Step Back! Master is Here! - Chapter 55

Chapter 55: Approaching Science

‘How did I handle demonesses like this in the past?’

Tang Luo searched his memory, and various options emerged. However, he rejected them one by one. After all, this was the real world, and those methods wouldn’t work.

He would have to serve life imprisonment after being caught. That wouldn’t be harmonious at all.

Upon seeing that she had gained the upper hand, Qin Menglan followed up immediately. She pressed against Tang Luo’s chest with her hand, intending to push him in.

Surprisingly, she felt as if she was pushing against a metal tower.

Right after, Tang Luo took back the initiative and pulled Qin Menglan in before closing the door along the way.

The gossip gang cocked their ears and listened.

Unable to hear any further development, they silently griped about the room’s excellent soundproofing and, with some mild regret, sent text messages to their social circle, made forum posts, and posted on Weibo[1].

This was the era of information, after all. Of course, they had to share the news.

“You might not believe this, but I just witnessed a real-life adult video story…”

“Pics or it didn’t happen.”

“What the heck are you talking about when there are no pics!”

“Hurry up and get to it!”

“My neighbor = myself. OP’s the best!”

“Nice story. You can repost it to Bihu[2].”

“Come clean, which novel website is it? I’ll contribute a view count to you now. If anything happens to me in the future, you must have my back. And if you go viral, it’s my credit, get it?”

In the living room of the apartment…

Naturally, it wasn’t the exciting story plot which the gossip gang had imagined.

Tang Luo sat on the sofa as he looked at Qin Menglan.

Qin Menglan was smiling, but the feeling she gave off was now completely different from when she was at the door.

“Have a seat,” said Tang Luo.

Qin Menglan looked left and right. There wasn’t even a chair here, where was she supposed to sit?

To provide an explanation here, the living room of Tang Luo’s apartment only consisted of a long sofa. There weren’t any small sofas at the sides for guests.

“Let’s cut the crap. You’re not a regular person, are you?” Qin Menglan felt that it was better to remain standing, so she didn’t bother sitting next to Tang Luo.

“Neither are you,” replied Tang Luo affirmatively.

When Qin Menglan had pushed Tang Luo just now, she felt like she had been pushing against a metal tower. Similarly, Tang Luo had sensed that the other party’s strength far exceeded what her outer appearance indicated.

“Just as I thought.”

Qin Menglan nodded. The slight smile on her face disappeared, and she turned serious.

The eyes didn’t lie—both of them were Employees of Gods and Demons.

“Were you the one that killed Sun Ang?” Qin Menglan spoke frankly.

“You are…”

Tang Luo didn’t answer her. Instead, he asked for Qin Menglan’s identity.

Could she be an official representative?

Thinking about it carefully, this seemed normal too.

No one said that Employees of Gods and Demons couldn’t be official representatives, right?

“Look at the business card.” Qin Menglan said, “I’m not lying. I really am a reporter.”

“Okay.” Tang Luo was noncommittal.

“Tang Luo, male…”

As Qin Menglan spoke, she took out some papers from her bag and held them out to Tang Luo.

Tang Luo took the papers from her and looked at them. His various life experiences from his childhood till adulthood were listed on them, including his mysterious disappearance and reappearance in another city later on.

The background check was very thorough.

“Sun Ang faked the Dish God’s presence to commit murder, and your friend, Zhang Yuchou, was implicated. Therefore, you killed Sun Ang, right?” asked Qin Menglan as she observed Tang Luo.

Tang Luo put down the papers, not admitting or denying it.

“Don’t get me wrong, and don’t be nervous.” Qin Menglan went on. “We don’t mean any harm. We’re a half-official organization formed by people like you…”

She paused for a moment before adding, “You can think of it as an organization like the Dragon Group[3]. Do you know of the Dragon Group? Do you read novels?”

“Yes.”

Tang Luo nodded.

He had a basic understanding of Qin Menglan’s identity now.

