Epoch of Twilight

Initially, Luo Yuan had thought that the Evolved Person Identification Test would be some kind of sci-fi fantasy experience, or at least involve some complicated devices.

When he saw the real thing though, he was left speechless.

"This is the identification test?" Luo Yuan pointed at the basement in confusion. There were mutated beasts of all sizes locked in there.

"Yes, Mr. Luo. A battle is the most straightforward way to test an evolved person. No devices exist to replace tests like these. Of course, what we have here is pretty crude. The most we could test would be a level-3 evolved person. For further identification, you would have to go to a bigger city, or even straight to a battlefield," said a notary standing next to him.

Luo Yuan noticed the size of the mutated beasts. The biggest one was only approximately four meters. Furthermore, considering that they had been locked and tortured for a long time, most of the beasts had grown inactive and idle. Their battle ability was not comparable to that of beasts living in the wilderness.

Everyone looked at each other. They were thinking that this was child’s play. Luo Yuan aside, most of them could kill those beasts easily. Because of Luo Yuan, they had almost never stopped consuming light-green or green level superfood. Each of them had a Physique of about +12, not to mention their sword training and sharp weapons. Most of them had killed blue level mutated beasts along the way, perhaps not 100, but at least 10 of them.

Finally, Luo Yuan said, "Bring it on. Give me the one with the highest level."

"That’s too risky. Would you want to try one level below instead?" the notary looked Secretary Zhen, sweating profusely.

Wang Shishi could not help but laugh. Everyone else was smiling too.

"Don’t worry, go ahead and release it!" Secretary Zhen said impatiently. He was blushing slightly from embarrassment.

"But..." The notary was in a pickle. That was not how the procedure went. Although the Secretary had told him to do it, if anything happened, he’d have to bear his share of the responsibility.

"This is Mayor Wu’s VIP. If he wants you to release it, please do so. I will take all responsibility!" Secretary Zhen said impatiently again. This was starting to get on his nerves. It was ridiculous for the notary to question him. He would not have brought Luo Yuan all the way there if he had been a common evolved person.

After being reassured, the notary took a remote control out and pressed a button. The heavy iron gate lifted slowly with a harsh noise. A giant beast with horns and sharp teeth was laying on the ground. Its eyelids seemed heavy, and its eyes looked dead. It was staring into space without moving as if it was a sculpture. If it was not for the water vapor squirting, everyone would have assumed that it was dead.

"You guys drugged it too much again!" Secretary Zhen coughed to hide his awkwardness as he pulled the notary aside.

"We’d have more problems if we didn’t drug them enough. This is for the best," the notary said with a smirk.

"But this is not the right way to do it. I know you don’t have enough staff and safety is a risk, but this is just too much! You guys have crippled the beasts! How are we supposed to run the test now? Let’s use another one!" said Secretary Zhen, slightly frustrated.

The notary nodded and followed his order immediately. Soon, another iron gate was lifted, this time a better one. After 10 seconds, a giant beast made its way out slowly. Before it could even take a breath though, it fell to the floor. It struggled for awhile, unable to get up anymore. It only took a few steps.

Secretary Zhen wanted the Earth to open up and swallow him.

"How about we try level-2 ones? Level-3 beasts are too dangerous, but level-2 should be okay. You have to know that the safety measures here are not complete. This is the best that we can do," the embarrassed notary tried to salvage the situation.

...

"I’m so sorry, Mr. Luo. These people are just trying to be cautious, that’s why they drugged the beasts more than they needed to," Secretary Zhen said after leaving the place in embarrassment.

Luo Yuan waved him off, indicating that he did not mind. There was nothing wrong with what they did, considering how poor the defense system was. There were only four security guards in the entire Evolved Person Registration Center. They would not be able to keep the mutated beasts under control if they did not drug them.

Although blue-level beasts were nothing to Luo Yuan, their strength was measured in tons, thus exceeding his by a lot. A normal wall would be like a slice of tofu for them. It could not hold them in at all. Although each metal bar on the iron gate was six centimeters thick, the gate could not withstand repetitive ramming.

Secretary Zhen sent Luo Yuan to the villa, giving him a stack of food vouchers before leaving.

"Are those food vouchers? Why do they look like paper currency? I thought they were a bunch of plastic sheets," said Huo Dong in curiosity as he held one in his hand. Although Secretary Zhen had used the same voucher to pay for their meal earlier, he had not had the chance to take a closer look until now.

"What’s so strange about this? They’re the new paper currency. They’re just in the form of a food voucher," Cao Lin said in high spirits. "Since the apocalypse, the economy has collapsed. Considering the lack of food during the war, all national resources became highly regulated. The old currency lost its value, and that’s how the new currency came about."

Even since they had entered the reconstruction area, Cao Lin had been like a free bird. She looked totally relaxed. She no longer had to please anybody, or worry that she could be killed anytime. Even Luo Yuan was not as nervous as he used to be anymore.

Luo Yuan picked up a voucher to look at it. Its size and color were similar to a paper note. It also had ‘100’ written on it, but it was a pound instead of a dollar. The four head portraits were no longer there. They had been replaced by a scene of mutated beasts getting killed in a nuclear explosion. Perhaps that was a way to give people hope that they would defeat mutated beasts one day.

There were approximately a hundred pieces of them, which was a total of 10,000 dollars, or rather 10,000 pounds. Luo Yuan checked with Commander Xia about the salary remuneration for the current market and found out that his salary was 300 pounds. Of course, that did not include other allowances or any profit he made by meat smuggling. Still, it was considered a high salary. New recruits only got 120 pounds while common workers were only getting 50 pounds, which was hardly enough to survive on.

Considering the price difference in food, the buying power of 10,000 pounds was comparable to a million pounds before the apocalypse.

"Boss Luo, what are we going to do with the money?" asked Lin Xiaoji, trying to gauge something. He looked eager to find out. He knew what Commander Xia had said that it had to be a lot of money.

"How do you want to use it? It’s obvious that the money is meant for Boss Luo. Do you think you would have been treated this well without him?" Huo Dong stared at Lin Xiaoji in disdain.

Lin Xiaoji’s face blushed red as he stared at Huo Dong in anger. It seemed like Huo Dong was addicted to kissing Luo Yuan’s ass. He hadn’t stopped even after they had entered the reconstruction area.

Looking at the majestic Luo Yuan, Lin Xiaoji, who had been about to say something, decided to just shut up and walk out the door instead.

"This young man has some attitude issues. I wonder how he even managed to survive," Commander Xia said with a scornful smile. How could he think that they would be safe once they were in the reconstruction area? Did he not understand why the government was trying to keep Luo Yuan there?

It was ridiculous for him to not appreciate what he had.

"Fortunately, Boss Luo is a nice person. If it had been someone else, they would have kicked him out ages ago," Cao Lin said.

Most of them agreed on that. Luo Yuan did not know whether he should laugh or cry. He just shook his head and said, "Let’s not talk about him. Let’s split up the money. I don’t need this much anyway."

If this had happened last time, that amount of money would have excited him. It was different now that he had a different mindset, though. To him, money was merely a number.

He was confident that he could get whatever he wanted by using his sword.