IWOL Chapter 37: Recruiting Teammates

“So Butterfly directly said that your ability is to bend spoons?”

“Yes.” Dong Linhai returned Fu Zhe’s twisted spoon with obvious frustration. “It’s completely useless, especially when my brother and Brother Allen awakened such strong abilities.”

Fu Zhe squeezed lightly and restored the spoon. “Mmn, it does seem really useless.”

Dong Zhe lowered his head sadly. Fu Zhe smiled. It was after dinner, and everyone else was doing their own thing. Only he and Dong Linhai remained sitting at the table.

Fu Zhe tapped the edge of the table with the spoon, and Dong Linhai raised his head when he heard the sound.

“A’Zuo should have taken the time to tell you that abilities can evolve.”

Dong Linhai was momentarily stunned. At that time, he’d felt patronized and sulky. He’d lost his temper and quarreled with Cui Zuojing.

Fu Zhe said, “Do you know what my ability is?”

“Hypnosis. You used it on my brother this morning. He still hasn’t woken up even until now.”

“The precise ability is creating illusion. Are you surprised? How can it be related to hypnosis?” Fu Zhe put his flute on the table and said, “And, do you know what it was like when it was first awakened?”

Dong Linhai shook his head and answered honestly, “I can’t guess.”

Fu Zhe said, “In the beginning, I could only let anyone who saw me and heard me feel sleepy, and this ability could not be controlled by me at all. For example, if I was sitting in front of you at that time, you would be yawning by now. This was very sad for someone who used to be a teacher, right?”

Dong Linhai said, “That’s true…”

Fu Zhe continued, “During that time, none of my teammates dared to talk to me when we entered a box. They were afraid that they would be hypnotized if I didn’t pay attention. But I couldn’t be reconciled. As a result, I started to consciously exercise and control it.”

“Probably…after a year, it was a really painful year, I could finally control it, and I was very surprised to find something new. I finally became like this now; I can not only use hypnosis but I can also create illusions.”

Dong Linhai’s eyes widened, and he said happily, “Is it possible that my abilities may change if I continue to exercise it?”

“Yes, you just need to do more work than others. With much time and effort, we always believe that there is no poor ability, only unqualified users.”

Fu Zhe got up, walked past Dong Linhai, and patted him on the shoulder. “I asked Allen to buy some spoons back. They’re in the kitchen. Go and start training if you have time, and strive to get the same results again today.”

Dong Linhai took a deep breath and heavily exhaled.

Although this was only the “starting point” of his development, it still made him feel a little bad. But, it is always good to have hope!

Dong Linhai stood up confidently and entered the kitchen, preparing to take the first step towards a glorious future.

Then he saw the fifty boxes stacked high with all kinds of spoons.

Dong Linhai: ……………………

“Al! Len! King!”

Allen was startled and sneezed.

“Did someone call me?”

He sniffed and, once again, looked at Victor, who’d  just lightly landed on the table. He narrowed his eyes and suddenly kicked the ground and rushed to Victor like a bolt of lightning!

Only to grab a fluttering cat hair.

“Don’t let your eyes betray your goal,” Victor said from behind him. The white cat flicked his tail gracefully and added, “Can you be faster?”

In a bedroom on the second floor, Dong Zheng silently opened his eyes. He laid there for a while before sitting up, rubbing his somewhat painful temple.

“Awake?”

He looked in the direction of the sound, only to find that Cui Zuojing was sitting beside the bed.

Fu Zhe’s castle was tucked within a crack in the space field. There was no light from outside so the bedroom was dark. Dong Zheng turned on the bedside lamp, murmured “mmn,” and asked in a dull voice, “What time is it?”

“It’s already evening. We’ve just eaten. If you’re hungry, we left you some food in the kitchen.” Cui Zuojing handed Dong Zheng the tablet he’d been holding. “Try and see if you can access it.”

