Chapter 107: The Permission Maze |
Faced with this bizarre situation, Shi Rang quickly figured out the reason.
Although the Management Bureau Main Station was the Bureau's most crucial database, it did not exist for people to browse freely.
Aside from the basic member rankings that ranged from D to S, the Bureau also utilized a security permission system spanning from level zero to five.
Holding both an S-Class identity and Level 5 permissions, Shi Rang could not personally experience the restrictions placed on normal employees. However, he could guess the general idea from the layers of permission checkpoints set up within the system.
A member's rank represented their status and position within the Bureau, but security permissions were an entirely different beast. They determined how much classified information a person could access. The strictest part was that these permissions were issued strictly based on specific operational needs.
Take Doctor Romero, the director of Sector 257, as an example. If he were granted Level 4 clearance to access the files for CVA-A-01, he could indeed view that specific data at his leisure. But if he got bored and wanted to peek at the specific details of CVA-D-01, he would find himself locked out. Even though it was merely a D-Class Containment Object, and even though he was a sector director and a dignified Class-A Personnel, he still would not be able to read the entry without being granted the corresponding clearance.
These overlapping restrictions erected countless invisible walls within the Main Station, confining everyone to their designated need-to-know areas based on their work assignments. Security permissions were the keys to the gates in those walls; without the right key, there was no passing through.
Thus, a labyrinth had been constructed.
The Bureau could revoke these keys at any time, and could even recall the information employees had already learned simply by relying on a wide variety of amnestics.
Only with Level 5 permissions could someone roam through the Main Station unimpeded.
Shi Rang flipped through the recent work logs of the Memory Security Department, which was responsible for memory erasure, only to discover that even Mobile Task Force members frequently underwent memory erasure after completing their missions. This ensured that any information they no longer needed to know was scrubbed from their minds.
No wonder both the Ascension Society and the Alliance were so deeply interested in the Bureau's internal secrets.
In conclusion, whether for practicality or security reasons, the Bureau had no need to establish a comprehensive database.
Every single file in the Main Station existed solely out of operational necessity; unneeded data was never uploaded in the first place. There were still massive amounts of documents that Shi Rang knew nothing about, stored away in facility terminals scattered across various locations, in data centers disconnected from the intranet, or even in physical archives.
Just like Sector 257. Even though its intranet firewall was virtually nonexistent to Shi Rang, without a directly connected communication device acting as a relay, he could not find the entrance even while holding the key.
Information targeting similar or hostile organizations was undoubtedly kept in some location disconnected from the Main Station, making it destined to remain out of Shi Rang's reach.
'As vigilant as ever, Management Bureau...' he mused.
He then searched for Jing Zi's abilities, but could not find a corresponding entry. It had likely been deleted from the active data after Jing Zi was rescued.
At the very least, he had verified Jing Zi's claim. The Bureau had indeed placed the Ascension Society on their Kill on Sight list.
A three-way war within the anomalous world...
Shi Rang's mind returned to reality. Guessing that he had been sitting on the toilet lid for over half an hour, he casually pressed the flush button to keep up appearances before standing to wash up.
Just as he wiped his face, he was startled by his own reflection in the actual mirror. The man looking back at him was skin and bones, with deeply sunken eye sockets and limbs as thin as matchsticks. The joints of his elbows looked as though they might pierce right through his taut skin. Lifting his shirt, every single rib was clearly visible above a hollowed-out abdomen.
Coupled with his sallow complexion and bloodshot eyes, he could walk straight onto a horror movie set without needing a drop of makeup.
The lighting must have been too dim last night, and Agent Angie had been exhausted, preventing her from getting a clear look at his current state. Otherwise, she never would have let him leave so easily.
Pulling the bathroom scale out from under the sink, Shi Rang discovered he only weighed thirty-two and a half kilograms.
Continuously using his Rapid Regeneration had completely drained the fat and protein from his body, and likely a massive amount of water as well.
If he got injured a few more times, he might literally starve to death.
Shi Rang scrubbed hard at the grime on his face. After a moment of thought, he stepped into the shower stall and let relatively hot water wash over his entire body, hoping it would make him look less like a walking corpse.
By the time he wrapped a towel around his waist and stepped out of the bathroom, even the human Jing Zi expressed sympathy at the sight of his skeletal frame. The latter was currently helping to mop the floor; although his movements were incredibly clumsy, he was at least sharing some of Shi Rang's workload.
Alright, so now Shi Rang was just a slightly cleaner zombie.
'I wonder how long I'll have to eat to recover all this lost weight,' he pondered.
'Even if Ying Shang were standing right in front of me, she might not even recognize me...'
Feeling depressed, Shi Rang returned to the bedroom to change into a fresh set of clothes. Fighting through a mild wave of dizziness, he began tackling the chores. He stripped the dirty bedsheets and covers, tossing them into the washing machine, then carried his soiled clothes to the bathroom to be burned later. By the time he finished, Jing Zi had also mopped the majority of the floor.