It was forbidden for Employees of Gods and Demons to tell non-Employees about the Game of Gods And Demons.

However, this didn’t mean that they couldn’t make up other identities for themselves, such as users of supernatural powers, X-Men, and things like that.

“Aren’t all of you afraid of being…” Tang Luo did a throat-cutting action.

“No,” replied Qin Menglan. “Actually, at the bottom of it all, the restrictions that the Gods and Demons placed upon us in the real world are for maintaining social stability, right? We have never actively created trouble. Neither do we ever expose our true identities. We even take the initiative to resolve volatile supernatural elements, so that part is basically not affected.”

“Basically?” asked Tang Luo.

Qin Menglan replied, “Yes, basically. Some people don’t know the meaning of being low-key anymore after having an organization behind their backs and making up false identities, such as users of supernatural powers, so they straight up disappeared.”

Simply put, even people who knew of their cover identities like users of supernatural powers and so on were far and few. They were strictly limited to a certain range.

This way, they would merely be considered as probing the boundaries of the rules of the Game.

Of course, to be able to probe far enough to get a grasp of the boundaries, there were probably results accumulated by numerous Employees of Gods and Demons over several years.

As the saying went, “One generation plants the trees under whose shade another generation rests”.

“So, your visit’s reason is to get me to join, too?” asked Tang Luo.

Instead of taking an aggressive and threatening stance with him, they had sent a pretty girl here.

This meant they were trying to recruit him.

“Of course.” Qin Menglan went on. “All of us have to carry out dangerous missions, after all. Is there any downside to helping each other out in real life?”

The Gods and Demons didn’t provide them a transaction space or anything like that.

In that case, everyone grouped together in the real world by their own initiative and helped each other out by making up for what the others lacked.

This was extremely logical and reasonable behavior.

“My obligations and benefits.” Tang Luo spoke concisely and to the point.

“In terms of benefits, you get to enjoy a civil servant’s treatment and receive stable remuneration regardless of what happens. You won’t need to work, and you’ll be supported even if you stay at home every day.” A smiling Qin Menglan added, “As for obligations, there are only a few. Refrain from creating trouble, and occasionally, when the need arises, we’ll need you to come forward.”

“What kind of needs?” asked Tang Luo.

“For example, the recent dish god incident.” Qin Menglan said sternly, “I can divulge a piece of news to you—the restrictions placed on us in the real world are relaxing right now. It’s a lot laxer now in comparison to what it was like in the past.”

“In other words, if any Employee of Gods and Demons breaks the rules and the law, you’re required to sort it out?” asked Tang Luo.

“Yes.” Qin Menglan nodded. “Additionally, supernatural incidents actually also exist in the real world. These are handled by us too.”

Tang Luo lowered his head slightly, hiding his shining eyes from Qin Menglan.

Not only were they going to pay him, but they were even providing him with opportunities to punish evil and advocate good!

Something as awesome as this existed?

“I’ll join,” said Tang Luo the Flash as he lifted his head, causing Qin Menglan to swallow back down her upcoming words of persuasion.

“Great, welcome,” said Qin Menglan with a smile.

“That’s it?” Tang Luo asked, “Don’t you need to do a bit of screening?”

“Since I’m the one who was sent here, this proves that you’ve already passed the screening, so it just depends on your consent. If you aren’t willing, we won’t force you either,” replied Qin Menglan.

It was impossible for them to send a pretty lady to recruit every single Employee of Gods and Demons they found.

Pretty girls were also a rare resource among the Employees of Gods and Demons.

Carrots were only given to Employees of Gods and Demons with a clean background who passed the screening.

Although Tang Luo was determined to have killed Sun Ang, it was considered an act of justice.

Even his extraordinary family circumstances did not set him on the wrong path, and he remained a person of clean and decent background. He was a talent that the organization needed.

As for the period where he went missing, that wasn’t a concern at all.

“In that case, I officially welcome you, Tang Luo. Welcome to Approaching Science.” Smiling, Qin Menglan held her hand out to Tang Luo.

