10:30, Zhou Zheng finished his work, tidied up the documents on his desk, picked up a form, and left the office.

He took the elevator down to the third floor, which was the office area of ​​the Extraordinary Affairs Section under the Operations Department. The corridor was bustling with people, clearly much busier than the Administration Department.

Some people were on the phone, rushing about, while others were calling for their companions to leave the team immediately.

Zhou Zheng walked calmly down the corridor.

As I passed an office, a staff member in a bureau uniform was reprimanding a tall young man.