Dong Zheng took the tablet and tried to recall the feeling of his ability awakening. He thought about the data, web crawlers, bacteriophages and firewalls, and then he tried to use his ability.

After a minute, nothing happened; the tablet didn’t even light up. Dong Zheng frowned. He knew that there was indeed power in his body, but hard as he tried, he couldn’t control it.

“All right. This situation is roughly expected.” Cui Zuojing stood up and said, “Your ability training starts today. The first step is to be able to control this tablet. The two of us have different abilities so I can’t help you with this. You’ll have to find the right feelings yourself.”

Dong Zheng nodded. As he got up and dressed, he asked, “How is Linhai?”

Cui Zuojing said, “Fu Zhe is responsible for enlightening him and training him. Don’t worry. Allen is given to Victor. Speaking of which, he is the only one out of all of you with increased fighting strength. But that’s okay. There’s still me and Victor. This will give you all enough time to improve.”

The time passed like this.

Dong Zheng, Dong Linhai, and Allen had formed a team. Because Fu Zhe’s castle was completely closed tight and not very well ventilated, they usually lived in the house they’d applied for and only went to the castle when something came up or if there was training. Fu Zhe gave each of them a key, making it very convenient for them to access his castle.

On the first day of his awakening, the fifty boxes of spoons nearly made Dong Linhai tired to the point of dropping. But he quickly discovered one key point—He could only bend metal spoons; other textures were not allowed.

Dong Zheng continued to fight with the tablet, and the phrase “evolutionary algorithms” at the time of his awakening always echoed in his mind. This was a computer algorithm. Although he didn’t know what it was for, Dong Zheng somewhat understood that his ability would allow him to access electronic devices. As a result, he began to teach himself about “machine learning.”

Allen couldn’t use [Speed] very accurately. With Victor’s help, he began a cat-catching exercise, which always ended up with Fu Zhe’s living room in a mess.

Even Cui Zuojing wasn’t spared. Fu Zhe gave him the difficult task of restoring the spoons bent by Dong Linhui. The practice would help him break through the first seal of the Prisoner of Time as soon as possible.

In order to accomplish his goal, he needed to reverse the time of the spoon back to how it had been before it was bent.

Therefore, Dong Linhai sat in the kitchen and used his ability to bend the spoon. An anxious Cui Zuojing faced him on the other side of the table and took the poor spoon, trying to restore it back to its original state but to no avail. It was quite a spectacle.

Dong Linhai was originally prepared to quarrel with Cui Zuojing. However, he didn’t expect that the other party would ignore him completely. He was fairly calm and even-tempered, as if the quarrel that day didn’t affect him at all.

At this time, apart from Victor, no one knew that Cui Zuojing had already surrendered much of his emotions.

On the tenth day, Dong Zheng was finally able to successfully turn on the tablet.

This first step was a relief to everyone. As long as there was a beginning and a general sense of understanding, things would become a lot more easier thereafter.

On this same day, Dong Zheng opened the topic, “Should we look for more teammates?”

Dong Linhai asked, “Should we open a recruitment?”

It was better to find the right teammate in a box. However, this often did not happen. As a result, teams often opened recruitments for teammates through the app, listing the basic status of the team and the requirements for teammates. It was very convenient.

After Dong Zheng put together the information about expanding the team and posted it on the network, he no longer cared about it. Thus, when he checked it again at night, he discovered that many people had already submitted resumes.

One person had a prisoner, another person had a summing beast, and there were three more young people that had awakened excellent physical qualities. The team’s recruitment was placed in District XII and had become the target for many people.

Dong Zheng called Dong Linhai and Allen, and after three hours, they selected the final candidate.

However, before a formal decision could be made, they still wanted to conduct a face-to-face interview to ensure that the other person’s personality is compatible with them. Dong Zheng sent the candidate their address and the time of meeting and quickly received a definitive confirmation.

The next day, it was 9 o’clock.