Shi Rang immediately headed into the kitchen.
There were a few leftover eggs in the fridge, and he managed to dig up some sausages of unknown vintage from the corner of the freezer. Without hesitating, he decided to cook breakfast for Jing Zi and all the Mini-Humans at the same time.
As the egg wash hit the hot oil with a loud sizzle, Shi Rang felt as though a lifetime had passed. It wasn't until a stray drop of popping oil splattered onto his hand that he jolted awake, dispelling the phantom sounds of rain and explosions that had inexplicably surfaced in his mind. Wincing in pain, he rushed to the sink to rinse his hand under the faucet.
After surviving a fall off a cliff, being arrested, watching people die, getting kidnapped, and narrowly avoiding eating a bomb, here he was, standing in his kitchen frying eggs again.
It was nice.
He missed Ying Shang so much...
He did not dare use Tampering to track down her whereabouts, but he firmly believed she was still alive in some corner of the world.
Even if she was locked up by the Management Bureau, even if her memories of him had been erased—as long as she was still breathing, there was hope.
The atmosphere during breakfast was both bizarre and heartwarming. Despite saying there was no need to prepare anything for him, Jing Zi honestly took a seat at the table. After expressing his thanks, he picked up his knife and fork, cut off a tiny sliver of fried egg and sausage, and declared he was full, urging Shi Rang to eat more instead.
The Mini-Humans gathered around their own portion of eggs and sausages, obliterating the food at a visible rate.
The one responsible for reporting the situation to Shi Rang was still The Sheriff. While the new members had been weeping bitterly over the destruction of their Stronghold, The Sheriff had taken the opportunity to firmly secure the top spot, continuing to act as their leader.
"The total population is now seven hundred and five. Including Leader Jack, there are four big guys in total. They're all asking when you plan to continue scamming the Alliance. I've temporarily suppressed their voices for now, but if you decide to go public with this, I'll have them cooperate with you," The Sheriff reported.
Taking a moment while swallowing a mouthful of egg, Shi Rang gave a slight nod to show he understood.
In just that brief lapse of attention, the plates on the Mini-Humans' side were licked completely clean. Shi Rang pushed over the portion Jing Zi had spared for him, but it still wasn't enough. Chorus upon chorus of tiny voices crying out in hunger continued to ring in the air.
He realized a new crisis had arrived.
"There's no food left in my house. If this keeps up, everyone is going to go hungry, and there are a lot of children among the Mini-Humans. I'll go to the neighboring block to buy some groceries; it's only a few minutes' walk—"
"No," Jing Zi refused, shaking his head. "You can't take that risk. If someone has to go, it will be me."
That sounded logical enough, but if Jing Zi ran into any trouble, Shi Rang would completely lose contact with the Ascension Society. He was currently stuck in a rather awkward predicament, suspended in limbo. What if the new handler sent to replace the late Leader Qin refused to honor their previous deal? Even worse, what if they judged him to be an Alliance spy—which, technically speaking, wasn't entirely false—and dragged him off for brutal torture?
Ordering takeout or asking a shopkeeper he knew to bring groceries over were viable options, but this house was currently harboring an undocumented person, an Ascension Society spy, and hundreds of Mini-Humans. If they attracted even the slightest bit of curiosity, none of them would be able to escape.
'Guess we'll just have to starve for a few meals,' he concluded.
Soon, the blankets and sofa covers were hung up to dry. With nothing else to do, Shi Rang headed out to the balcony and started counting the Alliance vehicles passing by on the street below.
He wouldn't have known if he hadn't counted, but those same few cars were literally just driving in circles around the block, dragging police cars along with them just to put on a grand show of force!
'Why is even the Alliance pulling this kind of bureaucratic stunt?'
'If there's nothing going on, just pack up and leave already!'
His chest tight with frustration at the blatant bureaucracy, Shi Rang retreated back to the sofa. Glancing over at Jing Zi, who was meditating with his eyes closed, he asked, "If the Management Bureau's primary objective is 'containing anomalies,' then what exactly is the goal of the Ascension Society... I mean, our organization?"
"To discover methods of utilizing anomalies, and to find the future of humanity," Jing Zi answered without a moment of hesitation.
"The future of humanity... Wouldn't letting the Bureau and the Alliance handle the anomalies ensure stability?"
"Are you completely unaware?"
Jing Zi opened his eyes, examining Shi Rang seriously for the first time, as if looking at a deeply naive child.
"The number of anomalies is steadily increasing. The Head predicts that in just a few short years, the 'veil of the ordinary world' maintained by those two great tyrants will be torn to shreds. Immediately after that, the world will be destroyed."
'...Why is the world ending again?' Shi Rang thought.