Chapter 73 – The Convenience of Official Organizations

Chapter 73 – The Convenience of Official Organizations

Baili Qing didn’t probe further into the “other accident” Yu Sheng had mentioned, nor did she press him about Eileen’s situation.

She simply gave Yu Sheng a general explanation about Alice’s Cottage.

“Most of Alice’s Dolls operate outside the Borderland. They maintain the balance of other places and almost never interfere with Special Operations Bureau affairs. However, they do have an established communication channel with the Borderland—a contact point, located at the edge of the City. But ordinary people can’t find it, and the Dolls generally don’t receive unfamiliar visitors.

“That said, I can send someone over to inquire about ‘Eileen’ first. If there really is a stray Doll out there… they should be willing to meet with you.

“But it probably won’t be quick. The Dolls are very busy and have their own missions. The Borderland contact point isn’t always staffed either, so you may have to wait a while.”

Yu Sheng didn’t mind. “That’s no problem. As long as your Special Operations Bureau is willing to help, that’s enough. I’ll thank you on Eileen’s behalf in advance.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Baili Qing said calmly. “Providing assistance to those who’ve gotten into difficulties through contact with the ‘extraordinary domain’ is one of the Bureau’s responsibilities. If you have any other needs, feel free to tell me as well.”

Yu Sheng’s eyes lit up the moment he heard this. “Actually, there is something.”

“Oh?”

“Can you help get two ID cards made?” Yu Sheng said rapidly. “If not two, even one would be fine—preferably real ones.”

Baili Qing: “…?”

“You should know that I’ve got a new person on my end—just rescued her from the Otherworld. No idea where her original home is, and she has no legal identity here,” Yu Sheng explained. “I wanted to ask if the Special Operations Bureau has a way to arrange something for her. And then there’s Eileen—she doesn’t have a legal identity either. Of course, that’s not as urgent, since at her current height, even with an ID card she couldn’t go out on her own.”

Baili Qing’s expression seemed subtly complicated—probably the first time in all her years as Bureau Chief that anyone had made such a request. But she quickly nodded. “That’s not within my direct responsibilities, but I can help arrange it. If the Doll truly needs one, that can be arranged too. Of course, as you said, she’d probably only be able to treat the ID as a collectible… though it might come in handy on certain occasions?”

Yu Sheng thanked her repeatedly. He could now confirm with certainty that this remarkably young-looking female Bureau Chief was genuinely easy to talk to, and when it came to helping out, she truly delivered.

So he naturally brought up another matter. “There’s one more thing, also about the person I recently rescued from the Otherworld. I wanted to ask… can the Special Operations Bureau help find her homeland? Since you manage such a vast territory, you must have far better information channels than I do.”

“You can start by telling me about her situation,” Baili Qing didn’t refuse. “The report mentioned very few details. I only know she’s a humanoid being with beast-transformation characteristics, and in the Bureau’s records, there are even triple-digit numbers of ethnic groups with such traits.”

“Damn, that many…” Yu Sheng was taken aback, but he quickly recovered and began recalling the various descriptions Hu Li had given him about her homeland. “She said she comes from a place where immortals and ‘demons’ coexist. From her descriptions, the civilization there seems to be at an extremely high level. She also mentioned a group called ‘the Celestials,’ saying they enlightened the people living on the Ground…”

Yu Sheng relayed as much detail as he could, including all the miscellaneous bits, but considering Hu Li’s mental state when she’d been recounting these things, he added a few caveats at the end. “Take what I’ve said as rough reference only. She seems to have been just a child when she left home, and because she was trapped for so long, both her memories and her thinking are somewhat confused. There are definitely parts she misremembered or exaggerated.”

“I… understand,” Baili Qing nodded with a hint of hesitation after hearing Yu Sheng out. Despite her typically expressionless face, the hesitation revealed that her feelings on the matter were somewhat complicated. “Indeed, what you’ve described sounds a bit… fantastical. I’m not sure whether the Bureau’s archives contain any location matching these characteristics.”

She’d put it very diplomatically, but Yu Sheng had already caught the implication.

The Bureau probably had no corresponding records at all.

“Just do your best. If you really can’t find anything, there’s nothing to be done,” Yu Sheng sighed. “She doesn’t actually have any family left, and she’s not particularly attached to her homeland. Finding her place of origin is really just a personal wish of mine.”

“You seem quite warm-hearted,” Baili Qing suddenly remarked.

“I suppose so?” Yu Sheng actually felt a bit embarrassed. “My ‘warm-heartedness’ ends up being more trouble for you people than anyone else.”

“The Special Operations Bureau has always dealt in ‘trouble.’ By comparison, we’d actually much rather interact with ‘parties involved’ like yourself,” Baili Qing said with a sigh. “If all the targets we normally dealt with were like you, the Bureau’s work would be much easier—at least the ‘contact’ phase of our work would be far less stressful.”