Lin Hangzhi stood in front of the door to the apartment. This was the third time, and he was sure that he hadn’t found the wrong place.

Why directly meet at home? He scratched his head, put away his phone, took a deep breath, tried to make himself appear more confident, and raised his hand to knock on the door.

After an anxious few seconds, the door was quickly opened. A tall, robust teen brimming with vitality looked him up and down and asked, “Are you Mr. Lin Hangzhi?”

“I am.”

The teen turned sideway to allow him in. Lin Hangzhi saw that there were still three other people in the room. One of them was obviously a mixed-race with red hair and blue eyes. Another sat in the middle of the sofa, appeared to be 26 to 27 years old, and gave out a sense of trustworthiness.

And, there was one more boy sitting cross-legged on the ground with his back to the door, and it was unclear what he was doing.

Lin Hangzhi recognized the captain at first glance and said to Dong Zheng, “Hello. I am Lin Hangzhi. Yesterday, I saw your team’s recruitment and applied with a try mentality. I didn’t really expect to be selected.”

Dong Zheng got up and shook hands with Lin Hangzhi. “Sit. Don’t be so polite. We are also recruiting for the first time. I don’t know what other teams normally ask when recruiting, so we’ll just chat.”

Lin Hangzhi sat down opposite Dong Zheng and observed all the things that might fall and shatter in the room. The room was full of men his age, and the atmosphere was quite peaceful, making him relax by lot.

“Looking at the information provided by Mr. Lin, did you awaken your abilities not too long ago?”

Was it really alright to ask such a cruel question as soon as he came up?!

Lin Hangzhi wanted to cry without tears but didn’t show it on his face. He nodded and said, “Yes, I awakened my ability about a week ago.”

“Can you show us?”

“Um… ok, but it may offend you.”

Lin Hangzhi took out six dice from his pockets and placed a small dice box on the table. He soon discovered that the boy had came over to look over his shoulder and was holding a cat in his arms.

Lin Hangzhi said, “Let’s count and check? Anything is fine.”

Dong Linhai looked at Allen, not knowing what medicine Lin Hangzhi was trying to sell in his guord. He directly said, “36?”

“Okay.”

Under everyone’s gaze, Lin Hangzhi began to shake the dice box in a strange way that told Dong Zheng he was a person without much experience in this.

Ten seconds later, Lin Hangzhi stopped shaking. He once again took stock of all the dangerous things in the room, took a deep breath, and finally opened the dice box.

All six dice magically displayed six dots each.

36.

Allen couldn’t help exclaiming “wow” and said, “Little brother, how did you do it?”

Lin Hangzhi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, pushed the dice toward Dong Zheng, and smiled. “Luck.”

“This was done with luck alone? Your ability couldn’t have been a special luck–” Dong Linhai was only halfway through with his words when the wall lamp above him suddenly made a loud noise and burst without warning!

“Be careful!” The lampshade fell and was about to hit Dong Linhai’s head. Lin Hangzhi’s entire body flew over, pushed Dong Linhai away from the sofa, and ended up falling right under the lampshade himself.

As Dong Linhai yelped in fright, three cat hairs flew straight in front of his eyes like silver needles and smashed into the lampshade before it could hit Lin Hangzhi in the back!

Crash!

The fragments fell in succession over the floor and on Lin Hangzhi’s back but no one was injured. Lin Hangzhi got up and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, relieved.

The cat hairs had directly rooted into the wall and silently turned into powder, leaving only three small holes. Dong Zheng quickly pulled Lin Hangzhi up and asked, “Are you all right?”

“It’s okay. I’m sorry for causing you trouble.” Lin Hangzhi patted his clothes and resumed a wilted look. He looked in the direction of the cat hairs and said blankly, “What just flew past?”

Cui Zuojing released Victor, whose hair he’d just grabbed a handful of. He pointed to the messy ground and asked bluntly, “Is this also part of your ability?”

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