Chapter 166
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Chapter 166: 【Twin Clock】
"Okay, I understand."
Seeing the two enthusiastic seniors, Shi Jin nodded obediently.
"May I ask what custom equipment you both received?"
"Of course! But there’s no need to call us seniors. From now on, we’re all teammates, so we’ll use codenames as per the rules.
"Just remember to come up with your own codename. Now, follow me."
Beacon was very eager, pulling Shi Jin into her room to showcase her tactical jacket, which integrated a multitude of assistive functions.
“Wow, it looks really impressive! What about Puppet Master?”
Puppet Master, who was wandering nearby, turned and looked at Shi Jin with a peculiar smile.
“…Don’t ask, don’t ask.”
—
After a busy day, when night fell, Shi Jin finally returned to her private room.
The brand-new bedding gave off a scent unique to factory-produced items, a smell Shi Jin, as a maintenance worker, was quite familiar with.
With this familiar scent accompanying her, she soon fell into a peaceful sleep, something she had not experienced in a long time.
At midnight, all was silent.
In Shi Jin’s room, the combat suit hanging on the independent rack suddenly twitched, as if a small creature, like a mouse, was scurrying inside.
The still-dusty combat suit eerily floated up, and then, amidst a distortion of light and shadow, transformed into a mass of chaos.
This indescribable blend of colors and shapes fell downward, and before touching the ground, it morphed into a cat with a mix of fur colors.
Fulan landed on all fours, making not a sound.
After Shi Jin confirmed her joining the team, Fulan, who hadn’t had a proper rest in a long time, finally fell into a deep sleep.
When turning into an inanimate form, Fulan’s spirit, or soul, would enter a wondrous state.
In this state, she would not feel hunger, but remaining in the same form for too long would still lead to noticeable fatigue.
Now that Fulan had completely regained her energy, after completing the task Lin Qingliu had assigned regarding Shi Jin, she would venture alone in the city for “hunting in the wild.”
According to Lin Qingliu, Fulan’s only task was to constantly challenge her limits through her efforts, ultimately breaking through to the Second Level and awakening a new ability branch.
Fulan leaped onto Shi Jin’s desk and discovered two sheets of plain white paper simply placed there.
One was the application form previously delivered to Shi Jin, and the other was the newcomer registration form, which still had the codename section blank.
“Oh right, I forgot to ask her about her codename.”
Fulan suddenly realized she hadn’t inquired about this.
According to her master, not everyone was like the open-hearted Fulan, who directly used her name as a codename.
Looking at the full moon high in the sky, Fulan thought for a moment and returned to Shi Jin’s desk, curling into a furry ball and falling asleep on top of the two registration forms.
The next morning, well-rested Shi Jin awoke before the training assembly.
She immediately noticed a somewhat familiar figure.
Fulan was resting on her desk, taking a nap.
Shi Jin was both surprised by the cat’s audacity and intrigued.
According to their agreement, Fulan should have already left.
She carefully got out of bed and slowly approached Fulan, intending to pet the kitten, whose fur looked irresistibly soft.
Just as her hand was about to touch Fulan’s neck, a mischievous and familiar female voice suddenly chimed in:
"After all this time, still can’t resist Miss Fulan, huh?"
"How bold of you!"
Shi Jin awkwardly retracted her hand, glanced around to ensure her teammates weren’t gathering outside the door, and then whispered,
"Why… are you still here?"
Fulan rose from the two application forms, stretched lazily, and said,
"You need a codename for easier communication in the future."
"Eh? Do you have a codename, Miss Fulan?"
"Foolish, Miss Fulan’s codename *is* Fulan!"
Shi Jin stared at the cat, barely larger than a hand, unsure what Fulan was so proud of.
After a moment of thought, she glanced at the blank spaces on the application form and asked,
"Miss Fulan, can the codenames for the Holy Fire Meow Meow Cult and the superhero team be the same? I’m terrible at naming things."
"Yes, it’s not unheard of."
"Alright, let me think… how about—
‘Twin Clock’? What do you think?"
"Miss Fulan has no obligation to comment, but I’ll remember: from today on, you are ‘Lady Twin Clock.’"
Soon after, having completed her task, Fulan asked Shi Jin to open the window and swiftly disappeared into the warm morning sunlight.
After a quick wash, Shi Jin entered the team’s lounge before the scheduled gathering time.
As a newcomer with a somewhat introverted nature, Shi Jin chose to wait for her teammates before taking any action.
Before long, the lounge door opened, and the other four teammates filed in one by one.
The last to enter was Fresnel, wearing a radiant smile, as if someone had possessed him and replaced his serious demeanor from the day before.
He glanced around, as if his plan had succeeded, and asked,
"Who arrived first?"
"It was Shi Jin."
The golden-haired captain nodded in satisfaction and extended his hand toward Wang Xiao.
Mr. Undead, his face ashen, pulled out ten information coins from inside his coat and handed them over.
Noticing the stark contrast in their expressions, Shi Jin vaguely guessed that they had made a bet about her actions today.
A few hours later, on the training grounds.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Gunfire echoed continuously as Shi Jin adjusted to her new partner.
As Fresnel had said, the ability to enhance thought and action, paired with the already hard-to-dodge handgun, was like adding wings to a tiger.
With this new weapon, Shi Jin finally understood the hardships she had endured before; this was the perfect fighting style for her!
But there was no way around it—given her previous identity as a prisoner, even with a signed pardon order, it had been nearly impossible to handle a gun.
Now, things were different. At the start of today’s training, Beacon fulfilled Fresnel’s promise from the day before and handed Shi Jin a handgun.
For the time being, her training would focus on improving her shooting skills, starting with fixed targets and then progressing to moving targets.
Shi Jin blew the smoke from the gun’s muzzle, set the handgun down, and shook her sore wrist before confidently telling the assistant nearby,
"Report the target."
The assistant walked thirty meters away to inspect the target and returned with a pristine target sheet.
Shi Jin stared at the untouched sheet, deep in thought.
Feeling her pride crumbling, she forced an awkward smile and said,
"Please don’t tell the captain."