Chapter 67: Fighting the Duke of Zhou in Class, Unfortunately…

“What do you mean?”

A haggard female voice echoed in the underground garage.
The cold light from the lamps cut spiderweb-like light marks on Dr. Luo’s lenses.

This woman with heavy dark circles under her eyes lit a cigarette, weak and lethargic, like an office worker about to drop dead from overwork.

“This is the boss’s order.”
Night Owl’s mask trembled slightly, his voice filled with a dull, mechanical quality.

The source of this voice was not from his mouth or throat, but from below his collarbone.

Before the boss had picked him up, he had lost his vocal cords in a chaotic incident caused by a demon and could only speak through an artificial voice box.

“So the boss’s meaning is to have your Enforcement Department take over the work of my STRB Department?”
Dr. Luo’s tone carried a hint of dissatisfaction.

Among the subordinate departments of the AXE Group, the Enforcement Department and the STRB Department were actually the main forces.
The former was mainly responsible for various military operations, while the latter was responsible for technological research and development.

But just like how departments in every system don’t always cooperate fully, there was competition between different departments.

The escape of Experimental Subject No. 7 before was not a particularly big deal for the STRB Department.

The escape of experimental subjects was not without precedent.
A few artificial Resentful Demons had escaped last month.

But this was only an internal matter.
The STRB also had its own armed forces, usually responsible for suppressing and recovering experimental subjects.
They had been responsible for recovering the artificial Resentful Demons that had escaped last month.

But if the Enforcement Department took over, it would no longer be a simple internal matter.

“The boss thinks your actions are too slow.”

“You, a guy who only knows how to use brute force, don’t understand at all.”
Dr. Luo scornfully blew out a smoke ring.
She admitted that the experimental subject that had escaped last week was indeed slow to be recovered today.

But this was also an excellent opportunity to collect combat data.

If it were peacetime, where would he find so many demon slayers and demons to be sparring partners?

“Since that’s the case, then be careful.
Don’t hurt my darling.”
But Dr. Luo could only sigh and waved her hand, signaling the cleaning staff in hazmat suits holding rifles behind her to make way for the Enforcement Department.

After all, that was the boss’s order.
No matter how much Dr. Luo looked down on these reckless men from the Enforcement Department, she couldn’t do anything to disobey that man.

The consequences of disobeying that man would be severe.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Night Owl said faintly.

The agents of the Enforcement Department, disguised as school workers behind him, opened their equipment boxes one after another.
The sound of parts colliding as they assembled their firearms was endless.
The process was smooth and fluid.
It seemed that every person was an elite who had been tempered by war.

“My darling is at Lin’an University now.”
Dr. Luo threw a car-key-like remote control.
“This thing can control the efficiency of my darling’s corpse poison secretion.”

“You know the boss’s taboo, right?”

“No civilian will die in this operation.”

In Night Owl’s dull, mechanical voice, an emotion of confidence surprisingly emerged.

Even Dr. Luo, the person who had personally installed the voice box for him, didn’t know how he expressed confident emotions with such a emotionless voice.

‘Maybe this is just practice makes perfect?’

After the equipment was organized, the agents jumped into a minivan one after another and drove away.

“Is it really okay to just hand it over to them?”
A researcher-like person beside her suddenly asked.
“Those guys from the Enforcement Department are all lunatics…”

“As if you’re some kind of normal person.”
Dr. Luo threw down the half-burned cigarette, and her black patent leather high heel crushed the tobacco.
“Since this is the boss’s order, then let them handle it.
Whatever happens is none of our business.”

“But Experimental Subject No. 7…”

“It’s best if we can recover it, but it doesn’t matter if we can’t.
We can just find another one.”

Dr. Luo’s attitude suddenly became completely opposite to before.
She had been calling it her darling, but now she was showing a completely indifferent attitude towards Experimental Subject No. 7.

“What matters is the data.
An experimental subject is just a dying demon slayer who can be found anywhere.
We can find a lot of guys like that.”

The sound of her stiletto heels tapping on the concrete floor became fainter and fainter.
The hem of her white lab coat swayed back and forth in the cold light.
Dr. Luo left only a receding figure that was about to disappear into the darkness.

The sunlight shone through the blinds, weaving golden threads on the desks.
Bai Ling’s lowered head cast a silhouette like a chick pecking at rice on the pages of her book.

Xu Zhi sat next to her, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but curve into an arc as he watched the girl fighting the Duke of Zhou.

Because of his duties in the Demon Suppression Division, it was common for him to miss class.
Fortunately, the counselor was Zhou Xuan, who could cover for him so that he wouldn’t fail because of absenteeism.

And the girl had also skipped some classes because she had been diligently practicing with her master for the past week.

So, it had been more than a week since the start of the semester, and this was actually the first time he had sat with the girl and attended the same class.

The way this girl was sleepy in class was exactly the same as when she was a child.

‘She really hasn’t changed…’

Xu Zhi chuckled and took out his phone, intending to take a picture of the girl’s sleepy appearance.

‘Does she also do this often in other classes?’

The moment the camera shutter clicked, the girl’s head suddenly nodded with a little more force.

And then…

“Dong!”

The girl’s forehead made intimate contact with the desk.

“Mmm…”

The girl groggily covered her forehead, smacked her lips, and subconsciously fumbled for a heat source.
Her osmanthus-scented head accurately rested on Xu Zhi’s shoulder, and she rubbed it twice, finding a comfortable angle.

The girl let out a comfortable purring sound like a cat.
The sunlight was cut into fine pieces by the blinds, leaving golden ripples on her eyelashes.

She was comfortable, but Xu Zhi’s hairs were standing on end.
His neck was stiff, and he didn’t dare to turn it.

This feeling suddenly reminded him of the experience shared by cat lovers: when a cute ball of fur curls up on your leg, your whole body freezes, and you don’t dare to move, afraid of startling that cute little thing away.

Xu Zhi felt the same way now.
He didn’t even dare to breathe, afraid of waking up the girl who had surrendered to the Duke of Zhou and was leaning on his shoulder.

He had never had this feeling of his hairs standing on end and not daring to breathe even when facing a great demon with a demonic energy fluctuation of over level eight.

The old professor’s voice on the podium seemed to be instantly pulled away.
Xu Zhi could only hear an unfamiliar heartbeat.

“Thump, thump! Thump, thump!”

‘What the hell! Why is my heart beating faster and faster?’

Xu Zhi felt like his heart was about to jump out of his throat.

“Boss, the life monitoring system shows that your heart rate is almost soaring to 170.
Is something wrong?!”

Zhou Xuan’s voice came through the headset.

“Shut up!”
Xu Zhi gritted his teeth and lowered his voice, but the slight tremor in his body when he spoke suddenly disturbed the girl, and he froze again.

“Blind Xu, I want candied haws…”
Fortunately, the girl only smacked her lips, murmuring a few words with a sticky, mochi-like nasal sound.

The silver drool from her mouth while she was murmuring spread into a dark water mark on Xu Zhi’s shoulder.

‘Thank goodness, thank goodness.
She didn’t wake up.’

Just as Xu Zhi let out a sigh of relief, the dismissal bell suddenly rang.

The heart that had just been put down immediately jumped back into his throat.

“Mmm… class is over?”
The girl climbed up from Xu Zhi’s shoulder, rubbing her eyes and asking groggily.