“Approaching Science?” Tang Luo got up, his lifted hand suspended in mid-air. “Are we talking about that Approaching Science that I know of?”

“Yes, exactly that Approaching Science which you know of.”

Qin Menglan smiled very joyfully.

What was Approaching Science?

It was a TV program on the science channel which talked about and resolved mysterious incidents.

The program’s main content focused on developing the spirit of science, promoting scientific ideology, advocating scientific methods, and spreading scientific knowledge.

The official description was as above.

In truth, they frequently adopted a deliberate tone of mystery to spice up the content and hook the audience as much as possible, before presenting an outcome that was beyond ordinary.

In other words…

Snoring wasn’t snoring but a frightening, weird sound in the middle of the night. Insanity wasn’t insanity but astral projection or being possessed by ghosts.

The program frequently used lines such as “However, something unexpected happened…” and “Things were far from being this simple…”.

Classic examples included:

In an old house somewhere, a villager unexpectedly discovered that electricity was running everywhere in the house. Several experts were invited to examine the house. In the end, the conclusion they got was that the voltage detector that had detected electricity everywhere was faulty!

A child in a certain village frequently turned into a zombie, causing fear and unease in everyone. In the end, the truth was that the child had deliberately behaved like that to attract the attention of adults.

The things in the home of another family in the village frequently experienced spontaneous combustion. After a whole day of investigation, a hidden camera exposed the culprit to be the young grandchild of the very same family. The child was so bored that he had set things on fire with matches himself.

There were various outcomes that made one not know whether to laugh or to cry. It gained a lot of popularity, as well as criticism from the masses.

Various derivative stories in the style of Approaching Science were born, with the one about the old female pig being the most widely circulated.

In conclusion, it was a relatively amazing program.

“So all those ridiculous cases in Approaching Science are real?” asked Tang Luo.

His world perspective had been overturned!

“Some of them are real.” Qin Menglan said with a smile, “The identities we adopt to face outsiders when we’re doing things are the production team of Approaching Science. Some incidents had created too big of a ruckus and weren’t easy to suppress news of, so we decided to just do a TV program broadcast and create an outcome to gloss it over. Everyone has fun watching it and will let the matter rest after laughing about it.”

Everyone had fun, but what about the group of people who were maligned?

Apologize to that poor group of kids, the snoring fatty, and the damaged voltage detector!

They had suffered so much injustice.

As for how to fool those blame-takers, this was definitely not difficult for Employees of Gods and Demons.

The ones who were wrong weren’t them but this world!

How could this be summarized with just the word tragic?

“We’ll register and record your identity as soon as possible. How about being a cameraman?” Qin Menglan said, “Every once in a while, we’ll arrange a meet-up for everyone to get to know each other so that you can look out for each other if you run into each other during missions.”

“I don’t want to be a cameraman. I want the position of an accompanying expert.” Tang Luo rejected her right away.

“Expert? What expert? We can’t just arrange for any kind of position.” Qin Menglan emphasized, “I really am a reporter.”

The actual occupations of several Employees of Gods and Demons in the real world were production staff of the program.

“An expert on Buddhism, enlightenment, and blessing.” Tang Luo had a serious expression on his face. “My Dharma name is Xuanzang. This is my business card.”

He had business cards too!

“Blessing & Demon Vanquishing Company, Xuanzang…”

Qin Menglan received the business card with an expression of speechlessness.

Was he being serious here?

“My skill is blessing people.” Tang Luo looked at Qin Menglan. “Female Bodhisattva, do you want to give it a go?”

Qin Menglan’s looks were already of the female Bodhisattva-level and not female benefactor.

Master Xuanzang was a fastidious man!

[1] A popular social media website similar to Twitter in China

[2] A derogatory way of referring to Zhihu, a Chinese Q&A website

[3] A mysterious organization of people with supernatural powers in the Chinese web novel ‘China Dragon Group’ by Fenghua Jueshi