Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Happy Times are Always Short-lived

```

The joyous times are always fleeting, and so are rest and peace.

When night fell once again, Duan Mingyuan's thoughts were disrupted by the commotion coming from outside. He pressed the pause button, freezing the tablet screen on the most riveting part of the show.

It was a new series on the website, featuring a corporate drone as the protagonist and incorporating elements of superpowers, the future, and romance. The first episode's plot kicked off with the protagonist being kidnapped by unidentified assailants on the way home.

Despite his reluctance, for him, this afternoon had been indulgently sinful enough.

After dinner, he had taken out his tablet and lain in bed, all the way up until now.

Upon exiting his bedroom, he saw the cat by the window, sticking half its head out to spy on Jiuyue downstairs. When Duan Mingyuan came out, she turned her head, her delicate eyebrows furrowed together, and said, "It's the company's security department."

The "company" was what the locals called the Extraterrestrial organization. High school history textbooks also mentioned that the Extraterrestrials who arrived here originally did not come from a unified nation, but were from different worlds, forming a massive organization named "Universe." Its purpose was to maintain connections between different worlds and to commit to solving disasters born from interactions between different civilizations.

For Duan Mingyuan, all these were just important points that would appear in history exams; he had no particular feelings towards the company itself.

Because people like him, ordinary civilians, were unlikely to ever have any dealings with the company in their lifetime.

Indeed, the company did recruit talents from different civilizations, but only those at the very top of their respective fields.

Nonetheless, his history teacher had jokingly mentioned another way to attract the company's attention—blow up their building, becoming a cosmic-level fugitive. Then the company would dispatch their mysterious security department.

Though it was named a security department, its personnel and equipment were all top-notch. There were many speculations about this mysterious department online; many believed that a regular employee of the company's security department could single-handedly destroy an army.

This was the first time Duan Mingyuan witnessed the company's security department's deployment up close.

The dark flying object hovered above the residential area, its searchlights illuminating the night sky.

The company's security department usually would not act without involving local law enforcement, unless the situation threatened the company itself.

"What are you skulking around for?"

Seeing Jiuyue like this, even the inherently guiltless Duan Mingyuan began to feel nervous.

This little fox seemed harmless on the outside, but could she actually be a cosmic-level fugitive with a bounty on her head from the company?

But quickly, Jiuyue dispelled his suspicions. First, she made bewildered eye contact with Duan Mingyuan, then had a sudden realization, "Oh right, why am I sneaking around? They're not here to catch me; I was just muddled by sleep."

Shaking her head, her drooping pointed ears perked up, and pointing excitedly at the night sky like a little child, she said, "Mr. Mingyuan, look, flying cars!"

"Those are hover cars."

Duan Mingyuan educated her. He himself didn't know how these cars flew, but the internet claimed the cost of a hover car could amount to the value of an entire building.

The question was, what was the company's security department doing here?

He opened the homeowner's chat group which he hadn't checked in quite some time. The community's homeowners had already started a fervent discussion. According to one self-proclaimed insider, the company was here for a janitor in the block, an unlikely combination impossible to imagine in reality, now strangely entangled in this bizarre encounter.

```

Some even trotted out the most common trope from recent online speculation, guessing that the sanitation worker, although seemingly scorned, was actually the head of a Mysterious Organization, and that the company had gone to all this trouble just to welcome back this long-retired leader.

Duan Mingyuan wasn't unfamiliar with the name mentioned by the property owners; it belonged to a man just over fifty, who always lingered alone outside the neighborhood late at night, and Duan Mingyuan occasionally encountered him on his way home from overtime work.

As far as he knew, the man's terrible reputation had nothing to do with his job. Some said he always harassed young women who were alone, others claimed he was a thief, suggesting he might be linked to several thefts that had occurred in the neighborhood.

As the sole person in the owners' chat group with this knowledge, Duan Mingyuan immediately thought of the strange occurrence he had encountered on his way home from work the previous night.

Mysterious, unaccounted-for evil spirits had appeared in the alley near the neighborhood; later that night, some of these spirits' companions killed two personnel who were dealing with the aftermath, and then, a night later, the company's security department arrived.

"Mr. Mingyuan, look, the Hover Car is flying towards us!"

Jiuyue pointed excitedly out the window.

But Duan Mingyuan's heart couldn't feel any joy, especially when the Hover Car's dazzling searchlight shone upon them, and almost simultaneously, a mechanical synthesized voice came through, "Mr. Duan Mingyuan, please don't be nervous, the company means no harm, please wait a moment, a representative of the company will arrive at your door in 1 minute and 3 seconds."

In an instant, the owners' chat group erupted.

The case was cracked, it turned out Duan Mingyuan was the head of the Mysterious Organization!

An aunt who had barely exchanged ten sentences with him suddenly turned into an informed person in the group, proclaiming she had always felt there was something extraordinary about the young man.

Someone else claimed they had spotted Duan Mingyuan meeting privately one night with a big shot who often appeared on TV while out walking their dog.

With the help of rumors, the mysteries were unveiled one by one.

In just one day, Duan Mingyuan became known to people in two ways that were far from his expectations.

Following the title of "Ogre Boxer," he had now acquired the moniker "Dragon King," and the poor sanitation worker Mr. Mingyuan hadn't even been able to stay in that position for more than 10 minutes.

After all, nobody wanted to believe the head of the Mysterious Organization was an old lecher; as for Duan Mingyuan, more than ninety percent of the people in the neighborhood had never even spoken to him, mystery maxed.

Even Jiuyue, seeing the situation, had an epiphany, crossed her arms, proudly puffed up her chest, and put on an air as if she had seen through everything long ago, "So you're the head of the Mysterious Organization, no wonder those evil spirits are no match for you. Although I don't know if it's too late now, I still want to say to you, in wealth and honor, let's not forget each other!"

The side of the head of the Mysterious Organization also needed capable assistants, so why couldn't it be her?

She knew quite a lot and was entirely capable of fulfilling the role of an assistant.

"Stop chiming in with nonsense."

Duan Mingyuan watched as the rumors in the owners' chat group grew more and more preposterous, making the remaining 1 minute and 3 seconds feel like an eternity.

When the numbers on the screen jumped once more, the sound of high heels on the ground finally approached from afar.

After standing still at the door for three seconds, the noise reached the anti-theft door of his apartment.

"Mr. Duan Mingyuan, I'm Fu Ling, the director of the Life Science Department of Universe Corporation in Yunlong City. I hope I can take up half an hour of your time."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read