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Clear-minded, capable of communication, won’t suddenly lash out and hurt people, won’t suddenly drop dead,” Baili Qing sighed and spread her hands. Complaining about work was perhaps every working person’s deepest form of sincerity, and her behavior at this moment came across as quite humanized. “If someone meets three out of four, they’re already a ‘premium client’ we rarely encounter in our daily work.”

Yu Sheng: “Is the working environment at your Special Operations Bureau really that brutal?!”

Baili Qing said nothing, only sighed again.

Yu Sheng had never worked at the Special Operations Bureau, but he instantly understood what that sigh meant. And he also didn’t have the nerve to tell her that he actually only met three of the four criteria himself…

Baili Qing quickly returned to her all-business demeanor. “I’ve answered many of your questions—do you have anything else?”

“Questions… none for now,” Yu Sheng thought for a moment and adjusted his sitting position. “So is it time to go through the ‘registration’ process you mentioned earlier?”

“Generally speaking, ‘ordinary people’ who’ve come into contact with the Otherworld need to register at a Bureau processing center and undergo a basic examination and assessment, accompanied throughout by our assigned contact personnel. However… given the special circumstances, I can exercise a bit of my authority as Bureau Chief and skip all that red tape,” Baili Qing said, those colorless eyes scrutinizing Yu Sheng. “But first, I’d like to hear what your plans are for the future.”

Yu Sheng lowered his head to think for a moment, then looked up with genuine seriousness. “If I register as a spirit detective or an independent investigator, what kind of benefits would that provide?”

Baili Qing showed not a trace of surprise, as though she’d long anticipated this direction. She simply nodded and replied, “In simple terms, you would gain access to intelligence sharing that the Special Operations Bureau provides to all legitimate extraordinary organizations and individuals within the Borderland, usage rights for a large number of support facilities, a communication platform for connecting with other organizations and individuals, a ‘legal identity’ recognized by other factions, and most importantly—transit permits.”

Yu Sheng instinctively leaned forward. “Transit permits?”

“There are many ‘points’ in the Borderland that connect to ‘distant places,’ and the vast majority of these points are regulated. Activating these connection points or entering certain restricted zones requires transit permits. Of course, I suspect your ‘Door’ can probably bypass these issues entirely, but lawful transit means access to more intelligence support. If you intend to deal with the Otherworld, ‘intelligence’ is more useful than any combat power most of the time. And also…”

“Also?”

“Also, please spare a thought for those of us who have to work overtime at the Bureau,” Baili Qing suddenly sighed. “If a location has obvious access security and is locked up, please don’t open a Door inside.”

Yu Sheng was immediately hit with a wave of embarrassment.

Fortunately, he had thick skin. After being embarrassed for a moment, he adjusted and said with a straight face, “I’ve always been one to uphold order.”

Baili Qing said nothing, simply taking it at face value.

Then she looked seriously into Yu Sheng’s eyes. “Anything else you want to ask?”

“What are the requirements for registering as a spirit detective versus an independent investigator?”

“Independent investigator is simple: clear-minded, psychologically prepared to face death, experience surviving in the Otherworld or basic knowledge of it. Beyond that, we just need to confirm you’re not doing this because you’ve gone insane—and that qualifies you. The requirements for spirit detective are a bit higher. In addition to the skills required of an investigator, you also need a legitimate, registered ‘group’ to belong to.”

“A registered group?” Yu Sheng thought for a moment. “Oh, I get it—like the ‘Fairy Tale’ organization behind Little Red Riding Hood, right?”

“You can think of it that way,” Baili Qing nodded. “So most people who survive the Otherworld and want to continue dealing with the extraordinary world start as independent investigators. Finding an organization willing to take in an unfamiliar newcomer is very difficult—after all, in many dangerous Otherworld zones, a clumsy novice can pose more danger than encountering an entity. Of course, there are exceptions, such as a group of people encountering the Otherworld simultaneously and all surviving together, though that’s quite rare.”

“Are there registration restrictions for these organizations?” Yu Sheng asked curiously.

“At least two members who meet investigator qualifications, at least one member with experience combating entities, a stable contact location and means of communication, and—no words that violate public order and morality or special punctuation marks in the name. Beyond that, just the standard declarations about operating lawfully and not endangering the order and safety of the Borderland, and that’s it.”

Yu Sheng blinked in surprise as he listened. “…That’s it? No other requirements??”

A faint smile seemed to surface on Baili Qing’s face.

“This is a struggle against the Otherworld and entities—facing things beyond human reason and surviving is the only effective ‘standard.’ We don’t need to set up any threshold. ‘Survival’ is the greatest threshold of all.”

Yu Sheng let out an “oh” and rubbed his chin. “Well, when you put it that way, it sounds like the bar is actually pretty low…”

(End of Chapter)